"If you show me yours, and tell me about soulmates...then I will consider showing you mine... deal?" I looked at her with raised eyebrows. "But we don't speak of this to anyone...not even Alice. I want to be the one to tell her."
Hana quickly nodded her head and stood up. She started to unbutton her top and...
"Woah woah woah... I didn't ask you to strip Hana!!" I shouted and covered my eyes with my hands. Hana started laughed and pulled my hands away from my eyes.
"I am not stripping for you. One, you are not my soulmate... and two, I don't swing that way," She said with a wink. I outwardly gagged at her statement which made us both die with laughter. "I am showing you my mark. It is on my shoulder blade."
She pulls down the back of her shirt to show her shoulder blade area to me. There on her shoulder is a mark with a horse that is running. Within the bounds of the horse is a mountainous landscape, with the moon, the stars and a bird.
"Wow....that's....beautiful Hana." I was mesmerized by how pretty the mark was.
"Yep. I really love it. You know it matches my love for animals, especially horses, and my love for nature and exploring. I'm not really sure what more the mark means but it is really wonderful." Hana gushes with pride over her mark and buttons up her top again and sits back down.
"Now about soulmates... I am going to tell you everything I know okay?" She questions me. I nod my head to allow her to continue.
"Okay. So everything I know is from common knowledge, and also what my grandparents and parents taught me as they met their own soulmates. Generally speaking, we all get a soul mark at some point in our life that resembles our soulmate. Every mark is different...but it relates specifically to your soulmate and vise versa." I nod my head taking in her information...thinking about my soul marks.
"Most people get their marks after puberty, sometimes around the end of their teenage years to some time in their 20's. That is said to happen because obviously we wouldn't want 14 year old girls being pregnant with their soulmates babies or just 14 year olds pregnant in general." Hana giggles. I was actually shocked. I had never thought about kids. That was a whole other topic.
"Once you get your mark, that is when your journey starts into finding your soulmate. There is no set timeline or date after getting your soul mark of when you will meet your soulmate. Every timeline is different. Soul marks will not change unless something has happened to your soulmate. If your soulmate passes away...the mark with start to fade immediately and the living soulmate will feel a sting in their marked area." Hana looked saddened when she mentioned this.
So Alice must have felt that when Daniel passed away.
"Wait...but how do you know who your soulmate is?" I blurted out. I was too caught up in finding out more about soulmates that I interrupted Hana.
"I was getting to that silly," she laughed. "You never know who they are specifically. The mark doesn't give you names or words...it's just a representation. You won't know who they are until you cross paths with them...like fate intends." Hana said sincerely looking into my eyes. I looked at her confused.
"Well what if you don't cross paths with them? Will you ever meet your soulmate?!" I demanded.
"From everything I got from my relatives and some friends I've known throughout life...fate will always have a reason for when and how you meet your soulmate. There have been very few...and I mean very few cases where someone didn't meet their soulmate. The statistics were like... 1 in 200,000 every 100 years. People said that those people didn't deserve a soulmate, or fate thought that they didn't need one. Even then, people who might not have had a soulmate, or their soulmate passed...they would say that they would marry or get together with someone else. There is nothing against a second chance at love with the fates."
"Did they ever feel guilty for being with someone other than their soulmate?" I continued blurting out questions as Hana was telling me these stories.
"Rumor has it that fate would grant second chance mates to those who fell in love with another after their original soulmate had passed or even if they had no mate. It is strange, but people now still do choose to live happily with others and fate will grant them happiness." Hana smiled and looked out the window at the city lights lighting up the sky.
"Ok...well how do you know it is your soulmate then when you cross their path." I leaned forward...begging Hana to continue. She giggled at my eagerness.
"Well it is said that it can happen in different ways. Your soul mark could make you feel a pull in a certain direction to lead you to them. I think that choice is if someone is really longing for their mate or they are going in the wrong direction of meeting their mate when fate wants them to." She placed her fingers on her chin and looked up in deep thought.
I grunted. "Well fate, in that option, seems to really want to control things." I rolled my eyes.
"Well that method is more rumors than anything, but I mean...hey...it could happen."
"Yeah right...ok what other ways are there," I asked leaning back in my chair.
"I know that sometimes marks glow when you are near your soulmate and glow magically bright when you are within very little distance of them. They stop glowing when you both touch each other's marks, to acknowledge one another."
I looked at Hana and then glanced down at the mark on my forearm. I pulled my arm above the table and set it into view so Hana could see. I pulled up my sleeve further to see the full mark. It was a simple butterfly, adorned with a dagger in between its wings. Beautiful but dangerous. I traced my mark with my fingers lightly. (Picture above imagine on right forearm)
"You think my soulmate would want to do that though? Acknowledging means you accept your soulmate." I murmured quietly, not really to anyone other than myself.
"Doe...your mark is really beautiful. I don't know why you hide it, however, I understand the secrecy and intimacy you hold towards your soulmate. I find that very wonderful." She smiled softly after admiring my mark.
"The most common way to know it is your soulmate, is the feeling you have when you are around them first. You start to feel overwhelmed and nervous. You feel like you are missing a part of you and you keep going back to that person in the room or vicinity. Their heart pulls you in and so does yours. The next part, is when you touch your soulmate. It sends sparks up your body where you touch each other. No one else will make you feel that way." Hana stops to check to see if I was still listening.
I was sitting forward, soaking in every word she was saying. I didn't want to miss anything. I nodded at her to continue.
"When soulmates touch each other's marks together, you create the soulmate bond. This connects you fully to your mate. You can feel their feelings, pain, emotions, and you just understand each other. You could be miles away from each other, but when you are connected it's like you are in the same room as them."
I looked at her seriously and waited to see if she was finished telling me about soulmates. I was grateful for the information and I wanted to show Hana that. There is one more thing I need to know before I show her.
"What do you know about multiple soulmates?" I insisted. Hana's eyes went wide. She jerked her head towards me quickly and looked like she was going to speak but stopped.
"Hana... please if you know something just tell me...I won't be mad or anything...I'm just curious." She didn't look mad or scared. It was more of a shock that I had asked that question. She thought for a moment before turning her attention fully back to me.
"I know they are very rare. The statistics for two mates is like 1 in 500,000 or something like that."
"Well, yeah Alice told me that specific. I mean that seems like a reasonably accurate number seeing just how many people there are in the world," I agreed. She looked at me pointedly.
"Doe, it is 1 in 500,000 every 500 year period. That's a lot rarer of an occasion than 1 in 500,000 every year or even 100 years."
My eyes widened at what Hana said. I couldn't believe that the statistics for two mates were that rare. The news of this was making me stress out and want to just stop the whole conversation...but I promised myself I would try with Hana.
"Look Doe, if someone were to have two mates, there is a big reason behind it. Fate wouldn't give someone two mates for no reason." I looked up at her.
"What do you mean by no reason?"
"Well there was something written once about a king who had two soulmates. Everyone wondered why because this man was king...like why did he get two mates compared to everyone else. People thought that it was because he was powerful and special, but that wasn't the case." She went on rambling.
"Wait Hana. Powerful and special?" I was confused. Are they referring to his power as a king or to something else?
"This king was said to rule thousands and thousands of years ago, and he had powers to control weather and had all sorts of magic about him that helped him rule over his kingdoms. The reason they claim he got two mates was to help him control the darkness within him and keep him from destroying the universe if his power were to be used by the wrong hands or he lost control."
I tensed up at her story. How can she be talking about someone that has powers...kinda like me? But this person ruled thousands of years ago and he had to have two mates to control his dark side...
"One mate was a sorcerer and she understood his magic side. She helped him control his magic when dark forces tried to take his powers or exploit them. The second one was special, but she didn't have any magical ability. It was almost like she was human...but not. She helped him love and keep things into perspective of what his people were going through. It was a weird story but many people believe it to be true." Hana chuckles and bounces up from her chair to start closing up the bakery.
I sat frozen in the chair. I couldn't figure out what to think of what Hana said. I glanced over at Hana and got up from the table. I walked quickly over to her and grabbed her shoulders to get her attention as she was about to turn out the lights.
"Hana...I have two soul marks."
She looked at me...stunned. She didn't speak. It was almost like I ripped out her tongue. I shook her around to get her attention.
"Hana... HELLOOOO....say something pleaseee!?" I screeched, trembling. She looked at me again and kept blinking. She grabbed my arms and started to smile. She stepped back to tell me with her actions that she wanted to see the other mark. I grabbed her hand and turned off the lights to the lobby area. I pulled her into the kitchen with me where I could have more privacy,
"I have to take my shirt off for this too like you did. Give me a second." I started to pull my shirt off starting with my left top sleeve. My soul mark was on my left shoulder. Once I freed my arm from the cloth, I turned towards her to show her the red detailed star adorned on my left deltoid. (Imagine this on the left shoulder)
"Woowww. That is so cool that you have two. I told you there is a reason fate does what it does." She laughed and shrugged her shoulders. She helps me finish locking up and we both start walking towards my apartment building.
"Let's just hope fate is not trying to mess with me."
_______________________________
Authors Note
Now you've seen the marks!!
4/9/2022