Inkitt link, for those interested.

“…..” Crystal just stared blankly as she slowly took my hand and I pulled her back up into my lap.

“I guess that’s one way to take my hand in marriage,” I joked lightly. Everyone was quiet and staring at me like I’d went crazy or something. To be honest, it was making me smile once again, for some odd reason. Such simple words; such pure bewilderment.

“I.. I don’t think I can marry you, My Lord.” Crystal stammered.

“Ha! Rejected!” Dino hopped up and pumped his arm in the air, as if he was celebrating some odd sort of victory. Much to my amusement, it was Jess who lightly popped him upside the head this time. Good for her! It looks like she’s been watching and learning some interesting things from Mongo.

“Maybe not in proper terms,” I replied, leaning forward to brush the loose strands of hair out of her face, “but in a deeper, more powerful way, it’s something we can do. And it’s something I think I might be needing. If you’re willing to listen, I’ll explain the whole thing to you. To all of you, since you’re already listening. Gather in close,” I demanded.

Crystal didn’t say anything; she simply nodded as the others got up and came over to sit closer to us. Jess flopped herself back down in Dino’s lap, and Mongo and Skeet sat off to the other side of Crystal and me. “All of you realize there’s one hell of powerful and dark corruption down in these tunnels, and all around us. Right?” I asked.

“Ya.” Skeet agreed, and the rest simply nodded.

“What’s that got to do with marriage?” Crystal asked, quietly.

“I’m getting there. I’m getting there.” I couldn’t help but laugh slightly. It’s kind of exhilarating being the center of everyone’s attention. “The thing is, I think I’ve figured out how this corruption works. What it feeds on. Taints.”

“What’s that?” Jess asked, curious for her patient’s sake.

“Souls.” I replied, flatly. “The corruption here isn’t something that sickens the flesh. Jess will probably never be able to cure those girls. It’s a sickness of the spirit. Their soul is getting corrupted, and the longer we stay here, the worse they’ll become until it’s too late.” Turning to stare Jess directly in the eyes, I warned her, “We’re going to have to put them down, if you keep us in quarantine and down here surrounded by this darkness all the time. Crystal’s sword helps resist the corruption, but it’s not enough on its own.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Jess said, starting to chew on the ends of her hair. “I don’t think they’re strong enough to survive if we try and move them. Are you suggesting we just kill or abandon them? I can’t do that.”

“I’d never expect a healer to abandon her patients,” I told her honestly. The fact that she refused to, even knowing that her own soul might be in danger, raised my opinion of her quite a bit. Jess had originally been a little troublesome to deal with, but I was really beginning to value her more and more as a teammate all the time. She wasn’t for me, but she suited Dino nicely.

“What I think we can do is a marriage of sorts.” I couldn’t help but smile once again as I said it and everyone just blinked at me like I was stupid.

“Fine! Fine!” I shrugged my shoulders slightly. “If you guys don’t want to call it a ‘marriage’, we can call it a sort of spiritual transfusion. Sometimes healers will take blood from one patient to give to another to help them get better. Right?”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Jess informed me. “Mixing bloods makes people sick and can lead to death. I can’t imagine any real healer would ever do such a reckless thing. If it’s done, it’s probably done in some of those backwards, uneducated tribes of barbarians and wild men.” Her nose was wrinkled, and it was obvious that she didn’t like the analogy.

I guess that just goes to show how little I’ve ever really been interested in healing in this world. I should’ve known blood transfusions wasn’t something they’d do normally. With no way to check blood types, no way to store the blood, and with a wiggle of magic to make it unnecessary, it’s no wonder it wasn’t something they knew about.

Sighing, all I could do is hang my head at my blunder and try to explain differently. “It’s something I read about once,” I lied. “Some of the ancient races could detect which bloods were compatible with each other, and then they’d take the blood of someone who had recovered from a sickness and share it with someone compatible who had the sickness. From what I’ve read, it’s how they fought off some serious plagues in the past, elsewhere.” I hated to blatantly lie to them, but I had to try and say something that sounded plausible to cover my blunder.

“I’d like to see those books sometime,” Jess said, still looking skeptical.

“When we get out of here, I’ll see if I can find you a copy of them later,” I lied. “But for now, what I propose is something similar. The corruption has spread to my soul, much like I suspect it has the two girls, and if Crystal is willing, I’d like to remove a piece of her soul, and swap it for a piece of mine. She’s been strong enough that the taint hasn’t been able to affect her yet, and that added strength of her spirit should help cleanse and purify mine.

“At least that’s what I hope,” I clarified. “There’s always the off chance that by directing the taint into her spirit, it’ll take root and we both end up sick, instead of getting better.”

“I… I don’t think I like this method of trying to heal,” Jess said, chewing the ends of her hair until it began to frazzle and split.

“I’ll do it,” Crystal said, unhesitantly. “If there’s even a chance that I can help you, I’ll take the risk. There’s no need to say anymore.” She stared intently into my eyes, unblinkingly resolute in her conviction.

“Well, tough.” Laughing, I leaned forward and kissed her slightly on the nose. “I’d feel bad if I didn’t share everything before you agreed to such a thing. There’s several things that I need to point out before you, or anyone else for that matter, says anything else.

“First, I want to say that I’m not one hundred percent certain about any of this. I’m simply making an educated guess and going on the best of my limited knowledge. Keep that in mind.

“Second, from my experience with creating the sword you’re carrying, I’d have to warn you that I expect the experience to hurt like hell. Cutting of the soul is not something that a person experiences. We build up no tolerance to it. I imagine it’ll be the most painful thing that can happen to a person. You have to know what you’re signing up for, when you sign up for it.

“Third, also from what I’ve learned with Heartblade, I imagine that it’ll end up creating a permanent, unbreakable connection between the two people. My life and soul was used to help create that blade,” I nodded my head to the one which Crystal always kept close to her side, “and all one has to do is wrap their hands around the hilt to feel it.

“You can feel my heartbeat, my anger, or my passion, all by simply holding the hilt. There’ll always be a connection between me and that blade. Just by holding it, you can tell when I’m far or near, and which direction I’m in.

“I imagine; though as I said before, I can’t be certain; that it’ll create some sort of permanent bond between whoever were to share spirits. You may not call it ‘marriage’, but in many ways, it’d be something even deeper. Most marriage is ‘till death do us part’. I don’t know how strongly such a transfusion would connect two spirits. It could be that they might share a bond even after death; for all eternity.”

I waited several moments for my words to sink in, and for everyone to have a chance to digest them. Silence descended all around, with only the constant scraping of the dead at the doors to be heard. Finally, I kissed Crystal slightly on the nose and asked, “So? What do you say? Still willing to marry me? To share your soul with me?”

“I am,” Crystal replied, smiling brightly. “But are you certain you want to? As a wizard with your power, you’ll probably live hundreds or thousands of years. I won’t be around nowhere near that long. Have you thought about what it might do to your lifespan?” She asked, worriedly.

“I’ll just have to cross that bridge when the time comes,” I answered. “I figure it’s better to live a short time, if that’s going to be my fate, and then die myself; rather than live forever, and have my very soul corrupted by evil. Besides,” I laughed, smiling lightly, “my soul might be strong enough to grow in you and help you grow magic, or live longer. We just don’t know what the long term results will end up being at the moment.”

“I’m still willing,” Crystal said, returning my smile.

“I am too.” Mongo said, slowly. “No to you,” he clarified, “but for Tiffany. I promised her that I’d watch over her and protect her as leader, if she joined my group. I’m willing to take the chance, if there’s even the slightest possibility that she’d get better. For Megan too, if I can.”

“I don’t think that’d be possible at all, Mongo.” Slowly, I shook my head from side to side. “Too much taint from two sick ones, for one healthy one to try and resist it. I think the risk is too great. You’d simply be taking too large a chance at catching the sickness, without sharing the cure. I wouldn’t be willing to even try it.”

“’ell wif it then! I’ll do it.” Skeet spat on the ground and began to clean his fingers with the tip of his dagger. “Tis ta best chance a bum like me ‘ill evah have, to get in good wif a woman like dat. Give ‘er me soul, and I kin ‘joy ta gratitude afer.”

“That seems kind of devious, Skeet!” I couldn’t help but laugh lightly. I really was learning to understand his rough way of talking much better over time. “Give her your soul, and enjoy the gratitude forever after. Are you certain you won’t regret something like that later?”

“Nah.” He shrugged his shoulders slightly. “What ta ‘ell do I need ah soul fer? I can’t eat it. It don’t earn mah coin. T’aint no use ta me. If’n it can gets me a wizard woman’s gratitude, then it’ll be doing more fer me than ‘tis now.”

“Then I guess that just leaves Dino and Jess, if they want to do it,” I said, smirking at Dino.

“Hell no!” Dino half hopped up, causing Jess to stumble and fall out of his lap. “She’s not tainted. I’m not tainted. There’s no reason why we need to try something so crazy!”

Jess glared up at him, rubbing her hip slightly where she’d been dumped on it, and didn’t say a word. If looks could kill though, I’d imagine that Dino would probably lose a few years from his lifespan from the expression she was currently giving him.

“Then I guess it’s settled,” I said, trying not to laugh. “Three ‘Spirit Transfusion Marriages’ coming up soon.”

“May the Gods have mercy on you all,” Dino muttered gloomily. I couldn’t help it; laughter burst out from me in a gush. If the Gods needed to have mercy on anyone, I couldn’t help but think that it might be him who needed it the most, with the way Jess was acting.