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preparation for the Stoneflame. “That’s Raina,” he said, pointing to a golden twinkling dot in the evening sky that seemed to crown Mount Ramses. Laciann followed his finger, her eyes widening. Daija and I humored him by looking at the star as well. “She’s my favorite star in the sky,” he continued without a hint of irony in his voice, “you can see her from our bunk some nights. No other star has quite her coloration.”
    I looked around at the sky, the thousands of stars that twinkled and shone in all sorts of colors. I shook my head in wonderment at Boe’s romanticism. There seemed to be no way that Raina was truly unique, if that even was the correct name for the star Boe was pointing at. Daija saw my face and smiled at me knowingly. Laciann used the moment as an excuse to draw closer to Boe who didn’t seem to notice. He started to say something more about the star, but then he froze as Laciann gave him a kiss on the cheek.
    “What…” Boe looked like he’d forgotten how to speak. “Who…”
    “When, where, why, and how,” I finished, laughing at him. Laciann used her newfound archery prowess to shoot me a stinging look and I covered my mouth to stop my laughter, but I was still grinning. I looked at Daija for support, but she didn’t seem to be as amused by the situation as I was. When she saw me looking at her, she just looked away into the surrounding forest. Girls.
    “It’s very sweet,” Laciann explained to the still flustered Boe. “I hope one day a man sees me the same way you see that star.” This just made Boe’s blush deepen.
    The line moved again, and Boe stared at the ground between his boots as he briskly walked forward. I had to jog to keep up with him, though Laciann and Daija seemed content to walk slowly behind us, holding up the line as they whispered girl stuff to each other.
    After twenty minutes where none of us said or did anything except occasionally take a sip from our mugs and shuffle forward when the line moved, I figured it was my duty to try to put Boe back at ease.
    “So what’s the story with that shooting star that we saw during the Stoneflame?” I’d been genuinely curious about it but hadn’t had a chance to bring it up with him before now, and if any of us knew anything about it, he would be the one. He either didn’t have an answer, or he still wasn’t composed enough to speak.
    “Mom and dad said they’d never seen anything like it,” Daija offered, “they said they’ve watched every Stoneflame in their lifetimes except the one where—” she tripped over her tongue, “the one where we were conceived.” She muttered this last part. I could sympathize. I didn’t like to think about the Stoneflame ceremony much, and I definitely didn’t like to think about my parents in the Stoneflame ceremony. All Stone Souls knew exactly when and where they were conceived, and how, and why. It was unnerving in a way, and also pretty creepy.
    “It was wonderfully beautiful,” Laciann said, “I thought it was like a sign from the Stonespirits, telling us that we were being watched, even in Flame’s brightest hour.”
    “Yeah,” I said, “I was thinking something like that too.” It wasn’t that I was religious, but it did seem pretty crazy that something like that happened right then when all eyes had been on Flame. It was a real attention-getter. I looked at Boe but he still wasn’t ready to speak, so I looked at Daija instead. She was looking at me, and this time she didn’t look away when I looked at her. She still didn’t say anything, so then we were just looking at each other. And looking at each other. My gaze shifted between each of her eyes trying to figure out what was happening, but I got no clues from them. I checked Laciann to see if she was seeing this, but she was examining her nails. I looked back at Daija and she was still looking at me, now with a different inscrutable expression on her face. I couldn’t make any sense of it,