The rulers of Kanto had sent two girls to us as fosters when I was fifteen, and we had never gotten on well. They resented how close I was to Castor; he was the only available young man in the palace of our social status, but also it seemed to be something in their natures, empty eyed and beautiful, like vipers.

Aster and Ether were both as lovely and as primped as any flower in the royal gardens. They had red orange hair and leaf green eyes, and though as far as I knew they were not twins or even sisters they may as well have sprouted from the same pod. Aster was a year older than her non-sister and a year younger than me. She had recently visited Matchmaker Ling and was expecting her results to be made public.

"Congratulations," Aster gave a slight bow when I entered the waiting area with her. She and I would both be announced as women today. It was a bit silly, but very traditional, so we had to respect the forms. At nineteen, I was a woman grown, but in the eyes of society I wouldn't be a full adult until the matchmaker certified me as such. For common folk that meant as little as a slip of paper from a carrier, but for a princess there would be the necessary fanfare.

"To you as well." I inclined my head. "You look beautiful, as always."

She smiled as if she couldn't say the same. As a Euphorian maiden I still wore loose trousers and a gold knit vest over a rose silk blouse. Once I was announced I would change into the robes of a full royal personage, though truthfully, I preffered the utility of pants. Aster wore far more complementary attire, a cream toned dress that accentuated the shape of her body. It irked me that her curves made me fell like little more than a child. Receiving a matchmaker's blessing wasn't even a part of Kanton culture, but Aster had insisted she be given an official reading. Somehow, it had been arranged that her trothal would be the same day as mine.

A dulcimer was playing in the grand hall to signal our entrance, and I allowed Aster to go ahead of me. Banners hung from the rafters of the hall, flowing silk screens that wavered in the air coming in through open windows. There were two crowds arranged in a loose order on large goose down pillows. The guests that represented my "family" were really just high ranking court officials along with Ciao and Castor. On the other side were Aster's well wishers, many of them having made a lengthy journey from Kanto to witness the ceremony. Doubtless, they would engage in diplomatic actions while they were here, but it was still quite a gesture.

Ether was there, of course, only a shade duller than Aster and laughing at something the man beside her said. He was young and haughty, and the hard planes of his face made it clear he hadn't been trying to be funny. He was obviously fit, probably a practitioner of the sanso sword arts their land was famous for. His eyes met mine for a moment and I flushed, looking away.

Aster and I took our places, bowing to the crowd before we faced the dais where my father stood with the matchmaker.

"Today," he said, "you will witness two trothals, that of my daughter and heir as well as our valued foster child, Aster Caldwell." His yellow robes were ostentatious, canary bright and with overbuilt epaulets that stretched to points a foot out from either shoulder. His hands were hidden in sleeves that were so long they trailed behind him. "Before the announcements are made, please enjoy one of the traditional demonstrations of our people's, the Koi Dancers."

My father and the matchmaker took pillows to one side of the stage as Aster and I sat on our heels. Servants shuttered the windows and brought the hall into darkness. There was some shuffling, and when a torch flared beside the king it partially illuminated a troupe of performers on the stage, giving them the appearance of beings half made in shadows.

They stood in a carefully arranged line so that they took on the aspect of a single creature with countless limbs. The lead dancer held a huge and brightly colored paper wolf's head. The dulcimer, which had stopped playing when the windows were shuttered, began again.

The dance line moved in a sinuous fashion, dozens of hands snapping out to imitate Koi fins. The performers followed the rhythm of the dulcimer, creating the illusion of a single beast as they acted in perfect synchronization. For few minutes, I was able to lose myself in the performance, forgetting my nervousness and enjoying the play of light and dark over the fanciful costumes. Aster didn't seem all that interested, she was likely contemplating the wisdom of entrusting her future to our diagrams instead of having her father pick a husband for her.

My eye was drawn to the fretting torch, and for a moment I saw something within it, twin blue motes looking back at me. I shook my head, and all too soon the music and the dance had ended. We clapped our appreciation as the performers filed out, and Matchmaker Ling took the stage. Her robes were somber, though her rank was evidenced by the gold bead on her cap and the long curled nails painted with blue lacquer .

"The foster first," she said, "come to the stage." Aster rose, plainly miffed at having been referred to as "the foster", and went to stand with Ling.

"Kneel," the matchmaker said, anointing Aster with oils as she hummed the sacred notes of the diagram.

Ling had constructed our diagrams days before, so the ceremony called for prescribed questions and answers rather than a recitation of symbolic resonances that wouldn't mean much to a foreign audience anyway.

"Whom shall I marry?" Aster asked.

"Castor Livius." Ling replied, and a small portion of my heart I hadn't known was open sealed shut. I looked back at him, and he mouthed a word, "I didn't," meaning he hadn't asked to be one of her potential matches, but his preferences had no bearing on the matter.

Matchmaker Ling read what she read, regardless of the wishes of others. Placing one's name in the running was a formality. I forced my attention back to the stage, it was lucky I hadn't answered him on the ship when he'd revealed his feelings for me. That would have only made things harder.

Aster wore a slight smile, and her back had straightened. She'd gotten what she wanted and she was ready to get more.

"How many children shall we have?"

"As many as the hand can hold." This was an esoteric answer. Though Aster seemed pleased, it was quite ambiguous. As many as the hand can hold could be mean one, or five or fourteen for how many fingers and finger joints there are. The answer to a question was rarely as straightforward as simply naming the man you would marry.

"Will we be happy?"

"Happiness will follow you in a train." This was another stock phrase. It meant that the union would make others happy and serve the greater good, not that either husband or wife would be particularly happy themselves. Castor's cheeks were bloodless. Poor thing, forced to marry a luscious vixen who wanted him badly. It was an unfair thought, but I couldn't escape an undercurrent of jealousy.

"Will we live long?"

"No."

So far, each answer had been greeted with light applause, being both expected and pleasant. This one was met with a hard wall of silence. The whole room was waiting for Matchmaker Ling to explain herself or retract the statement, but it hung in the air like a hawk about to fall on a rabbit. Aster was allowed five questions, and she'd already dispensed with four. Whatever the fifth had been meant to be, she gave it up in favor of clarification.

"What do you mean?" It was a bad phrasing, as Aster would know if she'd ever studied the diagramming process. It was so open ended Ling could answer it virtually however she liked.

The old woman closed her eyes and hummed to herself, the entire room focused to their utmost on this frail seeming womam and what she might say.

"You will not live to see your children undergo the sacrum."

No one breathed, the sacrum was the Kanton equivolent of what we were doing here, when a child was officially recognized as an adult. In Kanto, the ritual took place much earlier, on a child's thirteenth birthday after they took a test proving their understanding of what they called the Universal Imperative. I didn't understand it well myself, but the Kanton people were very concerned with right and wrong as it related to following doctrine and law and promoting personal honor. Youths weren't recognized as full members of society until they understood those concepts as well as a child here was expected to understand the five elemental correspondences.

The young man I'd noticed before stood up, his hand on the hilt of his sanso blade. The pommel was wrapped with string to prevent it from being drawn in the presence of the High King, but even sheathed it was a dangerous weapon in the hands of a trained practitioner.

"You have cursed my sister," he said.

This wasn't strictly true, a matchmaker read the diagram and delivered its wisdom, she was a messenger and did not curse anyone. However, I could certainly see how a foreigner might feel that way. Aster's reading could mean she would die in childbirth, or by accident when her children were very young. If she delayed giving birth, she might live a very long time. It could even mean her children would not receive the sacrum at the right age because they failed to pass the test, or grew up in Gracia and adopted that nation's traditions instead. Matchmaker Ling was perfectly capable of explaining away her supposed curse, being far more experienced than I in the vagaries of diagramming, but that is not what she did.

"Down, boy," she said, "this is not your place."

Other members of Aster's family began to mutter or shout in protest, and the young man stepped forward through the sitting crowd with deliberate intent, not taking his eyes off of Ling.

"I am no boy," he said. "My name is Thomas Caldwell, and you have insulted my family, I demand recompense."

Aster still knelt before the matchmaker, trying to maintain composure while fighting back tears. I felt sorry for her. We weren't friends, but no one deserved to be put in that position. I stepped forward.

"Please, stop," I said. "The Matchmaker merely shares what she sees, and means no disrespect. This is an important day for your sister, she is to be married, don't mar it with anger."

Thomas Caldwell completely ignored me, as did everyone else. Palace guards intercepted him before he could reach Matchmaker Ling, but they were not armed. They carried ceremonial bundles of sticks to represent their authority, but it would have been unthinkable for them to use those as clubs. Euphoria had hardly any weapons aside from hunting bows and harpoons. There was simply no need for swords among our people.

The guards moved to seize Thomas, and he pulled the hardwood sheath from his belt. It cracked against a man's skull, sending him reeling, and dipped down to pull the legs out from under another guardsman. Thomas was something to watch. Though there was very little flourish to his movements, it was a beautiful display of minimalist skill, rather like a wall scroll. He passed through the guards so quickly they may as well have parted for him, and the sanso sheath was abruptly resting against Matchmaker Ling's neck.

Her lips were pursed, and she didn't flinch, the old woman was metal aspected.

"Will you withdraw your curse?" He asked.

The sword bucked in his hand, whipping back so quickly that it struck his face and broke his nose with an audible crunch. He stumbled back, fighting to control the weapon, but it may as well have been a live serpent in his grip. The struggle went on for long seconds as it lashed him again and again, bending as easily as a willow branch until he released it. The sanso in its sheath clattered to the stage and fell still.

My father had risen. His yellow robes billowing about him as if he floated in water. "You claim to have been disrespected by Matchmaker Ling, but she has performed her duties admirably. As you are in my kingdom, in my very hall, it is you who have offered grave insult with your actions, and it is my place to demand recompense."

Thomas's face was bleeding and beginning to swell. "Witchery." He muttered, but did not reach for his sword.

"The diagram is sacred," the king said, "and so are those who deliver its mysteries to mortals. You are in grave error if you conflate that sacred message with a curse."

One of the older Kantons stood to bow. "High King Longue," he said, "I apologize for my nephew's outburst. He was mistaken, but meant in his heart to pursue only the truth."

My father nodded. "I understand your customs are different than ours, but I remind you that this is Euphoria, and in Euphoria it is Euphorian law that stands."

"True law is true everywhere," Thomas said.

"He is unrepentant." My father shook his head. "This ceremony is finished. I order your people to leave my palace and my mountain immediately, taking Aster with you. She has been a satisfactory foster, but her union will have to proceed elsewhere. In her place, I demand your nephew, who deeply deserves an education in our ways."

The uncle bowed to hide his expression. "It is your land, High King."

Thomas said nothing, fuming where he stood.

The guards gathered themselves together and escorted Thomas away without his sword. The rest of the Caldwell family and the other visitors from Kanto picked themselves up and exited as they had come, Aster following with them and casting worried glances back at Castor. This annoyed me, as if she could lose him, as if he was hers to lose.

Matchmaker Ling seized my wrist and led me to a side chamber where official readings were often done. The compass there was built into a table large enough to lay down on. It was only used by the highest ranking officials and my father. Ling slid the door shut behind us.

"You are a troublesome girl," she said. "Please sit."

"Troublesome?" I was still recovering from what had happened in the other room, the reading, the attack, and my father's command of daemons ending it all. Objects have spirits, and commanding the spirits of objects that belong to others is always difficult. Demanding obedience from a warrior's personal weapon would have been impossible for me, even with unlimited time to coax the daemons within. I doubted Grandfather could have done it either, for my father to have managed it in a moment was an astonishing display of will and power.

"Sit." Ling repeated, and I complied. "Our reading needed to be private, thus you are responsible for the disaster in the grand hall. You should be ashamed."

"But I didn't..."

"It isn't what you've done, it's what you will do. Your diagram contains a bifurcation, one that must be kept secret from Kanto."

"I don't understand."

"Of course not, you're little more than a child. You think you can read a few books and become a master. Such a thing does not take years of study, it takes a lifetime. You have the arrogance of an owl."

I bowed my head under the onslaught. Whether or not I agreed, it was her place to say such things and mine to listen. "What can I do?"

Ling finally sat across from me and reached out to touch the compass, but she did not spin it. "I have seen two diagrams for one person, a very rare occurence on its own. Usually, such a thing stands as a warning against ill fortune. So it is with you, but the stakes are higher than I have ever seen. There is no record of such a choice in our histories, and I have seen them all."

Had she seen them all? Did she know about Lithia, about the scrolls I'd saved? I was sweating and trying not to show my nervousness, though in this situation I had every right to be nervous anyway.

Ling barely tapped the compass arrow, and it spun slowly without sign of stopping, as if with each turn it somehow regained enough momentum for one more swing.

"Two futures." She said. "One brings peace and plenty. The other brings utter destruction of Euphoria and the life that we hold dear. Your heart beats to the rhythm of the second diagram."