Keyholder Demoness Bk. 03 Ch. 08

Charity was paraded across the countryside in her cage within a cage. They traveled all afternoon until they arrived at another larger village where Empusa and the guards set up tents. Charity was left in her perch. At least ten armed guards watched her at all times.

She wasn't sure why there were so many. She obviously wasn't going anywhere. Maybe Empusa had them scared that Charity had some mysterious powers. More likely, they were protecting Charity from being stolen by some other interested agent - one of Empusa's competitors.

They used poles with a forked ending to pass a tray of food into a slot on the bottom of Charity's inner cage. Just as when she was cramped inside the tree, she used the tray to pee in after she had eaten. She considered being rude and simply tossing the tray of pee toward the outer cage to let it splatter on the villagers who were gawking up at her. But when she looked for a good place to toss it, she saw young girls running around, playing.

A guard pushed a forked pole into the cage, so that Charity could return the tray. Unfortunately, Charity could not figure out the mechanism to get the tray to be held securely by the fork. It couldn't be too complicated, but she just could not make sense of it. Eventually, the guard pulled the pole away and the tray tipped and clattered across the platform, splashing its contents onto the crowd. Those who were hit screamed, not from fear, however, rather from excitement - as though they had been splashed with holy water. Charity groaned and closed her eyes.

A thunderstorm swept through after dark. The pounding, cold rain did not bother Charity so much, but she was praying that she didn't get fried. Sitting on a raised platform inside a metal framework is probably a bad thing to do with lightning all around.

The next morning, the ponygirls were hitched up again and they continued along the road. At one point, a ring finally popped through the skin of one of her fingers and she was able to pull it off. She randomly flicked it out of her inner cage. It bounced loudly on the platform of the cart and off into the grass alongside.

A young girl ran up and grabbed the ring. A woman started yelling at the girl, seemingly horrified that she would touch the ring because the girl threw it back down on the ground with fear. Charity realized that this was a cruel ruse, because the woman then picked up the ring and started to stick it in her pocket. Another woman who had observed this interaction had something to say and soon guards had to jump in to break up the ensuing fight.

The cart was halted and Empusa stepped down, silencing the commotion. Someone gave her the ring. Then she spoke for a bit pointing up at Charity and holding up the ring. She then made a show of placing the ring on her tongue and closing her mouth. She waved a hand under her chin and golden light seemed to emit from her mouth for a second. She opened her mouth and spit the ring back into her hand, smiling. Then she bent down and gave the ring to the original young girl who first picked it up. The girl held up the ring, smiling, showing it to the woman standing next to her - her mother perhaps. Lots of other little girls were cheering.

Empusa bowed for the crowd - ever the people's savior. She turned to Charity and winked and then jumped back into the driver's seat, and goaded the ponygirls onward.

By the afternoon of the third day, they were at the gates of Empusa's estate. The crowds were huge and noisy. The noble Queen had returned from her daring adventure capturing the wild and dangerous green, metal-jeweled womanimal.

The cart rolled up to the menagerie and the guards made a great show of carefully extracting the inner cage from the outer one using long wooden beams - never getting too close to the viscous animal held within. They carefully carried the smaller cage into the menagerie. But, as soon as the exterior doors were closed, they dropped all pretenses of danger. They opened the smaller cage and grabbed Charity by her arms, roughly dragging her out and delivering her to her old cell, anchoring her leash and securely locking the door. Four guards stood outside.

Charity glanced into the next cell over where Killdoll was watching with her crotch camera eyes. Charity raised a hand as a greeting, but immediately felt the first wave of a particularly strong arousal. "Oh, thuck!" She watched Killdoll stagger then drop to her knees and roll onto her back, shaking. She was apparently so excited to see Charity that she was having an orgasm.

Of course, another wave of arousal washed over Charity and she lost her balance as well. She slowly collapsed to the floor of her cell. Even after the waves of arousal passed. Charity continued to lay where she landed for a long time. She could think of no reason to stand again.

<>--+-

The following day Charity was lying on her cot, listlessly slipping the loose links of her leash chain back and forth across her engorged nipples - lost in some erotic daydream. Suddenly, sounds of struggling and stomping echoed from the ponygirl end of the menagerie.

Charity jumped out of bed and ran to the bars to try to see what was going on. She saw Hazel and Garnet flailing about, tussling with three or four guards. Charity saw one of the guards pull out some sort of flogger and swing at Hazel.

"Hey!!" Charity yelled, uselessly shaking at the bars of her cell.

One of the guards stationed outside Charity's cell pulled out one of their swatting poles and smacked at Charity's fingers whenever she tried to wrap them around the bars of her cell, until she had to back up a bit.

More guards entered the menagerie and in due course, Hazel and Garnet had been hobbled, blindfolded and removed from the building. Two guards left holding their ribs and another had a bloody ear.

Charity looked over at Killdoll, who seemed to have observed the whole thing. Killdoll turned to Charity for a moment then turned and walked away.

<>--+-

(tick) was no longer working in the menagerie and that troubled Charity. What had happened to her after she had helped Charity escape? Hopefully, she had run away.

Instead, three tall, muscular groomers were assigned to Charity and they cuffed her with four point prisoner transport cuffs before they even entered her cell. Her wrists were bound behind her and connected to a short chain that descended down to the center link of a hobbling chain.

They led her by the leash out into the pasture to do her business, then right back into her cell for a rough scrub down.

Some days Empusa would come for a visit and talk to her, but Charity generally ignored everything she said and did not respond in any way. That is, until one day: "Say a word and I'll tell you what I've heard about your sister, Faith."

Charity stopped idly rubbing her skin with the cool links of her chains and looked over at Empusa.

"Yes. I have heard some information about her... fate..."

Charity sat up, filled with anger. "Grrr..."

"Ah ah!" Empusa said. "Say a word first."

Charity struggled for a bit. Thinking of a good word to say. "Ow... oww... thiyid. Oww - thiyid."

"What's that?" Empusa said, smiling. "You want to go outside?"

Charity nodded.

"Apparently, the Goddess has taken quite a liking to Faith. She is kept as a guest of honor in the Goddess's quarters. They are often seen together at events and celebrations. The Goddess keeps her close, so no one would dare approach Faith in any way." Empusa's face turned a bit more unguarded. "No one is certain what sort of relationship they may be sharing... Mistress and pet? Lovers?"

Empusa stopped talking and frowned for a moment, randomly sliding a finger up and down one of the bars of Charity's cell.

Charity's heart was racing still due the way that Empusa suggested that Faith had met some 'fate'. She tried to think of how many ways that the word could be used until her head began to hurt. In the end she decided that Empusa used it to trick Charity into speaking. Charity hated Empusa and wanted to expel a few more choice words, but was having trouble thinking of a good collection. She knew her diction would be awful and her delivery stunted. So, instead she spit at Empusa.

Unfortunately, Charity had neglected to remember that her nose ring was big enough to dangle over her lips, so the spit ended up spraying randomly down her chin.

Regardless, Empusa snapped out of her reverie. "Pleasant..." she said as she watch a drop of spit drip from the end of Charity's nose ring. "Well, a deal is a deal! I'll schedule some outside time for you." She started to walk away, but then turned, "By the way, Hazel and Garnet have been moved to a stable in town for now. They are both okay."

Charity glanced at Empusa, uncertain whether to believe her. She could find no reason why not. She wondered why Empusa told her.

<>--+-

Several days later, Empusa appeared at Charity's cell again.

"Do you know what this is?" Empusa asked. She had a stubby, circular wooden block with a V-cut around its circumference. Some kind of string was tied to it.

Charity didn't reply. She wasn't interested in playing games with Empusa.

The Queen played around with the string a little bit, twisting and twisting. Then she held her arm out and dropped the wooden block. It fell towards the ground with a zinging sound only to stop inches before it hit. Then with a flick of her wrist the wooden block zipped back up into her hand.

The bitch was obviously showing off her stupid magic tricks again. Charity rolled her eyes for a moment, but continued to watch. Empusa dropped and then magically retrieved the round block a number of times in succession.

Charity noticed that her belt was beginning to glow. Empusa stopped for a moment and pointed over Charity's shoulder. She already knew what she was going to see when she turned to look. Killdoll was standing at the bars between their cells shaking. Charity could feel the influence of Killdoll's arousal begin to sweep through her own body squeezing an involuntary moan from her throat.

Empusa smiled and then dropped the block a few more times, summoning it back into her hand. She even threw it away in a more horizontal direction a couple of times, always safely zipping back into her hand. Meanwhile, Killdoll was stumbling to the ground shaking as an orgasm washed through her body.

Charity rolled onto her back on her cot grasping at her skin seeking an impossible release.

"I've noticed that you've been masturbating with your chains alot," Empusa said. She rolled the wooden block into Charity's cell. It hit a leg of her cot and fell to its side. "This is just a tool in case you want to experiment with a little more intense levels of arousal..."

<>--+-

Charity realized that she wasn't shedding metal rings any more. She grasped her leash where it exited from her chest between her breasts. It was as embedded as always. She must have hit some sort of metal equilibrium.

<>--+-

Charity was bored. She looked down at the wooden block lying under her cot. She looked over at Killdoll who seemed to be in one of her less responsive mental states.

She stood and picked up the wooden block. She held her hand out and dropped the block - exactly as she had seen Empusa do it. However, it didn't make a zinging sound. It just fell to the floor with a thunk. It was enough to get Killdoll's attention.

Charity picked up the block again. Did Empusa expect Charity to have the magical capability to make the block zip back up to her hand? She dropped the block again with the same results. The string that had been wrapped around the core in the V-cut became a little unraveled.

Charity pulled on the string causing the block to roll away from her until the string was fully extended. A wave of arousal passed through Charity. Killdoll was obviously getting excited watching Charity manipulate the block.

She picked it up and dropped it again making a quiet "thiiip!" sound with her mouth. Still it only clattered to the floor.

Charity tried to pick the block by its string which was particularly difficult with no thumbs. She had to use both hands. The block dangled a few inches below her hands in the air. Charity moved her hands back and forth and the block swung like a pendulum.

Killdoll seemed to like that. Charity swung the block with more enthusiasm until it was going around and around in a loop. She didn't have the dexterity to continue holding the string through. When she let go, the block went flying out between the bars of Charity's cell and clocked one of the guards in the head.

The guard turned around, screaming some words. She took the butt of her swatting pole and crushed the wooden block. That caused the other nearby guards to yell at the victim, who was rubbing her head.

Charity didn't really care, because the scene was enough to set Killdoll stumbling to the ground. She closed her eyes and luxuriated in the waves of arousal.

<>--+-

It was nice to be outside. The skies were blue. The sun was shining. Charity saw a red berry near her foot in the tall grass whose taste, she knew, was both sweet and tart. She started to bend down to pick the berry only to remember that her arms were cuffed behind her back.

A tug at her chest goaded her to keep moving as well. Charity looked up at the guard that was leading her along, ten feet ahead of her. In fact, there were about twenty guards surrounding Charity. They were giving her a berth of about ten feet on all sides. They were pushing back the crowds of onlookers as they made their way across the fields towards the ocean cliffs.

Women were singing and chanting. Young girls were running about. Charity realized it must be the day of a ritual of some sort. She looked around and realized that many of the people were watching her. She was one of the main attractions - a creature of curiosity.

The guards led her up to the outdoor, cliffside amphitheater where the open stage backed up to a magnificent view of the ocean below. The guards stopped on a rise on one side of the crowd. Charity could see Killdoll on the other side. She was already strapped into her frame that held her arms straight up and her legs spread wide like an upside down Y.

Slightly above her was the Promontory, a cave which would soon be Charity's permanent home when she was finally installed as Empusa's Source Witch.

Crowds were filling in the area in front of the stage. Some collection of guards had to push their way through the people carrying some sort of metal structure. Soon they made their way up onto the stage and Charity froze with horror for a second.

They were setting up a human shaped cage on the stage. Meanwhile, behind the stage a large coffin shaped box was being rolled up and positioned directly behind the cage.

Charity had seen this ritual before and found it particularly terrifying. She remembered Empusa and Faith explaining that the ritual allows an individual to become a host for a simulated universe. They promised her that the victim became a goddess in some virtual reality where experiments and research were conducted to continue the evolution towards the most perfect universe.

Charity distinctly remembered how she felt though... It felt like a sacrificial ritual. She started to tremble a little.

Across the crowd, Killdoll's handlers began to stroke the faceplate of her crotch piece. Shortly, the arousal washed over Charity and she forgot about the ritual and the crowds for a moment. Her own belt began to glow and she felt pleasure pulse through her body.

She opened her eyes and night had fallen somehow. She had been zoned out for a bit, perhaps. Empusa was on the stage near the open, empty cage. She pointed up towards where Charity was standing and the crowds cheered loudly.

Six guards were escorting a short woman up onto the stage to join Empusa.

"No!" Charity screamed when she saw the woman - tattooed and arrayed in jewelry chains. Hands gripped Charity's upper arms. Guards kneeling at her side grabbed her legs to keep her steady. "No! Ho-e!!"

It was Hope! Empusa had Hope!

The guards were pushing Hope into the standing cage. She was fighting as best that she could, but stood no chance. They backed her into place, locking her wrists by her sides. Empusa shut the front of the cage, sealing the door.

The Queen began to make some sort of invocation and Hope started screaming over her. A guard made the mistake of raising her hand to Hope's mouth to force her to remain silent only to have her flesh opened up by Hope's dangerous lip needles.

Charity fought the arousal that was growing within her. "Thtop!" It was a losing battle though. Across the crowd Killdoll's handlers were driving her to orgasm after orgasm and Charity's belt was glowing like a lighthouse.

There was the sound of twisting metal screeching through the night air. The body cage shrank - smaller and smaller - pressing in on Hope's small form. The metal hinges popped off and locks broke as the cage conformed tightly to Hope's body.

Finally, Empusa walked up to Hope - immobile in the cage. Hope screamed a scream of rebellion and fury. Empusa smiled and pushed the top of Hope's cage. It fell over backward with a splat into the viscous fluid in the coffin box.

Charity couldn't tear her eyes from the scene as the cage, with Hope inside, slowly disappeared below the surface. A lid was quickly hammered on and then the coffin was rolled over the edge of the cliff where it dropped into the turbulent waves below.

<>--+-

Killdoll was pounding on the bars between their cells with her padded hand orbs. Charity climbed out of her cot to see what she wanted. Killdoll had stuck her leg through the bars and was pointing at some markings in the dirt with her toe.

Charity looked at the markings and smiled. They looked like a short row of neatly lined up butts. Killdoll was good at making etchings in the dirt with her toe. Charity turned and began to return to her cot, but Killdoll was pounding on the bars again. She pointed at Charity. Maybe she wanted Charity to add to the drawing somehow. Charity looked at the dirt for a bit, then stuck her leg between the bars. She made a few random scrawls in the dirt. She frowned a bit. Then she turned and walked back to her cot.

Sometimes when Killdoll got excited, she would have a spontaneous orgasm which would send Charity's arousal into the rafters. This was apparently not one of those times.

<>--+-

Sometimes Empusa would still visit Charity in her cell, but they didn't speak anymore. Well, Charity might hear Empusa's voice, but the words were meaningless. Charity just ignored her.

One day though there was quite a commotion. Killdoll was strapped into her frame in the next cell. Lots of guards entered Charity's cell carrying rolls of heavy chains. Soon, Empusa arrived as well.

A metal cuff was clamped around Charity's right wrist. They had a little difficulty finding the proper placement between the metal rings that Charity had grown. A long chain was attached to the cuff.

Charity's eyes crossed with arousal when Empusa performed a magic spell with Killdoll's handlers stroking away. It was the same spell Empusa had used to anchor the chain leash between Charity's breasts. The cuff had shrunk into the flesh of Charity's arm, leaving only the chain which now emerged from her wrist a couple inches in from her open palm. Unfortunately, the attached chain was long and heavy.

Soon Empusa performed the same spell again on Charity's left wrist.

Charity was wondering how she was going to move around with all this weight attached to her arms. She was lifting her arms up and down to see how quickly she would tire out, as the guards started to add a cuff and chain to each ankle.

When the ankle cuff shrank into her flesh, the chain was routed out the back as though they were fastened about her achilles tendon.