by Ryan Tang
"You! Shark!"
Lonely took one look at him and was immediately glad he'd sent Gallant back to her room. He began to scream.
____
The Tooth Man was bleeding very badly. Bright red blood mixed with nougats of rotting black Eternium poured out of every hole in his body. Big yellow sacs wriggled and squirmed in the pungent red fluid. They exploded whenever they hit the floor, sending sickly splashes high into the air. The stench alone counted as a new horror.
The grotesque mixture poured out from his eyes, nose, and mouth. His eyes were completely red; the blood vessels in them had shattered entirely. The dead veins stuck stiffly out from his eyes. They reminded Lonely of pictures he'd seen of bleached coral – a strange half-plant, half-rock like creature from Old Earth's sea that had been devastated in the Paragon Wars. The crotch of his pants was an utter mess. He was pissing out blood, and it was also gushing out of his ass.
Every inch of his skin was marred with deep lacerations. There was a wide slash all around his neck and a deep wound at his side. The cuts alone looked like enough to kill him.
The dying man spun absurdly around the floor, tossing and turning. His tongue lolled out of his mouth; every single one of his teeth had turned blood red. The blood poured out faster and faster, and the yellow sacs of pus splashed up higher and higher.
"Thousand! Teeth! Punch! Supreme!"
His mind was gone.
There was another slosh, and then the shark drifted out of the pod, buoyed by a tide of foul water and shattered glass. It floated in on its back. The pale white belly had yellow lumps crawling all underneath it. Its eyes had bled out of their sockets. The eyeballs bobbed up and down in the filthy water. The yellow muck had clogged the creature's gills completely shut. A few wispy strands of blood still seeped lamely out of the shark, but otherwise, it looked like it'd been bled completely dry. The cockpit of The Tooth Man's Paragon was stained with blood. The Eternium continued crumbling, spraying out the poisonous shards that'd killed the Noble and his Familiar. Lonely hastily stepped backward. Bringer had warned him not to touch them.
The Tooth Man stared at Lonely and shrieked. One eye rolled up towards him. The other was frozen in place by a stiff crust of yellow pus that'd hardened around it, forcing it to stare straight down into the ground.
"You. You know what you did. You know!"
He let out a high and keeling scream. His head turned around, and it seemed like he only suddenly realized where he was.
"You! You! Freak! Freak! No! Lonely! Lonely! Save me! Save me! Please! Save me, and I'll give you everything! My machine! My shark! My castle! Save me, and I'll give you everything!"
All of Lonely's hate and disdain faded away. He felt nothing but pity for the dying man on his floor. But he didn't step forward. The Paragon was toxic.
"Please! Save me! Save me and my shark is yours! Save me, and you get everything! Both my Castlecraft! Save me! Please!"
The Tooth Man let out a final cough. Blood erupted like a fountain. Hard black Eternium and squirming pus flew into the air then collapsed all on top of him.
And so Lonely won his first House battle.
He immediately called Bringer to find out how to clean up the mess. Gallant didn't need to see this.
____
As the line rang, Lonely sighed and thought of the plain gray sphere inside the suit jacket. What better weapon for the Conquest than a Familiar that could break any siege?
After their first victory, The Tooth Man had hidden inside his Castlecraft, but the longer The Tooth Man had waited, the more the poisoned Eternium had slowly worked to kill him.
Lonely took a deep breath and stared at the diseased corpse flopped in front of him. He had dreamed of killing The Tooth Man for years, but he'd never imagined it'd look like this. If anything, he'd hoped The Tooth Man would kill himself from shame after a humiliating defeat. He'd never really wanted to pull the trigger himself. If total war looked like this, Lonely wasn't sure he wanted any part of it.
He clenched his teeth and tried to remind himself that The Tooth Man had dreamed of destroying Lonely's House. The Tooth Man had boasted of snuffing out Gallant before she became the incredible Noble she should have been. He deserved to die, and it was good that Lonely had done it by his own hand.
The plain-faced man beamed as his face appeared on Lonely's tablet.
"Well, congratulations on your first victory. You're probably wondering how I knew."
It didn't seem likely that Lonely would call to ask about anything else, but Bringer wanted a specific answer. It was another test, just like pointing at the Castlecrafts and making Lonely tell him who lived there.
It took just a moment longer before he saw it.
"You scouted outside his Castlecraft."
Bringer had known that the sphere would kill primarily through poison. He must have simply placed a Sinsworn scout outside The Tooth Man's Castlecraft. Nobody would notice among the swarm of Paragons flying back and forth. As soon as he saw The Tooth Man leave by himself, it was easy to deduce what had happened.
Lonely cursed himself. Scouting was a basic. He shouldn't have had to rely on something as imprecise as the news. Nobody would have suspected if he'd sent a few generic looking machines to fly around The Tooth Man's two Castlecraft. As Bringer said, their world wasn't built for total war.
Bringer beamed.
"Very good! I see you've been studying hard."
The same as he always did, the excited man abruptly pivoted.
"Do you mind showing me what The Tooth Man looks like right now? I've tested the ball before but never at that range. I knew it'd be the poison, but I haven't dared try the effects on myself."
He giggled.
"You declared war against The Tooth Man faster than I thought you would. I thought you'd try to build up your force against lesser Lords. But no! You won with a hundred Sinsworn against nearly ten thousand."
The compliment failed to register. Lonely turned the tablet toward the rotting corpse.
Bringer cried out in joy and clapped his hands together.
"Marvelous! Marvelous! Even better than I hoped! Do you mind moving the camera a little so I could see his shark as well? I haven't done a shark before."
Lonely did, still not really thinking.
"Interesting. Interesting. The pus clogged up the gills."
He heard the scratch of a pen. Bringer wasn't paying much attention to him anymore. He was totally engrossed by what had happened to the shark. It was a while before he spoke again.
"Thank you! Thank you! I trust you haven't gone near the poisoned Eternium?"
"No."
"Good. We can't lose you just yet."
Bringer giggled again.
"Well, as I'm sure you've deduced by now, our attempts to Conquer Old Earth will devolve into a series of sieges. And now it looks like our attempt to reform the Constellation will be the same. I love some good practice. Judging from the news, a variety of other Lords have noticed your success. Others Lords have declared House battles of their own, but only to stay inside their Castlecrafts waiting for their opponents to strike first!"
Bringer took an identical orb out from his pocket and spun it on his finger.
"Won't work. On here, and on Old Earth, our opponents will either fight or starve."
Perhaps Bringer could see the doubt in Lonely's eyes, because the enthusiastic man made an attempt to sound kindly.
"I told you war would be hard. You just had to see it to believe it. In spite of what the Constellation thinks, war is not a game and the Conquest won't be a game either."
Lonely could not help but continue staring, so Bringer tried a different tack.
"He would have done the same to you, you know. Only he would have done it in a Ransom battle, the way a coward would, with no risk to himself. He would have shrunk your Castlecraft to nothing. He wanted to starve you and your sister. Starving looks even worse than poison. That's what he would have done to you."
He snorted.
"Don't worry about The Dead Tooth Man. It's time to collect your winnings. How many Sinsworn did The Tooth Man have?"
Lonely did the math instantaneously. The Tooth Man had 9,506 Sinsworn. They'd destroyed 258 of those. Out of the 102 that they'd controlled, The Tooth Man had destroyed 9. That meant that he and Gallant would have 9,341 Sinsworn. That was enough to place them within the top ten Houses.
"The process for collecting a House battle is a little different, but I've studied the old ways. You know, for all we talk about it, not a lot of people remember how Eternium was first forged. The fresh crystals eagerly lap up blood. Take a shard and soak up his blood until its raw and burnt red. Soak it up until it's clear no man could lose that amount of blood and survive. Then bring it to the Hall."
"Alright."
"Of course, I don't want you touching the poisoned Eternium, so make sure you send that shard remotely. I remember you called your machine that way the first time we met."
"Of course."
Lonely didn't need Bringer to tell him that.
"And make sure you burn the body. The shark too."
"What?!"
Lonely hated The Tooth Man more than he hated anybody else, but he couldn't hide his shock.
That was sacrilege. The most honorable way for a Lord to die was in combat. It was not unknown for elderly Lords to request final battles from their friends, with the understanding that they were meant to kill them. There was no better way to die than in the blaze of a destroyed cockpit.
But baring a glorious death in battle, there was only one other rite for a fallen Lord. They should be doused in water thick with salt then set adrift in the stars so they could look down as the Constellation finally took back their rightful home of Old Earth. To burn a lord's body outside of battle simply wasn't done.
"We don't want people finding out what our Familiar does yet. If we burn the body, nobody will know. Do the same for his shark."
Lonely just stared. The Familiars should have been delivered to a place of honor in the Hall. They were a Lord's companion and patron. Once upon a time, they'd been worshipped as gods.
Bringer's eyes narrowed.
"This is total war. A House battle is total war. More people are going to come to challenge you. If they know the source of your power, they'll be at an incredible advantage. And when it comes time for me to fight, I'll be in danger as well. Rituals are for Ransom battles, the fake war. Do you think that the Ignorants will give us a fond farewell? Do you think they'd even burn us? No! They'd hack us to pieces and use our limbs as warnings for any other Lord who tries to attack. I have pictures. That is their custom on Old Earth."
The anger in Bringer's voice faded for a moment, replaced with mocking cynicism.
"And besides. Just tell people he died in battle. He and his Familiar both burned in the last desperate attack. That's what he would have wanted people to think anyways. He would never have honored you that way. You could have died bravely, and he would have told everyone you died screaming and begging. He did die screaming and begging, and you'll help him show some face. Burn him. It's the best for all of us. Just climb back into your machine and burn him. Who cares? It's just another stupid custom, like your ranking in the Ransom battles."
Bringer hung up as soon as Lonely nodded.
CHAPTER 10: THE SYMBOL OF AMBITION
Lonely gestured, and the Eternium shard danced along the floor. It was just as Bringer said. He'd known that the holy metal always assimilated its surroundings, but lesser materials like paint never had much of an effect on Eternium. With blood, it was almost like the presence of a powerful soul. Before long, the tiny Eternium shard shone a shimmering burnt red, and the blood had vanished from the floor. Lonely gulped down the sudden surge of bile. Now that there was nothing next to The Tooth Man's body save for the poisoned Eternium shards and the yellow pus, the diseased corpse looked even more disgusting than before.
With one last wave, he dismissed the gorged crystal and set it at the far corner of the room. He'd never seen anything like that before, but they lived in a bloodless world now. Lonely smiled thinly. He'd have to remember that line. Bringer would like it, and Lonely still had to flatter Bringer. He still didn't understand the plain-faced man's goals. There had to be a reason why he insisted on using their House. But even after defeating The Tooth Man, he had no choice but to continue working under Bringer. Lonely didn't know how many Sinsworn Bringer commanded, but Lonely understood he'd lose if his patron challenged him to a House battle. He had to stay in his good graces for now.
He took another look at The Tooth Man's corpse, and then raised the elbow of his Paragon. The thruster at the end flared red as he turned the flames to the maximum setting. Bringer had been right. Giving The Tooth Man an honorable funeral was just another stupid custom. He'd been a worthless coward in life, and he'd died a worthless coward. This was a fitting send-off. Besides, the most essential rule of the Constellation was that each Lord pursue their own self-interest. This was Lonely's self-interest.
The flames instantly incinerated the nausea-inducing corpses. There was nothing left of The Tooth Man or his Familiar. There was nothing left of their vomit, blood, and pus either. The fires from his machine's thrusters had eliminated it all, leaving only black scorch marks on the ground. Lonely smiled shakily. Gallant didn't need to see something as disgusting as that.
Thinking of Gallant reminded him that his task wasn't finished. He drew his Paragon's ax and hacked at the hangar floor, cutting away every speck that The Tooth Man's machine had ever touched. He manually sliced a hole in the Gate where The Tooth Man had flown through, then purged all the contaminated Eternium. He still didn't understand why the sphere bothered his sister so much, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Gallant's gifts brought difficult challenges. Lonely paused for a moment as the strange bulbous pink arm flashed before his eyes. It'd disappeared just soon as it'd come, but he knew the arm hadn't been made of Eternium.
He put the crystal into his pocket then called Gallant on his tablet.
"Hey, I think things are safe now. I have to go to the Hall."
His sister frowned.
"What happened?"
"He's dead. I need to report that we won."
She didn't smile. She craned her head around and frowned when she saw the scorch marks.
"Oh. Did you do that, so it seemed like he'd died in battle? That was nice of you."
It took a moment until Lonely realized that Gallant wasn't being sarcastic. She genuinely thought that Lonely had seared The Tooth Man's body to honor him. It was just like how his teachers had skipped the distinction between Ransom battles and House battles. In a world with no House battles, you'd never need a funeral. The people who died simply starved alone in their Castlecraft. They didn't know about the customs.
"Yeah. That's why I did that."
"He was sick, right?"
"Yeah."
The jellyfish hissed and flared. Gallant spoke hesitantly.
"Adrienne says he deserved to die sick."
If that was the case, Adrienne had to be even happier to hear that Lonely had damned The Tooth Man to never have any part in the Conquest. He'd died out of battle, screaming and begging outside his cockpit.
He shrugged and told himself again that it was no more than The Tooth Man deserved.
"Yeah. Alright, I'm going to go register our victory."
"Do you want me to come with you?"
"No, it's fine. It'll just be a lot of paperwork. I don't want to bother you."
"Okay, sounds good."
Under better circumstances, Gallant would have wanted to go to flaunt her first win, but deep down, both of them knew there was nothing worth flaunting. If anything, his sister sounded relieved that she didn't have to go.
He flicked the tablet off. He thought for a moment longer, and then returned to the alcove where he'd stashed his artificial Familiar inside a suit jacket. He gathered it up and put it inside his
pocket. The plain gray sphere pressed tightly against the bloody lump of Eternium, the only thing that remained of The Tooth Man in all the universe.
____
The thin judge stared imperiously down at him with narrowed eyes. Lonely knew those eyes. The eyes spoke the words that the judge, by law, wasn't allowed to say.
"How did this No Familiar Freak win a House battle against one of the greatest pilots in the Constellation?"
Lonely was used to those eyes, so he stared steadily back until the judge finally said the words he was required to speak. Lonely had heard those words many times before, but he'd always been on the receiving end. The sentence was practically forced out of the old man's mouth.
"This is your rightful property, fairly earned in combat. It shall be yours until your death unless it is fairly won from you in battle."
The judge let out a long sigh. It seemed like he was thinking of challenging Lonely himself. The thin man's hand trembled with jealousy and fury as he signed his pen.
The sphere pressed tightly against Lonely's pocket, and his guts twisted with hate and disdain, but he made no move to grab it. He'd only pocketed the sphere again just in case. He wouldn't use it if he could avoid it. After all, it bothered Gallant, and he couldn't hate someone more than he loved Gallant.
Besides, the trembling man in front of him was just some no-name judge. He was the exact kind of man who'd cowered and hidden from him by exploiting the stupid custom of the standings. Lonely didn't need a Familiar to defeat him.
The judge finished signing, and Lonely immediately became one of the most powerful and respected Lords in the Constellation. He had three Castlecraft now and just over 9,000 Sinsworn.
"Do you mind if I keep the metal lump? I was hoping to mount it in my Castle. I thought it'd be a great sort of memento."
He tried to smile fiercely. He would do nothing of the sort, but he wanted to scare the stupid judge. It'd taken almost half an hour of arguing for the judge to accept the Eternium lump in the first place. He'd been so convinced that there was no way Lonely could have killed The Tooth Man that he'd automatically assumed it was some kind of scam. Lonely had to threaten to escalate the situation to the Namers before the judge would even consult his old book of customs.
