My Angel of the Dawn (WomanxBoy, ManxBoy, Sci-Fi + Romance)

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Nelsa Meiran Amarantha was born on the planet of Bizarre, in a small town that looked like a brothel, in a brothel that looked like a small town. As a matter of fact, Bizarre was famous for its brothels — adult-themed entertainments complexes they were called, to sound more aesthetically pleasing. The Bizarrians were experts in high-end entertainment, unlike, say, the citizens of Aescuzan with their cheap primitive ways. Bizarre belonged to the Inner Circle of planets — the oldest and wealthiest of them, feeding off their colonies in the Outer Rim.

The Bizarrians worshiped beauty and elegance. Men and women of Bizarre weren't selling their bodies — oh no, they were courtesans, paid for a single affectionate look, a sweet smile, an hour of small-talk. Such trivial and basic services as sex were provided by slaves. They attended to every need of the graceful Bizarrian aristocrats, while the latter were spending their days indulging in exquisite pleasures, political intrigues and art.

As refined and sensitive beings, the Bizarrians never used the word 'slave.' 'Zero caste' was the term, or a bit more crudely, 'serv.' In the barbarian Outer Rim slaves weren't considered citizens or even people, but Bizarre was quite civilized in that regard. Slaves were considered the members of society (although of its lowest stratum, of course). They were cared for, their civil rights protected — except the right for freedom.

People on Bizarre had been born as slaves and died as slaves for many generations. The Bizarrians very rarely set a slave free. To buy a person who had been sold into slavery after, say, being kidnapped or paying a debt, was considered a bad form. The idea of a social status being permanent, unalterable, inherited and passed on to one's children was a cornerstone of the Bizarrian society.

Needless to say, Nelsa Meiran Amarantha was born a slave.

Her first name, Nelsa, was a secret one. She had been christened with it by her mother who was a Christian. It was a rarity in the Inner Circle of planets, where people adhered to new, progressive religious confessions: neotheism, weirdism, oikumenism and others. Of course, Christians weren't thrown to the lions or forbidden to worship their Lord, as it had been happening during the early ages of the Cradle and its colonies. Christianity was simply considered a consolation for the poor, something unworthy of a gentleman of stature and fortune.

Nelsa's mother should have been like the whole lot of pretty, light-headed, naïve bedslaves who were bred for their looks and skills, not their brains. But she stood out among them. Maybe her faith was the source of her fortitude, her ability to think for herself, to challenge the rules. Having a baby was a fair example. All female bedslaves had to have a contraceptive implant installed, which effectively prevented pregnancy. To get with child without their owner's permission was something bordering on impossible for a bedslave. Nelsa's mother used to say to her, "I prayed to the Lord every day, and He gave me you." Maybe it was the God's gift, a miracle for His humble servant. Or it was the simple case of a failed contraceptive implant.

She didn't know who the father was, but could narrow it down to three of her long-term customers. Yes, she was allowed to have long-term customers, which was quite a rare privilege for a brothel slave. When the girl had grown up enough to ask questions, her mother just named one of them, the most worthy in her opinion. He was a pilot of a transgalactic shipping company, so Nelsa's later career choice was not a coincidence. But it wasn't Fate at work, because all three likely candidates for Nelsa's father had been employed in the space-flight industry, one way or another.

The girl received a pretentious name Meiran Amarantha and a number FF1F on her wrist. The Bizarrians used an old system of measures and weights — all sorts of leagues, pounds and inches — and hexadecimal numbers for slave identifications. They had always been eager to emphasize the uniqueness of their culture.

It wasn't unusual that Nelsa's mother was given permission to bear her child to term. It was only humane, civilized. On Bizarre a pregnancy could have been terminated, only if there was something wrong with the fetus. And there was nothing wrong with Nelsa, she had a good, strong genotype. Pretty unusual was that she hadn't been sold right after birth as was the brothels custom. The brothel owners couldn't well afford to burden their stock with squealing babies. And they weren't known for their kindness. But Nelsa's mother was allowed to keep the child. Her owner valued her, she had been his best earner so far. He could only hope that eventually the girl would grow up and replace her mother.

Nelsa was not burdened with hard work, only some menial tasks. She had served as a maid: washed dishes, cleaned floors and so on. Her mother taught her to read and write — it was frowned upon, but not forbidden. Instead of teaching Nelsa the secrets of the trade, the art of pleasuring a man and occasional woman, her mother had been telling her fairy tales and stories from the Bible.

At fourteen Nelsa was a lanky, ungainly girl, stubborn and defiant. In her owner's opinion, she clearly wasn't cut out to be a brothel star even if she wanted to (and she most definitely didn't). Disappointed, he sold her to the first person who asked, for the first price named. The person who asked was a wealthy aristocrat from the capital, who happened to pass through town and visit its only brothel. His name was Nikas Hazadriel Aristides. Somehow he was able to see everything that Nelsa had yet to acquire: her beauty, her ambitions, her intellect. He took her with him to his country house near the capital, and a whole new life began for a young slave girl from a provincial town.