"It's a long story," I said uncomfortably.
He shrugged, "We have nothing but time my friend."
Not wanting to begrudge his hospitality I did as he asked and told him of my whole journey through life, leaving nothing out.
*****
"I would very much like to meet this friend of yours, Kuri. Perhaps one day I shall. To become such a man as you, your teacher must be quite the man as well."
I nodded in complete agreement and said with absolute honesty, "I wouldn't be the man that I am today if it weren't for him."
Artaxis nodded his head before looking around at the mellowing atmosphere of the banquet that was drawing to a close for the night. "Come, my valiant knight. The night is young and yet full of excitement to be had!"
Reluctantly I followed my benefactor from the banquet, even as I mentally girded myself against my fear of what was coming next. I wasn't to be disappointed.
We entered into a suite of rooms of opulence the likes of which I had never seen. Up ahead I heard the sound of feminine laughter ring out gaily and I braced myself for what I had been dreading.
We passed through the last entryway and entered into a large room that contained a crystal-clear pool at its center. Beautiful women were gathered about the room lying on cushions, while others stood and even a few swam within the pool. Everything I had heard in the barracks of Philanthia about these far western lands was correct if not even more so.
Artaxis came to a halt within the room of smiling and utterly beguiling women and broadly gestured to one and all of them, "Choose any that you wish and as many as you want and they are yours to enjoy."
I'd known what he'd been going to say, but the answer I had to deliver was hard to utter as I stared at temptations around me too numerous to count. In this moment, more than any other, I felt in need of the art of diplomacy. What would Kuri say?
I turned my eyes from the women so freely offered to me, to Artaxis and said, "You are a man of great hospitality to offer me, a prisoner in your court, your own wives for my enjoyment. I must, however, decline your offer. Not because I do not wish to enjoy what you have offered, but rather because I am bound by the words of my teacher to share my body with only one woman. A woman who will be mine and certainly not the wife of another. These are your wives and they should have no man other than you as a lover. "