Aliara

"Me. Punish me!" Teysa said, without hesitation. She looked up at the Empress, her eye imploring. "Please, hurt me if you have to hurt someone." The Empress looked down at her, her eyes unreadable. One long-nailed finger caressed Teysa's cheek. Then the drow wheeled and strode away, towards where Aliara hung on her cross.

A weight plummeted into Teysa's stomach and she called out after the Empress. "Please don't hurt her! Please punish me! I volunteer! You asked! Please, punish me!" The drow paused, half-turned back and smirked. "I'm about to, dear. I'm about to. Watch closely." She walked up to Aliara, regarded her limp form for a moment, then slapped her hard across the face.

Teysa winced at the crack of the Empress's palm. Five livid traces scored Aliara's cheek. She groaned and stirred, rolling her head away from the blow. The Empress pinched her prisoner's chin in her right hand and yanked her head up. Without turning around, she shouted back at Teysa. "You! Human! Watch what I do with this strumpet. Watch everything, and watch in silence. Or I'll start over. Is that what you want?" Teysa had to bite back a snarl. She couldn't trust herself to open her mouth, but the Empress took her silence for assent. "Very good. Are you awake, dear...? Excellent."

She stepped out of Teysa's view for a moment and returned pushing a little trolley bearing a silver tray. Teysa craned her neck to get a decent view. She couldn't see very well, but it appeared to carry a number of complex-looking silver instruments. Teysa shuddered to imagine the purpose of the ones she could see. The Empress cupped one of Aliara's breasts in one hand, rolling her nipple back and forth between two fingers. A hiss of pain escaped between the half-elf's teeth as those cruel nails dug into her delicate flesh, but the Empress took no more notice of that than the buzzing of a fly. She palmed the soft orb, bouncing it gently up and down like a housewife testing a piece of fruit at the marketplace, then turned to her tray and selected an item. She stood to one side, making sure not to impede Teysa's view, and gestured at Aliara's breast like a magician's assistant.

"And now, my dear, we'll have to make some alterations. You are a lovely vessel, but a bit plain for my purposes. Let's start with these..." She pinched Aliara's nipple between two fingers while her other hand held up a small silver clasp. Threading the nipple through the loop of silver, she swung the clasp closed, tightening the clamp.

"Ahhhh-!" Aliara yelped in pained surprise. She was half-asleep no longer. Teysa could see from across the room that her nipple was an angry red, pinched in the complex mechanism of the silver clamp. A thin silver chain dangled about three inches down, ending in a ring about the width of Teysa's thumb. The Empress was already moving on to the other breast, coaxing and cajoling the nipple to stand proud before fastening the clamp in place. This time Aliara knew it was coming, but couldn't help but cry out in pain as her most delicate parts were cruelly pinched. "AAAH!"

The Empress stood back for a moment, her hands on her hips, cocking her head as she reviewed her work. "A good start. But we're not over. Here, let's add a decoration." Reaching down, she plucked a small bell-shaped object from the tray and considered it, rolling it around on her palm. "I'll start with a small weight. This one's one-half _oleb. _Barely anything, really." A small hook projected out from the weight, which she used to hang it from the chain on Aliara's left breast. Immediately the chain pulled taut. "AIIII!" Aliara's scream cut off into a choked sob. The Empress hushed her with a finger and smiled. "Now, now, dear. That's almost nothing. Let's even you out." She hung a matching weight from the right breast, eliciting another howl from the bound half-elf. Teysa's eyes beaded with tears as she watched her lover struggle and squirm in discomfort. Even the slightest movement caused the weights to swing back and forth like twin pendulums. The skin on Aliara's breasts was pulled tight, though they stayed proud and firm.

The Empress stepped back. "Very good! But we can't rest on our laurels. As the alchemists say, 'as above, so below...'" She bent down and spread Aliara's nether lips with two fingers, leaning in for a close look. "Most excellent! My dear, your honeypot looks quite unspoiled. I'm sure an adventuring type like you has had her share of lovers, but you're as tight as a drum! We can do something about that, though."

Aliara whimpered as the Empress slid a probing finger up into her quim, rubbing her palm in a semicircular motion across her clit. Withdrawing her hand, she looked across the room at Teysa and, with a slow and deliberately exaggerated motion, licked her finger clean. "Mmmm! Well, it was only an expression, but she _does _taste like honey, doesn't she? I imagine I'm not telling you anything you don't already know..." Reaching over to her tray, she picked up two more of the small clamps. "Well, let's go to work."

She bent over but, as before, made sure Teysa could see everything she was doing. Two fingers spread Aliara's outer labia, while the other two pried open a tiny clamp. Affixing it in place, the Empress closed it with a snik! that was immediately drowned out by Aliara's wail of pain. "Aaauuughhh!" A moment later, the other lip was similarly adorned. This time, the weights selected were even smaller, tiny silver shapes that clinked together in the drow's palm. "Now, now, dry those eyes, love. These are barely a quarter-oleb. Even a novice like you can handle that easily." She slipped the first one on, then gave an exaggerated wince as Aliara let out a moan. "So dramatic! We're nearly done, hold on." She added the other weight and took a few paces backward.

Teysa longed to say something, anything, to reassure her partner, but dared not worsen her torment. Aliara looked pallid and drawn, her face streaked with silent tears. Her chest hitched slightly, causing the dangling weights to sway back and forth. The weights on her lower lips pulled them slightly apart, leaving her quim open. Her toes were curled and one foot tapped quickly-- a displacement activity, a sign of serious distress. Teysa was proud of her, though. She wasn't begging for mercy. She knows it's useless.

The Empress seemed to notice, as well, and it clearly didn't please her. She frowned at Aliara. "Well? How do you like them? Shall I leave you like this for a while? You know, we can move up to larger weights. I've found that if you leave them on long enough, the changes become permanent."

In a leaden voice, Aliara replied, never looking up from the ground. "If it please my mistress."

A smile broke across the Empress's face for a moment, but disappeared like the sun flitting behind a thundercloud. "Oh? What if it please your mistress to whip you bloody, you little slut? What about that?"

Again, that flat tone: "If it please my mistress, then I will be whipped."

The Empress grabbed one of the nipple weights and tugged. Aliar whimpered in pain but said nothing. Teysa smiled at her, but tried to clear her face before the Empress looked over. This was a dangerous game to be playing with an unstable lunatic.

"You like that? You want me to stretch you out more? I'll make your holes gape like the Pit of Judgment! I've got toys in here that'll turn you inside out, you surface filth!" Spittle sprayed from the Empress's mouth as she ranted. She dropped the nipple weight and turned on her heel, fuming. "You! Human! Your little lover here is ungrateful! She thinks she can pull one over on me, yes she does, the clever little minx. She thinks I won't call her bluff. Well, you came into my house uninvited! You are my guests, and I don't bluff!" She had reached the far wall and stood before one of the shelves Teysa had seen, frantically sorting through the miscellany that cluttered it. "Maybe I'll introduce her to the Pear of Agony, hm? Or maybe I'll brand her. Maybe I'll stuff her full to bursting. I can do anything. Anything!" She sounded like she was talking to herself. "You decide. You're the leader, aren't you? Her fate is in your hands."

She walked over to where Teysa lay trapped and rested her elbows casually on the table, propping her head up in her hands. The fire in her eyes was no longer banked; it was an inferno, raging out of control. "What'll it be? Will she get the pear? Or the brand? Or something else?"