"Generally lawmakers aren't considerate enough to write down all their reasoning," the teacher confesses. "I think - yes, that, but broader culture too. It's common for people to see women as the fairer sex, right, not intended for violence, in need of protection. ...Not to mention women tend to be the primary caregivers of children, and young people up for the draft are often the age to have young children at home, that may have been a practical consideration. I am not sure. I believe the main reason that changing the law was politically unpopular is that many people think sending women to war is somehow worse than sending men."

Aza scans the gender balance of the class (and incidentally tries to see if anyone else wants to talk; she has a tendency to hog the floor).

The class is a very even split, five girls and four boys. Another student tentatively raises their hand and asks if it's true that women are more squeamish than men and don't like hurting anyone, on average of course, because that might make them worse or at least much unhappier mage-soldiers. There is some argument about this; it's pointed out that plenty of men also are squeamish about blood and don't want to hurt people, and this is very subjective, you can't exactly draft based on 'how much do you not want to kill anyone.'

Ma'ar is still quiet, thinking.

"How often is the draft needed?"

"Oh, not often! It hasn't come up in seventy years an that was a short border war, less than a year long. I feel if anything that makes it a better discussion topic, to be honest."

Based on Ma'ar's expression, he is maybe starting to gestate a point but isn't sure of it yet.

"I'm not sure we should have a draft at all."

"Not for mages, or not for anyone? Nearly all countries have it. I am not sure if it's feasible to raise enough volunteers to field an army in war."

"Some people volunteer, right? What gets them to do it?"

"You know, I do not have a definite answer there! What do you all think?" He addresses the class.

Some possible answers are volunteered. For glory? For money? Because everyone will think you're a coward if you don't. Because it's the right thing to do. Because your friends are doing it. Because girls will think it's cool. Because your parents expect it of you.

Well, if it's money or glory maybe they could arrange to distribute more of those? Higher salaries, more, uh, parades?

"I think funding a war is hard already, right?" Ma'ar points out. "The King would have to raise taxes even more. But - it does seem like you should pay people a lot of money if you want them to risk getting killed. And I would sort of expect that people who signed up on purpose would be more motivated about it than if they got drafted against their will?" He's not sure. It seems complicated. A lot of things do, lately.

There's some more discussion between other students of what might make volunteering to fight in a war feel more glorious. More special medals and awards for bravery? Getting a letter of thanks from the King?

"Fighting for a country that doesn't practice slavery?" she mutters, not very quietly.

This gets her some sideways looks, but no one seems to quite know how to respond.

When that line of debate fades out, Ma'ar tentatively raises his hand. "Would - women get treated all right?" he asks. "I think it doesn't matter if it's a draft or volunteer, probably it'd still mostly be men, since - that's what everyone expects. And...in Predain if you were one of the only women in the army, it'd be - not great." He is not going to say out loud that someone would probably try to rape them. "I know mages can defend themselves but it could still be really miserable. Probably Tantara isn't as bad that way, just..." Shrug.

"If everything otherwise pointed in favor you could have separate units."

There's some more back and forth over whether this would be weird, or bad for the army's morale as a single body, or something.

And eventually Ma'ar dares to raise his hand. "This is - not really about the draft again," he says tentatively, "but mage-gift runs in the blood, right? So it's bad if a lot of mages die in a war when they're young and haven't had children, but - it could be even worse if men and woman die. Since, uh," he's just realized this is the sort of thing that people probably make faces about, "since a man can get a lot of women with child if he's, um. Trying."

This sure does get some faces made! The teacher seems to think it's an interesting point, though, in an academic sense at least, and smiles encouragingly at Ma'ar.

"In practice is that very likely to actually happen, though? I think if a huge fraction of the population around me had just died, and I couldn't actually find anyone I wanted to marry, I probably wouldn't want to have any kids right then regardless - is that me being weird, would a lot of women rather go ahead even then?"

There is disagreement on this point! A couple of girls in the class seem to be very much looking forward to having babies, and express that they'd be upset if they couldn't get married until they were thirty and maybe they'd move into a house together and be pretend-married to have their babies instead, at which point they might as well find some mage father to, well, do the deed. A different girl is firmly on Azabel's side. The boys mostly seem nonplussed.

Coparenting with another girl does seem better than nothing if she were baby-crazy, and she might get that way in a couple years. If she had a close enough friend by then. Anyway, if some girls would do it that might be enough for it to be an important policy consideration.

Some other boy in the class, NOT Ma'ar, brings up the point that if a lot of mages die, having more mages is pretty important to Tantara and maybe after the war the Crown would want to pay women with mage-gift who wanted to raise babies with each other. This gets a lot of slightly uncomfortable laughter and an amused look from the teacher.