Mansa and Song (Chapter 1 | Page 10)

Let me tell you the completely unnecessary story of these two.

Immediately following this, Myles drags Sage back to base at gun point, with Sage too exhausted to cast again to defend himself. Once there Myles, who has had the opportunity to calm down, tells his commanders what he’s seen, though now he’s not so sure he should. Sage is arrested for fratricide as a way to remove them from the situation immediately and it is decided to prevent more casualties they should be met with a firing squad in the morning. Sage gives Myles that “how could you do this to me” look of enemies to lovers as they’re being taken away.

Myles visits Sage in the night with the express intent of springing him, but he (and all of his himbo energy) doesn’t exactly know what to do afterwards. Sage owes him a debt and knows that he will likely face the same fate that Sage might have if they were to stay here. So they flee, returning to Sage’s rural home town to hide out for a bit.

Myles learns about infernals, their culture, and all about Sage (and what makes his unintentional companion so wonderful) in the process, and the two go from enemies to friends to eventually lovers. Although Myles was initially welcomed by Sage’s friends and family the two soon find out that they will not be accepted as a couple. They try to stay for a few more weeks before the harassment becomes unbearable and they relocate to Port Alma, with Sage reeling from the loss of their support system.

Knowing what happened in the country, they assume it will only be worse here now that magic is being banned, but no one will know their faces so they’ll stay out of the way and live a life that appears platonic to anyone on the outside. Myles takes care of Sage and brings in money as a laborer until Sage has adjusted to their new life. Once they have they get a small job too and work as a doctor, healing secretly while infernal rights get locked down all around them. Myles and Sage get closer over the years, determined to stay together until they are physically separated, but it all remains a well kept secret. Which works… until it doesn’t.

They’re found out again years later when Sage is busted for healing with magic. Police raid their home and discover no evidence of criminal activity but it becomes clear that they are more than just friends. They are arrested but eventually released when the police can’t prove anything - they keep Sage a week longer than Myles and it takes them some time to be themself again. Myles hangs in and slowly brings Sage back from the edge.

But they rise above it. Ignoring the shouts in the streets, cleaning their little house of graffiti, and keeping their affection in private, but they don’t run, they’ve made a home here. By this point the elite have started taking infernals as courtesans (for gross possessive reasons) and with the two of them past middle age Myles suggests it to Sage so they can live the remainder of their years as partners that the law would have no right to separate. Sage agrees and they become the first legitimate couple to enter into a human/infernal courtesan contract for love.

They are “wed” and live the remainder of their years in historical obscurity, no one would ever know that they were the first - especially not Song or Mansa. But a rumor of their union has already been started and though others don’t know the names Myles and Sage, they begin using the courtesan contract as a stand in for marriage. Until over half a century later when Bill 58 is passed.

The story that didn’t need to exist! Thank you for coming!