The Price of My Wares

'Three copper per ahn, per whore. The blonde costs four."

That is fairly simple in my estimation and, in my estimation, a fair price for the services offered. Still, it is in the nature of men to bargain not to feel bested. Marketplaces such as the famed Teiban Sul Market of Ar are always buzzing with good-natured verbal spars for the goods being sold. "These dates are from Tor. The finest available. I couldn't possibly let them go for that. You insult me, sir!" After several rounds of scathing banter, where fellows liken one another to the offspring of broad tharlarion and the dung of bosk, the date seller often lets the dates go for precisely the amount of the insulting offer and sometimes less.

I do not sell dates.

I sell the bodies of women. More precisely, I sell time with the bodies of women. I do not ask fellows to feed, train or maintain my bitches. They are not responsible for providing them with slave livery, costumes or other garmenture. They needn't provide them with housing, neither a room with a couch nor a tattered mat on the floor. I supply the feminine things such as soaps, oils, brushes and perfumes. Discipline, an element of their submission I place a high degree of importance to, is also handled by me. They are often coy, challenging and bold. They are whores. Firstly, however, they are slaves. They are disciplined. None of them are strangers to the whip.

They cost three copper per ahn. The blonde costs four.