The Pen and the Sword (Destiny's Crucible Book 2) by Olan Thorensen

you’d stay on longer.”
    “By
that logic, you should sail around on my ships more often to cure your
seasickness.” Zulfa was the antithesis of a sailor and got queasy crossing a
lake.
    Both
men laughed. It was a routine exchange.
    “Well,
I’ll be off then, General Akuyun,” said Zulfa, switching back to formal mode.
    “Gentleman,
unfortunately, we don’t have a general staff meeting for another sixday, but
before we part, I, and I’m sure Morfred also, want to offer congratulations to Brigadier
Zulfa. I understand from my wife, Rabia, that a child was born in the Zulfa
household from your woman, Panira.”
    Admiral
Kalcan slapped Zulfa on the back, shouting, “Good going, Aivacs! That’s two
from Panira, if I recall.”
    A
broad smile broke on the face of the usually impassive Zulfa. “Yes, first a
boy, Turmin, who’s now almost two, and yesterday a girl, Nizla. Both baby and
mother are doing well.”
    Zulfa
could have brought his family with him when he posted to the Caedellium
mission, but his wife had been heavy with child, and one of their other three
children had a long-term weakness that needed constant attention. He hadn’t realized
the posting to Caedellium would last more than two years. He and his wife had
agreed he needed a woman, neither expecting him to remain celibate.
    Zulfa’s
wife played a central role in choosing a seventeen-year-old girl, Panira, the
daughter of one of Zulfa’s retainers back in Narthon. Her family was honored to
accept the offer to have one of their daughters join the Zulfa household. Her
position would be as a “second wife”—effectively a concubine. There could be many
such second wives, but resulting children were formally the children of the
first wife. For Panira, her children might not be major inheritors of the
father, but would have education, contacts, and more opportunities than
otherwise possible. It was an accepted and respectable position in Narthani
society, particularly for a lower-caste Narthani family, descendants of a
people absorbed into the Narthon Empire eighty years previously. They were of
the core of Narthani society, yet had no expectations of rising into higher
levels for another generation or more, without associating with the higher
levels of society, of which Zulfa’s immediate and extended family was part.
    The
daughter, once informed of the arrangement, acquiesced, as expected. Not that
she had a choice, but Zulfa wouldn’t have taken her if she were unwilling. It
had proved a good decision. The girl managed his Caedellium residence, which
included several local slaves and the aides and the guards of Zulfa’s who
resided within the villa he had appropriated from a wealthy Preddi family
    Akuyun’s
wife, Rabia, was a friend of Panira’s, an uncommon connection between a wife
and a concubine in another household, but Rabia and Akuyun both approved of the
young woman and the stability she gave Zulfa, allowing him to focus on his
duties.
    The
two years Zulfa had expected stretched into four. He exchanged letters with his
wife, but his children were growing up without him. The separation hit him hard
recently when his oldest son, now eight years old, began writing letters to a
father he hardly remembered. If he didn’t get back soon, Zulfa wondered whether
the children at home would ever form the level of connection he had had with his father.
     
     
     

Chapter 6: The Pen
     
    The
islanders often reinforced Yozef’s opinion of their acumen and industry. They
might be backward in technology compared to Earth, yet once given direction,
they ran with it. None of his earlier shops needed his attention. The Caedelli
supervisors and staff implemented his initial instructions and developed
further products and processes by experimentation. He seldom stopped at the
workshops for ether, alcohol, papers, or soaps, while devoting only moderately
more time to keeping abreast of progress on the cannon and gunpowder projects. Business
details he