Punishment (Soshakuakamamushi)

[Annalisa Marin]

81st of Winter, 513 AV

Anna stood calmly in the center of the Elements Sanctum, in front of her a rather wary looking human apprentice and behind her a Nuit apprentice had his static gaze upon her back. She was dressed simply for this sparring match, wearing a red tunic and trousers with her hair bound with a red ribbon into a ponytail. Her bare feet were spread apart from one another, her stance one of calm anticipation. A ring of other apprentices formed around the Sanctum, each one watching intently how their Mistress moved and how she acted.

This placid calm was shattered a moment later when the Nuit behind her was the first to make a move, translucent res forming in his palms. His actions were followed up by the human in front of Anna, unfortunately for them their generation took far longer than Anna's. By the time little puddles were forming in their hands, the Mistress of the Element Sanctum had purple res in gaseous form hovering behind her and in liquid form snaking along the ground towards the human in front of her.

The liquid res seeped into the ground at the human's feet, a stomp from Anna signaling both transmutation and attraction to occur. The ground itself seemed to tear under his feet and fling him backwards a distance, droplets of his res hitting the floor as he fell. While she did this she was willing the cloud of purple gas to draw ever closer to the Nuit behind her who had actually managed to create a firebolt and send it toward the more powerful reimancer.

A flick of the tall woman's wrist brought about a transmutation into existence, a wall of powerful compressed air knocking the projectile away and knocking the Nuit to the ground. It hadn't been so much a spar as it had been an almost unfair massacre, it was obvious to anyone else that had she actually been intending to kill them they would be rather dead. Anna breathed deeply, cracking her neck this way and that to loosen up any pent up stress. That had been rather disappointing, those two had been the best of the new crop the Judges could send her way. There was still quite a bit of work to do.

"Pathetic, had I been an actual opponent you both could have been dead far more easily that that. Your generation speed is slow and ponderous, you will both work on it for the rest of the day under the watchful eye of the Master Apprentice. Then tomorrow we will try this again, and again, and again until you manage to actually form a spell with spitting on." The tall woman declared, scorn lacing her tongue as she lashed out at the two fresh apprentices.

"I have no place for weaklings in my Sanctum, you will become stronger or you will die. There is no middle ground. For now, Silvia you will take over lessons for the next few hours. Run them through the drills and fit our new arrivals into squads." Anna said, her hand waved in dismissal.

The blonde haired Master Apprentice bowed her head and stepped forward, Anna already walking away from the center towards one of the Cavern walls. She looked a little frustrated as she walked, though that was hardly surprising given what she had just witnessed. Then again, there were not many that could match the new leading voice of Reimancy in the Citadel. She had met two in her life so far, one was a dead mad man, the other her new pleasure slave as of a week ago. 'Twas almost a pity to shackle Aka's magic as she did, she still bore the Djed Shackles and collar though Anna felt she was getting close to discovering a way to combine the two.

Anna approached the glyphed wall that led to her private quarters, her arrogant smirk returning to her face. The Viper had such divine moans really, and she squirmed so nicely. It had been a good call on her part not to just kill her, it would have been horribly wasteful to do so. Instead she had reigned in her hatred and anger, recognizing the gain of keeping the Viper around as her toy.

The Sorceress ran a hand down a certain Glyph on the wall, activating it and causing it to crumble to reveal a passageway into her room. The woman crossed inside, already generating res on the bottoms of her feet as she walked. She moved it to create a new wall where the other had existed, give some cracks and tiny holes into its surface to allow air to travel inside of the room. This task barely required any thought from the sorceress, who hadn't broken stride as the action occurred.

"Aka, my dear little pet, I do believe its time to play. I have an hour or two to kill before I need to write some rather dull reports." Anna stated, her tone like smooth honey.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

81st of Winter 513 A.V, 19th of Bell, Zinrah, Falyndar

"Uh..."'

"What'sss wrong, Aka? You look drunk, drink too much ssstarfruit sssurprise drink?"

"I don't know, Senka, I feel like ssshyke..."

"Pfft, fine then, I'll take over the tunnel job today, why don't you get some sssleep?"

"That'sss exactly the problem, Senka, for the a while, everytime I sssleep... ah, whatever, a brute like you won't underssstand."

"Of courssse I won't, sssahahaha! A mighty warrior like me can't underssstand how a sssmall fry thinksss! Sssahahaha!"

"Yeah, whatever," Uninterested in keeping the conversation with Sikisenka, a Dhani guard and vitriolic friend, Aka in Dhani form turned her scaled body away from the tunnel in construction, letting Senka handle her work for the day. She felt enervated even though she had enough sleep for the past couple of days. For some unknown reasons, everytime she slept, a bizarre scene played in her mind, dreams most likely, but she had been having nothing but nightmares for a while. Like most dreams, she couldn't recall much about them shortly after she awoke, only it had something to do with a human... nothing, she couldn't recall anything else.

Hopefully, I'll have a sound sleep tonight. She needed her rest, even for a master reimancer, the job of building tunnels and hunting Myrians were exhausting, she was paid handsomely for her expertise so it was worth it. The Viper Dhani creature entered Scarlet Cavern, her lavish cavern-room lit by reddish glowstones. "...odd," She felt a sudden deja-vu, she also entered this kind of room somewhere, not her home, but somewhere else, similar, except purple in nature. Shrugging it off, Aka slithered to her large bed, she climbed to it, the bed was wide enough to hold her Dhani form. With a hissing yawn, Aka pulled the curtains hanging from her bed posts, curled up on the comfortable sheets, and dozed off into slumber.

........

.....

...

Somewhere in the Dreamscapes...

This was it, no more, she had enough. The petching insect had her way for far too long, another week and she would go insane, she was violated every single day, her body convulsing in pleasure each time the human played with her, any more and her mind would break, turning into an obedient doll, her pride couldn't let herself stoop so low. Clutching the sharp steel on her right hand, she was ready, the dagger would plunge into the human's heart, finally ending her tyranny once and for all.

A few bells earlier, Aka, locked in human form due to the glyphed collar, managed to convince one of the slaves in charge of cleaning Anna's room that the Chief Reimancer requested for a fruit basket along with a knife to cut them, she told him Anna was busy with her duties and commanded Aka to deliver the request. The slave succeeded in getting a fruit basket filled with a few apples along with... a dagger, there was no available knife so whoever sent the items substituted it with a dagger instead, Aka wondered why, but she was thankful for it, an actual weapon she could use. So there she was, laying on Anna's bed, hiding the weapon under a pillow, she acted like an obedient pleasure slave, posing herself seductively by positioning her form sideways, her upper body held up by her arms, her wrists were connected by Djed Shackles and a golden glyphed collar hugging her neck, along with the humiliating chain leash.

The sound of shifting earth, the mistress had arrived, striding in with pure arrogance, deluded by her power over the former Queen, she would kill this bitch, remove her shackles, escape from Sahova, return to her homeland, burn that lesser queen, usurp control, build an army, and re-invade this undead island, she would slaughter each Nuit, pulser, and golems down to the last individual. First, there was this human she had to take care of, as Anna entered her room, she would find the Viper on her bed, smiling longingly at her mistress, "Mistress, welcome back, I... I underssstand, pleassse take care of me..." She feinted obedience, making a mental note to wash her mouth with the finest soap later, her faked meek voice was accentuated by soft moans. When the human embraced her, she would pull out the dagger and plunged it deep into her heart, the last thing Anna would see was the Viper's sadistic grin of vengeance.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna noticed Aka waiting for her on the bed, looking rather seductive and perfectly obedient as the subservient words left her lips. That certainly earned Anna’s favor; she liked it when the Viper recognized exactly what she was and whom she belonged to. She was starting to find her affections for the Dhani to grow as of late, nothing bordering on love naturally but certainly a fondness one might give to a favorite pet. She showed more of Annalisa Marin rather than the Mistress of the Elements Sanctum when in bed with her, small little flickers of humanity like a giggle here and a gentle caress there. It wasn’t like the slave could do anything to use those things against her; she was trapped here after all in this cage of finery.

“Oh, my little slave, you certainly look eager. That’s good, because I reeeally do not want to look over those documents for a while. Petching Council, I swear they are constantly leeching me for reports and updates. It’s maddening, if I’d known being the Chief Reimancer would be this exhausting I would have stayed a Wizard.” Anna said, irritation creeping into her tone as she padded to the writing desk first to glare at the documents.

Her former Mistress, Amaryllis had possessed quite the parchment fetish however Anna preferred to just burn the parchment as much as look over them. She was responsible for overseeing Reimancy research in the Citadel, as well as overseeing all those who claimed it as being part of their research. On top of that she was also responsible for training new apprentices and creating new combative forms of Reimancy. It was exhausting, it might allow her this level of comfort but it was so petching exhausting to look over lines and lines of reports and fill out recommendations and approvals. It was times like these where she was very glad she had taken Aka as her own, Rhysol knew she needed some comfort.

“Ah, but these things kill the mood. Since you seem so eager to get started… maybe we’ll start with your needs today my pet.” The tall sorceress said as she stalked closer and closer to the diminutive Dhani, her tone dropping to seductive levels.

Just before she reached the Dhani her eyes caught something sitting on the table nearby, a basket of fruit of all things. She halted and quirked an eyebrow, fruit, at least the non-alchemically mutated kind was rather difficult to acquire on Sahova. A luxury item much like her private quarters themselves, and not something she recalled asking for. She turned and carefully approached it, res coating her fingers in preparation for anything. Her enemies on the island were varied and powerful; one never knew when they might attack and what form they might utilize.

The Sorceress peeked in the basket, noting a few apples which she immediately checked for Glyphs before even touching them. They appeared ordinary as far as she could tell, though they might very well be poisoned. Sahovan politics were very deadly, one misstep and one might find themselves dead in a ditch or charred to a crisp. Such was the nature of wizards and the games of power they played, enough so that every denizen of the Citadel possessed at least some paranoia.

“Interesting… tell me Aka, who brought this in?” Anna inquired, her gaze falling upon the Viper and her steps once more carrying her slowly towards the fallen queen.

The Sorceress would consider any answer carefully as she moved onto the bed, reaching out to embrace the Viper. Suddenly an explosion rocked the room, the mage light flickering as a deep rumble sounded from outside the room and in the Sanctum proper. A viscous curse flew from Anna’s lips as she flicked her gaze towards the door and looked ready to move off of the bed again. Her expression was certainly not a pleased on.

“I swear to the Defiler if Silvia has killed another pair of apprentices I’m docking her rations for a week, petching girl needs to learn some control.” Anna grumbled.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

Excellent, her act convinced the mistress that she was truly acting the part of a pleasure slave, seductive, submissive, completely focusing on her; a part of Aka's mind jeered at herself on how good was her performance, it looked too real for a former Dhani Queen. A shy smile on the outside, a sinister grin inside, at least there was a bright side in losing herself to pleasure for the past week, Anna was convinced she was truly broken, the Dhani Queen had been replaced by a pleasure slave, how wrong she was.

The Viper tried hard not to give a twitch of her eyebrow, By Ivak, who the petch cares?! The woman was going to die anyway, there was no use for her in sharing her reluctance to do reports, these informations were meaningless to the Dhani, but she still had to give Anna a response, or the human would be suspicious. If there was one significant thing Aka learned from Anna's personality, it was the woman's chronic paranoia, she thought everything was going to kill her, save for her slave which really helped her case in this, "I... I sssee," Aka acted as vulnerable and caring as she could be, looking down as she shifted her position, rattling the chain on her shackles, "I hope they don't trouble you too much, My Mistress... a-ah, I meant no offenssse, I jussst care for your comfort, t-that'sss all, pleassse forgive me," If there was a God of Performers out there, he ought to give her an award.

Come on.. come on, come here! Her murderous urges threatened to spring out, but not yet, Anna was taking her time, stalking at her like the eagle upon a serpent she was, an eagle that would soon bite the dust by steel venom, Aka combined the look of anticipation and fear, truly like a submissive slave, "Y-yesss... t-thank you for your kindnesss, pleassse hold me clossse," With each fabricated sweet words, her anger grew, she scooted close to the pillow that hid the dagger, ready to strike the moment Anna reached for her.

For all that is holy! She groaned in exasperation, more disturbance, this time in the from of fruits, Aka didn't thought Anna's paranoia extended so deep, she was questioning the presence of harmless fruits, even going as far as creating her res, what was she going to do? Baking apple pies? A twitch found its was to Aka's right eyebrow, a small bulge of veins spawned there, contrasting with the act she put there, "One of the ssservants, Mistress, I'm afraid I don't know who actually sssent them," Her answer seemed to satisfy the wizard, enough for her to continue her approach.

The moment was near, after unnecessary disturbances, Anna sought out her slave, Aka gave her a mock meek smile, her right hand silently going under the pillow, grasping at the dagger's handle. Come here, come here and DIE, bitch! The sudden explosion, completely unexpected, caused an earthquake-like vibration in the room, this in turned made Aka's grip on the dagger loosened in sheer surprise, the dagger slid out of the pillow and fell to the floor, time seemed to slow down as Aka watched with widened slitted eyes, filled with disbelief. Her position and shackles made her unable to swiftly reach out before the dagger made contact with the ground with several loud metallic clanks.

"..." This was it, it was over, Aka knew Anna would gaze at the dagger, but not yet! There was still hope, ignoring her shackled hands, Aka scrambled her way off the bed and tried to pick up the dagger, if nothing stopped her, she would turn around and charged into Anna, embracing her with the cold steel.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna heard the dagger fall before she actually caught sight of it, more a glint of purple light out of the corner of her eyes. That was all she needed to zero in on it, clanking on the floor and coming to a rest with a cold kind of finality. It took a tick for it to click in her mind where that dagger had come from, her gaze flicking to Aka and once she realized exactly what had happened a snarl curled her lips. Res was out and moving just as the Viper had sprung into action, a quick blast of compressed air blasting the dagger across the room and far out of Aka's reach.

Instead of a dagger meeting Aka on the floor it was Anna's foot, a harsh kick being delivered to the Viper's side designed to knock the wind from the slave and turn her to the side. Her follow up from that would be a violent stomp into the smaller woman's stomach, her face hardly looking pleased by this attempt on her life. The tender affection was gone and in its place was wrath in its purest and utter form.

"You stupid petching Sub-Human bitch, did you just try to kill me? You dared to raise a hand against me!? You thought to plunge that blade into my heart, was that it? To meet your mistress with cold steel?" Anna roared, her rage as blazing as the flames of Ivak.

She ground her heel into the Viper's stomach, hoping to Rhysol that she received some nasty bruises. The Sorceress moved away from the fallen slave with an enraged shriek, stomping toward the dagger that had chimes ago threatened to remove her from the world at the hands of her pleasure slave. The tall woman would stoop and pick it up, stalking back over to Aka and moving to mount the Viper, her long fingers curling around her little throat and constricting her airway. She brought her enraged eyes mere inches from Aka's own, the chaotic anger playing dangerously behind them.

"It appears I've been far too kind in my treatment of you, slave, far to lenient in my handling of you. I provide for you, I never mark your body harshly, and this is what you do to reward that kindness? A blade in my heart!?" Anna shrieked, spittle dripping onto Aka's face.

She had miscalculated, poorly. Anna had allowed herself to be deluded into thinking, like a petching idiot, that her slave would remain obedient and that she would break so easily. She had allowed carnal affections to mar her logical mind, but that was no excuse as this was as much her fault as it was Aka's. She should have displayed what the price for disobedience was much, much earlier. Her negligence had nearly cost her life, at the hands of a bound and shackled Dhani.

The Sorceress drew back, removing her hand from the Viper's neck and dismounting the Viper with flicker in her grey eyes. She open her right hand, willing a connection between This Side and The Other Side to form, an inky black dot forming in the air above it and expanding rapidly. Once the Portal to the Void was large enough Anna savagely threw the dagger inside, willing it to shut soon after. A look of contempt would be granted to the Viper.

"I've only given you pleasure since you entered into my service, only given you warmth and affection. I haven't showed you the price for disloyalty have I, my little toy? Rest assured, your punishment for this little stunt will be more severe than you can imagine." Anna said, her former smirk returning and the honey coating her voice was rather sinister.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

Her whole plan fell apart as a magical blast of air pushed the dagger away out of her reach, the only key to her salvation wrenched from her grasp, "No!" She screamed in despair, if only the shackles weren't connected by a chain, she could at least spring up with her fluid muscles, taking the dagger back, but alas, the chain curbed her agility, enough for Anna's foot to his its target, her hand.

"Aaaaaaah!" All beings, even the Divines themselves, had weaknesses, and being a Viper Dhani, one of those weaknesses were her below-average physical strength compared to a common man, to make matters worse, she was considered small even for her sub-race and Anna was considered tall for a human, this in turn resulted in a noticeable gap in physical strength. She couldn't count on her magic, her transformation ability, her venom, or her agility, the only thing left to her was her strength in which she lacked the most.

Anna's anger was expected and since the masquerade was broken, Aka didn't feel the need to disguise her mutual rage, "Petch you, Insec- Gah!" Her sentence was cut off as Anna kicked her side, sending the Viper reeling in pain, her shackled hands was about to clutch her aching waist, but Anna stepped on her belly, causing Aka to shudder in pain, her hands desperately trying to wrench the offending foot away. She kept a brave face, looking up from the ground, "Yesss! I did! I want to stab your black heart until it stopsss beating!" Her outburst resulted in the human drilling her heel, shocking the Viper with pain, a bruise would surely form a few chimes after.

Aka's breath turned heavy as Anna's foot left her, her vision was tunneling due to adrenaline pumping to the heart, Aka wanted to recover, but Anna mounted her, the human's body being heavier than the Dhani, leaving Aka no choice but to lay down. "Kih-" She gritted her teeth, her shackled hands reaching up to grasp at Anna's hand, the hand that was choking her, she returned Anna's gaze with her own hate-filled slitted eyes. "P... petch you, bitch!" With her throat constricted, she couldn't form longer sentences, but profanities should be enough. The human seemed to not realize that the life of a slave for a Dhani Queen was utterly unacceptable, evidence of her rotting mind. One did not simply walk into Sahova, sure, but one did not simply enslave a proud queen of a long-lived race.

"Gahak! Urgh..." She took a shap intake of breath when the vice-like hand released her, she watched as Anna performed another branch of personal magic, a magic she had heard, but didn't know of, the manipulation of portals to parts unknown. "..." Her scarlet slits watched in silent fascination as a portal opened the way to a jet-black world, Aka half-expected Anna would throw her there, wherever she ended up, it would be better than in this prison. Such release didn't happen, the human disposed of the dagger instead followed by the portal shutting close then vanishing, now, she was powerless once again.

Aka shakily stood up, clutching at her stomach, the chain on her shackles and collar rattling as she moved, "You... I don't need your affection!! I want releassse! You petching coward!" She clawed at her restraints, "Releassse thessse damned shacklesss and face me equally!!" The Viper tried to hit at Anna's pride, it was her only hope. No, this wasn't supposed to happen!

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna seethed in rage at the Dhani's taunts, as well as her own stupidity for letting her guard down for even a moment in the Viper's company. Just like her namesake she would strike at her and bite her given half the chance, such were the risks when one welcomed one into their bed. The only difference was that Anna had mostly defanged this particular Viper, though apparently not entirely. She would need to instruct her slaves to never heed Aka's commands, or take her word for anything. The risk was far too great if this little episode was any indication, Aka was a clever woman and underestimating her had nearly cost her life.

The Sorceress kept her smirk firmly on her face, though there was something dangerous behind those grey eyes. She strode forward, looming over the Viper and using her height to add to the intimidation factor. So, the little Sub-Human bitch wanted to play rough? Then Anna would oblige, she was going to make Aka regret ever even thinking of raising an offensive hand against her.

"You can never face me equally, because we never equals to begin with my little toy. You are lesser than I both in terms of species and power, I defeated you in combat lest you forget. I defeated you because you had the nerve to enter into an enemies domain without learning all you could about it. It's your own fault you are here, Aka. Not mine, not your people's, not the Nuit, yours." Anna said, gripping the girl by the shoulders.

Anna roughly would force her to turn around and face the stone wall, struggling to keep a grip on her as she would bodily force the Viper to place her hands against the wall. Purple translucent res would snake from Anna's hands and move to envelop the Viper's hands, a simple transmutation trapping them in rock and fastening it to the cavern wall. The Sorceress would then kneel down and grip the Viper's legs, repeating the same action so that her feet would be stuck to the floor and encased in stone.

This task accomplished Anna would move off and move to a certain section of wall nearby, generating res and using it to transmute the wall section to air. Behind it was a black leather whip that creaked threateningly when Anna removed it from its little storage space. She uncoiled it and moved back behind Aka, gripping her neck harshly and leaning in close to whisper in her ear.

"I little side effect of me taking in fiery women like yourself, slave, is that they lack discipline. Often times, I needed to display to them exactly what they were and what happened to them if they did not behave. Your unique, I didn't lay a finger on you for a week. My others didn't last a day before I needed to bring this out." She said.

"Let me tell you the rules then slave. I expect my slaves to be respectful, to obey me, and to never attempt violence against. I give three lashes for disrespect, five for disobedience, and ten for attempted violence against my person. I believe you broke all three of the rules so that brings your debt to eighteen lashes, though I think I'll make it twenty to drive this lesson home to you." Anna said, her tone still sickly sweet but it somehow managed to make it seem even more menacing.

The Sorceress would draw back away, moving to just the right distance for the Viper to get the full experience. It had been a while since she had needed to dish out some serious punishment on her slaves, her last pleasure slave had been that last one. It felt strangely good to wrap her fingers around the leather handle again.

The tall woman drew back her arm and after a half chime of letting the anticipation grow in her slave, she lashed out with all of her vindictive rage. She intended to leave lasting scars here, things that Aka would bear as reminders for the price of turning against her mistress. As she lashed she would begin her count audibly, as she rather found it simply added to the distress to know how many more lashes were left.

"One"

Snap!

"Two"

Snap!

"Three"

Snap!

"Four"

Snap!

"Five"

Snap!

[Soshakuakamamushi]

Aka kept up a brave face as the much taller woman approached her, the difference in physical stature even more apparent due to their close proximity. The Viper, powerless and bound, could not back up her boasts, she instinctively took a step back, gritting her teeth, "That'sss..." Her words failed her, though there was so much she could retort back at the human's face, the fact that Anna beat her in a duel just a weak ago clamped her tongue shut. She could say Anna was cheating by using Glyphed traps and attacking her guards, but obviously, those were very poor arguments and they would only doom her further. She was the offensive party after all, Anna was allowed to retaliate however she deemed fit.

"G-get off, get off me!" The human's grip was strong, her shoulder muscles tensing as she was forced to turn her back, her shackled hands didn't allow much flexibility. The woman embraced her, but this time, it was violent in nature, her shackled wrists were grabbed and forced to place themselves against the wall, in the span of ticks, earthen cuffs bound her hands to the wall, "W-what? g-get it off! What are you doing?!" The unusual position made the Viper blushed out of embarrassment, she was clothless except for her restrains, now forced to show all of her back to Anna.

She tried to flail with her remaining limbs, her legs, but they were quickly gripped, pinned to the ground, then locked in place by transmuted stone. Aka's slitted eyes widened in dread, what was the human going to do? What manner of torture lay in store for her? Aka silently begged in her mind that Anna was not going to mutilate her, with her arms and legs pinned, she assumed the human was going to keep true to her threats, crushing her arms and legs, but leaving her very much alive.

Aka tried to turn her head to look at Anna, but her bonds restricted her, she could only hiss in hollow protests. The sudden grab of her neck made her gasp in fear, Anna whispering so close to her ear certainly didn't help, "Ha... haha! Amusssing, i-insect," She still tried to appear fearless, but the stutters betrayed her true feelings, "Y-you think for the passst week I've been with you, I wass actually happy? NO! Never! I abhor you, your torture, thisss room, everything! There wasss not a single moment where the thought of me clutching your beating heart ever passed, insssect!" At least she could roared that one clearly.

"Lashesss?!" Oh, By Ivak, she's not going to mutilate me... Though relieved, the approaching punishment wasn't desirable either, but she could keep her limbs, now she just had to endure it, Aka faced the wall, taking a long breath to prepare herself, then... the first strike came.

"Aaaaaaagh!!" Her whole body shuddered as the cruel leather tortured her skin, the sheer strength of Anna's strike tore the Viper's skin, fresh blood began dripping from the wound after a few ticks. It hurt, it utterly hurt, but she must stay strong, she would show this insect the resolve of a Dhani Queen. The second strike elicited an even louder scream of agony, adding an extra gash to her back, Aka's breath became ragged, her small body was not made for endurance, especially from a tall woman in rage.

Three strikes and her vision became blurred, her vocal cords wailing in protest, her whole body trembled as cold sweat spawned from her pores out of sheer primal fear, the fourth and the fifth soon came and Aka could feel her body going limp, five fresh wounds on her back, all dripping fresh blood, I... I can't take this anymore! Make it stop! Make it stoooop! A part of her mind begged her to end this charade and save herself from needless torment. "No... never, NEVER!!" She went against her better judgment, resulting in more lashes by the mistress. How much longer? I can't take twenty! Pleassse, end this!

Aka closed her eyes, swallowing down her pride in the moment's spur then she screamed at the top of her lungs, "S-stoooop!" If Anna regarded her, Aka would tremble in pain for fifteen ticks, before forcing herself to stand straight, "No... no more, it hurtsss, I can't take it, pleassse... releassse me, M-mistress".

[Annalisa Marin]

When Anna had lain down eight solid lashes Aka had screamed out for her to stop, and she did though her arm was held back and ready for another swing. A cruel smile played at the sorceress’ lips as she begged her to stop at eight lashes, to end this torment upon her flesh. Eight lash marks marred her back, Anna had no doubt that without a healer the wounds would scar and Aka would bear them as lovely little reminders of what happened when one dared to raise their hand against their mistress. Still, the Sorceress had no illusions that Aka had genuinely learned her lesson this day, besides she had only paid for two rules broken.

“Maybe you should have thought of the consequences before you tried to stab me in the petching heart, slave!” Anna shouted, accenting the words with the ninth lash across the Viper’s back.

“By my count you haven’t served your punishment fully yet, you little petch toy, you still owe me eleven more lashes! Now ten!” The sorceress snarled, delivering another lash against the Viper’s back.

“Funny thing as well, I don’t believe I heard an apology for attempting to kill me! Let me hear you scream how sorry you are, bitch!” The tall woman said, the eleventh blow falling with another harsh crack of the whip on tender flesh.

Again and again the whip would crack upon the Dhani’s flesh, the target of Anna’s rage and hurt and that was the combination no one wanted to be on the receiving end of. The tall dark haired was merciless in delivering punishment, never halting again no matter how much Aka might beg or cry for mercy. She wasn’t going to just let this little incident slid, rebellion needed to be handled swiftly and with extreme prejudice. She was going to make the Viper regret having even harbor thoughts of rebellion.

Finally when they would reach that agonizing number twenty, Anna would let the whip fall slack upon the ground. Purple translucent res slithered out from her and fell upon the earthen bonds binding Aka to the wall and floor, transmuting them to air and freeing the Viper. The tall sorceress stayed where she was at, looming tall over the Dhani and glaring down at the smaller woman, her lips still curled into a sneer. Her grey eyes still bore blazing fury within them, broiling under the surface as she attempted to shield the hurt inside of her with cruelty and rage.

She had been so petching stupid to think Aka was loyal to her; she couldn’t ever let her guard down again or ever think of making that mistake. She couldn’t be human in her emotions, she needed to keep them locked away from sight lest they be trampled upon or used against her. To be cold like the Nuit, like her former mistress Amaryllis. She had perfected the façade she bore so it appeared she’d need to hold it even when in the arms of her pleasure slave.

“Every single time you break those rules, if you are disrespectful, disobedient, or raise a hand in violence against me I will take you to this wall and lash you. From now on the last word out of your mouth had best be ‘mistress’ or that will be considered disrespect. Do you understand, slave?” The Sorceress stated.

“Now then, slave; here is what you are going to do. You are going to crawl across this floor, crawl, not walk because you obviously haven’t earned the right to walk like your betters. You will crawl to me, and then kiss my feet while begging me to forgive you and to take you into my bed again. If you don’t it will be considered disobedience and disrespect and I’ll add eight more lashes to our tally.” Anna said, her glare one of complete and utter contempt.

The dark haired Sorceress coiled her whip threateningly, letting the creak of the leather be dragged out just to add to the intimidation factor.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

The woman stopped, by the gods she finally stopped, even it was for a few ticks, Aka thanked every god she could think of, except Myri and Rhysol of course. The Viper's body trembled as she went limp, failing to stand, and if it not for the earthen restraints, she would drop unceremoniously on the cold floor. "W-wha-?! Nooo!" As it turned out, Anna was merely delaying her next strike, another agonizing lash marked itself on her skin, Aka's eyes opened as wide as they could be, her back arching in extreme pain.

I want to die! Someone, someone please just kill me!! It was unbearable, how utterly cruel of the human to give her slack only to crush it mere ticks later, Anna's words were like a cacophony of waves on her ears, she couldn't fathom much due to the pain, but she knew each of the human's words were coated in venom. At the eleventh lash, Aka's mind was purely acting on self-preservation instinct, she had no other options but to beg, "I underssstand! I"m sssorry! Please forgive me! I beg you, Mistress, forgive me!" To her dismay, the woman ignored her pleas, the torture continued for eleven excruciatingly painful lashes. Someone, please... just, kill me, I don't want to live anymore, just kill me... She forgot about the lives of her people at the moment.

By the time they were done and her bonds vanished into thin air, Aka would immediately slump to the ground, curling up into a ball as tears streamed down from her wide opened eyes, her mouth murmuring "I'm sorry" over and over. The blood from her back began pooling under her, staining the room's floor with crimson. Her mind shut down, desperately trying to shrug off the pain with sleep, but the torturer wouldn't let her, she berated her with words of rage, Aka's lips trembled then she hugged her own chest, "F-forgive me, I underssstand, Mistress..." She just couldn't care anymore.

"Ha... M-mistress," The Viper took in Anna's command like an ultimatum, her tortured back kept jolting her with pain, Aka wailed in pain as her shackled hands dragged herself to the human's feet, pride and superiority be damned, she didn't want to suffer. Her crawl was slow and tedious, it looked like she was dragging herself rather than crawling, once she reached Anna's feet, Aka slowly bent down and her small lips kissed the human, just as she requested, "Pleassse forgive me, Mistress, pleassse forgive me..." If the Aka from just months ago saw her, there was no doubt the Dhani Queen would burn this shameful mockery of herself.

"P-pleassse... t-take me into your bed, Mistress..." There, she said it, how the mighty had fallen.