EmmyKtz 🐙 The Pink Hydra
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thepinkhydra.com
EmmyKtz 🐙 The Pink Hydra
@thepinkhydra.com
720 followers 490 following 1.7K posts
Emmylou Kotzé, demi-bi PhD holder, editor, & writer of SF, F, kinky romance, and poetry. Work in Solarpunk, Dirty Magick, and Twenty-two Twenty-eight. Links at linktr.ee/emmyktz. I run The Pink Hydra, Africa's newest and weirdest webzine. Dropped this 🇿🇦
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Fiancé got me a copy of "Little Nothing" - last week.

I will not comment on my progress, even though a book this length should not take me more than an afternoon to actually read 😬😭
Cover of "Little Nothing" by Dee Holloway, featuring art of two girls and a very strange horse
November 16, 2025 at 6:10 PM
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*gleefully rubs my bloodthirsty little hands together*

CW: graphic violence, pain, abuse, torture. This is pretty fucked up even though I've redacted the character names.

From Goddess of the Dark, my WIP which will conclude the Forest of the Morning trilogy.
Snippet from Forest of the Morning, book 3, Goddess of the Dark: This is not that bad, it’s not so bad, this is what they do to thieves in Zarath. It doesn’t kill them. How many times had he watched as a shirtless criminal was dragged bleeding off the scaffold in the town square and left to convalesce in the gutter? Usually, they didn’t die. But as the whip came back again and striped his lower back, he had the thought that he had never seen anyone bear more than five lashes. The fifth stroke lashed across his thighs, just below his buttocks, and that was when he began to cry out. She struck again, and again. The lashes bled into each other; he could feel the warm wetness against the dank air, and when he happened to sight the whip in the corner of his eye, its length ran red. He had long since lost count, screaming himself hoarse, when at last she stopped. He could hear her panting. He was close to passing out from the pain, he knew; unable to support his own weight, he hung from his restraints. His breath came in shuddering gasps, and he was shivering violently. He barely had the strength to lift his head as she came up towards him. His blood had spattered her, he saw; there were strings of it in her long hair, over her white shirt, across her face. “And how do you like this?” she whispered softly, brought up her hand and pressed it into the raw welts across his shoulders, covering her fingers in his blood, jolting him with sudden agony that made him lose consciousness for a few moments. When he drifted back, she was standing over him, studying her bloody hand with a kind of detached disinterest. He would remember, later, that there had been no joy on her face, no gleeful sneer at his pain, no pleasure in the thing she had just done. She looked away from him, retrieved her armour and the whip, and walked from the dungeon to the sound of his stuttering, moaning breath and the rattle of his restraints from the uncontrollable shaking.
November 14, 2025 at 4:27 PM
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I feel like it's kind of ~spoilers~ but also not really because I have written MANY short stories about Nico & Fish set after the trilogy and I always manage to sneak "husband" in there somehow soooo...
Snippet from my short story "What Makes a Man" (Cloaked Press, 2024) “Why do you think they took your partner?” Tali asked innocently. “I don’t know,” Fish lied. He was reluctant to explain the gruesome specifics of how a man like Kolfinn could make his temporary powers permanent. A Mage-Gifted sacrifice was ideal, which was no doubt why he’d gone after the girls, but it was likely that a nonmage would be sufficient. Blood was blood, after all, and Fish would forfeit his own Gift ten times over were it ever necessary to save his partner. “You love him very much.” That wasn’t a question, and the simple honesty cut right to Fish’s core. To say that they were more than partners was inadequate. Nico was his husband in truth, in the eyes of the mercenary gods anyhow. They had been lovers since Fish was a dewy-eyed youth of nineteen, more than a decade ago.
November 13, 2025 at 7:43 PM
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This handsome gentleman was waiting in my bathroom tonight, kitted out in a fine velvet cape and the best and bushiest of eyebrows... 🧛🏻😍

(My hand is there for scale)
A large newly uncocooned moth with red eye markings on soft black-and-white wings with large brown "eyebrows" The moth with my hand (average size female) for size comparison. Its wingspan is almost the length of my hand from index finger to wrist.
November 12, 2025 at 10:52 PM
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Seeing a lot of thirst on today's #WIPSnips from us admirers of male beauty 👀

here's my contribution

Nov. 12 - "Shirt"
Snippet from Forest of the Morning: Fish rummaged in his pack, looking for the ointment they used to numb sprains and muscle aches. By the time he found it, Nico had removed vambrace, jerkin, blouse and woollen undershirts, and was trying to assess the extent of the injury for himself. His shoulder was swollen bright red, and Fish winced internally in sympathy. “You should’ve said something earlier,” he said to Nico. “There wasn’t any time, and besides, it was so cold it didn’t hurt.” “Well, all right. Give me your hand, and I’ll help you up. The other hand, Nic.” Fish helped his partner to his feet, led him over to the fire, and helped him down again. “The heat will help. Sit.” Obediently, Nico eased himself into a sitting position on the straw-covered floor, his long legs stretched out in front of him and his left shoulder leaning against the stone pillar of their wash-basin. Fish dropped down cross-legged beside him and began to rub the ointment gently into his shoulder. For a long time neither of them moved nor spoke, Nico seemingly mesmerized by the glowing logs in the fireplace and Fish fascinated by his partner’s well-muscled arms and the way the firelight reflected in his eyes.
November 12, 2025 at 10:46 AM
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It's great that Kobo requires no exclusivity from authors like KU does, and also nice to see prices in my local currency 😸
Rakuten Kobo page for my novel, Forest of the Morning. Cover, synopsis and price in my local currency (Rand). You can buy the ebook or take out a 30 day free trial.
November 11, 2025 at 10:56 PM
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"War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor."

#ArmisticeDay
Faramir from the LOTR movies looking pretty
November 11, 2025 at 5:11 PM
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Convincing you to read my novel by the first sentence. Share yours if you want!

From the moment I decided my epic fantasy needed a prologue, I've never looked back. 😜

books2read.com/forestofthemorning
First page of the print layout of my novel Forest of the Morning. Text reads: Prologue The Armour Hills were brilliant with moonlight. Behind them, the city was burning. Hiram kept a fast grip on his daughter’s hand, willing her not to look back and think about the two they had left behind, willing himself not to stop. They were almost clear of the madness, the slaughter and the burning. They were at the top of the gulley. He stopped to catch his breath. Lathea’s hand, slick with sweat, slid out of his. Her breathing—as it well might be, in her condition—was strained. “They’re killing everybody,” she gasped. “Only those with the Gift,” Hiram insisted. “You and I, we don’t have it. We’ll win free.” She stared at him, huge tears beading in her amber-brown eyes. “Mother has the Mage-Gift.” Her voice shook. “Karat has the Mage-Gift.” She placed a hand, protectively, on her distended stomach. “And you know as well as I do”—her voice broke—“that there’s an even chance my children will have it.”
November 11, 2025 at 1:00 PM
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Post you from a different era.

The mining geologist, 2011. ⛏️

This was for platinum, incidentally 💍
A white woman (me) in white overalls with gumboots, orange knee pads and a hard hat with headlamp, posing in front of a platinum/chromium seam by the entrance of a mine in South Africa.
November 7, 2025 at 3:28 PM
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FUCK AI.

Show me something you made without the use of AI.

My book covers were made from stock pictures and fonts, with art by me.

Tonight I made the first draft of cover art for book 3.

(Pls excuse the shitty photo quality as I am currently in bed with only my tablet to hand 😅)
Two paperback books, Forest of the Morning and its sequel Maiden of Despair are on a blanket. Both covers have sketch art of various character headshots against leafy background. Above them is a sketch (black pen on paper) for the cover art of my third book, featuring hands and an ominous background
November 5, 2025 at 1:09 AM
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I finished watching the 2011 Camelot series. 🤔

For a show that shot itself in the foot with some of the cringiest fanservice of the era, a surprising highlight was Sir Gawain's very consistent asexuality.

We support ace knights of the Table Round in THIS house ✊
Photo of Gawain from Camelot (2011) played by Clive Standen. He's dressed in generic mediaeval leather armour with brown hair and a beard (very chiseled features). The photo is manipulated so he appears to be hoisting the asexuality pride flag (black, grey, white and purple stripes) onto his shoulder.
November 3, 2025 at 9:40 PM
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oho! I have an art reference here 😁

"The Apotheosis of War" by Vasily Vereshchagin, 1871.

Apparently the real-world location of this was meant to be in Uzbekistan.

#TROPRewatch
The painting "The Apotheosis of War" by Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin. A giant pile of human skulls lies in the desert, with crows flying all about. In the distance is the ruined city of Samarkand in modern-day Uzbekistan.
November 2, 2025 at 6:59 PM
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#WIPSnips Nov 2 - "cobweb"

"Spiderweb" - to round off spooky week, Albryan makes contact with something creepy and unexpected 🕸️🕷️
Snippet from Forest of the Morning: He had not gone far, only a few dozen paces, when he saw the spiderweb. Albryan halted in his tracks, willing his racing heart to calm down. Though the entire area around was criss-crossed with these sticky magic webs, there had not been one this close to his tree last night. The sorcerer had been here whilst Albryan was sleeping, and had woven this without waking him. The idea of someone wielding such subtle magic, of moving so quietly beneath the trees, made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. His mouth went dry. Albryan approached the web, looking carefully for any signs of the sorcerer’s passage, which way they might have gone. This sorcerer was as good a woodsman as magician, however, and had cleverly concealed their tracks. He turned away from the web. Something glittered in the corner of his eye.
November 2, 2025 at 3:48 PM
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#WIPSnips Nov 1 - "Ancestor"

I might have posted this one before but I really love it. 🖤 At the heart of the entire conflict in my novels, and this between two men who love & trust each other like no-one else.
From Forest of the Morning, book 2: The dance stopped all at once, Fish coming to rest on one knee with his arms outstretched and his head thrown back, and something crested, overflowing through and out of him. Nico could not contain a gasp of fright. Lightning, bolts of it, blue and fierce, flashed and danced around his partner’s prone form, across his outstretched hands, along the skin of his face, which was still and calm. Nico watched with bated breath as the lightning arced forth, soundlessly exploding outwards towards the sky, branching out in a great glowing tree over the surface of the lake. It fissured and glimmered, a nest of silent blue snakes as cold as stone. It was beautiful, yet Nico felt a primal fear arise deep within him. Fish curled in on himself, appearing to push through something as sticky and unyielding as cold tar to bring his wrists together crosswise, palms of both hands spread and facing outwards. He moved his right fingers into a complicated, deliberate gesture, and the lightnings flickered and glowed and then dispersed, vanishing so silently and suddenly that Nico blinked and wondered if perhaps he had been imagining things. Tension drained out of the air as if a plug had been pulled somewhere in the ether. Fish gave a groan and collapsed to a crouch with none of his usual grace, his hair hanging limp with exertion. Nico wanted to go over to him, but was held back by apprehension. Fish had not warned him away, yet he could sense the danger around his young partner, thick as pea soup fog. For just a moment, Nico understood precisely how his distant nonmage ancestors must have felt, coming to land on this wild shore a thousand years ago and seeing a display like that. He shivered, thinking of the fireside stories people in Svanfeld told, of the slender dark Morgei with their inscrutable almond eyes, watching from the primaeval forest as the men of Svanfeld and Vailana stumbled through their hunting grounds. Alt text continued: Yet the eyes he imagined were the same as Fish’s eyes, deepset and golden, and Nico had never feared what lay in those eyes, not until Fish had flung a sizzling cloud of red-hot energy a few feet over his head and made it rain body parts around him. How dangerous was he, truly?
November 1, 2025 at 9:55 PM
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Minizine #3 is officially released! ⚔️

Our featured short story is "The Sword of Bellerose" by @mxgomez78.bsky.social. It's a dark S&S-type fantasy with a twisted relationship between the Lady Bellerose and her "sword."

Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/s/e5c9440194

itch: thepinkhydra.itch.io/something-ol...
Cover of Something Old, Something New featuring the Pre-Raphaelite painting "Clytemnestra after the Murder" by John Collier. The titular Clytemnestra, a woman wearing fine clothing and jewellery, holds a curtain with only sinister shadow behind. She leans on an axe almost as tall as she is. If you look closer, you can see a look of confusion and madness in her eyes. Text on the cover reads: Vol. 1, No. 3, November 2025. Poetry by A. E. Housman. Artwork by John Collier. New: Sadomasochism & sorcery by Matthew X. Gomez. Reviewed: The best gory offerings of indie mag Inner Worlds.
October 31, 2025 at 10:47 PM
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#WIPSnips Oct 31 - "Monster"

Given the day, I felt this creepy scene appropriate 🪾 What else is out there in the woods? 👀
Snippet from Forest of the Morning: Still, she couldn’t help feeling a twinge of unease as she strode up the path. It began to climb almost immediately, twisting up to the cliffside. The woods pressed close on both sides, sombre evergreens towering over the birch and star chestnut that had just begun to unfurl their new leaves. The mountain’s silence hung over all, birds asleep in the late noon heat, no wind stirring in the branches. She had not gone more than a couple of paces when suddenly there was a loud rustling in the bushes behind her. Velda whipped around, her heart racing, but there was nothing. She scanned the muddy path, and noticed the swaying of a large wormwood bush to her left. Slowly the leaves on the bush came to rest, and silence fell all around her. Velda slowly let out the breath she had been holding. She had never carried a weapon in the mountains. There had been a bandit attack on the town one winter, when she was about eleven, and they had warded themselves with crossbows set upon the high walls of the monastery. Emmett had kept a cudgel in the kitchen and sometimes taken it with him on late errands, but had never needed to use it. Lynborder was a remote place, and its people were not so rich as to tempt burglars or highwaymen. As for monsters… If there was anything there, it would have attacked me by now, she told herself, and turned her back upon the slope. Doggedly she trudged up the familiar path, yet she could not shake a prickling feeling at the back of her neck, as though something else were out there in the woods.
October 31, 2025 at 7:54 AM
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#WIPSnips Oct 30 - "Spell"

Us who write fantasy are just going to have to choose, so difficult 😅

Here's a little bit of fluff from a short story.

🎶"....Because you're miiiiiiiiine"🎶
Snippet: ‘I am not leaving Nico here on his own,’ Fish spat. ‘Not for anything.’ ‘I didn’t say that,’ Tali snapped back. ‘I was going to say that you could break the spell by its own rules. I know this kind of web. It’s tangled and complicated, yes, but it can’t hold up against a strong emotional bond. Against love.’ Fish looked blankly up at her. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Like in the old tales,’ Tali explained, ‘Nico could be awoken from this magical slumber by his true love’s kiss.’ Fish could feel himself flushing, and hoped that Tali would not notice, given the gloom of the chamber and the deep brown hue of his own face. ‘I—I hadn’t thought of that.’ Tali shrugged. ‘It’s worth a try, right? Nothing to lose by it.’ Fish shifted his feet until he crouched comfortably beside Nico, and leaned his torch against the wall. Tali watched avidly as he took Nico’s hand, carefully testing the edges of the spell that had woven itself securely around him. Tali was right. The touch of love—real, strong, true love—would wither the silver tendrils into nothingness. But anything less—a bond based solely on sex, for example, or one that involved any form of abuse or coercion—would harden the tendrils, making it even more difficult to extricate Nico from their thorny clutches.
October 30, 2025 at 10:53 AM
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#WIPSnips 29 Oct - "Broomstick"

Multiple mentions of "brooms" in Forest of the Morning, but this chapter opening is my fave ✨🧹
Excerpt from Forest of the Morning: Chapter 8: The Guilds Nico had succeeded in backing him into a corner of the yard, and was coming at him with a swordstroke aimed right at his head. There was no escape for Fish—at least, no escape that his partner could see. Fish ducked beneath the flying broomstick handle with lightning speed, rolled, and caught Nico across the shins with his own stick on the way up again. Nico fell to the ground, swearing loudly, as Fish straightened up, grinning and leaning the stick against his shoulder. “You’ve been spending too much time practicing with Siegfried,” Fish told his partner smugly, one hand holding the stick, the other resting on his hips in a deliberately languid posture. “You’ve forgotten how a smaller opponent can trick you into spending your strength against him.” Nico glared up at him. “It’s not fair,” he growled, panting. “How do you beat me every time?” “You’re too easily distracted.” “No, I’m not,” Nico insisted, and began to argue with him. Fish took the opportunity to catch his breath, feeling the cold Firstmonth air blowing through his thin shirt, drying the sweat he had worked up during the match. Nico did not know how close he had come to winning, and Fish would never admit to it.
October 29, 2025 at 2:43 PM
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#WIPSnips Oct 28 - "Costume"

Gonna go with vibes for this one. Even though it's not a costume ball, it's still a fancy dress party 👗
Snippet from Forest of the Morning, book 2: Green seemed to be Mialiné’s colour, and Fish had anticipated that he would look dreadfully out of place on her arm wearing red. His waistcoat now was a deep seafoam blue, studded with bronze buttons, and the shirt he wore underneath it was of the softest white silk Fish had ever seen. Albryan had helped him dress and clean up earlier that afternoon, saying much less than usual. At the end of it, he’d simply clasped Fish’s hand and said, “Good luck.” The trappings of privilege and wealth in Qwu’Mallorn were not so much different from those Fish already knew: a luxurious carriage ride, a picturesque castle a mile or so out of Tenna, beautifully dressed young people holding court in an ancient, open-walled garden surrounded by baskets of flowers and bustling servants. The air was redolent with the fumes of tobacco and perfume, rose-water, vanilla, cinnamon and sugar. There were a lot of young men who brushed past, stopping to make small talk with Mialiné, or offering her some light snack or cigarillo. She all but ignored every one of them in favour of Fish. He was intrigued by the lack of chaperones or older adults, and Mialiné was happy enough to explain everything to him.
October 28, 2025 at 4:48 PM
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#WIPSnips 27 Oct: "Blood-curdling"

It mildly surprises me I didn't actually use that phrase here, but this is definitely 🦇vibes🦇

Fish's powers can be pretty scary.

CW for unspecified mind torture.
Snippet from Forest of the Morning, book 2: “Fish, what are you going to do to him?” Fish did not answer, cupping the young man’s face with his hand. It was as if, suddenly, lightning struck. The prisoner screamed, long, loudly, painfully, though Fish had not done anything but stare at him intently. Nico stepped back in fright. The air smelled burnt, though it was a damp day. The scream went on, wordless and horrible, then suddenly trailed off into incoherent sobbing as the blue eyes rolled back into white. Fish disengaged himself as if he’d been burned, stumbling to his feet. There was blood on his hand where he had touched the prisoner.
October 27, 2025 at 2:07 PM
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#WIPSnips Oct 26 - Hat

Could not resist the snip of Fish's feathered hat 🪶

From my novella Partners in Crime.

Bonus: the actual historical outfit that inspired this scene ⚔️
Snippet: Fish turned towards his partner with his usual rakish grin. He had found time at last to shave his face, and despite being half deaf still, he was in high spirits this morning. He had attired himself in peacock blue, and sported a wide-brimmed feathered hat that he had acquired from some merchant in the caravan. ‘I always thought you’d end up being a father somehow, you know.’ Nico snorted and turned his sturdy gelding onto the track that would lead them back to their high commander, who was surely awaiting their report. ‘If I’m a father, what does that make you?’ Fish only chuckled in reply, and snapped the reins of his own mount, a handsome black mare with beautiful paces. It was the same horse that had thrown him at some point in the past few weeks, and Nico wondered if his partner had chosen the animal purely because they made such an attractive picture together. The autumn sunlight burnished her coat to a deep brown, matching Fish’s curls, and glinted off the pieces of steel armour he wore over his shirt. Nico could have sworn that he was preening himself, showing off for his partner’s sole benefit, and he was not ashamed to admit that it was working. Fish crowded him on the path, riding so close their stirrups touched, and Nico drew the gelding to a halt. ‘Partner,’ he said at last, ‘if you’re going to kiss me, better get rid of that hat before it brains us both.’ Fish swept aside the hat without hesitation and reached for him, entangling himself into Nico’s arms, vibrating beneath his hands like a tensed bowstring, and Nico felt drunk on him, light-headed with the fumes of his own lust. A handsome young man LARPing as a Landsknecht, German mercenary from the 15th century. He is wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a feather, a sword slung at his hip and leather boots, and an outfit of blue and white that would have historically been of silk and very expensive. One leg of his outfit is missing from thigh to knee making it look like he's wearing half booty shorts.
October 26, 2025 at 11:18 PM
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Like, this is just what Johannesburg is like, I'm sorry 😂

(Jo'burgers pls don't hurt me. I'm from the Free State. 😭)

nerdtropolis.com/wp-content/u...
Still from the movie District 9. An insectoid alien dressed in a pink bra is brandishing a spade at a white man in an official uniform & bulletproof vest in the midst of a shack town while a helicopter patrols from above.
October 26, 2025 at 2:51 PM
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Forest of the Morning is the first volume of an epic fantasy trilogy.

Nineteen years ago, the world was upended when the blood sorcerer Arran Sylvaissen invaded Vailana and sent the Mage-Gifted into exile, slavery or death.

books2read.com/forestofthemorning

It's on sale for $1 until 31 October!
Cover of Forest of the Morning by Emmylou Kotzé, featuring artwork of two ghostly faces against a background of greenery and flowers
October 23, 2025 at 10:07 PM
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So my drawing skills are *cough* not quite at the same level as my writing, but damn if I'm not proud of myself for persevering with this and learning something
Pencil sketch of two men embracing, the smaller one has his legs wrapped around his partner who is carrying him
October 23, 2025 at 1:27 AM
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Finally, Albryan is a Mage-Gifted soldier from a native culture now struggling for survival. It's through his eyes that we get to see the matriarchal culture of the Forest of the Morning. How does a male-dominated militia look in a culture that doesn't value war?
Excerpt from Forest of the Morning by Emmylou Kotzé: Albryan suppressed a smile. It was not often that Thinas could boast of having the upper hand against one of the highborn who moved in Council circles. Mialiné was young, subordinate to her mother, and she had been made captain of the female sorcerers who were the town’s first line of defence without having any qualifications, as far as Albryan could see, apart from her high birth. Unlike the army, where men were promoted according to their skillset and prowess, the highborn females had a constantly shifting pecking order based on whose family possessed the most power and influence. And many of those families had been feuding against each other just a few generations ago. The officers sometimes jested, amongst themselves, that the women should be made to join the army and learn proper discipline and obedience. But it was a suggestion that no-one would ever take seriously. No Morgein man, especially one who was common-born, would be permitted to issue orders to a daughter of the high houses. The camaraderie of the army, where common-born sergeants could order highborn boys around and make them scrub the latrines, could only exist amongst men, who had no political voice and no place in the ruling chambers of Qwu’Mallorn.
October 22, 2025 at 4:41 PM