Safina Starts Her Concubinage with Duke Lydius Myredan

Life, Career

Desperate and alone with two children and no money, Safina has to make a difficult decision. In order to pay off her debts and freedom costs, locate her partner and protect her children, Safina sells herself to Duke Lydius Myredan.

Zamarkin had found them a temporary home, leaving them with savings worth several months of expenses, and had left to work out a more permanent solution. It worked at first but she still owed the brothel money for her purchase fees, fees for her freedom and fleeing penalties, thus leaving a price on her head for the authorities to chase after her. Her landlord, strapped for cash after a gambling failure, had threatened many times to hand her over after discovering who she was and she knew it was only a matter of time before he went through with it. She had lost contact with Zamarkin and had two children to care for.   It was at the beginning of the new year of 1251 she accepted her situation and began planning their survival. Knowing her time was limited she decided to go back to the brothel. Duke Lydius Myredan, an noble infamous for his cruelty and fascination with men and women alike, was due to visit in the third month and he never left without a woman. Safina chose to stake herself on the risk and spent the next two months researching him and preparing, leaving the final month for travel and final preparations.    Her investigations showed he preferred interesting women who entertained him. He was a collector of women and kept women of various backgrounds and his concubines and mistresses. The more intelligent and skilled, the higher their rank, the more he paid for them and the greater he favoured them.    As one of few known survivors of Hells' Playground and a native of such, she was already a rare specimen and was confident if she played it up she could gain some rank but she also had her children to protect. She would need a rank of concubinage high enough that she would be just under his wife and highest concubine in order to gain the protection and future of her children as well as herself, and that would be best gained by a demonstration of her intelligence and skills.