Previously: Amber (later known as Zhou Yu) has been trained at a 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 enraging the emissaries of the Seven Gods who have promised to chasten her. She disappears suddenly from Gaius' villa in Albion, and awakes in Thamud where she is sold into the royal household. There she meets her Master and learns of his "secret."

Last night I dreamt I walked in the halls of the Seven again. Here the emissaries are in a constant state of worship and guardians stood silently in rows watching over rivers of mercury. The walls were made of burnished bronze and studded with beryl, rubies, and lapis lazuli; and the pavements lined with silver and gold. The chosen enclosed my body in a sarcophagus of light and instruments more advanced than anything in Thamud or even Talos groaned in the background probing my my soul. My mind was a swarm of thoughts - a myriad realities where every consequence of my actions and inaction played out. I held them in my hands and then lost them as they evaporated into nothingness. I was asked questions which I have since forgotten, and I gave answers which I no longer comprehend. All I know is that I was given a choice.

My Master gave me the slave name, Shasa, when he branded me. He is a creature of habit and tradition, and it is common knowledge that this asserts a master's complete dominance over his property. I can attest to this both during my time in the slave school and with my Master here in the Grand Palace of Thamud. For the natural slave, not having a name and then acquiring one from her master is humbling and erotic.

When my Master first saw me displayed in the souk, he had been filled with lust and thought only of dominating me, which he did. It is an experience that I will never forget and which I still cherish. Months later, I sensed he felt a modicum of regret in enslaving the woman he had grown to love; perhaps he had been persuaded that words of affection and loving action form far stronger bonds then a brand and a collar.

As a soldier back on Ki, my name had been Cheng Yi. Since my days in Gaius' villa, I held a new name in my heart that I would not completely lose myself in the ignominious acts I was made to perform as a servant girl.

One night, as we lay in bed after lovemaking, my Master asked me whether I had a name in the language of the Qin.

“I do, Master,” I said softly. “My name is, Zhou Yu.” This was the first time I had told anyone my real name.

He repeated it a few times, finally managing to get the pronunciation correct. This is the name by which I have come to be known in the land of Thamud.

I told him that he could call me, Xiao Yu, if he wished – a diminutive which means “little fish” in one of the languages of the Qin. He liked that and did so constantly when we were alone. He was even more excited when I begged him to call me Shasha when I was with him in bed that he might better master me and make me yield.

I knew by now that I would never give up the body I now possessed. I had no more use for my bargain with Anais, the dark-haired Talosian spy who I met during my first days on An. The very idea of becoming a man again and returning to Ki had become unthinkable in the space of two short years. Every time I played the wayward slave girl in his bed; every time my Master tamed me and crushed me in his strong arms; every time he took me and brought me to ecstasies - I knew I did not miss my old life.

But then, as predicted by Anais, the Qin found me.

The Talosian empire had reach its present size by absorbing two of its smaller neighbors. It was only a matter of time before hostilities between Thamud and Talos would boil over. There was every sign that the war of words would progress to something more physical. The Talosian border patrols were now larger and more assertive, and the threats from petty satraps were getting bolder with each passing day; as if they knew they had license to make mischief.

All small states learn to consult the Qin in times like these and Thamud was no different. The Qin would provide information, strategies, supplies, and even new and inventive defensive implements in times of need; but they are nothing if not mercurial. My Master, the Crown Prince of Thamud, negotiated with the Qin alone. They came armed with maps and plans of the Talosian border towns; and with suggestions for defending ourselves.

And of course they asked to see me.

I was brought before them in the robes of a royal concubine, whereupon the Qin ambassador – a woman in her forties - promptly informed my Master that I was a spy. My entire history, including much of what I have written here, was then laid bare including my agreement with Anais. They then offered to take me and rehabilitate me in the temples and academies of Emei, in the Flaming Mountains.

My Master would have none of this and replied to them saying, “I trust her completely and I will not let her go. This is my final word on the matter.”

The ambassador replied calmly, “We are sure you have excellent reasons for trusting the girl beside you, Your Highness, but you must understand that she was brought to An explicitly to undermine Thamud not to mention ourselves. Now that a gathering storm approaches, you would be wise to reassess your affection for this woman.

“You have until tomorrow to consider our generous offer. A king should not let a mere slave girl hold captive the fate of an entire kingdom.”

She then proceeded to enumerate the occasions when the Qin's own dynastic kingdoms had fallen when kings were led astray by cruel, duplicitous, or wanton women. As a Qin woman, I knew many of these stories - they were in fact from the historical annals of my homeland on Ki - but what a difference it was to hear these stories from my new perspective. Was my sex truly so poisonous, or were these histories simply written by men?

That night, I told my Master that everything the Qin ambassador had revealed about me was true save one – that I would never betray him or Thamud. I no longer wished to be reacquainted with my old body, at least not any more than he did with his. I would go with the Qin to convince them of my innocence. In exchange, the Qin would assist in the defense of Thamud without qualms.

My Master understood that the Qin could not take a chance with a potential spy in their midst even as they planned to repel the Talosians; but he still resisted the idea of giving me up. He protested and pleaded with me at length but, in the end, he knew from experience that I would have my way. While I looked every bit the innocent slave girl, he knew that I came to him with experience well beyond my years - I was intimately acquainted with deprivation, cruelty, and violence. If my love for my Master was at stake as it was here, nothing would deter me from my course.

“Return to me,” he told me. He held a goblet to my lips and bade me drink, something no master should do for his slave.

[Scribe's Note: The following section has been redacted in the few extant copies of the Journal]

I made love to him, covering his entire body with kisses. His muscular body was a delight to touch and I ran my fingers softly over him making him squirm. The sensation of the ridges and valleys of his firm male abdomen made me hot with desire. I followed the trail of bristly hairs down to his groin and licked his manhood lovingly before proceeding to suck it with abandon. Whenever I sensed he was about to lose control, I would desist and roll his cock over my cheeks and nose; I could not get enough of it. I made sure to let out sighs of pleasure as I did so – it was not difficult, it tasted absolutely delicious. Once he had regained control, I used one of my small hands to massage him eliciting groans of pleasure which filled the room. My fingers were dwarfed by his stout tool, a fact which never ceased to amaze me whenever I had a chance to worship it as a slave girl.

Then I felt his hand in my mane pulling me off; he could wait no longer. He lifted me with the ease of one lifting a small kitten. So small was I in his arms. He had not touched me but already my nipples and lower lips were swollen with lust. Then suckling desperately on my breasts, he let me fall decisively on to his penis, filling me to the brim. We thrusts against each other as I wrapped my thighs around him for leverage. I assure you there is nothing which a man experiences in love that can compare with this – the feeling of being filled with the pulsating flesh of your Master; his lips nipping and pulling at your teats; and the glorious friction of his body against your nub. I lost control and orgasmed twice while still impaled on him.

Then still within me, he flipped me over My posterior was now lifted towards him as it was on our first night together. He slapped my flesh lovingly - I knew he liked the way it briefly wobbled - and began to take me from behind. I was left sucking my fingers to prevent the volumes of my screams from getting any louder. Then with two firm thrust, he ejaculated and filled with me with his warm cream. Like a trained passion slave, I gripped him tightly with my nether muscles and massaged his member. By now, we were both covered with a sheen of fine perspiration; I was still gasping when he fell forward lightly on to my back and started licking my ears and neck, and playing with my breasts.

We remained like this for several minutes before he softened and slowly withdrew from me. Then as if reminded of something, he straightened up while holding me in that position of submission. I felt his fingers on my labia pinching them close, then felt myself flipped on to my back as my legs and pelvis were lifted upwards to ensure my womb would be inundated with his offering. I should have suspected that something was amiss, but my eyes were shut tight and I was still lost in the fading ripples of my last orgasm. It was only 6 weeks later when I missed my moon cycle that I recalled this strange ritual.

[Scribe's Note: Lady Zhou's journal continues.]

Thus I left Thalmud both a contented woman and miserable one.

On the morning of my departure I was dressed to look like any of the other servant girls in the halls of the Qin. My hand was pinned up in an elaborate coiffure. I had been given a loose diaphanous silk dress typical of an ancient dynasty from Ki and [huadian] make-up applied to my forehead.

I could see that my master was surprised to see me dressed in this fashion. He was probably wondering why I had never dressed like this for him before. The answer being that I would not have known where to begin in the first place; my sole expertise being in the slave tunics and dresses of the women of Talos and Albion. Everything had been arranged that morning by the two servants who traveled as attendants for the Qin ambassador.

I knelt before my master one last time but he lifted me up to my feet and hugged me reminding me in whispers not to forget my promise to return to him. I was then ushered into a waiting carriage. It would take us nearly a week to reach the Flaming Mountains.

I sat alone with the ambassador; she did not seem especially concerned that she sat opposite a former Talosian spy with a history of violence.

As if she read my thoughts she said, “Don't be surprised my dear, didn't you protest your innocence just yesterday. And wouldn't killing me in this carriage destroy all that you hope to accomplish?

“Let me see your face, dear,” she said pleasantly, holding out her fingers to lift my chin, turning my face slightly. “And now your hands, if you will. I will need some of your blood.”

A few drops was all she needed for the two small tubes she produced from a wooden carrying case. Upon contact with a few drops of my blood, the clear liquid in one of these tubes slowly turned red, while the other turned blue.

“Thank you. Now that I've ascertained that you do in fact come from Ki and were once a man we can continue our discussion as we make our way to Emei. Do you prefer to speak in Mandarin? I have studied the vernacular Mandarin of Ki from other visitors to this world, and wouldn't mind some practice. You may call me Diaochan.”

It was a clearly a false name for no Qin woman would have the gall to claim that appellation. Diaochan was one of the four legendary beauties of ancient Qin, and while my interlocutor was certainly beautiful - looking at least 5 years less than her actual age – one wonders if she was truly worthy of being named for someone who brought down the the greatest despot and warrior of her time.

“The process which you have just witnessed analyzes the humors in the air which surround each city of the continent. From this we can tell in which parts of this world you have stayed longest. As you know, the Seven gods have chosen to keep this place a backwater of knowledge and alchemy but they have tolerated these minor advances in biochemistry.

“We know much about you but would like to know more. I will divulge what knowledge has come to us after which you will answer whatever questions I have. I am sure you will be cooperative; Gaius tells us you were an obedient girl during your time with him. Except for the part where you almost killed him, of course.

“As you must have guessed by now, we have known of you ever since they day you were brought to An by that dear lady of Talos, she of the dark hair and miserable sense of humor. She sometimes goes by the name of Anais. The servant girl who tended to you on your first day was one of ours and she gave you everything you needed to survive in this world.

“Don't look so shocked. Did you think you resisted the slave serum because of some innate ability of yours? I'm afraid the science of the serum has been perfected and its effects quite reliable. I do not doubt you have a strong will but that would only get you so far in the face of the perfection of that science.

“Do not look so downcast, your efforts have not been completely wasted. If nothing else, think of what you have done for the kingdom of Thamud.

“And why have you taken me only now?” I asked, guessing already at the answer I would get.

“Could we have judged your character better if we had taken you earlier? As for why, well, perhaps we are not completely sure that we can trust you not to return to the Talosians and their promised rewards. We are ever cautious in our ways, though my servant girls have intimated to me that you would not consider becoming a man again any sort of reward. Judging from the way you've enjoyed dressing up and the way you comport yourself, you have truly become a woman in every sense of the word.

“Perhaps I should strangle you here and prove otherwise.”

She clicked her tongue and said, “That would hardly prove your lack of femininity. In any case, have you not considered that you are of greater value to us as the Talosian spy you once were? I am sure that scheming little brain of yours has worked it all out. It is one of the reasons why you agreed to join us on this trip to Qin, is it not? In this you will serve the cause of the prince of Thamud and that of revenge if you so wish. Yes, I think you will prove quite useful in the grand scheme of things.

Six months ago I left my happiness in Thamud behind to enter the service of the Qin. At the time, I feared it would be forever. For three months, I served the Qin and sought to prove my loyalty to them and to Thamud.

While the Qin believed that man was by nature good, they also took very much to heart selfish human nature. It was already in the nature of the Qin to help small states overcome aggressive large ones in times of war. It was their way of managing the peace in An. They had lost track of me when I disappeared from Gaius' villa and their worst fears were realized when I reappeared on the arm of the crown prince in the palace of Thamud.

To the Talosians (if they even had knowledge of my sojourn in Thamud), I was simply a little girl lost found by her own kind. As for the Qin, once a presentable amount of time had elapsed and I was firmly established as a servant in the Qin palace, they would proceed to feed Talos whatever information they desired. Their advantage in information was everything in this game.

I was made a servant girl to the youngest daughter of the Qin emperor – the Third Princess called Pingyang; that name presumably chosen that she might draw inspiration from her famous historical forebear. She was a very well behaved and precocious woman of sixteen who cultivated a reputation for frivolousness and naivete; all this to shield her from the machinations of the Qin court and her power hungry siblings. Writing now in the comforts of the women's tower in Thamud, one wonders whether the Qin ambassador had hoped I would form a bond with the Princess while in her service, for this I surely did. Even now we exchange letters detailing our experiences while leagues apart. Her kindness during my short tenure in the Qin mountains has emboldened me to help her in any way which might improve her standing in the Qin palace.

As part of my duties, I was sent on delivery trips first to small villages and then to the larger cities on the continent. They made me do the rounds of the various Qin communities and merchants which ran businesses in all of the capital cities. On my first trip to Albion, I finally made contact with the Talosian spy network and promptly handed over whatever paltry information I had, allowing them to put pressure on me to deliver something more substantial.

Soon I was communicating the internal gossip of the Qin courts. Nothing was left out, including the power struggles in the inner court reserved solely for women. Finally, I began to ladle them major revelations about troop compositions and readiness but always leaving out critical pieces of information, thus painting an incomplete picture of Thamudian strength and placements; breeding overconfidence and hubris. The Qin and I did all we could to make them ill-prepared for a long siege.

But it was not always this way; most of my days were spent in the company of the Third Princess and tending to her needs. She had clearly been informed that I had a way with violence for she would often smilingly remind me me not to be too quick to pull out my weapon whenever we found ourselves in any crowded spaces.

I had been in her presence barely three days, before she told me that I was the strangest serving girl she had ever had in her few short years on this plane. She said I was very beautiful and even seductive in my movements, but it was as if I had never really been taught how to be a woman. Then touching my hair she wondered aloud, “What a strange childhood you must have had, Zhou Yu.”

She quickly apologized and said that she had no right to judge someone who didn't have the advantages that she had; and that there was no single way a woman should act. But it was clear that, from that day, she had secretly undertaken to teach me how a lady-in-waiting of the Qin court should act and to interest me in more feminine pursuits.

She would take time each week to visit the forests of stele and take rubbings from the many inscriptions there, after which we would practice calligraphy together and recite poetry first in her tongue and then in mine. Deeper still in the mountains, are the distant cousins of the Qin known as the Balhae who have constructed gargantuan woodblock libraries dedicated to the teachings of the dark god of enlightenment whose cult can be found throughout the continent. I spent two days here in the company of my mistress, not understanding a single word as she conversed with the monks behind screened compartments. I have wondered since whether this too was part of the Qin network of spies.

In my two years on An, I had mostly been in the service of men or engaged with other women in servicing them. This was the first time I had been ensconced in a community of women concerned only about their own thoughts and desires. When I returned to Thamud and my beloved after the space of three months, he did suggest that I seemed somehow different. I simply smiled and turned away to speak with his mother and sisters, showing them the gifts I had brought for them from the land of the Qin.