Sisters

I found a sitting room on the main floor of the house, after eating. It was almost midday already. I asked the messenger if I could see a copy of a book I had heard about. Books were rare even for the priesthood and I didn't actually expect for them to let me have one in the house. I would probably have to go to them to see it. The messenger looked at me curiously then said one of the priests would be over soon.

I told him that I would gladly go to the place where they kept such valuable items but the messenger just shook his head. A priest arrived with a rather large book. I took it from him carefully, and set it on the table in the middle of the sitting room. The priest watched as I opened the book. The writing in the book was small but clear. It was written in an older pattern of speaking and I kept having to reread the same lines over and over before they made sense to me. The priest had watched as I opened the book and started reading on the first page. He looked over at the messenger once it was clear I wasn't going to ask him what the book said.

"The man he called Father taught him. He learned to read and write while he learned to speak. See if the archivist can be convinced to spare me paper and ink."

The priest seemed shocked by the request. Paper and ink were only made by our lord. He made enough to keep the books that he wanted and then he made some extra so that the priesthood can keep the ledgers. There wasn't much beyond that. "I will ask." The priest bowed and left after that. I turned my mind back to what I was reading.

I was only about three pages in when the eldest of the house of Estro found me. She stopped and looked at me in surprise. I made sure I knew where I was before closing the book and moving it to another table in the room, where it wouldn't be likely to be hurt. That book was definitely a copy, and not the only copy of the original but it was still valuable.

I was impressed by the woman who was basically the younger mother of the house of Estro. She had waited while I moved the book without catching any flies or looking too much like she had some place better to be. "You asked to see me, sister?"

She had been lost in thought, "Yes, there are some things we need to talk about." I moved back around to the couch across from where she stood. I wasn't very good at walking yet but it was improving. I waited when she paused, she frowned at me. "Congratulations on your recent major victory brother."

I bowed but it was barely more then a nod of my head, "I had the support of my brothers, even the ones that should not have been there, sister." She had come here to speak to me, she had to have more pressing things to talk about.

"I agree with you, brother. I counseled our mother against her choice, but I had no authority to stop her." She had the same aura around her that most of my brothers had. It wasn't a flame like the special priests, but it moved and I knew there was something she was stopping herself from saying.

I looked over at the messenger who was standing by the door in the same place he had been this whole time. "I fear my sister is worried about people in the priesthood. You seem more careful then some of your brothers."

The messenger raised an eyebrow, "I can understand your sister's concern, Mir. Our lord isn't as happy as I would like him to be with my brothers. It is actually so bad right now that the specials are not allowed to talk to other priests. I feel even if that were to change our lord's interest in you is such that it would preclude me discussing anything about you with anyone but him."

That was worth noting. I looked back at my sister, she had a thoughtful look on her face again. She seemed to remember where she was, and looked up at me. "I am sorry, brother, you look like you are still tired, and this might take awhile. Would you mind if we sit?" She is female and I am male. She is more valuable to our lord, she shouldn't be asking me what I thought. She was clearly smarter then her mother had been.

"Of course, sister." I waited for her to sit before resuming the spot I had been in before she entered. I felt her smile just a bit as she sat down, clearly it was amusing to her as well, but she hid it well.

"I did try to dissuade our mother, but she had thought I overstepped when she was Sick." Sick said strangely enough that it wasn't lost on me what she really meant. "I was still fighting to stay in the meetings of the house. She was, and if she returns will still be I think, using my other sisters to force me to back off."

"That sounds troubling."

"Not overly so, it is how a house stays strong. The problem was focus on what really mattered and bad advice. You turned out to be a better debt to take on than we had hoped, but mother is not an adapter, which is why we were in the position where we had to take your debt in the first place." I saw barely controlled frustration in that statement.

"Not that it matters what I think but the months you were helping while mother was sick, were better." The eldest of Estro, smiled at me.

Was that hope and fear I saw? "That is still nice to hear, brother." She paused and took a breath, "What do you know about the terms of the last fight you were in?"

"That if one man had managed to kill me, our lord would have waved the sacrifice for five years, if a group of men had managed, they all would have received three years. Victors will get to split all of the blood price collected otherwise. There was not a enterent promise to any of the houses, losers got nothing. The house of the victor will get the main house, which will be expected to be set up as a branch house. I of course know about the terms our lord described at the match. I learned of the round rules and house limit three days before the match. I was not told how many rounds there would be, or how many players there would be." I paused for a moment and frowned, "I learned about my brothers the morning of the fight."

I felt her surprise but it didn't reach her face. "That was almost all the terms the matriarchs and daughters received. There was one more, our mother was told, I was around at the time, and I know others were told as well but it didn't make any sense. The victors would get two women from their house." She swallowed but she wasn't done, "The law will be lossended for those women, as long as they only have the children of the victor and they obey them."

"I can see how that is more of a problem for our house, then it would have been for another house. Even more so considering how many victors there were."

"Yes, 20 women tied up in such a manner could hurt our production of other things."

I saw a flicker of more worry then she was ready to admit to me. "Yet, that isn't what worries you."

She bit her lip, she chose to misunderstand. "I have thoughts on how to use this term to make the house stronger overall. The restriction only affects the number of men the women can mate with not the other way around. Who knows, it might start a trend that binds the poor back to the houses."

"Unless you want to tell me more, sister, I have know way of judging the validity of your statement."

The woman looked around the room. There was grey in her hair and she looked tired, "You have never failed the house, brother, even though we have failed you, more then once." I waited as she looked back at the book then to me, "I need your advice, but it may cost me the ability to control my sisters." There was nothing to say to that, her sisters had to see the same problem the matriarch had. No one liked to lose power. "The problem is I need your support, even more then I need your advice, brother." The eldest sister glanced towards the messenger but it was so fast even I almost missed it. "What do I have to do to get both?"

"There is not a plain answer to that question, sister." The fear was back, she had known I wouldn't jump the way she had hoped but I hadn't killed her hope of saving her hard built life, yet. "If you are serious we can start working on making it clear. I will warn you, for any advice to be useful you cannot, underplay anything I ask you about and I will stop if you lie to me."

"I understand brother. What do you want to know?" She smiled with relief that she didn't feel. She still thought she had the upper hand because of her status here, but it was her who needed me. I still had other sisters I could use if she didn't work out.

Hours passed while I tried to get an understanding of the workings of the woman's side of the house of Estro. I learned how it interacted with its neighbors, and I learned more about just how bad the house was with resources. It took long enough that one of my unit checked on us. I had the young man bring us food. I learned about the internal struggles of the women of Estro and how it was decided who had to care for the children. I learned how the house bought food and other items. I was impressed with how much the sister paid attention too and how much she was willing to talk once I got her started.

There was very little that I would like to know that she didn't know. At the start she would try to hold back information she didn't think I would like, or that I might not understand. I only had to call her on it twice before she stopped doing it. She clearly wondered how I knew but she stopped anyway. It only took three or four times after that before I stopped seeing the twing for information she thought I wouldn't understand and I only saw it for the information I wouldn't like. Which most of the time she was correct.

I had just asked five questions in a row that she couldn't answer when she sighed. It was getting late, she was going to have to spend the night. When I didn't ask another question right away she asked me one, "Will you lead this branch house, for me?"

I looked at her in surprise. That wasn't on my list of what I had been thinking, men cannot lead, but this branch house wouldn't be in the arena, and if we wanted a match we could have the main house arrange it for us. No other houses had a branch house, if a daughter struck out on her own or more likely with almost half her sisters and brothers, she would start her own house. "I could see that working, as long as I am not shut out."

"If I cannot have you at every meeting of importance, I have a few sisters that are young enough to make the trip here to tell you about them, or since you can read I can send you reports and you can respond for me."

"Ok, that gets you my advice. If you want my support, take me to see that crazy lady farmer who won't part with her sons until they are 13. After that meeting we can talk about how I can support my house."

I saw the confusion from my sister. "If that is what you want, brother."

I stood and my sister stood with me. "Let's see if any of my brothers thought to have a room readied for you since we talked through dinner."