Maps and Manners

"keep your back straight, but your eyes down." Amah instructed, and I lowered my gaze for the tenth time since we began eating lunch.

"No, don't lower your entire head, just your eyes." She went on.

Among the new schedule that Altan had prepared for me was apparently a large portion of the day to be spent with Amah. During this time I would learn manners, and etiquette, and how to act like a duchess.

Or at least like a person from this world.

So far, all of the small mannerisms of politeness I had picked up from earth were very little help here. While some rules seemed to stand. For example: good posture and only speaking when first spoken to. Other rules did not. For example: looking people in the eyes when speaking (or apparently eating) and using 'please' and 'thank you'.

Amah seemed very perplexed each time I used either one of these words with her. As if the idea of me being thankful was a foreign concept to her.

"Why do you eat so quietly?" Amah asked while I was chewing my unleavened bread.

"I-erm" I swallowed the bread, "should I try to eat loudly?" I asked.

"Well, of course you shouldn't eat loudly." Amah retorted, "It just appears that you are trying to eat silently, but that is simply not possible."

I nodded my head and brought a piece of meat to my mouth. "And do not use your right hand!" Amah protested and I quickly passed the chicken leg to my left hand. Aside from the fact that I was apparently clueless to the etiquette of this new world, Amah was also being a bit of a stickler. Our lesson so far had turned out to be far much less like a lesson, and far more like a time set aside for Amah to complain about everything I did.

"Amah," I spoke and kept my eyes on my plate but my head facing forward, she didn't critique me for once, "What will my duties as a duchess be like?"

"Your duty as a duchess will be to serve the duke with your body and mind." she answered dryly.

~with my body?~

"You mean by bearing him an heir?" I asked.

"And by attending to his manly needs." she answered.

~His manly needs? Dear God. I've been reincarnated as a sex slave. Why did I have to end up in a world with such a patriarchal society?~

"But aside from serving the duke," I went on, surely I was expected to do more than just spread my legs, "Is there anything else?"

Amah nodded, nearly half the food on her plate was gone, though I couldn't seem to remember her ever eating any of it.

~Perhaps she has a second mouth that she is feeding under the table.~

"It will be your job to raise the Heir to the Dukedom when he is born. And any other children you bear the duke."

my stomach felt sick, and I pushed the food on my plate idly.

~My only purpose will be to bear children~

"But of course," Amah went on, "As the duke's first wife you will also be expected to attend certain functions held at the palace. You are also to be recognized as a symbol of beauty and fertility among the women of Kiziljer."

~of course its fertility.~

"are you finished with your meal, M'Lady?" Amah eyed my plate.

"Yes, I am."

"Then it is customary that you place your napkin atop the plate so it may be taken away."

"Oh," I took the napkin that I had been using to wipe my hand and set it on the plate.

"No, not like that," Amah seemed flustered.

But seriously, how was I supposed to know there was a specific way to set the used napkin onto my plate of unfinished food?

"Goodness," Amah sighed for the millionth time, "You really are hopeless."

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~I have to get out of here. I mean Altan seems like a nice guy and all, but I'm sure as soon as we are married he will want me to uphold my duty as his duchess. And that duty was sex and babies. I unfortunately can't escape this patriarchal world. But I could at least maybe escape this marriage. Then what will I do? I could escape back to Pani Ratra and find a way to make some money. Maybe I could work as a maidservant. I'm not good at many things, but I can clean. And then I'll live out my life peacefully.~

"Are you listening?" the question broke me from my thoughts and I stared back at the man who was instructed to give me my history lessons. Professor Ruslan, he was a middle-aged man, who, so far, I hadn't seen smile in the slightest. In fact, I'm not even sure if he'd ever smiled in his life. He seemed, in the nicest way possible, like a very boring person. And the way he led this lesson so far was equally boring.

Maybe it was my fault. When our class began I was very excited to learn all about the history of this world, but I had no idea that asking him to start from the beginning would mean that he would start with the stories of their mythical gods.

At first it was relatively interesting. Professor Ruslan told me about the four major gods. There was the God of fire, Vohan, who created Ot Ulut and blesses a precious few with his powers. Those people are the Fire Mages. Similarly, the God of water, Jala, created Pani Rastra and blesses few with his powers making the Water Mages, like me. This same pattern followed for the God of Air and the God of Earth. Although the God of earth did not claim a specific area of the planet because He believed all earth belonged to him, subsequently, the people of the Earth Tribe are nomadic and roam throughout the land.

Of course, all the gods were men, and much like the stories of mythical gods back on earth, they seemed to have a bad temper and enjoyed causing droughts and famines. Somewhere in between the stories of all the women the gods had had sex with and the punishments that they planned to lay out on the world, I had lost interest and began thinking of a way to escape the palace.

"Yes, I am." I lied to my professor and felt slightly relieved that he didn't plan to test me on the knowledge he was giving me. "But my mind was drifting. You see, I'm very curious to learn about the geography of Ot Ulut. Do you have any maps you could show me?"

Professor Rulan's lip curled, and I wasn't sure if it was because I was blatantly asking for a change of subject or because I forgot that I wasn't supposed to look at people in the eyes when I talked to them. Especially men.

Even so, he found a map for me, one that was not just of Ot Ulut but of the whole world.

I marveled at the detail of the map. Their society didn't seem like a very advanced one, but I could tell by the map that they were already aware that the planet they were on was a sphere. Not to mention the attention to detail seemed incredible, they must really value cartography.

"This large section in the middle is the Kingdom of Ot Ulut." he said pointing to probably the largest section of the entire map.

The map was split into three categories: Forested Mountains and tundra in the north that was the land of the Air Mages, archipelagos and fjords in the south and around the coastline that was the land of the Water Majes, and flat plains and desert in the middle that was the Land of the Fire Mages.

"Kiziljer is here." he said pointing to a spot that seemed smack in the middle of the desert.

My eyes widened.

~I am so freaking trapped~

"What is the closes town or village to Kiziljer?" I asked. hopefully nonchalantly. Surely, the professor wouldn't assume that I was trying to find an escape route by asking this.

"The closest city is one day by horseback," he answered unsuspectingly, "To the north."

~one day by horseback? So, like two days on foot? That wouldn't be impossible would it? And maybe, if I was lucky, I could hitch a ride on a camel or something.~

"The city is called Tobesi, it is the world's largest exporter of glass." he said and I worried he was about to start a boring spiel about how glass was made.

"How interesting," I lied, "Is that where the palace gets all of it's beautiful stained glass?"

"It is." he seemed pleased that I was no longer bored to death, although his face showed little to no emotion.

"We must have many caravans that travel between our cities then, to exchange goods."

~Please don't be suspicious of that.~

"We do," he agreed and my hand formed a fist of excitement, "we have caravans that travel between our cities almost daily."

~I found my way out~

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"There you are." I looked up from the map I was staring at.

Ever since my lesson with Professor Ruslan had ended, I had stayed in the library to rummage through all the maps available. I had a relative plan of which cities I would travel to in order to get to Pani Rastra for my escape. Now I was deciding between a few seaside villages in Pani Rasta that could be my final destination.

"I see you enjoyed your lesson with Professor Ruslan." Altan said, and I stood when I saw him and shut the book in front of me with a loud clap.

"I did enjoy it." I answered, "It was very... informative."

Altan seemed to laugh at my description, "Yes, I suppose 'informative' is a good way to describe any interaction with professor Ruslan."

~Oh my god, he knows how boring the guy is too.~

"Why are you here?" I asked and stepped toward him in order to block his view of the books. If anyone was going to be suspicious of my studying of maps, it would be him.

"Aren't we supposed to 'get to know each other'?" he asked, still smiling.

~Oh right, why do I keep assuming this man is more talk than action?~

"Oh," I smiled back, "What do you want to do then?"

Altan blinked at me. "I don't know," he answered, "I thought we would just sit and you would ask me questions."

I frowned, "Well, that sounds a bit boring."

Altan's smile formed more fully, and I saw his dimple appear, "Then how is this usually done?" he asked.

"Hmmmm," I raised my eyes to the sky to think and in the gesture realized that Altan had never once complained that I looked him in the face when I spoke to him. And he was the duke of all people. "We could go out into the city." I suggested.

"And do what?" he seemed confused.

"Just spend time together." I laughed and realized I hadn't done much of that since I reincarnated. "You can show me the beautiful areas of Kiziljer and we can eat food together."

"I don't understand the purpose of this." Altan said sceptically.

"It's called a date." I said, "And you do it to find out if you like someone enough to spend the rest of your life with them. What if, in this short time span we spent outside together, you realized I was completely intolerable?"

Altan smiled again, "I would still marry you this instant." and I could tell he wasn't joking, "no matter how intolerable."