[This is an erotic body modification fantasy inspired by the old Chinese practice of foot binding. It is 100% fantasy and not intended as a historical or cultural treatise of any kind. All characters in all my work are 18 years of age or over.]

Fit for the Emperor

by Ben Fann

It was still nearly dark when May's eyes fluttered open. Today was a big day, a milestone in her life, she hoped, and she was too excited to sleep. But she had to wait patiently until the designated waking hour, as she was unable to get out of bed until her maid arrived to loosen her restraints. Her eager young heart beat rapidly in her chest, but she had learned patience over the course of years lived in bondage. As the light grew her brown eyes scanned absently about the ceiling of her bed chamber, scanning the white plaster and dark beams above that she already knew so well. Her mind darted ahead to the trials she looked forward to later in the day, when she hoped to complete her apprenticeship.

The Sun was still below the walls of the closed, tile paved courtyard that May's little window looked out on when her maid arrived, bearing a nest of wooden pails and a tray loaded of textiles and other items. The plain, neatly dressed, middle aged woman had tended May for years now, but the girl she served did not know her name. Though she was descended of peasant stock like the older woman, once May had been selected for training as a concubine she was considered to have moved up in class, and was not supposed to become familiar with servants who were now ranked beneath her.

The maid began by removing the pegs that held the slim young woman's bed in a slightly inclined position. The bed was a sturdy board 20" wide, sanded smooth and covered with a thin layer of silk. The board pivoted below May's hips as the head end was lowered until it was level with her feet, and she sighed into her padded leather gag as pressure eased on her jaw and neck. The maid slid out a dowel below May's chin that held her neck in the padded wooden yoke; the bulky restraint bore a portion of her weight as she slept. Throughout the night her body tried down the slight incline on the nearly frictionless silk, tensioning her neck in the yoke. The leather gag was not intended to keep May silent,but to distribute part of the load from her jaw to her skull, and thence to her spine. For the first few weeks the discomfort of this restriction had made it impossible to sleep, but her young body had adapted and the arrangement now seemed quite natural.

The dowels across her ankles were slid out, and the older woman lifted May's silk wrapped foot. She began bending her long white legs this way and that, stretching out the sinews that had tightened during her night in bondage. She worked slowly and carefully, in ritualistic fashion, but pushed hard enough that the girl moaned softly against the tension. With each round of repetitions more flexibility returned, until the maid was able to flex the girl's legs more than 90 degrees to each side of her body, and press her ankles up alongside her ears.

Finally May was allowed to sit upright. As she rose her firm, curved buttocks pressed down into the hollows that had been carved into the sleeping board to cradle her bottom, and prevent her feminine curves from being flattened during the night. Another carved indentation accommodated her arms, which were bound with long strips of silk high behind her back. The board had been shaped especially for May to fit every curve, and train her body to the proper posture while she slept.

May's legs were swung to dangle off the board with her toes just touching the cool tile floor. The maid placed both hands on either side of the younger woman's head and twisting the neck left and right, forward and back, working out the stiffness. Hundreds of nights in the yoke had gently stretched May's neck an inch longer than it had been when she had begun her training, giving her an ethereally graceful look.

How fortunate she had been, May reflected, to be spotted that day in the market by her Master, and bought away from her poor family to live a new life where she had been made beautiful beyond a simple girl's dreams, and where servants tended to her every need!

With the kinks in her neck worked out, May took her breakfast. The maid fed her, a spoonful at a time, from a cup of thick rice porridge laced with herbs that would maintain her health. The gruel was heartier than was usual, flecked with tiny bits of salt-cured pork that May rarely tasted; no doubt the kitchen had been advised that she would need all her strength today.

When the cup was empty the older woman wiped the corners of May's mouth with a soft cloth, then stepped back. Familiar with the morning ritual, May rose to her toes and shuffled with tiny steps, unsteadily at first as she shook of the night's idleness,to sit on a V-shaped stool near the center of the room. She sat with thighs aligned on the split seat, so that her knees were spread immodestly. The maid slipped off the flimsy silk night shift, exposing the young woman's body completely but for the tight white bandages that bound her waist, feet, and shoulders.

The silent attendant leaned over her and began unwrapping the wide loops of silk that circled the girl's waist. May had worn wrappings like this almost constantly since her training had begun, re-wrapped more tightly after each time they were removed for hygiene or other duties. Over the years the soft bindings had reduced her naturally slim figure to the point that a large man could, with two hands, nearly touch his thumbs and forefingers together around her waist. For a time the waist wrap had been boned with strips of rigid bamboo, to prevent her organs from bulging outwards under the constriction and giving her an unsightly tummy, but as her body shifted internally the boning became unnecessary and more flexible wraps were used to allow her greater freedom of motion.

Dropping to her knees the maid slid a wooden bucket beneath the girl. In front of her face, and below a small black triangle of neatly trimmed pubic hair, the red bud of May's clitoris thrust outward boldly. Its sheath had been trimmed away, and a golden ring circled its base, the diameter carefully chosen to restrict blood flow and keep the tiny organ constantly engorged and at peak sensitivity. A tiny golden bar passed through the ring - and the base of the firm nub within - holding it in place.

The fleshy slot that extended below the bold red clit was hairless, and sleek. The apprentice concubine's inner labia had been trimmed away, when early on she had shown unusual sensitivity in this area and been unable to devote the proper focus to her duties during intercourse training. The pain from this procedure, dulled only by acupuncture and a tall cup of rice wine that had made May's head spin, had been excruciating. But the resulting wounds, like those inflicted when her clit sheath had been trimmed, were now long healed and she was pleased to see her privates look so neat and taut.

Moisture glistened from the bottom of the clean slit and the tops of the girl's inner thighs; the maid quickly wiped it away with a soft towel. It was like this every morning, ever since a series of acupuncture treatments that lanced May's groin with dozens of steel needles had triggered the lubricating glands of her pussy. The needles were a memory now, but she remained constantly wet inside and required toweling two or three times a day to prevent soaking through her garments.

The squeezing and shifting of her organs beneath the corseting wraps had given May a striking hourglass silhouette, but had side effects: her bowel was so pinched and twisted that she could no longer evacuate without special assistance. Still on her knees between May's spread legs, the maid now gently inserted the curved, finger-wide tip of a heavy brass cylinder a few inches into her snug anus. Pushing the plunger at other end of the device she slowly pumped nearly a quart of soap laced water into the girl, bringing a quiet moan from her lips. When it was fully empty she slid the plunger out, only to replace it immediately with a stopper of carved ivory that swelled outwards near the tip filling May's rectum, while a brass ring dangled from the exposed end.

Giving the enema a few minutes to work, the attendant began to scrub the girl's torso with a wet coarse sponge, exfoliating any dry skin in order to maintain the translucent beauty of youth. Moving slowly upwards,she paid special attention to May's round breasts, scrubbing vigorously to remove every dead cell and keep the girl's bosom perfect, soft and white. This was not too uncomfortable for the young concubine, as her breasts had been largely desensitized by years of special treatment. First, her perky little breasts had been wrapped in bandages soaked in herbal medicines. These had itched terribly and caused a hot sensation in her chest, but over months of repeated treatments she understood their purpose as her breasts swelled from bare handfuls into firm globes that her maid could barely cover with both hands.

Unfortunately the herbal treatments had also stained the fair skin of her bosom, turning it a blotchy tea-brown. When the Master had been satisfied with her size, her maid had taken to scrubbing her bosom daily with a paste made from ground sea shells and laced with some kind of sap or juice, the odor of which had burned May's nose. These scrubbings had at first been agony, as the gritty paste scraped away the stained skin while the noxious additive burned into her flesh. Her breasts had still been taut and swollen -which they remained to this day, to a degree- and felt like melons sliding under her skin as the maid worked them with her knobby peasant's hands. But after several months the tea stained skin had been scrubbed and bleached away, and May's bosom was whiter and softer than it had ever been.

Most of the nerves in her bosom had been destroyed by the aggressive bleaching, though, depriving her of sensation in the skin of her breasts and making them feel like unnatural growths on her body, more like weighty ornaments than really parts of her. Even her nipples, which were soft and rosy-pink after being scrubbed along with the rest of her breasts, had been deadened. Her buds had been pierced and pinched with gold, much like her clitoris, so that they remained erect at all times. But unlike her clitty they were nearly senseless, like rubbery buttons on her clothing.

May regretted the loss when she recalled it, but it all seemed a small price to pay for her improvement in status.

The maid could see her charge's abdomen beginning to spasm as the soapy water did its work, and setting her sponge down to one side reached under and slowly pulled the ivory anal plug downwards by its dangling ring. In a moment, spurts of chunky brown liquid splashed down into the high sided bucket, accompanied by little grunts from the young concubine.

When she was satisfied that the girl had been fully evacuated, the attendant washed and dried her bottom with towels. Then she picked up another brass plunger, and flushed first the neatly trimmed pussy, and then the tight anus, with rose scented water. Drying the suspended bottom one last time, she dropped the towels used in this operation into the bucket and set it outside the door to the small chamber. It was only a moment before a lower ranking servant could be heard scurrying along the hall to take it away.

Dropping again to her knees the maid took May's foot in her hands and began to unwind the long strips of silk that bound it. Wrap after wrap fell to the floor in a heap of gauzy loops, until the night splints were revealed. Thin slats of bamboo ran down the slim lower leg, both in front and behind, from mid calf to just above the toes. They were shaped to fit snugly, and with cutouts to cup the heel. The splints held May's feet at extreme extension, with her feet pointing straight down in line with her shins. So long had her feet been bound this way that the tendons and muscles of her lower legs had tightened so that, even when the splints were removed to tend to her hygiene, she could not wiggle her feet more than a few degrees away from their vertical position.

With the splints removed the maid unwound the thinner layer of gauze that protected May's white skin from the hard bamboo, until her feet and ankles were revealed. The feet were of normal length but unnaturally narrow, the tight bindings having forced over the years the long bones of the foot into a bundle rather than running side-by-side in the same plane. The two outer toes had been dislocated and folded back and under, where they had atrophied over the years into small vestigial buttons. The three largest toes were bent back at a right angle from the foot affording her, when she stood,a few square inches of contact with the ground upon which to balance.

May thought her feet, when exposed, were ugly, and as always was happy when after washing them with soap and water from the bucket, trimming her nails and powdering the ghostly white skin, the maid wrapped them up again in day booties of plain white silk and hid them from view.

When both feet had been tended and re-wrapped in clean bindings the maid began sponging May's legs, scrubbing these as vigorously as she had the torso to remove any loose skin and maintain her flawless glow, like the finest porcelain. When the scrubbing was done she dried the girl carefully with a soft towel, then spent several minutes rubbing a variety of herbal creams into every inch of fair, soft skin.

What a blessing, to be pampered so!

At last the maid stood and performed a similar treatment of scrubbing and moisturization to May's doll-like face, though more gently and with smaller pots of different creams formulated especially for the face. The girl's remarkable beauty - the sculpted cheekbones and delicate chin, the unusually large eyes, the button nose - was natural, and amain reason why the master had sought to buy her from her parents. May's face had been enhanced only by some light bleaching that had spared most of her nerves here, and maintained by strict avoidance of the Sun. Her lips were stained regularly with a red herbal dye; the formula also caused her lips to swell slightly which helped conceal the hollow look caused by the removal of her teeth.

At a gesture from the maid May opened her mouth, so that the attendant could clean her soft, pink gums and around the inside of her mouth with a small brush. The woman gently grasped the girl's tongue by the large golden bead that filled a piercing near the tip and drew it out to be scrubbed; the organ stretched to unusual length after many long sessions of special exercises performed with lead weights dangling from the piercing. Then, after a rinse of fresh, herb infused water, the maid moved behind the V-shaped stool and began to unbind May's hair.

This was unusual, as May's hair was usually washed and rebound weekly, but this was a big day and she would get the full treatment. When the pins and clips were removed and her braids worked out, her jet black tresses hung to the upper curves of her round bottom. Bending forward she allowed the maid to wash and wring her hair over a large pail. Then came long minutes of brushing, with May wincing now and then as the maid worked out knots in her careful but purposeful fashion. Finally the long hair was wrapped into a towel atop May's head to dry.

The maid began now to unwind the long strips of cloth that bound May's hands up between her shoulder blades. The strips that extended from her hidden fingers up and around her shoulders were slipped off, releasing the tension, but her arms did not drop. After years bound this way the tendons had hardened so that her arms' natural position was twisted behind her, elbows nearly touching and hands flat against her back between the shoulders, with palms out.

Slowly the maid unwound the wrappings that cocooned May's hands, and extended up her bent arms nearly to the shoulder. Prevented by the ossified joints from flexing her arms to the front of her body, May would never see her hands again, and it was just as well. Years ago her thumbs had been dislocated, pressed hard into her palms, and bound there; the tight bindings had led to the thumbs and the rest of her hands atrophying into small, mishapen clubs. The muscles of her arms had likewise deteriorated in their perpetual bondage, so that even the tiny maid could close her hand completely around her charge's bony upper arm.

Sometimes, when memories flashed of playing childrens' games in the fields with her young friends years ago, or of brushing her own hair, May felt pangs of dismay. But they always passed quickly, overruled by pride in her new, elevated role as one who depended on servants for her every need.

The nameless maid sponged the withered limbs clean, then massaged them vigorously to provoke a flow of fresh blood. May whined as her twisted limbs made prickly complaints upon being awakened from their long sleep. She wished this part of the ritual was unnecessary, and that her now useless arms could just be bound up permanently. But the maid knew the occasional relief and massage were necessary to prevent the onset of potentially lethal gangrene.

When she was done, she powdered the sickly white flesh and wrapped the arms again, then began fitting May's undergarment. This was a snug sheath of fine, shiny silk, intricately embroidered white-on-white and nearly matching her fair skin. It was sleeveless, without armholes even, and served to hide the girl's bound arms. These were so thin, in fact, folded so carefully and pinned so close behind her body, that when wearing the cutaway sheath she appeared from most angles actually to be armless.

The undergarment was short, cut high above the young beauty's flaring hips with a dangling flap that extended just low enough to hide the bald slit of her pussy. The front was cut away, so that the fair skin from May's neck to the bottom of her rib cage was exposed, but the light bindings constricting her midsection were concealed under the fine embroidered silk. Hidden laces drew the garment tight around her tiny waist;the twin hemispheres of her bare white breasts jutted forward through the cutaway front of the sheath, tipped with pink and flashes of gold.

May had already been fitted for a number of modest dresses appropriate for wear about the house, in a rainbow of colors suited to each season, heavily embroidered and trimmed in golden thread. How excited she'd been to model each of them in turn for the tailor and their Master, her tiptoed feet moving quickly inside the narrow, ankle length skirts with delicate steps a few inches long while her upper body glided ethereally to and fro, just as she'd been trained. But she would perform today's trials in the undergarment alone, just as she would serve her future master in his private chambers.

The attendant unwound the towel that confined May's hair, which was now dry, and brushed it out once again before beginning to rebraid and rebind it. The eager young mind of the apprentice concubine wandered while the maid worked, from excited visions of what life would be like when she was finally sold and taken away from the House of Concubines by her new master, to nervously reviewing the exercises she would soon have to perform to prove that she was ready.

By the time the maid was finishing the braiding and winding of May's dark tresses, the sunbeam shining through the little window had moved several tiles across the floor, and the quiet of morning given way to the distant bustle of city life outside the courtyard walls. Finally May felt the last long pins slipping in, that held her coiled black hair in an intricate design piled high upon her fair head. Stout braided loops dangled to either side just below her ears, providing firm grips while the tall coiffure accentuated her long, delicate neck.

Outside in the hall, May heard firm male footsteps followed by a patter of female servants. Her pulse rose as they approached, and when they stopped outside her door she knew before the latch was raised that the time to prove herself had come...