"Well, maybe I'll believe that when he's gone a week without making you cry."

"I... suppose that's reasonable? Did you have a question?"

"...uh. Valentine, did you want to - "

" - me?"

Oh, come on, guys. They want to know if you've ever had a crush on someone before.

"I have never been in love before, no. Is that - relevant to something?"

" - I mean, it does give me some concerns about whether you're actually in love now or just, like, having your first experience being infatuated with someone? But actually we were trying to figure out whether we all shared some kind of - general attraction pattern, or whatever."

"...I don't think I understand."

"Imrainai and me were talking about, uh, expecting that we'd never fall in love with anyone and nobody would ever fall in love with us, and how probably nobody would ever want to marry us. And then the one of us from hell came over and told us that she'd never wanted to kiss anyone before - things happened to her - and then she ended up with a crush on Alex. And Elizabeth volunteered that she'd kind of figured that she'd never like anyone, but then she ran into Connor and I guess now they're together. And - we were kind of wondering whether you had something, uh, similar."

"Ah. I - guess I sort of always figured I'd get married, because almost everyone does? I hoped that I would love whoever it was, but one can never really know that ahead of time. Before Rana stole me I expected that I would be married off when the Emperor was done with me. I have, in fact, never wanted to kiss anyone else. And now I'm in love with Rana. And when he kisses me it's very nice, even though it was never nice with anyone else. 

"I don't know if that helps or not?"

"I guess so.

"How, uh, sure are you that you're in love with Rana and not, like - it seems like maybe if you wanted to kiss someone and had never wanted to kiss anyone else before, you might, like, get confused."

" - no, not really? Being in love isn't one specific thing. It's - feeling very safe with someone, and knowing you can trust them to be on your side, and being happy for their happiness, and knowing that they'll be happy for yours. It's wanting to comfort someone when they're hurting, and wanting to celebrate with them in their joy. Wanting to be with them forever. Wanting to be wanted back. And when you are, it's the security of knowing that you are important, that no matter what happens you won't be abandoned. You don't need all of those, and don't need any specific amount of them, because there is no line written on earth or in the heavens that divides true love from false. One is in love when one feels such things strongly enough to feel safe defining them as being in love. And I do.

"And - I suppose the more I had of that, the nicer it became when he kissed me. And I expect I shall grow more in love with him in the future, as he continues to prove himself more and more worthy of it, and that the more in love I am, the happier I will be at his side, and the happier I will be to touch him."

Wow. That, like, sounded like you knew what you were talking about. I didn't even give you a headband.

"I'm a poet. It's my job to know these things."

Well... I'm not a poet. And I'm not an expert on love, and stuff. But - I think if Cecelia was right about anyone, it'd be her other selves who seem like they might work the same way she does? So - 

- I don't know if any of you guys are ever gonna fall in love. And I dunno if anyone's ever gonna fall in love with you, although, like, if I had to guess, I would say that there's a pretty good chance of any given Connor-person falling in love with their Imrainai. But - it's not a thing that happens all at once, right? It's like - you like someone, and you trust them, and you get to know them better and better, and trust them more and more, and understand them more and more, and depend more and more on having them around, and one day you look up and they're really really important to you. And - I dunno how you tell if it's love, or not, but - if you've never done all of that with someone then I don't see how you could have had it, and not having experienced it isn't much of any evidence that it's not going to happen in the future if you do, right?

I guess that makes sense.

Are you guys gonna, like, hide in the woods forever, now?

Until I come up with a better plan, yeah.

Well, she feels like she helped a little. She flies back over to Alex.

How'd it go?

I think okay? They're arguing about love. Imrainai's planning to hide in the forest forever but I don't think it will be a very long forever.

Why does she want to hide in the forest forever?

I think she doesn't want to talk to Hagan.

What'd he do?

Dunno. But she was talking to him and then she went over into the woods and started talking about how nobody was ever going to love her, and now she won't come out, so probably he did something.