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“Okay, are you ready?” Lucas was sitting opposite Andrew and Naria in the dining room; Sonia had dragged Matthias into the small study that he’d been waiting in and ordered them to find somewhere else. Andrew suspected she was going to tell Matthias about Melissa’s theory.

“I think so,” Andrew said quietly. “Maybe a bit anxious.”

“I am.” Naria reached out and grabbed Andrew’s hand before taking Lucas’s hand in her other one. Andrew took the hint and allowed Lucas to take his other hand. “Don’t worry, Drew. It’ll be fine.”

“Okay then,” Lucas said. “Can you both try and relax into your bond? I need to take a look at it before I advise you on how to best untangle it.”

“Huh?” Andrew said.

“Just relax and reach for me through our bond, Drew,” Naria said.

“I’ll try,” Andrew said. He closed his eyes and went through the relaxation exercise Melissa has taught him before reaching for Naria. As soon as he did, he became aware of just how tangled up they were and how much they were starting to blend into each other at the edges. He loved Naria but he knew that couldn’t be good.

It isn’t, she agreed pensively. At the moment it’s just at the edges but we’d eventually start losing all sense of our individual identity if it went unchecked.

And I think we caught it just in time, Lucas added. If it had gone much further, we’d have had to severe your bond completely to stop you merging. There was the strange sensation of something skittering over the bond and somehow Andrew knew it was Lucas feeling it out. Okay, I’ve found the first tangle point. Naria, can you slip through here? A piece of the bond lit up blue. Andrew, can you watch what she does? You’ll need to do the same in a bit.

I’ll try. Andrew kept his attention on Naria and sensed her mind as a blue flame which shot forward through the bond into the section Lucas had highlighted. As she did, something seemed to untwist. It was a weird feeling – like he was being stretched – and he was afraid he would snap like an overstretched elastic band, but then it gave and the bond seemed to relax and lengthen slightly.

Good! Lucas said. Okay, Andrew, now you need to slide through here. A part of the bond turned red. Andrew floated his consciousness into the bond, more clumsily than Naria had, but managed to slip through eventually. As he did, he sensed how the red thread in the bond followed him through and untangled from the blue.

Oh!

Yes, it’s easier to see what’s happening when you’re the one on the inside, Lucas said. We’ll do a few more to make sure we’ve reversed the blending and then continue tomorrow. I don’t want to keep you up too late. It shouldn’t take more than a couple more sessions to fix it.

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