Rings of Saturn | h.s. soulmates au

Prologue

Everyone is the same, and yet everyone is different. The human experience is relatable to all, and unique to no one. People are born, people grow, and people die. Somewhere down the line, people are marked. No one is free from marking; the only way to avoid being marked is to die before encountering the one.

Since the day humans first walked the earth markings have existed. Neanderthals painted the unique markings in their cave drawings in what is only assumed to be stories of love, with occasional tales of incredible loss. The Greeks told of the havoc Zeus wreaked both on Mount Olympus and Earth because of his propensity to interfere in mortal markings; not to mention the other mischief the gods and goddesses often tangled themselves in all because of a pretty human with a peculiar mark. Shakespeare wove tragedies of lovers destined to each other by their marks, and yet were forbidden from one another by family. The early modern period throughout the nineteenth century was embroiled in marking drama that saw kings and queens flit between alliances, wage bloody wars, while promising and trading people because of marks.

Even today with contemporary research, no one truly understands the how and why behind marks. All that's known for sure is when one is in close proximity to their soulmate for the first time a mark will appear. There is no age limit--children, and even babies as young as eight weeks have been marked. In fact, The New York Times once reported that eighty-seven percent of people are marked by forty years of age, meaning the majority of the world has encountered their soulmate in someway before the quadragenarian years. Once marked, all that's left is to find who the mark belongs to.

Marks take a shape representative of the person to whom one is destined, making them easy to decipher in ancient times; when a horseshoe appears on the baker's daughter while the stable boy's mark takes the form of wheat, it doesn't take a village to understand their connection. Modernity has posed a challenge to seeking out the one--the pure abundance of marks and countless meanings each could hold caused a rise in shady Seeking Seers and businesses preying on those desperate to understand their markings. While some pay top dollar to have their fates revealed to them, most make their own decisions. Some are already in love when the mark appears, so a round of mental gymnastics allows them to apply the mark to their beloved. Those relationships never work; whether it takes months or years, they always crumble.

But no one seems to struggle more than the young once they are marked.

What starts as soft, sweet, innocent love is easily corrupted by marking. Young lovers turn to hunters, cursed with a hunger that possesses them and cannot rest until satiated. And as they fall out of lust, decide their marks aren't matched or find others that are better suited, they part, and the process begins again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

There does, however, exist the rare occasion in which young lovers are suitably matched. The fever dream still consumes them at first, an overwhelming desire for one another flooding their senses, but they eventually become contented with each other and settle into an easy rhythm that carries them out through the rest of their days.

This is a story of two young strangers completely blindsided by their marks, and what happens when they're forced from their comfort zones.