Red Feline found new energy somewhere inside her to make the complete turn to face her torturer, a bit of an over-statement however, since her head was down and all she could see through her legs was her ass reflected in the mirror.

She didn't know if her new found energy was something to be glad about. It only meant she was going to resist longer, and her new position not only brought more energy to her, but it also placed her body in such a way that now the whip could reach parts of her body that it couldn't before.

The whip went under her belly, hitting her waist and her breast. It retreated only to fly back and fall over her back, covering it from side to side.

Piroska, still lingering above, saw the redheaded woman struggle to turn around as the whip kept hitting her body. The young slave did not understand what was happening, where she was and how she got there. She knew she had some link to the woman below who had her face covered and whose suffering was obviously a long one...the number of lashes on the woman's body made that clear.

Suddenly, Piroska felt a sharp pain in her wrists. She was back at her cross.

The soldiers were releasing the young slave from her bonds. First they removed the log that held her bent knees against the pole. When her legs were free and hanging, she was lowered until her feet touched the ground.

The Governor was watching as the soldiers lowered Piroska. He was upset. "You whipped her back?", he was protesting..."Wasn't I clear enough?"... "Turn her around!", he demanded. Without releasing her wrists from the timber, they turn the slave to face the Governor. He walked to her as the soldiers pulled the rope to stretched her arms up. Her feet were still on the ground.

"So...", the Governor spoke to Piroska. "They made a mistake. It was your chest I wanted whipped. But I can reconsider this wish if you stop your nonsense and give yourself to me.".

He reached out to her head with his hand, to touch her sweaty face, hesitGting at first. But as his finger touched her skin softly she clenched her fists to put pressure on the ropes that held her and with all her strength she pulled the timber down, surprising the soldier that was holding the rope. When the wood reached her shoulders, she twisted her body and using the timber as her weapon, struck the governor's face with such force that he flew to the side.

Red Feline cried out in pain, as she felt her back lacerated by the whip once more. For a moment she felt that she could faint and maybe she could stay out there where there was silence and darkness and no pain.

But her arms, at their breaking point, were a stimulant that kept her awake, or at least half awake, conscious of her pain, of her reality, while at the same time detached, watching from a seemingly safe place, as if in a dream, even capable of conquering the limitations of time and space to place herself in the time and place where Piroska was being pulled up again by the stunned soldiers who had not prevented her attack on the Governor.

The Governor got to his feet, assisted by two soldiers. His face was covered in blood. He yelled, his voice trembling,"Twenty more lashes to her, and let her hang all night!".

The soldiers pulled the rope until Piroska was hanging in mid air and then they tied her feet behind the post. Thus crucified, she looked down at the Governor, satisfied that she had caused great damage to his face.

"One!", the soldier cried out as the Governor walked away, hearing the echo of the lash as it fell across Piroska's breasts. She screamed.

Red Feline screamed as the whip fell on her ass, breasts and waist, over and over, she felt as though her soul was leaving her body. She slumped down and a black curtain covered her mind, the crack of the whip, her breathing, the wood under her, everything went silent and dark as she finally found the relief she was hoping for...this time her mind managed to escape completely into the dark void she often visited where she finally saw a figure emerge as if from a black cloud. It was Piroska who was at once looking up from her cross as the whip crashed again against her chest, and looking down from that far off space she had found.

Red Feline and Piroska, now together and outside of thier bodies, reached out to each other and as they did, their hands seem to touch at first and then to merge as if they were becoming one.

There was a moment of peace, followed by joy, followed by the awareness that they were both one and the same...and suddenly a new sense of pain as Red Feline was pulled back to her dungeon, but this time she was not alone.

Red Feline strained the muscles in her back to stand a bit, the leeway on her "leash" allowed her that much. Standing up brought a bit of relief to her arms and shoulders, however brief, and surprisingly, a sense of defiance. "You can't break me...", she seemed to be saying with her body. But she was aware that it was not only her defiance that was coming through. There was the feeling that it was not her pride, or at least not the pride of her present that showed. She felt as if her defiance was ancient, as if she had been doing this for a thousand years.

This defiance didn't go unnoticed, it seem to make her torturer angry, so he whipped her breasts, which now were facing him, with such a force that the lash brought her down again.

Red Feline looked past her legs at her reflection in the mirror, her back bloodied, her legs tense, her arms seemed to be at the limit of their resistance...and she saw all this with different eyes.

She began to doubt her existence, she thought that she was a dream within a dream, maybe a hallucinatory creation of the woman who now was hanging from her cross, the whip falling on her chest.