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countryside, healing and birthing babies and doing what they did before the
Great War blew everything up!"
"So what's wrong with that?" I asked, confused. "The giants would probably
appreciate their services, and it would certainly strengthen the alliance
between their people and ours."
"What's wrong with it is there's no place for you in that! You make everything
possible, we all love you very much, even the First Generation, but they just
want to finish the job and wander off and leave you alone?! If we couldn't see
it in their auras, we'd hardly believe they cared for you at all!"
I sighed. "Folia, they're not like you of the Second Generation. When they
were alive, it was a different world. Our people hadn't even met other humans,
and aside from the giants, we had little contact among the other races, like
the elves and the dwarves. You see-"
Folia rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, Father, we know all about that! We've talked
and talked and talked about all this for months! They literally don't see you
the way we do! We see who you really are, inside! We see what you really look
like! They only see the surface, like being able to see clothes, and not the
person beneath!"
I smiled. "It's the same with every other race in the world, my dear, even the
dragons. Dragons and some other creatures see auras, but no race can see
everything that you can see. Only you will have this power - and the new
Hyperborean race that will spring from your loins will be all the more
powerful for that."
"Yes, Father, but it's still very silly! All they want is a male! They can't
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see that you're a male inside, they can't see that what they're doing hurts
you, none of it! All they can see is this!" Folia replied, and poked my
shoulder with a slender forefinger. "And that, Father, is like clothes. It's
nothing!"
"Oh, but they don't want just any male, either!" Melia chirped, and the girls
fell to giggling.
"No, they don't," Folia agreed. "They want a Hyperborean male. Brown skin,
black hair, brown eyes. We suggested they might try a Curse of Infertility for
awhile and just visit the Southlands and oh! The row that caused!"
"Their auras got all shot full of ickies just thinking about it!" Melia
giggled.
"Almost as many ickies as they got when we suggested they simply take turns
each night and lie with you and make you happy because it was the right thing
to do," Folia added, to more chorused giggles.
I could already hear the shouting outside, and I sighed as I rose to my feet.
"Alright, girls. Keep working on this - I expect the room to be fully cleaned
by dinnertime, or I'll be very disappointed in you. Alright?"
"Yes, father!" the girls chorused.
"Alright. I'm going out to put a stop to these arguments, once and for all," I
said, and strode out through the open door, pulling it shut behind me.
I didn't have far to walk. Lyota and Pelia were screaming at each other in the
middle of the road that ran past my tower and the little houses my courtesans
and their children lived in during the winter months. A few flakes of snow
were drifting down from the skies - in an hour or two, it would likely be
snowing and bitterly cold. A handful of my other courtesans stood nearby,
watching, visibly upset, and nearly two hundred children of various ages gazed
on with expressions that ranged from amusement to weeping fear.
I was struck for a moment, looking at Pelia and Lyota, just how much alike
they looked - Pelia preferred to keep her physical age at about thirty-five,
but the relationship between the two was plainly obvious, despite Lyota only
being twenty. They were very much like twins - and, indeed, both were fiery
women who were not afraid to raise their voice when angry.
"Six months, mother! You mean to tell me in all that time not one of the First
Generation thought to come visit him and at least hold his hand and chat for
awhile?!"
"No, we didn't! We've all been extremely busy! Aside from having to work out
everything with you, we've had to work on the gardens, keep watch on those who
were pregnant, tan hides, chop wood and do all the million little things we
all need done every day! He's been alone before, Lyota, we hardly ever visited
him during the year before! He's not a child, it won't kill him!"
And at those words, my heart went cold. Despite everything she'd been told,
despite hearing my own tale countless times from myself and Arella, Pelia did
not understand me. No, I was not a child. But being alone for decades on end
would kill me. I would literally go mad with loneliness, and destroy myself. I
had died of loneliness in my first life, and I had nearly died of loneliness
fifty years ago, when Arella abandoned me the first time. Had it not been for
Joy's companionship these last twenty years, I might have died again. It was
my own dark nature, a nature Joy helped me understand and alleviate through
her companionship.
"This is different! You knew he was lonely, we told you he was lonely, we told
you what Kiriin told us happened to him, and-"
"Enough!" I shouted, but the screaming went on. I took a deep breath, then
screamed, the force of my scream backed up by the enchantment that now was a
part of me, amplifying my voice to the level of a thunderclap. "ENOUGH!"
I could hear the echoes of my voice returning from the edges of the small
valley of my lands as I glowered at Pelia and Lyota. Shocked into silence, the
two of them gazed at me wide-eyed. So did everyone - doors opened, and in a
few moments, all my courtesans and all my children were looking on.
"Lyota, you have forgotten something," I said quietly, glowering at her.
"Wh-what, Father?"
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"Your parents deserve at least a modicum of respect. I never want to see you
raise your voice to your mother again," I replied, and looked to all the
others who gazed at us. "And that goes for all of you! You will all give your
mothers, and all those of the First Generation respect. You are allowed to
disagree with them, even disagree strongly with them, but you are not allowed
to scream at them. Ever. Is that perfectly clear?"
"Yes, Father," came the reply, chorused by the children. The toddlers gazed on
in confusion and fear, and some wept. They hardly understood what was
happening, but there was time enough for them to understand, later.
Pelia was smirking, and I glowered at her. Her smirk instantly disappeared.
"And as for you..."
"Y-yes, Eddas?"
"The relationship of courtesan to man is based on the notion that someday, the
courtesan will marry the man. It is a trial period, taken so that the
courtesan can prove herself. It is normally done when the woman is of a
significantly lower social status than the man, giving her a chance to prove
her worth and ability to assume a higher station in life."
Pelia sniffed. "I am hardly of a lower social status than you, Eddas. I am
High Mistress of my circle."
"And I am the Raven of Yorindar," I replied, glaring at Pelia. Pelia looked at
me, then wilted before the fierce and terrible gaze this body gave me. "I am
the servant of a god. I have leveled castles with a word, and I destroyed an
army with a song," I said, raising the volume of my words with my own
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