Sipara said he had a hive. Was she expecting Marduk to take him all the way to the city outskirts? It's distressingly plausible: the rowdy rustblood is a lot of things, but considerate is not one of them.

She can't bring him back to her dormitories. If he were a caste or two higher, she might be able to pass him off as a quadrantmate, and gain an exemption that way.. but Proctor Sungazer disapproves of caste gaps, and expects his creche to abide strictly by the three castes or less rule. And she can't bring him in without that.

She wouldn't get culled, of course. Marduk is jade, and they're too rare to cull, for anything short of a debilitating mutation, or outright treason. But he likely would, and the consequences for her would be... unpleasant.

Marduk chews on her lip. Her confidence is slipping, she doesn't know Sappho nearly well enough to decide what she would do now, and she doesn't know what she should do. This is why she likes staying in her dorms, with her books as company. Books, like the laws, are predictable and precise: they follow rules, and if you only pay attention, you'll always know how the plot will go, and what the characters will do.

She wishes life was that simple.

"No," she finally says. "I don't think they would."