Companions are trained from childhood, in their Mother House they are taught

All the skills of their honored trade, for which they are greatly sought

They learn these skills from masters, the greatest of all their kind

How to give pleasure to the flesh, and diversion to the mind

The way to use the downcast glance, and the turn of the head, just so

The way to snare a Client’s heart…and the way to let it go

The way to make a contract and ensure the proper fee

For Companions’ time and company cannot be had for free

And how to tell what a man will want, or what a woman desires

And how to best direct each one to the height of passion’s fires

Or how to sometimes just sit and talk, and pass the time in peace

For often pleasant company is better than passion’s release

When they have learned all they can learn, some will stay at home

And work within the Mother House. Others choose to roam

They travel on the space lanes, finding Client’s where they may

There or here for a day or a year, and then they fly away

To many a distant planet, under many a distant sun

Giving their love to many, but being in love with none

For the strongest rule of the Mother House, the one that is graven is stone

Is the rule that a working Companion must travel the ‘verse alone

And this rule is a wise rule as the ones who have broken it know

For being in love while you sell your love is the surest path to woe

As you must either quit the life you worked so hard to gain

Or else condemn the one you love to a life of jealous pain

All Companions have heard these tales; tales of sadness and sorrow

They know that if they fall in love, their dreams could end tomorrow

Often in their lonely hours they think of what they’d lose

And ponder: Of their chosen life or their love…which would they choose?