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Becoming Queen

Chapter 2: Reacquainting Herself

Sponsored by Taiko

By Draconicon

The kingdom of Min and its capital city shared the same name, and the modernization process that the entire land was going through was present more strongly in the capital than anywhere else. The dichotomy of dirt roads mixed alongside concrete paths, the blacktop against the earth, the rising structures of steel beside smaller homes of clay and stone: all of it combined to make it that much more remarkable in the eyes of the average person.

For Jina, it was convenient and inconvenient. The former for the fact that it made it harder to track her by her cell phone, provided that she kept to the less-developed parts of the city, and the latter for the fact that it took away the common, taken-for-granted tools that the rest of the world had. She had already left the car crash of a traffic jam that her Advisors were in and had taken the side, dirt paths away from the center of the city, heading towards one of the slums that she remembered from the last time.

It didn't take long to leave the construction lots behind, passing into the more traditional buildings where the power lines were scant and the vehicles were rare. Here, there were still horses and other beasts of burden that did the work of carrying things from one part of the city to the another, and less people concerned with the doings of the royal family.

Of course, there was one big thing that she needed to take care of to avoid getting picked out immediately, and that was to deal with the clothes she was wearing. The red panda glanced over her shoulder to make sure that she hadn't been followed, ducked back into the alley that she'd just left, and started making some...modifications.

The green silk needed to be dirtied, first of all. She slapped some dust from the alley against it, knocking down some of the richer quality of the fabric and staining away the bits of gold that ran through it. The gold bands wrapped around her tail were removed, quickly. That was going to be difficult to hide completely, but at the very least it would serve as a bribe for protection for a short time.

Ripping the skirt took some effort, mostly because the quality kept it from ripping easily, but she eventually managed it. A little improvisation turned the ripped skirt edge into a bag, and she tucked that under her belt, tossing her rings and most of her other possessions into it. It wasn't impossible to steal, but tucking it forward near her front rather than her side would make it more difficult for a thief to come close.

Surprised that I remember half of this stuff...

Then again, it hadn't been that long since she'd snuck out of the palace and spent time among the people. Her uncle, the King, hadn't been particularly happy that she did that, but she hadn't been stopped by him, either. It was more like something that she just did, and he went along with it, so long as the average person didn't know that it was her while she was on the streets.

All things considered, she preferred that arrangement. The less that the common people knew about what their princess did, the better, even if she did occasionally fantasize about what someone might do if they found out just who they had under them in bed. The blackmail attempts would be beyond fascinating.

But that was for another time. For now, it was better to avoid being seen. She scuffed her shoes, tempted to break the high heels off, but for now, that was not a good idea. There was a reason to wear shoes for now, even if it did mess with the rest of her attire.

And I think that just about does it.

Jina stood up straight, looking herself over. The formerly beautiful green dress was now something that was more of a workman's rags, something that a housewife might have had and was in the process of restoring. The ragged edges of the skirt favored quick movement, and she knew that she'd be able to run without having to worry about tripping over the edge of it, which was all to the better. Her bands and all her other possessions were tucked away in a bag that was easy to watch...

She was set.

Nodding to herself, the princess of the Sukhon Dynasty stepped out of the alley and into the slums. The rough clay buildings, no taller than a single level, stretched out in their own way, not following any rhyme or reason. They were the remnants of a village that had once stood here, and had never been knocked down for the sake of the roads that ran through the capital as a whole. They had just been pulled in when the capital had gotten big enough, becoming part of the growing city. As a result, the road wove where it would, taking people in and out among the different clay houses, through fallen hay and thatch, and often requiring stop and start permission to pass through the property of different families.

Of course, that permission was usually given, but Jina could hear the shouting of different feuding families forcing others to go around out of spite, or being nice to others. There were countless little alliances and feuds in these places, and she kept her head down, since she didn't belong to any of them and didn't want to be marked out as such.

As the red panda walked through the outer ring of residential places, she made her way into the inner part of the village-neighborhood. Where the houses had been laid out more or less as a marker of the bounds of the old village before it had been incorporated into the capital, the interior was more open, offering all kinds of different businesses and public spaces. The princess smiled as she left the messy yards and lands of the homes behind, looking forward at the various stalls and bigger structures that were the heart of the area.

Probably not going to get any modernization funds in here anytime soon, but they probably make up for that in the tourist money, she thought, seeing a number of foreigners that were wandering hither and yon through the open area. Rather than roads, the whole center of this particular slum was open-plan. There were carts here and there, hastily constructed buildings that were made of bamboo and wooden slats, often thrown up the night before as the different 'businesses' claimed their plots for the next day, and a few other, less structural businesses laid out on carpets for all to see.

The market area was about two miles across, easily, and it was different every day. Certainly, it was different from the last time that she had been here. The red panda's smile, however, dropped as she passed by a stage that had been constructed, where a crocodile was pointing to several tied-up men and women that were kept back.

"Come on, come on, I know you're interested in labor here. Or maybe more, heh. Come see these Barefoots, see what we have for sale today."

Barefoots. They were among the lowest class of Min, beyond the old peasant class that her uncle had finally gotten rid of and uplifted into the rest of society. There were those that still pushed that peasants should be part of the economy, that they should go back to serving the nobility, but that was something that the Sukhon family had pushed back against harshly. Those that argued for too long had felt her uncle's wrath quite keenly.

But the Barefoot concept had been much harder to stomp out. They were considered somewhere between homeless vagrants and streetwalkers, slaves and sex workers, so poor that there was no point in them complaining about being picked up as slaves because even that would be better than starving on the streets. It was the main reason that she had kept the high heeled shoes, even though she didn't like them; in Min, going barefoot was a quick way for someone to start seeing you as a Barefoot, and that was a quick trip to one of these slum-markets and getting sold to someone else.

The red panda tried to push through the crowd, but foreigners and locals alike were crowding around the platform. She was pushed along with them, and she gritted her teeth as she was trapped within the crowd.

Nnngh...shouldn't cause a scene...

And every technique that she could think of that would extricate her from the crowd and let her keep moving would do that. She was pinned too tightly to easily use her arms, and sweeping her legs would get the crowd to collapse, sure, but everyone would see the red panda girl that had done it. Considering that there were scant few red pandas not among the upper echelons of the city, that would start raising questions and leaving a trail that Klahan would be sure to follow.

So, for the moment, she was stuck. She turned to the stage, doing what she could to keep her signature tail and face from being seen, hiding among the other species that were staring with rapt attention at the crocodile 'merchant.'

"Come now, come now. We've got some good merchandise pulled off the street for you today. Forward - yes, you, forward!"

The crocodile gestured to a female panda that was kept at the back of the stage. As a Barefoot, it wasn't entirely surprising that she had little clothing to her name, but even Jina was surprised to see so little as this. The panda looked thin, thinner than any bear like her should have been, and she had a belly that seemed to pull in far more than it should. Yet, at the same time, she still had her curves, barely hidden from the public by a loincloth that ran down between her legs and a scrap of leather that crossed her chest, and the latter seemed provided by the crocodile rather than belonging to the panda.

The Barefoot woman was pulled to the front of the stage, made to stand on the very edge so that her toes stuck out past the front. She was held tight, her arms pulled behind her back and bound there, and Jina winced in sympathy as she watched how the other woman was displayed. The crocodile kicked one of her legs forward, making her dusty, yet sweaty soles show for a moment before she caught her balance.

"We found this one working in the alleys, on her knees. Seems to have some talent for it, too, from what the people that found her said. I think we can put this one up for auction at twenty sils, to start."

Twenty sils would have been the equivalent to half as many dollars. Were the Barefoots being sold so cheaply? Had they always been?

"And don't forget, if you buy her, she's yours until you get bored of her. Just throw her out when you're done. So, whatever you want, go on. Do I hear twenty? Twenty sils?"

"Twenty-five!" a camel at her left shouted.

"Thirty," a boa female at her right called out.

And so it was off. Jina shook her head, ducking down even as she felt a little tingle running down her spine. She ignored it, a practiced thing when she was dealing with the more problematic party guests back in the west, but one that she was all too familiar with.

As she left the stage behind, finding the holes in the crowd that bidding arguments created, she managed to get back to the more open part of the market. She followed the winding, temporary trails between stalls and stands, around the various stages that had been set up to demonstrate the more expensive products, and started making her way to the shaded parts in the far end, to what was known as the Market of Shadows.

It was a cliché sort of name, but every one of these open markets had them. It was a self-contained market that the locals and some outsiders put together for the less than legal goods that every city had but none wanted to admit to selling. They were always kept inside a makeshift mini-city, where wood-paneled walls went up around it, and the top was shaded with carpets that kept the light from shining in. It was essentially an enclave in miniature, proclaiming its own identity as a defiance to the laws of the city.

And it was, as ever, rather obvious when you knew where to look. The princess smiled as she saw the creeping mega-hut at the edge of the market slowly moving around the perimeter. It masqueraded as a bigger than usual home, but it was too big for that, and covered too much ground. And, as stated, it moved, carried from within by a number of servants. She made a slow beeline for it, keeping her head down until she reached the 'gates' of the Market.

A taller crocodile stood between her and the entrance, looking down at her. He carried a sword at one hip and a revolver at the other, which marked him out as someone that had been more successful than other guards in the area. Most of them couldn't afford firearms.

"You got business here?"

"I would like to have business here," she said, nodding.

"And you got money?"

"Plenty of that."

"Show me."

Jina nodded, surreptitiously reaching into her pouch. She made sure to reach for something smaller, feeling around for what she needed rather than opening it and exposing everything. Eventually, she pulled out a smaller ring, simple and gold-banded, and she offered it for the crocodile's inspection. The large male took it, twisting it one way and then another, and she took the time that he spent examining the ring to examine him.

Not bad, quite tall, exposing his chest very nicely...

And almost a foot taller than her. Very much something that she approved of. She smiled as she imagined just how that would feel outside of a professional environment, and started glancing down at his leather pants -

"Genuine gold, huh?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes."

"Got anything smaller than this?"

"Afraid I don't. I'm looking to get something large, anyway."

"Gonna fund the whole market if you got stuff like that."

"Oh, that is the plan."

"Heh...well, go on in. Take care."

She nodded, bowing her head. He would keep his mouth shut, she hoped. The guards were usually chosen for their discretion, but there were exceptions to that rule.

Under the shade of the Market of Shadows, the heat of the day was left behind. She walked in the dimness, passing from one mobile set of curtains to another. There were businesses here that sold drugs, offered prostitutes, and more, but she had something more in mind.

She eventually found the curtain-hut that she was looking for towards the rear of the market. She pushed at the hanging fabric, stepping inside and finding a rat waiting for her. He looked up, and arched an eyebrow.

"Nija?" he asked. "When'd you get back in town, girl?"

"Not that long ago. How's business, Meeja?" she asked, smiling as she slipped into the old identity again.

"Good enough. Selling plenty of ass."

"Good, good. Anyone looking for some red panda today?"

"Heh, you looking to sell already? Usually you settle in for a bit first."

"Let's say that I could use a distraction."

"Can take the girl out of the work, but can't take the work out of the girl."

Jina chuckled, shaking her head as she stretched her arms over her head. It wasn't the first time that she'd come to 'work' for Meeja, and she doubted that it would be the last. The rat always had customers that were looking for something interesting, something more engaging than just lying on her back and getting ploughed. At the moment, it'd be nice to have that, if only to forget about -

She shut that line of thought down before it could go any further. Getting that sort of attention right now was only good if she got someone that wanted her to cry. Crying without a client that liked tearful girls just chased them away.

"So, you got anyone?" she asked.

"Sad to say, girl, not a soul."

"Nobody? That's rare for you."

"Tell me about it. The whole place is shut down after the whole death of the royals."

"...Oh?" she asked, schooling her face to neutrality. "I didn't expect that to have any impact."

"Well, it wouldn't, but the King and Queen had this whole plan they'd announced last month. They were hooking up the whole neighborhood to running water and power."

"..."

"And paying for it out of the royal coffers for the first six months. You know how much that'd matter out here."

Fuck...

No wonder there wasn't anyone out. Her uncle had come up with a way to start winning the commoners further to his side. They would have sung the Sukhon line's praises for that much of a boost to their standard of living. While the inner part of the city had running water and power, modernization hadn't quite reached the outskirts and the slums yet. Sure, it would mean that there'd be demolition here and there, but she knew her uncle. He would have had that in mind, and he would have been setting up temporary housing for everyone here...

And they would know about it. Those that came here looking for whores wouldn't be wanting to think of the dead monarchs, not when they were actually sad about it.

Shit, there goes that distraction.

"I can arrange a few favors if you want to have something tomorrow," Meeja offered.

"Yeah, thanks, but I think I'll pass." Tomorrow, she'd likely be back in the palace, and that would be hard to sneak from if she was seriously being offered the throne by the Council of Advisors. "But I'll get in touch if there's anything that comes up."

"I don't know how you keep finding me, but sure. I'll take that."

"So, before I go. The Barefoots?"

"What about them?"

"Since when do they sell them that openly out here?"

"Since some of the noble houses started buying them up publicly," Meeja muttered, shaking his head. "I swear, it's been their way of replacing peasants."

"I'm surprised that the King and Queen allowed that."

"It's politics, girl. You know how it goes. The King wants something and needs the nobles' support, and they want something and need him to look the other way. Basic quid pro quo."

"Hmmph. You mean basic stupid."

"It's how it works, girl. Doesn't mean I like it."

Much as she didn't like it either, she wasn't going to pretend that Meeja didn't have a point. Without the peasants - something that her uncle had outlawed some time back, and which had gained him a great swell of popular support - the nobility had been struggling to maintain their own superiority. It was something of a coup that they had managed to swing it back the other way. The Barefoot cultural bias had always been there, something that made everyone look down on those that couldn't even afford something to cover their feet, but it was a move of political genius to actually weaponize that and create a new slave class once the official one had been taken away.

The fact that her uncle had been on the verge of pulling the commons back under him with a different advance, one that would have uplifted their quality of life and made it easier to avoid getting poor enough that becoming a Barefoot - even temporarily - would have been a problem, would have angered the nobility quite a bit. The fact that they would have had to pay for part of it, too, likely would have rankled. It seemed that there were possible motivations for her uncle's death among the nobles, after all.

She nodded to herself. The expansion of Barefoot slavery would probably be something that kept expanding over time until something happened to call an abrupt halt to it. Neither Dawa nor Pakpao would bother doing anything to slow it down. Oh, sure, Dawa would put it down as something where the nobles were merely doing what they had always done to ensure the livelihood of those beneath them, and Pakpao would pose the cameras and show that she 'cared' while doing nothing, but things would stay the same.

Jina rubbed her forehead. This was rapidly becoming a motivational message to take the throne herself, and she didn't like it. Not one bit.

"Well, girl, if you're not working, you should probably clear out."

"Yeah...yeah, probably. Do you have any idea what else is on sale today?"

"In flesh, or in something more fluid?"

"Or powder, if you know anything."

"There's a few wonderful distractions two shops down."

"Thank you. Be well, Meeja."

"And you, Nija."

Paying three times the asking price for drugs and a hint of booze was probably something that Jina shouldn't have done, but she had promised to spend money in the market, and she needed something to show for her troubles. She stepped out of the Market of Shadows with the trader who'd gotten her custom crowing with glee, still, and the crocodile guard chuckled at her approach.

"Found what you were looking for?"

"Not really. But I found a substitute."

"Heh. Where do you live, panda?"

"Nowhere near here."

"Sure? I saw you looking..."

Jina smiled slightly, but much as he was packing something big, she felt that it was probably better to get a move on. Klahan would be on her trail by now, and he wasn't so stupid as to miss some of the signs that she had left on the street. Having him catch her in possession of her current goods wouldn't help anything.

"I'm not looking for company."

"Yeah? What if I am?"

"Then see if you can track me from here and take it."

"That an invitation, panda?"

"I'd say it's an option."

"I might just take you up on that. My name's Bahar. Remember it."

She was pretty sure that she could remember that. Nodding politely, she passed through the center of the market again. In the time that she had spent under the Market of Shadows, two more stages had been put up, and both of them were selling Barefoots, as well. Even those that lived in the slums were buying them, knowing that they'd have the right to keep them for as long as they wanted for labor and more.

It can't last, she thought. Sooner or later, the whole thing is going to collapse under its own weight.

But until then, there'd be a lot of bad blood going around. Even when someone was let loose from being a slave, they'd remember having been one. She could see that there would be plenty of poorer families that would buy them for a few days, then release them before they had to start paying for the slave's food. Or there would be nobles that would buy up those that appealed to them sexually, and then release them before they had to deal with any consequences. It was something that would be appealing to all of them, a way to get something cheaply without having to worry about taking care of it.

But the slave would remember. The slave would remember quite keenly.

Despite herself, Jina felt that same tingling down below that she had felt when she had watched the panda being sold, and she found herself imagining what it would be like to find herself on one of those stages. The sheer feeling of helplessness sent a shiver down her spine in a fearful way, but it was more than that. She imagined what it would be like to be seen like that, to have the world - or at least the city - see her as the dirty woman that she had become on multiple prior trips.

What would they say to see Princess Jina Sukhon as a Barefoot?

Her toes curled in her shoes, and she kept walking. That was a thought that would be better off un-indulged.

Leaving the slums behind and returning to the modern world immediately adjacent to it meant going from relatively high-class in appearance to the lowest of the low. A dirty dress, a ripped skirt, the fact that she smelled of the slums and worse, meant that everyone looked at her as a thief that was doubtlessly there just to take what wasn't hers. She ignored them, making her way to one of the hotels along the main street.

As she stepped through the stone arch, entering a room that was tiled with blue and white rather than the usual white and black or simple off-white of the western world, she took a moment to just enjoy the feeling of something modern again. The old part of the city was...traditional, and nice for a visit, but this was her preference. The tiles beneath her shoes vibrated softly with the power supply running through the building, and islands of cushions with stone spires shooting up through the center of them cast light of gold and amber across the room. Guests that were both foreign and domestic waited in line for a room, and she joined the line without a word.

She received a few dirty looks from the guests that lined up behind her, but nobody outright shoved her out of the way. Instead, they just grumbled about the fact that some money-less woman was in line ahead of them. Jina kept herself quiet, though her eye-rolls said enough on their own.

Finally, she reached the front of the line. The elephant clerk looked down at her, then slowly arched an eyebrow.

"I doubt that we have rooms that you can afford, ma'am."

"You'd be surprised. What's the rate?"

"We are out of any of our cheap rooms, ma'am. You should probably go."

"Rates. Please." She smiled.

"...We have an executive suite available for fifteen-hundred sils a night."

"I'll take it."

"Payment is required up-front."

"Of course."

She reached into her pouch, pulling out one of the golden bands. She spun it around her finger, smiling as the elephant's eyes went wide, and the muttering from behind stopped so suddenly that it felt like someone had hit the mute button on life.

"I think that's sufficient, don't you?"

"...This had better not be stolen."

"Trust me, it's anything but."

"...Give me a minute."

Jina nodded, and the elephant hustled off to the back room. As she crossed her arms, she heard someone else talking behind her.

"Probably stole it off someone."

"She doesn't look competent enough for that. I imagine she got paid."

"Who'd pay someone in that?"

"Someone buying a whore. Look at her. Next thing to a Barefoot."

Her ears flicked back at the conversation, but it didn't entirely shut out what they were saying. Her face burned in something like anger, a hint of embarrassment, and...and something else, she realized. Something that made her oddly curious.

Am I...turned on from that?

It wouldn't have been the first time that something snuck up on her libido like that. She'd ended up learning all kinds of kinks when she was in the west, learning all kinds of different fetishes that she'd found out that she was into. Playing around with pregnancy risk had been the first one, and then learning that it was rather fun to have a bit of foot-play involved. Anal had gone up her list, too, and so had a number of other kinky things.

But this was the first time that something so keen as public humiliation had tickled her in any way. Jina kept her face as stoic as possible, even as she filed that information away. She was going to have to look into that when she could.

Finally, the elephant returned. He cleared his throat, nodding at the gold band.

"This is...far more than the amount for the room. It would cover -"

"Oh, I believe it would cover about a month at that rate, yes?"

"...Yes."

"Then put me down for a month, then, and we'll take it off as a gradual tap."

"I...see." The elephant looked behind her at the rest of the line, but she could tell that the money had him in its grips now. "I - yes, ma'am. It's unorthodox, but I'll allow it. May I ask what name to put the tab under?"

"Nija."

"Last name?"

"Just Nija."

The rest of the line was grumbling again, but she held firm. Eventually, the clerk nodding, putting that into the system before handing her a key. Jina smiled, nodding her thanks and leaving the line, heading to the elevators.

She could feel the eyes on her as she walked away. Oh, she was going to leave a trail, and Klahan would be here by morning to retrieve her. That almost made it tempting to make it as large a room party as she could get away with, just to see if she could get in more trouble with that, but she managed to keep that instinct down. No, no, the better idea would be to get what she needed now, because once she was in the palace, her 'distractions' were going to be much fewer and far between.

Question is whether to use some of the wonder-dust tonight and save half for the palace, or save it all for the palace and just go for a conga-line of partners tonight...

It was a difficult debate, but she'd wait until she was in her room to decide. The facilities there would be the main thing that would decide her.

She rode the elevator to the fourth floor and got off. Her suite was down at the far end of the hall, which was good in her books. Harder to sneak up behind her, though with a greater risk of getting trapped. However, with all the training that she'd received, four stories to climb down wasn't that hard. She imagined that she could get free with ease if it came down to that.

She opened the door. The room itself had no entry 'hall', but rather opened onto a living room immediately. A pillow-rich couch was just across the room, and the TV was on her left. There were a few other bits of furniture here and there, but it was fairly sparse. A purple carpet and a blue wall made her feel a little strange, almost underwater as she stepped into the room, and she glanced left.

The bedroom waited down there, as well as the bathroom and a kitchen nook. Worth knowing, that; meant that she wouldn't have to leave for food if she brought some with her in the future.

However, it was smaller than she had thought, so an orgy was out of the question. That said, she could still have a partner or two...

But later. Later, after she'd had some of the wonder-dust that she'd brought with her. After she'd had a chance to actually squish some of this down and stop thinking about it for a while.

First time that I've been sober for this long in...months? Jina thought, making her way to the bed. A long time, anyway. Twenty-four hours without anything in my system, at all...

She imagined that her family would have been proud of that after living like a party girl for so long. A pity that she was going to break that image already. Jina sat down on the edge of the bed, undoing the pouch and pulling out the blue-white bag that she'd picked up at the Market. She unrolled it, pinching off a bit and stretching it into a line.

Even as she did, her hands shook, and she felt the word coming back.

_Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead._

Jina forced her hands still, huffing softly. She had to stop thinking about that. Her uncle, aunt, and cousin were dead. Someone had to take their place, and if it was her, then she could get killed, too.

Fear, loss, and more warred in her mind as she shakily leaned down. A quick snort ended the war with a heart-racing ceasefire, and she flopped back to ride the high.

The End

Summary: Jina has returned to Min, and is doing everything she can to get the knowledge of what has happened out of her head.

Tags: M/F, F/solo, Drugs, Auction, Slave Auction, Panda, Red Panda, Min, Jina, Series, Crocodile, Escapism, Hotel, Market, Nudity, Attempted Prostitution, Worldbuilding, Embarrassment, Arousal,