"They always whip someone. I mean, if it's for grades; obviously if you tell on someone they only get whipped if the teacher knows."

"So it would not actually protect anyone to perform worse. And it would protect people to not whip them as hard, but I imagine that you could get in trouble for that?"

"Yeah. Depending on how soft you do it. And you look weak, for the other kids."

"I see. I think that if I were trying to repent, of that, what I would say to the Goddess is - I was placed by Your enemies in a situation meant to turn me into one of them, to make me enjoy hurting people, to make me believe that my strength came with hurting people and was for hurting people. I wish they had not been hurt. I wish that I had not hurt them. I hope they recover, and I hope I recover in the very same spirit. I mean to use my strength for better purposes. And I am glad that our enemies were defeated, and that they did not succeed at making me one of them, and I am glad that I will not be commanded again to hurt innocent people, and if I had a better path even at the time I hope that you will help me see it, and I intend to try to use my learning and my knowledge for Good, now.

You shouldn't say all of those things, if they don't all make sense to you or if you don't mean them, but - that's where I would start."

"Okay. Thanks."

It's kind of hard to be uncomplicatedly glad about the new regime if they're shutting down the schools, but he can... try.

And there's a middle-aged woman holding a one-year-old. 

"Just to be sure I have this, it would be good to tell you, if someone were being hurt?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Well, maybe it's nothing, but in that case, I think you ought to know that the chandler is still branding his boys with his old brand. Saw one of them out by the well washing a new mark to cool the blisters down, not one week ago. I know he's got to do something, but the one he has is in the shape of a star, so the marks it leaves are stars. And I understand it's probably hard to find another one, but they're going to be carrying those scars for life, and they didn't ask to be covered in stars. Other people might not understand, later, might think it was some sort of devotion. I just don't think it's appropriate to do that to someone, in an Iomedan country. Am I right?"

"These are - slaves?"

"No, no. He's got an apprentice, and some servant boys. From the orphanage, you know."

"Why is it necessary to brand apprentices at all?"

She blinks at him. "Well, I don't know what they've done. I'm not saying he did it for no reason. I'm not saying he had one, either."

"I see. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll speak with him. You were right that this was the sort of thing we would want to know about."

"Well, I hope you talk some sense into him." And they'll see what happens to people who need sense talked into them, and that'll be useful, too.

Queralt goes to visit the captures and their children, that evening. One of Oleguer's young children is sick, and the captures have moved him into a separate room. Technically, Queralt can't go in to see him; the order has not been lifted yet. She asks Ragash if she can help, since Ragash has been staying there, too, but of course Ragash isn't strong enough. Leaving the slaves untreated isn't unheard of - obviously if a lot of people get sick at once, there are hard choices to be made - but right now they can't treat anyone, and illness spreads. Queralt doesn't bother the Archduke with it, but she tells Ivet.

At dawn the next morning the Archduke rides north with Estel, on phantom steeds. It didn't work, Ivet says, last time they tried to find a cleric who could fix diseases. No one came back. But there is a wizard in the north who can teleport, and there are many such clerics in the world.

They probably won't bring one back in time to help the boy, though. Queralt tells one of his brothers to be sure to bring him water, and to go get soup from the kitchens, and that's really all she can do on that front.

She doesn't tell the Iomedans about it, when she goes to see them. They can't do anything about it, either.

"Queralt. I was wondering if you'd be willing to help me with a family tree. I think we'll be better able to do our jobs if we can keep track of everybody, and we wanted to - start advising people on whether their relationships are full of knives - and that will be easier if we have an accurate understanding of what all those relationships are."

"Oh! Sure. Who have you got so far, or do you want me to just draw one - "

"I have one, but perhaps it's wrong enough you'd rather start from scratch." He'll show her. 

" - well, parts of it are right. Oleguer isn't the Archduke's brother, though, he's his nephew. Like this -"

Start with the Archduke, she supposes. The Archduke had... she's not actually sure if this is all of the legitimate brothers, but definitely the one who is Oleguer's father, who was the oldest, and definitely two more in between the eldest and Narikopolus, and definitely one younger one who is still alive and doesn't live here. (She draws a little tombstone over the names of people who are dead, and a little flag for people living in the castle.) There were sisters, and she knows some of those, but they're away, mostly married off in other parts of Menador. And some illegitimate brothers and sisters, but most of them died or were married off, and none of them are here now; she draws a blank branch of the tree for them in case they come up later. 

The Archduke's eldest brother had a wife, Oleguer's mother, who still lives here, and probably some mistresses, but they don't, so she doesn't know who. And an orc - Yotul once belonged to the eldest brother, and she used to have many sons, though all but one of them are dead, now. The living one, Francesc, has a human mistress, and four children with her.

The eldest brother's eldest living son is Oleguer, who does law enforcement in the area around Kantaria. He has a wife, and four children by her. He has three human mistresses. Six children between them, plus three more from one of his dead brothers, who are raised alongside Olegeur's other children. One of the mistresses has had no children by Olegeur in ten years, and Queralt isn't sure that they're actually sleeping together, though of course if you want to investigate that you shouldn't come right out and ask, it's rude. Then he had a captured orc, who was Guim's mother, and died a few years back of an illness, and three children by her besides Guim, all boys. And a new capture, who he bought after she died, and two children by her (again, both boys). Oleguer is younger than the Archduke, and most of his children aren't grown. He has one living brother, who lives elsewhere, but close enough that his family visits regularly. Also an illegitimate sister who's sworn to the Hellknight Order of the Godclaw, which Queralt remembers because it's cool. Obviously there are also other sisters who are married.

She pauses over the Archduke's second brother for a moment, and draws a line to indicate that he had some children, but she doesn't know who. The third brother had a wife, but she lives with one of her daughters now, and the human children are all gone. He also had an orc, who was the mother of Salut. 

Then there is the Archduke. He has had three wives, three mistresses, and one capture. (Well, that she knows of; obviously there could have been others.) The first mistress when he was very young, a girl named Montserrat. One of their dead sons had a capture who is still living with the captures, and she hears that there's a living son who's in the far north, but she's never met him. Then the Archduke's capture, who was the mother of Carles and Ivet, and is dead now. Then his first wife, who died in childbirth, with only one son; that son was married to a different Montserrat, who became Carles's mistress when her husband died. Actually relevant Montserrat has one child by her late husband, and two by Carles. 

Then the second wife, Maleit. Maleit was from the south; her oldest daughter is recently a widow, and then Carme is her daughter, too. And Redempcio, and five more living daughters, plus one dead daughter and three dead sons. One of the sons was married, with one child, Armand, who is just starting archery; she doesn't know if Armand's mother is with anyone right now.

Then the Archduke spent a while at the worldwound, where he met Estel. Estel has Iolanda, who is married to Cassiodor, who is from the south; they have two children, plus the daughter of Iolanda's dead older sister, all very small still. And then Estel has one dead son, and then Alfonso-Ignasi, who if he has any children sure hasn't told Queralt. And Cesc-Llorenç, who tried being a wizard but couldn't do it, and Marcel-Augusti, who is still trying to make it work. And then Josep, who's only nine.

And then Valeria, Archduchess-Consort of Menador. Valeria was a lady-in-waiting for the Archduke's mother, back when she was Archduchess of Menador. High-ranking nobles can send unmarried female relatives to wait on the Queen, at her court, but if you'd rather they stay in Menador, you can also send them to wait on the Archduchess, where they're really pretty unlikely to be murdered. (The Archduke himself had to send some of his daughters south, of course). Valeria married the Archduke after Maleit was executed, but she was with him before that. She has ten living children, though her oldest is dead, and her second-oldest was sent to the worldwound, with the troops the Archduke sent. She has six ladies-in-waiting of her own right now, too, so if he sees people who are obviously noblewomen but aren't obviously connected to any of these people, it's probably one of them. And there are other men around, of course, who aren't part of the family but who work with the Archduke.

And then Queralt's mother, the last mistress, who only had Queralt. She doesn't attach her mother to anyone else.

"I think that's all right. You should check with Ivet to be sure about some of the older parts, I'm not sure I have all of those right. So - I guess if you're looking at romantic relationships, you want to look at Olegeur and his relationships, and the Archduke's and his, and Carles and Montserrat, and Fransesc and Martina, and I guess Iolanda and Cassiodor? And then - well, obviously Guim's with Margarida, and of course there are lots of people in the castle who aren't part of the Archduke's family. Are you looking at everyone who's sleeping together, or just the kind of thing that goes on a family tree?"

"...I think I am at least mildly concerned about everybody who is sleeping together. Relationships that can produce children have more avenues to do harm but they are not the only kind of thing it is important to do decently."

She considers marking up her family tree with all of that, decides that it would be messy and make the document more embarrassing and potentially dangerous to show to people, and instead makes a list on a separate sheet of paper.

Alfonso-Ignasi is definitely sleeping with several of the servants; she knows some of the specific ones, but doesn't know all of them. Iolanda sleeps with lots of people besides Cassiodor, usually retainers, a few of whom she has long-term relationships with. Cesc-Llorenç has a girl from the town he sees sometimes, but not who he's openly with in the sense that he'd ever take her parties, like Guim is taking Margarida to things. She's pretty sure he also has a girl somewhere else, not in the town. Marcel-Augusti had a girlfriend from the prep school last year, but she thinks the girl went to Kintargo with the graduating class. Redempcio has a servant and sleeps with boys from the town sometimes, though again, she wouldn't do anything else with them. She doesn't think the sister between Redempcio and Carme is with anyone. Tomàs, Valeria's second-oldest living son, is sort of with one of the ladies in waiting, but she doesn't know how serious they are, and of course what ultimately happens is up to the Archduke. Probably they won't get married, and she doesn't know whether the girl is important enough that she'll definitely look for a marriage elsewhere.

Guim is openly with Margarida now, and apparently really likes her. Margarida is the daughter of the headmaster of the closed down prep school, who is a retired officer. Guim's older half brother Vicent has lots of boys from the town, and sometimes women. His half sister Violant slept with one of the children's tutors once, though she doesn't specifically think that's a regular thing.

Also, every time anybody visits anywhere, it's normal to offer the men someone to sleep with. She hears that in the south you usually offer it to everyone who didn't bring a partner with them, including the women, and sometimes people offer their own illegitimate children, but it's not like that here; here you offer servants, or slaves, or you rent prostitutes. She doesn't think this happened after the raid this month, though.

That's... probably not everything, Queralt doesn't actually have encyclopedic knowledge of her entire family's sex lives.

"Are these mostly - mutually beneficial relationships, or mostly - not very optional, or a mix of both?"

"...I think it depends? You're asking if the people they're sleeping with want to be sleeping with them?"

"Yes."

"I think Margarida is happy with Guim. I definitely don't think everybody's happy. But sometimes it's hard to tell."