Back to Chapter 13
Chapter Fourteen � The �Sisters�
Silv�tya was startled awake by the sound of the door�s bolt sliding,
just a few hours after she managed to fall asleep. The door opened and
three naked young women presented themselves. Silv�tya had not seen them
before, but like the women from the previous evening, their hair was not
braided. The newcomer stood up, but didn�t know what else to do. The
women did not react or reprimand her. Each had endured a first night in
the castle and had experienced what Silv�tya was experiencing.
The leader of the group introduced herself as Magdala. She invited
Silv�tya to accompany her to morning tea, during which she would explain
the newcomer�s duties and what she could expect from her new life in the
Grand Duke�s castle. She handed Silv�tya a set of velvet slippers, which
she would have to wear whenever walking through the hallways of the
castle. With that, the four naked young women silently walked to the end
of the hallway and entered a small dining room. As she followed the
others, she noticed that one of the women had lines of fading welts from
switch-marks crossing her bottom, thighs, and shoulders. Silv�tya
guessed the girl must have been severely punished about a week before.
She also noticed the punished concubine had a completely miserable
expression on her face and never spoke. She communicated with nods and
hand gestures, leading Silv�tya to wonder if she was mute.
The room had large curtained windows and fancy furniture that Danka
later learned had been imported from a foreign country called France. An
elderly castle servant had just finished setting up a small table with
cups of tea and strange-looking bread-rolls called croissants. As soon
as the women were seated, Magdala explained what was going on.
�In case you haven�t guessed, we�re Royal concubines. In this castle His
Majesty keeps 10 women for his pleasure. Sometimes it�s one more or one
less than that, but most of the time there are 10 sisters here. That�s
how we usually address each other: �Sister�. You can call me �Sister
Magdala�, or just �Sister�, that choice is yours. My understanding is
that your name is Sister Silv�tya?�
�Yes, Sister Magdala.�
�Very well, Sister Silv�tya. As I said, our Paths in Life are to serve
the Grand Duke. It is really the duty of every citizen of the Duchy to
serve the Grand Duke, but the Creator has called upon us to serve His
Majesty in a special way. We are not soldiers, or advisors, or scribes,
or Clergy, but we are just as important for His Majesty as anyone else
in this castle.�
Silv�tya interjected: �The way the senior women treated me
yesterday� didn�t make me feel very special.�
�They treated all of us in a similar manner when we came here. There�s a
reason why they�re so strict with any Sister called upon to be a Royal
concubine. Remember, our Path in Life is to serve. That doesn�t just
mean presenting our bodies for His Majesty�s satisfaction when asked. It
means conducting ourselves with dignity and humility at all times, to
make ourselves pleasing in the eyes of the entire Royal House.�
�Then� I have another question� if it�s about dignity and humility� what
about our hair? Why can�t we braid hair?�
�Those are the wishes of the Grand Duke. He has the power to demand to
see what is forbidden for most men. He loves to pass his hands through
our hair, to bury his fingers in what is prohibited for anyone else. He
does it because he can.�
The group finished their tea and croissants. As soon as Magdala stood
up, the others immediately joined her. �Come along. Let us relieve
ourselves and then we will bathe.�
The toilet-room was the nicest privy Danka had ever seen. There were
marble seats built to conceal the chamber-pots and an attendant was
responsible for collecting and emptying them. It was the first time
Silv�tya did not take care of disposing of her own waste. She followed
the others into a large communal tub filled with cool water. As she
entered, again she noticed the faded bruises on the mute woman�s
backside. Magdala noticed where the newcomer was looking. She exchanged
glances with the punished concubine, who gave a sad nod granting her
permission to explain:
�His Majesty always has a preferred girl, the one he likes better than
any of the others. He makes that choice; we have no say in the matter.
Right now I am the Royal favorite. As the favorite, I am the spokeswoman
for the concubines and have privileges that no other sister can enjoy at
the moment. For example, I can walk unescorted in the Royal garden. If I
lose my status as His Majesty�s favorite, I will lose the extra
privileges, such as access to the outdoor grounds. That�s what happened
to Sister Desislava. She used to be the Grand Duke�s favorite, but on a
whim His Majesty took that status away and gave it to me. Sister
Desislava had been watching a rose bush that His Majesty planted last
year, because it has blooms that are yellow and red on the same flower,
and she wanted to see them. After she lost the right to go into the
garden, she thought she�d sneak out one last time. She figured the
gardeners wouldn�t realize she wasn�t supposed to be there. Even if they
did, they wouldn�t have said anything. Sadly, one of the castle matrons
was out there and saw her. Even more sadly, Sister Desislava lied about
her status, so she received a criminal�s switching and had to spend an
afternoon on the pillory. We were forced to watch.�
Sister Magdala exchanged another glance with Desislava and continued:
�Sister Desislava�s story has some important lessons for you. First, you
might think that something as trivial as checking on a rose bush is a
ridiculous thing to risk punishment over. For us, it isn�t. You will
discover that your perspective on things changes after you�ve spent
weeks and months in confinement. Another thing to remember is that most
of the castle commoners wouldn�t do anything against us, but that�s not
true for the castle matrons. Their youth and beauty has passed, and
every time the see us they are jealous. So, it is best to avoid them.�
There was a pause while the four women rubbed soap on each other�s
backs. Sister Magdala handed Silv�tya a bar of soap. The newcomer
hesitated because, apart from practicing medicine, she had never touched
another woman. Sharp glances from her companions warned her to comply.
Communal bathing was an important part of the concubines� daily routine
and a way they established trust and intimacy with each other. After
Silv�tya had soaped the backs of the others, Magdala continued:
�You must remember, even though we are favored by His Majesty, our
punishments are severe for any transgression. Sister Desislava did
nothing more than tell a simple lie in a moment of panic, but she will
suffer for it as long as she remains in the castle. His Majesty dictated
that, because she proved herself untrustworthy, she is prohibited from
ever speaking again. She had to take an oath to never use her voice
while in his service. If anyone hears any sound from her throat, she
will be tied to the execution stake and receive five arrows to the
chest. Let that be a lesson for you. Do you understand me, Sister
Silv�tya?�
�Yes, Sister.�
�Another thing to remember is we try to take care of each other. We are
a household, the ten of us. We call each other �Sister� for a reason.
You will never speak poorly of another Sister to His Majesty or to any
of the matrons. Never think you have anything to gain by betraying one
of us, because the Grand Duke understands that if you can betray one of
us, you can just as easily betray him. The matrons will test your
loyalty. And when one of us falls, the rest of us gather around her. An
example is Sister Desislava. Because she is prohibited from using her
voice, I have decided that at no time, and for no reason, is she ever to
be left alone. One of us will always accompany her and speak on her
behalf.�
After finishing their bath, Magdala, Desislava, and Silv�tya put on
their velvet slippers and stood on a balcony that overlooked the
interior of the castle. For a few minutes they watched the daily routine
of the Royal staff working in the courtyard below. They were interrupted
by one of the concubines Silv�tya had seen the previous night:
�Sister Magdala! The service bell just rang five times!�
�Thank you, Sister. Stay here with Sister Desislava. I�ll fetch the
others. Sister Silv�tya, you�re coming with me. Better for you to learn
your duties sooner than later.�
The two concubines went back inside and entered a parlor, where six
naked young women wearing velvet slippers were waiting. From the group,
Magdala selected three companions and dismissed the rest. As the five
women shuffled towards the Royal chamber, the favored girl explained
that the Grand Duke had rung the bell five times because he wanted five
concubines. The group ran up to a castle matron dressed in a white gown
and carrying a leather switch. With a smug expression she used the
switch to point towards the throne room.
The throne room had remained unchanged since 1531, the year King Vladik
the Defender was killed, which meant that every item in there was at
least 220 years old. The single exception was a large tapestry mounted
behind the throne, portraying a crow sitting inside a cage with a white
dove sitting on top. The gaudy colors of the new tapestry looked out of
place among the drab medieval d�cor of the rest of the chamber. The
Grand Duke was seated on the throne. The only other people present were
four Royal Guards. Silv�tya recognized one of the men as Protector
Alex�ndrekt Bul�shckt, the guard who had brought her to the castle the
previous day.
Ignoring the guards, the five concubines immediately positioned
themselves in front of their master. The current favorite knelt upright
in front, while the others knelt in a row, assuming the more submissive
posture with their hands extended out front, their foreheads touching
the floor, and their knees spread with their backs arched to expose
themselves as much as possible. The Grand Duke gave his guards time to
look over the young women before dismissing them. Because she was the
new girl, she knew the guards were most interested in seeing her. As she
felt the cool air blowing against her exposed vulva and sphincter, she
could feel four sets of eyes carefully studying her crotch. She
remembered that she still had seven welts crossing her backside, a
detail that added to her embarrassment.
After the guards left, the Grand Duke called Magdala to his throne while
the other women waited. She knelt next to him and placed her hands on
one of his thighs. She smiled and looked up at him while he
absent-mindedly ran his fingers through her
hair.
�Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl wishes to know if the day has
been pleasant for you so far.�
�Yes, my favorite minx. Very much so. I see that you�ve brought the new
girl. You�ve instructed her, I trust?�
�Yes, Your Majesty. Like all of your humble serving girls, our newest
sister is looking forward to making Your Majesty�s life pleasant and
fulfilling your wishes.�
�Then you will go to my chamber and wait for me there. To be honest, the
morning has been stressful for me.�
�Yes, Your Majesty. To hear is to obey.�
Magdala kissed the Master�s hand and quickly stood up. With a faint
whistle she ordered her companions to stand up and follow her to the
Grand Duke�s bedroom. She knew him well enough to know what he wanted.
She pulled down the covers and ordered Silv�tya and another girl to get
on their elbows and knees, with their feet hanging over the edge of the
mattress. She ordered the other two women to kneel on the floor, facing
the bed. She kicked off her slippers and assumed her place on the bed,
kneeling between her two companions. As they waited, with their bottoms
in the air and their vulvas exposed, Magdala gave Silv�tya�s hand a
quick squeeze to try to comfort her.
The Grand Duke entered the room and stood facing the three women on the
bed. The women on the floor stood up to undress their sovereign. They
removed his clothes item by item and massaged his chest and thighs to
arouse him. Not that he really needed to be aroused: by the time they
took down his inner trousers, the Duke already had a huge erection. He
entered Magdala first, pushing into her as roughly as he could. Magdala
moaned and gasped as though she was having an orgasm, but Silv�tya could
tell she was faking it. As soon as he climaxed, the Duke pulled out and
ordered his favorite girl to kneel on the floor. He ran his fingers over
Silv�tya�s welts and fondled her exposed vulva while Magdala licked and
sucked him to get another erection. As soon as he was hard, he grabbed
Silv�tya�s thighs and pushed into her. Magdala massaged and caressed his
bottom and thighs as he climaxed inside his newest acquisition. He
pulled out of Silv�tya, but Magdala did not stop licking him and
massaging his thighs. Within a few minutes her efforts were rewarded
with another erection. He climaxed into the third concubine while
Silv�tya watched out of the corner of her eye from her kneeling
position.
As soon as he finished, the Grand Duke dismissed all of the concubines
except Magdala, who would have to stay behind to help him bathe and
dress to meet with his ministers.
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After getting cleaned up from their latest round of sex with their
Master, the concubines gathered for their main meal of the day. They had
their own dining room and normally ate around 3:00 pm, which was the
hour the Grand Duke was least likely to want their services. If any of
the women was absent, the others waited until she showed up.
The table was set with fine imported china and a bewildering array of
silverware. Silv�tya looked dumbly at all the fancy objects in front of
her. Unfortunately, her learning so far had not included anything about
table etiquette. The meal started badly when she slouched in her seat as
the others sat upright. Then she picked up her bowl of soup with both
hands and drank from it. Instead of cutting her dinner roll, she tore it
open and poured the remains of her soup into the hole, then bit off
half. When soup dribbled down her chest, the other concubines had
stopped eating and stared at the newcomer. Magdala stood up.
�Sister Silv�tya, you need to leave this table. Get out of this room,
now. Go to the kitchen and eat in there.�
Silv�tya looked up, her mouth still filled with an oversized chunk of
bread. She noticed the hostile and bewildered stares of her companions.
�I mean it. Leave this table immediately. I don�t know where you think
you are, but I can tell you, we are not an encampment of ditch-diggers.�
Silv�tya sadly stood up. Magdala pointed at the door.
�You can return when you learn to eat without dishonoring yourself. Ask
the kitchen staff to enlighten you.�
Silv�tya ate alone in the kitchen, with the serving staff instructing
her about the proper use of forks and knives. She had to learn how to
sit properly, how organize and use silverware, and even how to properly
chew her food. She was very clumsy with the utensils at the beginning,
finding them difficult to hold onto and manipulate. She became horribly
frustrated, but she knew that she had to persevere if she was to be
accepted by her peers. She also realized the strange skill of eating
etiquette was an important part of upper-class living. If she could
master the use of dining utensils, that knowledge would set her apart
from her upbringing as a peasant.
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After spending her second afternoon in the kitchen struggling in
frustration with those horrid utensils, Silv�tya returned to her
sleeping chamber to pick up her salt and toothbrush. A very unpleasant
surprise was waiting for her: an envelope sitting on her nightstand. She
wondered who on Earth would write her in the castle, or who would even
know where she was. Her hands shook when she noticed the wax seal was
imprinted with a university seal. She opened the letter. Sure enough, it
was in Dean F�toreckt�s handwriting. She read:
When you departed on your journey to the capitol, I had one of my
assistants follow, in case there was any hope of extracting you from
whatever dilemma you were destined to get yourself into. That was hubris
on my part, because I now understand that it was not my Path in Life to
rescue you. The Ancients placed you in the one location where I cannot
come to your assistance without placing the university at risk.
Your Mistress and I both advised you that hubris, thwarting the will of
the Ancients, and the pursuit of vulgar worldly desires would lead you
to grief. You can never claim we didn�t try to warn you. Now your Path
in Life has changed and you will suffer the consequences of your
decisions.
We will move forward with our Paths in Life, both you and I, but from
this point our Paths must diverge. You understand that you are dis-enrolled
from your studies and no longer have a home to return to in Seb�rnekt
Ris. That is not to say the Ancients will not call upon you to serve. I
firmly believe they will, but the manner in which you serve will be
different from what your Mistress and I envisioned. Be patient and
continue learning. Perhaps you will find yourself in a position to
temper and influence the actions and decisions of our nation�s leader.
How many of us can make such a claim?
Although I will never see you again, I wish you the best. I expect and
hope that your new Path in Life will permit you to draw upon the
knowledge you acquired with us to serve the people of Danubia.
P.S. If you check under your bed, you will see that I sent jars of
birth-control paste and some of the tea-mixture your Mistress bequeathed
to you. I provided these items out of respect for the memory I have of
her, not because I think you deserve them.
The letter was a hard blow to Silv�tya�s hopes but, in a way, receiving
it was a relief. She was indeed starting over. There was nothing to
connect her to the past two years of her life with the Cult of the
Ancients and the university. Her world now consisted of pleasing the
Grand Duke and getting along with her �sisters�.
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Silv�tya�s first test of loyalty took place when she stepped out of her
room to travel to use the privy. Upon exiting the concubines� sleeping
chambers, Danka was confronted by two angry-looking castle matrons
carrying switches.
�What did Magdala tell you about Desislava?�
�Sister Desislava, Mistress?�
�Yes. His Majesty demands to know what Magdala said about her.�
�I� I mean� you need to talk to Sister Magdala, Mistress.�
�Right now I�m not talking to her. I�m talking to you. In the name of
His Majesty, you will answer.�
�Mistress, I don�t speak on behalf of the sisters. I can�t tell you
anything about Sister Desislava. You need to talk to Sister Magdala.
She�s our spokeswoman, not me.�
�I�m just asking you if Magdala said anything about her. Judging by your
answer, she did. Now, in the name of His Majesty, you will tell us what
she said.�
Silv�tya�s heart pounded. However, she realized what was happening. The
castle matrons had assumed, because her accent was lower-class, that she
was an uneducated simpleton and thus easily intimidated. Her vocabulary
should have given them a clue their initial impression was erroneous,
but they were paying so much attention to her accent that they had
ignored her educated words and correct grammar.
�Mistress, you really must first speak to Sister Magdala. I can�t say
anything to you. I can�t speak on behalf of anyone except myself.�
�Then you�re coming with us. We�ll show you what happens to �sisters�
who are disobedient.�
�Did you talk to Sister Magdala, Mistress? My understanding is that all
of His Majesty�s orders are relayed through her, our spokeswoman. I�ll
come with you, but not until Sister Magdala has passed that command.
Please, Mistress� she�s right here, in her chamber.�
The matrons made no move towards Magdala�s chamber. Silv�tya�s
suspicions that she was being tested were confirmed. She noted the
matrons no longer seemed so confident.
�Very well, you�re failure to obey a command will be passed to His
Majesty. He�ll deal with you appropriately.�
With that, the matrons turned away. Silv�tya immediately ran to
Magdala�s sleeping chamber and woke her up. When she described the
confrontation, the other woman replied:
�They won�t tell His Majesty anything. You did what you were supposed to
do, and as you saw for yourself, they did not relay the order to me.
There was nothing from His Majesty to relay. I guess they underestimated
you. They�re normally not so direct.�
�They try this with everyone?�
�Yes, but they�re usually more subtle about it. It must have been your
accent� making them think it would be easy to turn you into an informant
against the rest of us.�
Silv�tya thought about her accent. She had wanted to get rid of it the
previous year, precisely because it gave such a bad impression among the
educated when she first opened her mouth. However, in a place like the
Grand Duke�s castle, having the combination of education and a peasant�s
accent could be a huge asset. The Royal staff and advisors would tend to
underestimate her, which would be extremely useful when she needed to
gather information.
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With his women the Grand Duke was cruel, dominating, and egotistical,
but he never assumed he had nothing to learn from them. He was curious
about their backgrounds and their lives prior to being taken into the
castle. Each of the women under his control had a unique life story and
could provide him with perspective about the Duchy�s society that he
could not obtain through his advisors. As a group they were an important
asset, not just for providing pleasure, but as a way to keep his view of
his subjects grounded in reality. The concubines provided him with a
good sampling of the population from the western half of the Duchy, a
way he could obtain unfiltered information about the lives and attitudes
of ordinary citizens.
When the girls entered his service, most were terrified and eager to
please him, which was the way it should be. However, after the
concubines became accustomed to their circumstances and understood how
they needed to behave, the sovereign encouraged them to converse with
him and talk about themselves. His ministers would have wondered why he
was interested in listening to trivia about the girls� families and
daily routines. While it was true that the majority of the women had
little of importance to tell him as individuals, the over-all picture of
the Duchy�s society they provided was extremely valuable for setting
realistic policies that actually addressed the needs of the public.
Unlike the castle matrons and most of his advisors, the Grand Duke
never underestimated Silv�tya. From the beginning he noticed the
contrast between her accent and her vocabulary. He correctly assumed
that his newest acquisition was born into poverty but had somehow
managed to receive some education. He could tell right away she was
intelligent and curious. Judging by the way she had been behaving in the
plaza when he first noticed her, it seemed that she was unfamiliar with
the protocol of the capitol, which meant she came from some other place
and was visiting. He also had noticed the smallpox vaccination scar on
the girl�s shoulder. He could tell the scar was relatively recent: she
had been vaccinated as an adult within the last couple of years.
At the end of her first week in the castle, the Danubian sovereign
ordered Silv�tya to go to his bed-chamber alone. Magdala explained:
�He does this with all of us. He likes to hear about our lives. He�ll
ask you things� and will expect you to answer honestly. Please don�t try
lying to him, about anything. You�ve seen what happens to a Sister who
was caught telling a lie, so don�t do it, even if you think if you�re
telling him something that sounds bad. And� he�ll give you some really
nice treats if you talk to him enough and tell him something
interesting.�
Silv�tya nervously accompanied a matron to the Royal bed-chamber. As
usual, the older woman was carrying a leather switch, which she used to
direct the concubine with taps to her hips and shoulders. Silv�tya
bitterly reflected that she was being trained and directed in the same
manner as a horse, responding to taps of the switch instead of verbal
commands.
She was surprised to see the Grand Duke completely naked when she
entered his chamber. Normally he liked to be ritually undressed before
indulging himself with his women. However, Silv�tya had come up alone
and he did not want to bother with having her undress him. He grabbed
her, pushed her onto his bed and, with no foreplay whatsoever,
vigorously thrust into her body. When he finished, he ordered the girl
onto her knees and deliberately humiliated her in two ways. She had to
lick his penis while it was still sticky from the first round of sex,
which was disgusting for the concubine and meant to be. While she was
working on trying to achieve a second erection, the sovereign ran his
fingers through her hair. She cringed as she felt her scalp being
violated by her master�s rough explorations. When the Grand Duke became
hard again, he ordered her to get on her elbows and knees. He entered
her from behind and thrust in his usual obsessive manner. However,
Silv�tya was hugely relieved that he had not entered her sphincter.
The routine changed when he was finished. Instead of ordering her out of
the room, the Grand Duke told his servant to follow him into an
adjoining chamber containing a sunken stone bath large enough to
comfortably fit three people. As he settled into the water, he directed
her attention to a washbasin with salt and a fresh toothbrush. After she
cleaned her mouth she was to join him in the bath.
She knew that she had to push aside her anger and bitterness over having
her body violated in so many ways. Like it or not, the country�s ruler
was now her owner. Throughout her life she had been indoctrinated that
the Grand Duke was the supreme worldly authority in the Duchy. Nothing
in her background or her studies indicated that an average citizen, and
much less a woman, had the right to object to a ruler�s orders. Like
every other Danubian, she owed him absolute and unquestioning obedience.
The bath relaxed her slightly, even though she was sitting with a man
she feared and hated. He touched her shoulder and ran his finger around
the vaccination scar.
�I can see that you bear the Follower�s mark, the one that protects you
from the pox.�
�Yes, Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl bears the mark.�
�Excellent. I see it is recent. Where were you when the Followers marked
you?�
Silv�tya was terrified, but she decided to follow Magdala�s advice and
tell the Grand Duke the truth. Already, through nothing more than
looking at a scar, he had figured out a lot about her. If she lied about
something as basic as her past and he caught her, the consequences would
be too terrible to contemplate.
�Your humble servant was in Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti when she was marked,
Your Majesty.�
�Then you must have been there when the Followers visited in the summer
of last year. That scar is too new for you to have received from the
previous visit three years ago.�
�That is correct, Your Majesty.�
�But your accent� it is not from the Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti region. You�re
not from that area.�
�I� your humble serving girl� is from� �
�You�re from the river valley. A laborer�s daughter, no doubt, judging
by the way you pronounce your words. I find it interesting� a girl from
the river valley receiving the Followers� mark in Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti.
So, you seem to be well-traveled, is that not so?�
�Yes, Your Majesty. Your humble serving girl has traveled.�
The Grand Duke continued his probing comments and questions, gathering
information that he needed to work out the details of Silv�tya�s life.
She was impressed and worried by her master�s talent of figuring things
out about a person�s life through nothing more than casual comments. His
memory was excellent and he was quick to catch any contradictions in
what a person was telling him. Within a very short time, and without
asking her directly, the Grand Duke had reconstructed her travels:
starting in Rika H�ckt-nem�t (through her accent), Star�vktaki M�skt
(through vocabulary unique to the Old Believers of the Danubian Church
and a couple of references to the seminary), Sev�rckt nad Gor�dki
(through some comments about the northern mountain region), and
Seb�rnekt Ris (through her correct grammar and the fact she had attended
the university). She later found out he did the same with all of his
concubines, practicing his skill deducing details of a person�s life
through clues instead of through relying on deliberately spoken words.
The Grand Duke was extremely pleased with the newest addition to his
collection of girls. This one had seen many places and had experienced
life from the perspective of several social groups. It was very likely
he�d learn some interesting facts from her and obtain a unique view of
his realm. The majority of his concubines were daughters of guild
members. In a few cases, like Silv�tya, they had been randomly chosen
off the street, but most of them had been handed over as bribes by
professional tradesmen who had run afoul of the Duchy�s laws, were
hopelessly in debt, or had in some way offended the Grand Duke and
needed to placate him. So� the girls� backgrounds were similar: the
daughters of middle-class tradesmen who had led irresponsible lives and
needed to extricate themselves from legal trouble. Few of the concubines
had an expansive view of the world. They had grown up in a single
location and had known the same people throughout their lives. Their
levels of education varied, but none had university-level training.
Silv�tya (if that was really her name) was different, more interesting,
and potentially much more useful.
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During the first weeks of her internment in the Duke�s castle, Silv�tya
discovered that life as a concubine consisted of much more than having
sex, bathing, and sleeping. The Grand Duke wanted his women to have good
etiquette and to have a basic understanding of the skills expected of
any upper-class woman. When she was not with the Duke or in the
bathhouse, she was with one of the Royal tutors. Over the next few
months she would improve her penmanship, learn how to knit and
embroider, and learn how to prepare and present upper-class meals.
Ten days went by before the kitchen staff felt that Silv�tya was ready
to rejoin the other concubines in the dining hall. She was extremely
nervous as she sat down and the others carefully watched her eat. The
women were still critical of her table etiquette, but they decided that
the newcomer�s manners had improved just enough that they would let her
stay with them. That moment marked an important accomplishment, not just
because Silv�tya could eat like a woman from the upper class, but also
because being accepted at the dinner table meant that she was officially
accepted as part of the concubine group.
----------
The concubines led a strange life together, as they spent their days
waiting for the bell to ring. They had to pass their time engaged in
activities they could break away from at a moment�s notice. They played
chess and cards, practiced music and embroidery, gossiped about events
and people in the castle, and groomed each other in the bath. They
chatted about their families, their respective towns, food, pregnancy,
and compared notes on their experiences with babies and small children.
They were artificially polite to each other, determined to avoid
anything that hinted at conflict or discord. They knew the matrons were
watching and would be quick to exploit any disputes among the group. The
obsession with politeness meant the concubines did everything they could
to conform to the small culture they had created. The obsession with
etiquette and conformity explained their hostility towards breaches of
group protocol such as Silv�tya�s table manners.
Silv�tya did everything she could to get along with the others. Whether
or not she liked them, and regardless of whether she would have wanted
to be friends with them in the outside world, for the moment the other
concubines were all she had. She had to establish trust with them. Her
lowly background, her travels, and her education set her apart, as did
her curiosity about the world. Of the group, Silv�tya was by far the
most traveled and intellectual. If she couldn�t travel, then she wanted
to go back to reading, which was an activity most of the other women did
not seem to miss. She felt that the constant conversation among the
women could have been much more useful to everyone if they could be
discussing educational topics and books instead of the inane trivia that
filled up their days.
The detail about the other concubines that secretly grated on Silv�tya
was their lack of interest in anything not directly related to their
daily lives. Fortunately, the newcomer had passed through the hometowns
of nearly all of her companions, so at least she had an introductory
conversation topic to work with. She was curious about the towns, so she
questioned the others to fill in information about places that she had
visited only in passing.
During her first months of internment, Silv�tya gravitated towards
Magdala. The spokeswoman seemed a bit smarter than the other �sisters�
and was good at analyzing and explaining things. She originally was from
a village south of Dagur�ckt-T�k, an area where Ermin and K�loyankt had
vaccinated the local population the previous year. Magdala had the �mark
of the Followers� on her shoulder, which meant that one of Silv�tya�s
lovers at that time must have vaccinated her.
�The Followers of the Ancients always fascinated me. I remember people
talking about a young female medical practitioner working in the town of
Dagur�ckt-T�k itself, and I was hoping to talk to her� see if I could
join the Cult and become like her.�
�Why didn�t you?�
�My grandfather. He wouldn�t let me go, and I didn�t find out until
later. I was living in his household and he was dealing with my father�s
debts...�
Magdala talked about her family for a while, focusing on her parents�
complete irresponsibility handling their affairs. She concluded with:
�� so the Royal Guards came to my grandfather�s house, looking for my
father. The money-lenders wanted to take control of the house, but my
grandfather offered me instead of the house. I was shocked, because I
couldn�t imagine my grandfather dishonoring me by offering me as
collateral to save his home. But he did. And the Guards took me to the
moneylenders and asked them what they wanted to do with me. I was
convinced they wanted to use me for their own pleasure. However, when
they decided that my appearance was very pleasing to a man�s eye, they
offered to sell me to the Grand Duke. The Guards agreed. The Guards paid
off my father�s debts, brought me to the Royal Castle, and were in turn
paid off by the matrons. So� that�s my story. The Grand Duke bought me
from my father�s money-lenders.�
�Are most of the sisters� stories similar to yours?�
�Each of us has her own story� how she came to the castle. Some of us
were purchased with silver, and some of us were captured. You were
captured, I was purchased.�
----------
About a month after she entered the castle, Silv�tya noticed that
Desislava�s stomach was starting to swell. There wasn�t any doubt why:
the woman was pregnant. This is going to be interesting, thought
Silv�tya, to see how they handle pregnancies. As soon as the
Grand Duke realized the concubine was pregnant, he stopped having sex
with her. A few days later the castle�s hair-dresser visited the
concubines� quarters and braided her hair. Then Desislava left. Silv�tya
asked Magdala what would happen to her.
�She carries the His Majesty�s seed. She will stay in the castle until
she has the child. Then she�ll return to her home.�
�The Grand Duke will just kick her out? With a baby?�
�No, not just kick her out. His Majesty will build her a house and send
her a silver piece each month. The man delivering the coin is a doctor,
and he will check the child each time he visits. She will have to make
her own life, but will do so on the Grand Duke�s coin.�
�And this happens to everyone who gets pregnant?�
�Yes, it is our Path in Life. We stay and please His Majesty until he
plants his seed. Then we go home, but we continue to serve him by
raising his child.�
�But, even with the Duke�s coin, that seems awful� to just sit in a
house, alone� �
�Alone? Sister, how na�ve are you? A woman favored by His Majesty and
living on his coin? Many men greatly desire such a wife. She�ll have her
choice of men. She�ll be the wife of an Army officer or a city official
within a year of her return.�
----------
A few minutes later Silv�tya stood on a balcony, studying the Moon and
thinking over what her companion had told her. She realized that she was
much closer to achieving her teenaged dream than she had ever been
before. If the Grand Duke made her pregnant, and then sent her back to
her home in Rika H�ckt-nem�t, she�d have that nice house and nice
husband she always wanted. She could return to Rika H�ckt-nem�t in
triumph and seek revenge on that city guard who had been so cruel to
her. She�d be much better off than her sister ever could be, and she�d
taunt her parents for having treated her so badly. The dream, the one
that had ended so badly with a bucket of stolen apples and a horrid day
on the pillory, was within reach.
The strange thing about a dream or a goal is that a person can spend a
lifetime pursuing it, but the moment it is within reach, one realizes
that dream is no longer desired. That was what Silv�tya realized, as she
stood staring at the moon and thinking about her old life in Rika
H�ckt-nem�t and a possible new life there. She no longer wanted to live
in her old hometown and spend her time taunting her mother. She really
had no desire to go back at all. She had moved beyond that. She didn�t
know what she wanted, but now she knew that she would not find it in
Rika H�ckt-nem�t, even if she could spend the rest of her life �living
on the Grand Duke�s coin�.
She looked under her bed and checked her supply of birth-control paste.
She very grateful for Dean F�toreckt�s parting gift and would use it to
prevent the Grand Duke from �planting his seed� for as long as she
could. The paste would give her some time to figure out how to avoid
leaving the castle burdened with the responsibility of bearing and
caring for a Royal child.
----------
For the first time during her internment, Silv�tya performed another
duty she had as a concubine the day after Desislava left the group. She
had to spend several afternoons in a parlor posing for two portraits.
The pair of paintings were the first out of many the Grand Duke
commissioned of her: in modern times there are 26 confirmed paintings
portraying Silv�tya alone and another 8 of her posing with a companion,
housed in various museums and art collections around the country. All of
the images are nude figure studies.
The Grand Duke was a generous patron of painting, but his taste in
themes was limited to pictures of his women. He had two painters who
worked full-time in the castle, doing nothing but painting pictures of
concubines. Besides employing the two full-time painters, the ruler also
provided temporary work for any reasonably-talented artist passing
through the capitol. Traveling painters could count on earning some
silver in Dan�bikt M�skt if they paid a visit to the castle and the
Grand Duke liked samples of their work.
The paintings were extremely explicit for their time. Rulers throughout
Europe sometimes commissioned nude portraits of their mistresses or
models, but in most cases the pictures did not portray the woman�s
private area in detail. The Grand Duke of Danubia would have none of
that. He insisted that his concubines� pubic hair be included in any
picture portraying them from the front, and if their genitalia were
visible in their pose, that had to be detailed in the picture as well.
The images created in the Grand Duke�s castle were as explicit as any
high-resolution photograph taken in the late 20th Century.
The paintings from the Royal Residence were popular among visiting
dignitaries, and the sovereign had an ample supply to pass out as gifts.
There are over 500 surviving concubine portraits scattered around
Danubia and neighboring countries, of which we have information on only
half of the models. Fortunately, art historians have identified the
images of Silv�tya, so we have a very good idea of what she looked like
in the mid-1700s. It is interesting to note that the Grand Duke never
gave away any of the portraits he had commissioned of Sister Silv�tya.
----------
As August passed and the summer days grew shorter, Silv�tya spent more
time with the Grand Duke than any of her fellow �sisters�. He continued
to treat her roughly in bed, but afterwards he comforted her in his bath
and calmed her nerves with wine. Her life story fascinated him. He
started by questioning her about university life in Seb�rnekt Ris. It
was obvious he already knew a lot about the university and, in fact, had
met Dean F�toreckt. Several castle doctors and scribes had been trained
at the university, but the Duke was interested in hearing Silv�tya�s
perspective as a student. She dreaded the thought of the ruler checking
university records and discovering there was no student at the
university using her current name. Through her conversations she found
out that Dean F�toreckt had died only two weeks after she left for the
capitol; a fact that saddened, but did not surprise her.
The ruler questioned the concubine at length about her studies, probing
to see how much she knew about medicine, history, and the Duchy in
general. He was impressed with her knowledge. He pondered how to use the
girl�s brain to his advantage. He decided to start by giving her a
complicated task that could potentially be useful. He ordered her to go
into the Royal Library, write summaries of the books she considered the
most important, the most interesting, or the most useful, and provide
recommendations for new acquisitions. The ruler admitted that he did not
have much time for leisure reading, so when he did have a chance to
read, he wanted to make sure he was spending his time with the best his
collection had to offer. So, not only would Silv�tya have access to the
Royal Library; she would be tasked with knowing and describing its
contents.
The Grand Duke escorted Silv�tya to the library, to make sure the
matrons and librarians knew that she was supposed to be there and was
acting in his orders. The library contained many books on military
equipment and strategy, religious works, maps, Danubian history, poetry,
and translations of foreign novels, but was sorely lacking works on
medicine, chemistry, and hard sciences such as botany. Silv�tya was
surprised by the collection of architecture studies and blue prints of
buildings from foreign cities around Europe. Those were the most recent
purchases, a reflection of the fascination the Grand Duke had with
architecture.
Silv�tya entered the library at day-break and stayed until noon, Monday
through Saturday. She started by trying to remember the titles and
authors of books she had read during her year in Seb�rnekt Ris. As
various books came to her mind, she compiled the titles into a list of
proposed acquisitions. She began her summaries with the history and
theology books. She did not feel qualified to assess the value of the
military studies and figured that the Grand Duke would be least
interested in knowing about the novels and poetry. She buried herself
into her work, relieved to have her mind occupied and to spend her
mornings not having to listen to the chatter of her �sisters�.
During the afternoons Silv�tya did spend her time with the other women:
eating, practicing etiquette, embroidering, bathing, and waiting for the
bell to ring. During the month of September the pregnancies of two women
became evident. The matrons braided their hair, they were provided with
maternity dresses, and they left the group. The ruler replaced them with
two new concubines, one of whom had been purchased from an indebted
guildsman and the other from an independent farmer. A third girl
appeared; a foreigner who was totally different in appearance from a
typical Danubian. Her hair was completely black and her skin was
considerably darker than anyone previously seen in the Grand Duke�s
castle.
The foreigner�s name was Antonia. She was a gift from the Grand Duke�s
ambassador to Constantinople. Originally she had lived on an island in
the Adriatic Sea, but her family had been captured during a pirates�
raid against her village. She had seen some terrible things during her
voyage to Constantinople, but her captors had kept her in good physical
condition to maintain her value. As he was getting ready to return home,
the Danubian ambassador bought her and another Adriatic girl and brought
them to the Duchy. He kept the other girl for himself and presented
Antonia to the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke had mixed feelings about the
newest member of his collection. Her appearance fascinated him, but she
knew nothing about protocol and was unable to understand and follow
orders. She did not speak a word of Danubian and was mortified at being
forced to be naked. Her failure to obey orders and her constant efforts
to cover herself already had earned her a severe switching from the
matrons. Magdala decided to task Silv�tya with teaching the foreigner
how to communicate and, whenever she was not in the library, to not let
her out of her sight.
Silv�tya spent the last half of September and all of October and
November working with Antonia. She taught the foreigner to speak in the
same way she had been taught how to read by the Church apprentice in
Star�vktaki M�skt; starting with the names of simple objects and later
moving on to actions and commands. She broke Antonia�s habit of trying
to cover herself by gently touching her arms and forcing her to move her
hands to her sides. Antonia came from a culture in which women never
appeared naked in public, so covering her body was a reflexive reaction
to her situation, something she did by instinct and without thinking.
The culture of the Duchy, and especially in places like the castle where
nudity was required, was different. Oddly, Antonia was not bothered in
the least by having her hair unbraided and her scalp touched by the
Grand Duke. Silv�tya still was made very uneasy by the feeling of her
loose hair brushing around her bare shoulders, while being naked around
the castle staff was not nearly as much of an issue.
Antonia followed Silv�tya around the castle whenever her mentor was not
attending to her duties in the library. She became psychologically
dependent on Silv�tya: being in such a strange place, forced to
constantly be naked, being subjected to rough sex with an arrogant
master, and not being able to properly communicate with anyone. Because
they were together constantly, the Silv�tya and Antonia washed each
other�s hair and bodies, ignoring the unspoken protocol of sharing their
baths and grooming with the other concubines. They moved on to giving
each other soapy massages in the bath, and then to caressing each other
in Silv�tya�s bed-chamber. In the middle of October, Antonia quit
sleeping in her own bed-chamber and joined Silv�tya in hers.
Silv�tya and Antonia were not the only concubines to share a bed. During
the winter it was common for unmarried Danubians, especially women, to
sleep together to be warmer at night, even if they were not romantically
involved. Magdala, for example, slept with one of the new girls. So, the
other concubines did not question the arrangement Silv�tya had made with
Antonia. However, as they lay naked together, sleeping in each other�s
arms and caressing each other�s bodies, the peasant girl and the
foreigner developed a relationship that came very close to being a
sexual romance. Neither would have defined what they were doing in those
terms, because an overt physical relationship between two people of the
same sex was strictly forbidden by both Danubian society and by their
respective churches. They never kissed and never touched each other�s
vulvas, so they could claim to others and justify to themselves their
relationship was nothing more than friendly intimacy and had nothing to
do with sex. However, the emotional attachment between Silv�tya and
Antonia was very strong, going way beyond simple friendship. They were
not �in love� as the term would be understood in the 20th and 21st
Centuries, but they shared a unique emotional bond that was part
friendship, part sisterly love, and part sexual desire.
----------
Silv�tya provided the Grand Duke with reports and summaries about the
contents of his library throughout the final months of 1753. She had to
kneel in the throne room and do formal presentations with scribes and
matrons watching. The Grand Duke took her reading lists and
recommendations seriously. If she recommended acquiring a new title for
the Royal Library, she could count on seeing it added to the collection
within about three weeks. The Grand Duke also paid attention to her
summaries. He actually read some of the titles she recommended and
discussed them with her.
Silv�tya�s relationship with her master changed as a result of the
conversations he held with her. He continued to want sex with her and to
have her with him in his bath, but he called her to his bed-chamber by
herself, not with the others. He stopped forcing her to lick his penis
and no longer wanted to enter her sphincter. Silv�tya was hugely
grateful to have her bottom spared from the Grand Duke�s attention: she
found anal sex painful and did not enjoy it in the least.
The Grand Duke carefully calculated how much freedom to give Silv�tya.
He wanted her to understand that she was still his property and he could
do with her as he pleased, but he also wanted to take advantage of her
intelligence, education, and experiences. He couldn�t do so if she was
totally terrified of him: she had to have enough self-confidence around
him to express her opinions and talk freely. He considered taking the
�favored concubine� position away from Magdala and giving it to Silv�tya,
but realized that would not serve his needs. Silv�tya�s duties required
her to be away from her �sisters� during much of the day, and Magdala
seemed to be a good leader for the group. The Grand Duke had learned
that if a person was performing well in an appointed position,
especially a position that entailed relaying orders, making changes
usually did more harm than good. So, Silv�tya would continue her work in
the Royal Library and Magdala would continue speaking on behalf of the
concubine group.
----------
The Danubian ruler continued asking Silv�tya about her travels and her
past. By the end of October he realized that she had been a member of
the Cult of the Ancients. That was an extremely useful detail about the
girl�s past life, but one he did not plan to question her about
directly. Her training as a Follower meant that she would have medical
experience and could perform field surgery. It also meant she probably
had a good idea what happened to the Followers: why they so suddenly and
mysteriously vanished at the end of the summer of the previous year. The
Grand Duke was patient with such topics. He would bide his time, wait
for Silv�tya to make casual comments and then, when he already knew too
much for her to deny anything, force her to tell him the full story of
what happened to the Cult and its members.
In the meantime, the Grand Duke was interested in other parts of
Silv�tya�s former life. He was particularly interested in hearing about
the Senior Priest of Star�vktaki M�skt and his wayward son Bagat�rckt.
The ruler knew that Bagat�rckt had been killed (the incident was a
regional scandal) and realized that his concubine knew what actually
happened to him. Another interesting detail he�d have to extract from
her when the right moment came.
The Grand Duke pressed his servant for details about her life as a
day-laborer�s daughter in her hometown of Rika H�ckt-nem�t. The rivalry
between her and her sister and the intrigue within her family interested
the Master, as did details about the irrigation project. He was
especially curious to know the exact date of the girl�s departure. When
she answered that she had left in early June of 1750, he responded:
�Then the Creator was indeed watching over you. You do know that within
weeks of your departure, almost everyone in Rika H�ckt-nem�t held up his
mirror in the Afterlife?�
Silv�tya�s heart jumped into her throat. �No, Your Majesty. Your humble
serving girl did not know that.�
�Yes, indeed. The Destroyer passed through your city with the
rat-plague. It was the worst epidemic anyone has ever seen in recent
times. It�s possible it was the worst epidemic ever, considering how
many people died and how quickly. I have read about the rat-plague
throughout history and I never encountered a case as severe as the one
in Rika H�ckt-nem�t. I had to order your city cut-off from the rest of
the Duchy to safeguard the neighboring towns. A painful decision that
condemned that city, but spared the others.�
�Your humble serving girl wishes to know if anyone survived, Your
Majesty.�
�A few people. Some starving survivors came up to the roadblocks the
following spring. I ordered them quarantined until we could determine
they did not carry the plague, then the guards fed them and let them
pass.�
�Your humble serving girl wishes to know how many, Your Majesty.�
�No more than 600, I would estimate. I presume there are a few people
still in the town, but I don�t know how many. I�ve maintained the
blockade. I don�t want people going in there. You know� your city was
cursed by the Destroyer.�
�No, Your Majesty, your humble serving girl did not know that.�
�Yes, indeed. The place is cursed. The story I heard was that some city
guards tied up a girl and threw her into the Rika Chorna river to drown.
She cried out to to the True Believers' Beelzebub to save her. 'Beelzebub' did save her, but at the cost of
her soul and the lives of the town�s other citizens. The whole region
was dead within days. You were very lucky to get out before the
Destroyer seized the city.�
�My family� my brothers� �
�Most likely their souls separated from their bodies. There were no
day-laborers reported among the survivors, at least none that I am aware
of. But, as I said, it doesn�t matter. Rika H�ckt-nem�t carries a curse,
and I will not risk the lives of any more of the Duchy�s citizens trying
to determine what happened. The city died, the rest of the Duchy lives,
and we must avoid the curse and confront other problems.�
----------
Silv�tya tightly held Antonia that night. For a while she didn�t say
anything, but she needed to be comforted. Her thoughts wandered to the
cold rational mentality of the Grand Duke. For fifteen years Rika
H�ckt-nem�t had been Silv�tya�s entire world. She still spoke with an
accent from that location. That world now was gone, its people taken
away by the rat-plague, or by Beelzebub, or the Destroyer, depending on
who one talked to.
To the Grand Duke the city was just one out of many, one minor issue
among a myriad of problems facing his realm. The death of an entire city
was an unfortunate incident, but not one that loomed large among his
worries. The city died: there was nothing he could do about it apart
from sealing off whatever problems remained, and the Duchy would move
forward. It seemed the Grand Duke was no more disturbed about the deaths
of 20,000 people than he would be upon encountering a flock of dead
birds along the roadway.
Through the language barrier Silv�tya explained to her lover what had
happened to her family, that most likely they all were dead. Her
thoughts were conflicted and she really didn�t know how to take the
news. Yes, she had hated her sister Katr�nckta and resented the way her
parents had treated her. But she had loved her younger brothers. Also,
she had entertained ideas of eventually returning home in triumph and
somehow using her new status to set things right. There was nothing to
set right, because it was very unlikely anyone from her family was still
alive.
She wondered about Farmer Tuko Orsktackt and his large family and happy
estate. Did any of them survive? She hoped so, but was not optimistic.
She had hoped to return the farmer�s estate in triumph and reconcile
with him, a hope similar to the one she had for her family. Perhaps he
survived the rat-plague: more likely he didn�t.
Antonia carefully listened to Silv�tya and understood most of what she
said. She now spoke Danubian well enough to relay her own painful
memories; that she had witnessed the killing of her parents, along with
most of the other older captives from her village. The raiders did not
consider the older people worth transporting. They could have simply
been released, but the captors instead chose to kill them and dump their
bodies into the Adriatic Sea.
Silv�tya realized she was more fortunate than her lover. At least she
had not been forced to witness the death of her family. There was that
terrifying vision of her sister�s death, but that was not the same as
what Antonia must have felt, watching the killings in real life and
seeing her parents� lifeless bodies disappear into the water.
----------
The next day, while eating dinner with her group, Sister Magdala became
violently sick. She barely made it out of the dining hall before
throwing up. Over the next several days she became sick at random times
with spontaneous vomiting spells. For a group of women who spent their
days waiting to become pregnant, it was obvious what was happening to
their spokeswoman. The moon had paid her a visit. Now, it was Magdala�s
turn to carry the Grand Duke�s seed. Within a few weeks her stomach
would start to swell, she would depart the concubine group, and would
spend the rest of her time in the castle living in the maternity ward.
The news of Magdala�s pending departure greatly depressed Silv�tya.
Besides being a good leader for the �sisters� and maintaining harmony
among them, Magdala was the only woman among the concubines Silv�tya
felt she could really talk to and share her feelings. She would be
sorely missed.
The spokeswoman�s pregnancy reminded Silv�tya of the reality of her
relationship with Antonia; that if Antonia became pregnant, they would
be separated. She now faced a moral dilemma with her lover. She kept her
supply of birth-control paste and longevity potion hidden in a box tied
to the underside of the bed. She loved Antonia enough to seriously
consider giving her both. She did not want her partner to become
pregnant and taken away from her, nor did she want to see Antonia age.
However, she realized that to let Antonia know anything about her
secrets would place both women at huge risk by involving them in a
conspiracy. Conspiracy against the Grand Duke or his wishes was a
capital offense. Also, there was not a chance Silv�tya could escape the
castle and take Antonia with her. Under the right circumstances, she
could escape on her own, but Antonia�s foreign physical appearance was
sure to draw attention. The only Path in Life open to Silv�tya�s partner
was to wait until she became pregnant, have the Grand Duke�s baby, and
hope that she could have an acceptable life upon leaving the castle,
�living on His Majesty�s coin�. Silv�tya rationalized that perhaps she
could reunite with Antonia and they could continue their relationship
after both left the castle. Subconsciously she knew that hope was
completely unrealistic.
As she lay with Antonia, gently running her hand over her partner�s
bottom and thighs, Silv�tya sadly reflected that her relationship with
Antonia was a lot like her relationship with K�loyankt. Whatever love
she felt for the person currently in her arms didn�t matter. Their time
together was doomed to come to an end as soon as �the moon paid Antonia
a visit�. Their Paths in Life would not permit them to stay together.
----------
Note: It is difficult for a non-Danubian
to understand the humiliation the concubines had to endure by allowing
their Master to run his fingers through their hair. Braided hair is a
tradition that goes back to the very beginnings of the Danubian nation
and is a woman�s primary symbol of honor. According to Danubian
protocol, the top of a woman�s head is considered her �space� and a
forbidden zone for men. Religious traditions, among both the Followers
of the Ancients and among Danubia�s Christian denominations, strictly
prohibited men from touching women�s hair and prohibited women from
allowing men to see their hair unbraided. The Grand Duke, by fondling
the women�s scalps and breaking the most fundamental sexual taboo of
Danubian culture, was demonstrating absolute dominance over his
concubines and stripping of all their dignity.
- Maritza Ortskt-Dukovna -
