How to Free a Daughter
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 17th November 2017
Characters: Zelah
Description: Xeladrie thinks about what will happen if she has a girl.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 1, day 2 of Turn 9
Xeladrie knew that she did not want to have a baby girl. She did not
want to have her daughter and know the fate that awaited her. That she'd
taken back to Sunstone Seahold to become Bryvin's property. That her
daughter would be raised by her, and then cruelly sent away for
fostering, before being married off to a man older than her that she
couldn't love.
She hated her own life. How could she allow it to happen to her own child?
She'd been trying to figure out what she could do with the child if it
was a girl. Taking her home was unacceptable. But Xeladrie didn't think
she could bring herself to do anything to a daughter, either. She would
have preferred to never be pregnant, or to miscarry.
If she couldn't keep her, then the only choice was to send her away. But
to do that, she had to figure out where would be _safe_.
She had thought about leaving her daughter here, at Turquoise Bay. There
was a pregnant drudge who had let slip that her eldest brother had sired
her child, and the woman was also close to due. Perhaps her babe could
be passed off as the twin of the drudge's. The resemblance would not be
a problem that way. And if Xeladrie came home to visit, she could see her.
But a drudge's daughter was not a good life, either. She would still be
subject to the uses and abuses of men. She wouldn't be traded off to be
a man's trophy wife in exchange for land and riches like a daughter of
the Blood would be. But she would still be expected to marry and to
breed more children eventually. And until she did she'd be toiling away
at tasks, and expected to obligingly roll over for lordlings and
visitors and men, just like had happened between her brother and the
drudge. It wasn't any better.
The best choice was to send her babe to a Weyr. There, women could
Craft. Could Impress to green and gold dragons. Could live their lives
without having to marry and pop out babies. At a Weyr, her daughter
could be anything she wanted to be.
Even if Xeladrie could never see her again. Even if she would never know
what became of her. But her daughter would be safe from the demands on a
woman of the Blood, or from the lowly life of a drudge or laborer girl.
She'd be safe from _men_.
And Xeladrie knew she could arrange it. She had an idea for how to pull
it off. The kind, compassionate bronzerider K'dee, who had so often been
the watchrider at Sunstone. He'd been nice to her in a way she hadn't
expected. He'd treated her like a person. He didn't seem primarily
interested in her for her title or for what her marriage could bring,
like her father or Bryvin.
He would surely take her babe away from her to the Weyr, to be raised
there, if she asked him. She had Glimmer and could write him a note. She
could summon him when the babe came, if she was a girl, and ask him to
take her daughter away from her and to safety.
She didn't know exactly how she should word her plea, how best she could
manipulate him into agreeing. He was a bronzerider, the most notable of
the male dragonriders, so he must want to be a hero and a leader, right?
And he was unable to fight now, so he would need to find his heroism in
a different path. What better way than by helping out a Lady Holder and
earning her favor?
She would need to be honest with him, revealing her desperation for any
way out for her daughter, letting him know he could be a hero to her by
saving her child. She was concerned about the impact of making herself
vulnerable like that - for her to be so honest with anyone about her
needs, to give them the raw truth about her feelings about women and
girls, was something she was unused to doing.
But if she didn't tell him all the truth, if she didn't let him know
_why_ it was so important to her, what if he said no? What if she needed
to bare her heart to him so he understood why he needed to take away the
baby and protect her? She was afraid that not doing so ran the risk of
him not agreeing to help her out.
For a daughter, she would do anything. Bare her heart to a bronzerider
she wasn't wedded to or in love with. Defy her lord husband by hiding
her babe. Xeladrie would give up anything if it meant protecting her girl.
Last updated on the December 10th 2017