The Keep at Cordoba

[Azalea]

The following is the start of a storyline set in the Andalusian province of Spain, at an ancient castle-keep situated near Cordoba. I don't have a real clear direction, just this beginning. ( inspired by an attempt at an email role-play game over at SF-Fandom, two years ago, which fizzled out after one or two exchanges)

Anyone who is interested can play......the suggested characters needed so far are
Kathleen, a beautiful American woman who is in the thrall of a dark and mysterious man
Edward, also called Wolf, the dark and mysterious man who has Kathleen and another woman held captive in an old keep
Kahtana, an empathic healer who is a prisoner of Edward
Kahtana's lover, so far unnamed but a possible character

If you can see possibilities in the story, please feel free to jump. I am not committed to playing either Kathleen or Kahtana yet.....so if someone wants to take one of those roles, I will play the other.

 

[Azalea]

Kathleen felt the sun's warmth caressing her body. Her eyes fluttered open, her arms stretched and tensed with her yawn. She felt a deep sense of rest, her spirit restored. Last evening's session with Kahtana had seemed to go on and on, far longer than the hour she knew she had been in the healer's rooms.

She sat up on the sleeping couch and rubbed the morning grit from her eyes, and heard a soft crinkle in the pocket of her dressing gown. Reaching inside, she pulled out a crumpled fragment of grey parchment. She caught the familiar scent of lotus perfume. Kahtana always wore this scent. Carefully unfolding the brittle paper, she saw her Senet partner's precise, even writing, and read:

Kathleen, you say you tremble when you hear my screams in the night. You asked what part your visits play in causing my torment. Favored lady, "torture" would be a better word for what I go through after your visits.

I do not let my fingers linger on your hand as we move our game pieces not by accident, but by command. The Wolf, our Master, brings us together for the sake of your health. My touch revives your memories, stimulates your senses, heals your spirit.

Do you not know why you slip into such emptiness, darkness, in the fdays before your monthly visit to my quarters.....and then awaken refreshed and ready to live again? Without Kahtana's touch, you would lose the fragile hold you still have on your ailing spirit. But I pay a high price for this service.

In exchange for your healing, my body loses touch with my mind, and I am wracked by painful seizures. Hours after you have left, refreshed and restored, my muscles begin to twist my body so that I lie in agony, until my own powers are regenerated.

I do not want you to feel guilty, this is done not by your own choosing. You are his pawn as much as I am. In the beginning, it is true, I hated you for the pain. But I have come to know you as a gentle person, a prisoner here like me. We must be allies, my lady, not enemies. I may not leave my rooms freely, but I know the Wolf lets you walk in the lower gardens. Each evening, I watch you pass by my door, through the latticework.

If you wish to hear more, slip a note under my door. Distracting your escort should not be so difficult, for I know you are clever as well as beautiful. I pray you will acept my offer of friendship. Each day I remain the Wolf's captive deprives me of my heart and soul, for there is one who waits for me, yet I am powerless to reach him. I am not certain he even knows where I am

Kathleen sat still, staring fixedly at Kahtana's letter. The man she knew as her Mastwer, Edward, was referred to as Wolf by his enemies. At first, she had called him Edward, but then several months ago he had demanded she address him only as "Master," or "Lord."

That was when she had begun to experience her mysterious illness. Every few days she would begin to slip into a dark place. She would feel sunken into a pit of chaotic despair, in which her thoughts and feelings would spiral and drift further apart from her control.

Edward - the Wolf - had first brought her to the healer, Kahtana, about a month before. The two women would sit in Kahtana's room, playing the ancient game of Senet. Kathleen's opening pawn always was placed on the suare with the engraved "ankh," symbol of life. When one of Kahtana's pawns finally reached the fifteenth square, the House of Rebirth, she would grasp Kathleen's hand and then time would seem to stand still.

Kathleen never remembered anything of what happened between the fifteenth and last squares, When she came back into full consciousness, her pawn was always sitting back on the ankh. Her escort would then summon her to rise and return with him to her own apartments, leaving Kahtana sitting, pale and worn.

Edward always seemed very pleased when Kathleeen would return from her session with the healer. He would have her brought to his rooms, where they would then spend a deliciously sensual time together. Edward was a skilled and generous lover, and Kathleen always left feeling satiated, treasured, valued.

It was true, his loving had become more demanding and, well, strange, these past weeks. He had begun to use a flogger, with Kathleen strapped to a wooden frame, in total submission to his pleasure. Some nights, he was more forceful than others. There were times when she wept, her skin bruised and broken.....but at those times, after he had taken his fill of her body, he would unbind her and gather her into his arms, and murmur words of love and gratitude for her willing service.

Last evening, when Kahtana noticed the fading welts on her arm, the woman has gasped, her eyes widening. Kathleen has prayed that she would not speak of what she saw, but allow her the privacy of seeming to ignore the evidence of their Master's physical abuse.

Now, in light of Kahtana's troubling missive, Kathleeen wondered at what games Edward was playing......

 

[The Jeffinator]

I'll play Kathleen's or Kahtana's lover if you want me to. If so, do you want me to create him or do you have some preferences?

 

[Azalea]

I am thrilled to have you join in, sweetie. I have no preference........make the character entirely your own. I was hoping to have someone volunteer for Kahtana's lover, as I would like to see several narrative threads intertwined for these characters.
If I may suggest something, it would be cool to have you post as this character, next, perhaps his thoughts or feelings about where his lover has gotten to?

Thanks for your interest in playing with me, sweetie.

 

[The Jeffinator]

Okay, I will make my post shortly.

 

[Azalea]

*Bump*
Several characters still needed......

 

[The Jeffinator]

OOC: Sorry, I forgot that I was in this game, lol. My character is Sam Julio (pronounced hoo-lee-oh), age 27. He is 6'0, shoulder length jet black hair that is usually tied into a ponytail, and a well-groomed and trimmed mustache and goatee. He has emerald green eyes behind his thin metal frame glasses, and he is well-built. He has a slight spanish accent, but he is only half-latin. His father was completely spanish, but his mother was american, and she had the same green eyes.

IC: Sam jumped back into the conscious world as he awoke from a terrible nightmare. He was covered in a cold sweat, breathing hard, his eyes still filled with the fear from the very bad dream. After a moment, he stood to his feet, and walking slowly to the bathroom, he splashed cold water against his face. He grabbed a towel, pressed it to his face, and held it there for a moment. He then slide it down slightly and gazed at his reflection in the mirror.

Kahtana...... where are you? he thought to himself painfully. It had been so long since she had contacted him, and that was not like her. He had gone to the police after two weeks, and they could not find any clues to her. That's when the nightmares had begun. Sometimes Sam cried himself t sleep at night, wondering if his beloved Kahtana was dead or still out there somewhere.

"Where are you!" he screamed, throwing the down down and punching the mirror. He kept hitting it, screaming, till the mirror was completely shattered and his hands were bloody.

"WHERE ARE YOU!!!!" he screamed as loud as he could, then sank to the floor, and began to weep silently.

 

[The Jeffinator]

Bump. We need more players!

 

[The Jeffinator]

Bump.

 

[The Jeffinator]

Bump.

 

[The Jeffinator]

Bump.

 

[The Jeffinator]

Bump.