Page 57 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

“I wonder why,” I muttered. “I think I’ve read an entire shelf of books in your extensive library, and even then, I’ve only scratched the surface.”

“I can tell you whatever you want to know.”

“I don’t want anything from you.” I folded my arms across my chest to keep my hands from picking at my fingernails. Gods, I missed my knives. The kitchen ones just weren’t the same.

“You need to rest.”

“I need answers before Rasil returns,” I countered.

“What answers?”

“All of them.”

“Okay, well, let’s start with one.”

“I found another song sheet—a letter between you and Rasil— and the endings were all of the feminine neutral form?” The first question that popped into my mind was clearly not what Navin was expecting. “Why did Rasil call you that?”

Navin paused, then looked at me. “Are you familiar with the word ‘avist’?”

“No.”

“It’s a Taigosi human word,” he said with a shrug. “It means I’m indifferent to all genders. That’s why Rasil called me that.”

I blinked at him. This was just another way I didn’t know Navin at all. “So when I call youhe...?”

“I don’t care.”

The wheels in my mind were turning so fast I couldn’t keep up with them. “And if I called youshe?”

“I also wouldn’t care.”

“But Rasil at least once called you she?”

“Which I’m also equally indifferent to.” Navin leaned against a palm tree and flashed me a grin.

“But do you prefer one to the other?”

“No.” His grin widened. “That’s kind of the whole point.”

“So you’re like the Olmderian word ‘nezaim’...”

“No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?” I asked, my voice increasingly exasperated. Navin only laughed. “Speak!”

I was learning not only an entirely different language, but concepts that the Wolves had never welcomed. Everything was so rigid. There were men and women. Men were meant to lead and women meant to follow. Somewhere deep within me I’d always resented those notions but neither had I questioned changing them. As a warrior, I knew my power, but Wolf Kings would never even let women rule let alone embrace the concept of more than two genders like the humans did.

“Nezaim feel they belong in all of the other words and prefer for all the other words to be used for them.”

“And you... just don’t care?”

“I feel detached from the concept entirely.” He shrugged. “When you travel to as many corners of the continent and learn as many new words and customs as I have, trying to encapsulate oneself with a single word seems too reductive. Call me what you will. I remain the same.”

“But...”

He tried to hide his laughter as my mind raced. “You’re looking at me like I just said I had dinner with an ostekke.”

“I never knew about any of this! My world feels like it’s exploding!” I barked, rising to a stand. “Until Calla ran off, I only ever knew that humans had different customs, and those were never elaborated upon nor were we ever encouraged to learn more about them. Gods, some things were outright forbidden.” I waved a hand wildly between the two of us. “Then I learned inOlmdere there were eight genders and learned what all of them meant and figured the other kingdoms would have some sort of amalgamation of them and now you’re saying there’s even more.”

---