JOINT POST WITH CRYRIA
4 March 2022
Old. Really old. Everything in the Imperial Library seemed old. And it was! Shelves made of ancient pines and oaks imported from the far north were laden with ancient books. Some of the shelves were centuries old. Some of the oldest volumes were apocryphal texts from Paxist religious scholars largely forgotten in history.
Fahmida Alwadeen, the Chief Reader of the Word in the Inner Court, sat in the study pouring over volumes of text. Although she could not be a Magister in Packilvania due to her sex, she was qualified to teach Paxist scripture and read the word to women and children. After attaining her Bachelor of Arts degree in Paxology at the Sultana Medaya Women’s University in Kemer, she completed her Master’s qualification at the Sultana Emarid Women’s Univerisity. She worked as a reader of the word for women-only services and events at the Prince Tamahed Zubrayn Majhid and became a visiting reader at various places. Sultana Mebri enjoyed the prosody of her reading and teaching and asked her to become the Chief Reader in the Inner Court in 2007, a post she has occupied since.
As she sat in the Imperial Library, a friendly figure entered the room.
—
Saga had not ever felt herself to be one to lurk long in libraries. There had been dead words on paper aplenty in the halls of Tynam, and they had ever been Siban’s realm alone. But there were books, and there was art, and the latter was something the Duchess very much could appreciate. With rank came the realization that few things were truly unique or irreplaceable in this world - Life, love, and the scattered cast-downs of lost legacies. Criteria had witnessed the erasures of the Tomorrow Ministry and the Church, and Packilvania its Communists. To grasp at history, Saga supposed, was a common affair for both.
Thus even as Tynam found herself visiting the Imperial Palace ever more often, it was with no small interest that she had gravitated towards its Library. Here the weight of centuries was enough to draw out some quiet respect from the Duchess as she wandered the shelves. Tomes she often left untouched as one might museum pieces, in no small part from a cautious uncertainty as to what should be touched at all, and perhaps the reality that modern Packilvanian was troublesome enough to parse, nevermind centuries-old written texts. Nor for that matter had she at first wished to trouble the Chief Reader with her idle explorations, but it was certainly difficult to deny that the academic had a certain infectious enthusiasm for what ought to be a very boring topic, and in time Saga had grown familiar enough with her.
“A pleasant reading today, one hopes?” Saga remarked in greeting upon seeing Alwadeen in her usual spot, accompanied by a typically colossal set of texts.
“Your Grace”, Fahmida said as she stood up and curtsied. She blushed and fixed her head scarf. She replied, “A particular treasure indeed! My current read is a book by High Magister Jumhaduwal Ashmodien published in 1789 in which he consolidates the various opinions on the eunuchs and concubines who used to walk these halls. It’s a fascinating look at how values and beliefs change and differ. Simply titillating! Is there anything of particular interest to you that I may assist you with, Duchess?”
Saga had indeed thought to inquire about something that had caught her eye - a richly illuminated copy of the Talveri Posibnyk Ezethy that must have gone on a truly storied adventure to have made its way to adorn a shelf in Bingol from the Garden Island’s distant shores. But the Reader’s own text seemed to capture the Duchess’ interest all the more now.
“One hopes they would indeed have changed from the eighteenth century,” Saga said wryly, “Heavens know what they’ll write about us in a couple of hundred years. Kinder fates than we do about these subjects of the good High Magister’s writings, one hopes.”
She knew enough of the Imperial Palace’s history to know of the unfortunate endings of many of those denizens who had been stricken from its halls by the Magisterium. Ancient tales, to be sure, but Saga tilted her head in consideration all the same, “What has your Jumhaduwal Ashmodien to say of his world, then?”
“Hmmm”, Fahmida said as she pondered the question, “He states that there were many divisions about the proper treatment of those whose moral weaknesses led them to life in the eunuchry. Some believe that the evidence against men seeking to be women or men seeking to know other men was not against the law. Others believed that those with such desires should remain eunuchs while others believe that they ought to be expunged. The latter view won the debate and has prevailed since”.
“How very final,” Saga commented. She supposed she should have known better than to expect a different answer; this was, after all, still Packilvania, and while her own homeland could claim no great kindness in these matters, the stances of the Magisterium were well-known for good reason. Even so, she did not make any effort to hide the hint of disapproval in her voice. There were some things not befitting of civilized states.
“But as you say, values change, given time,” the Duchess mused, all but laying down the bait to see if the Reader cared to bite at it, “I must wonder whether this particular debate is truly done with.”
“And you, Reader,” Saga suddenly asked, “History is your profession. What say you of the present?”
“Well”, Famida replied, “I suppose the debate is not perfectly settled. There are some Magisters who believe that the gallows are not the appropriate punishment and others, especially from faraway lands, feel that such urges should not be punished. I think that it is sad that people should perish instead of having the chance to turn from their ways and Assimilate. I am certain the laws of the Sultan are correct and that he wishes to protect all of us from the propagation of their condition, but… maybe there is a better way. In the Bas Magdamar, it is written that a community of people wanted to stone men who were sick with leprosy but instead, Propet Besmali laid hands on the men and healed them. Maybe that’s what we need to do as well because, in the end, we should all get a chance. The Bas Magdamar says, ‘I knew you ere you were born and I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you’, so I am sure the Most Merciful would have known the plight these people suffer and wanted them to get help”.
Saga listened to the Reader, “Well, it is something to think about,” she agreed. The Duchess expected that as far as answers go, this would be as far on the matter as anyone would be willing to go, and she had no wish to badger the Reader into saying something she could not easily walk back from. Even then she could not help but add, “It certainly sounds as though your own scriptures do not disagree with you either. I must admit, I would be curious to hear more of the matter.”
That there were those within the Magisterium who seemed to agree was perhaps all the more interesting, though she would not be too surprised to hear that many of those hailed from beyond the Sultanate’s borders. Perhaps it was something to examine all the same though.
In truth, Saga could not think of many good reasons to risk stepping on the particular landmine of Packilvanian civil rights, save for the reality that here was something that seemed to sit less and less well with her the more she found herself forced to consider it.
And perhaps, at the end of the day, that alone was the best of reasons.
“Duchess”, Fahmida said, “I understand that you come from a faraway country where maybe things are different. Ma’am, being a Paxist looks different in other places even in Packilvania. There are some books in my private collection that might be informative. Would you like to see them?”
Saga thought about that for a moment, and then smiled and nodded, “I think I should like that very much, Chief Reader.”
“Alright”, Fahmida said, “This is my private collection and you must swear not to tell anyone. One other thing. Since you seem keen on this topic, Great Magisters will be meeting in Aura, Emberwood Coast for Melkezedek the Great Day on the 21st of March, and I have a feeling that they might have something to say about this”.