Layla tries to pay attention to the strange, twisting words for the first few seconds, but even if she were in top form, they would be difficult to follow. Later, she will have to come back to ask if that was just a side effect of the magic, or if the caster's partner somehow forms a part of the tether ceremony.

Curiosity has her wanting to look at everything. She focuses on Marc, on holding his gaze, on the thousand moments, large and small, joyful and infuriating, that form the bedrock of her love for him. On the fewer but still precious moments that form the bedrock of her friendship with Steven, who has so quickly become an invaluable part of her life as well. If they're going to be exposed to her emotions, raw and unfiltered by civility and self-control and the knowledge that not every stupid, petty impulse needs to make it beyond the confines of her own skull, then that's what she wants them to get first. Love, and friendship, and the weight of how much she cherishes them.

It's an effort of will not to flinch as the cord heats, to trust that it will stop short of anything actually damaging.