In a private chamber beneath the central tower of the House Eyru complex, the matriarch Dania Allena lay on her back, her legs open to her lover. Dylie, wicked Dylie, had her arms pinned down and was looking her straight in her wild, terrified eyes as ce thrust away, plunging in deeply.
The young matriarch felt a mixture of sensations, physical and emotional: there was pain as the thick appendage speared into her, forcing her open with little gentleness or preparation. There was humiliation at being used this way by somebody so far from her station ce might as well not have had one. There was anger at Dylie for cer continued disrespect, of which this was simply the most blatant ongoing example. There was the fear of being caught in this position, of being found out.
And there was the bitter shame at the realization that she loved it, all of it.
She bit her lip through the multiple climaxes, stopping herself from crying out as though she thought something about the character of the scream would give away the terrible secret. Dylie kept going until Dylie was done, grinning down at her with a grin that was both hungry and knowing. When ce had spent cer last, ce rolled over, leaving her chafed and fatigued lover quietly gasping for breath.
“Dylie, you cannot keep doing that,” Dania Allena said when she regained her breath.
“Really?” the halfkind asked, draping an arm over Dania Allena, pressing cer large breasts and twitching, semi-hard penis against her back. “I think that I’ve established that I can. If you’ll give me half an hour, I think I could arrange a second demonstration.”
“You must listen,” the matriarch said. “I know I say this every time we finish…”
“Say it when we begin and I might believe you,” Dylie said.
“If anybody found out… I would be forced aside, and I do not know what would happen to you,” Dania Allena said. “But I think it would be worse for you than for me.”
Dylie laughed.
“You act as though I were responsible for any of this,” ce said. “You act as though I’m a whole person with a whole mind. Nothing will happen to me, dearest… don’t worry a shiny black hair on your head over that.”
“We can do anything else you want,” Dania Allena said.
“I will do what I want,” Dylie said. Ce bit the back of Dania Allena’s neck, pulling a soft moan from the matriarch. “And you will let me because you enjoy it.”
“It is my fault,” the matriarch said. “I… I’ve been too lenient with you, Dylie. I think it’s time… time we talked about physical discipline again.” Dylie bit her harder and she let out a little shriek. “Maybe?”
Dylie slid down and nuzzled cer nose against the small of Dania Allena’s back, murmuring.
“Raise a hand to me, Nia, and I will break it,” ce said, low and almost sultry. “As I broke crazy Ahdar’s wrist when ce tried to steal my scarf. I am not less than you.”
“Of course you aren’t less than me,” Dania Allena said. “We are different from each other, and part of that difference is that you have to respect me and…”
Dylie laughed.
“You do!” the matriarch insisted, and the halfkind just laughed harder. “Damn everything, Dylie, don’t laugh at me… I can stand just about anything but I can’t take you laughing at me.”
“Well, I won’t take anyone striking me,” Dylie said.
“You should think about giving it a try,” cer lover said. “None of your siblings mind… they say it doesn’t hurt the same way as when a man or woman is struck.”
“And how would any of them know that?” Dylie asked.
“I don’t think they would allow it if it really hurt them,” Dania Allena said.
“Well, it hurts me and I don’t allow it,” Dylie said. “Listen… before you make any more silly jokes about respect, you should know that I’ve given you a child.”
“What? You… Dylie, you couldn’t have, you’re not a man,” Dania Allena said. She rolled over onto her side, facing away from her beloved. “But what a horrible thing to say, all the same.”
“Even if I’m not a man, that doesn’t mean I don’t have what’s needed,” Dylie said.
“You’ve never given me a child before.”
“I chose not to,” Dylie said. “This time I felt more generous.”
Was that how it worked? Dania Allena hadn’t felt anything different… but would she have? The particulars of motherhood had been explained to her in considerable detail from an early age, but the exact details of the man’s role in it had always been less clear to her. She hadn’t even had a proper image of what it was that men did to give children until the first time that beautiful, wicked, wonderful, terrible Dylie had surprised her with an education.
Certainly Dylie was as well-equipped as any man, if not better. If there was any difference between the spore-stream ce produced and that of a man, the inexperienced matriarch was not in any position to know.
She felt quite certain that a halfkind shouldn’t be able to give a child, though.
“Please don’t joke about that,” she said stiffly. “It isn’t the least bit funny.”
“I’m not joking,” Dylie said. “If you do what I want, I’ll take it back.”
“Dylie, I can’t marry you,” Dania Allena said. “The house would not accept it, and if you are serious about this child…”
“You rule the house,” Dylie said.
“I lead the house, dearest, and that means doing what’s best for it,” she said. “We are nothing without our good reputation. If I took you as my only spouse, no one would take me seriously as matriarch and I could no longer broker agreements with other houses. We would become useless as a house, Dylie.”
“What would your reputation be if they knew you took a child from me?” Dylie asked. “If they knew that we’d seen eye-to-eye? If they knew you gave your divine treasure up to me like it was a boy-whore’s ass?”
“That’s too much, wicked Dylie!’ Dania Allena said, getting out of bed and striding over to face the wall. Her hands were shaking at her sides. “You can’t speak to me like that, Dylie, you can’t!”
“I can do whatever I want,” Dylie said. “And so can you. You’re the matriarch. Not your mother, not her grandmother… you were chosen. But I don’t want you to marry me right now.”
“What, then?”
“I want to speak before the council.”
“Dylie, we’ve talked about this… you can sit at the table when we’re meeting if you want to be seen, but…”
“Not the house council,” Dylie said. “The city one. I want to bring my suit to them.”
“What suit?”
“I was assaulted in the marketplace,” Dylie said. “Have you already forgotten? It was not two shifts ago.”
“Dylie… if you stand in front of the city council, they will laugh at you.”
“Let them laugh. I’m not ashamed.”
“My great-grandmother is on the council.”
“Yes, and you have told me how you count on her influence to bring favorable results,” Dylie said.
“Dylie, you can’t do this,” Dania Allena said. “It would be an insult to the council, and to everybody who has to go before them for legitimate reasons.”
“Can a man bring a suit against a woman?”
“Yes, but you aren’t…”
“Can a woman bring a suit against a man?”
“Yes, but that’s not…”
“Can a person of one sex bring a suit against another person of that same sex?”
“You aren’t the same sex as her, Dylie!” Dania Allena said.
“There is nothing in me that is not man or woman,” Dylie said. “Which part of me cannot bring this suit?”
“It was a minor assault,” the matriarch said. “How about this? I will find out how much the fine would have been had she done the same to a man, and then I will give you that same amount to spend freely.”
“I have everything I want given to me,” Dylie said.
“Then what do you have to complain about?”
“I want redress and you offer to buy me another bauble and call that justice!” Dylie said.
“Why are you so upset by this? It can’t possibly still hurt and clearly no long-term damage was done,” Dania Allena said. “Why can’t you let it go?”
“Would you let it go if some houseless nobody put her knee between your legs in the middle of the marketplace?” Dylie asked.
“No, but I wouldn’t be able to let it go,” Dania Allena said. “I have my standing to protect, for the sake of the house. Don’t you see? You have freedoms that I don’t.”
“The freedom to allow the whole world to abuse me?” Dylie said. “Fine. But when your child starts to show, you will be just as ruined.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Then go to the chapel and ask your mother to examine you,” Dylie said.
“You know I can’t do that,” Dania Allena said.
“Then I guess you’ll just have to wait and see for yourself,” Dylie said.
