A Pleasure to a Prequel

"I understand. I won't cause you any trouble."

"Please understand that next year I plan to sell you so I can leave this place."

"You ... yes, master."

"You seem like a decent person and maybe you've learned your lesson and been rehabilitated but I can't help you. I need to go home. I don't belong here."

"As you command, master."

I was going to object again to her calling me master but I let it go. "Alright. So tomorrow you're on house cleaning duty and I hear you have to have the day off on Sunday. On Monday I want you looking for an office building I can rent so I can set up ..."

"Master, I'm sorry to interrupt. I don't know about buildings and I'm not much for cleaning. I was good as a dancer. Would it be wrong to ask you to help me get that job back?"

"You want to be a dancer?"

"I ... I know I can do it and you won't get in trouble."

"You want to go back to work for Tsadda?"

"I understand what is expected of me there."

"Well, maybe. I'll have to talk to him. But I will not tolerate him yelling at you the way he did before."

"He was usually very nice to me. He has to be like that for others to see but without others he is nice. There was only ever one problem with him."

"What's that?"

"I can't do all of my duties with him."

"What do you mean?"

"He is not a man ... down there."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I kind of figured."

"He is not a woman either. He's ... not formed right."

"In my culture we don't talk about other people's parts. We leave people alone so long as everyone acts like they're supposed to act in public."

"So then how would Tsadda have to be? Man or woman?"

"Probably man but he'd have to really act like a man and not let on at all that there was something not fully male about him. We don't put up with people playing around. The Empire and especially the capital are a lot more hard core than here. One of the emperors from like a hundred years ago; he was, you know, that way and his own body guards handed him over to the army. There was some scandal erupting after the Emperor had ordered the castration of some teenager and then the Emperor dressed the boy as a woman and was sodomizing him. The privileges that nobles have here don't exist in the Empire. On Imperial soil no one, not even the Emperor is above the law. The soldiers brought the Emperor to the Pillars of Raveren and cut his head off. After that his body was dragged through the street and then finally tossed into the river with the sewage. Since then every Emperor has always appeared in public as a model of how a man should be. No flair. No frilly outfits. No artsy crap. And don't even get me started on the crystal meditation bullshit."

"Are you that way?"

"What way? Hell no. Don't even think like that."

"As you command, master." she replied and then she got off of the chair and down to her knees.

"What are you doing?"

"I need to fulfill my duties."

"You can do the cleaning tomorrow."

"Master." she said as she brought her hands to my lap. "Tsadda could not let me fulfill my duties. That's why he has so many girls and can keep them working as dancers." Her fingers sent to my fly and she started to try to unzip my pants.

"You mean as prostitutes?" I said as reacted. I pushed her hands off of me. As attractive as she was I couldn't stain myself this way.

She shot a look up at me. "No master. No one can touch us if we work for Tsadda." She put her hands on me again and there was a pleading in her expression.

"I don't understand what you're doing right now. Stop that." I said as she was trying to get into my pants. "What are you doing?"

She pulled her hands back and lowered her head. "I have to do this."

"No you don't."

"It's a rule."

"Not my rule. I'm not having sex with a slave."

The S word made her look down with shame. "I'm sorry master. I've made you angry."

"I'm not angry. I just don't participate in all of this. Things don't happen this way in the Empire. Are you saying the law says I have to have sex with you?"

"No, master. I don't know about the law. I have to pleasure you. It's expected. No girl can do with Tsadda so that is why he can have us as dancers."

"That part I don't understand. What are you talking about?"

"No one can touch us except our master. So men come to look as we dance. We are forbidden to them and for some reason that attracts them. If my master can take my virginity then after that my master could give me permission to marry and have children. But working for Tsadda that could never happen because he can not open a girl. Now I am yours and you can ..."

"Stop. Stop right there. Does the law require me to do that?"

"Law. I don't know. If any other man touches me then he'll be arrested and then ... executed."

"But the law doesn't say I have to do anything."

"I guess not."

"Listen, if we're talking about my life then guess not is not good enough."

"I'm sorry. I don't know about the law."

"Well I'm not doing that with you. So keep your hands to yourself." I said. Then I imagined what it might be like to have her working in an office; a super attractive woman in an office with guys who might not have a sexual outlet and then a guy touches her and he gets his head cut off. No. I wasn't some loser who had never been with a woman before and she was so beautiful that she made feeling rise in even me. "I'll see about getting your dancing job back."

"As you wish, master."

"You can go." I said in a short tone. She got up and left without turning back. I was not a particularly religious man but I was not going to fuck some girl who had no other choice. That was wrong and I wasn't going to do it. She talked about bringing shame to her family but what about me bringing shame to mine. I'm not one of these people. I'm an Imperial. We don't have sex slaves or prostitutes or nude dancers. Hell for all I knew an Imperial bedding a local girl was illegal here master or no master. But besides the law it was a totally different situation if I happen to meet a girl and she decides she likes me and things happen. I didn't want a girl who had no free choice about it. That was just wrong and I wasn't going to do it. You don't treat other people that way. It would be different if she were a test tube soldier or an eilien or a android built to be a sex doll but she wasn't. She was a human being.

Eilien life forms. Gross. The thought hit me for a moment of how sex between a human and an e.l.f. would even work. That felt really nasty to me. Ew. Their sex organs were more like that of a duck then anything normal. Twisted and evil.

I got up and walked the house just to again look around and be amazed that I lived in a place like this. Wow. It was still so impressive. I wished I could bring my mom here and show this to her. She might not be proud of me with the way I acquired it though.

I walked up to the wall near my bedroom and touched my hand to it.

"Show me Lola." I said. A section of the wall flipped to a video feed of the camera that could then at that moment see her. She had gone to her bedroom and was sitting on the bed looking down. She really wasn't happy to be living here. Well, but what about me. I wasn't happy to be trapped here. I was admiring the perfection of her body when all of the sudden I realized what I was doing and I snapped out of it.

"Call Tsadda." The house acknowledged the command and showed a progress dial as it tried to contact flashy man.

"My friend. My friend. I am so happy to hear from you." Tsadda said as his video came up. He was dressed flashy as ever but in a dress this time and I could see the party in the casino raging behind him. "How do you like my house?"

"Hey, it's my house. You lost her to me fair and square."

"You are right. So true. But she is very nice. I wept when I had to sign her over."

"The house is exceptionally nice. I'm calling to ask for a favor."

"What can I do for you? If it is for another game of poker I will have to defer to another time. In fact I found you. I looked you up. I know. You won some big poker event in the Empire. I found it. So officially I have to inform you that you are no longer allowed to play poker at my casino. No. But all the other games, please come and enjoy."

"The girl, Lola. She wants her job as a dancer back."

"Oh. But you're her master now."

"I know. I'm asking if she can go work as a dancer instead of ..."

"But have you two done anything?"

"Like what?"

"She's a young woman."

"No, but even if we had what does that have to do with it?"

"All my dancers and all my waiters have to be virgins. It's part of the casino's charm. If she has been opened and she comes to be a dancer then the customers will have their hands all over her."

"That's not illegal?"

"Only illegal if she's a virgin or married. Once you take your rights with her then you can work her as a sex worker. Is that what you want to do?"

"I haven't touched her nor do I plan to. She's still a virgin."

"We take this part of things very seriously. You can't just say she is a virgin if she isn't really pure. If a man wants one of the girls at my casino then he has to buy her. I don't rent girls for a night. He has to buy her and then after he has his way with her she can't come back."

"Haven't touched her. Can she have her job back?"

"Let me see how I can arrange the schedule. Maybe she can come back next weekend. But if you touch her you have to tell me right away."

"Don't worry. Say before I go, I don't know about these kinds of workers like Lola is. Do I have some legal obligation to have sex with her?"

"Oh, no. Nothing like that. Did she say that?"

"She said she had to."

"She has to. You do what you want to her. Love her or don't. That choice is yours. Many people are superstitious about it and invent all of these customs but you don't have to follow all that. I don't. You can let her see her family if you want to but I'm guessing she won't until after she has her first child. That's one thing people do. It doesn't apply to me so I ignore it."

"I heard a little bit about your condition."

"Condition? Ha. I am just me."

"In the Empire we have doctors who can fix almost anything."

"My friend I will not take offense but please know I don't need fixing. We have doctors here who could turn me into anything I asked for but I don't ask. I was born this way and I don't need to change. I don't want to get cut down there to become something other than what I was born as. I'm not broken and I don't need to be fixed."

"I'm sorry to bring it up."

"No, I understand. I am living a full life but it is different from what you know so you want to be a friend and suggest help for me. I don't need that kind of help ever. I am me and I don't need to change."

"Fair enough. I can respect that."

"Oh, wait until I tell my sister that I convinced an IMPERIAL to accept me. She did not believe you would sit at the same table as me."

"We're not all that bad."

After the call I retired to my bedroom and I had a long night just laying in bed not being able to sleep. My thoughts went again to Lola just there in the other room. She was so fine. It would be so easy to just call her over to me and then ... NO. I could not just have sex with a girl by taking advantage of my position over her. But now this girl had to live in my house unless I spent more money to get her another place to stay. I felt stress building up in my chest. It was true enough that I could admit it to myself that I wanted her. She acted like she was willing but that didn't count because she was a slave. But other than that she was my subordinate and the service drilled it into you that you could not force your subordinate into a sexual relationship. It wasn't going to happen. It could never happen.

...

In the morning I really needed coffee and amazingly enough when I first woke up it was the smell of coffee that took me from my bed. I came to the kitchen and as I was rubbing the crumbs of sleep from my eyes I saw Lola in an apron. She was following the instructions from the virtual chef. On the counter between the kitchen and the dining room was all kinds of different breakfast foods.

"What's all this?"

"Good Morning Master." she said in a very cheery tone.

"You made all of this?"

"I hope it pleases you master."

In that moment I had two emotions in me. One was a kind of joy. A smile came to my face as I sat at the stool and she presented me with pancakes. The other feeling was guilt. I understood she had to do this as punishment for some crime but she had only been fifteen back then. I thought about all of those other girls with collars working in the casino. All slaves. There sure seemed to be a lot of girls with collars. But then again maybe outside the city there weren't any slaves to be found and I was only seeing a lot because I was in Brazfix city.

"I have good news for you."

"Any news from my master I always accept as good news."

"I got you your job as a dancer back. Tsadda agreed but you can't start again until next weekend."

"Is it so?"

"Last night I spoke with him. Or her this time."

She bounced up and down and then came around the counter to hug me. "Thank you, master, thank you."

"You are not wearing anything under this apron." I said as I put my hands in the air to keep from touching her. I had to do that because if I touched her once then it would be even more difficult to get my hands off of her.

"Of course not, master."

"Well, you are going to from now on."

"As you command, master."

"And another thing. I spent some time last night looking up some information on your working conditions and the law and all of that. Instead of heading off to work I can send you to school to learn a skill. You'll be much more valuable to the community if you have high level skills so you're going to get those. You dance on the weekend and then you study during the week."

"As you command master. Might I say though that I'm not very smart."

"Well you better get smart."

"Uh ... yes master."

"And look, I ... I like tits and ass as much as the next red blooded Imperial but I don't need you to walk around naked. Please just dress normal. I'm not a monster who's going to make you do that." even as much as I would like to cause she was sexy.

She nodded and then stripped the apron off to be fully nude in front of me. She went off to her room to get some clothes on and my eyes could not help but look at her ass as she walked away. Pine. Shutter. Shake. Cough. Too much nudity. Not enough sex. Morning wood. My body jerked and my eyelid quivered. I beat my chest to get myself under control. Then I went back to the food and took a lot at the many choices. I was still eating when she came back with clothes on and then grabbed the apron to put it on again.

"Wait. Just sit and eat with me. Drop the slave and master thing and just be a normal girl."

"I'm not a normal girl."

"Just pretend. I'm not so stuck up about all that stuff. Be your real self for just a minute."

"It's been so long. I don't know."

"She's still in there. Your life isn't over. Just relax and enjoy this amazing food you made."

"I just followed the instructions."

"And you did so expertly. This is amazing."

"Thank you." she said. And then she moved closer to me and hugged me. "And thank you."

"Ok, now is this thank you again for the compliment or something else."

"Thank you for being nice to me."

"All I ask is you return the favor."

She laughed. "That's funny to hear."

After breakfast she cleaned up. I was going to help her but she indicated that she had to do it herself so it would count as her work. I went to the master bedroom and tried to see what space I could use to set up an office. Then I thought better of it and searched the house for another room that would be better for an office. I found one on the same hall where I had told Lola to set up her bedroom. It had a good view and being separate from my bedroom meant I could use the space to focus on work and the rest of the house for pleasure.

It started to rain just before lunch time. I almost didn't notice it at first because the house was soundproof to the outside. However I happened to look over at the courtyard in the center of the house and I was confused about what was happening. It looked like rain was only falling directly over the square canal that went around the square courtyard but none in the center. I went to the door to go out and it was then that I noticed that the courtyard was not actually open air to the sky. There was a transparent ceiling which could not normally be seen at all and I could only see it then as it blocked rain from coming all the way down. The invisible roof sent the rainwater to the side to splash down into the canal. I decided to sit out there in the courtyard and just admire the engineering of it while I ate my sandwich. As I looked around I notice all the beautiful plants. I was going to have to hire a gardener. I wondered what Tsadda used to do. Surely he didn't take care of all of this himself.

"Breaking News!!" scrolled across the wall. "The Imperial Navy repelled a Republic warship from entering Imperial Domain yesterday. No shots were fired. The Republic Ambassador announced that they only wanted to send supplies and aid to Ha in order to prevent a civil war. The Emperor's ministers did not accept the Republics explanation and so ..."

I waved my hand to turn it off. War. That would be bad. Could the Empire defeat the Republic in a war? Of course publicly I'd have to always say yes but just to myself I sort of doubted. Every Imperial man, woman, and child trained for battle from the time we can walk. Any Imperial could easily defeat any puny publican in a one on one fight. But the Republic had so many people, and so many systems, and so many ships. War with them would be like one man fighting a mountain size avalanche of ants. Still we can't just let those assholes with their fake voting and fake constitution and their fake laws that all contradict each other take advantage and do whatever they wanted to do. We had to push back against them. Still it was better to maintain peace and the current status quo than get in a fight with the Republic. For now anyway.

"Wow, this looks so cool. Ahem, master." Lola said as she came out to the courtyard where I was.

And she looked so sexy but I had to keep my mind off of that. "You don't have to call me master."

"I know. You said. And I don't want to displease you but ..." she came closer to me and lowered her head, "If I don't say it then I'll get lazy and if I forget to say it out in public then I can get in trouble"

"Really? Who's going to care?"

"Everyone. As long as I have this on my neck I have to do it. I'm not free."

"Fine. But just so you know I'm not asking you to say that."

"It's ok master. You'll get used to it."

We sat together under the rain and enjoyed lunch. Well, I enjoyed lunch. She was just sitting next to me. We didn't have much to talk about so as a joke I asked her "How's the weather?" She laughed.

The day carried on and I went to my office to make plans for this and research that. I posted a job opening to start hiring local staff for the company. I sent an email to my mom letting her know I was ok and that my business trip would last a long time so maybe I couldn't make it back for the Festival Of Lights. I know most people treat it like just a consumer holiday nowadays but in my family and in my hometown it was a big deal. I wondered if there was anything like it in Brazfix.

I had this moment where I imagined Lola dressed in a red felt dress with white puffs on the seam which was the traditional wear for that holiday season. She would be smiling and playing in the snow outside of my mom's house. I could offer her hot chocolate to keep her warm and then as the night time fireworks were going up I could kiss her and then I could ...