Silk on Steel

I am Lilly Merry Lassana de Orchid, courtesan-in-training. I belong to Orchid Manor, which is placed on the rural side of the city. I live a life some girls and boys dream of and others have nightmares of. The glittering smooth world that I will belong to after I cater to my first client will be my home forever. It is a prospect that I am resigned to, after all the life I might have had is a lot worse.

I was the second daughter of the chief of the Evans clan in the barbaric highlands of Scotland. The Evans clan place no value on their daughters unless they are beautiful, at the age of ten years old I was definitely not the picture of grace and beauty. I was pudgy and short with mottled skin, courtesy of the cruel, cold wind. My mother called me Lily and my father didn't call me anything; he hated the sight of me. My sister Petunia also hated me. Since she was quite comely at the age of twelve she had the right to make me do menial tasks such as picking nettles to make into a cream to make the occasional spot that appeared on her otherwise white skin disappear.

On my eleventh birthday I was working diligently on such a task and I had wandered near a dirt path. On that fateful day the Mistress of the Houses was riding in her carriage to visit family and she saw me. She had a keen eye for beauty and she saw me as an ugly duckling. She stopped the carriage and I tried to run away, but she calmly asked one of the soldiers traveling with her to catch me and bring me to her.

I was running as hard as I could to go home and warn my mother of the coming invaders, for I saw them as a threat to my home. I tripped and as I hit the ground my cheek was cut. The soldier caught up to me and lifted me clean off the ground, grunting with the effort. He trotted back to the carriage and deposited me in it.

I looked around the carriage with wonder. I had never seen such comfort and beauty in my life. It was all red velvet and gold. I looked up at the mistress herself with wide eyes. She was looking me over with hawk-like eyes. She was beautiful. Golden curls tumbled down her back and shoulders and deep chocolate brown eyes graced her porcelain face. She had a sky blue dress on that was made of fabric that looked so soft compared to my tunic. I found myself reaching out to touch it, but she slapped my hand back absently. I whimpered and folded my hands neatly in my lap. I felt the coarse, rough fabric underneath my hands. Escape didn't occur to me as the carriage rumbled on.

She smiled and said "Little girl, what might your name be?" Her voice was melodic and enchanting and I replied "Lily Daggerbit from the Clan of Evans." She pursed her lip softly and said, "Ahhhh the Clan of Evans." She knew they didn't value their daughters and they didn't truly know a prize when they had one, but she was no barbarian and so she offered me a choice, "Would you like me to take you back to your family or do you want to go to a magical place with me where people will love you?" I was already enchanted by the mistress as many others were and so I made the decision that would change my life. "I want to go with you!"

She turned the carriage back from the relatives she was going to visit and we made the long journey down to the city. A week went by filled with new sounds and scents and places. She took me to England and for the first time I slept on a feather mattress and wore a dress. The whole time the Mistress taught me basic manners and hygiene. She told me I would be given to another Mistress for further tutelage, but I was too enamored of this new world to care. I was excited and eager for more.

We arrived at the Flower court and I gasped in delight. The mistress glanced at me and smiled as I threw my head out the window and gazed at the sight before me. A picturesque village that was clean and neat greeted my view. Villagers worked here and there. Shouting their wares and busily going to and fro. There was a hum of happiness in the air. The weather was different here. Flowers decorated the village and a summer sun shined down on the perfect cobblestones. It was warm and smelt faintly of mint and orchid. The carriage made its way up to beautiful stone wall with carvings of fabulous creatures and beautiful gods making merry. A golden gate opened up before the carriage and we found ourselves in the middle of large circular driveway. It was shaded by many tall trees and golden sunlight made its way to strike on six signs that were beside six ways that led from the circle. The signs in flowing script read; Orchid, Acacia, Rose, Celsia, Jessamine and Mezeron.

I felt fear at the names for they struck a chord inside of me. "What will happen to me here?" I asked the mistress. "You will find love." She talked to me no more after that. The carriage made its way down the road that read Orchid. We arrive before a cream colored mansion with large window surrounded by orchid flower. I jumped out from the carriage and looked around curiously, all fear gone. The Mistress alighted from the carriage with the grace of a swan and took my plump hand in her own delicate one and we walked up the marble steps leading to the door. A boy that I thought to be a statue carved from golden-brown wood opened the door and I gasped and stared at him as the mistress led me through the door. He was the most beautiful boy I had seen with jet black hair and eyes. He was about two years older than me at the time and would soon become my riding teacher and friend.

I passed through the golden hall and was led to a small room that appeared to be a study by the Mistress. A woman looked up from her desk and smiled a smile that lit up the room. She lifted herself from her chair and hugged the Mistress and cried, "Eillian I missed you so much!" The mistress smiled and hugged her back "My goodness I missed you also Elanne!" I began to notice similarities between them such as their eyes and facial structure. They were definitely sisters. "What have you brought me from the highlands?" Elanne said to Eillian as she looked me over after pleasantries were done. "I found her on the side of the road and I think she had great potential and I felt that Orchid house would accommodate her very well." Eillian smiled at me as she said this. Elanne looked at me and said "Eillian you can definitely find a jewel, this girl could be the best of us all! Underneath everything she had some of the greatest potential I have seen in a while. At the moment she is not much, but with the proper care and diet she would be matchless!" The Mistress Eillian smiled and said "You can have her, my own house is already full, but you will owe me a favor." "Of Course my dear. Now I am sure you are tired and want to go back to Rose and I will meet you for dinner tonight."

That was it, the deal was done. I was no longer Lily Daggersbit of the Clan of Evans, but Lillian Merry Lassana of Orchid house. I was hustled off to a suite of light yellow rooms and my training was started. I was discouraged at first because everyone else was beautiful while I was ugly and strange. No one had red hair and grey eyes like me. Mistress Elanne personally looked after me. She had me do much exercise. Every day I was subjected to four hours of running, jumping exercises and tumbling. I was allowed outdoors only on warm windless nights. My mottled skin settled down to an alabaster white and my body grew another couple of inches and thinned out. The planes of my face became prominent and my thick frizzy bright red hair darkened. I was taught horse riding, dancing, etiquette, reading, writing and the art of knife wielding. It was one of the secrets of Orchid house; the lowly art of knife wielding, but it was necessary. I made friends with the boy who had opened the door for me all those year ago. His name was Erik Zabini and he taught me to ride and ride well.

Erik and I banded together against the other boys and girls of the house as they teased and jeered us. We made quite a pair. Me, the strange looking girl from the highlands and him, the beautiful exotic boy with fire in his eyes. We often talked of our futures and it was from him that I first learned what Mistress Elanne was training me to become. I remember that conversation well. I had been sitting on a bale of hay in the stabled blowing frizzy dark red hair across my face and picking at the linen shirt and trousers that I had to wear riding. Since I was only allowed outside on windless nights the moon shone down on Erik as he sat across from me with his back leaning on the mahogany wood stable door. I was thirteen at the time and he was fifteen.

"Erik"

"Yes?"

"Why are we here?"

"What?"

"O come on! You haven't stopped to think why we are being trained in all these manners and why everyone and everything here is beautiful and why we're not allowed outside of these grounds? How come Mistress Elanne wants to turn me into a beautiful swan, as she so eloquently puts it? Why are the older people here all secretive about what they are learning late into the night?"

He blinked at me and was silent for a moment. I didn't know that just the night before on his fifteenth birthday he had been initiated into those night time lessons. I knew he knew something though.

"Please tell me Erik! We've been friends for a long time and now, more than anything I need to know what I got myself into when I left the highland!"

He looked me straight in the eye and whispered "The world of Courtesans"

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I stand here now on my sixteenth birthday and know that Mistress Elanne is trying to make me into the likes of a courtesan to shake the city of Donavue. She has personally taught me the art of pleasure, giving and receiving. I look into the mirror standing in front of me and think. Erik is catering to a client at the moment in the west wing of the house. Jealousy rises up in me, but I force it down. I have a slight infatuation with Erik. I shake my head and stare at my reflection instead. My hair is still frizzy and dark red, but I have completely changed other than that. My face is no longer round, but a perfect oval. I have very high cheekbones that make my eyes slant slightly, but it gives me an exotic look. Long, dark arched eyebrows delicately adorn my face while long thick eyelashes frame dark grey eyes. My skin has achieve an impossible marble like glow and my body has great strength hidden beneath the smooth skin. Muscles jump in my thigh as I shift my weight. I sigh. All I really feel like doing is reading a book in the library or riding my horse in a bright sunny field. I have not been in the sunlight for years now, but Mistress Elanne says that I can venture out now because my training is finished. I am about to be introduced at a ball to other people beside those of Orchid house.

I turn around quickly as I hear the door open. It is Mistress Elanne. She curls her rosebud mouth into a smile and says "Now, it is truly time to make you into a swan!" A laugh makes it way up my throat. I am always amused by the way Mistress Elanne seems excited about everything. She raises her voice slightly and calls for her personal maids. They arrive in and curtsy and then firmly walk me to the bathroom. Elanne sat on the gilded and overstuffed chair and started directing the maids.

"Clara darling go pick out a dress, yes Lilly a dress and don't give me that look. Now Clara, Lilly never wears dresses so I suggest you go to my wardrobe and take a gown out one that compliments Lilly's coloring."

I blanched at the thought of a dress. I was probably the only one in all the houses that never wore a dress and managed to get away with it. My mind disconnected and wandered. I was still a virgin and I knew that Elanne wanted me to find a client that would be suitable at the ball for my beauty. She was suggesting the Lord of this and the Count of that, but for some reason I didn't like the sound of any of them. All of the nobility of the Donavue city state would be there, but I couldn't think of anyone. Mistress Elanne's other maid was doing something with my hair and I sighed as she pulled at it and applied some sort of serum. I saw Clara in the mirror and she was setting out something billowy and silver. A chair was brought for me and I gratefully sank down into it and fell asleep. It was in one of the lessons that I had been taught by my etiquette tutor. How to fall asleep with my back and neck straight. I could feel myself being poked and prodded and then I heard the door open.

My eyes flew upon as I heard Erik's voice. "Lilly?" "Yes?" I said in the low musical tone that I had been taught to use. He walked into the bathroom and gave a small bow to Mistress Elanne who nodded at him and continued reading a piece paper that had probably been delivered to her sometime when I was asleep. He saw me and gasped. I glanced at the mirror and nearly erupted in hysterics. My long frizzy dark red hair which was normally kept hiding my face was smooth and slightly curly. My mouth was painted with something slightly silvery and the maid had manage to slip the dress on somehow and was currently lacing some painful looking silver shoes on my feet. I stood up and the maid drew away quickly.

Erik had his hand over his mouth and mumbled "Elanne was right. You will bewitch them all." I smiled at him and blushed. Mistress Elanne looked up and smiled very widely. "You will indeed Lilly." Her eyes changed to a look that I tried to read, but I gave up. "Erik, Clara, Patey would you please leave me and Lilly alone." They left and Erik winked at me. I blushed again. A blush that didn't go unnoticed by Mistress Elanne. She sighed and said, "Despite all that you have been taught you are still naive in the ways of real men. No matter though, it shall charm well indeed." I opened my mouth to say something, bu she held her hand up "Before you leave to this ball I must give you heed of one you should stay away from." She shuddered and looked down at the piece of paper she had. "He is the King of a rival city and is here on invitation of our King. His name is James Potter. King James Potter. It is said that he is the most handsome man on the planet and bewitches and uses women everywhere. I can't have my prodigy fall into his hands. Now that is my only warning. If you see him, turn the other way. No doubt you shall catch his eye so I give you these." She handed me two blue steel knives. I put them up my sleeves and said, "I shall watch out for him mistress". "Good. Now off you go. There is an Orchid carriage waiting for you down at the gate.

I walked slowly out of the room and down the Orchid receiving stairs with unmatchable grace. Erik joined me and said, "I'll be your escort for this one." I smiled delightedly at him and my hear beat a little faster. We entered into the carriage and rode towards the circle.

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