I had spent my life begging to be looked at. Look at me, I cooed at the men I danced for. Look at me, I demanded of Esmaris in my killing breath. Look at me, I commanded to every person who gazed upon my tattered back. And I showed each of them pieces that were as Fragmented as I was, little carefully chosen parts of a whole. But it was here, in this gaze, that I was seen — seen for every incongruous part of me. And nothing had ever flooded me with such sweet, agonizing terror.
