The Gerudo dancers and servers walked around Rowark busily, but he could feel their eyes crawl over him each time they passed by. A spiral staircase, wide enough to fit two horses side by side, stood in the center, guiding the hungry patrons upwards into lustful bliss. The heightened ceiling and the smooth stone walls made the interior feel more spacious than the exterior suggested. The marble covering the floor was paid for by Hyrule Castle City's demand for sexual relief. At home, it was a sin. Here, it was a necessary evil. All the local worshippers here told Rowark so. Even his commanding knight once confessed, "I thank the Queen for brothels."
Rowark's greatest obstacle to making friends in the town guard? He had never dominated a woman before. And the only people who cared enough to look past that had just dragged him into the one place he never thought he would ever step foot in. His flushed, red cheeks betrayed his attempt at nonchalance and vehemently put on display his embarrassment to every person in that room.
The large rotunda featured several long couches arranged around the circular spire. The men wearing their silk dress shirts flirted with their purchase of the evening. The men wearing the city guard uniforms flirted with the courtesans because that was all they could afford. Four fire pits, fitted between the spaces in between the love cushions, illuminated the cream colored stone lining the walls. No matter the season, the flames would heat the passions of love year round.
The sound of jingling alerted Rowark to someone approaching him. The taller Gerudo walked towards him and then stopped, pausing for a moment to glance over him. Rowark took this opportunity to do the same.
Her tall presence commanded authority immediately upon sight. Small, red eyes quickly scanned the boy, and Rowark felt goosebumps on his skin as her eyes picked apart every detail in his body language. No secrets were safe from her eyes. Tawny beige skin flawlessly covered every inch of her face. There were some wrinkles, but they were so subtle that it was difficult to estimate her age. Her nose was not quite as beakish as her sisters', and her chin was not as pointy comparatively either. Her ponytail, held by a silk ribbon, extended like a stream of blood down to her waist. A nose ring poking out from her left nostril and several ear piercings decorated her cartilage.
Her curvacious body was sleek, healthy, and attached to petite arms and toned legs. She chose to wrap a red see-through scarf around her neck over her fitted, pink top. Her outfit had loose red sleeves draping from the seams around the shoulders, a feature the other Gerudo lacked in their outfits. As it was customary in Hylian fashion, perhaps it was a symbol a leadership? Her top exposed her midriff, and her skirt, sewn into her embroidered leather belt, was nothing more than white fabric extending down to her barefoot ankles. Thin, metal ornaments hung from the fabric and leather, producing the jingling sound with each encroaching step.
Her lower register voice greeted the new knight with seductive curiosity, "What have we here?" Her Hylian was perfect. Not a trace of any Gerudo accent.
"Uh," Rowark squeaked out timidly. The snickers and giggles coming from behind him were forcing blood into his face and making it harder for words to form in his mouth. "Um. Hi?"
The high pitched cackle sounding laugh came from Garreth, the tallest of their friend group who had facial hair as thin as his chest hairs. Out of the subsequent uproar of laughter following Rowark's embarrassment, Garreth's snort stood out the most. Rowark, now officially the highest ranking official in the group, shamefully hung his head low self-consciously. Bad enough as it was that he was treated like an outcast within his own company, he felt even more of an outcast within the walls of the pleasure house.
A forceful pat on the back almost knocked him over though. "Don't worry about the shy kid, Sasha," said Boom, the seasoned veteran of over a hundred seasons of service, as he walked up to save the poor boy from making a fool out of himself, "This kid here won't give ya trouble, not like Tenny back there."
"Tenny gives me trouble, but he's harmless. I want to know if this one is… dangerous." Sasha extended her right middle finger and exposed the tattoo on her arm as her fingernail brushed upwards along Rowark's tunic, "What's your name, boy?"
Boom intervened before Rowark could answer her question, "Pardon me, Sasha, but you are now addressing a Sir!"
Sasha removed her finger from Rowark's chest to wave off Boom without breaking her gaze into Rowark's eyes, "He's not a Sir in my house." She teasingly bit at him, "Not yet at least. And let the boy answer for himself!"
Rowark could not tell if she was waiting for him to answer her question, but the silence implied so, "Um." He felt the stares, as he was now the center of attention, "I'm Rowark. New knight of the crown."
"Sasha. DIrectorate of the Desert Oasis. Pleased to meet you," Sasha this time extended her arm forward for a handshake. Rowark received the hand and lifted it gently to his lips. He did not know how else to greet a woman. The Gerudo smirked, "Adorably quaint."
"All right, all right, let's get to business, then," said an impatient Boom, "How much for dinner with your finest girls?"
She leaned in closer, and Rowark, not know what to do, turned away. He could tell from her wide, evil grin that his displeasure was clearly pleasing to her. And after what seemed like a long heartbeat, Sasha pulled her head back slightly to answer Boom, "You and your other two handsome companions can have the watchman special. Tenny knows he's banned from entering paradise. And just because I don't like him, tell him the girls are charging him hourly for his appetizer."
What about me? Rowark asked, and to answer that, Sasha returned to her unsettling deep gaze into Rowark's eyes, "The boy is mine." The words sent a sudden rush of blood into Rowark's face again. Suddenly, Rowark felt a warm, moist hand grip his, "Come, let me give you a quick tour of the place." Sasha's hand pulled gently against his gripped fingers, almost as if her hand was guiding him around the rotunda.
Rowark guessed there were no less than thirty girls either waiting for their next client or flirting with the patrons on the couch. All the courtesans were dressed the same: loose, pink top wrapped around their breasts and baggy pink pants. But other than their uniform clothing, the ladies came in all shapes and sizes. Rowark counted two Gerudo flirting with patrons half their size and three flirting with guards twice their size. The stereotype that all Gerudo looked alike was preposterous.
Sasha pulled the knight past the courtesan's waiting couches straight to a vendor. The behemoth standing with her arms crossed behind the counter had a chiseled face that had absorbed one too many hits. Rowark could only focus on the slightly bent, hawkish nose as the vendor spoke in accented Hylian, "What will it be?" The knight had to look up and down just make sure that it was a woman who spoke in the deep, impatient tone of voice.
Sasha did not immediately answer. Her eyes started browsing from the top shelf of bottles and worked their way across and downwards. "Hmm, what kind of drink do you fancy?" asked the courtesan.
Rowark hesitated, "Um, I do not drink." It was a lie. He enjoyed mead, ales, and certain sweet wines. The opacity of the bottles on the shelves concealed whatever liquids were contained, and he was hesitant to try any form of foreign drink that he could not see.
The only reply he got from Sasha was a sly smile, "Cobra's blood, then".
The vendor nodded and then reached from behind the counter, pulling out a black bottle in the shape of a coiled up snake. The snake's head served as the bottle's mouth, and the undisturbed cork in the mouth fit snuggly in the snake's mouth. "Enjoy," said the vendor. Sasha grabbed the bottle by the neck and took Rowark's hand again.
Guiding the guest of honor around the rotunda, Sasha began her lecture, "That was Shriva, master of our drinks. We import various wines from different vineyards out in the country and then add Gerudo ingredients to give it a more exotic flavor. We normally charge for the bottle, but I am making an exception for you."
"Why me?" asked Rowark, who had been meaning to ask her this question ever since she "picked" him.
"Because I like you!" she said innocently enough. Her insincere answer left a dissatisfied feeling in Rowark's mind. Sasha continued, "Anyways, our mothers began constructing the tower in year fifty seven After Ganon, just before the great the migration, and finished construction in Fall of year fifty nine. Since the Desert Oasis first opened forty years ago, it not only became the biggest pleasure house in all of Hyrule City, but it also houses the majority of the Gerudo population in the city."
Sasha and Rowark were approaching a shrine to the Three Goddesses. A wooden frame with a pointed top housed the stone statue of Farore, Din, and Nayru standing side by side. Din's hands were extended, holding a golden (most likely brass) replica of the Triforce. The light from the two flanking torches reflected off the brass metal onto the drab stone, giving the Goddesses a golden glow. "Our sisters embrace the Golden Goddesses so we could integrate with Hylian society," said the escort.
This information piqued Rowark's curiosity, "What was the transition from your old religion like?"
"Seamless," answered Sasha without hesitation, "Our mothers were branded as heretics of the Sand Goddess and banished from their home. It did not take much to convince them to adopt new Goddesses. One of our mothers chiseled this statue by herself. Din is holding the Triforce because we like to celebrate Din the most, and some say that touching the Triforce brings luck. Go ahead." Rowark did not know why he expected warmth to emanate from the metal, but the cold touch reminded him that the Triforce was nothing more than an ornament.
When Rowark lifted his hand, Sasha threaded her arm through his and continued guiding him around and lecturing. While Sasha was talking about history of the tapestries hung on the wall, Rowark looked over for several heartbeats to see how his companions were doing. Garreth, Boom, Tenpenny, the short and stocky troublemaker also known as Tenny, and Lemon, the foul mouthed, foul smelling soldier, were all engaged deeply in conversation with their girls. Seeing his friends enjoy their purchased company made Rowark feel a little at ease, though not by much.
"... takes at least one season to finish," by the time Rowark returned his attention back to his hostess, her eyes were turned upwards to the many tapestries hanging along the upper half of the walls. Each tapestry was attached to a wooden bar suspended by a single piece of twine. Some were wider than they were long, some were longer than they were wide, and there seemed to be no method to the arrangement of each art piece. No form of Gerudo culture was spared from depiction: dancing, hunting, warfare, love, and history were the most common subjects.
"The Gerudo used weaving as the primary means of passing stories from generation to generation. This one here is one of my favorites," Sasha pointed to the tapestry third from the left of the entrance, which depicted a woman wearing a cream colored hood, carrying a bow and standing over bodies of soldiers and Gerudo alike, "This is Moreva, a famous warrior who could shoot arrows from the sand unseen. It is said that she once stopped an invading Hylian force all by herself. The Gerudo to this day use the ingenious tactics she invented for desert warfare."
Soldiers coming back from desert patrols brought stories of arrows that formed out of thin air. When Rowark was still a young page, the veterans in his company shared tales of invisible, demon archers who breathed arrows. So this is the original demon archer, thought Rowark. With so much mythology surrounding the desert Gerudos, he began to wonder how many have actually met one and lived to tell the tale. Each legend Sasha shared was either about a famous warrior, a battle, or a historic event. As Rowark listened to tales of bravery, he looked around the room and wondered if all the ladies in the room inherited the Gerudo warriors' culture.
Suddenly, Rowark noticed something about all the tapestries. "If a male Gerudo is supposedly once every one hundred years, he would be unify all the Gerudo tribes. He would be pretty important. So why are their stories not told in the tapestries?" asked the knight.
Her beautiful smile instantly turned into a frown, "They are." The displeasure on her face was all Rowark needed to know that his question had touched a nerve. "Our mothers were exiled from a culture that revered men, only to live in a city ruled by men. Because we wanted to celebrate our femininity, we chose to import tapestries that honored our sisters' stories."
Rowark looked at Sasha awkwardly, feeling guilty about offending his host. Not knowing how else to ease the tense silence in the air, he apologized, "I'm sorry."
She raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Oh, you did not have to apologize! This question is frequently asked, so I did not mean to sound offended." She looked back at the colorful works of art, "You seem like a sensible man who understands this city very well. Tell me, who was the Gerudo's last king?"
"Ganondorf." The stories of the Gerudo King's conquest left a fearful imprint in the minds of Rowark and his peers. But they were more than just campfire stories told to spook the children in his hometown, he recently discovered. Miro Miro's revelation confirmed that the stories were indeed history.
"Precisely. Since many of our patrons cannot even tell the difference between us sisters, we feared they would mistake any of our kings as Ganondorf," added Sasha, "It simply would not be good for patronage."
They spent another quiet moment admiring the art before Rowark felt his hand being tugged again, this time towards the center of the room. The corners of Sasha's mouth slowly curled upwards, "Are you ready for your four course meal?"
Despite Sasha's clear body language, Rowark's scrambled and anxious mind mustered out the words, "Um, what kind of four course meal?"
"You're so adorable," chuckled Sasha as she led the knight past a fire stand towards the center of the room. As Rowark looked around and observed the courtesans stoking the passions of love, the heat from the nearby fire sent another wave of bashfulness to his already bright red cheeks. "Why are you so tense? Relax," she said, bringing attention to Rowark's tightened grip, "We can start with our appetizer here on the couch, like everyone else."
As she guided him past the taken spots on the love seats, Rowark could feel the curious eyes point at him and hear the curious whispers fill the soundscape. "Why him?" he heard from the corner of a woman's lips. The more questions floated in the air, the harder the beating in his chest sounded.
Sasha turned around and gazed him in the eye, bringing his focus back to his hostess. "Your hands are trembling! You need to calm down!" she teasingly whispered into his right ear just before she planted a moist kiss on Rowark's cornered jaw bone, "Don't worry about the rest. I've marked you as mine." He had no desire to parse those words into common Hyrule.
The hot color of the satin couch was only too appropriate for the heated atmosphere. Seeing his comrades lewdly act out their behavior just as they had described in their stories of female conquests, Rowark knew he should not have been shocked. Rather, he was more or less disappointed to see that the great myths of passionate lovemaking were nothing more than stories funded by the city tax collector. Boom's hands aggressively squeezed any piece of curvy skin on his woman. Garreth looked only too happy to finally have company after only one tendo away from his wife. Rowark could not imagine what kind of woman would enjoy kissing Lemon, a man whose stench was constantly felt in the room. Tenny had just found out about his special "deal".
Rowark was convinced Sasha was reading his mind when she suddenly said, "Tenny comes in here every ninth of the tendo after spending his 'hard earned' pay at the tavern and picks fights with every girl that he purchases. It's why we don't like him." Short, crude, and horrendously unattractive, Tenny had no redeeming quality in Rowark's mind except that they broke bread and fought side by side together
"Lemon is a sweetie, I'm sure you know," Rowark never thought a woman would use such a word to describe Tenny's right hand man in all of their pub brawls, "and he pays good money and is very respectful." Lemon could be as foul as his odor, so hearing that Lemon treated anyone politely came as a surprise. Towards everyone else in the unit, he was as foul mouthed as Tenny could be. Overall, he was a man who harmed none and fouled none, so long as no one told him to or threatened his compatriots. It was also unfortunate that he had a short temper too. The way he tenderly touched his escort's thick legs and long hair appeared too… unusual.
"Garreth always picks the same girl each time he comes in. Those two have grown very close." The man who was closest to Rowark in age was probably the closest friend he had in his unit, maybe even throughout all of Hyrule. Despite having attended Garreth's wedding, Rowark could no longer persuade best friend to stay faithful to his marriage. After many past attempts to stop Garreth's extramarital affairs, Rowark stopped trying after Garreth continually repeated the same excuse, "I'm a scoundrel."
"And Boom has such a ravaging appetite that some of my best girls cannot quell." That little bit of information would have been unpleasant to hear, but the way Sasha put it sounded ten times better than the gross, overindulgent details that Boom never forgot to miss every time he told the same stories.
That didn't bother Rowark so much. The intrusion into his mind did, "How did you know?"
"They come here often. Our girls keep records of all the patrons in case someone becomes a little extra naughty."
"No, how did you know that was what I was thinking about?" Rowark was raising his voice word by word, "I could have been thinking about anything."
"Boy."
"Sir!" Rowark sternly corrected.
"Relax!" Sasha shushed him, having just sensed the heightened tension between the two, "It is my job to pick at your mind. Here, have a seat." Her arm beckoned Rowark to sit down on the empty spot. But he looked at the seat with distrust. Whatever magic she possessed could easily put Rowark in a vulnerable position. Sasha sighed, "It's because your eyes are too honest. You were looking at your comrades because you were thinking about them."
Rowark took a deep breath and resigned to her innocent explanation by sitting on the couch, and Sasha slid onto his lap without any regard for personal boundaries. She uncorked her snake shaped bottle and poured the dark, velvety wine into two shiny chalices.
The teenage boy took the silver chalice and stared at the deeply colored liquid. It did not smell like any average wine that came from the Quela Castle vineyards. Well, the wine was not meant to be stared at, thought Rowark as he lifted the chalice to his lips. A sudden metallic and spicy taste overwhelmed his taste buds, infiltrated his nostrils, and even forced him to cough uncontrollably. "What's in this?" Rowark said once he regained some control over his coughing lungs.
"Cobra's blood," was her ready answer, "A blend of six spices native to the desert; and of course, cobra's venom." Any desire to drink the wine disappeared with that ingredient. "It makes you more honest. Drink! It is very expensive!" Sasha raised the chalice to her lips and drank a mouthful with class and posture.
It was tough to withstand the fiery flavors like Sasha could. The venomous wine felt like it was setting fire to every cavity from his throat all the way to his nose. He had to cough again to relieve the heat. "How do you drink something so strong?" he asked.
"Practice," was her coy reply. After three big gulps, she tipped the chalice towards Rowark to show him that she had finished her drink. "There's no hurry to finish your wine. We're here to get to know each other a little better. That's why we call this, the appetizer." She poured herself another healthy serving, "Let's start with your name and your age? And then you can ask me any question you want. Afterall, I feel like the wine is beginning to work on me."
Rowark was not quite sure if she meant that the wine was making her drunk or more truthful. After taking another small sip, he answered her initial question, "Rowark Forester, I turned eighteen last Winter. May I ask the same?"
"Of course," said the Gerudo, "Sasha Ganford, I celebrated my thirty seventh birth date last tendo. How long have you been in the army?"
"I joined when I was ten," Rowark answered without thinking.
"So young, why?"
A slight urge within his body wanted him to divulge events that took place before he joined the army. Perhaps this was the truthfulness that Sasha was referring to? "I believe it's my turn to ask," he replied, buying himself time to collect his answer.
Sasha smirked, "Fair."
"How long have you worked, um... " the boy tried to find the right word to describe a brothel without offending his hostess, but alas all he could come up with was, "here?"
Sasha chuckled, which sent another rush of blood up to his already warm face, and answered, "You are exquisitely adorable! Don't be embarrassed by what we do!" And that made Rowark's face feel even warmer. "I was born here like every woman living under the roof, and I will probably work here until I draw my last breath." Rowark could tell Sasha had pride in her profession, but there was no way he could understand what it was like to be born into such a sinful profession. "So back to my question, why did you join the city guard at such a young age?"
Even with the extra question and answer, Rowark was still not ready to answer. He could feel the wine's ingredients affect his judgement and was no longer comfortable answering any more questions. There were still a few more sips of Cobra's blood left in his chalice, and his willingness to stomach the harsh taste quickly turned into nausea. "I…" he began his answer, trying to improvise a fib did not come naturally to him, "I was…" He took a deep breath to sigh and calm his scrambled thoughts.
"I'm sorry," he finally blurted out, "I am no longer comfortable playing this game. I know you are doing your best to make small talk with the wine, but I do not wish to discuss my past." Rowark anticipated disappointment from his hostess and searched for clues in her facial expression that would convey that sentiment.
Surprising him once again, Sasha returned an understanding smile, or at least was very good at hiding disappointment, and replied, "It is entirely okay. Perhaps you be more inclined to discuss this in private?"
Every bit of Rowark's virgin body wanted to say no. Even though he did not understand all the cryptic language used to describe Sasha and her girls' services, he knew exactly what Sasha meant by discussing in private. But he nodded instead, "Okay." Considering that the prostitute was kind enough to offer free services, this was going to be his best opportunity to finally quiet the taunts about his virginity that plagued him all throughout his time in the army.
"Excellent," replied Sasha as she took Rowark by the hand and led him around to the base of the spiral stairway to paradise. His friends' eyes interrupted whatever activity they were engaged in and followed Rowark and his hostess. Sasha stopped Rowark right before he took his first step up. "We have one golden rule in the stairway to heaven," she started.
Just one rule? "What's that?"
"No talking while climbing or descending the stairs."
Rowark looked up the stairs, took a deep breath, and began ascending his way towards paradise. His eyes refused to acknowledge the hoot and the hollers of his shame.