"Say a woman lays with a man, but she doesn't want a child, so she Prestidigitates away the man's seed as soon as he finishes. What goes wrong?"

This is something Gamila has been wondering in the back of her mind since she saw the white goop dripping out of herself and realized what it had to be. It can't possibly actually be that easy, or life as a woman would be very different, but it's such an obvious idea; she's desperately curious about what does happen.

Dana's mouth falls open. She thinks it over for several long moments.

"That... is a fucking good question!" The pun is on purpose. "Could that work? I've never heard anything about what happens if you try that."

Dana laughs.

"The others are going to be so scandalized when they hear about my new research project, because how the 'strom has no one tried that? Someone must have! And it must have failed, but you'd think it'd be really common cautionary tale... I really want to know why that isn't a really common cautionary tale, now..."

Dana remembers Gamila is still there long enough to wave goodbye as she grabs one of the flying carpets and zooms up into the stacks. "See you around, Gamila!"

She gets shushed from like six different directions at once.

Okay, yeah, first impression correct. Gamila likes this girl.

She settles in and starts reading.

To start with she isn't really trying to accomplish anything except to fill in all the blank space in her head labeled 'Spells That Exist'.

Without her bearings in that space, she can't even begin to plan.

Gamila spends the whole day reading.

She knows she's not going to remember half of this, and that she's going to have to re-read this information many times, so she keeps going until dusk.

She does, at the start, when she's reading about spells that aren't too advanced for her, pause to go find those example spellbooks Dana mentioned and build the spells for herself.

By the time she moves on to reading about spells above her own circle, she now has ready: Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Prestidigitation, and Ray of Frost. Endure Elements, and Expeditious Retreat.

She has to lose Mage Hand, no room. And Dancing Lights seems way more useful and flexible than Light even if it needs to be re-cast every minute. Ray of Frost. She's armed, now. And also she wonders if she can use it to make ice. Ice is incredibly in-demand.

She knows what a spell circle is, now. But when she goes to hang her second first-circle spell alongside Endure Elements, she discovers that that's all she has room for. Which is strange. She can feel that she has four 'slots', not two, but hanging the first-circle spells takes up a different kind of space, and there's only room for two. She is confused about why they're called 'slots' when the spells don't actually go into them and they're more like 'charges' anyway.

She chooses Expeditious Retreat to fill her one open preparation-space because despite the name it sounds useful for a lot of things besides just retreating. It makes her twice as fast for a whole minute.

The sun begins to set.

Women out after dark can be assumed to be up to no good.

It isn't far, back to Aru-Da, but it's far enough for the horizon to move a ways up the diameter of the sun during the trip.

Thanks to her new first-circle spell, she can race from the Temple of the All-Seeing Eye to her family's house on the edge of the Crimson Canal in just over two minutes.

She pauses at the end of the block to catch her breath, then looks around for somewhere to hide until her father comes home on the wagon.

The wagon is right there.

Mido, apparently, is already home.

...shit.

Gamila's deception is completely foiled, then.

She clenches her fist, and lets out through clenched teeth a quiet, frustrated scream.

Alright.

Fine.

Subterfuge has failed.

Can she come up with a lie? She doesn't want to come up with a lie.

Fine then.

Gamila readies herself for a fight, and stomps up the street to enter her house.

Gamila's parents are waiting.

Mido is smart enough to realize that the nature of the attempted deception implied a specific time at which Gamila must have planned to return home.

So the sight that greets her when she steps inside is both of her parents, seated at opposite ends of their table, both facing her and deeply unamused.

Gamila's heart is thundering. She arranges her face in a glare.

"I'm home."

"We can see that."

If anything, Mido looks more frazzled than angry.

"Where were you, Gamila??? Do you have any idea how worried we were?!"

Something nasty flares up in her gut at that, a wordless fury at a sense of undefinable unfairness, but she can't put it into words so she swallows it.

Deep breath.

"I was at the Temple of the All-Seeing Eye. I went there because- "

"You went there?! Gamila, I do not want you around those, those wizards. It isn't safe! How could you possibly think it was a good idea to give those awful rumors more wood to burn? I know you've heard what the neighbors are saying about you. I had to set Mrs. Kekep and Mrs. Sutar straight just this afternoon! Do you want your father's business partners to think he raised a whore?"

There's that feeling again, that feeling like something is deeply wrong with, not this argument, but the grounds on which they're arguing.

Do you want them to think your father raised a whore?

Gamila knows the answer she's supposed to give.

Do you want them to think you're a whore?

Gamila knows the response that is baked into the question, because it isn't a question, it isn't a question at all, because it isn't a query for information. It's a threat.

Do you want them to think you're a whore?

Every girl who hears the question is supposed to reflexively flinch away in fear, retreat, back down, flee from the prospect of being thought a whore.

Do you want to be a whore?

Do as we say, or we'll call you a whore.

Something breaks free, crystalizes, and settles in Gamila's mind. She already is a whore. The traditional threat has no power over her anymore. Even with the... complications... she is proud of what she did, and she'll be prouder when she can do it with impunity. That's been her goal this whole time. Not to undo a mistake, but to remove the obstacles so she can do it as much as she likes.

"Dancing Lights," Gamila casts, filling the dimming room with the soft glow of magelight.

    !!!

With her parents (or at least her mother) struck silent, Gamila speaks, this vision of her desired future coming to her in the very moment, as the words form.

"I'm not ashamed of the truth. I went to the Temple of the All-Seeing Eye to read about magic. I want to learn spells, become a successful wizard, and then, when I've earned power and respect and enough money to be head of my own household, yes mama, I want to go work in a brothel."

Kesi flounders. The sheer audacity of her daughter. The sheer, terrifying blasphemy.

"Don't ever say that! Don't even joke about that! Pray no one heard the words that just came out of your face! And as for this..." she gestures at the floating magelights. "Where- How- When did-"

She rounds on her husband.

"This never would have happened if you hadn't taught her to read!"

Mido is staring at the Dancing Lights and replies without looking.

"Our daughter wouldn't have discovered a talent for magic and with it the potential to lift herself higher up in this world than we ever could've dreamed, you mean?"

    "Mido!!!" Kesi shrieks in betrayal.

Mido finally looks at her. "I gave up my dreams of being a wizard when I married you and we did the budget for the first time. I'm not going to crush Gamila's."

    "Our daughter is not a man to be enriched by such things! What kind of life can she have if her power scares off all the best suitors?"

"You were a firebrand when I met you, and I certainly liked you better than the meeker women. When did you become such a hypocrite?"

    "Don't put this on me! You've been filling Gamila's head with nonsense since she was a baby!"

"Our daughter learned spellcraft behind our backs," Mido says, somewhat proud. "I think she's rather good at filling her own head with whatever strikes her fancy."

"Don't say that like it isn't concerning. You know perfectly well that we can't afford wizard tutoring for Gamila any more than we can afford it for you."

She turns to face her daughter.

"You understand, don't you? However you feel about it now, this is not going to lead to a good future for you. I don't want you going to the Temple of the All-Seeing Eye any more. They're a bad influence, especially on women. I don't see why you can't have a few spells as long as you don't flaunt them, but no more talk of being a professional wizard. I know it sounds glamorous now but you don't understand what it means to be the head of your own household. It, it, you'd be skipping over all the important parts of your life."

Aaaaaaauuuuuugghhhh. Her mother just flatly discarding the concept is somehow even more annoying than screaming at her about it.

"The important part of my life is the part where I'm a whore."

Wow that feels good to say. She finds she means the words even more firmly than she thought she did, as the words come out.

"Did you not hear me the first time? Was the magic too distracting? I wasn't being vulgar and I wasn't being sarcastic. I was answering the question: YES I WANT TO BE A WHORE!!!" Gamila bellows, loud enough for the neighbors to hear.

Kesi does not comprehend this.

Kesi used Blame. Her wisdom fell.

"WHAT IN THE DEEPEST PITS OF THE ABYSS HAVE YOU BEEN TEACHING OUR DAUGHTER, MIDO?"

Mido just stares at Gamila in horror.

"My daughter... oh no, oh no, oh no... what have you done?"

Gamila forces herself to ignore her mother's outburst, and meets her father's eyes.

"I bribed a wizard with sex to get him to teach me enough to get started on spellcraft. I don't know if I'm pregnant yet, but I probably am. I don't plan to stay that way."

Mido eyes just about fall out of his head.

He pushes his chair back and starts pacing around the room, repeating, "Oh no," over and over.

Kesi has never been this angry.

"WHO?!" she bites out. "Who thinks he can ruin my daughter?!"

"Are you even listening?!?"

Gamila slams her fist down on the table.

"He doesn't matter! I got what I needed from him! I can learn new spells from library books now and find one to stop being pregnant! Problem solved!"