Sitting on my horse and looking back at the Hall that had been my home for the last couple of moons was hard. The large Viking-esque wooden building was built against the large hill and was the seat of the Hold I controlled. It was not hard looking at it because I was particularly attached to the place, but because of the woman that was standing in front of it, barely holding back tears, and our unborn child that she carried in her womb.

Lily was the woman I had been forced to marry when I had been summoned by the Church to this crazy world filled with bigotry, hate, and magic. The consummation of our marriage had been forced upon both of us, under threat of enslavement and worse. Through the use of magic, the Church ensured that it resulted in a pregnancy.

Afterwards, we had not been close, mostly because I felt ashamed of what I had done, it felt a bit too much like rape. Thinking about it, it was rape. Both of us were raped when we were forced to consummate our marriage with an audience. On her side, she was afraid of me as well, because I had issues with controlling my anger.

I had always been an angry man, even as a boy, but I had learned to control it, yet since I had been summoned it seemed like I was out of control. I highly suspected the Gods or priests, later confirmed to be the Gods, had used mind magic on all 169 of us who had been summoned and allowed to live. However, in my case, it had backfired and done the opposite. It was only in recent weeks that I had started being able to control my anger again.

Things had started getting better until around a week ago when the Cardinal had trapped me with magic and tortured me in front of Lily and some other people. The bastard had castrated me, then used healing magic to put it back on, just to it again. Over and over again. I had finally managed to break the hold of his magic, allowing Emma to transform into a large panther and kill him.

Emma was a friend, the only free non-human, I knew of in the thirteen human kingdoms. She was a beastkin, or more precisely a catwoman. Normally she was in the shape of a housecat, and for a long time, she had travelled with me as such, taking up a position in the hood of my cloak. She could also turn into a large panther.

In her humanoid form, she looked nothing like the catgirls that was usually portrayed in mainstream media. She was bipedal, had hands with opposable thumbs, but that was where the similarities to a human stopped. Her head was that of a panther, her skin was covered in black and white fur, an expressive tail swished back and forth, and her legs were digitigrade ending in paws.

At the moment she was in her house cat form because very few people knew about her. She was in the arms of Lily, not surprising since they had become good friends after Emma had saved Lily, and Lily had reconciled her xenophobic upbringing to the fact that other races than humans were worth getting to know. What surprised me was that I could not see Emma’s bondmate Yathanae anyway.

Anyway, Emma was pissed. Really, really, pissed. Because I refused to let her come with me. We had argued back and forth. She wanted to come with me to protect me because that was the best bet of me staying alive, which meant that she could be together with Yathanae. I wanted her there, but I wanted her to stay and protect my wife and unborn child even more.

The source of my worry stood nearby. Milton, the newly appointed Justicar. A priest of the same god as the Cardinal, Gyzbohr. Gyzbohr was the god of Law, Order, and Justice, and every Hold had one of his priests stationed there as a Justicar. Justicar handled most cases of High Justice, while I as the Lord of the lands was only allowed to pass judgement in cases involving Low Justice.

The last Justicar I had gotten rid of by invoking a seldomly used law that allowed me to question his integrity. Unfortunately, any rulings he made would stand, but it banished him from my Hold. I considered doing the same to the new Justicar that had shown up just three days ago, almost two moons after I had banished the first one. However much I wanted to, I had no legal basis for doing it.

He worried me because he had made small inquiries about the Cardinal. Just whether we had seen him, or he had travelled through, because he had been missing for a couple of weeks. The only ones staying at the Hold that knew what had happened was Lily, Emma, and Yathanae. The rest was coming with me.

“Milord, everyone is on the move,” Kiril said from beside me. Kiril was the head of my bodyguards. All nine of them.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road then,” I said and gave one last look at my wife, before turning around on my horse and following the column that was heading out.

352 men and women in uniform were marching away, followed by three of the Hold’s wagons which were loaded with supplies. Most of the men and women down there were serfs, wearing magic collars that made them more subservient to those with the control bracers. The control bracers were used to administer pain or even kill the serfs outright.

Only 13 of the men down there did not wear such collars. I was not the biggest fan of the device, nor the way that serfs were usually treated in this world, nor would I have used them as soldiers, but I had no other reasonable choice.

The High Lord had demanded I provide a full squadron of soldiers for the war efforts against the elves. 352 men. The only problem was that I only had 26 soldiers provided to me when I arrived in this world, and the Hold was a poor one, with little in the way of freemen, so I had to purchase a large number of serfs and train them as soldiers.

Following behind me, on horses, as I slowly started to follow the column was: Kiril, my eight other bodyguards, as well as Ethan, Mina, Nathalie, Mary, and Saori. The last four were serfs as well because all women with magic had to be serfs according to the Kingdoms’ laws. Bigotted and stupid rules. Ethan was a serf because I had made him one.

Ethan had started out as a freeman, but I put him in the magic collars and manacles just little over a week ago. He was a former high priest and assigned to be one of my advisors. I had discovered he was sent there to spy on me and try to control me. So when I had discovered I could also put collars on people, something normally only priests could do, I had retaliated and made him my bitch, so to speak. The collar made him subservient, but the manacles were the true price. They prevented him from harming other humans, and unless I allowed it, they locked down his magic as well.

Mina was a fideomancer, or truth mage as I liked to call them. If they got permission they could read whether someone was telling the truth or not. Most of the time. The human priests’ magic allowed them to fib the magic and lie without the truth mage knowing. Though I was not a human priest, I had the magic of one.

Nathalie was a curomancer, better known as a healer. She could use magic to heal wounds, reattach limbs, and even regrow lost ones. Mary was an ignimancer, a fire mage, but a very weak one. Nonetheless, I valued her, because she had perfected what she could do. Hot water and stones that gave off heat for the entire night were a true blessing, in this backwater world. Saori was a water mage, or as they called it here, an aquamancer. She could control water, or summon it from another plane of existence. Quite handy to have around. Especially during a siege.

And a siege was where we were heading. The human priests had access to a network of portals that could transfer people over long distances. I guess I had the same magic but I had just not experimented enough to find out how it worked. One of those portals was at a castle deep behind enemy lines. It was just known as the Final Bastion, and humans had kept it from falling for a thousand years or so.

It had been revealed that I was to be stationed at the Bastion for five moons. It was a literal death sentence for most people assigned there. Of the roughly twenty-seven thousand men sent there, only around five thousand were expected to make it back. Me, my big mouth, and my anger was the reason for that posting I was sure. I had been less than cordial with the High Lord, and most other people.

As we rode, I looked over my weapons, making sure that I had not forgotten any. The dagger in my right boot was in its place. The shortsword and a dagger on my right hip. The sabre on my left. The harness which strapped two small axes and a dagger to my back was in place. I checked the scabbards at the saddle. A smoothbore musket in front of me and behind me, strapped down so it would take a while to get to them, were two rifled muskets.

The rifled muskets were a failure or a partial failure. I had Ainsley, my metal mage, make rifling in two of the smoothbore muskets. Adding rifling should increase accuracy and range, I knew that much from my old world. And it did, however, there was something I had not taken into account.

Apparently the effectiveness of rifling required new bullets and powder as well, because the rifled muskets fouled up much more quickly than a smoothbore. I did not have the know-how to make those changes, so I stopped the plan to change all of our smoothbores into rifles.

The rifled muskets would be used for sniping actions, and I kept them both to myself because I was the most accurate shot. Not because I was skilled, but because I had magic. My magic could do many things I was starting to learn, but the first thing I had learned was to link two objects. Meaning I could use my magic to slightly alter the trajectory of the bullets if I could see the target.

Satisfied that I had not forgotten anything, I spurred my horse on, so I could get to the front of the column. When I got there I slowed down, and since we were the only ones on horse, I had Kiril send two of the bodyguards forward. Kiril was a freeman, so were half my bodyguards. The other half was serfs and new additions, so Kiril had smartly paired them up in twos: One veteran and one newbie.

Happy with the arrangements, I settled in for a long journey. Normally it would only take a day and a half on horseback, but because we were marching, it would take us almost four days.

Shortly after we had passed through the forest, where I had been ambushed nearly two moons ago, we ran into another group of soldiers. About twice the size of ours, but with only two wagons. Like my soldiers, they were all on foot, except for a single rider. I immediately recognized the man as Theo.

Theo was the son of Lord Erthal, the Lord of the Hold we were passing through and my neighbour. I was not surprised to see Theo or his men, because Lord Erthal had been ordered to provide two squadrons of soldiers. What did surprise me, however, was seeing Theo in charge of the two squadrons because originally it was his two brothers that should have been in command of a squadron each, while Theo would be in charge of a single platoon.

“Greetings, neighbour,” I said as I approached. A throwback to when we first met. He had called me neighbour without actually knowing I was his neighbour. As he had explained it, neighbour was a neutral expression and so much more appropriate for greeting strangers than using friend or stranger.

“Greetings, neighbour,” he said with a strained smile.

“Where are your brothers?” I asked.

He cringed at that. “Well, now that we’re heading for the Bastion instead of the front, Father thought it best not to send all his male heirs to war.”

“So he sent you—” I started to say.

“Because I’m the youngest. Expendable,” Theo interrupted me with a frown.

“Well, we’ll just make sure that you remain the youngest son of Lord Erthal then,” I said jovially. I indicated that we should move on, and after a few shouted orders our three squadrons were moving on.

After a while, Theo asked, “Why so many supplies, you do know that the High Lord is going to supply provisions and munitions?”

“Oh, I know,” I said. “Just can’t be too careful. Actually only the first wagon carries food, ammunition, and tents for the men. The second contains a lot of plants we can transplant and seeds, while the last one is a large supply of timber.”

“Why would you bring such useless items? You can’t plant anything, it’s all rock, and what would you need timber for?” Theo asked incredulously.

“Simple, you see my Sixth Platoon has no soldiers. It’s all mages and support personnel. Amongst the mages, we’ve stone, water, plant, soil, and tree mages. If we’re going to be stuck for five months in a castle somewhere, I intend to make the best of it. And I want to ensure fresh produce for my men,” I explained.

With a snort, Theo said, “You’re crazy, the High Commanders will never allow this.”

“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission,” I said with a slight smile.

After that, the conversation turned to inconsequential things. We still had one and a half to two days’ travel ahead of us. One thing that he brought up was the missing Cardinal. Not that he was fond of the man or suspected that I knew what had happened. More in the, “we’re running out of things to talk about, so I’ll pick something peculiar that has happened and talk about that”-vein.

Two days later I found myself sitting in the large throne room slash dining hall of the good High Lord Wilbur, who looked practically lost without the authority of the Cardinal sitting on his right hand. I had to hide a smirk when I saw him sitting there with an empty chair next to him. All of the other lords were there as well, coming to see off their levies, and also to hold the gathering that was held once a month. Or moon as they called it here.

As the Lord with the least seniority, I was seated at the farthest end of the table. Only one person was sitting further down from me, and that was because he was just a Steward, not a Lord. If things had shaken out differently, I might have been Lord of the Hold he managed instead of the Lord of Wolf Ridge Hold.

My private musings, and amusement, was interrupted by Wilbur standing up. “Normally we would hear cases regarding High Justice, but since the Cardinal is on an extended trip, we’ll have to postpone it until he returns.”

Leaning in, I whispered to the Lord to my left, “Speaking of the Cardinal, how’s his son? Still missing a piece?”

“I’m not going to dignify you with an answer,” Lord Terud harrumphed loudly, earning him a glare from the High Lord.

I just gave a low chuckle at that and returned my attention to the High Lord who had shifted his glare in my direction. I just gave him a hard stare back. The slightly flustered Wilbur continued, “We’re also going to see off the levies, and this cycle it’s not just our sons and our levies going off to war. Lord Karth will be joining his men at the Final Bastion. I’m sure he’ll bring much honour to the High Hold.”

I could not help but glare at the bastard. He had ordered me there, if I had a better choice I would not be going. I was very tempted to say something, but I chose not to. He would get his due at another time, I would make sure of it.

That decision helped to cement the fact for me that I had been under some kind of mind-altering magic or influence since I had gotten to this world. For the longest time, I had been unable to control my anger. However, after nearly getting burned from the insides out by my mana, it seemed like the last vestiges of whatever had influenced me was gone. If this had been just a couple of weeks ago, I would have attacked Wilbur, at least verbally if not physically.

The ponce at the high table continued to prattle on for a while, and I did my best to try and stay awake. We had been up early this morning, to make sure we would get to the city before dinner and nightfall. The provisions in the wagon were running low, as intended. Because from tomorrow, it would be up to the High Lord to provide for us all. It was required by law.

One thing of note I did learn, was the fact that we would leave by portal a glass after dawn. Or put in earth terms, an hour and thirteen minutes after dawn. When we arrived at the capital, we would be directed to the Battalion we would serve with. Those who were going to the front would leave the day after, but those of us going to the Bastion would leave at midday, again travelling by portal.

I would really need to figure out how to make those portals. It would be easy if I could just ask Ethan since he had the same magic powers as I did. However, it seemed like there was some kind of secrecy spell over him. If he tried to reveal something covered by that spell, he would be in horrible pain. Claimed that it could kill him. Mina, with my supervision to ensure he could not lie, had verified that as being true. Might not be, but Ethan believed it to be true.

Much later, after a reasonable well-cooked meal and not drinking the copious amount of alcohol served, I made my way back to the chamber they had made available for me. This time, unlike the other two times I had been here, they had given me a suite fit for a Lord.

As I stepped up to the door the two bodyguards at the door looked nervous. I looked to the veteran, Alan, and asked, “What’s going on?”

“Milord, we had a bit of a stowaway, she’s waiting inside,” he replied immediately. The newbie looked absolutely scared that I was going to hurt them, though I had not hurt a single serf in my employee so far. Well, that was actually not true. I had hurt Ethan a bit, but I swear the smug bastard deserved it.

With a frown, I opened the door and entered the main room, I saw Mary, Saori, and Nathalie sitting in front of the fireplace. Mary and Saori looked nervously at me when I entered. Probably because serfs were not supposed to take such liberties, but Nathalie just gave a small wave and indicated the door to my bedroom. They had all been acquired at the same time, but Nathalie had spent the most time with me, so she knew I would not mind that they relaxed.

“Girls, if you could prepare a warm bath for me, I would be grateful,” I said as I walked towards my bedroom. Saori and Mary sprang to their feet with an immediate “Yes, Milord!”.

Opening the bedroom door I found the missing elf. Yathanae was sitting on my bed with a large smile and holding out a letter. The redheaded elf said in her broken human language, “Good evening, Milord. Mistress Lily wrote this for you.”

“How the fuck are you here?” I asked for a good reason. Like all serfs, she was collared and wore manacles, which prevented her from attacking humans, and the collars required you to be within a certain distance of a binding stone, or they would automatically kill you. I had not moved or had Ethan move her binding to one of the fourteen stones I was taking with me. One stone for each platoon, and one for me.

Instead of answering me, she just indicated the letter. I gave a little growl and snatched the letter out of her hand.

Dear Husband,

Since you are reading this, you’re probably cursing at Yathanae at the moment. Please stop that immediately. While I love the fact that you want to protect me, by leaving Emma and Yathanae at my side, you also need protection.

Emma, Yathanae, and I decided that since Emma was needed at my side that Yathanae would join you. Now stop cursing, and accept that it is done. And do not go and punish Ethan for fulfilling my request, you have said he should follow my orders as they were yours.

I did stop cursing at only Yathanae in my head, in fact, I now cursed all four of them. Ethan was at the moment in for a big round of punishing hard labour. Would do the former high priest some good to learn not to keep such things from me. Maybe I could also use him as a practice dummy for my sword work. ‘Yes, so many possibilities.’

I sit writing this on the morning of you leaving. It is weird, I miss you already, despite you lying in the bed behind me. The last half-moon has been both terrifying and liberating. The horrible things the Cardinal did to you, to us, still haunts me. The fact that the Church acts so corrupt and so evil, terrifies me.

Yet at the same time, it has allowed me to see you for who you are. We have grown closer, and last night when you made love to me for the first time was magical. Yes for the first time, because the time you impregnated me, that was not love, at least not according to what you have told and showed me.

I could not help but smile at the memory of Lily writhing in pleasure beneath me. It had been good, and very satisfying. I cared about Lily, did not know if I loved her yet, however, she carried my child and I was married to her, so I had not partaken in any carnal acts since our wedding except with her. One of my large hang-ups was cheating on your partner, even if I had been forced to marry her.

I had tried to show her as good a time as I possibly could during the night, and she had woken me up for more before dawn.

It is weird. You are but a few paces away from me, and yet I already miss you. I already wrote that, but that does not make it less true. I feel less secure already, just knowing that you are leaving in the morning.

Because of my stubbornness and your chivalry, we did not share intimacy for the first two moons of our marriage, and you did not stray, though it’s your right. It is not right to ask you to remain celibate for another five moons—

‘Where’s this going?’ I thought as I read that sentence.

—so I have come to the decision, together with Emma and Yathanae, to allow you to take both of them as your Concubines.

‘Fuck me. Is this really happening?’ I thought. It was part of human culture on Camcesa, but I had never thought it would happen to me.

They are not what you typically expect from Concubines, and people will look down upon you for it. But we both know that you trust them with our lives, and that is more important than anything. Also they have chosen you to be the sire of their children.

All we ask is that you do not impregnate Yathanae before you return from the Bastion, because they wish to be pregnant at the same time. I know you have told me several times that you will not cheat on me, despite it being a custom in our culture, and close to a norm in yours, so I explicitly give you permission to sleep with Yathanae and Emma. Emma awaits your return eagerly, as I do, though by the time you get back, it’s almost time for me to give birth. I cannot wait to meet our child.

Forever yours,

Lily

I looked up from the letter and saw that Yathanae had stripped out of her clothing. She stood there naked in front of me, in all her glory. She was a warrior, and her lithe body had muscles that would make most women on earth envious.

It was not the first time I had seen her naked. When I had first bought her and two other elves, she had stripped naked and asked me to only ravage her and not the two others. Of course, I had not ravaged any of them, but I had been sorely tempted by the elven beauty.

With a mischievous smile, she repeated the words she had said back then, “Me. No fuck them.”

I let the letter drop and stepped into her personal space. She quivered with what I hope was excitement. “Your human was so bad back then.”

“It was, wasn't it?” she replied in elvish.

“Yes, though you’re just as beautiful now as back then,” I said and ran my hand up her side.

She snorted at that. “I was ugly, missing an eye and my ear mangled. I’ve never thanked you properly for having me healed. I really lucked out when you bought me.”

“I don’t know, the scars made you look badass. Like a real fighter,” I whispered, and ran my hand across her stomach, dipping down close to her mound. Her breath caught in her throat.

She gulped once. Then with a bit of fire in her eyes, she replied in a slightly husky voice, “I’m still a real fighter, if not for these manacles that prevents me from hurting a human, I would kick your ass.”

“I’ve no doubt that it would be fun,” I retorted. “However, do you really want to go with me? We’ll be fighting your kin.”

“Yes, I need to protect you. You need to survive. Otherwise, Emma and I can never be together,” she said with a hitched voice.

I had moved my hand upwards, caressing around but not directly on her small firm breasts. “You know that if our children are too obvious of non-human origin, the church will force a collar on them?”

“Yes, but you’ll never let them take them away from us. You’ll keep us together, you want kids as much as we do,” she said, her breathing getting harder. My hand dipped downward again and finally caressed her mound. She started bucking against my hand. Moments before she came, I pulled my hand away.

“What?” she asked, confused and excited at the same time.

I gave her an evil smile. “Sorry dear, I’ve a bath waiting for me.”

The look and growl she gave made me smile. The look told me that if the manacles would not prevent her from doing it, she would have thrown me on the bed and had her way with me.

“I hate you,” she said without meaning it.

I gave her a wink. “You can always join me, let the foreplay continue.”

With a mock growl, she said, “I’ll teach you not to tease an elf who’s four hundred years old!”

“Sounds absolutely interesting,” I said as I opened the door and walked out into the main room. The girls had found a large wooden tub, and it was filled with steaming hot water. To Saori, I said, “Remove some of the water, it’s a bath for two.”

She just nodded. Without preamble I started stripping, all of them had seen me naked many times. Never done anything with them, but Mary and Saori were part of my pamper team, meaning they took care of my baths and so on. Nathalie had saved my life more times than I wish had been necessary.

Yathanae walked into the room, seemingly without a care in the world. When she joined me in the tub, she started showing me just how much a woman with centuries of experience can tease a man.