Who's the Slave?

It did. I nearly had enough money to pay for Brisieus' freedom.

Later that day my unit commander came. He brought a sum of money which he was giving the the owners of all the slave women who had fought today. I asked him to give it to Brisieus directly.

"She can own money?" He queried.

"Yes. She is my friend as well as my slave, and I hope soon, to make her free when I can afford it."

"How much more do you need?"

I told him. I was only a few coins. He gave me that amount. He was startled when Brisieus kissed him.

The next day I went to the City authorities and paid for the legal fees for Brisieus to be freed. Her slave collar and bracelets would be cut off in a formal ceremony tomorrow, and I asked and paid for something else.

When I told Brisieus she dragged me off to bed and rode me for hours. I fell asleep exhausted but in the middle of the night I woke up in a very uncomfortable position. Briseus had used the straps that had been binding her when she was delivered to tie me up as she had been.

I opened my mouth to protest but she wound a scarf tightly around my lower face, gagging me, not as tightly as she had been, but firmly enough that I couldn't make an intelligible sound. Brisieus picked up her sack.

"You are going into this, Cyrus." She said. "I cannot forget how I came to you and how little you paid for me. Making you my prisoner will help me to forgive the indignity."

She dragged the sack over my body and knotted it tightly beyond my feet. I was her helpless prisoner. But her hands stroked me through the sack, gently and with love. After ten minutes she released me before riding me back to sleep. When I woke up again in the morning the straps and sack were back on display. Brisieus saw me looking at them.

"I'm keeping them to remind me, Cyrus, and if you annoy me? I might use them again. I have shown that you are mine, and after today I'm not yours. I will be free. Thank you."

+++

All my men came with me to see Briseieus set free. She kissed all of them. After the slave collar and bracelets had been removed I was told I had to give Briseius the amount I had paid for her when I bought her. The officials were startled at how little that was. When we got home eventually Brisieus laid the coins on top of the sack.

But -- I hadn't told her what else I had arranged. I stood beside her, took her hand and raised it to my lips.

"Brisieus, you are now a free woman. But last night you said I am yours. I want to be, and I want you beside me, not two steps behind. Will you marry me? Now?"

"Marry you?"

"Yes, please, Brisieus. I want you to be my wife."

+++

We married. She is my wife and my partner, but I am always at risk of being strapped up, gagged and stuffed in a sack if I annoy her.

She is mine but I don't own her. I am hers, and sometimes her helpless prisoner, but if I am, she repays me with love.

+++