Wyvern’s Gold (The Ruins Of Men Book 1)

Chapter 59

Fifty-Nine

Rymar

I spent the rest of the day thinking about Ayla's reaction. The girl was terrified of marriage. Then again, that made sense. She'd been raised that it wasn't something people did for love. It was simply a way for a man to use her body to produce children. Fucking rape, I'd call it, so of course the idea terrified her.

When Brielle showed up that evening, just before I got off work, I wasn't surprised. "Rymar?" she called to me as she claimed a spot at the bar.

"Beer?" I asked, reaching for a glass.

"No," she said, waving me off. "I'm heading home, but I thought I'd give you a heads-up so you can tell the guys."

"About Ayla," I realized.

She nodded slowly. "Jeera said she was scared to go into the church because she was worried they'd send her back."

"Fuck," I groaned.

"Mhm," Brielle agreed. "But here's something interesting. She saw Drozel kiss Omden and called it loving."

"So she didn't care they were both men?"

"Nope," Brielle said. "She cared that they looked as if they liked it. I mean, the things she said?" Brielle pushed out a heavy breath. "Ry, she's never seen a kiss that was consensual. That girl? Her idea of relationships is nothing but pain and abuse! To her, marriage means pregnancy until she's all used up, because that's all married women are good for."

I pushed a hand across my mouth, thinking about it. "You know..." I said. "Zasen told me Ayla killed men with the straightest face. When the Moles attacked, she didn't hesitate. She didn't cry about it, or puke over it. She just did what had to be done."

"She got revenge," Brielle realized.

I nodded my head slowly. "Kinda sounds like it, huh?"

"Shit," she breathed. "Well, I can also tell you it seems she's straight. The girl admitted to looking at all of your muscles."

"Oh?" I turned and flexed playfully. "I've got a couple."

"Evidently, there was a guy she thought was attractive down there, but he was 'courting' some other girl." She grinned. "Which means she isn't asexual."

"But she might as well be," I countered.

"Mm..." She made a face. "I think this is more a case of trauma making her scared to accept her impulses. I just figured it might help her out if you make it easier. I mean, since Zasen and Kanik aren't going to mention men's muscles."

"Oh, I see where you're going with this," I teased. "Throw me under the cart, hm?"

She laughed. "Would serve you right. But since Ayla's okay with men kissing - and she acts like it's completely normal. No. Normal's the wrong word. She acts like it's nice, a relief. Almost like it changes the balance of relationships in her mind."

"Which makes sense," I pointed out. "To Ayla, marriage is a man owning a woman. To see a pair of men loving each other? To know that a kiss, or a touch, or any affection can be mutual? Regardless of who is doing the kissing, to see it as a sign of affection instead of possession? That would be a whole different concept."

"So tell the guys?" Brielle said as she slid off her stool. "I dunno. Get them on the same page or something?"

"Will do," I promised.

She left, but I thought about that a little more. It seemed leaving our little orin girl alone with Kanik and Zasen wasn't working out quite how I'd expected. She didn't feel more relaxed because of fewer people in the house. She'd been spiraling with no one to talk to. Worse, neither of those men would bring such things up. They'd be too worried it might sound like they were going to "marry her" or something.

So, heading into the kitchen, I found my best employee. "Hey, Ulris?" I called out.

"Yeah?" he replied, looking up from the sink where he was washing dishes.

"Hey..." I made my way to his side. "I think I'm going to take a few days off. You good to handle the place?"

"Sure." He gave me a confused look. "Everything okay?"

"Just going to help out with our little refugee guest," I explained.

He chuckled, then nodded. "Take as much time as you need. Rayvah and I can hold down the fort." Then he paused. "She's not trying to get away, is she?"

"No," I promised. "Ayla's problem is she wants to destroy the Moles, Ulris. Sounds like it's the men who are the monsters. Not the women. They treat their women almost as bad as they do us. I also wouldn't mind if you spread that around a bit."

"Can do," he promised. "Rumors say the girl killed a few of them in the last attack."

"At least a few," I agreed.

"So give her a bow and let her kill a few more," he told me before flipping a sudsy hand towards the door. "And get out of here. We make more money when you aren't giving away meals to all your friends."

"I'm going, I'm going!" I laughed, backing towards the door.

But on the walk home, I couldn't stop thinking about what Brielle had said. Ayla was terrified of marriage. She had never seen a kiss that was consensual. She liked men. Normally, none of that would've been a big deal. For Ayla, however, it was huge.

Ever since she'd come to Lorsa, we'd kept her in a house with just the three of us. Sure, Tamin had come over, but after the last attack, his mother was keeping him close. Saveah, Jeera, and Brielle had visited for one afternoon when we'd had a cookout.

That was it.

The rest of the time, that poor girl had been alone with men. In the Mole base, men had abused women. All she knew was violence and abuse of some kind - from men . No wonder she'd been so fucking timid! Her reaction to me giving her flowers suddenly made much more sense.

From the sounds of it, once a man laid claim to a woman, she ended up married to him. It didn't seem to matter if she wanted to or not! If he raped her, she had to marry him. If he flirted with her, she'd end up married to him. If he did so much as look at her, she'd probably end up married to him.

And then raped.

By the time I made it home, I was fuming. Yet when I opened the door, I pushed it down and pasted a smile on my face. Sure enough, Ayla was in the living room, curled up on the couch with a very big, very thick book.

"What's that one about?" I asked as I began unbuttoning my shirt, wanting to get the extra cloth off my body so I could cool down.

She looked up. "History."

"That's a pretty broad category," I pointed out.

Then I caught her eyes flicking to my chest as I pushed my shirt off. Her brow creased, her eyes narrowed for a split second, and then she looked up at my face again.

"What?" I asked, aware of the inspection.

"Why do you wear a shirt but Kanik and Zasen do not?" she asked. "And what is the sign on your necklace?"

"First," I said, answering her questions backwards, "my sign is the Rose. Kanik is a Dragonfly, and Zasen - as you know - is a Wyvern. As for my shirt, well, it keeps me from getting anything hot or sticky on myself at work."

She nodded. "Makes sense. Like an apron."

So I tipped my head at her book. "And the story?"

"The fall of man," she told me. "Did you know the top and bottom of the world used to be covered in mountains of ice?"

"Glaciers, yes."

Her shoulders slumped slightly. "Oh."

"We learn that in school," I explained. "It's what Kanik does now. He makes sure all Dragon children learn about the things Moles kept hidden from you. Now, he gets to teach you."

"It's all so different," she admitted. "Nothing in here is about God or the Devil. No one talks about their war."

"Because," I said, "those books are about facts. About the things we're sure of. God and the Devil aren't things everyone believes in."

"No?"

"No."

Her forehead creased again. "But how can they not? God is everywhere, and the Bible says to ignore that will damn a person to Hell!"

"And if you don't believe in Hell, that's not a very big threat," I told her. "Ayla, our schools don't teach about God either. Our churches do." I chuckled. "And we have more than one type of church. They don't all teach about the same God. Some people believe in another one and think you are the fool for not following their faith."

She made a little noise. "It's all so confusing."

"It really is," I agreed. "But you know what? It's okay that you don't understand everything yet. It's good that you're asking questions. That's how we learn, and the more you know, the more you can decide for yourself."

"I like that," she said.

"Then finish your book," I teased, flashing her a smile as I headed around the corner.

My goal was to head upstairs, but seeing the bathroom door closed made me walk that way instead. Lifting my fist, I banged on the wood.

"When you're done, head upstairs," I called through the wood.

Water splashed as the man inside reacted. "Can do!" Kanik called back, proving who was in there.

Then I went upstairs. At the top, I heard a familiar scraping sound. Before I even rounded the corner, I knew exactly where I would find Zasen. Sure enough, when I peeked my head into the workroom, he was there shaping a rod of wood so it would hold an arrowhead.

"Hey, got a second?" I asked.

He murmured like he was agreeing, then turned. "What do you think?" he asked, lifting the arrow he was working on.

The fletching was yellow. The tip he was currently mounting was a broadhead like he used. One with four sharp edges to make the most damage upon impact.

"Changing colors?" I asked

He chuckled. "A few times, Ayla has said something about yellow," he explained. "I asked her favorite color, and she said orange, but I'm not sure she meant it."

"Why wouldn't she mean it?"

"Because she said like my eyes," he admitted. "So since she keeps talking about yellow, I thought I'd make her yellow-fletched arrows to use if the Moles come back."

"Her own war arrows," I said. "Nice."

He laughed once. "And I figure yellow is like the color of gold, right? Remember how Jerlis called her my gold?"

"But she's not yours ," I insisted.

"No," he agreed. "She's not. I was thinking more that maybe making her the Dragon's gold might work better. You know, a nice little spin for you to use later. She's Lorsa's treasure - or will be once she sorts out the entire calendar."

I hummed thoughtfully. "I'm actually a little surprised she's not working on that right now."

Zasen waved me off. "We told her she had to take today off. Dragons don't work every day, so she can't either. Today is her fun day to do anything she wants. So, of course, she wanted to read again."

"And she asked for history," Kanik added as he came up the stairs. "To know what happened to the world while the Moles were underground, she said."

I waved both of them to follow me into the office. "Well, I learned something interesting about her."

That was enough to make the guys pile in. Kanik took the chair behind his desk. Zasen claimed the old chair at the side. That left me my own office chair. Easing down into it, I leaned back and kicked my feet up on the top of my desk, then smiled at my friends.

"The girls got Ayla's marriage annulled - and got her to talk. She's straight, she is aware of men but scared of them, and from the sounds of it, she has good reason."

"Already knew that," Kanik pointed out.

"But you didn't know that when she saw Drozel kiss his partner, her first thought was it was 'loving.' You didn't know that she could care less that it was two men. She's never seen affection before in her life, guys. To Ayla, a man desires a woman, so he marries her - which is basically ownership - then rapes her over and over until she's pregnant, and keeps her pregnant until she's all used up. That's the one and only option Ayla has ever been given for any kind of relationship."

"And she said friendships weren't really allowed," Zasen admitted. "Fuck. She was horrified at the idea of her father kissing her! She said her mother hadn't given her kisses as a child. I mean, I knew the men were terrorizing them, but when it's all put together?"

"Which is why she's so worried about being 'improper,'" Kanik realized. "It could get her married off to a man."

"Mhm," I agreed. "Because if a woman is raped, she marries her rapist. When she got married, her husband forced her to kiss him. If a man notices her, she can't exactly say no. She can't refuse to marry someone. Hell, she tried that and it didn't stop them."

"Shit," Kanik breathed. "It's hard to even imagine."

"I know," I agreed. "We're so used to millions of little kindnesses, but Ayla isn't. So, I've been working to make sure she knows I'm her friend, and only her friend."

"Okay?" Zasen asked.

I pulled in a deep breath and decided to just lay it all out there. "Guys, she didn't care about Jeera and Brielle being together. Now, they haven't exactly been pawing each other in front of her, but she still didn't care. And when Omden came into the cafe today? Drozel shoved his entire black tongue down the man's throat. Like, right at the front, in plain sight, and Brielle said Ayla saw."

"So she's not upset about same-sex relationships," Kanik said, nodding to show he was following along.

"And Brielle thinks she might need someone to talk to about men's muscles," I said. "This evening, I told Ulris I'd be off for a while. I figure I can spend some time with her, and somehow, probably over the next few days, I'll explain to her that I've dated both men and women."

Zasen just leaned back in his chair and smiled. "And become one of the girls? I mean, you're pretty enough for it."

I flicked my tail at him, stinger out. "Asshole."

"But no," he said. "It's a good idea, actually. I have a feeling she'll have questions, though. You okay with talking about it?"

"Since it means she's not going to run away screaming, calling me the Devil?" I chuckled. "Yeah, I'm good with it. Trust me, I've got no problems talking about shit. I just thought I should warn you, because this could backfire."

"But it won't," Kanik said. "No, Rymar. I think you're right. She needs a friend. She needs someone who won't laugh at her when she doesn't know something. And more than all of that, she needs to talk to someone she won't think is trying to marry her."

"And I have no intention of marrying anyone," I agreed.