Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

An Agreement

All of Kazan's children had inherited her eyes.

"How do you know all of this?" Sunny asked switching her spear to her other hand and dropping the point towards the floor in a resting guard sort of position. She was not worried about their ability to kill her, but even the most unskilled or weak of a warrior could exploit an opening if their opponent was too off their guard. From the corner of her eye, she could see Adam behaving in a similar manner. He had adjusted and was resting his spear in front of him, leaning on it like some sort of staff, though his hand was kept in a ready position around the balanced center of the shaft.

Not only that but his other free hand was resting on his hip just above the grip of his pistol.

Adam had learned to adapt quickly to situations.

Guns were familiar to him as he was human, but he had acquiesced to her arguments about spears being more practical in some situations eventually convincing him to carry both. It had been a nice compromise, and she may or may not have done it out of an excuse to have him at her back during a fight.

Dzara limped forward on her bad leg, using her spear a s a sort of cane or crutch, "The Drev who raised me was aware of Kanan and Lanus. She often went to the birthing fields above the volcanoes to collect the discarded kits and bring them back to the underground city. In those days, there were few of us, and many did not survive for long, but as I got older the operation became more organized until it was more and more likely for the rescued kits to survive. We posted guards around the birthing fields, out of sight, just in case something were to happen. If the Kit was abandoned or if the mother appeared ready to throw her child into the fire, than one of us would go and speak with her. We talked many mothers out of throwing their children to the flames, not that it was particularly difficult"

Around the room the others were nodding sagely along with her.

"You will find that it is relatively easy to convince a mother not to kill her child."

Adam and Sunny might have assumed that was some sort of Dry humor, but the look on Dzara's face was difficult to read, and they wouldn't have put it past her to be completely serious in her assertions.

Sunny glanced over at Adam and he just shrugged.

She often looked to him in tomes of puzzling out someone's emotions, but this time even he was drawing a blank.

"They are more than willing to give their children up to someone willing to take care of them. It reduces their guilt, and at least gives their child a chance. Barring that, and if the mother was too difficult to deal with and seemed intent on throwing the kit into the fire sometimes we..... took other measures."

The group glanced between each other.

Sunny frowned, "What do you mean, other measures?"

"Well, we aren't just going to let her kill an innocent now are we, If she would not heed our advice we would simply forcibly take the child from her. No one would ever say anything of course, because it would be a dishonor, which is why you have likely never heard of us." She walked in a limping circle around the room, "It is a secret kept by generations of Drev mothers, the mothers who abandoned their children or passed them off to strangers. What do you think other Drev would have said about this if they had heard, especially men who could not understand the inability to make the sacrifice. They would have been shunned and ridiculed, so for hundreds of years they have kept this reality to themselves for fear of what It would cause."

Sunny shook her head in awe, "An entire society of Drev she did not know about affected heavily by her change in the doctrine. If everything she said was followed, these Drev would be more than able to step out of hiding and participate with the rest of Anin."