Roh paid her no mind. He offered a hand to Lilia and said, “Leave the laundry. I want to show you something.”

Saronia rolled her eyes. Two others had joined her, smooth-cheeked, well-fed novices from Clan Garika. They wore the blue tunic, trousers, and green apron of novices; their hair was shorn short and dark, like Roh’s – like Lilia’s. “All she’s good at is laundry,” Saronia said. “Didn’t your mothers ever tell you you should flirt with Garikas, not drudges? My mothers know yours, you know, and they wouldn’t approve.”

Roh rounded on Saronia. “Go wrap your head in a litany,” he said. “Maybe next time you’ll remember it, then, instead of dropping Para in the middle of building a vortex.”

“I’m more talented than–”

“You’re talented at getting people to think you’re talented,” Roh said. “I could bury you chest-deep in laundry and you wouldn’t be able to breathe your way out of it with Para.”

“You’re an arrogant child.”

“And you’re a terribly jealous woman,” Roh said, “because my mother could have been yours. Too bad you were barely gifted and she gave you away.”

There were five genders in Dhai – female-assertive, female-passive, male-assertive, male-passive, and ungendered. Saronia always used the female-assertive for herself, while Lilia thought of herself in the female-passive. But Roh happily used the ungendered pronoun in reference to Saronia. It was considered a rude thing, of course, to use the wrong one, but it seemed to especially annoy Saronia.

“I’m telling Ora Almeysia you said that.”

“Go ahead. And I’ll tell her where you light off to after dark,” Roh said.

Saronia curled her lip and turned away.

Lilia waited until they were in retreat, then started down the stairs again. Her clothes were the same as the novices’, only the simple gray of the temple’s drudges to their brilliant novice blue.

Roh hopped up the steps to meet her. She had a desperate urge to put her hands in his silky hair and draw him closer. But she pulled away from him instead and averted her gaze.

“I found that symbol,” he said. “The trefoil with the tail that you drew.”

He pulled the book she’d written in out of his tunic pocket. She also noticed the edge of one of Kalinda’s letters peeking out, which she was fairly certain she’d never given him. Had he stolen it?

“Where?” Lilia said.

“First, tell me how it helps you find your mother,” he said. “I asked around, Li. You’re supposed to be an orphan.”

“It’s my business, Roh.”

“You asked me to help.”

Lilia tried to snatch the book back, but Roh was too fast. Spry, light on his feet, it was always difficult to tell how much of that was his dance training and how much was him playing with the forces of Para. He fairly floated away from her, lighter than air.