Family members bringing produce to the city often came to the 'broidery, and sometimes Ellie was given time to visit with them, even half-days later on as her skills increased. Jafna, the eunuch overseer of the 'broidery, always said her family or a suitor could buy her back, although, as her training proceeded, her price soon rose beyond any realistic hope of a poor freeman's purse.
The 'broidery was attached to the Shelamba temple. The sacred dancers of the higher levels often took on apprentices who could serve as body-doubles for their dressmakers. The choreographer-priests would work with artists to design the costumes and sets for the dances commissioned as offerings to the gods, and the dressmakers would work from the sketches, cutting and pinning fabric, first draped upon manikins and then upon the dancers or their body doubles to check the movement of the costume. Then, paper copies of each panel were cut, and the temple artists or artists hired by the noble who was commissioning the dance would paint the shaped pieces of paper. These painted panels were sent to the 'broidy where girls like Ellie would copy them, transforming the strokes of two-hair brushes into fine-stitched gossamer embroidery, the best so fine it took a dozen strands to make a visible thread. Such detail matters when the audience is divine.
Apprenticed at five, twelve hour workdays, split between household chores, attending the 'broiderers, and practicing her own embroidery skill, gave even such a young girl incentive beyond the sweets Jafna and the 'broiderers slipped her as rewards. By the age of seven her needlework was fine enough that, on a day the whole 'briodery celebrated with her, a piece of her work was deemed fine enough to be included in the week's product. After that, she was no longer Ellie the girl-child, Ellie the floor scrubber, or Ellie the scrap sorter. She was Ellie the broiderer, and could sew all she wished, earning fine favors for any quality work done over her weekly quota.
In later years Ellie often saved things for her family, whether a handful of the sweets given as rewards to the younger girls or scraps of cloth remaindered from her work. Her parents praised her work, and hoped it would entice a bride-price high enough to buy her back. She also persuaded Jafna to buy some of her family's produce for the 'broidery, scarcely noticing that she, a slave, had become the patroness of her free peasant family.
Ellie was lucky to have family in the area. Most of the girls were brought ship or caravan in mixed huddles of slaves. Jafna only bought those with the cleverest fingers and sharpest eyes, for their working years were few. By the time they were twelve their fingers were too large for the fine work demanded by the Temple and the 'broidery's other patrons.
When the 'broidery was working on fabrics for the temple, Ellie worked with special attention to detail and devotion to her work, praying to the lesser gods that her work would be pleasing to the greater gods for whom the dance was commissioned. An angelic attendant, overhearing a mention of praise from one of the gods, might pass along the note of favor, inspiring a pleasant or useful dream, and perhaps adding to one's store of luck. Enough fine work and Ellie's parents might be able to buy her back, that was the prayer she wove into her stitches. Knowing that, in addition to heeding prayers and sacrifices, the gods also help those who help themselves, Ellie also smuggled little handkerchiefs out to her family, even whole scarves, embroidered on scraps trimmed from her work, so that her family might sell the pieces and save the money towards her price.
Ellie's favorite day of the week was Story-day. That was when Jakusto the Teller would come to the 'broidery. Any girl who was behind on her quota for the week would be sent to work alone in her room, while the rest gathered their chairs and 'broidery frames in an mesmerized arc about the area where the Teller acted through his tales. These tales were their main contact with the world beyond the cloister of the 'broidery, so tales from the market seemed to them as fantastic as tales of floating crystal palaces. Her favorite story-cycle was the Twenty Thousand Legends Under The Sea, in which Captain Nimrod had numerous adventures in his undersea ship, the Crinoid. After, she often dreamed of being a sea-fairy, riding her seahorse through forests of coral, riding, like as not, to a picnic attended by a sea-fairy Jakusto.
The girls all doted on Jakusto, and he flirted with them all, but Ellie was sure the glances he slipped her were more special than most. Jafna knew his duty well; Jakusto was never without escort while in the 'broidery.
As the years passed, Ellie's skill grew, her work ever more brilliant. She learned how to subtly align the stitches to affect the drape of the fabric, to shade and highlight the colours, to balance the subtle hues and the bright metallic threads. But at the same time her hands were growing, and it became ever more difficult to stitch the invisibly fine stitches the 'broidery demanded. Then came at last the day she had grown to dread.
Jafna, who had always had kindness behind his gruff exterior, was forced to include her with those girls no longer suited to the work. At first she pleaded to be retained, if only as a charwoman, then she berated him for breaking his promise to sell her back to her family. At last she turned within herself and dressed in what dignity she could.
Jafna consoled her and the other girls as best he could. After all, with their fine talents, there was every chance they'd be bought by or as a gift for a temple dancer or some noble woman who wanted her own personal 'broiderer. But he could not balance that against the tales the girls has whispered, late in the nights, of girls sold to less pleasant masters, whether starkly cruel or subtly cruel. Only now, when their prices were being evaluated, did it occur to the girls to wonder just why Jafna the eunuch had been so diligent about teaching them fine manners and preserving their "virtue."
In the end, it was an Ogre whose bid won her. She wept at such a cruel fate, but, knowing that such behavior could only displease her new master, disguised her distress as that of one distraught by the prospect of leaving the only home she could remember, and her friends therein. These tears, at least, would not be begrudged.
He dragged her off to the most unsavory of neighborhoods, or so it seemed to her. She did not catch the pride in his stance as he showed her in to his sturdy home.
The row-house was typical of the neighborhood, with a shop in front and storage in the back of the ground floor. As it was late, he took her directly upstairs. His office was in the front, the parlour in the back. Up he lead her, past the family rooms of the third floor to her own little space in the attic above.
"You'll be tired." He gave her bread and soup and let her 'til morning. While she thought the quarters rude and unkempt, she was greatly relieved that he did not seem in any rush to "explore" his new purchase, as happened in tales danced in the temple. She did not sleep, for each horrid choreographed image of what foul humiliations her vulgar new master might inflict upon her innocent self was chased away by another image far worse. She ferreted about the attic in search of escape, for while she might be well-mannered, she was not unresourceful, but there was no window large enough to crawl out of and the attic door had been locked. At last, she lay down upon the strange little bed, with its high walls, and, if she could not sleep, at least she rested.
In the morning it was not her new master who unlocked the attic door but a she-Ogre. "Ah'm Llyndra, and you'll be hungry." The joke took Ellie off guard. And, after a night of such fears and tensions, the surprise brought an embarrassing burst of tears. "Now, now. You'll make new friends here, don't fret, and if you're good we can stop by the 'broidery to visit your old friends when we're a-marketin'." Ellie felt within her a ray of warm hope, slight and trembling as yet, but hope nonetheless. This Ogress seemed practically civil, and seemed to have a in mind a fate rather better than she had thought to imagine. After breakfast, Ellie discovered just how much better.
The Ogres ran a skin-parlour. Some of their work whether in inset body jewelry, cuttings, or branding, was highly regarded. Now their parlour boasted a fully trained 'broiderer. True, at first she only worked the designs, which the Ogres copied in ink, but, staunch girl that she was, Ellie was soon embroidering floss, strong and sterile, into her clients' hides. Their clientele grew to include some of the greatest names in the city, including that of her favorite storyteller, Jakusto.
(This is a background piece, showing what life is like for Humans under Elvyn rule.)