Another three years passed, and with them a whole host of lessons that Sayana hadn’t even realized were part of a courtesan’s daily life. Kallam turned eighteen and was snapped up almost immediately by a patron. Sayana missed his daily teasing but was pleased for him to have gotten his first assignment.

Sayana walked into the first class with the rest of those in her year and was surprised to find it was a mixed group of young men and young women. The past few years had seen more of a division in the genders. Now a very large group of students sat in the classroom and waited for the teacher to arrive. Three Matrons and one Master walked into the room.

“Excellent, what a large turnout we have today,” one Matron quipped in a bubbly voice. “This will be fun.”

“Fun for you, perhaps, though not necessarily for them,” the Master told her with a sardonic smile.

“Nonsense.” The first Matron waved away his concern with an airy hand. “All courtesans-in-training love my class. It’s only pessimists like you that have a problem with it. Now, shall we get on with the examples? I have ever so many we can choose from.”

“You remember what Hannelore told you. One of each only,” one of the other Matrons warned her. “If you disobey her, we’ll have to go fetch her, and that could mean you losing your teaching position.”

The woman pouted. “How are they supposed to choose if they’re only allowed one example?” She sighed. “No appreciation for the work I do to cultivate these samples, none at all.”

“They’re still children, and they don’t need to be overwhelmed by watching people having sex in multiple different styles, places, and partners,” the Master commented. “One of each type is all that’s needed to give them an idea of what they can choose from.”

“Fine.” The Matron stared at a large quantity of holos in front of her. “I’ll pick this one, this one, and this one then. They should give you the best example of what you’ll be dealing with as you come of age.”

“Make certain they’re not too obscene,” one of the other Matrons cautioned. The bubbly Matron glared at her and replaced one of the examples.

Sayana grimaced as she was forced to watch three couples having sex – one man and woman, one that was a pair of women, and one that was a pair of men. When the examples were over, the Matron smiled brightly at the students. “Now, which of those three appeals to you the most?”

“None of them,” a student grumbled. “Watching those was horrible. I didn’t want to see perfect strangers having sex.”

“It wasn’t the act that you were supposed to be paying attention to,” the Matron snapped crossly. “It was the gender of the partners involved. You have to choose which alignment you are. Are you male to female, female to female, or male to male?”

“What if we don’t want to choose?” another student asked. “All three look like fun to me.”

“You’re the wrong gender for one of them,” the Matron told him with some amusement. “And everyone has to choose one so we can move you into classes that will teach you how best to please your patron. It will also dictate which patron list you go on so when you do turn eighteen, we’ll know which patrons to present you to.” She picked up a pad. “Now, I’m going to call your name. You’ll tell me male/female, male/male, or female/female when I get to you. If you aren’t sure, you can say undecided and you can go through my collection of examples if you need further inspiration as to which one you are.”

Sayana didn’t find any of the three appealing, but that was more because she’d been exposed to her mother’s sexual exploits at an early age and didn’t find the act all that tempting. If she had to choose, though, she knew she was not interested in her own gender. When her name was called, she answered, “Man and woman.” A note was made by her name and the Matron moved on.

They called a young woman’s name, and she answered, “None of the above.”

The Matron looked at her. “You have to choose one, otherwise you are considered a failed courtesan and are sent to the Scullery.”

“Why do we have to have sex at all? Why can’t we just please our patrons with music and tales and forego the sex? Surely there must be patrons out there who aren’t interested in sex with their courtesans,” the girl protested.

“No, not really. Every patron who comes to us is looking for a courtesan to entertain him or her, and that includes sex. Now, either choose from one of the two options available to your gender or go to the Scullery.” The Matron looked at her expectantly.

“I’d rather face the Scullery than have to have sex with strangers for the rest of my life,” the girl protested stubbornly. “I was told that there would be options when it came to sexual preference. I thought no sexual contact would be one of those options.”

“Where in the name of all the stars did you get that idea?” one of the other Matrons asked. “You get a limited choice of whether you want to sleep with men or women. That’s it. Who told you not having sex was an option you’d have available to you?”

“No one,” the girl muttered sullenly. “I just assumed it would be an option, for people like me who don’t like the idea of sex.”

“If you really feel so strongly that you can’t bring yourself to have sex with another person, then you leave us no choice but to send you to the Scullery. Is that what you really want?” the first Matron asked.

The girl looked uncertain. “I – I don’t know.”

“I will give you some time to mull it over. I’ll come back to you at the end. If you can’t pick a gender you feel confident you can please sexually with our training, then say so and we’ll escort you to the Scullery.” There was no trace of the bubbly personality from the first Matron now. She moved on to the next person on the list. She finished out the list, with one other girl expressing a lack of interest in sex but saying if she had to choose, she’d rather it be with women. Finally, she came back to the first girl. “Well? Have you decided?”

The girl chewed on the end of one of her curls. “I guess men. I don’t think I could perform well with another woman.”

“Very well.” The Matron marked it down on her roster. “Now, that’s all some of you are going to get from me. Matron Kyndra will take those of you who chose men as your option and are female. Matron Simone will take those of you who chose women as your option and are female. Those of you who are male and chose women as your option will stay with me. Those of you who are male and chose men as your option will go with Master Cenarius. We will be your instructors for the remainder of the year.”

“What exactly are we going to learn?” someone asked.

“How to please your patrons,” the Matron advised. “Your instructors will explain in greater detail in your classes.” The group broke up, the largest number of female students following Matron Kyndra to a separate classroom.

“All right.” Kyndra regarded her students thoughtfully. “Now, can anyone explain what pleasing your patron means?”

“Making them happy?” someone guessed.

“That’s a good answer, as far as it goes.” Kyndra gestured with one hand. “But what can you do to make them happy?”

“Flatter them, recite tales and poetry to them, entertain them?” someone else suggested.

Kyndra shook her head. “Beyond that.”

“Please them sexually?” someone guessed.

“Well yes, but why is that such an important part of our jobs?” Kyndra asked.

“Because we’re courtesans and that’s what courtesans do,” someone else commented. “We’re paid to have sex with people, aren’t we?”

“We are paid to be their intimate companions.” Kyndra looked at all of them. “We see a side of our patrons that they don’t show to anyone else. They know they can be vulnerable with us because we are the purveyors of great secrets which we reveal to no one. That is our primary function. Yes, sex plays a huge role in our jobs. It is often much easier to unburden oneself with someone that you have been intimate in body with, so you can then be intimate with the soul with them. This is our function, and one we have performed since our kind first started plying our trade.”

“That’s different,” Sayana muttered, thinking of her mother. No one paid attention to her.

There were no other classes that morning. This was now the focus of their training. They got their twenty-minute break and went back to it. Kyndra wasn’t teaching them sexual techniques. “You’re not ready for them,” she told those who were eager to get on with those lessons. “You need the basics first. Then I’ll teach you how to please your patron sexually. We have a lot to cover, and I only get one year to cram it all into your heads. So be prepared for some intense study sessions.”

The free hour before dinner was again hers, but this time it wasn’t entirely free. She needed to read two chapters in a book Kyndra had assigned to them all. She read the two chapters and answered most of Kyndra’s questions that she’d given as extra work. Then she went to dinner. After the meal was over, she finished the work and started reading one of the books she’d started but never finished. Lights out came and she went to bed.

The next day Kyndra took several of the students to task for not finishing the assigned work. “But it was given to work on in our free time,” one of the girls whined plaintively. “Our free time is ours to do with as we please, not to do extra work from our classes.”

Kyndra glared at the girl. “Your free time is only free so long as we say it is. If you are given extra work, you are expected to do it. Now I have to put the class on hold while I wait for you to finish this and the extra assignment I’m giving you all tonight. That is going to delay us, and I do not like delays. You won’t be given time to finish it in class as we have too much to do. I expect you to finish this and the other assignment you are given today this evening, even if it takes you until lights out to do it.”

Kyndra had to skip a few things in her lesson that day, a fact that made her quite angry. She dismissed them all with another assignment and reminded them all that the extra work had to be finished that night even if it took them until lights out to do it. “That isn’t fair,” one of the girls who hadn’t done the assignment the previous night grumbled. “This is my game night with several of my friends. I’m supposed to miss out on that to do some stupid assignments?”

“Yes, if you don’t want to make her even angrier at you,” another girl responded. “These assignments are more important than a game night. Priorities, Umaia. You need to get them straight or you’re going to be a terrible courtesan.”

Sayana wandered off before Umaia could reply so she didn’t hear what was said next. She wanted to look over the assignment during her free hour before dinner. But for now, it was lunch time, and she didn’t want to be late to the meal. The Head Matron frowned on tardiness to meals, as it showed a lack of respect that could be reflected towards patrons if one wasn’t careful.

The next day everyone had done their assignments, and Kyndra was able to run her class normally, much to her satisfaction, though she was still a little irritated that she’d had to put off certain things the previous day that she was now having to fit in that day. It made the class a bit jumbled together, but Sayana was able to follow the thread of the lesson. They were assigned more extra work and once again there was grumbling.

“Do you really think you’ll be living lives of leisure without work as courtesans?” Kyndra demanded when she heard the grumbling. “The only ones who come close to that are the Imperial courtesans, and you’re essentially giving up your life for that role. It’s not one I’d choose. Fine foods and comfortable rooms don’t make up for the loss of your freedom as far as I’m concerned.”

“Is it really that bad?” one girl asked. “I always thought that every courtesan wanted to be an Imperial courtesan, but they made it sound like a prison sentence rather than something to hope for.”

“It is a prison sentence.” Kyndra observed the curious looks on her students’ faces. “You’re there for life. You have to kill yourself when the emperor dies, assuming you don’t die before him of old age or illness. Even when you’re no longer young and beautiful and have been replaced you don’t get to leave the courtesan wing. You’re just relegated to the ‘retired’ pool and kept out of sight of the public. There’s no contact with the outside world – Imperial courtesans are the only ones who don’t follow the six month checkup and check in rules set by the Head Matron – and as far as any of us know, you could be dead there and we wouldn’t know because even after you die your body isn’t returned to us. It’s set in the emperor’s tomb so you can continue to serve him in death.”

“Definitely a prison sentence.” Sayana shook her head. “I didn’t like the sound of it when it was first mentioned to me several years ago and I still don’t like it.”

“But you can’t turn down the emperor if he decides he wants you,” one of the other girls pointed out.

“No, you can’t. If you’re chosen as an Imperial courtesan, you go whether you want to or not.” Kyndra made a shooing motion with her hands. “Now, you’re all going to be late for lunch, and the Head Matron doesn’t approve of tardiness. Scatter before she gets angry.”

“Yes Matron,” the class said in unison, and they hurried to the dining hall.

Sayana did her assignment that night and then pulled up the archives of the courtesan academy. She searched for the names of all those courtesans who’d served as Imperial courtesans in the history of Atania Academy. There were only five in the three-hundred-year annals. All five were chosen when they were well into their twenties. Two had deaths recorded when they were in their seventies, with a note that they were entombed with the emperors that they’d served. The other three were fates unknown but presumably they too were entombed with their emperor.

The two with their fates recorded were from the first two centuries, while the last three all happened within a fifty-year time span during the first part of the third century. Sayana realized that was the father of the current Emperor, and either he’d chosen three courtesans from the same academy, or his courtesans had met a sorry fate and had to be replaced. She wasn’t sure which and knew that she’d never know because the story would never have gotten out.

Sayana set aside her pad. There was little chance that the current emperor was going to die soon. Unless, of course, someone got extremely lucky and assassinated him. But he was only in his fifties and had thwarted every attempt made on his life thus far. From what she knew he already had a wing full of courtesans to suit him, so he wasn’t likely to go searching for new ones.

His son was nineteen and already in training to take his father’s place when he eventually died, but that wouldn’t be for another fifty or sixty years, if Emperor Vespasian’s luck continued to hold. As crown prince, he would be allowed to take a courtesan or two and have them tucked away in the courtesan wing with his father’s courtesans, but the question was would he choose to do so? Perhaps not for a few years yet, and even if he did choose them, he’d want ones that were stunningly beautiful and talented.

Sayana was beautiful. She knew that. All the courtesans in training were beautiful in some way. But she wasn’t as beautiful as her friend Marianis or the girl Umaia. Her talents were not exceptional in any way. She was, she thought, a rather average courtesan. She would hold no interest for the future emperor of the universe. She sighed with some relief. There was no chance of her becoming trapped in that hellish prison. She picked up her pad and went back to her book, reassured by her own presumed mediocrity.

Kyndra, however, didn’t see it the same way and gave the Head Matron a list of those she thought might be chosen as Imperial courtesans, and Sayana’s name was on the list. Sayana was, at sixteen, one of the most beautiful girls in the academy. Her hair, which she seldom let anyone cut, fell in flowing waves down to her waist. She kept it clean and tidy, choosing to braid it and twist it into a coil most of the time. Her large green eyes were very expressive and were framed with long, dark lashes which inspired jealousy in some of the other girls.

Her olive skin was flawless, and she used very few cosmetics to highlight her natural beauty. Only on festival days did she use a heavier hand and even then, she still used a light touch. As a result, she didn’t have the trouble with breakouts that some of the other young women did.

Sayana was tall for her age, standing at 1.8 meters tall, and was as slender as a rod. She had ample curves but wasn’t overblown like some of the girls were. She was properly proportioned for her height and when given the opportunity to wear something other than the uniform, dressed to flatter those dimensions.

For holidays she wore bright colors festooned with embroidery and winking gems, though nothing too gaudy and all tastefully designed by her own hand once she learned the art of designing her own clothing. Some of the courtesans never mastered that so there were stylists on staff, and every household could employ one on their behalf. But Sayana enjoyed the challenge of following the fashion and creating something new each year, so she spent time before every major holiday studying fashion dispatches and designing her new gowns with what was in style at court in mind.

Kyndra wasn’t the only one who worried Sayana, with her clever mind and her flare for fashion, would be snatched up by the Imperial searchers when the time came. The Head Matron and Hannelore often spoke of those who they would do their best to keep out of sight when they came, and Sayana’s name was mentioned more than once.

Classes continued for Sayana, and she learned the tricks Kyndra had for taking some pleasure in being a courtesan. It would never be a position that she felt was her true calling, but it would be more pleasant for her. She was less than thrilled when Kyndra taught them all the ways to pleasure a man, but she paid attention to these as well knowing they’d come in handy for her when she turned eighteen and got her first contract.

“You will be coached again on this next year.” Kyndra spoke reassuringly to her less confident students. “So don’t think you have to remember everything I’ve taught you. Your last six months before we put you on the list will be largely a review of everything we’ve taught you over the past several years. It will be intense, but it will ensure you have the best education we can give you for that day when you go out on your first assignment. Experience will cement your lessons into your head and once you’ve gotten a couple assignments out of the way, everything we’ve taught you will make a great deal more sense.”

“Will we be given a choice in our first assignment?” one girl asked.

“If you’re very lucky you may get some say in it, but usually no, you don’t get a choice,” Kyndra told them. “You won’t get your pick of patrons until you earn a reputation, and that doesn’t come until you’ve had three or four patrons.”

It was time for the summer holiday. Two weeks of absolutely no lessons during the hottest part of the summer. Most students hid in their rooms and tried not to move around too much because of the heat. Sayana curled up on her bed with a book. She had two weeks of uninterrupted reading time and planned on making use of it.