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Maeve looked up from her notes, fully intrigued. “What about Sylvia—that night you helped lighten her hair? Did she seem different after having been penetrated?”
I paused to think back, recalling the scent of chemical lightener and glassy, far-off eyes, but shrugged. “She seemed out of sorts. Perhaps a bit lightheaded,” I said, remembering the way she’d staggered and swayed on unsteady feet. Unable to walk without whimpering. “I think she may have been sick before they took her away.”
“Sick how?” Maeve demanded.
“Feverish,” I offered. “She was sweating a great deal as we lightened her hair. Completely unable to sit still.”
Tamsyn, dark eyes flashing, made an excellent point. “They took her away, and we never saw her again. She was not publicly hanged. So either her execution was private, which I doubt, or she was placed with the male as his mate. Or,ruined, she is now in the fog, acting as a surveyor… assuming she’s survived this long.”
Maeve, studious as she considered, said, “Hypothesis. Lorieyn needs to fornicate with a male who cannot hear her song. But before we can consider that, we need to know what sex fully entails. Then, we’ll have to find a male who is not a student… and make sure the whole thing takes place away from General Cyderial’s authority.”
“What exactly will she have to do to be ruined? Kissing isn’t enough.” It was a fair question Agnes presented.
Thinking it over, I said, “What do we know of vorec mating customs? General Cyderial claimed that those males charging from the fog toward us were looking to mate. All the vorec anatomy highlighted in training was to teach us how to kill them most efficiently. I’m not even entirely sure what part would go inside us, but something must penetrate.”
“Hybrid boys have those really long tongues,” Tamsyn added with a salacious wink toward Agnes. “Maybe that’s how it’s done.”
Blushing Agnes confessed, “Theonlypart of himself Philip tried to put in me was his tongue. It was always pleasant. He’d touch me too, but that was it. Clearly, I have not been ruined.”
Tamsyn smirked, stealing a bite of food from my plate. “Ever notice that gooey protuberance that comes from between the plates on a vorec’s belly once they have you down? Smells like sweets as they drag it all over you.”
I should not have laughed, but I knew exactly what smell she was referring to. Vorec males smelled delicious, if one ignored the blood and shit wafting off their dead bodies. Better even than my birthday cake.
It was Maeve who shook her head. “No, I don’t think you’re right. I’ve always seen that bulge as a lure. There's no exit point for genetic material, and it’s too broad and blunt to do anything more than smear scent on a potential mate. And they wag it at you when they rear. They try to rub it on you, not penetrate. It’s what makes gutting them your best bet at close range.” All business, Maeve went back to her notes, scribbling God only knew what. “Besides, we’re getting off-topic. Vorec anatomy isn’t the point. It’s hybrid anatomy and why we are altered after mating.”
Tamsyn said, “You have a point, Maeve, but let’s consider this more. Lorieyn said the general was clear this was an issue for unmated females only. It’s the vorecs’s response to her that will ultimately affect how safe she might be in the fog. How would wild animals be able to tell the difference? Lorieyn, did Sylvia smell any different after she got caught with that boy?”
I shook my head. “No, but I remember the general saying there was no question that they had fornicated. The questions were if the boy was her mate and if he would let him live.”
Maeve narrowed her eyes, tapping her stylus against her chin. “Why did the general think it was you who had been with the boy?”
“Sylvia had braided a lock of her hair, cut it off, and given it to her sweetheart. When the boy was caught, the braid was confiscated. General Cyderial showed it to me after I was summoned from my room. It looked a lot like my hair. The color was similar, and it was long like mine. And he mentioned my smell had been noted in the halls, as I’d just cleaned them that afternoon.”
“This might answer part of our question about what sets mated females apart from unmated. Once General Cyderial saw and smelled you, could he tell you were untouched?” Maeve asked, chewing her lower lip as if something was off about the whole thing.
“No. He could not tell. He even checked my hair for a trimmed piece after I lied to protect Sylvia, telling him it was my braid.”
Frowning, Maeve tapped her chin with the stylus. “But he didn’t believe you….”
I shook my head, saying, “I was under the impression that fornicating was equivalent to kissing. I misspoke, and that’s how he knew I was lying. After I was caught, General Cyderial briefly explained sex.”
Maeve went back to her notes. “You told us. Penetration, submission, and ejaculation with one’s mate. Something goes inside, genetic material comes out of it, and it combines with ours for the purpose of creating offspring. But General Cyderial didn’t notice at first if you were mated or not, so how would a rampaging vorec sense a difference?”
All of it was just more confusing. “Maybe he’s lying?”
Maeve didn’t blink. “He doesn’t lie. The general deceives.” It was said with no rancor and no fear. A simple fact Maeve had taken to heart. “All our female instructors are mated, but I don’t notice any difference in them in comparison to one of us. So it can’t be sight or scent. It must be the song… which only males can hear.”
My eyebrows rose. Of course! “Our song changes.”
Scribbling something in her notes, Maeve said, “That would be my theory. But it begs another question. Why do they teach us that we are ruined if we fornicate with a male who isn’t our mate? Especially as it seems to be the males who can sense their match when we cannot. It would be easy for the female to make a mistake.”
Agnes tapped the floor so we might give her our attention. “What if there isn’t any mistake? If you fornicate, it changes your song. If your song no longer calls to a mate, you are free. That is what they are trying to prevent.”
What if she was right? “It can’t be that simple.”
Smiling, Agnes offered another angle to her point. “Then think of it this way. Wild vorec males fight one another for a female—thatwe do know. The victor claims the prize. What if hybrid males designed this concept ofthe listto keep the men from infighting? Highest rank gets first pick should he hear her song?”
I hated the idea of that more than I could say. “Then we would all potentially have more than one mate. What if we like another man better?”
