04.Mar.12, 05:07 PM
Breccan listened. She had spent her anger as she usually did, with a quick outburst, and it was no great struggle for her to stay calm. It was interesting to discover that Lym's family was in the South. She had no idea why that would be true, but if her family were here, if her brother was a Rider, doubtless she was exposed to the good parts of Katila, and not so much of the bad. She knew the dragons were the biggest draw to make stolen Candidates want to stay. It had half-worked on her already. Part of her hungered for that dragon-bond even though she knew little about it, even though she adamantly wanted to return to the North.
'Strongly suggested' was certainly better than forcing. It sounded like she would not be encouraged or required to bed a man to try and produce children unless she stopped standing. That wasn't so bad. It sounded, too, like the women were more than happy to reproduce in many cases. Breccan's interest here had been more personal than anything; she did not truly care if other women were 'strongly suggested' to push out children. As long as she, personally, wouldn't be forced into it, than it was not a very big deal. Of course, she'd be happy to use her knowledge of contraceptives to aid any women who didn't want that for themselves, and she did object to her gender being the one required to carry all the burden. For the most part, though, she was simply relieved she was not required to.
"Holdless would not be so bad," she admitted grudgingly, but she had an aristocrat's objection to living with such rabble, "Unless they're the criminals and exiles they're supposed to be. We hardly need to bring anyone here interested in robbing us blind. Third or fourth sons sit better with me. I know enough of them to know that they would grasp at any opportunity thrown their way."
She sipped her tea, exploring the flavors with interest. "The holdless might be more effectual, though. Few Holders' children know how to mend their own clothing, much less build a life for themselves. And I doubt they'd be suitable for dragons. Half of them are utter dolts," she spoke with disdain. As a Lord's illegitimate child herself, she'd known she'd have no chance of power, but her birth had resulted in plenty of association with those in more direct lines to rank. For the most part, she'd been unimpressed. Instead of Healer, she could have married one of them and hoped their elder siblings would die off, but as a group, they were so ineffectual she had never been able to stomach the idea. Controlling her husband was not something she wanted, but she knew it would have been easy as breathing. These men had few original thoughts and relied so often on others to solve their problems. She doubted that mindset would thrive in Katila. Perhaps criminals would do better. After all, weren't some of the dragonriders here little more than kidnappers? A criminal would probably feel right at home.
'Strongly suggested' was certainly better than forcing. It sounded like she would not be encouraged or required to bed a man to try and produce children unless she stopped standing. That wasn't so bad. It sounded, too, like the women were more than happy to reproduce in many cases. Breccan's interest here had been more personal than anything; she did not truly care if other women were 'strongly suggested' to push out children. As long as she, personally, wouldn't be forced into it, than it was not a very big deal. Of course, she'd be happy to use her knowledge of contraceptives to aid any women who didn't want that for themselves, and she did object to her gender being the one required to carry all the burden. For the most part, though, she was simply relieved she was not required to.
"Holdless would not be so bad," she admitted grudgingly, but she had an aristocrat's objection to living with such rabble, "Unless they're the criminals and exiles they're supposed to be. We hardly need to bring anyone here interested in robbing us blind. Third or fourth sons sit better with me. I know enough of them to know that they would grasp at any opportunity thrown their way."
She sipped her tea, exploring the flavors with interest. "The holdless might be more effectual, though. Few Holders' children know how to mend their own clothing, much less build a life for themselves. And I doubt they'd be suitable for dragons. Half of them are utter dolts," she spoke with disdain. As a Lord's illegitimate child herself, she'd known she'd have no chance of power, but her birth had resulted in plenty of association with those in more direct lines to rank. For the most part, she'd been unimpressed. Instead of Healer, she could have married one of them and hoped their elder siblings would die off, but as a group, they were so ineffectual she had never been able to stomach the idea. Controlling her husband was not something she wanted, but she knew it would have been easy as breathing. These men had few original thoughts and relied so often on others to solve their problems. She doubted that mindset would thrive in Katila. Perhaps criminals would do better. After all, weren't some of the dragonriders here little more than kidnappers? A criminal would probably feel right at home.