Up close, Mistress Ader was a lot older than Clariel had thought she was. Her face was so heavily caked with the white, claylike stuff Valannie called ‘astur’ and in Estwael was called ‘esture’ that from a distance she looked about thirty-five. Up close, the wrinkles under the white were visible, so Clariel upped her age estimate by at least thirty years. If she had a Charter mark, it was invisible under the clay.

‘Lady Clariel,’ said Ader, making a low bow herself. ‘Welcome to the Belisaere Select Academy.’

‘Thank you, Mistress … uh … Ader,’ said Clariel, hoping that she’d said it right.

‘We are delighted you could attend,’ said Ader. ‘Valannie, you have done well. Lady Clariel is presented adequately. You may join the other maids in the Panelled Chamber, until you are summoned.’

Valannie, for once, didn’t say anything, but simply bowed and retreated.

‘Now, stand straight, Lady Clariel, and we shall talk,’ said Ader.

Clariel thought she was standing up straight, but she pushed her shoulder blades back a little and moved her feet apart a few inches. Ader sat down in her chair, though her back remained completely straight and she did not relax at all.

‘This Academy prepares the young of the notable families of the Kingdom to move in polite society,’ she said. ‘Before a student takes their place in it, Lady Clariel, I like to discuss with them the path they intend to take, for this may shape some elements of our teaching.’

‘The path?’ asked Clariel.

‘Your plans for the future,’ said Ader. ‘Do you wish to be married soon? No? Many of the young ladies here do, and if that is so, then they have more lessons concerned with the supervision of a household, selection of a doctor, on childbirth, on setting up a nursery and so forth.’

‘I have no desire to be married,’ said Clariel firmly. ‘Or to have children.’

‘You do not?’ asked Mistress Ader. ‘You prefer some more unconventional arrangements?’

‘No,’ said Clariel. Her forehead wrinkled as she tried to think of the best way to explain. ‘I … I like to go my own way, without needing anyone else.’

‘Very few people need no one else,’ said Ader.

‘I mean I don’t need to be with someone, married or tied down,’ said Clariel.

‘Marriage need not be a shackling together of the unwilling,’ said Mistress Ader. ‘But it is not impossible that you are a natural singleton. You are not apprenticed, I believe? You do not wish to follow in your parents’ footsteps? Or is it that you have no ability?’