Chapter 1: The concept of "soulmates."
Iris Soyer stepped over a stack of fallen journals, her hair a wild nest held together by a single, chewed-on No. 2 pencil. She looked like a woman who had just wrestled with a ghost and won, but she did it with style. She pulled the pencil off her hair and a wave of black straight hair fell down to her shoulders. She took her teacher’s purse and headed out to the auditorium. When you first see her, you think that she is sharp, strict and loud. Her heels echoed in the empty hallway. She opened the door of the auditorium, and the previous voice room came to complete silence. It was like all the students held their breath for some reason. She threw her jacket on the big professor’s desk and she turned to see her students. She smiled. They were captivated before she even spoke. The students called her “Medusa” , and when she heard it the first time, she laughed. But then she decided to play the role with a characteristically ease.
“The syllabus says we begin with the Pre-Socratics,” Iris said, her voice a low rasp that broke the silence of the room like a stone through glass “but i think that i would like to start with the concept of “Soulmates” so we can start know it’s other.” The students opened their books and notebooks and started to scratch their papers. “Don’t do that, it’s the first lesson, I don’t want you to write, I want you to listen, I want you to feel the words. I want you to become one with each word, that can’t be happening if you write down every single thing i say. So eyes forward, now you look at me and only me, questions will be answered when i am finished with the presentation”
It was apparently satisfying to see all these young men and women, following that 5 feet 8 woman like they were enchanted by her long dark- black- straight hair, brown eyes, without a hint of makeup except from a little mascara and a nude almost glistering lipstick. Her figure was slim but curvy enough to not be skinny.
When she started talking again, was like the air in the auditorium came back to life.
“Does anyone know about the myth of the two headed or spherical” people, that Aristophanes told in Plato’s Symposium? It is the most famous metaphors for the human condition and the origin of the concept of “Soulmates” She took off her glasses, just for a second. “So anyone knows ? or you know but you are afraid to talk? Philosophy isn’t about me talking, is about you being responsible and known that you owe to yourselves to speak up, there is no right or wrong, there is no-one in this class, even me , that has all the answers. So if no-one knows i will tell you. In Plato’s symposium with this myth Aristophanes explains that humans were originally spherical creatures. They had two faces looking in opposite directions on once neck, also they had four arms and four legs. They were incredibly powerful, strong and fast, moving by somersaulting at great speeds. Their strength made them ambitious, they attempted to scale the heavens, to attack the Gods. To humble them without destroying them- because the Gods need the humans- Zeus decided to cut each human in two. Apollo was ordered to turn their faces towards the wound so they would always remember their punishment. He smoothed the skin, but the longing remained. After being split, each half wandered the earth in a desperate search for it’s other person, when they found each other, they would wrap their arms around one another, refusing to let go, eventually dying of hunger, because they did not want to do anything apart. Seeing them perish Zeus took pity and moved their reproductive organs to the front. This allowed them to find physical and emotional satisfaction through the union so they could return to the business of lifing.”
She stood still for a long moment, the silence in the auditorium so absolute it felt physical.
“That is all for today,” she said, her voice returning to its usual low rasp. “You are dismissed.”
But no one moved. The “enchantment” was still too thick. After a few seconds, a hand went up in the second row—a girl with wide, troubled eyes.
“Professor?” the girl asked, her voice trembling slightly. “If the myth is true... if we are only half-beings... does that mean we can never truly be happy alone? That we are biologically designed to be incomplete?”
Iris looked at her, not with the kindness of a teacher, but with the cold clarity of a mirror. “Happiness is a modern invention, Miss Clark. The Greeks were concerned with Truth. And the truth is, a circle that has been ripped in two will always have jagged edges. You can live alone, certainly. But you will always be a jagged thing.”
“But what if we find someone who doesn’t fit the edges?” a boy called out from the side, his voice defensive. “What if the ‘missing piece’ doesn’t exist?”
Iris turned toward him, her long black hair swaying like a pendulum. “Then you aren’t looking for a soulmate,” she said, her smile sharpening. “You are looking for a bandage. A soulmate isn’t someone who heals you. It is the only person who can feel the exact shape of your pain, because they carry the other half of it.”
She looked back at the room, her eyes sweeping over them one last time. “Don’t look for someone to complete you. Look for the person whose wound matches yours. Now, go.”
The room finally broke. The sound of a hundred people moving at once was deafening after such a silence. Iris exhaled, a long, shaky breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She reached for her jacket, feeling the sudden cold of the empty stage.
She began to look for her bag, but her hand stopped mid-air.
The crowd was filtering out of the top doors, a chaotic blur of backpacks and chatter. But one figure remained. He was standing perfectly still against the back wall, framed by the shadows of the exit.
Elias Touht.
He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t talking. He looked like he had been carved out of the very stone of the university. While the students had reacted with fear or confusion, Elias just watched her. His expression was a blank page—no “jagged edges,” no “longing,” no “wound.”
He was the only thing in the room that didn’t look broken. And that, Iris realized with a sudden jolt of adrenaline, was the most terrifying thing of all.
