Everything Anya Zimova had accomplished this far in her career at the North Visilian Academy had been on her own merit. She had focused in classes. She had practiced her forms and woken early for her exercises to strengthen and hone her body. She had worked hard to get where she was in a position of prestige under the tutelage of the Third Chair, and it hadn’t been because of anyone’s favor or pulling of strings.
So how was it that life could not afford her the same opportunities to advance herself on her own time and to her own credit?
Her father’s letter had left no question of how impossible that was outside of this academy. Everything she’d accomplished here was like nothing to him, even though it had been his will that she come here in the first place, to play at being the son he craved and never received. As soon as she graduated, she was going to be married off like some kind of bartering chip to secure her family’s financial security… no questions asked. No alternatives offered. No thought given to what she might be able to do on her own.
It was bitterly ironic that in her distress about the situation, she had found her own way out by offering herself to someone else. Somehow, that had seemed a better alternative to bowing her head an accepting her father’s plans for her. Maybe it was just to spite him, or maybe she really did feel like she’d have something more as the wife of her tutor, Fenris. At least she knew him, and she knew him to be a kind, generous man. He was nearly her own age, and he was strong, capable, and by all accounts an attractive catch: more than one of her fellow females and even a few of the other males in her class had eyed Master Fenris during training. Anya herself probably would have, too, in other circumstances, but she had put him in her mind in a strictly ‘off-limits’ category, knowing how such an engagement might jeopardize her advancement in the academy.
Asking him to marry her was certainly an unexpected twist. Everything she’d done so far with her own hard work, and now she was asking him to let her use him to escape another life. It felt… weak.
Then again, when he’d told her where he was from and where he expected to return to, her outlook had changed a bit. They wouldn’t just be a warrior couple, traveling across the country on assignment together. If she went home with him, she was going to be his property. She still didn’t completely understand it, though his explanations had made it not seem as bad as it sounded. Regardless, it was serious enough to him that he’d told her he wanted to make sure she understood what it would mean to be his wife in Corlea.
Which is why she found herself following the familiar path to his room after hours. Her muscles ached from the evening’s workout, but she was freshly bathed. Her pearly-white hair was still damp, coiled up out of the way on top of her head, her aqua eyes bright and alert. She was out of her practice armor and wearing comfortable clothes instead--dark brown leather pants that hugged her body like a second skin, a dark red long-sleeved cotton tunic, and soft-soled black boots. Her steps were silent on the stone hallway she followed, but her mind was a storm of thoughts and questions and second-guesses. What am I doing?
But that was what she was here to find out, she decided as she looked up and realized she’d arrived at Master Fenris’s door. It was going to involve the sharing of their bodies somehow, but she had been assured that he didn't intend to divest her of her virginity before a wedding night; it sounded like that sort of thing was even more important in his culture than it was in the rest of the world. Had it been any other way, she might not have even shown up. Her hand flexed and relaxed at her side for a moment, and then before she could question herself again, Anya reached up and knocked.
So how was it that life could not afford her the same opportunities to advance herself on her own time and to her own credit?
Her father’s letter had left no question of how impossible that was outside of this academy. Everything she’d accomplished here was like nothing to him, even though it had been his will that she come here in the first place, to play at being the son he craved and never received. As soon as she graduated, she was going to be married off like some kind of bartering chip to secure her family’s financial security… no questions asked. No alternatives offered. No thought given to what she might be able to do on her own.
It was bitterly ironic that in her distress about the situation, she had found her own way out by offering herself to someone else. Somehow, that had seemed a better alternative to bowing her head an accepting her father’s plans for her. Maybe it was just to spite him, or maybe she really did feel like she’d have something more as the wife of her tutor, Fenris. At least she knew him, and she knew him to be a kind, generous man. He was nearly her own age, and he was strong, capable, and by all accounts an attractive catch: more than one of her fellow females and even a few of the other males in her class had eyed Master Fenris during training. Anya herself probably would have, too, in other circumstances, but she had put him in her mind in a strictly ‘off-limits’ category, knowing how such an engagement might jeopardize her advancement in the academy.
Asking him to marry her was certainly an unexpected twist. Everything she’d done so far with her own hard work, and now she was asking him to let her use him to escape another life. It felt… weak.
Then again, when he’d told her where he was from and where he expected to return to, her outlook had changed a bit. They wouldn’t just be a warrior couple, traveling across the country on assignment together. If she went home with him, she was going to be his property. She still didn’t completely understand it, though his explanations had made it not seem as bad as it sounded. Regardless, it was serious enough to him that he’d told her he wanted to make sure she understood what it would mean to be his wife in Corlea.
Which is why she found herself following the familiar path to his room after hours. Her muscles ached from the evening’s workout, but she was freshly bathed. Her pearly-white hair was still damp, coiled up out of the way on top of her head, her aqua eyes bright and alert. She was out of her practice armor and wearing comfortable clothes instead--dark brown leather pants that hugged her body like a second skin, a dark red long-sleeved cotton tunic, and soft-soled black boots. Her steps were silent on the stone hallway she followed, but her mind was a storm of thoughts and questions and second-guesses. What am I doing?
But that was what she was here to find out, she decided as she looked up and realized she’d arrived at Master Fenris’s door. It was going to involve the sharing of their bodies somehow, but she had been assured that he didn't intend to divest her of her virginity before a wedding night; it sounded like that sort of thing was even more important in his culture than it was in the rest of the world. Had it been any other way, she might not have even shown up. Her hand flexed and relaxed at her side for a moment, and then before she could question herself again, Anya reached up and knocked.