I stared at the table for a long minute. “I...I like to read.” I said quietly. The only thing on my mind right now was doing what I had to so I could get Joy. I’d saw off my legs and hand them over if that was what it took.
God, Joy was alive and here and – and with strangers!
And ALIVE!
Roy and Mabel would be so happy.
I inhaled deeply and looked back at her. “I like reading a lot,” I said with a nod.
“That’s nice,” she said with a little nod, her gaze flickering to Willow briefly before it found my own again, “What else?”
I shrugged and really thought on that. What I loved most was sitting in the fields with my Dad and brother, talking about the new flash chapters of our favorite stories that were published in the weekly fiction papers. But...“I like to learn new things.” I said then, “I like learning.”
She nodded. “Then you’ll be enrolling in school? Furthering your education?”
My stomach flipped a little at that. “I...would love to, yeah. I wouldn’t know how, but I would love to. I wanted to go to the university in our colony’s capital, but it, ah, it didn’t work out.”
“What did you want to study?”
“Medicine…” I thought about that for a beat, “I thought maybe dentistry.”
“That’s a good one,” Willow said, pointing at me, “Dentists are always in really high demand, especially Novus Orthodontists. Very high demand.” I couldn’t imagine letting my hands anywhere near a Novus’ mouth, but I nodded anyway because it kinda sounded interesting. “But I think furthering his education would be something he’s very interested in.”
“Alright,” Marge said as she typed, glancing back at me, “Any favored climate you would want to live in?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t really care as long as I can have my niece there.”
She chuckled and lifted her chin. “I see.” She glanced at Willow and he lifted both shoulders before she smirked and shook her head. “Alright, Lawrence.” She stood, pulling away from the desk, “Let me show you the candidates East Campora sent over.”
When she turned her back and went to the cubbies, I noticed Willow’s face suddenly fell, a thoughtful look on his face, and when he caught my own gaze, he leaned toward me. “If the matchmaker is calling it ‘East Campora’ instead of ‘Campora’, that means the succession movement in Campora is getting serious. We might have two separate countries soon.” He made a ripping gesture with his hands, smiling when Marge turned back and returned to her desk with a thick folder.
“He doesn’t know much about Novus, so I’m going to be doing a lot of filling in,” Willow said as she opened the folder.
Marge nodded. “I understand -” she looked to me, “Now normally, we would have only candidates from our own clan, from Victoria, but given your situation, East Campora has agreed to streamline custody of your niece to you if you mate with one of these four candidates.” I saw Willow frowning out of the corner of my eye, “I also talked with my contact in East Campora, and if these are all duds, she thinks she can work a way to get a few from West Campora-”
“No,” Willow said firmly, both Marge and I looking at him. He held out a hand, “No Novus from West Campora. Absolutely not.” He said to Marge, looking at me then, “West Campora is one step up from being completely feral. They hide behind a mask of manners, but that's just a front to hide how little they respect sapiens' wellbeing beyond their own needs. That is the worst possible breed of Novus for someone in your situation to be with.”
“They would raise a Class A better, though.” Marge said plainly as she opened the folder, “So keep that in mind.” Willow hummed and nodded before he looked at me and shook his head a little. “So we have four class A males -” She looked to Willow, “Any particular order you’d like to look them over?”
“Youngest to oldest,” Willow said firmly.
She nodded and flipped the folder over before handing it to Willow, looking to her screen then.
Willow pulled out the first packet and flipped it. I laughed at the picture attached to it. “He’s seven years old!” I said with a little laugh, but at the serious look on Willow and Marge’s face, my smile fell. They couldn’t be serious. I stared at Willow as he seemed to scrutinize the file. I looked at Marge to see her staring at her computer screen. They couldn’t be serious. I looked back to Willow and stared at him. “What am I going to do with a seven-year-old mate?” I asked Willow, feeling absolutely ridiculous that I had to even ask it.
“You get to wait ten years,” Willow said back, staring down at the file. “Trust me – it’s better when the Novus is a couple years younger than you.” He lifted the top paper to read the info on the second.
I scowled and reached out to gently lower the top page, catching his attention. “Seven is more than a couple years when he is seven years old.”
“You’re only eighteen – an eleven year age gap is very beneficial for you!” Marge said. I stared at her with a slack jaw. “You’d spend winters with his family, exchange letters and pictures, build up a long-distance bond. What’s important is that he learns to see you as a person and someone to cherish instead of a mean to an end as the older ones might.”
My lips thinned. “I’m not going to be engaged to a seven-year-old,” I said very quietly. “That’s a solid no from me, thank you.”
“You wouldn’t even meet him for another six years. He could be dead by then and you would reap the benefits of the engagement.” Marge tried, “It’s a long engagement, which is best for class A.”
My lips thinned further as I held onto the arms of my chair. “It’s-” I shook my head, I can’t believe I had to actually say it - “It’s too much. No. Never.”
Willow nodded, “Next.” He took the package and set it on the desk face down, taking the next one to flip it and reveal a slightly older boy. I looked at the age on the package.
“Ten?” I demanded, “Ten?!” Was this seriously their selection?! How the hell was I supposed to find a husband here!?
“Ten is a very good age for a class A!” Marge insisted, “It’s really the best age to introduce yourself because they are smart enough to know what's going on but still young enough to listen to what you say - again, you wouldn’t mate with them for another ten years-”
“No!” I laughed, appalled. I look to Willow, “Please, no one under seventeen. I can’t. I won’t.”
“That leaves just one,” Marge said, tapping her fingers against her desk as Willow quickly checked the next one to see he was eleven years old. “Duponte. Twenty-five.”
“Twenty-five and class A?” Willow breathed, sighing as he flipped the last packet.
I looked down to see a teenager a little bit younger than myself grinning ear to ear at the camera with a mouth full of sharp teeth, his chin resting in the palm of his hand as he stared wide-eyed at the camera. He had beautiful eyes, like liquid amber, long lashes, but he looked younger than seventeen. My lips thinned as I looked at Willow with an unamused look.
“Never trust a Novus that smiles like that,” Willow said to me, looking worried. He looked to Marge, “What is he – he has all his adult teeth so he has to be...fifteen here?” He demanded, “Why is this picture so outdated?”
“I asked the exact same thing.” Marge said firmly, “All she told me was that Gideon is a very busy man...and difficult to pin down.”
Willow held up the picture. “He’s twenty-five! You’re telling me he hasn’t been able to take one picture in ten years?!” I sighed silently, still stunned that they actually thought actual children would be a good candidate for marriage with me.
“...I was only told what I was told.” She said blandly.
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