"You were with Swinden?" Einin blurted, and laughed. Indeed, she'd heard the name before, and her father had done business with that name in the past. "My gods! That is so weird! I mean, just...how small the world really is, and..." And no. No, she couldn't imagine him settling down.
She was still absorbing that when the conversation went to that subject.
"Gods. I never hear the end of it!" Einin said with a dramatic groan, flopping onto her back with her arms spread. "That's all my parents ever wanna talk about. Suitors this, marriage that, making myself pretty as a silly peacock to catch peoples' eye. You have no idea."
She shook her head, going quieter. "It's why I gotta get good at this, and fast. I don't have a lot of time. I have to get good enough and just...do something big. Make a name for myself. And then, when I've proven myself anonymously--I got to be anonymous, my parents would shut down everything if they knew! But once I've proven myself, and knights want to have me, once I'm in I can be like, aha! It is I! Einin! A lady! But by then it'd be too late because I'd be in, you know. An ordained knight! And then I wouldn't have to worry about just..." She shrugged. "Losing who I am."
She stared up at the clouds above. "But oh, yeah, that's right. So, uh, I'm kinda engaged now? Three guesses as to who, and three guesses as to how fast I'm gonna end it." She paused. "Though maybe I shouldn't? No one's been bothering me about husbands since the engagement, so...maybe I could stretch it out. Stretch it out a reeeally long time and not get married. And just keep it up and keep postponing the marriage until I'm a knight, and then call it off. Except...ugh. Except then I'll be pestered about when the wedding is and blah blah blah."
She shook her head. "This is so stupid."