Istanza

The Sect of Bane could shackle her with every cuff and chain at their disposal, and she could break free – but she could never leave. The strongest bond was inside her very soul. She was Istanza, and she could never leave.

* * *

Morning came around slowly, after a night of heated dreams infected with the face of the Koda who had reduced Leeann to a quivering wreck less than an hour before she went to bed, exhausted and angry. She would have woken even angrier to know that the Koda had continued to haunt her even while she slept, were she not so energised by the things she had dreamt about.

It had been a long, long time since she had had dreams like that. They were erotic, in their own way, but not overtly so. They were not violent, nor did they speak to any of her usual base emotions, but they were romantic – powerful, uplifting, filling her with a giddy happiness that she thought she could no longer feel. She thought she had had her last romantic thought many moons ago, before she was Istanza, before she was Koda, before she had unwillingly set foot into the palace of the Sect of Bane.

Romance was dead, she had thought. She should not be dreaming about lying on the grass under a bright yellow sun, cooled by a gentle breeze and accompanied wordlessly by a beautiful, smiling face. The tender caresses, the embraces, the sudden and unexpected kiss she had shared with the Koda, it had all been so...

No! No, it had just been a dream, she shouted in her head. Romance is dead.

So the day began with a fluttery heart and a mind set firmly on work and on forgetting about romantic dreams. Leeann made her way out of her plush quarters in the highest levels of the palace and descended into the bowels of the ancient building, to release the Koda from their communal cell.

Someone had been checking on her work, she noticed. Her leather shorts were missing from the floor, and the Koda were shackled to the chains on the wall as they should have been; the tight bonds around their hands from the initiation ceremony had been cut. The only one to remain as she had been left was the blonde girl, still suspended from the ceiling by her bound wrists. Her hands had turned almost completely black, and her face was one of agony.

Leeann made quick work of cutting her loose and massaging her dead hands, although the damage may already have been done. It was no big thing – the Sect expected her to make an example of one Koda on the first night, and if that Koda was ruined by that example then it was an acceptable loss. There were always more lost and lonely young women in the galaxy who could unwittingly find their way into the Sect's clutches, just like Leeann had all those years ago. There were always more Koda.

The girl began to cry in pain as blood tried to return to her blood-starved hands; Leeann called a guard from the corridor to take her to the infirmary for investigation, then turned her attention to the nine remaining Koda, who stood around the circular room, staring at her like pheasants hanging in the kitchens with their numb hands suspended above their heads. They all looked tired and wasted, even the one who had haunted her dreams: she mentally kicked herself for the little pang of tension she felt in her heart when her eyes met those looking back at her from inside deep sockets.

She really was quite beautiful, for a Koda. Her eyes bore the intelligence of maturity with the inquisitiveness of youth; her face glowed with health despite the tired bags under her eyes. And she had a subtle smile hidden in the skin beyond her mouth, somewhere up near her eyes; a wry smile, a keen and knowing smile. It seemed to look straight into Leeann and say something to her that no smile had said for a very long time: it said, I want you.

Leeann tore her gaze away quickly. No Koda could possibly want her. She was Istanza, she was the embodiment of cruelty. She was warped and twisted and she took pleasure in hurting others. She had no higher emotion, she could no longer feel true love nor hate, just base feelings like anger, aggression, and lust. Nothing she felt was anything more than an immediate feeling, forgotten as quickly as it passed. She had nothing to offer any girl except pain. What girl could possibly want her?

She released the Koda from their shackles, one by one, until she reached the girl on the end. She averted her gaze as Leeann approached, but appeared to be hiding a wide grin. As Leeann released her from the wall so she stepped forwards, and something black and soft slipped from between her back and the wall and slapped onto the ground.

Leeann bent down and retrieved it briskly. It was black leather, soft and supple. Her leather shorts, discarded the previous night and forgotten in angry haste.

"What is this?" She demanded, grabbing the girl's hair in her fist and yanking her head backwards, thrusting the shorts into her face with her other hand. "Speak, Koda!"

"The other Istanza would have seen them." She girl mumbled through Leeann's shorts.

Leeann reduced the tension on her hair and pulled her hand away from the girl's face. "The rest of you, stand outside and wait." She ordered. They obeyed quickly, filing out of the door and lining up in the corridor outside. Perhaps they were eager to be out of the cell – most were, after their first night, although most suffered a far worse night than they had; Leeann usually kept them watching her ritual torture of her chosen victim for much longer before she finally retired to her bed alone. Perhaps they were keen to obey, to avoid further punishment. Obedience usually came quickly in new Koda, once they saw what the Istanza were capable of.

"What other Istanza?" Leeann said quietly into the girl's ear. Up close she could smell her breath and her skin, and to her surprise it wasn't vile and repulsive. Spicy – musky, perhaps – but nonetheless alluring. She resisted an urge to lick the girl's face; there was time for that sort of humiliating punishment later, and it always worked better in front of a crowd.

"After you left, another Istanza came." The girl said. Her voice was soft, high-pitched and girlish. The Sect never took Koda under the age of twenty years, although Leeann had never been entirely sure which passage in their strange holy book it was that made such a decree.

"What other Istanza?"

"She carried on where you left off. I heard her coming down the corridor, I saw her face at the door. I picked up your shorts and hid them from her."

"Why? Why did you do that?" Leeann demanded, bunching her fist tighter on the girl's hair and making a mental note to find out later which Istanza had come to check up on her, and why. What business was it of the others how she treated her Koda? She should be free to do her job as she saw fit.

"Because the other Istanza would have thought ill of you." The girl mewed in pain.

"Why do you care about that?" Leeann hissed into her ear.

"Because... I don't know why."

Leeann remained quiet, staring at nothing, thinking in her head. This Koda was making no sense. "Tell me what the other Istanza did." She said eventually.

"She shackled us to the wall. She whipped us, and then she made us watch as she whipped the girl in the middle. She screamed, and she screamed so much. The Istanza just kept on hitting her harder until she couldn't scream any more. It made me so fucking hot."

Leeann's train of thought was derailed by this sudden tree across its tracks. "What?"

"I was so fucking horny, but I couldn't get my hands out of the shackles. God, all I needed was just one finger and I could have got off again and again watching her scream. I tried pressing my legs together but it just wasn't quite enough, I was so fucking close..."

Leeann stopped her with a sudden grab at her arm as she felt it moving near her waist, but relaxed her grip as the girl turned to face her, silkily put an arm around her neck and placed her cheek next to Leeann's.

"I just wanted to put my finger right here..." She whispered coolly, sliding her hand down into Leeann's shorts. Part of her mind told her that she shouldn't let a Koda touch her in such a way, but the greater part – the part being slowly seduced by her erotic voice and her closeness – told her that this was no big deal, she forced Koda to do this sort of thing to her all the time – if one chose to do so of her own free will, why make it a problem?

"I wanted to run it around in little circles like this..." The girl continued, picking up a motion that had Leeann's hips swaying in seconds. "I wanted to twist and to turn and to tease, while I watched the Istanza beat that poor girl into a quivering lump of raw flesh. I wanted to get faster and faster as the Istanza started to drip hot candle wax into her whip-welts." The finger in her shorts increased its pace subtly. "I wanted to feel my pussy leaking down my legs as I watched the tears run down her face. I wanted to make myself come as I listened to her crying."

"Yes..." Leeann whispered almost silently under her rising breath. She could feel the Koda's greasy hair blowing in the wake of her panting, tickling her face. She buried her mouth into the girl's hair and stifled a moan.

"I want to make you come." The girl cooed into her ear. "I want to make you come."

"Keep going." Leeann moaned. The hand in her shorts suddenly moved faster, driving the breath from her. She gripped the girl's head for all she was worth, wrapped her other hand around her waist and clung to her slender back, bit down on her ear. The girl gave a whimper of pain but did not falter, kept up her driving rhythm; the sound was enough to tip Leeann over the edge and she erupted from inside, clamping down every one of her muscles against the explosion in her belly. Contained fire ran through her torso and down her limbs, until her knees buckled and she sank, held up only by the girl's lithe arm around her neck and the delicate hand cupping her between her legs.

Leeann blinked back the stars and shook her jellied knees back to life.

"You're good." She whispered into the Koda's ear.

"Thank you." The girl replied.

"What's your name?"

"Silra."

"Why do you do this to me, Silra?"

"Because you want me to." Silra replied, then paused. "And... Because I want to."

"Why?"

Silra said nothing for a moment, then breathed out a heavy sigh. "All my life, I have yearned for someone to punish me the way you punish Koda. I have fallen in love again and again but I cannot live without being punished. I want someone who can punish me properly."

Leeann thought about this. "This is no game." She whispered harshly into Silra's ear. "This is no S&M roleplay adventure with safewords and rules and boundaries, you can't just step out of this when you've had enough. Koda can never leave here. Koda die here."

"I know." Silra replied, and Leeann noticed for the first time that her voice was shaking. "I did not come here by choice. I'm not stupid. I'd leave now if I thought I could. But if this is my life then I'll do the best I can to get the best from it. I've found someone who can punish me the way I've always wanted to be punished. If I should die here, then at least I might find what I want before I die."

"Get your hand out of my pants." Leeann hissed sharply. "Then go and stand outside with the others."

Silra obeyed, turned to walk sullenly out of the door.

"Wait..." Leeann whispered, grabbed her shoulder and stopped her. She wasn't quite sure why she had the urge to say what she wanted to say, but she was gripped by something stronger than she could ignore. She felt like there was one opportunity to make a difference. The dreams – that's what they had been about. Someone who wanted her for what she was. Someone who would really appreciate what she could do. Someone who could make it all worthwhile for more than a few hours of unleashed aggression and some spine-tingling orgasms. She put her mouth to Silra's ear. "If you're serious, remain awake after you are returned to your cell tonight."

* * *

The day passed slowly. Leeann went about her duties, keeping the Koda in line for their first day of servitude, and tried not to think about what she'd said to Silra. What was she doing? What was driving this? What was driving either of them to this? There was something wrong with that Koda... But still, she was very good at what she did. It was clear that she had been with women before, and she liked it. So what could be wrong with taking advantage of that, if only for a while?

What harm could it do? She wasn't going to do anything rash, nor was she going to do anything against the rules. She was merely going to pay attention to a Koda after the day's work was done. It was all part of her job.

Her thoughts changed faster than she could think them. Good idea, bad idea, good idea, bad idea... It wasn't the way she normally did things, but it wasn't against the rules. It would be good fun, but then what were Silra's motives? Things did not add up. But her curiosity was most definitely piqued.

There were any number of things that she could do with Silra that would be more fun than beating ordinary Koda. For one thing, Silra knew how to pleasure her very well indeed – something that most Koda never properly learned, no matter how many times it was forced upon them. Silra wanted to be punished, and would quite possibly offer herself for punishments that were difficult to inflict on Koda that would curl away from such things. Perhaps Silra, enjoying her punishments, would open herself up to the kinds of sexual tortures that were never possible on frightened Koda. Many avenues, many possibilities...

The day passed slowly, as was always the case when Leeann found herself bothered by things. Sometimes she worried about the Sect, and the origins of their holy book, and what it was that drove them to employ people like her to keep their Koda in order. Sometimes she worried about the other Istanza, and what they thought of her. She kept apart from them, as much as possible, and noticed that they kept apart from her too. It seemed to be a trait of Istanza, to keep away from others as much as they could. Closeness to others only seemed to cause trouble: others were afraid, or they seemed driven by some desire to understand, which Leeann found invasive and annoying. They could not possibly understand. No person could understand her need to hurt others unless they too had that need. No amount of explanation or psychological investigation would reveal the reason behind the madness; thousands of years of human evolution had proved that. Istanza had existed right back into the dark ages, before mankind had left Earth, and even though they had been called many names over the millennia, they had always been sought after by certain tracts of humanity, their violent nature nurtured until it became useful, appreciated and employed.

Mostly Leeann worried that she was trapped. She could never leave. She was imprisoned by her own nature. The Sect needed her, and they saw to it that she had everything she needed: good food, a well-furnished place to stay, a daily payment into an account from which she could never withdraw, and ready access to girls whom she could punish as she saw fit. She could find a way to leave, any way she chose, as she had done before – but she would come back after a month, maybe two, maybe even a year – after she had set herself up somewhere, and thought that she was over the worst, and then found that violent need building up inside her like a magma chamber beneath a dormant volcano. It would erupt, it would drive her to do things to innocent people, the sort of things that she knew to be wrong and would get her into lots of trouble; and then she would have to make a choice, between lonely imprisonment in one of the legal prisons, segregated from other inmates for their own protection, or lonely imprisonment on Krakus, emotionally distant from everyone but free to take out her frustrations on the Sect's illegally-gotten Koda.

As the autumn sun set over the bleak hillside, Leeann worried only about Silra's motives.

Eventually the day drew to a close and the Koda were directed to their individual cells. Leeann played some part in this, using her short cane where necessary to spank the Koda through their doorways. She wasn't in the mood for words, and there was nothing in her contract that specified using words to communicate. The cane was as good as words, if not better.

There was, as always, a low performer, and it was Leeann's duty to see that she was punished. She went to her cell once all the Koda were safely locked away, let herself in and made quick work of giving her the punishment that she had earned. Her heart wasn't really in it. She couldn't escape the inevitable thought that after dealing with this Koda she would have to go and see if Silra had remained awake waiting for her, or if she had forgotten everything and gone to sleep. Even as her lashes were drawing welts on the buttocks of the chained Koda, Leeann thought, Silra could be regretting her words and be pretending to be asleep.

Leeann kept up the punishment for as long as her arms were able, but she remembered little of it. It had involved an assortment of whips, obtained from the rack in the corridor, and it had ultimately drawn blood as well as the usual screams and tears, but it gave only the faintest tickle in her shorts, and she didn't even bother to slip her hand under her waistband in response, as she usually did. She simply wasn't in the mood.

Silra's cell was four doors down the stone corridor, and it seemed to take an age to get there. Her heeled footsteps echoed off the walls like whiplashes, her key turned lazily in the lock and sounded loud in her ears. She deliberately avoided looking through the small grate but waited until the door was opened, where she saw Silra standing against the far wall, looking at her with narrowed eyes and a lop-sided smile. Leeann's heart fluttered.

Silra must have been standing like that, waiting for her, for quite some time. It was almost midnight, and most of the Koda would be resting for the next day's work, if they knew what was good for them. Silra had stayed awake, waiting for her. So Silra really was interested in some form of alternative relationship.

Or maybe she had been asleep, had heard Leeann's footsteps, had woken quickly and had thrust herself against the wall in order to make her think that she was interested...

No, why the indecision? Why make things complicated, Leeann said in her head. She stayed awake for me. She was waiting for me.

"On your knees." She said, and smiled as Silra obeyed. "Disrobe."

Again Silra obeyed, letting the grey garb of the Koda slide from her shoulders to land at her knees.

"What do you want out of this?" She demanded flatly. Seeing Silra naked at her feet brought back all of her lust in one quick rush of bubbles to her head and blood to her hips. She was going to enjoy this.

"I want to be..." Silra began, but Leeann caught her across her shoulders with her cane. Her words stuck in her throat as she jumped, probably in shock more than pain, and drew in a sharp breath.

"When talking to me you will begin and end every speech with 'Mistress'. Is that clear?"

"Mistress, yes, Mistress." Silra replied breathily.

"Continue."

"Mistress, I want to be punished, Mistress. I want to be whipped, Mistress."

"Is there anything else you want?"

"Mistress, I... I want to be..."

Leeann caught her another sharp blow to her shoulder as she faltered. "Speak, girl."

"Mistress, I want to be... Played with." She gulped, and then added: "Mistress."

"So this is a sexual thing for you?"

"Mistress, yes, Mistress."

"And you think that I will play with you? You think that I will do to you the things I will make you do to me? Do you think you deserve that?"