Sythyry

The four of us, plus Yarwain, were eating dinner together tonight.
I had the ill consideration to say of Dustweed, “The only way zie
could be less popular with Herethroy is if zie was a both-female.”
This elicited quite an intense reaction: a careful and clearly
intentional changing of the topic from everyone at the table.

A surprising and little-known fact: Zi Ri are not the only
hermaphrodites among the primes. We are not even the most common
hermaphrodites among the primes. I knew this in theory, of course. I
never expected to pay it any attention in practice.

For those of you who pretend to be monsters, remember that six of
the eight prime species have two sexes (male and female, though I
don’t imagine ‘male’ for a Khtsoyis is the same as ‘male’ for a Cani).
Zi Ri are all hermaphrodites. (For those imagining exotic tangled
geometries of organs and appendages, go look at an anatomy book and
observe the elegant reality.) And Herethroy have three or possibly
four sexes: male (20%), female (50%), and co-lover (30%).

And the “possibly four” is the Herethroy hermaphrodite: the
both-female, who may operate as either a female or as a co-lover.
There are very few both-females; perhaps one birth in a thousand, or
in ten thousand. There are still more both-females than Zi Ri, simply
because there are so many Herethroy.

Now, females are the strong common ones in Herethroy society, the
workers and generally the ones in charge. [Humans can consider them
"masculine". -bb] Co-lovers are the gentle maternal ones, also the
beautiful attractive ones. [Humans can consider them "female". -bb]
(Males, of course, are in the middle, but that’s neither here nor
there.) This leaves both-females in rather an awkward position, just
in principle.

That’s in principle. In practice, it’s worse.

Herethroy don’t like both-females, not at all. They generally make
them act as females. It is an ordinary thing for a female Herethroy
to never get married, and simply be relegated to a life of fieldwork
and occasional snatched adultery (though both-females would only get
the fieldwork) — I think that as many as one woman in five winds up
that way. (Males marry twice, co-lovers once or twice, females once
or not at all. Official village marriages are all heterosexual and
capable of breeding, around here at least.)

I think they were created for the irony of it. They can do right
by any Herethroy … but no Herethroy wants them. This is not
official Virid theology of course.

(As an aside: the both-females who are not made to act as females
are generally killed at birth.)

I asked Dustweed about it later, when we were both in bed. (To be
specific: zie was in zir bed, and I was draped artistically over a
smouldering log in the fireplace. I do not want it thought that I
share a bed with Dustweed.) I suppose that one rarely asks such a
question unless one knows the answer. In any case, zie is one.

I am very nearly the last person in Vheshrame to learn about it.
Every Herethroy knows, of course — perhaps they can tell by some
subtle signs that Dustweed cannot or will not conceal, or perhaps zie
is simply notorious. Havune and every Cani can tell instantly, by zir
scent. I don’t know how Thery and Yarwain found out; perhaps one of
them was here two years ago when it became a matter of public
scandal.

Dustweed didn’t want to tell me. I think zie is just a touch
jealous: we are both hermaphrodites, but oh! how very, very different!
Also, zie somehow got the impression that I am fussy about certain
niceties. When I refused at the last moment to accept Iska into the
apartment, Dustweed realized that zie might do best not to bring zir
deformity to mention.

And I am afraid that zie was right.

I imagine I should be more pleased if Dustweed were simply a
both-female who knew zir place and acted female and stays aside. But
Dustweed is not that both-female. Dustweed has decided that zie is
better suited to the co-lover’s lot in life — and indeed, zie looks
much more the co-lover than the female — and chooses to dress and
comport zirself as one. Zie is the firstborn child of a Great Baron,
from a region with a long and unshakeable tradition of primogeniture,
and so zie has rank and wealth enough to protect zirself and do what
zie wishes, society be damned. And zie is cursed with a strong degree
of personal pride and self-determination.

So, wherever Dustweed goes, scandal goes as well. Scandal in the
subtle bitter Herethroy style, which a rather more energetic Zi Ri
might well miss.

Dustweed’s side of the story.

That is why Dustweed’s parents gave zir such an unappealing name.

That is why Dustweed is so unpopular among Herethroy. Zie is a
both-female, and hence, perforce, unpopular. Zie is not willing to do
what proper both-females are supposed to do, and hence squaredly
unpopular. And zie is, at some point, going to rule several villages
– and what could possibly be worse than being ruled by a both-female?
– and hence cubedly unpopular.

That is why Dustweed will never be able to marry. Zie can hardly
marry much beneath zir class. Yet, who of zir class or anywhere close
to it would marry a both-female?

That is why Dustweed is so distressed about Tethezai. Tethezai
enjoys zir because zie is both-female. Not to put too fine a
point on it, Tethezai is a libertine — and a libertine’s libertine.
Dustweed would prefer to be loved as a co-lover, or, perhaps, simply
as a person. One may consider this overly fussy, as zie is unlikely
to be loved for much at all, but one should certainly appreciate the
desire. Tethezai’s first interest in Dustweed is more that of a
Rassimel collector to an exotic specimen.

That is why other Herethroy occasionally assault Dustweed. Zie is
a rebel against the true and proper order of Herethroy society.

My side of the story

I am rather distressed by this. I had of course wanted to have
some nice straightforward lesser nobility for apartment mates. (You
remember Iska, whom I refused rather rudely for being too foreign and
common.) Now it turns out that my roommate — not simply my apartment
mate, but my very roommate — is a rebel and tradition-breaker of the
most indisious sort short of actually doorwaying or some actual crime.

I gather that my half-sister long ago decided that I chose Dustweed
as roommate intentionally, with full knowledge (for it was a matter of
some public note, two years before I came to Vheshrame), as a specific
act of rebellion and defiance. I doubt that I will ever persuade zir
otherwise.

What does one do in a situation such as this?

I fear that I temporized: I made my apologies for my comment that
Dustweed may have found ungracious, and even listened sympathetically
to such of zir life’s story as zie saw fit to tell me in the dark,
much after every bedtime. I imagine that I should have done something
rather different and dramatic — storming from the apartment in a
flutter of wings and raspy tail, breathing flames into the midnight
air. I thought about that for some while, but the thought of getting
out of a nice warm bed simply as a matter of etiquette seemed too much
work. By now the moment has passed… and in any case clearing my
name of association with Dustweed’s will probably take years.

[OOC comment: no, this isn't you. No, it's not you either. It's
not even me. This is just the story that was tickling around in the
back of my head when that confusing line from the World Tree book
"Herethroy have three (or arguably four) genders" trickled out
of my fingertips many years ago, and I had to make sense of it
somehow. --bb]

[Other OOC comment: Bard does not agree with Sythyry's rather
prejudiced, racist and classist views. --bb]