....A matter of procreation.
Mother and Father Ne'tur called little Minerva to the table, both faces dower or steadfast respectively.
"Yer muther 'n ahy need ta talk tue yah. Siddown." Father Ne'tur wasn't, by farmer standards, an uneducated man. Minerva thought otherwise. However, Father Ne'tur was four or five times Minerva's size... So she sat.
"We been talkin' 'n it's high time yew g't used'ta yer place'n life. Ah think it's high time ta put 'em useless books 'way 'n 'come a women like yer muther."
Mother Ne'tur turned her eyes down to the table and offered nothing in her daughters defense. Mother Ne'tur was by scholar standards, a well educated women. It was Mother Ne'tur that taught her to read.
"Yer ready ta marry girl. We seen the blud."
The girl, not just ten years old both blinked and paled at the same time. She too had seen the blood and tried desperately to hide it. She knew how the community was. Old enough to bleed... Old enough to breed,and that was certainly the very last thing she wanted. Sex was something her village did as a matter of procreation. She looked to her mother, easily her fathers junior by twenty years.
"Mama?.... Please... I..."
"Minerva.. I'm sorry. This is... This is the way it has to be." Her mothers eyes never left the table.
"But..."
"We'llpack yew up 'n tomorra yew'll go ta see Thomas de Butch'r. Yew've been promised."
The pale went further. Thomas the Butcher was sixty years old at least and unmarried only because he had out lived his first wife. "Papa.. You can't. I mean, I.. I'll marry. That's fine, what about someone my own age. Please? Please?"
"Nae girl. He offer'd a handsome dowry."
So that's what it was about. Gold. But then again, wasn't everything.
"I see." She stood from the table.
"Minerva?" Her mother asked stifling a sniffle. "Where are you going?"
"To pack my things."
That night, obviously, Minerva did indeed pack her things a her father suggested. She bundled it all up tight, said good-bye to the little barn kitten her mother let her keep in her room and snack away in the dead of night. She'd miss her closest friend, but she wasn't sure if she'd even make it as far as the city, and she wasn't going to risk the young kittens life. Besides, she considered, she was sure her mother could use the company.
A week and a half later a half starved girl found herself on the busy city street of the university town. The dead of night she found she wasnÕt welcomed at any door. The Illusionists weren't open to humans. The necromancers wouldn't even open the door. The rest of the Schools didn't accept women, that is, until she stumbled to the door of the Scarlet Sorceress School of Thalamic Fascination and Girls Finishing School. She knocked. At first no one answered. She knocked again. In a time, the door creaked open.
"Can I help you?" Asked a rather stern looking matron type.
"Yes... My.. My name is Minverva and I"ve come a long way. I... I want to be a Thalmitists." Leaning agents the door way if only to prevent herself from completely falling over.
"Young lady... Do you have any idea how much it costs to even just enroll with our school? We are not just a charity. Seek a church you want that. Now why don't you go home? You cannot come in."
"I cannot go home. I... I have no where else to go."
The old witch smirked. "Then why not stay on the step. I'm sure if you stay long enough someone ought take pity on you, like a little lost kitten." She'd meantthe words to be biting and hurtful. Minerva wouldn't let her have it.
"Thoughtful advice madam. Thank you. I shall do that."
And she did. And she sat. Sat right there for almost three days, careful to stay out the way. When asked what she was doing her answer was always the same. "Waiting for someone to teach this lost kitten magic."
Persistence seemed to be a virtue the Schools head Mistress appreciated. In time she herself came to the steps where the now fully starving girl sat.
"So this is the orphan making such a scene at my doors ahy?"
Minerva looked up and had to shake her head twice. The figure before her almost too unbelievable to imagine. This, she decided, must be Carmine De'lemore, Grand High Enchantress of the Relm. Her name was familiar to anyone who lived anywhere near this place. A women so beautiful, they said, she made nymphs cry. Hair so soft they say the Great Crystal Mother must have weaved it by hand right out of the dreams of children. The color the same as the perfect scarlet robes she wore. "I... I want to learn magic. No one will teach me."
"And your parents little kitten?"
"I... Can't go back. They want me to marry a man six times my age. He won't even let me read."
The women's brilliant emerald eyes softened from a sparkling humor to sympathy. "I see. And reading is important to you."
"Learning ma'am. There is nothing else I live for."
"I see." Lips like blood on snow turned to a soft perched smile. "Lets see how you feel with some food in your stomach. Boys?" Two... Well lets be polite... healthy young assistants lifted Minerva from the step and took her into the school and Carmine's private library.
.....A matter of recreation.
Minerva, contrary to popular opinion, had in fact slept with one man in her life. It was her sophomore year there at the collage. Spring festival. For the Enchantress School, that meantit was time to practice all the things they'd learned in the past year. Nary a girls dorm hadn't at least three fully enchanted men waiting, beacon call. Minerva sat on her bed trying to get just a little more study in. Difficult with the... Goingings on in the rest of the room. Illiandra and Sophia, Minverva's roommates, had actually picked up a whole squad of the watch. (The girls dorm was known to house the three most promising Enchantresses in the whole of the school. Illiandra and Sophia for their unique manner of casting together to amazing success and Minverva both for her young age and because her drive was unmatched by the whole rest of the school together.)
The other girls had of course encouraged Minerva to enjoy what they had picked up. She declined.
"No no... A he... That's quite all right girls, I uh... Have some further studying to do."
"Study study study..." Illiandra laughed musically.
".... You'll turn to a book you keep studying that way 'em?" Sophia met Illiandra's laughter. The men followed suit.
"Go ahead Herold... That was your name right?... Go detract the girl before her eyes fell out." Illiandra laughed and motioned and the youngest and possibly most nervous of them nodded, sweated a little harder and made his way to Minerva's bed. She couldn't blame the boy, he was heavily enchanted. A sigh, a twiddle of her fingers, a few words and she gave her command.
"Sit down and behave yourself and no one has to get hurt." The potency of the spell broke easily through the enchantments the girls had playfully put on him and he sat. Sighing? Perhaps relieved on some level.
"Your no fun. He won't be able to go anywhere till morning. Might has well have some..."
"I might as well keep him over here where he's safe from you two."
The girls laughed. "All right, all right, what evers your pleasure High Infantress." A nickname, and not a flattering one, she ignored it either way. Perhaps to punctuate, the girls started the orders to strip for the young watchmen. Illiandra and Sophia had sex as a matter of recreation.
Purple eyes passed the young watchmen. "You can't leave till tomorrow?"
He looked back slightly more then frightened. "I uh... I don't think so." Scratching the back of his head. "Damned if I know why though."
Her lips pursed and she pushed the purple strand out of her face. "You've been hypnotized. It will pass come morning I'm sure."
A frown. "What... What till then then?"
"You can lay there, keep your hands to yourself and we'll get along just fine." And I'll keep you safe from the gruesome twosome.
He of course, did as he was told. This wasn't really the type of man to put his hands anywhere they weren't welcomed. Or likely anywhere at all. He wasn't the type who deserved to be taken advantage of by the girls. Perhaps that's why Illiandra ordered him Minerva's way. That was also just the reason she would leave him to sleep on his side of her bed while she slept on hers.
