The Salom'Sileyu Trilogy 1: The Kult of Salom'Sileyu

Episode 6: Rhaja

Always prim and proper.

Always the ideal little girl.

Always acting as she was supposed to in the eyes of her dwarvish parents, upholding the Ethaynia name with utter respect, living out the expectations laid on her by generations of Zadist tradition and family reputation. She was cute, bouncing curls put up in an elegant ponytail while she adorned a modest academy uniform; a white blouse with a black skirt, and white leggings underneath to provide the warmth that a skirt couldn't.

She was at the turn of the age, just entering her adolescence and beginning her growth into a young woman. She was interested in most of the things normal girls were interested in; makeup, films and media, and talking with friends. Of course, that was the extent of it. She was also into the sciences and was smart, smooth-tongued and imaginative. There wasn't much she struggled with in her academics, but as for her social life, she was riddled with anxiety. It wasn't because she was socially awkward, though. Rather, it was the secret she kept...

She was attracted to girls.

It wasn't what her parents wanted. It wasn't what her religion accepted. It wasn't what those around her agreed with. Her family had always been strictly adherent to Zadist tradition for generations and generations, and she couldn't break that tradition now. And while she certainly believed in the existence of Skyrn – or, at least, a god that was like Skyrn – she didn't believe in the traditions of Zadism. She didn't believe in the rules and structures it forced its disciples to adhere to. Alas, she couldn't disappoint her family, though. She was their only daughter, and the burden was placed upon her shoulders to carry on the family line and the family name.

But when the other girls would talk about the boys, she would catch herself fantasizing about the girls that were talking. Often times, she had to keep herself from staring, and she felt an inward shame because she knew that in her parents' eyes, it was wrong. She wondered how long she would be able to keep up the façade.

"Rhaja," the professor called out from the front of the class, pulling her from her desperate thoughts. Once again, she stuffed her feelings away and returned to reality.

"Yes, professor?" She said, sitting up straight in her seat. A couple of the girls muttered something derogatory under their breath behind her and started to giggle, and it only fueled her desire to excel in class. Enthedrillan society was cruel to people like her, and she wasn't too young to comprehend that because her skin was colored, she was looked at differently.

Another emotion to stuff away.

"Please answer the problem on the board," he demanded. His tone was polite and gentle, something she respected in him. He was an elderly ivory elf, with eyes as blue as the sea and hair as white as snow. He managed to keep himself as good in shape as he could with his age, but as with all things, the reman body eventually fails and dies.

She turned her attention to the board and started to solve for the math equation in her head. "If the value of 'x' is five, then the vector will be seventy-three," she said with beaming confidence. The rest of the class turned to the professor in silent anticipation, and on cue, a smile crept across his face.

"Correct again, Rhaja," he said with a clap.

She didn't have time to bask in her academic victory, though. She turned to the girls behind her, and with the bitterest of tones, she said, "and if the value of your worth is in the innumerable amount of cheap photos you take of yourselves all day in class and in the bathroom, you're the shallowest remans that society has to offer. My intelligence doesn't hinge on my being a dwarf, you abominable disappointments."