PREVIOUSLY: Channah, a Queen of Hell, for reasons of her own, has married two human transgender girls she is taking through the Hell of Lust to reach their honeymoon destination. At the foreboding Chang’an Castle, Penny and Chas have been told to open Duchess Fang’s wedding gifts to their Domina, Queen Channah, while the succubae and qahramanat watch. NOW:
About Men, Girls, and Dogs
Chas and Penny knelt near the center of the hetaraslakos, surrounded by their four counterparts kneeling in saddle position supporting the girls’ four superiors, and began carefully removing the red paper wrappings from the packages without damaging them.
Esmeray laughed harshly. “You are girls now,” she decided, amused and slightly contemptuous. “A man, like a dog, would just rip the paper off to see what was inside.” And then she laughed again. “And so would I!”
“You’re admitting you’re a dog?” Hong asked demurely, but not kindly.
Minutes after spoiling to initiate a fight, Esmeray casually waved a hand, unphased in the slightest by an insult that in some cultures was considered quite severe. “Like a dog. Even being like a man is better than… this,” she added, as the girls blushed three different shades of red.
“I would do the same,” Channah admitted, causing Hong to redden in turn, as Fang glared at her. “And I am in no way like a dog.”
“Certainly not, Domina!” Hong agreed insistently, in a strangled voice, and even Esmeray had the presence of mind to murmur her agreement, without taking her eyes off the packages.
Turning her corrective gaze on Esmeray, Channah continued: “But you are both right, we have worked very hard to support Chas’s and Penny’s development into the demure and proper young ladies they were meant to be. Girls, I selected Esmeray for you for many reasons, but none of those reasons were to unwind your ladylike decorum and deportment. You are my wives and I wanted you because of who you are, including the sweet and feminine young ladies you have become.”
“Yes, thank you, Domina,” they agreed, still pink.
“I know you’ve endured worse from your… stepbrothers, who have never understood your path. Worse, because they meant it hurtfully. And while I understand their contempt, and Esmeray’s amusement, and even share them to some extent, I never want you to change. Promise me you will always be my sweet young girls.”
“We promise, Domina,” they murmured, staring fixedly at the contents of their packages but making no move to remove them, their ears burning.
Finally turning her gaze on the girls, she continued: “Esmeray has not had the opportunities and training Hong has enjoyed all her life. And I find her inappropriate candor delightfully refreshing, at least among us ladies and girls. Never in the Show, where all my operatives have important parts to play.” Her face softening slightly, she glanced back at Esmeray. “To the extent they can. But her views on your young womanhood are not among the reasons I chose her for you. You will of course accept her insults, because she is your Qahramanah. Try even to enjoy them as part of your training.”
And when she paused, the girls, thus prompted, managed to choke out: “Yes, Domina.”
“But let her be the man. I think part of her soul is one, as much as yours are female. Her male part is necessary for your proper training, but being men—or even boys—is not for you.” Esmeray, managing to look slightly discomfited herself, nodded as if trying to memorize something important. Then Channah grinned, becoming jocular again: “So get on with it, you big girls!” As Esmeray clapped delightedly.
The Arts of the Spring
“Classic of the White Madam, and Other Spring Palace Illustrations,” Penny read the title of the elegantly-bound book in front of her, in confusion. “Arts of the Bedchamber,” Chas read hers, her squeaky speech suggesting considerably less confusion.
As soon as they read the titles, Channah burst out laughing as Fang and Hong tittered politely. “You had them translated into Latin, of all languages?!”
“I understand Latin is becoming a liturgical language in the West. It seemed more amusing—and marginally less barbaric—than English,” Fang explained. “Also, knowing barbarians lack subtlety, I asked my corrupted Jesuit missionary to render the words so vulgar and explicit even your girls would be able to understand them.”
“You’re bad,” Channah snickered. “Look at their faces!” she broke into peals of laughter as the girls, reaching the cover illustration inside, looked like they would crawl into the little packages and wrap themselves up in the used red paper if they could. “I love how sweet and polite they are! Esmeray, surely even you can see how charming they are.”
“Perhaps—in moments like these,” she conceded, also enjoying herself. “They’re so embarrassed!”
“You’d think they were more innocent than they are! A week ago, yes. But in the past week…”
“These are translated from the older texts, pre-Confucian in origin. I’m confident they haven’t tried a twentieth of what is discussed in them,” Fang replied.
“I’m sure you’re right! Oh, these are perfect wedding gifts, Fang. Close them up, girls.”
“For such modest girls, they’re very attentive, Domina,” Hong observed.
“They certainly are! Good students, I should think.” She clapped her hands sharply. “Close them! I don’t want you seeing anything quite yet. We shall explore these thoroughly all week!”
Channah, Fang, Hong, and even the four Hongettes from their crouched positions, laughed at the idea, while the girls reluctantly obeyed their Domina and set the packages back in the boxes.
“We have a book like this,” Esmeray admitted. “I have never seen it, but I have heard it mentioned.”
“One Thousand and One Nights!” Channah nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, I should look into getting them a copy of that, which they should be able to read in the original. And perhaps the Indian and ancient Egyptian texts on the subject.”
“Now, girls,” Hong continued, “Rise, set the books by your Domina, and each of you take one of the remaining gifts.” When they had, Hong, with barely a pause, said: “Chas, kneel before your Domina with the package. As close as you can get without crowding her.” Hong paused, looking questioningly at Fang, who asked:
“With permission, majesty, although the last gift is for your benefit, we had it in mind parts of it might be used, and all of them at least shared, by your girls’ qahramanah. Would you prefer to open it…?”
“Not at all! By all means, Penny, kneel before Esmeray as Chas is kneeling before me.”
“But—this is the largest gift of all!” Esmeray protested as Penny maneuvered it in front of her. And then, weighing it with one hand without taking it from Penny: “And the heaviest by far, I would guess.”
“You go first then, child, while I watch,” Channah decided.
“Then hold tight, girlie!” Esmeray cautioned, before ripping the paper with a single swipe of her fingernails, then using her hands to tear open one side of the package instead of opening the top, while the other women laughed at her raw enthusiasm and earnestness.
“Her genuineness does have a… refreshing quality, Domina,” Hong conceded politely.
She started pulling gorgeous, gold-studded, tooled purple leather straps covered with gold buckles and rings, from the box which she and the girls at first stared at in confusion, before Esmeray suddenly tightened like a watchspring, gasped in recognition, and threw them violently back in the box, looking horrified.
Literature Section “06-70 Dance of the Qahramanat V”—Part 70 of Chapter Six, “Le Saccage de la Sale Bête Rouge” (“Rampage of the Dirty Red Beast”)—1197 words—Accompanying Images: 1623-1626—Published 2025-04-22—©2025 The Remainderman. This is a work of fiction, not a book of suggestions. It’s filled with fantasies, idiots, and criminals. Don’t believe them or imitate them.