"Do you think she will be successful?" asked Callimachus of Tasdron, when he had returned to the room.

"She is a slave," said Tasdron. "It will be in her best interest to be so."

"Let us eat," I said, "I am hungry."I too," said Callimachus. "I too," said Tasdron.

26. Florence; Miles of Vonda

"Florence!" I said. "Master!" she said, pleased.

"It isyou?" I laughed. "Yes," she said. "How wonderful to see you," I said."Doubtless it is wonderful for a man to see me as I am now," she laughed.

It was the 18th Ahn, two Ahn before the 20th Ahn, the Gorean midnight, when we would hold our secret meeting inthe back room of Tasdron's tavern. I had finished my supper in the room and had, leaving Callimachus and Tasdron in conversation emerged through the now-opened door into the main room of the tavern. I intended to walk until the 20th Ahn.

"I see that you are well secured," I said."My Master has seen to it," she said.In Tasdron's paga tavern, as in many, along one well there is a set of slave rings to which one may chain or tie orn's slaves while drinking or dining in the tavern. This is a convenience for the customers.

"How beautiful you are," I said. I crouched down beside her. "Thank you Master," she said. "I see that slavery agrees with you," I said."Yes Master," she said softly.

I turned her face toward me, gently, with my hand. "What an incredible transformation has come ovr you." I said."It is only that you are not used to seeing me in the tunic and collar of a slave," she said. "No," I said, "it is far beyond such things." I loered my hand."Yes Master," she smiled.

I examined her with attention as a man does an enslaved woman, as she put her head down shyly. She wore a brief slave tunic of gray rep-cloth. It was demure as such garments go, but it left little doubt as to her charms. I saw that her master was proud of his slave's beauty. She knelt with her back to the wall and slave ring, her knees wide. Her hands were braceleted about and behind her head, the tinkling chain on the bracelets passing behind the slave ring. She also wore an ankle ring with a chain which looped up to the same slave ring, and was locked about it. The soft, rounded flesh of her forearms, below the steel,and the sweet swelling flesh of her palms above the steel were lovely. I examined the lineaments of her body, the beauty of her breasts held high, as she was braceleted, the latitudes of her belly, the flare of her hips, the sweetness of her knees and thighs, the lovely curve of her salves, her ankles, the left clapsed in steel and her small feet. She was barefoot of course as slaves are commonly kept.

"You are astonishingly beautiful, Florence," I said."Thank you Master," she said."You are doubly chained," I said. "Yes Master," she said.

This type of chaining, a double chaining, is usually done only by a man who is in a strange city and does not know fully what to expect. If one is familiar with the city, a single chaining is usually regarded as sufficient. Indeed, sometimes the girl is merely told to grasp the ring and to remain there until the Master returns. She may not release the ring until given permission by a free person. Some girls have been raped at such rings, as helplessly as though they might have been chained to them, so great is the fear of their Master, and so strict is the Gorean discipline to which they know themselves subject.

"Are you always, in a tavern, chained in this fashion?" I asked. "Yes, Master" she said. "It would be very hard to steal you," I smiled. "Yes Master," said smiled. "Your Master must find you very precious," I said. "I am only a slave," she said putting her head down smiling."You have become very beautiful," I said. "Thank you Master," she said.

"Who is your Master?" I asked. "Miles of Vonda," she said. "I thought he might be," I said."He purchsed me at a secret auction." she said, "held in the camp of Tenalion the Slaver." "What did he bid?" I asked. "A hundred pieces of gold," she said smiling, not lifting her head.

"Vain little she-sleen," I laughed."It is true," she smiled."Marvelous," I said, "I myself received only ten silver tarsks for you when I told you to Tenalion." "The gold was doubtless much more than I was worth," she said. "Not to Miles of Vonda," I smiled. «No» she said smiling."Are you happy?" I asked. She lifted her head happily, "Oh yes," she said, "yes, yes! I am so happy, Master!"

"Wonderful," I said. "He stripped me and put me under his whip and taught me instantly that I was his slave, his total slave."

"I am very happy for you," I said. "I have never dreamed, when I was free, that he could be such a man. Had I even suspected it, I would have torn away my clothes and thrown myself to his feet, beggin ghis collar." "Had you been free," I said, "he could not have been such a man." "That is true," she said. "Had I been free he could not have handled me and treated me as he wished, and as I wished, as his lovely beast to be ravished and trained and taught her duties."

I nodded, Enmeshed in legalities, negativities and socialized expectations, it was difficult to relate as biological human beings. But the slave girl, standing outside the protections of such devices, stands before her master as an exposed, raw human female, without rights, his to do with as he pleases. Similarly the master, owing the slave nothing, and knowing that she is completely his, his very property, may relate to her freely in the order of nature. In his treatment of her, he is untrammeled by either conscience or law, and this she knows, and loves, and accordingly hastens to obey and be pleasing. She knows that she is owned, and that he is her unqualified maaster. The order of nature and the obdurate and thematic equations of dominance and submission, denided through they might be, and even if hysterically repudiated, will continue to lurk in the microstructures of every cell in the human body. The master/slave relationship is the institutionalization of dominance and submission. It is, under the enhancements of civilization, the institutionalization of the primitive biological relationship of the human male and female, he the master, she the slave. How lonely is the woman who has not yet found her master.

"I am pleased that you are so happy," I said. "But he is strict with me," she said. "I must obey him in all things."Of course," I said.

"I fear only that he will tire of me or sell me," she said. "I try so hard to please him."You do not wish to be whipped," I said. "I love him," she said. "I love Miles of Vonda!" With the love of a free companion?" I asked."No," she said, "with the helpless and total love of an owned slave girl for her master." "He is a fortunate man," I said.

"I am his fully," she said. She smiled shyly. "The auburn-haired beauty was radiant. I looked at her. How marvelous is the transformation which slavery works in a woman. "What are you called now?" I asked. "Florence," she said."He put your old name on you as a slave name," I said. "Was it not appropriate?" she asked. "Yes," I said.

"Yes," she laughed, delightedly, "it was fully appropriate. I was a slave before, when I was free. I knew it in my heart, even then, that I was a slave. It is thus fully appropriate that I now wear my old name openly, and with full explicitness, as a slave name."That pleases you doesn't it?" I asked. "Yes, Master," she said happily. "It pleases me very much."

"Florence, the slave," I said. "Yes, Florence, the slave," she said.

"How is Miles of Vonda?" I asked. Her eyes clouded. "He has fallen on hard times," she said. "Warriors of Ar made hostel in his holdings int heir withdrawal to the south. He in anger spoke ill of Ar in their presence. Accordingly, the burtned his holdings and scattered his hurt and tharlarion."

"What is he doing in Victoria?" I asked. "He is on his way west on the river," she said, "to Turmus, where he has friends that he may negotiate a loan to rebuld and replenish his holdings."