Cloths of Heaven
(i)
The battle of Inabayama, if it could be called such, took three days in all.
On the first day, in a show of uncharacteristic warmth the king offered a flag of parley to the Nemesis inviting him into their home so they could talk terms because other states had negotiated a viceroyship.
The Nemesis brought with him his oldest two sons, his youngest he left at camp with the hordes of his army.
At a lush dinner of exquisitely prepared fish the king of Inabayama poisoned all ten members of the Nemesis' party.
Then, though they had terrible misgivings about the whole thing, the Heaven Guard threw the bodies from the walls of the city hung by ropes so they dangled like obscene flags.
On the second day the forces of the Nemesis remained firm about the city, they didn't move and it seemed that they might be mourning.
The Heaven Guard had terrible misgivings about this and began to move the children and infirm from the city via boats. Their captain even sent a note to the forces of the Nemesis that this was what they were doing, that the boats were full of refugees and were no harm to the invaders in the hope that they wouldn't be attacked.
Any that left on the second day weren't.
On the third day with dawn the forces of the Nemesis, who remained in his tent the whole time, being the youngest son left behind, smashed Inabayama. They slaughtered everyone they could find.
The King of Inabayama was executed by use of the handsaw. [1 see note]
Most of his nobles were executed on sky wheels [2]; the ladies were hung. The children were taken as slaves.
The endless towers of Inabayama were pulled down. The shrine of the goddess was befouled.
But there was no rape, for the forces of the Nemesis were disciplined.
By the end of the third day the Nemesis declared that Inabayama no longer existed, that for the treachery of their king that it would forthwith be called Daryiia, after his father's widow.
Word reached Crawford at Herensea three weeks later. He decided to withhold the information from his lovely young bride, who at nineteen had grown indeed beautiful and although he should have known better Crawford was convinced that Ran only stayed with him out of a sense of duty to Inabayama. He believed, erroneously perhaps, that without Inabayama that Ran would leave him.
He started reading his mail before him, to keep the secret.
(ii)
Schuldig had arranged an appointment with Crawford, a recent upsurge in crime meant that although Crawford honoured the appointment he did so in his official capacity amongst the torturers and their devices as a gentleman was stretched on the bock. [2]
Schuldig, though his attention was drawn to the man whimpering in the corner, did his best to keep his focus on Crawford.
“What is it you wanted?” Crawford asked as he signed off on forms, he had two offices the one in the citadel and this one where he could watch his torturers work. In the corner Farfarello was testing leather straps in his hands to decide which one to use.
“I wanted to talk to you about Ran.” Schuldig said.
“Why, is he unwell?” Crawford sounded worried.
“No, I think you should tell him, he's strong, but he needs to know.” Schuldig said, sitting on what he hoped was a chair, as it had no spikes or straps he was assuming it was, but there was room for interpretation in these rooms. “Inabayama was his home, and the Nemesis killed his parents.” Schuldig took a deep breath because Crawford was glaring at him. He was wearing a pair of eyeglasses that he had had made which made his glare even steelier. [4]
“Are you, Schuldig, presuming, how to tell me to treat my own bride?” His voice was ice cold.
“No,” Schuldig said looking around the room, “it's just that he needs to mourn them. Ran is, really,” he stopped, “still a child, he's only just got into a position where he can accept the death of his sister, it's cruel not to tell him. I'm not saying that it won't hurt him, but.”
“But what, Schuldig?” Crawford pressed.
“If you're there you can manage the backlash, just like you did before.” Schuldig lowered his eyes. “Ran adores you, he would do anything to please you, it will break his heart if he finds out you didn't tell him.”
“I have no intention of telling him, in fact if not for his parents it would have nothing to do with him. He is a citizen of Eressea now, and for four years Herensea has been his home.” Crawford snarled out.
“But he was born in Inabayama,” Schuldig said, “Even Yohji is in mourning,” he said, “I am not from Inabayama but it was home to me and I feel it's lack,” He wanted to pace, it was important that Crawford understand this but he was being stubborn. “They tore down the towers, Crawford, he's a Fujimiya and their family motto might as well be that they will serve Inabayama, he is the last of them, at least let him mourn.”
“It's murder to see him cry.” Crawford said quietly. Then he took a deep breath, “Ran married me because he is a Fujimiya and they do their duty by Inabayama. If Inabayama is no more then why should he do his duty.”
“Because he loves you.” Schuldig said.
“There is nothing of that between us.” Crawford said. “Our marriage was politically expedient and we have both made the best of it.” But Schuldig knew he was lying, even if it was to himself.
(iii)
Ran opened the parcel of books that Lady Redgrove had sent him. The first of them was a collection of folk tales of Eressea that she had had written for him. He flicked through it for the tale of Tsukihime and discovered it was in a collection of seven tales called “The Cloths of Heaven,” he rang the bell and asked for some tea as he sat down in front of the fire to read the book of fairy tales.
For a long time he stared at the illustration of the seven maidens with their shawls, each was lovely and lush in a way that he didn't appreciate in women, but Birman had spared no expense and these were colour plates. Rather than having all seven maidens together they each had a strip panel of their own, illustrated in different colours.
Taiyohime, or the princess of the sun, was first, she wore flowing golden chiffon and her hair streamed behind her in swirls and twists.
Tsukihime wore white, with her hair in twin braids twisted around the arms she had over her head.
Hoshihime, the star princess, wore shimmering silver in laid with rich dark black, her hair was in twin knots at the side of her head.
Yamahime, the mountain princess, wore dark rich red, the colour of clay, and her hands were on her hips and her hair was caught under her shawl but loose strands of it fell about her lovely face.
Amanoharahime, the sky princess, wore grey, which was wrapped like clouds about her nakedness.
Barahime, the rose princess, wore pink frills and was leaned forward, her hair, like that of the sun princess was down and she stretched her shawl between her hands like a scroll.
Kaihime, the sea princess, wore rich dark green lace and one leg was bared, she held a sea anemone to her face.
Ran couldn't help but stare at her, this was the woman he had seen that day on the beach. He recited the words to himself as he looked at the seven maidens, trying to remember what came next.
“One for sorrow, two for mirth
Three for a death and four for a birth
Five for silver and six for gold,
And seven for a heart that's been lost to the cold.”
There were seven on the page; he had seen three in his dream the night that Aya had died. He shook off the reverie; these weren't the piskies even if the illustration of Kaihime was eerily similar and even if they all had the rich dark green hair and violet eyes the same as his own. He was wrong.
He put the book down and lifted the second.
Over the years there had been fifteen books about the forbidden love of Alaric and Celabrien and because it was difficult getting them in Herensea in his long letters to Birman and they exchanged parcels. She had been reading them too, it seemed, and she would send them to him once they were finished. Often he would find cute little notes pressed between the pages where she had written down her opinions on such a scene, and she was of the opinion that if Celabrien were a real woman she would have left Alaric nearly eight books ago. They always made Ran smile; although he had never met the Lady Birman Redgrove he considered her one of his closest friends.
He pulled his legs up on the oversized chair and nestled his tea on the table and opened the page to read.
An hour later the book was thrown across the room and he was crouched snarling in the corner as Yohji tried to calm him. He was throwing things at his champion. It was only later, when the dust had settled on the inevitable firestorm that they realised the book dealt with the fall of Inabayama.
Author's note:
Woo, this is my first for CoH,
1. The handsaw, it sounds so less ominous than it is, those of you who are even vaguely squeamish turn away now, go back to the chapter, I'll understand.
Those of you who don't believe me…
The handsaw is a long sheet of serrated metal much like one that lumberjacks use to be used by two people.
Still with me?
The victim is hung by his ankles in a Y position and the saw starts at the genitals and works down.
The gory one at the back who's still there, this is where I freak you out…
Because the victim is upside down they don't pass out, they are usually aware throughout the whole procedure until they bleed out and their heart is either punctured or explodes.
I don't like Takatori, and Aya doesn't get to kill him here so I thought I'd make it truly grim. This was the only instrument in the Prague torture museum that freaked me out (they have one on the wall) and I knew it would come in handy.
2. The sky wheel is a cartwheel on a long pole which was spun as rocks and things were thrown, it's a get the people involved kind of punishment, it's very similar to the wheel where the victim was spun and hit with sticks. St Catherine was killed like this - hence the Catherine Wheel.
3.The bock isn't as bad as either the sky wheel or the handsaw. It's a large wooden pyramid on a stand, probably about a metre square, and the point is about head height, and the victim is suspended over the point and gravity does it's work. To make it slightly grimmer it is inserted into an orifice first. So over time the victim slides down unto the point, which opens them up more. This is not an execution device and was used, historically, on both men and women.
4. There are records of glasses as far back as the c11,
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