Part 2

As Inara groggily awoke, she became aware of the presence of two men standing over her. She kept her eyes shut and assessed her situation. The companion was lying on her back on some kind of bed with her wrists bound with what felt like plastic zip ties. Her legs were bent and from the cool air on them, she was evidently naked from the waist down with her gown bunched up on her belly. From the sounds of the street outside, they were on at least the second floor of a thinly walled building. Moreover, she could feel a certain cloudy haze around her thoughts tempting her to relax and drift with her emotions. That combined with a burning at the corners of her eyes told her one thing: Drops! Instantly adrenalin flooded her system as she realized that she was in deep trouble.

"It looks like she's coming around; go outside and keep watch while I start breaking her in. We'll take turns until she's ready to cooperate."

The other man whined "But it's my turn to be first."

"Listen, go-se for brains, I'm the boss and I'm always first!"

Inara heard the door close. She opened her eyes to see a rough and scruffy man removing an incongruously fine linen shirt and unbuttoning his pants. "Ah yes, my little coney, I've checked you out and you're prime stuff alright. Everybody on Boros knows I'm the boss of this town, why didn't you come to me first before you tried to peddle your wares in my jurisdiction? Now you'll just have to learn the first lesson of life around here, Always give your betters their due." With that he began to lift her calves up onto his forearms.

"You're never going to get away with this, I'm a companion!"

He paused and laughed. "Yes, and I'm the King of Londondinium, with a shiny hat on my head. Now you just relax, if you please me I'll make you part of my stable. If you don't, you're still screwed only you'll be doing it as a slave on some dump like Higgins' Moon begging to sell what's left of your body for drops." As he paused to spit on his palm and lubricate himself, Inara slid her legs up his arms towards his shoulders. "Shiny, you're a bright one, you get the point straightaway don't cha?"

Inara suddenly slammed her ankles into the sides of his neck, locking her toes behind his head and began to squeeze his carotids, jugulars and the nerves running along their sides. "I'll kill you to Gorram Emma's' Hell you piece of go se pimp." The inverted companion was rewarded by the glazed look of the pimps' bulging eyes as he froze in paralysis. Inara thought "I don't have time for this; his partner could walk in any time."

She gave a mighty twist and hurled him headfirst at the window with the aim of defenestrating him through the glass and out into the street below. Instead, the pimp smacked into the window and bounced back to crumple on the floor. "Gorram Plexi." Inara grumbled as she brought her knees to her chin and her wrists past her feet. As she gained her feet and was fighting off wooziness, she spotted her bag against the wall. Out of the corner of her eye something was rushing at her head. Instinct and training turned her face to the side and her body arching back so that the powerful roundhouse blow merely grazed her ear as she fell backwards onto the bed.

Instantly, the pimp was on top of her with his powerful hands around her throat. "I'll kill you, you gorram whore!" He hoarsely roared as he locked his arms and began to squeeze.

Inara countered by dropping her chin and tightening her neck muscles while wrapping her legs around his midsection exerting a crushing pressure on his internal organs with her powerful thighs. The pimps' face turned from red to purple as his grip weakened and he turned to claw at her legs. "Gotcha sucker!" Inara thought as she dropped her still bound wrists around his neck and rotated the radii until the formed an even more effective vice than her ankles had previously. This time she held it for what seemed like an eternity until his drumming feet and the suddenly dead weight between her legs told her that the pimp had gone on to his richly deserved reward.

Quickly, she scrambled to her feet and rushed to hide behind the door as the lookout burst in. "Sweet Buddha, What a smell! Did you really kill another one?" His voice trailed off as he beheld his former boss sprawled with his tongue hanging out of his purple face.

Inara quietly stole up behind him to drop her arms around his neck in an embrace with her shoulder behind his head and her cheek beside his ear. "Good bye, Go-Se." she whispered as she launched herself feet first backward to land with a smack on her belly. Go Se landed flat on his back but his head was still straight up on a neck that was suddenly much longer than it was before the companions ministrations. She scrambled up to grab his boot knife and release her wrists from the zip ties and quietly steal down the stairs with her cape and bag.

Go Se was suddenly standing beside his boss at the gate to Emma's Hell. "Gorram it Leroy, that was the toughest hooker you ever picked on!"

Inara moved quickly but quietly down the early morning streets towards the spaceport and the relative safety of her shuttle.

Suddenly, a male voice yelled behind her "Inara; Inara Sera!" Inara dropped her bag and whirled in a combat stance to face a hooded figure a few yards behind her.

The hood dropped to reveal the coal black face and short dreadlocks of a very handsome man. "I do not hear the song of the birimbau or the beat of the dun-dun. Why do you greet me thus?"

Inara relalaxed and rose to give the slight bow of respect of a caprista "Maiestre." She intoned with a wry smile.

He continued in his role as her teacher."And what of these bruises I see on you?"

"They are the kisses of the training floor Maiestre."

"You are training here? And what of your pardner?"

"Partners actually, and they dance with the lord of the underworld now."

"Ah I see, is that why you hurry then?"

"Yes," she said. "I fear the wrath of the vice police that have suddenly lost their paymaster."

"Good, then I will take your bag and we can move more quickly."

"Thank you, Jorge."

When they reached the relative safety of her shuttle, cleared and launched without incident, Inara turned to inquire "What are you doing here? The last I heard you were still Master at Arms of House Madarassa and well on your way to becoming the first male companion to head the House."

Jorge observed Inara's pale complexion and trembling fingers and the fatigue and stress in her voice. "We had better set down some where. I can see that we need to perform the cleansing ritual."

While they were quietly sponging each other on the floor of her shuttle sitting on a quiet hill Jorge began his tale. "I was sent on a mission of retribution. A wealthy client had beaten a young companion on her first solo assignment because she had displeased him. He then tried to bribe her into silence and when that failed, he had her killed. I took it as a point of honor to be chosen to avenge her death. His death was fitting and went without incident. However, when I returned to House Madarassa all of the young companions' records had been purged and the House publicly disavowed me and my mission and named me as the clients' murderer. I've been on the run ever since then. I truly believe that it was the work of the Vice-Priestess and a conservative faction opposed to the idea of a male Head Priest."

Inara interrupted in a shocked tone. "Jorge, that's terrible! How will you ever clear your name?"

"I don't know but in a few weeks, the uploaded financial records of House Madarassa will be coming out in blogs all over the cortex detailing the financial dealings of a certain faction and heads will start to roll. By that time, I plan to be sitting zazen and chanting sutras with a shaven pate and an assumed name in a monastery on New Mount Heiai."

Inara's eyes widened and she started to laugh and then collapsed in tears against his bare ebony chest as a sense of overwhelming loss overtook her. "Have we both fallen so low that we live on the run now with no place to call home?"