Notes: Shamelessly stolen from an account in Herodatus.

Feedback: I crave it. It's my favorite high.

Warning: Underage sex, by US standards.  Quite old enough by Alderaanian.

***
Duty to Desire
2001 Angelia Sparrow
***
 

"Bail, she's only a child!  I will not let you force her into this
shameful barbarism!"

"Sabe, she's sixteen.  It's high time she made her duty to Aria.
Most of her age-mates did it last year or the year before."

"Except Lera, who still sits there, every day."

"Leia is beautiful.  She won't sit there long.
It's not as if she's a virgin anyway."

"Oh, yes, so civilized, Alderaan!  Assigning little girls
lovers when the Moon starts her song!  Forcing them to
whore themselves before they can marry!  If her mother
was alive--"

"Sabe, it's all right.  Father, I will make my duty to Aria."

"Bail, you are king.  Can you not make an exception for her?"

"Sabe, it is because he is king, I cannot shirk my duty.  I am
an example for our people to follow."

"I could never convince your mother of anything once her mind was made
up.  Very well, submit to this humiliation, and conduct yourself
as the Princess you are."

"I'll make you proud of me, Sabe.  I must tell Eril that the time has
come, Father."

Bail kissed his daughter on the forehead.  "I am very proud of you,
Leia.  Your mother would be, too.  You go at dawn tomorrow."

Leia rose early, leaving Eril still sleeping in her bed, his
blue-black hair splayed over the white lace pillows.  She dressed
plainly, and braided her hair in the prescribed fashion.  She left
to find Sabe waiting for her.

"If you are going through with this, sweetie, I'm going along."

"Sabe, no one else takes her handmaid along when she makes her duty
to Aria."  Seeing the woman would not budge, Leia relented.  "Come if you
have to."

The women made their way to the Temple of Aria.  The Alderaanian goddess of
desire, worshipped equally by lovers, married couples, and prostitutes,
commanded an impressive portico.  Decorated with friezes and
bas-reliefs of every conceivable position and coupling, it was a wonder
of the galaxy, in more than architecture.  The Duty to Aria was
reknowned throughout the sector, but firmly closed to non-humans since
the tours had begun.

Leia went to the Supplicant's Court of the temple, and prayed briefly.
Standing, she removed the simple dress, picked up the engraved metal
bowl and took her place among the others.

The doors of the temple opened.  Men of all ages, and some that were only
close to Alderaanian norm, entered and walked around the circle of chairs.
The girls sat straight, their backs to the altar, the bowls between their
knees, and waited.  Sabe stood in the shadows behind a pillar and waited,
glad Padme was dead.  Leia was so beautiful, so calm, it broke her heart.

A clank of coin on metal startled all the girls.  They glanced
into their bowls.  The large blonde girl on the other side of the
circle stood up and took the arm of the slight, greying man as he
led her to one of the curtained alcoves surrounding the Hall of Duty.

Coins clattered into bowls, filling the air with the music of Aria.
Leia felt one land in her bowl.  She stood, keeping her eyes down, and
went to the man who had chosen her.  He was an off-worlder by his dress,
probably a tourist come to sample the pleasures of Alderaan.

She wrapped her hand around his arm, feeling the crushed grey velvalon
of his shirt, and the hard muscles beneath it.  His skin was golden,
and his eyes tilted like a feliniod's.  His hair was the same green as
his eyes.  He held the curtain open, and she entered the alcove.

Leia lay back on the silken sheets of the bed, and set the bowl on the table
beside it.  Calmly, she thought of Eril, and how well he made love to her.
The stranger ran a gentle hand over her small body.

"Pretty.  Exotic."  His Basic was accented with odd hisses and clicks.  He
fondled her brown hair, toying with the braids.  The other hand slipped
between her legs.  "Wet."

With no further ado, he knelt between her knees and entered her.  He was big,
but not painful.  She smiled at him and he started to rotate
his hips.  She watched the ceiling, absently stroking his body and hair.

Eventually, he finished.  He pulled out and fastened his clothing.
He ran one slow hand along her face, and over her breasts.  "Thank you."
He left.

Leia sat up on the bed, feeling stickiness oozing out of her,
and looked in the bowl.  Ten credits.  She had done her duty to Aria.
A princess of Alderaan had sold for ten credits.

She rose, and picked up the bowl.  Following another girl,
she made her way to the altar in the center of the hall, and laid
the ten-credit coin on the stone top.

She returned to the Supplicant's Court, and dressed.  As she left, she looked
at the line of women.  Lera was still there, and some women as old as Sabe.
In the very far back corner, she saw an ancient woman, wrinkled and withered,
holding a bowl between her bony knees.

Sabe wrapped her in an extra cloak and walked her back to the palace in silence.

*end*