"I see," I said. It was, of course, as I had supposed it would be.
"Her slavery, thus," he said, "will presumably be either simple, and uncompromised, or excessively cruel, an uncompromised."
I nodded.
"But inasmuch as the crimes of the free woman are seldom held against the slave, for the slave has her own concerns, and fears, such as whether or not she is sufficiently pleasing, and so on, I would expect it to be simple, and uncompromised."
"I think you are probably right," I said. Many theorists regard reduction to slavery as wiping the slate clean, so to speak. The woman is then thought, in effect, to be beginning lift anew, but now as a mere property, a mere animal. To be sure, her past status and deeds do remain a part of her history, even if she is now only an animal. Thus, at least for a time, a maser might relish the consideration that his abject slave was once perhaps a haughty free woman, or such. But, in time, it is likely that their relationship, mercifully, as such things fade into the past and tend to be forgotten, will become a simpler one, that merely of master and slave.
"In my uses of the former Lady Claudia, in the cell," I said, "I sometimes gave her the use name of "Chloe'."
"A Cosian name," observed Calliodorus.
"She had declared for Cos," I reminded him.
"Did the use name help her to dissociate herself from the proprieties which she might have thought appropriate to a Lady Claudia? he asked.
"I think it helped," I said. Certainly a woman's sexual relationship to a man is often improved when she begins to think of herself as having a quite different relationship to him than the one in which she has been accustomed to think of herself. The change of name can help in this matter. No woman, of course, takes her former name into slavery. In her reduction to bondage she loses that name. Even if the same name, in one sense, should be put on her as a slave, it is not the same name in the crucial sense; it is not now a legal name to which one has title in one's own right. It is a slave name. In this sense, the name "Claudia' as the name of a free woman is a quite different name from the name "Claudia' as the name of a slave. The slave name, for example, can be changed at a master's whim. This loss of the old name, incidentally, and the susceptibility to being named, and the new name, if the master decides to give her a name, and such, although they are simple, legal consequences of the name of reduction to bondage, are also, I think, psychologically useful in helping her understand that she is now a slave, and that she is now radically and absolutely different from what she was. Too, I think that such things, a new name, for example, showing her that she is now in a new reality, and so on, can help her make the transition more smoothly into bondage.
"'Chloe' is an excellent name," he said. "I have known several slaves with that name."
"Do you think," asked Aemilianus of Calliodorus, "that "Claudia' is too fine a name for a slave?"
"I think it is an excellent name for a slave," he smiled.
"You would," smiled Aemilianus. I supposed that Aemilianus might think that Cosian names might be better for slaves, whereas Calliodorus might tend to approve more of names more typical of the south, say, those of Venna or Ar. I myself thought there was much to be said for both, and, indeed, for many other sorts of names, as well. Many Goreans, incidentally, as is well known, regard Earth-girl names as slave names. Aemilianus's slave, for example, who was Gorean, was named "Shirley."
"I think there is little difficulty in the matter, in any event," said Calliodorus, "whether it is a fine name or not, as she now wears it as a slave name."
"I think you are right," said Aemilianus. "What do you think?" he asked me. "I agree," I said. "It is now a mere slave name." Too, of course, it might easily be changed. In the odysseys of her bondage, her name would doubtless be changed many times.
"I wonder what will become of her," I said.
"She is curvaceous," said Calliodorus. "Perhaps she will be sold to a paga tavern."
That was a possibility. I hoped that eventually, however, she might come into the keeping of a single master, to whom she would be a love slave. I thought that there was something in the slave now called «Claudia» a precious, vulnerable, yearning love slave.
"Aemilianus, my friend," said Calliodorus.
"Yes?" said he.
"It will take us some days to reach Port Cos," said Calliodorus. "Would you mind if, tomorrow morning, the two slaves, Claudia and Publia, were made available to the crew?"
"Of course not," said Aemilianus.
"We will chain them by their necks to a ring in the deck, aft," said Calliodorus. "That way, if they are too initially dismayed, they will not be able to throw themselves overboard."
"By nightfall," said Aemilianus, "I do not think they would want to throw themselves overboard."
"I do not think so," said Calliodorus. "Too, aft, they will be out of the sight of free women."
"Use them as you please," said Aemilianus.
"My lads left Port Cos in a hurry," said Calliodorus, "and we did not know if there would be fighting, or not. Thus we did not include among our supplies any women for slave use."
"No explanations are necessary," said Aemilianus. "Too, if their masters do not object, you may avail yourself of any of the other slaves, there are a few, I believe, whom you embarked at Ar's Station, including, of course, my Shirley." Shirley shrank back, a little. To be sure, even though she was the preferred slave of Aemilianus, her use could be handed about as easily as that of the lowest collar sluts on board, Claudia and Publia.
"I thank you for your generosity," said Calliodorus, "and I am sure that the other fellows of Ar's Station would be every bit as generous, but I think that after what you have been through, we would prefer, in all gentleness and courtesy, to let such slaves, including your Shirley, recollect in detail the pleasing of their own masters, perhaps amidships."
Shirley cried out with joy, looking upon Aemilianus.
"As you will," he smiled.
"And I think," said Calliodorus, "that the more extensive services then to be rendered by Claudia and Publia will be useful in helping them to comprehend more quickly and clearly the nature of their new condition." "Undoubtedly," smiled Aemilianus.
"I wonder if I might ask an additional favor of you," said Calliodorus. "Name it," said Aemilianus.
"When we enter Port Cos," he said, "I would like to do so in such a way as to make clear from afar that there is cause for rejoicing, that our business has been successfully conducted and that festivities are in order."
"Do as you wish," said Aemilianus.
"I will, then," he said, "with your permission, deck the ship with flags, and bunting and banners, and put prominently the flag of Ar's Station on the port stem line, and fly that of Port Cos on the starboard stem line."
"How is it," asked Aemilianus, "that you have a flag of Ar's Station on a ship of Port Cos?"
"One can never tell when such things might be useful," smiled Calliodorus. "And do you noble fellows of Ar's Station not carry flags of Port Cos, and perhaps of other towns, as well, in your vessels, perhaps in the chests in your stern castles?" That was a likely place to stow such paraphernalia. There it would both be out of the way, and yet handy.