"Yeah."Yeah." And when she said that, her eyes lit up, like they had when she'd asked for the piercing. I thought about it for all of three seconds. I could see in those eyes that there was no way I was going to talk her out of this one, like I hadn't been able to talk her out of the last one, the piercings. Okay, then. I said, "What kind?" "Eldar, four stars." She smiled back. "My personal symbol." My brows knitted. I thought about it. It made sense, but I didn't like it. Every lover she'd ever have would know that at one point somebody had burned Shardik's personal symbol onto her, probably Shardik myself. In any event, they'd be sure to ask about it. Not many people walk around with brands, to be sure. I've never heard of one. More painful than tattoos, I imagine. I wouldn't know, I've never had either. "Yeah." Was all she said, and her eyes again lit up. All I could do was nod. My slave had more control over our relationship than I did. INSIDE: It was a different beach, on a different planet, in a different part of the universe. The sand was crystal white this time, and the ocean really was blue, and the trees were your standard palms. This is Pandora, a green world of my desire, made because Pendor lacks some things, things which we can live without, but I'd rather not. Pandora adds to the system that is Pendor, allows for a special kind of variation that is absolutely necessary. Without Pandora's gravity, Pendor would never have tides and her beaches would be stagnant and unwashed. Pandora also has something unique... sunrises and sunsets. Pandora is deliberately geologically unstable, kicking overlarge amounts of volcanic dust into the atmosphere, so depending on where you stand, the sunsets are spectacular blue-greens or red-yellows. And tonight's sunset was magnificent. A spectacular blue sinking into the horizon, the momentary green flash as it refracted in the atmosphere and finally disappeared out of sight. I paused to watch it, and then sat and waited. This time there was no shimmer of transport. We were within Pin's rays, and everything was accessible by stepping disk. |