Nova emerged from the bath with her skin rubbed raw. It seemed as though no matter how hard she scrubbed, she couldn't get rid of the feel of Nori's blood. She wrapped herself in a warm towel and ran her fingers through her hair.
"You disgust me! You bring nothing but shame on this family!"
Omi's voice bellowed through the house, easily audible over the soft splash of the bathing pool. Nova's stomach dropped with guilt. Meeka. She flung the towel off and yanked on a pair of loose trousers, tugging on a shirt as she slid the screen open and rushed for the main common room.
She burst through the open screen to find Omi standing over Meeka. The woman lay curled up on the floor with her hands above her head. Sia stood next to Omi, her arms crossed. She stared down at Meeka with a look of utter disgust. Zen sat further back, his eyes turned up to the ceiling rather than at the scene playing out in front of him.
"She would never have survived if it wasn't for your betrayal. After everything I've done for you! I should have let you die when we were children; at least then I wouldn't have had to live with the shame of you!"
Omi drew back his foot and slammed it into Meeka's stomach. A solid thud rocked through the floorboards and Meeka cried out.
"I was just—" she said through gasping breaths.
"No!" Omi screamed and kicked her again. "You do not interrupt me! Haven't you done enough today?"
"You shame your own family," Sia said, kneeling down by Meeka's head. She grabbed a handful of Meeka's hair and yanked the girl to her knees.
Bruises coloured Meeka's face and blood poured out of her nose. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she struggled to breathe. She clutched her ribs with one hand and held the other up in surrender.
"I wish I'd –"
"Stop it!" Nova yelled, rushing forward. Rage burned through her veins, squeezing her vision into a tight tunnel focused on Omi.
She sprinted for Meeka and shoved Omi in the chest.
He stumbled backwards. Nova drew back her hand and slapped Sia's face as hard as she could.
Sia reeled, a red welt erupting on her cheek.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Nova yelled. She stood in front of Meeka, shielding her. "I can't believe you would –"
Rough hands grabbed Nova's arms and ripped her backwards. Her feet flew out from under her and the thick arms of Omi's guards wrapped around her torso. Another three jumped on Meeka and held her down, grinding her forehead against the hard floor.
Omi stepped forward, his lips pulled back from his teeth, and slammed his fist into Nova's face. Pain bloomed out from her nose and stars danced across her vision. She gasped as blood poured down her face and filled her mouth with the taste of copper.
Omi's mouth twisted and he moved with slow steps, like a predator, towards Nova and Meeka.
"When will you learn," he said slowly. "That this is my house and you will obey my rules?" He stepped close, his face inches from Nova's. His breath rushed over her in a wave of rotting fish. "I tried being reasonable. I tried to give you space because you don't know our ways. But this is too much. You dare to strike my wife."
Nova glanced at Sia through a red stream of blood. She pressed one hand to her cheek while the other clasped into a fist at her side. Her eyes burned at Nova.
"This time I will punish you properly, then maybe you will understand," Omi said.
He straightened and nodded to Bitami. "The poles, both of them."
Bitami bowed and marched out into the garden. The guards holding Nova and Meeka followed behind, dragging their captives with rough hands.
Nova's insides boiled and she had trouble focusing her eyes through the red haze. Meeka's feet dragged against the floor beside her, her head hanging low and her breath reduced to ragged gasps.
The guards dragged them around to the back of the garden, hidden from the main entrance by the house. Here two wooden poles thrust out of the ground with ropes and chains tangled around their bases.
Nova swallowed hard. The poles looked like torture devices, complete with spatters of dried blood. She planted her feet into the ground and pushed against the guards, struggling to break free. Bitami kicked the back of her knees and her legs collapsed beneath her.
Nova's guards slammed her back against the pole while Bitami wrapped the ropes and chains around her. He started with her arms and legs, pinning them so tightly that she may as well have been encased in solid rock, then he moved to her body. He wrapped coil after coil around her midsection and then over her shoulders. The ropes held her in place while the chains weighed down her shoulders. Even before Bitami had finished, Nova's back ached with the effort of standing under the weight.
With the last rope secure, Bitami moved on to Meeka and performed a similar ritual. By the time he was done, only Meeka's head protruded above the mass of ropes and chains. Her frail neck quivered under the weight as her head lolled against the wooden pole.
"What the fuck is this?" Nova yelled at Bitami when he turned to walk away.
"Your punishment," he said with a shrug, before marching off, followed by his guards.
Meeka let out a soft sigh. Her eyes were pinched closed and her breath rasped in her throat.
Nova's legs wobbled. The chains seemed to get heavier with every passing moment; they tugged at her shoulders, threatening to pull her down. Only she couldn't drop because she was pinned to the pole, so she had no choice but to stand there and be crushed under the weight.
"Meeka?" Nova said.
"Mmm?" Meeka said.
"Stay with me."
"I can't go anywhere," Meeka whispered.
"I can't believe that bastard. Are you okay?" Pain pulsed through Nova's face with each beat of her heart and tears stung the corners of her eyes.
"I think one of my ribs is broken," Meeka said between breaths. Her eyes were still closed; she looked as though she was concentrating very hard.
"Then you need help! How long will he leave us out here?"
Meeka snorted. "Until we die? I don't know… until we learn our lesson I suppose."
"Learn our lesson? We didn't do anything."
"I brought you the boots," Meeka said, sighing and opening her eyes.
"So what?" Nova strained to look at Meeka.
"So you could fight properly and you won. Now Omi has to do what you asked and he blames me."
"That's ridiculous. It was supposed to be a fair fight."
"Of course it wasn't, or he would have told you it started at dawn."
"He set me up from the start?"
"Of course," Meeka said.
Nova leant her head against the pole. The ropes chaffed at her arms and wrists; she could already feel the burn and was sure blood would be dripping down her hands within the hour. Her shoulders felt like they carried the weight of the world and agony coursed up her neck.
"The sooner I get off this planet, the better."
"At least you can get away," said Meeka.
They stood in relative silence as the sun faded towards the horizon. As the light fell away, the garden came alive with insects and scurrying animals.
A sharp sting made Nova's shoulder twitch. A second hit the middle finger of her right hand. A third her forehead.
Nova whipped her head to the side. "Bloody mosquitoes!"
Another landed on her cheek while more swarmed around her, even finding pieces of flesh hidden by chains. In just a few minutes her skin felt covered in bites that itched like a junkie's rash. Nova writhed against the chains. "When I get hold of him, I'll kill him."
"As long as you keep saying that, he'll keep us here," Meeka said, seeming unaffected by the mosquitos.
"Well it's bloody hard not to hate him when there's nothing else to do."
"The first time I was put here I was five years old," Meeka said, voice soft.
"You… what?" Nova said, forgetting the mosquitoes.
"I was five," Meeka repeated, gazing into the darkness of the garden. "I was terrified of the dark then. I would have done anything to get back inside."
"Who would put a five year old out like this?" Nova said.
Something cold clamped about her chest at the thought of a five year old weighted under the chains and terrified of the darkness.
"It was my father; on the day I'd been forbidden from attending school."
"What did you do?"
Meeka let out a derisive snort. "Nothing. I was labelled a troublemaker from the day I was born because of my eyes and the teachers saw it the same way. When a group of children ganged up on me they said it was my fault; I was banned from school after that. My father was furious because at least with an education there was some hope for me. I think he hoped I would die out here; then he wouldn't have to be bothered with me."
Nova shook her head, lost for words.
"I've been out here lots of times since then," Meeka said. "Don't worry. You forget about the chains after a while."
Nova didn't think that was possible. The sheer weight of them was making her head pound, still she bit her lip, if a five year old could get through it then so could she.
***
Nova spent the night drifting in and out of sleep. Just when her eyes closed, something in the garden would move, or the chains would jingle and she'd snap awake again. Beside her, Meeka's head lolled from side to side.
The first spec of dawn was a welcome sight because it chased the mosquitoes away. Nova watched the sun rise with some apprehension. The chains dug deep gauges in her flesh and bruises ached along most of her back. She hoped that Omi would find it in himself to let them down; she could barely face the thought of spending another day strung to the pole.
They waited in silence as the sun got higher. It cast the garden into dappled shade, except where the poles were. The trees and grass around the poles had been cleared away so that they stood in a desolate patch of dirt. No overhanging trees stopped the sun beating down on them and as the day wore on, the sun got hotter.
Sweat poured down Nova's face and soaked her arms and legs beneath the chains. The salty layer made the ropes and chains chafe worse and left her body stinging. She could smell the sweat clinging to her body but she couldn't even raise an arm to wipe the droplets from her face. She licked her top lip and closed her eyes. She refused to beg Omi for mercy.