The Convent

At some point during the night, Tori had either passed out or had finally drifted off to sleep. Her hard mattress and lumpy pillow were soaked with her own drool and cum and her limbs ached from the restraints that still bound her to the four corners of the bed. She was still gagged but her blindfold had at least slipped down during the night, allowing her to look around her small, bleak cell as she recalled the events of the previous night.

She had lost count of how many times the pebble had made her orgasm. It had flicked on and off throughout the night, driving her mad with frustration every time it failed to make her climax and causing her to moan and weep when it did. It lay motionless inside of her now, the magical spark that powered it having bled dry at some point overnight. She couldn't bring herself to look at it. Humiliation and anger overwhelmed her and she turned her attention to her shackles and attempting to slip her hands free from the metal bands.

The door to her room opened and a Sister who she did not recognise glided over to her. She wore a plain black dress with long sleeves and a white collar and a black and white habit upon her head. She said nothing as she gently removed the pebble from Tori's pussy and placed it on her nightstand.

"I am going to remove your cuffs," she said slowly. "I have been told to inform you that I am well trained in unarmed combat, and that it would be unwise for you to resist me. Nod if you understand."

Tori stared at the Sister before reluctantly nodding her head. She was in no condition to fight, no matter how much she wanted to her. Her body ached and she was fully expecting her legs to give way when she stood. The Sister unlocked the cuffs around her ankles first before removing the cuffs around her wrists. She helped Tori to sit up and removed her gag and blindfold as Tori rubbed the red flesh where the cuffs had dug into her skin.

"Can you stand?" the Sister asked calmly.

Tori nodded glumly.

"Good," the Sister said. "Come with me."

She placed Tori's cuffs, gag and blindfold on her nightstand as she stood and led the way out of the small cell. Tori followed slowly behind her, willing herself to put one foot in front of the other in a determined effort not to appear weak. She looked around as she stepped out of her cell, surprised to find herself in a cloistered courtyard with a small garden at the centre. There had to have been at least a dozen other cells spaced evenly around the courtyard and as they made their way along the cloisters, she saw several other Sisters emerge from those cells with their prisoners following behind them.

The Sister led her into a large room in the northwest corner of the cloisters. One side of the room was tiled and a rudimentary shower system hung from the low ceiling, whilst a row of wooden benches with holes cut into their rough surface stood against the opposite wall. Wash basins sat on a long wooden table opposite the door, the mirrored wall reflecting Tori's disgust as she looked around the communal bathroom.

"You have ten minutes," the Sister said curtly as she moved to the side of the room.

"You can't be serious?" Tori growled.

The door opened behind them and two prisoners filed in behind Tori. They said nothing and didn't even look at her as they brushed past her towards the toilets.

"Talking is prohibited," the Sister said sternly. "You have ten minutes."

Tori scowled as the door opened again and several more women made their way into the bathroom along with two more Sisters who watched silently as they began their morning routines. They were all a similar age to Tori, all beautiful and all naked. Not one of them spoke as they went about their business and as she looked around, she realised that each one had had their asses branded with the same cross-shaped mark that she had.

"Fine," she grunted uneasily. She crossed to the toilets and sat down between a blonde girl with small, perky tits and a dark skinned woman with full, glossy lips. Neither looked at her as she sat down and although she was desperate to relieve herself, she had to close her eyes and imagine that she was somewhere else before she finally managed to go.

She crossed the room to the showers, hesitating before stepping under the water beside a redheaded woman with a smattering of freckles dotting her pale shoulders. The water was tepid at best but refreshing all the same and she sighed deeply as she felt it run over her aching body. She found a free bar of soap and scrubbed herself clean as best as she could, taking extra care with her brand as she slowly massaged her stinging cheek.

She looked at the redhead before glancing over at the Sisters to make sure they weren't watching.

"Hey," she whispered. "Hey, you hear me?"

The red head's eyes flicked to her own, a look of panic crossing her face.

"Do you know what's going on?" Tori hissed. "Where are we? What..."

"Talking is prohibited, Initiate Tori," the Sister said sharply. "Perhaps you did not hear me?"

"No, I heard you," Tori growled as she looked over at the Sister. "I just chose not to listen."

The Sister shook her head angrily. "Initiates," she said curtly. "Please show Initiate Tori what happens when we disobey the rules of the convent."

Tori turned to the redhead, spying a brief flicker of sorrow in her expression before she reached for her.

"What are you doing?" Tori snarled as the other women surrounded her.

They grabbed her arms and her legs and pushed her up against the cold tiles that covered the wall of the shower. She heard footsteps behind her and craned her neck to see the redhead standing behind her, a leather strap dangling from her hand.

"Three strikes should be sufficient for now," the Sister said coldly.

The redhead nodded silently. She drew her arm back and Tori cried out as she brought the strap down hard on her ass.

"The Lord of Fire is in us all," the Sister intoned.

Crack! The strap struck Tori's ass again. Whatever sympathy she had seen in the redhead's eyes earlier clearly had not lasted as she was putting all of her might into each swing.

"By his fires are our sins purged from our bodies."

Tori snarled as the final blow landed on her ass. Tears stung her eyes and her cheeks burnt with humiliation, but she refused to cry. Not here. Not in front of everyone.

"By his light are we made free."

The other Initiates bowed their heads before releasing Tori and returning to their showers and basins. Tori leant against the wall, breathing heavily as she fought the pain in her ass. She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see the Sister standing on the edge of the showers, her hands folded in front of her.

"Discipline is the most important lesson for an Initiate to learn," she said calmly. "I pray that you will understand this soon enough."

Tori glared at the woman, fighting every instinct that she had not to scream and shout and rail at her. She wanted to tell them that their precious Lord of Light did not exist and that what they were doing here was sick. She wanted to grab the Sister and slam her head against the wall behind her, but she did not. She had seen how the other prisoners had reacted. They were all under the Sisters' sway and she thought they were as likely to come to their defence as they were to aid her escape from the convent.

"You have three minutes left," the Sister said sharply before walking back to join the others.

Tori left the shower without looking at anyone and dried herself on a plain white towel that she found next to one of the basins. She splashed some cold water over her stinging ass and washed the tears from her face before pulling her hair into a ponytail as all of the other Initiates seemed to have done. The others were all standing in a line beside the door and she took her place near the back once she had finished. The three Sisters prowled up and down the line inspecting their charges, stopping occasionally to look more closely at someone or to adjust their hair. When they were finally satisfied they led them out of the door back into the courtyard where they walked along the cloisters to another door.

They entered into a large chapel, the high ceilings of which were painted a deep midnight blue. Wooden boards etched with golden scripture hung from the stone walls between gothic styled columns whilst a pair of tall, stained glass windows reflected the sunlight in bursts of colour over the altar it the far end of the chapel. Three rows of wooden pews sat at the rear of the chapel either side of the aisle whilst the rest of the stone floor appeared empty.

"To your places, Initiates," the Sister beside Tori instructed.

Tori watched as the other prisoners began to form rows in front of the pews, each of them kneeling on the cold stone floor facing towards the altar. She caught one of the Sisters glaring at her and made her way uncertainly up the aisle. As she looked around she realised that the floor was as empty as she had first thought. Instead of pews there were long metal bars on the floor, each one broken regularly with semi-circular bands held down by iron pins. Her heart began to race and she froze halfway down the aisle as she watched the other women align themselves to the bands in the floor.

"Initiate Tori," snapped the Sister that had accompanied her from her cell. "Is there a problem?"

Tori turned, fighting the panic that was threatening to consume her. "You can't do this," she said. "I want to leave. Now!"

The Sister smiled coldly as she walked up to her. "You made a commitment, Initiate," she said. "Your life belongs to the church now."

"Fuck the church!" Tori yelled. "Fuck all of you! Let me out of here now! I don't want anything to do with you or the Lord of Light!"

She heard several other initiates gasp and saw the Sister's lip curl. Her hands curled into fists and it seemed like she was about to strike her before a sharp voice cut through the air.

"Thank you, Sister Hannah," said Reverend Mother Cynthia as she strode into the chapel.

The other Sisters and Initiates swiftly bowed their heads as Cynthia drew up beside Tori and smiled humourlessly.

"Initiate Tori," she said cooly. "I see you are still causing trouble."

"I want to leave," Tori hissed.

Cynthia shrugged. "That can be arranged," she said. "I can put you on a carriage back to Everdale within an hour if that is what you want? I am sure there is still a cell in Friar's Gate that can house you until your execution for kidnapping the Princess."

Tori pressed her lips together as she glared at the Reverend Mother.

"Or you can remain here," Cynthia continued. "You can follow our rules and complete your initiation. You can become a Sister and do some good with your life. The choice really is yours, but do not make the mistake of thinking we are keeping you here against your will."

It was a ridiculous notion but Tori saw the truth of the Reverend Mother's words. She did have a choice, but at the same time there was only one choice that she could make. She hung her head in defeat and waited to find out what would happen next.

"Secure the Initiates," the Reverend Mother said to Sister Hannah. "Start with this one."

"Yes, Reverend Mother," Sister Hannah replied. She took Tori's arm and directed her to a space on the floor at the front of the chapel between two blonde girls. "Kneel," she hissed.

Tori did as she instructed, kneeling between the two metal bars as the girls beside her were doing. She closed her eyes, thinking about her life before coming to the convent as Sister Hannah snapped the iron bands shut over her ankles.

"To the floor, Initiate," Hannah said.

Tori clenched her jaw as she prostrated herself on the floor, listening to the clinking of metal as Sister Hannah closed the largest iron band around her neck before locking her wrists in place on each side of her head. She now could not sit up. Her face was pressed against the stone floor and her ass was pointed up towards the ceiling. She could just about see the Altar if she craned her neck in the right direction and as she did so, She saw the Reverend Mother smiling as she looked down at her.

She waited as the Sisters locked the other Initiates into place on the floor before taking their seats at the back of the chapel. More Sisters must have joined them at some point because someone began to play a sombre tune on the organ that she had spied at the back of the room and the Sisters rose and began to sing a dreary hymn that Tori thought she might have recognised.

When the hymn was finally over, the Sisters sat down and Tori saw the Reverend Mother approach the altar.

"Blessed be you all," she said,

"Blessed be the Lord of Fire," her congregation replied.

"We gather here today, as always, to give thanks to our Lord and to reflect on our souls. We are none of us innocent. We stand here amongst thieves, murderers and kidnappers. Yet we also stand amongst the redeemed."

Tori looked at the girl beside her and saw that she was praying, her lips moving soundlessly as she mouthed the Pyre Prayer.

"We are proof that the Lord of Fire offers forgiveness for those that truly repent. We are proof that his power can purge us of our sins... We have but to let him in."

Someone moaned loudly at the back of the chapel. The sound made Tori tense and she twisted in her shackles in a useless attempt to see what had happened.

"Your paths are not certain," Cynthia continued. "But as I look out upon you all, I know that in time you will find absolution. For some of you, the journey is almost at its end. For others, you still have a ways to go. But know that you do not walk this path alone."

Another moan, this time laced with a squeal of pleasure. Tori's heart was racing. She could now hear people walking between the rows of Initiates, their footsteps slow and deliberate. The Reverend Mother's voice faded into the background, her promises of salvation and redemption muted beneath the blood that pounded in Tori's ears as a shadow fell over her. She struggled to look behind her, unable to see who had approached her or why until she felt the some thing hard and round press against her pussy.

"Wait!" she gasped.

The device began to vibrate against her clit suddenly. She gasped, her breath catching in her throat as wave after wave of pleasure pulsed through her body. Her toes curled, she clenched her fists and her eyes rolled back into her head. The pebble had been nothing compared to the power of the device that now tormented her, and after a while even the stinging welts that the leather strap had left on her ass began to feel good, heightening her rapidly growing sense of ecstasy. A moan dragged itself from her throat and she could not help but lean backwards into the vibrator, desperate for the release it offered. In that moment, she forgot where she was. She forgot that she was surrounded by strangers and she forgot that the Sisters and Reverend Mother were watching her. She pulled against the metal bands that pinned her to the floor, enjoying the sensation of the restraints digging into her flesh. She even enjoyed the sound of the other Initiates receiving their blessings in turn.

The device was pulled away moments before she thought she was about to explode. She groaned in frustration, pressing her face to the stone floor as the fire that had built within her flickered and began to fade. Her pussy was wet, the product of her arousal dripping down her thighs as she quivered on the floor. What the fuck had just happened?

Her head was spinning and she found herself unable to focus on Mother Cynthia's sermon as the moans of pleasure continued around the room. By the time it was over, it seemed that every Initiate had felt the vibrator's touch, but none of them had been permitted the release that they all so desperately wanted. The Sisters made their way up and down the rows of Initiates, unlocking them all one by one and leaving them to clamber to their feet and form an unsteady line in the chapel's aisle. Some of the Initiates looked angry, others had tears rolling down their cheeks whilst some simply stared blankly ahead, their expressions hollow and empty.

Tori stood between the two blonde girls, the one in front of her still praying silently to herself. Her pussy was still craving attention, eager to finish what the vibrator had started, and Tori had to actively clench her fists to keep from touching herself as they were led back into the cloisters to a third room in the next corner of the courtyard.

They entered another large space with four long tables facing a fifth table set at a ninety degree angle to the others. A hatch in the wall to the right of the tables opened into a kitchen of sorts and as they entered, the Initiates took it in turns to line up and collect a tray of food from the Sisters working in the kitchen. Tori took her tray before taking a seat by herself on the table farthest away from the Sisters. She stared down at her tray which contained a bowl of porridge, some fruit and a cup of green tea. She was famished but also aware that no one else had begun to eat yet so she waited until all of the other Initiates had collected their food and the Sisters had taken their seats at the table at the head of the room.

Sister Hannah stood and looked around the room slowly before nodding. "You may begin," she said curtly.

The sound of cutlery scraping against bowls filled the room as the Initiates began to eat. No one spoke and Tori imagined that the same rules regarding not talking applied here as they did in the bathroom. She picked up her bowl and despite her hunger, ate slowly as she looked around the room. There were just over a dozen Initiates in all and it was clear from the tattoos and the other marks that she could see that they had all been involved in some form of criminal activity at one point or another. She wondered how they had come to be here and whether they had been given the same impossible choice that she had.

As the Initiates began to finish their meals she watched them stand and return their trays to the hatches before peeling off into the courtyard either alone or in small groups. As Tori finished her own meal she stood and walked over to the hatch passing her tray to the Sister in the kitchen without a word. She was wondering what she was supposed to do then when she felt someone tap her on the shoulder and she turned to see Sister Hannah standing behind her.

"Initiate Tori," she said. "You will come with me."

"Why?" Tori asked without thinking.

Hannah's grey eyes narrowed. Her face was the only part of her head visible beneath her black and white habit yet somehow she still radiated a kind of terrifying beauty that briefly reminded Tori of how Zara had used to look at her.

"Now, Initiate," she growled.

Tori scowled at the Sister but with little other choice, fell into step behind her as she led her from the dining hall back into the cloisters. The other Initiates that had already finished their breakfast were milling about in the courtyard garden, some talking to one another, whilst others knelt in front of a shrine secluded between two rose bushes, their heads bent in prayer. A few of them, including the redhead that had whipped her earlier, glanced at her as Sister Hannah led her through the cloisters, but no one said anything as Hannah pushed open a large set of doors set halfway down the north wall and strode into the adjoining corridor.

Tori stared at Hannah's back as they walked down the narrow corridor. She was slightly taller than the Sister was and with Hannah's back to her, she had the advantage of surprise. This was her chance to slip away and maybe find a way out of the damned convent at last! Her hands closed into fists and she clenched her jaw as she lunged towards the other woman, slamming her against the stone wall of the corridor with a snarl of pent of aggression. Hannah hissed as she twisted to absorb the impact of striking the wall, raising her arms with startling speed to block the sucker punch Tori had aimed at her face. The Sister moved fluidly away from the wall, the heels of her shoes clicking loudly as she twisted to avoid another of Tori's wild swings and parry her follow up attack.