TaliaI want the wish. Everything else is decoration.

You ask if she has ever wanted anything else. She takes long enough to answer.

TaliaTwo cycles ago I wanted someone to stay. They didn't. Wants are how people lower your terms.

Then she pulls you down between her legs and does not let you say anything else for a while.

She keeps her hand on the back of your neck the whole time, holding you where she wants you, and talks — instructions, and one word of praise.

Later, with the lamp off, she says very quietly, like a footnote: I would have been good at it.