Master's Piece (original gen)

[duskpeterson]

Title: Master's Piece.
Author: Dusk Peterson.
Where to find me: Website, e-mail list, DW, AO3, Patreon, Goodreads.
Setting: An imaginary, 16th-century version of a castle in Southern Maryland, next to the Chesapeake Bay.
Categories: Original gen, alternate universe / alternate history, male friendship, masters and slaves, lords, sculptors, ethical issues.
Series: Waterman, an award-winning speculative fiction series of love in an alternative version of the Chesapeake Bay region during the 1910s and during the future as it was envisioned in the 1960s. This story looks back to an earlier period.
Length: Short story.
Feedback: Yes, please.
Rating: T.
Warnings: None.
Story summary:

He was his master's piece: the model for his master's sculptures. But his master was different.

As Pip longs for the unobtainable, his master finds that he is beginning to have doubts about a longstanding custom in his nation. Yet how can he risk giving up what he values most?

He had watched his master try to sculpt smiles – had followed his master's orders to smile – but the smile was never quite right.