“She is…Dirva, I don’t know. I’ve only spent five minutes with her. But she seems smart. And she seems to have a sense of humor. And she seems warm. Anyway, it doesn’t matter what I think. What do you think of her?”

He smiled. “I think she’s a good match.”

“But…why?” Dirva shot me a look that told me to drop the subject, but I didn’t. “You said I should ask what I want to ask.”

“I also said to do that within reason.”

“I am trying, Dirva.”

He sighed. He cut a glance at the closed door. “Well, when I am with her, I…I find I don’t think so much about things before. People before. She pulls my focus. She is a fresh start.”

That made sense to me. It seemed to answer my question. I nodded and went back inside where the match and the matchmaker waited for us. It did not occur to me until hours later that Dirva had never actually said he liked her, or that he loved her. Later, it troubled me greatly. But at the time, I felt his happiness, his hopefulness, and I found I really just had the one question for her. “Nisa,” I asked when I sat down across from her, “do you know what you’re getting into?”

She looked at Dirva. “Yes,” she said. A second later, she smiled. “No. Probably not. It’s a risk, but it seems one worth taking.”

It was a good answer. I liked her. I liked her ease; I liked the measured way she spoke. Cleverness just poured out of her, and I knew Dirva well enough to know he needed someone who could keep pace with him, the type to now and again outsmart him and leave him perplexed. I knew he gravitated to talent, and she had it. She had the unspoken confidence of someone with proven talent. I liked her enough that I could see us as friends. It wasn’t just him she was marrying, after all, but his family, and I was his family. “All right,” I said. “You have my blessing.”

Her eyes went wide. “Really?”

“Yes?”

“That was so fast!”

“Should it have taken longer?”

“No, I guess not,” she said. She laughed. “My parents grilled Dirva for hours, until past curfew. You must be very decisive.”

Dirva laughed. “He isn’t. Stop questioning him, or he’ll reconsider. It’s done,” he said, taking the glass of wine in front of him. The shaper reached out to stop him, but he ignored her. He drank the wine in one go. “It’s done. It’s official,” he said. The rest of us drank our wine while he watched.

Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16