Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
On this thought I decided I would give him some time.
He was a man, a very manly man, and perhaps would not take well to such overtures from his wife.
Very manly men preferred to make such overtures themselves.
But tomorrow, Silence would wed Mars, and from their demeanor when they were in each other’s presence, they would be down the hall doing what my husband of over seven months and I had not yet done.
We’d wasted enough time not communicating properly.
And there were a variety of ways to communicate.
That piercing ceremony taught me well.
Aramus would have my ear, my mind and my honesty.
He was also going to have my body.
Even if I had to throw it at him.
29
The Kindness
G’Drey
Streets of Fire City
FIRENZE
G’Drey walked (with difficulty) through the city toward the school where he taught.
As his pretense (for his real purpose in this realm was not thus), in a Go’Doan school he had charge of fifty-six Firenz children aged eight, nine and ten.
He taught them Triton history, some maths, reading, the language of the Vale, and how to draw and paint.
And he had found, to his surprise, he enjoyed doing this.
It had not started easily. He was an untried teacher and they had been annoyingly rambunctious and not mindful.
However, some days in, irritated beyond measure, he had been stern.
And somehow, from there, order had ensued (though, with the older ones, he’d had to be stern on other occasions, but for the most part, after their talkings-to, they’d minded).
And when one was proud of his or her painting or assumed a bright look on their face after they conquered the difficult conjugation of a Valerian word, Drey felt something curious in his chest which was not unpleasant.
He had never much thought of children, and to the truth—his thoughts on his warrior, when he would call upon Drey, his chosen one back home, The Rising and the role he played in that—he didn’t very much think of them now.
Unless he was with his students.
When he was, he thought, their innocence, excitement over foolish things or their implicit trust in him (which was foolish as well, though they did not know that) was rather, he had to admit, engaging.
This had made Drey seek an audience with G’Liam, who had come from Go’Doan with Jell to attend the ceremonies and be on hand for any diplomatic discussions that might need their skills.
Liam also oversaw the schools across the realms, doing this mostly by post and bird, but sometimes with visits.
Drey had informed Liam that his class was first, too large, and second, the spread of ages too long.
He’d then suggested the ten-year-olds be moved to their own class for they were advanced in studies and easily became bored as Drey looked after and instructed the younger children.
And Drey had learned quickly a bored child was not a child you wished to be around.
After he’d shared this, Liam had examined him at some length.
This he did before saying, “I am heartened you take such interest in your pupils. And in such a short time spent with them. It says much about you. And you speak sense. I will think on this.”
Drey had felt an odd sense of pride at this for Liam was known as a lofty personage and he was respected by most, even those priests of The Rising.
But G’Drey had only ever seen Liam in passing in Go’Doan, though he obviously knew of him, as most did.
This was because Liam was very young for his level of responsibility.
He also had an unusual pastime of examining bodies, those being cadavers, in an effort to understand how they worked. How wounds or illnesses affected them and how to identify ailments that struck those with causes unseen, using what he found in the bodies, matching them to symptoms reported before death.
He also had a pastime of concocting potions and elixirs from herbs and minerals and testing them on injuries, lesions and in treatments of diseases.
Further, like Jell, Liam spent most of his time worshiping Go’Vicee, the god of service. Not the gods of obedience and faithfulness, Go’Bedi and Go’Chas, as most other priests did.
However, Drey had heard that Liam had given a rousing lecture to the order of the high priests that had caused much discussion throughout Go’Doan about how Go’Chas was truly about chastity, and not faithfulness to the gods.
He argued that Go’Chas wished fidelity amongst mates and abstinence of those unmarried, and not stalwart faith in religion, as most felt was the case.
And thus (Drey had heard), Liam had asserted they must abandon their baser uses of the Go’Ella and only take wives or bind themselves to husbands.
By the by, although no one asked him, Drey thought he was wrong in that.
And he was not alone, for the furor his words caused had lasted some time.
Though, Drey had heard before he left the domed city, there was rising support for this theory.