Which is true – I don’t.
Suddenly, it’s as if each of these beauties is wearing the same necklace of sapphires only to mark my difference by the absence of them.
Sarah takes my hand. Her skin is so soft and smooth, unlike the rough callouses of my own hands. “Here,” she says soothingly. “Let me show you around.”
Sarah leads me out of the room, away from the audience of strange women.
As soon as we are out of earshot, she turns to me and grabs both my hands, squeezing them tightly.
“I’m sorry for putting you on the spot like that. I didn’t realize what had happened to you.”
I look into her eyes. At first, she’d greeted me with jealousy. Now, suddenly, it’s as if she’s my only friend.
“No, it’s okay…” I feel awful for lying to her – twice as much because of her sudden kindness. “You couldn’t have known.”
Sarah is sweet. I saw a little fire in her eyes – and she’s clearly the lioness among this pack – but I don’t believe she has a mean bone in her body. She beams at me.
“Well, let me give you the tour!”
“We’re allowed to just… go anywhere?”
Sarah laughs. “Of course! It’s not a prison. Come with me!”
Sarah leads me down the hallway, past room after room. Some are filled with statues and historic artifacts that rival those locked in a museum, while others are full of paintings and art on the walls, and in glass-fronted display cases. She points out another room with a giant pool, filled with enough crystal-clear water to irrigate crops to feed a thousand hungry people.
Each room she shows me is more grandiose than the last. I keep my eyes peeled for the watches, but despite the millions of credits’ worth of artifacts and artwork at almost every turn, I don’t spot anything from the days of Old-Earth.
Darr warned me they’d be tucked away somewhere, probably in a locked case. That doesn’t daunt me – I’m a skilled lockpick – but assuming I even find these watches, I’m expecting a greater challenge than usual in acquiring our prize.
But now that I’m in this towering, vaulted manor house, I’m starting to wonder if these Aurelians would even lock those watches up. Nothing here seems protected – not locked behind bars, or chained to the display table. Even the glass display cases seem easy enough to open.
The Aurelians are so wealthy, they don’t care enough to hide their valuables away.
Or maybe it’s a simple concept. Even though everywhere I turn is occupied by artwork or sculpture more valuable than anything I’d thought possible – just lying around, as casually as the old magazines in the women’s room at The Stag – no one would be stupid enough to try to steal from an Aurelian; let alone three of them.
As Darr warned me – the penalty for theft under Aurelian law is fifteen years imprisonment…
…and that’s assuming the Aurelians let you live long enough to stand trial.
Sarah suddenly stops before a door that is pure obsidian black – made from a smooth, black-stained wood that gleams like fresh ink.
“…this is my favorite room.” She runs her hands across the smooth wood, as if she’s caressing a lover. There’s a wistful, dreamy look in her eyes.
“What’s in there?” I demand.
Sarah smiles devilishly. “It’s the pleasure room.” She turns to me, and her cheeks are flushed with excitement. “Have you ever heard of them?” She lowers her voice conspiratorially. “Want to see inside?”
I shake my head vehemently. Yes, I’ve heard of pleasure rooms! In fact, I’ve heard too much about Aurelian pleasure rooms before. I’ve heard women tittering about it in The Stag, reading from smutty digital stories and confessions from former and current harem members.
I don’t want to see one with my own eyes – and not because I think they’re wrong, or disgusting, or shameful…
…quite the opposite.
If I see one of these fabled Aurelian pleasure rooms, I’m scared it will become all I think about.
Someone once told me that these notorious rooms are linked to the thoughts of an Aurelian triad; and the liquid silicone polymer and nanotechnology that operates within them can make the very walls and floor shift and merge into any form an Aurelian merely thinks – while whips, restraints, and even vibrating, pulsing bullets are buried within the shifting mass; ready to be offered forth without even a spoken command…
I shudder. If I get a look inside, I know the image will be burned into my mind.
“I most certainly do not.”
Sarah laughs. “You’re so innocent, Mia.”
Ha! Sexually innocent, maybe…
…but I’m a thief, and I’m here to steal. I’m very far from innocent.
But that’s the part I play as Sarah continues the tour. This enormous manor is so gorgeous I almost wish I really had been a damsel in distress – someone the Aurelians could have saved for real.
It would be so nice to sleep on these huge feather beds, instead of the thin, straw mattress of my room at The Stag. It would be so nice to wear those gorgeous dresses, and swim in the voluminous pools, and sip the fine wines that must be produced by those vines outside.
Even better – it would be heaven to do all that with a clear conscience, and not have to lie to any of these welcoming strangers about my intentions.
Imagine what it would be like to live in such a place without guilt gnawing away at me, like a starving rat inside my belly.
“Where do they sleep?”
“I’ll show you,” Sarah smiles, leading me up the stairs and through another towering doorway. There’s a huge bedroom beyond – one that stretches in front of me like an arena. A fine, hand-woven rug is soft beneath my socks, and a bed big enough for half of the harem to fit comfortably across stands in the center of the chamber.
“This is Gallus’s room,” Sarah explains.
I blink. “They don’t care that you just… come in?”
Sarah laughs. “No, of course not,
