"Auli chased you with nothing in her heart but selfish need," she answered, pulling her platinum blond hair off over her shoulder and displaying her exceptionally lovely neck and shoulders. "You, on the other hand, probably have more in your heart than that. Besides, you are an honored one. It has long been Sha'Kar custom to bow to the desires of an honored one, so long as they don't violate our own custom and law. Human honored ones in the past often shared company with Sha'Kar women. It was considered an honor for a Sha'Kar to be favored by an honored one in such a manner."
Tarrin was a little shocked by that. "You mean if a sui'kun wanted to spend the night with a Sha'Kar woman, she'd say yes because of custom?"
"Sha'Kar aren't quite as moralistic as humans, honored one," she said, glancing back at him with a slow smile. "Sharing pleasure is not confined to the bonds of marriage, and there is nothing wrong with two consenting adults exploring their attraction to one another. My objections to what Auli did with you stem more from her interfering in a very delicate situation, and the fact that she still pursued you even after you told her no. She defied your word, and as you know, in our custom, an honored one's word is as law. If you weren't in such a position with Jesmind, and you had not said no to her the first time, I would not have said a word. In fact, I would have been honored that you found my daughter appealing enough to ask into your bed."
"But what if the Sha'Kar woman didn't like the sui'kun? Wouldn't that be forcing her?"
"I guess it would, but such things didn't happen."
"That seems wrong," he told her. "Almost like making a woman a-" he almost said prostitute, but thought that may offend her.
"Whore?" she asked, startling him with her frankness. "I told you, such things didn't happen. If a lady truly disliked the honored one, she would send another in her place that was willing to share a night with him. In the dark, it is hard to tell one Sha'Kar from another, you know," she said with that same slow smile, glancing back at him again. "We do look similar, and so long as we don't speak, the human probably wouldn't know the difference. So long as a lady found another with the same length of hair and same size bosom, the honored one would never know they'd switched."
It seemed a bit outrageous, but he had to admit that she was right. He'd noticed that Sha'Kar looked similar himself, that they had the same general proportions and appearance of body. Only the face, hair, and chest seemed to vary from woman to woman, and even those didn't vary by much. They were a race of dolls, all of them beautiful, all of them similar to one another. He chuckled ruefully as he carefully and gently scrubbed her neck. "I hate to say it, but you're right," he said. "When I saw you, the first thing I noticed was how similar you are to Auli."
"She is my daughter," she sniffed. "She'd better have my looks."
Tarrin laughed. "Well, I think you're just as beautiful as she is. Maybe even more so, since you seem so austere. You have an elegance that Auli doesn't have, probably because you're older than her."
"I appreciate the complement," she said in a suddenly girlish manner, as if his praise sincerely pleased her. "I find the idea that you would find me a pleasing bedmate even more of a complement."
Tarrin blushed. "I never said-"
"You compare me to my daughter, whom you admit you enjoyed very much," she said, looking back at him. "Logic dictates that you would find me as enjoyable. I'm flattered, honored one."
Tarrin blushed furiously.
Ianelle laughed lightly. "I meant no offense, honored one. Sometimes we must seem both very refined and very crude to you."
He had to nod in agreeement.
"It is a difference of culture, nothing more," she told him. "We assign different importances to different things than you. What you consider in one manner, we consider in another. I'm sure you understand that."
"Understanding it and experiencing it are two different things," he said seriously.
"Spoken with true wisdom, honored one," she said with a smile.
After washing off, he and Ianelle climbed out of the bathing pool and dried off, and then parted with kind words. He found her to be not nearly so intimidating now that he'd talked to her a little, and he had to admit that he rather liked her. He also found himself much more comfortable with being around Sha'Kar. She had reminded him that theirs was a different culture, and he felt that it would let him deal with the Sha'Kar on better footing in the future.
The bath was enjoyable, but the knowledge of what followed after it weighed on him. Not even the neatly packed bundle sitting on his bed lifted his spirits very much when he came back into his room, but he was impressed when he opened it and found a shirt and pair of trousers. The promised clothes from Cassiter the tailor, and he was very impressed. They were very simple clothes, a short-sleeved tunic of sorts, in the style of a linen undershirt but with a long tail. The material of the shirt was a strange one, that plant fiber that Cassiter had mentioned. It was very light, rather soft, and he suspected that it was exceedingly tough. He wasn't sure if it was dyed or not, but in any case, he found the shirt's dark blue color very pleasing. The trousers were leather, but it was a kind of leather he'd never seen before. It was thin as cloth, as pliable as cloth, and as soft as down, but there was no doubt that it was leather, and that meant that it would be very rugged. Somehow someone had tanned the leather in such a way as to make it like cloth in wear, but with leather's rugged durability. The package didn't include shoes, but he still had his very comfortable soft leather boots, and he rather preferred them. The package did include a belt of sturdy leather, and it had a small buckle with a shaeram etched into the bronze
He donned his new clothes, and he had to admit, they fit perfectly. Cassiter had to have an uncanny eye for sizing people. The shirt was soft and comfortable, the pants like they'd he'd owned them for years, so well they fit and how soft they were. He put the folding knife that Walten gave him in his pocket, the little steel charm Camara Tal had given him in the other pocket, and put the bracers Jenna gave him on his arms. There had been a belt pouch among the numerous gifts he'd received, and he lashed that to his belt. It seemed a bit redundant to have a belt pouch when his trousers had pockets, but some things were too big to fit into a pocket comfortably. He didn't really have anything to put in the belt pouch, but at least he'd have it, just in case. Besides, it was a gift, and it was Ungardt custom to use a gift to honor the one who had given it.
Strangely enough, putting on the clothes almost felt like putting on armor. He was finished now, and he knew that he couldn't really put it off anymore. He had to go confront Jesmind. He'd like to get it done before breakfast, so at least he could eat without it hanging over his head, but he was rather reluctant to do it. He didn't really like doing things like that, and he knew that no matter how easy he tried to make it, he was either going to make her angry or hurt her feelings. Reaching into his pocket, he clasped his hand around the little hope charm that Camara Tal had given him. She said in her note that she'd carried it around for years, and now she wanted him to have it. He wasn't sure why, but if he was supposed to hope on the little thing, he supposed that hoping that things weren't going to get out of control with Jesmind would be a good one.
Well, there was no use waiting any longer. Working up his nerve, he put his hand on the door handle and opened it. He already knew exactly what he was going to say, and the demands he was going to make. There was little need to go over them again in his mind. He left his room and started out, moving slowly yet steadily along the halls, his expression serious and distracted at the same time as he tried to imagine the various ways that Jesmind and the other Were-cats were going to react to what he had to say. Given the shouting he'd thrown at Triana, they had to know that something like this was coming.