Muscles sore following his latest workout, Kaden flopped onto his bed. Now that he had the prestigious position as Karo Shar, he had his own suite of rooms now. Although the number he had been given was meager compared to the prince's sprawling residence, it was still far in excess of what he and Sahl needed. Kaden didn't have any other attendants, so the thirty rooms he'd been granted were pretty much empty and cavernous.

He wasn't wearing any of his armor, only his urk. The wound for the Koronai's claw in his chest breathed fresh air.

After the prince had sent for Sakhar Bul, the guard captain had worked him hard, all at the prince's request. The captain figured it would take several months to get Kaden into any sort of impressive shape. And that was with Touran's supplements encouraging the process.

During the additional training sessions under Sakhar Bul's tutelage, there was a lot of grumbling about baby sitting. All with the perfunctory "no offense" added after each one from Sakhar Bul. But only after the prince had left them to attend to other things. Sahkar Bul obviously thought the whole exercise was one based in futility, but one he was still duty bound to perform.

Kaden stared up, allowing his body to slowly relax. He wanted to head for the palace library to see what he could learn about the weapon he'd chosen today and combat tactics for its type. But that would all have to wait since his body wasn't allowing him the privilege of moving anywhere.

The clearing of Sahl's throat told Kaden he wasn't alone, even as he lift his head to see his friend. "Yes, Sahl?" he asked.

"There is a uh—woman here to see you, sir."

Silently in his mind, Kaden cursed the thought of the princess coming to see him like this. "My princess, I am—" As Kaden forced himself up to his elbows, he quickly realized his visitor was not the princess.

In her rough spun garb, the brown hair young woman curtsied. "Forgive the confusion, Karo Shar. The princess sent me to attend to you." It was hard to tell much about her other than what her face looked like and that she was shorter than the princess. Her clothing's bulk hid her much of her body's features. All he could tell was was curvy.

"Attend to me?" Kaden asked.

"Yes." The woman glanced about. "And from the looks of things, you need a rather lot of attending to. I am quite a skilled masseuse. I believe I can help you with some of your problems. You'll need to be in top shape for tomorrow, as I hear the prince expects you to train some more."

"Yes, he does." Kaden heavily flopped back onto the bed. "And Sahkar Bul is a slave driver."

"Leave us," the woman said to Sahl. "I will take good care of him."

"I don't know," Sahl grumbled. "I don't think I should leave you alone with him in his vulnerable condition."

The woman frowned. "I assure you, I intend him no harm. The princess does not want her future husband suffering."

The comment took Kaden off guard. "Oh, so now I'm her future husband?" he asked. "The other day I could have sworn she detested me."

The soft footfalls of the woman's worn sandals brushed on the floor as she approached where Kaden laid. "I can tell you that the princess is rather smitten with you, Karo Shar. Yes, there are some things to work on." She lifted one of his arms, causing Kaden pain, while looking at its pathetic size with sorrow evident. "But, she has spoken rather highly of you to me and wants to make sure you are all right." She then again turned to address Sahl. "Please, let us be."

"I don't—," Sahl tried to protest again.

"Sahl, do as she requests." Kaden waved him away with a weak hand. "If she kills me, it'll just do me a favor and put me out of my misery."

"You might here some strange noises," the woman added. "But be at ease. I am just taking care of him in the best way I know how." Do not disturb us."

Sahl glowered, but did as he was requested to. He was a mere slave after all. Closing the door to the room behind him as he left.

As the latch clicked, Kaden asked of the woman, "You aren't here to kill me, are you?"

"No." The woman's response was agitated. "As I said, the princess sent me to take care of you. And I intend to do exactly as I've been ordered to. Now, let's have a look at you, shall we? Can you roll over?"

The woman who had come to help him tried to lift Kaden's arm, but he was in too much pain. With a growl to express his discomfort, Kaden informed her, "No."

"Oh, my." She hovered over him, taking in the situation. "Very well, then. I suppose I'll work on you like this."

"What's your name?" Kaden asked.

"Hernah," the woman replied as she grabbed his right forearm and started harshly kneading the muscles. "How's that feel?"

Kaden winced. "Hurts. But is somewhat relaxing." The woman Princess Lyla sent seemed to know what she was doing. Kaden had never had a massage before, so he assumed this is what one felt like.

"Good. Good, yes. It will hurt somewhat, but it will be beneficial to you in the end." She moved up to his bicep and began working on that next.

The sensation was as though she putting him back together.

After a few minutes there, she was on to his neck, her fingers working magic with every rub and stroke. Kaden lost himself in her work, feeling his body ease.

"Does that hurt," she asked a little while later and before she finished his neck.

"No, it feels good," he replied.

"I meant the wound in your chest," she clarified. "It looks like it would hurt and would have killed anyone who suffered such."

"Oh, yes, at times it does hurt," Kaden said. "But Touran has given me great care and healing ointments to make it look much better than when I came out of the Abyss with it."

Now Hernah was on to his other bicep. "I can only imagine what it was like. I would so like to hear the story of the slave boy who fought a Night Terror and became the prince's Karo Shar."

"I don't think I'm good at telling stories."

"Please," Hernah begged. "Humor me. It is all I request as I continue to service you."

"Well, all right. I'll try. But I'll be honest, it's hard to concentrate with your hands doing what their doing."

"That is quite a compliment. Please, tell me the story. As best you can."

Kaden obliged. He started with him and Sahl doing what they normally and boringly did on a day-to-day basis. How the ground started shaking, along with the roars of a demon startling them. While he was doing that, Hernah began rubbing the tightness out of his left forearm.

Next, Kaden spoke of how he rushed towards the Gap and how Sahl protested. Then he talked about how he descended the unstable ladder after subduing the attendant who protested. It was the official story he needed to stick to in order to protect Loku from discipline. Changing the story now wouldn't be prudent.

Hernah made some ego stroking comments about his bravery. Then moved on to his left foot and calf.

The Karo Shar continued as he felt more of his body's tension melting away. He recounted the dead soldier and his dying wish, him taking the Courage, recovering the weapon, and stumbling off along the trail of blood to find the prince. At that point Hernah was on to his thigh and under his urk.

Kaden began describing as best he could the horrific appearance of the Night Terror. As he fumbled for the appropriate words to describe the demonic beast, Hernah's hand found something he wasn't prepared for it to find. He jumped up firing his now relaxed muscles and freeing his cock from her fingers.

"Whoa!" Despite his urk falling down around his legs, it looked like he had horn hidden under there. "What are you doing?"

Hernah wilted, wringing her hands before her. "Forgive me, Karo Shar. I was only doing what Princess Lyla asked of me."

"I dismiss you." Waving his hand, Kaden attempted to send the woman away while his crotch continued to grow. "I no longer require your services."

"No, please!" The slave woman looked as though he'd punched her in gut. "You don't understand." She started to slink towards him. "If I don't as she asks, I will be punished."

Kaden backed up, increasing the distance between them. "Punished?" he asked.

"Yes. I would assume with death. She tends to throw that punishment around without abandon among her slaves who displease her."

"Why would the princess send you here to seduce me?" Kaden stopped backing up when Hernah stopped her approach.

She stood, looking down at her feet and the floor. "She wants me to condition you for her."

"Condition me?"

"Uh yes, she worries about you stamina. In bed. The princess believes that you will not be able to pleasure her adequately unless you have lain with another woman before your time with her. She assumes that you haven't yet." She looked up to meet Kaden's perplexed stare. "You haven't, have you?"

"Well, I mean, no." Kaden cursed under his breath at having to make the admission.

"And that is why I am here." Hernah curtsied. "I am here for the pleasure of the Karo Shar and the desires of the princess."

"You are putting me in a difficult position here." Kaden had started to almost whine.

"I understand. This is not my wish either. I've never been with a man myself. But please understand that you refusing me will only result in my punishment and in the princess sending you another, and another, and another. Until you agree."

"Wonderful."

Hernah starting approaching him again with reluctant steps. Kaden backed up once and stopped, his mind fighting against the urges she'd stirred in his body.

The slave the princess had sent was upon him, pressing her body into his and her palms flat upon his chest while being careful to avoid the opening near his heart. She looked up, her eyes wet as her pelvis ground again his manhood. "Please, let's just do what they want of us. It's for the best."

"I can lie," he said. "Tell them you and I—you know."

"And you know the Decrees. If you utter the claim that we had sex, then it would be just as if we had. And you know what the punishment is for a woman laying with a man promised to a princess."

Kaden exhaled heavily. "The same as if I send you away and you fail to do as she asked."

Hernah nodded the slightest of nods. "Yes. I'll be killed either way. So there is no reason for us not to do what the princess requests." The slave woman followed with a hesitant laugh. "You'll be safe of course. They'll be no punishment for you."

"I hate those fucking Decrees."

She took his hand and led the Karo Shar hesitantly back to the bed.

Kaden sat on down the edge at her urging, resigned to what was about to happen.

Standing before him, Hernah undid her rope belt. Then pulled her tunic over her head to stand before him completely exposed.

Kaden exhaled a deep breath he had been holding as her bare breasts and curvy hips aroused him further.

Hernah took the final step towards him and climbed upon his lap while she fumbled to pull up his urk. She pushed Kaden gently back on the mattress, and the woman stared at what was once hidden beneath his urk. He thought, perhaps, she was having second thoughts, and that maybe she would take him up on his offer to just pretend. But that was not her intent.

She grabbed him, gently, and, spreading her legs across him, inserted him inside her. She pressed and Kaden felt her wetness. The first stroke she gave only took him in a third of the way. There was a bit of resistance from her virgin body. But what had made it in was enough to ignite both of them into pleasure.

Hernah groaned and gasped. She pulled herself back up his shaft slightly, and then pressed down, getting Kaden in halfway with an elated scream. The third thrust she encouraged brought their pelvises together.

Kaden groaned while Hernah ground on him, her mouth open and only the occasional, but deep moan sliding out of her. Her body tensed around him. The sensation was like a quiver as he felt the moisture within her increasing. She threw back her head, pulling Kaden's hands up to her breasts and encouraging him to hold on as her ecstasy increased.

His member stiffed to its fullest length inside her and his moans joined with hers in a harmonic chorus while the thumb of his left hand accidentally tickled the nipple on her breast. That made her shudder and her moans deepen.

"Keep doing that," she cried out as her head sailed back and she cried to the ceiling.

"Are you ok?"

"Don't stop," she said again, their gyrations continuing.

Kaden followed her request, and it was more than a few seconds later that she exploded in a joyous triumph. He could feel her body's orgasmic release gushing over him.

Breathing heavily and her pace slowing, she leaned forward. Even though she was finished, he was not.

Throwing her onto her back, spreading her legs, primal urges took over as Kaden proceeded to continue to ram himself into her. She didn't protest, her wails increasing back to their previous volume. Her body contorted and writhed. Almost as though trying to pull away while simultaneously not trying to escape.

"Let me know if I'm hurting you," he said in between thrusts.

Back arching, Hernah cried out to him. "Don't stop! Keep going!"

Permission received, Kaden felt obligated to increase the force he was giving her. And she reciprocated with greater and greater moans. And then, all at once, Kaden felt his seed release just as she screamed her loudest and tensed again.

The writhing of their bodies slowed, Hernah laying there with heavy breaths that matched Kaden's. As he stared at the woman beneath him, she stared back. "That was incredible," she moaned. And then added, "Promise me you can make me feel like that again."