The Flare

The Assembly

Chapter 3

"There is no way of establishing whether or not Salona Turah willingly altered herself!" Nanib, Geb's second in command, looked directly at Salona and bellowed his accusation.

The Naronian Assembly was in an uproar. Half were convinced she had committed heresy; the other half claimed her failure to flare was a sign of a greater societal breakdown. All agreed that her honor and that of the Turah family would be stripped.

Salona closed her eyes tight, willing the walls to fall in and swallow her. The last three millicycles were pure torture. The Naran tests were extensive involving more physical examinations and more questions than she had ever been exposed to. Men she did not know, picking and prodding at her body, drawing blood and flesh, saliva, and other bodily fluids she tried not to think about. She felt like an experiment, not a female. A thing, not a woman.

She knew the Assembly was scared. The entire planet was scared. Intuitively, she knew it was not her person on trial. They were investigating the loss of a breeding female. Their need to prove her guilty of tampering her reproductive system was stemmed from fear. Her very existence was hard evidence Naron was one more step toward extinction. Knowing this, it still felt as if they took a perverse pleasure in making her uncomfortable. As if they believed punishing her would satisfy the gods and save their people.

And now she had to sit here and wait through the Assembly's deliberation. The now familiar sensation of fear snaked through her body and bit into her heart, poisoning her composure. She kept her head down, not wanting to see disdain in their faces for fear of completely losing her calm.

"You insult my family honor, Nanib!" Salona's father screamed at the Assemblyman, his face ruddy with suppressed rage.

Honor. A very precarious commodity on Naron. Threads of it connected everyone together, some citizens more than others. The slightest stain motivated some of the most intense acts of contrition. The Turah family suffered a stain on their honor at Salona’s birth. Not because she was female. Her gender was the only redeeming factor in the turmoil of events that day. It was the suicide of her mother and circumstances around Salona’s conception that pushed her father out of many social circles since her birth. As first husband, Geb was at risk. He found salvation in lambasting her mother’s sanity and separating himself from his wife’s third husband. Luckily, being a female had gone a long way to erasing that stain and rebuilding bridges. At the time it promised fertility and continuance of their race.

Until now.

But if she altered herself, if she willingly changed her biology to prevent the mating ritual she would never be forgiven. She would likely suffer the fate her mother had willingly embraced. The Voyd-a natural rupture in the planet’s core at the edge of the city. No one knows how deep the hole really is.

Salona's failure to flare not only affected her honor, but her family's as well. As the first female in six generations, she had revived her family's hope of continuing the family name of Turah. Now their hope was destroyed.

And she failed them.

"We rightfully question your family honor, Turah!" Assemblyman Hadalow snarled, obviously in agreement with his fellow Assembly members. "Never has a female failed to find a mate in the arena. Only in the legend of Nara, and we all know how the gods chose to punish us because of her."

“My daughter is not Nara! She has declared her willingness, in fact eagerness, to mate and begin a family!” Yavon screamed in defense of his daughter.

The heresy of Nara was every woman’s burden. Salona never imagined she would be likened to the wife of Eranu. She always expected to live a typical Naronian life. Husbands. Children. None of this ever entered her mind. All she wanted was to be normal!

As the tale goes, because Nara refused to bear her husband children, all women were incited with a debilitating need to mate with a man of the purest of blood, making it impossible to refuse him lest she wither and die. Her need was so great she took on three husbands to ease her suffering which came to be known as the flare.

Nara eventually acknowledged the wrong she had done to her people and fulfilled her duty to her husbands, providing each with one daughter and over fifteen sons before her death. But her legacy continued. The gods will set forth onto all women, their bodies subjugated to unbearable desires without respite. As the will of the gods, it was therefore the female’s holy obligation. And going against the Gods was heresy, punishable by death.

Hadalow's statement embodied this myth and the underlying fear of punishment from the gods. Because of Salona, that punishment could very well be extinction. Heated debate howled through the Assembly chambers. The sound was so loud Salona covered her ears, protecting herself from the biting comments and cruel remarks.

"Assemblymen, Assemblymen!" Salona had not seen Geb enter the room. He stood here, the robes of the Commander draped over his shoulders, holding up his hands, quieting all others. "I understand your disdain of this female," Geb's failure to mention Salona's name was not an accidental oversight. "I must concur with Yavon. Her acts are not reminiscent of Nara. Or we must hope they are not."

Geb paused for several beats, having a taste for the dramatic, and enjoying the power he held over his Assemblymen. Geb was the last person from which Salona had hoped to find a defender. But miracles happened in the past. She herself was a miracle or so her father told her, so she did not dismiss the possibility.

"Were Salona Turah a male, she would be given the opportunity to refortify her family honor. A female has never lost her honor to this degree; but if honor can be lost, it can be regained. I suggest we afford her the opportunity to do the same and allow her to save herself, and us, from the vengeance of the gods. It is my belief the honor of Salona’s family was damaged when her mother committed suicide. It would then follow that if her honor could be repaired, the gods may gift Salona with the ability to flare." Geb paused again, an ambiguous smile pulling at his lips.  "I propose she be given a Raxtar."

If Salona thought the Assemblymen were previously vocal, she was totally unprepared for the uproar resulting from Geb's suggestion. Several stood, shaking their fists in Geb's direction, voraciously opposing the suggestion. Others sat, quietly shocked by what he suggested. Yet just as many were eagerly accepting of his proposal, excited by the opportunity to abate the gods. Geb simply sat, smiling with satisfaction over the uproar his suggestion garnished.

"We accept!" Yavon screamed at the top of his lungs, before Geb could change his mind.

"But father!" Salona grabbed his arm, begging his attention. She was innocent! Never had she done anything to alter her body's chemistry to cause this. How could they abandon her defense? This was not how things were supposed to be! She was supposed to be married now! She was supposed to be pregnant already!

"Hush, Salona! This is your only chance for staying out of the Voyd!" Her father, who had never been rough with her, twisted her arm close to him in his desperation to quiet her refusals.

Geb stood, standing on the dais above them, staring down upon Salona and her father, pleased with the outcome of his machinations. Outstretching his hands before him, he hushed the angry council.

"Salona Turah, it is the decision of the Commander that you perform a Raxtar to regain honor for your family and assuage the Gods. Should you succeed in the task which shall be appointed to you, you will return to the bosom of your father to live out your days in the hope you will eventually flare.

"Should you fail in the task you are given, and you are fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to survive, you will be brought home and sentenced to whatever ravages are found in the Voyd. Do you agree to these terms?"

Salona paused, knowing her life would change irrevocably after she left these chambers. There was no choice. Regain her family's honor or face the Voyd. But without her honor she may as well be in the Voyd and send her father there as well. Whatever this task was, she would do it.