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“We spread those rumors on purpose,” he said. “They are not true.”

Relief that I wasn't just being an ass to him burst free from me in a sudden laugh.

“Why?” I asked.

“Disinformation is an important tactic of war,” he said. “Overt lying, subtle lying, misdirection, presenting truth as lies- those are all methods to confuse and disrupt the enemy. When someone lies repeatedly and publicly, it's because they believe you are their enemy. My people have carefully crafted a lie that has withstood the centuries."

"But why?" I asked again. I couldn't for the life of me think why

"Those of Order value bodies like a commodity. What young you can breed, what labor they can squeeze out of you. Our lie makes us less valuable as women with channels so cavernous they won't hold the seed of others and men with members too large to be safe with anyone else - we decrease one part of our value to them."

I opened my mouth to say how ridiculous that was, but then I shut it. I'd deliberately smeared dirt on myself to avoid attention when I went to the commons for food. I made myself filthier and disguised my scent to avoid attention. There was only one Aetheriani at the school, and his wings had been bound by the magic that bound everyone else. Here was a city, a country, a community of people who were unbound by the constraints that tied down everyone else. They had kept themselves separate, isolated, and removed from the system that trapped others.

If spreading rumors about themselves was one of the ways they sustained that, there was no judgment to be had.

"Now, you have preened - would you like to rest?" he asked. "I can show you your chambers."

"You're really going to let me live here and not give anything back?" I asked, blurting it out.

There had to be a catch. He wasn't going to force himself on me, either physically or with coercion. He wasn't going to push past my hesitation, even when he had proved my fears were misguided.

There was no way he was going to just offer me safety and security for nothing in exchange at all.

"You will give something back," he smiled.

Ah, there it was, the catch.

"When you feel safe and settled, when you have gotten to know my people and found your way around the city, you will find the joy inside of yourself that you wish to offer to others," he said.

"You're joking," I said.

"You are an intelligent, strong, hard-working woman," he said. "You will find a place that brings you happiness, and you will make my city and my people better for it."

"Is that how you really feel?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. He stepped forward and reached out as if he was going to place a hand on my shoulder, and then hesitated.

He was being respectful.

I reached out and caught his hand as it dropped, lifting it up to put it on my shoulder. His hand was warm and huge, and he gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze. He cleared his throat before he continued speaking. "You are safe. You are free. Anything you wish, it is yours."

"Your people think I'm here to give you an heir," I said, bringing us back to the one flaw in his generosity. "What happens when they find out that isn't going to happen?"

"What goes on between the two of us is none of their business," he said. His thumb traced a lazy circle over my collarbone, just like it had done when it was on my thigh, and that same heat clenched deep in my core. He had been about to eat me out, and I had stopped him.

I deeply regretted stopping him.

I opened my mouth to tell him I'd changed my mind, yet again.

"This has been a lot," he said. "Let me show you to your own space, where you can spend some time by yourself and process."

I closed my mouth.

He was right.

He let go of my shoulder and picked back up his robe, putting it back on. I followed him out of the room and down a hallway so large he could fly in it if he needed to, though no one else could pass him in midair. He stopped in front of an arched doorway, the wooden door carved and painted with winged women throwing winged children up into the air.

"Where is your room?" I asked him.