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Amaranth doesn’t open her eyes; her volume of black curls falls loose over the tub, both into the water and dripping down the outside nearly to the tiled floor.

Her hands rest on the rim. “No, it is unlikely I will marry. I am the Moon-Eater’s Mistress.

Perhaps your second child will take my place in fifteen or twenty years, and then I might, if I wish. ”

“I might marry,” Sidoné says reassuringly. A book hangs from one of her hands; she’s marking her place with a finger.

“But to a woman,” Amaranth adds. “Sidoné would never deign to marry a man.”

The body-twin shrugs as if it were obvious.

“And you, Iriset?” Singix asks gently.

“If Her Glory wills it,” Iriset murmurs sourly.

Amaranth laughs, low and luscious. “You’re so skilled at sounding shitty even as you say exactly what you ought. When did you learn that? You certainly made a great effort to be gentle and submissive when I plucked you out of that prison.”

Iriset sinks deeper into the water, wishing to duck her head and hide away. She allowed her true self too near the surface because of her upset. “I am anxious, too, Your Glory. For my father.”

“Oh, kitten,” Amaranth says, truly sympathetic.

“But you, Singix, your life will hardly change, except you will gain power, and my brother will care for you. He does nothing thoughtlessly and has prepared to accept a wife into his heart for years. It is as Silence commands, and he will meet the challenge.”

Gritting her teeth, Iriset thinks of the ease with which Lyric balanced his internal forces. She thinks of his wrist, the line of his jaw in the starlight, and the low heat of his hushed voice when he said her name.

She’s not exactly jealous; she just wants him.

“I like him,” Singix says. “He is attentive, and—pleasing.”

Iriset sits up. “His dominant force is rising, and yours is flow.” She reaches across the space between their tubs, dripping water loudly.

“When you come together, his force will reach for you like this, and meet yours inside you. The Vertex Seal yearns, and lifts his expectations with his inner design. If you are open, if you let yourself relax and welcome flow, all will be well.”

Though Iriset hardly thinks that last part is entirely true, being so angry with Lyric, she puts firmness into her words, for the princess’s sake. She deserves to be happy.

Singix reaches back to her. Their fingers glance together, then Singix grips Iriset’s hand hard.

“I am so nervous, Iriset. He is very attractive, but I know nothing. And you all say he knows nothing. None of you can tell me—you’re all lovers of women here, or gods.

” The princess’s gaze slides to Amaranth.

“How can it help me? I am not allowed to express such worries to the ambassador, nor my women—they would refuse to answer, it is not appropriate. I have heard the empire treats… sex… as architecture, forms and…” Singix swallows and bravely continues, “Pleasure constructed between people. But we do not understand your distinctions on the islands. That men and women are not supposed to do this together here, unless married, but men and men, or women and women can? It is nonsense to me. I’ve never even seen a man naked!

Except in very old art I wasn’t supposed to see, either!

But I’m expected to have a—to be with him, to have at least two children, and I do know what that requires! ”

Iriset holds on to Singix’s hand, realizing she should have used some of their afternoons alone to offer Singix some practical sex education.

Amaranth says, “I can tell you what I know of men and pleasure, if you like, Singix, though would rather frame it as education, not centered upon my brother specifically, for my own sake. We’ll send for wine and some illustrations!”

“Please,” Singix answers, fear tightening her voice into a whisper.

“Perhaps,” Iriset says, “we should summon a man here now, and be more practical about it.”

“Iriset!” snaps Sidoné.

Standing, so that water streams down her naked body, Iriset brags, “Talking about sex is not nearly as good as doing it.”

They all three stare at her. Iriset squirms slightly as she’s slammed with the full strength of wanting to get off as violently as she had in the Color Can Be Loud Garden with Singix’s soon-to-be-husband.

She touches her mouth, letting her whole body feel the desire, and looks directly at Singix.

Iriset slides her fingers down her chin and throat, dragging against her collarbone and rests her hand on her sternum.

“I’ve been with a man,” she tells Singix slowly.

“I’ve done everything I know to do with one.

I like it very much, and it’s very easy to keep oneself safe, clean, and unimpregnated if you know what—”

“Stop!” commands Amaranth. “Do not speak of apostasy before me. I can ignore what I do not know .”

Iriset snaps her mouth closed, glances to Amaranth, and after a deep breath says, with all the false sweetness she can, “There are non-design ways to stop pregnancy. Less accurate perhaps, but legal, Your Glory.”

Of course, human architecture is the best. Iriset always relied upon it, even when Bittor insisted on prophylactics he acquired himself as well.

“Barely legal,” Amaranth says with a long-suffering sigh.

From her tub, Singix stares up at Iriset with wide dark eyes, holding her knees tightly.

She’s flushed from the heat of the bath, hair sticking to forehead and cheeks.

Iriset gives in and trails her gaze down that pale, pretty neck, to the slope of trapezius and smooth round of her shoulder above the water.

She looks along the graceful line of Singix’s clavicle, following it to the watery shape of her breasts where they press against her drawn-up knees.

As Iriset watches, Singix’s breathing grows quicker.

Iriset steps out of her tub, water sluicing off her.

She walks across the smooth tiled floor, eyes on Singix.

No one makes a sound. When Iriset reaches the princess’s tub, she bends over her, hands on the rim.

Singix doesn’t lean away, eyes flicking from Iriset’s eyes to mouth, to her hanging breasts, even as Iriset puts her mouth near Singix’s ear.

“Have you ever had an orgasm, Singix?” she whispers.

Singix whimpers a little as she lets out a shaky breath. It brushes Iriset’s jaw. “In—in my dreams, I think.”

“Oh, Princess, let me show you.”

Water splashes as Singix jerks back. “Iriset,” she gasps.

“You’ll make me blush, hiha,” Amaranth suddenly says. “Or make an impromptu visit to my god.”

Iriset wants to sneer at the Moon-Eater’s Mistress to get out, then. She stands again, turning. “I don’t mind if you watch, Your Glory. I’ve listened to you, after all.”

Sidoné gets up from her tub abruptly. “I’m going to dry off and get started on that promised wine. I need it.”

Amaranth laughs once. “Very well. We’ll snuggle up near the fire bowl and drink and Iriset will tell us all about her lover.” With that, she stretches onto her feet, sensual and fleshy and so unbelievably sexy Iriset realizes she’s not ready to give up.

“Singix and I will be out in a little bit,” she says with a teasing smile.

As Amaranth snorts, she’s hit in the shoulder with her robe, thrown by a fed-up Sidoné.

Iriset returns her full attention to Singix, finding that the Ceres woman has been staring at her this whole time with parted lips. Iriset reaches to cup her jaw, skimming her smooth, dewy skin with a thumb. “Let me, Princess.”

“I—I’m getting married in three days.”

“You’re getting married in three days .” Iriset smiles. “Until then, your love is your own to give.”

Singix hesitates still, but she leans her jaw against Iriset’s palm.

Iriset slides her hand back, tickling Singix’s earlobe, scratching gently at her hairline.

“I want to taste that ghost writing,” Iriset says softly.

“You’re so elegant, and I like you, Singix Es Sun.

You’re funny, and brave, and you deserve to be happy, to know a little of what your body likes beforehand.

You know about the exchange of design eggs, don’t you? ”

“Yes.” Singix’s eyes are closed. The peach-petal flush on her cheeks blossoms across her collarbone like a necklace of kisses. “But I don’t understand how it works.”

“Oh, I am a thorough teacher,” Iriset murmurs, composing her lecture as she speaks.

“Listen to this, beautiful: While there are several kinds of marriage rites recognized in the empire, the Silent Marriage is considered to be the most intimate and important. Any two people—and occasionally four people—may go through the rite, so long as each fully consents.” Iriset brushes her thumb along Singix’s temple.

“The mutual consent is important, for any dissolution of the bond requires mutual consent as well. This is because the rite literally takes two—or four—inner designs and joins them into a singular bound design.” She lowers her voice to a whisper.

“Only death and unraveling can destroy the bond.”

Singix shivers, lashes fluttering. She does not open her eyes.

“To prepare, each individual undergoes purification rituals to display their inner design’s most singular elements so the priests can create what is known as a design egg.

Each individual brings their egg to the marriage rite, and…

well, honestly, Princess, the only important part is placing one’s egg within the body of the other.

” Iriset draws her hand from Singix’s hair and touches her thumb to the corner of Singix’s mouth.

“All humans have some projectile anatomy—finger, tongue, genitalia, elbows or toes or thumbs.” She smiles and presses her thumb just a little harder, parting Singix’s lips.

“And all humans have multiple orifices.”