Thread: Bonded (PsionicCuttlefish and Chariot)

Jacob's life had not been a pleasant one. He had been born to a poor farming family outside of a city. The farming life had been hard work, there was never enough food to go around, the crops had poor harvests, the cattle died off, and city tax collectors took whatever was left. Then, around his eleventh year, the fire happened, which destroyed the homestead and Jacob's family. He became an urchin in the city, starving and desperate for survival. There was so much food to go around for the wealthy people of the city, and nothing for him. Surely no one would notice if he snuck out just a few bits of food for himself? He hadn't expected the attentiveness of the city guard, having never dealt with them on the farm. In accordance with the law, his hands were to be chopped off--but a strange robed man had interceded at the last minute, and took Jacob and several other convicts with him to a mountain hideaway. The training grounds of the Magi. This had proved to not be any better of a life. For the next seven years, instead of simply being ignored as a worthless street urchin, he and the other prisoners in the hideaway were actively looked down on by the Magi and Apprentices, as if they were no better than animals. Jacob grew to hate all of the magic-users, who thought they were better than everyone else, and had strange and unnatural powers to back up their egos. Except for one... After having gone without food for several days one year, Jacob gave in and tried to steal a bird from the temple's stores, because he was so very hungry , and never really learned. He hadn't expected the other birds to object so violently to him taking one of their number, and as weak as he was, he couldn't even fend them off...but some girl, one of the Apprentices, managed to hold the birds off to let him escape. Jacop had turned and run after that, never looking back, sure that the Apprentice was going to exact some kind of horrible repayment for her 'kindness'. In a way, he was almost right. This year, the Cull had happened again, with Apprentices attempting to bind one of the prisoners to themselves, and become a full Magus. Jacop had expected to be passed over, like he always had been--but that girl had returned into his life. He hadn't seen her in two years, but he hadn't forgotten her. Neither had she forgotten him, it seemed. What followed was the single most painful, traumatic event Jacob had ever experienced as he was subjected to the Bonding ritual with the girl, having his very soul torn apart to merge with hers. But, they both survived. And now he was her Bondite. The black-haired, tall, and underweight boy hadn't said a single word to her since that morning. He didn't even know what there was to say. They were both resting and recovering in the Magus girl's room, where Jacob was allowed to lie on a bed--a real bed!--while the girl ran her hand through his hair. It made him feel very uncomfortable, almost disgusted that she would dare touch him with such 'affection' after what she put him through, not to mention that she was a Magus, and therefore an inherantly mean person who thought herself better than everyone else. But Jacob didn't try to move away from her, he knew that disobedience from prisoners was punished severely. Not that there was a punishment worse than being Bonded, though. But then some other magi called upon the girl from her doorway, and gave her a letter, one that seemed to trouble his new 'master'. The 'burn after reading' command was certainly ominous, but the machinations of the magi never mattered to him before. Let them burn and backstab each other for their troubles, serves them right. Jacob just continued to lie still on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, wondering just how his life was planning to make itself even worse for him.