I’d be thumbing my nose at that bitch who’d harassed me yesterday.
Elentinus had shown me that I could do much more good for my ‘desperate sisters’ here than anywhere else.
The implications of my new power exploded in my head exponentially.
If human brides became equals with their Dak-Haliah husbands we’d be influencing their entire empire.
Maybe we could nudge them away from their planetary conquest agenda.
If we were able to raise some of those kids we’d be having (a topic I would definitely broach with Elentinus later on) we could infect them with our compassion.
Heck, if all the Dak-Hiliahs going forward had human blood who was to say their very natures wouldn’t change?
Maybe I was conceited about how great human nature was, but it probably couldn’t make things worse, right?
Before I could write my treatise on marriage I had to know the full scope of everything taken away from women so I could make sure they got it all back.
I bucked up and summoned Kang.
“I need a history lesson.
And a lemonade.”
I asked for paper and pencil, but of course such primitive implements no longer existed.
The people of the future were completely sustained by those tablets that I still couldn’t access.
I insisted on getting something, even if it meant going outside and writing in the dirt with a stick.
Kang took me to a room with what looked like a conference table.
The far wall was a giant white board that I could write on with my finger.
“The druid Shindray attained the holiest seat 135 years ago.
At that time—”
“Wow, 135 years?
And he just died recently?
How long do Dak-Hiliah normally live?”
“Dak-Hiliah men live an average of 88 years.
Dak-Hiliah women live an average of 93 years.
Druids, however, live an average of 142 years.
One high druid even lived to be 180 years old.
Please bear in mind that there is a six day time differential between Dak-Hiliah years and Earth years.
There is also a 38 minute time differential between Dak-Hiliah days and Earth days.
The equivalent Dak-Hiliah time unit to an Earth minute is only 57 Earth seconds.”
This boggled my mind, but I shook it off.
The time differentials didn’t seem significant enough to matter.
“Interesting.
Please continue.”
“At the time when Shindray took the holiest seat, the empire had not expanded its boundaries in forty years.
Shindray said the stagnation was due to Dak-Hiliah women gaining unprecedented influence in the empire.
He ordered that Dak-Hiliah men reclaim their manhood, and that Dak-Hiliah women learn their place.”
“Oh boy.”
I sat at the conference table while I listened.
There wasn’t anything I thought I needed to jot down yet.
“Shindray decreed that by subjugating their wives men would eradicate the compassion, indecision, and hesitance that had made the empire weak.
Men were to see women as enemies who sought to destroy their character.
If they didn’t fully subjugate their mates they risked failure in their public lives.”
“What exactly did Shindray tell the men to do?”
“He wrote three treatises over the course of fifty years.
In the first he defined the new roles of women in Dak-Hiliah society.
They were to be mothers, housekeepers, and caregivers who would remain confined to the home.”
My brow rose.
“Was this as drastic a change as I think it was?”
“Records show that most women of the period worked outside their home.
Women of the time period comprised 30% of the Dak-Hiliah military.”
I shook my head in disgust.
“There was catastrophic economic turmoil due to the loss of nearly half the workforce.
The demand for robots grew at a rate that could not be sustained in the earliest decades.
Both men and women expressed their extreme displeasure with the new rules, but followed them, nonetheless.”
“Why?”
“By disobeying the druid in the holiest seat you forfeit your reward in the afterlife and displease the gods.
Displeasing the gods has historically led to widespread destruction and chaos.
The Dak-Hiliah understand that the druid in the holiest seat will periodically be possessed by a malevolent god.
It is during these rare periods of history when the Dak-Hiliah’s faith is tested.
It is a test they must not fail, no matter how difficult.
That is the only way to ensure the continued favor of the gods.”
I sighed.
“Okay.
Go on with the history.”
“Men were prohibited from having idle conversations with their wives.
All discussions had to be limited to matters pertaining to the children or household.
Husbands and wives were to sleep separately, eat separately, and limit intimacy to sexual intercourse.
Husbands were to beat their wives severely for many possible infractions such as leaving the house or initiating prohibited communications.”
“Damn.”
“There was an outcry for the rules to be reversed.
Shindray ignored it.
After three years of enduring the new rules Dak-Hiliah women banded together in protest by only giving birth to male offspring.”
“How did they do that?”
“Dak-Hiliah women have an ovary of eggs that can only be fertilized by male coded sperm, and an ovary of eggs that can only be fertilized by female coded sperm.
Their ovaries normally release both eggs simultaneously.
However, the women can suppress the release of eggs from one ovary or the other at will.”
“Wow.”
I wondered how humans could possibly be made compatible for breeding.
“A previous druid in the holiest seat had stated that it was the will of the gods for women to choose the gender of their offspring.
Shindray could not contradict this.
He responded instead with an even harsher treatise that denied school-aged girls an education and forced unwed adult women into arranged marriages.
The women remained steadfast in their protest in return.
After 15 years with almost no female births the council made it illegal for women to produce male offspring.
At first the penalty was a public beating.
Later, women who had more than three male children were publically executed.
This did not stop the protests.”
“Good for them.”
“The decline in Dak-Hiliah women, and the population in general, caused the imposition of breeding cycles with artificial gestation on the remaining Dak-Hiliah women capable of bearing children.
The women were still able to continue their protest.
Alien races on slave worlds were tested for breeding compatibility without success.
The military expanded their search for new females to breed with further out in the universe.
By the time compatibility was discovered with Earth females the Dak-Hiliah race had declined to less than 500,000 individuals.”
I took a deep breath.
“Okay.
Tell me about Pakpo, now.
What’s his agenda?”
“Pakpo attained the holiest seat two months and three days ago.
He is the nine year old son of the druid Maun, and is possessed by the benevolent goddess Tian-za.”
“A goddess, huh?
That sounds good.”
“Pakpo has only given one speech, which was at the time of his ascension to the holiest seat.
He stated that his goal is to undo the damage Shindray caused the empire, and that the rules in Shindray’s treatises were only for Dak-Hiliah women.
Any woman born with even a single drop of alien blood would be exempt.
He ended his speech by saying his era should be known as the era of compassion.
A few days ago he issued an additional proclamation through the wider universal network.
He suggested that new brides be coaxed into Dak-Hiliah society through a concept he called the Degrees of Intimacy.
”
I started jotting down ideas for my letter on the white board.
Kang wasn’t dismissed.
I asked him numerous follow up questions to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.
I was determined to write a letter that achieved my goals, but also was relevant to the Dak-Hiliah given their history.
I had arguments for every change I suggested along with examples of why these changes would help society to prosper based on my own biased experiences and the small amount I had gleaned from their pre-Shindray history.
I emphasized that the brides were Earth women from the same time as me.
I felt I was the expert on what it took to make most of them reasonably happy.
Close to dinnertime Whore walked into the room.
Instead of acknowledging me, he stood there for fifteen minutes reading what I wrote on the board.
I waited for his critique with a stupid grin on my face.
When he was finally done reading he put is face in his hand and gave his typical annoyed groan.
I hid how crestfallen this made me.
I naively thought my hard work would impress even him.
He shot an angry glower in my direction that shocked me.
“Do you have any conception of how ridiculous this is?
Your purpose was to satisfy Lord Elentinus’ sexual needs and to breed.
How dare someone like you presume to write a letter to a druid.
You’re not a Dak-Hiliah.
You’re not even a minority.
You’re less than nothing, and you’re claiming all these privileges like you’re entitled to them.”
I tried, tried really hard, not to let his disgust infect my spirit.
“Lord Elentinus
asked
me to write this.
I didn’t claim any privilege.
I’m following orders.”
“I know that!”
He stared at the board with his arms crossed.
His lips started quivering in a way that made it look like he was about to start crying.
“It makes me sick how you’ve already managed to manipulate him.”
I gasped with outrage.
Whore raised his arm and blocked my face with his hand.
“Since this is Lord Elentinus’ prerogative we’re going to have to deal with this.
Your letter is missing the whole point.
The purpose of the Earth women is to repopulate our race.
Making them our equals is out of the question.
They have to breed for us whether they want to or not.”
“I didn’t forget that.”
I pointed to a little scribble area where I’d jotted something down close to the floor.
“I was thinking of letting women have the choice of artificial insemination whenever their husbands were being jerks.”
This made Whore tilt his head back and laugh.
“You think we’re going to let women decide whether or not sex will happen?”
“Yeah.”
I got defensive.
“In my time that was an important part of a woman’s power.”
His eyes got cruel.
“Power?
You don’t deserve any power.
Besides that, women never want sex and men always do.”