Chapter Text
As time passed, Beau continued to find a strange comfort in her markings. She still didn’t necessarily believe they were soulmate markings. They didn’t stop her from pursuing romantic relationships with people who were not “her soulmate” if these markings were even soulmate markings. She wasn’t so foolish as to waste her life looking for a match that probably wasn’t even out there. Still, she was attached to her markings. They felt spiritual in a way that she hadn’t experienced before.
In all her time with the Nien, they had never seen her marks. She kept them hidden and preferred it that way. She started to feel safe with her friends, like they were the same kind of reliable comfort as her marks. She felt that way with Jester especially. The teilfing was her best friend. She made her feel happy, have fun, and challenged her in a way that she had never experienced before. Jester made her soft, and it felt good.
When Beau saw a small tan circle on Jester’s ankle sticking out from her blankets one night her world stopped. No. No. No it can’t be. Shaking, Beau looked down and saw a blue circle of identical size and placement. She didn’t really need to check, seeing as she had the pattern memorized, but she had to be sure. The blue looked so identical to the color of Jester’s skin. She had never noticed before, but now it was all she could see.
After the sighting, Beau became extremely careful about covering her marks, and extremely careful to avoid seeing those locations on Jester. She felt like she had done something terrible to Jester, not only by seeing the mark without her permission, but also for being the person who had a matching mark.
No not matching. They’re just similar is all. I’m sure it was my imagination anyway. Or it's some kind of friend thing. Or a coincidence. It doesn’t mean anything, I’m not even sure if ours our the same. I mean they’re different colors and it was just one spot.
Beau tried really hard to forget about the mark. She didn’t succeed. She started to distance herself from Jester instead.
Weeks later the Nien is sitting around a fire, setting up camp on a trip to Zadash.
“Hey Jester, what’s that?” Fjord asks, pointing to a tan circle on Jester’s wrist. Beau chokes on the flask she’s drinking out of, and instinctively checks that her wrists are covered. It was definitely the day that her mark was on her wrist.
“Oh, that’s my soulmate mark.”
“You’re what?”
“My soulmate mark! Someone out there in the world who is my soulmate has the same one,” Jester says and giggles.
“Hmm, I always thought that was a myth,” interjects Caleb.
“They’re not a myth! My momma told me all about them! Her and my dad had ones. They both had each other's hand prints on their back. Isn’t that so romantic? Momma says mine are extra special because they change with the moon cycle.
Oh duh, how did I not figure out the cycle was the same length as the moon cycle?
“I think it's because our love was given special blessing by the Moonweaver. She is protecting us and our love, because it’s destined to be something great. And because she has blue skin like me! She’s friends with the Traveler.”
“That’s great Jester, we should all get some sleep,” says Fjord.
“I’ll take first watch with Nott,” Beau says immediately.
Beau tries to wait long enough that everyone is asleep, she really does, but she’s so worked up she can’t wait anymore.
“Hey Nott, you know how I told you about that problem I was having with Jester?” Beau stammers, not noticing Jester’s eyes flickering open at the mention of her name in her bedroll across the camp.
“That you’re hopelessly in love with her, yes?”
“Okay that’s not what I said...But I might have a bigger problem.” Beau unwraps her very purposely timed wrist wrapping, exposing a blue circle on her wrist to Nott.
Nott looks confused for a moment, but Beau sees it click in her mind. “Wait, thats-”
“Look, mine moves around with the moon cycle too. I saw that we had similar markings on our ankle one night, but I thought it was just a coincidence because mine moves.” Beau pauses, as Nott just stares at it with her mouth open. “I’m not so sure it’s just a coincidence anymore. I don’t know what to do.”
“Hers is definitely the color of your skin now that I think about it. Is this why you’ve been acting so weird towards her? Oh my gods. Do you think she knows?” Nott asks.
“How could she? I always keep mine hidden. I feel like I have to tell her, it's not fair that I know and she doesn’t. I feel like I’m lying to her. I just know how much it will disappoint her and I don’t want to crush her feelings like that.”
“Well you can’t let her keep hopelessly looking for her soulmate the rest of her life if your the one that has the matching marks. You should definitely tell her, just… just give me a week or so to talk to her about it. I’m not going to tell her, but I’ll try to get an idea of how she feels about her marks and you separately. Then we can decide how to tell her.”
Neither of them notice the shifting in Jester’s bedroll as she moves to run her fingers over her wrist, tears in her eyes.