The Slave Monologue

He considered everything that had happened in the last few minutes. She acknowledged the queen's viscous humor and intention to keep things as they are. Yet he didn't believe that really mattered to her. Her stated belief that pain didn't matter was a clear expression that and more of her numbness to the horrors she'd been exposed to. He'd told her about his friend and she'd asked the boy's name. His breath caught. He looked at her and said, “Though I have not said his name aloud in all these years in memorium of our friendship. I think he'd understand this situation and approve. His name was Marco and he was nine. He was just a boy from the village and so my grandfather saw only a commoner. I've long since come to scorn that mentality though. For years after I reach my majority I looked for him and never found him. Though with the slave trade being what it is, I suppose that's to be expected.

“I suppose my frustration at what happened to him and my later inability to help him, even after I was grown and had my own funds, is what caused me to do the things I've done. Well, it was a start of it anyway. Then as I began to give shelter to freed slaves I heard their
Now as I said, self sacrifice is only one consideration and not even the most common one. Intent of my partner. Like our young and lovely maid there, if a woman is aware of herself and makes her own choices and chooses to be with me for the fun and companionship, that is a decent charge of aethor. A wife who is infertile and comes to me to open her womb, she is making a personal sacrifice and her intent is for others, her child to come. The aethor I'd receive from her is like a bonfire next to a candle. A woman who comes to me from her own caring and affection of me is still more pure intent and still greater aethor. If that person is a virgin, that much