Closed Finding the midwife

[Anton Stormtamer]

Winter 12th Anton felt a bit of a sneak going behind the back of his sister with this. But he just knew that she would try to talk him out of this if he let her know about it. He didn't get why she was just so passive about the entire ordeal these days. She was going to be used like a broodmare by a complete stranger. He wasn't the one overreacting here. Still, the idea of talking to a complete stranger about something as private as pregnancy, even if it was about how to prevent it. He just hoped that after the little talk they had that taylani woman didn't rat him out too the drykas about his plan. He just hoped the fact they were both non-drykas and unwilling captives would at least let compel her to help him out with it. He did hear a rumor of her trying to bolt during a storm. So at least she wasn't one of those poor sods who stepped into this shyke willingly. He kept an eye out for the red mop of hair that was told was her defining characteristic. Not to many midwives about with flaming red hair and soon enough he saw her walking out of a tent. “Hey, are you taylani?” He stepped towards the redheaded woman. He tried to keep himself neutral and friendly. But the nervousness was plain to see in the right half of his face. The left was pulled down into an eternal frown by a patchwork of scars running downards, continuing down his neck and vanishing underneath his collar. “I've been looking for her for a while already. I've got some questions for her.” He thought he had the right woman. But he wasn't sure, aside from mentioning her profession and the red hair. The people had been rather vague. Probably because they didn't know her that well either. “Just some questions about that entire.... pregnancy business.” shyke this felt uncomfortable and the conversation was just started as well. “You are Taylani right.” By the gods, please let her be the right person so I didn't embarrass myself even worse.

[Taylani]

Taylani slipped from the tent, her hands carrying a basket of basil leaves. She was an apprentice Midwife, under Sharika Nightsong. Today's task was simply delivering clippings of basil to the early pregnant women to help alleviate nausea that came with pregnancy. Her own nausea was mild, and only seemed to really happen when she got a good strong whiff of onion. Any sort of onion and she was loosing the contents of her stomach, even though she was entering her second trimester in a matter of days.

Her dancer's training kept her limbs willowy and long, her height topping out at five foot eight inches, and her body being the thin build it was easy to see the slight bump of her stomach. Adjusting the basket on her hip, Taylani didn't notice another before he slipped up on her and asked after her. Turning, one brow cocked up over her blue eye in askance, even as she surveyed his form. No windmarks readily visible but that didn't mean anything, but his common had an accent that she couldn't identify. He could be Drykas, he could be a volunteer captive, or he could be one of those few men that volunteered only because their sisters or mothers were taken. Those were surprising plentiful, more then she thought she would meet.

"Yes I am Taylani..though I am merely apprenticed to a Midwife." Her body was relaxed, and though she held no love for the culture that had ripped her from her comfort zone, she no longer had the razor sharp edge of anger and rage that boiled just below the surface. That had boiled away, along with her old self, leaving a new shell that had yet to be filled with new feelings and thoughts. At least that is what it felt like to her. She smiled at his discomfort, remembering how her cheeks had reddened speaking of the act which she had been purchased for. She was not a cruel person but she couldn't help trying to make him squirm just a little more.

"Sure, do you need to know how to get a girl pregnant?" She had lost some of her modesty, she was no where near as free as the Drykas but she didn't mind making a gentle joke, though for a moment it occurred to her that he might actually want to know that. Then it was her turn to blush, her fair skin turning pink easily, and she coughed to cover her own blunder. "But yes I am Taylani. What would you like to know." Please don't let him ask about the act...

[Anton Stormtamer]

Anton relaxed a bit as it seemed he had the right woman on the first try. That was good at least. "Well you probably still know more then me anyway." He said slightly relaxing. When she asked if he needed to know how to get a girl pregnant he flushed a bright red as he shook his head. His nerves shooting back immediatly. After a few moments of trying to get his tongue to do anything else then sputter and stutter. he finally managed reply "No. Nono. I know how that works! I want to know something else! Something else entirely." "My mum told me those facts years ago. I don't want to hear them again if I can help it. No, I would.. er, actually like to know how to keep a girl from getting pregnant. Other then the.. err.. obvious solution." He lowered his voice as he said that, wringing his hands nervously, there weren't that many other drykas hanging around and he doubted asking about it would be forbidden or punished. But it probably was frowned upon in this situation. He didn't want to get into trouble or get word back too his owner that he was asking around for those things. If his sister didn't get pregnant he would be the first one to be suspected then. He awkwardly waited her response. "I mean if you want re-compensation I still have some miza's with me." he nervously began to dig through his coat for his purse.

[Taylani]

She tilted her head once more, tossing her red hair over her shoulder. Once she had agreed to stay within Endrykas, Taylani had tried to wear her hair in braids Drykas-fashion. She didn't like it, and it seemed that Fallan had preferred it loose as well. She flushed still when she thought of how he described it down and loose, but she had quit wearing it in the braids. It was still an oddity, though it had been around thirty days since he had given her her freedom, that she sought to do little things that pleased him. Especially in light of the rape and their..tumultuous relationship had been last season.

"The obvious being just not having intercourse?" She asked, trying to dispel the slight flush, this was going beyond a gentle off-colored joke, but she would have to get used to these types of questions. "Are you Drykas, or here willingly?" Her voice gentled, she knew all too well the trials of being a captive against her will. If that was indeed what he was then there was little she could do. "I assume since you sought me out that she..uh... she manages to ..have you ..complete the act?" This was definitely getting into territory that she was unused to speaking so frankly about. Yet again, she knew she had to get past this modesty and embarrassment. She was pregnant it is not as if no one realized she knew what caused it.

"There is very little you could do to prevent her from getting pregnant..other then um.. pulling out so that your seed spills onto the bedroll. That is not ..guaranteed but it would drastically reduce the chances of conception." Taylani felt her cheeks flaming, but she kept her head high, Sharika would have been proud to see her pushing forward. "Now there are some herbs, that if you can get her to eat on a daily basis that would reduce her fertility..so that when you ..engage in sexual intercourse your seed will be less likely to take hold..But she would have to ingest it regularly.."

[Anton Stormtamer]

“Err, yes other then that.” The fidgeting didn't stop, if anything else it just got slightly worse after the woman actually said intercourse. HE shook his head violently at the question if he was a drykas or if he was here willingly. “I'm a slave, just like the rest of the non-drykas here.” That was exactly what they were, they weren't allowed to leave, they weren't allowed too plan out their own life. It might have been gentile slavery. But metaphoric and emotional chains were still chains and no matter how they tried to justify it. It was still slavery and ripping the freedom away from people. When she began talking about him completing the act he looked at her with a mixture of confusion and disgust obvious in his face. What did he have to do with the entire act? He wasn't the one... getting busy.. with his sister. the very thought let his stomach churn uncomfortably. Better to clear up that misunderstanding. “Oh, no it's not for me. I'm coming here for my sister." he interjected, flushing just as red as she was now. "She would have come herself. But she was... otherwise occupied...” The underlying anger in his tone made it pretty clear who was busying herself with what and that if he could get away with it that person would be castrated or worse. “I don't think I can convince him to pull out whenever he does that. He wants the kid, my sister doesn't.You can probably figure out yourself who I'm going to side with.” Not to mention the very idea of starting this talk with his owner was not something he looked forward to. “I think those herbs would work though. It won't be much of an issue to take them when he is looking. You know where I can get them?” He hoped in qalaya's name that the healers didn't keep them under lock and key in these times when they needed population to boom. “And you said that they didn't work completely. Are there any ways to, you know, fix the problem if those herbs don't work enough?” If he had been still in zeltiva he probably would have felt bad for suggesting that. After all, the child couldn't really help this entire thing. Still, he wasn't going to give the slavers another metaphorical chain to keep his family enslaved here and if that child would never be born because of it. He wouldn't lay awake because of it.

[Taylani]

Taylani's blue eyes narrow, a hard fire lit beneath those blues when he lumped all non-Drykas as slaves. She had languished all of the past season fighting the slave title, and won. She was not going to let this one place it back around her neck, like an invisible collar. "I am not a Drykas...and I am not a slave." Her words were slow, but each syllable thrummed with annoyance, and her chin lifted her spine stiffening. If Fallan had been there he might have been able to warn the other to be careful with his words, the last time Taylani's ire had been roused and continued to be roused Fallan's flesh had ended up beneath her fingernails.

"Do you not think that they won't find out? Do you think that you can simply make her never get pregnant?" Taylani questioned, her annoyance still having her hackles raised but also sympathy. However apparently this one's owner had not been so...blunt with what would happen should they resist..or deal with the child. She herself had threatened Fallan that any child he got on her by force she would see that it would never draw breath. "I thought you were having a dalliance. I can not in all honesty do what you want me to do to your sister. Do you know what they will do if she doesn't become pregnant? They will continue to bed her. Over and over, do you wish that for her?" She reached out to try and take his arm, hoping to drag him away from the tent she had exited. She did not like having to relive what Fallan had threatened her with last season, for it did nothing but stir up the confusion of her feelings for him, but this one needed to hear the cold truth.

"I threatened my lover with the same thing. I told him that any child gotten upon me by rape would be killed before it drew breath." Even saying that caused her to drop her hand once more to press against the small mound of her stomach. She had threatened that before she had ever been pregnant, and before she realized that the instant she realized that she was ..that this child was hers. It still made her blood run cold that she had callously threatened. "He told me that if I harmed a child that I would be put in real chains...and have many 'lovers' and bear many lovers' children. All the while living the rest of my life out in chains. Do you want that for your sister?"

[Anton Stormtamer]

Anton didn't believe her. “That's what they want you to think. We aren't drykas. We aren't getting compensated for what do for them. The majority of us didn't want to come here, we can't leave here either. We can't do anything else then whatever they want or allow us to do. Pulled to a place you don't want to go, being unable to leave the place and not being allowed to do anything unless it serves them. They sold us as if we are just an animal or something else you can own. If you don't call that slavery then what is?” He retorted. “Just because they don't chain us doesn't mean we aren't slaves.” A cold chill went down Anton's spine as she pointed out the flaws in his plan. Taking the wind out of the sails of his argument. The idea of his sister being raped while in chains let him grit his teeth in anger. If any of them tried that, he would give them a one way trip to fyrden. Let them choke to death on that world as they either freeze or burn to death. he didn't resist when she pulled him away from the tent. Him getting pissed. “What, you just want me to give up. Do nothing, let them have their way with them as they are planning anyway? Where is it going to stop if I don' t do anything? They aren't going to let her go after a single kid, she'll be kept here until she can't get pregnant any more. Who knows, maybe she'll die during childbirth from a kid she never wanted. She'll be kept like a slave in this place for the rest of her life then. Chains or no, she won't live a good life either way.” He wasn't shouting. But his words were holding enough of a grudge and hatred towards the people who pulled threw his world upside down that it had the same impact anyway. “If I don't, nothing changes and she'll stay here forever. If I do and she doesn't get pregnant then maybe they just think she is barren. If she can't pop out any kids then she isn't any use to them. Then they won't care about her anymore and just let her go... back to where she belongs.” His voice was cracking, rage just slowly leaking out of him. Would they let her go even if she couldn't bear kids. She knew things about medicine, maybe they wanted her to treat the people with infectious diseases. IF the drykas were heartless and cruel enough to resort to slavery then using outsiders to do their dirty work for them didn't seem to out of place in his mind. “Not be kept in this camp she never wanted to be in, surrounded by people who she can't understand most of the time and who just think of her as a womb. Same with my little brother who they're hoping that he'll forget he still has a mother and father who are probably worried sick because we didn't arrive in syliras before them. I was the one who got them in this mess thanks to my own stupidity.” He unconsciously rubbed the scars on his left arm. “Who do the drykas think they are anyway. Ripping people out of their lives just to help themselves?” half of what he said probably wouldn't convince the woman.

[Taylani]

Had this conversation been had last season then she would be right there with him, up in arms and spewing the rhetoric. She did not agree with the Drykas at all, in fact she still despised most of them for what they did to her. However she did not let them define her, she did not let them dictate her fate. "You can be a slave if that is what you really want to be. If you want to lay down and just give up and let them make you a slave be my guest but don't drag me down there with you. Yes I was captured. yes I was sold..but instead of looking only in the past I looked to the future and made a new path for me. Is it the path that I would have chosen given the chance? No it is not. But neither is it the path that refusing to adjust would force me on. I chose this path, and I was given my freedom. The Drykas were wrong, this is why I became a midwife so that captives did not have to have a windmarked barbarian helping them deliver babies..but we do ourselves no justice by not being smart."

She realized she was now lecturing, and she took a deep breath, to reign in her emotions. Her free hand still pressed to her belly, knowing that it was the raw wound of her own rape that caused her to be so ..irritable at being lumped as a slave. "It is not giving up when it is just finding a new path. She is not married to the man, and if she finds a nice boy here and wishes to marry then they are perfectly fine with that. They want you to become accustomed..and if you keep on this path..frankly if anyone has heard you say a little of what you just told me you would be considered a threat to the Drykas and killed."

Shaking her head, the red hair a water fall of color down her back, "I was bought, I was told I had to give him children..I was threatened with violent rape.. and I made a deal. There was little else for me to do, but the deal at least kept my body safe and gave me hope. Your sister needs hope, and not just flagrant vengeance that will only get you killed."

[Anton Stormtamer]

“Giving up? Me? Aren't you the one who just bended over to whatever they wanted you to do. Even helping them. Aren't you the one who gave up any hope of getting away from here and back to the life they took you from? Aren't you trying to talk me out of doing anything about the fact they're going to use my own sister as a broodmare and are planning to steal my younger brother from his family? Telling me that I should just accept it? You even say that they told you that either you would give in and get a child or that you would be raped till you got a child. Where is the choice in that? Either way, they get what they want. Not caring about what happens to you. You didn't make a new path for yourself. You just started walking the path they told you to walk. Exactly like a slave.” He threw the accusation that he wanted to be a slave right back in her face. He was looking for a way out. He was trying to protect his little brother and his older sister from bad people who turned their life upside down and this woman dared to say that doing that made him a slave? He took a few deep breaths. Whatever, arguing about who was the slave wasn't going to help either of them. She was already to far gone with whatever brainwashing the drykas were doing here for any help to matter. “Arguing about that slave thing isn't helping either of us here. Just making both of us angrier and angrier. Lets just drop it before we both say something that we'll regret later. Or something that gets me or anybody of my family killed later.” The more she had been talking the less the idea of staying here appealed to him. Forcing people in chains just because they didn't want to bed a man they never knew. Because they didn't want a child from him. The plague that was sent their way was well deserved. People like that made him sick. “I have to admit, you are at least right on the fact that my sister doesn't need me dying in some attempt to get vengeance. The drykas deserve worse then I can give them anyway.” That last barb might give him some trouble with the woman. But really, he doubted he was the only one who hated what happened to them. If the drykas expected that this would be met with open arms then they were morons. “Just have to figure out how to keep her spirits up.” making sure that their owner would keep her hands of her for a while would probably work. But he doubted that he could do that. “I thought that making sure that she wouldn't get.. pregnant.. from our owner would help with that. She really doesn't want it to happen.” He gave her a look. "What kept you upright before you came to terms with it." he didn't use the more, in his mind at least, appropriate gave up. He said that they would drop that. So he was going to keep that promise.

[Taylani]

She almost slapped him. Her hand actually balled into a fist in an effort to keep her arm at her side. How dare he reduce her fight, her struggle to find a place in the fate that Lhex had delivered to her. Her lips pressed into a hard line but he continued before her anger overflowed, so instead of releasing that anger she turned and with deliberate slowness put the basket she held down. "Oh make no mistake it was rape that got this child upon me. I was given no choice on that, Now any other children that I choose to bear will be mine. A choice." She didn't explain that the man who had purchased her had some how gotten her feelings all confused about him, had some how managed to make her feel warm and safe rather then violated and afraid. It was not something she could explain herself, let alone to anyone else.

"What got me through was knowing I was doing what had to be done. He promised me after two children weaned from my breast to take me back to Syliras. That kept me going, what keeps me here is hard to explain. Fallan gave me my freedom, released me from the bargain because he knew it was wrong." He had never said that the raids were wrong, just that his coercion of consent was wrong, but for Taylani's sanity she simply bases her thoughts on the fact that it is probably semantics. "This child is mine. Not just his, there is me in there too. If it is a girl she will need me to care for her, if it is a boy then I want to teach him what is right and wrong, and not leave that up to the Drykas."