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Summary: Ross and Katrina both get a message about the sudden testing of all slaves, though not much is explained to Ross.


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@Ross:

A young man ran up to the small group of trainees. Ross had been conducting an exercise away from the main compound, very near the woods. He didn't expect to be interrupted. He was generally trusted and people understood why some of these training exercises had to be done away from the main population of Eldic Estates, and where fewer people might get hurt. The women trusted him to report on events acurately afterwards, and the women who didn't trust him believed that trainees would complain if any thing untoward happened. This gave him a great advantage for growing the rebellion in Eldic Estates, as long as he didn't take advantage of it too often.

The messanger ran noisily in the undergrowth until he was knelt down at Ross' feet, panting. Internal messages like this one were never on paper, but rather memorized and repeated verbatim. "From Myste--" ah yes, the woman who had annoyingly risen in power with Ross-- "This training session is over. Emergency meeting. Return soldiers to barracks, come to my office immediately." Myste was about the same level as him but women like that would often relay commands to him without bothering to mention that they came from higher up originally. That way if he disobeyed or dallied, they might be able to get him in some minor trouble for it.
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@Katrina

Katrina recieved a similar message with more polite phrasing. "Come to Myste's office immediately," the message stated. Katrina already knew part of the reason for the commotion. A traveling slave trader had met with Isabel and Marean earlier that morning and since then people had been bustling around with super important things to do. She was asked earlier that day for a summary of the number of slaves on the compound and some related information.

She was told that her records should be open and ready for additions. Surely this had something to do with that, although usually a statement like that simply meant that they had recieved new slaves. They had recieved new slaves, in fact, but they had already been processed by her that morning. This was something more important.

Ross knew the game that was being played. All the women played it with him, since he was such a high ranking MAN in the military here. They would never mention if anyone else had ordered the order, so he would always have to figgure out if he could delay on the order. This wasn't the case, so he would have the men return to their barracks. "Jack! You heard the man. Take the men back to the barracks, I've got an sudden appointment to attend." He shouted over to his second in command, a young man, who was pretty good. Jack nodded his head, waved an arm, then started shouting orders at the troops training.

Ross winced as the formation fell down. Pikemen. How he hated to train pikemen. Mostly, since begining pikemen, like these, were totally unused to the fourteen foot pole arm they carried. Jack walked over, shouting cusses, curses, and obsenaties at the men. He would never use such language around most women, but it helped to vent frustration at the troops. Ross shook his head and turned his horse away from the unit. He started back on the way to Myste's office. He would arive later then Katrina, since he had farther to go.

There was a knock at the door as Ross knocked on the door. He knew where Myste's office was, so he wasn't going to ask for directions of anything. He was just letting the two women know that he had arived. He could bet that Myste had started already, leaving him, the man, behind. Of course, it always happened like this, and irked him. Not enough that he would do something about it, but enough. It also was this way when under a female in the field. Them taking all the credit for the brilliant manuver, even when their slave had gotten the idea. Or, delaying information to a man which could have saved lives.

"Come in," she called in a singsong voice. When she saw it was Ross she turned back to Katrina. The lucky b*****d had come in at the right time, because she couldn't avoid answering the other woman's question.

"They're all to be tested concerning their breeding capacity. We've been using a lot of guesswork to choose our stock for their ability to pass on the magic gene...but now there is a test for it." Her eyes sparkled. In a society where magic was so important, any test that could clarify the matter would eliminate confusion on the subject, making the powerful more powerful and the powerless with nothing to fall back on. Women would become more equal in their superiority over the men as the magic gene was spread with more acuracy to the next generation.

"The test should not incapacitate any of the men, but there will be a lot of juggling as we get the results back. You may find some of your best soldiers pulled for occassional breeding work, at least as long as we are in a time of peace, I guess..." She caught herself speculating and broke her train of thought with a "Well! Ross, I expect you to help Katrina rotate the soldiers for this test, since their jobs are the hardest to live without and the hardest to fill. When there are updates for me on who we have at hand, I expect you to bring them to me so that Katrina may remain at her work. I've already run the analysis for how many soldiers we can spare from each checkpoint."

She handed him a sheet of paper. The analysis would not be a complete disaster, since she was not a complete moron, but her estimates for how many soldiers they need might be a little low. "I'll be talking to the women workers to see how many of them would be willing to help cover these spots."

Ross figgured he had been lucky, because Myste was just explaining something. He sat down as she was explianing. Figgures it would be something rather pointless like this. Did it even matter if they had more magic users? Not really, they had enough, in his opinon.

He took the analysis, and looked it over. His first thoughts were thinking about how she had some how managed to avoid a complete disaster. "Excuse me, captian, but you are leaving each checkpoint understaffed for the minium. Even with the women works to help, they will not make up the differenace in... Skilled... fighters. If they are understaffed, then who knows what might be able to get in." He added the last part of Katrina, since she was there, and her compfort could be at stack if they were attacked.

"You are right, my skills are greatly needed. Its not like there is somebody else that can do my job as well as I can." Katrina's eyes were pointedly marking the other woman as the target of the comment.
"You do not have to worry. I will preform my duties and trust the judgment of our matron." With that Katrina tucked her book under her arm.
"Now if you exuse me, I have matters to attend to. Ross, we shall go start on the new schedule."