"Mm..." He thought about that for a moment. "It's summer, Ayla. The children are given time off to enjoy the summer and be with their families. In a few more weeks, however, the next school year will start. I'll go to the building we call a school at that time. Well, just before the children return, but around then."

"And you're the one trusted to educate the children?" I pressed, thinking it sounded a lot like what Mr. Cassidy had done.

"I'm one of them," he agreed. "There are many teachers, though. We have a subject, like Vestrian or science or math. Our goal is to make sure everyone here grows up with a basic level of knowledge."

I nodded, pretty sure I was following along. "So it sounds like how things were done in the compound. As children we were assigned duties, like cooking or laundry. It stops when we get married. The duty of wives was to care for their husband."

"Except we get paid for it."

That made my brow crease. "Paid?"

"Money."

Which led to an entire discussion on what money was and how it was used. Oddly, it made sense. If someone did a task for another, then that other owed them for it. That was how it should be. If a woman cooked for her husband, he should owe her for it, since he didn't have to do it. If she cleaned his home, he owed her because he'd been able to sit and entertain himself instead.

But not all things were done for money. Things people did for themselves, of course, weren't paid. That included chores like taking care of the home they lived in - which didn't support my example about caring for a husband. There were also favors, done just to be nice, like how these men were helping me.

I didn't want to be something they had to take care of, though. I wanted to help them just as much. I wanted to prove I - and my friends, although I didn't say that - could be helpful here. When I tried to explain my thinking to Kanik, he told me learning Vestrian helped. It helped more than I could imagine, which was why they wanted me to focus on it first.

We were still talking about that when Zasen returned. He was filthy, happy, and announced he'd gotten a fawn. Kanik seemed pleased, but as Zasen headed for the bathroom to clean himself up, I realized that like Rymar, he was also wearing a necklace with an hourglass-shaped pendant. Kanik, however, wasn't wearing one.

Then again, I hadn't seen Zasen or Rymar wearing them until today either, so maybe it had something to do with work? I filed it away as something to ask, and then got back to my book. Today, I was trying to read the one in Vestrian without checking the English version to see if I was right. Sitting on the couch, Kanik had his own book and had told me I could read it next if I understood Vestrian well enough.

That was a challenge I couldn't refuse, so I focused hard on the words. My lips moved at times as I silently tried to sound them out. That was what I was doing when a man's chuckle pulled my eyes up. The scent of shampoo hit a moment later.

"You mouth the words when you read?" he asked me in English.

So I smiled and did my best to reply in Vestrian. "When the wards are uns fat are new to me."

"When the - " Kanik tried.

But Zasen's lips were split into a wide grin. "No, I got it. When the words are ones that are new to her." He nodded. "Not bad, Ayla. Not bad at all, but I think you should take a break."

While he was still talking to me in English, I had to try in Vestrian again. "But I'm a tha gud part!"

"Trust me," he said before switching to his own language. "And you can bring your book, but sometimes using words makes it easier. It helped with my English."

I sucked in a little breath because I'd understood all of that! Granted, he'd spoken slowly and had enunciated it well, but it was still progress. So, clutching my Vestrian book to my chest, I hopped up excitedly.

"Okay!"

"Want me to start dinner?" Kanik asked, still using English.

"Please," Zasen replied in the same language. "And you probably need the break. Your brain has to be stumbling over letters by now."

Kanik nodded slowly and emphatically. "It is."

"Well, I already started the fire for the oven," Zasen assured him before waving me towards the front door.

"Outside?" I asked. "Zasen, it's too bright out there."

"It's about to be dark," he promised. "The sun is setting, and I have a feeling this is one of those things we didn't think to show you."

So I followed him, but when he opened the door, I swore it looked like the sky was burning. It was also bright, but not daylight-bright. I paused, trying to let my eyes adjust, but Zasen simply guided me forward, closed the door behind us, and then turned me to a set of chairs placed at the edge of his porch.

"Now," he said in Vestrian, once again talking slowly, "you can only use this language. I will answer any question you want or give you any words you don't know, but you must do it in my words."

I set my book down on the table between us and immediately pointed to the sky. "Why it burning?"

"Why's," he corrected. "And it's called a sunset. As the Earth turns, the sun does not, and eventually our side will turn away. This is what it looks like when the sun is at the very edge." He pointed at the brightest area.

"It does this every day?"

He nodded. "It does. And every sunset is different." He leaned back and kicked his strange feet up on the rail before us. "Is it still bright?"

"Yes, but not too bad," I admitted, speaking even slower than he was so I could get my words and sounds right.

That made Zasen smile. "You're doing good."

"I'm doing slow," I told him.

"But good." Then he licked his lips. "Ayla, can I ask you a question?"

"Mhm."

His eyes stayed on the sunset. "Kanik said you healed Moles who had blue arrows in them. Do you know what that means?"

"That you shof them," I replied.

"Shot," he corrected as he looked over. "And yes, I did. How do you feel about that?"

All I could do was shrug, but I didn't look away. I knew I should. To be proper, I should fold my hands in my lap, cross my ankles, and be meek. This time, however, I didn't want to.

"I think that when Gideon had four of your arrows in him, I asked Meri if I should save him first. She was going to marry him, but if he was dead, she wouldn't have to. It's easy to let someone with blue-fletched arrows die, and no one would blame me for a lack of skill in healing."

A million expressions flickered across his face, but in the end, Zasen's brows lifted a bit. It still took him a long time to reply, and when he did, it was in English.

"You would have chosen to let one of your men die because I shot him?" he asked.

"No," I admitted, flipping back to my own language because it was much, much easier. "I would have let him die so he wouldn't breed my friend to death. I would have let him die so she wouldn't become his possession. That he had blue arrows in him meant everyone in the compound already assumed he was dead. No, Zasen, I saved him because he was the best option for a husband Meri had, even if he was a liar about it."

"Liar how?"

"Even though he was wounded, he demanded the consummation!" I hissed. "When she tried to tell him they could postpone so he wouldn't be hurt, he punished her. When it hurt her, he punished her more and then held her in place to finish. When she cried, he told her to stop. And when she snuck out of their family rooms to come tell me and Callah, he punished her for that too." Finally, my eyes dropped to my lap. "And me for trying to help my friend."

"Why is helping your friend a bad thing?" he asked softly.

"Because she married him, so she is his concern now. Because she was twenty and I hadn't turned yet, so as an adult, she had no need of childish things, including me. Because women should give their attention to their husbands, not waste their time with friendship. That only leads to gossip and dawdling. Both are ways for the Devil to take us."