Release me. Now. Or I will destroy your kingdom." I had been unable to keep the sword she carried from her even though I had my hands around her neck. I seemed to have little more control over things than I had over Jahan when I was under his control. Why wouldn't I be? I wondered. I was under his control after all. And just because I had been able to break that control once, it didn't mean that I was now immune. "You know better than that," Jahan said. "I might threaten that easily enough to get what I want, but since it is no threat to me, I won't. That is not the way I work. You are mine, and my will will be done." I looked into her eyes. Her beautiful dark eyes. So different from mine. I would have loved to say that I understood them. But I couldn't. My eyes were staring back at me in the mirror. I was staring into my own. It occurred to me that I could control her again. I doubted I had the strength to do it now, and I certainly didn't have the time, but it was still something to be able to think about. I needed more information. "I want to know what I am and what I am doing here. Will you help me?" I asked. She gave me a look. "Why is that different?" I asked. "This is not the place for this discussion," she said. "You already have everything you need, but this is not the time." I looked at her. "Why not? You can stop me." "You'll make me do it, and I don't want to," she said. "I'll do it if I must. I hope I don't have to. But you will have to learn that I do as I wish to and that you must do what I say. You must learn that you must follow my commands or face punishment." I was in despair. "What will my punishment be? What happens when I want to go and you won't let me?" I asked. She shrugged. "That is your punishment. You must go when I say so. You will learn this, because I will make you." "What if I don't want to learn this?" I asked. "You must or you will suffer," she said. I looked at her and said, "I am not a dog." She looked at me as if I were. "I don't want to be your dog," I said. She looked shocked. "But that is what I am. I have no choice," I said. "If you do as I say, you won't," she said. "What are you going to do to me?" I asked. "You won't remember this," she said. I remembered nothing of this, but I felt pain in my vagina as if I had been penetrated. It was more like that than it was like sex. I wanted to scream. "I'm sorry," she said. "I should have told you I didn't mean for you to get pregnant." I looked at her, uncomprehending. "I'm sorry, it will be alright. But you are pregnant." She looked down. "You're pregnant?" I asked. "I'm sorry, but you are. I didn't want to. It is against my nature." She looked up. "But you're my queen, and I thought you controlled me. I thought you had the power to command me." "I did control you," she said. "I always can. I just don't want to always. I want you to learn to control yourself. Learn what you need to do and not do. I am trying to teach you that. I cannot control you forever. I don't want to keep controlling you. I want you to be able to control yourself, and I don't think you will learn how to do that as long as you cannot control me." "That's your fault," I said. "You said you would never torture me. I don't see you torturing me. I don't see you using your power on me. I think you want me to learn to control myself." She smiled. "You're wrong. I do want you to learn to control yourself, but not by torturing you. I want you to become independent. If you learn to control yourself, then you will be independent." "That's not true," I said. "It is true," she said. "I need to learn what it is to not be everything in your life. I need to learn what it is to stand alone. But I have to give you the tools to learn how to stand on your own and also give you time to do it. We both have to learn how to stand on our own, or I have to give you the tools to do it. You don't want to do that." "No," I said. "No, I won't control you," she said. "Not control me?" I said. "You're a child, aren't you? All the women younger than you are. You need me to control you." "You control me just fine," I said. "But I was so easily controlled by Jahan," she said. "Why?" I asked. "Because I was a servant girl. I didn't see any of the things around me. I didn't really know what reality was. Jahan told me things that were real." "Real? He said it was real?" "He said you would tell me the things about me that made me what I am." "And what are they?" I asked. "The ones I find easiest to tell you are that I love you, and you do not love me. You do not want me. And that I don't want to control you. I am a master of self-control, or I would not be able to control you right now." "So I don't have a choice but to control you?" "For now, yes, but you must learn to see what is really going on and learn that we are not what we would have you think," she said. "What do you mean?" I asked. "I can feel something you don't," she said. "I know you would leave if I told you to, even if that is what you want. I know I would not leave. And that is what is the greatest control we have over one another. We cannot change our minds." "What do you mean?" I asked. "If you tell me I can't be here, then I will leave," she said. "You have your powers back. Do not you?" I nodded. "If you tell me to stop, I will stop. If I am told not to touch you, I will stop. That is what your power comes down to. You cannot stop me from going unless I want to go, and you cannot stop me from touching you unless you want me to stop. You need to accept that." "Then you should be a servant to me. Not that I would allow you to tell me what to do. You must learn your place." "That isn't going to happen, and I will not allow you to make me your slave," I said. "That is how you think of me, is it?" she said. "I thought you could leave. I thought you would be my queen," I said. "And so you thought you must control me," she said. "What have I done to deserve this? I do what I am able to, that is all. I cannot control anyone. You made me and now you must live with that. I will try to do what I can, but I cannot command you, because if I command you, you will have to do it when I am not ready and that will go against what I want." "You don't seem so bad," I said. "Well, you don't see what I am really like," she said. "You know it is something terrible, and you don't know if it is true or not. I cannot help you if I do not know the truth." I looked away from her and didn't say anything for a