Trigger warning. Past sexual assault is discussed in this chapter

Earlier in the morning, Paul was informed that several ships would be docking with the Paulsland citizens who were captured and sold into slavery by the Himyarites. Paul overlooked the battlefield and saw that it was quiet except for the stones and bolts being thrown back and forth by war machines and decided to meet them when they arrived. If the battle got hot, his commanders would handle the battle whether he was there or not. Unfortunately, his life was too important to risk in battle, and so Paul thought perhaps he could do some good with the people who were returning.

Paul and his guards quickly made their way to the docks, where he watched several trimarans making their way to the harbor. Although the ships were clearly Central Roman Trading Company ships, most of the sailors were not Paulsland. Many of the Paulsland sailors had already returned months ago after they captured the slaver ships and joined other trimaran ships so they could take coal oil and fire to the enemy. This left few Paulsland sailors for the trimarans they still required for trade, and diplomacy, and so those slots were filled with foreigners.

The decks were filled with their passengers; men, women, and older children. Paul felt for the passengers who had to ride home on the uncomfortable ships that were not built for passengers, but he was glad they were finally home. He had already sent word to have places prepared for them. Whether that was in one of the schools or one of the forts on the island, Paul didn’t care, but he would see that these people were treated well and helped back on their feet.

Paul waited for the ships to dock, and it did not go unnoticed. Kings do not wait for other people, so this unusual action was noticed. As Paul waited, a crowd grew to see what Paul was waiting on. They watched as the ships landed, and the crowd began murmuring. Some people asked, “What’s so important about these ships?” Others answered, “These are our people that the Himyarites enslaved and were bought back by King Paul’s son, Washington. They are finally returning home.”

The foreign sailors did not know why a crowd was gathering at the dock, and the Paulsland officers did not think to inform them; instead, they yelled out, “Lower the gangplank and let the passengers off the ship first.”

Once the planks on the ships were lowered, the passengers began making their way off the ships, but then the passengers began to notice King Paul. The adults paused. They knew what happened to them, and they were ashamed, and they had a silent fear that King Paul would humiliate them for what happened. The children, on the other hand, saw King Paul, and they pressed forward because Washington made it clear that the King bought their freedom, and so when they saw their beloved King, they couldn’t wait to give their thanks.

Child after child came to Paul and gave him a hug and said, “Thank you, King Paul, for buying my freedom.”

Paul began to tear up. A lot of it was because he was moved by the genuine happiness of the children. But some of it was because there were no children younger than seven. They had all been killed. These were simply the ones who could be saved.

Then a young girl came to Paul and gave him a big hug, and said, “Thank you for saving us.” But Paul couldn’t speak for a moment because she was heavily pregnant. Paul could do the math. She was taken away seven months ago. The girl was tiny with a gigantic baby bump that broke Paul’s heart. Chances were she didn’t even know she was pregnant until two or three months ago when the baby started kicking.

Paul asked her, “How old are you?”

She said, “I just turned twelve.”

“I will have to find a birthday present for you.”

Her smile grew bigger, and she said, “Really?”

“Of course. I have a responsibility to take care of you.”

One of the foreign sailors was watching the exchange, and did not know Paul was the King of the nation. He said, “Why would you take care of her? She is carrying the spawn of your enemies. Toss her out and find someone who hasn’t been defiled to care for.”

The girl's face fell, and tears formed in her eye because she had been embarrassed in front of her King. As Paul turned to the man, he couldn’t help but notice she wasn’t the only girl in the crowd who lost their smile and began to tear up. Paul was furious, but he had to hone his fury to undo the damage of this particular scum, “You’re Roman. If these girls had been sold into slavery in your empire, what would have happened to them?”

“If they were sold into a brothel, they would have had their stomachs beat until they miscarried. But when the slave sellers found out they were pregnant, some of them would have sold them as wet nurses.”

“And if they were sold as wet nurses, what would have happened to the child?”

“The infant” and the sailor made sure to emphasize the word infant as Romans considered infants to be no different than vegetables in an attempt to dehumanize them “would likely be exposed so the girl’s milk could go to her master’s child. Chances are the slaver would take the child from the girl before giving her to her new master so she would not feel animosity toward her master and take it out on their child.”

“What are the chances that any of these girls would be allowed to keep their children if they were sold into slavery in Rome?”

“Unless a Christian bought them, almost zero. But Christians have a weird belief that humans are made in the image of the gods.”

“So let me get this right. You think these girls are worthless because they are pregnant through rape, but the people who would profit from the sale of these girls would immediately kill their baby the first chance they got?”

The sailor was silent for a long moment before saying, “I wouldn’t put it like that, but yeah.”

“Let me tell you; I am not in the habit of giving my enemies what they want. My enemies utterly humiliated and hurt these girls, and now they want to make these girls' pain worse by killing their babies as soon as they are born. These girls are victims, and the sons and daughters they carry are also victims. Victims should be restored and raised up, not stomped on or cast out to die.”

“But the girl's lives would be better if they didn’t have those children.”

“Killing infants or allowing infants to die in Paulsland is a serious crime with one punishment. And we are not going to shove saws up these girls’ vaginas to cut apart the child in their womb so the pieces are small enough to pull out. Yes, these girls AND their children will have harder lives because of what happened, but they can still do great things.”

Paul then turned to the children and said, “If you are a child and caring a child, please come forward. And you other children make way for them to come to me. I need to have a conversation.”

The sailor was confused and said, “What are you doing?”

Paul was incensed and said, “Guards take that fool and give him fifty lashes. Men should have a right to say what they wish unless they are calling for others to break the law. In violation of the law, he has told me to toss a child, a child in great need, out. You know what make it a hundred lashes.”

Several of Paul’s guards immediately dashed forward, and while they did so, the sailor yelled out, “HOW DARE YOU! WHO ARE YOU TO DEMAND I GET LASHED!”

One of Paul’s guards unsheathed his sword and swung the flat end against the sailor’s calf, and said, “He is the King.” Then he turned back to Paul and asked, “Do you want me to cut his throat.”

“No. He has not done anything worthy of death. Give him a hundred lashes for telling me to break the law.”

By now, the sailor had realized his mistake and had gone pale. The other sailors made their way off the deck or began looking busy on their ships as far away from King Paul as possible, all thanking whatever gods they worshipped that they did not say anything to this King about what they thought of those pregnant girls.

While he was getting dragged off to a whipping post, Paul said, “Come forward, girls. You will soon have a great responsibility, and we will do everything in our power to help you. You will have beds in the schools to sleep in, you will have food to eat, the other women will help you learn to be a mother, and the other girls in the school will help babysit your child. If being a mother is too much for you, since this was not your decision, we will allow you to leave your child an orphan.”

There were gasps of shock. King Paul has long since recognized that Paulsland needs a population boon and so has geared his schools to encourage both boys and girls to look forward to parenthood and having lots of children. Furthermore, King Paul has had to battle the practice of infanticide through teaching the worth of infants. Some of those lessons may have strongly discouraged giving up your child for adoption.

“Understand that I am allowing this because someone your age is often not ready for the responsibility of parenthood, especially when there is no father. It's also one of the reasons why we view your child as a victim as well. The things those men did to you meant they were leaving both you and your child for dead. There crime calls for maturity and responsibility that is beyond many people your age.”

One of the girls said, “I will rise to the challenge.”

Another girl said, “I will as well.”

“Me too.”

Paul couldn’t help it; tears fell from his eyes, and he said, “You girls are so brave. But I knew that already, and that’s why I called you up here. I wanted to remind you that even if you have these babies, you can still do great things. Being a mother does not stop women from doing great things.”

“Where I come from, there was a young lady who wrote a book called “Frankenstein” and everyone in the wor… my country had either read her book or at least heard of it. Many people liked her work so much that they copied it and gave their own spin to her story. She was just nineteen when she wrote the book, and she was a mother of three or four small children at the time. The first time she gave birth, she was unmarried, but she was married by the time she wrote the book. Girls in your situation can do great things. She did it, and it wasn’t when her kids were all grown up; they were still very small when she wrote her book.”

One of the girls asked, “Can you tell us her story?”

Paul looked around and said, “Not right now, but I will come by one day and tell you what I remember from her story. But she isn’t the only mother that did great things. There is this other woman named Marie Currie who discovered radiation.” King Paul had been in the past for over two decades, and so his memory was fuzzy. He was giving Henri Becquerel discovery to Marie Currie. Partly because Marie Currie’s discovery was far more technical than Henri Becquerel’s discovery. “Back then, the scientific community had figured out that some minerals give off energy, and they thought those minerals only give off energy in the sun. They could tell they gave off energy because they put the minerals near film, and the waves the minerals gave off were shown on the film. Well, one day Marie wanted to do some experiments with the energy minerals with the film and the sun, but it was raining outside, so she put the minerals in a drawer with the film, and the next day when she took it out, she saw the waves were given off without being in the sun, thus discovering radioactivity.”

The girls looked totally confused. And one asked, “What’s film?”

Paul thought for a second on how to explain it, then said, “You know how some people can draw a picture of someone and make a portrait. Well, film is where you put a chemical on a sheet of something like paper, but a bit different, then you put that in a dark box, then you put a hole in the box. Then if you uncover the hole in the box with someone or something in front of it, the chemical will make a portrait better than a person can draw.”

The girls were enthralled with the idea, and one of them asked, “Can we make the fi, fi, the portrait in a box thing?”

“I don’t know?” Paul thought about it and knew there were cameras before the 1850s, decided that sooner or later they should have the chemicals for that, and said, “I think you girls are smart enough to figure it out if you want to try.”

One of the girls said, “Yeah, we will do that. We will make portraits in a box.”

Paul smiled. It was unreal seeing those small, young, pregnant girls so happy over a chance to make something new. He had forgotten that children were easily distracted. Although these young girls had been raped and were seven months pregnant, they could get their minds off difficult things. With a heavy heart and a tone of voice that did its best to be encouraging, he said, “Alright, children, one of my guards will take you to the school to help you get settled. And girls, if you need anything, let the older women know.”

Almost as one the children said, “Aww.” They didn’t want to go. They loved their King.

“I will visit you, but you need to get settled in and have a good meal.”

Reluctantly the children followed the guard to the school where they would be staying at. With the children leaving, the adults began to reluctantly come off the boats. Shame and embarrassment were written all over their expression and body language.

Paul asked, “What do you need?”

The men and women looked at each other, shame keeping them from speaking for several moments before one of the men said, “I am a farmer, but the Himyarites killed my ox, and I imagine they ate all my seed stock. I need seed stock, and another ox, and a plow, and other tools.”

Paul nodded and asked the crowd, “If you were a farmer, please raise your hand.” Most of the hands went up. It wasn’t a surprise the villages attacked by the Himyarites were some of the newest in Paulsland, and generally the adults from conquered villages became farmers. Then Paul asked,” For those who were not farmers, please tell me what your job was.”

“Fisherman.”

“Blacksmith.”

“Carpenter.”

Paul nodded and said, “We will figure something out. What I need you to do now is rest, eat, and get into fighting shape. The Himyarites who abused you are at the gates of the fortress on the other side of the North Bridge.”

That information brought out a myriad of emotions from the men before him. Some grew focused, others sneered with hate, and others looked away fearfully. Of the men who sneered said, “I have rested enough in Egypt and on the ship. I wish to face these men with a spear.”

Paul turned to his guard and said, “Take him to the armory and put him on the stone fortress.” Then Paul turned to the men and said, “Any of you who feel up to it, feel free to follow them.”

Several of the men left. Some hesitated, turned to their wives, and then followed, but others didn’t. Paul wasn’t going to judge them. But some of the men clearly had business with Paul, so he asked, “If you need to discuss anything with me, now is the time.”

One of the men hesitated but then stepped forward and said, “My wife is pregnant, and we don’t know if the child is mine or the child of those Himyarites.” The word Himyarite was said with such hate that Paul was surprised the man hadn’t gone with the rest of the men going to the armory. Paul suspected once he was done talking to Paul, he would chase after them.

“I am truly sorry she went through such abuse. What is your question?”

“When the child is born, what do I do if it has their complexion? Those Himyarites raped my sons and daughters before killing them slowly. I refuse to raise their child when they did horrible things to mine before killing them.” Tears of pain and confusion rolled down the man's face.

Paul looked around and saw that there were several couples where the wife was clearly about seven months pregnant and some pregnant single women who probably lost their husbands in the Himyarite raid. After a long moment’s consideration, Paul said, “If the child is not yours, you may leave it at the school as an orphan. I will consider the infants to be more victims of the Himyarite war, and they will be taken care of by the school or any citizen of good standing that is willing to adopt them. But you will stay here until your wife gives birth. You will not take out your anger on your wife’s child. If you feel the need to work off anger, grab a spear and kill a Himyarite. Or, if you feel particularly wrathful, capture one; considering what you went through, I will let you tie them down and do whatever you want to with them. I do not believe children should pay the price of their father’s crimes. But the father who commits that sort of crime should suffer tremendously before he dies.”

The man nodded and said, “I can accept that.” Then he turned and started jogging after the men who went to the armory. Several other husbands followed.

As for the rest, Paul told one of his guards, “Take them to the school.”

From there, Paul went onto one of the trimarans that brought his people back. The foreign sailors stayed as far away from him as possible, but the captain came to King Paul and asked, “Do you think those pregnant girls will be all right?”

“If these girls gave birth vaginally, I doubt half of them would make it, but with penicillin, C-sections are very safe.”

“What’s a C-section?”

“You know. When a baby is cut out of the womb.”

“I thought you said C-sections were safe. I heard they only cut babies out of wombs after the mother dies.”

Paul thought about it for a long while and said, “Maybe in the north. But we have concentrated opium and anti-biotics. C-sections are very safe for the mother if there is an emergency.”

“What about their babies?”

“They will probably be born early and small, but we have been experimenting with glass incubators to put undersized infants in to keep them warm and clean. We have a long way to go, but premature infants have a much better survival rate now.”

“Good. So, what can I do for you?”

“I want to know how the children were on the trip here. Do we need to separate them?”

“Yes. Both the girls and the boys. They were touching themselves and each other on the way down here. I talked with some of the adults, and they told me the slavers delighted in taking liberties with the children. Even after they were raped, the slavers would talk to the children to find out where they were still innocent and then take it away from them. I was told the slavers delighted in hurting the children in new unimaginable ways.”

“I hate this. Those children are too young to deal with sexuality, but those evil men raped them. And that army sitting outside of my fortress started this. Now we have to teach these children self-control because some evil, terrible men took their innocence away. They should never have to bear this burden.”

“That’s not all. Some of the boys were made eunuchs.”

Paul’s heart dropped, then he looked in the direction of the Himyarite's camp and said, “I have no idea how I will help the boys who had their manhood stolen from them, but the Himyarites will pay the same price.”