50.
"Have you two been talking?" asked North.
"Of course we have!" the woman replied. "We're two females. It doesn't matter that we're of different races. We understand each other's feelings. She's afraid you don't want her because other man have used her before. I told her you're just thick-headed and a little slow in that respect."
"You didn't!" North cried, looking his mother right in the eye. Then he realized, she most certainly had!
"Anyway," North added, "she's probably got some Hashon boy she sneaks off with once and awhile."
His mother smiled and went to the door. "Maybe," she said. "maybe."
That night North engrossed himself in his studies and it was very late when he went to the bathroom to take a shower. As he was returning he could feel the girl's eyes watching him as he passed. He knew Hashons could see far better in the dark than he could.
"Aren't you asleep?" North asked.
"No, master," the girl replied. "I've been laying here thinking."
"About what?"
"About the strangeness of women," she told him. "How a woman can fall in love with someone she should hate, because she is his slave and his property."
"You were in love with one of your masters?" asked Northern Star.
"Yes, sir," the girl said. "I still am."
"Who is he? Someone I know?"
"Yes," the girl told him. "You know him better than anyone else! He's you!"
North stood very quiet for several minutes.
"Are you angry?" the girl finally asked.
"No," North told her, "but I can't lie to you. I like you, but I don't love you."
"That's alright," she assured. "As long as I can stay with you and I please you."
North held out his hand and she came to him without hesitation. When they embraced, North knew he had wanted to do this for a long time. Holding her close to him, they went into his bedroom and the door slid silently shut behind them. In the morning, North sat at the table drinking a cup of Muga when his mother came in.
"I have slave control on the phone," she said. "You'd better go tell them that the girl is being taken on permanently, and to have her things sent over. I'll take some of your old things out of the closet to make room for hers."