A/N: As usual, I would recommend putting the video on loop.

Two weeks had gone by, and the routine over those fourteen days was pretty much the same. She had woken up with Tarhuinn in the morning, and he had shown her how to take care of certain things in the farm and had given her tasks to accomplish while he had taken care of the other things in there. It hadn't been too bad, and she had fun learning how to grow her own food. Holding a fluffy bunny had helped as well sometimes, though; he had reminded her not to get too attached.

The only problem in the farm had been when she had walked over to the window and had stared out at the scenery for too long. He had called her back in a near growl as though he had expected her to go leaping out into the air. So, she had quickly closed the window lest he call her by his favorite nickname, causing her to lose her ability to walk properly.

Besides, tending to the farm with him, she had to go with him everywhere. When he would make breakfast, she would be standing close by or helping. She did like cooking since she had never received the chance to do so back at her old home. The frustrating part was that every day, he had put her on stirring or mixing duty. He had never allowed her to go near a knife, stating that he couldn't risk her accidentally cutting herself.

When they had walked the halls, she had sometimes glanced towards the hall with the exit, which had resulted in him wrapping his right arm around her waist and pulling her close. She had told him that she wouldn't run if the deal was kept in place, but he obviously didn't trust her on that point. What had been worse was when they were going to bed. (F/n) had lain in her bed each night, only to feel him watching her until she had drifted off into sleep.

Aside from these things, they had been in the library. Tarhuinn had taken over the desk in the room, developing detailed proof for why his culture's practices were viable. She had been forced to read in the meantime. So far, she had been introduced to the history of the markets, and how the kelremm homes were built. Since the parents died young and the house passed onto their only child, no new homes ever needed to be constructed in the mountain.

Right now, though, she was sitting in the library with him. She hadn't been reading her work like she was supposed to, but she was more focused on him scribbling notes down on parchment. The desk looked a complete mess, but she assumed that Tarhuinn could care less about that. When she grew bored with observing him, she peered back down at her book.

A word hadn't sunk into her brain before she heard a book slam shut. She jolted in her seat and glanced back to the male in front of her. There was a pleased smile on his lips, and he met her gaze. (F/n) froze a bit. Her time was up. Today would decide her fate.

"What did you find?" she asked, scooting her chair closer to the desk and setting her book aside.

"I found several books that support the max age of the human partner being eighteen for both male and female. And, the books that have these supports do have authors. They're these five." He held up the five books and handed them over to her.

Looking them over, she did find an author's name in each. "What pages are the references on and what paragraphs?" After he gave her the page and paragraph numbers, she flipped through the texts and read over the designated areas. In each one, it was relatively the same. Here and there, a synonym of the word would be utilized. "Can I see the first book that you gave me?"

He grabbed it for her and turned to the proper page. After he handed it over, she noted not much differences between the no-author and author versions. All six seemed to support the same idea, but she looked over the no-author version again and read the specific section.

Should a child be conceived between a kelremm and their human partner when the human is beyond the of age eighteen, the child will still be born, but the child will drain the human parent of life energy before the child turns two. This will result in the child dying as well since they won't have the human parent's life energy for two full years.

It really was similar to the other versions. "There's no date of when the no-author version was written. Is it older than the five author versions, Tarhuinn?"

"Yes, it is said to be the first book written about our culture."

With this in mind, she figured that the author versions could've been written after more tests were done on this matter, or those authors were just copying what was written in the no-author text. It could even be that all of the books were written by the same person, who just used an alias. Biting her bottom lip in concentration, (f/n) looked around the specific sections in each book and found something interesting. The no-author version had a different passage concerning the death of the human parent after the full two years.

Once the child turns two, they'll have acquired the necessary amount of human life energy to live without it. The human parent, not having their life energy anymore, will die on the child's second birthday. As is tradition, the kelremm partner will kill themselves to be with their deceased beloved, and the child will take over the home.

Concerning the author versions, they all said something similar, but there was one piece missing. For the second sentence in the passage, the phrase not having their life energy anymore was absent. There wasn't even a rewording of the phrase. With this discovery made, she pointed it out to Tarhuinn.

"Yes, I came across that difference myself and searched for any texts on why it was so. I managed to find three books that discuss their theories on that specific passage." He placed the three books in front of her. "The one to your far left goes into depth about how the author versions merely found that line to be unimportant. The book in the middle has a similar conclusion but is less in depth about it. As for the book to your far right, it brings another theory to the table.

"It suggests that the no-author version isn't reliable on the issue of the child's requirement for human life energy, and that the other five are. It continues to argue that the no-author version should be wiped out entirely because it warns that other falsehoods may be present within the text. Granted, it praises the author versions on that particular issue. There's no other support for this theory, and, personally, I think that it shouldn't be trusted. Still, I thought that you should know of its existence."

"There were no theories on the author versions being the unreliable ones on that issue?"

"No. Why, are you suddenly supporting the book that's the foundations of our traditions?" he asked with a slight smirk.

"No, but it's an interesting distinction. Still, what else did you find?"

"I've found accounts of couples who tried to go past the eighteen mark and accounts of kelremm partners trying to prevent their human partner from dying. None of them show positive results." He grabbed several books and opened them to specific pages. Tarhuinn pointed to the passages of the accounts, and she proceeded to study them.

In one of the cases, a female kelremm conceived her child when her male human partner was twenty two. The child was born but drained the life energy of its father only after a year and half. Both the father and child died while the mother was left to grieve for a few years before finding a new partner. She managed to, but she was harsher on her new partner, not wanting to experience the same thing again.

Her account of losing her first partner and child described how it seemed like she had part of her soul ripped from her being, and she had never recovered it even after finding a new partner. It went into more detail on the issue, but (f/n) found it far too depressing to read any further. (F/n) even felt a few tears threaten to fall.

Going onto another account, it was just as distressing as the first. So, she decided to read an account about a kelremm trying to save their dying partner. While the human partner taught their child the things they ought to know before turning two, the kelremm spent their time crafting various drinks for their partner to try. Later in their research, they started adding their own blood to the mixture. The kelremm eventually became so obsessed with their work that they even tried to harm the child at one point in an attempt to put the child's blood into the mixture.

With the human partner realizing that enough was enough, they destroyed their partner's work and locked the kelremm in their bedroom. The library of their home grew to serve as the child's bedroom, and the child never saw their other parent. In the end, the human partner still died as did the kelremm partner. All of the account was written by the child of the two, and some parts went into thorough detail of how terrifying the experience was at times.

Closing the books, she handed them back. "I don't think that I need to read any more. Do you mind if I just look through everything you've gathered?"

"Well, I took notes for a reason, (f/n)." He indicated for her to take a seat in the chair on the other side of the desk, and she did so. After she pushed a few strands of hair behind her ears, she started to look through it all.