Heaven Hath No Rage - Book Two

Allies and Lies

It had been a grueling sun, with the cloudless sky making sure the heat was felt on every inch of Ava's heavily clad skin. It hadn't been her first choice to enter the more impoverished part of the city, the skrims, in a dress that belonged at court, but she was not allowed to leave the estate without it on. She had been in the skrims all morning and aftermorning with her loungehouse ladies. She had convinced them to go on walks with her and look at what others had compared to them, even as fringe groups of nobles and greater names.

The difference between upper Aubermasse and the skrims was stark and it took the ladies a while to wrap their heads around the fact that such disparity existed not even thirty minutes from upper Aubermausse. Once they did, they had understood where Ava's musing about attempting to close the disparity came from. And to some degree, they were made aware of the need for corrections. It made her feel guilty, using people who were simply trying to survive and go about their sun to prove a point and try to make things right. She knew the experience of seeing it would help spread whispers about the need for help for the poor and she didn't have the means for an alternate approach to the matter but the inadvertent harm she could cause was not lost on her.

After she had escorted the ladies through the skrims for two suns in a row, one of the women brought up the idea that maybe they should help while they were there. Ava agreed to help them think of things to help with. They decided to gather clothes to donate, buy food at the markets for them, and stock up on medicine to pass out. They had just gotten back from the first aftermorning of passing out their packages and Ava was feeling conflicted.

Ava understood that the people they were helping were no different than them. She understood that their efforts to help wasn't to make herself feel good but to try and attempt and remedy some of the struggle they faced. She understood that those struggles came from unfair circumstances that went back to the beginning of Baethos and even before. She understood that people were not without money or resources or in bad situations because of choices they made but because things were stacked against them. The goods they were redistributing weren't salvation, they were a temporary bandage on a much deeper problem. All of that she understood.

Ava wasn't sure the others understood that though. It was good that she was getting them to be conscious about what they had but and get excited to give back. But to these women, it was no sweat off their back in exchange for a feeling of being a savior of those lesser than them. A sinister power imbalance that was not necessarily on purpose, but it was present and most likely felt by those they were helping. The fighting feelings inside of her clouded her mind as she soaked in the bathing room. The water was warm and felt good on her ankles and legs which were sore from many suns of activity. She was floating in the water, letting the weightlessness settle over her when she was interrupted. She sat up to cover herself but when she saw Viv entering, she abandoned the cause. There was no point. The number of times they had now seen each other in the nude was more than she ever thought possible, thanks to the loungehouse.

"Dotty was making eyes at you during our walk back from the skrims," Ava said as she watched Viv walk closer.

"Hm," Viv shrugged, sat down at the edge of the pool and stuck her feet in.

Ava waded over. She didn't admit that she had also been staring at Viv on their walk back. She had a confident gait, a power to her stride like Theo did. She always had a slightly stern expression on her face but the slight upturn of her lips into a smirk was also a permanent feature on her face. Maybe it was that she had been so roughly handled by Viv a few nights before that her body was betraying her and longing for physical contact she had gone without for so long. As Mallory had once said, Viv was attractive it was everything else about her that was a major turnoff.

"You have nothing to say about Dotty?" Ava asked leaning over the edge of the bathing pool, her head coming to rest on her arms.

"What's there to say?" Viv laughed a bit, "I don't even know who you are talking about."