INTERLUDE FIVE

I do not wish to deceive anyone, nor do I require an outpouring of sympathy; if I have implied with my words that every aspect of the life I led was torturous, and abhorrent to me, then I apologize—for it was not so.

There was some compensation.

I had tremendous fame, true—even worship, of a sort. Men and women desired me to obsession. And even if I did not, for the most part, return their affection in the least, it was occasionally difficult for a young girl, even one so highly educated as I, to separate what I received from what I was truly due. I wasn't arrogant, nor did I think myself better than others... but I had a certainty about my beauty, skills and powers that might make it seem so to the less discerning eye.

Physically speaking, of course, I wanted for nothing. Since, despite having made my appeal more multi-dimensional, the perfection of my body was still fundamental to my allure, I was provided with all manner of services aimed at maintaining it: Cosmetics from the far reaches of the galaxy; a personal groom in the form of Lanuda, whose own beauty had been legendary in her youth, and who had brilliantly, assiduously maintained it far past the norm of her race's accustomed span; superb facilities for the maintenance and increase of my Terpsichorean and gymnastic skills. In short, anything I wanted that could potentially augment my popularity—and, thus, the house's revenue—I received nearly before the request had left my mouth.

And in case you were wondering... yes, I did reflect—more than once—on the bitter irony of how these efforts had made my parents' murderer even wealthier and more influential than he had been... but it was one of the many compromises I was forced to accept. I'd had a choice between making myself a sought-after courtesan, and spending most of my waking hours with legs spread as a common slut—which had, until me, usually been the fate of my sort... and something that even I had endured for the first few weeks of my captivity, as well.

So I prayed every day for my parents’ forgiveness... and every night… and in every sense of the word… I danced.

Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six