Warning: This story features bondage and threats of violence and death.

Context: This is a short story written for Day 26 of Kinktober 2024 using the prompt words Display and Permanent.

I dropped from the rafters to the polished wooden floor below, small puffs of air under my feet ensuring I made no noise. The palace was quiet at this time of night. The bulk of the security was outside and around the main entrances. Not here, in the inner quarters.

I crept through the throne room, past the large gaudy chair. It was a sprawling ornate construction, an obscene display of wealth. It had four ‘petal’ arrangements at the back: one made of gold, one of silver, one of green emerald and one of blue Lapiz Lazuli. They represented the four major clans conquered by Empress Kuri.

I tried to put that piece of painful history out of my mind, but the next room I slinked into made it impossible. The display room was filled with spoils and mementos of all those conquests. There were cracked weapons formerly used by the fallen clans, busts of iconic armour from defeated warriors, a battered longboat suspended from the ceiling, and glass cases containing stolen sacred magical artifacts.

The most prominent and offending exhibits were several enormous tapestries spanning the entirety of each wall. The artwork depicted in great detail the subjugation of each defeated clan.

The largest was of my own Eastern Valley Clan. I was only a child when their forces overwhelmed my home, razing it to the ground. My kin were wiped from the face of the Earth by Empress Kuri’s unquenchable thirst for domination, with I alone surviving. It was my life’s mission to seek vengeance, and now two decades later I finally had the skill and the means to do it.

I couldn’t help but turn to examine the woven images as I went by. I saw the nostalgic fort and huts of my clan burning in the background. In the foreground, my people were surrounded by Kuri’s forces. They were being manhandled, forced to the ground and in most cases being locked into stocks, marched along in chains, or lashed up tightly in ropes. It was an unnecessary humiliating gloat, a final blow to their legacy. Their detailed faces reminded me so much of my own family that I had to look away. It only fuelled my rage and resolve.

I reached the annex of the royal bedroom. It was nearly here, the moment of justice I’d anticipated for so long. So it was a shock and a thrill when the bedroom door opened and Empress Kuri herself walked out, draped in a close-fitting cotton robe. Her hair was greyer and her face more lined than I recalled. Despite her advanced years she still had a grace and beauty about her, and a fierceness reminiscent of her earlier days as a conqueror.

I ducked into the shadows before she could see me. Yet she seemed already on edge.

“Who’s there? I know you’re out there. No-one can approach my inner chamber without my knowing.”

Some sort of detection magic? At this position secrecy was no longer going to help. I stepped out of the shadows. I was fully covered in tight mostly-black wrappings adorned with green trimming. I pulled off the head covering, showing my blond hair tied back into a ponytail by two green diamond clips.

To her credit, Kuri recognised and understood the implication of the green double-diamond emblem immediately.

“The Eastern Clan... I’m surprised any of you survived.”

“I did. But tonight you won’t. You’ll pay for killing my kin.”

“Oh sweet fawn. You have no idea what I really did.”

I pulled a small hilt from my belt and a shining green blade materialised from it. I gritted my teeth and lunged, swiping at the empress.

Despite her frail look, she managed to backstep just in time. I slashed through her trailing nightgown. I advanced swiping again and she stumbled backwards, her clothing falling away as she was slightly nicked.

She fell to the ground. This was it. She was defenceless, humiliated in her half-destroyed clothing, staring up at her own impending demise.

I lifted my blade above her, savouring the moment. Just as I was about to drop it for the fatal plunge, she fished out a pendant hanging from her neck. A crimson light shone from it into my eyes.

I couldn’t move. I could see and hear but my muscles didn’t respond. I was stuck as still as a statue.

An expression of relief and malice formed on Kuri’s face. She kept the pendant facing me as she stood up and stroked my cheek.

“Such a foolish girl. Now I will finish what I started years ago.”

She brought the shining pendant right up to my eyes. The red light filled my vision and blanked my mind.

I woke instantly, like a sudden rousing from a restless dream. Except unlike waking from sleep, my mind was clear, remembering the moment of combat in the palace like it was seconds ago. Except that’s not where I was. I was outdoors in the orange light of sunset.

Looking down I saw exactly where I was. The burning fort and huts in the background. Warriors and their vanquished victims a short distance away. This was the moment of my clan's defeat.

I was again stuck in place, but not by magic this time. Two long wooden posts were stuck into the ground crossed into an X shape. My body was splayed out in an X and my limbs tied to the posts. Thin harsh scratchy rope tightly bound my wrists and ankles painfully tightly to the wood, with added coils along my arms and legs minimising my ability to struggle.

I was wearing only tiny remnants of the snug black wrappings from before. My feet and legs were uncovered, with only a scrap at my waist that failed to fully cover my white cotton panties. The top was so torn away that my midriff and arms were bare. Only my shoulders and bust had black clothing around them, but the front was torn so that my breasts were fully exposed, making me feel as naked as if I was entirely topless. The two green diamond clips were clamped onto my nipples, a constant pinching irritation.

My mouth was packed to the point of being a choking hazard with rags, wedging my mouth open. Several black strips of what was once my clothes wrapped around my mouth and chin, securing my mouth-filling gag.

I writhed against the ropes and shook my head. It only made the ropes dig deeper and made the thick gag become soaked with saliva. This was a cruel degrading punishment and I didn’t understand how it happened.

A hand stroked my cheek. A woman walked around in front of me: Empress Kuri herself. Except now she was the beautiful younger lady I remembered from years ago, with smooth skin, long black hair, and elegant form-fitting armour.

“Welcome back home. How nice it must be to rejoin your family at last.”

“MMMPHH!”

“Oh please keep trying to get free and to curse me out. You won’t be able to, but I do so love watching you try~”

I shivered. With my body stretched and restricted in such a position, right before my enemy, I felt very vulnerable.

“Did you notice yet? We have an audience of sorts.”

I followed her pointing finger. In the air before us, there was a shimmering rectangle. Inside its boundary I saw the back of a chair, coloured gold, silver, green and blue. It was the throne room. Standing beside it was Empress Kuri. She was even older than when I faced her only minutes ago, by at least a decade, maybe two. She gazed towards the aperture smugly.

“You see, we exist inside an enchanted tapestry. Your very spirit has been woven into the fibres. It’s the work of my finest artificer. This piece took him over a year to complete. His magnum opus. It was worth the wait.”

This was a living nightmare. I had never heard of a sorcery as powerful and demented as this. I thrashed manically against the bindings. Kuri only smiled.

“Do you recall the tapestries you passed when you sneaked towards my chambers? I never killed your kinsmen. I trapped their souls. And your very observation of them had an effect. You see we only exist when the tapestry is seen. You yourself forced your family to relive their suffering by simply looking.”

I sobbed, straining helplessly. This was unbearably cruel.

“It had been some time since the display room had seen visitors. But your assassination attempt reminded me that there are still people out there who need to be reminded of the penalty of crossing me. So since that night, the room has been reopened for regular viewings. Everyone inside those tapestries can thank you for that.”

“Nnngghh!”

I bucked and shook against the X-posts. I wanted nothing more than to get my hands on Kuri, even if this wasn't the living one outside the tapestry. But none of my struggles brought me any closer to freedom. She was the one who placed her hands on me, groping my naked flesh.

“You should be honoured. I have long wondered about the possibility of embedding part of my soul inside one of these enchanted pieces. After your near-success at ending my life, I knew it was time. It cost me many of my remaining years, but it was worth it. Even after I die, I will exist here forever. With you. We are going to have so many fun times. Mostly fun for me~ You have no idea what kinds of things I have in store for you.”

I slumped against the ropes. Her hands traced my thighs and slipped inside my panties. She pressed her lips against my cloth gag, pushing the stuffing in deeper.

“I’m sure you realise where I hung this masterpiece? I spend most of every day attending to my duties in that throne room. And when I pass, my children will too. We will never be short of observers~”

While the younger Kuri groped and abused my helpless body, the older Kuri outside the tapestry finally rose and turned. The world blinked out of existence.

One second later, we returned as if no time had passed. I was now held in a hogtie suspended from a tall pole, the ropes even more distressingly tight than before, my mouth now wedged open by a huge wooden bit-gag. Young Kuri stood beside with a flogger in her hand.

The throne room was full of attendees waiting in a very long line to speak their piece in front of Empress Kuri. All of them staring up with curiosity at the large woven image of a young Eastern clan woman bound, gagged and tormented by the victorious empress.