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Kia grinned. “Nodora was to fall madly in love with none other than Rudhira. She would end his eternal loneliness and become a princess.”
“I think Xandra just liked the idea of me being her Grace-sister.”
“Hmm.” Cassia dared a little speculation of her own. “I would imagine the prince’s numerous relatives welcome any opportunity to engage in matchmaking on his behalf.”
“You have no idea.” Nodora shook her head, looking very distressed for the prince’s sake.
Cassia was also willing to speculate as to how many Hesperines in their youth became infatuated with the prince, but she kept that to herself. Nodora didn’t deserve to be embarrassed further.
“You see how accurate our predictions turned out to be,” Kia concluded. “The prince remains unattached, and Nodora is frequently attached to a sitarist from the Empire renowned for his nimble fingers.”
“Kia.”Nodora swatted her friend.
“I am spending a memorable season with a fellow mathematics student from the university, but he came to me as a guest, and I remain right here and keep lecturing my dearest friends. Only Mak and Lyros were quite right about their destinies, which surprised no one, and delights all of Orthros to this day.”
“I see what Lio meant when he said Lyros and Mak make it look easy.”
“That’s certainly how it looks,” Nodora agreed. “But love is seldom easy, in truth. Mak and Lyros have devoted great effort to what they have.”
“Alas, no amount of effort on Lio and Xandra’s part was sufficient to produce similar results.” Kia’s brazen tone changed, and she began to explain things as factually and patiently as if she were instructing Cassia on the proper way of tilling the soil. It seemed the blunt scholar was also a kind teacher. “As you correctly concluded from Lio’s obtuse implications, he and Xandra were quite intimate with each other as youths. However, it was not in their natures to become lovers or share blood before Initiation.”
“Lio is much too dutiful for that,” Nodora put in, “and Xandra…well, you are a gardener, are you not, Cassia? You know the plants that don’t show their flowers until late in the season but, when they do bloom, are no less lovely. Lio, on the other hand, is a very early bloomer. He was ready for Initiation even before he came of age and could easily have passed it instead of waiting for us all to go through Trial together.” She cast her friend a teasing glance. “Kia was beside herself, even though she was ready almost as soon as Lio. Our decision to undertake it the same year meant she couldn’t be a prodigy and pass before she was old enough.”
“Nonsense. Lio is the eldest. It only makes sense he would be ready first. As to waiting, Mak and Lyros were much more impatient than I ever was, for they were desperate to make their union official. But we all agreed, didn’t we? Because going through it together was so important to us.”
“Lio said he waited for eight years for everyone to be old enough.” Eight years he remained devoted to Xandra, intimate with her, longing for more.
“Four years,” Nodora corrected with a wince.
“‘Give the boy something to do,’ said Apollon,” Kia quoted, “for four years while Xandra came of age and four more while she made herself miserable preparing for Trial.”
Nodora gave Cassia a sympathetic look. “I suppose it does seem a dreadfully long time from a human perspective.”
Kia adjusted her mantle again. “If you were to attempt a mathematical comparison between humans’ and Hesperines’ differing perceptions of time, using our slow rate of maturation as a basis, I would say those eight years were roughly as long to us as two years would be to you, Cassia. Granted, attempting to establish such an equivalency is an inherently flawed endeavor, given that—mathematically speaking—the Hesperine aging process is not linear, but becomes exponentially slower the longer we’re alive, and—philosophically speaking—the prospect of eternity is so immense as to fundamentally alter our awareness of the passage of time.”
“The point being,” Nodora translated, “in those eight years, we grew up as much as humans would have in two, and it hardly felt like any time at all to us.”
Cassia listened in silence, unwilling to counter their attempts at reassurance and reveal she found little comfort in them. Nothing changed the fact that those eight years, however great or small in number, had undoubtedly been of great significance to Lio. Certainly to Xandra as well. Frustration and embarrassment had a way of making time seem like it lasted forever.
“It was harder for Xandra than for any of us.” Nodora sighed. “She felt like we were all waiting on her.”
“We kept reassuring her Nodora wasn’t ready, either, but she wouldn’t take us at our word.”
Nodora shuddered. “I was more than happy for the extra time to prepare. I haven’t been Hesperine as long as the rest of you. I wasn’t in any hurry to test my powers.”
“But your results were excellent.” Kia patted her shoulder.
“Well, when the night finally came, it didn’t seem honorable to make mistakes on purpose to make Xandra feel better.”
“Was it so very difficult for her?” Cassia asked.
“She excelled at every single test,” Nodora hastened to say. “Except one. I’m afraid self-control isn’t her strong suit. Unfortunately, the Trial of Discipline is the most important one and the culmination of the entire Initiation.”
“Well, the princess’s magic is a unique challenge, which she has clearly managed to overcome.”
Kia concluded matter-of-factly, “When Xandra finally passed Initiation, you can imagine how we all rejoiced. Naturally Lio had planned a very special celebration for just the two of them afterward, when they expected all their dearest hopes would be fulfilled.”
Cassia felt the urge to stare at the flagstones or, better yet, flee the juniper orchard through which they strolled and seek refuge all the way back at Rose House. But she kept her back straight and her gaze level and listened, as she always did when she must confront realities she’d rather not consider. Like the thought of Lio and Xandra at an intimate celebration.
