by Renard, Loki
* * *
Faith was not asleep when he returned to his ship. She was waiting impatiently as ever, sitting on part of the cargo bay bulkhead and kicking her heels back against the wall to make a rather irritating booming sound.
“So,” Faith said with that cocky smirk that never seemed to be far from her lips. “What did Big E say?”
“Ephemera has prescribed a course of treatment for you.”
“I’m sick?” Faith looked genuinely concerned for a moment.
“You’re not sick at all,” Serkan reassured her. “You’re just misbehaved.”
“Oh.” The grin was back. “Yeah. I could have told you that. So what’s this treatment for, then?”
“It is a course of treatment which will modify your behavior.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I will spend the next few months ensuring that you not only know right from wrong, but that you are aware of the consequences for each.”
“I’m not that bad,” Faith snorted.
“The fact that you think that is precisely why you need the treatment.”
“I get to live then,” Faith said, changing the subject. “But not go back to Earth?”
“I think there is more chance of you growing wings than there is of you being allowed to return to Earth,” he snorted.
“Why?”
“Because you’re trouble.”
Her eyes went wide with outrage. “There are so many people who are so much worse than me. There are mad dictators down there. There’s war! How could I be so bad?”
She didn’t understand. She thought that Ephemera’s judgment was comparative to every other human alive.
“It’s not just what you are, it’s where you are. It’s the little effects of your influence on the world. A housewife can make more ultimate impact on the course of history than a warlord if the conditions are correct.”
“That sounds like it should be on a motivational poster with a kitten,” she sneered in disbelief. Serkan felt his palm tingle with desire to meet her impudent bottom. She had no idea how good the news was. She was too busy being an argumentative little brat to listen and perhaps actually learn something.
“It’s true.”
“It really isn’t,” Faith disagreed. “I don’t deserve ‘treatment.’ There’s nothing wrong with me. I did some bad stuff, yeah, maybe, but only from certain perspectives and…”
“This treatment is not because you are the worst person on Earth,” Serkan interrupted. “It is because we have a particularly advanced and delicate society which is prone to disruption. The mad dictators and other such people would not be permitted here under any circumstances. The council believes you have the capacity to change. Ephemera is prepared to give you a chance at an entirely new life, but first, the crimes you were able to avoid punishment for on Earth must be paid for here.”
Her eyes went wide and she took a deep breath before letting it out in a long sigh.
“There’s a lot of them.”
There they were in total agreement. Faith had managed to break almost every rule he had ever presented to her, and he was certain that she had broken every one before he met her too.
“So this is hell,” she said, shrinking down where she sat and looking adorably hunted. “That’s the whole point of hell, isn’t it? Sinners are punished for their misdeeds forever and ever. Next you’ll be telling me that there is a lake of fire.”
“Well…”
“Oh, my god.” Faith’s eyes went wide. “There is, isn’t there! There’s a lake of fire here.”
“There are hot gaseous springs in the north which occasionally spawn flame,” he admitted. “But the geography of this planet should not be of great concern to you at this point. You should be worrying about yourself.”
“What’s the point?”
“What’s the point in worrying about yourself?” Serkan shook his head at her. He still did not entirely understand how Faith’s mind worked. She had a curious lack of care for what might happen to her, and a fascinated obsession with the outside world. It was almost as if she did not care for herself at all.
“Yeah,” Faith shrugged. “I’m your prisoner, aren’t I. And there’s nowhere to run on this planet of paranoid angels. So what’s the point in worrying about it?”
There was a certain logic to her words, a twisted, somehow broken logic.
“Faith, in the end, all you have is yourself. What you do, what you think, what you bring to the world. The treatment will show you that, I think.”
“How are you going to do that? Drugs? Are you going to put me in your little machines and warp my brain with your technology? Are you going to lobotomize me? Turn me into a drooling, compliant little patient?”
“Nothing quite so dramatic,” Serkan assured her. “You are more malleable than you think, Faith. Your current state is largely due to the fact that nobody seems to have taken the time to mold you correctly.”
“Correctly, incorrectly, what does it matter?”
Serkan felt a flash of irritation. No matter what he said, or how he tried to explain these simple concepts, Faith seemed determined to misunderstand him or simply dismiss his words outright. There was a simpler, more physical way of getting through to her though. She wasn’t going to like it, but it was about the only thing that seemed to work for her.
“It matters,” he said, reaching out to take her by the hand, “because I say it matters.”
“Hey! No!”
She knew exactly what he was going to do to her, but there wasn’t anything she could do to stop it. Her wriggling and squirming was a minor obstacle to his purpose. Serkan was grateful for her feminine, soft form. It made her ever so easy to handle. He took the place where she had been sitting and pulled her over his thighs.
Faith’s defense mechanisms, her attitude, her pointblank refusal to make what she knew were good and right choices, they were all going to change. He couldn’t let her attitude get in the way of her feelings anymore. She was so damn good at burying everything under about six feet of attitude. The only way to get through to her was to heat her bottom until she couldn’t maintain the facade anymore.
His palm met her bottom in an incredibly satisfying slap. Her resulting yowl was less pleasant to hear, but she needed this. He knew it to the very core of his being. Serkan began to spank her with measured, heavy slaps, his large palm covering a good part of both her cheeks with every swat.
“I fucking hate you!”
Her cursing and swearing was totally predictable. It was also totally unacceptable. Serkan was going to have to break her of that habit, among so many others.
“Swear again and you’ll be gagged,” he promised.
“Fuck off!”
Of course she had challenged him immediately. He was going to have to invest in a good gag for his patient while she learned not to use her tongue for ill. As of that particular moment, he didn’t have anything in the way of a good gag… or did he?
He responded to her curse by sweeping her panties down her legs. Baring her bottom was an inevitable stage, so they would not be missed. He then balled them up in his hand and when Faith next opened her mouth to make a sneering comment, it was cut off as he pushed the panties into her mouth and held them there, a little of the fabric caught between his fingers so she couldn’t choke on them.
Her muffled outrage was palpable in the stiffening of her body and the tensing of her muscles, but Serkan was not interested in entertaining Faith’s rage. He focused on her bottom, spanking her bare cheeks with hard swats that left the impression of his palm glowing red on her tender skin.
She had an adorable bottom, two pert rounds that bounced beneath his palm in the most pleasing manner. Ephemera’s order to provide her with disciplinary treatment had come as something of a surprise, but it was not altogether new territory and he already had several treatments in mind for her. Spanking would be an essential part of it, not only because it was effective at dissuading certa
in types of behavior, but because it both settled and aroused her in equal measure. She was so much more receptive with a warm bottom than she ever was without. In fact, he would have gone so far as to say that the only time Faith was capable of listening properly was when her buttocks were bright red and stinging.
“Are you ready to see where you’re going to live? Or do you want to keep acting like a brat and getting your bottom spanked?”
He pulled the panty gag from her mouth, knowing this wasn’t going to go well. He could feel the anger emanating from Faith. She was sore, but she was not submissive. Not yet.
“I guess I may as well see what kind of dump you live in.”
That answer earned her another two minutes of solid spanking, during which her pink cheeks turned bright red and her plaintive cries turned to howls and promises to behave.
“Okay! I’m sorry! I am!” She gasped and writhed as he swatted her cheeks over and over again. “Serkan! I promise! I’ll be good!”
She really shouldn’t make promises she couldn’t keep, but it was good enough for Serkan. He eased her from his lap and watched as she rubbed her bottom furiously.
“That was too much,” she complained, her face almost as red as her bottom. “I’m going to be sore for ages.”
“Maybe you’ll behave yourself for ages too,” he replied calmly. “Go and get dressed. We’re leaving the ship…”
She turned and stormed off, not hearing what he added at the end of the sentence, under his breath.
“…for the last time.”
Chapter Seven
Disembarking Serkan’s ship, Faith and Serkan moved back into the grand council tower. Instead of moving toward Ephemera’s chambers, they took a sky walk out of the building proper. It hung hundreds of feet in the air, providing an unparalleled view of the city through the translucent shield that encapsulated it and prevented walkers from plummeting a great height. It was crisscrossed with what could have been thousands of similar walks that hung between buildings in a great web-like structure. They crossed over and under one another, joining at some points to create intersections in which people seemed to gather.
“There aren’t any vehicles,” Faith noted. Her bottom was still stinging beneath her clothes; she’d chosen a thick denim to protect her from any further attempts at discipline, but it was backfiring as the rough, unyielding fabric rubbed against her butt with every step.
“There’s no need,” Serkan said. “Everything in the city is within walking distance. We are creatures of endurance.”
“How do you leave the city?”
“Shuttles, like the one I had.”
“But if you don’t have a shuttle?”
“Then you don’t leave. This is a closed city. Generations have lived and died here.”
“So it’s a very pretty prison,” Faith frowned. “There must be some way out.”
“Not that you need to know about,” Serkan said, answering her question very indirectly.
“So there is a way.”
“You don’t want to get out of the city,” Serkan said. “This is a sanctuary from the wilds of the planet. There are all manner of creatures beyond the borders, most of them carnivorous, all of them intelligent.”
“So other people species?”
“Not humanoid. Their intelligence is animal intelligence…” Serkan stopped and shook his head. “I cannot explain everything about this entire planet here and now. Some of your curiosity will have to wait.”
They kept walking, and as they did, they began to see others along the way, walking along the various silver paths between grand buildings. The Svari people were very humanlike in many respects. The hue and texture of their skin was different; they had a thicker epidermis with a metallic sheen that was more pronounced in some people than others. Women seemed to prize that aspect of their appearance. Faith saw more than one young lady glistening in the sunlight, clad in very little in the way of clothing. Light dresses that did not cover the shoulders or arms seemed to be in vogue, just long enough to cover the curve of the rear. Their hair was braided with multicolored shifting wires, which gave them a dramatic, glittering flair. They were very pretty, their faces finely shaped, eyes wide, painted lips curved up in welcoming smiles.
“Hi, Serki,” one particularly forward young woman said, pressing herself against the barrier separating the walkways. The motion made her breasts threaten to expel themselves from the top of her nearly translucent sheath dress. “You’re back!”
“Mari,” he said. “I am. Say hello to your mother, will you?”
“Of course,” she smiled. “You have to come visit us. It’s been too long!”
“It will have to be a while longer,” Serkan said. “I have council business to attend to.”
He seemed utterly indifferent to her obvious displays of desire and as they walked on, Faith was sure she caught a look of annoyance on the young woman’s scorned face. It did not fail to escape her attention that the young woman, like almost everyone else, had simply pretended that she did not exist. There had been no greeting, not even a curious look. It was almost as if Faith was a ghost.
“Who was that?”
“One of the girls,” he said, his answer so vague as to be interesting.
“One of your girls?”
“Are you jealous?” He smiled down at her. “She is not my girl, no. She’s of marriageable age, but I certainly have no intention of marrying her.”
“Oh? Why?”
“There are so many reasons not to pledge one’s life to someone else,” Serkan said. “I could be explaining all day if I had to tell you why I haven’t married each and every one of the eligible females in the city.”
“That’s not what I asked.” A smile appeared on Faith’s lips. “Did I hit a nerve, Serkan? Are you a player?”
“I am not a player, whatever that might mean,” he said, clearly knowing precisely what it meant. “We will talk about this later.”
Faith knew when she was being put off, but that was fine. She wouldn’t forget about this.
“This is my building,” he said as they approached a very tall tower. Shining titanium leaf-like structures wrapped the building’s outer layer, moving in the subtle breeze. Like everything else on the planet, it was gorgeous.
“Let’s take the elevator the rest of the way,” he said as they approached a glowing glass door. “There are walkways which go higher, but I think we have been exposed to the public enough for one day.”
“Don’t want to run into any more of your girlfriends?” Faith smirked. She was enjoying this a little more than she really should. Yes, there were a few pangs of jealousy at seeing the beautiful women who looked at Serkan the same way Faith looked at a prime steak, but he was obviously uncomfortable with the attention, though she couldn’t imagine why.
“Leave it,” he growled softly under his breath. “Remember, you are not supposed to interact with the general citizenry. Your influence could be corrupting.”
“I hope so,” Faith smiled as they stepped into the glowing pod, which swept them up the length of the building. “Why was everyone ignoring me? That girl didn’t even look at me.”
“They can’t see you,” Serkan said.
“What do you mean? I’m not invisible.”
“Our society is very particular,” he explained. “Svari perceive that which is good and in accordance with Ephemera… you are not. This is obvious to the extent that most will not notice you, even though their eyes see you very well. There is also the fact that humans are not supposed to be here, therefore once again, a human cannot be here by definition, so therefore, most people won’t be able to see a human, even if one is standing in front of them.”
“That is fucked up.”
“It helps a harmonious society.”
“So does lobotomizing everyone,” Faith frowned. “Is that what you’re going to do to me?”
“Absolutely not,” he said. “You will not come to any harm.”
“Why
should I believe you?”
He turned to her as they rose slowly above the most outrageously beautiful city in all creation and fixed her with a frank look. “You wanted to know why I have not married any of the women here. The truth is, they bore me.”
Faith let out a little snort. “What do you mean?”
“They’re perfectly lovely,” he said. “Beautiful, well bred… they are everything they should be.”
“But you’re looking for someone who isn’t,” Faith said. “That’s why you like me, right?”
“They’re also very keen to advance their positions in society. And they’re interested in the fortune which was left to me. I am a rich man, Faith. That has its advantages, as well as its drawbacks.”
“Ah,” Faith nodded. “So they want you for your money and you can’t tell if any of them like you for you. Whereas with me, you know I don’t like you.”
“Brat,” Serkan said, landing his palm hard on her bottom. “And you’re a little liar too, for that matter.”
“How am I a liar?” She clasped her bottom and rubbed it to soothe away some of the sting.
“In what way are you not a liar, is a better question,” Serkan drawled. “On this occasion, in the matter of your love for me.”
“You think I love you?”
“I know you do.”
Faith narrowed her eyes at him. “How? Some spaceship machine you used on me?”
“I don’t need a machine to tell when your pupils enlarge, when your heart skips a beat, when your mood elevates when I enter a room…”
“But you can’t tell that with the others?”
“I can tell the others like me,” he said. “But I will never know why. With you, I know why.”
“Oh, really. Why?”
“Because I saved your life, and because I was the first man to give you what you needed. A good thrashing.”
“Oh, shut up,” Faith guffawed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
