Perilous Partnership by Ariel Tachna Page A

before Sebastien. Honestly, I still don‟t have any interest in men, just in Sebastien. It‟s something to consider, since all the pairings I know well have gone beyond the alliance and become personal.
    Intimate.”
    “There were a few that seemed to drift apart after Serrier‟s defeat,”
    Raymond said, “but they are people who went back to other jobs after the war.
    Many of the wizards aren‟t even still in Paris, so I don‟t know what their status is now.”
    “What about Adèle?” Alain asked.
    “Adèle has not seen her partner in a year, but the bond is still there,”
    Raymond said. “She confirmed it when we saw her in Dommartin. She‟s resisting, but the bond is still there. Another reason to provide a time and space for partners to get acquainted before they bond. I don‟t imagine it took long for Adèle to realize she was mismatched.”
    “That‟s what I don‟t understand,” Orlando said. “I know I‟m not very smart, but I don‟t understand how something like that could happen. Why, when most of the partnerships are seamless, did two such incompatible people match?”
    “Don‟t put yourself down,” Alain and Jean said simultaneously, making them both laugh. “There‟s a difference between intelligence and education,”
    Jean continued. “And while you might not have studied arcane lore the way Raymond or I have, that doesn‟t mean you aren‟t intelligent. Besides, we don‟t understand it anymore than you do.”
    “It‟s one of the things we need to add to the research agenda,” Raymond said. “We need to understand why pairings form so we can help advise people on their options. Monsieur Lombard posited that the elemental magic wouldn‟t make a mistake, but that doesn‟t mean it takes everything into consideration. I mean, what would have happened if Thierry‟s wife had still been alive? Or Alain‟s ex-wife, for that matter?”
    “Did any partnerships form where one of the partners already had a lover or spouse?” Sebastien asked. “I didn‟t know anyone well enough when we started to know.”
    “Not that I was ever aware of,” Raymond said.
     
    Perilous Partnership
     
    47
     
    “Me either,” Jean agreed, “which is interesting in and of itself. An individual‟s personal preferences don‟t matter, but their personal commitments do?”
    Raymond sighed. “More questions and still no answers.”
    “So let‟s focus on the questions,” Thierry proposed. “After all, they‟re far more numerous than the answers.”
    “Why does it all work?” Orlando said immediately.
    The wizards laughed. “That may be the one thing we‟ll never be able to answer,” Raymond admitted. “We can usually learn to predict magical outcomes, but we can‟t always explain why they work the way they do. For example, a lot of spells can be cast in modern French, but they work best in old French, except that nobody speaks old French anymore, and minor mispronunciations keep the spell from working as well as it used to because of it. Nobody knows why, but we know it does.”
    “Does the age of the vampire affect the bond?” Sebastien threw out. “It affects so much else in our existence. It would seem logical that it could affect this as well.”
    “Certainly to hear Magali talk about the final battle between Marcel and Serrier, when monsieur Lombard bit Marcel, he stripped through Serrier‟s wards like a hot knife through butter,” Raymond agreed. “Of course, that‟s pairing the most powerful wizard of our time with the oldest known vampire in France. I suspect the differences will usually be more subtle than that.”
    “Probably,” Jean agreed, “but there‟s also the inherent strength of the wizard. Monsieur Lombard‟s age combined with Marcel‟s power. Either one alone would have made an impact, but not as much as the combination.”
    “Could that be part of what influences the creation of the bonds?” Alain wondered aloud. “Some relationship between the age of the