The Courier Ch. 18

The other servant turned to kneel facing the wall, but the Lord ordered her to stand and watch. She obeyed, trying as best she could to remain expressionless. Maria Elena did not know it at the time, but in Danubian culture to watch other people have sex was considered an extremely dishonorable act. The Lord was dishonoring Maria Elena by raping and sodomizing her, but he also was dishonoring his other servant by ordering her to watch instead of allowing her to turn away.

When he finished pumping semen into her vagina, the Lord paused a few minutes while he groped Maria Elena's thighs and bottom. The other servant knelt and her master put his wet penis into her mouth. She was obviously very disgusted at the thought of having to taste the sex of two other people. Maria Elena already knew that performing oral sex was another practice that was considered dishonorable in Danubia. As soon as he spent his remaining semen into the other servant's mouth, he slapped her. He then ordered the two women into the washroom and instructed them to bathe each other. Neither could touch her own body; all washing had to be done by the other. Of course, the two servants had to pay special attention to each other's crotches.

"I shall smell both of you when you are finished. If there is even a hint of stench, I will flog you both. Then I will have you flip a coin to see which one of you will spend the night in the pillory."

Maria Elena realized that the Lord was obsessed with dishonoring women by making them humiliate themselves. He was not as quick to flog a Royal Servant as was Anyia, but he tortured them in a different manner through continuous sexual insults and by doing everything he could to destroy any hint of self-respect.

There was a final humiliation for Maria Elena's fellow servant. The Lord ordered her to kneel and Maria Elena to undo her braids. The woman had held up well throughout the evening, but having her braids undone broke her spirit. As Maria Elena finished with her companion's hair and ran her fingers through to straighten it out, tears rolled down the Danubian woman's cheeks.

"Why are you crying? I'm sure you realize that you don't deserve to have braided hair. Braided hair is a privilege only for women who have honor."

With that the Lord locked up the two servants in the tiny cell where Maria Elena had slept alone the night before. As he closed the door, he commented:

"That mattress is large enough for dishonored women who wish to lie together; as I am sure you two sexual deviants wish to do."

Once the door was closed and bolted, Maria Elena thought about whispering to her cellmate about making an arrangement to take turns sleeping on the mattress. However, it turned out that was not necessary. Her Danubian companion knelt in the corner, facing away from her, crying. She stayed in that position for hours, not moving and not responding, just crying. Maria Elena didn't know what else to do, other than get onto the mattress and try to sleep. She was so exhausted that not even the other woman's crying could keep her awake.

She drifted into slumber, dreaming of another time when, as a young teenager, she was walking along a foggy mountain road that led through endless forests and coffee fields. She was 14 at the time, on a church retreat. Jose Pablo had been there, along with other friends with whom she had long since lost contact. Yes, when she was 14, everything was so intense, and she knew that she and the others would be friends forever. Five years...five years had come and gone since that church trip.

Forever...yeah, right.

Maria Elena Rodriguez-Torres had not been able to appreciate that moment at the time, but remembering it as an adult, she realized those misty mountains was one place she could have found peace if she had not been such a fool with her choices and wasted her life. Whatever joy she had on that misty road; the pleasant environment, her friends and companions, and Jose Pablo, had long since vanished.