“Regnor has a history with magic like this. We’ll send him there.”

Shika swiveled to the head priestess. “Will they want him?”

Worried, Shiori searched his birth mother’s face. He had not thought before about whether or not someone wanted him. But the cat nipped at his fingers with warm gums, neglected, until Shiori laughed and focused back on playing with its dirty paws. It liked his long hair for batting at, too. Calluna spread her hands to Shika.

“Why not? The patriarchs there have priestesses. It is customary to accept them from all territories, just like it is here. There is no reason not to have an Árai priestess in Regnor.”

“But a male Árai priestess? With magic from the abyss?”

Priestess Calluna pursed her lips. “Some have had stranger tastes. Be glad he doesn’t fit any of them.”

Shika is mother of two protagonists, blink and you’ll miss her in the plot. Umi becomes a warrior in place of her brother here and Shiori becomes a priestess in place of his sister. The gender roles in this world are handled very bizarrely–I wanted to make them both like and unlike the ones I’m familiar with.