Chapter 5 - Nahla - Friends Gained and Lost

As Nahla worked with Felaadi to clean up the inn after breakfast on her second day, she asked her friend, "How are Bereda and Nyanzi doing? Are things with their husbands any better?"

Nahla had met Bereda, Felaadi, and Nyanzi quite by accident about a year and a half prior when she was on her way home after buying some new clothing for Mahko, who was in a growth spurt at the time, but whose shoulders weren't yet broad enough to wear hand-me-downs from his older brother Deniz. She had paused for a moment in a park to admire a fountain when she'd heard one of the three women sitting nearby - Nyanzi - crying about how harsh and unloving her husband was. Dharak hadn't been being unkind to her at the time, just distant and uninterested, and she'd been aware of his affairs. The women had stopped talking when they'd noticed her listening and she'd said, "My apologies to you. My own marriage is less than happy right now, and so I felt empathy for your situation, but truly, it's none of my business. Please forgive me."

Felaadi had looked up at her and said, "We're all in the same boat, though the past few weeks have been a little better for me. Please, feel free to join us. We meet every two weeks here at the fountain, whenever I get a day off from my job at a local inn."

And so Nahla had taken to joining the women, finding strength in being able to encourage them and be encouraged by them in turn as they all endured difficult marriages.

After about two months of the meetings, Dharak had come to her and said, "So I heard you are meeting with 3 women near the Al-Basrah park fountain. I want you to stop immediately."

Nahla had looked up at her husband in startlement and asked, "Excuse me? How is this any of your business?"

"I hear all you do is gossip about your husbands. Don't you know such talk could damage my reputation?"

"First of all, Dharak, how do you even know about this? Second, gossip would be if we talked about other people's marriages. We don't do that - we only talk about our own. Third, we talk for the sake of helping each other to be better wives and mothers. Fourth, if it really bothers you so much, I'm sure they would be willing to move our meetings to someplace more private."

But Dharak had gotten right up in her face and snarled, "The wife of one of my colleagues saw you and overheard what you were talking about. Second, your and my private business is no one else's concern. You either stop meeting with them, or I will never pay for Kiardha to attend mage school."

But Nahla was undaunted and decided to call Dharak's bluff. "When you care about nothing except the ability to make money for Mereid's Magicks? You did not oppose Deniz becoming a sailor because you knew he would one day be able to captain one of your trading ships, and I know you one day want to help him develop an eye for good trade. Makho has a keen eye for accounting, and you already have plans to teach him that part of your business in depth once he finishes his general education. Kiardha will be able to make you money by crafting magic items once she completes her mage's training. She has a keen mind and the absolute aptitude to be good at magic. And now, because you cannot stand the idea that I might become a better wife and mother to you and our children, you try to bully me into backing down by threatening Kiardha's future? Come on, Dharak, you love gold far too much to risk one whole family member not bringing in the maximum profit possible." Nahla had hated the need to use business as an excuse to get her husband to support her daughter's dreams, but it was the only thing that ever swayed him, and she had been determined that if Kiardha could not have her father's love, she would at least get something she really wanted from him.

Dharak had said, "I am fine with you becoming a better wife and mother. Just don't air our dirty business."

Nahla had exclaimed in exasperation, "But no one can help if they don't know what's going on! If I disguise the real issue in order to cover over our dirty business, I risk getting answers that do me no good at all. That's like ordering shrimp at a restaurant but expecting the server to know that what I really want is for them to serve me whitefish. It's insane!"

Dharak had grabbed her arm in a painful vise and hissed, "Do not cross me on this, Nahla. Out of kindness, I have allowed Kiardha to attend general education classes, but technically, she has no need of them, or of mage school, either. I still have contacts back home. I'm tempted to send Kiardha there to be part of a harem so both you and she can learn your proper places."

Nahla had sighed. Dharak came from a very traditional family, one that practiced the old ways. There were no more than 10 families left that still lived that way, as far as she knew, and Dharak's family were the only Undines to do so. Men exercised complete control over their households and women were basically property. Women had no rights in these families, and couldn't even go outside the family dwelling without wearing heavy gowns that looked more like a shroud than real clothing and a veil covering all of their head but their eyes. And they had to be accompanied by at least one adult male. According to the few women who'd managed to escape from these families over the years, a woman could be murdered for anything less than complete subservience to a man's whims. For this reason, most of her countrymen rejected the old ways, recognizing them as part of a shameful past.

As a young man, Dharak had felt limited professionally by his family's beliefs and had even left them in rebellion against those ways even though it meant he would be disowned, denouncing the entire way of life as barbaric and primitive. Nahla would never have married him if he had openly espoused those traditional views, and it had terrified her to hear him speak like this now. He'd never done so before, and she wasn't sure where this talk of his family's old ways was coming from. She wasn't about to risk Kiardha being sent to a harem. It would destroy her daughter.

Dharak could have forbidden Nahla from using her flying carpet or decreased her personal allowance and she wouldn't have cared a whit, but Kiardha had so little of her father's affection that Nahla would have gone to great lengths to see her daughter both safe and happy. And drat Dharak for exploiting that! "Fine," she'd ground out, "but I will need to go to the next meeting if only just to tell them I won't be coming anymore."

"See that you stay away. If you need friends, why not spend some time with our peers?"

She'd replied, "Because, Dharak, I have never met even one single one of those women that I felt I wanted to be friends with." Nahla found the wives of her husband's peers to be snobby and catty, finding fault in others over every little thing and doing everything possible to make others feel inferior. As far as she was concerned, they were like vipers - creatures to be avoided. And now she had to worry that her husband had become one, too.

Felaadi replied, "Bereda's about the same, but Nyanzi seems to have given up hope. My situation is a lot better, and I think Nyanzi's envious. She acts like she hates me. The three of us don't meet together anymore, though I do see Bereda from time to time. Bereda says not to take Nyanzi's words personally. She's worried Nyanzi's going to wind up dead if she doesn't learn to channel her fighting urges in a more constructive way. So pray for her."

"Do you think Nyanzi would accept a visit from me?" Nahla wanted to know.

"To be honest, Nahla, I don't. Nyanzi put you down a lot after you left us. She sees your wealth as a reason why you can succeed but she can't. Frankly, many of Nyanzi's problems are a result of her own poor choices, and she's not ready yet to be helped with them. And don't worry - both Bereda and I know better than to take anything Nyanzi says about you seriously. We know you're as down-to-Gilon as they come." Felaadi smiled at her friend. "Bereda, on the other hand, would be quite happy to see you again."

"Maybe after I've had the chance to get settled in here, the three of us can go out sometime."

"I'm afraid it will have to be the two of you - you and I won't have the same days off. But I can tell you how to reach Bereda whenever you're ready," Felaadi replied.

Nahla nodded and the two women continued their work.