• Sign up or login, and you'll have full access to opportunities of forum.

The Gods’ Edicts Part XI - Rei’s Recompense

Go to CruxDreams.com
Chapter 4: Prayers and Trepidation

The night before the crucifixion, slave girl Kaira and lady Shara were unaware of the fate that awaited them in the morning.

Kaira slept in a cell in her slave’s garb and was thankful for the rough wool blanket that was in it. She had no idea why she had been arrested and marched to the palace dungeons. Her mind assumed the worst; but she imagined that if it was about her writing and dreams of escape that Master Elbrus would question her about it. As her mind tried to determine what it could all be about, weariness finally overpowered worry, and she slept.

In a cell not that far from her, Shara lay in a similar cot and could not fall asleep no matter how she moved. She was used to luxury; soft beds, clean sheets, a gentle breeze from the windows or the crackle of a warm hearth. She wondered if she would be brought before the King. She imagined in her mind all of the ways it might play out.

She figured that the King would threaten her unless she publicly condemned and rebuked her father as a traitor. It caused her much distress to imagine, but the more she imagined it, the more she thought that she could do it and that her father would ultimately understand. She imagined that if she refused she would face a fate like Eva had been subjected to. And that would be…Shara began to hyperventilate just thinking of it. No. She would comply with the King’s demands and he would have reason to harm her. The Realm had laws and edicts and traditions; the King could not just execute people at a whim. Shara had told herself this over and over again during the days of travel here after her arrest. The soldiers had been silent but otherwise treated her well. She was given decent food, plenty of water, and no one touched her or treated her with poor respect. She had had many interested suitors before her father’s rebellion, and she knew that men found her quite attractive. So based on the soldiers’ kind treatment and lack of harshness, she had managed to avoid going into a panic.

But a little ways across town, Rei was in a small cell, and she was not nearly as calm as Shara. After the priestess had left her, Rei had remained painfully strung up for hours. But eventually a pair of soldiers came and lowered her and escorted her to a small cell in the Temple with a surprisingly soft cot for sleeping. But Rei found no comfort in the amenities, for she knew that crucifixion loomed in her bitterly short future. She knew not when, but she knew from the Priestess’ sadistic promise that someday soon she would be nailed to a cross next to Kaira. Where they would suffer in sheer agony until they died.

Rei wept and prayed desperately throughout the night. She had a sinking feeling the entire time that the Gods were ignoring her…
 
Chapter 5: Preparations

Rei was awoken early in the morning. Her cell had no windows so she was not sure how long had passed since sundown. A pair of guards entered her cell and bound her hands behind her back. A familiar collar was placed around her neck so that she could be led by a chain.

Outside of her cell were four more guards. They marched her through the empty corridors of the Temple and out into the cold, early morning. The sun had not yet crested the horizon, only a faint dim glow hinted at the coming dawn.

Rei was marched through empty city streets by her escort of silent guards. She was being marched towards the palace. They must be moving me to a cell in the palace dungeons, where I shall await my crucifixion Rei thought. She wondered how many days she would languish in the dungeons before her true torture began.

Rei was marched into the dungeons through a guarded side entrance in the palace and walked past many empty cells. She wondered why she was not being put in any of them.

Finally her guard escort marched her to a thick wooden door, which they opened and she saw a large chamber, with a dirt floor and some torches lit on the walls for dim illumination.

Hanging from the high ceiling were some ropes with hooks on them. As she was marched towards some of these, she noticed that in the corner were some beams of wood. About two meters in length. And just the right thickness for…

Crossbeams! Rei thought with an inner scream of terror. Surely it’s not happening today! Surely not! Oh please no!

Rei trembled in terror as her guards untied her hands, moved her wrists in front of her, retied them, and affixed a hook to her binding. Somewhere she could not see in the dim room, a wheel clicked as a mechanism pulled on the rope, raising her up once again. Shoulders still sore from the previous day’s interrogation, Rei gritted her teeth in pain as she was raised to almost the same height as the previous day, her toes pointed to try to take as much of her body weight as possible in order to spare her wrists and shoulders.

Rei tried to calm her panicking mind, but then she saw another door open and in walked the Priestess from yesterday, a cruel smile on her beautiful face.

Rei gasped in horror. She was going to be crucified!
 
In the halls of cells in the dungeons, guards came to the cells that held Kaira and Shara. The guards opened Kaira’s door, causing her to wake, and she immediately rose to her feet obediently. The guards did not say a word as her hands were tied at the wrist in front of her and she was led off down the hall by a half a dozen guards.

Shara had not been able to sleep, so she saw the squad of guards approaching and stood up from her bed. She wore the same wool trousers and loose blouse that she had been clad in when she was arrested a week ago.

As the door to her cell was unlocked and open, Shara tried to stand up straight and sound confident as she asked “Am I to be brought before the King?”

The two guards stepping into her cell stopped and looked at a senior looking guard. The superior nodded and one of the guards replied with a terse “Yes.” The two guards proceeded to grab her forearms and tie her wrists together in front of her. Shara did not resist, and was led out of her cell surrounded by the small retinue of guards.

Shara imagined how she would accept the King’s demands and denounce her father. She had no idea what awaited her…
 
Rei looked at the Priestess who had interrogated her the day before. She looked as radiant as ever, like she had slept wonderfully while Rei had cried and worried the night away in her small cell. Rei’s lip trembled with emotion. She wanted to beg for mercy but she knew it would be useless. Or make things far worse.

Rei looked to the side as she heard the door she had been escorted through open, and she saw a number of guards escorting Kaira in, bound at the wrists and looking vulnerable and petite as the two muscular guards escorted her, their dark maroon leather armor contrasting with her pale skin which was barely covered by her skimpy slave’s garb.

Rei let out a gasp of horror and guilt and exasperation.

Kaira looked confused. Her eyebrow arched and her little mouth opened slightly. She looked to Rei like she wanted to blurt out questions to her, but had the good sense to be silent.

They looked into each other’s eyes as Kaira was raised up at the wrists the same way Rei was…
 
Kaira had never been strung up so efficiently as this, her petite body stretched vertically as much as it could be, her feet stretched out uncomfortably so that her toes could barely make contact with the ground. It was hard to keep eye contact with Rei once her arms were stretched up on either side of her head, her shoulders immediately aching painfully.

But Kaira had seen the look in her friend Rei’s eyes. Something terrible was happening. Kaira’s face flushed as she realized that she must be about to face punishment for her sinful deeds. She wondered how Rei was involved but everything added up now.

I am about to crucified! She thought with terror sweeping across her mind and body. Oh Gods oh Gods no!!!
 
As Shara was escorted through the dungeon halls she was grateful that she had been allowed to keep her sandals since her arrest. She wondered how long the march to the throne room would be. She had heard that the palace was huge.

As they approached a wooden door, she imagined that it would lead to a staircase to take her up into the more regal portions of the palace. Instead, when it opened she saw a dim, large room where a Priestess of the Sisters of Suffering stood a little ways from two slave girls who were strung up by their wrists.

What in the Gods’ names is going on Shara wondered with trepidation. She was escorted past the two slave girls and made to stand just to the left of the taller slave girl with the red hair.

Guards lowered a hook from a cable and latched it to the cord binding her wrists. The rope began to be pulled up, her bound hands along with it. Shara gasped in fear and humiliation as she was made to stretch vertically just like the slave girls.

In this position the soles of her sandals were barely touching the dirt floor. She was immobilized and completely vulnerable. Her mind scrambled at the fear of what was about to be done to her.

The Priestess stepped forward and smiled widely, taking time to make long, piercing eye contact with each slave girl and then, lastly, with Shara.

The Priestess clapped her hands together in a happy gesture and said in a sultry voice. “By the Sacred Edicts of the Gods and the eternally virtuous and wise commands of High King Niro, the three of you have been found guilty of High Treason against the Realm and shall be tortured and crucified until death.”

Shara felt like she was about to faint with terror and shock!
 
The promise of a horrific death washed over each of the three condemned girls. Shara was frozen, her mind reeling. Rei was hyperventilating with terror, her face flushed and her mouth open. Kaira was opening and closing her mouth, as if speaking, but she was silent. Her mind was scrambling far faster than her tongue could utter pleas of mercy.

The Priestess watched the three condemned react to her statement. She felt her stomach fluttering with giddy excitement. She loved watching the Gods’ condemned squirm in fear and mental torment. She enjoyed it even more than watching them writhe in physical torment once they got crucified.

The Priestess waited a few long seconds, drinking in the three condemned girls’ palpable terror and shock, and then she gave a firm order to the guards. “Strip them.”

She would have loved to do it herself, but that was beneath her station as a Priestess.

She saw that the two slave girls blushed and clenched their teeth silently at the humiliating order. But the rich girl Shara gasped loudly as the guards approached her…
 
The guards stripped Rei and Kaira completely nude with brisk efficiency. The belts covering their chests were unclasped and pulled off them. Kaira had plump, perky breasts that were large for her petite frame. Her small, perfectly round nipples immediately grew hard when her breasts were exposed. Rei had large, voluptuous breasts with wide, pink nipples. When her belt was removed, her breasts jiggled noticeably even though she was barely moving. Next the guards whisked off the meager clothes covering their groins and asses.

Within seconds, Rei and Kaira were completely naked, shivering slightly, out of fear and embarrassment, not cold.

A pair of guards got close to Shara. By the time they did, Rei and Kaira were already stripped nude. Shara was dressed as a citizen, so her stripping would take a bit longer. Shara looked away from the apathetic guards descending on her and turned her head right, as much as she could with her skinny arms pressed against her face, and she blushed as she saw the breasts of the two slave girls heaving uncovered on their chests.

She looked back to the guards and said “No! No! You cannot! I must plead my case before the King! Please!”

The guards ignored her. One ripped off her blouse unceremoniously, the thin fabric tearing easily as he tore it at the collar so that it could be taken off of her while she was raised up by the wrists.

With her blouse torn off, her soft, lacy brassiere was revealed. Shara was quite well endowed, and the expensive, custom fitted undergarment supported her breasts comfortably. It was the only thing she kept when she fled her home after her father’s rebellion.

As a guard behind her undid her belt and pulled her trousers off, the guard who had ripped off her blouse did the same to her brassiere, tearing it off of her.

She wanted to scream at him that the brassiere cost more coin than he earned in a year, at least, but in the same second her trousers came off and her breasts spilled out from the torn undergarment as it left her body, and any rage or indignation she had was eradicated in an instant and replaced with deep, shocking, visceral shame and humiliation.

Shara had never been nude before men before. She felt the guard behind her crouch down and undo her sandals from her feet. Then he reached up and pulled off her silk, fitted loincloth, exposing her virgin womanhood to the room.

Shara was completely nude, strung up like the slave girls next to her. She was blushing so intently that she thought her face was going to melt, or she would faint from the horrid feeling.

The Priestess walked over to Kaira, and looked her up and down slowly. Kaira felt her eyes roam all over her vulnerable, exposed body.

She walked to Rei next and did the same. Rei looked at her and felt tears welling up in her eyes. The Priestess smiled at her and moved on to Shara.

Shara was aghast at what was happening. As the Priestess’ eyes roamed over her naked, trembling body, she quivered and began to form another plea in her mind, but before she built up the courage to say it, the Priest nodded to the guards.

“They are ready.” The Priestess said, and the three condemned girls heard the guards behind them begin moving with a purpose.

The Priestess looked at them and smiled widely. “You all shall carry your crossbeams to the square where you shall be crucified.”
 
Shara was lowered first of the three condemned girls. She felt her bare feet finally get flat on the ground, and then when her bound wrists were lowered to just below her chin’s level, guards grabbed her hands and removed the hook and began to untie her hands. She trembled at having men so close to her while she was completely naked.

With her hands free, they grabbed her arms and marched her forward a few paces. She gulped and wondered how heavy the wooden crossbeam would be.

Rei and Kaira watched in morbid dread, getting a glimpse into their near future.

As a pair of guards held Shara’s arms, another pair came to each of their sides and began tying thin, strong cords around Shara’s wrists.

Rei and Kaira saw two more guards lift up one of the crossbeams and carry it over towards Shara from behind. They held onto either end of the thick beam, their elbows bent as they lifted it up to where it was just behind Shara’s head, parallel to the ground.

The guards holding Shara’s arms raised them up by her side and the other guards rested the beam on her upper shoulder blades and back of her neck.

Shara shuddered as the wood touched her skin. It did not feel too heavy. She felt the men securing the cords around her wrists to the beam, affixing her to it.

Once it was done, the guards who had hoisted it up onto her shoulders let go. Shara gasped loudly and nearly tumbled forward from the weight.

One of the guards caught her and guided her to her knees. Shara shook her head in terror, thinking it would be impossible that she could carry it through the city.

She began muttering frantic pleas for mercy as the guards moved to prepare the slave girls…
 
Shara knelt, bent forward, the weight of the crossbeam weighing heavily upon her shoulders and the base of her neck. She was breathing heavily, terrified, humiliated, and unsure how she could carry this all the way to wherever she would be crucified.

Gods! I’m going to die! She thought bitterly, panic overwhelming her mind.

Kaira was lowered next, and prepared the same way that Shara had been. Rei watched in despair as petite Kaira had her arms stretched up and bound to the crossbeam. Unlike the rich girl, who had collapsed in surprise when the guards let the full weight of the beam rest on her shoulders, Kaira teetered a little when they let go, but managed to stand. The discipline of decades of enslavement made her too afraid to fall, and her body was used to strain and uncomfortable situations.

But as Rei was lowered down from her stretched position, she saw Kaira’s head bowed and her chest rising and falling rapidly. She would not be able to bear the crossbeam forever.

Rei was marched forward, behind Kaira, and as she felt the ropes wrapping around her wrists, and then felt the wood of the cross on the back of her neck, she gulped and said, under her breath, “this is all my fault.”

Kaira did not hear her.
 
Rei felt the guards let go of the crossbeam once she was securely tied to it at the wrists. She grunted at the weight affixed to her at such an uncomfortable angle.

Leaning forward from the weight, her large breasts swung slightly with every breath. Once they started marching, her tits would be bouncing painfully and degradingly with every movement.

I am sure that is on purpose Rei thought with a sigh of despair.

The Priestess stepped forward and stood between Rei and Kaira. Rei saw guards descend upon the rich girl, helping her to her feet. She groaned loudly but Rei’s attention was on the Priestess before her.

The Priestess smiled and reached out and ran her fingers along Rei’s cheeks. “May you suffer mightily upon the cross, for the glory of the Gods.”

Rei looked her in the eyes and wondered how a person could delight in another’s suffering so giddily. The Priestess bit her lip and looked Rei over thoroughly for a few more seconds before stepping aside. The Priestess shouted to the guards. “Begin!”

With a loud grinding sound, someone worked a wheel and opened massive doors on a mechanism, letting early morning sunlight flood over the dim room and illuminate the three naked, vulnerable women teetering under the weight of the crossbeams bound to their wrists.

A guard cracked a whip off to the side, startling them. “March!” He commanded firmly.
 
Illara said:
Rei felt the crushing weight of her situation. Had she not been bound and stretched out to where the tips of her toes barely touched the floor, she would have recoiled from the Priestess whose body was pressed up against hers, their foreheads touching intimately as the Priestess promised her an untimely death.

The choice was clear. Give up Kaira and ensure her execution. Or stay silent and Kaira and all of the other slaves Master Elbrus owned would be crucified. It was the most brutally clear choice she had ever been given. She may as well have been handed a razor and told to slash her own throat open. And in either case she too would be put to death.

The horror of that aspect of it allowed Rei to deflect momentarily from the anguish of realizing that she would give up Kaira in order to save the other two or three dozen slaves her master owned. “I shall be put to death?”

“Yes.” The Priestess said lustfully, licking her lips after uttering the answer, as though it had pleased her sensually.

“How?” Rei asked with a spasm of terror shuddering through her body.

“How would you want to be put to death, slave?” The Priestess whispered softly.

Rei trembled violently. “Not the cross. Anything but the cross. Please. Please not crucified.”

“Why not the cross?” The Priestess asked gently. A few sudden tears streaked down Rei’s face and the Priestess immediately licked them off of her face, then whispered in her ear “Crucifixion is the Gods’ most powerful implement of justice and suffering.”

Rei gulped and trembled even harder and held back more tears. “No. Please not the cross.”

The Priestess wrapped her hands around Rei’s neck again, not yet squeezing but ready to. “Tell me why you fear the cross.” She said simply.

Rei looked her in the eyes and her body kept trembling as she spoke. “All of it. The public shame. Being naked for all to witness. The pain. Nailed and up high for everyone to watch. It’s-it’s-so-no. Please. I cannot even bear the thought. Please.”

The Priestess smiled. “So how do you want to be put to death for your sins, slave? Tell me.”

Rei thought about it. Her mind floundered. She had not expected the Priestess to ask an alternative to the cross. Rei felt a sudden stab of relief that she might avoid crucifixion. But she still did not want to perish! No method of execution was preferable to her! They all sounded brutal and terrible!

The Priestess squeezed Rei’s neck a bit to convey to her that her time was up. Rei panicked for a moment and then gave her best answer. “Poison! Poison, blessed Priestess. Poison. Please. That would be a mercy compared to the…” she could not finish the sentence. Her mind was spiraling in terror.

The Priestess let go of her neck and got uncomfortably close to her face again. “Poison it is.” She said in the faintest, iciest whisper. “But only if you name the slave you deceived for.”

Rei sighed and tears streamed down her cheeks. An even mixture of shame and guilt as well as relief. “Kaira. Her name is Kaira. I recognized her handwriting. On the parchment. She had written poems for some of the other slaves. Kaira.”

The Priestess kissed Rei on the lips and Rei froze in embarrassment and shock and an utter lack of understanding in how she should respond. The Priestess throttled her mouth for a few long seconds with her lips and tongue and then finally pulled away.

“Now you shall face the Gods’ sacred punishments for your wicked deeds, slave.” The Priestess was smiling widely. She seemed legitimately excited. “You and this slave Kaira. You can look into each other’s eyes as you both suffer naked on the cross. As the Gods’ will it.”

“What!?” Rei blurted out. “No!”

The Priestess laughed merrily. Like she had just been given a precious, wonderful gift. “Oh yes, slave. Oh yes.”

The Priestess turned and walked away, leaving Rei screaming desperate protests to apathetic ears.
Click to expand...
Nice story
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom