J
Juan1234
Guest
Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to finish that quickly...Now still Thursday , I think u are timing as the real day n story's day
Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to finish that quickly...Now still Thursday , I think u are timing as the real day n story's day
Thank you.What amazing, descriptive writing!
Hmmm, Rego could prove his love... if he's ordered by the Emperor to rape her ... refuses ... is threatened with crucifixion in turn ... refuses again ... and goes up on the cross beside herLove that can be overcome by fear is not love at all, but merely lust."...
"Well," said Kirana after a long silence, "will you be there tomorrow?"
"I do not know."
Part 9:
About an hour later, Brutus Vorcus appeared outside Kirana's cell, accompanied by a prison guard.
"Princess!" he grinned, "you summoned me?" He mocked.
"Hello, Brutus," she answered calmly, "I wished to discuss the details of what is expected of me and how..." for once, Kirana could not find the words, and had it not been for the dim gloom of candle and torch light, Brutus would have seen the quiver pass over her face.
"How I'm going to kill you?" said Brutus, brashly.
Kirana swallowed, then: "Yes."
"Good. As it happens, I have an errand to run, and I would be honored if you would join me." He nodded to the guard, who unlocked the gate.
"Thank you, Sir."
Brutus reached in with sardonic chivalry to take Kirana's hand and help her as she ducked through the low doorway. "Oh, don't forget your titulus," he said softly when she stood beside him. Her ladies handed the sign to her, and she closed her eyes as she put it around her neck.
A few minutes later, the pair emerged from the dark of the prison corridors and into the afternoon sun - a blinding contrast. Brutus helped the princess into a wagon and leapt up beside her.
"So," said Kirana as they rode through the streets, always attracting a small following of gawkers, "I'm told you are the best crucifier in the empire."
"I am!"
"And... What makes a crucifier great?" She was not sure she wanted to know the answer.
"Well, My Lady, I believe there are three pillars of crucifixion: pain, duration, and humiliation. I'm a master at all three. Most executioners have no trouble making a crucifixion painful. Think of it! Hanging from nails in your extremities!" He was in her face with enthusiasm, and she clenched her lips together as she listened. "Humiliation is hard to miss too. Especially for a woman! To be stripped stark naked in public like that, and put on display?! Then there's duration," here his voice grew dark and passionate. "Most crucified men last a couple of days up there. Me? Mine last more than a week!" He was in her face again, gleeful, waiting for a response. Kirana's heart sank. A week. A week! Everything in her screamed to be released from this horror, to wake up in her own bed in Amunia, or to dissolve into nothingness, to have never been born. But here she was, sitting beside the man who had travelled from far away to make her suffer - to put her to death in the slowest, most painful, and most humiliating way he possibly could.
"How..." she said softly, "How do you accomplish this?"
"Oh, no no no no no," said Brutus, grinning secretively and wagging his finger at her.
After a while, Kirana calmed her racing heart enough to pursue further: "Please, Sir, describe exactly what will happen, and what I must do."
"Well..." Brutus began, "we are in fact riding the very rout you will walk tomorrow on your way to the plaza."
"The plaza?"
"Yes - up ahead, where you will be flogged."
Kirana looked ahead to see a busy square full of market stalls and packed with people who looked up and giggled at her and the sign around her neck. In the center was a raised stone platform with two tall posts.
"Those were installed just for you last night, I'm told," said Brutus.
"How many lashes?" Kirana managed to ask.
"As many as I deem appropriate. We want it to hurt you - BADLY - but we don't want it to shorten your agony on the cross, of course."
"On my back?"
"And anywhere else I deem appropriate..."
"But I may cloth myself below the waist?"
Brutus laughed. "Why would that concern you? You're condemned to the cross!"
"It does concern me, Sir."
"Crucifixion is an art, Princess. We don't know exactly what will unfold every time."
"Why are there two whipping posts?"
"To many questions," was Brutus' only reply. Then continued, through the plaza and toward the main gate of the city.
"After my whipping, I will come this way?" Brutus nodded. "Am I to carry the crossbeam on this stretch?"
"Princess," Brutus finally said, "you are to do exactly what I tell you to do, immediately, every time. Do that, and your pretty little maids will be just fine." Kirana's face flushed hot.
"But I was told my ladies would not be harmed," she said, maintaining most of her dignity, but obviously anxious as well.
"You do as I say... and they won't!" Brutus smiled at her warmly.
They passed under the gates and immediately came to a row of crosses just outside. The traffic in and out of the gate was thick.
"Is this...?" Kirana didn't want to finish her sentence, but managed, "where I will be crucified?"
"This is it!" said Brutus, swinging out of the wagon. "Welcome to the last place you will ever see!" There was nothing left on most of these crosses. The bones had been picked up and disposed of, and only here and there did a pair of arm bones still dangle alone from a nail. Only further down the road could she see living bodies moaning on their crosses. Brutus' three traveling companions were already at the site, lowering one of the platibula.
"Come here," Brutus commanded the princess, and she descended from her seat. "Stretch out your arms," he said, and Kirana reluctantly obeyed. The three men brought the platibulum over to her and held it behind her, against her shoulders. Her mouth opened as she shuddered. This is what it feels like to have the cross behind you.
"A bit big for you, I think..." Brutus surveyed the others still high on their stipes. "Try that one." Again the men brought the beam down and held it behind Kirana as she spread her arms wide. It was thick and obviously heavy, from the way the men handled it. On either end it had multiple holes and huge blood stains from where previous men and women had been nailed to it.
"Perfect!" said Brutus, "don't you agree, Princess?" Kirana clenched her teeth together to keep from shaking, from sobbing, from shrieking curses at the man before her. "Yes, I think so!" he continued, "This, My Lady, is the beam I'm going to nail you to. This is the beam you will die on." Kirana knew he was trying to wear her down, and it strengthened her resolve.
Several of the beams were loaded into the wagon, including the one for Kirana.
"I am really looking forward to this," said Brutus warmly as they set off to return to the prison. Kirana could not help looking back at the stipes standing tall behind them. One of them was waiting for her. She would be nailed to one of them the day after tomorrow. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as the full terror of the thought overwhealmed her.
Kirana had no strength to say anything or ask her many other questions on the return ride. Just as Brutus locked her back in her cell and turned to go, she remembered one more question.
"Wait," she said, and Brutus turned, with a smirk. She thought for a moment. It had not come up again - maybe she would be better off not raising the issue by asking. But her anxiety and dread got the better of her, so she asked, "I was told I must be... raped. Will you be the one...?"
Brutus laughed. "Just do as I say, Princess."
(To be continued...)
Yes, it's exquisitely done.You genius, Juan.... psychological torture... nice touch!
It's ok, dont b rush n dont stress urself but for me, it is like I'm being torturedUnfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to finish that quickly...
Actually, I feel like I need to slow down a bit and do this right. I think I missed a big opportunity by glazing so quickly over Kirana's last night together with her maids... Maybe I'll try again...It's ok, dont b rush n dont stress urself but for me, it is like I'm being tortured
Do what you have to do. Lots of us write on the forums here. We know how it goes. In your own time.Actually, I feel like I need to slow down a bit and do this right. I think I missed a big opportunity by glazing so quickly over Kirana's last night together with her maids... Maybe I'll try again...
Actually, I feel like I need to slow down a bit and do this right. I think I missed a big opportunity by glazing so quickly over Kirana's last night together with her maids... Maybe I'll try again...
Do what you have to do. Lots of us write on the forums here. We know how it goes. In your own time.
Does anybody know what the rules/laws are surrounding children in stories like this one? Obviously we wouldn't want to write about child victims, but are child spectators and/or assistants to the executioners permissible? I'm just brainstorming here - don't judge me.
Thanks - exactly what I needed to know.From 'Terms and Rules' (which you can find at bottom right of the page):
We do not allow any images of children or any mention of children on the site at all, under any circumstances.
Any such content will be deleted, anyone posting such content will be banned.
That's ImageMaker's policy, he's the site-owner.
The site provider, XenForo, based in the relatively liberal Netherlands,
impose very few terms on us, but that's one.
So, apart from any other moral or legal considerations,
if we don't follow that rule, we could lose CruxForums altogether.
There are grey areas of course - basically Wragg's right, if in doubt don't.
But if in doubt, you can always contact one of us staff members by PM,
we'll advise if an image or story, etc., is acceptable or not.