My name is Móirne Moalasarlaí ban Callahan, and I was born and raised on a tiny island in the North Sea called Ceo. I am short and small, with coloring that is normal to Ceo but exotic everywhere else. My complexion is fair, my eyes dark green, my hair the pale gray of mist.
On Ceo all women live together apart from the men, who are few. Many women may live their entire lives without seeing a man, and none may leave the island. A few of each generation are permitted to go to the men, so that children may be born. Male children are taken away at birth and given to the men to raise. The men of Ceo are important, every one gifted with keen minds and powerful magic. The women are gifted differently, with beauty and the ability to enhance the magical powers of very special men, but only if we remain untainted. Some very special women of Ceo may be taken away from the island to enhance the power of an exceptional outsider. Such a man must be a true prodigy. A girl who is meant for such a destiny is marked at birth, so that she will not be accidentally tainted. The women who can interact with men will tell them about such a child, so the men can search the world for the man chosen to receive the gifts the girl has to give.
I was such a girl. My mother had seven daughters, and I was the youngest. While she was pregnant with me, she had dreams of sailing across the sea, which frightened her, since she knew she must never step foot on a boat. She had visions of a place made of towers of metal and glass, which also frightened her, because she knew of no possible place such as this. When I was born, a mark was found on the base of my spine that looked like two stars linked, one pale silver, the other darker. I still bear this mark.
My mother told the men about her dreams, and they told her they thought the dreams may be clues about finding the man I was born for. This frightened her, and she always told me I must be brave and strong, for my man would require it from me, that his world would be alien and frightening. I admit, I feared the day my husband was found and I would be Joined with him, and sent away from Ceo to whatever land he lived in.
Let me tell you about my husband, briefly, before I begin my story properly. His name is Dorien Frost Callahan, and he is from a land called America, which is across an ocean more vast than I thought the world could hold. He is six feet tall and his body is strong and muscled because he works out and plays sports. His hair is curly and the color of new copper, he wears it slicked back and held in a tight tail at the base of his neck. His eyes are a deep dark brown that is almost black, they usually look faraway, lost in thought. He has a beautiful face which makes him look younger than he is; his skin is darkened by the sun but naturally fair like mine, and he has freckles scattered across his nose and over most of his body. Because he looks so young, he always dresses in expensive and tailored suits of black, dark blue, or gray made by clothing designers that Americans regard highly.
He is from a wealthy family and has never wanted for anything in his life. His father died in a plane crash when Dorien was still very young. His mother, Daphne Silvia Callahan, was the one to teach Dorien about magic. She and her brother Thomas Morrison O'Reilly raised Dorien to be a proud, intelligent and ambitious man. His Uncle ran the family business until Dorien was out of college and prepared to take charge, and he has run it ever since. The company is called Aevion, and they make medicines for people all over the world.
When the men of Ceo found Dorien, he was reluctant to believe them about me. He consulted his mother and uncle, and researched Ceo in ancient books with only the barest mention of my land. He learned what he could about the magicians in the books, and learned that some of the more powerful ones had a woman like me with them at all times. Then, Dorien agreed to come to Ceo and be Joined with me.
My mother told me the time had come the day he arrived in Ceo, but I was not allowed to see him then, for he stayed with the men, and had to be taught his part in the Joining ritual. My part was simply to endure and to submit. I was frightened, I didn't want to leave my home, my mother and sisters, because I knew I could never come back once I had left Ceo. I was also frightened because I had never seen a man, and I didn't know what it would mean to be Joined and to become a wife. None of the women could tell me about my fate, because one like me had not been born in five generations- all anyone could tell me is that I would need to serve and obey my husband, and that if I served him well he would be pleased and become more powerful.
They could have told me about sex with a man, but it was not permitted. More than any other woman in Ceo I had to be pure of heart, mind, and spirit. Any small corruption could ruin the Joining and make me useless to my husband.
I had to fast in solitude for the full day before the Joining. I hugged my mother, sisters, my aunts and cousins, friends, kissed them all and bade them farewell, for I would never see them again. They wished me well, and we all cried. My mother and the elder women took me to the sacred hot spring, where I stripped and bathed myself thoroughly until my skin was pink and raw. Then they led me to my cell- which was more of a small cave, and shut me inside.
It was dark, completely without light. I shivered in the dark, paralyzed with fear. I could not at that time conjure in my mind what would come next, because I had never seen a man, not even a picture. I understood they were human like us women, but I had no idea of how they were different or why. I remembered my mother's dreams of endless water and towers of glass and metal and tried to imagine what it could mean. I cried myself to sleep.
I woke when tall robed figures opened my cell. One of them picked me up in its arms. I was frightened, but it spoke strange words in a deep voice, and I relaxed immediately. There were six of them. They took me to a round building with only pillars for walls, one at each hour point of the clock, and an altar in the center. They gave me a glass with something clear in it to drink. I thought it was water, but it smelled like apples and tasted deliciously fruity, yet burned my throat. They made me drink the entire glass, then laid me on my stomach on the altar.
I relaxed even more then, and my body seemed distant, like it belonged to some one else. I was aware of them plaiting my hair, rubbing rose-scented oil into my skin, but it was like it was happening to some one else. I noticed their hands, clean and fair but larger than any hands I had ever seen, and I wondered if they were men of Ceo. I couldn't tell, though, because their bodies were covered in the thick gray robes, and their faces were shrouded. I was certain they were not anyone I had met before- but I was too relaxed and sleepy to be afraid anymore. Two of them set to work on my back with needles and inks. They started with my mark, perfecting the shape, then worked the tattoo of the Joining around it and up my spine and into my hairline. I didn't know at the time, of course, but later I was able to see not only my own tattoo, with the help of mirrors, but also my husband's. They are identical, just like our marks: two linked silver stars, one darker than the other. The tattoo sprang up from there as elegant shooting stars that grew into wild rose vines; small stars became silver rosebuds, which bloomed eventually into full silver roses, and at the hairline vanished. Magic was woven into the design, which is how I am able to loan my power to my husband and make him stronger.
After the tattooing they rubbed a cream into my back and turned me over. They left me there, and I quickly fell asleep. I woke later, I don't know how much later, because I was being jostled. I looked around, confused, and saw Dorien for the very first time. He was between my legs, jostling me with his whole body. He was naked, and looking at me but not looking at me. I still felt strange, like I was not really a part of what was happening, but I was frightened because he looked so different from anyone I had ever seen. I tried to ask him to stop, but my words came slurred and hushed. I tried to push myself up on my elbows, but he was shaking me too hard and I was too weak. As quick as it began, he stopped. With a whimper, I fell back into slumber.
I slept for most of a day. I was not awake at all for the boat ride from Ceo to Ireland, and only woke for moments at a time in the car to Dublin. Dorien laid me across the seat in the back. The first time I woke, I just stared at the back of his head. I don't think he even noticed I had awakened. I was afraid of him, but also curious- he didn't look as strange as I had feared, and yet he was courser than I was used to, bigger, and his clothes were so strange. When I drifted to sleep again, which was not long, I dreamed of his face and form, dressed and undressed, and dreamed of black carriages and small caves that made strange humming noises.
