"That seems like a good idea, sure."

Off they go someplace. "So," she says, "I still don't have reliable mysterious old woman advice on whether ceasing to be married would do anything unfortunate. To be safe, we should go on being as married as we currently are. But this doesn't mean we have to consummate the marriage or, if it comes up, worry overmuch about adultery, I don't think. Please tell me how much of that I have to explain to you because you are only recently a human."

"I... think I know what all those words mean..." he says. "I'm a little bit confused about what adultery is and why anyone worries about it in the first place, though."

"Marriage is usually a promise not to do it. People take promise-breaking pretty seriously."

"But why is it part of the promise in the first place?"

"It's a usual expectation in relationships and marriage cements those."

"...I think that still isn't an answer to the part that confuses me," he says. "But maybe the answer is just 'humans are strange and inconvenient'."

"Maybe. What is the part that confuses you?"

"Why it's a usual expectation in the first place."

"Well, usually people aren't getting married because the king made them - or for that matter because if they don't marry the baker's son smart quick the king will make them. Usually they're doing it because they're in love and actually prefer to spend most of their energy on each other and their shared stuff."

"Does that explain adultery?"

"No - the idea is that if you want to commit adultery you have no business getting married, I think. I did not personally design this system, I'm just reverse-engineering it, so there are probably other perspectives, but my understanding is that the promise is a big show for everyone you know that you are really, really sure you want to stick with this person, and then some people turn out to be wrong about that and don't follow through."

"Okay. And none of this applies to us because we got married mostly so I could stop eating people. Right?"

"Right. We got married because I didn't flee the country, marry somebody else, fight off your father's men with skills I don't possess, or commit suicide, not because we wanted to get married; and we are staying married because it might have bad magical consequences if we stopped, not because we want to be married. Which means that none of the standard expectations apply, or ought to anyway."

"Well, that seems simple enough."

"I think so too. No other questions? About that or anything else, I may as well be on explaining-humans duty until I can start my fountain."

"There are probably plenty of things I still need explained about humans, but I haven't encountered them yet so I don't know what they are."

"Okay. Well, if you run into anything, I'll be around and might be more askable than some people. There's enough stuff that happens specifically at sundown or sunrise in my instructions that I'll have downtime between."

"Okay. Can I help you build the fountain too? I've been getting better at walking, and for all I know there are some parts that don't even need it..."

"Yeah, there are parts I could use help with, and not all of them need walking."

"I'll help with those, then."

"Thanks."

He smiles.