“But males seek only to dominate women,” one of the young priestesses replied.
“And elves are notoriously duplicitous,” one of the others said.
“And halflings eat flesh,” added another with disgust.
“As do humans,” Varanna replied calmly. “We villichi do not eat flesh by choice, out of respect and veneration for other living creatures. Sorak is but a child, and he can be taught that same respect. Elves” lie, cheat, and steal because that is the way of their society, where skill in such things is a measure of accomplishment. That is not our way, and that is not how Sorak shall be taught. As for the attitudes of males toward women, such attitudes result from the society in which they are brought up. If you treat Sorak with respect and accept him as an equal, he shall respond in kind.”
“But even so, Mistress,” said Kyana, the priestess who had been chosen to present their arguments, “the mere presence of a male in the convent will be disruptive. He is not truly one of us, and never can be, for he was not born villichi.”
“No, he was not,” agreed Varanna. “In some respects, he is as different from us as we are different from other humans. And because we were born different, we were shunned. Should we now treat Sorak the way others treated us?”
“It is not a matter of how we shall treat him, Mistress, but how he shall treat us,” Kyana had replied. “He is a tribe of one. How much is known about this rare malady? You, yourself, Mistress, have said that you have only seen it twice before, and that only when you were very young. None of us has any way of knowing what this elfling may be capable of. He does not possess a normal mind. How do we know that we have not taken a serpent to our bosoms?”
“He does not possess a normal mind?” Varanna said, echoing Kyana’s words. “Is that what you truly said? Are any of us normal? Each of us is here because others have said the very same things about us. We do not judge people by their appearance, by their gender, or by their capabilities, but by what is in their hearts. We do not condemn anyone simply because they are different. Or do the things that we believe and teach here at the convent matter to us only when it is convenient? If we shrink from those beliefs when they are put to the test, then we make a mockery of them. I shall not discuss this matter any further. Let the choice be yours. But if you choose to expel Sorak from the convent, then you shall have to choose a new high mistress, as well. I promised the pyreen elder to give the elfling shelter and to care for him. I shall not break my word. If Sorak leaves, then so shall I.”
That had settled the matter of Sorak’s staying at the convent, but other problems remained to be solved. For a long time, Sorak did not speak, and Varanna was not certain if the silence resulted from his not knowing the human tongue, or from the trauma he had suffered. Varanna did not know whether he had been cast out of an elvish tribe or a halfling tribe, and thus wasn’t sure which language he had been exposed to. Then Sorak started having nightmares during which he cried out while he slept. He cried out in the halfling tongue for the most part, which suggested he had spent his first few years among a halfling tribe, but occasionally his words were elvish.
When he was awake, he never spoke at all.
Elder Al’Kali had done much to bring him back from the pitiful condition in which she had found him, but he was still weak, and his strength returned slowly. During his first few weeks at the convent, Sorak stayed with Varanna in her private chambers in the temple. Her repeated attempts to probe his mind continually met with failure. Either she was unceremoniously “tossed out,” or else it was as if she had encountered a stone wall. Nevertheless, she kept on trying.
When Sorak had started to recover his strength, she decided it would be best for him to take up quarters with the priestesses. It would help him assimilate into life at the convent, and would discount claims of favoritism. However, once again, when Varanna brought Sorak to one of the residence halls, there had been alarmed reactions. The priestesses did not have their own individual rooms or cubicles. They slept on the upper floors of the residence halls, with their beds all lined up against the walls. The lower floors were set aside as large common rooms, where they could work at their looms or other crafts, or merely socialize. When Varanna had a bed installed upstairs for Sorak, the other women, especially the younger ones, became rather disturbed.
“But... he cannot sleep here!” one of them had said, a fifteen-year-old whose bed would have been next to his.
“And why not?” Varanna asked.
“But, Mistress... how shall we disrobe?”
“By pulling your robes over your heads, the way you usually do,” Varanna said. “Unless there is a new method of disrobing I am not familiar with.”
“But, Mistress... the boy shall see!” the young priestess protested.
“What of it?” asked Varanna, testily. “Are you ashamed of your body? Or does your nakedness make you feel vulnerable before a male, even one who is merely a boy? If that is the case, then you shall always feel vulnerable, for clothing makes the poorest sort of armor.”
“It... it is not seemly,” another young priestess stammered hesitantly.
Varanna raised her eyebrows. “Are you suggesting that my actions are improper?”
“N-No, Mistress, but... but... he is a male, after all, and if he should see us naked, it will give him lewd ideas.”
“Will it, indeed?” Varanna asked. “What sort of lewd ideas?”
The priestess blushed. “You... you know.”
“No. Tell me.”
The priestess took a deep breath while the others gathered around, watching to see how she would reply. “Males think of only one thing when it comes to women,” she said.
“Ah, I see,” Varanna replied. “And you are all so frightened and defenseless that, you are afraid of a mere boy?”
“No, Mistress, of course not, but...” she took a deep breath and plunged on. “It will create tension and disharmony.”
“Only if you allow it to,” Varanna replied. “Sorak is but a child. His thoughts and attitudes about such things are not yet formed. If you accept him and treat him as a brother, then he will grow to love and accept you as his sisters. If you teach him respect for women, that is what he shall learn. But if you hide your bodies from him, as if they were unnatural, then he will grow curious and come to look upon a naked female body as forbidden fruit. And if you treat him differently simply because he is a male, then he will grow to treat women differently, simply because they are female. If there are things about the way that males act and think you find objectionable, then here is your opportunity—to form the character of a male who does not act and think that way. And if your best efforts fail in this task, then perhaps there is some fault in the way you act and think.”
“He may place his bed beside mine, Mistress,” said a firm, young voice. “I am not afraid.”
Varanna turned toward Ryana with a smile. At six, she was the youngest priestess at the convent, and in many ways she was different from the others. Unlike most villichi, who were born with blond hair and blue or light gray eyes, Ryana’s hair was absolutely white and her eyes were a striking bright green. She was also more normally proportioned, tall for a girl and slender, but lacking the elongated limbs and neck of most villichi. Judging by outward appearance alone, it Would have been difficult to tell she was villichi. However, she had been born with powerful psionic abilities and a strongly independent spirit, which resulted in her being intelligent beyond her age. She had been at the convent only a little less than a year. Her frustrated and beleaguered parents were poor people from Tyr with four other children, all of whom had been born normal. They had been more than happy to surrender the responsibility of caring for Ryana, who had proved more than they could handle. “You see?” Varanna said. “The youngest and the smallest among you has a heart that is stouter and braver. The rest of you should look to Ryana for an example of what it truly means to be villichi.”