Chapter 15
Broken Toys
Royal Precinct, Tianjing
Prince Sturla said he would break every bone in Yasuko's body if she refused him. Technically, she did what he wanted, just not the way he wanted. Perhaps that was why he spared a dozen or so. Going so far as to break the small bones in her ears would have been taking it too far even for him.
After the first time she incurred the Prince's wrath, her body was augmented so that it would heal faster than normal. However, even with augmented healing and the reconstructive wizardry of Dr. Hadad, Yasuko spent a full week in the infirmary recovering from the beating Prince Sturla gave her.
Yasuko knew she couldn't beat Prince Sturla in a straight-up fight and this latest incident went a long way toward disabusing her to any delusions she might have to the contrary. Was she even able to land a hit on him? She couldn't remember.
Speak of the devil. The door to her room opened and in walked Prince Sturla carrying a bouquet of flowers.
"Good morning, Yasuko," he said. "How are you feeling?" He held up the bouquet. "I brought you flowers."
The unmitigated gall of this man. She was here because he beat her within an inch of her life and now he's just casually dropping in with flowers?
"Is that supposed to make me happy?" Yasuko growled.
Prince Sturla set the bouquet down on the counter and then took the vase from the stand at her bedside, saying, "It wouldn't hurt for you to show your girlish side once in a while and appreciate little gestures like this."
He dumped the old flowers down the incinerator chute, rinsed out the vase in the sink, then unwrapped the bouquet, put it in the vase and set it back on the stand.
"There we are. It's important to have some color in here to aid in your recovery."
"So the other flowers were from you too?"
"Who else knows that you're here? Your mother still thinks you're working at the Peach Blossom Palace."
Yasuko had barely interacted with her mother since she was sent away. Had they even exchanged more than a few formalities in the times she'd been back at the estate? She might as well be dead.
"Yasuko, I believe I owe you an apology," the Prince said. "I may have gone a little too far this time."
"'A little too far'?" Yasuko scoffed.
Prince Sturla sat down on the edge of her bed and said, "You have to understand that I'm under a lot of stress lately and you have an annoying habit of contributing to that stress. If you would just do as you're told, we would get along so much better."
"Sorry for not playing along with your porno fantasies, you sick fuck."
Prince Sturla smiled and shook his head.
"Ah, I do like that spirit of yours, Yasuko, but it has a nasty way of jeopardizing my plans. If my enemies had even half a brain among them, I might already be dead."
"What a shame."
"Don't be too quick to wish for my death, Yasuko. You and your parents would be caught up in the net too. And think about poor little Snorri. What did he ever do to deserve anything like that?"
"He was unlucky enough to have a bastard for a father."
"After the things you've done, do you really think you can talk to me about being a bastard, Yasuko?"
"It's the potter's fault, not the clay's."
"When the clay is so difficult to work with, I think the potter has a right to complain."
"Don't try to make the clay into something it's not meant to be."
The Prince chuckled.
"Were you always so good at getting mileage out of a metaphor?"
"Stop trying to whore me out and maybe you'll get the results you want."
"Yasuko, Yasuko, do you think I like seeing other men—or women—lay their hands on you? You've been given these assignments for your protection. You're not strong enough to take on targets in their strength. You have to get them vulnerable and there's no more vulnerable time..."
He leaned in over her. Her heart started beating faster. Much as she would like to deny it, the vitals machine betrayed her by beeping faster to match.
"You need to throw away that primitive Infernal morality of yours. You think it dirties you, makes you damaged goods? No, it makes you better. I want to see you better, Yasuko."
Prince Sturla then kissed her full on the lips. Yasuko's heart nearly exploded in her chest. Though she was stunned for a moment, she quickly regained control of her senses and pushed him away, but doing so sent fresh waves of pain through her arms. If the Prince had refused to yield, she wouldn't have accomplished anything, but he let himself be pushed back, breaking off the kiss.
"Careful there, Yasuko," he said. "You'll break your arms again. It'd be a lot easier if you were more honest with yourself and just enjoyed it."
Yasuko's heart was still racing, but her anger and frustration at herself only served to focus her anger at Prince Sturla.
"What the hell happened to not laying a hand on your 'daughter', Sturla?"
He seemed to like the sound of her addressing him without any title, which defeated the point of the intended insult.
"Oh, you can be much more that that, Yasuko," he said. "And I think we both know that you want it, no matter how much you fight it, no matter how much you force yourself to hate me."
"I damn sure ain't forcin' it," she said bitterly.
The Prince shrugged.
"Hate and love are two sides of the same coin, my pet. The more passion you feed into one, the stronger you feel the other. All it takes is a little flip. I can see you becoming the most devoted of my lovers, Yasuko. The only question is what it'll take for the coin to flip."
"I'll die first."
"That'd be such a waste. Well, I think that does it for visiting hours today, Yasuko. Once Dr. Hadad releases you, I'll give you your next assignment. Something to look forward to. Get well soon, Yasuko."
He leaned back in to kiss her on the forehead, then stood up and left the room. If Yasuko had the strength to take the vase and throw it at his head, she would've. Instead all she could do was lie there stewing in her hatred for Prince Sturla and for her own base animal instincts that attracted her to him.
Damn, damn, damn it all!
* * *
It took nearly three more weeks for Dr. Hadad to release Yasuko from the infirmary. He was playing it on the safe side, but it almost took that long for all the requisite physical therapy to get her back in top shape. He did pad the timeframe a bit because he didn't want her going right back to training before the healing fully set in. He may have been trying to delay her going back to work for as long as he could get away with it.
Until Prince Sturla gave Yasuko her next assignment, it seemed like she was going to get to stay at the estate. She couldn't exactly call it home, but it was the closest thing she had. The only one she had to worry about here was Prince Sturla, who was of course more than enough, but he didn't want her dead, unlike the great many enemies she was making in the Capital. How many could recognize her just by looking at her? How many had connected the dots to the dead people that turned up whenever she made an appearance? How may were out to get her?
Yasuko once again found herself reflecting on how poorly thought out her revenge scheme was. Pretty much any steps in the process between 'infiltrate the Capital' and 'bring down the Celestials' was a complete blank. If her mother hadn't been a Celestial and married to the man third in line to the throne, she may never have gotten out of the cargo bay. Now she was Prince Sturla's hand-picked assassin, sporting all these enhancements that made her a more effective killing machine. She'd already killed several high-profile Celestials, but all she was doing was serving the Prince's agenda, which may well prove to be worse in the end than whatever her victims meant to do.
This wasn't the first time she'd considered that her efforts were only making things worse, but there was no getting out of it at this point. She had to keep going, hoping she was doing some real damage to the Celestials, and looking for the opportunity when Prince Sturla would finally lower his guard.
She remembered what he told her about the time people were at their most vulnerable and found herself blushing, then cursing herself both for her reaction and the mental images that popped into her head. She hated how much she was attracted to him. It certainly had nothing to do with his personality. It was entirely physical. You'd think that'd be the easiest to control, but apparently not. Maybe he gave off some kind of pheromone. Maybe she just inherited her mother's taste in men. Her skin crawled at the thought.
It probably didn't help that she had just finished her evening bath. Something about bathtime would bring up all sorts of unwelcome thoughts. Maybe if the Celestials had to settle for quick five-minute showers, there wouldn't be any time to think about things you didn't want to think about.
"It is good to have you back, Miss Yasuko," Yoon-hee said. "You have been gone for so long. Will you be staying for a while?"
"I dunno," Yasuko replied, not quite giving the handmaid her undivided attention. "Maybe."
"I do enjoy serving you, Miss Yasuko."
"Yeah, well, I enjoy being served," Yasuko joked.
Yoon-hee covered her mouth as she made a girlish tittering. It was kinda cute. Being with Yoon-hee was a nice change of pace. She didn't have an agenda. She wasn't out to control or manipulate Yasuko. Maybe this was what normal human relationships looked like.
However, instead of focusing on the good, Yasuko's mind turned to the contrast. She thought of Shui smacking her with that bamboo switch, crabby old Lady Tsui doing much the same, the sexual perversions of Hongxia, the Lord High Captain, and Lady Kuai. And most of all, she thought of Sturla, that smug smile he'd give her, the way he could make her do whatever he wanted or put her in the infirmary for a month if she defied him.
Something came over Yasuko. She didn't understand it. She couldn't control it. She wanted to put someone under her foot, to dominate them the way Prince Sturla dominated her. She wanted someone to feel as powerless as she did. Unfortunately for Yoon-hee, she was the only one close at hand.
Yasuko took hold of her by the wrists and pinned her against the wall.
Confused, Yoon-hee could only stammer, "Mi, Miss Yasuko?"
"Shut up," Yasuko told her. "Shut up and take it."
The tension immediately drained from from Yoon-hee's body, like if you took the bones right out of her. It was a wonder her legs still held her up. The important thing was that she wasn't going to put up any resistance. Yasuko could do whatever she wanted.
She was starting to think about her options when she noticed the empty look in Yoon-hee's eyes, the silent tears welling up as she completely surrendered to whatever was going to happen to her. It was enough to make Yasuko stop herself. What was she doing? What was she thinking? She was acting like one of them, thinking like one of them. Like a Celestial. Yoon-hee wasn't a person. She was just a thing, a human-shaped object to be used and thrown away afterward. Was this really what she thought? Had she really fallen that far?
Yasuko tried to play it off as a joke. She let go of Yoon-hee's wrists and said, "I'm just messin' with ya."
As the life came back to her eyes, Yoon-hee looked even more confused than before.
"Miss Yasuko? I, I do not understand."
"It was a joke. I was just teasing you. Did I scare you? Did you think I was serious?"
"It is our masters' right to use us as they will," Yoon-hee replied. "Forgive my saying so, Miss Yasuko, but it is known that there is a madness among the highborn. We servants must accept whatever may come of it. I feared..."
A madness among the highborn... Yasuko could believe it. She might even have it herself. It would go a long way to explaining what happened besides Prince Sturla corrupting her mind.
Feeling bad for what she did, she embraced Yoon-hee, saying, "Come here."
She couldn't remember the last time she hugged anyone. After TÃo Jorge was killed, she never let anyone get that close. It was at least as awkward for her as it was for Yoon-hee.
"I'm sorry," Yasuko said. "I've got a lousy sense of humor. I shouldn't've done it."
"You do not need to apologize, Miss Yasuko," Yoon-hee said. "Yours is the right to do with me as you will, be it a joke in poor taste... or anything else..."
Was that an invitation? No, she couldn't think like that. Thinking like that would lead her to become just like the people she was trying to destroy.
Yasuko took the bracelet off her wrist and put it on Yoon-hee.
"I want you to have this," she said.
"Miss Yasuko, I could not possibly accept."
"You're takin' it," Yasuko insisted. "If you ever think I'm havin' an attack of that madness, I want you to use this."
She pushed a button and ejected a little four-centimeter spike and held it up for Yoon-hee to see.
"If I'm not too far gone, this should bring me back to my senses."
"Miss Yasuko, I could not possibly—"
"I don't wanna see you get hurt," Yasuko told her. "It's not much, but it might help."
"Miss Yasuko..."
Yasuko reinserted the spike into the bracelet and stepped away.
"Miss Yasuko," Yoon-hee said tentatively, "would you like me to stay... or should I go?"
Yasuko had heard of some servants that slept with their masters—no funny stuff, just for warmth and the comfort of another human's presence. She had never found herself craving such simple contact as much as she did then, but she had to resist. If she let herself rely on Yoon-hee too much, it would just hurt that much more later. That and she didn't want to risk making Yoon-hee a target by being too close to her.
"No, get some rest," she told her. "Sorry again about before."
"Not at all, Miss Yasuko. And, um... thank you, for the bracelet. If you will excuse me."
Yoon-hee left and Yasuko felt very tired. She flopped down on the bed. She was too exhausted to even be bothered by thoughts of what was to come. Tomorrow was tomorrow's problem.