The Competition

[Mikerytel]

Bless you, lcs - I'll put in a prayer for you, not sure that a mere mini-martyr's petitions count for much, but it's a slightly unusual request, I don't think the Kingdom of Heaven's Ministry of Martyrdom has a lot of work on its hands these days!

The perfect person to be martyred

 

[Loinclothslave]

I fear this could go wrong for Sister Kathleen. Is there enough crucifixion wood in stock in the cloister

Surely @messaline brought along a decent supply of premium French Crucifixion Wood? After all, forcing her to carry a patibulum along the roads of France and England would be good practice? And Sister Judith could strengthen her whipping arm, and improve her aim, urging messa along her grueling via del Cruxton…

 

[Loinclothslave]

Madeleine at the Post

"I am Pilus. You will have seen me at work as you played shadow and scribed for the Cardinal..."

Yes, I have seen him, and I've written it down.
This one, I fear.
He is of a different make than those the Cardinal sent to cane me when my replays were unsatisfactory.
It's as if he sees everything, able to touch and burn everything, with that whip of his.

The one you both fear and admire!

"I have been ordered to punish you for your gross act of insubordination"
I'm a good listener. I catch the nuance.
'Ordered to punish'.
That grates with him.
Delivering punishment is..., but obedience is not his nature.

A hint of defiance? Or something else??

Often they bind the victims by wrists and ankles or even only the wrists over their head.
He fixes me very firmly, leaving little room for movement.
I press myself against the post for protection.

The ost cares not for your protection..

He orders me to kiss the whip.

My kind of sadist!

I see the Cardinal and I want to spit at him – but it's too far.

Darn shame he’s too far!

I part my lips and trace them along the texture of the whip.
The sensation raises bumps on my skin.

Mine too!

I fail to fully comply, but, surprisingly – he lets it pass.

He looks to the Cardinal for confirmation of the decree.
Beside him, already, so soon: A new Recorder.
She's been waiting in the wings?

Was he looking for an excuse to replace you?

I try to meet her eyes, but she's learned it like I did.
A way to look straight at someone but somehow bend your gaze around them.

The new Scribe has noticed your skills and emulates

I wonder how it is with her.
Is she fresh, or is she, too, close to bursting?
Do we all end like this?

Only if you’re human!

Memory is so quick with me.
Years pass by in the seconds until the whip begins to crack across me.
When they told me I was to learn the skill of the 'recorder', I had naively thought I would master the play of a flute.

And oh! I learned about playing some unmentionable flutes, turgid veined and throbbing, the kind that release salty tastes instead of sweetest sounds.
All of this, just to test our faith!

It is right to give thanks and praise!

And I saw the pain and I retold it but I never quite felt it like that, and I always have wondered.
Soon it will come to me too.
Will I bear it better or worse than others, for what I've witnessed?
Thinking of life's usual misfortunes, I know I cry easily with pain.

You’ve known for some time now that your turn was inevitable…

But still - sometimes the carpenters lost nails and sometimes I picked them up.
Sometimes I traced them along my arm, coming to rest behind my wrist between the bones, or testing them against my palms.
And I pressed in.
I was surprised by how much it hurt even when you only just begin.
How difficult it seems to go over that threshold.

And this you see the kindness of the Executioner’s task!

But then how beautiful the crimson jewel was and what strange warmth kindled in my lower belly and tingled at the back of my head, and what a satisfaction it was.
I asked then for the mortification of the flesh as I knew this must be sinful, and vowed to God and myself to never repeat the act.
Such brittle vows.

A little bit behind and below my ankle, on my right foot only, I found a spot that would cause instant nausea if I only pressed the nail-tip lightly against it.
How strangely I am made!
But who made me so?

Was it the work of the Lord? Or just our nature?

For many days afterward, I would bear my sacrilegious stigmata.
But as the insides of my wrists and palms were always against the writing-board, no one ever noticed.

This one saw them once… it understood

Do I understand?
Do you, replacement recorder?
Do you understand: If, where I have been, you go – as I end, so you shall end?

Perhaps not yet… but she will!

I could have turned away from this at the beginning.
I could have refused to record the first Competition.
All it would have meant was a lower station. Serving not the Cardinal but some lesser figure.

Pride goeth before the fall…

But I didn't, it was my pride, I wanted to prove myself...
... and perhaps also I must admit, there were some things I couldn't resist the temptation of seeing, even if I also dreaded them.
And isn't that much worse than mere insubordination.
So to you, my replacement: Don't go down the path I went! Make this your first and last day in his service!

The Cardinal nods and says, 'Begin'.

That moment though it's the recorder I'm looking at, and I make a firm vow.
When you replay my punishment to the Cardinal,
there will be silence.
I will not scream for the Cardinal.
To God I vow and to myself.
For what it's worth - of one I'm not quite certain anymore, and of the other I know soon she'll cease to be.

And so it shall be remembered!

Now the whip flies.
It's sharp and it cuts and burns and stings and it rips into me.
I convulse against my bondage and I'm thankful it's so firm.

The post is my straight rod and as I press up against it, I steel myself against the Cardinal and his church of falsehoods.
I shake my head between blows and I grind my brow against the rough wood and I grit my teeth and shudder, I hiss and I heave but:
I do not scream.

He will notice, pretends not to, and despises your stoic defiance.

Once I was caught in a rockslide and all I could do was curl up and let it roll over and let fate find out if and what of me remained when it had passed over.
And then it passed over.

Ten lashes!

And now the lashes pass over…

I'm shivering deep from inside, a chatter in my teeth.
The air seems very cold but also burning.
I can sense the trickles of blood tracing down my back, each droplet at the lead of its line exploring its way down.

He moves to my right.

And now I recognize, this Pilus is my ally.
My supporter in this hour.
My friend.

Strange ally in odd circumstances

Because he could have made it so much more difficult for me.
Twenty it must be, by Cardinal's decree – he decides how.

Obey only the letter of the order, not the spirit

I know, from seeing it so many times, how the whip can first, tease torment and tantalize, and then, utterly destroy.
How it can wrap around and set on fire every soft and secret place.
How it can come unpredictable.
Just changing the rhythm might be enough to break me.
But he does none of this.

It hurts more the second time, when they intersect, but I've had the moments in between to brace myself.

Strange kindness…

He could have drawn contorted maps of hell upon my back, but instead he crosshatches me neatly.
He applies his skill to make the pain precise and predictable.
Faultless and easy to read.
Like my writing as a recorder.
Each stroke as strong as the preceding one, each spaced below the previous one.

I understand why he does this.

He's carrying out the punishment by will of the Cardinal.
By another man's will, not his own.
Pilus will not put the full measure of his skill in the service of another man.
He shows that he knows the meaning of duty.
He doesn't show his full power.

So it is no act of mercy for Sister Madeline, instead a proof of his will triumphant over that of the Cardinal!

The Cardinal is incensed by my defiance and calls for a cross - this, I knew, would happen whatever I did or did not do.
Underlings are off to have it assembled.
Everyone turns back to the novices.

It was always inevitable, from your first day you became his scribe at one of these competitions… you have always known this.

The crosses.

Destiny

Up now.

Messaline, rising.
I see her there, ascendant, offering herself up to union with our Saviour.
Daring us to see one part of the Trinity recast in the form of woman.
Making it known for all what it is that we believe in.

@messaline in the role of She Christ

The Cardinal sees only an object subordinate to his lust.

Thessela, up, but going under.
Struggling for air as she's sinking fast into that secret sea.
But then she's up again, ... stronger now.
Having found herself and brought that to the surface.
Breathe on, sister, breathe on.

The power of the Holy Ghost compels her!

Pilus approaches and frees me from the strap that fixed me so firmly - and also frees me from the remainder of my habit.
I expect to be released and led to the cross, naked as the others.
But he only slackens the rope around my wrists, giving me more room to move.
He turns me round and looks me in the eye.
Sees right through me.

He knows your heart!

'You must atone for your part in every scene ...'

If you could but kneel and grovel to show gratitude for his deep understanding

He knows.
And now he'll truly touch me.

Like you know you need!

Find me and flush me out for all to see.
And I will scream, and it'll only be my voice, nothing replayed, only my truth, my self, and I'll scream hoarse till I forget myself, till my voice is gone.

And show your penance towards your inevitable redemption in your beautiful Faith!

——————

This thread just keeps getting better!

 

[Loxuru]

I lost track of how long it had been.

No points given yet for the crucifixion? What is the interim score? I am waiting, like many bettors do!

I also kept an eye on Sister Kathleen and the Abbess, who had ceased their arguing and had begun to talk earnestly as though they were planning something big. I saw the Abbess look up every so often to nod at me encouragingly, and how Ethelbert and Tuck were huddled together preparing something that I could not see because it was blocked from my view. I wondered what was going on.

Some cunning plan in the making?

And, of course, I couldn't help but notice how the Cardinal was directing his attention to me, quietly separating himself from his retinue, moving closer as a solitary figure, right to the very base of my cross.

I flinched as he reached out to poke curiously with his finger at the bloody hole surrounding the nail driven through one of my feet. His other hand was lost from view beneath his robes. His face was redder than normal and he seemed to be panting, breathing hard, nostrils flared, as he stared intently and hungrily at my open womanhood.

Blessings from the cardinal? Does that mean bonus points for Team Cruxton?

 

[Loxuru]

None of us were nearly as active as we had been when first raised. Exhaustion had set in and was taking its toll. The effort to push up to fill our oxygen-starved lungs had become far more difficult to mount and was undertaken less frequently and far more shakily than before.

Our breathing was ragged, the cramping intense. No one screamed anymore ... just moans, prayers or curses. Even Messaline's biblical quotations were sparingly uttered. We suffered from thirst as well as extreme discomfort and pain. Heads bobbed and lolled. Bodies sagged, knees bent, ribs showing, arms stretched, shoulders strained.

At times I thought some of the others had fallen asleep or even died, but they all would eventually would startle or jump and shift their position painfully. I came to believe that no means of being put to death ever devised was more diabolically cruel than the cross.

Yes! The endless long agony has arrived!

The afternoon was waning and it was getting downright chilly, St. Andrew's feast being in late November.

They should hold the competition in a season with good crucifixion weather!

Also, during the time I was out, a coal-burning brazier had been set up in the middle of the cloister.

Me thinking : at least, they care about the comfort of the onlookers and the competitors!

The intent was obvious. I overheard the Cardinal growl irritably at his henchmen, "aren't those irons hot enough yet?"

Hang on! Hot irons!? Was that foreseen in the script?

 

[messaline]

... "Even Messaline's biblical quotations were sparingly uttered ... "

"My abess, I put my soul into your hands ... "

...

 

[Barbaria1]

I was thinking this morning, after re-reading all the great CF member comments and contributions, that this thread turned out to be an exceptional example of what might be termed a “CruxForums participatory RP”. So many members got into the spirit to either assume roles within the central text driving the story or create supplemental ones of their own. And the commentary/banter then and even today .. so many years later … makes me so very proud to be part of this crazy but delightfully kinky community.

 

[messaline]

 

[Loxuru]

Giving myself over completely, I screamed, "PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT BEFORE ... I CHOOSE THE MOMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Phew! What an ending!
Great story! Thanks to Barb and all the contributors!

 

[Loxuru]

(I could not resist to forge some little epilogue!)

‘BANG! BANG! BANG!’

The cathedral cloister, later that evening. The monk on night porter duty suddenly hears a loud banging on the gate.

“Open this door! Immediately!”

A bit startled, the monk opens the gate.

“Who... are you!?”

“Answer me! Are the novices still on their cross!?”

“Yes, Sir, but… who are you? We did not expect anyone anymore!?”

“No one expects me! Is that pervert cardinal still here, and his lewd helper Archbishop Wragg!? And the abbesses!? Are they still here!? Answer me!?”

“Yes, Sir, yes they are!”

“Then, let me in! Immediately!”

“But, Sir, who are you!?”

“My name is Loxuru! Cardinal Loxuru! Chief Prosecutor of the Spanish Inquisition! I come to make an end to that cardinal’s shameful, blasphemous competition!”

“Spanish Inquisition? But, Your Eminence!? We are not in Spain!?”

“Never mind! Here is my Spanish Inquisition badge! We have the right to access all church possessions! Cathedrals, cloisters, dormitories, even the most remote scullery and the Riesling cellar! And I insist you let me in, since not obeying a magistrate of the Spanish Inquisition is an act of heresy! It is up to you, good man!?”

“Yes, Your Eminence! Please come in!”

“And my arrest squad and the interrogator team! Guys! Install the movable torture benches! Prepare the whips and the shackles and heat up the irons! Start with stripping naked those abbesses and suspend them by their wrists! It is going to be a hot night!”

 

[Barbaria1]

even the most remote scullery and the Riesling cellar!

 

[bindhertocross]

Ah, the plot twist, setting us up for a sequel?

 

[Blue]

As the crowd gathers around, and I hear the cries of my sisters, I feel a
great emotion, a great arousal.
I am part of something, a sacrifice, a last dance, giving all we have.
I want this. I have always wanted this.
I did not know until now.
I feel new strength in me! I will fight, and give myself, everything I have
left.
Breathe, Thessela, breathe!

This is soooooooo good, especially if you have been following this character’s arc!!!!

 

[Blue]

ilus approaches and frees me from the strap that fixed me so firmly - and also frees me from the remainder of my habit.
I expect to be released and led to the cross, naked as the others.
But he only slackens the rope around my wrists, giving me more room to move.
He turns me round and looks me in the eye.
Sees right through me.

'You must atone for your part in every scene ...'

He knows.
And now he'll truly touch me.
Find me and flush me out for all to see.
And I will scream, and it'll only be my voice, nothing replayed, only my truth, my self, and I'll scream hoarse till I forget myself, till my voice is gone

This thread is amazing! One great entry after another... this one stands out, particularly if yard following the character’s transformation...
Great work @malins and all who contributed!

And the subsequent entry from @Primus pilus is, perhaps, one of the most succinctly effective yet remarkably detailed I have ever come across here...

So. Damn. Good!!!!!