The First Book of the Pure Read Online Free Page A

married again because it was assumed
in this culture that a woman would be cared for by a man.
Unfortunately, that also had ramifications that weren’t so
pleasant. Ruby had no need to be cared for, or supported
financially. She’d amassed enough money through the years, in other
personas, that she’d have been fine without anyone helping her in
any way. Yet, in this culture, at this time, that just wasn’t an
acceptable alternative. She was so weary of it all, and the stupid
brutality of men as they felt they could rule over everything in
their lives. She longed for a relationship that was a good
partnership, which had a sense of sharing to it, and equality. She
was brilliant, and she hated having to hide her intellect, for fear
of retaliation from those who ran the world, her country, her city,
and her own home. She’d certainly had enough of this husband.
    Her pot bellied, stoop shouldered husband
still used her, for even with his appreciation for her talents, she
was, after all, just a woman. In any case, he rationalized, she
wasn’t sent on a galley where the crew or some slaves were rewarded
by having her for the night. He believed he treated her well, and
cared for her. The gods had sent her to him, and he deserved all
that she was and could provide. That certainly had to include her
beauty, and her sensuality.
    He wasn’t her first master. She’d been with
others, some far worse, some as good. She bore this man no deeper
grudge than any others she’d had over the years, and had in fact
borne him two daughters. The girls were as average as their father,
fairly unimaginative and boring. Their father was terribly
disappointed that they were girls and not boys, yet he still put a
servant in charge of their rearing.
    She’d never been in a position that allowed
her the freedom to raise and know her own children as she’d wanted.
Her husbands always decided everything. My offspring are always
female, and should be better than average, but such is life. She picked through the memories she retained of her last three
husbands. She’d borne several daughters to them, but her attachment
to them was fairly limited. When she walked away she gave them very
little thought. In the world of that time it was nearly impossible
to track someone from a distance, and she would not inconvenience
herself enough to live in close enough proximity to actually see
her offspring regularly. Once she very much wanted to do so, but
found it impossible once she had taken another identity.
    Occasionally she wondered if any of her
daughters were long lived. But she was here, and they were
somewhere else, and therefore not her concern, or at least she’d
convinced herself of that. They were always their fathers’
children, never hers to raise and care for, to hold and love. She
was chattel, and her daughters from earlier identities were such by
now as well. Her current daughters would be under a man’s authority
soon enough. She had an ability, a survival mechanism, which
allowed her to dismiss that which wasn’t current; that which had no
bearing on her directly, and in a timely manner.
    One night after too much wine, and taking her
almost brutally in his desire, her husband slept soundly beside
her. She was smarter, stronger, more aware of surroundings and
people, better at business, and in every way she could think of,
simply better than him. She lay in the dark, thinking back over the
years, and decided she had had enough of being a woman in this
stinking man’s world. Her night vision was keen, and she looked at
him for a long time. Men , she thought. Your lives are so
gonad related, they even control your actions . She finished
aloud, howbeit very quietly, “Fools.”
    He must have realized she wasn’t asleep, or
perhaps he heard her. He asked her what was wrong. “You’ve been an
adequate husband, as men go. I’ve had several, and many children as
well, all beautiful girls, many of them older than you.”
    He sat up in their