It was bad enough that my father's designs on my future was to basically whore me out to frustrated scions of Great Houses—he would never put it that way, he would not have to. I have eyes. I saw all the visitors that came to our house while I was growing up, just to see my mother. He said I was a product of a union between he and my mother before she was of age, much to the shame of her father. My father was very careful to make sure that would never happen to me, someone like him. I was being saved for some great Dynast to spill his seed in me and perhaps have a child who exalts and set the family fortunes higher. It was a good plan for him, but not for me.
I once made the mistake of finishing first in a test and it took me the rest of the year to make it seem like it was a fluke. People don't understand how much work it is to come in third or fourth but not to come in last. You have to look at all the people in your class, watch carefully and see where their strengths are. Then you have to know the subject so well that you could teach it. And lastly, you need to make errors on purpose so that it appears you know the fundamentals but the harder parts are giving you difficulty, but not too much difficulty. It is very tricky. All that time that I was concentrating on being just stupid enough to escape notice, my body was betraying me. I was turning into the prettiest girl in the class.
It was what my father wanted and when it was clear that I would be one of the great beauties of the world, he pulled me from those 'unimportant' subjects and sent me to a school where I would learn the arts of seduction: poetry, dance, manners, singing, musical instruments and of course pleasure. It was a dreadful turn of events and unlike the other schools, this school would except nothing less than perfection. There was salvation in my future, but I could not see it; I put on a brave face and faced my trials.
My salvation came at the price of my schooling, the shame! Our small house was ordered to attend the Noble Dragon Blooded as he was being sent into disgrace into the Threshold, to the Satrapy of Serrat. My father, and much of our arm of the Patrician house was told to accompany him into exile, to engage in the menial tasks that might show how, his noble sir, was being wasted in the fringes of society. My father pulled me from the Pleasure Palace, as I called it, out of fear that without him there, some scamp might ruin his plans for my future, his future. So, he took me with him.
It was a mixture of freedom and worse isolation. I was free of my studies, but I was locked in a golden cage made of wood. I was locked in my rooms and my only outlet was to review the books that my father was taking care of, the ledgers a series of latifundia where slaves farmed and harvested rarities destined for the Realm. I looked over the books as there was nothing else to do and I cleaned up some of the errors and uncovered embezzlement from the previous bureaucrats. There was nothing else for me to do. The only other people who I had to talk with was my father and the slaves. I was only allowed to see the female ones. Even my guards were women. They were all slaves and they were all on drugs. My father even arranged that my guards received better drugs and more drugs, so as to keep them loyal.
The entire system was inefficient. The Realm lost more to productivity than it gained by having no rebellions. Well that was the theory. I imagine that it was so. There were so few histories on how much the last rebellions had cost, State Secrets. So it was done. I could not tell if the slaves were happy or sad, angry or indifferent, all they wore was a blank stare for the most part, sometimes a little grin after they got their hits or antsy and rushing if they were overdue.
My one pleasure ended when my father saw that my fingers were stained with ink and I had callouses on my fingers where I held my brushes. A proper lady has only porcelain skin, softer than silk, I was told. But there was more salvation coming for me of a kind that I would not want on any one, but for me it was a relief as it ended my captivity.
Late in the night there was a difference. The sounds of the night birds and the dogs were quieted. There was not the casual sounds of conversation outside of guards huddled and bored. There was only an unnatural silence. It disturbed me; it is the thing that assassins never really understand, the absence of noise can be more of a warning than none at all. The one thing my father let me have was a knife, just incase one of the slaves should try to deflower me. I pretended to sleep as I clutched the knife under my pillow. The door opened and a shadow entered. The shadow was complete, I could not see a thing about him that I would be able to identify, but for a few distinct things. First there was the blindingly bright light that filled the room, brighter than the sun light that filtered through my windows in the day and the second was the golden ring that was set on the demon's brow. I vaguely remembering that perhaps this anathema was here to kidnap me and hold me for ransom after he deflowered me, but at illusion captivity ended when he struck me with his blade and disemboweled me in a single stroke. I gasped. My bedding was soaked with my blood that I thought I had wet myself. It reached down and dipped its hand in the pools and painted my walls with my blood in great hand prints.
I drifted down into the cold. I felt myself let go and I reviewed my life. If I had been born in a different place I would have been happy. I could have made a difference and I could have done things, anything, but I was a parrot locked in a cage forever and forced to sing songs that I did not desire. I was angry. A cold voice spoke in my head, "Would you revenge yourself upon the World that did this to you?" I thought and I replied yes, I would make them all pay if I could. Make them treat me as more than a pretty face to be bartered but a vengeful queen that uses her mind and skill to ruin all those around her.
My seething rant found voice and my anger turned to shouts and then she was there. The most beautiful dragon blooded woman I had ever seen. She spoke gently. They created me as the most beautiful woman ever and they passed me between their friends as a favour and I performed for them as a pretty trained bird. But when I got my voice, I got my revenge upon them and I destroyed their works and pissed upon their graves. Is this the revenge that you seek? I nodded and said, "it is!" She turned and I followed.
Before the others she appeared as a shadow that made other shadows light in comparison, but when she was alone with me she shed the cloak of darkness and appeared as she was. I trained with her and she pushed me hard, harder than the rest she said, because I had it all in me and she wanted to draw it out. She pushed me and I excelled. She confided in me the real plan. The plan was to free the slaves that my father had helped to keep shackled and to remove the yoke on their abilities. She said we had to remove them to a place of safety so they could heal and grow. But that was the first step. The slaves had to be tested, they had to weaned from the teat of control and they were to be put into a crucible where the ones that had drive would float to the top and the slag of humanity would be discarded for these few. That was the plan. We together would make an army of realized soldiers to change the world.
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