Chapter 1

Cassidy was mulling over the assorted pieces of clothes that were strewn across the bed. The bedroom she shared with Callie was disheveled from its usually clean state. The closet next to the bed was open as was several of the drawers in the dresser on the wall across from the bed. Several pieces of clothing were haphazardly thrown on the floor in addition to the ones on the bed. Cassidy looked at the pile of clothes on the bed again in thought. She barely noticed the sound of the front door opening.

“I’m home babe,” Callie called happily as she walked into the house. She slowly made her way into the bedroom as she had a vague sense that’s where her girlfriend was. She gave a small sigh as she saw the room. Clearly Cassidy was stressed and making sure they had everything they needed for their trip was not the actual source of the stress. “Sweetie,” Callie said quietly.

“Callie I …” Cassidy had a brief moment of realization at the state of their room. “Sorry I was just trying to pack.”

“Is that really what’s wrong?”

“No,” Cassidy admitted quickly as her tail curled around her leg. Callie opened her arms up and Cassidy quickly panted herself inside and the two hugged.

“I know you’re a little nervous about seeing everyone.”

“They don’t like me. I can tell.”

“I think they like you as much as they like any of my girlfriends.”

“Yeah but I bet your last girlfriend didn’t storm out of your cousin’s birthday when she started asking about humans.”

“You’d be surprised,” Callie giggled. “Look I have no doubt that Brita is being an absolute bridezilla. I will be surprised if anyone has any time to think about you running out on a birthday party when they're dealing with her.”

“That doesn’t exactly fill me with excitement,” Cassidy said burying her head into Callie’s chest.

“Does it make you less anxious though?”

“You make me less anxious.” Callie giggled.

“Well I’ll take that. All right I think you’ve got more than enough here. Let’s get it actually packed and clean up.”

“Ok,” Cassidy said breaking the hug and feeling a little bit better in general. She placed two rugged looking backpacks onto the bed and began neatly placing the clothes and other items she had laid out on the bed into the backpacks.

“Is the whole collaring thing gonna bother you?”

“Well,” Cassidy paused for a moment while packing. “I mean yeah, but it’s not the highest on my anxiety list. It just sucks you know. We don’t get to do that anymore. That got taken away from us.”

“I mean we can still do a collaring instead of rings if you want,” Callie watched, knowing better than to interrupt her girlfriend’s organizational system of packing. Cassidy shot a glance as she continued.

“I don’t think so. I mean we’ve got my family to think about too, and the whole collaring thing, doesn’t have the same meaning here.”

“We should do what we want to do and not worry about what others think.”

“It’s not just what others think Callie, I kind of think the same way. I mean I get what it means to you guys, and maybe it used to mean that for us but it doesn’t any more. It’s not a symbol of love and trust it’s a symbol of …. I dunno oppression I guess.” Callie made a quizzical face. “I don’t mean it like that I just can’t think of a better word you know.”

“I think it’s a romantic thought. Plus you’d look so cute in one.” That comment earned a look from Cassidy. “Just keep an open mind while we’re there and see if it’s something you’d be interested in.”

“I will sweetie. Why did you immediately assume I’d be the one getting collared?”

“Because,” Callie embraced Cassidy in a light hug. “I want to cherish you, show you off, and protect you like I would my greatest treasure.” That comment garner a blush from Cassidy. They both knew that wasn’t the only reason, but the other reason that Cassidy was the obvious candidate to be collared between the two of them didn’t need to be said.

The unspoken language of collaring ceremonies was that the more dominant one in the relationship was the one putting the collar around the submissive one. The determination between which party was which was not always obvious, but between Cassidy and Callie it was. Callie had always been the more outgoing of the two and was usually the one to make decisions for the two of them, and of course Cassidy was great at advising those decisions. Really the two exemplified that sometimes archaic nature of the whole thing. It didn’t exactly the definition of every relationship, but it did fit Cassidy and Callie’s remarkably well.

Unfortunately, collaring ceremonies were a cultural phenomenon unique to Biscotti. Thanks to their island status, and the ocean keeping them separate from the mainland, they were able to escape the elven conquering that Miqo endured during the second era, and thus collars did not gain the connotation that they have in the other beastkin nations, where they took on the meaning that one was owned by the other as opposed to the more romantic protective connotation they had in Biscotti.

With another few moments Cassidy had finished packing, capping everything off by sticking her staff through a dedicated holster in one of the backpacks. Callie giggled a little.

“I swear that thing is like a teddy bear to you.” Cassidy smiled at the comment, it wasn’t inaccurate. She’d had some version of a staff since she was a kitten, and like most who practiced some form of magic, she grew attached magical focus not unlike how one might get attached to a stuffed animal.

“It’s a little cooler than a teddy bear at least,” Cassidy smirked hoisting one of the backups up onto her. Callie grabbed the other one.

“You ready?” Callie asked eager to leave.

“As I’ll ever be,” Cassidy sighed.

It was s short commute for the two to the airship dock. There was a train station not too far from their house and, like in most towns, a stop at the airship dock was common. The trains themselves, like most modern conveniences, used carved runes for power. Cassidy knew this more than most because she actually worked making these runes. These were basically chunks of crystals capable of storing and releasing magical energy, carved with certain lines that directed the magic to be expelled from the crystal in a certain way. All one would have to do was send a simple activate spell to the crystal for it to release it’s built up energy and a similar spell to get it to stop. And these spells were so simple that even the most magically incompetent person could cast it. Additionally the crystals themselves, while having a finite supply of energy inside them, were pretty easily recharged. Anyone could channel their own magical energy into them to recharge them, though those more practiced in magic could charge crystals faster and more often than those that weren’t.

Making the runes wasn’t as easy as using them however. It took someone with an innate sense of how magic flowed to be able to draw the correct lines on the crystal to get it to have the desired effect. As a practiced mage Cassidy was one of the few who could craft the more complicated runes like the one operating the train car she was sitting in. It used a combination of levitation, electric, and magnetic magics to swiftly propel the covered wooden cart down the metal rail that was embedded into the city street. Simpler crystals, like ones that just made light or heat were easier to make, but Cassidy’s long years of practice made her a more advanced practitioner, and she was conflicted about her advanced ability in this field as it was famously pioneered by the elves in the second era. Using such runes to power colossal war machines were allegedly what helped them so easily conquer Miqo back then, and the country and its people have never been the same since.

Cassidy and Callie both felt the typical faint buzz as they sat down and the train started to move toward their destination. Heavily used public transportation such as the trains would often have these seats that would passively drain negligible amounts of magic from the passengers to help recharge the rune running it. This was considered a part of the cost for using the transportation though there were also tickets or yearly passes that one had to buy as well. The cost of these were famously cheap in part because these special seats kept maintenance costs on the train so low.

The train car traveled along at a reasonable speed down the street of Cassidy and Callie’s town. Notably all of the buildings were of a distinctly human design, square structures made of stone or brick that all had a very uniform size and look to them all organized into uniform square blocks. Occasionally in the town a block was taken up by a large gnarled and hollowed tree. The elves that conquered them would rather use magic to force the land to grow their buildings than make the buildings themselves. These older buildings, or more accurately trees, were stark reminders of the area’s history, and Cassidy couldn’t help but notice them wherever she was wondering town. Maybe it was because they stood out so much against the otherwise uniform human designed buildings.

Notably there wasn’t any Miqo architecture in at least the main part of the town. There were some supposed remnants of this old style of architecture in the outskirts, preserved as much as possible for the sake of history, but even these had to be partly rebuilt after the fact. The original look of the buildings was impossible to tell for sure. The best recreations of these buildings were sort of tear shaped pyramid structures. As opposed to the human design where each shop or home was its own building in the old Miqo design, or in this close approximation of it, most shops and other public buildings as well as housing were kept as separate rooms of these large pyramids.

Though many lamented the erasure of this lost architecture, when the humans came after the elves and colonized Miqo their city designs lead to a lot of improvements in public utility and transportation. The Miqo were never given the opportunity to work this into their own architecture. The Naga to the north of Miqo who also managed to escape Elven conquest have the closest approximation to what that might look like. They had a similar style to the Miqo though there buildings were squares not pyramids and instead of different shops being different rooms on the inside it was more akin to the sort of outdoor block structure the humans employ just stacked on top of each other in tall cubes, with everything accessible from the outside.

The train pulled up to its stop next to the airship dock, which was a small structure surrounding one of the fairly small models of airship used for public transport. The airship was a ship in most senses of the word, it could even float in the water if there was a failure. It was from the outside a wooden ferry, cloth sail on top and all. The dock itself was nothing more than a cradle that allowed the ship to sit on the ground without tilting from its rounded bottom. The distinction between this airship and the typical waterborne variety were the circular protrusions on the bottom of the hull and on the rear. Inside these protrusions were runes with a strong levitation spell on the bottom and a strong first spell on the rear. These were actually simple relative to the more complicated ones on the train. The runes on the bottom would levitate the ship into the air and the ship would use its main sail to catch the wind and move like a regular ship would. Though if there wasn’t enough wind the two on the rear would provide manual thrust.

Cassidy and Callie picked up their packs and made their way to the airship. This line from Miqo to Biscotti was a fairly well used one. Cassidy and Callie lived close to the eastern coast of the mainland continent and the island of Biscotti was off to the east, allowing for airship travel between the two, though it was a trip that took most of the day.

Cassidy and Callie approached the ticket counter which was next to one of the simple ramps leading up to the main deck of the ship. These stations served to weigh bags, buy tickets, and also fill out certain paperwork. While technically in a time of peace, the different beastkin nations were never particularly friendly with each over. Miqo still remained an ally of the human kingdom of the sun even after their independence, so travel between Miqo and the sunrise kingdoms was easy. Travel to the other beastkin nations including Biscotti wasn’t as easy. Still doable though, just with a little more paperwork. Though Callie had made the trip quite often so she was able to speed through it with little issue.

“Well I guess there’s no stalling now,” Cassidy grimaced. As she and Callie walked up the ramp into the airship.

“You’ll be fine sweetie,” Callie planted a quick kiss on Cassidy’s forehead.

“Yeah I just got a whole ten hour flight to think about how fine I’m gonna be,” Cassidy rolled her eyes as the two made their way into the main cabin and found a seat stashing their backpacks in the overhead compartment.

“You are wound up aren’t you?” Callie felt the familiar tingling as she sat down as her magic was lightly being drained to power the ship they were on. Cassidy just grunted in response to the question.

Cassidy had settled into the slightly uncomfortable seat typical of public transportation as the ship lurched. The levitation runes underneath the ship flared up in a twinkling blue aura. The ship slowly lifted off of the cradle it had been resting in, and after climbing up to an appropriate height the main sail at the top opened up and with a brief spurt of fire from the rear engines the ship started moving toward Biscotti. Cassidy looked out of the window that she was sitting next to out onto the deck. The deck was open but not until a few more minutes into the flight and it was pretty common for passengers to enjoy the cool breeze one got on the deck as the ship sped toward its destination. Cassidy looked at Callie sitting next to her who had already settled in comfortably, or as comfortably as she could, for the long flight.