After dinner, Mikhil went to wash himself. Leda and I remained in the kitchen and I helped her clean up.
Outside, the night had properly settled in and we soon had to light more candles to keep the darkness from intruding.
I was looking outside, listening to the stream running beside the house. Crickets sang their nightly serenade and the wind whistled from between shrubs and tree branches.
Leda came and placed spare clothes next to me.
"What country is this?" I said, more to the night-shrouded nature outside than to her.
Leda answered shortly after, "This is Orfeld, Gayan," she said it matter-of-factly, "I... I thought you knew," she quickly added
"I don't know anything about this land. Please, tell me," I asked.
"Well, uh" she thought for a moment and went on, "Orfeld is the valley that runs along the river from the Lion Mountains, to the north," she traced where the river began on an imaginary map in front of her, as she spoke "... all the way to the Altan Sea to the south. It is fertile land which we will use to grow crops on one day."
She spoke as though they had just settled here.
"You grew up here?" I asked.
She shook her head, "No, Mikhil came here with Chief Urvan. When they got the land, he went back upriver to marry me."
"Is the river long?" I asked her.
She looked at me, puzzled and quietly said "It's the longest river in the world."
She was silent for a moment and then asked "Gayan, how are you a royal tutor if you do not know these things?"
I panicked and was unable to answer. I simply turned my face away and feigned looking by a window.
Leda was smart. And curious. I looked at her and it nulled my usual arrogance.
The door of the bathroom violently swung open and Mikhil came out of there completely naked. His muscles were huge and his entire body was covered in bushy hair.
He strolled from the bathroom to the wardrobe, unbothered by my presence, the skin hanging from his member flapping it around at each step. On its own, his cock looked alright but it did look severely undersized compared to how colossal Mikhil looked in general.
I was almost intimidated by his hypermasculine figure, and then I remembered - this man gave me his spot next to his wife.
"Prepare Mikhil's beddings," I loudly ordered Leda to do and she jumped on her feet and quickly went to gather covers and bedsheets.
This earned me a side glance from the giant fool and I was beginning to enjoy teasing him for it. He was enormous, strong, violent - no doubt - but also stupid and insecure.
I could take everything you have, big guy, I thought, wife, house, land, titles and with Manusha's help, you shall help me yourself.
---
Darkness reigned in the bathroom. There was a barrel of cold water, a large bathing tub, almost the size of an actual hot-tub, a mirror in the corner, underneath which was a small wooden table on which there was a basket of cleaning utilities. A plank laid across the bathing tub, with a towelcloth folded on it beside a bowl of a black ash.
I filled the bathing tub with water from the barrel. The water was freezing cold. There was no soap. Instead, I used the towelcloth, which I dabbed in the bowl of ash. It made for a good body scrub so I did not complain.
The shadows around me shifted weirdly and the flame of a candle lifted itself from the candle floated towards me.
"Good job, so far, Gayan," it was Manusha.
I almost jumped from the bathing tub. Only the weight of the plank that sat across it prevented me.
"Where were you?" I asked hushed, "This big brute made me a slave."
"Yes, I saw. I did mean for you to encounter this group but I didn't know you would rob one of them on your way out."
"You meant for me to encounter them?" I gave it a thought - was there someone important with them?
"Why? And why didn't your power work on Mikhil when he made me his thrall?" I asked him.
"It doesn't matter anymore," he replied, "and as for the power - you used the only charge you had when you tried to rob Leda the first time you came to this house, remember?"
"Oh, uh," I thought about my situation, "But then, why did it work afterwards?" I asked him.
"Leda charged the power when she said my name." he answered.
"Oh, that's it?" I asked but then a knock came from the door and Manusha disappeared in a small puff of smoke, leaving me in complete darkness.
"Is everything alright, Gayan?" Leda asked from the other side of the door.
I struggled in the dark as I answered her, "Yeah, it's fine. Don't worry."
When I walked out of the bathroom, most of the candles had been put out. It actually gave the whole house a romantic feel.
Leda went past me to the bathroom, as I walked to the bed. To our bed, more precisely.
I couldn't believe this was actually happening. My heart was pounding and I was getting a little turned on as well.
I sat on the edge of the bed and noticed a bundle of clothes just next to it.
I thought he was going to sleep in the living room.
Mikhil's face was the only part of his body poking out of the bundle and he noticed when I looked at him.
In the darkness, I could barely see his eyes but I felt the anger building up in him.
When he spoke, his voice came low and steady, "This is the last time you are getting a bed, thrall!"
I thought of that and figured I should do something. All I had to do was to make Leda say Manusha's name.
I looked at the bundle of clothes once more and wondered if he would protest if I laid hands on Leda. I did tell him to not bother us but would that be enough?
I realised that the prospect excited me a lot. There laid a man who claimed he enslaved me and yet, he had to sleep on the ground while I took his place on his marital bed, next to his wife. This was unreal.
"What are you looking at?" he grumbled from the darkness.
"This was a long day for all of us. Do not bother Leda and I, you hear me?" I spoke, aroused by the authority I commanded on this big man. The candlelights shifted and the wind outside whistled harder.
From underneath the covers, Mikhil actually shifted to look away, like a sulking child. This surprised me a lot and I began wondering if I used all of Manusha's power with the command.
If I require more power the harder my commands are to follow, then I will have to find a way to charge the power without fail.
Just then, the door of the bathroom swung open and out walked Leda - completely naked. Her breasts were firm and her curves smooth. Her hips had flesh to make any man go crazy, and between her legs, a little brown-blonde bush captured my gaze and refused to let it go. The candlelight made her skin look soft and delicate. I was instantly determined I would have her for me on that same night.
She took one step out and then stopped. Her eyes raised to meet mine. She turned bright red and retreated hastily to the bathroom in panic.
Mikhil was on his feet already, fists clenched and his voice a roar to scare the breath out of my lungs, "What is the meaning of this, Leda?" he yelled.
"I'm sorry," she cried, timidly from the bathroom, "I forgot Gayan was there."
Ouch.
Mikhil moved to the wardrobe and let his whole weight crash at every footfall. He took a nightgown from there but midway as he turned around, he gave a second look at it. The nightgown looked silky in the candlelight and was about the same size as a handkerchief in his big hands. He put it back inside the wardrobe and dug out another, longer one.
He walked with his heavy footsteps to the bathroom, opened the door and forced the dress into Leda's arms.
From the door, he yelled at her.
"How can you be such an imbecile, woman," he screamed, "you shame and embarrass me and your whole line."
Leda started to cry as she struggled to put the nightgown over her naked body.
"I apologise, Mik-" she tried to say but he interrupted her.
"Shut your mouth!" he yelled, "This man may be sleeping on our bed but you shall sleep on the ground, just the same as me!"
Now, this was interesting. Manusha's power was so that he did not even question my place on their bed but rather hers.
I could not let him take her away, however, as I needed to sleep with her to pursue an experiment. I could not see a moment to intervene neither. So I waited for an opportunity.
Mikhil dragged her out of the bathroom to his bundle. He moved so swiftly that she lost her footing and he had to drag her across the floor. He finally let go of her and rushed to angrily shuffle around his beddings, to make a spot for Leda.
As that scene unfolded, the last of the candlelights went out. I figured this was my time to act.
So focused was Mikhil in his rage that he did not hear or notice as I took his wife by her hand and led her to the bed. In the darkness, she blindly followed me at first but resisted a little as we approached the bed, so I had to use some force to make her follow me.
I sat on the bed and dragged Leda to sit next to me but because she struggled a little, she ended up sitting on my lap.
"Please, you have to stop," she whispered to me. I put one hand around her hip and brought her closer to my body. We sat as I soothed her, and together we watched Mikhil.
Leda was sobbing and her cheeks were wet with tears. She was weak and shaking with fear, like a little kitten in need of protection. I put my arm around her and pressed her body against mine to comfort her.
At worst, I'll just wake up, I thought as Mikhil finished rearranging his beddings.
He turned around and when he saw us together, his eyes looked like they would pop out of his head.
He loomed larger as he approached, like a menacing shadow. His voice was a slow and deep rumble that could have come from the mountains.
"Leda, come here," he grumbled.
"Mikhil" I was surprised at how much effort I needed to push the words out of my throat, "didn't I tell you not to bother us when we're in bed?"
He stopped in his tracks and kept standing there, staring at us. He was breathing heavily.
"Leda..." he said, as his breath got heavier and heavier, "please."
Leda stopped sobbing for a moment. She raised her head and looked at her husband.
By then, our eyes had adjusted to the darkness and in the moonlight, tears glistened on the cheeks of Mikhil.