'I have seen you before,' I said, 'months ago, outside the walls, at the camp of refugees.'
She looked up at me.
'You dance well, slave girl,' I said.
'Thank you, Master,' she said.
'You dance better than many women I have seen in taverns,' I said.
'Thank you, Master,' she said.
'But perhaps you, too,' I said, 'once so danced.' I could well imagine her in such a place, in a bit of silk, belled, with bangles, pleasing men.'
'Yes, Master,' she said. 'Once I so danced.'
'And do you now so dance?' I asked.
'When my master chooses to put me forth,' she said.
'Doubtless upon occasion,' I said, 'you dance privately for your master?'
'It is my hope that I please him,' she said.
'And if you did not please him?' I asked.
'He would whip me,' she said.
'He is strong?' I asked.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'You love to dance?' I asked.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'But as a slave?' I asked.
'I am what I am, Master,' she said, looking up at me.
'I see,' I said.
'Surely all women desire to appear before me as a slave, and to so move, and so serve, and to dance for them, to please them.'
'Do you suggest that all women are slaves?' I asked.
'It is what I am,' she said. 'I do not presume to speak for all women.'
'You have an accent,' I said.
'Forgive me, Master,' she said.
'Where do you come from?' I asked.
'From far away, Master,' she said.
'What is your native language? I asked.
'I do not know if Master has heard of it,' she said.
'What is it?' I asked.
'English,' she said.
'I have heard of it,' I said.
'Perhaps Master has owned girls such as I?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'From Earth?'
'Yes,' I said.
'I have heard of it,' said Marcus. 'It is far away.'
'Yes,' I said.
'It is an excellent source of female slaves,' he said.
'Yes,' I said.
'Thank you, Masters,' she said.
'What is your name on Earth?' I asked.
'Doreen,' she said. 'Doreen Williamson.'
'Doreen,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Is that a slave name?' I asked.
'It was the name of a slave,' she smiled. 'Though at that time I was not yet collared and branded.'
'So you are from Earth?' I said. I had, of course, noted her vaccination mark at the camp outside Ar months before. By such tiny signs may an Earth female be recognized among other Gorean slaves.'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'What are you now?' I asked.
'Only a Gorean slave girl,' she said.
I regarded her. It was true.
'Master,' she said, timidly, looking up at me from where she knelt by the roadside, to where I was high above her, in the saddle of the tharlarion. 'Yes,' I said.
'Forgive a girl who does not wish to be punished,' she said, 'but I suspect that Master may not be native to this world either.'
'He is from the place called «Earth», too,' said Marcus. Marcus, of high caste, was familiar with various tenets of the second knowledge, such things as the roundness of his world, its movement in space, and the existence of other planets. On the other hand he remained skeptical of many of these tenets as he found them offensive to common sense. He was particularly suspicious of the claim that the human species had an extraterrestrial origin, namely, that it did not originate on his own world, Gor. It was not that he denied there was a place called «Earth» but he thought it must be somewhere on Gor, perhaps east of the Voltai Range or south of the Tahari. Marcus and I had agreed not to discuss the issue. I had no ready response, incidentally, to his suggestion that the human race might have originated on Gor and then some of these folks, perhaps transported by Priest-Kings, had been settled on Earth. Indeed, although I regarded this as quite unlikely, it seemed an empirical possibility.
For example, anthropoidal fossils can be found on Gor, as well as on Earth, and so on. At any rate, Marcus found it much easier to believe that magic existed than that his world was round, that it moved, and that there might be other worlds rather like it here and there in the universe. In fact, in his philosophy, so to speak, the universe was still of somewhat manageable proportions. Sometimes I rather envied him.
'It is true,' I said. 'I am originally from Earth.' Undoubtedly she had detected my accent, as I had hers. To be sure there are many accents on Gor which are not Earth accents. For example, not everyone on Gor speaks Gorean. There are many languages spoken on Gor. For example, most of the red hunters of the north do not speak Gorean, nor the red savages of the Barrens, nor the inhabitants of the jungles east of Schendi.
'Strange, then, Master,' she said, 'that we should meet in this reality, I, once a woman of Earth, as now no more than a kneeling slave before you, once a man of Earth.'
'Do you find it unfitting?' I asked.
'No, Master,' she said.
'It is as it should have been on Earth,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'But such considerations need not concern us,' I said. 'They are in the past. They belong to a different world. You are now of Gor, and only of Gor.'
'Yes, Master,' she said. 'But if I am not mistaken, it is not I alone who am now no longer of Earth, not I alone who am now of Gor, and wholly so.'
'Oh?' I said.
'It seems that we are both now of Gor, and wholly so.'
'Yes,' I said. It was true.
'I as a slave,' she said, 'and you as a master.'
'Yes,' I said.
'I am not discontent,' she said.
I was silent.
'Of men who are Goreans, and such as Goreans,' she said, 'women are the rightful slaves!'
'And is your master such?' I asked.
'Yes, Master!' she said.
'Are you happy?' I asked.
