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"Well, like this" She looked at hirow my hair?"

Yes

"Do you really want me to?"

Of course

"Well then, if Iher hair beco fro into a pool of clear water Then she row The ability wasaa lot lately, since she tended to cut her hair off in the evenings rather than spending the ti it

Even as the hair whipped past her face, it grew in length She tossed her head, one final ti it feel more heavy, her neck warm from the locks that now tu in loose curls

Susebron looked at her ide eyes She lance The result seemed so ridiculous to her, however, that she just found herself laughing She fell back on the bed, newly grown hair flaring around her

Susebron tapped her leg She looked over at hi on the side of the bed so that she could see his tablet as he wrote

You are very strange, he said

She smiled "I know I’ht face"

Seductress, he wrote I know that word It is used in a story when the evil queen tries to teh I don’t knohat

She s to offer him food

"Yeah," Siri said "Good interpretation, there, Seb Co food, was she?

Siri sain

He flushed I feel like such an idiot There is so much that everyone else understands intrinsically Yet I have only the stories of a children’s book to guide me I’ve read them so often that it’s hard to separate myself--and the way I view them--froan to erase furiously She sat up then laid a hand on his ar, he wrote Things that euesses I aet frustrated With your flirtation and sarcasm--both behaviors where you apparently act opposite to what you want--I fear that I will never understand you

He stared with frustration at his board, wiping cloth held in one hand, charcoal in the other The fire cracked quietly in the fireplace, throaves of overbright yellow against his clean-shaven face

"I’ closer to hiainst his upper arer than she, now that she was used to it There had been men back in Idris who had stood as much as six and a half feet tall, and Susebron was only a few inches taller than that Plus, because his body was so perfectly proportioned, he didn’t seeer

He glanced at her as she rested her head on his ar better than you think Most people back in my homeland didn’t understand an to write, and she opened her eyes

I find that hard to believe

"It’s true," she said "They kept telling me to become someone else"

Who?

"My sister," she said with a sigh "The wohter of a king should be Controlled, soft-spoken, obedient, learned"

She sounds boring, he wrote, s

"Vivenna is a wonderful person," Siri said "She was always very kind to me It’s just thatwell, I think even she felt that I should have been more reserved"

I can’t understand that, he wrote You’re wonderful So full of life and excitement The priests and servants of the palace, they wear colors, but there’s no color inside of theo about their duties, eyes down, soleot color on the inside, soaround you

She smiled "That sounds like BioChroma"

You are more honest than BioChroht, but it isn’t iven to me Yours is your own

She felt her hair shift frohed softly with content herself a little closer to him

How do you do that? he wrote

"Do what?"

Change your hair

"That one was unconscious," she said "It goes blond if I feel happy or content"

You’re happy, then? he wrote With me?

"Of course"

But when you speak of thein your voice

"I miss them," she said "But if I left here, I’dyou want, since the wants contradict each other"

They fell silent for a ti his arainst the headboard A blushful tinge of red crept into her hair as she realized that they were still sitting on the bed, and she was snuggling up beside hiht, we arethat spoiled theof her stomach After a few minutes, Susebron reached for his board

You are hungry? he wrote

"No," she said "My storohen it’s full"

He paused Sarcasht--I’ll survive"