"They would grow breasts and pubic hair," Orella said, looking at the ceiling and scratching her head. "Muscles would develop, inside and out. Sexual desire would grow, landing them in all sorts of awkward situations. Sexual energy needs to be controlled and channelled, of course."

'Channelled,' Talla thought. 'Like a river. Controlled, like an aqueduct. By you. For your purposes. I'm your waterwheel. That's why I was whipped. I was using my vagina in a way that didn't make you stronger. That's why you made me watch him with someone else. So we would stop wanting each other. So we would stop wanting sex in a way that didn't serve you. So I could return to being the waterwheel and he could go back to his life as your ox.'

"A girl at the age of twelve is far too young to take on such responsibility," Orella said, turning her palms up in a rare shrug. "No telling where she'd end up."

It was a simple, academic matter for their teacher, apparently.