SWNOVELS Persuading (Chapter 20)
Ivy:
Small flies begin to swarm the breakfast which lies half-finished on a table at the side of the room. The bed remains unmade, the twisted sheets telling the story of last night’s activities.
Before us is a coffee table that Giddean slid close to the bed so we could sit on the bed while looking through some papers. Luckily most are in English and not native Pinn otherwise… well, I wouldn’t be much help.
Giddean spent breakfast explaining to me their plan to take down the High Priest. Then we spent the next few hours looking through the evidence some other priest sent over. Peering through the details, making notes of what Giddean might want to include in his speech.
It’s… it’s horrific. I don’t know how else to describe it. Details of abuse and torture line the sheets of paper. The very idea of what Giddean describes a priestess does is horrific to begin with, but layer on top the mistreatment they receive and… and I don’t know, it’s the stuff of nightmares.
I feel a deep sense of guilt. I know it’s not really my fault, but I have been living the life of luxury complaining about a partner that doesn’t expect much of me while these women- women who potentially traveled on that spaceship with me- have been in the claws of deranged Pinns. People do and overlook terrible things in the name of religion, in the name of anything really. People have committed horrors in the name of politics, race, I mean- they’ll hurt people because they believe people are just different, foreign maybe, or because they believe it’s in the service of a greater good… But when that is the case, is it the leader who needs to be removed? Or is it the organization? Or perhaps hardest of all, is it the belief that needs to be uprooted?
“If I start with the evidence of violence against the priestesses under the High Priest before moving on to…” Giddean pauses as he begins scribbling on the paper in front of him.
“It’s not enough, Giddean”
He looks up from his work at me, confused, waiting for me to continue.
“Even if you kick out this High Priest guy… someone will just pop up in his place. The whole religion treats the women like… well, like they are not people.” I shudder thinking back to some of the descriptions, “Even without the outright torture, the whole position of a priestess is based on women not have autonomy over their bodies- sex slavery really!” I get more and more upset as I talk so that a tear runs down my cheek by the end of it. I wipe it away quickly with the sleeve of Giddean’s shirt I’m wearing. I haven’t made it back to my own room yet.
Giddean frowns, no doubt rethinking his decision to bring me into the plot. He stares at the wall for a moment, not saying anything.
I take a deep breath. I wonder, is he’s going to tell me I don’t know anything about their world? I might have a fit if he does- maybe I’ll run screaming from the room. My emotions are on edge between the repugnant reading and our night together.
“I suppose you are right….” He begins setting down his pen and then rubbing his chin “although people will react strongly to their religion being challenged, not to mention if somehow, and I don’t see how we were to succeed in getting rid of the priestesses, there would be an uncontrollable population. Haringshude would be a city where most men would have no access to females- where only the rich could have access to them. Crime would go up. There would be riots…”
Giddean stands from the bed and begins pacing with his hands claps behind his back, his mind clearly turning as he thinks through the implications of what I said.
“No, I mean…. I get what you are saying. I don’t think we can expect you to take down an entire religion in one speech.” I take a deep breath thinking about how I want to put the next sentence “But… I think you need to put the idea out there, have people debate and think about it, let it marinade in their heads. Then people will come up with solutions, then maybe there can be demands made and laws passed providing more protections for the priestesses in the very least.”
Giddean stops pacing “Okay”
“Okay?” I’m shocked he agreed so easily.
He plops back on the bed causing it to shift. He glances down at the outline of the speech we have been working on and picks up his pen. “We’ll need to word it carefully. The focus needs to be on the wrongs of the organization, not any wrongs committed by the worshipers. That will be more palatable… Mmm”
“So you’re going to address it?” I ask still not convinced he really agrees with me. I mean, he has been saying that I don’t understand for so long that I had begun to believe it.
“Yes,” he reaches over and grabs my hand “we are going to show those fucking bastards that this shit is not acceptable.”