Elspeth aims a thumb over her shoulder at her lounge furniture. "Like Jake is mine. He's a werewolf. They do a love-at-first-sight thing."

"Huh. That seems like it would be extremely confusing."

"It was pretty clear what had happened right away. Confusing how?"

"Well. I, personally, would be really confused as to why I was instantly in love at first sight. I - need reasons. Just 'Oh, you exist' is really not enough for me, I think. So anything that was love at first sight would be confusing."

"It was already a known phenomenon. Everyone Jake regularly interacted with at the time was a wolf, an imprint, or a child. So it didn't need explanation particularly."

"So, in that case, less confusing and more distressing."

"I was pretty alarmed. He was mostly alarmed that I was alarmed rather than about the thing itself."

"I suppose it'd be different if I knew it was something that could happen to me."

"It's not without advantages. Wolf imprints - and vampire mate bonds - are impervious to magic alteration. The reason nearly everyone in Jake's pack at the time was an imprinted wolf was because they were the only ones who could peel off from the other wolves in an emergency because they had an overriding priority. But it can sometimes lead to some unfortunate situations. Jake and I have it better than some."

"I believe you," he says. He does not look like he'd be comfortable with falling in love at first sight, though. At all. Ever. "Is it with - someone compatible, or just - randomly chosen?"

"Vampires get at least basic compatibility. Wolves - don't, necessarily."

".... Right. That's a bit terrifying."

"As far as we can tell, imprinting seems to care about theoretical eventual ability to have wolf puppies. It only happens to male wolves and female imprints. It doesn't care about age - although the wolf will be at least twelve, because before that they can't activate and they're just puppies. It doesn't care about sexual orientation or gender or interest in having puppies or personality. The saving grace is that it is in the more extreme cases a very generic love at first sight. Someone who imprints on, say, a two-year-old will not develop a prurient interest in her at that time. Someone who imprints on someone who is not interested in a romantic relationship at all will be content with platonic friendship, although it doesn't seem like the imprint is smart enough to tell if the imprint wants to date and just doesn't want to date her wolf for whatever reason."

"I'm very happy for you," he says. He does sound it, though in more of a 'good they're not crazy' kind of way instead of 'aww, cute couple.' "Really. Just - I want exactly none of the - that."

"Well, don't be around any unmated vampires of a compatible gender-and-orientation, because their compatibility-checking is reasonably good but not foolproof. But a wolf won't get you."

"Thank you. I will - not do those things."

"Half-vampires don't seem to do anything like either phenomenon, although there aren't that many of us yet so it could be a coincidence. Also, on the one occasion where it's been tested, imprinting and mating did not agree on whether a couple should be together."

"No, of course not, that would be too sane," sighs Adarin.

"There are," remarks Elspeth again, "pamphlets." She pushes them across the bar at him. It's a complete set.

This one is about Empire history! There is a summary of the reign of Stefan and Vladimir, followed by the Volturi, followed by the currently ascendant Golden Empire. There is the picture of Elspeth's mother and father in it. Complete with crown.

"... The Volturi ruled with mind control, mass-murder, and invasion of privacy to the highest degree? To that extent? Go vampire Isabella. That was really asking for it. I'm a little sad that I couldn't help. Though, that would put me in the same room as vampires and their - mating thing. So. Maybe not."

"And vampires mated to humans have historically had a habit of immediately turning them to render it reciprocal."