On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Side Thirty – The Widow Of Nails

“This is unacceptable!” Kondou-dono snarled, face white with anger. He swept his arm out, striking his porcelain mug off the table to shatter on the floor, the hot tea within splashing over Kiku and seeping into her threadbare kimono, burning the flesh beneath.

As she bowed, trying to assuage his anger, she thought that it was a bitter irony that most of the feelings she could once more experience were painful ones. Pain is all Kondou-dono can gift us with…

“Why can’t you do anything right, you useless bitch?” he was ranting, his fist striking the table and denting it in, the expensive wood splintering. “The amount of resources we are wasting on this war, only to lose again and again…” he kicked out, and the table struck her as she was bowing low, near-kneeling on the floor. “… now the rats are at my own borders.”

Feeling sluggish black blood tricking from her mouth, she touched the floor with her forehead, hoping to calm him and escape his retribution. “I understand, Kondou-dono. However, without leadership, the … these orcs…” Filthy beasts, even mindless they disgust me. Oh, my lot in life as a woman is to suffer… “… they cannot compete with the enemy. They have some powerful warriors, perhaps even another one such as yourself, my master. If only you would take the field yourself, then…”

His eyes were as hard as her nails, and she realised she had made a mistake. Suddenly pain was roaring through her, her mind reeling, thoughts scattering away like spiders into the darkness when a lamp was lit. She gagged, a mixture of bile and blood rising. “Master… Kondou-dono… please…” she reached out a pale hand towards his boot, only for him to stamp on her, and she felt bones grind under his tender care…

“You do not order me, woman. You belong to me, you obey me!” he snarled, crushing her underfoot, while pain boiled through her. “I am the only god you shall need, the only master you’ll serve. And I’ll go into battle when I am damn well ready, and not before.”

His rage exhausting itself, he looked down on Kiku as she thrashed around. Gradually the pain started diminishing, leaving her limp and trembling.

“If our forces need direction, you can command them in person.” She spat. “After all, your minions are proving a disappointment. How can ghosts who can hardly be hurt be so… so… pathetic? If you need further strength, we could always use those two that we bound… that would bolster our offensive power.”

For someone with such a gift of pain, you are quite the coward, Kondou-dono. My husband was no coward, though he was quite the savage. She was rubbing her golden band, her thoughts foggy. He is eager to bully the weak, but if he was to come up against a rival who could match him… gritting her teeth, tasting bitter metal, she proffered a warning… “I understand, master, I do. But if we were to lose the bound ones, our strength would be much diminished and…”

“You think I don’t know that?” Pain knifed through her again, though mercifully brief. “Still, we can’t have intruders running around my domain. They probably cannot breach our defences, but should they do so… no, you handle it. I will not allow any excuses or failures.”

“I understand, Kondou-dono.” Kiku gasped. “I shall attend to it at my own discretion…” If he does not allow that, then I shall be forced to use my…

“See that you do. I want those rats dead, and their domain under my control. Our other avenues of growth have been choked off by this wastefulness.” He cut her off, and she hid an expression of relief, her hand still fondling her ring.

“I shall make sure of their defeat.” Kiku promised.

“Good. But before you go, clean up the back room. You can use her, if you want.”

As her master left, Kiku rose to her feet, the phantom pain still lingering. Knowing what she would find in the playroom, she entered, only to be surprised, as the girl was still alive, groaning pitifully. Poor woman, another victim of the crass violence and lusts of base men…

The blood-soaked woman looked up at her, the one eye remaining open wide and staring. She let out a pitiful cry for help, though her shattered jaw strangled the words, rendering them unintelligible. One of her arms was broken too, bent at a cruel angle, but with the other she scrabbled desperately across the floor, trying to reach anyone that would help her, or grant her peace.

Oh sad little girl. She is too far gone, too gravely hurt. Her hand clutched a nail as she moved closer. “Poor child, stay silent now. I shall help you.”

At those words the girl relaxed, going limp, moans seeping from her ruined mouth. Kiku stood over her, and the nail drove down, piercing flesh and bone, stilling her movement forever. Casting her sight to the Boundary she could see another confused ghost there, awaiting her instructions. Once given, she returned her attention back to the corpse, preparing herself to consume the bitter, brutalised flesh with her mouth of nails.

This one is… as she looked at the body she noticed it was not the usual type of victim, the poor, lonely travellers to this land that her lord catered to. No, this one was a native. Nobody of importance, probably, judging by the torn clothes lying around. A pleasure girl. One who suffers the touch of man for money. Though that perhaps is no crueller than the touch of love. The band on her finger was digging into her pale skin, a thin trickle of dark blood dropping to the floor.

“Still…” she spoke, the words painfully loud in the poignant silence of the playroom. “… Kondou-dono grows ever more arrogant and sure of his might, yet he still will not face our enemies. Disappointing…” the gangmasters of Edo who ran the brothels and slums would no doubt be wroth. Harlots and geisha were as numerous as grains of sand, yet they did not let it pass when anything of theirs was taken, for reputation was their currency as much as silver or gold.

If only Kondou-dono had not come before her, but some other… she had been dwelling in the graveyard, lovingly tending her husbands’ grave, making sure none of the other spirits or creatures of the dark could get at it, or his remains, which were hers and hers alone, but one day she felt a strange flow of power in that place. Then Kondou-dono came, and she tried to defend what was hers, with her nails that repelled all who would hurt her and could enslave those of a weaker will, yet…

Even meeting his gaze can give great pain. My very soul burned that day. Kiku had expected oblivion, but he had spared her, on the condition she would be his slave. I considered the final death, for what is left for me, other than tending to the grave, keeping the ash and bones… but my anger, my bitterness, it would not let me pass on…

Whatever sorceries Kondou-dono had inherited, he could bind her, and disobeying his orders was impossible, yet… as long as I can interpret it, I can maintain my own will…

Still, one thing was certain, she would have to defeat the invaders. With that in mind, she finished her grizzly feast, the rotten taste of flesh filling her mouth and nose. With that done she returned to the Boundary, her daughters flitting about her, insubstantial and wispy. I must do what I can, as Kondou-dono has ordered. Until his cruel deeds catch up with him, or he meets an enemy he cannot defeat… until then I am his slave, and the grave of my husband goes untended. In the Boundary her form had shifted, less human and more baleful, her hair streaming behind her, metallic and grey, her hands cruelly twisted amalgams of flesh and iron, her true nails scraping against the worn and scarred ring of gold she wore on her finger.

“Time… to… feast.” She grated, her mouth full of long, gore-slicked nails, grinning like a shark, her black eyes lifeless and full of dark emotions, hunger, revenge and sorrow…

********

“Die!” Kiku hissed, her hands knotted into claws. Rusted nails, tipped with dark liquid, appeared in the air in a spread in front of her, dozens of the dark metal spikes obeying her will. Around her, the beasts she was forced to command were surging out to attack, yet the two intruders were proving more than their match.

Poor girl, so pretty, so young, so innocent. Yet soon enough you will know the cruel hands of men, what they want, what they are capable of when the candles are snuffed out and darkness creeps in… It would be a mercy to kill her now, indeed, before she suffered. Such a noble girl, wearing a yukata with practiced grace, her long amber-blonde hair trailing behind her refined, patrician features. As for the man…

Nails hissed through the air, passing through the defensive barrier that protected the lands her master had claimed. The girl opened her amber eyes wide in surprise before gesturing and a gust of wind spread from her, smelling of the woods and water and stranger, fey things, that brought back memories of when Kiku walked the Material, so long ago.

Not enough, not nearly enough. Some of her projectiles were deflected by the gale, but more passed straight through, aimed at her face and body, like knives seeking her life. Soon you shall be one of my daughters, and all the pain you will have to face shall never come to you…

“Look out!” The man shouted, leaping in front of her, spinning his spear. Nails clattered against the blade, scoring it, and several hit him, the sound of breaking metal ringing out.

“Master, are you unharmed?” the girl cried, and he nodded. “Yeah, my armour held as I reinforced it with aether at the last second. Bloody hurt though, like wearing a bulletproof vest and getting shot.”

Kiku gaped in surprise. The man would take a hit for his woman, his servant? Her metal teeth gnashed as she started biting on her fingers, teeth digging into her ring. This was not right. No, this is not right at all. Orcs were falling, most of them diced apart by wind and some strange whirling contraptions of wire and blades the girl was wielding. One staggered back towards her, both arms missing, falling in front of her. She looked down, and then a nail appeared, thrusting into its skull.

Useless, useless, useless.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a prismatic light, then a vicious bolt of energy flew from the heart of Kondou-dono’s demesne. They dodged, and the bolt carried on, to explode violently behind them. She clicked her teeth, enraged. If her master had entrusted her with the ability to command his defences she would be able to oppress the intruders, but he was too controlling, too dismissive of women. I only oversee the transfer of resources from the lands of the nailed ones I have enslaved. I do not want to bring them to the battle, but if I cannot win here without them…

Her thoughts were interrupted as the barrier shuddered, shrinking inwards under a great blast of wind. The positioning of the defences had left large gaps, only the strongest one able to range over the entire Territory.

Howling, she called upon her gifts and metal nails, each as long and thick as a spear, tore free from the ground under her foes. Somehow they managed to avoid it, and in return came great gouts of yellow fire, causing her to flinch back, afraid. That could hurt me… I remember when my husband held the flame to my… ugh, no, not now, not again… her metal teeth bit to her fingerbone, the cool of gold in her mouth driving away the fog. There was nothing to fear now, anyway. I am no longer that meek woman…

The flame had burst against the barrier, weakening it still further, but unable to break it down. As droplets of molten energy rained to the ground she cast out more nails like bullets, and called forth more spikes from the ground and surrounding buildings.

“She is most powerful indeed-indeed.” The girl complained, her metal wires shimmering with energies as they sheared through the spikes that burst at her. “She could grace the dark court of the Unseelie, she resembles the banshee my sister told me tales of as a child to scare-scare me, though she feels even fouler than that-that.”

Me? Foul? Insolent child, you shall have long to repent spurning my embrace… Kiku hurled handfuls of nails one after another, demolishing the surrounding terrain. Bright flame and wind exploded, a mushroom-cloud of force and debris rippling out, shivering the barrier once more. When it died down the intruders were gone, leaving behind a battlefield studded with spikes.

“So, they fled… but I did not kill them. I cannot return yet, not since Kondou-dono gave his foolish command.” The beasts were useless. The beetles… there were reserves that could be tapped, though they were to be used for future expansion, as they were harder to replace…

Perhaps I will have to use… that… after all… but the risk… It was powerful, to be sure, but if it was to fall, their power would be diminished. No, not our power, his power. The other alternative was chasing them outside the barrier and hunting them down, but that… remembering the fire she quivered, nails scratching her ring.

No, not yet. the pair will have to return soon, lest we attack them once more. And when they do… this time they shall not escape…