Behind One Scene
"Don't," Shame says, making a face as he sets a hand on my forearm. "If you're going to choose one story to illustrate my preparation, don't choose that one."

"Well, you could at least explain it to them at least this once," I say. "Because they don't understand your methods, and they spend a lot of time speculating on it."

"Fine," Shame says. "But briefly."

"Briefly," I agree, poised to take these notes.

"From the records given to me by the rapist's Regal and from interviews I conducted with his family and peers, the rapist's pattern indicated someone selfish, whose first thought was almost always how something affected him." He eyes me. "You understand that this is not rare. Ai-Naidar are as prone to such things as aunera appear to be. It's just that the rules of Kherishdar are so well codified one doesn't have to guess how to act in relation to others, most of the time, and so it's easier for such people to get along. Clear?"

"Yes," I say.

"My interview with the victim afterwards confirmed those findings, and also that he was willing to help," Shame continues. "I bought the diqut—yes, you may tell the aunera that I am not perfect—and arranged for a proper theater. That's theater as in "operating," not as in "dramatic," as this is not art, but precision work."

I nod.

"I had the assistants bring him in. They stripped him, but I chained him, though I was dressed as one of the assistants so he didn't know. At this point, half of what I do is for the benefit of the Corrected... the actual Correction. The other half is for me, to make sure I'm on the right track," Shame says. "So I wanted to make sure he was afraid. My dialogue was designed to both evoke the fault I wanted to Correct, and to gauge his answers so I could fine-tune what I did." He flicks his ears back. "My hand was on him, not just to evoke the revulsion, but also to make sure he was reacting to it properly. My nose was at his neck so I could smell him for fear or arousal. And the diqut was not just to make sure he felt threatened, but also so that I could make good on the threat if necessary.

"I judged," Shame finishes, "from his history and from the sorrow and nervousness his family reported after the crime, that what he needed was to feel what he had perpetrated, and when he understood how terrible it was, to be faced with the victim so that he was forced to make the connection between what he'd done and who he'd done it to.

"Vessan's forgiveness," Shame says, "was much of the healing afterwards. And for those who wondered... no, they were never alone. For the trial period, one of my assistants shadowed them, as I promised Vessan so he would feel safe; after it, for another half a year, I had the Regal's Guardians do the same and neither of them knew. But I would not have left Vessan without that surety.

"Hopefully," Shame finishes, "This is sufficient to assure your readers that I am neither thoughtless nor superhuman."

I glance at him. "Was that a joke?"

He picks up my Kindle and retreats. To his back, I say, "What about the last part?"

He looks over his shoulder.

"That part where you promised to rape him if he ever came back."

Shame smiles faintly. "I've told you enough. The rest of it I leave as an exercise to the reader." And then goes to read.

...hey, four of the books I've written are on that thing....

O_O


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