I looked again to Dorna, but she was merciless.
“Finish it,” said she. “Drain the cup. Drink it to the last drop.”
I finished the liquid, to the last drop. Dorna swept the goblet from my hand and took it away. I stood before the men, half bend over. I could still taste the bitterness, palpably, like tiny, foul damp grains in my mouth, on my tongue, my lips. I put my hand over my face, as much to wipe away my tears as anything. I trembled. Then I took down my hands and straightened up. I looked about a little. I sensed now that the men looked upon me somewhat differently. Now doubtless I was more what they wanted, or, perhaps, actually, merely more assuredly so. Was I not now, even more obviously than before, a plaything or a possession, something that might figure in the most casual of gratifications, something which now might be utilized even in amusement or sport, with no fear whatsoever of any inconvenient consequences?
I looked up at the man in the chair.
I now felt no more than a cringing, vulnerable slave.
“Let her be collared,” he said.
I gasped, and put my hand to my throat.
“There are various collars,” said Dorna.
“A common collar will do,” said he.
I would not have expected to have worn other than a common collar, of course, there are many sorts of collars. The most familiar are the “common collar,” which, in its varieties, tends to be flat and closely fitting, and the “Turian collar,” which, in its varieties, is more rounded, and barlike, and fits more loosely. Both lock behind the back of the neck. Dorna wore a “common collar.” Some other types of collars are decorative collars, holding collars, training collars and punishment collars.
“A used collar?” said Dorna.
“Certainly,” said he.
I now realized that I was not as special or important as I had thought I might be, or had hoped I might be.
“We have them with a variety of names,” she said.
I had expected, naturally, to be named. It is useful, after all, for a slave to have a name. It makes it easier to refer to her, to summon her, and so on. But I would have expected a master to have considered me with some care, as he might another form of animal, and to have then selected a name for me which, at least to his fancy, seemed to him fitting or suitable, a name which might then, sooner or later, be inscribed on a collar. To be sure, not all collars have the slave’s name on them. Some apparently say things as simple as “I am the slave of so-and-so,” “I belong to so-and-so,” “I am the property of so-and-so,” or “Return me to so-and-so,” such things. An advantage of having the girls name on the collar is in tracing her. After all, a rich man might own a hundred or more women. A typical collar might read, “My name is Tula. I am the slave of so-and-so.” But it seemed now that I would not be considered, and named, with a collar, a new collar, a personal collar, eventually following the naming, as one might hope, being suitably inscribed, but that my name, whatever it was to be, would be the result of what already appeared on a collar. The collar would not be a function of the name, so to speak, but the name, it seemed, would be a function of the collar, of some name already on a collar!
“What do you suggest?” he asked. He seemed amused.
“She is from Earth,” said she.
“So?” said he.
“I then suggest,” said she, “one with an Earth-slut name on it.”
“Would you do that to her?” he asked.
“Surely no harm could come of it,” she said.
A man laughed. I felt uneasy.
“Still,” said the fellow in the thronelike chair, “she seems to have learned at least a little about our world, and, for her time here, seems unusually adept at our language. Indeed she seems, subject to what she is, and her antecedents, quite intelligent. That is clear even from her papers. Perhaps then we should be kinder to her. Perhaps we should not do that to her.”
“Oh, no, Master,” said Dorna, quickly. “She is from that place and so that should be made clear in her name. Let her wear a name that makes clear her origin, so that men will know the treatment she deserves, and how to deal with her.”
“Do you so hate those from that place?” inquired the man in the chair.
“Were it not for one such,” she cried, “I would not be here in diaphanous silk with a collar on my neck!”
“One from such a place enslaved you?” asked he.
“No,” she said, “but were it not for him I might now be tatrix in my city!”
“Your schemes failed,” said a man.
“One from Earth brought your plans to naught,” said another.
“Your city is now quite different from what it once was,” said the man in the chair.
“You are quite fortunate to be here, and in a collar,” said another man.
“Rejoice that you live,” said another.
I understood nothing of this.
“But we are now considering this little kajira,” said the man in the chair, returning his attention to me.
Dorna looked down at me, in fury.
I was frightened, and, unbidden, I knelt.
“She kneels well,” said a man.
I knelt in position, of course.
I looked up at the man in the chair. I wondered if he would send for me this evening.
I trembled, even thinking of it.
Dorna, I think, was not unaware of the fact that I fell well within the regard of him in the great chair.
“You think that a collar with an Earth-girl name would be suitable?” he asked Dorna.
“Suitable, and appropriate, Master,” she said, in honeyed tones.
This made me apprehensive, particularly when I recalled her remarks to the effect that this would let men know how I was to be treated, and such.
“Shall we give her an Earth-girl name?” asked he in the chair of the men standing about.
“Do so, Captain,” said one of them, smacking his lips.
“Yes, Captain!” approved another.
Many Earth-girl names I would discover, understandably enough, I supposed, have an exotic flavor to the men of this world. They tend to find them sexually stimulating. They are also, like certain names of this world, regarded as slave names. I am not fully certain why that is. It may be because they tend to be unfamiliar names to the men of this world. It may be because they are found on women brought to this world to be slaves. It may be because we often sold under such names, we then wearing them as slave names, put on us for the convenience of masters. To be sure, it may be for another reason, a simpler reason, the simple reason that we make excellent slaves. There are some names, of course, which are common to both this world and my old world, which suggests interesting questions of etiology. Similarly there are some names on this world which are on free women but which are also, often, found on slaves. One such is ‘Dina’. It is not unusual for a name of this world, incidentally, to be put on an Earth girl brought here. This is not entirely unnatural, of course, as such names are often beautiful, and, naturally, more familiar to the masters. Too, such names sometimes help the new slave to make the transition to her new status and condition. Indeed, they sometimes help to free her of her inhibitions and increase her sexual responsiveness. In other cases, it seems clear that wearing an Earth-girl name, whether one which was once her own, now put on her as a slave name, or another Earth-girl name, now also, of course, only a slave name, can have similar effects on a girl from my world, she now recognizing herself as, and being in effect, embonded fauna in an alien environment, singled out, and marked, as such, by the name. The contrast between the familiarity of the name, like a tie to an old world, and the new reality in which she finds herself can be both astonishing and stimulating. An interesting variation on this sort of thing is the giving of Earth-girl names to women of this world. This is a way of informing the, I gather, that great heat is now expected of them and that they are now, at best, to regard themselves as the lowest of slaves. To be sure, in time, as we learn our collars and condition, I think that the names make little difference. Many names, of diverse sorts, are stimulating and beautiful. And, of course, perhaps most importantly, we are well aware that any name we wear, whatever it may be, is, when all is said and done, a slave name.