Chapter 2

I tried not to shiver as I was led inside the ornate, almost Chinese-style house nestled among identical buildings.

As we’d travelled the last few hundred metres, I’d noticed even more of the seductively dressed women, several of which lingered in the foyer of Daniel’s home.

There were also more bodyguards on the door, one opening it for us as we approached.

Feeling all their eyes on me, I followed Daniel through the entrance way. Jake and Edward came inside with us.

I wondered if I could run. If there might be somewhere else I could go. But where? And what about the document I’d just signed? It had referred to Daniel as the person responsible for me until my debt was paid. If I did try and run, would I just be brought back here?

So many questions.

“Daniel, Yaru is here,” a woman said as she approached. “He’s in the smaller sitting room.”

I caught a glimpse of the room she’d just left as she paused to look me over. The floor was covered in cushions and soft rugs. Here and there a low table sat. There were several more women, most lounging, in the room.

A ripple of chatter started up as more and more of them looked my way. Not one of them tried to hide their curiosity.

I considered staring back, but Daniel ushered me onwards, farther into the depths of the house. We carried on past the sweeping staircase towards another open doorway.

“Yaru! It is so good of you to come,” Daniel said, throwing his arms wide as soon as he was inside the room. I hung back for a moment, knowing this would be my last chance to run if I wanted to.

Looking back over my shoulder only confirmed the futility of such an idea. The two men had closed in behind me. I had nowhere to go but forward. I gulped, my stomach twisting into knots, my mind not able to accept how trapped I was.

“I couldn’t refuse your call for help. Such a gamble. And for such a resurrection.” The speaker came into view as he finished the last word.

I met his eyes and saw a bright sort of delight as he met mine. He was the first of all of them to focus on my face, and only that part of me.

“You must be Auralia,” he said, his double chin wobbling visibly. A large green robe hung over the massive frame underneath.

I nodded, still lingering near the doorway. A smug smile crossed Daniel’s face as he also looked my way.

“I’ve not told her anything yet, but she’s bright. I’m pretty sure she’s worked some of it out already.”

He winked at me.

Never before in my life had I truly wanted to smack someone, but I found myself tensing, almost lifting my arm. How dare he find amusement in my predicament.

Before I could actually react, Daniel left. I noticed Jake and Edward lingered, still hindering any attempt at escape. Yaru caught my look towards them. In response, he gave me a nod.

“Come,” Yaru said, motioning to another small table, a tea service laid out for two on the shiny glass surface. “I can imagine you have many questions. Let me put some of your fears to rest and help you begin your new life.”

“Can you put my fears to rest? Truly?” I asked, trying to ignore the small flutter of hope I felt.

Yaru sighed as he sat down on a large cushion. He motioned for me to do the same on the opposite side.

With nothing to lose by cooperating, I folded my legs and sat. He looked at me for a moment, his eyes more gentle, a sadness within their deep blue for a fraction of a second.

The emotion passed as he looked to the teapot and, without asking, poured two cups out.

“Tell me your fears, my child,” he said, adding a sugar lump to his own cup and stirring it.

“My child?” I replied, allowing my emotion to make me sound far more indignant than I was.

He raised his eyebrows, the only sign I’d surprised him. Rather than replying, he took a sip of his tea.

I was about to answer the initial question and let the comment go when he looked back at me.

“You aren’t a child by your previous standards, no, but, my dear, I’m one-hundred and twenty-three a month next Thursday.”

My mouth fell open. He didn’t look more than forty at most.

“I don’t look it, do I?”

I shook my head as the corners of his mouth twitched upwards.

“New technology has ensured that most humans now live far, far longer than previously possible. I’m hoping to celebrate my six-hundred and sixty-sixth birthday before I leave this world for good.” The smile broadened for just a moment, and then it was gone, his face serious once more. “So, you see, my dear. You are a child by today’s standards.”

I sighed and nodded, finally picking up my tea.

“Many things have changed since you were frozen, and sadly very few of them for the better of the human race. We have a habit of taking all that is good and squandering it. Of letting ambition, pride and greed bastardise the ideas of those with good intentions.”

“So you’re here to educate me on what has changed?” I asked, trying to be patient, but feeling too nervous and worried about what might be my fate to manage it.

“Well, I’m here to educate you, my dear, but sadly not about all the culture and technology you’ve missed.”

It was my turn to raise my eyebrows.

“I hope you read the document they asked you to sign at the cryogenics lab.”

“Yes. Including the bit about Daniel being my sponsor.”

“Sponsor is one word for it.”

“And pimp is another?”

Yaru inclined his head slightly. “Yes, but also no. You do have choices. And you don’t have to become a whore. But…”

Neither of us spoke as he trailed off. I wondered if he was expecting me to ask what my choices were. And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to indulge him. A part of me did. However, he’d just admitted what no one else had been willing to tell me yet. Daniel had paid to heal me and bring me into this world to make money off me.

“Officially there are several jobs you could do to earn back your debt, none of them glamorous. You’re not considered employable by the average company because you’re bound to someone else. Someone who doesn’t answer to a potential employer. And your skills… Well, you’ve missed a lot while you’ve been frozen.”

“So most people aren’t willing to hire me,” I replied, nodding. I’d been warned about that part too. My skills and most of what I’d learnt would be obsolete. That hadn’t seemed an insurmountable problem in comparison to becoming more and more trapped inside my body.

Knowing that didn’t make me feel any better. I was starting to wonder if I’d traded my illness for something far, far worse.

“Most basic labour can now be done by machines, robots, or the poor we already have.”

“So, what are my options?”

“Given the size of your debt…” Yaru trailed off once more, pity filling his eyes.

“What are my options?” I stopped breathing, hoping there was more than one. More than the prostitution Daniel evidently wanted me to choose.

“There are the mines… But the chance of you paying more than your interest without going insane from the heat and lack of sleep... It would be a fate worse than death.”

“Mines? I thought machines—”

“They do, but there’s one substance we now mine on a distant planet. The machines can’t withstand the heat long enough to be financially viable. At least, not compared to the cost of a worker…”

I frowned, feeling my throat tighten, and held back the words I wanted to say. My shaking hands lowered the rattling teacup, trying desperately to hide my fear. When he reached out and took the cup from me, I knew I’d failed.

“Officially, we have to give you the choice. And I am obliged to tell you about the option, but—”

“But no one in their right mind would choose to work in the mines,” I finished for him. He nodded.

“No one has ever been able to pay back a fraction of the debt you owe any way but one.”

I gulped and looked away, feeling my eyes grow wet and my cheeks hot. In front of a complete stranger I wanted to hold myself together, but tears threatened to fall and my strength threatened to crumble beneath me like the walls of a sandcastle when the waves came rolling in.

He topped up my tea as well as his, the sound of his stirring spoon as it scraped along the inside of the porcelain cup almost soothing in its familiarity.

Slowly, minute by minute, I calmed. No one had forced me to do anything yet. I needed more information. Maybe there was a way out of this still. Surely I could think of something.

“When I was frozen, prostitution was illegal almost everywhere,” I said, grateful to find my voice even and composed again. For now, I was in control.

“Yes. And prostitution as you knew it still is very much a sort of… taboo, frowned-upon activity, but… becoming a courtesan is not. In fact women born now, especially among the more poor circles, aspire to become one.”

“A courtesan?” What’s the difference, my mind screamed, but my mouth refused to utter the words. Instead, I put my cup down, desperate to appear calm.

“Yes. Essentially a woman trained to entertain, and please, others.”

“So, a prostitute with a few extra skills.” I didn’t hide my disgust. Yaru merely nodded.

My emotions once more overwhelmed me, but this time I wasn’t upset or afraid. This time I felt angry. My fists clenched and I gritted my teeth. How did the world get so messed up? Why did people sit by and let men like Daniel unfreeze and heal women like me just to turn them into glorified sex slaves?

“And that’s why you’re here?” I demanded eventually.

“Yes. I have become a person trusted in the early education of new courtesans.”

“You teach women how to fuck?” I couldn't help it, my disgust at the idea of having sex with Yaru came through. He'd been kind, but he wasn't attractive.

He didn't appear surprised or offended. Instead, he tilted his head sideways, looking thoughtful.

“My appearance isn't particularly desirable, is it?” His voice was calm, as if he'd asked me about the weather.

“I'm sorry,” I said, the sentiment genuine. I might not like the idea of sleeping with him, but I could have hid my outright disgust.

“You are not the first to react the way you have. I'm obese, and I don't care. But you and I will not be partaking in any particular pleasures of that nature.”

“We won't?”

“No. I am a eunuch, my dear.”

I opened my mouth to question it, but he held up a hand to stop me and continued.

“Do you think I'd be allowed to train brand new courtesans if I could fornicate with them?”

Shaking my head, I looked away. Despite his assurance that I wouldn't be forced into sex with him, my stomach swayed and flipped at the thought of having to do so with other strangers.

Once more, he patiently waited for me to process.

“You will need to learn to push your true emotions aside if you are to survive this, my dear,” he said eventually.

“You assume I’m going to choose this,” I replied, snapping more than I’d intended.

“Do you intend otherwise?” He remained calm, irritatingly calm. It only made me feel angrier.

“Surely, there’s got to be another way. A way I can get away from all of this?”

“You mean run away? Escape Daniel and the sponsorship system?”

I nodded.

“Sadly not. There would be no point. You would be brought right back here by anyone, if worse didn’t befall you. No, I would never aid you in that way. It would be pointless at best and suicide at worst.”

“Then something less drastic. Another way to pay the debt?”

“I always find this part of the conversation with a resurrected difficult. You wish to cling to hope long past the sensible point of doing so.” He frowned. “I’m sorry, my dear. As much as I don’t entirely approve of humanity’s flaws and the way it turns a blind eye to the sponsorship situation, I am as caught up in this as you. I would never get another job again if I taught each courtesan how to leave her sponsor as soon as possible.”

“Then what use are you?” I shouted before I could stop myself.

It’s not his fault, my mind screamed at me as I let out a small growl and got up. But there was nowhere for me to go. The room was small and Jake and Edward remained in place at the door.

I picked up the nearest cushion and hurled it at the wall. It bounced harmlessly back to the floor, but it made me feel better.

A moment later I turned back to face Yaru. He hadn’t moved except to take another sip of his tea. His calmness was now a welcome sight.

“Then you had best teach me what you can,” I said.

“So you have made your choice?” he asked, right after pressing a small silver button I’d not noticed on his robe. “You choose to be a courtesan to pay back your resurrection debt?”

“If the alternative is working in some distant mine that no machine can withstand, then, yes. What choice is it, really?” I raised my eyebrows, noticing Yaru had hit the button again before I’d said the last sentence.

“Forgive me, I had to record you agreeing to this of your own free will. Now that’s done, we can move on.”

“My free will?” I laughed. Yaru didn’t reply, merely looking at me, a mixture of pity and unspoken agreement in his eyes. I let out a sigh, realising he couldn’t answer me. The situation was very clear, however.

I had gone to sleep, my mind trapped inside my body. Now I was awake, trapped in a slavery system disguised as a blessing.