10: Sordid
The scandal descends on the Imperial University like a dark cloud, bringing with it words that Kalasin doesn't quite understand.
Statutory rape, pedophilia, underage, position of power, seduction, defiled, dishonorable, illicit…
The whispers swirl around the University, and she and her friends hear them and gasp, wide-eyed, saying that no, it can't be true, the upper years don't know what they're talking about, but they beg the older students for more information, nevertheless.
By the end of the week, everybody knows the story of the sixth-year girl and the Astronomy professor. Kalasin is shocked. It's so strange and surprising and disturbing, somehow. How could this have happened? The professor had always seemed so normal before, and now everybody was saying that he and Radanae had been…having an affair. Kally doesn't know all the details, and when she asks, her seventh-year potions partner says grimly that she doesn't want to know all the details.
The University breaks for the end of the quarter earlier than normal, and a slightly shaken Kalasin returns to the palace. She had never thought that she'd consider Court a peaceful, happy place, but compared to what school's been like, it seems like the most harmonious place in the world.
Ozorne has heard about what happened at the University, everyone has, and when he sees Kally again, he inquires about whether she's quite all right. She says she is, and manages to hold her silence for two days.
The curiosity gets to be too much, though, and she finds that she has to ask him. He knows more about the world than she does, after all, and she doubts that Fazia would answer questions of this sort.
"Why would he do it?" Kalasin asks plaintively, over dinner that night. "He has a wife and three children, and a powerful holding. Why would he…do what he did…with Radanae?"
Ozorne puts his wineglass down, and tries to word his reply as carefully as possible. "Some men…have strange preferences, Kalasin. It's like an illness. They can't control it, as dishonorable as it is. They don't have the discipline to keep their—desires—under control."
Kalasin abandons her strawberry, and props her head up thoughtfully. "He betrayed his wife. Ajay said that they had been married for years and years, and that they loved each other dearly. If he loved her so much, how could he do that to her?"
"Some people's minds work in strange ways. If they are presented with a temptation, they give in to it." Ozorne is beginning to feel uncomfortable discussing this with her. She is fifteen, yes, but he doesn't want her to know too much about the evils of the world yet.
She thinks about it, and shivers involuntarily. "Do you know what everybody's saying he did to her? What they did to each other, I suppose?"
"Yes." The Emperor Mage sees that she is pale, and nudges the strawberry back toward her side of the dessert plate. "Eat. And don't think about it. You don't need those kind of things weighing on your mind."
Kalasin bites into the strawberry, and a small rivulet of red juice drips onto her fingers. She licks it off, savoring how very sweet it is. "All right. But…um…" she nibbles on the end of the strawberry hesitantly.
"Yes?" Ozorne asks, trying to hold back a sigh. He can't disillusion her more than what's already been said this evening, in any case.
"I thought grown men were supposed to prefer grown women," she says in a rush, blushing. "Not sixteen-year-olds."
He had been expecting a typical product of Kalasin's inquisitive mind, but not that. Ozorne is silent for a few moments, hoping that she'll change her mind and ask a different question, but she leans into him with an expectant look. He smoothes a lock of her hair behind her ear. "In an ideal world, that would be true," he tells her softly, and slips an arm around her slender shoulders for the luxury of a small hug.
"But?"
"But some men are…different, and no matter how hard they try to change themselves, they can't."
"That's sad," Kalasin whispers.
Ozorne kisses the top of her head. "I know."
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