“He’s just eight years older,” Harry said. “If you get your bond dissolved, he’ll have no other options. Everyone else is matched up.”
Seyn didn’t look particularly sympathetic. “He can always get bonded to some poor baby and wait until it grows up. It’s what they did to me, isn’t it?”
Harry sighed and gave up. It was no use to argue with Seyn about Ksar. And to be totally honest, Ksar didn’t make it easy to defend him: he really was extremely cold with Seyn and criticized everything he did.
“Fine,” Harry said. “Let’s say you found a way to get to Earth and stay there for months. Let’s say you got the bond to Ksar dissolved. What are you going to do, then?”
Seyn looked him in the eye and smiled. “I don’t know. But I’ll be free to make my own choices. I’ll be free of him. I’ll be free to do whatever I want.”
Harry felt a rush of longing so strong it made his chest ache. To do whatever he wanted... It’d been twenty-two days.
“What was that?” Seyn said, frowning at him. “Are you okay?”
Harry took a deep breath, trying to control himself better. He knew he was projecting negative emotions, had been for days.
“I met someone on Earth,” he said, looking down at his hands. “We’ve become… very close. I miss him so much.” The words felt so inadequate compared to the ugly, fierce longing that was twisting and hurting his insides.
“Oh,” Seyn said. He flopped back on the couch and put an arm around Harry’s shoulders. Harry leaned into the touch eagerly, but to his disappointment, the physical comfort did nothing to satisfy the longing eating him from the inside out. He wanted Adam’s arms, not Seyn’s.
“Wait,” Seyn said. “If you aren’t bonded anymore, can you feel sexual attraction?”
Harry felt his cheeks burn. He looked at Seyn’s eager face. “You’re shameless. You shouldn’t be wondering about such things.”
“Bah!” Seyn said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s natural. It’s the stupid bond that turned us into sexless beings.” He scowled darkly. “You know, I’m surprised the bond allows us to have sex at all. Actually, if the technology of artificial wombs had already been invented at the time, I’m sure they wouldn’t have even bothered to give us back the ability to have sex.”
Harry opened his mouth to tell him not to be ridiculous, but he closed it when he realized that Seyn was likely right. The Council had made a single amendment into the Bonding Law fifteen years after the law had been introduced. The bonding ceremony at the age of twenty-five wasn’t in the original law. The Council probably hadn’t expected that the childhood bond would suppress the brain’s sexual arousal centers along with areas affecting telepathy and other senses. Harry now wondered what the mind adept performing the bonding ceremony did to fix the couple’s sexual arousal centers without changing anything else about the bond. It sounded complicated. Was the ability to feel arousal the only difference between the childhood bond and the marriage bond?
“It almost makes me wish the technology of artificial wombs still didn’t exist,” Seyn said. “Then they wouldn’t have bonded me to another male.”
Harry rolled his eyes. Of course it was about Ksar. It always was. Seyn never missed the opportunity to bitch about his bond to Ksar and the unfairness of it.
When Harry noticed the curious look Seyn was giving him, he said, “What?”
“Is it true that humans still have such things as heterosexuality and homosexuality?”
Harry nodded. “Heterosexuality is considered the norm there.”
Seyn pulled a face. “That sucks. Though, it would be great to be given options instead of being bondmate-sexual. It’s a pity your bond broke so late and you didn’t get the chance to explore your real sexuality without the bond bullshit.”
Harry carefully avoided Seyn’s eyes.
“Maybe we should go to Earth together,” Seyn said suddenly.
Harry’s heart skipped a beat. But he forced himself to shake his head. There was no use getting his hopes up. “Don’t be silly. No one would let us go. Don’t you think I didn’t try? The trips to pre-TNIT planets are regulated by the Ministry of Intergalactic Affairs. Special exceptions can be made, but there must be a very good reason. Considering that the Lord Chancellor of the Calluvian branch of the Ministry is Ksar, good luck trying to convince him that you have a good reason to visit Earth.”
“Dammit.” Seyn looked at Harry. “Can’t you talk to him? He might be a high-handed ass, but he’s your brother.”
Harry winced. He had been avoiding Ksar as much as he could after his return home. Ksar was too observant. He was a pretty strong telepath, and Harry was scared he’d notice the change in Harry’s telepathy—notice that Harry’s bond was gone.
“Ksar won’t sanction it if there’s no good, rational reason,” Harry said. “So I didn’t even try talking to him about it after my parents said no.”