by Ryan Tang
The Tooth Man let go of Lonely's pod, and this time grabbed the twin brothers' cockpits, jerking them back and forth.
"I'm taking you all to the Namers because these guys destroyed my Sinsworn! It was treachery! They destroyed it after giving it to me to try and kill me!"
"What?"
Gallant's shock was just as clear as Lonely's had been when he saw the explosion. Anyone who heard that shock could tell that Gallant had nothing to do with it.
The Tooth Man obviously knew they weren't involved in the same plot as Strong Strokes and Deep Cuts, but he didn't care. He was willing to do anything to avenge his shame. The Tooth Man had lost to Lonely, and he would have lost to a child too.
"Don't 'what' me! I know you had something to do with it!"
His sister protested, but The Tooth Man cut him off.
"That's the only way you almost beat me anyways. My machine was damaged! That's it!"
It sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
"That's a lie! You know it is!"
The Tooth Man sniggered.
"Save it for the court."
Lonely didn't even bother talking. Pleading would only amuse his enemy. He just sat and stared at Gallant's ever-changing machine.
It might actually be the last time he'd see it. There was a strange unreality pressing down on Lonely's mind. The Tooth Man was boasting that he'd lie in court to try and get them killed. It shouldn't be possible, but logically, Lonely knew it might work. The Tooth Man was famous and influential. But it couldn't end this way, could it? He'd only been trying to protect his sister. It was impossible to think about.
The masked pilot shrugged. It was out of his hands anyways. He knew he should be more worried, but he just felt very tired.
They should have won.
It would have only taken a single kick, maybe two.
His plan had been perfect. If only the idiots hadn't gotten greedy.
Gallant's Paragon had emerged from the fight without a single spot of damage. The pink and white beauty drifted worriedly behind their devastated pods and The Tooth Man's makeshift Paragon. The colors were the same as Gallant's Familiar, and they were locked in a permanent embrace. All across the machine, the pink and white melted together, shifting and turning and forming various shades as they frolicked with each other like two Familiars whose partners were in love.
Most Lords built their machines as homages to their Familiar. The most common sort of Paragon was like Drowsy's or The Tooth Man's - a humanoid machine that incorporated elements of the Familiar's form. But Gallant's amorphous Paragon was almost like his Familiar writ large.
The machine centered on a smooth pod at the top, just like how Gallant's jellyfish Familiar centered on its strange gelatinous bag. The machine had a vague face that was somehow familiar and alien all at once, like if someone had to mold a Paragon's face without ever seeing one before. There were two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but they weren't in the right places or proportions. And unlike the hard robotic edges of a Paragon, the head of Gallant's machine was soft and gentle.
The head was the closest the machine came to looking human-like. Gallant's machine had no torso, arms, or legs. Instead, it had the tassels.
There were two dozen tassels at the moment, but the number was as variable as Gallant's will. One time, his sister had created over a hundred at once without her machine dissolving. They'd been so excited they forgot to count. He'd sat in the cockpit with her that time to keep her mind anchored on the ground.
On each tassel was a single painted eye. Lonely had seen somewhat comparable designs on other machines before - staring eyes, gaping mouths, and stray pointing fingers. The strange rune-like drawings were meant to frighten and unnerve opponents in battle. Gallant's eyes weren't like that. They were immaculately drawn paintings filled with life. The tassels twisted and twirled in non-existent winds, but unlike the confusing flags of Old Earth, the eyes were somehow always visible no matter which way their canvasses turned.
The sight of his sister's machine filled him with strength. One day, even if he wouldn't be there to see it, things would be alright for their House. No matter what happened, he knew they wouldn't hurt Gallant. She was the future of the Constellation, even the Namers had said so.
After The Tooth Man dragged them for another fifteen minutes, they arrived at the Assembly Hall, built at the very center of the Constellation. Allegedly, the central location was so that all Nobles could easily access it, but it was just another stupid illusion that all the exiles from Old Earth were equal. Lonely visited the Assembly Hall all the time, but it was always to pay his ransoms. That certainly didn't make him feel equal.
The Hall was massive, but it was the plainest Castlecraft Lonely had ever seen - more of a nondescript block shape than anything else. Even where it'd been broken, the repairs were only shabby and half-hearted, built from a few haphazardly donated ransoms. Any Noble could decorate the Hall, but none of them did. Like any honest person, they only pursued their own goals. The Hall was nobody but the Namers, and they were grand enough without an ostentatious home.
The Tooth Man landed outside the Hall and bellowed.
"I want the Namers! Something terrible has happened to me, and I want the Namers!"
There was a long silence.
Calling the Namers was only for the most severe offenses. Lonely had been to the courts many times before, but only to settle modest disputes over ransoms. Those cases were over in mere minutes. He didn't know how long a trial involving the Namers lasted. Probably longer. After all, lives were at stake.
The Tooth Man shouted again.
"Do you know who this is? This is The Tooth Man! I'm here for the Namers! Bring me the Namers!"
His sister tried to protest, but The Tooth Man screamed for her to shut up. He grabbed Lonely's pod again and shook it, but he didn't dare make a verbal threat. Not even The Tooth Man was dumb enough to threaten to kill a Noble right in front of the Assembly Hall.
The voice on the other end stammered in surprise.
"Are you sure about that?"
The Tooth Man started screaming.
"Yes! Yes! Of course, I'm sure about that! Do you know who I am? Do you need me to show you your place?"
The voice on the other end was immediately replaced.
The new speaker's words were hesitant, staticky, and garbled. Lonely winced. He'd only ever heard that voice described in whispers. That was how the Namers sounded when they spoke from behind their masks.
"Are...you...really...sure...about...that?"
This time it was The Tooth Man's turn to stammer, but he'd attracted too much attention to himself to back off now. A crowd had gathered around them. If he meekly turned away from the Namer's challenge – so soon after being turned back by Lonely's paltry alliance – he might never be able to call his Familiar again. Sometimes the Familiars bound their pilots just as much as the pilots bound them.
"Yes! Yes! I am sure about that!"
The nervous voice from before returned.
"We'll tell the Namers to be ready."
There was a chorus of wails from Lonely's three defeated allies. But strangely enough, the twin brothers who'd had caused this all with their treachery remained silent. Remarkably, Gallant stayed quiet too.
Lonely reminded himself that Gallant was safe. Her pristine machine proved it. Not even The Tooth Man dared to touch Gallant. She was the future of the Constellation. He knew he couldn't attack her without a scandal. The Tooth Man was a brute, but he was careful to keep his boorish actions within the bounds of what was acceptable.
The Gate to the Assembly Hall opened, and The Tooth Man brought them all inside, jerking their cockpits back and forth. The tremors filled Lonely with rage, and his companion's whimpering and whining made him even angrier.
His brief spurt of hope disappeared. It was pointless to hope, pointless to expect the Nobles to do the right thing.
It only would have taken one good kick, and that still fa
iled to happen.
More likely than not, his three defeated allies would conspire against him. They might even try to rope the twins into it.
They should have won. He couldn't believe how foolish and greedy they'd been.
Just one kick. Maybe two or three.
And then The Tooth Man would have been beaten.
He pounded his dashboard as he thought of Drowsy, Scry True, and Forever. He cursed their names. If he'd known their true names, he would have cursed them too.
The Tooth Man dragged them all to the hangar, where he commanded them to disembark. Their broken pods didn't deserve an official slot. He tossed them all onto the spare parts pile. Only Gallant and The Tooth Man himself docked their machines into the Assembly Hall's worn out hangars.
In contrast to his brutal fighting style, The Tooth Man was a small and almost a little runty sort of man. His skin was a strange gray and worn-out color. He had an ugly squashed face, and his feeble eyes squinted awkwardly in the light of the Hall. He had a saggy potbelly, and his shoulders were weak and narrow. His hands were tiny, a stark contrast to his savage Paragon.
A guide halted them at the end of the Hall.
"The Namers are coming. You caught them off-guard."
Lonely's erstwhile allies took the time to continue begging, but the brothers just smiled smugly at each other.
Lonely frowned and started to wonder.
He'd grown up with them in the same Nursery class. They'd always acted like they had an ace up their sleeves, but the Namers were a different matter. The Tooth Man seemed deadly set on reporting them and claiming their strange two-sided castle, and he had an airtight case against them. Anyone near their part of the Constellation would have seen what happened.
As soon as Gallant emerged from her machine, she leaped towards Lonely.
"Big Bro! I'm sorry, Big Bro. I just realized I messed everything up. It was like you said! I never should've come! I ruined your perfect plan!"
Lonely accepted her hug and just patted her on the back.
His brother glared at the other three, who sobbed on their knees before the beaming The Tooth Man.
"We should teach them a lesson!"
Lonely just shook his head and hugged his sister a little tighter just in case she tried something stupid again.
"A Noble must never wound another Noble outside of formal combat."
It was one of the few laws the Constellation enforced. It was the third most important behind the law of private property and the law of the Familiars.
Gallant was really just a little girl. The top of her head barely made it up to Lonely's chest, and seeing her in the company of fully-grown Nobles only drove the point home for him. She was just eleven, two whole years from being a grown woman.
Distantly, Lonely knew he should be mad at Gallant for interfering. He had carefully explained to her why she needed to stay home. But she was just a kid. It was hard for her to understand these things. She wanted to help because she loved him. Lonely could never be angry with her for that.
"What are they going to do?"
"They won't do anything to you. You didn't do anything wrong. None of us did. It was just the brothers."
Gallant in particular was innocent. She hadn't even been at the scene of the crime. Besides, her status meant that she'd be safe. They might make her pay a small ransom.
He smiled. That might even become part of her legend. The greatest warriors, like the Singer and the Surgeon, all had fascinating backstories.
Forced to pay a ransom as just a girl, before she could even legally challenge people to Ransom battles. That would captivate the kids in the nurseries for generations to come.
She shot The Tooth Man an angry look.
"I didn't think he was going to hurt you, but if he did, I would have killed him."
Lonely let out a long breath. Perhaps they could have won the fight if he asked his sister to attack The Tooth Man, but he was glad he stayed silent. It wasn't worth considering. If her Paragon dissolved mid-combat, she could easily be killed in an accident. And now it seemed like she might have done something nearly as bad.
"You can't kill someone on purpose in a Ransom battle."
With Gallant's control skills, nobody would have believed it was an accident. The Tooth Man's brutal punches were one thing, but if Gallant transformed a tassel and skewered The Tooth Man through the cockpit, everybody would have seen the truth.
Her jaw dropped, and Lonely laughed. She was such a stupid kid.
"Wait. You can't?"
"No! Of course, you can't!"
"But people have died before!"
"Yeah, but only on accident. That's why I don't want you to fight."
He didn't explain further. He didn't want to mention her weaknesses while enemies surrounded them.
"You can't just kill someone on purpose. That's only for House battles."
His sister was completely bewildered.
"What are House battles?"
He shook his head. She should have known this by now. She must have been screwing around at school again.
"A House battle is an all-out war where the winner takes everything, even the loser's life, Familiars, and Castlecraft. You can even take their main Paragon and bind it under your control as a Sinsworn."
"What?"
It was clear she'd never heard it before. After she'd bent the training machine to her will, they'd let Gallant move back to their Castlecraft, which they now called Brightwalls, on the condition that she still take classes. Living out of the Nursery must have affected her education.
"I'll tell you more when we get home."
To his surprise, Gallant dropped the argument at once. She didn't say the worry that was on top of Lonely's mind- the thought that he might never go back home. She seemed calm and relaxed. Maybe it was because she thought her safety would extend to Lonely. His lips pinched tightly against each other. It was hard to say, but he doubted it.
The outside of the court was overflowing with visitors. Lonely's stomach clenched. His previous visits to court were merely to settle petty claims. But today, the Namers were involved. You had to do something truly horrible to get the Namers called on you. They only appeared for morbid crimes or births.
Lonely had never seen a Namer before. They were sort of like your parents. You knew they existed. You talked about them sometimes. But they were never actually right there in front of you.
But then the door opened, and there was one standing right in front of him. The Namer stared down at him. Thirteen golden eyes flared as the door locked. The noise cut through the terrified silence like an Eternium blade would cut through a neck.
____
The Namers wore nothing but thick black armor forged to resemble the Nobles' usual black suits. The chests curved outward to disguise whether or not they had breasts, whether the Noble beneath the suit resembled a man or a woman. They refused to reveal even a single inch of their skin. Big black hoods perched on top of their uniforms. They all had a strange lump at their right shoulders that sprouted out of the armor like a tumor.
Their signature masks encased their faces, and they spoke through a device that garbled their voices. The eyes shone like dying stars. The thirteen diamond-shaped eyes were arranged in a cross-like pattern. Six of the eyes had prominent scratches over them to mourn the Abandoned Six.
The Namer stared silently at their group as they walked by, taking in every one of them. The Namers knew the true name of every Noble and could kill them with a single spell. The Constellation had few laws, but the protections on property were as strong as Eternium. If the court found against their favor, the Namers would kill them quickly and painfully.
Lonely's thoughts froze in his head. It was one thing explaining to Gallant that they were safe, and it seemed like his sister had believed his reassurances. She slouched over her chair without a care in the world.
But now the Namer was right in front of them. Death was close, terribly close, and staring
at him with thirteen eyes all at once. All his thoughts and considerations wilted at once. It was completely different seeing a Namer in person compared to seeing a picture of them.
Even the judge seemed terrified. He shot the Namer countless frightened glances from his place on the high stand. The Namers knew the judge's true name too.
"State your case."
The judge practically vomited out the traditional words.
The Tooth Man was shaking too. Sweat poured down his brow, and he jittered back and forth.
"Speak..."
When the Namer encouraged him to speak, The Tooth Man jumped nearly a foot in the air. His mouth worked for a moment, but then he started forcing out words.
"I was out battling for ransoms and was hit upon by a conspiracy. These two –"
He pointed at the brothers.
"– pretended to surrender then blew up their Sinsworn when I accepted the tribute!"
The two brothers were too sly to cry out. Like Lonely, they'd been to court many times before. They'd get their chance to speak later. Arguing now would only anger the judge.
"After the shock of that attack, this group here..."
The Tooth Man paused. He took another quivery look at the person behind the mask.
"This group here –"
Gallant was about to erupt, but Lonely caught her before she could.
"Sit. Down."
Gallant struggled for a while until Lonely kept her in the seat. He laughed a little. No matter how strong Gallant and her Familiar were, Lonely was still her big brother. Gallant struggled a little more until Lonely shot her a death glare and got her to stop.
The entire room was in a somber and subdued mood due to the avatar of death in the corner, but Gallant was almost bizarrely unworried.
Lonely shook his head.
That was his little sister to a hilt.
Sometimes Lonely wondered what would happen if he died. Then Gallant would be heir, and their House would be strong. But it was times like these that told him it might be a bit too early. Someone had to teach the stupid brat some manners.
The Tooth Man was still starting then cutting off again. He smiled uneasily at the judge, but his head kept jerking back to the masked avatar in the corner.