"My parents--I'm not sure if they were a love match or a political marriage. They united two powerful family lines, I know that. And by the time I came along..."

By the time she came along, there seemed to be no love left in Priamhark Noniusvianus or Pelleamena Novenarius at all.

"I suppose I haven't had many examples at all," she says, growing pensive. Some sweet elderly couples on the Ninth.