Not the exercise you thought it was

The Warlord nodded his head at her words. The chances were slim, but the promise was there. He might as well be the walking dead, if ever he showed his face in her life again. The Warlord took no competition over what was his, and the man that had first taken her would never lay claim to her again.

There was silence in the bath, the little splashing of her cleaning stilling. He glanced away from the sky to find her staring at him. Once again she seemed baffled and surprised, a thought that amused her. She had seen much, yet he still seemed to catch her unawares.

He didn’t keep his eyes to her for long, before he leaned back again. Content to wait, through the silence remained from her for a time. Her question was permission to ask a question, and he held his silence, giving her the space to find it. “Not in the same way you were” he admitted. His slavery did not leave him with the same scars it did her. “My parents were generals in an emperor's army. When they died and left me an orphan, the Emperor gifted me as a slave and guard to one of his daughters. That daughter became my oldest friend, and she eventually gifted me with my freedom.” It was there the story grew harder. The reason he had reached for freedom was dead. He did not elaborate any further.

"Speech"