THE HIGH TABLE

 

The northern campaign left Skarrow broken and its officers awaiting sentence. In that grim procession, one man drew Roland’s attention—a commander marked by a crimson insignia, unbowed even in defeat.

Brought before Roland for interrogation, he answered with an intriguing mix of defiance and candor. Roland began calling him Red, after the insignia torn from his uniform—a name he felt marked both defeat and a potential rebirth under new command.

By tradition, defeated officers of this rank were surrendered to the priests of Kuluz for ritual execution—an offering meant to consecrate victory. But—even stripped of arms and armor by the rites of conquest—this one offered no plea for life, only a stark honesty suggestive of both strength and resignation. 

Something in the man’s bearing caught Roland’s attention: not insolence, but a stillness that hinted at discipline, duty, service. Roland exercised his right as Commander, commuting his sentence, claiming him as bond-servant and spoil of war.

That first evening in his tent, as a test, Roland ordered his man to strip and kneel. Taking a razor, Roland began to shave the man’s crotch clean.

 

 

Roland’s estate at Eshon stood just within the borders of Kuluz, still among the wind-carved highlands. It was here, far from the battlefield yet not beyond its consequences, that Red now labored for his master.

Unbeknownst to them, a small band of Skarrow’s forces—men once trained by Red—had slipped past the border watch. Desperate after hearing that their generals faced public castration and execution in Kuluz, they made reckless incursion into enemy territory to attempt a rescue. 

In their haste, they chose the worst possible approach: climbing the outer wall of Roland’s private estate.

Red noticed them first. Occupied with domestic tasks in one of the outbuildings, he detected unfamiliar movement through a window. 

Even before he recognized the figures, he understood their intent.

Without hesitation, Red seized a short cloak and rushed outside. 

He wore nothing else—he had not been expecting battle—the urgency of stopping the intruders outweighed any concern for his state of nakedness. 

The men, armed and braced for violence, noticed only a lone figure sprinting from the manor. But as he closed the gap, recognition jolted through them. 

They saw the man he had been—yet failed to grasp the man he had become.

The noise roused Roland, who rushed out into the fray.

His presence tipped the balance. 

Yet Red’s stance—unarmed and exposed though he was—held fierce purpose. He meant to prove to the intruders, to Roland, to himself, that he was no longer the officer they remembered, but a loyal bondsman who would defend his new master’s home with the same resolve he had once given to Skarrow.

Before long the intruders were subdued, stripped, bound.

Roland interrogated the leader and quickly learned he had been the superior officer who had commanded Red. 

The man was unrepentant, seething with contempt for Red—whom he had presumed dead—and filled with open hatred for Roland.

2. Anatomy of Retribution

 

 

 

Duty became shelter; each task became a form of payment—for the historical mistake that was the Kingdom of Skarrow.

 

In the aftermath of their operations, the two young men struggled. They woke to discover that judgment had already been rendered. It was Red, as their captain, who steadied them, gently guiding them toward acceptance of servitude, to seeing their punishment not as erasure, but as consequence.

One night Malek came to my chamber, unbidden. He knelt in silence, then spoke with plain contrition, confessing his error. He embraced the chance to serve his conqueror, having come to understand that it was fitting for Skarrow’s defeat to be paid for with his own loss of manhood. In this submission, there was passionate resolve, which he proved forthwith.

Nathan was more difficult. Only after seeing his captain punished for the slow progress did he begin to thaw.

: 

But eventually, all three young men—like their captain—came to yearn for the discipline I imposed, reenacting through ritual the ruin of Skarrow and its conquest.

One day over dinner, I reveal to Red that the Priesthood of the Black Sun, the Eclipsarii, have ways to restore the balls of a eunuch. 

Red raises his eyebrows in surprise, but expresses interest on behalf of his two slave brothers.

<Roland>  “The seed of course will not be that of Skarrow, but I could ask that it be of Kuluz. 

<Roland>  "In the drawer near the punisher, there are some small surrogate metal balls -- tiny, humiliating ornaments for the eunuch to wear. It is said to be the first step of the restoration. I have thought how well they would look on Malek, but it may be that both eunuch boys would look well so ornamented."

In the end it was Nathan who received the ornament first. Under Red’s supervision he has learned to serve my tea. I take the small tinkling metal bells from Red who brought them out at my request. They are like little pellets on a chain.

He answers without hesitation, “Yes, my Lord. I will wear them, as a sign that I begin to understand my defeat.”

When the tiny pellets of gray metal hang below his cock, smaller than the balls of a young boy, Red instructs to show his gratitude.  

<Red_Bondsman> "Now kneel before your Master, brother. You must thank him for this gift."

Nathan does so, expressing gratitude with his mouth.

The bells jingling lightly below.

It is necessary to consecrate my ownership of Red in the New Temple of the Black Sun in Kuluz. By law his manhood should be forfeit. I have instead exercised my right to keep him intact under my protection. I tell him of what is to come. 

At the court of Kuluz, I present my slave.

Then, upon entering the temple, I acknowledge their gods. 

And place the two canopic jars on their altar as offering.

<Roland> I think of my duty to empty you of your seed into the skull of the Ancestor. You have seen it in dreams, Bondsman?

<Red_Bondsman> I have, Sir. A skull...shining brightly into my eyes... then I feel it...a strong hand...on my hard cock...it can only be...you, Sir... 

And somehow we are already in the temple.

<Roland> The Eclipsarii have other designs, I see it when they look at me, as I jack you. They will not say what. They remove my kilt to look upon my penis at full erection even as I work yours over the skull cup. They say the gods will drink the last of the seed of Skarrow.

<Red_Bondsman> I hear their words, echoing in my head.

<Roland> Whatever their evil designs of theirs…I glance at them…their looming idols, the dark shadows… I can't resist, I look down, still jacking you, and PUSH from behind, entering.

<Roland> They come closer, enjoying the sight of conqueror fucking his slave, anticipating the impending release of your seed which will be given to them.

 

<Roland> I feel their presence yet I lose myself in the lust. 

<Roland> And after the eruption, leaning against you, holding you, deep breath, floating…They remove the cup for their own terrifying purposes.

<Roland> They come forward, several of them. One says to me "Witness now the crossing of shadows.”

<Roland> Then to you... “Let the past be unmade.” And his brother says, also to you, “Let the name be stripped of its former weight.” The third says “Before Kuluz and beneath the eclipsed sky, one life is spared, and therefore bound.”

<Roland> “Master stands, bondsman kneels...”

<Red_Bondsman> They speak to me...and I understand...the past now unmade...my name...meaningless...my life...bound to you

<Red_Bondsman> and I kneel...affirming my role...as the bondsman

<Roland> My hand on you from behind.

<Roland> it is consecrated, by their evil, but also somehow by our own light, as we walk down the cavernous hall.

: 

<Red_Bondsman>  They feel this of their own doing...but you, Master...and I, slave...know otherwise.

 

Published: 2025-12-24, viewed 107 times.