Sixty-EightKanik
Ayla put on her sandals, but her entire body was tense. While she put her hair up, I headed for the living room, wanting to know what exactly had happened. There, Zasen sat in one of the chairs, bent over his knees.
"Help me out here?" I begged.
He looked up. "Sex hurts."
"Give me more?" I told him.
He sighed heavily. "Kanik, that's why she didn't want to get married. All this time, we've been thinking it was the ownership and abuse, right? But no. She said sex is pain. Men enjoy it, but Eve's curse makes it hurt women. Then, just to top that off, the women are bred over and over, producing children until they die."
"In childbirth," Rymar said as he came out of the kitchen carrying a pair of beers. "Now stop and think about what Ayla looked like when we found her."
"Skinny," Zasen said. "Malnourished, weak, and not in a state where she could safely deliver a child."
"So what do you want to bet they're all like that?" Rymar asked. "I mean, if the men eat first, most, or whatever shit they do, then all the women are going to be in bad shape."
"And pregnancy would then become fatal," Zasen said. "Either from a lack of muscle to push, being pulled down by the demands of the fetus, or a million other things. Mom would call that a high-risk pregnancy, and most likely do surgery instead of natural birth."
"Mm..." I murmured, taking all of it in. "But why did you tell her you slept with Lessa?"
"Because she keeps saying things are improper," he muttered, sounding ashamed. "I thought that if I showed her it wasn't, let her see a woman who doesn't care about the opinions of others, then it might help her reconsider what she's allowed to do."
"Like fuck you?" I asked.
Letting out a sigh, he reached up to scrub at his face. "I was actually thinking more about touch. I mean, yesterday she actually touched me. Okay, she was feeling my scales, but it was the first time she's ever really, I dunno..."
"Been personal," Rymar finished for him.
"Yeah," Zasen agreed. "So I thought I'd double down. If sex is allowed simply because someone wants to, then all those other little things she's scared of would be okay too, right? But yeah. I didn't see this coming."
"Although it makes sense," I pointed out.
Rymar gave me a confused look. "It does?"
"We've known their marriages aren't consensual. We've known women are traumatized down there. We're well aware rape is a common thing, buried under layers of their screwed-up religion. So why is it shocking for her to believe sex would be torture?"
"Just..." Zasen tossed himself back in the chair. "Kanik, make sure she knows we're not going to do that to her?"
"Promise," I said.
Then a hint of a smile touched Zasen's lips. "But, guys? There's one good thing."
"Oh?" Because I sure as hell wasn't seeing it.
That whimsical look flashed on his face again. "She yelled at me."
"Yelled?" Rymar asked.
Zasen nodded. "With anger and everything."
"Nice," I breathed just as Ayla opened the bathroom door.
The three of us turned in time to see her step into the room. Her hands were clasped before her. She'd put her hair up in that severe bun at the back of her neck again. Worse, her eyes were locked on the floor as her demure mannerisms took over.
"Ready to go have fun?" I asked. "And talk? Probably lots of talking, I bet."
She sucked her lower lip into her mouth, then nodded. "Okay. And I'm sorry I was rude earlier."
"Ayla..." Zasen said, keeping his tone gentle. "I told you that you should ask. You didn't do anything wrong. You let us know what we needed. Remember how I said that sometimes you wouldn't like the answer?"
She nodded, but it was a tiny movement.
"Well, sometimes we won't either, and that's okay," he promised. "This time, we simply don't like the answer because it means our friend has been scared and we didn't stop it. It makes us realize we've been failing you."
"But you haven't!" she insisted, finally looking up.
Zasen smiled at her. "We have. Now, because we know, we can fix it." Then he gestured to the door. "And while you're out, make Kanik buy you some things for your new room, okay?"
"I don't need much," she promised.
I simply opened my arm in a gesture for us to head towards the door. "But you still need some. We can at least pick colors. What do you think?"
That earned me the smallest little smile. "Okay."
She headed for the door and I fell in behind her, but the guys didn't call goodbye to us. The mood in the house was heavy, and if I could feel it, I could only imagine Ayla was being smothered by it. That was why I wanted to get her out.
And Rymar's little suggestion was a good one. Buying vegetables sounded nice and safe. It also meant stopping by Jeera's stall to do so. I was pretty sure that once I explained what had happened, she'd take over and make all of this sort itself out somehow. Besides, hearing from a woman? That was exactly what Ayla needed right now.