CHAPTER FOUR #2
My eyebrows rose as I tried to imagine him living here.
Given that I knew very little about him, there wasn’t much to build a picture with.
“I’m guessing at the moment that I’d put him on the roster to work here, help take care of the animals, clean out the stalls, that sort of thing.
He can learn to work reception with Bo, if he’s interested in that, or if that’s too stressful, then I wouldn’t force him to do the customer service side of things.
I don’t know a whole lot about what a dimari needs right at the moment, so I’m happy to adapt that to whatever’s most likely to suit him.
But I’ve got a spare bedroom in the house where he can live, the government pays the wages, so he’d have a steady income, and he’d have two or three days off each week to go into the city, or work on a hobby, or whatever.
It’s not a fancy life, but it gives him something useful to do and lets him earn some money.
” I watched Aiden as I finished speaking, feeling oddly like I was waiting for his approval.
Or dreading his criticism of the idea. I found it rather unfair that he expected me to put all my cards on the table before giving me any hints about what Xel actually needed.
To my relief, Aiden’s eyes crinkled in a smile, and he seemed to relax a little.
“That sounds like a fine starting point. As you’ve said, there are a few adjustments we’d need to make, but it’s a solid foundation.
There is a more complicated side to all of this, however.
” His smile faded, and he was back to the stern military officer.
“Dimari have a few specific psychological needs, some of which can make people fairly uncomfortable.”
I snorted, though perhaps that wasn’t the appropriate response to his statement.
“Uncomfortable? I once spent six hours straight calming down an abused dog so that a vet could treat his wounds. Last winter I had to go swimming in a leech-infested pond to rescue a stranded donkey. And I’ve jacked off an Eastern Crested Reef-Lizard in front of a class of college students to collect semen for a breeding program.
I think I’ve got ‘uncomfortable’ covered.
” And that didn’t even include the discomfort I had to deal with every time I went out in public.
Now it was Aiden’s turn to snort. “I’ve heard those lizards have rather large, um…”
I grinned. “Yeah, they do.” The Reef-Lizards were some of the larger lizards native to Rendol 4, about twice the size of a domestic cat.
And a few of the species had notably long penises – in the case of the Eastern Crested Reef-Lizard, about as long as his entire body.
Demonstrating the technique in front of a bunch of students trying to take the lesson seriously had been memorable, to say the least.
But then Aiden sobered. “Seriously, though, the issue with dimari is that they very much see themselves as slaves. They have a deeply intrenched need to please their masters, and given our own aversion to slavery, a lot of people find it difficult to place themselves in that role. Dimari need direction. They need to be praised for their work. They need to be rewarded. I’ve developed an extensive instruction manual to help people understand how it all works…
” He tapped at his comm, and a moment later, mine beeped.
I opened the message to see that it contained a lengthy document which no doubt detailed all of those nuanced requirements.
“But there’s no point in continuing unless you’re prepared to put aside a lot of your ingrained notions about fairness and decency, and work with Xel on his level. ”
“If you want me to exploit him for his labour, I’m not going to do it,” I stated flatly. “Slavery is illegal for a reason-”
“I absolutely agree,” he interrupted me.
“I’m not talking about exploiting him. I’m saying that dimari take pleasure in serving their masters.
But if you’re determined to deny him the opportunity to serve you, then you’re going to make him miserable.
He should have all the same rights and considerations as any normal employee – fair pay, suitable meal breaks, time off if he gets sick – but he’s going to want to know that you’re pleased with his work.
He’s going to want praise. If you give him a sandwich for lunch, it’s not just food.
It’s a reward for his hard work that morning.
A lot of people feel it’s a very manipulative way to get the dimari to do things, but that’s the level at which they understand the world. ”
I considered that. “Maybe I’m missing the point here, but that sounds fairly simple.
All I have to do is tell him that caring for the animals is the best way of serving me, then tell him that I’m very happy with the result, and he gets a warm, fuzzy glow in knowing that he’s pleased me, right?
But at the same time, he gets food and shelter and a pay packet for doing those same things, which satisfies my need to obey Rendol’s labour laws. ”
Aiden tilted his head, like he was trying to solve a puzzle. “You’re getting the hang of this a fair bit quicker than most people do,” he said with a faint smile.
I felt myself smile and reflected that it had been a long time since I’d smiled so many times in one day.
“I work with animals,” I pointed out. “They all have the same basic needs – food, shelter, safety – but they all have different ways of expressing those needs. I guess I’m just used to adapting to the way each of them works.
And so far as Xel is concerned, so long as I’m not harming him with any of these techniques, then I see no reason not to follow instructions. ”
Aiden nodded slowly, and I got the odd impression there was something he wasn’t telling me. But then again, our afternoon was far from over.
“Right then. There are going to be more details to discuss, but I think the next step probably needs to be introducing you to Xel. Does that sound all right?”
My optimism immediately waned. “What’s he going to think of… I mean, he doesn’t know about…” I gestured vaguely to my face.
“If I may answer that rather bluntly,” Aiden said, as calm as ever, “dimari are exceptionally good at ignoring details about their lives that don’t fit in with their preconceived notions about how the world is supposed to be.
They’ll ignore inconsistencies and create convoluted narratives to explain away anything that suggests that either their master is not perfect, or that their role in the world is something other than obedient slave.
In an aesthetic sense, they have no opinion whatsoever as to the physical features of their masters. ”
“But I’m not really his master,” I pointed out. “He’s not going to bond to me like he did to my uncle.” The poor bastard, being bonded to that asshole. As traumatic as it no doubt was for Xel to have lost his master, I couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t better off now.
Aiden looked uneasy. “To be honest, I’ve never worked with a dimari who’s lost his master before.
So I don’t entirely know what to expect.
But as I’ve said, being without a master is the absolute worst thing that a dimari can experience.
So my expectation is that Xel is going to do everything in his power to convince himself that you’re his rightful master.
And if that’s the case, then your scars will be completely irrelevant. ”
I nodded, desperately hoping that Aiden was right.
Enough people rejected me on a daily basis – to the point that I’d stopped leaving the property to avoid it.
Having a lost and frightened dimari reject me as well, when I was – according to Aiden – his last real hope for a stable life, would be soul-destroying.
But unless we gave it a try, we were never going to know.
“Okay, let’s do this,” I said, getting to my feet. But then another thought occurred to me. “Wait, you said you brought your own dimari with you, as well. What’s he going to think of me?”
“Nothing at all,” Aiden said, with a disarming sort of nonchalance. “I’ve asked Kade to help Xel settle into his new life here. So that’s what he’s going to do. As far as he’s concerned, that’s the end of the story.”
“And Kade always does exactly what you ask him to?” If dimari took this obedience thing too far, did that mean they were effectively no more than puppets? I didn’t like that idea at all.
But Aiden laughed, genuine amusement lighting his face.
“Oh, god, no. He’s opinionated and manipulative and continuously pulls me up if I break any of my own rules about how to look after him.
But that only came about because we’ve spent a very long time talking things over and learning to understand each other.
With Xel, you’re going to have to start with all the basic, surface level things, and then deepen your understanding of each other over time.
And unfortunately, there are no shortcuts for that sort of thing. ”
On a conceptual level, what Aiden was describing sounded delightful.
Another person who saw me for who I was, not for my scars and trauma.
A sort of symbiotic relationship in which we each cared for each other.
But that was assuming that Aiden was right, and Xel was able to look past both my scars and the fact that I wasn’t his true master.
“Well, no time like the present,” I said, mustering all the optimism I could manage. “Let’s go meet him.”