[Alicia, the spoilt 19-year old daughter of a wealthy merchant, after forcing her slutty maid Mari into helping her prostitute herself, ended up at the underground Haven Club, where rich noblewomen of the city whore themselves for their own entertainment to the dregs of society. However, while Alicia and the women were pleasuring a company of orc mercenaries, the Club was raided by the City Militia and everyone arrested.]
Alicia stood among the group of noblewomen in the centre of the cavernous stone Hall of Justice. They were all regally clad in their best and most conservative dresses; long skirts and tight bodices, arms and shoulders modestly covered, hands gloved, high collars and long hair pinned up. In Port Haven, as elsewhere in the Empire, money could always buy you a better class of imprisonment, and they had been allowed fresh clothes, soap and water, and combs and brushes to make themselves look presentable. Looking at them now, as they stood together surrounded by the throng of guards and gawking onlookers, they presented an elegant spectacle of high-born womanhood, poised and immaculately dressed - one would never have known that just two nights previously they had all been arrested at the Haven Club, corseted and gartered like whores, their bodies soiled by the seed of the orc mercenaries that had ravaged them over and over again. Yet that was why they were here, and the city had talked of little else but the great scandal of the high-born Whores of Haven ever since. Nervously Alicia glanced at the surrounding crowd. Most were nobles and merchants, men of the Upper City, looking stern and disapproving, but at the back there was a rabble of denizens of the Lower City, grinning and nudging each other, pointing at the noble beauties now at the mercy of the court and loudly whispering the most salacious gossip that had circulated ever since the raid on the Haven Club. She was glad that she could not hear the terrible things that they must be saying about her and her co-defendants.
To Alicia's left, the tall blonde Countess Amelia White and her daughter Nicola stood straight-backed and impassive, ignoring the taunts of the crowd with patrician indifference. Out in the noble section of the onlookers, Alicia could see standing discreetly at the back the frowning countenance of Earl White, the Countess' husband and Nicola's father. It was largely due to his position and influence that all of the women had been as well treated as they had. It was said he had even pushed for them all to be released with merely a reprimand, or perhaps at most a day in the stocks, but the City Prefect - the Emperor's Representative - had decided that for justice to be seen to be done, no-one could be found to be above the law, not even the wives and daughters of Haven's elite. To Alicia's right, the scandalous Lady Penelope Ward simply smiled and looked brazenly around her, occasionally raising an eyebrow as she recognised someone, smirking when the person looked away so as not to meet her direct gaze. But others were less sure of themselves. The statuesque black Mistress Onyx looked down at the flagstones of the floor - as a freedwoman, her social standing was unlikely to ease any punishment upon her. Likewise her employer, the petite, dusky-skinned owner of the Haven Club, Madame Therese Mishra, looked pale and tight-lipped, while foreign dilettante Lady Sumiko was openly anxious, and looked nervously at the judges and the crowd, her big brown eyes trying to find some kind of mercy, but seeing little. For a brief moment, as she scanned the faces of the crowd, Alicia thought she caught a glimpse of her own father, Thomas DeKann, grey-haired head of the Merchant's Guild, but if it had been him he was soon lost among the onlookers again, and she was not able to catch his eye.
The Chief Justice cleared his throat theatrically and banged his staff of office on the flagstones a few times until the murmur of the crowd quietened down.
"Citizens of Haven," he intoned gravely. "We are gathered here to pass judgement upon these seven women. They were all arrested by the Emperor's men in a disorderly house, towit, the Haven Club in the Lower City. Testimony from many witnesses has spoken to their participation in prostitution contrary to Law, to miscegenation with lesser races, sex outside of marriage, fornication in proscribed manners," there was a brief burst of chuckles in the crowd at this reference to oral and anal sex, drawing an angry glare from the Chief Justice, "dressing contrary to their station and beneath the dignity of their houses, and evasion of curfew. There has been mitigating testimony from Earl White as to the previous good character of some of those present..." the Justice bowed in the direction of the Earl, who nodded gravely. "And the Court is bound to take these references into account in its deliberations. Nevertheless, these are serious charges, and the Court must temper its mercy with the needs of justice. Therefore, the decision of this court is as follows...
"Therese Mishra, the court finds you guilty of operating an unlicensed brothel and encouraging sexual relations between human and lesser races. You and your employee, the freedwoman known as Onyx, are sentenced to permanent slavery with hard labour." There was a slight gasp from the crowd, and Therese hung her head, defeated. Slavery with hard labour meant service in the mines. It was in effect a death sentence, as few slaves survived longer than six months, breaking rocks by day and being raped by their overseers by night, and the need for replacements was constant. "Your property is hereby forfeit and will be seized by the Crown. Take them away."
Guards appeared and marched Therese and Onyx out of the Hall of Justice, leaving the other women to look worriedly at each other, panic rising among them. This was definitely a bad sign.
"Countess White, Lady White, Lady Sumiko, Lady Ward, Mistress DeKann," the Justice continued. "The court recognises that your crimes are lesser, that you have been led astray by this immigrant to our shores, and that you are all of worthy families of this city or the wider Empire, and all previously known to be of good character, to which several here present have testified. However, as women of quality, it therefore is incumbent upon you to set a higher standard for the good people of Haven. You have all behaved in the most shameful manner in which a Lady can behave, and brought disgrace upon yourselves, your families, and your city. As you have pretended to the status of slaves while whoring yourselves for your own carnal enjoyment, the court sees fit to bestow upon you that station which you once thought to lightly adopt and discard as one might discard an item of clothing. You are hereby sentenced to permanent slavery. You will be sold at general auction at noon tomorrow, the proceeds to go to the Crown. This court is dismissed."
*****
The stunned women made no protest as their ankles were chained, and their hands manacled together, and they were led from the courtroom by mail-clad guards. Sumiko was sobbing, and though Nicola was trying to put a brave face on things, a tear rolled down her cheek.
"Mother," she whispered. "What will become of us?"
Countess Amelia was made of sterner stuff, and her face continued to betray no expression.
"Your father will buy us, I imagine," she said at length. "We will possibly even be freed, and then he will send us away somewhere where we will no longer be an embarrassment to him."
Nicola was horrified. "You mean... father will *divorce* you?"
"He does not need to," the Countess replied simply. "I am no longer his wife. I am a slave. My freedom - assuming he chooses to grant it - will not restore me to the situation that I once held. I imagine he will see to it that I will become a nun or something. He always did have a sense of humour."
"And..." Nicola lowered her voice, but Alicia could still hear her. "What of the others?"
"Don't worry about me," Lady Penelope drawled, self-assuredly. "I am sure that there are plenty of my admirers who would love to own me. To make me crawl to them." She looked almost happy at the prospect.
"But... Alicia," Nicola continued, unable to let it go. "And Sumiko. Who will buy them? "Do you think we could persuade father?"
"Your father has already exerted himself on our behalf more than I expected him to, considering that I cuckolded him with orcs and ruffians," Countess Amelia replied. "I am sorry, but I fear that their fate is in the lap of the Gods."
"Oh, Alicia!" Nicola hugged her childhood friend close, both girls' manacles chinking, and Alicia was glad of the contact. She blinked back a tear of self pity at what might happen to her tomorrow.
*****
They were returned to the holding cell in the basement where they had spent the past two nights since the raid. But this time there were no amenities, no freshly cooked food brought to them. Their hands and feet were shackled, and although they were permitted for now to keep their noble finery, there were heavy iron collars placed on their necks. They were officially no longer free women, but slaves - mere property, currently of the City Authorities, but tomorrow - who knew?