Kai straightened as the woman sat to her right and folded delicate hands in her lap.
“Is she always like that?” Kai asked.
“Yes. I cannot speak to what it is truly like for her, but she is not”—she tapped her temple—“always here. Soyala is always open to the voices, who speak over each other quite a bit, as I understand it. She sees many paths, and many needs along each one. Our world is much more vast for her.”
The Eternal One swept a hand outward and stared into the space. “You see this room as it is. The mountain stone and the carvings. You don’t see beyond it to the winding corridors and great rooms and personal lodgings and bathing pools. And so much more.
“This temple and everything else have existed for centuries, and many have stood here before us and lived very different lives. Soyala forgets how someone like you only sees this room while someone like me sees the whole mountain. Andshe, sometimes to her detriment, sees the entire continent.”
“What is it I’m not seeing in Soyala’s message?”
She smiled. “The gods expect much from you. However, there is concern over a particular situation that could lead to distraction.”
“I don’t let distractions take root.”
“You are tortured by the idea of a male in your home.”
Kai’s breath froze, and her eyelids fluttered. “For good reason.”
“Trust comes very easily to you, except in this one area of your life. You trust your father, Tse. Your mothers, Shadi and Doli. You have faith in the warriors at your side. And Fala, of course.”
“My wife, I trust more than anyone,” Kai said. “Fala holds me in the palm of her hand every day. She will not let me fall. She will not let me be crushed.”
“But she does not have to do that alone, and you would refuse a husband to offer her that opportunity. Why?”
“You listed all those I trust, but did you notice there was only one male?”
“I did.”
“My father would never have been taken in by—” Heat scorched through every nerve, burning away her oxygen. She struggled to find her next breath. “Those males would have killed every youngling until we had only the essential number required to continue breeding.”
“They failed in the end.”
“They underestimated our warriors. Ourfemales.”
The Eternal One nodded. “There will always be those few who don’tunderstand or appreciate how our society is structured—maleandfemale. They fail to see the truth—our women continue to birth more females. It is not as if they have the power to choose.”
“You choose for us,” Kai pointed out. “You pair us with this very intention, do you not?”
“Not always. Some have chosen on their own the way you and Fala have. The rest are paired to ensure our people don’t vanish, and as we continue, we maintain a level of strength that goes unquestioned by the world at large. I only wish to ensure our survival. Even you must agree that’s important.”
The Eternal One wasn’t saying anything Kai didn’t already know. She understood the logic behind it. Just not the absence of free will when someone was so adamantly against it. “Why me? Why now?”
“Why not you? Why not Fala?” She squeezed Kai’s knee. “You are ready for a husband, whether you choose to believe it or not. And I encourage you to take your time. The fiercest bonds are forged slowly, tempered by patience, made unbreakable by heat.”
“I still don’t quite follow what taking a husband means in Soyala’s grand plan for me.”
“Those we allow into our lives are integral to our choices. We learn from them, for better or worse. When you arrived today, it was with dread in your heart. It’s consumed you for days. Weeks, even.”
“Yes, that’s true. I’m…hesitant.” She swallowed the lump building in her throat. “I’m not ready to accept a strange man into my home, let alone my bed.”
“We—Soyala and I—needed you to hear otherwise. She does not exaggerate the importance of your path. A choice will need to be made, and who you have at your side—who you trust—will be imperative.”
“And how I handle this one man in my life matters? He’s one person. What difference does it make?”
A small smile lifted the Eternal One’s lips. “At present, you see yourself and Fala and the peace of your home. You know its corners and smells and can probably walk through it blind.”
“Yes.”
