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Quelle Beaute	By : ladyalexis Category: M through R > The Phantom of the Opera > Het Views: 1380 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own The Phantom of the Opera, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Part Two:

Erik stirred in the late evening, no longer able to focus on the papers that outlined the shah’s new lavish home. He squinted as the figures, lines, curves all began to become distorted. Indeed, as Nadir had told him, he was in need of food to order to keep his strength. Slowly, he stood and ventured out of his dark cave toward the daroga’s home in order to take a well deserved meal.

Lenita was reported to be one of the most treasured of the Khanum’s girls. It was her beauty beyond years that most pleased the shah when he found her at a young age and brought her to his home to be trained in service to his royal bed. She was well trained for her coming duty with the Shah, yet had not been taken in that fashion. Tonight, however, she took great risk to leave the palace in search of the mysterious man that so stirred the Khanum’s desire.

As she ventured further and further from the palace, she felt certain she had not been followed, yet her hands still shook. She had to see for herself, the man that existed behind the veil of the Khanum. She found the entrance to the daroga’s home and slipped in through an open patch in his hedge line. Taking a few moments to gather her thoughts, she realized she was on the opposite side of the grounds and dropping to her knees, proceeded to crawl around the parameter until she saw the small light the flickered from below. She immediately recognized it. Beyond that entrance laid the opening to Erik’s secluded apartment, just as she remembered…

Relieved to find the small door was open, she softly knocked. No response. Without invitation, she ventured inside. The room was full of papers, endless rows of rolled up documents, the contents inside, she was unsure. Books littered the floor, stacked up along the walls and pouring out of the small inset bookshelf. She ran her hand admiringly across their leather-bound covers, wondering when he possibly had the time to read them all. She looked up and walked in the direction of the only set of candles that were lit, on a shelf beside his small desk. Spread out upon the desk itself was different drawings, the numbers, measurements she could not understand, but the sharp lines, curves and design she could only surmise as the shah’s new home. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. Her shaking fingers touched the delicate paper, careful not to smudge the ink, as if touching it made it seem more real to her. This was in fact a most intelligent man, much more intelligent than she had seen with her own veiled eyes.

“What are you doing?” came a growling, angry voice accompanying a strong hand that grabbed her hair and pulled her face around. She was greeted by a white mask and dark eyes that signaled most displeasure. She could hardly find her voice, but knew she must in order to save her life.

“Mmm..Master…forgive me.” She began to beg. Her words did not seem to soften him. He threw her to the floor and sat down at his desk, elbows on his knees, studying her veiled face.

“Why are you taking such a chance, venturing into my home like this? Certainly you know I could kill you for your prying eyes.”

“Yes…Master.” She uttered. She was unsure if she would be killed, but felt the truth would serve her better than lies.

“Then, why are you here?” he asked again, but this time his voice had lessened in tone and was replaced by an air of curiosity.

Her reasons seemed now to fail her and she could only mutter, “I do not know Master.”

He raised one eyebrow and said almost mockingly, “Surely, dear one, you must know something. Perhaps your name?”

That she did know… if nothing else. “Lenita, Master.”

“Come forward Lenita.” He instructed with a sweep of his hand.

She kept her head bowed but crawled on her knees until he caught her shoulders. He took her chin and pulled her upward to him. “Do not have fear of me any longer. My anger will subside, if you are honest with me now, do you understand?

She nodded without a thought.

His tone changed once more, “You are one of the Khanum’s girls, is that right?”

“Yes Master. Perhaps you have memory of me?”

He saw her eyes for the first time and did indeed remember her. Fondly recalled her more than once from behind the gauze curtain, lying at the Khanum’s side. The only girl…the only girl that did not scream and cry at the sight of his hideousness when he revealed his face that first meeting inside the Khanum’s private chamber, but instead was filled with a strange look of, dared he think it…compassion… set in eyes that were like the color of the sea. Yes, he remembered her.

“You had no fear of me then, why?” he asked her.

“Your face did not pain me Master…” she began cautiously, but stopped when his eyes narrowed.

He laughed a mockingly cruel laugh, not at her, but at himself, “No one looks at my face without pain…why….” He shook his head.

She softly continued, “…I too have come to face the reality of cruel disfigurement.” She lowered her head to hide tears that loomed in the rims of her eyes, begging to fall. She prayed he would not ask further, but knew his curious nature would require further explanation.

He was intrigued, to say the least. “Continue…”

“I was a very young child when my brother was born Master. He was marked with the cruelty of a misshapen head, one eye missing, left with nothing but a deep hole to his skull. My parents…they did not flinch, but cried for him, as they knew his fate. Surely, he would be torn from their arms and burned alive, they could not bear the very thought. My mother did not turn away but instead, she suckled him, loved him, my father…he sang to him, then gently as he slept…..” The soft voice stopped, unable to speak it, but Erik knew what she meant.

“Your Father killed him, did he not?”

Lenita could only nod for a short moment before summoning the courage to continue, “Yes…smothered him. It was the only way to put him out of his misery, a safe, soft death Master, to spare him the harsh death he surely would have been given by the village as they would view him a punishment from Allah himself...” her words failed again, this time followed by softly flowing tears.

Erik too felt his eyes fill with tears and he turned from Lenita to hide them. Perhaps, if his mother had been stronger, she would have smothered him, sparing him the life he now knew….

He gathered himself and inhaled deeply, “Dear child, I am sorry for your pain, but this does not explain why you have ventured out from the Khanum’s palace.”

A lingering breath left Lenita’s mouth and she spoke delicately, “Again master, I know not why I come here, other than I needed to see you. To confess to you…”

“Confess what my dear? Tell me what sin you have committed.”

“The sin of curiosity, Master. I saw, with my own eyes the night the Daroga brought that young girl to you, a gift from the Shah. The gift was genuine, but the choice was not. The Khanum chose the gift herself. The girl had displeased her earlier and when it came time to choose, she did not offer for volunteers as the Shah had wished, she simply picked her, knowing at her young and inexperienced age she would be too frightened to do what you wanted of her, then you would not take use of her and that would mean her death.”

Erik swallowed hard and continued to listen.

“I was there in the death chamber, hidden behind the Khanum when you arrived.” Lenita continued, “I know you took no pleasure at the prospect of seeing her die, which is why you left. The Khanum, Master, she is an angry and jealous soul, even if you had taken the girl, she still would have died.”

“You took great risk to tell me something that I already knew.” He simply replied.

“Yes. But there is something else.”

“Then speak it.”

“She had decided to offer you a second girl. One older with more training, yet still unknown to the Shah’s bed.”

“And how did you come by this information?”

“I overheard her telling the Shah, Master. I know my ears should not hear of such things, but the Khanum is not known for being secretive, nor quiet.”

“Go on…”

“She plans on bringing her to you personally and will insist on you taking the girl, in the presence of her own eyes. A test, a test Master, to see if this girl can use her art of seduction on a man…a man the Khanum refers to as ‘hideously numb’…”

“What is the punishment if she refuses?”

“I heard her say that her throat would be slit from ear to ear in front of you.”

“And what if I refuse?”

“The same, Master.”

“And if she cannot?”

“Cannot, Master?”

“If she tries and fails dear one, what would be her fate?”

Lenita shuttered at the thought, “Master, she told the Shah that if the girl failed, she would…she would undergo mutilation.”

Erik knew what that meant, that the young girl would be no more than like a eunuch. His face flushed with anger as he stood and began to pace. Indeed, the Khanum shared in his love for torture, yet she enjoyed torturing innocents. That, even with all he had done, he could not reconcile.

He turned back to her, “Tell me, who is this young girl? What is her name?”

She sucked in a breath and replied, “It is I, Master.”

“You?” His breath left his body momentarily. That, he did not expect.

“Yes. I am to be your gift.”

“And you came to see…see if I could be seduced, or if I was truly a hideously numb monster.” He meant it as a question, yet it came from his lips as a cruel statement.

“I know you are not a monster Master. I have seen that many times in her chamber, and I see it now.”

“You flatter, but you are still frightened of me.” He paused, looking down at Lenita’s hands, which undeniably still shook. His eyes rose to hers then, searching for any reaction that spoke her feelings. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-one, Master.”

Erik nodded, pleased at her advanced age and maturity, but still unsure she knew exactly what she was subjecting herself to. He returned to the chair and sat down to face her, “You have not seen the true nature of my disfigurement beyond that of a gauze curtain.” He told her with stone cold reality. “Come forward and remove my mask.”

She did indeed hesitate, but only for a moment. She sat up from her knees and leaned forward, her hands settling on his bent legs. With her left hand, she reached up and took the edge of his mask and with showing no reservation, pulled it away, letting it drop to the floor. Unquestionably, his face was much worse than had shown behind the curtain, but she willed herself not to flinch in the sight of it. In fact, the more she looked upon him, the less disfigured he appeared. His eyes were deep and thoughtful, emotional, spiritual and she lost herself in them.

“True, you do not shy away in my sight.” He groaned softly, not out of anger, but reacting to a sudden burst of need…a physical pain that shot through his body, causing him to flinch outwardly and clutch at the edges of his long cape.

She whispered softly, “Quelle beauté se trouve au delà de ces yeux.”

Almost unsure of what he had heard, his eyes narrowed and he asked, “What did you say?”

For a moment, Lenita was frightened, thinking she had over stepped her bounds or perhaps had said the phrase wrong. “Master?”

“You said what beauty lies beyond these eyes, how do you know French?” He was moved beyond words.

She relaxed, pleased with herself for being correct. “You have spoken it to the Khanum more than once. It was such a beautiful and romantic language that I felt I must learn it, so I sent word to my brother to have books on French instruction smuggled into the palace for me. A very difficult language to learn, but I have managed a few phrases here and there.”

Erik was impressed. “You can read then?”

“Yes Master. My parents were both educated, therefore from an early age, I was taught to read and write.”

“You spoke of a brother.”

“My eldest brother, Master. He lives in the next village.”

“And he knows of your life?”

“He does. He knows that I do not choose this life freely. The shah does not know I have family, I did not want him to be used against me as I have seen him do many times.”

He nodded, “When were you to be presented to me?”

“Sundown tomorrow, Master.”

“The Khanum knows that I have not indulged in the pleasure of a woman.” He said curtly, his hand again clutching his cape, then he stopped and removed the garment, letting it fall against the back of the chair.

“Yes.”

“And you are willing to change that?”

Lenita smiled behind her veil and answered, “If you like of me, Master.”

To say like of her would be a gross understatement. He leaned forward and removed her veil. Her eyes, as lovely as they were, were nothing compared to the rest of her face. He stood and allowed her to stand with him. “You understand that you could be receiving a death sentence.” He said to her. “For, if you do not perform your duty, you will be killed.”

“Yes, Master, and if I do perform my duty, the Khanum’s intense and jealous rage will demand I be killed as well.”

“Then, I will ask this only once.” He began, his hands clutching into fists that turned his knuckles white. “As I asked of the other young girl that was before me. Lay with me once and it will buy your freedom.”

Her eyes softened, “And, as you said to her, it might not be as bad as I imagine.”

His breath seeped from his lungs, “Does that mean yes?”

She nodded, “Yes.”
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Quelle Beaute