Chapter 6:

A Colourful Protest

Finally the uncomfortable sea journey was over, and the ship had reached Lonmar. Tayend was very eager to get off the ship; apparently some of the sailors had repeatedly made inappropriate suggestions to him. Lord Dannyl was yet again glad he was a magician, and that no one had ever dared say anything unsuitable to him during his life. Except perhaps Lord Fergun. And most of the Guild.

Dannyl recalled the time as a novice, when he and Fergun had ended up locked in a closet. It had been yet another of Fergun's desperate attempts to show Dannyl his sword. Luckily, Lord Rothen had been passing by and heard muffled noises from inside the closet. Expecting to see two novices of the opposite sex practising their contraceptive homework, he nearly had a heart attack at the sight of Dannyl and Fergun tangled together on the floor.

That had been the day Rothen took it upon himself to become Dannyl's guardian, and to teach him the difference between a man and a woman. Unfortunately, Rothen's sex education lesson consisted of him paying a prostitute to give Dannyl a lap dance. That had been the start of Dannyl's irrational fear of women.

Utterly perplexed by his novice's strange behaviour, Rothen promptly researched Dannyl's symptoms in the Guild library. To his utmost horror, he discovered from reading the renowned book How to Straighten out Your Novice, that the most logical explanation for Dannyl's fear of women was that he was gay.

Rothen had chosen the only honourable option available to him. He forced Dannyl to overdoes on nemmin; a drug that effectively lowered sex drive. Rothen himself had been on it for years since his wife died. The fact that he had never slept with another woman since her death proved that nemmin really worked. Rothen believed it would be best for Dannyl to grow up to be a lonely bachelor with no sexual feelings. That way, he wouldn't have to worry about his unnatural tendencies towards men getting in the way of his life. And the Guild might eventually learn to accept him as an honourable Kyralian magician, despite his freakish height.

Dannyl shivered as he remembered his horrific time at the Guild, and Rothen's unusual mentoring methods. But as he stared at Tayend walking in front of him, he began to wonder just how open-minded Elynes were in comparison to Kyralians. Did they believe it was acceptable to think about sex? Did Tayend ever think about sex? Dannyl was about to ask the scholar this very question, but he became inexplicably distracted, and found his thoughts drifting into a very strange fantasy. A fantasy which Rothen would certainly have disapproved of, for the reason that it didn't involve any women.

On their way to the Guildhouse, Dannyl and Tayend had to pass through Judgment Square in the centre of Jebem city. What they saw there was simply horrifying.

Married women were disciplined for not spending enough hours every day slaving in the kitchen. Men were whipped if they were shameless enough to wear any colour that wasn't black. And children were punished for any excuse at all. Lonmar truly was a severe country, and Dannyl was relieved he had been born in Kyralia; even if it was blatantly homophobic and full of the most arrogant snobs in the Allied Lands.

Tayend was taking things even worse than Dannyl. He was clearly shocked by the Lonmar customs, and seemed to be enraged by it all.

When they reached the Guildhouse, Tayend stormed purposely into his room, and took out a sheet of glittery paper. He began furiously writing on it with multi – coloured markers.

Dannyl watched his friend with mild interest, and asked, "So… what exactly are you doing?"

The scholar looked sternly up. "I'm making a sign." When Dannyl still looked blank, Tayend continued, "I'm going to start a protest! These people are enslaved by their primitive religious customs. They don't know any better! But I'm planning to change all that."

Dannyl wasn't sure if this was the best time to point out that protesters in Lonmar usually got executed. Maybe he'd explain it later, when Tayend was in a more reasonable mood.

"Er, alright then. I'm just going to take a bath. Don't follow me or anything!" The magician said warningly, before wandering off in search of some fluffy towels.

Tayend stopped what he was doing when Dannyl had left the room. He allowed his thoughts to conjure up a wonderful image of Dannyl soaking wet. He shook his head and grimly and reminded himself that Dannyl was a normal straight guy. Or so he wanted to pretend, at least.

Sighing dramatically, the Elyne went back to rummaging through his cases to find his brightest, most offending garish clothes.

The people of Lonmar won't know what hit them, Tayend thought gleefully.

I had a lot of trouble with this chapter compared to the previous ones... Originally it was only half this length, and so I added in the back story at the start to bulk it up, and make it more interesting.

Thank you very much for all your support so far, and please let me know what you think of this chapter! :D