Shria laughed. “Sweet Kumru,” ve said in the body sitting next to zir, “look at your face. I was kidding.” In both bodies, ve grinned wickedly, but then vir faces sobered. “Kumru’s tits, though, Fift . . . would I want to know? Seriously? Don’t you think every Vail in the world is curious? Especially the ones who act all disgusted if you even allude to it?”

Even in total privacy, it felt wrong to talk about this. Every Vail in the world? The idea of Fift’s Vail Fathers wanting to know about . . . no, they would never. “But you wouldn’t—”

“I wouldn’t, huh?” Shria’s eyes flashed, hovering somewhere between mischief and anger. “You know there’s supposed to have been a time in history when, when they even let Vails watch?”

The Compromise of the Spoons, the Permissive Compact . . . how did Shria even know about that? It was part of the Long Conversation, so it wasn’t talked about in general history. “That was, it was a long time ago . . .” Fift said. “And there was a war . . .” Ze stopped, unsure of what ze should tell Shria. The privacy and silence around them, the deep hidden womb. We can talk about anything.

“It’s okay, Fift.” In the body next to Fift’s on the couch, Shria looked away. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s just how things are set up. You’ve got this whole huge millennia-long tradition, this whole hidden intellectual world that helps shape everything about our world—every decision that Staids make about anything—and we’re not allowed to even glimpse it!”

Fift swallowed. “But, I mean, you’ve got, well . . .”

Shria snorted. “What have we got? Hitting each other and sex. There’s not much mystery there. You can go look up mammal behavior on any science flow on the feed and see all you need to know. And Staids get around to sex eventually, anyway.”

Fift felt zirself flushing. Sometimes ze thought ze ought to get zir skin tone darkened. It was a muddy brown, too light to conceal blushing.

“Hmm,” Shria said, looking at Fift quizzically. “I guess I can imagine you might get curious about sex . . .”

Fift’s throat was dry. “I’m not—I can’t—I mean—”

Shria shrugged. “I think it’s perfectly natural. I don’t really believe Vails and Staids are that different! There, that’s a pretty big secret for you! Because, get this: I’ve shaped the same genitals for Vails and Staids, and guess what: at the level of the body, it’s the same. Getting aroused is the same, feeling pleasure or pain is the same! Maybe the difference is willpower—okay, it’s got to be . . . but you can learn willpower! You can learn concentration! I mean, if I’d been trained since age five to . . . to do whatever you do in the Long Conversation . . . I’d have plenty of willpower, too . . .”