The Tributes (Sable)

What It Means to be a Tribute - Part 2

Everett blinked. And then she actually laughed, covering her eyes in mirth."Gods! She gets more obvious every year." She looked at Sable."Let me see if I understand what you're really asking: Are you girls forced into roles instead of choosing them for yourself? Because MyLady looks supremely displeased with her job?"

Her obvious humor gave Sable the confidence to nod.

Everett sighed. "No, Lady Sable. You're not forced to choose roles by anyone. But, I will admit that, if your first choice doesn't work out... Let me explain with an example: Suppose you want to marry into aristocracy as your first choice, but in the end, you have no one you would like to choose or no one chooses you. You now have to choose a different role. And suppose you next pick the role of being a handmaiden or a lady-in-waiting. You might not have the temperament for it or no one might choose you as one. So now your options are to be a maid, a scholar, a teacher, an administrator, or any other option that you think you might fit in." Everett paused, and her eyes lit up as she spoke next. "Or you might make an option for yourself if you're sure of it. Like, one of our set, Emma. She wanted to be a healer. And then she wanted to set up free healing posts all over the kingdom. Which she is doing right now. You'll likely meet her once she's done with this year's quota and returns to the palace. She'll be one of your teachers."

Sable blinked and wondered if she'd misunderstood something. "A healer? But... aren't those only for men? Aren't all the tributes girls?"

"Ah...Lady Sable, let me teach you one thing if nothing else," said Everett lightly, "There are no roles only for men or women. It all depends on what you are capable of and what you are willing to do. Emma, bless her, had the interest, talents, and dedication to be a healer. And so she is."

Sable didn't argue, even though her head filled with a dozen silent rebuttals she had heard growing up in the village. The most potent being that "women were not made to be healers". Or made for a number of things, really... And Sable had taken it as fact, like a person with black hair could not have brown hair.

But now that Everett had said the opposite out loud... Sable didn't know why she had never questioned it...

Actually, no. Sable knew why she had never questioned it: Because she had never entertained any ambitions that her village believed girls should not aim for. Her main goal was just to survive day by day. To just keep going as she had, to maybe grow up and escape someplace where she was left alone, if she was lucky.

But...if this was another way that her village was wrong, Sable was glad for it. (Even if she could never see herself as ever being that talented...)

"What happens if you fail at all of it, though?" asked Sable softly. Because that was what she was terrified of now. If this was some kind of training, some kind of skill-set they were supposed to learn, if she was not going to just be locked up somewhere and ignored until they had a use for her...what would happen if she couldn't learn any of it?

Everett blinked at her like she couldn't fathom such a circumstance. And that made Sable's heart sink a little. Everett was nice to her likely because she expected her to gain some skill in the future. But Everett didn't know just how useless she was...

"Dear...I assure you that you will definitely be able to manage something," said Everett gently. "There is no failing this, I promise. Everyone can't have the same skills, after all."

Sable disagreed, since her fear wasn't that she might have different skills, but that she would have no skills. But she disagreed silently. No need to lose Everett's niceness before she found this out.

Then Everett's expression suddenly turned extremely serious.