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Post by Douleur nó Shahrizai on Jun 10, 2009 23:14:56 GMT -5
Word had obviously spread through the House already. I didn’t care, it seemed fitting there should be witnesses to my punishment.
The Second pulled me to the post in the courtyard and bound my wrists. My hair was twisted harshly and draped forward over my shoulder. Then there were ripping sounds as my dress was torn away to expose my back. I pressed my head against the post and waited for what I deserved.
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Post by Celesta nó Valerian (D) on Jun 11, 2009 1:30:09 GMT -5
I had heard of these punishments before. But I had never been to one, I had never felt that I should attend. But when I heard who it was, I felt strangely compelled to. Douleur had become some what of an oddity to me, an interest that one would have over say a heroine from a novel. There was wild speculation thrown about the House as to what and why she was being punished. Some claimed she had a falling out with her patron Prince Delaunay de la Courcel and he ordered it after she displeased him. Some said that she had defied Trinette though there was speculation about that. Some said that an unknown patron wanted to purchase her marque and Trinette wouldn't allow it so she kept the two apart and then Douleur had gone off to her lover despite the Dowayne's word. Most of what I heard was overtly romantic, stories of love, lost love, and a fight to have love prevail. What ever the reason it didn't matter to me... Alright, I was a little curious, but I was here because for some reason I felt I should be. I watched as they tied her to the post and ripped her gown. A part of me almost envied her, in a twisted, perverted way, I wanted to be her.
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Post by Calista nó Valerian on Jun 11, 2009 8:55:06 GMT -5
I didn't know Douleur well, it was true enough, though we had a passing light friendship through the House. When news reached me of her punishment to be held, I was.. shocked, surprised, and almost immediately sobered.
This is the price for what we hold, what we are given, the adepts of the Night Court. Whether we are born into it or sold, it matters naught. Pampered, primped, taught well, to serve gracefully, to kneel and fade into the scrollwork, to pleasure beyond the scope of normality... and through it all, our freedom is not our own.
I attended not for Douleur, but for myself, to remind myself of it. I stood a little ways off of a pretty blond adept, fighting the urge to kneel while watching, my arms hugged around myself. Would this have been me, if I were caught with LaValle? With Gratien?
Squeezing my eyes shut, I waited.
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Post by Douleur nó Shahrizai on Jun 11, 2009 12:47:52 GMT -5
“Douleur no’ Valerian, you are here to be punished for violating the rules of your House and dereliction of the duty you swore to uphold when you dedicated yourself to the service of Naamah,” the Second said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Five lashes for lying to your Dowayne whose trust you betrayed by saying you were going to be with your family and in fact going elsewhere. Ten lashes for refusing to divulge who you were with even when ordered by your Dowayne.”
It wasn’t as if I didn’t know what I was here for, but the way the Second phrased it nearly made me vomit with the totality of how I had betrayed my House.
The soft whisper of the whip cut through my thoughts and before I could prepare myself it came cutting through the air to my back. A half cry half choked sound of pain broke from me and I sagged against the post.
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Post by Anixiel nó Valerian on Jun 11, 2009 16:03:01 GMT -5
I had arrived on time and stood with the others of the House who watched on as Douleur was punished for her actions. I had witnessed none before, never having really been around for them, or having heard of them in time, only after the fact, but the news of this seemed to spread like wildfire through the House.
Douleur had done something needing punishing, or so I had heard, and so I stood, listening to the wrong done and the punishment. Quite frankly it didn't seem that much. Twenty hard lashes with a whip for disobedience, and I was sure myself and others from our House, maybe even including Douleur, had felt far worse at the hands of a patron.
I stood farther out then the rest of the crowd who wandered closer as she was strapped and the whip raised to come down hard against her.
I didn't know her, but I flinched in response to the cracking sound of the whip against flesh that seemed to echo throughout the courtyard. The poor girl I thought as murmurs cut short at the loud crack. I wondered, idly for a moment, who was worth carrying this sort of pain for.
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Post by Liana nó Valerian on Jun 11, 2009 17:08:47 GMT -5
When rumour reached me of Douleur's punishment, I had to go and see for myself.
I'd only just begun to get to know her and felt I owed it to her to be there for a reason I couldn't quite articulate, even to myself. I ran down to the courtyard and arrived just in time to see the first strike fall. I positioned myself in front of Douleur, hoping that I could offer some comfort if she looked up. I had no idea why she was being punished, rumour had several reasons floating about but, from the little I knew of Douleur, I dared not speculate as to which, if any, was true.
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Post by Douleur nó Shahrizai on Jun 11, 2009 17:13:18 GMT -5
There was no time to recover before the second and third blows. This was worse, so much worse than anything I’d experience with a patron. Not only because of the cause and the guilt I felt, but there was no pleasure in this only pain. No knowing I could stop it with a single word should I feel it becoming too much. With a patron, there was a connection that was completed when the lash bit into my skin, almost a lightning bolt that traveled along the leather to form an instantaneous bond as deep and true, or perhaps more so, then when flesh was connected to flesh.
Now, there was none of that. Only pain, ugly and harsh. By the time the fourth and fifth lashes fell across my back I was near screaming, my face wet with my tears.
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Post by Calista nó Valerian on Jun 11, 2009 20:52:57 GMT -5
The kiss of the lash, the caress of the whip. It's all things we find solace in, the adepts of Valerian, but never such as this. Every time the sickly sound of leather upon skin sounded I flinched, huddling a little more into myself. Land. Gratien. Land. LaValle. Land. Must remember.. Land.
I tried not to listen to the screams that rippled from her throat, but they pierced my concience. Tears welled in my closed eyes, bubbling down my cheeks as everything else fled from my mind. I'd not come for Douleur, but now I gave her all my attention, forcing myself to listen to her even if I couldn't watch.
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Post by Anixiel nó Valerian on Jun 12, 2009 10:43:13 GMT -5
I watched, flinching with every lash, her cries raising the hairs on my arms, the back of my neck, a tingle starting between my shoulder blades. The pain in her voice was so much, it outdid the sound of the lash as it tackled her skin, again and again. It was almost mesmerizing, in a way, a rhythmic lashing, the crack of the whip and the cry of the punished. I felt a tear trickle down from the corner of my eye, falling across my cheek. I wiped it confusedly, looking at the moisture on my fingers, jumping in my skin everytime she screamed, and a troubling thought came to my mind.
Even this, too, is beautiful... even this, too, is love...
I raised my eyes back to Douleur, her body sagging, her throat no doubt raw. But I flinched no more.
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Post by Celesta nó Valerian (D) on Jun 12, 2009 12:58:00 GMT -5
I watched, unable to look away. The sounds echoed through my ears and I held my arms to my chest. Each time the lash struck her I jerked, my eyes closing a little at the sound and her cries.
I was a wash in a sea of thoughts, some of which were confusing to say the least, but I couldn't focus on them, I only saw Douleur and thought how much more I envied her for being strong enough to bare the punishment.
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Post by Douleur nó Shahrizai on Jun 12, 2009 13:06:07 GMT -5
As the lash continued to fall, my mind desperately raced for something to hold to, something to keep me from breaking into madness at the pain. The steady rhythm of the whip was the only constant beyond the pain and my mind began to count the strikes and the seconds between them. By the time the eleventh blow had fallen across my ravaged back, I was screaming all out, unable to support myself any longer, my weight fully against the post. My mind clung to the knowledge that it was almost over, sending whispers to my flesh that the end was near. My body didn’t hear though, all it knew was the pain.
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Post by Gareth nó Valerian on Jun 15, 2009 19:42:59 GMT -5
I'd just been leaving an assignation when I heard of Douleur's return- and the discovery made, as well as her silence. My heart immediately began pounding at a rapid pace and I raced to the square to see her bound to the stake; my breath left me in one great rush and only the urge to prevent her any more punishment kept me from racing to her side. Instead I pushed my way to where her eyes were facing and peered intently into her eyes, willing her my strength and hope.
What had happened? What was going to happen? A great fear swept through me and I made my way to the steps of the scaffolding, stepping up slightly and ready to race up to take her down once the punishment was done. Trinette saw me but said nothing, likely figuring that I would have taken that spot though for different reasons. All I knew was the desire to comfort her, to clean her wounds as I had so many times before and let her cry as she needed.
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Post by Douleur nó Shahrizai on Jun 15, 2009 22:36:14 GMT -5
Between the twelfth and thirteenth blows, I raised my head enough to wipe my forehead on my arm. In doing so I caught sight of Gareth. The look on his face made my heart clench and I sobbed anew. I hardly noticed the next blows, though I felt screams ripping from my throat with each one.
Then there were no more, only a heavy silence for a moment. “It is done,” said the Second before turning and I heard footsteps moving away.
I sagged, feeling the muscles and tendons in my shoulders and wrists stretch with the force of all my weight on them.
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Post by Gareth nó Valerian on Jun 18, 2009 6:27:40 GMT -5
She just kept screaming and I felt every nerve in my body jolt at it, taking another step up the stairs- and at the Second's words I flew to Douleur's side, pulling the knot free and catching her as she dropped. I managed to scoop her up in my arms, my mind reeling at the damage, and I grabbed a sheet to throw over her back. "Douleur," I whispered in concern, shifting her to lie across one shoulder and protect her back. Ignoring everyone else I moved past the Trinette and the Second to bring her down off of the scaffold.
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Post by Anixiel nó Valerian on Jun 18, 2009 8:47:28 GMT -5
I watched as, within moments of her absolution, a man, an adept, raced up the stairs to the scaffold and released her, draping her what looked like lovingly in his arms and covering her gently as he removed her from the stage. I furrowed my brows, looking around to the other adepts, wondering if they knew what had just happened.
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Post by Douleur nó Shahrizai on Jun 18, 2009 12:50:41 GMT -5
The next moments were a blur. The sudden loosening of the pressure on my arms and shoulders and then the warm feel of a strong body scooping me up. My name whispered softly. Then the familiar scent and presence of Gareth washed over me.
“Gareth,” I whimpered, the pain overwhelming everything else and sending me near to blacking out.
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Post by Liana nó Valerian on Jun 18, 2009 14:23:07 GMT -5
I hugged myself, having come all over cold. Her screams and the expression on her face seemed to have turned my blood to ice. When the whipping stopped and Douleur sagged, I was grateful I was standing in front of her, for then I couldn't see the wounds the whip had caused.
What she had done to deserve such a punishment I knew not, but then a fellow adept ran up the steps, catching her and laying her tenderly in his lap. I glanced around at the others that had gathered but they all seemed as confused as I was.
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Post by Celesta nó Valerian (D) on Jun 18, 2009 15:49:07 GMT -5
I watched, wide eyed as they continued and they had finished with her. It seemed like a bad dream and I watched her expression before she sagged in her bonds. I was about to turn and go when a male adept appeared and began to comfort her. I wondered who he was to her and if he was the one that she had been protecting.
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Post by Gareth nó Valerian on Jun 19, 2009 16:59:33 GMT -5
Shushing her gently I brought her down the stairs without anyone stopping me- which was probably good because I may well have ignored them completely. Trinette didn't move to question me, likely because she knew of our childhood friendship as well as the fact I'd been all night in an assignation. Where Douleur had been and what she'd done I had no idea and I wasn't going to ask- but Trinette was fair, so whatever it was she much have merited it in terms of House law.
Even so I pushed these thoughts down and concentrated on keeping my steps light and steady to keep from jostling her and went inside, down the hall toward her room.
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Post by Douleur nó Shahrizai on Jun 19, 2009 18:51:05 GMT -5
We were moving and no one stopped us. I could feel the press of the crowd in the air but I couldn’t raise my head to see anyone. I just let him carry me, knowing wherever we were going it was safe.
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