Free Trade Secret (eARC) by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Page A

replace them in the clan and the delm was responsible for making those arrangements.
    He had this letter to figure out, and it was written out formally, and the thing was it was all written in Liaden, because there it was, Gaenor was semiofficially his tutor or mentor in Liaden, and she'd been practicing that . . . and the statement at the top meant something important, because she wrote--"Jethri, I take this time to write to you, both as your friend and your intended I'gaina Prenada and would like to have the enjoyment of your company that we might together spend the upcoming off-shift in the guesting suite I have reserved, you and I, in cher'nuchiada . This will be great fun, and exercise, and after all, study as well, if you yet need an excellent reason for allowing your brain some respite from trade details and dry words."
    He sat back from the task, fiddling idly with the new-to-him chain about his neck, a chain he'd judged to be platinum as soon as he saw it. Linked in back with a fusion clasp of magnetic depleted timonium, the necklet widened in each direction to exactly embrace a twelve-sided cameo--actually not a person's cameo, but a cameo of Ixin's own sigil, the rabbit against full moon. He'd put it on with a touch of trepidation after staring into that full moon for some minutes, still wondering if he was up to this, still wondering if he was going to be tossed for fraud into some Lowport for failing to bow in just the right mode . . .
    "My son," had said the note, "in normal circumstances I would have presented this myself, but I had not the measurements from your suit fitting, nor the skill and equipment to adjust the clasp to your own neck. Between them the armorer and our machinist mate have done these things; I hope you will be able to proudly wear this for your interlude as it has graced male necks in our clan for several hundred Standards or more. The full story of it will be yours as time permits, but for now, for the clan, wear it, and be amused as well as entranced this night. One should, at all times, wear the moon-and-hare, and if it lights the way, do not be surprised!"
    If nothing else were done, the moon-and-hare was on.
    The thing is there were other situations, like a cha'leket and that was like being best friend and brother or sister in heart all at once, maybe heartkin was the right word there, and there were formal things that needed to be done if someone was insulted, or killed, and there were other arrangements--the long term relationships, almost married, what the heck were they called?
    Nubandaria was what it was--it was like being promised lovers, an official pleasure love who family and friends could expect one to admit to, and one could agree to it and it was almost a legal thing, but then one could get over it without a delm doing a thing, all one had to do was--he'd seen that, there it was, give a nubiath'a and that was a parting gift, but there were back-rules to that, that if one gave a nubiath'a one wasn't ever expected to go back with that person again. Somehow that seemed rude to him--to just sort of pay a sex-friend off when one had not started out on a cash basis, but then it also said they were appreciated and--
    But this word here was related but choppy, as he thought about trying to translate the pieces, since ally or joint effort was implied and so was joy and so was passing, as in short term and-- cher'nuchiada .
    He didn't want to agree to something that was going to make him stay away from Gaenor just because they messed around of a night, but no, cher'nuchiada was just a fun thing, like Dyk might call a flash-fling, well, except they were usually with someone one faunched for at first sight portside, as he had it, so not a flash-fling but still--
    "And for our assignation you must but needs arrive. We shall consider it Festival and thus we shall meet as if at a Festival pavilion; directions follow to a room which is reserved to me, that none other need know--or should