Ipis broke in. “Hold on. You’re Duenn Manor, though. Isn’t that Joef boy born and raised in Orledder Halt? The intendant there is Karis Manor, so it makes sense that the officials and administrators the intendant settled around him are also Karis, not Duenn.”

“Oh. Ah. That’s right.” Kem was nothing if not quick on his feet. “My mother was sent away from Duenn Manor for political reasons. She settled at Orledder Halt. So that’s where I was raised. It’s complicated.”

“I am sure it is,” said the theurgist soothingly.

Elen caught the old woman glancing her way. She ducked her head back to her bowl, pretending she hadn’t noticed, but she kept listening. Kem had never talked to her about what had led up to him telling his mother one day, seemingly out of the blue, that he was a boy. Elen had stayed out of the arguments between them, and then Ao had died, and Kem had made his Declaration legally public, and they’d gone on with life. Or done their best to do so, even if now she saw the cracks she’d ignored because she hadn’t wanted to see them.

He went on. “My mother had healing hands. She was a respected midwife. She was patient with people in labor in a way she never was with me. I admired that, but she wanted me to be a midwife too. She took me along all the time, and I didn’t mind helping but … it wasn’t what I wanted.”

“Are you saying you Declared so your mother couldn’t pressure you into being a midwife?” asked Ipis.

“I don’t think that’s what he’s saying,” said Luviara. “Even though it also happens to be true that he couldn’t become a midwife if he wasn’t a woman.”

“It was bigger than that,” said Kem. “I guess it always is, isn’t it? I never felt comfortable in myself, not since I was little. But I guess when I look back, I realize I didn’t have any way to think about it that helped me figure it out. It wasn’t something we would talk about at home. Not with my mother. And my … well, the other person I would have wanted to talk to always shut down any conversation that might upset my mother.”

Ouch. That was a barb punched straight in through her skin, she who had always been so sure she was such a good aunt, such a good caretaker, such a good protector. Kem did not look at her but by now she was sure he knew she was listening. Probably he wanted to cast her a pointed look that said, You ought to have been listening, but he didn’t dare alert the others. There’d be too many questions if the other wardens learned the truth.

“What was it your friend Joef said to you?” Luviara asked.