things were to be placed. Lara sighed loudly, and asked him to stop nattering, because the ladies were trying to discus important matters. Kolb folded up the map and put it away, his ire obviously up at least a bit, easily seen by the tense set of his jaw and shoulders. After that things just kept getting worse.
She kept it up the whole time, not sparing any of the men at all and saying derisive things about them as if they were too dumb to notice it. If she'd been drinking they could have written it off, maybe, but her tea smelled like leaf water, nothing stronger and she didn't slur her words or anything of that nature, she just kept on insulting the men.
Even the women with them started to get worked up after a while, shifting uneasily and going pale several times, like when she implied that the Prince might be mentally defective, or that Kolb's best possible service to the world would be learning to sew and service his wife in bed. Finally Tor knew he had to either leave now and go back to the ship for the night for some sleep, or go and leave, never to come back. Hopefully his own mother aged more… sanely. This woman in front of him seemed almost like she wanted to push them into going to war or at least into killing her.
It was looking close to that really. And she wondered why people always tried to kill her?
No wonder the whole land was messed up, if she'd been riding men like that for millennium non-stop. She wouldn't have been happy breaking their spirits either, she wouldn't rest until she broke their very patterns, which had probably been what happened to them all. Finally, almost reluctantly, Tor had to call her on it. It wasn't polite or kind of him, or very diplomatic, but it needed to be said for his own peace of mind. Besides, She'd basically been declaring war on Noram for over an hour by insulting Rolph like that. Kolb may be mad, and Tor felt a little put out himself, a lot really, but saying things like that about the heir to the throne was insanely stupid. Rolph kept his cool, but it was starting to become difficult to ignore.
“I'm sorry, but you really have some incorrect ideas about men Lara. Real ones I mean, not ones broken by your genetic tampering to sap their will and damage their intelligence so that you can live in your little fantasy world where you and your “daughters” live the perfect life. I have to tell you that if you degrade and deride even ten percent of your population as a culture, then your culture is ill and going to fail in the end.” His voice was, surprisingly enough, calm and matter of fact, not angry or pissy sounding.
She looked shocked. Like he'd thrown his beverage at her or tipped the table over.
“What? I don't know what you’re talking about. Men are treated as total equals here.” The list she gave them, describing what men did to prove her point, was a joke. The home making and child rearing parts were the highlight. Really the only valid work they were allowed. Even their hobbies were controlled to a degree that made him squirm. Knot tying? Most of the men practiced decorative rope work… Not a bad thing, but it was almost all they were allowed to do for fun, that and weaving goat silk or tending the herds.
“You honestly can't see it? Just totally blind to it? Right in front of you and…” Tor waved a hand in front of his own face, past his eyes. “Nothing? You've led an entire part of the world to hate an entire gender, and I mean to the point of severely abusive behavior and it isn't that you justify it, or try to explain, you can't even see that you’re doing it at all? I'm certain you aren't stupid, probably the smartest person in Afrak… so… are you insane? Have you simply lived so long in your own world, one of your personal making, that you can't understand that things could be done differently?”
Tor rose and began to walk out.
“I can't change your culture, or order you to respect your own people, but I can insist you don't insult people, men in this case, who came across half the world to help you do something you haven't managed on your own for a thousand years or more. If you can't bring yourself to apologize to mere men for your behavior, we'll just leave in the morning.”
Tor dropped the letter on the table and walked out. If she'd just insulted him he could have swallowed it, but she'd been insulting his friends. By insulting and questioning Rolph like that, she was insulting Noram directly too. If what they had to offer wasn't worth basic politeness, then they could leave. Maybe go to Soam. They were supposed to be incredibly polite there, if a little odd. Whatever, it would work out. Tor started setting up his carriage so Kolb, Wensa and Trice did the same. They were all pushing the size limits of the craft, but it would work.
“Court Jester! Court Jester! Tor! Wait, please! I… I came to apologize for the elder, the old sometimes forget their manners, things change and they fail to adapt, I… don't want to lose the rivers. No one else in the world has them or anything close at all. Without them this project won't start, possibly not for another thousand years.” Her voice was plaintive and he thought of her as a friend, but the matter wasn't about her at all. So he had to shake his head.
“Mutta, you don't even think I made the rivers, do you? You can just go to Noram and find the woman who did then, and ask her couldn't you?” His tone wasn't accusing, just suggestive, as if it were a real option instead of basically telling her to go on a wild goose chase. He was tired of these people already though. Who brought someone across the world to do things for them and then just insulted them, over and over again?
His own family apparently.
Lovely.
Violence not happening there or not, she still clenched her fists in frustration. Tor looked at her and then at her hands. Finally she looked down and gasped slightly, clearly embarrassed by her own implied threat. Tor shrugged.
“It's never fun to hear you and your whole culture has holes in it. They all do, just like everyone has weak spots. But… seriously, you've seen our culture and how women are treated and you saw that in there. Do you think we can be anything but insulted right now? Wouldn't you be? Tell me that if the roles were reversed you'd have been fine with it, and mean it, and I'll get up in the morning and go start working on those rivers, even if no one else will.” Arms crossed and head tilted he waited for a denial or more protests, something.
Instead she sighed.
“Have you ever tried leading a stubborn most Ancient being around and make her apologize? She's never been like this before, not even with the Tellerand, and they're hard to deal with, always insisting others pray and fast as they do and take up their ways. Please… Court Jester, give me some time to get to the bottom of this before you leave? I've worked too hard, for my entire life, to have a fit of anger ruin it now, yours or hers. I'll make her apologize. Can you meet us here in the morning before you ready to go? I'll be going with you to set up the rivers.” The voice went matter of fact then. Confident as if she knew for a fact that Gray would be doing as she'd promised.
Everyone else stood around looking at them, Rolph had good control of his face, but Karina and Trice looked ready to hit someone and Wensa actually fingered her weapons in the small cloth pouch on her right hip. One of the male Royal Guards held a force lance in his hand and faced a growing crowd of women, no, Tor realized there were men too, peeking shyly from the back of the group, looking at them through their long lashes. There were men here, it was just that they were all so docile, so gentle, that he mistook them for women.
A prejudice of his own? Probably. Tor would have to reconsider his thinking on the topic then. After all he knew Wensa, Trice and Karina… and all the women with Kolb, those in the Royal Guard, even the Queen… Most of the women he knew were anything but docile.
Fine, he'd fix himself then.
Take the person for who they were alone. It wasn't the easiest way to do things, but who ever said the easy way was best?
Nothing wrong with not being an overbearing jerk, of course, and he couldn't fault the men here for being what Lara and her family had created. That he was her family too bothered him a little. She was overbearing, pushy about it and couldn't see that her own way might not be the only way. In other words, she was his mother.
Tor winced visibly, which caused half the people behind him to tense up and ready themselves to fight and Mutta to take notice. The crowd missed it all, but then, as pointed out, they didn't have violence. A single Noram child with a stick could have cowed the whole lot of them without even landing a blow.
“Fine. We'll be here in the morning and ready to go to work. I won't really insist that your life's work hinge on the whims or convoluted plans of my own grandmother, but… seriously Mutta… she tried to infect a peaceful delegation with something, including two members of the royal family! I'm kind of surprised that Wensa and Kolb didn't kill her on the spot. That's an act of war, you know that don't you? She needs to do something to make that right. I'd suggest vast amounts of bowing and scraping. She's old enough to have gotten past her own ego by now, if not I suggest she learn quickly.” Sighing he shook his head.
