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- A perfect gift
-
-
-
- "A cutting. A four-sided lozenge around the ``C'' which I branded on
- your left hip this summer in Verona: this is how I shall mark you,
- slave".
-
-
- My Mistress's voice was clear and strong, sureness and decision ringing
- in it. I have not heard it otherwise, when She is actively being my
- Mistress. Nor can my slave's voice, when it comes from the same woman,
- ever be mistaken. And many other tones of voice are those of my
- beloved friend, each charming and unique.
-
- They have names, each of these personas, by which I can call them out.
- Beverly is her birthname. Cassandra --the seer, the shaman, the woman
- of power and of magic-- is how she long identified, and the name of my
- Mistress. And on her birthday, on that magic day in a cabin among the
- redwoods of the St. Cruz Mountains, when she asked me to give her a
- slave name, I had no doubts -- Ariel, sprite of Air (and Water), to
- balance the overwhelming Fire (and Earth) of powerful Cassandra.
-
- Ariel. Beverly. Cassandra. My slave; my friend; my Mistress. My
- love, each and every one of them, and each and every one of her other
- myriad aspects.
-
- She has given names to "facets" of me, too, but I can't feel for them.
- They're convenient, to know when she's calling on her slave, or on her
- Master, specifically -- we have committed to always being there for
- each other when called. But -- there's only one of me. Some would no
- doubt say that even that is possibly already too many:-).
-
-
- I had known for a while that my Mistress wanted to place some further
- permanent mark upon me, and accepted that happily and serenely. And if
- it should end up not happening ("the best-laid plans of mice and men
- gang oft agley"), that would be fine, too -- I had no attachment.
-
- But when I heard her voice sound so sure -- I knew it WOULD happen, and
- how it would go, and how it would feel -- and for an instant I was
- frightened. Well do I know the feeling of the blade splitting my flesh
- open; it used to be a real passion of Laylah's. And she had managed to
- guide me over my block regarding blades -- even to give me a taste for
- them, when I'm topping, or in the abstract -- but the sheer physical
- sensation is still hellish to me, intense and strong and violent and
- extremely unpleasant.
-
- And that, I guess, is part of why it's so appropriate for a token of
- extreme submission, of slavery. A whipping on my back, or any beating
- on my buttocks, still carries some element of pleasure, although that
- element may of course be mostly submerged by sheer intensity of pain;
- even flames, and searing hot metal, while terrible, awaken something
- in me physically, something powerful and in a sense desirable. But
- to submit to a cutting -- THAT is pure, unadulterated, total bending
- of my will, of my whole being, to another. Just because I get nothing
- but loathing from it, physically, makes it, in a sense, an ideal gift.
-
- And that -- if my Mistress commands it -- is exactly what I want to
- offer to Her. A gift of myself.
-
- It used to be, the first few times that Laylah cut me, that she could do
- it only in non-safeword scenes: there was no way I could stop myself
- from safewording at the supreme instant -- so what was needed was for
- her to be able to hear my safeword, smile her tigress smile showing her
- perfect teeth, fix her gaze into mine, and proceed anyway, shattering my
- will and my resistance at the same time as her blade broke my skin and
- sated itself on my blood.
-
- But I've come a long way since. I now know what a top can get from
- cutting, the sensation of power, the feeling of ultimate control in
- shedding one's beloved's blood. I do not know, nor may I ever learn,
- what some bottoms feel, that they can enjoy being cut, even cutting
- themselves; but I do not need to know. I can offer my skin, my flesh,
- my blood, my pain, my suffering, my fear and loathing themselves, in a
- veritable sacrifice, in the closest I can come to -- a perfect gift.
-
-
- When I say I get nothing from it, I speak of physical sensations, and
- of feelings during the cutting itself; it does have redeeming features
- on other planes. The burning and tingling sensation in the following
- days as the wound heals is less unpleasant, and it can become
- happy-making if it calls to mind my Mistress's joy at receiving the
- gift she's demanded. The mark lasts longer, it may even be permanent,
- and will affix into my flesh -- for good, maybe for ever -- the same
- memory, and the undisputable sign of my submission.
-
- And during the scene, or right after it -- the blood. I have a
- respectful fascination for blood, my own no less than others'. It is
- liquid, and it is life -- it is the elixir, the red gold, that
- alchemists wrote about. Even a drop of it is precious. It glistens on
- the blade, it shines in the light, it graces the skin with its
- beautiful red colour, as it oozes onto it from the wound. I love
- shedding blood, and having my blood shed, by whatever means -- and it
- must be admitted that, no matter how they feel on the flesh when
- they're doing their work, blades are most effective for this purpose,
- most focused on the job. The closest I got to death so far was by
- haemorrhaging; and I remember how blissful it felt, as my life, my very
- soul, was seeping away from me together with my blood... if I ever
- have to suicide I want it to be by cutting my wrists' veins in a warm
- bath, like the philosopher Seneca was ordered to do by the tyrant Nero;
- I can conceive of no sweeter death.
-
-
- All this ran through my mind in a fraction of a second as my Mistress
- Cassandra spoke those few words, exciting my fears, and quelling them
- again at once -- my love for her, my submission to her will, flaring
- up in a blaze of happiness.
-
- Earlier in the week, my beloved slave, adorable topazzz, had also asked
- me for a cutting, as it happened. So, the three of us went shopping
- for the blades and associated hygienic supplies, planning both cuttings
- for the same night. Alas, before that night came, topazzz had some
- unrelated medical problems that, out of prudence, made me decide to
- delay her cutting to some future date; my Mistress also decided not to
- cut me at that point.
-
-
- My US trip was drawing to a close, and Beverly and I went to spend our
- last night together in a motel in New Hampshire. When we got there, my
- Mistress informed me that it was there, in that room, that I would be
- cut... it was with the slightest shivering that I accepted her decision.
-
- First we played in other ways, mostly with me on top. So many things
- that we had wanted to happen on this trip had turned out not to... this
- was the last night in which to make into reality as many of them as
- would fit -- joyfully, intensely, without attachment, we went after
- quite a few.
-
- Then -- once more -- Cassandra's voice. "I am ready to cut you now,
- Andros". Well, that wasn't much advance notice, but I did my best --
- concentrated, shifted my mindset in response to the name she had
- called -- "I am ready, Mistress".
-
- She looked at me appraisingly; I had the impression she was amused.
- "Oh no you aren't... not so fast! Lie down on the bed, on your back;
- I'll *make* you ready!". Oops -- my mistake; she had said she was
- *ready* now, not that I would be *cut* now... she wasn't hurrying me,
- not at all. She knows me well; I am very _fluid_, but not necessarily
- very _fast_... Sheepishly, I obeyed and waited.
-
- She lit candles, put on what would clearly be my cutting music -- Roxy
- Music's "Avalon". The mellow, sensual, intense mood started
- spreading. She got a horse-hair whip, came next to me on the bed,
- grasped my hair, smiled her strongest smile -- my sense of being
- *owned* grew apace.
-
- The whipping was little more than a warmup, for all that my chest is
- so much more delicate than my back; it did, however, start endorphins
- flowing, and provide the time and setting for the fullest mood shift
- to deep down into the full awareness of being her love slave. I am
- pretty sure that she also wanted the words to send me some message,
- as she sang along on quite a few of them in her best, warmest, most
- magic voice -- but I was too far along on my trip to space to stay
- verbal enough to get whatever message that was... no matter: she knows
- about my non-verbal states, and if she needs to drive something specific
- home, she'll know how to find plenty of other ways to!
-
- It's such a wonderful thing to give over one's trust *so* completely,
- to a Shaman even before than to a Mistress, a Top, a Lover, a Friend...
- to KNOW that she knows where she's going, that she's been there before,
- that one can allow oneself to open up totally and follow wherever she
- leads... the Lady is my Shepherd, I shall not want; in pastures of
- fresh grass She leads me to rest...
-
- [One advantage of switching is that I well know how these perceptions
- from the bottom may be mismatched with reality -- that the top is still
- human even in the most exalted moments... and this knowledge does not
- interfere with the letting go, the sense of sacred, the total handing
- over of self -- indeed, it makes it more meaningful and significant!]
-
- After a time, she adjusted my position on the bed to get as much light
- as possible onto the brand on my left flank, and had me prepare the
- knife. She gave me a towel to bite down on, since screams were to be
- avoided...
-
-
- I heard her say a single word: "Earth".
-
- "... but Iron, cold Iron, shall be master of them all". Cold steel.
- Sharp blade. Its treacherorous caress, so feathery light as the edge
- kisses the skin -- and splits it, devours it, proceeds to the layer
- of fat, the fascia, the muscles, the bone... spreading destruction
- in its wake, spirit of Doom, harbinger of Death...
-
- No, it wasn't THAT deep -- by no means; like most good in-scene
- cuttings, it barely nicked the fascia, if that; but THAT is the
- jumble of messages that the physical sensation of a cold-blade
- cutting always sends to my hindbrain.
-
- The first of four sides of the lozenge I was to receive was done, and
- already I felt it beyond me to keep still, to keep offering myself to
- the knife...
-
-
- Another word came from my Mistress's lips: "Air". And it bit again...
-
- The blade had perhaps lost a tad of its sharpness already, and my
- Mistress compensated by a slight increase in the pressure. Both the
- lesser sharpness, and the higher pressure, enhanced the pain, and with
- it the sense of irretrievable physical loss... I inhaled sharply,
- I gritted my teeth, I summoned all my strength to remain offered,
- opened, given, to the Sword mangling my flesh.
-
-
- One more word was spoken: "Fire".
-
- By the time the third cut started, I was sobbing. No trace of any
- endorphin rush was left -- just a shattered, tortured animal looking up
- to its cruel Mistress's face -- and finding nothing but Light, and
- determination more steely than the blade itself... Oh, well had my
- Mistress judged to sink me in the waters of Paradise of submission to
- Her before starting this... I burned in the pyre of Her eyes, a
- thousand times within one second I offered myself over and over again.
-
-
- One last time, She speaks: "Water".
-
- The last one: my submission is by now the same as that of the gazelle,
- deadly wounded and separated from its pack, to the lions that are
- devouring it, tearing its flesh to shreds, shedding its life-blood upon
- the parched prairie -- oh may your steely claws and teeth be fast, my
- Mistress, and merciful in their cruelty, that oblivion may soon come...
-
-
- The fourth cut is finished, the lozenge is closed, and it is of course
- not the oblivion of death that comes, but my Mistress's beloved voice
- once more, deep and solemn and wise and clear: "The fire-brand which
- marks you as my slave is now separated from the rest of your flesh".
-
- I feel these words wash over me, over my whole being. Some part of
- me, somewhere, is drenched in them and will retain and process this
- knowledge which my Mistress has imparted. Not my mind, surely, which
- feels worn and consumed, far from up to the task.
-
- But my Mistress, I feel -- I KNOW -- is now just as happy to have me
- floating freely in her love, abandoned, given. Her tenderness engulfs
- me, as she again speaks, Her magic transmuted into the warmest, most
- caring affection -- "Sweet Andros, wonderful slave!"...
-
-
- And sweet is it to sink into this sea.
-
-