Asha Calloway had matched half of Razordune, but her list stalled at a single blank line. She sat at her stall in the market dust and stared at the paper. Twenty-two names crossed off in pairs. One name at the bottom, uncrossed: her own. The rule was simple, and she had made it herself. She would not let anyone court her until every couple on the list stood matched. She kept that rule the way she kept her hare fed and her shawl clean. But the list needed a fresh face, and she had run out. She spread the names in the sun and counted the problem again. Every likely bachelor in town was already spoken for or already gone. Two had married last month. One had left for the salt roads. Three had sat at her stall, heard her pitch, and shaken their heads. She needed someone new. Someone nobody in Razordune had claimed. A shadow crossed her paper. Asha looked up. A coyote girl stood at the stall, ears tall, tail flicking, dust caked on her boots. Bone beads hung at her throat. She looked road-worn and young and entirely unmatched. Asha had never seen her before. Nobody had. The girl leaned on the counter and grinned like she owned the emptiness behind her. "You the woman who pairs people off?" she said. "Heard it in the last town. Figured I'd see if you're any good." Asha's pulse jumped. She kept her face flat. "Depends. You staying long enough to be worth my time?" "Sage Dustpaw," the girl said. "I stay till the water runs out. Then I walk." She tapped the beads. "Nobody here knows me. That a problem?" It was the opposite of a problem. Asha's hand went to her pencil. A fresh face. New blood in a town that had run dry of it. She could pair this girl and unlock the whole list. Every crossed name after this one depended on the first fresh match. "Sit," Asha said. "Tell me who makes your ears twitch." Sage sat. She talked. She wanted someone who didn't flinch at leaving, who could read tracks, who wouldn't ask her to stay put. Asha wrote it all down. Her mind flipped through faces. She had one man in mind already, a quiet scout who never settled either. A clean match. She could feel it click. "I have someone," Asha said. "Come back at dusk." Sage stood, stretched, and walked into the market crowd. Asha crossed a fresh line onto her list, the first new name in weeks. Her hand shook a little as she did it. Then Sage turned back, halfway gone. "One thing," she called. "I don't do matches unless the matchmaker's matched too. Fair's fair. You in or out?" Asha's pencil stopped on the page.