Sana found a note once she got home. Zahar was out, and somehow she smiled as she read it. It didn’t take long for the bell outside her home to ring.

“Who’s visiting at this time of day?” Sana wondered but walked out anyway. Visitors at night were hardly a good sign, so she grabbed her weapons, just in case. Outside was a person wrapped in a cloak and robe that made her look like an assassin, but the fact that she came through the front door meant whoever came was highly unlikely to be an assassin.

“May I come in?” Sana flinched at the voice and quickly connected it to the lady she had met during dinner a while ago. Aria Silvan. Why was she dressed in an attire meant to mask who she was?

“Sure.” She panicked briefly, but what else could she do? The young lady wasn’t expecting a visit from one of the descendants of one of the most powerful families in the Empire.

As she walked in, Aria looked at Sana and smiled, “We hardly spoke during the dinner,” and said as the lady removed her headgear, allowing her silver-white hair to flow freely. “I’d like to get to know you better, in a more private setting.”

“Our accommodation is simple and sparse, with few furnishings, hope it does not bother you.”

“Our,” Aria repeated the word. “You have truly accepted the arrangement with this husband of yours.”

Sana didn’t realize her casual use of words was analyzed deeply. “All a woman can do in my situation is to embrace it.”

Aria smiled, though Sana wondered whether it seemed a little wistful. It was a look she recognized in Zahar and seeing it in the lady unnerved her. Aria sat at the table like it was hers and glanced at the small-city noble. “That is true. We are often forced into situations we do not desire, and forced to take action or respond to them.”

Sana felt like there was a sentence that Aria wanted to say after that, so she didn’t continue. She quickly looked for her teapot and teacups, then swiftly made tea. “The tea is still hot, and is just some local tea from my hometown, please forgive the poor taste.”

Aria looked at Sana. “Speak freely, Sana. I may be from a powerful family, but it wears me down when everyone treats me like this glass object that would shatter if spoken to wrongly.”

“We do not think you would shatter, Lady Silvan. Your strength and prowess are well known, and we merely fear the consequences of giving offense.”

“Then I promise you I will take none from whatever you say.”

She heard of Emperors giving such promises and still chopped the heads of their ministers when the Emperor didn’t like what they say. As such, most young nobility was drilled to speak politely to anyone of a higher status. Even if she didn’t find offense, her family might, and ordered her to be slaughtered anyway.

So, Sana thought for a moment and decided to steer the conversation. “What do you wish to speak about, Lady Silvan?”

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Aria frowned at her question, and a rare moment of anger flashed on her face. “You didn’t believe what I said.”

“That is not the case, Lady Silvan. Please, go ahead.”

“I wanted to hear about your life as a concubine. Why did your father arrange for you to be married so quickly? Was there a marriage party? How did it happen? Everything.”

Sana was a little taken aback. “The details of my arrangement would bore you, Lady Silvan.”

“No.” She said with certainty. “You’re the first disciple I met that’s already married to someone, not just committed or engaged, and not just that, you seem happy with the arrangement. As someone who had no actual experience with love, partnership, or marriage, despite all the knowledge from my tutors, I want to hear it first hand.”

“My mother would be a far better guide.”

“Your mother is not here. You will have to do.” Aria repeated, and Sana frowned. After Elder Fongshan, now Aria Silvan?

She sighed and then sat down opposite the powerful heiress. She explained it in the same manner and words as she did to Elder Fongshan. Aria was quiet throughout and only spoke after she finished.

“How do you feel about getting married at our age?” Aria asked.

“I don’t know what to think. But I accept it.”

“You’re not answering the question. How do you feel?”

Sana paused. “Confused. Unsure. Lost. But now I am content, I suppose. I’ve come to terms with it. He helped my family and supported my father’s hold on our city. He also made my father stronger. I am the reward for his assistance.”

Aria let out a long sigh that would have made her suitors raise their blades and go to war. “It’s like that, isn’t it? We are just rewards to be dangled out to those who serve our families.”

The lady of fire paused and examined her visitor, and couldn’t quite believe what she heard. “Surely a woman of the Silvan family has far greater discretion and choice?”

She frowned. “The pool of people, my eligible suitors, that happen to be people my family would approve, emotionally compatible, and people I would be willing to wake up and share a bed with, is small. So I am envious that you found someone. You are free from this whole courtship rigmarole.”

Sana didn’t know what to say and so her hands reached for her teapot. She poured a cup for herself and Aria Silvan, her mind swirling. It never occurred to her that someone like Aria Silvan would find it very difficult to get a partner she likes, because of how small her peer group was.

Unlike Sana, who could marry upwards, because she was fairly middle of the pack in nobility rankings, Aria Silvan existed at the very top of the Empire’s social structure. Her partners had to be at least a respected, powerful Prince of the royal family or a young master of a similar peerage. When Sana considered the sensitive political lines that existed between the Great houses of the Empire, it all just meant Aria had very little actual control over her own love life and future partner.

“You get it, don’t you?” Aria said with a sigh. “I can’t even make friends with other girls, and the girls won’t introduce the men they know to me, because it complicates their own relationships.”

The pieces fell into place and suddenly she had a strange suspicion. “Are you- are you interested in my husband?”

Aria paused for a moment and then laughed. “My father and grandfather would kill me if I became the concubine of some no-name man. So no, that would not do. No, Sana Eshtar, I would like you to be my friend.”

“I would love to, but our social status is too different, Lady Silvan.”

“Be my maid, then. No one would ever question why you are my maid. I will treat you well, and give you the resources of my family. I need a friend, Sana. Someone I can trust, and I would like that role to be yours.”

Sana paused. First, a concubine, now a maid. What a life.