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“There’s no way we can survive on our own!” Asha says between sobs.
This was something I did not foresee, and I almost laugh, but then I remember how scared I was when Grixis had used that word.
“If we run, they’ll track us,”says a fearful voice.
“We should kill them in their sleep—”
“What if they’re waiting outside right now?”
“Enough!” I shout.
“Look at the situation we’re now in,” Amber snaps. “It’s clear she’s unfit to lead.”
“We’re in the same situation we were in ten minutes ago,” I reply.
“Are you so audacious that you would be mad at us?” Amber says, appalled. “We just told you we’re about to be eaten. That they’re fattening us up!”
The last thing I had expected was to explain to a bunch of noblewomen what this whole cannibalism thing is, but at this point, there’s no avoiding it.
“It’s not what you think…”
A sea of worried eyes look back at me.
“I guess I’d assumed you all knew more than me because you had nursemaids and your eligibility parties were supposed to prepare you for such things. Now…I guess you have me.”
“What are you getting at?” Meg asks.
I exhale a long breath. “If you could all sit down, I can explain.”
Amber’s face contorts in anger. “So you’re making excuses for them?”
“It’s not an excuse, and I had the same reaction you did when I’d first heard it. I launched a rock at Grixis, I was so scared.”
“So you knew!” Amber seethes.
“Sit down, all of you.”
I pace the floor, trying to figure out how to explain what exactly ‘cannibalism’ means to Grixis’s men. It’s perfectly reasonable that they should know, seeing as how I’m asking them to take these people to bed.
But it’s not just cannibalism they need to learn about.
“I’m going to start from the beginning so that you understand more about these people and their culture. When I first happened upon Grixis, there was a bit of culture shock. We looked far different, and it was clear we had different customs and values. We discussed these.”
“Is it their custom to eat their women?” Amber sneers.
“I’m getting to that. Their people have trouble birthing girls. There’s just not enough of them.”
“Because they eat them!” Amber returns.
Meg slaps the back of her head. “Just hear her out.”
“For every ten births, there is only one female, and because of that, many of the men never get to mate. Women take whoever they want to bed, and I don’t think the men have a say in the matter. What this means is that to these men, women are precious.”
“Then why aren’t we treated as such?” Arwin asks.
“They worry about weakening their lines because there are already issues among them. There being so few women is reason to worry enough. I convinced Grixis that part of our strength was our ability to have an equal mix of male and female children.”
“Then why would they cannibalize us?” one asks.
