Chapter 94

Dear Violet,

My name is Lily. I'm writing you, and I suppose Master Will's sister, Willow because no one else is apt to be able to for a while. My mistress, though I've always considered myself as belonging to Master Will more than anyone else in the family, is disconsolate. Master Will has dropped off the map. That is all I can understand. That and that Mistress Marissa is on a tear! First Katy disappears then Will falls off the edge of the world. At least that is what I think she said.

How could anyone drop off the edge of the world? Aren't planets round? So there is no way anyone could possibly drop off the edge of the world. Beth took time to explain to me that some people used to believe that the world was flat. That seems like a foolish thing to believe, and what could it have to do with Will and Katy being missing.

Everyone here is walking and talking as if saying something will make more of the family disappear. Why they are doing that, I don't know. I suppose it is sort of like not talking about the Tong leader back on earth. You could never be sure that the person you were talking to wasn't going to report you or try to get a reward for turning over someone who was disloyal to the Tong.

Worse yet though was being turned over to the national or regional government. In either case you could be made to disappear. But often being turned over to the government meant that you would spend a lot of time in a torture cell. The criminals like the Tong seemed to work to bribe the government officials so that things could get done. But they skimmed some of the bribe off in order to support the Tong. With enough money or favors things could be done. My parents paid a lot of money to get me to a place where the Confederacy was doing pickups.

Then getting picked up was up to me. I bought that ticket the same way that every other woman or girl has. I paid with my body. Not that I minded too much. I know I need an owner. Having an owner who is kind and thoughtful is more than I could ever imagine selling myself into.

Yet here I am with a mistress who loves me very much and a master I'm only avoiding pining away for due to the fact that I'm pregnant. That is another thing I never thought would happen, or rather I was certain that if I were ever to get pregnant on Earth that the baby would have been sold to some well heeled buyer. That's because it became obvious that whatever my parents thought they were getting when they turned me over to the Tong that the Tong considered me a prime property to be sold for the highest price I would fetch. For a while I was worried that I would be killed and sold for body parts!

Indeed I can't be sure that wouldn't have happened. All I can say is that one day when I was out doing the little shopping they allowed us in order to pick my own clothes I sat down at a place for a snack and the next thing I knew a pickup was happening. Selling myself as a sex object was nothing new so I got on top of a table and did a little dance while taking off my clothes. That attracted attention and I sold myself to my first master.

He was a piece of work, at least according to Master Will. He had me taken down in size, not that it mattered much because I was quite tiny anyway compared to most women, until I looked positively childish. Then he had all my hair below my head removed. The whole effect would have been more disturbing to me if I hadn't been used to shaving anyway in order to appear younger than I am.