Alisa, a woman from a small village

The heat of the sun beats down upon you as you bring water back from the well. You frown and worry to yourself, the water level seems to stay lower with every passing month. The dust kicks up around your feet, and swirls around the hem of your dress as you make your way home. Winding your way past ramshackle homes you can see the fields with their meager crop stretch out into the distance. The people within, bent backed as they toil, trying to coax some life out of the land.

Finally making your way inside the home you share with your family, you secure the door behind you and place your burden next to the stove. You catch your own eye in a piece of silvered glass, a simple thing, that is a treasure to your family, and take a moment to indulge in your meager vanity. Your brown eyes, still large and sparkle with life, not yet beaten down by the harshness of life. Your face soft and delicate with lips that hold a soft pout, framed by your long chestnut hair, which drapes past your shoulders. You take a small step back and admire your body, still in the glory of your youth, just recently reaching your twentieth year. Your dress lightly clings to you, showing hints of your slender willowy body, with just the right amount of curve that turns the heads of men and women alike, some whisper that your physical beauty is a blessing from the Mistress of pleasure.

You know that the whispers are true. A year ago at only nineteen, you were a pale reedy woman, your skin blemished, teeth crooked and all hard lines and sharp angle, none of the womanly curves you know now. However you initiated yourself into the village's pleasure cult, worshiping the demon called the Mistress of Pleasure, a being of lust, beauty, and fertility and slowly your appearance changed. Worship by worship, offering seed and lust to the Mistress until your appearance changed, slowly being worked into a beautiful woman in the Mistress's image.

You turn away from the mirror, and dust off your dress before continuing on with your daily chores. Sweeping the dust from the home and preparing the stove while your family works the fields. Your Father and Brother toiling day in and out, while your Mother works a kitchen in the field, feeding the workers. You have an older Sister, but she left for the city, wanting more from life. You sweep the dust from the floor and ash from the stove outside. As you re-secure the door, you take a small cup of the water you brought home and use it wash your hands and face, cleaning some of the day's sweat and dust from you.

Behind you, you hear the door open and softly close....