Daughter of the Dusk - Their Way

An excerpt from my story Daughter of the Dusk. I love Navissa. ^~^

“The Danmer are perhaps a bit backwards, but their position is critical. It would not do to insult them, Navissa.”

I spared him a glance from where I lounged on the chaise, deciding to ignore the implications of that statement. If I took umbrage every time he slighted me, nothing would ever be done. However, that did not mean I had to agree with him, or even condescend to reply. I lifted a strand of hair and began to plait it idly. He stood in the center of the room, watching me. Eventually he sighed, realizing that not only was no response forthcoming, but that I might even be ignoring him. “All I am asking, Navissa, is that you have some tolerance and respect for their customs and culture.” I felt my body still as he continued. Did he realize what he said? “We are already asking much of them, to accept that you are the one chosen to halt the spinning coin of destruction. Let me speak.”

“Tell me, Zicar,” I said softly, “Do you agree with their customs?” The Danmer were more than a little backward. Their women had no voice at all; a man could do what he pleased to a woman, and there were no repercussions. The woman might even be punished, for provoking the man.

“No, of course not. It is barbaric. But it is their way, and I am in no position to change it. We need their cooperation.”

“Their way,” I repeated, the plait falling from my now cold fingers. “I believe I understand. ‘Their way’ is not incomprehensible, merely extreme.” Unlike my country, according to him.

His eyes narrowed. “What are implying, Navissa?”

“Your country claims to be equal in their treatment of men and women, correct? But before that, it was the men who dominated, was it not? That is how it was, or is, in all the nations of light, as you call them. Such domination does not surprise you. It may be ‘backwards’ or old fashioned, but again, not incomprehensible. Your country is not equal, Zicar, because you have gifted the women with equality, when it was not yours to give.”

He gazed at me in silence, his face set as stone.

“But my country, where women rule, where women have the power, that is not only incomprehensible, it is unnatural, wrong in a way you cannot even express. You tell me to respect their culture, or at least pretend some sort of acquiescence. And yet, you did not extend such courtesy when you visited my nation.”

“I did not disrespect your ways,” he said frigidly. I stood.

“No? You insulted a Priestess, an Adept, openly and in public.”

“I gave an observation.”

“It was a comment meant to rankle. You questioned the suitability of my position as Priestess, when not only are you a man, but a foreigner.”

“Yes, I believe you mentioned that at the time,” he said with an edge of disdain.

“It would have been well within my rights to kill you right then, and you had the audacity to mock me.”

“Yet you did not kill me, did you?”

I smiled at him coldly. “I am not so insecure as to destroy any who think to needle me.” He gave me no response. I kept on, so brilliantly enraged that naught would contain it. “But you did not stop after deliberately attempting to draw me out. No, you sought me out and approached me, something no lower ranking woman, and certainly no man would do, especially without first identifying themselves, and requesting permission. But you did not do either of those. Instead, you addressed by my name, which I had not given you authorization to do, which I still have not. Then you continued to insult me and my people, calling us corrupt, cruel and weak with no thought to even soften the words. You told me I was ignorant, and self-centered, that I knew nothing of my own country, much less any other. And then throughout the remainder of your stay, you constantly flouted our traditions, refusing to curb your arrogance. It did not cross your mind, because you are a man, and to submit to a woman would be unthinkable. Yet you ‘needed’ me, did you not? And now you ask me to do what you refused?” I walked past him to the door. “Do not insult me by telling me to humor pigs who abuse their women.”