The Gospel of Ariel: Volume II

XXIV

As they'd finished speaking, Artemis slipped in, and, sitting across from her father told him,

"Father, I must tell you something, but fear ties my tongue.'

'Speak, nina. Why so pale, child? Oh, my dear you are shaking. I've not seen a child in such distress since- never mind that now." Simeon reassured her, "my poor girl, it will be alright. Come here."

"Speak, my child."

"Father, I am pregnant."

"WHAT? Pregnant with stupidity, ingratitude that's what! You, like your namesake, always were a wild one, but this, THIS? Not even you could stoop so low, though you may yet stoop lower before the sun sets, if I ever loved the letter of the law."

"Such talk indeed, for a blind man, who once belonged to a virgin, with EIGHT CHILDREN! Do you speak thus to every woman you serve?! You delivered me, you delivered us all !You hypocrite!-"

"Child, please, for your own sake, do not cross your father further, my dove. It is most unwise. As for you, check your temper, soften your tongue, quiet your mind, and stay your hand. Love is the highest of laws."

"Has she shown love for me? That she should throw away all that I've given her?!"

"Son of Ares, do hold your tongue. How can you believe this is about you?"

"Does it not reflect on me, on her?" I'll spare her, surely, for not to do so, though it is within my right, is against my nature. Your mother was over twice your age when she began to bear children, and you are yourself a child. You need not fear me anymore than you do. I spare you now as I have the whole of your life. But, ask yourself this: Will this child spare you?"

"You would do well not to frighten her. Look at your child, pale, shaking, sobbing, Look at her. Who do you see?"

"She must know the truth."

"What may be the truth, and she well knows it. She has seen and aided in the births of three siblings, and also has attended many women when their time came, For some, it was the end. For some it wasn't. She is young, yes, and, being young, deserves your mercy, Surely, she is not the only one complicit in this,"

"Mercy will not save her from death in childbirth."

"And your rage at what is done will?"

"Who is the father?!"

"I don't know, I DON'T KNOW..."

"You do. SPEAK!"

"If you are convinced of her knowledge, Adon, then do you not also know, Need we speak more of this?"

"How dare you, boy! Yes, for it is not finished."

"How do you accost me for my words?'

DOES NONE AMONG YOU UNDERSTAND! I'd six brothers once. I was the seventh son, and the youngest of us all, by far. War took all of my brothers, the lot of em, some before I was born, some when I was a babe in my mother's arms. I had a sister, too, Thessaline,whom I loved more than life, more than my mother, for so she loved me. Childbirth, that life-giving, sanguine murderess, would not spare her, and took my niece with her. She was eighteen, and I was a lad of barely three. I was with her, at a time when we two were alone. I could do nothing but cry for her, plead with her to come back. When my mother found her, she was never right again. I swore on my dear sister's body that I would never endanger a woman thus, and so gave myself to Artemis. It would destroy what's left of me if a child of mine should join her. It is for this that I took two daughters to me, and for this reason, once my own children, daughters all for many years, were born, that I determined they should not marry till the age a boy is past his childhood, if they choose to wed at all. I, too, against custom, allow them to choose their husbands, and send a group of them together to serve as escorts wherever they may go so that not one is alone. Dangerous men and state-sanctioned suicide are part of why I keep my children with me, not out of control, but out of love."