Nin’s Story
Nin was the only child of a French aristocrat and a Javanese dancer. Her father first laid eyes on her beautiful mother in the Javanese Royal Palace at Yogyakarta, Central Java, where she performed for the French diplomatic envoy. Their passionate courtship lasted two months before he returned to France. By then, Nin’s mother discovered she was with child. The aristocrat never forgot his Javanese love, with her unusual eyes the colour of the sky and the sea, and would eventually ensure that their child was looked after. Nin grew up in the Palace learning the intricate dances of the Royal Court and was tutored by the Palace governess alongside the royal heir. Her quick wit and natural charm found favour with the Sultan when she regaled him with after dinner stories in the balmy evenings at court. She inherited her mother's unusual eyes and her father's complexion, and grew up to be admired for her exotic beauty.
On her fourteenth birthday, her mother received news that the French aristocrat had died from a chronic respiratory infection, and thus ended their financial support. The mood in the Royal Court also fell sombre due to the ailing Sultan's worsening health and the dances and music ceased. Nin and her mother were forced to find a new existence in a foreign land. Their journey took them to a charming village in Gion, Kyoto, where her mother found work as a dance instructress at a leading geisha training academy. The housemother took an interest in Nin's exotic appearance, and decided to take Nin under her wing as a trainee maiko. She would undergo the rigorous training of a novice geisha learning the refined arts of playing the shamisen and various dances, sophisticated conversation and the ritualistic pouring of sake and tea.
Upon her graduation as a full fledged geisha, Nin made her debut at a special dinner held in honour of a celebrated Spanish conquistador. As he watched her dance with the fans, he fell deeply into the deep blue pools of her wild eyes and bid the handsome fee of being her first patron. He brought her back to Madrid with him and unleashed her into his liberal lifestyle of the bohemian intellectuals. She quickly became intoxicated with this newly found freedom, and learned to express herself in the boldest of ways. She took to the fiery dance of the gypsies, the flamenco, and fell in love with the dialogue of the Argentine tango. She was introduced to celebrated artists and writers, and their libertine patrons, at the wildest of parties and soirees. She travelled through Europe with the Spaniard, indulging in his decadent lifestyle and quickly became a sought-after highlight in any glittering gathering.
It was in Paris on the final leg of their European tour, that The Recruiter finally caught up with her. He saw her seated alone at a dimly lit underground bar, sheathed in a simple black dress, cigar smoke swirling around her tousled hair, from the conquistador's abandoned Cuban toke in a nearby ashtray.
She was absently playing with an empty wine glass. He had one task. The tall man walked past her table, dropping a card into her lap and disappeared into the night. Nin thought she saw a man in a long coat and hat brush up against her arm but she could not be too sure. The golden emblem on the card glittered in the bar’s light, catching her eye. All it said was ‘TGC’ with a phone number on the back.