Revelations

originally posted February 27, 2006

lay below me

get to know me

tell me your secrets

discover my lies

It bothers me still. What I did. The why. The anger. I am a patient fellow. Calm. Rational. Once, I was a drunken sot. It made me happy. Paga. Women. More paga. More women. In moments of clarity, I wrote of beautiful things. I traveled. Unable to stay in one place. It was a wanderlust that compelled me to walk until the leather of my soles must be reshod and then I walked a bit more. I have smelled the hot breath of a larl, dined on choice viands at the hospitality (if a room with only bars for windows and doors be hospitaliy) of fat Lurius of Jad and been behind the walls of Treve on two occasions. Never have I been so cruel. So confused. I was with her for fifteen years and then I was not. The girl, only a slave, looks so much like her. She must suffer what men do to her. What they choose to inflict upon her. The times I have laid leather to her flesh have been harsh. Once, I beat her until she could not rise to accept more. I was not angry then. It was methodical. It was calm. Perhaps if I had been angry, emotional, I would have seen the truth then. What I did. The why. The anger. It might have been avoided.
We are crossing the Vosk. In an ahn or so, we will be in the city of Jort's Ferry. Before boarding, I put the women, all of them, in hooded rep cloth cloaks. It was a good decision. It is cold. Because there are free women aboard the barge, animals of two, four or six-legged varieties must be caged or coffled and kept toward the back. Once there, admitted through the gates, having secured lodging, I will have the slave She give tour. The reasons are two-fold. First, I wish to learn the general lay of the city proper without expending a good deal of energy doing so. Where are her taverns? I must find a place to put the girl Emily to use. She will dance for silver coins of double weight. Where might I get a plate of food? Is there a reputable bathhouse? What are her sites? I am not uninterested in knowing of her art and other things of such nature. Does her administrator sponsor games of any sort? Where might they be seen? Secondly, however, and more importantly, I want the slave She to see this city through subjugated eyes. Collared. Naked, her hair cut to a bold, exciting shortness and dyed an inky black,lips painted wetly and red, she will enter the city on a coffle of whores. She is fourth in that coffle between a girl with a golden ring through her nose and a pretty blonde from whose neck depends a leash. It is not a bad spot considering things. True, she is placed there in the coffle due to her relative height more than any other consideration. Still, it is not a bad spot considering things. No matter how I've chosen to garb her over the past several months, no matter the modalities and statuses I've kept her in, in this city I will only allow her only this. Men, should they notice her, and I have little doubt that they will, will not see silver-haired Mercury, the slave of a high caste fellow. Nor will they see Lady Arjentia, pretty ovate eyes scarcely visible behind the modesty of a veil. No, they will see She. One of six. Eager. She.