Sunblind Serpent: The Zodiac Without A House

Marek gave Venielle six conditions.

There had been nine when he first wrote them, but he removed three after reading the list again and realizing they went beyond protecting Mara. Those three were less about keeping her safe and more about trying to control everything that might happen to her.

The remaining six fit on half a page. They concerned contact, training, privacy, injuries, authority, and information that could put Mara in danger.

Venielle read the list once. Then, she handed it to Mara.

Marek frowned. ”I gave that to you.”

”It concerns her.”

Mara took the notebook page and started reading. She reached the first condition, picked up Marek’s pen, and crossed it out.

Marek stared at the line she had just ruined. ”No...”

”I don’t need a right to contact you whenever a connection is available.”

”Why would you remove that?”

”Because something being available doesn’t mean it’s safe.” Mara looked at him. ”Who decides whether I should use it?”

Marek almost answered immediately, but the obvious response would have proved her point.

Mara rewrote the condition beneath his original sentence.

CONTACT REMAINS MY CHOICE. NO ONE MAY FORBID SAFE CONTACT WITHOUT EXPLAINING THE RISK TO ME.

Marek read it twice and finally compromised. ”Better.”

Rhovan, seated near the greenhouse entrance, murmured something about the Vale family becoming increasingly difficult to negotiate with.

Marek ignored him.

The second condition survived unchanged. Mara could refuse an instructor, technique, or House procedure she did not understand or did not want to participate in.

The third took longer.

Marek had written that all records concerning Mara’s training should remain private. Mara pointed out that she did not care if her name appeared on internal training records. What she wanted to know was who outside the people directly involved in her training could see them.

That distinction forced Marek to rewrite almost the entire condition.

They eventually settled on requiring Mara to be told whenever her training records, evaluations, or unusual results were shared beyond the people responsible for teaching or protecting her.

Venielle continued reading without involving herself.

The injury condition remained almost exactly as Marek had written it.

Any injury caused during training had to be explained plainly to Mara rather than buried beneath unfamiliar House terminology. If Marek was not present, he had to be informed once contact was possible, and the same applied to Amara. If Earth medicine could not properly treat the injury, Venielle added that the House of Gemini would provide whatever treatment was necessary without turning the cost into debt, service, or obligation.

Marek wrote that addition down immediately.

Mara watched him. ”Of course you did.”

”Medical costs matter.”

”Mom asked the same thing.”

”Reasonable.”

Mara rolled her eyes.

The fifth condition originally required supervision whenever Mara used anything beyond basic Gemini exercises. Venielle pointed out that such a rule would become meaningless if Mara eventually surpassed whoever happened to be supervising her.

Marek considered the possibility for a moment, then dropped the supervision rule.

Instead, the condition changed.

Mara had the right to know who currently held direct authority over her training, what that authority allowed them to decide, and whenever that authority passed to someone else.

Marek read the final version once. ”Good. This way, she’ll always know who’s in charge.”

Venielle nodded. ”Exactly.”

The sixth condition took longer than the other five combined.

Marek had written:

NO INFORMATION MAY BE WITHHELD FROM ME IF WITHHOLDING IT CREATES IMMEDIATE DANGER TO MARA.

Mara read the condition twice before looking at him. ”I don’t like this.”

”Why?”

”What if the danger isn’t immediate yet?”

”Then we include anything likely to become immediate.”

”That’s not the only problem.”

She pointed at the words: FROM ME.

”If Lady Venielle knows something dangerous,” Mara said, ”and telling you makes you run directly toward it, then telling you might make everything worse.”

”If withholding information puts you at risk, I need to know.”

”Need or want?”

”Need.”

”Why?”

”Because I can help.”

Mara watched him for a moment. ”That isn’t the same as needing to know everything.”

Something about the sentence sounded painfully familiar.

Marek narrowed his eyes. ”Did Mom tell you to say that?”

”No. She told me you’d probably do this.”

”Do what?”

”Turn knowing something into being responsible for fixing it.”

His jaw tightened. ”Information matters.”

”I know. But if knowing something makes you run into something you can’t handle yet, then the information can hurt you, too.”

”I decide what I can handle.”

Mara held his gaze. ”Then I get to decide what I can handle, too.”

Marek looked back at the page. ”Fine. If keeping something from you puts you in immediate danger, or leaves me without enough time to help when something happens, I get told.”

Mara considered it. ”Unless telling you would make things worse.”

Marek looked at her. ”Worse how?”

”Like if you find out and immediately go after whatever is putting me in danger.”

He was quiet for a moment. ”Fine. Put that in.”

They argued over the wording for nearly ten minutes. Mara rejected anything too vague, while Marek kept trying to make sure the condition still covered situations that could become dangerous later.

Venielle let them work through it themselves and only stepped in when the wording became too vague for anyone to know when the condition applied.

Eventually, they settled on a condition neither of them liked perfectly, but both of them understood.

Venielle read all six again. ”Accepted.”

Marek had expected at least one objection, but Venielle returned the page to Mara as though there were nothing in it she could not agree to.

Marek looked at the page.

There was no Astral seal or anything. No glowing mark appeared over the words. Venielle did not ask Mara to swear anything or place her hands over the agreement.

”That’s it?”

Venielle looked at him. ”What were you expecting?”

”Something more official.”

”The conditions concern how I will conduct Mara’s training. They do not require an Astral contract.”

Marek’s suspicion returned immediately. ”If this isn’t House law, what stops you from breaking it?”

”Nothing magical.”

He stared at her. ”That’s supposed to make me feel better?”

”No. It is supposed to make the responsibility clear. If I violate one of these conditions, then I chose to violate them. There is no seal to fail, no hidden clause to blame, and no contract that can twist what we agreed to.”

Marek still did not look convinced.

Venielle watched him for a moment before continuing. ”If I intended to harm Mara, I would have had no reason to wait for an agreement before doing so.”

Her eyes shifted toward Rhovan, then returned to Marek.

”After all, even with the two of you here, neither of you could stop me.”

Rhovan’s expression changed slightly.

Marek did not answer immediately. The statement unsettled him, but there was very little in it he could actually dispute.

”So I’m supposed to trust that you simply won’t?”

”You are supposed to decide whether my actions so far have given you reason to.”

Marek looked down at the six conditions again.

That was not the answer he wanted, but at least it did not pretend a sheet of paper could restrain someone like Venielle.

”Fine.”

Mara smiled. ”You always say fine when you don’t actually like the answer.”

Marek glanced at her. ”I accepted it.”

”That’s what I said.”

They finished near the end of the light period. Marek made a copy of the conditions and instinctively kept the original.

Mara held out her hand.

He looked at it.

”My agreement,” she said.

Marek glanced down at the paper before placing it in her palm. He hesitated for only a moment before letting go.

Later, Mara asked him to walk through the damaged greenhouse with her.

Most of the original plants had died after Day 367. Several unfamiliar vines had since climbed along the broken panes and wrapped themselves around parts of the old metal framework.

Mara kept her hands away from the unfamiliar vines as they walked past them.

Near the far end of the greenhouse, where several panes had collapsed completely, Mara slowed.

”Do you think Mom is okay?”

Marek did not answer immediately.

A week earlier, he would have told Mara that Amara was alive because he needed the sentence to be true. Now he thought about the records, the note their mother had deliberately left behind, and the choices she appeared to have made since Linden began changing around them.

”I think she’s alive,” he said. ”And I think wherever she went, she chose to go there. The records and her note support that much.”

Mara looked at him but did not say anything. Her shoulders were lower than they usually were.

There was nothing more Marek could give her about their mother without pretending he knew more than he did. Maybe that was part of why he had spent so much time arguing over six conditions in the first place. There were already too many things surrounding Mara that neither of them could control.

He had expected putting some of those risks into words to make him feel better, but it hadn’t.

The conditions only proved that Mara understood enough to argue with him about what could go wrong and had still chosen to continue training. Marek could question the instructors, the methods, the risks, and every unfamiliar House rule that came near her, but none of that gave him the final say over what she chose to do.

What mattered was that Mara still had a say in the terms herself.

For now, Marek decided that was enough.

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Author’s Note:

We’ve reached the 100-Chapter Mark, not an Astral Mark, though. Kidding.

A big CONGRATULATIONS to me for reaching this milestone. Please join me on this journey because it will be quite a long one. I hope you’ll stick with the novel until the very end.

That said, I have an upcoming Licensure Examination for CPAs in my country, so updates may become a little slower. However, I will still try my best to update two Chapters a day, as I promised.

I will not abandon this book until I complete it. I am certain of that.

I will also be making the privilege Chapters cheaper next month. My bad for making it expensive this month. I will make it up to you, guys, soonest.

Anyway, how is the novel going so far? I’d really love to know your thoughts about it.

Motivate me to write more and continue writing this, please. I want a Castle. Kidding, but it’d be great if you could send me one! I’ll post extra Chapters when you do! ૮₍ ´ ꒳ `₎ა

Thank you so much. Have a great day! :]