"Six of them. I haven't met them, so I can't guess as to whether Karen matches them in personality."

"Why haven't you met your sisters-in-law?"

"They're the pharaoh's wives, men can't speak to them."

"I've met two of them but neither seemed very like Karen."

"I have... a dad. And a little brother. And I'm Minor's friend, we were all three friends in school - I don't think I'd do that."

"It doesn't suit most people, but you are allowed to talk with immediate family."

"I'd still miss Minor. ...that might actually be it, now that I think of it, I get along with the whole family okay but I guess we aren't close. So maybe one of them is me and just didn't happen to go to school with your Minor."

"I couldn't guess. Is Aitim married to the same person?"

"Aitim is married to Kan, a half-cousin of his. We haven't found an Amentan Karen."

"Huh. Male half-cousin? Grandfather's second wife?"

"That's the one."

"The pharaoh has one too."

"'s super weird."

"Why's that?"

"They're cousins. And men."

"Dear, you may be making us look provincial."

<We have both of those too but I don't know if it's the same way.>

"Whether it makes sense for a society to permit men to marry depends on whether that leaves some women unmarried, or causes other social problems; it's not very odd that some places would frown on it."

"In Amentans the same percentage of men and women spring sideways," says Hala. "And the same percentage like both and they have similar incentives to make having kids less difficult. It seems more complicated in Earth humans but it's hard to tell because there's enormous stigma."

Nod. "Different countries in our world have different norms, mostly depending what they think marriage is for."

"Mom and Dad will be here in half an hour," Hala says, "or, well, half an hour if someone will go to the airport and Floo or Apparate them the rest of the way, longer if they need to take a bus."

"We don't have a single thing that's like what braids and humans call 'marriage'. Actually, I'm not so sure their concepts are like each other either," Isun says. "Just lots of things you can agree to with whoever you like and might I suppose choose to pile all on one person."

"Are there no default options that are broadly known to work pretty well?"

"Well, it's of course convenient to be having sex with at least one of the people you want to raise children with, but if you find someone a desirable coparent and can't stand how he styles his beard, or neither of you can get pregnant, or what have you, you need to find another way to manage that anyhow."

"Huh. Lots of humans would screw up, if you didn't have a reasonable default for them."