" Must a beautiful woman always be a seducer, a harlot, a mere bauble put on display as a distraction? Is that the only path open to me?"
"Those are labels men have put on women," the woman said, an edge coming into her voice. "You speak as though you despise them, yet you're merely parroting the words and judgements of historians, who should never be trusted. Consider the hero Iluthan, who stole into the bed of the Queen of Écofi, who played with the hearts of Rapa and Kana, who showed his naked body to the gathered princes and princesses of Crescent Island, claiming himself to take equal delight in men and women. Do you think the historians call him a seducer, a harlot, a 'mere bauble'? "

― Ken Liu