There is an old law that states that only three slaves may be brought to any gathering by their Slavebreaker. It was necessary — some old priestesses would laugh and share tales of the last solar eclipse on Juno, where there were so many concubines and Labryades that no one could find their equal amongst the crowd. 

The courtyard was white beneath the sun. Magenta banners stretched between the temples, and there were many tables laden with fruit and meat and cakes as tall as I. There was a large statue in the center, a fair maiden with a unicorn at her knee. Eleno stood behind me, indistinguishable in her Labryade armor.

What need did I have to show off to my fellow Slavebreakers? I had accomplished my highest goal. There was nothing that could be sweeter than carting around her soulless body, forcing her to endure the noxious party same as I was forced to.

Slaves in white masks and flowing robes, split down the sides, carried trays across the courtyard. Their backs were ramrod straight, their minds clear and fresh as mountain streams. I took a selection of spirit from one of their trays as Gisal approached me. She gave me a kiss on the cheek, which I was obligated to return.

“Oh, sister!” She did not usually speak to me so informally– our sharing a home planet was hardly important in most matters. “So lovely to see your stern face under the sun yet again. Your armor…”

“Yes, Slavebreaker Gisal?”

“I seem to recall you wore that same set to the execution on Basilisk. Or am I mistaken?”

“Yes, you are correct.”

Gisal paused a moment. She glanced down at the near-naked concubine who hung from her arm. She had two more waiting at her beck and call. “Well, it does suit you.”

“As does yours, Slavebreaker Gisal.” She wore a cone hat with a trail so tall it brushed the cobblestones.

"Sister, when the moon encroaches upon the sun, and all the light dims," said Gisal, "you must dance with me!"

"Why?"

“I am simply so frightened of the dark! I should need your strong, encroaching arms.” She made a motion, a mocking pantomime, grasping her arms around herself.

“You are very funny, Slavebreaker Gisal,” said I, “but I do not dance.”

“I suppose not.” Gisal pouted. “Dancing does not improve your station.”

My sudden flare of anger caused Eleno to jolt behind me.

Gisal looked upon her for the first time. “Sister, you must watch yourself. The priestesses have warned that, after Slavebreaker Aceline–”

“Do not insult me. My control is quite thorough.” Beneath my armor, my friend twitched at the words. Yes, thorough.

A fantasy flitted through my mind: unmasking Jag Eleno for all to see. I would force her to stand naked beneath the statue and compel her to speak — speak of how she was always and forever a womyn, a mistaken womyn, and now she was only a slave. My slave. All of me, she would say, is Slavebreaker Winter. 

If Gisal was so concerned that my control was loose, I would gladly prove otherwise. I would rape Eleno for all to see, finger that freakish clit of hers. Have her humping my sabatons. Stick the butt of my rod in her mouth.

And Gisal, with her painted lids, losing her wicked smile. Her face, whiter and whiter, reduced to sheer horror at the sight. She would know then that Slavebreaker Winter was not a prude. Slavebreaker Winter was worse than that — she was a pervert, a heretic, a disgusting thing that used her Labryades as a receptacle for pleasure. Her sick, sick —

“Slavebreaker Winter.”

I had drunk too much of the spirits.

Before me stood a High Priestess — the High Priestess, I noted with a flush rising to my cheeks. High Priestess Odelgarde in all her silver-haired glory.

My body moved innately to kneel, but she halted me with a hand on my shoulder. “My dear daughter,” said she, “the Highmothers have seen your work, and they are pleased.”

She requested that I walk with her. Of course I assented. The eclipse was starting; the air grew cooler and cooler as she led me to the gardens. My heart raced but I did not speak. It was only proper for her to begin.

I was in the presence of the highest order a mortal woman could be — the Oracle of the Highmothers. Odelgarde spoke to them directly from their temple. Her purity was not just assured — it was a cultivated thing. She'd been bred for her role, and trained meticulously. It took a sharp, blistering mind to withstand the presence of the Highmothers.

 The thought that this womyn had seen the Highmothers in the flesh— what little flesh that remained— was enough to put me in a stupor. Had this hand, which now guided my arm through the gardens, touched the glass shell which housed Highmother East’s glorious mind?

“My daughter,” said Odelgarde, at last. “You have done a great deed.”

As she touched me, I could not help but think of the creature that burrowed beneath my skin. I wondered if it was possible that I could sully her with just my presence alone. Oh, why had I not cut harder? Why had I not dunked myself in acid rather than shame the High Priestess this way?

Odelgarde went on, “Your report has been received by the Highmothers. It was an act of great cleverness and bravery, capturing the rebel leader as you did.”

“I thank you, High Priestess,” I said, “but that is only my duty as your servant. I ought not be congratulated.”

"No, no." Odelgarde shook her head. "It is not just that."

"Whatever do you mean?"

The moon clipped across the sky. We were standing in the midst of a ring of vibrant red flowers. The unexpected dark had them closing their heads. Birds went quiet.

“Slavebreaker, you have single-handedly defeated He-she,” said Odelgarde, “and brought him-her under the wing of the Highmothers.”

There were no words to describe my feelings. All thoughts closed up like those flowers in the darkness. I thanked the High Priestess, and I knelt at her feet. She drew back my helm and kissed my forehead. She kissed my slave, too, with a serene smile on her beautiful aged face.

Odelgarde called an announcement, just before the eclipse reached its zenith. She raised the glass, and told the gathered of my great deed.

"Let us dedicate this day to Slavebreaker Winter," said she. "Our most dutiful servant."

I stood in the center of the courtyard, none too smugly, as those around me burst into excited (or perhaps jealous) applause. I looked over all their heads, and it could not have been better if they were worshiping at my feet.

We all craned our necks and raised our dark glasses. The slaves were kept from the proceedings, a ring of still bodies in white robes between the pillars of the temples. I stared up at the piercing ring of the sun, like a dilated eye gazing down upon us. Juno's aquamarine waters rolled distantly behind the gates. All was silent as I basked in my victory.

Then, someone shot me in the head.

The moon was receding, and all the world was slivered sunlight. There came a high ringing, not in my ears but in my mind. A hole burned in the side of my helm, heat licking at my hair.

"I hope you've enjoyed your entertainment for the evening!"

All my focus was on tearing the thing off my head so that it did not light me on fire.

"I hope you have fattened yourself properly on the blood of our stolen children!”

A slave stood on the dais of the unicorn statue, still veiled and masked, with the stolen ray-gun in hand. The moment it loaded the next shot, she made aim again.

My Labryade was my savior. I fell into Eleno’s arms, and she took the brunt of the next laser in the back of her armor.

The slave threw off her veil, and wild curls swung in the ocean air. "I hope you never have a moment of peace for the rest of your days!"

It was the womyn who had stood with Eleno, so long ago. She was hardly recognizable. The slave garb fell off her, the disguise shirked. She was like some sort of horrid fury of a long-buried myth. Oh, were she not one of us, she would have been beautiful.

“A new age is dawning!” Kasra cried. “Did you truly think you could destroy all resistance? Did you think your advanced instruments were a match for the human spirit? Your control is brittle. We, woman and man, destroy it by living! Your empire will fall,” she said — then, with a sudden, chilling pause, looked me in the eye. “And it will start with her.”

Kasra leapt over the crowd, and unsheathed a sword she had hidden between her legs.

The laser had hit the side of my implant. I tried to get away, but I could hardly stand. I tried to hide beneath the table, and Kasra merely clambered over it, swinging and raving. Juices and frosting like blood and guts sprayed my armor.

All around me, the slaves were unmasking. A rebel plot in the making — playing as mindless servants. They began to grapple with the Labryades, and the world was nothing but blood and metal.

My world of red only made the connection rawer. My slave protected me as naturally as if I were holding out my hands to break a fall. She put herself between me and the crazed rebel. I cradled my head between my knees.

As soon as Kasra whirled, and her sword was pointed at Eleno's heart, she paused. "Jag," she said. "I've come to save you."

For some reason, in the chaos of the moment, my mind fixated on the oddest things. I watched her through Eleno's eyes, her wild gaze that seemed to glimmer with trepidation and tears. Who was she to Eleno? Some fellow rebel, a comrade calling empty words to an emptier shell. 

When Eleno made no reply, the emotion shifted. "How could you do this to me?" Kasra rushed forward, her curved blade through the air. "You swore you would never let them take you!"

Eleno met her strike against the rod.

They began to circle one another. Eleno caught every one of Kasra's strikes, her stance never wavering. Sparks flew in the air. Kasra was relentless in her pursuit.

"You told me you knew a way out!" she said. "Was that a lie? A lie to make me feel better?"

They must have known each other very well.

"You were always so patronizing — always treating me like a delicate little flower. Well, I'm a grown woman! Can't you see that now?"

Through the pain and the panic, I worried that my slave would not survive. She was a brick wall — and Kasra would chip away until there was nothing.

"Remember who you are!" Kasra stared up into the emotionless Labryade mask. "We didn't work so hard for it to end like this."

Who was she? Nobody — there was nobody in Eleno's life but me.

She tried to strike at Eleno's head. Eleno, of course, caught it against the side of the rod. Electricity jolted Kasra, but not enough to slow her.

Kasra pulled back, her stance low and wide. "Remember…" she said between heavy breaths, "the night on the shores of Ucinda?"

Ucinda — the native name of a long-contested planet on the edges of our territory. Did the rebels have a base there? I struggled to imagine what its shore would look like. It was an ugly, shrunken place. Nothing like Juno.

Kasra's voice grew soft. "You promised me then you would follow me to the very ends of the galaxy," said she. "You told me that I was the most important person in the world to you. You told me that you would love me forever."

She was lying. She must've been lying. 

"Jag — are you in there?"

Lay down your sword. Kill her.

Lay down your heart. Kill her.

The slave garment hung from Kasra's body only by a belt of leather. Finally frustrated by the fabric that impeded her motion, Kasra sliced it off. She was wholly naked. She ought to have been dripping in blood on some traitorous altar. "You saved me, Jag. You taught me that life was worth what you make of it, that there was a world beyond the yoke. Jag, I won't leave here without you."

It was as if I had ceased to exist. Beneath the table I crouched, both hands to my head. The strike still sizzled. Blood leaked from my temple and pooled down my nose, into my mouth. My world was only through Labryade eyes, my thoughts only insistent rhythms. Pain is temporary. Kill her.

“Jag, let me see your face.”

Pain is false. Kill her.

Kasra changed her strategy. The sword fell to the courtyard ground, and she came up to Eleno unarmed. Since she was not a threat, my slave did not defend. She was able to reach up and pull the helmet from her head.

"Now…" Her breath against Eleno's breath. Her eyes in Eleno's eyes. "Do you remember me now, boy?"

The rod lowered.

It was as if, through the chaos of the battle, through the statue riddled with laser burns, through the blood that pooled in the chinks in the cobblestones, those were the only two people in the whole world.

"Come back to me…" Kasra's eyes filled with tears.

Death is welcome.

Kasra kissed Eleno. Her naked body pressed against the impervious armor. She kissed Eleno with passion, with desperation, with tears on her cheeks, with pleas flowing from her lips with every intake of breath.

Death will grant you a thousand angels.

Kasra pulled back, and her breath hitched. "Jag… Jag, I'm here."  

Eleno moved. One hand rested against the small of Kasra's naked back. Each bump of her spine raised. Glistening in the sunlight.

Kasra cried and cried. "I knew. I knew those bastards could never keep you down. I knew it —" She swallowed. "I love you."

In response, my slave plunged the rod up Kasra's stomach and out the other side.