they are different. Or do the things that we believe and teach here at the convent matter to us only when it is convenient? If we shrink from those beliefs when they are put to the test, then we make a mockery of them. I shall not discuss this matter any further. Let the choice be yours. But if you choose to expel Sorak from the convent, then you shall have to choose a new high mistress, as well. I promised the pyreen elder to give the elfling shelter and to care for him. I shall not break my word. If Sorak leaves, then so shall I.”
That had settled the matter of Sorak’s staying at the convent, but other problems remained to be solved. For a long time, Sorak did not speak, and Varanna was not certain if the silence resulted from his not knowing the human tongue, or from the trauma he had suffered. Varanna did not know whether he had been cast out of an elvish tribe or a halfling tribe, and thus wasn’t sure which language he had been exposed to. Then Sorak started having nightmares during which he cried out while he slept. He cried out in the halfling tongue for the most part, which suggested he had spent his first few years among a halfling tribe, but occasionally his words were elvish.
When he was awake, he never spoke at all.
Elder Al’Kali had done much to bring him back from the pitiful condition in which she had found him, but he was still weak, and his strength returned slowly. During his first few weeks at the convent, Sorak stayed with Varanna in her private chambers in the temple. Her repeated attempts to probe his mind continually met with failure. Either she was unceremoniously “tossed out,” or else it was as if she had encountered a stone wall. Nevertheless, she kept on trying.
When Sorak had started to recover his strength, she decided it would be best for him to take up quarters with the priestesses. It would help him assimilate into life at the convent, and would discount claims of favoritism. However, once again, when Varanna brought Sorak to one of the residence halls, there had been alarmed reactions. The priestesses did not have their own individual rooms or cubicles. They slept on the upper floors of the residence halls, with their beds all lined up against the walls. The lower floors were set aside as large common rooms, where they could work at their looms or other crafts, or merely socialize. When Varanna had a bed installed upstairs for Sorak, the other women, especially the younger ones, became rather disturbed.
“But… he cannot sleep here!” one of them had said, a fifteen-year-old whose bed would have been next to his.
“And why not?” Varanna asked.
“But, Mistress… how shall we disrobe?”
“By pulling your robes over your heads, the way you usually do,” Varanna said. “Unless there is a new method of disrobing I am not familiar with.”
“But, Mistress.,. the boy shall see!” the young priestess protested.
“What of it?” asked Varanna, testily. “Are you ashamed of your body? Or does your nakedness make you feel vulnerable before a male, even one who is merely a boy? If that is the case, then you shall always feel vulnerable, for clothing makes the poorest sort of armor.”
“It… it is not seemly,” another young priestess stammered hesitantly.
Varanna raised her eyebrows. “Are you suggesting that my actions are improper?”
“N-No, Mistress, but… but… he is a male, after all, and if he should see us naked, it will give him lewd ideas.”
“Will it, indeed?” Varanna asked. “What sort of lewd ideas?”
The priestess blushed. “You… you know.”
“No. Tell me.”
The priestess took a deep breath while the others gathered around, watching to see how she would reply. “Males think of only one thing when it comes to women,” she said.
“Ah, I see,” Varanna replied. “And you are all so frightened and defenseless that, you are afraid of a mere boy?”
“No, Mistress, of course not, but…” she took a deep breath and plunged on. “It will create tension and disharmony.”
“Only if you allow it to,” Varanna replied. “Sorak is but a child. His thoughts and attitudes about such things are not yet formed. If you accept him and treat him as a brother, then he will grow to love and accept you as his sisters. If you teach him respect for women, that is what he shall learn. But if you hide your bodies from him, as if