Day 178
Standard Year 1118
Irikwae
In which a friend in need is a friend indeed.
It is saddening, although perhaps not entirely a surprise, to find that even a Healer may turn out to be the kind of doctor who thinks he knows his patient’s feelings better than the patient does. I suppose being able to see inside someone’s head is no help to a person who is confident he knows the answer before he even looks.
OP: who thinks he knows his patient’s feelings better than the patient does
True, but that is merely putting the best possible construction on the situation. In this case I think we are merely avoiding using the word that accurately describes what this Master Healer was doing, and that is: rape.
Think about it: When Jethri asks Miandra to describe what the Healer did, she puts it first in physical terms so that he can understand. Jethri thinks it sounded like nothing more than “a clinical check-up,” and Miandra agrees that it was nothing “worth running away.” But then she goes on to say that the Healer concentrated on a section of her will, and now she even uses the word assault to describe this “first strike” which was “so painful I threw my shields up.”
I won’t continue to quote the whole description, but when I read with this perspective, it sounds like both an attempted rape and further grooming, using guilt techniques to convince her that *she* was the one who had a problem that only *he* could fix for her.
Honestly, after this time through, I found myself wondering how many other young women and/or men he might have assaulted in just this way, whether they were first time healers or actual dramliz. No different from many RW situations with respected leaders in various professions, who have the clout to cover up their—yes, I’m going to use the word—sins.
I agree, she describes rape. And that is what I understood when first reading this.
Rape, torture and subjegation – free after the motto that even this and the kind of life that is possible after this rape is better than the killing a dramliz has to endure on Irikwae.
To be fair, he is properly the one who has to do the killing if he can’t sucside with his method.
So we have either a crippled healer (for being able to do this) or a thief who is properly guarding a secret. (That is if he gains anything by his method of examination/testing/breaking anyone who is more than a healer)
Note: the way people on Irikwae believe in acepting Healers and demonizing Dramliz has something of a sect.