AFIRE: fight for the Earth begins✓

23.1 THIERON

The story so far:

---- Aija is a Volunteer at the Pristine School at Innermost. She works along with Zuri and Ze, who are her friends. Aija witnesses a strange event one night – light emanating from Rez's body. The kidnapper is after her soul, next, but he leaves her alive and goes away. Another man finds her, he wants to take her somewhere else - Aija though wary of him agrees. Aija learns of the existence of the aliens – the Ytai. Also, about the R'ies and H'eon, Harvesting and Àvo from Etrie. Etrie tells her that the man, who Harvested Rez (Thieron), will now go after her. He tells her that the spy/kidnapper's name is Luka. Etrie asks her to work along with him. Aija agrees to work along with Etrie on Harvest Stopping Missions.

---- Thieron kidnaps Aija. She finds out that Nala works for Thieron. Ze, who was following her to rescue her, gets captured along with her. Thieron binds Aija to himself.

---- Zuri is worried about Aija and Ze, who were taken by Thieron. Etrie kisses Zuri; she slaps him. Ahi and Zuri patch up and agree to remain friends. Zuri is asked to go to the Secure Headquarters for questioning. She goes to Innermost for it. Zuri is questioned by Secure Ivan who presumes that Ze and Aijs ran from home together. She meets the Oshiros and Iyler. Kuna tells her that Iyler is actually from the Gale.

---- Luka tries to coax Aija to eat. She agrees to it only if she is allowed to see Ze; he agrees. Luka finds that her soul is a strong deep-purple. Thieron wants Luka to scout for new souls. Luka finds Nala sulking in her room and asks her to go down before Thieron finds something suspicious.

---- Luka asks Aija not to talk of Zuri to Nala, especially in front of Thieron. She agrees for Zuri's sake. 

---- Luka goes to Etemir to scout for souls. He is caught by Etrie but manages to escape. Etrie is furious about Aija and Ze.

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****23.1 - Thieron****

The honey skies held few clouds, and a light breeze blew.

There were few houses scattered across the green hills.

He leaned against the closed front door, looking at the sunrise, as he blew the steam off the cup and took a sip of tea. Small moments of peace every now and then were his favorite.

*Thieron looked at the *Uil'dran on his wrist. Drawing the Uil'dran symbol hadn't hurt, but sealing it with the one on her wrist had. When the black line had carved itself onto his skin, the pain had been consuming like fire. If it had hurt him that badly, then it was no wonder that it had rendered Aija unconscious for that long.

He had given it his all and created as strong a bond as was possible by him. The black line looked like one of the many tattoos etched on his skin. On her hand, bare of any other markings, the black line stood out. 

Back on Ytèan, his people used a tattoo very similar to the Uil'dran. Marriage and commitment were heavy things for his people, and people only declared they were committed to each other after years and years if both of them felt the same way. Else there was no marriage, no committed relationships, and people could be with whoever they wished to be with.

Those few who decided to commit to each other drew a very similar symbol of looping lines, and the black line carved itself around their wrists – indicating to others that they were committed to another Ytai and weren't interested in anyone else. If anyone who had the commitment symbol was found with anyone other than the person they had formed the bond with, they were punished – by death.

Thieron had tested out the bond one day by taking a walk to see how far he could go without Aija. He had been able to walk for about two minutes before he felt the bond tingle. Not bad, he had thought. The Uil'dran was a purely physical tether between two people – it meant nothing more. And, his bond was working precisely as it was supposed to.