She's been hurt! The news was months old but Talya hung on to any little bit of information that filtered to the Hall about her twin. This particular holo publication had been passed around several of the Harkon fishing crews before it made its way into her hands.

Their mother would have called it a gossip rag. She would have scolded her one remaining daughter for believing such trash. Still Talya clutched at the flimsi and thanked the sailor profusely who had snuck it to her through the kitchen door one afternoon.

Talya had a memory of her twin meeting with a sailor at this door the night of their birthday party a year and a half ago. They must have been making plans to leave at the time. She wondered if that sailor was still with Sanya. Sanya had seemed to trust him.

"She's alright now." The sailor at the kitchen door attempted to reassure her. "At least that's what we've heard. Captain Harkon's got a ship's surgeon now to look after her. A real good one, they say."

"Thank you for letting me know." Talya smiled. "And for this."

"It was my pleasure, Miss." He touched the rim of his hat as he backed away before turning to walk back down to the docks where presumably his ship awaited.

Talya waited as long as she thought would be polite before she shut the kitchen door and hurried to find a quiet place to dive into the journal.

The story spoke of a battle at sea that had resulted in the young female captain taking a blaster wound to her right side. It was worse than she first let on and might have killed her if she hadn't spent the night in a brothel and been treated for the wound by an experienced healer.

'The Knife' also partook of other "entertainment" while she was staying in the establishment so the publication reported.

Talya's cheeks flushed red as she read of her sister's exploits. Maybe mother was right and she shouldn't be reading about such things. But if her twin was out there experiencing them…

Talya felt woefully ignorant about the subject. Mother wouldn't tell her anything about what it would be like when she traveled to Blackhold for her wedding night.

She was almost too embarrassed to look at the artist's rendition of Captain Harkon battling on the deck of her ship. The picture showed a young woman with the front of her shirt torn open to prove to her opponent that he was being bested by a female. Surely Sanya had never really done such a thing!

But she was okay! The sailor had said that she was doing well after her injury and had a healer on board to treat her. Talya breathed a sigh of relief. She hid the flimsi journal under her bed with what other scraps she had been able to gather and tried to imagine what Sanya was really doing right now and then a little belatedly remembered to offer up a prayer to the salt gods for her continued safety.

She would tell Papa later what she had learned. Mother wouldn't want to know. She had chosen to think of her youngest child as safe in the hands of the salt gods.

Right now there was someone else who Talya wanted to talk to. If mother wouldn't explain to her about the ways of a husband and wife, there was another female experienced in that position in the Hall. Perhaps Dalla could enlighten her as to what to expect in just a few months after she met Jamos Blackwell at the salt formation.

Dalla Flint Harkon, as it turned out, was more than happy to share her expertise. And she did appear to be an expert on the subject. Maybe they were Flint family secrets and that's why their family managed to be so prolific.

By the time she had finished with her lesson, Talya was well versed on the most common methods of how to achieve and avoid pregnancy, with or without the full cooperation of her husband. Her cheeks were burning as red as her hair especially when the instruction veered off into the more personal direction of the first hand experience of her sister-in-law with Talya's older brother.

Dalla sighed a bit smugly. She couldn't have been trying to embarrass the naive younger girl, could she? But then she demurred with what might have been a shade of guilt. "I didn't really intend for Herron to believe it was his fault that we haven't conceived again after Betha. I just keep thinking about what your father said about betrothing her to the Blackwell boy. I can't imagine what sort of plans he'd envision for the next baby."

Some of Talya's discomfort at the subject matter faded with her compassion for the young mother. "He's said he wouldn't do anything until she's older and that you and Herron would have the final say on any arrangements." She encouraged. "And besides it would be rather strange to have my niece be betrothed to my nephew if I'm to be officially betrothed to Jamos as soon as there ever comes a clear enough day that we can get a connection on the comm."

Talya didn't really know whether to hope for that eventuality or not. In some ways she was even more afraid of her upcoming nuptials after her crash course on human reproduction but it would be so much better just to have the matter settled once and for all.

And then a clear day finally arrived. The entire Harkon family (barring their youngest daughter who was still away somewhere at sea) gathered around the holo communication table to witness the betrothal of Talya to Jamos Blackwell. They had brought in a special holo comm tech but still the connection was rather fuzzy.

Talya peered through the image noticing that the entire Blackwell clan was also in attendance even Miara and her little boy. The nearly four-year-old squirmed as if he didn't care much for the proceedings and Talya thought she sensed Dalla holding Betha a little tighter when the hologram materialized.

Jamos hadn't looked in her direction as of yet, so Talya took the opportunity to study him. He was tall and thin like she remembered though he had filled out some and wasn't quite so gangly. He was clean shaven but his hair was a bit too long or mother probably would have said so.

Was she looking for something to be wrong with him? No, it wasn't that. And then he turned his face to his right to look at his nephew and she saw it, even in the grainy holo, the thin white line along his tanned left cheek. It was the scar that Sanya had given him.

He seemed to notice her staring and she gave a little gasp as he turned back to face her and their eyes met. Their shared gaze locked until Lady Blackwell crooned, "Aww isn't it sweet. They can't take their eyes off each other."

After that and all during the proceedings Talya found her shoes more interesting than the occasional glances she dared to aim in Jamos's direction. He likewise seemed determined to prove his mother's statement false. It wasn't like they really needed to look at each other for the negotiations to be finalized. They didn't even have to say anything more than, "Aye," that they would be obedient to the arrangements their fathers were making for them.

Their fathers had said nearly everything that needed to be said when the connection suddenly cut out on the holo transmission.

"What was that?" Lord Blackwell bellowed. "Was it on our end our theirs? Salt gods know it was probably theirs." He complained, finishing in a mumbling growl. "Figuring on the technology that Harkon's able to afford…"

"Algy!" Lady Blackwell exclaimed aghast. "What if they were to connect again just in time to hear you say such a thing?"

"Gah! Doesn't matter anyway. We got the gist of the thing."

Jamos laughed. He wasn't really paying attention to his father's ranting. He had discovered the culprit of the sudden disconnection. While they were all distracted little Alon had decided to try his own hands at the holo device's control panel. He was hiding just out of sight of his parents and grandparents but gave his uncle a conspiratorial grin.

Jamos knelt down and offered his hand for the boy to shake. "Nice job, you little rogue. That was getting awfully boring, wasn't it?"

"Oh, Jamos be serious." Miara swooped in to gather up her son and carry him away to discipline him for the disturbance.

"I am being serious." Jamos shrugged out of the formal cloak he'd been wearing.

"But what did you think of her?" his mother asked.

"She was pretty, I guess, polite, obedient… I don't really know anymore about her than before." He knew more about her sister, at least what all the rumors said about her sister. He had a copy of that article with the scandalous artist's rendition in a box on the top shelf of his closet. Talya hadn't looked anything like that for all their being identical.

He didn't know what he had expected. They weren't the eleven year old girls he had convinced to spy out those drexl eggs with him all those years ago.

Lady Blackwell reached up and patted her younger son on his scared cheek. "I think she'll be just the thing to settle you down."

He tried to smile but what if he didn't want to settle down? What if he wanted to take a sheet of flimsi out of Sanya's book?