Yenni licked her lips. “I could not stand it if the petty judgments against me turned out to be true.”

“Judgments like what, mams?”

“Well, because I am a woman who enjoys hunting, and learning about runes, and learning about combat, people act as if I am strange and unnatural.”

“Hmm,” Diedre and Zui said as one.

“But it was once very common for women to do these things. You know what I think? I think it is everyone else who is unnatural.”

“Yes!” cried Zui. “Who creates these arbitrary rules? A so-called friend of mine told me I couldn’t become an instructor at Prevan because I don’t spit fire like Creshen dragons.”

“What? That’s ridiculous!” said Yenni.

“Did you take them out back and give them some instruction?” asked Diedre.

Zui laughed. “I wanted to, but instead I told them we would have to agree to disagree.”

Diedre sighed. “Meh folks would say I’ll draw the eye of the Mistress of Demons practicin’ runelore.”

Yenni shook her head. “I still do not understand why.”

“Is what they were taught,” said Diedre, and she swigged her wine. “Still, is nowhere near what they would say if they knew—”

She cut off, seeming to catch herself, and her light-brown cheeks flushed red.

“What is it, Deedee?” asked Yenni.

“Nothing to trouble yourself with, mams. Let’s talk about you. How are things with your dragon?”

Yenni noted dimly that this wasn’t the first time Diedre had steered the conversation back to her and Weysh.

“Things are quite well,” she said carefully. Nevertheless, she could hide nothing from Diedre.

“I hearin’ a ‘but’ in there.”

She was right. An awkward gulf had grown between her and Weysh, and she knew it was because she was keeping him at arm’s length. The only time all felt right was at night when, unable to stand cowering inside, she covered herself in runes and curled up beside him when he slept in dragon. But as a man, their conversations were filled with uncomfortable stutters and pregnant pauses, to the point where they’d begun to spend less time in each other’s company. Yenni would say she needed to study, and Weysh would go on long hunts in dragon for wild boar, deer, or mountain cats—both of them desperate to escape the heaviness that seemed to hang above them like an impending storm.

Zui and Diedre watched her with concern, and Yenni wrapped both hands around her wine glass. “I feel as if I’m being pulled in opposite directions. I very much care for Weh-sheh, more than I have for any man before, but how can I ignore the reality between us? I still have not written home about him.”

Zui gave a sympathetic hum. “Is it because—” She shared a look with Diedre.