Disclaimer: Paragraph 2 (6 words) belongs to Susan Kay. Only the events herein are mine. No copyright infringement to Kay, Leroux, et al is intended!

Cool silence hummed in Erik's glaring white marble apartment. Eunuchs, officer and musician all waited in a perfect, poisoned hush for a young girl to obey the deceptively simple order that would decide her fate.

Come forward and remove my mask.

She would – or could – not. She remained prone and trembling on the floor beside the eunuch who had tossed her there like a rag, her position one of submission but her very failure to rise an act of unintentional defiance.

Erik waited for the girl to calm herself, but his patience proved to be in vain. The child grew more distraught with every passing moment. He had seen enough hysterical females to know that she would be beyond help if the room's stifling atmosphere did not change soon.

Come to think of it, he was not inclined to cope with it much longer himself. All these obsequious insects with their lying, prying faces, drinking in every malicious detail, vying to be the first to go creeping to the shah and tell him every tidbit…save Nadir, he hated them all!

"Be gone."

The three huge eunuchs blinked in surprise at Erik's sudden command, but did not dare to make a sound. Any noise emanating from their throats might have been construed as a contradiction that could easily result in their deaths.

Nadir evinced no emotion at his order, which did not unduly surprise Erik. Since his son's untimely death, the imperial servant had shown absolutely no enthusiasm for any aspect of life. Food…sex…women…power…

As he watched the only human friend he had ever had stand with his face blank and his jaw impassively set, Erik felt even more wretched. Ever since he had thwarted God and Mother Nature's timeframe for an innocent boy's departure from this cursed Earth, Nadir had been cool and detached, respectful and refined.

It made Erik want to scream.

He would much rather his friend had made for him with a dagger, tried to strangle him for ending Reza's life…cursed him for the murderer he was…anything would have been preferable to this veneer of civility he had shown Erik this last month.

"I believe I just gave a clear order," Erik snapped, his slender patience diluting by the second. Long ago, he had sworn that no hand would ever remove the mask save his own – indeed, that any hand that attempted to do so would not long remain attached to its owner's body. He could scarcely believe he had told the girl to unmask him in front of all these contemptible toadies. What had he been thinking?

"And when you leave, keep your distance," he continued. "I will have no greedy ears to my door, and no peering eyes at the keyhole. If anyone disturbs my evening, I shall be forced to abandon my charming guest, seek out the shah immediately and tell him the identity of the wretch who did not respect him enough to allow me to enjoy his munificence in privacy. Is that understood?"

It must have been, for the eunuchs only stayed long enough to ensure that their bows were as low and scraping as possible before turning and fleeing the quiet, luxurious apartment.

Erik turned to address his erstwhile friend.

"And one other thing – I expect absolute privacy regarding the details of

tonight. No one is to importune either myself or the girl about her time with me. Such an attempt would be both tactless and fruitless, as neither of us will satisfy any unseemly curiosity. Do I make myself clear, daroga?"

"Perfectly clear, sir," Nadir said evenly. "But I hope you realize that my influence, such as it is, does not extend to the harem, which is entrusted by the Shadow of God to his glorious lady mother."

"Duly noted, daroga," Erik said wryly. "I wish you a pleasant evening."

"Good night to you, sir. Peace and joy be with you both."

Nadir placed an arm across his waist and coolly inclined his head to Erik, then turned and nodded to the odalisque. She gasped softly in surprise at his courtesy to a slave and then bowed low to him, her palms flat on her thighs. She straightened up when she heard the door close softly behind him, but remained on her knees in front of Erik.

He studied her carefully. Although her position on the cold marble floor must be as painful as it was demeaning, she clearly would not rise unless or until he repeated his order for her to do so.

The girl had made a valiant effort to calm herself. She was obviously still terrified, but the glistening remains of tears on her pale cheeks were the only physical testimony to this. He was relieved to see that the hysteria that had threatened to engulf her, and consequently him, was now gone.

"Please stand."

As he suspected, she obeyed him immediately. Acquiescence to his will usually mollified Erik's disgust and resentment towards much of mankind, but now it just ate at his stomach.

He despised that greedy, smirking little shah and his smug slut of a mother for subjecting him to this humiliation. No less in front of a silly little girl who would clearly chatter all about him to her cronies in the harem even if he ordered her to remain silent. Once she was out of his reach and back in the pampered, powdered world of the seraglio, how could he find out what she said, much less stop her?

"Are you yourself again, my dear?"

An odd way to phrase the question, Erik thought. He had no idea who or what she was - not even her name.

"Y-yes," she stammered. "I am very grateful, master."

A fresh swell of annoyance washed over Erik. Did the girl think he would string her up if she failed to observe every ludicrous court practice that the spoiled shah insisted upon? He didn't want her bumbling, insincere thanks any more than he cared for the ridiculous noun with which she had followed it.

"I am not your master, and you will not use that word again in reference to me."

She bit her lip and closed her eyes in dread. Erik knew instantly that she wanted to ask a question but was terrified of what he might do or say if she spoke out of turn – or at all. This knowledge caused him a bitter, icy surge of melancholy.

What else could he expect? He had threatened to rape the girl in front of the eunuchs and then throw her out to be killed if she made one slight misstep. His reputation, even in this lethal court, was one of unparalleled, absolute violence and depravity. He had never taken the slightest steps to correct or change these impressions, partly out of indifference to public opinion but mostly to protect himself.

Erik could only imagine how these fabrications must have swelled like balloons filled with noxious fumes as they floated through the palace. By the time they reached the cloistered curtains of the harem, they must have been positively legendary. The stories told to this girl were probably as gory and fantastic as any he had ever enjoyed reading or weaving himself.

She lived in a world of deceit. How was she to know that the majority of what she heard about him was likely exaggerated, or that he had never touched a woman at all, let alone in anger?

"I will not harm you, child," he could not help but tell her quietly.

The raw, vulnerable hope that sprung to her face wrenched him yet again, but also gave him hope that she might not dissolve into a weeping ruin after all. She might not be able to believe his assertion, but at least she wanted to.

"You may speak freely," he continued. "I assure you, my dear, I will immediately answer any query that will assuage your fear during your…sojourn in my quarters."

She gulped, and he saw gratitude in her lovely dark eyes as she asked her question.

"How shall I address you, please?"

Erik shrugged his shoulders, not really caring. "You may call me monsieur, if you wish."

"Does that mean 'sir' in your native language?"

He nodded. The girl smiled nervously, clearly intent on pleasing him. "I like it. As you wish...monsieur."

Behind his mask, Erik's eyebrows raised at the expert way the new, heretofore unknown word slid from between her lips. He wondered if her mouth was as accomplished in physical caresses as it was in foreign linguistics, and then shook his head ruefully at his ribald train of thought. He tried to bring his mind back to safer ground with a mundane statement.

"Do you know, no one has ever called me 'monsieur' before. I was a child when I left France. Since then, I have travelled through lands where other languages are spoken."

The girl's face, calmer now, was a mask of polite interest. No matter - she'd be screaming again soon. Though he wasn't going to touch her – at least not yet.

"Now we must move to another pertinent manner."

"What is that, monsieur?"

Erik dreaded of the moment to come, during which she would surely shriek or faint. The sun was going down, and he knew that darkness would exacerbate the horror that must inevitably accompany his unmasking. Also, hope hesitantly whispered from the back of his mind, maybe the magic sunset hues of vermilion and aqua, violet and gold flowing through the huge open windows would dull the pain of his unveiling a little – at least for her.

He knew he did not have to reveal his face to the girl...but now that the loutish eunuchs were gone, he could not ignore a small voice inside him telling him to risk it. It was the gossiping troglodytes' presence he had objected to, and now that they were gone, the mad impulse to show himself to her remained. He was never one to do things by halves...and he could only accept the girl's favors if she in turn took him as he was. The urge rose within him to take the chance.

"I will remove the mask myself and give you fair warning before I do, but I insist that you look upon me before…or if I…have you."

She stared mutely at his shoes, and Erik was again struck by the deep, inexplicable insight that she had something she feared to tell him.

"Unburden yourself, child…nothing you can say while we are alone will result in trouble, as long as you are honest. Speak your mind, and then you shall savor the treat of looking upon my handsome face."

She had to look away from him, and her voice was a tentative whisper. "I have already seen your face, monsieur."

Erik stiffened. His eyes widened, then narrowed in resentful suspicion. "Explain yourself."

Her tongue fell over itself, terrified again that she had angered him. "Monsieur, it is only…I beg your…I was hidden on the upper balcony of the harem the day you revealed your face to my lady khanum."

Erik relaxed, regretful that he had frightened the child again. Was it her fault that that arrogant arachnid had made him strip off his mask in front of her pack of armed monkeys?

The tears that coursed anew down her pale face cut him – but they also intrigued him. Despite his envy at homo sapiens who exhibited perfect skin tone and bone structure, Erik liked to study human faces. Most women and some men thought that females looked ugly when they cried, but this girl was quickly disproving that hypothesis. The salt drops that fell freely from her enormous eyes brightened their whiteness, heightened the charcoal shine of her irises and brought an attractive, innocent, cherry-red flush to the tops of her cheeks.

Erik thought he could guess the cause of her tears, but could not comprehend it. Since confusion was a state of mind that intensely annoyed and frustrated him, he sought to put an end to it at once.

"You do not seem merely afraid at the mention of my unmasking, my dear…you seem guilty. I want to know why."

The tears flowed faster, but she must have sensed that delaying an answer would not diffuse the tense situation.

"I humbly beg your forgiveness, monsieur...I was one of the ones who screamed."

Erik nodded, not in the least surprised. Of course she had screamed. They all had. Just because he was no longer the defenceless child that had attacked a mirror with the desperate terror most humans reserved for a marauding, lethal beast…that did not mean that an accidental glance of his face still did not make him want to shriek as well.

Only a woman like the khanum, whose innate predilection for wickedness and debauchery was beginning to disgust even him, would fail to scream at the sight of his visage.

"Well, my dear, since we have cleared the air and you have already seen me uncovered, I believe there is no point in delaying this necessary unpleasantness. Do you agree?"

She nodded sadly. "Yes, monsieur."

"Very well."

Erik's fingers felt cold even to him as he reached up to pull the snug-fitting piece of white silk that was his safety, his protection, away from his ears to remove it.