Marked Progression

Originally posted January 3, 2006

The blonde one screamed as Portia waited her turn. It is often one of the first introductions to slavery, the brand. The pain; white and hot, illustrates the totality of a woman’s condition to her. It only takes a few ihn, perhaps three, to mark her permanently and not just physically. The look on blonde Samantha’s face, you may know her as Evona or, more colloquially ‘Four Copper’, was evidence enough for Portia as the two traded places. After her initial screaming and involuntary sobbing, her body continued to shake at the shoulders. Her eyes stared forward in disbelief. I had done this to her. Was she not pleasing enough? Did she not haul her barbarian ass out onto the street and earn for me eagerly enough? Did the beatings, berating, and domestication fit, in her mind, more for an animal than a full grown woman not convince me? Why had I felt it necessary to mark her so cruelly in this fashion?

And then Portia screamed.

I stood by dispassionately as the dark-skinned slave was marked only moments after her chain sister. A fresh branding iron, one that had been waiting her in the Iron Master’s fire, seared into her flesh and brought the girl’s vocalization to a shutter rattling pitch. I think, perhaps, the salve coated wound on Samantha’s thigh was forgotten for a moment as she realized her barbarian origins had nothing to do with her shock. Even a native woman who has had a lifetime to prepare for the inevitability of slavery must contend with the psychological reality at the moment the iron marks her. No, pretty slave, it is not merely a physical condition you’ve been subjected to. You are not merely called ‘animal’ for cursory degradation and objectification. You are an animal; property. You are marked chattel and a saleable good. Love, while you are free to offer it and, likely, will not be able to help offering it, is not something you can assume will be returned. Samantha, in a moment of truth and helplessness, did not run nor pull away from me as Portia’s wound was dressed. She pressed closer as her damp cheeks began to dry.

I waited some time to write about this event, wanting to watch the evolution of the newly branded women. I have found the results positive in both, I am happy to report. Portia responded to being marked much as you might have expected a Gorean woman to respond. Within two ahn, actually, she was eager to serve men again. She rutted about the floor of the Boarding House and had to be ordered to her room. The brand was a good one, finely marked with the potential to heal beautifully. And it has. Portia, I think, could have been branded moments after she was collared and I believe she would have responded in the same way. Samantha, however, I think benefited from the delay between having her ownership transferred to me and being marked. While she is only a girl and one often throws women into ‘sink or swim’ situations, some of her early experiences with Gorean culture were, in my opinion, rushed. I allowed her to ‘learn while she earned’. I taught her to read. I instilled her with the rudiments of slave dance. I instructed her in different aspects of social mores and her place, such that it is, within this society. And yes, much to the chagrin of her chain sisters, I coddled her. When she had learned enough, however, at the earliest possible moment, she was marked as a slave. I believe it is an essential key to responsible ownership, to mark one’s property. Not only is it a matter of legality in certain codes of Merchant Law, it is an important component of their psychological growth. It pleases me to note that I waited neither too long nor had the branding done too early. Once coddled Samantha, the ‘Four Copper Red Door Whore’ known as Evona, is progressing nicely. She is a loving bundle with a propensity for lewd behavior that continues to justify her cost relative to her chain sisters. Her kef, like Portia’s, has healed beautifully.