How someone's emotions could shift so quickly, Ember didn't understand. The fating was said to be immediate, irreversible, and incomprehensible until experienced.

True hearts met and saw in each other the truth - that they matched. Now, each soul had a mate, waiting to be found. That is, unless you were fateless.

Ember repeated her mantra in her mind, "there is nothing strange about me," as she stepped out the door. It was a lie, but it was a thought that surfaced whenever she walked out into the open air. She repeated it again, and it rang even more false the second time. The lie was a comfort, nonetheless.

In another kingdom, her secrets wouldn't matter.