Tricks of the Trade
Jan. 2nd, 2014 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feredarStory: Tricks of the Trade
Year: 960 FY
Characters: Nida
Warnings: Espionage, references to pandering one's children for a Cause and training underage persons in seduction, period-appropriate sexism/internalized sexism and brief discussion of it
We women make the best spies. This is what my mother believed, what she taught me and my sisters, and it is a position to which I still give a great deal of credit. Women are viewed as less threatening, so we can gain readier access to secrets. Men will sooner let down their guard to a harmless girl than to a fellow man.
It is not that men are incapable—if a man were raised as I was, to be a…well, a covert diplomat might be a better name for it, than spy. But if a man were so raised, he would be a success, if he had the talent and the right sort of mind, just as a woman raised to soldiering can succeed. And not all women raised to espionage succeed at it, just as not all men to soldiering will.
I bring up soldiering because I think the difference lies in the weapons Nature—or the Gods—gave to men and women. Men are armed for direct conflict, for battles in the open air. Women are armed for poison smiles and digging in under the skin before anyone knows they’re there. This is, I think, the greatest reason why women make better spies than soldiers, and men the reverse, more than perception.
I learned this, of course, when I was fourteen.
There had been a dust-up at court—one not, I assure you, of my mother’s making, or any other in the Movement. No, that assassination, gory as it was and political as it became, was for private greed and ambition, not any sort of Cause. But it had happened, and there was a boy-king on the throne, and my mother…please understand, I have no ill will towards my mother for how she raised us. Except maybe she played my eldest sister wrong—as I said, there are those women who better serve as soldiers than spies. But for the training she gave us, young as we were…no, I do not blame her.
Even before I knew the unexpected gift my mother’s plans would give me, I didn’t hate her for it. I found the lessons uncomfortable, of course—more because they were taught by my late father’s mistress than because of the content. Though, I suppose, it would have been worse if Mother had sought to teach us seduction herself. But I was not an innocent, and I had, I think, no small talent at it. I already knew, of course, how to watch and listen, how to read people, when and how to drop secrets, and which secrets to drop.
And then…
And then we were deployed, and everything changed.
You are not a fool, darling, though I understand why you sometimes like to pretend. As I said, I read people very well, even now, when I am somewhat out of practice. And I know you won’t necessarily agree with the reasons for what I do. But I know how important our people are to you, and I know you have the same talents I have. And I know you won’t betray me, as your brothers would. I could try, darling, and maybe I could persuade you, in the end. But it wouldn’t serve you right, and I don’t know that it would serve my cause, either.
Deva is a soldier, though I don’t think she yet realizes this, and Keta…who knows. But you, darling, you are like me. You are a spy.
I won’t teach you to believe as I believe, but I’m happy to explain the reasons if you ask. But I love you, and I want you to be safe and skilled where you will best serve our people—I hope, in time, all of them.
If you’ll let me, Sola, I would like to teach you what I know.
Year: 960 FY
Characters: Nida
Warnings: Espionage, references to pandering one's children for a Cause and training underage persons in seduction, period-appropriate sexism/internalized sexism and brief discussion of it
We women make the best spies. This is what my mother believed, what she taught me and my sisters, and it is a position to which I still give a great deal of credit. Women are viewed as less threatening, so we can gain readier access to secrets. Men will sooner let down their guard to a harmless girl than to a fellow man.
It is not that men are incapable—if a man were raised as I was, to be a…well, a covert diplomat might be a better name for it, than spy. But if a man were so raised, he would be a success, if he had the talent and the right sort of mind, just as a woman raised to soldiering can succeed. And not all women raised to espionage succeed at it, just as not all men to soldiering will.
I bring up soldiering because I think the difference lies in the weapons Nature—or the Gods—gave to men and women. Men are armed for direct conflict, for battles in the open air. Women are armed for poison smiles and digging in under the skin before anyone knows they’re there. This is, I think, the greatest reason why women make better spies than soldiers, and men the reverse, more than perception.
I learned this, of course, when I was fourteen.
There had been a dust-up at court—one not, I assure you, of my mother’s making, or any other in the Movement. No, that assassination, gory as it was and political as it became, was for private greed and ambition, not any sort of Cause. But it had happened, and there was a boy-king on the throne, and my mother…please understand, I have no ill will towards my mother for how she raised us. Except maybe she played my eldest sister wrong—as I said, there are those women who better serve as soldiers than spies. But for the training she gave us, young as we were…no, I do not blame her.
Even before I knew the unexpected gift my mother’s plans would give me, I didn’t hate her for it. I found the lessons uncomfortable, of course—more because they were taught by my late father’s mistress than because of the content. Though, I suppose, it would have been worse if Mother had sought to teach us seduction herself. But I was not an innocent, and I had, I think, no small talent at it. I already knew, of course, how to watch and listen, how to read people, when and how to drop secrets, and which secrets to drop.
And then…
And then we were deployed, and everything changed.
You are not a fool, darling, though I understand why you sometimes like to pretend. As I said, I read people very well, even now, when I am somewhat out of practice. And I know you won’t necessarily agree with the reasons for what I do. But I know how important our people are to you, and I know you have the same talents I have. And I know you won’t betray me, as your brothers would. I could try, darling, and maybe I could persuade you, in the end. But it wouldn’t serve you right, and I don’t know that it would serve my cause, either.
Deva is a soldier, though I don’t think she yet realizes this, and Keta…who knows. But you, darling, you are like me. You are a spy.
I won’t teach you to believe as I believe, but I’m happy to explain the reasons if you ask. But I love you, and I want you to be safe and skilled where you will best serve our people—I hope, in time, all of them.
If you’ll let me, Sola, I would like to teach you what I know.