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 Red SilkHere are relevant references from the Books where Red Silk is mentioned. These include both the color of the silk and reference to virginity, or lack thereof. I make no pronouncements on these matters, but report them as I find them. Arrive at your own conclusions. I wish you well, Fogaban Cernus smiled. "Our Physicians ascertained," said he, "that she is only a Red Silk Girl." Cernus turned to Caprus, who stood near him. "Is she trained?" he asked. She laughed. "It could be far worse," she said. "At least I am a Red Silk girl." The allusion was to certain practices having to do with the merchandising of Red Silk Girls, in private sales for individual and important clients of the House. "Very well, Red Silk Girl," said I, "perform." Some of the girls, judging by the stripes on the hoods and cloaks were White Silk, and others Red Silk. Sura turned to Ho-Tu. "The Tuchuk girl," she said, "keeps quarters with the Assassin. I do not object. Take the others to cells of Red Silk." "They are White Silk," said Ho-Tu. She was attired in a brief gown of red Pleasure Silk, prescribed for her because she was a Red Silk Girl and in training. Another girl approached similarly, though she was attired in a tunic of red silk. Later, in the eighteenth week of their training, they were given brief silken slave livery, sleeveless, fastened by the loop on the left shoulder. Virginia and Phyllis were given white livery, Elizabeth red. It is, incidentally, one of the perquisites of employment in the house of a slaver that a member of the guard or staff may ask for, and generally receive, the use of whatever Red Silk Girls he pleases. Each of the girls would wear brief silken slave livery, sleeveless, the disrobing loop on the left shoulder. Elizabeth wore red, Virginia and Phyllis white. "She will be more comfortable," I said. "Besides," I said, "she is only Red Silk." "Let Lana serve Relius wine," said another girl, a Red Silk Girl, first to the guard, leaning toward him, lips parted. Relius put out his cup but before the girl could pour the wine she seemed suddenly to fly off the back of the dais, the seat of her tunic firmly grasped in the small hand of Virginia Kent. Lana landed with a considerable bump on the stones of the hall, the wine flying backward. "Relius guards Virginia," the young slave girl from Earth informed collared, Red Silk Lana. Lana scrambled to her feet, angry, her pitcher of wine set aside on the wet, red stones. The two girls stood facing one another. "I wear the leash of Relius," said Virginia. "I wear his bracelets!" Lana looked at Relius. "Leash Lana," she said. "Lana is Red Silk." She extended her wrists provocatively to Relius. "Put your bracelets on Lana. She is Red Silk. She will serve you better than a silly little White Silker." At this point Virginia Kent put down her pitcher of wine, seized Lana by the shoulder, spun her about and struck her a rather severe blow near the left eye. Several of the men and girls at and about the tables approvingly observed the two girls rolling and scratching, biting and tearing on the floor, first White Silk on top, and then Red Silk, and then White Silk again. At last Virginia Kent, to the cheers of several of those present, sat atop Lana and was pummeling her mercilessly, until Lana, throwing up her arms and shrieking, crying out, begged for mercy. "I will pay," said Ho-Sorl, "the difference between what she will bring as Red Silk and White Silk." Phyllis shrieked in fear, wiggling on his shoulder, pounding. Ho-Tu apparently gave the matter very serious thought. "Don't you want to be Red Silk?" he asked Phyllis, who, from her position, could not see him. "No, no, no!" she cried. "By tomorrow night," pointed out Ho-Sorl, neatly, "she may be Red Silk anyway." "No, no!" wept Phyllis. "Where would you make her Red Silk?" asked Ho-Tu. "The pit of sand will do," said Ho-Sorl. Phyllis shrieked with misery. "Would you not like Ho-Sorl to make you Red Silk?" asked Ho-Tu of Phyllis. "Don't look so disappointed," said a Red Silk Girl passing near her, carrying Ka-la-na. Phyllis made an angry noise. "Poor little White Silk slave," said another Red Silk Girl passing between the tables. "What is your name?" demanded Ho-Tu of the Red Silk Girl. "Lana," she said, "if it pleases Master." Sura's pride and her position in the House, though she was slave, had been resented by many of the men and staff; perhaps even Cernus felt she had overstepped herself; surely he seemed pleased that she would now be humbled, now used as a common Red Silk Girl. "You are Red Silk," I said. I have much gold, and some power, and my pick of Red Silk Girls. Then I understood what was going on, perhaps belatedly, for I knew the girl, Red Silk before the black ships, was extremely responsive, and had even been used in the hall of Cernus for the amusement of his Warriors and guards . . . "These are three barbarians, two White Silk, one Red Silk," called the auctioneer, "all from the House of Cernus, whom it is our hope you will find pleasing." "Can you guess," asked the auctioneer, "which of the three slaves is Red Silk?" "Before she is delivered to Samos," Cernus was saying, "I think I will have her returned to the house and use her. She intrigued me this evening. Since she is Red Silk Samos will not object." "She is only white silk," said Lana. "Lana is red silk. Let Lana please you." "White-silk, She-sleen," he said. "Wait until you are red silk!" "I hope she is red silk," said the other. "If she is not when we apprehend her," said the other, "by the time we turn her over to Haakon she will be of the reddest of silks." "Haakon might not be pleased," said the other. The first laughed. "Haakon does not know which girl is red silk and which is white silk." "That is true," grinned the other. "Besides," pointed out the first, "do you really think Haakon expects us to return white silk girls to his chain?" Sometimes I saw the dark-haired girl, in red silk with the two golden bangles on her left ankle, when I passed by the tent. "But," had said Ute, "if a man seizes you, you are not to yield yourself to him, for you are white silk." A flash of irritation passed through me. "I am charged with the protection of my market value?" I asked, ironically. "Yes," said Ute, matter-of-factly. "Though I, if I were a man, would pay more for a red-silk girl." "I must do nothing," I said, "to diminish the investment of Rask of Treve?" "That is correct," said Ute. "What if I am simply seized, and my attacker is not prepared to listen to reason?" I asked. Ute laughed. It was the first time I had seen her laugh in the camp. I was pleased I had made her laugh. "Cry out," said Ute, "and the others will take you from him and get him a red-silk girl." "All right," I had said. The man whom I had served wine reached clumsily for me. "I am white silk!" I cried, shrinking back. "Wine!" cried the other man. I tried to rise, but the man's hand was knotted in the silk. If I moved I would strip myself. Another girl, on her knees, reaching for him, holding his head, insinuated herself between us. "I am red silk!" she murmured. "Touch me! Touch me!" His hand left my silk and I darted away. I was white silk! It was safe to dance before them as I pleased. And so Elinor Brinton danced to torment them. They cried out with anguish and pleasure. How pleased I was in my power! As the music changed so, too, did the dancer, and she became as one with the music, a frightened girl, new to the collar, a timid girl, delicate and submissive, a lonely slave, yearning for her master, a drunken wench, rejecting her slavery, a proud girl, determined to be defiant, a raw, red-silk slave, mad with the need for a master's touch. Inge and Rena, I sensed, regarded me in a new fashion. "Slave!" they had said to me. And I had said to them, "Yes - Slave!" and kissed them. I had then sped away. They envied me. I pitied them in my way, for they were mere ignorant girls, white-silk girls. I was red silk! I tossed him the pouch of gold, from which I had drawn the coins to purchase his freedom, and the arrogant, slender, red-silked girl for him, to be his slave. Ibn Saran, not taking his eyes from Alyena, lifted his finger, From one side a slave girl, barefoot, bangled, in sashed, diaphanous, trousered, chalwar, gathered at the ankles, in tight, red-silk vest, with bare midriff, fled to him, with the tall, graceful, silvered pot containing the black wine. She was veiled. She knelt, replenishing the drink. Beneath her veil I saw the metal of her collar. I looked at the incredibly lovely girl in the mirror, she bedecked in a rope of red silk, made-up, perfumed, vulnerable, soft, with armlets and bracelets, golden beads intertwined in the Turian collar. "Meat, Dina!" cried another man, and I hastened to him, to kneel and serve him. I wore red silk, a golden necklace about my throat, intertwined with my collar, and bells. Any girl on the ship, incidentally, unless she is certified "white silk," a virgin, is free to the sailors for their sport. There were no "white-silk" girls on board; we were all "red silk." This was not unusual. There are few virgin slaves. Their virginity usually does not last more than an Ahn beyond their first sale. "There," I said, "you will be stripped and branded." "Branded?" she said. I do not think she understood me. Her Earth mind would find this hard to understand. She was not yet cognizant of Gorean realities. She would learn them swiftly. No choice would be given her. "Is she to be sold red-silk?" I asked Samos. He looked at the girl. "Yes," he said. The guards grinned. It would be a girl who knew herself as a woman when she ascended the block. "I thought you said I would be stripped and branded," she said, laughing. "Yes," I said, "that is precisely what I said." "No!" she screamed. "No!" "Then," I said, "you will be raped, and taught your womanhood. When you have learned your womanhood, you will be caged. Later you will be sold." Behind him, in pleasure silk, came three girls. Poalu was in brief yellow pleasure silk, and Audrey and Barbara in brief red pleasure silk. "I have put you in red silk," I said. "Is it appropriate?" "It certainly is not!" she said. "Perhaps it soon will be," I said. The red silk would diminish suspicion. A red-silked girl in a Gorean fortress is a not uncommon sight. "There is a stain of blood on your thigh," I said. "My Master took my virginity," she said. "You are now a red-silk girl," I said. "Yes, Master," she said, "I am now a red-silk girl." "Tela, when captured," he said, indicating a blonde, "begged to be permitted to be kept in white silk." He laughed. "After throwing her to a crew, for their pleasure, we put her, as she had asked, in white silk." "Amusing," I said. "She now often begs for red silk," he said. "Perhaps we will one day permit it to her." "Relia, Tela, to him," said Policrates. These two girls, Relia discarding her red silk and Tela opening her white silk, and throwing it back, hurried to kneel near me. "You were white silk," I said. "Now you are red silk." "To be sure," I said, "'white' in the context of 'white-silk girl' tends less to suggest purity and innocence to the Gorean than ignorance and naivety, and a lack of experience. 'Red,' in the context of 'red-silk girl,' on the other hand, connotes rather clearly, I think, experience. One expects a red-silk girl, for example, not only to be able to find her way about the furs, but; subject to the whip, owned and dominated, perhaps chained, to prove herself a sensuous treasure within them." "I am red-silk," she said. "Have me." Similarly, the expression "red silk," in Gorean, tends to be used as a category in slaving, and also, outside the slaving context, as an expression in vulgar discourse, indicating that the woman is no longer a virgin, or, as the Goreans say, at least vulgarly of slaves, that her body has been opened by men. Its contrasting term is "white silk," usually used of slaves who are still virgins, or, equivalently, slaves whose bodies have not yet been opened by men. Needless to say, slaves seldom spend a great deal of time in the "white-silk" category. It is common not to dally in initiating a slave into the realities of her condition. Among slaves, not free women, these things are sometimes spoken of along the lines as to whether or not a girl has been "opened" for the uses of men. Other common terms, used generally of slaves, are 'white silk' and 'red silk', for girls who have not yet been opened, or have been opened, for the uses of men, respectively. "Treasure your silly virginity," said Tupita, "for you will not have it long." "Red-silk slut!" I said to her, angrily, adding, "Mistress." "By tomorrow," said Tupita, "you, too, will be only a red-silk slut." I had been opened, I thought. I was now "red silk"! Could I actually be responding to him, this brute who had opened me in a Gorean tavern, this monster who had but a moment ago red-silked me! I knew I was now a red-silk paga slave. "There is now a red-silk ribbon on your collar, Doreen," said Tupita. "What is the meaning of that?" "That I have been red-silked, Mistress," I said. "Yes," said Tupita. "Close the curtain, Mistress!" I begged. "Why?" asked Tupita. "Are you modest?" "No, Mistress," I sobbed. Slaves are not permitted modesty. "You are now only a red-silk slut, Doreen," she said, "no different from the rest of us!" I had then worn the rectangle of red silk, that in which he was accustomed to put his use slaves. For example, sometimes, when slaves are taken to Ubars, and such, they are stripped and wrapped in a scarlet sheet, if they are "red silk," and in a white sheet, if they are "white silk." They are then placed in the master's chambers, often through a panel in the door, the sheet remaining behind. A "white-silk girl" is a virgin; one who is not a virgin is sometimes referred to as a "red-silk girl." This need not refer, literally, of course, to the color of their garmenture. He held up the ribbon before her. It was about eight or ten inches long, an inch wide, and of red silk. "You have been had," he said, in English. And then he added, in Gorean, "You have now been opened for the uses of men, for the pleasures of men." "You are now a red-silk girl," he said. "Are you red silk?" he asked. She looked down at her bared body, in consternation, startled, caught off guard, suddenly distraught, suddenly seeming to understand almost nothing. Obviously she was unclothed, completely, utterly, let alone clothed in silk, of any color. She was naked, slave naked, in her chains, uncomfortable on the hot shelf. What could he have been asking? "I am now 'red silk,'" she said. "As is common with slaves," he said. "But I do not have a thread of red silk on my body," she chided. "A red-silk slave," he said, "is red silk even if naked." "It is a mistake, Masters," I said. "I should not be here. I am white-silk. I am white-silk." The tunic was then torn from me. It was two days after my red-silking that I was again hooded. It is the common presumption that a female slave is "red-silk." "I see she is red-silk " said the first voice. That, I thought must be on the papers. What right had they to know that? "Recently," said the guard. "Good," said the first voice. "There is no place for virgins here." Not unexpectedly the slave was red-silk. Sometimes white- silkers cost more, though for no reason that seems clear. Who cares about such things in the case of a slave? Is the virginity of a tarsk or verr of interest? Who cares who is first to open them? In the latter aspect, diaphanous, it was rather like the yellow or red dancing silk in which the tavern dancers swirled amidst their veils, their shimmering jewelries, often to the sparkle of finger cymbals. "I have a copper tarsk, fifty," called the auctioneer. "Is that not enough, in Brundisium, for a red-silk barbarian?" asked a fellow. That I was "red-silk" had been made clear when my hair and eye color, my measurements, my lineaments, and such, prior to my exhibition, had been made clear to the crowd by the slaver's scribe at his desk below the block. "Behold the object now for sale," called the auctioneer, "a comely red-silk barbarian! Note the sweetness of her thighs, the curvature of her calves, and the slimness of her ankles, ready for the clasping of your shackles. Imagine her heeling you in the street, hurrying behind you, barefoot, in her tiny tunic, your collar on her neck, kneeling at your side, on her leash, lying beside you when you read!" "Are you white silk?" asked he before whom I knelt. "No, Master," I said. "I was scarcely marked and collared before I was thrown to keeper's feet and red-silked." |
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