Page 49 of When Eden Falls

Zamya huffed and marched into the bedroom, I assumed to find the radio. I knew I was being unreasonable, but I couldn’t shake this irritable mood. The past couple of weeks were weighing on my shoulders and I wanted to cry most of the time. Nux, what was wrong with me?

I looked over at Cora. She was gazing out through the open archway, lost in her thoughts. Every aspect of her from her button nose to the way her toes wiggled playfully, showed how youngand innocent she was. She must’ve been desperately missing Troy, yet she was embracing this situation with as much enthusiasm as possible. I envied her.

A cold poke in my ear made me flinch. I hissed when I found Zamya standing next to me holding the ear thermometer. “What the hell, Zam!?”

“Uh huh.” She examined the digits on the thermometer display. “That explains a lot.”

“What are you talking about?” I snatched the contraption from her hand.

“Your temperature’s up. I believe your monthly is about to arrive, hence your foul mood.”

I scanned the digital display. Well, thatdidexplain a lot.

And she wasn’t wrong. The following morning, I woke in extreme pain, more severe than I’d had in years. No doubt the prolonged space travel and return to natural gravity had aided the severity of my stomach cramps. I could barely move.

It didn’t help that I felt exhausted. The past two nights had been filled with vivid dreams. As well as the recurring dream about Rooke, I also dreamt about the Igknamai attack. But more disturbingly, Dybgo and Rooke had both been there, watching me being torn apart. Both said and did nothing. It all seemed to mess with my head.

I admitted it; I felt pathetic and weak. Scared and insecure. I felt out of control.

Soft footsteps approached as I laid in my bed, curled up like a ball. Yuska appeared holding a glass. “Here, drink this.”

I sat up and took the glass from her hands, grimacing at its odd smell.

“It doesn’t smell or taste very pleasing, but I assure you, it will make you feel better.”

I downed the whole glassful, wincing at the grim aftertaste. Yuska held out a hand, ready to take the glass back but I held onto it, watching the dregs swim around at the bottom. Looking up, I eyed her blue sash tied around her tiny waist. It still baffled me how she acquired it.

“Yuska, may I ask you a question?”

“Indeed, you may.” She took the glass from me and clasped it in her hands.

“The sash you wear, does it…does it give you extra entitlements?” I watched her brows knit together. “What I mean is…it has become apparent that the females here aren’t given a great deal of freedom. I wondered if you are?”

Yuska stared at me. Her strange young-old turquoise eyes calculating my question, the same way Dybgo always did. Eventually she said, “I can understand why you think our ways are unusual, maybe overbearing, but you must understand, this is the way we have lived for centuries.”

“And you are okay with that?”

“I have to be. We have to be. Our movements are restricted because there are so few of us?”

“As in Akquarians?”

“As in females.”

As her words sunk in, it was my turn to stare. Other than Yuska, Bibska, and Woohla, I hadn’t seen any females here whatsoever. Zamya always japed they were locked away somewhere. Maybe we hadn’t seen any purely because, the reality was, there wasn’t many to see.

“How few?”

Yuska moved to the window and placed the glass on the ledge. “Havav rules over this fortress and several other settlements along the shore. There are approximately fifty thousand Akquarians. Over forty-five thousand are male. You see, if Havav allowed the females to fight with the warriors, or even venture outside, that numberwilldecrease, and the knock-on effect will be less births, less growth as a species. The rules are there to protect us all.”

I nodded my understanding. It did make sense if the numbers were so depleted, but it still felt like a prison sentence.

“If anything, Eden, we feel shocked that you are treated in the same manner as a man.” She pointed to my stomach. “They don’tendure this, yet they expect you to perform the same tasks as they do.”

“It’s a choice.”

She cocked her head as said, “Are you certain about that? I get the impression you feel obligated to compete with your male counterparts. Females are protected here because we are classed as sacred. We aren’t bound by marriage or commitment. We are givers of life and because of that we get to choose what occupation we take up. The males don’t. It is also the females who choose who they mate with each season. It’s our choice and our choice alone. Any male who tries to intervene with that choice will be executed.”

I couldn’t believe how much information Yuska was divulging. It was an insight for sure. “Well,” I smirked, “where I come from, women are certainly not seen as sacred. But it is generally a fifty-fifty split on our planet…maybe slightly more men, but not by much.”