**Author's Note: This is a series I've been working on for the past year and a half. More chapters are on the way.
*****
Courtesan Motto: Your Desires Are Our Pleasure
Chapter 1
"Tomorrow you girls will no longer be girls but women," Matron Euphemia lectured. Euphemia had her time as one of the greatest courtesans of The Athena Belt. She had long wavy red hair like fire and piercing blue eyes as blue as a spring and as sharp as her wit and a voluptuous body.
Most would describe her as formidable. A woman of refined tastes who could play the game better than anyone. It was probably why she was one of the few old courtesans left. Though no one would dare call Lady Euphemia "old".
Her raw sensuality gave her a youthful spark. Now she was training other young women in the art of seduction at the Academy of Hedone on Chione, the ice moon that provided citizens of the Athena Belt with water while the planet Europa, the green planet that the Belt circled around, was being terraformed.
Leila, Constance, and Aurelia wearing their traditional modest white saris, were sitting in their chairs listening to Matron Euphemia's lectures. Tomorrow they would enter their next form of training: The art of love making. They all felt a small tremor of trepidation. From the time they were 11 or so they were taught elegance and sophistication.
Since they were turning 18 now was time for the physical lessons. Some of the girls were excited. Others were more nervous but they were all taught from an early age to conceal their emotions. Still in some cases it was hard to hide fear or even loathing. They were young yet.
"I remember my first time with an Erotic Instructor...," Euphemia tilted her head in nostalgia. "One thing you need to remember is that it is just business... But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the pleasure a little." Euphemia smirked causing the class to giggle in excitement.
"First you'll have a private session," Euphemia explained. "Then you'll practice in front of other students. This will help you to learn from each other on how to please a man."
"I wonder who I'll get?" Leila whispered to Constance. Leila had Mediterranean ancestry with big pouty lips, chocolate eyes, long dark hair and sepia skin. She had a slender form with perky A-Cup breasts that would make any man look twice. More than twice.
"Someone handsome no doubt," Constance winked.
"They're all handsome," Aurelia spoke drily. "It's a requirement although I don't know why since we're going to have a patron who's incredibly ugly."
"With that attitude, Aurelia, that's exactly what you'll get," Constance retorted.
Aurelia glared at Constance whose emerald eyes were already legendary. Lady Euphemia would often with begrudging respect for recognizing physical beauty saying that Constance could grab a man with only her exotic eyes.
Aurelia and Constance were like day and night. Constance had flawless ivory skin with an oval face, jet black hair that was naturally wavy. Combined with the green eyes she looked like something out of a romance novel.
Aurelia had somewhat darker skin than Constance. She actually looked like she was kissed by the real sun with gold spun hair and sugar brown eyes. But she had scars beneath her clothes. Aurelia was brought up in the harsh religion of the Covenant. They believed that scars were how one remembered sins to keep them mindful of their mistakes and behave better in the future.
Ashoka were different. They were similar to the Buddhists of Old Earth who believed in acceptance, non-violence, and reincarnation. Their symbol was a lotus blooming on a pond under a crescent moon in complete contrast to the Covenant Church that showed a flaming heart crowned with thorns inside of a sun.
Those symbols perfectly contrasted the two rival religions. One was fire and brimstone, all passion and resolute while the other was water and tranquil, into deep introspection and tolerance for all.
"Tomorrow you'll turn 18 which means you'll be able to bathe with the Erotic Instructors to see who you may be matched with," Euphemia continued. "But remember... control yourselves." She eyed them all with a stern look. No consummation before their sessions. This rule was always hard to follow.
***
The riots started over the smallest thing. Cressida station was the wealthiest in the Athena Belt that mined the asteroids for metals and other resources. However, in the case of class warfare it was on the same level of tension as the others.
Even 5 years after the disbanding of the Stygian Corps, a brutal sect of the military that caused more blood shed than any terrorist movement they sought to put down, the public still held disdain for the Earth Confederation, the government made up of Old Earth's representatives based on the Ancient Roman style before the Great Cataclysm forced them to abandon the planet to search for a new home.
It grew worse on the anniversary of Geronimo. It didn't help that the E-Con was suggesting shutting down the courtesan system and abolishing the Third Child Law. Women of the low class were in an uproar.
The courtesan system gave low class women the opportunity to escape their poverty and provide for their families. To prevent over population the Earth Confederation instituted the two-child system. The Third Child Law allowed unwanted third children to become soldiers or other public servants; wards of the state.
Now the government wanted to take that away too. Some blamed the Covenant Church's growing influence on politics as Europa came close to becoming ready for colonization. Women needed to be used for procreation now and not pleasure for the decadent high caste of CEOs and politicians.
On Saturday, on the anniversary of the massacre of Geronimo, the disgruntled murmurs of the low class became a full out cry when a Peace Keeper got into a civilian's face about something; no one can truly remember the specifics of the argument. No one knows who threw the glass bottle but it hit a Peace Keeper in the head. The riot started and ended up making a crack in the wall that vacuumed out precious oxygen. It took a week to repair it.
Tensions were further inflamed as the infamous Shepherd, leader of propaganda of an anarchist organization called Rekhyt* after the Ancient Egyptian symbol of a bird in chains kneeling before a star representing the common man they adopted, stated that the E-Con had blood on its hands. He's not wrong. Despite government efforts to find or squash Shepherd's broadcasts he remains at large and a thorn in the E-Con's side. Plaguing their radio waves with his rants about civil liberties and justice for all men.
***
Up until this point, Erotic Instructors were kept away from the students in a separate quarter of Hedone. An Erotic Instructor had to be late 20s to late 30s. Unmarried. Had to be experienced in the art of sex and have amazing stamina. And he gave up all right to claim a courtesan upon her graduation.
So that the students and Erotic Instructors may get a better look at each other before hand they all commune in a public bath. Chione was a dome city of water. It liked to boast of it through water gardens and a fountain on every square. Hedone was no different. Being the most prestigious courtesan training house it liked to echo Old Earth architecture.
The communal bath was built as a Turkish bath house. Patterns of six pointed stars and constellations from Old Earth from floor to ceiling. Sacred Geometry paying homage to Islamic artwork. Blues, greens, whites, and gold colors illuminated in a dim light to give it some sensual mystic appeal.
The Erotic Instructors were already bathing. The girls for all their lessons in confidence stood behind the screens looking through peep holes at their potential sex partners. They were all too nervous to walk out. Constance, Aurelia, and Leila always together in their secret triad stood near the entrance. They couldn't help but blush as they watched some very handsome men they've heard the older graduates talk about.
"I wonder if it will hurt the first time," Leila wondered aloud.
"Lady Euphemia said that's a myth," Constance shrugged though now she was wondering if there was any truth to what the Matron said as she faced the reality of it all. One hears stories...
"There not going to attack us the minute we go in," Aurelia chided. Aurelia had the most to be tense about. Like many Covenant men and women, Aurelia had old scars from past sins on some places of her body. Despite their rivalry Constance never once poked fun or tried to demean Aurelia for them. Ashoka people are so frustratingly accepting.
"So who's going first?" Constance asked no one in particular. Aurelia took a deep breath then holding in that breath, puffing out her chest giving her a self assured posture, she walked past the flock of nervously silent hens making herself known to the bathing men. The thrum of male voices instantly ceased. An echoing silence hung in the steamy atmosphere that made everyone clench inside.
With cool eyes, Aurelia pulled on her silk robe to reveal her nubile body. She was statuesque with long legs, slender shoulders, a swan-like neck that gracefully craned as Aurelia pushed her hair back to reveal her perky B-Cup breasts. Her nipples hardened once they hit the air looking like brown diamonds. Her scars had faded leaving only white marks; an echo but still tangible in memory. A reminder of sins from her past.
The men stared as Aurelia, pretending they weren't there, descended the stairs of the bath into the steaming water. Once the warm water caressed her skin Aurelia's muscles relaxed as she immersed her entire body into the steamy depths. She emerged, her golden hair gleaming wet, her skin glazed and moist.
This seemed to give the rest of the girls courage though they seemed to telepathically decide to come out of hiding one at a time. Constance followed next. Then Leila. Then the rest.
Once the girls were finally out in the open the tension eased and the Erotic Instructors joined them. They mixed together. The murmur of male voices now tempered with sweet female utterances. Aurelia said something to her black Erotic Instructor that caused his booming laughter. He whispered into her ear that made Aurelia smile seductively.
There were times when Constance envied Aurelia. Aurelia was always the first to try something. Constance was more timid than that. She escaped to a far corner of the bath which was as large as a public pool. She felt so cut off from the rest of the flock. Even Leila found someone to talk to though it was only her roommate Naomi.
"It's not right to see a girl by herself."
Constance turned to see a smug blond young man, late 20s or early 30s like the rest of the instructors, with piercing blue eyes that made Constance feel even more naked. He had a muscular build that Constance couldn't help but admire as her heart began to pound in her ears at the sight of this man swimming closer.
"My name is Ion Coburn and you are...," Ion held out his hand but Constance didn't take it.
"Constance," she said.
"First time seeing a naked man?" Ion asked. His hungry blue eyes seeming to devour Constance. It was like facing down a proud lion circling his prey.
"Or course," Constance said her cheeks burning more hotly than when she entered the steamy waters.
"I'm your first naked man," Ion smiled broadly. "An honor. I hope to be your first lover too. Wouldn't that be something?" Constance didn't respond. Her training in the art of seduction seeming to have evaporated like the steam from the bath.
