The Warlord's Tithe

My village lies in the shadow of the Warlord's mountain fortress. Every year, he descends to claim his tithe: not gold or grain, but a woman to serve his pleasure for one year. This year, I was chosen. I was dragged from my home and thrown into his brutal, cold world. He is not a man, but a force of nature—cruel, demanding, and determined to break me. He sees my defiance as a challenge, my tears as a delicacy. He wants to shatter my mind and rebuild it in his own image, to erase the girl I was and replace her with the perfect, broken plaything. I fight him with every fiber of my being, but in the terrifying darkness of his dungeons, I'm beginning to forget what I'm fighting for.