Warning: This story features non-consensual bondage and some sexual content.

Context: This is a short story written for Day 27 of Kinktober 2025 using the prompt words Sink and Seal.

The flame of the torch in my hand flickered, casting light around the tunnel. I continued to marvel at how impressively well built and well preserved the square stone passage was.

I was wearing a tight-fitting light pink tank-top, light brown butt-hugging shorts, fingerless black gloves and sturdy brown boots. It was my favoured adventuring outfit for warmer climates. My blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail to keep it out of the way.

I was an archaeologist and an explorer. I researched, discovered and explored tombs and temples all over the world that had been lost to time. The ruins were often perilous, so I always had to be on my toes.

This current expedition was the most promising and exciting one ever. The fabled Temple of Amortia. Legend claimed that it housed the Lips of Amortia, a possession of the temple’s high priestess that supposedly granted eternal youth and beauty.

I’d been hunting for this place for years, sifting through a mountain of literary references and clues, eventually pinpointing a location deep in the Amazon rainforest. The entrance was very well hidden but I’d found it!

Now I was skulking many floors underground, glancing at the complex map in my other hand. This place was a colossal endless maze. I wouldn’t have dared even enter without the blueprints I’d pulled together, which had so far proven accurate. I was getting close to the true goal, the chamber at the lowest level.

I exited the tunnel into a pitch-black more open space. The torch light didn’t reach far enough to see any walls. After a few cautious steps forward I stopped, almost bumping into a large brazier set into the floor. I lowered the torch past the brim, touching it against the kindling held within.

I had to wrench my hand back quickly, as the entire bowl instantly burst into flame. A trickle of fire dropped out of the back, then a thin bright trail blazed its way rapidly along a groove in the floor. It split into two trails, then four, then a dozen. Many curved around, following the grooves to form a large circular rune. Some lines ran up the walls, lighting mounted torches.

In moments the entire chamber was brilliantly lit up. I was in awe. The cavernous space had pillars and statues and decorative embellishments everywhere. The centrepiece was a huge altar, covered in colourful runes and iconography.

“Incredible...”

Now this was what I’d been searching for! I walked forward and ran my hands across the superbly crafted architecture of the altar. The masterpiece of a clearly talented group of bygone engineers. Now the tricky part. Getting into it.

I recalled the cryptic poem that hinted at the hidden treasure of the temple. It spoke of the motions of suns and moons, rivers splitting stone, gods becoming mortal, the power of the heart...

That’s it! I spotted the shapes within the artwork following the narrative of the poem. One by one I pushed on them, and they sank inwards into the structure. When I pushed the final panel, an imprint of lips, the whole altar shuddered.

I leapt away as both the altar and the huge stone platform beneath it split down the middle. A rumbling filled the room as the two halves parted, allowing a new object rise up from beneath.

It was a large sarcophagus. The sides were again covered in carved artworks, these appearing to describe some sort of ritual. A burial ritual? The main recurring figure was shrouded in odd looking clothing then ultimately laid to rest within this box.

Time to finally look within. I shoved the stone lid, putting all my strength into it. I was just barely able to make it slide off. It fell to the ground with a deafening crash.

Lying within the sarcophagus was the depicted figure, lying on its back with legs together and arms folded over its chest. It was immediately obvious from the shape that it was a woman. Could this be the high priestess herself? There were rumours she was entombed here.

She was fully covered by white cloth wrappings, which were surprisingly well preserved. There were golden metallic bands extending from the sarcophagus interior and holding the body still at several points. Her head wore a ceremonial mask which depicted a pretty woman with her eyes closed.

Embedded in the mouth of that mask was the shining jewel I’d been seeking. A ruby crystal in the shape of a pair of lips.

I reached over the rim and gripped the gem. It was somewhat stuck in the mask. With some careful prying and tugging...

snap!

The jewel came out! I had it!

crk... cccrkkkk!

To my shock and bewilderment, a web of cracks spread across the mask from where I’d plucked out the ‘mouth’. Then all at once, the whole mask shattered.

“What the...”

The floor... the entire room was rumbling! Dust and small stones fell from the ceiling. The flames lighting up the chamber, in all the braziers and sconces and divots through the room, flickered and switched from red-orange to blue-green. The same ominous colour glowed inside the sarcophagus. The golden bands snapped off.

"Oh no..."

I backed up with shaky steps as the body itself rose unaided into the air.

“This... this isn’t possible...”

It levitated in a standing position off the ground. The cloths all began coming loose, falling away from the body.

The mysterious woman underneath was uncovered. She wasn’t decomposed as I’d expected. She was... she was alive! Her body was naked, with beautiful bronze skin gleaming in the green-blue light, and she had long black hair.

As she descended gracefully to stand on the ground, her eyes blinked open. She looked around the room, then noticed me.

“Xip bsf zpv zpvoh xpnbo?”

“Uhhh... what?”

She walked towards me. I fought the urge to run. She was essentially a living breathing fossil. A surviving remnant of an ancient time. I had to touch her!

Before I could, she closed the gap and touched me first. Her finger pressed against my forehead. The succession of flashes that filled my vision had me reeling.

“Ow!”

“You are an explorer. A very skilled one. Thank you for breaking the seal and releasing me Nina.”

“I... what... h-how do you know my name? How do you know English?!”

She smiled. Her voice had an odd accent, but it shifted closer to my own with each word she spoke.

“You just taught me. I saw all your memories and knowledge. The world has changed a great deal since my time. I have been held here in captivity for over thirty thousand moons.”

The background rumbling hadn’t stopped. I started to worry about the structural integrity of the place.

“I don’t want to rush you... priestess, I believe? But I think we should probably leave.”

“Yes, you are correct. But not ‘we’. Only I.”

“Wait... w-what do you mean?”

She stepped towards me. That flight impulse finally screamed louder in my head than my intellectual curiosity. I pivoted and sprinted away.

“Return.”

Green stringy strands materialised around her and shot towards me. I simply couldn’t outpace them. They grabbed onto my arms, my legs, my waist, my thighs, my neck. I become so tangled that I tripped and fell, but before I could strike the stone floor, they lifted and held me suspended in midair.

I was floated back towards the altar as they snaked further around my body, drawing my limbs closer together and against my body. By the time I was turned back around to face the priestess, my arms and legs were heavily entwined and held tightly together. I wriggled helplessly in the air.

“What are you doing? Let me go!”

“The goddess is angry. She was promised an eternal sacrifice, and now that promise is being broken. We must appease her, lest we wish this whole temple to crash down upon our heads.”

“S-sacrifice?”

“You will take my place.”

“What?! No!! Never!”

White bandages formed in the air all around me. I flailed as they whipped inwards, wrapping me up swifty. They covered over my body and the green binding strings, gradually enveloping every part of me. My panicked shouts echoed around the room. Soon only small segments of my face were visible.

While I was being wrapped up, I noticed something strange happening to the priestess. Were her boobs getting bigger? And... paler? Pink cloth appeared over them. Her hips gained girth. Her hair turned lighter. She’d transformed into me!

“W-why?”

“I was willing to perform my duty for my goddess once. But as eons pass without mercy or relief, even the greatest of reverence will fade and eventually vanish. You will understand soon. Eternity is a terrible curse. I am grateful that you came to take my place. I will unfortunately have to destroy all of your research and any further records of this place that may exist, to ensure the tomb remains undisturbed hereafter.”

“N-no... I...”

She waved a hand and the broken mask fragments rose into the air, reassembling themselves into a complete piece. I hadn’t seen its underside before. The interior of the mask had an awfully long and thick phallic attachment.

“No... no no no get it away from me! I don’t want to be trapped here forever!”

The priestess examined the lip-shaped crystal in her hands. She was about to lift it towards the mask, then hesitated.

“Perhaps there is another form of devotion better suited to you.”

She released the gem and it hovered towards me. Towards my midsection? Lower. Towards my crotch. The tight bandages in that region loosened and spread, only briefly, to allow it in.

“Huhh? Oh! Aaah~. Th-that's... Aaaahh~~! N-no! It’s too m-much. Aaahhah~. It’s too much!! T-take it out!”

“Yes, even a mere touch of the goddess’ influence is very difficult for a mortal willpower to bear. Especially as she will never truly let you reach the peak of gratification. Always wanting, never receiving. That is the nature of your sacrifice. At least you shall remain forever young and beautiful. Farewell Nina.”

“Nooooo pleeeas-GGHLMPHH!”

The erect portion of the mask flew into my mouth. It plunged in horribly uncomfortably deep, as the mask settled firmly against my face. It would have been difficult to breathe, had I not just gained immortality.

My twice-bound body drifted above the sarcophagus, then lowered into it. The priestess waved her hand again and the rigid golden bars reformed inside the box, clamping around me, reducing my useless struggles to mere quivers. The only noticeable movements were my thrusting hips trying to get rid of the tormenting mystical jewel, and my head shaking desperate to get rid of the gagging mask.

“HHHMMMGHH!!”

The huge stone slab of a lid lifted and settled back on top, hiding me from view. The sarcophagus sank down deep into the ground and the two halves of the enormous altar began moving, sliding back together. They reconnected with a resounding slam. The rumbling of the temple finally ceased.

The former-priestess, now explorer-Nina reborn, strutted out of the ritual chamber, dropping her rescuer’s map into the brazier’s burning fire as she passed it. As she exited the tunnel, heading towards her new life, every flame in the chamber went out.