Pulp Fragment

'Girl-Bravo, close your eyes.' A tall, broad-chested woman dressed in brightly-patinaed mail and plates; white and pale lilac. Her name is Centipede, and she is speaking to a much younger woman, nearly a girl, who dutifully shuts her eyes and turns her face upward into the sunlight. There are four of them. Centipede removes her left glove, and is handed a long, iron knife by one of her companions, which she uses to slit her thumb. Bright blood beads up and then flows in a thin stream. She presses the bloody finger lightly into each of the girl's eye sockets, and stains her eyelids crimson. The other two move closer to receive the same; then all four fasten their masks in position: Centipede the champion, Mantis, Mosquito, and the youngest, Spider, with a cheap half-mask made from hardwood instead of steel, which covers her face and upper jaw with sculpted mandibles and clusters of compound eyes. This is the first time she has been marked this way.Mantis grins and says 'Now you won't…