She still felt guilty about imbibing afterwards, even though it was perfectly acceptable in this world. Too many anti-drug assemblies at all her schools left her with the unshakable message that “drugs are bad.” Of course, those assemblies only talked about illegal substances, ignoring more beneficial medications. Yanhiss was treated as a therapeutic drink by the yan-kanat, like the soothing xirak tea, and would have been a boon for anyone suffering anxiety on Earth. The occasional taste of it helped her to cope with the endless stress of her new life.
Jotaha also spent most of every day with her, taking her around to all the shops to show her how to purchase goods and supplies, explaining what were good quality items and what were reasonable prices on most things she would be buying. They also visited the house on the terrace several times, since he wanted input from her on everything about the building and grounds, telling her that he wanted her to love her future home.
She would live in a cardboard box if it meant he would be right there beside her. The more time she spent with him, the more she fell in love with him. He was domineering, arrogant, and held views on gender roles that were right out of the Stone Age, but he was also attentive, generous, and supportive of most of her decisions, even when they went against his own archaic views. He even set her up with a “job” of sorts at the temple, assisting the lore-keeper by providing tales and knowledge about the world she’d left behind and the many wonders humans had developed since the exodus of the yan-kanat.
He still assumed she would quit working and focus entirely on their children if they were blessed by any, and Sarah wasn’t certain where she stood on that. Her parents had ensured she had everything she needed when she was growing up, except for their attention and affection. They had been too distracted by their high-powered careers, and she had felt their absence, becoming more introverted and lonelier as she grew up feeling like a burden to them as one babysitter after another took over their roles.
She didn’t want her children to ever doubt that they were her first priority, and if her job ever ended up detracting from her time with her children, then she would abandon it in a heartbeat. Still, that was a road she wasn’t ready to cross at this point, because she knew that she and Jotaha might not end up fully agreeing on that issue. She didn’t want to deal with it so early in their relationship when having children with him was still just a distant dream.
She ended up loving her new work, even if she had to be paid for it in a roundabout fashion that didn’t make it look like Jotaha couldn’t support them. The lore-keeper was a kindly, elderly yan-kanat who showed fascination for everything she could tell him about humans and Earth. They spent some of their time wandering through the museum, and she saw many more human artifacts that had been preserved, some from ancient times.
Her time at the temple mostly coincided with Jotaha’s time spent preparing and initiating the warrior who would take his place in the urvaka, but as the time neared for the trial and choosing—that women weren’t allowed to attend, of course—Jotaha had to spend more time away from her, leaving her with nothing to do during those many hours—or “sandfalls” as the yan-kanat measured it, based on the ancient and long abandoned use of hourglasses.
Farona and her circle of friends stepped into the breach, dragging Sarah off to craft-room meetings, “lectures” that turned into drinking and gossiping circles, and yanhiss den visits of their own. Not to mention lots and lots of shopping, where Sarah learned how to bargain and negotiate like Farona, who made Jotaha’s bargaining seem like child’s play.
The females were amused by Sarah’s questions about equality and whether they thought they were being confined to rigid roles in their society. Farona explained that female yan-kanat had more freedom than males, who were bound by social rules and expectations that often made their decisions for them.
Expectations like Jotaha supporting his family completely, or being referred to by his title rather than his nest name. Males were also expected to be physically imposing and highly skilled at whatever career path was chosen for them by the elders. They were also the only ones who could work the dangerous jobs in the mines, or fishing on the stormy seas, or hunting the barrens, or serving as a guardian in the urvaka.
Females could choose their own career paths outside of those types of jobs, and kept all their own kivan until they were bound to a mate, which all the females Sarah spoke to seemed to think was their ultimate goal of life.
Farona gently mocked Sarah for her surprise at their desire to be “kept” by a male, during a den visit almost two weeks after they’d first met. “Are nixir males so incompetent that they can’t provide a good home for their females? Is that why you say your females refuse to accept being bound to males?”
They were both mellow with yanhiss—as was Rataka, who often joined them on their outings—so Sarah didn’t take any offense. “Human women just want to be free to choose the life we want to live.”
Rataka huffed in a yan-kanat version of a laugh. “It doesn’t sound like your females want other females to choose to be happily kept by their males. Why else would you speak so passionately to convince others to avoid that blissful state?” Her dilated gaze sharpened slightly. “Even when you are about to enter it.”
Farona tapped her well-manicured claws on the tabletop beside her drink. The gemstones glued to her claws sparkled in the candlelight that flickered in the center of the table.
“Is it truly against your nature to accept the dominance of a male?” She studied Sarah with an expression of pity making a brief appearance on her serene features.
Sarah shrugged, still feeling relaxed, despite the conversation. “When you phrase it like that, it sounds bad to me. I don’t want Jotaha controlling my life.”
Farona and Rataka glanced at each other, then turned their attention back to Sarah. Farona leaned forward in her seat, her gaze steady on Sarah’s face. “Jotaha is a yan-kanat male. He expects to be the ultimate authority in your home. If you lack the skill to work around him, while letting him believe he is in control, then this mating will make you miserable.”
Rataka huffed again, then sank back in her chair, lifting her cup to take another sip of the green, earthy yanhiss. “You will learn, Sarah. Embrace the ways of the yan-kanat and put your nixir nature aside. You wouldn’t be the first nixir female to welcome the dominance of a yan-kanat male. Our males do not beat their females, or neglect them, or leave them unprotected. There are horror stories told of the atrocities nixir males commit against their own females.” Her inner and outer lids slowly blinked. “It is little wonder your females don’t want such males to dominate them.”
Sarah wished she could argue that point, and deny that sad truth. She wouldn’t condemn every human male based on the actions of some, but from what she’d heard, there were no tales of yan-kanat males hurting their females. No overt domestic abuse, no rapes, and murder being extremely rare and shocking to the yan-kanat when it did happen. As impossible as it seemed in a city with tens of thousands of sentient beings, it was true. The idea was unthinkable in any human city that size. It sounded like a fairy tale or a kid’s television show, where the world is portrayed the way people wished it was, instead of what it really is.