The Admonishments of Kherishdar
M.C.A. Hogarth

IGNORANCE

aunera [ au NEH rah ], (adjective) — Both a color (emerald green, very lush and deep, with a slight tint of blue) and a description of alien things, things that are not Ai-Naidari, from people and worlds to emotions and thoughts.

      It was good to be stripped on the market's pedestal... good to feel the crowd deepening around me. They were willing to look, to accept my public penance. Behind me, Shame tied me fast and a sigh rippled through the watchers... and we were one, oh at last, after my thoughtless arrogance had separated us, Noble from people. My head sank low enough to make the nape of my neck visible, and their gazes on me were a caress.
      When something disturbed that communion I raised my face. Shying away, the watchers had left a corridor through their ranks all the way to my Regal, accompanied by a figure far too short for any Ai-Naidari, and cloaked—aunerai?
      And I had no more time to guess, for the guest dashed through the crowd and ripped me from the pedestal, throwing its cloak over me, yelling something in a tongue I did not understand. The crowd drew away. I felt their shock and embarrassment like blows on my body. My skin shrank from the touch of this coarse stranger, my nudity become nakedness. I felt violated; I struggled to free myself, but it only clutched me tighter. I cried out—
      —and then Shame wrested me away and with his eyes alone drove the stranger from me. It stumbled into the crowd, opening a wide space around it, spreading its horror and disgust among my own. I wept for the moment destroyed, for the harmony lost, but Shame touched my lips and shook his head. He sat on the edge of the pedestal and spread me across his lap... and then beckoned.
      The first touch lit on my foot, soft as a flower petal, intimate yet within the bounds of propriety. "My lady," someone whispered.
      And then another. And another.
      "My liege!"
      "Milady...."
      "Mistress."
      One by one they drew nigh, brushed me respectfully. My violation united us, and if it was not in the same way as my Correction, it was... it was better, oh, ancestors! To be so close again! They witnessed my tears and it was made right between us.
      At the last, my Regal stopped at my side. Shame spoke without being addressed, as only he could. "Take it away from here."
      My Regal bowed. "My error was grievous. I shall make amends." To me, he murmured, "I am sorry, my gentle servant."
      I shivered in Shame's arms and bowed my head, ears flushing. I heard my Regal's sharp words in the other-tongue and the aunerai's agitated response. Once they had gone, I whispered, "Why...?"
      "It thought you required rescue."
      "Rescue!" I shuddered. "Did it not see?"
      "Perhaps," Shame said, drawing my robe back around me. "But it did not understand."
      How truly alien the aunera must be! I sat up, holding the robe closed at my heart, and looked up at him. "Thank you." For salvaging my Correction. For defending me. For understanding.
      "Lady," he said, and helped me to my feet.


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© 2007, M. C. A. Hogarth