"I..."<br/><br/>Anya fell quiet for a few blocks.<br/><br/>"I am not sure. Strong, certainly. Soft where it counts, but strong? That sounds good. And..."<br/><br/>Another block passed.<br/><br/>"Not long before I was...brought here, the Duchy of Valtoria got a new Duchess. She married the love of her life before all Cordonia. There was some scandal beforehand, because they had both been pursuing the hand of the Crown Prince only a few months before. That is not what I remember about the ceremony. Because of course they were beautiful and everybody spoke about how much they were in love and so on."  She sighed. "Real life is hardly like that. But what I remember is one of the other women, the Duchess of Nevrakis. She had been in the same competition and had failed to with the Prince's hand.  It turned out that she had already been married, by proxy, but it had been hidden from her."<br/><br/>Another deep breath.<br/><br/>"She was proud, and angry, and fierce...but unbroken. She had been twice heartbroken, once by her own failure to secure a match, and once by the betrayal of her own kin who had...well, it all came out in the trial of her husband. Treason. Betrayal. Secrets. I...could have fallen for her. Does that make sense?"