Bijou

I am Bijou. I am of the caste of Scribes and Cosian by birth. My father's Home Stone is in Selnar.

My family is very traditional and of high caste, from a very long and prestigious ancestry of Scribes. My father has served twice on the High Council, and has drafted numerous arbitration treaties between Cos and her trade allies along the Vosk.

Just prior to reaching my age of majority, I was tutored in all of the traditional slave dances as well as the fine art of seduction, as is every free adolescent girl of well-to-do households. And it was at my debutante that my father announced my prearranged betrothal to one of his own colleagues, whom had asked for my hand more than a decade before the joining was to take place. Being young and still virgin, my dowry was set very high. It was paid in full over a series of yearly installments just months before the joining ceremony was to take place.

I am Bijou. And that is how my life was to have been neatly arranged. By now, I should have been caught up in the whirlwind of arranging all the ceremonial joinings of my own children.