Pillory
Legacy Name: Pillory

Darkness.

I heard someone calling my name through the haze. Mother? It sounded like her; but that was impossible, she'd been dead 15 years now.

'Meroeeeee,' the voice purred, 'wake up darling.' I made a supreme effort to open my heavy eyelids. Finally managing to claw myself out of the darkness, I blinked a few times to clear my head. Unfortunately the first thing I saw upon awakening was a brazier, filled with hot pokers. To the left of the brazier was a table full of terrifying.. implements. I shivered, and tried to cross my arms over my body, which brought me my second start of the night. I was bound to a table, arms and legs tied firmly, unable to shift even an inch. Slowly I came to realize that somehow I had been captured. Damn! My memories of the past few days were fuzzy, but I couldn't recall being caught.. unless that damn innkeeper had turned me in to the Bishop's men. I thought he was a friend of my people, the bastard! He must have laced my drink with something. I tried to stay calm, to think my way out of this disaster.

Then she spoke again. 'Oh good, you're coming around. I wouldn't want you to miss any of our fun darling.' She caressed every word with her seductive voice. Who had me? If only she would step into.. 'Oh no' I moaned. Pillory. He had sent Pillory.. I was doomed.

'Ah, I see you have already made my acquaintance. Wonderful.' She grinned mischievously at me, light sparkling in her deep blue eyes. She had on a beautiful red ball gown with a crisp white apron over top, long gloves adorning her hands. Pillory always wore finery to her events. She was his torturer; a rarity among women, but she had a special knack for making even the most stubborn talk. 'His holiness the Bishop is most distraught with you darling. Very upset at you running off.. you didn't even leave a goodbye note' She pouted, toying with me. Like he would have been happy to let me go if I'd left a note. Ha.

She walked around the table, dragging her fingers across the wood. 'Meroe, my love,' Pillory purred, caressing my check seductively. 'Do you know why I am so good at my job?' I refused to respond to her. 'Ah, well then. Let me explain it to you darling. Most men, they are so.. brutish with their prodding. They don't understand people the way I do. I know that some respond well to my toys, to pain. But others need something different to break them; humiliation, threats, shame. You have to be able to read a person, to know them, before you can truly torture them. It doesn't hurt that I enjoy making people suffer.' She chuckled softly to herself. 'It's almost.. sexual for me. Deliciousss.' She licked her full lips at that statement, leaning over to put her face close to mine. 'Perhaps you will enjoy this as much as I do?' Pillory whispered in my ear before giving it a quick nibble. I shuddered at the intrusion; her appetite for both men and women was well known. She righted herself and glided to the table of toys, skirts swishing. 'Well love, enough talk, yes? Time to get started.' Time to panic. I began struggling against my bonds, but her knots were too tight, as I knew they would be. 'Tsk-tsk, no need to struggle darling. You don't want to leave the party so early do you?' She laughed to herself at the joke, and went back to sorting through the items on the table, humming as she set some aside for later.

I gave up and sagged against my bonds. I was doomed. The land was doomed. I turned my head slightly to the side, to get her out of my sight and sighed. She turned back to me, holding one of her torture devices, and started to speak. 'Well love, I for one can't wait to begin.' I closed my eyes tightly, bracing for a cut or lash, but the pain never arrived. What the-? I opened my clenched eyes, and looked into the face of a would-be rescuer. 'Bedouin?' I breathed, incredulously. 'At your service my lady.' He swept a bow, pointedly looking at the form crumpled at his feet. I started laughing and couldn't stop. The high priestess, saved by a lowly gutter snipe. Oh how the gods must be bursting at the irony of it all. And now I had most definitely made an enemy for life; next time, it would be personal.