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world. You have higher tech than we did back home, and I am curious about it. My work comes first, of course, but I am on an alien world for the first time in my life, and I want to see it.”
    Her words came out in a rush, but she felt better for saying it.
    He squeezed his arm around her shoulders and nodded. “I understand, but I felt it necessary to make my intentions clear. My father married a woman from the Nyal high families, my grandfather married an Azon, the imperial family of Hredu has a long history of bonding to aliens.”
    “You don’t know me or anything about me.”
    “I have your files, the interviews with your instructors and the recruiter. All have given me insights into your character.”
    So, he had known about her long before she had found out she was coming. That was rather sneaky.
    He turned and began to walk them back toward the palace. “Take your time, but be warned that my patience is not infinite. I will give you as long as I can, but as I have decided on this course of action, I am going to do my utmost to bring you to a point of agreement.”
    It was a threat and a promise. Ari reeled and tried not to run into her very comfortable prison.
     
    Four days out of the six-day week, she worked with Usorn, two days she wrote out wedding contracts, which each took two hours, or longer depending on the family representatives. For the high families, the emperor had to ratify the contracts and that meant that Ari had to bring it in to him, and he authorized it or made adjustments to it in full view of a recording device, but the moment that the contract was complete, the recorders went off and he caught her in his arms for a kiss.
    She would return to the families with a ratified contract and it was scanned, and for a few who requested it, it was copied by hand in her quiet evenings.
    For the copies, her scribe seal was set into the wax on the bottom corner. It was a handwritten copy by the Imperial Scribe, and while the official document went into public archives, this was something to have in the new family home.
    Nexica shook her head at her. “Why do you work on those late into the night?”
    “It doesn’t take long, and for the new couple to have more than a scanned copy gives them something to smile at in the hall and point at during their fights.”
    “Why do you care?”
    Ari set down her pen and leaned back. “You are the first one who has asked.”
    Nexica sat when Ari indicated that she take a seat.
    “I was born to two parents at the end of their fertility. My mother was forty-five and my father fifty-five when I came into the world. Calm play was encouraged, and I grew up seeking my entertainment in books and my focus for writing was given to me by my mother.”
    She cleared her throat. “My father died at the age of seventy-five and my mother followed him into death. They had spent their lives together and could not live apart.”
    Nexica reached for her hand and paused.
    Ari gripped the extended hand. “My parents left me enough money to pursue my passion for calligraphy, and I am happy that they went together as I never saw them apart. I was able to leave my world because there was no one left. My aunts and uncles were already gone, my parents were gone, and because I had grown up in a situation with folks so much older than myself, I never got the hang of dealing with those of my own age. The writing, the pen work, gave me a connection to the past, to my parents that I still have every time I put pen to parchment.”
    “So when you write the marriage contracts…”
    “I am with my parents once again, doing what they taught me to do.”
    Nexica sat back. “Do not think me forward, but do you have an interest in the emperor?”
    “He appears to have an interest in me, but yes, I do find him fascinating and pleasant to look at.”
    “He’s a good man.”
    “Why did he and his lover fall out?”
    Nexica leaned forward, her orange eyes alight. “She was pursuing marriage,