Bound Friends Pt. 10

****

Lea lay out of breath but incredibly satisfied as she watched Valeria showering in the corner of the room. It wasn't so much a real shower as a removable shower head over a metal grate, but with the low water pressure she could wash herself without spraying the water anywhere else. Her wet body glistened in the flickering candle light, accentuating her already gorgeous body. Lea got up and walked over, feeling rather sticky herself. As she approached, Valeria stopped washing herself and began to scrub Lea instead.

"Thank you, I know this is your job but I think I really needed all of this," Lea said as she closed her eyes and braced herself against the wall to let Valeria wash her more thoroughly.

"Of course, anything you need," she replied as she turned off the water and brought Lea a towel. Lea got dressed again while Valeria finished washing herself. She got dressed much faster, there was far less to dress into, before she stood by the door. "Shall we?" she asked as she opened the door and allowed Lea the chance to walk through first.

Lea decided that if she was going to have accompaniment she would make the most of it. Wrapping one arm softly around Valeria, holding her close. Valeria began leading them through doors at the far side of the market hall. Inside Lea saw even more slavegirls, though in place of elegant silks they all wore heavy iron, and not just the metal collars with disks that everyone seemed to wear.. Many of them were dirty and heavily restricted. Many of them bore the marks of being heavily whipped. One was hanging from the ceiling by her arms. Lea began looking around, she felt strange walking in, watching some of these girls being publicly fucked right as she walked past. She looked into everyone's faces but none of them were Sophia. She was glad to see it. As they reached the end she simply looked over at Valeria and shook her head. They left much more quickly than they entered.

"What was all that?" Lea asked once they were safely back to the main market hall.

"Well, this new owner, Felix Olsen, he has been trying to bring in these more extreme types of offerings for guests. Most of the business is still just.. well the sex. But guests with such specific tastes are willing to part with quite a lot of money to make them happen. None of this was here just a few weeks ago," Valeria said as she walked the two of them to the opposite side where another exit was.

After a few quick turns, again to presumably keep the contents of the market hall hidden from passersby, they entered to the far side of the Casino's Coliseum Plaza. It was one of the headlining features of the resort. Under a curved roof that mimicked the sky well, they had built to Roman specifications (though with slightly more comfortable seats) a small stone coliseum where they held events all day that guests could come and go from. But now it was nearly 1am, and the look of typical tourists pouring in and out while noise echoed out of the stands was all gone. There was quiet, there were fewer people and intermixed were many slave girls as scantily clad or more than Valeria was. This was clearly a much more adult presentation that was about to happen. As they walked to the entrance they passed yet another warning sign, but didn't bother to stop to read. If this was a performance, Lea thought there was possibly a good chance Sophia was here.

The two had good timing, moments after sitting down at the far side so they could get front row seats, a toga clad orator stood in the center of the arena to announce what was to come next. It started with a gladiator fight, but it was all women, all topless. Three teams of two armed one with a net and one with a whip. They each wore masks but none of them seemed to be Sophia. When only one team stood, the other four were dragged away before two lines of two chariots emerged from opposites sides, each pulled by two leather clad ponygirls. The one-woman chariots, whose drivers clearly wore the slave collars with a metal disk, began to fire blunted but painted arrows at the two. The winning gladiator team seemed to do their best to avoid the arrows but the cards were stacked against them from the start. There was so little face visible on the ponygirls Lea couldn't be sure if one of them was Sophia or not.

Once the two gladiators were taken care of, the four chariots all moved to one side of the stadium. The orator announced the start of a new battle, a re-enactment to be fought "to the death." Lea didn't like the emphasis he put on that. After he left, another few women came out from the other side, on foot wearing only slave collars and what looked like a burlap loin cloth. They were armed with shields and blunted, paint covered spears, a much fairer fight.

The women in shields tried to form a protective formation around themselves, but Lea finally recognized one of those women as Sophia. She was suddenly much more interested in the outcome of this battle. The first pass of the chariots took out one of the women, with a lucky shot between a hole in the shields. But the women in shields were quick to recover and as the chariots came back around two of the women suddenly lunged their spears further out striking one of the archers, knocking her from her cart and into the dirt. The two ponygirls of the now driverless chariot simply walked off to the side of the arena and waited.

On a third pass, Sophia and another girl broke formation unexpectedly to strike two of the pony girls driving one of the chariots, causing them to stop dead in their tracks. There was now only two carts left, while the driver of the third was forced to get off, and was nearly chased down by Sophia before she darted back to the other woman as the chariots prepared for another pass. This time the chariots charged straight for the lines, threatening to run the girls over if they did not turn or the girls scatter. The girls with shields blinked before the ponygirls did and dove out of the way, breaking the group's collective shield and leading to arrow hits for all but two of them. Sophia and one other girl were all that stood, they went back to back, but the chariots simply circled at a distance. Sophia and the other girl both let out a scream as the charged head long for one of the chariots each. Sophia's compatriot was taken out but only after striking one of the ponies, rendering the other chariot useless.

Sophia was successful, but now faced two women alone who at least did not have a chariot to help them. She had a look of pure determination in her eye, the look of someone who would not be intimidated. The two women began to flank her, causing Sophia to back up or lose the protection of her shield from their drawn arrows. As she nearly had her back against the wall, she made her stand, charging at one of them which unfortunately gave the other a clean shot, ending her charge before she could harm the other one. The crowd cheered at the conclusion, but Lea had become too invested in wishing for Sophia's victory to join them.

Men dressed as centurions came pouring out and grabbed everyone who had been killed and locked chains to their slave collars connecting one collar to another, which connecting to another in a long line. The women looked worried, much more worried than actors should be after losing a stage fight.

"What's happening to them," Lea asked Valeria as the orator was back out to announce whatever it was that was coming next. Valeria looked worried too, like she knew the answer would be upsetting enough it should be her job to keep the truth hidden. "OK you're scaring me, what are they going to do to them," Lea said, taking Valeria's worried face as a bad omen.

"Well, they can't exactly kill people in the arena, but they want the night show to have a sense of peril none the less. So anyone who 'dies' in one of the fights that are considered 'to the death' is punished outside the coliseum for the rest of the night until they get taken down before the morning show starts," Valeria said quietly leaning into Lea to explain. "I don't know that you want to see that."

Lea knew a part of her didn't want to, but she needed to know what had become of Sophia. "And if they're being punished all night what does that mean they do tomorrow? Could I get to talk to her?" Lea asked.

"You can try, they generally get taken down just before the public show starts at 11 am. I don't know what happens to them after that but if you're willing to pay I'm sure it could be arranged." Valeria said in a bit of blunt honesty. "So now that you found her, do you want to stick around with me or have you had your fill?" she said, running her hand along Lea's inner thigh.

"Yeah, I'll walk you back," Lea said as she got up and started heading for the nearest exit. As she started walking around she could faintly hear a yell "No, this is the fourth night in a row, you keep assigning me to the losing side, it's not my fault! Don't tell me this isn't him putting me on the losing side every night either, I shouldn't have to go up there again!" It was faint but Lea thought it sounded like Sophia. As she turned walked further around the coliseum, she could see Sophia angrily shoving one of the guards. Something the other guards seemed to take as an invitation to use more force on her.

"Well you've done it now," said the guard that was pushed as one of his comrades tied a blindfold around Sophia. "Refusing an order and physically accosting a guard, that sounds like an automatic upgrade wouldn't you say boys?"

"Shit no, I'm sorry!" Sophia began to instantly apologize. "No please not that. I'll do anything," she cried as she dropped to her knees pleading in perhaps the quickest turn around Lea had ever seen.

Lea looked beside Sophia and saw some other guards raising up a cross that was holding one of the chariot drivers who had died. Her arms and legs were tied allowing her to lean forward in a position that did not look like it was going to stay comfortable for very long. She wore a blindfold as well, but had otherwise been stripped to be tied absolutely naked.

Two men brought out a slightly different cross and had what looked like a doctor following behind. The guards unhooked the plain cross that had been on the hinge behind Sophia and replaced it with this different one flat along the floor. Unlike the other one, this had what looked like a wooden wedge with a rather large metal phallus sticking through a hole in the wedge. The phallus continued down before bending and attaching to the cross in a different place. It looked like the wooden wedge could be lowered or raised, causing the rod stick out only a few inches or possibly up to two feet long, clearly longer than any human could take.

Sophia was shivering and resisting at first, but after what seemed to be a few deep, calming breaths she stopped either, becoming very cooperative. Sophia lay down as the guards scooted her onto the metal dildo to where she was resting on the wooden wedge when it seemed to be as high as it would go. Unlike the way her neighbor's feet were simply tied together and to the cross, Sophia's ankles were put into leather cuffs which were attached with a short chain to either side of the cross. Her hands were tied to the cross and then to Lea's horror a rope was tied loosely around Sophia's neck.

The doctor looking person that had arrived was examining Sophia's hands carefully. With some kind of special eyewear on, he began working a thin needle through her palm, causing a few sounds of pain from Sophia but compared to the protesting she had been doing she stayed rather quiet. Satisfied with whatever criteria he was making, the man then reached for a hammer and nail. Lea couldn't look, she turned to bury her head into Valeria chest, hearing several loud hits of a hammer always accompanied by a cry of pain from Sophia. When Lea was finally able to look back she saw he was moving on to the other hand and so she turned back away again until she heard more sounds of a hammer.

She watched as they now stood Sophia's cross up on the hinge. Once she was up it did at least seem that the nails were not load bearing, the rope around her wrists seemed to be holding up most of the weight. The guards pressed some button at the side which began to lower the wooden wedge, forcing Sophia to take an uncomfortably large amount of dildo and suffer from a tighter rope around her neck if she wanted to rest her muscles. She tried straightening her legs, which seemed to relieve a lot of the pressure, but it strained her leg so she could not hold it there. Lea watched as the guards simply moved on to the next woman, who was exceedingly cooperative after watching that.

Lea walked in front to get a better view. Sophia was blindfolded and so couldn't see Lea standing there. There were small drips of blood coming from her palms but not very much, considering everything. As Sophia let her legs go limp, she sat deep on the dildo, painfully on the wedge and had the rope around her neck tighten. It didn't look to be cutting off all air, but it certainly limited it at least some. Lea decided she couldn't watch any more. She darted back towards the market hall, beginning to shake as she did. By the time they were through the gateway Lea looked like she was going to be sick or pass out. Valeria held her causing Lea to nearly lean her entire body weight on her.

"You don't look good, let's get you laid down," Valeria said in a way that did not at all hint that she might be using "laid down" as any kind of euphemism. Lea simply followed her into the room they had been in earlier. The sheets were changed, but it was otherwise the same. Lea simply silently collapsed onto the bed facing the wall. Valeria climbed in beside her, still clothed.

"It's my fault she's here, I hadn't heard from her in weeks and I was worried. Turned out for good reason," Lea began to say, still facing the wall. Valeria simply lay there holding her supportively. "Did you hear about that story this summer, what everyone was calling 'The NESIC Slaves?' Well we're each one of them. I created the program that sent out all the videos, the same program that tricked us into thinking we were being abducted and tried to get us all to sign 99 year contracts, trying to make us like slaves. They called Sophia down first and they went through the contract with Carl Olsen, point by point on video before she signed and registered it with the ICB. She didn't think she had a choice, but it got registered all the same. Now she's here, doing this, and it's all my fault. If I hadn't have made that program.. or if I had just.. If they went after me. If they charged me with all the crimes my AI did then she could be free and I'd be serving some horrible penal contract somewhere. If I knew this is what would happen to her maybe they should have done that.. " Lea began to quietly sob as Valeria continued to just silently comfort her. After a few minutes of that Lea finally turned and faced Valeria. "What do you think the chances of Felix just selling me her contract are?" she said softly, remembering there were cameras and not wanting to get Valeria in trouble.

"Well, right now he's so short on girls I'm not sure all the money in the world would be enough, at least not for the next few months till he finishes staffing up all his hotels. He's trying to build something of this scale in each one of them," Valeria quietly whispered in Lea's ear.

"Is there any way you think I could see him?" Lea asked.

"Only if you were an absolute whale, dropping a half mil or more in a night. Or you had some girls with level 9 or 10 contracts to sell him, that might do it."

Lea might have had money, but not that kind of money. Instead she simply tried to put it from her mind for now. The problem would still be there tomorrow.

"Would you like to stay the night?" Valeria asked. Lea simply nodded her head and turned back over to face the wall, pulling one of Valeria's arms around her as she did. It felt nice to held, even if she was paying for it, she was able to forget about that part in the moment and simply enjoy the intimate contact.

****

The next morning, Lea awoke with Valeria still wrapped around her. She crawled over Lea to face her, still dressed in the see through blue dress that covered only one of her breasts. "Are you feeling any better?" she asked as Lea began to more noticeably stir.

"A bit actually," Lea replied.

"Well we are still both here and before you head off, is there anything more you might want me to do for you?" She asked, returning to the sultry, suggestive voice she had been using most of last night.

Lea wasn't feeling too good, but she couldn't deny that the offer was very inviting, and perhaps best of all very distracting. Valeria began to reach a hand under Lea's shirt, rubbing against her bare skin as it worked its way up her back to grab hold of her bra fastener. "So?" Valeria said with a passion in her voice as she also began to inch herself closer. Lea couldn't help herself, she nodded her head causing Valeria to smile and unhook Lea's bra. In one smooth motion, Lea's shirt and bra were both removed, giving Valeria opportunity to play with Lea's exposed nipples.

Valeria sat up and began to untie the long rope that held her garment in place. She set it aside before removing the fabric as well. Lea looked down at the black rope that had been casually discarded beside her. "This is maybe going to sound weird," Lea started.

"Oh please, you haven't heard weird till you work here."

"It's just, would you mind maybe tying my hands to the bed?" Lea said, presenting her the rope. "I'm just.. not.. I mean I just don't feel very good about myself after last night and when I get like that I find I like being tied."

"How do you know I wouldn't just rob you, or tie you down and leave the clock running while I just read a book?" Valeria teased, straddling Lea with a grin.

Lea quivered. "That's I guess where I just have to hope you wouldn't."

Valeria sat up, putting her weight on Lea's chest as she grabbed the rope and began wrapping it around Lea's wrists. It wasn't smooth or particularly pretty, but as she cinched the coil it was good enough as she tied the remaining rope to the bedframe. She then got up and simply sat in the chair picking up her book and beginning to read. Lea looked over and closed her eyes. She was enjoying the humiliation of being ignored like that. With her eyes still closed she began to shift around in the bed, enjoying the sensation before the feeling of someone removing her pants and panties woke her back up.

After Lea was completely naked, Valeria went back to her chair to feign reading her book again. Lea returned to closing her eyes and reveling in the sensations as she fidgeted around. It meant that when Valeria did return, she nearly jumped. Valeria slowly crawled up onto the bed, leaning in between Lea's legs. She started by kissing her inner thighs, working her way slowly down, building anticipation only to skip over and move on to the other leg. When she finally did make contact Lea moaned and pulled on her bindings, which nicely heightened the already amazing sensations coming from between her legs. It took very little time as Valeria reached one hand up to massage her breast before she was at the brink of cumming.

Right before the moment, Valeria sat up. "Aren't you going to ask permission?" she said prompting Lea to begin pleading with her to make her cum. When she returned to work it was just moments later that an intense orgasm went rocketing through her, causing her to pull so hard she yanked the rope from the bed frame.

Valeria began to move up, standing over Lea just inches above. She pressed her leg against Lea's crotch while her other leg straddle over Lea's right leg. Lea looked up into her eyes and placed her bounds arms around her neck to pull her in for a kiss. She felt pressure as Valeria began to rock herself against Lea's leg which in turn cause friction against Lea's own crotch. She soon began rocking her hips as well. Though still not releasing her hands from their resting place at the nape of Valeria's neck.