Another part of the hair, the center strands, take back between your lips, sothat you can feel it on the soft interior surfaces of your lips. A portion ofthis same hair take then back against your teeth, and a portion of that back,between the teeth. Now purse your lips and, while remaining kneeling, rise fromyour heels, and lean forward, gently and submissively."
And thus began the training of a nameless slave on the plains of Gor.
In a few moments I thrust her back to the blankets.
"Do I train well, Master?" she asked.
"Yes," I said, "Pretty slave. You are an apt pupil, and you train well."
She snuggled against me.
"It is a tribute to your intelligence," I said.
"Thank you, Master," she said.
"And to your genetic predisposition to slavery," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
A woman's acquisition of slave arts follows a steep learning curve, far beyondwhat would be expected was the template, or readiness, for these arts notintrinsic to her nature. She learns them far too swiftly and well not to be, ineffect, a born slave.
"Oh!" she said, and then I again took her.
This time the slave squirmings of her, though inchoate and rudimentary, wereunmistakable.
"How long has it been since you were a virgin?" I asked.
"A thousand years," she smiled. "I think perhaps ten thousand years."
"Do you feel now less than you were before," I asked, "less important, somehowless significant?"
"No," she said, "I feel ten thousand times more important, more significant,than I was before."
"Virginity, as I understand it, in English," I said, "is sometimes spoken of asthough it might be something which could be lost. In Gorean, on the other hand,it is usually conceived of as something which is to be outgrown, or superseded."
"Interesting," she said.
"What, in English," I asked, "is a woman who is not a virgin?"
She thought for a moment. "A nonvirgin, I suppose," she said.
"This type of distinction is drawn in various ways in Gorean," I said. "Theclosest to the English is the distinction between "glana' and "metaglana. "Glana' denotes the state or virginity and "metaglana' denotes the statesucceeding virginity. Do you see the difference?"
"Yes," she said, "in Gorean virginity is regarded as a state to be succeeded."
"Another way of drawing the distinction is in terms of "falarina', and" profalarina. "Profalarina' designates the state preceding falarina, which isthe state of the woman who has been penetrated at least once by a male."
"Here," she said, "the state of virginity is regarded as one which looks toward,or has not yet attained, the state of falarina."
"Yes," I said. "In the first case, virginity is seen as something to besucceeded, and, in the second, it is seen as something which is conceived of asmerely antedating the state of falarina. It takes its very meaning from the factthat it is not yet falarina."
"Both of these situations are quite different from the English said. "InEnglish, as I see now, interestingly, virginity is spoken of as a positiveproperty, and nonvirginity, in spite of its obvious and momentous importance,and even its necessity, presumably, for the continuation of the species, seemsto be regarded as being merely the absence of a property, or the privation of aproperty."
"Yes," I said. "It is as though the whole spectrum were divided into the blueand the nonblue. Properly understood the nonblue is every bit as real, and iseven more extensive and variegated than the blue."
"Yes," she said.
"It is thus that pathological conceptions, ingrained in common speech, canproduce distorted notions of reality," I said…"I understand, Master," she said.
"In Gorean, as not in English," I said, "the usual way, however, of drawing thedistinction is in terms of "glana' and "falarina. Separate words, these, areused for the separate properties or conditions. Both conditions, so to speak,are accorded a similar status. Both are regarded as being equally real, equallypositive, so to speak."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Sometimes, metaphorically, in English, however," I said, "a distinction isdrawn between the virgin and the woman, a distinction which is almost Gorean intone. Strictly, of course, in English, one might be both a woman and a virgin."
"Do Goreans speak freely of these things?" she asked.
"Free persons do not commonly speak freely of them," I said. "For example,whether a free woman is glana or falarina is obviously her business, and no oneelse's. Such intimate matters are well within the prerogatives of her privacy."
"Such matters, however, I suspect," she said, "are not within the prerogativesof a slave's privacy."
"No," I said. "Such matters are public knowledge about slaves, as much as thecolor of their hair and eyes, and their collar size."
"And my most intimate measurements?" she asked.
"Public knowledge," I assured her, "if anyone should be interested."
"What privacy am I permitted, then?" she asked.
"None," I told her.
"And what secrets?" she asked.
"None," I told her.
"I see," she said.
"You perhaps now understand, a little better than before; I said," What it willbe to be a slave."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Your opening, for example, is not to be kept a secret," I said.
"The blood you smeared on my leg will see to that," she smiled.
"Do you fear the criticism, the derision, or ridicule, of the other girls?" Iasked.
"I fear only," she said, "that I may not have sufficiently pleased my master."
"Excellent," I said.
"As they, too, soon shall fear," she said.
"Yes," I said. I wondered if she knew how truly she spoke. The girls on a chain,once opened and made to serve, usually begin to compete among themselves, andsoon, to see who can serve the masters best, and those who do not enterearnestly into this competition, it might be mentioned, are usually the first tobe fed to sleen.
"I was glana," she smiled. "Now I am falarina."
I put my hand, forcibly, over her mouth. Then I removed it from her mouth. "Suchexpressions," I said, "are commonly to be spoken of, and by, free persons. Theyare not to be applied to slaves, any more than to tarsk sows."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"You were white silk," I said. "Now you are red silk."
"We are not even entitled to the same words as free persons in such matters?" she asked.
"No," I told her.
"I understand, Master," she said, tears in her eyes.
"Even here, however," I said," you will note that both words suggest a similarstatus. Both notions are equally positive, both properties are conceived of asbeing equally real."
"That is true," she said.
"To be sure," I said, "white in the context of "white-silk girl' tends less tosuggest purity and innocence to the Gorean than ignorance and naivety, and alack of experience. "Red, in the context of "red-silk girl, on the other hand,connotes rather clearly, I think, experience. One expects a red-silk girl, forexample, not only to be able to find her way about the furs, but, subject to thewhip, owned and dominated, perhaps chained, to prove herself a sensuous treasurewithin them."
"I am red-silk," she said. "Have me."
"Perhaps," I said. I began to touch her, gently.
"Ohhh," she said, "yes."
"Do you like that?" I asked.
"Must I respond to such a question?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said. "I like it." She closed her eyes. "Oh, yes," she said,"I like it."
"Master," she said, looking up at me.
"Yes," I said.
"More than once tonight," she said, "you have mentioned binding, or chaining."
"Yes," I said.
"I would fear to be bound or chained," she said.
"All the more reason to bind or chain you," I said.
She shuddered.