Katrina scribbled some more notes on the clipboard that she was carrying. She had just seen another Areserican that had chicken pox. She didn't understand why the ailment was spreading so quickly. On Earth it had a two-week incubation period, but here it was merely hours after a person had contact with an infected person before they began to show the symptoms of it. Already there were twenty-eight patients in this clinic alone being treated for it.
The healers were not immune to it either. Already half of the healing staff were now patients. For the adult males, it seemed to strike them harder than it did the females. Of course the females got the poxes and had the severe itching; but the men seem to be struck more violently with fever, chills and fatigue in addition to the other symptoms.
"Your Highness!" A young medic hurried up to her. She smiled absently as she finished her notes.
"What is it?" she asked she placed the pen on the clipboard.
"It's Healer Arianna! She is in Healer Ivan's room. They need you."
Kat ran out of the room. She found her 'soon-to-be' mother in law sitting on an examining table. Ivan was just finishing the exam.
"What's wrong?" Kat demanded.
"I told that young medic it would do nothing other than worry you. Healer Ivan just examined me. It is a little late in life for me to be experiencing this so I wanted to have Ivan look at me." Arianna explained as Ivan turned and left the room.
"It's not the chicken pox?"
"No, child. It is something far worse." Arianna said with a sigh.
"What could be worse than that!"
"
The mezclar
," she finally whispered.
"I've heard Charlie and others talk of this. What is it?"
"It is a mating ceremony that occurs between chosens. Normally, it occurs only between royalty. No one is sure quite why it happens. It just does. Usually it occurs at your age. Before now it has never been documented in some one of my age. Especially in a healer that has already been married and bore children." Arianna turned and looked at Kat. A deep flush was evident on her face.
"Then who is the lucky man? Or does it preclude a man? Is it similar to when an animal goes into heat?" Kat asked rapidly, her gaze curious and her active mind whirling.
"I should let my son answer these questions...but!" Arianna said with a devilish look in her eyes.
"But?"
"I'm not going to. It's time that we sit down and have "the talk"."
"Now you sound like a mother preparing to explain sex to her teenaged daughter." Kat teased.
"It has everything to do with sex with your chosen, Kat." Arianna replied as she slipped off the examining gown and reached for her healer's robes.
Kat flushed as she thought of having sex with Charlie. Ever since they had masturbated in front of each other, she had sex on the brain. True enough she wasn't a virgin. But her pitiful one experience had not left her with any desire to try the intimate act again. That is until she had found Charlie. Now all she wanted to do was burn up the sheets with her sexy chosen.
"So explain it to me. I doubt I'll ever need the knowledge personally but since my chosen is the King, I fear I may need it in the future."
"Ah...who told you that?" Arianna asked softly, pausing as she slipped her healer's robes over her head.
"Told me what?"
"That you wouldn't go through the
mezclar
" she asked as her head popped out of the material and the robes fell into place. She wrapped the silk belt around her trim waist and tied it in the intricate knot that indicated her status as a High Healer.
"Well, if it only affects royalty then...." she trailed off.
"It only requires that one of the couple has royal blood."
"But Charlie told me that he had married royalty; and that there was no royal blood in his veins. So how could this
mezclar
happen between us."
"How much do you know about your family history?"
"Not much. I was isolated as a child and well into adulthood," she admitted.
"Are you having problems sleeping at night? Are you being plagued by erotic dreams?"
"Ah...well...I..." Kat mumbled her face heating.
"I am not trying to embarrass you, Katrina. But I see the signs there. I have seen other couples go through the
mezclar
. You are exhibiting all the classic signs of it. One minute being short-tempered with Charlie and then a few minutes later - lovey-dovey. You seek each other out even when you are fighting. It is all part of the strengthening of the ritual. Plus the full ceremony of the final ritual occurs with the arrival of the full moon."
"So what happens with this ritual, other than extreme horniness with the arrival of the full moon?"
"In your case, after the wedding where you are bound to Charlie, both of you will be secluded for a week."
"A week?" she asked hoarsely.
"Yes. And you will continued to be bound until another royal severs the bonds."
"Bonds? I thought you were speaking metaphorically. They are actually going to tie us together?" she squeaked.
"Yes. The clergymen will bless a length of silk. Well in this case, I do believe that Charlie has asked if he could substitute the fabric."
"To what?" Kat asked curiously.
"Some fabric from your world. He wants it to be symbolic of joining our world with yours. Anyway, after the clergyman blesses it, he will tie it around your wrists. Actually you will join hands and he will weave it around your wrists."
"So before we are "secluded" does this royal cut the bonds?"
"Ah, no. The bonds stay in place until the seclusion ends."
"What! You are telling me that I will be tethered to him for the entire week!" she protested.
"Yes. It's tradition, Kat. Most of the brides do not find it a hardship to be bound to their chosen. In fact, they relish it and hate for it to end." She added with a smile.
