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Ingram looked at the horizon as he climbed.

“No,” he answered plainly.

Magnar, growing more interested in the conversation, turned his head around completely to face Ingram while he walked. “Why not?”

He was beginning to wonder why not as well.

Whenever he tried to think too deeply on the subject, a blankness muddled his thoughts. Between that nothingness, other thoughts trickled in, sharing with him the limited information he’d retained.

“Because I cannot.”

“Why not?” Magnar pressed, just as their path tipped and their feet met the surface’s edge.

“I am not allowed to,” he uttered quietly, unsure of how to answer.

Orpheus turned and halted them.

“If you give her time, she may change her mind.” He cupped the side of his long wolf snout. “It’s difficult for a human to accept Mavka. Most of them think of us as monsters, but Reia and Delora bonded with us of their own will. Emerie seems... warm towards you. You already have her scent on you.”

“You can ask her again later, when she has grown comfortable with you,” Magnar added.

Ingram’s head jerked. “I have not asked her.”

He wasn’t sure why they’d assumed he had.

Now, Orpheus’ orbs turned dark yellow in curiosity, mirroring Magnar’s.

“Why are you both looking at me like that?”

Orpheus stepped forward and dipped his head. “You said you weren’t allowed, so I thought that was because she has rejected you. Why is it you think you cannot?”

Ingram scratched at the back of his neck, then rubbed the side of it when his orbs turned a reddish pink. Slowly, he drew his foreclaw to his chest.

“I only have one heart,” he grumbled, tapping just next to his sternum. “It already belongs to Aleron.”

Magnar and Orpheus’ snouts darted towards each other, and they twisted their heads in opposite directions.

“I am already bonded in spirit,” Ingram continued when it appeared as though they were confused.

“Do you not love Emerie?” Magnar asked. “You are even clingier with her than Orpheus is with Reia. I thought that meant...”

“She is my female,” Orpheus softly growled. “I will hold her as much as she allows.” He snorted out a wild huff before bringing his skull back to Ingram. “But I’m also curious. Other than the fact you don’t have her soul, together you act like Mavka and bride.”

“I love Aleron,” Ingram stated. “He is my kindred, my...twin.”

“I don’t understand,” Magnar grumbled, tapping a claw to the side of his bony fox snout.

Orpheus cupped the end of his own, looking over at the vast distance of the Veil.

Their silence as they pondered on what Ingram said weighed on him. Was he just not making sense or was something wrong with his thoughts?

The reddish pink in his vision deepened.

“I guess the better question would be, do youwantEmerie as your bride?” Orpheus asked.

“Well... yes,” he answered, his vision swiftly turning blue. “But as I said, I cannot.”

“I see...” Orpheus hummed, tapping his claw on top of his snout as he continued to hold the end. “I think you are mistaken, Ingram. You are allowed to love more than one person. A bond with Emerie would not interfere with the one you have for the bat–... with Aleron.”