PREVIOUSLY:  Chastity and Penance, under Channah’s literal and metaphorical spells, have been ritually debased, used badly, ridden hard, and victim-shamed.  Channah, in high spirits from a gathering more successful than any of the succubae can remember, leads the exhausted and traumatized futa naked, through the halls of Castle Chang’an with their hands bound, by a single leash attached to both of their collars.  They have just reached the Honeycomb.  NOW:

A perfect, sterile, silent blackness consumed the entire world behind the heavy iron door, swallowing all light, sound, and smell alike.  The moment they passed into it, the girls knew, to a moral certainty, that they were in a special place.  A sacred place, with the air of the forbidden, set aside from the humdrum world all around it.  But since they knew they were in hell, neither girl believed this place was actually sacred.  Indeed, reason suggested, if anything… the opposite.

The walls here were a deeper, more-perfect, glassy opaque black, carved with amazing precision into perfect rectangular prisms, matched so precisely no mortar could be discerned between them.  Only the faintest rectangular lines, visible as an interruption in the reflective surface, marked the end of one brick and the start of the next, betraying the fact that the walls were constructed of separate bricks rather than immense, continuous slabs. The air was cooler, dryer, and odorless here, with an underlying silence that made the girls aware how much noise they accepted every day as a normal part of everyday life. 

Just inside the doorway, within the larger chamber, was a cube—or, rather, the outline of one, 12 equal-length square columns eight inches across, arranged as two squares with four connecting beams joining their corners.  To enter, they stepped over one bar and “through” one side of the cube.  As they stepped into the cube, their skin began to tingle, as if their entire bodies were waking up after having been asleep.

“What’s happening?!” Penance asked.  “My body!” Chastity echoed her.

Channah laughed softly.  “Not to worry.  It’s a shield.”

“For what?”

“For the honeycomb.”

“Against what?!”

“Against you, you silly girls,” Channah chuckled.  “Your filth.  Have you taken a look at one another?”  She snorted.  “Think of it like magical hosiery or clogs.  It’s doing it to me, too, to prevent my dress and boots from dripping oil and water everywhere.  It’s quite pleasant, actually.”

“And dark…” Penny whispered, sounding haunted, as the door slammed closed behind them.  “and silent… and odorless.” 

“Aww… pooor sweetie,” Channah sympathized, sounding delighted, swooping the two girls into her arms for a tight hug.  “Ooh… darlings, you’re shivering!  Is this… reminding you of anything?”

“Yes, Domina,” they whined together, hugging her back fiercely, shivering not with their paresthesia but with the dread of memory of the senseless comatic holes they had been triggered into before exclaiming in reaction to another surprise, and again in unison:  “Domina!

“What is it?” she feigned surprise, knowing they were staring at her, and knowing exactly why.

“You—you’re glowing!”

She snickered, fully aware what she looked like in here, and tickled that they sounded amazed rather than horrified.  Dropping her hands down to between their legs, she tested them and laughed even harder.  “Oh, girls… we are definitely going to have to explore this together!”

She appeared in the honeycomb in her demonic form, a wild, fey, fiercer-than-average version of her spicy red demon self.  All succubae did, in here.  There was something so primal about this space, this force, that it brought out the beast in demons, ancient and fierce.  Raising her hands to encompass the space all around them, she explained:  “The honeycomb absorbs or filters all light, all sound, all energy, all contamination of any kind, respecting only the stuff and energy of life itself.  This cube is a spell that protects the honeycomb from all the filth—well, what the honeycomb considers contaminants—accompanying… travelers through it.  Otherwise, the honeycomb would bar or absorb everything:  dresses, boots, jewelry, underwear… even the oil and dirt on your bodies.”

Something about the way she had said ‘travelers’ troubled Penny, who asked:  “And are we—Chas and I—travelers, Domina?”

Channah turned and looked at her slowly, her lips parting in genuine surprise, almost looking… embarrassed?  As if Penny had been peeping on her in her dressing chamber.  “What?  Whatever do you mean?”

Penny frowned, now certain of it and reading in her eyes that she knew it.  Suddenly gasping in fear that she was crossing a new line with Channah, but unable to bring herself not to ask:  “Are we… travelers, Domina?  Or filth?”

Her mouth formed a small ‘O’ even as something between scandal and titillation flashed in her eyes.  Of course, it was impossible to tell with her glowing a ruddy hue, but the expression on her face was one that suggested blushing.  “Oh Penny…” she whispered.  “My beautiful filth.”  And she leaned forward, kissing Penny softly on her lips.  Pulling both girls’ ears close to her mouth, close enough they shivered with the feel of her warm breath, she whispered even more softly:  “The honeycomb is natural—or supernatural, or unnatural, but certainly, not of our fashioning, and infinite.  The spell is ours, and every cube and…” she giggled, rubbing her hips against them suggestively “bit of filth we protect takes effort and attention.  Besides,” she hissed, her soft voice making them feel like they were part of a conspiracy, and shrugged:  “Why would we want to open the honeycomb to…” she laughed throatily.  “Any bit of filth that might be capable of finding the honeycomb and wandering into it?  It’s why I had to bring you here the long way around, through the Satanikoklus.  So I could… welcome you inside us.”

She giggled, releasing them, and twirling prettily:  “Ours is the only light not extinguished in the honeycomb.  And now you know:  you’ll want to stay close to me in the honeycomb, won’t you?  I’ll light the way for you, and protect you from the big, scary dark.”  A smile played around her lips.  “Filth.”

Then she took the girls under her arms, pulling their heads in tight to her own, and kissed each in turn on their ears, whispering “Princess” to Penance and “Fuckpuppet” to Chastity, making both of them blush, before leading them forward into the dark.

She was, indeed, the sole source of light in the honeycomb, a pale, faint, and eerie reddish glow coming off her and making her look ethereal or even spectral.  But there was nothing dead or even undead about her; she remained all Channah, all predator, all vibrant and exciting and completely alive—seemingly more alive than anything or anyone around her.  She remained the girls’ guidelight and beacon.  Always.

She murmured to them, making sure they remembered the next bar, the one forming the bottom of the cube away from the door so they wouldn’t stub their bare toes on the clear glass in the dark; and then she whispered to them “Put your heels back against the bar, girls.  That’s it, so you’re standing at the very edge of the cube behind you.  Now, the distance will always be the same.  So when we start forward, try to take steps that are the normal size for you, whatever that is, and count them off.  I’ll do the same, but for my pace.  Ready, let’s go.”  And she counted her own steps forward, setting the example:  “One.  Two.  Three.  Four.  Five—” she hesitated, stopping them both for a moment.  “It’s about to appear around us… don’t be surprised…  Six!”

Literature Section “06-120 The Queen in the Hive”—more material available at TheRemainderman.com—Part 120 of Chapter Six, “Le Saccage de la Sale Bête Rouge” (“Rampage of the Dirty Red Beast”)—1200 words—Accompanying Images:  1931, 1947-1948—Published 2025-06-19—©2025 The Remainderman.  This is a work of fiction, not a book of suggestions.  It’s filled with fantasies, idiots, and criminals. Don’t believe them or imitate them.

PREVIOUSLY:  Hong, with minor assistance from her jawari, has wrestled Esmeray into submission and chained her by her ankles to the rail facing out over the desert.  NOW:

Esmeray eyed the mass of devils and demons defiantly, as if she was considering taking them all on.  And perhaps she was.  Slowly, she brought her breathing and her emotions back under control, regretting the loss of it.  She hated herself for being—whatever she was.  Emotional.  Instinctive.  Crazy—call it what you like, she hated it.  She hated at herself.

She had known today was going to be difficult and that Channah would try to make her lose it.  Channah always did that; a part of Esmeray hated her.  But that was getting her nowhere—stop, stop Stop STOP!

She told herself—ordered herself—to breathe, to stay focused on her work, and to ignore the potential threats around her.  Either Channah was going to put her in harm’s way, or she was going to protect her; and there was little enough Esmeray could do either way to improve or worsen her lot.

Like everyone in Channah’s orbit, she was the Succubus Queen’s tool and plaything.  She had been for a decade—ever since Channah had rescued her from worse—and she loathed herself for it.  Not that Esmeray was… entirely ungrateful.  She reminded herself, as she frequently did, that she was fortunate; and that Channah had treated her better than anyone ever did before.  It was as much as—more than!—a person could ask.  She knew she should be more grateful, or at the very least, more philosophical, about it.

And yet, it still rankled.  Esmeray longed to be free, free of all obligations and duties to her master.  Free of all masters.  Free of the world’s bondage!  At times, she thought back longingly to her days on the streets of Constantinople, the earliest times she could remember.

Didn’t she?  Of course, she did.  There were lengths of darkness she could not account for, but there was no sense in thinking on them because there was nothing to learn about them.  She had tried.

It was always the good times that beckoned to her anyway.  Today, and on other days when she was forced by circumstances to the unhappy task of reflecting. 

She hissed and spat at the devils, pleased they could not reach her, twice as pleased to get a rise out of them.  She always could!  They were predictable—fuck!  Like her.  No.  No!  She was not predictable.  Everybody told her so!

It was just the demons.  They were predictable that way, goading them a reliable gambit to break the cycle of her unwanted thoughts, trying not to think of—her position.  The chains—

Back then, she told herself, she slept where she liked, ate what she liked, and kept herself to herself.  Mostly.  Always, she slept anywhere she could find, ate anything she could scavenge, and avoided the city watch as assiduously as she tried to avoid the other monsters the city watch was meant to guard people against.  But not always with success.  She shuddered, remembering there had been some bad times—days, nights, when they caught her and things had been beyond her control awhile, things happening of which she would be no part, and her only objective had been to escape and recover, restore order, restore equilibrium. 

Like now.

Street children had only their wits to keep them a step ahead of horror; and like most street children, she had tripped and fallen into the clutches of evil men—always men—once or twice. 

But it was the freedom she had usually enjoyed, that she missed now.  She had been a brilliant child-thief.  And when she started to come into her powers… well, unfortunately, a child struggling to comprehend their power attracted attention long before it started paying dividends. 

Back then, perhaps… sometimes… maybe she had just been young and stupid.  But there had been such a hope that things would get better someday, somehow.  A wish that had at once been fulfilled when Channah took her in, and been slowly dashed to pieces ever since, as Esmeray, growing older and wiser, realized there was no way out for her from where she was right now, under Channah’s thumb.  Nowhere for her to go to get away.  But maybe, back then, before she met Channah—well, before she was caught by—

MAYBE BACK THEN, she thought forcefully to herself, she could have found somewhere, a place, if she’d had the chance.

As it was, she did not, and she would not.  Not ever.

She was Channah’s, body and soul.  Channah was a powerful matron and matriarch—which was generally to the good.  She worked for the strongest person she had ever encountered, someone whose reach was global, whose time was infinite.  It was a good thing to work for the Queen.  Something filled with perks.  The best she could hope for—

“Esmeray!  Madwoman!”  The voice tried again, more insistently.  She straightened, shook her head to clear it, and looked back over her left shoulder to see Hong regarding her urgently.  “Are you yourself again?”

She blinked, then nodded.  “I’m fine.”

Something—disbelief, scorn, a decision of some kind that Esmeray’s assertion was incorrect—crossed her face momentarily.  But after an initial sting, Esmeray’s more rational mind sensed whatever Hong was experiencing wasn’t meant for her.  Hong was as focused on herself, as she was formidable.  Not unlike Channah:  Neither of them wasted time thinking about others, except for how she could manipulate them, and what they might be able to do for her.  Despite her desire to dislike the snotty bitch, Esmeray instead felt something between relief to be dealing with a predictable, and therefore potentially helpful, person with no particular desire to mess up Esmeray’s life; and a desire to interact with Hong precisely because she couldn’t stand interacting with most people. 

And Esmeray thought she saw something like a grudging respect from Hong as well.  “When I heard about you, I couldn’t understand why my Queen would have anything to do with one as… brittle as you.  But I see now.  Do you?”

“What?”  Esmeray asked, startled by the frank and sincere question.

“Do you know why she brought you here, to this place, the heteraslakos?”

“To remind me she can do whatever she likes to me,” Esmeray answered, shrugging matter-of-factly.

Something played around Hong’s lips before settling on amusement, and she snorted.  “Very probably.  But beyond that.”

“She said I’m damaged enough that I have the capacity to do real damage,” Esmeray answered slowly, watching Hong’s expression intently for anything insincere or petty.  All she found was a flash of understanding.

Hong stepped up behind Esmeray, returning her curious gaze:  “Can you abide the touch—a gentle touch—of a woman?”

Esmeray stiffened, wanting to snap that she could survive anything but quelling the urge to do so, as Hong raised her hands slowly.  Sensing she had still been too fast, Hong pulled them back a moment, shushing her gently, before resting one, and then the other, on Esmeray’s sleeve, not looking away from her for a second.  And then she paused, doing nothing, saying nothing, as Esmeray held her body tight as a drum, before starting to understand.  With a testy but determined hiss of breath, she began forcing herself to relax.  Even with the other qahramanah touching her. 

“Can you touch others?” Esmeray nodded questioningly, and Hong explained, removing her hands from Esmeray’s sleeve and holding out her left hand, a few inches from Esmeray’s.  “Then touch me.”

Esmeray hesitated, considering her irritation, her instant desire not to do what somebody else wanted her to do, and the tension that had arisen in her the moment Hong called her name.  Deliberately, rationally, she chose to play along anyway.  The queen bee obviously wanted something from her; and Esmeray wanted to know why Channah had dragged her here, what kind of show she was supposed to be putting on, exactly.  Everyone wanted to be powerful and valuable—or at the very least, to understand their value to others, not merely to capitalize upon it, but to be wary of the threat the other person’s desire might pose.

Literature Section “06-98 Esmeray on Edge”—more material available at TheRemainderman.com—Part 98 of Chapter Six, “Le Saccage de la Sale Bête Rouge” (“Rampage of the Dirty Red Beast”)—1350 words—Accompanying Images:  1833-1835—Published 2025-05-23—©2025 The Remainderman.  This is a work of fiction, not a book of suggestions.  It’s filled with fantasies, idiots, and criminals. Don’t believe them or imitate them.

Literature Section “06-89 Mothers’ Day (Southern Style)”—more material available at TheRemainderman.com—21 words—Accompanying Images:  1739, 1741-1742, 1744-1750, 1754-1762, 1764-1773, 1791-1798, 1740, 1743, 1763—Published 2025-05-11 to 05-17—©2025 The Remainderman.  This is a work of fiction, not a book of suggestions.  It’s filled with fantasies, idiots, and criminals. Don’t believe them or imitate them.

An Old Southern Tradition (05-11)

This photo essay is as close to real as my work gets.  The Old South was FUUUUUUCKED UP.  Happy Mother’s Day!

Images 1740, 1743, and 1763 are fully-consistent with DA’s published guidelines and with US law, but because I don’t trust DA’s algorithms and don’t want to be kicked off again, they will be posted on May 12th and 14th at 06-89 Mother’s Day (Southern Style) at Patreon.com/TheRemainderman.

Literature Section “06-89 Mothers’ Day (Southern Style)”—more material available at TheRemainderman.com—21 words—Accompanying Images:  1739, 1741-1742, 1744-1750, 1754-1762, 1764-1773, 1791-1798, 1740, 1743, 1763—Published 2025-05-11 to 05-17—©2025 The Remainderman.  This is a work of fiction, not a book of suggestions.  It’s filled with fantasies, idiots, and criminals. Don’t believe them or imitate them.

06-69 Dance of the Qahramanat IV

PREVIOUSLY:  Channah, a Queen of Hell, for reasons of her own, has married two human transgender girls she is taking through the Hell of Lust on a flying chariot ride to reach their honeymoon destination.  At the foreboding Chang’an Castle, Penny and Chas have just had their first sight of their qahramanah, Hanim Esmeray, who in turn has just met Fang’s wife Hong and immediately clashed with her.  When Hong turns her back on Esmeray, Fang cries out in warning  NOW:

Hong pivoted with surprising speed on her impractical fighting boots as Esmeray laughed, taking her hand off the hilt of her scimitar.

“Esmeray,” Channah snapped, “Did you know your slaves’ legs went to jelly the moment—the very instant—they set eyes on Hong?”

And Hong chose that moment to emphasize the point by snapping:  “Show respect, bitches!”

“No, Your Majesty,” Esmeray muttered, trying not to sound jealous, watching reluctantly but attentively as the four girls fell adoringly to grovel at Hong’s feet.

“Hong, in fifteen years on the hetaraslakos, have you or anyone you’ve known suspected you could get such a reaction out of the damned by urinating on them?”

“No, Your Majesty,” Hong murmured, trying not to look embarrassed.

“Let me make this clear, abīdBoth of you, as tiresome as you may be, are useful and valuable chattel of the Crown.  And both of you have things to learn.  If you want to ruin your rival, show her up and enjoy it when I punish her.  In fact, Fang and I will make this more interesting:  every full moon, Fang and I will decide which of you has done better, and give the winner an opportunity to humiliate the loser.”  Both women stood straighter at that, looking daggers into one another’s eyes.  “But if either of you damages the other—my property—Lilith help me, I will make you train your own replacement and then have you tortured for the rest of your human life.”

“Yes, Domina.”  “Yes, Your Majesty,” they murmured, heads bowed.

Putting Girls in Their Places

When Esmeray bowed her head, her eyes fell upon the two girls still frozen at her feet with their lips on her boots.  As if the shutter on a bull’s-eye lantern had suddenly been flipped, she gushed unexpectedly, startling no one half as much as Penny:  “Penance!” she leaned down and pulled her up.  “Get up, you two!”

And the moment they were standing, she threw her arms around Penny and cried, squeezing her:  “My little savior!”  Pulling back, she seized Penny’s cheeks and kissed her on the lips enthusiastically, heedless of the way her scars and her faerie-touched eyes and her sudden mood shift had overwhelmed the younger woman.

Releasing her, she turned to Chas.  “And you must be her whorish little friend who’s brought her back to me as a girl!”  She kissed her as fiercely and genuinely fondly as she had kissed Penny, leaving each girl as baffled and anxious as the other. 

Finally on their feet without hands on their necks holding them down, the girls were able to look around them for the first time.  In addition to the dramatic, even terrifying landscape of hell and its slavering crimson inhabitants, they saw the surface of the hetaraslakos was about 12 to 15 feet higher than the killing ground around it, and that four of the eight edges were specialized:  One facet had an enormous futon strewn with differently-shaped pillows, with a fence around it, almost like a cage or… or a crib.  A second was actually a glass platform, each block of glass resting on an iron grill and framed with iron where the grout would have been between blocks of stone, allowing the audience to see everything going on above them through the floor.  A third was an artificial pond with glass walls built from the same basic structure as the glass platform, using bronze in place of iron, and filled with water at almost unimaginable cost and effort in this place.  And the fourth was an iron framework, as complex as a cathedral, rising another 15 or 20 feet above the platform, with arms and stairs and loops everywhere.  Nearer the middle of the platform were racks containing a variety of toys and instruments, some of which the girls recognized as floggers, whips, and canes; and others with purposes the girls could not guess.  Nearer the stairwell rising at the center of the platform, and surrounding it on three sides, were a cluster of benches seating 20 musicians with different instruments.  The musicians stared carefully and doggedly directly ahead of themselves, studiously ignoring Channah, Fang, and their group.  The musicians all appeared to be older jawari, struggling twice as hard, and with half as much success, as other women to maintain their beauty.

“Now that that’s all forgotten,” Channah beamed, spreading her arms innocently, as Fang snickered at the satirical segue.  “Fang has honored us with wedding presents.”

“Square saddles!” Hong snapped her fingers, and her four submissives scrambled in front of her, startling Esmeray, shuffling to the four corners of a square with their arms out at right angles, touching one another’s fingertips to space themselves properly, before dropping to their bellies and moving their knees up to their sides.

“Girls,” Channah stepped forward, pointing to the girl at her feet.  “This is saddle position.  See how she is on her shoulders and knees, with her knees spread wide apart?”

“Yes, Domina,” they murmured, embarrassed.

“Every position a saddle girl can take is uncomfortable.”  She couldn’t prevent herself from smiling at the arousing thought.  “Especially on stone.  Even when they’re not trying to hold presents off the ground.  Because of the festivities we have planned, and because frankly the position is more pleasant for us as a footstool than an actual saddle, we won’t make them hold these positions for long.  But it’s better than sitting on the stone, and Esmeray, the effects can be… debilitating to your pets, depending on how long you make them maintain position. The point here is that in this position, their knees take enough of their weight they still breathe, while their shoulders and pelvises take enough weight to keep their knees from breaking.”

And with that, Channah—followed in quick succession by Fang and Hong, knelt with their knees outside the girls’ and their bottoms on their backs.  “Come on, Esmeray, sit,” Channah gestured, and Esmeray hesitantly did so, smiling a bit despite herself.  “Fang, is there any particular order you recommend they open the gifts?”

“Hong?” Fang asked in turn, and Hong instructed her bitches: 

“Honghua, Hongjiao, present gifts.”

Two of the girls managed to raise their presents off the ground, even from their current, uncomfortable positions, as Hong explained with a curtsy to Channah:  “Domina Channah, Domina Fang recommends your two sisterwives open these two gifts at first, simultaneously; then the remaining two.”

“Then by all means, proceed.  Girls?”  She gestured to Penny and Chas, standing awkwardly on the platform and wondering what, if anything, they should be doing.  “Kneel between us and open your gifts simultaneously.”

Literature Section “06-69 Dance of the Qahramanat IV”—Part 69 of Chapter Six, “Le Saccage de la Sale Bête Rouge” (“Rampage of the Dirty Red Beast”)—1097 words—Accompanying Images:  1619-1622—Published 2025-04-21—©2025 The Remainderman.  This is a work of fiction, not a book of suggestions.  It’s filled with fantasies, idiots, and criminals. Don’t believe them or imitate them.