nonionay | Outer Alliance Pride

As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.

Today's the first Outer Alliance Pride Day. Here's an almost completely plot-less excerpt from Empire's Daughters, in which I see if I can get away with using male pronouns for a physically female character, right from the start of the book.

Juri locked the door to his inner bedchamber, but not before using a blob of wax to stick a sign to his door: "In pain. Go away."

Wano Ee usually too forever to coax from Juri's shoulder's, so tonight Juri dragged his lizard from his shoulders, not caring that Wano Ee's long claws snagged in and loosened embroidery.

Juri stripped off the heavy, itchy, brocaded skirts, the training corset padded with thick reeds, and finally his thin shift. He didn’t look in the mirror. If only he could strip off his skin as easily as his clothes. Wano Ee's skin was starting to flake off, but he’d be the same underneath when he was done shedding. If Juri shed his skin, he didn’t think he’d be the same. Peel away the hanging breasts, the soft, hairless skin of a princess, what would Juri find underneath?

Thanks to various stars and portents, some of the priests thought he was a sleeping avatar of Ishierdi, Bearer of Blinding Light. Maybe that’s why he felt like he should be a boy. He was a wicked god hiding for reasons of his own in the body of a girl.

His belly was starting to ache. He'd probably start bleeding just in time for Bresizha’s wedding. Suffering from Saint Dogenzha’s Womb made his monthly bleeding agony. Maybe it would be best if he wed and kept himself eternally pregnant.

Juri hated his body, but it was what the Holy Father had given him. He thought he should have been a boy, but who was he to question the Gods? No good fussing about it.