Kit weighed her words before speaking. It all seemed obvious to her, but she was in a blueskin stronghold now, and here a specific set of rules applied. “If he was interested in studying medical science—or something—wouldn’t you encourage him?” she asked.

Sereva sighed and rested her mouth on the rim of her glass for a moment. She stared at the rug on the floor between them. “That’s so hard to say for certain,” she answered at last, taking another swallow then setting the glass down. “If he was a girl—yes, of course I’d encourage him. I’d want him to strive as hard as he could, be the best scientist in the city. But as it is … In another ten years, he’ll just marry some high-caste girl and move back in-country, and what good will it have done him to get all that specialized schooling? Jayson’s right, it would just waste his time and energy. And it might—I don’t know—make him more unhappy to have acquired all that knowledge if he never gets a chance to use it. I don’t want to open up doors that might later be shut in his face.”

Listen to yourself! Kit wanted to scream. Listen to every sad, repressive syllable you’re saying! But anger was no way to win this argument. “Well, and he might not prove to have any real aptitude for medical biology,” she said in a casual voice. “It’s pretty hard to tell about a twelve-year-old. But do you think there’s no chance that he might want to pursue a career of his own? There are a lot of blueskin men working in the city. If Bascom really wants to try his hand at some profession—”

Sereva nodded unhappily. “I know. And that’s what we had the fight about. I just can’t stand the thought that Bascom won’t be able to have everything he wants. If he wants to go to City College, then I say, he can go. If he wants to work for a few years before he gets married, then, yes, I’d agree to that, too. Why shouldn’t he? Who would it hurt? Jayson was shocked. No one in his family has ever done anything except own land and write philosophy. He thinks it’s demeaning and cheap to follow a profession. He even—well. Let’s just say he made me furious by belittling Bascom’s high scores. I was—I was suffused with anger. To see this excited little boy sharing his great achievement with his father and have his father laugh at him. I won’t have an attitude like that in my house, and so I told him. We will encourage Bascom in whatever he wants to do, because he’s our son and we love him. And so I told Jayson.”