Tosquil turned and looked at him, eyes glittering playfully under half raised brows and mr Rem recognised the coming of a taunt.

"So now you know Love too, is that it? Tell me, Clerk, did you discover Love burried in your books and rules and numbers, just like you did God and Life?" Friendly irony was dripping from his words.

"No" Mr. Rem paused and looked to the distance, with an expression that made Tosquil feel bad for his tone. "I knew Love before all those, I think." went on the clerk after a while.

"And what is it you knew?"

"Every man in love believes that there is a place and a time where the woman he loves can have all she asks for. That she can be spoiled and guarded and given all her heart desires and that even if the world around her crumbles, she will be safe. That if choses to fly, she can, if she choses to dance in the middle of the street, she can, if she choses to laugh when everyone else is crying, she can.That's what love is. A promise that this paradise exists and, no matter what the difficulties are, she can have it.The place is next to him and the time is every day."

"Oh, is that all then?"

"No. There's also the promise that he can make her scream his name and beg for more and cry in bed"

.
Tosquil laughed and mr. Rem smiled crookedly.

"Look at you all grown up. You sleep with a youth and a lady ripe and suddenly you're Casanova."

"Who?"

"Nevermind"

​

"And I haven't everything figured out" mr Rem said, sounding almost insulted. "There is the matter of conquest, isn't there? The matter of persuading the woman." The bard laughed.

​

"Ah, in this the novels of old are right, my friend! You've come to the right man! Bards have ever known the ways of Cubid."

​

"So?"

​

"There is no trick, Fermi. There is a truth. Every woman has a right, given by nature, god, love or any other such powerful force: the right to be conquered. To do that, you must give her what she wants, not what she needs. Others want gifts, others a rich life, others powers or success, others beautiful words and others to be ignored. In the end, the all want to feel special, to feel they are unique, be it for being it themselves or for being accepted by a man who is. When you do, when you give a woman the feeling that she wants, be it adoration, humiliation, ignoring, or anything, she will worship you for it. Still, the man has the right to deny a woman her favored means of conquest, just as much as she has the right to refuse to give in."

"Explain."

​

"Every woman has the right to be conquered but also every man has the right to chose the means of conquest. This is, or should be, the form of selection of partners, I believe. Love is a game, a dance, a war, in a way. A game, because it's fun, a dance, because the body must be lured, and a war, because nothing so beautiful should come without effort. But it should be a friendly war, respectful, a happy dance, fiery, a laughing game, joyful, for both. And those laughs can be the seed of something more."

​

"From what I've seen, things are more cruel than that in reality. You're a romantic" laughed mr. Rem.

​

"Someone has to be, these days" sighed the bard "or the whole concept will be stepped on by the fear of the steam engines of our world."