"Seems like maybe something like that would make someone really grouchy about not having a slave anymore even if he was insisting just a bit ago that you weren't much a slave anyway."

"I guess so."

"Do you still want to marry him?"

" - I mean that depends."

"On what?"

"Lots of things! On whether he wants to, on whether he's allowed to help with raising children, on whether he thinks there's a way to get married that isn't dangerous for either of us or for his court, on whether it's a good idea to go back to fairyland or whether there's a compelling reason to go somewhere else, on what we even - are, right now - "

Nod.

"You think it'd be dangerous?"

"It - traditionally involves making promises. Breaking a promise is much, much more dangerous than lying. For everyone connected to us, not just to him or to me."

"So you can't safely promise each other anything you might mess up at?"

Nodnod.

"Okay, so, excuse me if this is a dumb plan, but - don't make anything that fairy considers a promise? It doesn't matter what fairy thinks, only what you do, right?"

" - I don't know what the limits are."

"Promise current intent, then."

" - then either of us could leave."

" - yes? That's the point. Normal marriages aren't enforced by sudden lightning strikes, even in Osirion. If you think he wouldn't stay with you just because you'd be depending on it, lightning or no lightning, then don't marry him, he's not worth it."

"I think he'd stay, if we'd made plans that depended on it. But I don't know if he - I don't know what he wants right now."

"Well, only one way to find out, isn't there. Probably also shouldn't marry him if you can't ask him how he's feeling."

"I guess that makes sense.

"...did anyone have other questions, or - "

They shake their heads.

"Okay. I'm going to go... talk to Rana, I guess."

She wanders back over to the house.

Rana is there.

"Hi."

"Hi. Did you have fun?"

"I... don't know that I had very much fun, exactly, but I'm glad I decided to talk to them?"