"I like the composition of the Barrayaran ceremony very much, actually, unless there are marked differences between book and practice of which I am unaware. The way the couple marry themselves and the - sentiment in the vows, in contrast to what amounts to - 'here, have some genes; the phenotype, let alone any personal relationship, is more or less irrelevant beyond a wink and a nod'."

"I'm sure your genes are very lovely, but they are not what I married you for."

"The book is accurate to my recollections," says Cordelia.

"They are not what you married me for, but they are technically what Lisbet offered you. Those and, by custom more than interpretation of the text of the offering, my genetics expertise. To be fair to our irritating political opponents, they may have a point about marital validity in the sense that the two customs share a name principally by historical accident. We should certainly at least discuss incorporating colorful groats."

"I'm all in favour of colourful groats!"

"The one line that gave me much pause was the bit about guarding each other's honor. It seems like a very Barrayaran notion, and consequently not one I have a non-academic understanding of. What does that constitute?"

"It's open to a certain degree of interpretation," she says. "I'm sure the book mentioned that it used to be a coded way of saying that the wife wasn't going to cheat on the husband and the husband wasn't going to tolerate adultery in the wife, but modern readings tend to be rather more open-ended... for me personally, I would say it means supporting each other in difficult decisions and helping each other find the right choices. But I'm Betan, so perhaps I'm missing something."

"The book did mention that, but since 'forsaking all others' is also in the text it seemed redundant if that was the entire point - unless, as is perhaps plausible, those composing these vows were rather obsessed with adultery. There was a footnote about someone attempting to use it as an excuse to arguably abuse his political power to protect his wife from what was either slander or substantiated rumor, the book did not opine on the veracity of the unkind words in question..."

"I think part of it might be - trying to be worthy of each other," says Miles. "Because when you're married, you're not quite entirely separate people anymore. Things one spouse does reflect on the other one. So you guard each other's honour by acting honourably. Which leads right back to 'what is honour', I suppose."

"It really does," agrees Linyabel. "Is it easier to answer in more concrete form? Do I currently have some status with respect to honor, and what things would change that status?"

"Um... no, that's not very much easier," he says. "I mean, I suppose you could say honour is just not breaking your word. But I feel like that doesn't quite cover it, somehow."

"It does sound like that would be some sort of oversimplification..."

"It's certainly arguable that being forsworn is at the root of all dishonor. But there are more complex cases," says Gregor. "If I had to boil the concept down to two oversimplified rules, it would be 'behave ethically and don't break your word'. Which, if not exactly a complete explanation, does have the advantage of putting things in more galactically accessible terms."

"That... may be enough of a description to be getting on with," acknowledges Linya.

Gregor smiles.

"I do think I want to meet Count Vorkosigan before doing anything dramatic like setting a date, though. It seems both prudent and polite."

"Sensible," agrees Cordelia.

"He's expected - tomorrow? The day after?"

"Either one, depending how long it takes him to finish his business in Hassadar. I'll let you know as soon as we have an arrival time."

"Right. Hopefully this meeting will be as pleasantly anticlimactic as all my others so far."

"Hopefully," agrees Miles.