"My sister's Joanna, she's a baby, my cousin Lynn is about your age, and there's Chloe, Lea, and Lola. And some of my aunts and uncles are really removed cousins or something but it's easier to call them that."

"All of them are girls."

"Yeah. It's okay though. No one worries about cooties unless one of us is making them want to stay away from someone."

"What I mean is that it's statistically unlikely. Without magic." He looks at Padraic. "Isn't it?"

"There is definitely some kind of selection going on. That's far from a well-kept secret, especially around here. Like at the Court?"

"Yes..." the other fae confirms.

"What happens if they have a son?"

“Nothing at all happened last time, as far as l know. Though that was quite some time ago,” Padraic answers.

“They do,” Drake insists. “It’s me.”

”Sadde thinks Padraic might be tricking you,” his familiar says. “To break a very old deal one of your great-great-ancestors made with our people.”

“So it was with the Court, I’d wondered. But no, I don’t think that old working would bar our young friend’s expression at all.”

"I'm more wondering whether our young friend's expression might, even if indirectly, somehow damage that old working. Why is that working around, anyway, what's the point in always having female-assigned children?"

"Pattern and practice, perhaps." Padraic shrugs. "One would assume they think the one strengthens the other. Certainly the similarity to forbears helps them when dealing with my kind."

"Does it? Aren't fae supposed to be good with disguises? Surely that means that similarity isn't super important, no?"