Chapter III
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THE OLDEST PROFESSION
THERE IS AN ESTABLISHMENT HERE, UNLIKE ANY OTHER.
We are to believe that it is a completely ordinary and none-out-of-place harem, where young men and women enter and do not come out kings, where concubines and beggars are not trained to ruin lives. We are to believe that this is simply a quiet and capable house of moral indecency (an exchange of base desires,) and not a place of education, murder, survival, and violent enterprise.
Sidebars: Luis Ricardo Falero's WITCHES ON THE SABBATH, Peter Paul Rubens' ST SEBASTIAN, Jules Joseph Lefebvre's PANDORA, Dave Palumbo's TERRIBLE WEAKNESS, Luis Ricardo Falero's MOONLIT BEAUTIES—
WAS WAR & BLOOD
IT DEALS IN FLESH OF ALL FORM
"SUCH THINGS WE DO NOT REPAIR WITH GOLD OR BLOOD, WE TELL OURSELVES LIES A THOUSAND TIMES OVER, AND THEN MORE, UNTIL WE BELIEVE THEM—UNTIL WE PRETEND THAT THE WOUNDS HAVE SEALED OVER, AND THE LIES AREN'T LIES."
"TELL ME WHAT YOU WISH TO GAIN, TELL ME WHAT YOU HAVE LOST. TELL ME WHAT YOU WOULD KILL TO FEEL AGAIN, WHAT YOU WOULD DIE FOR TO KNOW ONCE MORE. WHAT ANGERS FUEL YOU? WHAT SORROWS HAVE TURNED YOU TO STONE?—LISTEN TO ME, AND LOOK INTO MY EYES. THEY CANNOT LIE—YOU TELL ME WHAT I SEE AS YOU STARE INTO THEM, AND I WILL LET YOU CHOOSE WHETHER OR NOT TO TAKE MY HAND, AND FLY."
