Martyr's Bargain

It was a beautiful day on board the Ravenwing - the sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing, and the birds in the prairie below were chirping. Yet, somehow, Emmy couldn't appreciate all this. Robert had set her up above deck for once, so she could enjoy the nice weather - at least, that's what he had said. Though in her current situation she found it a little difficult to appreciate the pleasant afternoon.

She occupied the middle of the main deck in a standing spread-eagle. Long ropes extended from her wrists up into the rigging high overhead. More ropes led from her ankles to the railings on either side. She was drawn tight, but not so tight that she couldn't rock and sway with the gentle movements of the airship as they sailed along.

He had left her like this for about thirty minutes, and, Emmy had to admit that, all things considered, this wasn't an entirely terrible way to spend an afternoon. But then Robert got down to business.

He began with a thick, metal anal hook that he held up for her to see. "You should buy a girl dinner first," she quipped. Robert merely smiled then coaxed it into her ass. A rope ran from the hook up over a pulley behind her and then to a heavy sandbag he tied to the opposite end. The rope was just long enough that if Emmy stood up on her toes, the sandbag would rest on the deck behind her - a trade she gladly made to spare her delicate asshole from the pull of the hook.

He let her settle in with the new guest in her ass for about fifteen minutes before he returned, this time carrying a long coil of clothesline and a bucket full of little metal clips. "Doing some laundry?" she teased as Robert drew the first clip from the bucket. But these clips were no clothespins, strong springs held the flat, metal tabs tightly together.

"Ohhh!" Emmy hissed as the first clip pinched shut on her upper arm. Robert slipped the end of the clothesline through a loop on the end of the clip. He reached into his bucket and grabbed another. This one he latched onto her skin just a few inches away from the first one and fed the clothesline through it.

He grabbed another one and another one. Slowly he snaked his way up her arm and towards her chest. Emmy giggled through the pain as his fingers tickled her ribs grabbing at more sensitive skin to trap between the jaws of the cruel clips. After moving down her side he made a turn at her navel, adding several more clips across her tummy before making it up to her tits.

Emmy squealed and squirmed as the clips and clothesline spiraled around her breast, starting at the outside and working its way to the center. "Oh fucking fuck!" Emmy hurled a stream of expletives when a clip finally found its home with her supersensitive nipple crushed between its jaws. From there the clothesline jumped directly to her other nipple, which led to another bout of expletives while Robert spiraled his way away from her breast and down her other side.

This time when he met her navel he turned lower, adding a bevy of clips to the tender flesh above her pussy before snaking his line down the front of her leg. He turned again, just above her knee, laying a line of clips along her supple inner thigh.

Emmy was red in the face as the trail continued down her other thigh and then up her leg. His supply of clips seemed endless. But now the line really only had one more place it could go. If there was any doubt about whether Robert's cruel clips would find a place on her pussy it was soon cast aside as he saved the worst for last.

Words failed her as two clamps each made snapped onto her outer labia. The pain from these was soon eclipsed by the clamp he put on each of her inner labia. Then he tipped forward his bucket to show Emmy that he had just one clip left.

Emmy was sobbing as he gently teased her clit out of hiding with the gentle ministrations of his finger. Her scream blared like a siren when the clip finally closed on her most delicate of places. The ropes holding her arms strained. She rocked back onto her heels, lifting the sandbag hooked to her ass clear of the deck. She bucked and thrashed sending all the little clips fluttering back and forth with her violent movements, but not one lost its tight grip.

Robert stepped back to admire his work. He adjusted the clothesline here and there to help it lay flat as it traced a path all up and down her body. Emmy found her way back up to tiptoe, setting the heavy sandbag back down on the deck. Now he took the end of the clothesline that dangled from the end of that first clip on her arm and he tied it to a thick rope hanging from the rigging above her head.

"Open," he said, holding the thick rope in front of her face. Emmy reluctantly obeyed. He guided the line between her teeth and ordered her to bite down. Then he went over to the main mast and loosened a rope tied to a peg. As he released that line Emmy felt a weight transfer to the one she held in her teeth. She traced the rope with her eyes up into the rigging to see that it now supported a sandbag from a pulley high above her. If she lost her grip on the line between her teeth the sandbag would come crashing down to the deck, on the way it would yank the clothesline up and away from her body, tearing each and every clip off with it.

"Unngh! Unngh!" Emmy protested as she tipped her chin up to the sky. She could already feel the growing strain on her neck and her jaw. This was in addition to the persistent throbbing ache she felt from the dozens of clips arrayed all across her body.

Robert disappeared into his cabin for a moment, then returned with something in his hands. He stepped in front of Emmy and reached for a clip hooked onto her nipple. Emmy grunted as he released the small weight that he attached to the clip and her perky nipple twisted down towards the deck. He swiftly attached the other weight to her other nipple. It was then that Emmy realized that these new additions were not actually weights at all - they were a set of resonating stones!

The proximity of the stones was just enough that they immediately began to gently vibrate. Emmy moaned as the subtle stimulation focused her attention on her poor, aching nipples, drawing more blood into her engorged buds and increasing their ache tenfold.

"I'll give you some time to settle in," Robert said, then stalked up to the quarterdeck to watch. Emmy could feel his eyes on her back as she adjusted to this latest predicament. She shut her eyes against the bright sun overhead. She could feel the subtle swaying of the sandbag high above - a constant reminder of what was at stake. Soon her feet began to tire from holding herself up on tiptoe. She redistributed her weight, shifting the burden equally between her arms, legs, and the uncomfortable hook in her ass. But no matter what she did, her attention kept coming back to her softly vibrating nipples. The sensations were driving her wild. The pain seemed to pulse and throb, adding a steady rhythm to the persistent background aches in the rest of her body. Her pussy seemed to throb in time with that rhythm. By now it was no secret to either Robert or Emmy that nipple play was a surefire way to turn her on. Indeed, through the swirl of rope and cruel clips adorning her cunt, Emmy's pussy was positively gushing with arousal. A growing puddle collected on the deck beneath her, accumulating the steady drip, drip of her pussy juice.

Robert allowed Emmy to settle into a sort of equilibrium then, twenty minutes later, he set out to see what he could do to upset that balance. Emmy startled as he snuck up behind her and danced his fingers softly along her ticklish ribs. She stiffened and squirmed, resisting the attack while she felt the dull pain of the clips reawaken with her movements.

After that failed to disrupt his victim he retreated back to his observation spot. But it wasn't more than ten minutes before he couldn't help himself and returned to torment her some more. His hands reached around from behind her and found her breasts. His fingers traced their way to her nipples and he grasped the tabs on the clips that latched onto them. He pinched them tighter, adding the strength of his own fingers to the pressure of the springs.

"Mmmph! Mmmph!" Emmy grunted in pain as he squeezed and released and squeezed and released. Her twisting and thrashing served only to tug further on her poor tortured nipples. But she withstood that assault, too, and Robert again withdrew.

Another fifteen minutes passed and this time Robert came to win. His fingers went straight for her pussy, navigating between the tight clips and into her warm, wet cunt. "Mmmm," Emmy cooed as he worked his fingers in and out of her. She nearly felt her grip on the rope loosen as the pleasure enveloped her body and scattered her focus, but she caught herself and bore down on the coarse line clamped between her teeth.

Robert kept going. He was determined. He was disciplined. He was adept. His deft fingers masterfully played her pussy. In. Out. Up. Down. Finding all the right places. Emmy was completely under his spell. She pressed her body back against his. His scent filled her nostrils. She was putty in his hands. She wanted more. His nimble fingers were driving her wild.

Then she felt the rope slip just a little. The subtle shift was like a slap to the face - a bucket of cold water that snapped her thoughts into focus. Her rational mind now noticed how Robert intentionally stood behind her, safely out of the way of the falling sandbag he sought to make manifest. He was not her hero just now, he was her rival. And she was determined not to let him win - but, damn, did his fingers feel good.

With a renewed determination she concentrated on holding the rope despite Robert's glorious fingers pushing her higher and higher. She had to resist. She to hold out. She had to stay strong. She had to... cum.

Robert would not be denied. His movements became more insistent, more determined. He had one goal and he wouldn't stop until he reached it. With one hand stroking her pussy, the other ventured up to her nipples, pinching, pulling, playing. She couldn't hold out much longer.

Her resistance crumbled under the onslaught - and she came, hard. Her body bucked and thrashed as the orgasm swept through her from head to toe. "Unnngh! Unnnnnngh!" she roared. Robert darted back out of the way to watch the fireworks, but Emmy did not relent. She maintained control. She kept her focus. She would sooner bite through the thick rope than let it slip from between her teeth.

As she calmed she tipped her chin down and cast Robert a defiant glare. Robert nodded his head in admiration then retreated to his quarters, presumably to strategize his next approach. Unfortunately for him, time was now working against him. Emmy could see over the front of the ship that the flat plains had given way to craggy forests - they would be in Beesbury very soon.

In fact, about twenty minutes later Robert emerged from his cabin and went to the controls to begin their descent to their destination. Emmy was completely exhausted. The stressful position, the torment, the orgasm - they all had taken their toll on her. But still, she was smiling behind the rope she held clenched in her teeth. She had won. She couldn't wait to be freed so that she could gloat.

Robert brought the Ravenwing low and circled above the tree tops surrounding the small village. There was no clearing large enough for them to set the airship down in. He descended from the quarterdeck and stood off to Emmy's side. "There's no good place to land. We'll have to remain airborne and tie off like this," he explained. "I'll set the anchor lines."

He swung a beam out over the edge of the ship then went to the mainmast and threw a lever. A sandbag dropped from the beam, the line attached to it gave a high-pitched whir as it whipped rapidly through the pulley above it. But something was off, the rope looked too thin. In fact, it almost looked like - Emmy's heart skipped a beat. She had spent the past hours staring at the end of the clothesline that had been tied high up above her to the sandbag whose movement she controlled with her teeth, paying no heed to the other end of the clothesline that lay coiled on the deck near her feet. That coil was now rapidly disappearing as it flew in a blur up to the pulley and then plunged over the side of the ship.

Her impending doom was drawing closer by the second. Her heart raced and her eyes grew big. She didn't know what to do. She tore her gaze away from the coil of rope and caught Robert's triumphant smirk. "That's not fair!" she angrily accused him, letting the rope yank free from her teeth as she did so. "You-"

S-s-s-s-s-snap! "Ahhhhhhhh!" Emmy shrieked as the sandbag she had just released dropped far enough to run out of slack. Its momentum kept it plunging steadily towards the deck. The clothesline drew tight and followed the pull of the weight, ripping the clips free from her body in rapid succession. The sound was like a string of firecrackers popping off. Dozens of little metal clips exploded into the air, scattering across the deck before her. She lurched and stiffened like she'd been struck by a thunderbolt. As much as the clips hurt being put on, they hurt even more being yanked off. Every point on her body that had been subjected to the clips suddenly blazed with pain. Her mind was overwhelmed by what felt like every nerve lighting up in agony all at once. She screamed and screamed until she ran out of breath.

After that she slumped into her bonds. That blast of misery had sapped the last of her strength. Her entire body throbbed in pain. Down below the ship there was a loud - Thump! - as the other sandbag finally crashed to the forest floor. Emmy moaned and looked over to see several feet remaining in the coil of rope that lay on the deck.

---

Robert untied his pain drunk companion from the rigging and carried her back to her quarters. He was sure that she'd have an earful for him later after his dirty trick.

After seeing Emmy to her room, he returned above deck to resume tying off the Ravenwing. He brought the ship down to just above the tree tops and threw more lines overboard. Then he followed them to the ground on a rope ladder that he lowered over the edge. He had nearly finished tying off the anchor lines when a tiny, old woman came crashing through the brush.

"You! Airship captain! Pull those lines up. I need you to get me to Birchbrook immediately," she said.

Robert turned and looked at her frumpy clothes and long, tangled gray hair. Her bright blue eyes studied him from behind the multitude of wrinkles on her weathered old face.

"Sorry, lady. I'm not for hire," he said, finishing the final knot and turning towards the village.

"But the rains washed out all the roads," the old woman said, following close on his heels. Robert pushed through the thick undergrowth to the small cluster of buildings that comprised 'downtown' Beesbury. The sun wouldn't set for hours but the thick canopy of tall trees overhead kept the village in perpetual shadow. He looked around to try and get his bearings.

"I'm sure they'll have the roads repaired within a week or so," Robert said, hoping to dismiss the old crone while he searched for the address scrawled in his journal.

"But it's very urgent that I get to Birchbrook as soon as possible," she insisted, doggedly following him as he wandered up and down the narrow, muddy street, unable to find any street markings or addresses.

"Look, lady," Robert snapped, his frustration getting the better of him. "I'm sure it's very important that you get to wherever it is you want to go, but I am on an important mission for the Royal Council and I don't have time to take little old ladies on joyrides."

"Well la-di-da! Look at Mr. Fancypants Airship Pilot. Too busy following orders to help out the small folk. Typical. What's this important mission of yours anyway?"

"It's none of your concern." Robert re-traced his steps for the third time as he tried and failed to make sense of the street layout in Beesbury. "Can't this damned town at least number their buildings?" he grumbled to himself.

"Who are you looking for?" the old woman asked. "Nobody comes to this rundown backwater for anything important."

"There's supposed to be a highly skilled apothecary here by the name of Jack Greenbrier. I need his help with a matter of great importance."

"Hahaha!" the old woman burst out laughing so hard that she nearly fell over.

"What's so funny?"

"An apothecary? Is that what they're calling me now?" she cackled. "You came all this way for an apothecary?"

Robert stared at her in confusion. The old woman thrust out her arm to shake his hand. "Jackie Greenbrier at your service - herbalist, alchemist, shaman, healer, and, I guess, apothecary, too!"

"I, uh," Robert stammered. "I just-"

"You just what? Assumed your expert had to be a man?"

"No. I thought-"

"You thought an old woman like me couldn't possibly be of any use to a big shot like you?"

"No, um, I-"

"You'll have to excuse my partner," Emmy said, abruptly joining the conversation as she emerged through a thicket of trees. "He can be a bit of a buffoon sometimes." She reached out and shook Jackie's hand.

"You're telling me!"

"We really do need your help. We have in our possession a powerful artifact which we'd like to get your analysis on." She pulled down the neckline of her robe to show the old woman the collar.

"Oooh, that's pretty! Does Mr. Too-Important-To-Get-My-Name-Right make you wear it?"

"It's a long story," Emmy explained.

"Perfect! Then you'll tell it to me while you take me to Birchbrook. It shouldn't take more than two or three days in that fancy airship of yours."

"What business do you have in Birchbrook?" Robert asked.

"It's none of your concern," Jackie parroted his words from earlier back at him. "But if you must know, all this wet weather has caused a large bloom of a dangerous species of fungus in that town. If I don't get treatment to them soon then half the population will go blind."

Robert and Emmy agreed to leave at once. Robert offered to carry the supplies that Jackie needed, so she led them back to her office where she proceeded to gather essentially the entire contents of every shelf and every cabinet in the building. Robert suspected she did that just to get back at him. His suspicions gained further credence as Jackie later leaned over the railing of the Ravenwing urging him to hurry up with a big grin on her face as she watched Robert climb the rope ladder with the heavy burden on his back.

Soon they were under way. While Robert plotted their course and steered the ship to the correct altitude and heading, Jackie and Emmy retreated to his state room, where Jackie had begun reconstituting her clinic from the piles of supplies she had brought. She got right to work mixing and brewing concoctions while Emmy filled her in on everything thing they'd learned about the collar. When Robert tried to join them later he was curtly dismissed by Jackie, who seemed to want nothing to do with him.

"But this is my stateroom!" Robert insisted.

"And it's very generous of you to let me stay in it for the duration of my trip," Jackie quipped as she slammed the door in his face.

Robert went off to fume, unsure of how to deal with the obstinate old woman whose help they needed. He returned a few hours later with dinner for himself and the women.

"Ah, looks like there is something useful you can do," Jackie said, finally allowing him into his room to join them. "I've always believed that a man that can't cook is a man that isn't worth having around."

They sat down to eat and some of Jackie's earlier hostility toward Robert seemed to have abated. Perhaps Emmy's tales of their travels had changed her opinion on him.

"It seems clear to me that there is a physiological component to how the collar works. I'd like to explore that further and see if there is perhaps a mental or spiritual aspect at play as well. Would it be alright if I sit in on one of your next sessions?"

"Certainly," Emmy nodded.

"Excellent. There are a few tinctures and balms I want to brew up beforehand. Is the day after tomorrow acceptable?"

Robert and Emmy agreed. Robert spent that night sleeping under the stars in a hammock he strung from the rigging. He kept his distance from the old mixologist the next day, not wanting to upset the delicate entente that they had reached, though he did notice several times throughout the day when she would appear on deck and quietly watch him while he mended ropes or calibrated the steering or scrubbed the deck.

The sharp smell of Jackie's brews filled the air the following morning. Before trudging down into the hold for her punishment Emmy was given a bitter tea to drink which left her feeling even more unsettled than usual. It'd only been two days but Jackie already felt like an old friend or a close aunt. She didn't want her to see the shameful other side of her - the one that was aroused by pain and suffering, lusting for more and more of it as she lost control.

---

"Unnngh," Emmy moaned as she swayed from the ceiling of the hold. She had been suspended face down with her cuffed wrists and ankles each extending out to four different rings anchored in the beams overhead leaving her swaying four feet above the floor. That was pretty much the extent of her restraint - she had a relatively high freedom of movement compared to many of her other sessions with Robert. But, then again, that was the entire point of this particular predicament.

Her tormentor had taken an interest in a large cylinder of quicksilver that Jackie had brought on board. The transparent glass tube was a little under three feet long and half full of the heavy liquid metal that sloshed around inside it. That tube now hung precariously beneath Emmy's body, connected at one end by thin cords that Robert has lassoed around her soft, pink nipples and at the other end by a strong set of clamps that gripped tightly onto her labia.

The deviousness of the configuration became immediately apparent when the cylinder was first let go. The ropes holding Emmy's arms were just a bit longer than those affixed to her ankles, causing her body to tilt forward with her tits closer to the floor than her pussy. This caused all the heavy quicksilver to flow into that end. Emmy shrieked as nearly the entire weight of the heavy cylinder became focused beneath her chest. The tiny nooses looped around her nipples pulled excruciatingly tight and her dangling tits stretched towards the floor, led by her squeezed and twisted nipples.

Emmy immediately reacted to the blazing pain in her sensitive nipples and pulled on her wrists, raising her chest to be level with her hips. But she moved too suddenly. The abrupt shift sent a slow moving wave of the heavy liquid metal sloshing toward the opposite end of the cylinder. Emmy saw red as the bulk of the weight flowed to her pussy and the cruel clamps that clung fiercely onto her delicate flesh there.

Of course, once the wave met the back of the cylinder it reversed direction, sending the mass flowing to her tits once more. Nipples. Pussy. Nipples. Pussy. The wave traveled back and forth, slowly attenuating over time until Emmy finally settled into an unhappy, but tolerable, equilibrium where the weight of the quicksilver was carefully balanced equally between both ends. Her arms trembled from the strain, no longer allowed to let her hang limply and adding a greater challenge to her plight as she struggled to maintain the correct angle, requiring her full attention.

Of course it wouldn't be a proper punishment without a few extras to help make Emmy more miserable. Before he had suspended her, Robert had told her to bend over and grab her ankles while he used the copious moisture from her gushing pussy to lube up a bulky rubber butt plug which he then worked into her ass. Emmy was mortified to have her new friend watch as she shuddered and moaned while Robert fingered her cunt and played with her ass.

Jackie had asked that Emmy not be gagged. So after she was suspended Robert had her stick out her tongue which he then attached a bulky clamp to. A weight on a long string was tied to the clamp so that Emmy's tongue now lolled back and forth with the swinging mass below her face. The clamp was too large and the weight too heavy for her to retract her tongue back into her mouth so she watched as a growing puddle of drool collected on the floor beneath her. It competed in size with the puddle of pussy juice gathering under the other side of her body.

With his job done, Robert made his exit. Jackie requested privacy while she observed Emmy, though Robert steadfastly insisted that he, at least, configure the scrying mirrors so that he could keep an eye on things from above deck. For her part, Jackie quietly observed from off to the side, like a naturalist studying the behavior of an animal in its native habitat. A few times she stood up and walked a circle around Emmy, closely watching as Emmy squirmed and struggled. The princess's growing fatigue made keeping the quicksilver balanced a more and more difficult endeavor.

After about forty-five minutes Robert returned below deck to begin the next stage of her torment. He unclipped the clamp from her tongue. "How are you doing?" he asked with a smile. "Hangin' in there?"

"Argh!" Emmy exclaimed as the blood rushed back to her aching tongue. She was in no mood to chat.

"I think you'll like this next bit," he said. "Jackie, I believe you had prepared a tonic for our heroine to drink now?"

The old woman nodded and uncorked a small bottle that she pulled from her robe. She stuck in a straw and held it up to Emmy's lips. After spending so long drooling over the floor, Emmy's mouth was dry and she eagerly drank down the sweet, refreshing nectar without a care for what it was. She immediately felt her strength returning, her aching arms and legs reinvigorated.

"Better?" Robert asked.

"Yes," Emmy admitted while keeping her focus on holding her delicate balance.

"Good," Robert replied. "Now open." He held up the tongue clamp once more.

"Oh, please," Emmy begged. "It hurts so much."

"That's the point," Robert smiled. "Now open."

Emmy reluctantly obeyed and her tongue soon stretched down to the floor once more.

Off to the side Jackie had lit a bitter incense whose scent now wafted throughout the hold, filling it with its smokey fragrance. Robert, meanwhile, went to retrieve something from a crate behind her. Emmy couldn't see what he was doing, but was quickly able to discern what was happening.

Robert used a step stool to thread a length of twine through a ring on the ceiling above her lower back. He tied something to one end of the twine and attached that onto the part of the butt plug jutting out of her ass. Then he tied something to the other end of the twine and let it go. The twine was sized so that the two things tied to the end swung together with a gentle - clack - and Emmy immediately knew what they were. Robert had fastened a set of resonating stones to the twine. As the stones bobbed together the butt plug buried in her asshole began vibrating vigorously.

"Unngh!" Emmy moaned as the added stimulation kicked her arousal up a notch. Satisfied with the result, Robert again took his leave.

Emmy welcomed the distraction from her aching nipples and labia but soon realized that the anal stimulation wouldn't be enough to get her off. She pondered what to do while the temporary relief provided by Jackie's tonic began to wane. This wasn't a punishment for any particular purpose, she reasoned. They were merely charging the collar and giving Jackie a demonstration of their sessions. She didn't need to orgasm, she could just wait Robert out. But as the stones continued their gentle vibrations her arousal grew greater and greater. Rational thinking soon made its departure and new thoughts took over. It wasn't about wanting to cum any more, it was about needing to cum. The unenviable solution to the problem was clear.

Emmy flexed her legs and lifted her hips a tiny bit higher. The extra slack in the twine allowed the free-hanging resonating stone to drop just a little. It slipped down between her legs, nestled between her clamped labia, and rested up against her throbbing, engorged clit.

"Ohhhh!" Emmy moaned, suddenly overcome by the blissful sensations. Unfortunately, the newly elevated position of her hips had upset the delicate balance she had achieved with the glass tube. The heavy metal quicksilver sloshed to the front of the tube. "Aiyeee!" Her stretched nipples blazed in pain. She yanked herself upward with her arms, but overcorrected, sending an even bigger wave swishing to the back of the tube.

"Unnngh!" The agonizing pull of the clamps on her pussy made her legs go weak. She dropped back down and the resonating stone slid away from her cunt. The consequences of her failure continued for another few minutes while Emmy fought valiantly to calm the metallic wave she had created. Sweat draped her brow when she finally did. But any admonishing thoughts about the foolishness of that disastrous maneuver were soon put aside as the increasingly insistent desires of her wanton pussy came to the fore once again.

Emmy carefully focused on her movements this time. Very gently she lifted her hips in concert with her upper body. She gasped as an inadvertent shudder sent a ripple along the mirrored surface of the quicksilver. She paused to let the tremor settle, then resumed lifting herself little by little. She could feel the stone creeping ever closer to that blissful sweet spot right against her pussy. Patience, she told herself. Just a little bit more.

"Ohhhh!" Her efforts paid off as the softly vibrating stone once again settled against her clit. She shut her eyes as the sensations overcame her. The pain in her nipples and labia drifted to the background, drowned out by the ecstasy of the stone as it gently stimulated her most sensitive bits.

"Mmmmm," she moaned, getting lost in the pleasure. She opened her eyes and was startled to see that Jackie had moved in front of her. The woman carried an expression of gentle serenity as her watchful eyes took in every movement of Emmy's body. The sight of the sweet old woman sent a wave of shame over Emmy. What are you doing? - she thought to herself. Pleasuring yourself in front of this distinguished wise woman?

Jackie perhaps read the shame in Emmy's eyes and shuffled back to her seat off to the side. But the mood had already been ruined. Emmy's lustful enthusiasm had been tempered by the reminder of where she was and what she was doing.

Up on deck, Robert, ever the playful rapscallion, decided to make his next move. Standing at the helm, he pressed his hand against the controls and slowly, slowly pitched the ship down five degrees. Below deck the shift was hardly perceptible, but Emmy soon noticed. The subtle maneuver had shifted the quicksilver back to her tits. The growing ache quickly snapped her out of her ashamed malaise and she made to correct the imbalance. Of course, as soon as she did, Robert changed the ship's pitch once again, erasing her efforts and setting her scrambling to right herself once more.

The slow moving battle between captain and captive was the distraction Emmy didn't know she needed. Her struggles shunted aside her embarrassment and forced her to focus on her lassoed nipples, her clamped labia, and, increasingly as time went on, her needy throbbing clit. Her reactions to Robert's devious course changes became slower and more chaotic as her focus waned and lustful moans escaped her throat. Her careful movements grew more erratic as she struggled to quell her rocking hips as they unconsciously sought to grind against the elusive stone that tickled her aroused pussy. As she became more and more lost in the pleasure, her own chaotic movements were doing more harm than Robert's gentle adjustments. She could no longer focus on the swirling liquid beneath her. Her undivided attention now rested on one thing and one thing only.

"Oh! Ohhh!" Emmy rocked and swayed. The painful surges from her nipples and labia were smothered by the overwhelming sensations emanating from her clit. Nothing could turn her from the course she had now set for herself. She rocked eagerly back and forth, back and forth, more and more, until...

"Unnnnghhh!" She came. A silent shockwave centered on body burst through the air, rattling the items stored in the various containers throughout the hold. Her body twisted and writhed, sending the glass tube beneath her swaying erratically. Her nipples twisted and tugged and stretched. Her labia blazed with pain and the clamps tore at her shuddering body. As the ecstasy ebbed, the urgency of righting to the glass tube came to the fore once again. Emmy struggled and squirmed as she attempted to right herself. Having gotten what she was after, she allowed her hips to drop to a more comfortable position, drawing the resonating stone away from her satisfied pussy.

With her mission apparently complete, she waited for Robert to come and free her. But he didn't come down. Emmy was left suspended from the ceiling, exhausted and overstimulated. She had no choice but to continue her battle against gravity and balance. She twisted to look in Jackie's direction, but the old woman merely continued her passive observations.

"Please! Please!" Emmy begged through the swinging weight on her tongue, but no rescue was imminent. After several more minutes she instead she found her attention wandering once more to the gentle vibrations of the butt plug planted in her ass. No! This wasn't fair! But none of this was fair - that the was the point. She fought against her base urges, resisting the demands her throbbing pussy made of her. She held out for longer this time, but soon had to relent. Once more she maneuvered her hips higher in a delicate dance with her tiring arms until the stone finally landed against that glorious sweet spot. Her complaints ceased as her instincts took over. More! More! Her hips swayed. Drool poured from her mouth as quickly as pussy juice oozed from her excited cunt.

"Unnnngh!" She came again. The bliss faded more swiftly this time as the exhaustion in her arms and legs weighed heavily on her. And still rescue did not come.

"Please! No more!" Emmy pleaded. Her arms trembled with growing weakness. Her stretched nipples throbbed with agony and her pinched labia fluttered along with her flailing limbs. But her body betrayed her once more, adding to the cruelty of her predicament as it demanded further attention to her insatiable pussy.

"Please! Please!" she begged while she mindlessly obeyed her body's demands and she lifted herself to the stone one more time. "Please! Please!" she repeated while she rocked her hips against the softly vibrating stone. "Please! Please!" she chanted as the stone massaged her throbbing overstimulated clit.

"Please! Please! Unnnnnnngggghhh!" She came again, this time so exhausted by her ordeal that she collapsed to the end of the ropes that bound her to the ceiling. She screamed against the pain of the onrushing quicksilver as it pooled beneath her chest, but she was too exhausted to raise herself.

"Ahhh! Ahhh!" she screamed until Robert seemed to manifest out of thin air a second later to save her from the agony she could not escape. He lowered her from the ceiling, cradling her in his arms, and guided her back to her room to rest while Jackie silently watched.

---

Emmy woke a few hours later to find Jackie waiting at her bedside. The old woman smiled and smoothed Emmy's hair as she sat up in bed.

"That was really something," the wise woman remarked.

Emmy blushed with shame as she remembered how she had surrendered to her base urges again and again in front of this woman. She wanted to be stronger for her friend, to show her that she had the fortitude to handle anything, but when it came down to it, the primitive demands of her body won out.

"I sense a great conflict within you," Jackie said. "And I saw it play out in what I observed. You do not just battle the challenge presented to you by your companion, you also battle yourself. There is a part of you that refuses to accept who you are. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You are strong. You are capable. You are totally fit to carry the burden you have been given. The sooner you stop battling yourself, the sooner you will be able to face any challenge. I think I have something that can help to quell this conflict."

She reached into her robe and pulled out a bottle filled with a swirling pink potion. She handed it to Emmy and bade her to drink. Emmy swallowed it down expecting to feel renewed, refreshed, ready for anything - instead she felt nothing. But hiding somewhere in the back of her mind a gentle confidence began to push its way to the fore.

"We landed outside Birchbrook a few minutes ago," Jackie continued. "I will be taking my leave. I wish you well on your journey. I know you will face many challenges in the days ahead. Know that you do not suffer alone. You have friends both near and far. And what you do improves the lives of thousands."

She gave Emmy a long hug, then left.

Up on deck she met Robert as he finished unloading the last of her things from the Ravenwing. Jackie would soon discover that there was no longer a need for her visit to the town - the fungus that plagued this region had just hours ago mutated to no longer be harmful to living creatures.

"I thank you for your hospitality," Jackie said, shaking Robert's hand. "I understand now your dedication to your mission. Your quest is of paramount importance to this kingdom. Look after Emmy. Protect her. And understand that you play a greater role in her ordeal than you know. Goodbye."

She glided down the gangplank and disappeared into the forest while Robert pulled up stakes and returned his ship to the skies. With Jackie gone they were on to their next destination, one which Robert had dreaded for these past few months - it was time to reunite with Sir Thorne in Cloudspire.

A part of him wanted to skip the encounter altogether. He and Emmy had learned so much about the collar already by themselves, and along the way much good had been achieved. But he was honor bound to accomplish his mission and Thorne may have learned information vital to their success. It would be negligence to not meet him and see what he had discovered.

He set his course for Cloudspire and then went to visit Emmy to plan for what lay ahead.