Synopsis: A story taken from the Journal of Lady Zhou Yu, (known to us as Amber) – a slave girl living in the capital city of Thamud. A war currently rages between Talos and Thamud. Amber is a former Chinese military contractor from Earth (Ki) who has been kidnapped and transported to the planet, An. Now transformed into a slave girl, she has been tasked with infiltrating the Qin (the Chinese-like people of An) in order to regain her male body and return to Earth.

Previously: Amber has been trained at the slave school in the ways of a pleasure slave. Sold into the house of a feudal lord named, Gaius, she has proved useful in enlarging his fortune; but at the cost of the good will of his neighbors. Gaius now seeks to annihilate his enemies with fire and famine as his main tools.

Chapter 4 Messengers of the Gods

Dear Reader,

It is eventide and my master has fallen asleep by the fireplace after returning from a week long survey of the fire villages.

The winters of Thamud are bitingly cold but I have refrained from partaking of the warming effects of my favorite rice wine; at least not yet. Why there is so much snow in this desert landscape still eludes me.

When last I wrote in this journal, a decision had been placed before me.

Would I be able to temper Gaius' wrath by joining in his war of terror, or would I betray him; perhaps forfeiting my life and consigning the better part of his fiefdom to unknown retribution. The former was the easier path but which would be the greater act of mercy?

Neither choice required much preparation. Killing Gaius would be as easy as turning one's palm – I would simply slit his throat in the privacy of his study. He had no reason to suspect me apart from my periodic entreaties not to follow his most violent inclinations. This seemed strange to him for he knew that I had killed more people in my short life than all the members of his household combined.

A week before Gaius planned to ignite hostilities, all the servant girls were called upon to prepare the audience room for some unexpected guests. Gaius had indicated that I and two other servants would see to the three visitors he was expecting on an individual basis. We were made to kneel unobtrusively at the sides of the room with refreshments neatly arranged on trays by our sides. As always, I kept a small knife on my person bound to my inner thigh.

At the appointed hour, Gaius led the three guests into the room. He did not take his place on the dais but watched with his head slightly bowed as the leader of the three sat upon the small throne.

They were not dressed in the natural fibers of the nobility of An but what seemed to be the artificial fibers of my homeworld of Ki. They appeared to be men of our great continent but were surrounded by a faint glow emanating from their very beings as if they were made of light.

{My master is keenly interested in my first meeting with the emissaries of the Seven Gods having never met them in person. I will thus attempt to record theirs words as accurately as possible.}

“Lift your head, Gaius. It is wise that you did not hide her and I encourage you to avoid all artifice in our conversation,” the leader said.

“Of course, your holiness,” Gaius answered.

“You will withdraw your men from the cities immediately and commit no more evil.”

“Of course, your holiness.”

“Your greed is unbecoming of one of the nobility. This world is in a perfect balance, and we will not hesitate to amputate any source of corruption. I foresee many hours of moral instruction and contemplation in your future, my son.”

“Of course, your holiness.”

“The female is the source of much of your new fortune and has led you astray. We will now discuss whether she should be destroyed.” Then turning to me the leader said, “I would like your opinion on this.

“I will continue after which you will answer. As a woman of Ki, you should know well that the displacement of a single [electron] or the removal of a single grain of sand could disrupt the entire system; to say nothing of an entire human being. Why have you sought to gratify yourself at the expense of this civilization?”

“I have only tried to survive like everyone else,” I replied.

“That is where you have failed and why you will be chastened,” the high emissary announced dispassionately. “Did you intend to kill the man, Gaius?”

“Yes,” I said. I saw no point in lying. Then a bit desperately I asked, “Will you give me time to learn? Will you give me time to change?”

The emissary looked at me with a blank expression. Looking back, I saw little indication that he was interested in my personal growth.

He continued. “Perhaps you consider us overly paternalistic. We do not deny this; neither do do we intend to change our ways. This world will progress when that progress has been earned. Your own civilization will cease to exist within the next three hundred years. We will not make the same mistake twice.”

With that, they were gone.

Did these acolytes really believe that the medieval society I had found myself in was the ideal form of human civilization? Half the population remained in subjugation to the other, and each day brought more rumors of war, misery, rapine, and death. Was this the best of all possible worlds? I was incredulous at the thought.

Since our first short meeting, I have searched the Qin libraries for more accounts of their visitations. Surely, the acolytes had little interest in the travails of a mere slave girl, but they would not overlook so blatant a violation of the blockade that they had instituted between Ki and An.

The Seven Gods or at least their priests allowed for some wars. They would only intervene if revelation allowed them to foresee that this would disrupt the acceptable peace of the continent. The scholarly among you will know already that there are no discernible patterns to these interventions – neither the size of these wars nor the suffering that ensues seemed to be at issue. The conflagration between the three large states that sit astride the great lakes was permitted, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men and women. Yet a minor border dispute would be deemed sufficiently dangerous for them to intercede. Only the high priests of the Seven were privy to the sacred calendar the gods had laid out for this world.

Any attempt to physically harm the emissaries would have resulted in the annihilation of Gaius' entire household. No building would be left standing and not a single servant or slave left alive. It was truly a kind of divine punishment.

“Were you really ready to kill me?” Gaius asked as I was leaving.

I did not answer him. As I left the audience chamber, I felt myself dissolve into the ether.