For a moment, there was something that flared in Erick's eyes. It was gone in an instant.
"If you can feel him, can you feel the pull from a single direction?"
Mira narrowed her eyes and focused. There it was, the gentle insistent tugging in the corner of her mind. But it was tugging inside her mind. It wasn't tugging from some external source.
"No. It is a tugging within my mind. There is nothing that indicates it's coming from somewhere out there."
"Describe to us exactly how you feel his presence."
"I feel it as a gentle insistent presence. Almost like a tiny vibration."
Erick nodded. "Does it feel as if...there is a piece of his soul inside of you?"
Mira closed her eyes. "It's like a vague emotion. A sense of belonging. A sense of loss because he's not here. I don't know if that would be considered a piece of his soul."
"Is it a strong sharp sense of loss? Is it something that fills up your entire being?"
Mira hesitated.
Erick sniffed. "If you're hesitating, then obviously, it's not that sharp, nor is it something that fills up your entire being."
"It always feels as if he's in my entire heart." She opened her eyes. "It's felt that way ever since he left me."
"But does it feel as if a piece of his soul is with you?" Erick asked again. He seemed to be losing patience with Mira.
Mira scowled. She was not good at this guessing game. "I--I don't know. I don't know what another person's soul is like. It feels as if a part of my soul is missing...but that could just be because I love him."
"So he didn't soul-bond with you." Erick said drily.
Mira gazed at him blankly. "I don't---I don't understand."
"Darling, if he soul-bonded with you, you would know. There's nothing shadowy or vague about it."
Mira pressed her lips together for a moment. Then she threw back her head.
"How would you know? Have you ever soul-bonded before?"
From behind her, Jana laughed. It was a rich low laughter that was at once satisfying and thrilling at the same time.
"The Queen has a point." She stepped out into the light.
"You have been asking her all sorts of questions about the feeling of being soul-bonded, but you yourself wear no soul bond band so obviously you have never soul-bonded."
Jana turned to Gerald Pomfrey. "You have a soul bond. Why don't you ask her some questions to see if she truly is soul bonded?"
Gerald Pomfrey shook his head. "I cannot presume to know how another person feels when a soul-bonding takes place."
"Why?" Jana turned a level eye at him.
He looked away, embarrassed. "Because I have been told that the bonding process between male-and-female is the pinnacle of soul-bonding and what I have with Tinsel cannot compare."
"Who told you that, foolish man?" Jana sneered.
"Everyone around me." He answered softly. "They say it has something to do with the counterpoise energies between male and female balancing and making each other whole. Since Tinsel and I are both males, it would be difficult for us to be the counterpoise for each other."
He rubbed his heart. "I have been told that the experience of wholeness is something that can only be felt. This is why when a piece of each bonded couple is missing, their souls are slightly unbalanced and will continue to seek each other out until they find their missing piece."
"And you believe them?"
Gerald Pomfrey shot a glance at Jana. "Why not?"
"Because they could be wrong."
Gerald Pomfrey sniffed. "You don't have much to base your assertion either. You are also not bonded."
Jana scowled and looked around at the others who were standing around.
Daran shook his head and held out his arms. "I'm not married yet, and my woman is mad at me right now so it would be mighty hard to get a soul band on her."
"And I'm a chronic bachelor 'cause no woman wants me," Ziggy grinned mischievously.
"Alfric?" Jana asked.
He shook his head. "Pearla and I aren't soul-bonded." He smiled gently. "When you've been together as long as me and Pearla have been, you don't need the soul band to feel each other's presence. She's in me and I'm in her, and that's all we need to know."
Jana glanced over at Theo.
He gave her a helpless look. "Sorry. I have no idea what it even feels like to hold a woman's hand, let alone put a soul band on her."
"You're so pathetic." Jana muttered under her breath. "Come here." She beckoned with a red-tipped finger.
Theo compressed his lips for a moment and then made his way over to her.
In one quick motion, Jana grabbed his hand and held it as if she was about to arm wrestle with him.
"There. Now you know what it feels like to hold a woman's hand."
Mira chortled. That was not only unexpected, it was hilarious.
"I'm not missing much am I?" Theo gave a wry smile. "It feels just like I'm wrestling with one of the guys."
Jana stared up at him for a moment with a force that was palpable.
In one quick move, she reached out and grabbed his scruff and jammed his face into hers. It was a kiss that was at once fierce and rough but also exploratory and curious. It shocked everyone in the room.
In mere seconds, Jana had separated from Theo. She placed her hand on his chest, separated from him only by the length of her long arm. "Does that feel as if you just wrestled with one of the guys?"
Theo panted shakily. "N--not in the least."
She turned back to Gerald Pomfrey.
"Tell me, Gerald. If you and Tinsel cannot complete each other's circle because of your arbitrary designations, what do you think about a dog and a cat?"
She leered at him. "Can a dog and a cat complete each other's circle?"
"Excuse me?" Gerald Pomfrey blinked in confusion.
"A dog and a cat. Do you think a dog and a cat can counterpoise each other's energies?"
"I don't---I don't quite understand what you are trying to say." Gerald Pomfrey stuttered.
Jana rolled her eyes with impatience. "I'm not speaking in the pantheran language, am I?"
She pointed to Theo. "He's a dog." Then she pointed to herself. "And I'm a cat."
"I'm a wolf, not a dog."
"Same thing."
"You're a lioness, not a cat."
Jana turned back to Theo. "SAME. THING."
Gerald Pomfrey shook his head. "I don't---I've never heard of a panthera and a---a bogwarg being a couple before in my life."
"Why is that, do you think?"
"Well---I would think that it's an unnatural state for a union, I mean---" Gerald Pomfrey sputtered. "Not to castigate anyone, but you are two different species. That would be highly unnatural---"
Jana laughed. "Well that's rich. I would never expect you, of all people, to consider a panthera and a bogwarg union to be highly unnatural. After all, how natural is your union with Tinsel Pomfrey?"
Gerald Pomfrey narrowed his gaze. "We are both humans, at the very least."
Jana opened her mouth, ready to spit out some snarky response, but Theo had beaten her to the punch.
Reaching out with his long arm, he had grabbed Gerald Pomfrey by the neck with his warg claws.
"We are all humans here, green man. Just because I got some fancy fangs…" he bared his wicked long canines and shoved them into Gerald Pomfrey's face, "...and you have some green chlorophyll in your skin doesn't make either of us any less human."
He pulled back a bit. "Now, I'm gonna let go of your neck so you can apologize to my lady over there that you just insulted."
Theo slowly withdrew his claws from Gerald Pomfrey neck. The celadon shivered, touching pale trembling fingers to his throat.
"I'm...I'm sorry." he muttered.
Jana licked her lips. "So you think Theo and I are unnatural for each other."
In one bound, she jumped on Theo's back. Her legs held onto his torso as her arms grappled with his. Theo's eyes opened with surprise, but he did not fight her. There was no fear in his eyes.
Before anyone could react, there were a couple of solid clicking sounds.
CLICK CLICK
Jana had fixed a soul band onto Theo's wrist and a matching one on her own. She hissed the power words and formed a soul bond between the two of them.
For a moment, Theo held still, and then the two of them began wrestling on the ground. Their bands had melded into a single 8 shape.
Everything happened so quickly, Mira had no chance to react.
And then suddenly, it was over.
Jana stood up and untangled her limbs from Theo's. Their soul bands had been decoupled.
Theo languidly rose from his seated position. His arms reached out, gathering Jana's body to his.
"Well now," he drawled. "No need to wonder anymore about whether a wolf and a lioness can soul-bond."
Jana laughed. "I got the answer to your question, green man. I just now completed this warg man's circle."