Page 59 of What Fury Brings
So she began:
Once upon a time, there was a queen who wept.
She had four daughters and no sons, and her husband beat her for it daily. One day, he beat her until she blacked out and then fucked her unconscious body. When she came to, in her pain-filled delirium, she called out to her goddess.
Please, she said,let me suffer no more.
She wanted to die.
For there was nothing she could do. She could not smuggle her daughters away from the castle. The law gave her husband full control. She was nothing without him. Could not have a title or property or money or anything else. That was the way of the world. Men were leaders. Women were followers.
If they tried to be anything more, they were punished.
For nothing brought out a man’s anger quite so much as his authority being threatened.
Goddess Amarra heard the cries of her daughter, and she granted her agift. The next time the king tried to beat her, the queen fended off his blows, and shestruck back.
He could no longer overpower her. She was now the superior in strength.
And the queen wasn’t the only one.
All the women in Amarra awoke with a new power. They broke free from the chains of men. And they rewrote the rules. They exerted power over their former oppressors.
From now on it would be a woman’s job to rule. It was a man’s job to endure.
The queen looked upon her transformed kingdom with pleasure.
See how they like it.
“That story,” Olerra said, “happened five hundred years ago, but we remember. The women of my country were once treated the way the women in your country are. Until our goddess took pity on us. She blessed us to overcome our male oppressors.”
“Instead of making the world a better place, your ancestor flipped it,” Sanos said.
“Yes, for that is what fury brings.”
There was silence. Only the sounds of the busy market buzzed about them.
“Imagine that you had an abuser,” Olerra said. “What would you do if they suddenly had no power over you?”
It was a hypothetical question. Olerra obviously had no idea how his father treated him. Sanos wanted to say he’d be noble. That he’d seek justice.
“I’d want revenge,” he said. He’d give his father everything he deserved and more.
“So would I.”
“What will you do?” Sanos asked. “If you are made queen, will youkeep things as they are? How long must innocent men suffer for the sins of their fathers?”
“What will you do?” she said, turning the question back on him. “Let’s say I return you to Brutus. When your brother becomes king, will you bother asking him to change laws that have always benefited your sex? Would you have even given a second thought to the way women are treated if you hadn’t been brought here?”
He wanted to argue. To claim he’d be noble, but the truth was he wouldn’t have.
He saw how helpless his mother and sister were against his father, but it never would have occurred to him to change the laws. He would have thought it enough that he could be good to them. Once his father was gone, he would protect them.
But what about other women? Women who didn’t have kind men to look out for them? Was it really right to trust their well-being to imperfect men? Why not allow them the means to leave bad situations?
“You didn’t answer my question,” Sanos said. “Will you change things?”
“The first thing I will do,” Olerra said, “is dismantle the evil in this market and free the men in Glen’s harem.” She tugged gently on his chain.
