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 Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:25 am
Kyra  "I'm pregnant and I don't want to be, so I need you to make me something that will abort the pregnancy. I know you can do that." It was more nerve-wracking than Kyra had expected, making that demand of the dark lioness with eyes as pale as her own. When she was younger she had wished to have amber eyes like...like someone else. At the time she hadn't realized how disconcerting it could be to have eyes like that looking through you as if you were an insignificance. Uncomfortably she shifted her weight and tried not to let her tail twitch too much, despite her nerves. She was asking for something simple and straightforward. No curses, nothing to get her in trouble. Just an abortion. Nadja  The pride had any number of healers who could perform the task being asked of her, and Nadja really would have preferred that this lioness go to one of them. She didn't even know this lioness. Nadja would have loved to know how it had gotten around that she was someone people could come to if they had a fat belly that they wanted to rid themselves of. She wanted to know who they were so that she could kill them. "Look, whatever your name is, are you sure?" The other lioness had mentioned her name initially, but Nadja had promptly forgotten it, assuming that it would not be a useful piece of information in the future. Her question was deliberately ambiguous. The obvious question was whether she was sure she was pregnant. The less obvious, but actually more important question was whether she wanted Nadja to abort the pregnancy.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:30 am
Kyra "Yes." Kyra had never been pregnant before, which was something of a miracle considering the number of times she had used her body to lure people close enough for her to make them regret it before being brought to the Stormborn and the smaller number of times others in the Stormborn had used her body without her consent. Even so, Kyra recognized the signs, having observed them often enough in others, and when she started noticing that she was displaying symptoms more in line with pregnancy than simple illness she knew that this would not do at all and that was why she had sought out the lioness Nadezhda, who was supposed to be part of a family that practiced, well, anti-healing. Nadja An ambiguous question perhaps deserved an ambiguous answer, Nadja supposed, but that didn't make her any less irritated by the answer she received. "I feel obliged to point out that there are healers who are trained to deal with these sorts of things," Nadja informed the lioness. "And it is my personal preference that you bother them with tales of your irresponsibility." Nadja pulled on her invisible cape of hauteur. "I am training to be a priestess, and as such I have far more important matters to deal with than your inability to control your lustful urges. You look to me as though you should be old enough to know better than to have sex if you don't want cubs."
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 8:09 am
Kyra Kyra's eyes narrowed and her lips curled in a silent snarl at Nadezhda's patronizing tone and judgmental words. She had not willingly allowed a male to cover her since being taken as a thrall, and she resented the obvious assumption that this was her fault. "This was none of my doing," she growled. "I was overpowered by another lion and taken against my will." She hated that males could so easily do that, particularly in this pride, and with so little recourse. In the rogue lands she had been able to set things up so that a male who forced her would regret it, but here she had no means of seeking revenge or retribution. All she could do was what she was doing already. Nadja Nadja narrowed her eyes right back at the silly pregnant b***h. Did she really expect that to impress her? Whatever sort of pent up rage she felt toward her cubs' father, Nadja wasn't going to bear the brunt of it meekly. "That is unfortunate," she mock-sympathized. "But that sounds a great deal like a thrall's problem to me." Nadja hadn't made the connection until the lioness spoke of being forced that she might be dealing with a thrall. The angry lioness didn't carry herself like a thrall and she certainly didn't talk like one. Nadja might have respected her for this if she was in a different mood.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:56 am
Kyra Kyra seethed with rage and it came out of her in a rumbling growl as she exclaimed, "You're right! It is a thrall's problem." The Stormborn attitude toward thralls and their treatment infuriated Kyra. She was not a crusader for reform. She just didn't like to be subjugated and she resented every instance where she was. It didn't matter to her that her master was incredibly lenient and did not treat her like a thrall at all. She hated being enslaved. "Does the fact that I'm a thrall make it all right in your eyes that I am burdened with an unwanted pregnancy? That I was raped?" Nadja Nadja wasn't in danger of ever being in the position of the thrall before her and she really couldn't empathize. It was unfortunate, as she'd said before, but Nadja was even less of a crusader for thralls' rights than Jakyra. The plight of the thrall was of little interest to her. "It makes it acceptable in the eyes of the pride, unless your master objects to you being so used or impregnated. If that is the case, he or she may seek legal redress for the inconvenience your pregnancy will cause. I advise you to seek a lawspeaker if you want to go that way." That was really the only option Nadja was aware of for any sort of restitution to be made for what had happened to the thrall, and she felt that by telling the thrall of this option she had more than fulfilled her helpful quota.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:18 am
Kyra Kyra's rage had left her all at once when she realized that she wasn't going to receive any more assistance from Nadezhda than she already had, and that the only aid she had been offered was the advice to have her master seek legal redress. That would mean telling Erlendr that she had been raped, and she couldn't bring herself to do that. She couldn't bear to think how he would look at her if he knew. "I..can't do that. I can't tell him," she found herself saying as tears prickled at the back of her eyes. She would later regret this display of weakness and blame it on her pregnancy. "Please," she whispered. "Make this go away. I swear I will do anything you ask. Please." Nadja Nadja scowled. She didn't want to care about this thrall. If she cared about this one, she might have to care about others, and then she'd have to care about everyone, and frankly she'd rather not. "Did he do this to you? Is that why you can't tell him? Will he beat you for bringing him this kind of news?" Nadja shouldn't ask those sorts of questions. She knew better. Among the Stormborn, the answer was probably yes to both, and there was nothing she or anybody else could do about the thrall's fate if that was the case, except to take away the pregnancy, like the thrall wanted. For some perverse reason she was reluctant to do that, even though she had no qualms with the idea of aborting pregnancies in general.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:32 am
Kyra "No. Nothing like that," Kyra admitted. "My master..." Erlendr was strange. He was strange for a Stormborn and he would even have been strange had she met him in the rogue lands. He was polite and patient and kind and gentle and...honorable. Except for the fact he had yet to free her as he had promised to do. "He did not put these cubs in me, and he would not beat me for bearing them, but I don't want him to know." She couldn't bear for him to know, and think that this was something she had wanted or invited. The way she had been trying to seduce him, there was no reason for him to think she hadn't brought this on herself. She didn't want him to think of her like that. Nadja In a flash of insight Nadja realized that this thrall had fallen in love with her master. It happened, but from what Nadja could glean of the girl's personality from this short acquaintance, she probably had not admitted her attraction to herself or her master. Nadja was not romantic, but she was practical. "I think I understand. I will do what I can to help you with this matter. I will mix you a poison that should kill the cubs in your womb and cause a miscarriage." She knew just the potion. "Understand this, though. It may not be completely effective, and it can only be taken once in a year because the poison is cumulative and will kill you if you overdose. You'll get a taste of what that's like anyway, which ought to keep you from being tempted to ignore my warning." The only thing left to say was, "I will summon you when it is ready, and at that time we will discuss the matter of payment. Leave now."
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