Chapter 87: Where Power Sits, and Who Is Allowed to Hold It
Chapter 87: Where Power Sits, and Who Is Allowed to Hold It
Elyn’s POV
For a moment after Vaelory asked her question, the room felt... off.
Not tense. Not hostile. Just quietly misaligned, as though two different worlds had finally realized they were standing in the same space and didn’t quite know how to look at each other.
Morthen stared at Vaelory with a frown on his face.
He adjusted his glasses once. Then again.
"...Why?" he asked carefully. "What do you mean by why?"
Vaelory hesitated, clearly searching for the right words. She didn’t look upset. Or offended. If anything, she looked genuinely puzzled—like someone who had just been told the sky was green and was trying very hard to understand how that could possibly be true.
"In Aelthryndivoryssalindria," she began slowly, "women aren’t... allowed to rule."
Morthen blinked in shock.
"They don’t even have a say," Vaelory continued, her tone calm, almost clinical. "That’s just how it is. Men rule. They take wives. The wife supports him, stands beside him, represents him when necessary—but she doesn’t rule."
She tilted her head slightly, as if replaying something she had always accepted.
"The normal way," she added, "is that the man governs, and the woman is... an arm piece."
"She has no authority," Vaelory went on. "No right to make decisions. No place in council meetings."
She looked at Morthen then, earnest rather than defensive.
"So when you speak about duchesses who rule, who make decisions, who command territories..." She trailed off. "I don’t understand why they are allowed to do so. It’s simply not done."
Morthen stared at her like she had just spoken a language he had never heard before.
"How," he asked slowly, "do you cope in such a... stiff kingdom?"
Vaelory frowned. "Stiff?"
"Yes," he said. "Rigid. Constraining. You mean to tell me the women of Aelthryn..."
"Just call it Aelthryn." I told him.
"Right," he said, adjusting his glasses. "That is a better way to pronounce it. Lady, as I was saying, you mean to tell me that women of this... Aelthryn cannot be duchesses?"
She shook her head immediately. "No. That’s not what I said."
Morthen’s antennae twitched.
"They can hold the title," Vaelory explained, clearly realizing where his confusion lay. "A woman can be born a duchess. She can inherit land. She can marry into nobility."
"Then—" Morthen started.
"But," Vaelory cut in, firmer now, "they don’t really have power. Not real power. They can’t attend meetings with other nobles. Only the husbands do. Only the men sit in councils and make decisions."
Morthen stared at her.
"...That makes no sense," he said.
Vaelory sighed. "You don’t understand."
"Clearly," he replied.
He adjusted his glasses again, slower this time, as though trying to physically realign his thoughts.
"What if," he asked, "the title originally belonged to the woman?"
Vaelory scoffed before she could stop herself.
"It doesn’t matter," she said. "Once she’s married, the man rules. That’s just how it works."
To be honest, I hadn’t expected Vaelory to ask the question. I was going to ask it one way or another. And according to what Morthen said, the rules in Aelthryn were stiff, especially when it came to women. They were extremely so. I was, and still am, a princess, but I was given to the demon king because my father refused to pay his debt.
Before that, he had tried to marry me off, saying I needed to do my duty as a princess of Aelthryn by getting married. I was a princess, but I couldn’t attend meetings or contribute to the growth of the kingdom.
Morthen didn’t look offended by the words, though. He just looked... genuinely unsettled.
"That is..." He paused. "I do not understand how that is possible."
He turned slightly, pacing once before stopping again.
"Here, in the demon realm," he said, "women often possess more power than men."
My eyebrows raised in shock.
"...Are you serious?" I asked.
Morthen turned to me and nodded.
"Entirely."
"The women hold more power, and they are more respected, more trusted, and more feared than the men too." He told us.
Vaelory stared at him like he had just told her the world was upside down.
"But—why?" she asked weakly.
Morthen considered the question.
"Because that is just how things are here, and they deserve it," he said simply.
"Because they deserve it?" Vaelory asked him, still struggling to come to terms with what he was saying. "But that doesn’t make any sense."
He folded his hands behind his back again.
"I don’t know why it doesn’t make sense to you. In many territories," he continued, "even when a Duke is the recognized ruler, his wife may intervene if he is deemed unfit. If he rules poorly. If he allows personal pride to endanger his land."
"You’re saying..." I started slowly, "...that a Duchess can override a Duke?"
"Yes."
Vaelory looked like she might faint.
"That’s... that’s not how things work," she said, shaking her head. "That can’t be allowed."
Morthen frowned. "Why wouldn’t it be?"
"Because—because—" She stopped, clearly realizing she didn’t have an answer that didn’t boil down to because that’s how it’s always been.
Morthen watched her struggle with something that, to him, was utterly alien.
"I find it strange," he said at last, "that women in Aelthryn are not permitted to attend noble meetings."
Vaelory opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
"Here," Morthen continued, "a woman may decide that her husband will not attend."
That did it.
Vaelory made a small, strangled sound.
"That’s absurd," she blurted out. "That’s not how—"
"That is exactly how it works," Morthen said calmly.
She stared at him, breathing a little too fast now.
"You’re telling me," she said, "that a woman can simply... tell her husband to stay home?"
"Yes."
"And that’s... acceptable?"
"Entirely."
She looked at me, eyes wide, as if asking me to confirm that she wasn’t losing her mind.
I lifted my hands slightly. "Don’t ask me. I’m hearing it for the first time too."
"But don’t you agree that it doesn’t make any sense?" she asked me.
I shook my head. "Actually, I’m more on the side of it making sense. Women are better rulers after all." I told her.
It was similar to how things were in my previous life, where women fought for their position, and though some people still looked down on them because of their gender, they were still accepted. They were not locked and expected to just be an arm piece like it was in Aelthryn. And I liked this way. Don’t undermine us because of our gender, but give us a chance to prove ourselves too.
Morthen exhaled softly.
"There are seven dukedoms in the demon realm," he said. "Two are ruled by duchesses."
"And that doesn’t make them... lesser?" Vaelory asked.
"No," he replied. "It does not."
"They hold the same authority," he went on. "Their voices carry the same weight. Their decisions shape policy just as much as the males’ do."
Vaelory pressed her lips together, clearly overwhelmed.
"Why?" she asked again. "Why is it like this?"
Morthen paused.
Then shook his head.
"I do not know how to explain it in a way that would make sense to you," he admitted. "Because to us, this is simply how things are."
He looked at her thoughtfully.
"And frankly," he added, "I cannot imagine a system like the one you describe. A woman stripped of authority simply because she is married."
He frowned.
"It is... illogical."
Vaelory stiffened slightly at that.
"That’s not—" she started.
I stepped in before this turned into something sharper than confusion.
"Vaelory," I said gently, "this is just... how demons do things."
She looked at me.
"It’s different from Aelthryn," I continued. "This is the demon realm, not Aelthryn."
"But even so, I’ve heard about other human realms, and they do not do things like this," she argued.
"You are forgetting we are not in the human realm," I told her.
That seemed to calm her down. She gave me a nod and muttered something about how things were this way because the demons didn’t care for order.
I really hoped that at one point she would see that women didn’t need to be stifled and treated like they didn’t belong, but that would be change that would come slowly.
I turned to Morthen. "You said there are seven dukedoms, but I’ve only gotten two. Tell me about the fire demons."