Later, in your room.

You at in your chambers. Well appointed by any means, with tapestries hanging on the walls, and servants to wait on you should you feel the need. At the moment, you didn't. You were in your study, content to sit in your isolation, basking in the afterglow of the activities of the last few days.

The Princess Susan really was a treat, wasn't she? Her body was fine, her defiant attitude helped to hone your desire to dominate her. You wondered what she would say if she only knew the reason you worked so hard to break her was because she was resisting equally hard? The challenge, that was what you were in it for. Also, her body, her shame, and her humiliation. But the challenge was important too.

You were sitting at your desk, penning a note for your staff. Nothing major or overly important, just a bunch of odds and ends that had to be taken care of for everything to run smoothly. The perils of running a castle, you supposed. Your father had never warned you about the endless paperwork. But then again, he'd been an old style emperor. Paperwork was for other people. Servants and slaves, mostly. He expected them to take care of it, and leave him to his feasting and fighting. Ah, you could appreciate the thought, but he had been wrong. To continue to rule, you had to be in control. To be in control, you had to know things. And you couldn't always rely on your spies or servants to tell you what was important, so it was good to keep an eye on things yourself. Small details could be important.

For example, one of the items in your list. It was a re-assignment order for a soldier. Nothing major about him, really. He wasn't particularly brave or cowardly, and as far as you could tell, he'd served well enough as a member of the army. He was no hero, but he'd done his job. No, the reason you were interested in him was that he had been one of the ones to capture the princess in the first place. According to this report, she'd almost slipped away from his party before he recognised her. It was more or less totally down to him that she was now in your hands.

That was the sort of loyalty you wanted to reward, but more than that, you decided it would be a good idea to bring him here so that the princess could see him again. Locking eyes with the one who had caused all of this would surely be fun for you all. Well, except for her. But you didn't care. And what better way to reward a loyal man than to allow him to help break the enemy ruler? Yes, it was a solid choice, you were sure.

Deftly, you signed the order. It would be away in the next day, and after a short travel time, the man would report to the castle.

Good. Now, all you had to do was figure out what you were going to do with the princess to keep yourself entertained until he arrived.