I’ve finally finished proof-reading the whole book. Here is the best version of it as an ePub and pdf.
Author: Tansou Tsukai
Epilogue
Beyond the forest a young, verdant green rice paddy, swaying in the wind, extended as far as the eye could see. The song of the cicadas incessantly poured over everything. People were busily working as the dazzlingly bright rays of light beat down on them. Weeding the quickly growing grass from the rice paddies was a tough job.
“Can you see where we are?” Balsa, who was lending Tanda’s her shoulder as a crutch as they walked, asked.
“Wait a second. Oh, it’s over there. They’re weeding over there next to the edge of that paddy.”
Balsa looked over to where Tanda was pointing. A solidly-built woman was diligently weeding. When the girl weeding by her side started talking to her, she put her hand on her lower back and responded.
Tanda muttered “Well, this place never changes.”
Balsa laughed at him.
“You’re too nice, you know? You risked your life and didn’t even get much in the way of thanks. Even though he’s your brother, it’s ok to expect some kind of reward…”
“Absolutely not. A thanks from him is enough for me. And I did get a mountain of eggplants and cucumbers, you know? Oh wait, of course you know; you and Master already ate most of them.” Tanda sat down in the shade of a tree, taking care to not damage his injured left leg.
“Also, it’s not like I did all that much. I mostly just got in your and Jin’s way. I wouldn’t even have made it without Mr. Yugno.”
Balsa leaned against the tree. “Yugno, huh. He didn’t even say goodbye properly before leaving on another journey, and we haven’t heard anything since. Who knows where he’s singing these days. He was pretty mysterious, wasn’t he?”
“When we went to visit your niece, she said something pretty smart. That Yugno is like his songs; he moves the heart, but comes and goes like the wind.”
“I’m glad she understood that in the end.”
Balsa laughed. “She understood that from the beginning. You can’t help having those kinds of feelings though, even if you understand. You can’t do anything about it. She fell in love with the wind that passed through on its journey from far away, rather than with Yugno himself.”
Tanda smiled wryly. He had still not forgiven Yugno for enticing such a soft-hearted girl with his song. While she did manage to return in the end, she might have died had they made even a single mistake along the way.
But there was no use in lecturing the wind, either. Master Torogai said that it was precisely because Yugno was that way that he could carry the seed of the Flower within his soul. Those words, that she said while telling Tanda the whereabouts of the seed, still remained in his heart.
“I handed the seed over to him because no one else was suitable as a host. The Flower feeds on people’s dreams. That’s why it chooses its hosts from those who live in this world. However, the Flower is too heavy for normal people. Only a soul born of the Flower and a human could shoulder that burden.”
“I didn’t get this in the past, but I feel like I now get why the Flower’s Keeper chose me as the mother of the host. It’s precisely because I had a soul suited to being a magic weaver; I think he could feel that I had the strength to get involved with people’s dreams and still go on living.”
When she said that, Tanda couldn’t help but ask if he lacked such a strength.
Torogai stared at Tanda for a while before answering. “Of course you’ve got the strength. But you’re too nice, so there’s always a risk that when you get involved with people’s dreams that you may lose your life. If Yugno is a child of dawn and dusk, you, Tanda, are a child of high noon. You think of others first. You’re like a kind spring light.”
“Yugno is enthralled by songs. He can sacrifice anyone and anything for singing.”
“You wouldn’t accept the seed of a Flower that possibly lured people’s souls to their deaths, even if you had to throw away your magic weaving as a result.”
“But you know what? There are things that only a child of high noon can do. No one is all-powerful. There are things that you can do that I wouldn’t be able to do no matter how hard I tried.”
Can Master Torogai see my limits, I wonder?
As Master Torogai said, the world that can be seen with magic weaving is like a bottomless swamp. The deeper one dives, the farther the scenery spreads out before them. Those who go deep enough might come down with a fever, reminiscent of a powerful madness strong enough to lead those afflicted with it to cast themselves aside without a second thought. Is such a thing inside me as well?
Tanda felt cold shivers run through his stomach.
“What’s wrong?” Tanda returned to his senses upon hearing Balsa’s voice.
“Ehh…” Tanda sighed and spoke his thoughts. “I just thought that it would get pretty lonely to drift through life from place to place, even for someone like Yugno.”
Tanda’s words reminded Balsa of what Yugno had told her before.
The Li gave me an almost terrifyingly wonderful joy. But in exchange they took it all. Everything of mine up until that point, and even the future I would have had from then on.
She whispered in response “Yeah. It would.” before turning her head to look up at the verdant foliage. “But, there is joy in it for him too. Just like those farmers, who experience a different kind of joy when they spread their roots into the earth.”
As Tanda looked at Balsa he said, with a smile in his voice, “That kind of sounded like you were talking about yourself.”
“I am. It’s about me as well.” Balsa looked up at the sky and narrowed her eyes. “I met Chagum and went back to Kanbal for a bit. So much has happened. I feel like I’ve finally escaped from the ghost of misfortune. You know this already, but Jiguro threw away his country to protect my life. He threw away the life he was meant to live. He had to kill his friends to survive. What a cruel fate…”
“I was always thankful for that, but I also felt that I had incurred a debt I could never repay… It took me so long to realise that that was a huge mistake.”
Tanda was shocked. This was the first time Balsa had spoken about herself in this way. She looked at him with a peaceful expression.
“I should have been unbelievably happy that he cared for me so much. There is a joy to be found in protecting someone you love, you see. I want to think that, despite having such a life, Jiguro felt this kind of joy.“
“When I was protecting Chagum, I was happy. I was risking my life for a stranger, but still, I was happy.” A shadow of a smile graced Balsa’s lips.
“I’ve been cursing my misfortune ever since I was a kid, but it’s taken me this long to learn to admit my happiness too. That’s pathetic.”
“I acted like it was because of my accursed fate that I had to go around fighting and killing people. I needed such an excuse to come to terms with the blood on my hands. When I noticed my happiness, I couldn’t make these excuses anymore. Yet, when I think of what I want to do now, I can’t think of anything other than being a bodyguard.”
A normal person would surely think of a few different paths to take here, for example, to open a business or a martial arts school with the savings they had accumulated so far. But some part of Balsa, throbbing deep in her heart, still didn’t want to live that way. The black rage that she had held onto since a young age was not so easily quelled.
As Balsa watched the sunlight filter through the tree canopies and dance on the grass, she whispered. “I have caused and will continue to cause strangers, and maybe eventually myself, to die because a part of me cannot let go of its desire to fight. This is my inexcusable darkness.”
Tanda sighed, then spoke with an unusually severe expression. “Idiot. At least let yourself make excuses! If you hadn’t been involved in that ugly throne succession plot, your ugly desires might have been completely different now.”
Balsa looked at Tanda. A slow smile spread across her lips. “In other circumstances… Maybe if I had been born to a loving family of farmers, I might have been surrounded by five or six kids by now. I might have been a mother.”
“I would have had other reasons to suffer and I might have been complaining that maybe if I had been born into a different life, I might have had more interesting and fun things to do.” Balsa shook her head as she shooed a black fly away from her eye. “These maybes are what I dream about when things get tough. When I wake up, I’m back to being the normal me though.”
“I haven’t been given the kind of life I can escape into a dream from.”
Tanda closed his eyes. An outburst of cicada song enveloped them completely, like a sudden rain. “There are people who didn’t come back from their dreams.”
“Eh?”
“Like Master Torogai. She awakened from the Flower’s dream, but she didn’t return to her home. She became a magic weaver instead.” Tanda raised his eyes and vaguely looked in the direction of the people working the paddies.
The life he threw away, when he was once at a crossroads, was over there.
It had been twenty-two years since he veered off that path alone, following the faintly shining birds of Torogai’s soul flying in the twilight sky, into the dark middle of the mountains
Tanda closed his eyes and remembered the almost choking smell of the Flower. The sight of the swaying reflection of the lit up petals in the inner garden’s pool of water amidst the darkness of night. The many happily dozing Dreams inside…
The thoughts that were suppressed during daytime came freely to the forefront of one’s mind when they slept. If he had been one of the dreams within the Flower, what would he have dreamt of? Would he have been able to wake up from that dream?
People whose souls are too large for their bodies can only freely dance when in the open skies called dreams. But that’s also precisely why those dreams can become traps they want to escape from.
Tanda thought back to the words Master Torogai once said.
“Those who become magic weavers are those who have had the experience of being flung about by their soul and having been pushed to their limits. You were too young and could have not noticed, but during that dusk when you were eight, you were at your limit too.”
“Those faintly glowing soul birds are beautiful, but if a normal child even saw them, they’d find the light terrifying. Those soul birds dance at the edge of death after all.”
“When you were drawn in by the birds and came running, just like that child who was drawn in by a spirit’s voice and was swallowed up by the river, you were actually drawn towards death.”
Torogai grinned after having said that. “But that time, instead of dying, you met a teacher like me. And once you get pulled into the circle of magic weavers, it becomes a lot harder to die. Before you know it, you learn the toughness necessary to walk the tightrope between life and death.”
“Tanda, remember this well. The more a magic weaver in training like you, gets absorbed into magic weaving, the harder it is for them to see anything but darkness. Precisely because this world is invisible to normal people, we start to think that our world holds all the power. We start to take normal people lightly.”
“But real magic weavers know the truth. The powers of the night and the powers of the day are not superior and inferior but instead equals that complement one another. You’ll know one day too, about the toughness of the ordinary people who can’t see souls, the strength of those who can live normal lives.”
She looked at Tanda with unusually serious eyes and said. “But even tough people can become lost. They sometimes carry dreams that can’t be held in check with the powers of the day. Magic weavers must bring back the souls that have flown all the way to the edge of death.”
“We, who stand on the boundary between the powers of the day and the night, are The Guardians of Dreams.”
Tanda raised his eyes and looked upon the landscape, illuminated as the white light of high noon dances across. The loud sound of the cicada song returned.
Tanda returned to his conversation with Balsa. “It’s about time for the julso to bear fruit. Since the summer has been this hot, the winter will surely be a terrible one. We’ll have to prepare more cold medicine than usual. Will you help me gather some?”
“Yeah, sure. Shall we get going soon, then?” Balsa grabbed Tanda’s hand and helped him stand up.
They heard a song from the direction of the paddy fields. Someone was probably singing to distract themselves from the hardship of work. Soon other voices joined and became a merry chorus echoing across the summer sky.
The grass grows on a summer’s day. Really, really grows.
If this grass had been rice, we’d be rich by now.
Oh world, you’re out of our hands.
Oh summer’s day, you’re out of our hands.
The end.
For those interested:
- Julso is written ジュルソ in katakana.
Feel free to suggest different romanisations.
Here are the pdf and epub versions
Chapter 4 – Part 5
When something cold touched his face, Tanda woke up. He tried to open his eyes but his eyelids felt heavy and he couldn’t.
“His left ankle is cleanly broken.”
“That must be Jin’s doing. The shoulder joint I dislocated is now back in place but the area around it is swollen badly. Oh yeah, I’m also pretty sure his left eardrum is ruptured.”
Tanda recognised Balsa’s voice. It echoed strangely and he couldn’t quite make out the words. He didn’t recognise the other voice at all.
“The biggest problem is exhaustion though, isn’t it?”
“Yes. He probably hasn’t eaten anything for a while either. I still can’t wrap my head around how he could have possibly reached here in such a short time with his ankle broken.”
He heard the sound of someone clearing their throat beside his ear and recognised it. “Yeah. It’s because he can’t feel tiredness or pain. We went on horseback, so we had to choose the longer, but horse-friendly, route. We did rest a few times too.”
As soon as he realised this was his Master’s voice, sensation returned to his entire body. He groaned. He felt the heaviness far more than the pain, as if lead had been poured into him.
A dry hand touched his cheek. “Tanda! Are you awake? Tanda, can you hear me?”
He heard Balsa’s voice, but he wasn’t yet at a stage where he could answer. “He’s groaning.”
“As he should be. It must be tough… Balsa, this isn’t like you. Stop panicking.” Tanda heard Torogai speak tiredly.
“He’s fine. Well, not really fine, but he won’t die at least. Do you not trust my diagnosis?”
“I do. But, don’t you have something for the pain? The medicine you gave me earlier worked really well. Can’t we give him some of that?”
He heard a rustling noise. It sounded like some oil paper was being unwrapped. “Yeah, since it seems he’s conscious, let’s give him some medicine. Raise his head, please.”
He felt not just Balsa’s but also someone else’s hands support his body. He was raised very carefully, but still he felt a terrible dizziness.
The cold cloth that had been placed on his forehead fell to his knees, and he could finally see. His surroundings were spinning, but as the dizziness faded he could begin to vaguely make out an image of many worried faces looking at him.
It was still in the middle of the night. The bonfire burned enthusiastically. He felt cool water enter his mouth.
“Tanda. Have some water. Do you understand me? Swallow the medicine. Make sure you don’t choke.”
The bitter taste of the medicine spread throughout his mouth.
Tanda managed to recognise the medicine as raigol root and briefly worried about its soporific properties before once again falling into a deep sleep.
The next time he woke up, white light was dancing on his eyelids. His whole face felt pleasantly warmed by the soft rays of the morning sun.
He listened to the bustle of his surroundings with his eyes still closed. The pleasant smell of oil-baked fish cooking in the ashes of a fire wafted over.
“Is your shoulder ok?” He heard Chagum’s voice.
“Well, the bandage that Mr Shuga so kindly wrapped it in is a bit tight, so it hurts and is hard to move.” When Balsa answered, a man whose voice Tanda had heard last night, but didn’t know, continued the conversation.
“I’m sorry, but the blood loss was quite severe. The wound is quite deep.”
Balsa laughed lowly. “Oh, I’m not complaining. I’m grateful that you patched me up.”
“Indeed, especially as the guy who would usually do it is laid out over there.” Tanda heard Torogai’s mirth.
Tanda felt someone approach and cast a shadow on him. He felt a dry and warm hand on his forehead. He thought it was Balsa’s.
This time when he opened his eyes he saw Balsa’s face clearly. Her face, utterly unchanged despite half a year passing since he saw it last, wore an easy smile.
“Hi.” Her low, pleasant voice sounded in his ear. Tanda also smiled faintly.
“I see you are back, then?” His voice came out frustratingly weak.
“Yeah. A lot happened these past six months. A lot of… so many mysterious things happened while I was on the move, and I found myself thinking ‘if only you were with me’ countless times.”
A hard finger, calloused from years of spear usage, moved the hair stuck to Tanda’s forehead ever so gently. “When you’re a bit better, I’ll tell you all about it. And about everything that happened while your soul was over there…”
Tanda nodded and closed his eyes. He was sucked into a deep sleep once more.
After watching Tanda drift off, Balsa stood up and returned to sit by the fire. Yugno was pulling out some raada from amidst the ashes and shaking them off with a practiced hand.
“They’re done. Let’s eat.”
Torogai held out her hand first. Raada, made from rice flour kneaded with water and salt then stretched out and grilled, was especially good when wrapped around grilled fish or dried meat.
Everyone started to wrap some grilled fish, or dried meat that they had brought with them, as they liked. Chagum noticed the Hunters only eating dried meat and called out to them.
“Zen, Yun, eat some fish too. I said it was fine to fish here, so there’s nothing to worry about. The servants of the mountain villa eat the lake’s fish you know?”
After hearing that, the two looked at each other and grabbed some fish.
“That was a rather mysterious night wasn’t it?” Shuga muttered, before turning to look at Yugno, who was stuffing his cheeks with raada.
Zen, the usually quiet Hunter, broke his silence to the surprise of all. “I was obviously surprised by the Flower and the palace and all of that, but the biggest surprise by far was your singing. You must be Li Tou Ruen, the one loved by the echoes, right?”
Even Yun turned to face his comrade in his surprise. “What’s this Li thing?”
Zen wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “When I was still a kid, I used to travel with my aunt. She hired a Yakoo guide to lead us through a mountain pass. My aunt liked songs and sung all the time. When we got to a lake in the mountains, though, the guide asked her to stop.”
“He said that the Li or echoes live on the shores of mountain lakes and if a good singer sings nearby the Li will put them under a spell.”
“That Yakoo man was a great storyteller. Apparently, when a good singer sings by a lake, they Li fall in love with them and cast a spell which makes their singing so amazing that they can move people’s hearts and bodies. I thought it was an interesting story but didn’t take it seriously.”
Zen looked at Yugno. “When I heard you sing, it was like being struck by lightning. ‘Ah, this is it’, I thought. This could only be the song of Li Tou Ruen, the one loved by the echoes, exactly like in that old man’s stories.”
Yugno shrugged his shoulders and smiled, but he did not answer Zen either way.
Once they finished eating and packing up, Chagum spoke to Zen. “Zen, could you carry Tanda back to his house? Balsa’s shoulder is hurt and I don’t think Yugno could carry Tanda all the way back. I’m also worried about Jin.”
“Yes.”
Chagum bitterly smiled when he noticed the surreptitious look that Zen had given Yun before answering. “Don’t worry; I will return straight to the capital with Shuga.”
He then turned to Balsa. “I didn’t expect to meet you here again but I’m glad I did.”
Balsa smiled and softly put a hand on Chagum’s shoulder. “Yeah. I’ve got a feeling that there might be more of these unexpected meetings in the future. Our fates seem to be strongly connected, after all.”
Chagum inhaled sharply, pressed his lips together tightly and turned his face away.
They stayed in silence for just a moment, before Chagum looked at Shuga. “Shuga…”
Chagum started whispering with his face still turned away from Balsa. “Shuga told me something interesting, while we were on our way here, about how worlds come together and then move apart like sea currents. I wonder if the fates shared between two people might be like that too.”
The palace, wrapped in silence and surrounded by the sprouting greenness of the early summer mountain, was reflected in the lake. As white mist crossed over the lake, the upside-down reflection of the palace disappeared as if hidden by clouds. An utterly ordinary sight under the morning sun. The ordinariness was reassuring.
Chagum looked back at Balsa and spoke to her with his voice back under control. “When Tanda wakes up, thank him for me.”
Balsa nodded.
The wind disturbed the reed bed as it blew through it. A single bird flapped its wings and used the wind to climb, then glided over the lake and disappeared.
For those interested:
- Raigol is written ライゴル in katakana.
- Raada is written ラーダ in katakana.
Feel free to suggest different romanisations.
Here are the pdf and epub versions:
Chapter 4 – Part 4
Shuga was looking down at Balsa as she pinned Tanda’s unmoving body, when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He turned to face it.
He opened his eyes wide. Yugno, who had previously dropped to his knees on the bank of the lake, was now falling forwards.
“Mr Yugno!” Shuga’s voice overlapped with Yun’s shout. “Your Highness? Your Highness! Is everything alright?”
Shuga turned around in a panic. Chagum, leaning on Yun, was desperately trying to wake his body up. Eventually he could support himself no longer and fell into Yun’s arms as if he were severely inebriated.
Shuga realised that he could hear someone’s voice, but it sounded strangely far away. When he tried running to Chagum’s side he moved as if in a dream, never truly advancing.
Balsa raised her head upon hearing the shouts. She noticed that her surroundings were bizarrely distorted.
The wind, flowing and swirling towards the moon reflected in the lake, swallowed them all up.
Strangely, this wind was visible to the naked eye. And that wasn’t all. Balsa could clearly see light swelling out from Yugno’s and Chagum’s foreheads, as if their souls were trying to escape. Also, a number of threads, similar to the one emanating from Torogai’s forehead, were stretched out across the sky towards the palace in the lake. These were the threads that connected the souls of the people trapped by the Flower to the lives that still remained in their bodies.
Balsa placed both of her hands on her knees and mustered all her strength to stand up.
Perhaps it was because of the countless times she had faced such knife-edge danger that, at times like these, Balsa’s heart remained calm and collected. “Shuga! Yun! Shake Chagum! Don’t let him fall asleep no matter what!”
Having shouted her orders she headed for Yugno, defying the swirling wind to help him when no one else would. She had to put all her strength into her legs with each step to reach his prone form. He was lying face down in the grass. Once there, she propped up his body with one arm.
Yugno’s head lolled from side to side like that of a corpse. The thread extending from his forehead was rapidly becoming brighter, as if struggling to escape to the outside.
For the first time, Balsa regretted having no knowledge of magic weaving. All she could do was to ask the people she imagined in her mind what to do. Tanda, how can I get him to wake up?
She suddenly raised her head. A thought had flashed through her brain. She looked around and shouted loudly. “Li! Echoes! Your loved one is about to be taken away!”
This place, beside the water in the middle of the mountains, was exactly the kind of place the echoes lived in. Even if they were invisible, they were surely here…
“Don’t let him be taken, please! Li!”
Yugno was drawn to the nostalgic voice of his mother and tried to go to its source. The rich green garden his soul was born in, his tall father… The scenery he could see deep in the lake was unbearably nostalgic.
“Come quickly.” A pleasant voice was calling. Yugno started struggling to float upwards.
Suddenly, something grabbed him tightly. Countless small hands were clinging onto him and holding him in place. As soon as those hands were on him, he remembered the song of the Li, the one that he had first heard as a child, with unbelievable clarity.
He didn’t need anything else, as long as his songs could move people’s souls… He sang a song for the Li on that lake’s bank fully aware of their curse. The feverish feelings he felt back then welled up in his heart and revived that song. His skin broke out into goosebumps, and he remembered the heat he once felt.
At that moment, the power of the voice urging him to his death, which had been disguising itself as his mother’s voice, was suddenly interrupted.
Yugno smiled at the Li, which were still clinging to him.
It’s ok. I’m not going anywhere. Yugno felt his soul return to his body with a whoosh.
“Yugno.” He heard Balsa speak. Just like the Li, she was holding onto his arm tightly. “Wake up, Yugno.” He could feel the warmth of her hand with his eyes still closed. He could feel a prayer in the tremble of that gripping hand. Yugno felt something stir deep in his heart.
He started hearing the muffled voices of men calling Chagum’s name from afar. The repeated calls and Balsa’s trembling hand gradually overlapped inside Yugno and resonated until they became a strong pulse that swayed him. A call to life, made of all the sensations in his body, started in the pit of his stomach.
The Li, who were still holding onto Yugno, began to murmur in resonance with the men’s voices; the reverberations of their voices shaking him. As they grew in strength, they pleasantly jolted his heart.
Grass, trees, bugs, birds, beasts, fish, stones, water. A quiet and bubbly quivering, released by all that existed by the bank of the mountain lake, was felt.
Yugno opened his eyes and slowly stood up, smiling. Keep trembling.
Yugno giggled. A ticklish joy bubbled within him. Well then, let’s shake, let’s tickle, tremble and burst.
Suddenly, a sound started spilling out of Yugno’s throat. A high pitched singing, that harmonised with one’s body, lifting it up.
The Li happily joined into the harmonies, making the reeds tremble, until the whole earth and heaven trembled too.
The singing became an unbearable joy and crossed the lake, rocking it.
The threads connecting the many lives and souls were rocked by the song as they disappeared into the lake. They started to pulsate and shimmer. The song became the wind, and the voice of heaven and earth.
The world of the Flower was fading quickly. The palace made of white wood was also disappearing like sand blown by the wind.
A strange wind, different to any so far, started blowing within that world.
Tanda, who had been trapped in a sandstorm permeated with heavy malice, felt a strong and peaceful joy, akin to the rays of the morning sun caressing his face, as the refreshing wind blew the storm away.
He felt like Balsa was telling him to not give up. “Yeah.” He murmured. “I won’t.”
Strength returned to his body, filling it like water. Light also appeared in Kaya’s eyes.
“This wind smells nice. It reminds me of rice fields. Actually, maybe a stronger smell. Like grass in the summer.”
Two winds swayed the world. One smelled like death, the other like a field of grass in high summer; a mysterious smell of life. The two winds interweaved like twisted threads and whirled around each other while groaning.
The surroundings changed appearance to that of a grassland swaying in a strong wind.
Tanda stood up slowly. The people who fell into the inner garden shivered slightly in the blowing wind as they got up. They started walking with uncertainty. Their legs felt unreliable at first, but one by one they began to skip, while indescribable smiles brightened their faces.
Kaya and Tanda were standing in an endless grassland at the height of summer. As they watched the windswept grass, excitement bubbled up from deep inside them and they suddenly wanted to run. They looked up at each other and when their eyes met they both burst into a sprint. The longer they ran for, the farther they wanted to go.
Kaya noticed that the thread extending from her forehead was glowing. From it, warmth pulsed down into her entire body.
I want to go back. She felt a cold, numbing pain in the back of her nose.
The smell of dew that accompanied every morning’s trip to get water from the lake. The cold grass pressing against the sole of her bare foot. The chirping of birds. The faces of her family members. The faces of her friends. Those were all of the things that appeared in her mind’s eye, one after another.
Eventually, she could make out the full moon in the depths of the blue darkness far above her. Many threads were stretching towards it.
“Fly!” When Kaya heard Tanda’s voice she started floating, as if she were being pulled in by her thread.
The whirling wind tossed her this way and that as she ascended towards the full moon. Eventually, her whole body was completely covered in shining threads.
Tanda patiently watched over the dreaming souls as one by one they became jewels, shining with the faint light of fireflies, and were pulled up by their life threads.
There was no thread to pull him up.
That’s it for me then.
As soon as he thought that, he remembered Master Torogai. He definitely saw her before this wind started blowing. Before everything was swallowed by the sand storm. Was that an illusion shown to him by the Flower?
With the first step he took to look for Master Torogai, he felt something tightly wrap around his legs. A blackened root.
“I won’t let you go. You will dream with me for all eternity.”
The root quickly wrapped itself around Tanda like a snake and started squeezing him with tremendous power. From it a loneliness and sadness akin to falling into an endless black hole seeped into him.
“Don’t go…”
Tanda felt desperate arms clinging onto him. The sadness in that grasp deeply shook his heart.
You were this lonely…
As his mental strength and ability to resist waned, Tanda briefly relaxed; only for an intense yell to shock him into alertness.
“What are you doing, you shitty student!” Torogai briskly walked up to the entangled Tanda and stood in front of him. “You idiot! Why are you getting attached to your enemy? You’re a magic weaver aren’t you? Why are you letting yourself resonate with a soul in despair?”
“If you think your enemy is pitiful, then how about you do everything you can to save them instead, hmm? You can start by shredding those flimsy roots to pieces.”
Tanda smiled wryly as feelings of embarrassment and relief hit him at once.
He closed his eyes and ignored his bindings. He let his whole body transform into water and easily slipped through the embrace of the roots.
A sad scream rose up with the remaining roots, before they changed shape to that of the Flower’s Keeper.
Torogai approached the Flower’s Keeper and stretched out her arm to grasp his shoulder. “Stop hiding in the shadows of other people and show yourself, First Queen.”
The face of the Flower’s Keeper distorted and flickered between shapes before the bitter visage of a woman emerged from the distortion. The First Queen shrieked. “Get your filthy hands off me, you vulgar commoner!”
Torogai did not let go. “If I were still Tomca, I would have surely let go and covered my eyes by now. But you know what, Your Highness? I’m the magic weaver Torogai. I am one who exists between this world and the other, transcending your definition of status.” She continued in a quieter tone of voice. “Your Highness, what is your name?”
The First Queen’s white face trembled. “Riano.”
“Well then, Riano. I came here to call back your soul.”
The haughtiness and pride of the First Queen faded from the woman’s face when she was called by her name. What surfaced in its place was an expression so pale and fragile, it looked as if it would break with a touch.
“I do not intend to go back.” Riano whispered. The vague shape of her son, Sagum, was visible in her arms. “I do not intend to return to a world where Crown Prince Sagum no longer exists.”
Torogai strongly gripped Riano’s shoulder. “You don’t think he is here either, do you? Why else would you still look so unhappy? Why else would you have surrounded the Flower with this curse”
“The sadness of losing a child isn’t gonna go away whatever you do. It’s been fifty years since I lost mine, but there is still a sadness in my heart that hurts every time it’s touched. But why do you think we still keep on living even when it hurts so much?”
“People are far tougher creatures than they themselves think.” Torogai answered her own question with an expression that spoke of both sadness and joy. “Now, stop crying for the sake of crying like a spoiled brat and let go of your hatred. I know what you’re going through. Your hatred is slowly being exposed for the flimsy, pale thing that it is. There is no shame in that.”
Riano lifted her face and looked at Torogai for the first time. “I feel like I’m many other people all at once. When I invited Chagum over here and trapped him, it was out of a burning desire to make the Second Queen go through the same pain I did. However, when I became one with the Flower and cultivated his dreams, those feelings faded. Then, when he was leaving this place, I was distracted by the sound of strong wing beats and didn’t manage to stop him.”
“When embracing Yugno to stop him from becoming the wind that would awaken the Dreams, I wished that we would all become tiny and even disappear, but amidst that wind, I felt that going back to the normal world would not be so bad… It’s my own soul, but it strangely won’t do quite what I ask of it.” Riano let a sad smile grace her lips. “I’ve dreamed many of these dreams. Those of men, women, girls and boys…”
Torogai smiled wryly. “That’s tough. Dreaming is tiring, isn’t it?”
Riano’s smile widened. She nodded in agreement. “I feel like I’ve been dreaming for ten, maybe twenty years.”
“Doesn’t the smell of this wind remind you of the morning light?”
Riano’s eyelids peacefully fluttered shut and she inhaled the smell of life that the wind carried. Torogai whispered, as she watched the mask of the Guardian of the Flower, which was trapped within the Flower’s stalk, blacken and wilt. “Look over there. This wind can’t wake all the souls by itself.”
Amongst those who fell from the petals and crumpled, some had severed life threads uselessly extending into nothingness from their sleeping faces, and they were slowly fading into the stem of the Flower.
“Sleep is so close to death, you see. The souls of those who are truly close to their limits can easily slide from sleep into the darkness of the other world.” Torogai grabbed Riano’s arm and said in a commanding voice. “It’s time to wake up now! One day you won’t be able to no matter how much you might wish to.”
“I’ll give you the best send off this magic weaver can, Riano. I’ll turn you into a white bird and let you taste the joy of flying amidst the blue sky.”
“Become a bird Riano! Imagine cutting the wind with your beautiful wings, a white flash dancing in the sky. In the world of dreams, your imagination is what’s really powerful!”
Riano stilled for a while, as if uncertain, but eventually with a single intake of breath, she started glowing with the light of a firefly, and transformed into a beautiful white bird.”
“Fly, Riano!”
Pushed by Torogai’s voice, Riano rose, and with a beat of her wings, she flew straight for the moon.
Torogai watched her disappear completely into the white light. Then she kicked Tanda, who was spacing out and staring into the moon, in the shin as hard as she could.
“Ouch!” Tanda groaned, holding onto his leg.
“You huge idiot! Making me work overtime like this!”
Tanda smiled while crying and looked up at Torogai. Her face suddenly stiffened. Tanda noticed that she was looking at something behind him and turned around.
A lone, tall man stood there, gazing at Torogai. She lost her voice. The face of the Flower’s Keeper was far older than she remembered.
He smiled slowly. “Our son let the wind in, didn’t he.” His voice had grown hoarse and hard to hear. His whole body was also gradually fading. He spoke again while looking at Torogai and Tanda. “The seeds were safely produced and most of the dreams returned.”
“Your other son helped me out so much. I didn’t intend to make a resentful Guardian of the Flower, but the power of the pollinator Dream was so strong that I could never get anything to go quite the way I wanted.”
“But you helped in the end, didn’t you?”
The Flower’s Keeper nodded in answer to Tanda’s question. “Yes. I did what I could, so that the Flower’s Guardian didn’t crush Yugno’s throat.”
He looked up at the moon. “The moon has begun to fade. This Flower’s time is almost over.” His body had become as transparent as the wings of a mayfly. He took Torogai’s hands into his. “Farewell, my beloved Tomca.”
“The Flower’s life is an eternal cycle, but the me who treasures his memories of loving you is coming to an end. My world is about to disappear. This is goodbye for good.”
“Farewell, my most beloved Tomca…”
Torogai grit her teeth. “Farewell.”
He faded as if dissolving into Torogai’s hands. She gasped. Along with the Flower’s Keeper, she felt his last wish flow like a torrent and also melt into her hands. She held onto it.
She took a deep breath and looked up. She quickly glanced Tanda’s way then turned into a bird and rose into the sky, beating her wings strongly. Tanda quickly followed and flew after her.
The two birds put all their strength into flying towards the disappearing moon. It was almost a half moon by now.
“We’re gonna slip through! Make your body thin!” They twisted their bodies and slipped through into the bright light, as a gentle wind pushed them.
Yugno watched as a number of lights rose up from the moon reflected in the lake and scattered. Every time the threads coming out of the lights pulsed, a beautiful and clear sound resounded in the empty sky. As he watched, the moon waned and the upside-down palace vanished. Just as the light of the palace had vanished completely, two shining birds appeared on the surface of the lake, as if they had sucked up all of the palace’s remaining light.
Suddenly, he was filled with feelings of loneliness. The Flower he had been watching since birth was gone. The Flower was a bright, forever-blooming beacon in his heart. Yugno started to sob.
His surroundings were astir. He heard Torogai saying something and Balsa and the others making sounds of joy. But to him they all seemed like nothing more than moving silhouettes seen from far away.
He slowly stood up and moved to a grassy patch a bit farther away from all of them, before sitting down again. His body felt sluggish, as if he were completely empty. After singing with the Li, his entire body was usually overflowing with energy. Now, for some reason, he just felt as if the light of life was gone from his body.
He lied down on the grass and closed his eyes. He heard someone calling to him worriedly, but he waved them away.
How long did he stay like that?
Eventually, he noticed that he was standing amidst a pale blue darkness. In the first moment after he composed himself, he realised that he was standing in that familiar inner garden.
As he looked around, he spied a shadow standing away from him in the darkness. He slowly approached the small old lady, her skin black.
“Master Torogai.”
Torogai was smiling, her expression much more serene than it was earlier that day.
“Is this inside the Flower’s dream?”
“No. I called you into my dream. When I touched you, you seemed awfully lonely.”
Yugno nodded minutely. “When the Flower disappeared, the light inside me did so too, it would seem. My heart has become awfully empty.”
Torogai reached out with her hand, and caressed Yugno’s cheek, like one would a small child’s. “Yugno, the Flower hasn’t disappeared. Look.”
When Torogai opened her palm, atop her wrinkled skin rested a single seed.
“This is..!”
“Yes. It’s the Flower’s seed. The Flower’s Keeper left this in my hand at the end.” Torogai rolled the tiny seed atop her palm. “What in the world even is the Flower? When was it born? Where did it come from? Is that fire-coloured thing I saw even really a flower?
The tiny brown seed atop Torogai’s palm looked exceedingly ordinary, but as Yugno watched it, its shape suddenly wavered and in its place appeared a large white seed instead.
As he continued watching it in astonishment, its shape continued to waver and it returned to being a plain brown seed.
“As long as it keeps looking like a seed, it can change to be any colour or shape, but it can’t become, for example, a stone. Things that exist only within dreams can change their appearance limitlessly as long as they stay within the boundaries set by their inherent natures.”
Torogai looked up at Yugno. “Since the Flower obtained its form by being dreamed, it ended up being controlled by the dream that pollinated it, the First Queen’s. Even so, it still remained true to its nature of being pollinated, producing a seed, then scattering.”
Torogai screwed up her face lopsidedly. “The Flower’s Keeper is surely the power that protects that. A protector ensuring that a seed is left behind and that the flower scatters, even as it is controlled by dreams.”
“What does the Flower’s Guardian do then?”
Torogai smiled widely and chuckled at Yugno’s question. “The role of the Guardian was to protect you wasn’t it?”
“Huh?”
“It’s original purpose was probably to protect you in the other world, by inviting a soul from that world and controlling the body left behind.”
“And that was twisted by the First Queen’s will?”
Torogai nodded while smiling, though suddenly that smile turned to a poisonous one. “But, probably, there was one common goal shared by the First Queen and the Flower; preventing you from cutting your ties with the Flower and running away.”
“I’m sure both wills agreed on this one point when they sent the Flower’s Guardian to bring you back to the Flower on that night.”
Yugno felt his skin break out into goosebumps.
“But when the First Queen tried to crush your throat, that was not in accordance with the Flower’s will. The Flower’s Keeper said that he tried his best to not let the First Queen control the Flower completely.”
“The First Queen, as deeply connected to the Flower as she was, might have even sensed the Flower’s will on this matter. That’s why she feared that you would bring the wind of life and free the Dreams. To prevent this, she decided to send the Flower’s Guardian to attack you.”
Torogai picked up the seed from her palm. “The Flower is most likely a living organism that behaves like one of those flowers which have the wind carry their seeds to far away places. The fact that you became Li Tou Ruen, ‘the one loved by the echoes’, was surely not a coincidence. There isn’t a more suitable person to become the wind which carries the seeds than you, a person who lives a long life travelling from country to country and singing songs that change peoples’ lives and move their souls.”
“I’m telling you this because when you told me that the scary mother in your nightmare said that the Flower’s Guardian would crush your throat so that you could never sing again, it made me wonder; why was she so fixated on you, on your song? But if we put it in this context, it makes sense doesn’t it?”
Yugno laughed weakly. “And now my duty is done. That’s why I’ve become so empty, isn’t it?”
Torogai laughed. “Absolutely not. Your life has only just begun.”
Yugno shook his head sluggishly. “But, for some reason, I feel so tired. Even my desire for singing has dried up…”
Torogai gently stroked his hand while stifling her laughter. “Yugno, you’re a child of dawn and dusk. Like this pale blue darkness, you exist in the boundary between night and day.
“Like the cheerful light of day, your song has the power to brighten up people’s lives. The source of that power was your nightly dreaming. Sleep heals the body, getting rid of the tiredness of the day. Dreams, however, heal the soul. Even nightmares serve this purpose of healing. They help your soul’s deepest wounds heal similarly to exposing them to the wind and drying them out.”
“The Li resonated with your soul and birthed a Song. The power you have when you sing it is the power of dreams.”
Yugno bit his lip. Torogai asked quietly. “Do you want to continue singing? Or do you want to live like a normal human?”
“Humans are strong creatures. Even if you lose your song, with time you’ll get used to the emptiness you feel now and eventually it will disappear completely. I will help you find some other path to follow. I’m sure you could have a peaceful life.”
Yugno’s face screwed up into a sad smile and he slowly shook his head. “I… I can’t live without singing.”
Torogai nodded. “Give me your hand, then.”
When he realised what Torogai was about to do he felt a chill in his spine. It’s like that time.
He remembered the fear he felt on that distant day when he sang in front of the lake for the first time, as well as the feelings overshadowing his fear. I’m at another crossroads.
How many times had he wondered what life would have awaited him if he had not sung by the lake that day, so long ago.
He knew now. Whatever happiness waited on the other side of the crossing, whatever misfortune awaited him on this side, it paled in comparison to his desire to sing.
Yugno finally held out his hand. Torogai placed the Flower’s seed in his palm.
The seed was as warm as Torogai’s skin, but as he watched it, it wavered and sank into his hand. Heat spread gradually to all parts of his body.
With the heat, the memories of the Dreams still dozing within the seed rushed into Yugno’s soul like a flood. He gasped and covered his face with both hands.
Their feelings, their burning wishes, and the heart rending sadness of wishes gone unfulfilled, swirled within him.
Countless lives became a dizzying current of impressions as the long, long years people had spent living all surged into Yugno in a matter of seconds.
Eventually, the whirlpool of Dreams sunk to the bottom of his soul. When the seed had completely melted into his soul, Yugno was changed through to his very core.
He let his hands fall slowly and raised his face.
His skin and hair remained that of a youngster in his twenties, but Torogai noticed that his eyes now were coloured by the passage of time.
The boundless brightness that coloured children’s eyes disappeared, and in its place appeared the deep light of a person who could feel other people’s pain as his own. Because the dreams of others had melted into his heart, he finally understood the pain hidden in dreaming. The pain of those who couldn’t enter dreams of their own volition.
“Hold onto the Dreams tightly, you hear?” Torogai smiled faintly and whispered. “Your song might lose the easy cheer it had before.”
“In exchange, you’ll probably be able to move people deeply even without the spirits’ help. When I leave this world, I’ll call for you, so please send me to the other world with your song.”
Yugno nodded. Torogai took his hand. “I don’t know if ages ago, the Flower was borne of your soul, or if your soul was born from the Flower, or if in the beginning you were one. You’re definitely entwined so profoundly that it’s hard to separate the two of you.”
Torogai looked at Yugno and whispered as if she were chanting a spell. “You’re the child of dawn and dusk. The child of the pale blue darkness. You’re the wind that takes the Flower’s seeds and spreads them far into the world.”
“The seed naps within you, and when you face your night, it’ll sprout, take shape within your last dream, and invite over someone else’s dream. Eventually a new Flower will bloom. It’s probably been like this since forever. The end of one circle, is the beginning of another, you see?”
Yugno looked at Torogai. She clapped him on the shoulder as if she had regained her strength. “Fly with a cheerful song on your lips, son of my dream.”
Yugno woke from his daze and slowly got up. He thought it would have been around dawn, but his surroundings were still pitch black. The light of the fire was flickering as he saw Balsa and the others worriedly crowd around Tanda.
He should have been dreaming for a long time, but it seemed that his conversation with Torogai did not take much of this world’s time.
He saw Torogai sitting up from where she was lying next to the fire. She looked around, searching for Yugno and smiled slightly when she found him.
She stood up with a heave and walked over to Tanda’s side.
For those interested:
- Riano is written リアノin katakana.
Here are the pdf and epub versions:
Chapter 4 – Part 3
Balsa thought she heard someone calling her name and raised her head.
When she saw four person-shaped shadows approach from around the lake, her chest swelled with joy.
“Balsa!” Chagum ran, tripping over himself. He had grown taller since the last time they had met. His voice was also no longer the high pitched trill of a child, but had dropped and become that of a young man.
“Hey! Watch out! Don’t you damage the barrier! Step over it carefully as you come in.” Chagum slowed down after hearing Torogai’s worried shout. He gently stepped over the rope as he was told, his face screwing up at the sight of Balsa. Memories of the time they spent together flashed before his eyes.
“You’ve grown so much, haven’t you Chagum?” Balsa’s voice was hoarse as she took hold of his face. The top of Chagum’s head used to just about come up to her chest, but now it reached all the way up to her shoulder level. He embraced her tightly and started to sob.
Neither had thought that they would get to meet again, and once this night was over they would have to part once more.
Shuga and the Hunters Zen and Yun had entered the barrier soon after Chagum, and now stood still, just watching the two of them silently.
“The moon is rising…” At Torogai’s warning, everyone looked up into the sky. The dull, red face of the large half-moon was peeking over the ridges of the mountains.
“So, I need to make preparations for the Soul Call before the moon is reflected in that lake. Can you all sit quietly while I do that?” Balsa returned to her senses upon hearing Torogai’s voice. Chagum let go of Balsa and, with a chastised expression, started to sit on the ground, only to be stopped by a panicking Yun. “Please wait a second, Your Highness.”
He removed a cloth from his back and laid it down on the ground. Chagum looked at the cloth with a displeased expression, and only when Balsa nodded did he obediently sit down on it.
Balsa looked over at Shuga who was standing nearby and bowed her head deeply. She made it look like an innocuous greeting of a stranger, but it seemed like Shuga understood her true intention. He smiled slightly before returning to a serious expression, and returning the bow.
Balsa also nodded in greeting at the two Hunters, who did not look at all similar to one another. The short and stout Hunter with a thick neck, Zen, expressionlessly returned her nod. However, the one whose face bore a scar that she had once caused, the thin and tall Yun, hesitated for a moment before sullenly reciprocating.
Balsa tried feeling out for anyone else who may have been hiding in the surroundings, dark and deeply silent except for the occasional whistling of birds. She couldn’t sense the Guardian of the Flower. It looked like they had managed to safely get here without being followed.
She couldn’t bring herself to be glad for this, though as she imagined Tanda, running in the darkness and becoming increasingly worn down.
Don’t come here, Tanda! Despite thinking this, she nevertheless couldn’t stop another thought from popping into her head. Please show me that you’re still alive Tanda.
Before she knew it, the small, bright and white semicircle of the moon had risen high into the night sky. The outlines of the surrounding mountains were made clearly apparent by its light. The white, wooden roof of the lifeless mountain villa, towering over the opposite shore, was glimmering in the light as if covered in frost.
Suddenly, Yugno stirred. “What’s wrong with the palace?”
Everyone looked at the lake’s surface where Yugno was pointing. The mountain villa was reflected in the dark surface of the lake, as clearly as if in a mirror. The reflection was far too clear to be caused by the moonlight. Yet more unsettling, however, was the stillness of the image, undisturbed even as the wind created ripples on the surface of the lake.
Chagum whispered, trembling, “The moon is weird too…” The object visible in the sky was a perfect half moon, but the reflection in the lake below instead depicted a swollen, almost full, moon. As they watched, it seemed to grow ever fuller, as if a circular window were opening up in the sky, gradually letting more and more light through.
The moment the moon became completely full, a high pitched noise rang out and broke through the silence, giving Balsa a strange sensation on her skin and the sound became higher and higher.
“Wind?” Shuga shook his head at Balsa’s murmured question. “The surface of the lake is undisturbed. As are these flames and the nearby reeds.”
Nonetheless, those sitting there by the lake certainly felt something like wind.
“Ah.” Everyone saw it at the same time and sucked in a sharp breath. The mountain villa was in total darkness, with not a single light visible, but the upside-down palace reflected on the surface of the water was illuminated from within by a warm, dim, flickering brightness, like that of a torch.
“It’s the Flower” Chagum whispered. “That’s the light of the Flower, coming from the inner-garden.” Balsa grabbed Chagum’s arm suddenly upon hearing his sleepy and spaced out answer. “Don’t get pulled in Chagum! You’ve gotta keep it together!”
Chagum started trembling with a start. Some of the others, who were also starting to drift off, looked at Balsa with expressions as if she had just kicked them awake. “Be careful! That Flower attracts dreams. Right now here and there are close together, connected! If you relax, you’re gonna get dragged in!” Balsa felt that her desperate words were ineffective like a muffled, distant shout within a dream. The air felt like liquid.
It was then that light started to bleed forth from Torogai’s slowly swaying body. It was a pale yellow glow, resembling the light of fireflies. With time, that light gathered at her forehead.
Balsa then saw a soul for the first time. It took on the shape of a beautiful bird and rose up, still shining like a firefly, only to be sucked straight into the moon on the lake’s surface, dragging a white thread behind it.
Torogai was sucked into the reflected moon at great speed, reminiscent of a bird trapped in an air current. The aimlessly lingering, bluish mist in the area made her think of the blue tint of the fading darkness just before dawn.
Alarm bells deep within her were ringing.
There is a strong magic hidden among this mist. I can’t let myself get caught up in it…
However, those feelings unravelled into nothing as she descended deeper into the blue mist, and her time began to flow backwards.
By the time she navigated the interconnected corridors and arrived at the garden crowded with trees, she had forgotten fifty-two years of her lifetime and was once more the twenty year old Tomca.
When she saw a tall man dressed in grey robes tied with a brilliant green sash, Tomca felt a sharp joy. Before long, this turned into a warm euphoria and enveloped her.
“Tomca, where is the child?” Tomca, shocked at his words, looked down at her hands.
Gone! Even though I’ve been holding it this whole time…
Only a faint coldness in her arms remained, the baby’s warmth having disappeared. “It’s okay, Tomca. Why don’t you try calling for him? I’m sure he’ll come back.”
Tomca became relieved. “You’re right. I know where he is. I know how to return him to these arms too.”
Tomca spread her arms and called for her son.
A few things happened at once.
The magic weaving tool made of a spike of zebra grass that Torogai was holding suddenly went up in flames.
The string of the barrier ripped and was flung outwards.
A shadow reminiscent of a three-legged beast jumped out from the reed bed and attacked Yugno. Balsa just about managed to slide between the shadow and Yugno, but was beaten into the ground with tremendous force.
She saw Yun the Hunter, out of the corner of her eye, draw his sword, shouting “Monster!”
Balsa put her arm into the armpit of the Flower’s Guardian, wrapped her leg around his right ankle and turned him over with all of her strength, pinning him down.
Yun’s sword, which was meant for the Guardian’s back, instead pierced Balsa’s left shoulder.
As he pulled it out in surprise, Chagum came flying at Balsa, shouting the entire time, and pressed down on that shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding.
The Guardian begun to writhe below Balsa in an attempt to get free. She suddenly got up and picked him up by the shoulder using only her right arm.
Balsa tried carrying him away like that, but he rolled both of his hands into fists and struck her back with immense force.
Balsa groaned, dropped the Guardian, and collapsed on top of him.
Yun was stopped by Zen from attempting to stab the Guardian again. “You protect His Highness!” He shouted his order at Yun as he himself restrained the Guardian’s hands from grabbing Balsa’s neck. She managed to raise her head while coughing. “Don’t kill him, it’s Tanda.”
“I know.” Zen pulled the Guardian from underneath Balsa, but when he noticed that the Guardian broke his own arm to try and get free, he paled.
Yugno was scared out of his mind. The monstrous Guardian kept lunging at him and when he stretched his fingers, crooked like an eagle’s talons, towards Yugno’s throat, he lost his senses completely.
Running on shaking legs, he desperately retreated away from the grappling fighters and towards the lake.
That’s when a pleasant smell wafted towards him. It reminded him of his hometown’s stew made over a sunken hearth and he became enveloped in its warmth.
He heard a nostalgic voice from deep within. “Yugno…”
Mom’s voice. Yugno thought with a clouded head. The voice that always comforted me after a nightmare.
The second he heard it, the stiffness brought on by extreme fright left his body and his awareness and memories of the current nightmare were pushed back into a far corner of his mind, as his desire to see his mother eclipsed everything.
“Come quickly…”
In that garden in which his soul was born, the light of the Flower flickered invitingly.
Yugno fell to his knees upon the grass…
The end of the Flower’s world finally began. A gust of wind blew in like an omen and increased in intensity, It’s howl louder and louder.
As the wind started to get stronger, Tanda decided that he no longer had time to hesitate. He transformed into a bird and flew up, looking for Kaya.
The Flower’s light swayed in time with the intense gusts, casting dancing shadows everywhere. Petals rained down from scattering flowers. The overpowering smell of the Flower begun to transform into the sickly sweet scent of death.
Tanda panicked as he noticed that he couldn’t control his flight as he wished.
Is it because of the wind? Or is my possessed body in the other world dying?
Whichever it was, an unbearable tiredness came over him.
At the very least, I want to save Kaya.
Tanda flapped his wings desperately and approached a flower head. It also appeared to be sharply swaying. His suspicions were confirmed when the petals scattered. He only barely dodged them.
Amongst the petals carried away by the wind he saw vague human shapes drift downwards.
As soon as he processed what he was seeing, he abruptly changed back into his human form.
“Kaya!” As he screamed her name, Tanda caught the falling shape of a girl and positioned himself below her, as they fell with their backs to the ground, into the inner garden.
The impact of the fall was far smaller than Tanda expected. The water in the inner garden was somehow similar to sand. The girl in his arms began to move.
“Kaya, are you conscious?” At Tanda’s voice, Kaya looked up with confusion on her face.
“Uncle Tanda? Where are we? Why am I here?”
The flower heads were scattering one after another, and many human figures began falling into the inner garden like ripe fruit. Once on the ground, they curled up like babies and stopped moving.
Tanda thought to wake them, but his body would not move as he wished it to. A terrible tiredness took over his entire body.
I have to turn Kaya into a bird…
With that thought, Tanda stopped moving. A paralysing fear entered the depths of his chest and he gradually picked himself up.
Am I gonna die in a place like this?
The things he wanted to do, the future he should have lived, began to fade away like the light at dusk.
“Uncle Tanda? What’s wrong? What is going on?” Kaya shouted in fear as she shook Tanda.
He finally managed to find his voice again. “Kaya… You have to get away from here. Can you see the threads?”
“Threads?” Kaya squinted. As she noticed the thread of light coming out of her forehead, she raised her voice in surprise. “I see it! Uncle Tanda, I see the thread!”
Tanda grabbed Kaya’s hand. “I’ll turn you into a bird now, so promise me that you’ll follow that thread wherever it goes. You can fly home like that.”
“Into a bird? You can do that?”
Tanda lifted the corners of his mouth into a slight smile. “Yes, I can. I’m still a magic weaver, even if not a very good one”
Tanda closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, he got started on his final job. He would turn Kaya into a bird by using subconscious suggestion. However, his body wouldn’t move the way wanted. It became incredibly heavy, and his vision went dark…
Zen slowly let go of the Flower’s Guardian, who he had been holding down, and looked up at Balsa. She was pressing down on her injured shoulder and staring at Tanda’s unrecognisable form in a daze. She looked at his face, illuminated by the incandescent fire grates, and she got the feeling that he was at his limit.
Balsa felt pain in her chest as if she had been stabbed with a blade. Things hidden deep in her heart came forth unbidden in that moment, and her sadness spread like a numbing chill through her entire body.
Balsa kneeled next to the unmoving Tanda, cradled his head and pressed her forehead against his. She couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering. Her throat constricted and she couldn’t breathe. “Tanda…” Tears fell from her eyes. “Don’t you dare die. Tanda!”
Tanda thought he heard Balsa’s voice. He looked up. His body still felt heavy, but for some reason a desire to continue living began to insistently pulse inside him, giving him the strength necessary to move his body.
He propped himself up on an elbow and noticed that Kaya was looking at him with worried eyes.
That’s right. For Kaya’s sake, he couldn’t let himself die now.
Having thought that, he suddenly noticed that a young girl was standing next to the Flower’s Keeper by the roots of the scattering Flower. The girl seemed to not even notice the raging wind and had her arms out as if she were hugging someone.
She was nothing more than a young Yakoo girl, but her face held faint traces of familiarity.
Impossible… Tanda gasped before mustering his strength for a shout. “Ma…master! Master Torogai!!!”
The girl turned to look at Tanda with confusion, but a light returned to her eyes as they met his. “Tanda?”
When Tomca saw Tanda, a deep shiver went through her entire body. Something that had been put to sleep started to slowly but firmly awaken, and her plump face with a vague expression returned to its usual wrinkly and stubborn-looking gaze.
“Tomca, be careful, you’re starting to age unattractively.” The Flower’s Keeper warned harshly.
By the time she shook her head and laughed, her face had fully returned to that of Torogai. “Is that so? Is it really that bad?”
“But you know what? This is just how I am; it took me fifty-two years to grow this face.” She glared at the Flower’s Keeper. “You aren’t the Flower’s Keeper, are you? You little shit, that was a dirty trick. I can’t believe I fell for it!”
Torogai turned herself into flames and jumped onto the man, but he swayed abruptly and disappeared.
His illusions vanished with him, and Torogai was no longer shielded from the wind storm surrounding her..
The petals continued to fall with the wind. The palace crumbled like sand and disappeared.
“This is bad!” Torogai grumbled as she tried to rush through the gale towards the crouching Tanda. As she proceeded, though, his form was obscured by the growing sandstorm.
“I won’t let you go.” A thin, high pitched, woman’s voice resounded. “We are all staying here forever. Return to me, sons who have escaped my grasp!”
Here are the pdf and epub versions:
Chapter 4 – Part 2
When the afternoon sun started to lower, Balsa and the others stopped their horses. Balsa dismounted first and lifted Torogai, who had been sitting in front of her, down from the horse.
“That was awful, just awful.” Torogai stretched her aching back, muttering all the while.
Yugno smoothly slipped off his horse and crumpled onto the ground. He had ridden on horseback only twice or thrice before as a reward for singing for rich people, but such experiences could not have prepared him for riding alone at the speed necessary to keep up with Balsa’s horse in front. The skin on the backs of his knees had peeled away, and his thighs would not stop trembling. He would not be able to stand for a while.
“You okay over there?” Balsa leaned over to peer at Yugno’s pale face. Yugno moaned as he rubbed his cramping legs. She placed a hand on Yugno’s shoulder. “Let’s rest for a bit. We had the horses go pretty fast. Human legs couldn’t possibly keep up.”
They had travelled for almost five dan (A dan is a unit of time roughly equal to one hour) since leaving Tanda’s house and getting horses from the nearby village of Yashiro. Once mounted, they left the village and crossed the shallows of the Aoyumi River. From here, there were paths leading up into the mountains that had been made by the transportation of felled lumber down to the river. Balsa and the others continued their journey by following one such path in the direction of the mountain villa.
The place Balsa had now stopped them was a watering hole for pack horses; a place the lumberjacks made to let their horses rest. Beyond this, though, the logging road veered off to the North and wouldn’t lead them any closer to the mountain villa. To continue, they instead would be entering the realm of the royal family, where activities such as cutting trees and hunting were not permitted.
Balsa left Yugno and Torogai to rest, and untacked the horses. The watering hole consisted of a bamboo pipe which transported water from the lake to a box in a hole dug out at ground level. She collected the cold water dripping from the pipe and brought some to the resting pair. Then, she pulled the horses along and let them drink their fill. When she placed the feed bags around their necks, they happily and noisily started to devour the contents.
Watching them made Balsa suddenly feel rather hungry. So far they had been riding with such urgency that she didn’t even begin to feel like eating in the few breaks they had.
Not much of a bodyguard, am I? Balsa thought as she took out a parcel wrapped in bamboo peel, opened it and started eating shuruji, which are made of finely-diced dried meat, first stewed in salt and sugar, then mixed with freshly cooked rice and formed into shapes easy to hold and eat while on journeys.
Seeing Balsa stuff her cheeks with shuruji, Torogai extended her hand in the universal gesture of ‘give me some too’.
“You guys are amazing.” Yugno murmured, his breath feeble and intermittent. “I couldn’t possibly eat anything.”
Balsa sat down next to Yugno, took out a small wooden container from her bag, opened its lid, and took out a fragrant, red maika fruit stewed in honey. “Get this in your mouth. Bite it slowly then swallow, bit by bit.”
Yugno scrunched his face in distaste, but still put the honeyed fruit in his mouth. Soon after, his eyes flew open in surprise. A surprisingly refreshing sweetness accompanied by a pleasant aroma spread through him. His mumbling of “I didn’t think maika were this good…” made Balsa smile.
“I brought a bit of Tanda’s prized honeyed maika along. I think he slowly boils it in honey with a herb called roga.”
“Interesting. My head feels so much better. I feel like all that tiredness was just taken away.”
“I know right? It’s the best medicine for tiredness.” Suddenly a memory flashed before Balsa’s eyes, surprising in its clarity. It was from when she was about eighteen. She was returning home just as the bone-deep tiredness from Jiguro pushing her to her limits was starting to set in. Tanda brought her some maika on a plate. She wouldn’t ever forget that taste. She felt like the pain in her flushed body just disappeared…
Torogai reached out and took a maika for herself. “They say that healing is a woman’s job, but that’s a load of crap. Tanda is a born healer. Making this kind of stuff is what he’s best at.”
Yugno glanced at Balsa. She was looking at the fruit in her hand with a severe expression.
When everyone finished their honeyed maika, Balsa wiped her hands on some grass and stood up. “Let’s get going. We have to get to the lake before the moon rises.”
Balsa tied the horses to a tree next to the watering hole and hefted the now-slightly-lighter luggage over her shoulder on the end of her spear. They would have to traverse the pathless slope on foot from here on.
Balsa took the front and made a path, sometimes cutting through bushes with her hatchet. Yugno followed behind her with Torogai bringing up the rear. Balsa steadily made progress, but both Yugno and Torogai could only follow at a much slower pace, after having tired themselves out with the unfamiliar strain of horse riding. Nevertheless, they simply continued to push on, no matter how many breaks were necessary.
As the sun continued its descent, less and less light could reach them through the foliage. The three walked in silence, between trees that were now only bathed in twilight on their north sides.
Eventually, the sun set and Balsa stopped for a while to use some flint and tinder and skillfully lit a torch which consisted of a candle in a basket woven with thin bamboo, held away from oneself by its short handle.
“Can you hold this?” Balsa passed the torch to Yugno then went back to cutting a path through the undergrowth. The light hardly reached Balsa’s feet, but her gait never wavered. Other than the cries of birds startled by the noise and flying out of the trees, Balsa’s hatchet-cutting, and 3 pairs of footsteps, the forest was silent.
As Torogai walked, she began to feel like she was in a dream. Like when she was young and she was called by the mountains, and she just kept walking until she reached the lake. She was in a dream back then after all…
In the middle of pitch black mountains. Walking and walking and walking…
Eventually, just like last time, it suddenly stretched out before them. Surrounded by tall mountains, the black, enormous lake spread out from mountain to mountain.
Torogai felt a numbing shock go through her head and she was frozen in place. “It’s this lake…”
Balsa and Yugno turned around upon hearing how hoarse Torogai’s voice was. She stood, dazedly looking at the lake, then pointed at the northern mountains. “That other time, I crossed the mountains from that side. My birth village lies beyond those mountains. The graves of my children…”
Torogai felt as if her face was stroked by a pair of cold hands. Memories of her husband and the deaths of her children flowed before her eyes like some unstoppable current. She bitterly thought that for all this time she had managed to subconsciously looked away from her past, keeping a lid on these memories. The past she had so long ago thrown away, turned her back on, walked away from, and endeavoured to forget, was now reaching out to her with those cold hands.
In addition to that, there was the effect of seeing the imposing mountain villa, towering over the lake’s banks. Torogai shivered as a chill ran down her spine. That huge gate and the complicated roof made of white wood; it was without a doubt the palace from that dream.
Was the upside-down palace floating in the lake that I dreamt of fifty-two years ago a reflection of this palace through time?
Torogai took in a deep breath and scolded herself.
Impossible. The mountain villa, is simply an imitation of that dream. Built by one who had the same dream as me. I heard that it was exactly the same in Chagum’s message, didn’t I?
Torogai knew exactly why she was this shaken. She closed her eyes and told herself.
I’m not the miserable, weak little Tomca from fifty-two years ago anymore. I am the magic weaver, Torogai. One who walks upon this earth.
Torogai spoke to Balsa and Yugno with strength in her voice. “Anyway, let’s put up a barrier. Make the preparations as I showed you.”
The three of them walked past the clumps of reeds that grew on the banks of the lake, and came out onto the edge of the lapping water.
Torogai stabbed 4 thick and long reeds, which she had pulled out from the reed bed, into the bank. She connected the reeds with a rope woven from thin grass. Meanwhile, Balsa and Yugno took the four unglazed fire grates that they had brought with them, placed some charcoal on each, then lit them using the torch. To get them properly burning, they put some peculiar-smelling dry grass on top.
The white smoke that emanated from the dry grass, rose into the air like a smoke signal and slowly drifted towards the lake.
For those interested:
- Shuruji is written シュルジ in katakana.
- Maika is written マイカ in katakana. This was a weird fruit name to me, because that’s how you katakana the English word mica, which is a silicate mineral. You wouldn’t wanna eat that. Interestingly, it’s also a type of squid… What are you doing Nahoko?
- Roga is written ロガ in katakana.
Here are the pdf and epub versions:
Chapter 4 – Part 1
It was a bit before noon.
Torogai, who had been lying motionlessly next to the sunken hearth, looked up at the door at the same time as Balsa, who had been performing maintenance on her spear. Torogai sat up and whispered. “Someone crossed the barrier…”
Balsa stood up, spear in hand, and pulled open the door.
A man was standing in the dew-drenched meadow, his pale brown hakama tucked into shin guards. A plain double-edged sword was hanging from his belt. He looked like a normal soldier, not standing out in the least, but there were no openings in his stance.
“Long time no see, Spear-wielder Balsa.” Balsa smiled. “I’m glad you made it, Mister Jin.”
“Drop the Mister. Just Jin is fine.” Jin retorted playfully, his eyebrows slightly raised. “If only I had known that this was your hideout back then… though to be fair it would have been of no use considering how badly you tore me up. I wouldn’t have been able to follow you here after you had just put me on death’s doorstep anyway.” Both of them laughed slightly.
As Jin scanned the surroundings, the northern grove caught his attention. His face suddenly grew stiff. “I see. Something strange is over there. Like a beast.”
Balsa nodded and led Jin into the house. Torogai and Jin had met before but Yugno, to whom Jin was a stranger, greeted him with a perplexed expression. After hearing from Balsa that a martial arts master was coming, he may have been expecting a large man, like those the ballads spoke of.
Balsa, feeling impatient, got straight to the point. “Entrusting someone else with this battle is not easy for me, but right now I have no choice but to rely on you.”
“Yeah. I heard roughly about what is going on from Shuga. It’s somewhat hard to believe that the calm and cheerful Tanda I knew turned into something like that. It’s definitely gonna be tough to hold him off for any amount of time without killing or hurting him too much.”
“That’s not all. It seems like he doesn’t feel any pain. I dislocated his right shoulder, but he just started hitting me in the face with his left arm instead.”
The corners of Jin’s lips quirked upwards slightly. “Tough was a bit of an understatement then. But, I owe him my life; I will see what I can do.”
Balsa bowed her head deeply. “Thank you.”
“No need. I was thinking, anyway, if he has turned into a beast, how about we capture him like one? With a net or some rope.”
Balsa’s face clouded over. “I thought of doing that at first too. It doesn’t see Tanda’s body as anything more than a tool. If we tied him up, he would rub his skin and flesh off to the bone to escape. How would we stop that? We can’t talk to him, and he won’t pass out. We can capture him with a net, but it won’t stop struggling until Tanda’s body is in pieces. By nightfall Tanda would be…”
Jin frowned. “I see.”
Balsa shook her head slightly as if to dislodge an unpleasant image. “That’s why we only want enough time to get to the lake before him, then you should let him chase us. Otherwise he might get hurt. That’s what we wanted to ask of you.”
“Got it.” Jin nodded, then continued speaking, remembering something. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The Crown Prince is coming to that lakeside tonight.”
“What?” Both Balsa and Torogai stared at Jin wide-eyed. Balsa clicked her tongue. “I know why he did it, but isn’t this too dangerous? Why didn’t you stop him?”
Jin responded soothingly. “I have the Hunters Zen and Yun protecting him, so nothing shall be able to physically harm him.”
Torogai and Balsa exchanged looks. They were more worried about spiritual harm than physical, but they weren’t about to tell Jin this. Feeling that her worries had doubled, Balsa sighed.
Jin spoke decidedly, trying to dispel the heavy atmosphere. “Either way, I’ll delay the Guardian of the Flower or whatever he’s called for as long as I can. There’s no use in worrying about anything else right now.”
Once everything was ready, Balsa stopped and looked back at Jin, with one hand on the front door. She inhaled quietly, but no words came to her.
Jin’s chest was pierced by her expression.
Balsa was clearly wishing she could be in two places at once. She feared that Jin would hurt Tanda but could not say that to him when he was about to risk his life in a desperate battle.
Jin grabbed Balsa’s arm without thinking. “If I can’t hold him back, I’ll aim for his left leg. For the bone. You understand what I’m getting at, right?”
Jin took his sword belt off in front of Balsa and used it to tie the sheath and handle of his weapon together. He was signalling that his intention was to never draw his sword, no matter the circumstances.
Balsa looked at Jin with profound gratitude in her eyes and quietly said. “It seems this time, I owe you a life. I will definitely pay you back some day.”
Jin laughed. “Don’t make me laugh. I’m here to repay a favour in the first place, remember? If we include your debts and favours too it will just complicate matters. Anyway, now that you’re ready, is it time to go?”
Jin left first, then Balsa, followed by Torogai. When Yugno finally stepped out into the meadow, everyone suddenly felt the thing in the northern grove.
“I’m dissolving the barrier.” Torogai murmured. Balsa and Jin moved to stand on either side of Yugno, who stared at the grove without blinking, his face drained of blood.
Torogai closed her eyes and put her hands together in front of her chest. She then quickly and forcefully parted them.
The second she did that, a black shadow shot out of the branches like an arrow. Aiming straight for Yugno.
Jin swung his sheathed sword in a wide arc. It connected with the shadow’s flank. The Flower’s Guardian fell to the ground with a dull thud.
Balsa grabbed Yugno’s hand, who was still frozen, and started running just before Jin shouted “Go!”. She didn’t turn back.
Jin’s attacks were such that any normal human would have been unable to move for a while for lack of breath.
The Flower’s Guardian though, regained his breath in seconds with no signs of feeling pain. It also looked like he had put the shoulder Balsa dislocated back into place.
I see. This thing isn’t human.
When he looked into the eyes of the Flower’s Guardian his chest felt cold. The face was definitely Tanda’s, but his demeanour was nowhere to be seen.
How does a human face change this much with a single expression?
Jin noticed the Flower’s Guardian bending his legs at the knees and figured that he would try to pursue Yugno by jumping over his opponent.
A moment later, the Flower’s Guardian was in the air above Jin, who just managed to grab his left ankle. Jin’s whole body was pulled by the momentum and he ended up falling to the ground.
He didn’t let go of the ankle during the fall, but the Flower’s Guardian tried kicking Jin’s arm with his right leg, to dislodge it. Right before his leg could connect, Jin let go of the ankle, rolled and jumped back onto his feet.
Nevertheless, the Flower’s Guardian managed to get back up slightly faster. He shot past Jin, uncaring, in the direction Yugno had run off to.
Jin grabbed his still-sheathed sword and threw it. It got caught between the running legs of the Flower’s Guardian and tripped him up.
Jin threw himself onto the Flower’s Guardian before he could get up. He quickly passed each of his arms under the armpits of the Flower’s Guardian and laced his fingers on the back of his head. Like this, not only did Jin immobilise the joints in the shoulders and the neck, he could also with but a slight change in position even break the neck of his opponent.
Having shifted his weight backwards, Jin thought that he had captured the Flower’s Guardian. He would simply need to maintain this lock for as long as he could and everything would be fine. If he managed to kick his opponent’s legs out from under him, roll to the ground, and wrap both his legs and arms around his opponent’s he would be able to hold him down until he ran out of strength.
Jin, similarly to Balsa, had experienced real combat since early childhood. When one becomes truly good at martial arts, one can manipulate their own weight to an extent. Jin was by no means a big man, but by cleverly changing his center of gravity or using breathing techniques, he could make his body feel heavier than that of any bigger man. He had absolute confidence that once he held an opponent this tightly, there could be no escape.
That’s why when he felt the Flower’s Guardian moving under his arms, Jin felt a cold, sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. The Flower’s Guardian started bending his arms towards his back. Hearing the creaking of his opponents arm bones, Jin broke into a cold sweat.
This guy is trying to break both of his bones!
He was trying to escape Jin’s tight hold by breaking his own bones. Jin remembered Balsa’s words:
“It doesn’t see Tanda’s body as anything more than a tool.”
Whether he broke his own arms, or even they were cut off, as long as he was still alive he would chase after Yugno.
The terror of this creature finally sank into Jin’s body.
Jin quickly loosened his arms and kicked his opponent in the back of the knees. They jerked and shook and the Guardian fell to the ground. Jin positioned himself with his legs spread on either side of the Guardian’s knees. He then stuck his knees into the backs of the Guardian’s knees and suppressed his legs with his own shins. He also held down the Guardian’s neck with his right hand, making sure his head couldn’t move. The Guardian swung both of his arms in an attempt to remove the hand holding his head down, but Jin swatted them away with palm strikes. However, the Guardian would not stop moving and continued trying to get Jin off of him without pause and with inhuman strength.
Jin’s forehead was covered with sweat. He didn’t even know how much time had passed since the beginning of their fight. He managed to swat the Guardian’s arms while simply holding him down for quite a while, but eventually his concentration broke for a second.
In that second the nails of the Guardian’s right hand cut Jin’s right arm. A hot pain pierced him and he covered the wound with his left hand by reflex. The Guardian used this lapse to heave his entire body, like a shrimp, sending Jin to the ground faster than he could formulate a coherent thought.
When the Guardian stood up he attacked Jin. It would seem he deemed this man to be an obstacle in his pursuit of Yugno.
It wasn’t the way a human fought. With nails and teeth, he tried to rip Jin apart. He started hitting Jin’s head with an incredible speed. Jin tried twisting it away slightly, but only ended up with a slash right next to his left eye, the blood filling it and making it hard to see. When Jin finally noticed that the Guardian was aiming for his throat, he realised that he couldn’t afford to hold back any longer.
As the Guardian tried to latch onto his throat with his teeth, Jin screamed and struck his opponent’s chin with his right fist as hard as he could. The Guardian’s head was flung backwards, allowing Jin to punch him in the throat.
After finally getting away from the Flower’s Guardian’s barrage of attacks, Jin used the opening by barging into him with his shoulders, and striking slightly above his left ankle with a chop. He could feel the bone snap cleanly under his hand.
Just as he thought he had done it, the Guardian’s right hand hit him on the cheek. The impact was as intense as if he had been hit with a club. His vital points barely avoided, Jin was sent flying and lost consciousness before he even hit the ground.
The Flower’s Guardian tried standing up, and only then noticed that he couldn’t use his left leg much. He sat down for a while, touching it. Eventually he got up onto all fours and restarted his pursuit, running on two hands and one leg. Surprisingly, even in that state, he did not run much slower than a normal human.
The Flower’s Guardian, in Tanda’s body, was gone in the blink of an eye, resuming his pursuit of Yugno.
Here are the pdf and epub versions:
Chapter 3 – Part 4
Yogo Palace was a trapezoidal structure sprawling from east to west, with its back facing north. At its center was the Mikado’s Path; a realm off limits to all but those allowed by the Mikado himself…
At the southernmost point, the part closest to the city, of the Mikado’s Path was a gigantic space reserved for audiences between nobles and the Mikado. To the north were the Mikado’s private quarters, accessible only by those closest to the Mikado such as members of the royal family and the star readers.
At present, there were three people in the living room of the Mikado’s private quarters. The polished, plain wooden floor was covered by a coarse and pure-white rug of the finest quality.
The Mikado’s body was deeply embedded in his lacquered chair, inlaid with polished mother of pearl. Crown Prince Chagum faced him, kneeling formally in a low seat situated on the rug.
A star reader, who had been temporarily recalled from the mountain villa where he had been attending the First Queen, knelt behind and to the side of Chagum, directly upon the rug.
Chagum felt the star reader’s gaze on his back more strongly even than the gaze of the Mikado who sat directly in his line of sight. Hibi Tonan had a body one would usually expect of a warrior, rather than a star reader. He was a big man with broad shoulders, his brows and facial hair bleached by the passage of time, but his eyes still shined with the kind of dignity particular to those who have been wielding considerable power for a considerable length of time.
Chagum was vaguely aware that, last year, this man was one of those involved with both the plan to kill him and the later efforts to save him.
The Mikado spoke. “Chagum, it concerned me to hear that you would also not wake up. I am glad it was not serious.”
Chagum put both hands on his knees and bowed deeply before raising his face. “Father. I am most sorry to have worried you.”
“Indeed.” The Mikado paused for a second. “Did you not have something you wished to tell me?”
His Father’s face was utterly expressionless, but Chagum nonetheless detected a sliver of caution deep in his eyes as he looked into them. “Yes, of course. Father. Professor. I thought that I should tell you the reason behind why I couldn’t wake up, considering the possibility that this information may be of use in waking the First Queen from her sleep.”
You must not declare that we can definitely save her. Chagum remembered Shuga saying. Our position would then be compromised, if she chose to stay in the dream.
“Aha. If so, then this would be a most important conversation. Very well. Speak.”
“Yes. Father, I had a very strange dream that night. It may just be because I was thinking about the mountain villa as I was falling asleep, but…” Chagum feigned uncertainty. “In the dream, there was a woman standing in the pale blue light, beckoning me forth. As I approached her, she said
‘We are Mikado Yamur’s Second Queen.’” The Mikado furrowed his eyebrows at this, but Chagum continued, paying this no heed. “I knew at the time that this was a dream, but it nevertheless left a profound impression on me.”
Chagum continued quickly so as to not give anyone a chance to interrupt him. “The person claiming to be Mikado Yamur’s Queen recounted to me a most strange tale, all the while warning me not to dismiss this as a mere dream. She also instructed me very clearly to convey her words to the Mikado. I will now proceed to convey them.”
Chagum took a deep breath and straightened his back before speaking again. “We dreamed of a beautiful shrine made of plain wood built by the bank of a blue lake. Unbeknownst to all, some nobles lived there. Their birthplace had prospered for more than a thousand years prior, but was now in its twilight and would soon perish. Nobles from across those thousand years sang for us about the vicissitudes of their lives, and their last dreams.”
“They said ‘We transform into the Flower and live our dreams, until a wind from your world blows and we scatter. Please, build a shrine on the bank of this lake and let our dreams bloom. Should you do so, we will welcome the soul of your son into our ranks.’ ”
“It is after hearing this song, this wish, that We had the mountain villa constructed. And after death, Our soul, along with those nobles, became the Flower and dreamed.”
“However, listen well my Grandson, this Flower’s nature is to entice. It shows sweet and beautiful dreams like no other to lonely souls. Even now, the Queen who has lost her son is trapped in such a dream.”
“Listen well, Grandson. The time for this Flower’s petals to scatter has finally come. The coming night of the half moon will be the night of ruin.”
“When a path opens between this world and yours, those residing within the villa risk being pulled into dreams of despair.”
“Grandson, take care that none but the slumbering Queen remain within the mountain villa on that night. Furthermore, as the one who dreamed of those who became the Flower, those who will soon perish, please bid us our final farewell. Guide those sad souls who remain trapped in a dream so that they may be able to return.”
Chagum took a break, having recounted the whole story at once. The Mikado had been looking at Chagum the entire time. “I see. Certainly, a very strange dream. Whatsmore, you remembered it in its entirety? Can one truly recall a dream with such clarity?.”
Chagum hesitated for a second. “That very detail is precisely the reason thought this to be more than a mere dream. It still echoes within me vividly, like a song that continues to play in one’s head.”
The Mikado stilled completely, thrown off his line of thought. “Hmm. Regardless, you wish to tell me that you believe this dream and wish to empty the mountain villa on the night of the next half moon.”
Chagum averted his eyes. “That is so. I am aware that I may be ridiculed for believing a dream and acting on it. However, as this concerns the First Queen I thought that, with the consent of yourself and the Professor, it could be done.”
Silence took over the room. The Mikado discreetly turned his gaze to the star reader behind Chagum.
“Should we proceed, there would be no need to tell those involved the whole truth.” Chagum stiffened upon hearing the star reader’s deep voice from behind. “If the Mikado orders it so, we could declare that perhaps that the mountain villa needs to be purified. Then, an evacuation would certainly be possible. I could take responsibility for the protection of the First Queen.”
The Mikado stood up. “You give the impression that you believe Chagum’s dream.”
“A dream is always just a dream. Nevertheless, given the fact that the First Queen is still asleep, and that the Crown Prince himself was in a similar state until yesterday, it is not unthinkable that the strange dream he had as he slept would have some kind of meaning.”
Chagum masked his intense relief. The star reader continued speaking with a voice that suggested a slight smile. “What does appear to be a problem, however, is the suggestion that His Highness the Crown Prince spends that night on the bank of the lake.”
The Mikado nodded fervently. “Precisely. I will not let the Crown Prince take such a risk. Who knows what might happen there?”
Chagum started speaking, all the while internally chanting ‘don’t panic’, over and over again. “But, Father, that dream… the sadness of those nobles… only I, having had that dream, can truly understand. Since I’ve been able to escape from the confines of that dream once already, surely I would be able to act as a guide. Please, please allow me this single whim, just this once.”
The Mikado’s eyes sharpened. “Had you any self awareness of your position as the Crown Prince, you would not ask such things.”
Chagum’s pulse heightened enough to make his chest hurt. He was desperate, now. He turned his face away and spoke again. “I only became the Crown Prince because of my brother’s untimely passing; because the First Queen lost her son. I have not grown used to it yet.”
“Father, it was me and only me who had this dream. I am sure that there must be some reason for this. Won’t you let me do this, so that I can both apologise to and thank the First Queen from the bottom of my heart? I think only then will I be able to come to terms with the fact that I am now the Crown Prince.”
“Since the Hunters are under your command, you could order Jin and the others to guard me. Then, there should be no chance of me coming to harm. I ask again, please, grant me this wish.”
The Mikado frowned in the direction of the star reader. The star reader’s face, as usual, appeared vaguely amused. “It would seem that His Highness the Crown Prince has changed somewhat, as a result of this dream.” He continued in a serene voice. “Mikado, what are your thoughts on this? I, for one, think that this is a change in the right direction.”
“Is that so?” The way the Mikado was looking at Chagum was not the way a Father might look at his son. Chagum had hated his father’s gaze since so very long ago, to the point where it usually made him feel sick. This time, though, he didn’t feel such nausea. Such was the extent of the distance he had drifted from his Father.
A thought crossed Chagum’s mind – in the future when he became the Mikado, in what way would he look at his own son.
“Very well, then. It is not as if I don’t understand your desire for some closure regarding your brother’s death. It is also true that you have escaped that dream once already. I will give you the Hunters. Take this opportunity to try your hand at leading some men.”
Chagum put both his hands atop his knees and bowed deeply.
Upon hearing of these proceedings, later on that day in the study room, Shuga stared at Chagum. “Your Highness! What did you… why did you add all of these details?”
Chagum smiled slightly. “Since it got us more than we wanted, it’s fine isn’t it? I wanted to meet everyone again, no matter what. That, and I want to see how this plays out with my own eyes.”
Shuga cursed himself. He should have predicted that Chagum would be able to scheme at least to this extent. His ability to do so was clear to anyone who knew his personality and was aware of the strength he possessed.
His irritation would not diminish. “Your Highness! No one knows what will happen at the mountain villa on that night. Balsa’s group, and even the Hunters, will be there of course, but what if even they cannot protect you?”
Chagum shrugged his shoulders. “If that happens…” He swallowed the remainder of the sentence when someone knocked at the door.
“What is it?” Both Chagum and Shuga froze upon hearing the voice that responded. “It is Hibi Tonan. Please excuse this sudden visit, but there is a matter I wanted to discuss with the Crown Prince.”
Chagum answered, after remembering how to breathe. “You may enter.”
The star reader came alone, without even an attendant. He opened the door himself and entered the room. He bowed slightly and sat down in the chair indicated by the Crown Prince. He did not seem surprised that Shuga was already in the room.
He faced Chagum and started without preamble. “Well then, Your Highness. I have come to inquire as to how much of the story you just told was true, and how much was made up.”
Chagum’s face stiffened, but he quickly regained himself and glared at the star reader. “What are you talking about? I said nothing but the truth.”
“Is that so? Unfortunately, that is not what it sounded like to me. In particular, regarding the order for Your Highness to act as a guide for the souls trapped in the dream.”
The star reader smiled. “It sounded rather like a detail added solely for Your Highness’s benefit.”
Chagum’s heart was about to explode with how fast it was beating. The star reader, expressionless, nodded. “You probably know this already, but I can’t help hating the fact that I have to live as the Crown Prince now. If I had any say in the matter, I would have chosen to live my life as just Chagum. A commoner.”
“The part about the Flower trapping people in a dream is true; it captures people who want to escape from their current lives, like me. It gives you dreams of things you want from the bottom of your heart. It’s also true that the First Queen was captured by the Flower, but I have seen firsthand that she is but one of many.”
Chagum glared with eyes that screamed defiance at the star reader, who continued sitting there with a blank face. “That the Flower will scatter on the night of the half moon is also true. When it does, something strange will surely happen at the mountain villa, hence why I want to evacuate it.”
“However, I made up Mikado Yamur’s Queen. The one who truly saved me from the dream and told me what was going on was Tanda.”
The star reader’s expression changed for the first time. “Tanda?’
“Yes. The pupil of the magic weaver Torogai. The one who helped save me a year ago.”
So that Shuga’s secret would not be revealed, Chagum told the star reader that he found out about everything from Tanda. With a wry smile he continued.
“You understand the reasons why I couldn’t tell Father that.”
The star reader straightened. ”I see. What about you personally going to the lake that night, Your Highness?”
“That’s a lie too. Tanda said that Master Torogai would be able to save the trapped souls with a technique called the Soul Call, if not for the fact that a spirit called the Guardian of the Flower won’t let her; it will attack her on sight. That’s why I wanted the Hunters – to protect Master Torogai. I made up the part about me needing to be a guide to that end.”
Chagum discreetly peered at Shuga before facing the star reader.
“I want to get over my feelings and settle this matter. I want to see with my own eyes what happens on that night. I want to know whether the souls trapped in their pleasant dreams will return or not, and whether they will have a chance to make their lives better.”
The star reader didn’t say anything for a while and just looked at Chagum. Eventually he spoke with a voice as cold as the steel of a sword. “There is not just one path open to you, Your Highness. You are aware of this, are you not?”
“The Mikado is still young. It is possible that he will have another son with a Queen in the future. Even if another son was not born, one of the princesses from Sannomiya would suffice. In either case, the continuation of the bloodline would not be dependent on Your Highness.”
“However, for someone who has fully accepted the role of Crown Prince, there would then be only one path remaining. The Crown Prince is he who will become the Mikado. Nothing short of death by illness or accident could come to prevent this. After all, it is common sense that a Crown Prince who simply does not want to become the Mikado could not possibly exist.”
Shocked into silence by the star reader’s words, Chagum and Shuga could only look at him. “Even so, do you still wish to go to the lake that night?”
Chagum responded quietly. “Yes. Because only such a death by illness or accident would await me otherwise.”
The star reader smiled. “I understand. Then we will leave the Mikado with the story he has already heard. Preparations to deploy the Hunters for Your Highness should begin shortly.”
Once the star reader stood up, Shuga got his attention. “Could I also be permitted to accompany His Highness tomorrow night?”
The star reader looked down at Shuga. “That will be fine. Protect him well.”
Once the star reader had left and the sound of his footsteps died out into silence, Shuga whispered. “I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Your Highness. I will never forget how you protected me.”
“With this I can send Jin over to Balsa, but…”
Chagum smiled wryly despite his pallid face. “But now, if I try to run away with Balsa, the Hunters’ blades will surely turn against me…”
For those interested:
- Hibi Tonan is written ヒビ・トナン. Easy romanisation this time.
Here are the pdf and epub versions:
Chapter 3 – Part 3
Upon entering the Anything Shop from the back door at dawn and finding out from Toya that Torogai wasn’t yet there, Shuga frowned in his usual manner. “Isn’t this strange? Master Torogai said that she would wait here every morning, even if her trip would prove wasted.”
“Yes. She said so to me as well, but… maybe something happened to her?”
“This is troubling indeed. Do you know where Master Torogai lives?”
“I know the rough area, but not the exact place. The people of the village near there will know for sure, but it might be about a dan or more away even if you’re lucky. It’s apparently out in the middle of the mountains. I can come with you and guide you, though. What do you want to do?”
Shuga remained silent with a stiff face. Sneaking out at dawn to meet with Torogai was already rather dangerous. In about a dan and a half, the Morning Meeting, in which the Star Readers gather to discuss the observations of the previous night, would begin. If it became clear that he wasn’t in the Star Palace to participate in this, questions of where he had been instead and what he had been up to would undoubtedly arise.
Was it still worth the risk of being punished by excommunication to save the people trapped by the Flower, now that Crown Prince Chagum had woken up? Such thoughts were floating around in Shuga’s head. Besides, the night when the Flower was forecast to scatter was still two days away, from what the Crown Prince had said. “It’s too bad, but I’ll have to try again tomorrow. For the time being…”
He was interrupted by the unusual sound of a horse’s hooves vigorously approaching the shop from the direction of the back streets. Shuga and Toya looked at each other and, in a panic, Shuga disappeared into the shop’s hidden room.
Shuga thought that it sounded like the horse had stopped right outside the Anything Shop’s back entrance. When Shuga stopped breathing and strained his ears, he heard the knocking pattern that signified Torogai’s arrival.
He also heard Toya’s surprised voice. “Miss Balsa!”
“Sorry, Toya, but can you take care of the horse? Is the Star Reader called Shuga here?”
Shuga frowned slightly at this turn of events, but he soon opened the hidden room’s trapdoor and lowered the ladder. “I’m here. Please come up.”
A woman appeared at the bottom of the ladder. The sharpness of her gaze pierced him as if it were a drawn sword and he reflexively ducked back into the hidden room. The woman climbed up the ladder before Shuga could collect himself.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Balsa. Master Torogai couldn’t make it, so I came in her place. Sorry, but I’m kind of in a hurry, so make this quick.”
Balsa told him about Tanda being turned into the Flower’s Guardian, about Yugno, and about the barrier that necessitated Torogai staying where she was. “I’ve heard that Chagum was also stuck in a dream. Has there been any progress?”
Shuga smiled at her brash way of asking. “Yes. That’s why I wanted to meet with Master Torogai so urgently. You will be pleased to hear that the Crown Prince has woken up.”
“He has? What a relief!”
“He woke up yesterday at noon, saying that he has very important information to pass on to Master Torogai. Apparently, the day after tomorrow, on the night of the half moon, that world and our world will become close and a connection will be established. The Wind will then blow in, scattering the petals of the Flower. If Master Torogai is to save the Dreams with her magic weaving, then that will be her last opportunity. He also said that the place where the Flower is actually blooming might be the lake close to the royal mountain villa.”
Balsa’s expression softened to a surprising degree. “That’s great. As expected of Chagum. He’s a strong child. I thought he would manage to return.”
Shuga suddenly remembered the kind of expression Chagum often wore when he spoke of this bodyguard. “That’s true. His Highness is indeed a person of great strength. Nevertheless, he did say that he would not have made it back if not for the help of the man who was turned into the Flower’s Guardian, if that is the correct term. I believe you said his name was Tanda?”
Balsa’s face turned utterly joyous at those words. “He was saved by Tanda? Then it’s only his body that’s been taken over! His soul is clearly still around, at least. Master Torogai said that his soul should have been taken over as well.”
“No, it would certainly seem as though his soul is just as it was. The message about the last opportunity to save the Dreams was also from Mr Tanda to Master Torogai. But… he also conveyed that he has no way of coming back.”
Shuga recollected Chagum’s whole story to Balsa. When they reached the part pertaining to the role of the First Queen, Balsa opened her eyes wide. “So that’s it…”
Shuga looked at Balsa with a puzzled expression.
“Well, you see, Master Torogai thought this was strange. Why did the ‘Flower’, or whatever, make Tanda into the Flower’s Guardian and force him to chase after Yugno? She thought it was somehow out of character.”
“I see. I was also very interested to hear Tanda’s words about souls changing shape due to thoughts, and that shape being a manifestation of their true nature…”
Shuga spoke with a sparkle in his eyes, but Balsa only nodded along absentmindedly to this tangent in the conversation, which she had no real interest in, while thinking her own thoughts.
When Shuga stopped speaking, Balsa quickly changed the topic. “Mr Shuga, can you get ahold of one of the Hunters by the name of Jin?”
The Hunters were a secret group who dealt with assassinations and other dirty jobs for the Mikado. Usually, only eight of the palace guard are appointed as Hunters at any given time. Their existence was a closely guarded secret, but Balsa had previously risked her life fighting them in order to protect Chagum. Shuga, on the other hand, found out about their existence only upon becoming the right hand of the Master Star Reader.
Through a set of strange circumstances at that time, the Hunter Jin was once saved by Tanda, and he vowed to someday repay this debt. He was a man with a good head on his shoulders and the physical abilities to match.
“I think I will able to contact him, but why?”
“As I said before, Tanda has become the Flower’s Guardian. It’s terrifying; he moves like a wolf and his strength is incredible. A normal warrior would be no match for him.”
After seeing Shuga nod, Balsa continued.
“But, for Master Torogai to save the souls captured by the Flower, she needs to use the magic weaving technique Soul Call at the mountain villa, and I need to be there to protect her on the way. While it is really Yugno that the Flower’s Guardian is after, I couldn’t just take him and escape while leaving Master Torogai alone because there’s no guarantee that she won’t be attacked. It would be best if all three of us go to the lake, so I can protect them both. For this to work, though,, I will need someone else to hold him off, even if just for a little while.”
Balsa’s brisk way of speaking reminded Shuga, once again, that the woman sitting in front of him was a formidable bodyguard.
“The real problem is trying to stop it in its tracks without killing Tanda. It can’t be knocked unconscious, but I want to hurt Tanda as little as possible, especially now that I know his soul is still intact somewhere.”
Balsa’s expression was becoming increasingly dark. “Also, we don’t know how long Master Torogai’s barrier is going to last. That’s why I rushed here on horseback. The owners of the stables had a rude awakening this morning as I banged on the door to rent one of their horses.”
“And that’s why you want Jin?”
“Yes. Jin feels indebted to Tanda, and he’s pretty strong too. He would be able to hold Tanda off for a while in my place.” She paused briefly. “So, I’m going to rent two horses now and get them to Yashiro Village. As soon as Jin joins us, I will guard Master Torogai and Yugno as they head to the mountain villa. When we get there, Master Torogai can set up another barrier.”
Shuga listened to Balsa’s plan with a stiff face, before eventually interrupting her. “Miss Balsa, there are a few problems with your plan.” Balsa nodded, encouraging him to continue. “First of all Jin is, officially speaking at least, a member of the palace guard. He is thus not allowed to leave his post without the Mikado’s permission. Furthermore, since we cannot be sure what will happen on that night, we should evacuate the mountain villa to be on the safe side. This would, of course, also require the Mikado’s permission.”
“I see…”
A small, wry smile graced Shuga’s lips. “Oh, and there is one other matter I’d like to discuss. Please keep in mind that the connection between Master Torogai and myself is of the utmost secrecy. If this were to be made public, I would be excommunicated immediately. While the current Master Star Reader is an outstanding and open-minded man, I do not think even he would forgive me this indiscretion.”
Balsa gave Shuga a piercing look. “You’re saying that you can’t afford the risk of someone wondering why you know about this plan.”
Shuga withstood her gaze without flinching. “Yes. If Crown Prince Chagum were still asleep that would be one thing, and I would have risked expulsion for his sake. Now that he is fine, however, I will not.”
Balsa realised that this pleasant-seeming man was in fact quite shrewd. “You’re pretty direct, aren’t you…” She suddenly smiled. “Unfortunately, this puts you at a disadvantage. You see, I could expose your connection to Master Torogai any time I want. Have no doubt that I would do anything, no matter how dirty, if it means I can get Tanda back to the way he was.”
They stared at each other for a while, but it was Shuga who turned his gaze away first. “Yes, it would seem that I am indeed at a disadvantage here. Well then, I will simply have to think of a way of making your plan succeed without getting myself excommunicated.”
Balsa stood up after nodding. “Thanks. I’ll draw you a map to the house we’re staying in.”
Having said that, Balsa thought of something and looked at Shuga. Shuga opened his mouth at the same time and they spoke over each other.
“I could get His Highness to…”
After a pause, Balsa spoke again first. “How do you feel about having Chagum tell a lie for the sake of the plan?”
Shuga smiled. “Yes. I could get him to say something about receiving instructions in a dream, or something…”
“Yeah. That kid has guts, so he could definitely pull it off.”
“In that case, I’d better come up with a convincing story on the way back to the palace. All being well, Jin should arrive at your place by tomorrow morning.”
“Let’s hope that it does go well, then. For both our sakes.”
Balsa returned Shuga’s wry smile.
It was not long after noon when Shuga interrupted Chagum’s sky reading lessons under the pretence of urgent business. Once they were left alone in the room, in which he usually also tutored Chagum on the ways of Tendo, Shuga bent forward and whispered into Chagum’s ear, telling him the plan that he and Balsa had come up with.
“Balsa! You met with Balsa?” Chagum’s eyes shone.
“Yes. Just as in the stories Your Highness has told me, she is most certainly a rather fearsome individual of the female persuasion.”
Chagum burst into laughter without thinking, but quickly panicked and shut his mouth. “So, Balsa wants me to put on a little act to convince Father.”
Shuga nodded. “There are two main goals of this. Sending Jin to Balsa’s aid, and the evacuation of the mountain villa. You need to make this happen without letting anyone know that these orders come from commoners like Torogai or even Balsa.”
Excitement lit up Chagum’s eyes further. “And that’s why we’re pretending that I learned of this in that dream? In that case, it would be best if I mentioned Emperor Yamur’s Second Queen, and her dream of the mountain villa.”
Surprise appeared on Shuga’s face. “Your Highness, I also thought that such a tactic would be optimal.” Saying that, Shuga lowered his voice further and shared the story he put together with Chagum.
Chagum listened to the whole story, nodding all the way, before finishing off with one big nod. “I understand. Leave it to me. Deceiving Father with this will be child’s play.”
Shuga’s face clouded. “Your Highness, please do not underestimate the Mikado. He is fearsome, and very sharp-witted.”
A darkness was reflected in Chagum’s eyes. “Do you think I do not know that? Me, who was almost killed by him?”
“I’m only making sure. Additionally, the Mikado will no doubt ask for the Master Star Reader’s counsel before passing down his judgement on the matter. To succeed, we must face and overcome the two most formidable people in this country: the Mikado, and the Master Star Reader. Please keep this in mind.”
“I will. If I can’t even do this much, then what was the point in me coming back here.”
Chagum’s face broke into a fearless smile.
Here are the epub and pdf versions:
Chapter 3 – Part 2
Tanda slowly recreated his own sensations by dreaming of his body.
While the Flower’s Keeper was chanting the last of his spells, Tanda cast a spell of his own to protect his dreams. That’s how he managed to retain his soul, which would have otherwise completely belonged to the Flower by now.
Nevertheless, when his body was taken over by the Flower, the thread connecting his life and his soul was severed, leaving him no method of returning to it. Tanda bitterly realised that he did indeed walk straight into a trap after all.
Right before the last spell took hold, when that wind came out of nowhere to caress his cheek, Tanda saw a white shadow shaped like a woman behind the Flower’s Keeper. In that split second, like lightning, the feelings of that woman pierced him. On the surface, feelings of wanting to forever doze inside this dream, never to wake up. Beneath that, feelings of viscous loathing, wanting to melt all other dreams into one never-ending dream so that someone else would taste the same despair.
Tanda sighed.
That woman is surely one of those that pollinated the Flower, and now the strong feelings of her soul are controlling it.
That’s what caused the Flower’s Keeper to set such a trap for Tanda. He didn’t know what her goal was, but it definitely involved his body back in the other world.
A beautiful colour, sweet nectar, and various means of deceiving insects are all parts of the nature the Flower was bestowed with. I really am a soft-hearted fool to fall for something like this. But…
Tanda had a reassuring thought.
Even a tiny insect can achieve something.
Tanda protected his soul with that last spell. While this did not change the fact that he was stuck inside the Flower, it also meant that he was the only soul there which was not trapped in its own dream. He stood up and glanced at the faintly glowing mist above him.
On each and every petal, a Dream was sleeping. It would be best If he could wake all of them at once, but then he would be noticed by the Flower’s Keeper.
This was the Flower’s world. If it came to a fight, Tanda alone would stand no chance.
Anyway, I should start by looking for Kaya.
Kaya would surely believe his words and wake up.
Tanda changed his shape to that of a bird, beat his wings once and flew upwards. While looking for Kaya amongst the petals, he found a very familiar dream. Or, to be more precise, someone was dreaming of Tanda, and he got sucked into that dream.
Before he realised what was going on, Tanda found himself by the sunken hearth in his own home. It was subtly different to the way his house looked now. The room was neither this bright nor this spacious, and a vase that he had used for herbal potions, which he had knocked over and broken at some point, was still standing, intact, next to the shelves.
It wasn’t early summer, as it should have been, either. Tanda noticed that he was holding a type of mushroom called kankui that only grew in the autumn. Balsa was sitting on the other side of the hearth, and Torogai was rudely lying by the fire. He himself was talking to…
“Chagum!” Chagum looked up with surprise in his eyes at Tanda’s shout.
“What?”
Tanda dropped the kankui and grabbed Chagum’s shoulders. “Oh, no! You got caught up in this mess too?”
Chagum scowled. “Mess? What’s wrong Tanda? What are you talking about?”
Tanda looked at the scenery of Chagum’s dream properly and his chest hurt. The time that Chagum wanted to go back to, that he missed so much that he let the Flower take him, was that autumn he spent at Tanda’s house with Balsa and Torogai.
He hugged Chagum and slowly started speaking. “Chagum, listen well. This is a dream.”
Tanda described from beginning to end of how he came to be here, explaining the nature of the Flower as well as its trap. Understandably, Chagum’s body reacted to this by becoming rigid and tense. After Tanda’s explanation, Chagum twisted away and shook his head. “No! I don’t ever want to return! I don’t want to have to become the Mikado!”
Chagum glared at Tanda. “Such a life would be so much worse! If I am to be trapped regardless, then I’d rather it be in this dream than in the palace .”
Tanda looked straight at Chagum. “Is that so? Can you so easily accept the way you are now, sleeping your life away and trapped within a dream?” Chagum winced slightly as Tanda continued. “If you really don’t mind dying a peaceful death in this pleasant dream, then by all means go ahead and do just that..”
Tanda removed his arms from around Chagum. “But if you feel at all like you would regret staying here, even the tiniest bit, then I think you should go back.”
Tanda looked at the other Dreams, faintly visible through the bright, translucent mist. “People gather here because they think of themselves as unhappy. There are most likely two types. The first type consists of those who find themselves with nowhere to turn. For example, they may have an incurable disease, or they may have done something terrible which they feel they can’t make amends for. The other type consists of those who find themselves stuck living a different kind of life than they would like. They curse their fate and refuse to accept their situation, not understanding why they must be so unhappy.”
Tanda returned his eyes to Chagum. “What is a ‘different kind of life’, Chagum? I don’t know about the others here, but in your case, not all hope is lost! If you wanted it, both me and Balsa would help you escape to another country or something even if it cost our lives. A year ago, I thought that you understood this, but you chose to instead give this kind of life a try. You faced the terrible darkness of the fate of becoming Mikado, and shouldered your loneliness with your head held high. You wanted to be proud of your choices, right?”
Tanda let out a small sigh. “I think it’s pretty important for all people, from the lowest peasant all the way up to the Mikado, to be able to feel proud of themselves. It’s pretty hard to achieve, and it involves coming to terms with feelings so private and embarrassing that you can’t share them with anyone.”
“At least, that’s what I’ve been trying to do as I live my life. Whenever I find myself at a crossroads and I don’t know what to do, I always try to choose the road that will lead me closer to my ideal self.”
Chagum was gritting his teeth. Tanda took his hand. “In any case, the final decision is yours. At least that much is fair, right?”
Chagum nodded his head slightly.
“We’re inside an empty dream. Do you still think you can continue sleeping until you die, surrounded by your self-created illusions of Balsa, me and Master Torogai, now that you are aware that this is all a dream?
Chagum closed his eyes and started trembling slightly.
“Or, will you wake up and live your life till the end no matter what struggles you face? If so, I will tell you how to get out of here.”
After taking a deep breath and expelling it, Chagum raised his eyes and looked straight at Tanda. Tanda smiled. “Ok. Look here. Can you see these white, glowing threads?”
Tanda pointed at the thread extending from Chagum’s forehead. Chagum looked at it with surprise. “I can see it. Though I didn’t notice it before…”
“In the world of souls, you can’t see anything until you explicitly notice it. That is the way of magic weaving, you see.”
Tanda laughed. “The other end of this thread is connected to your real body. If you follow it, you will definitely be able to return. But, there’s one very important thing I must warn you of.” His face stiffened and he grabbed Chagum by the shoulders. “No matter what you see or hear, whatever happens, do not turn around. This is really important. Do not turn around for anything. Remember, anything you might see or hear is just an illusion made by the Flower to tempt you.”
“Do you understand? Promise me!”
Chagum pressed his lips together tightly and nodded. Tanda let go of his shoulders in relief. “Also, when you’re back, I want you to give Master Torogai a message. Tell her that the wind that will scatter the Flower’s petals will come from her world in three days’ time, during the night of the half-moon. If she is thinking of doing the Soul Call, that will be the last opportunity.”
“I understand. The night of the half moon, three days from now, was it?”
“Yes. Please tell Shuga about this. He can meet with Torogai in secret. He is a smart man and I believe that he will definitely convey this properly.”
Chagum nodded vigorously.
“It will be helpful for her to know this.. If she knows the place that the wind will blow from, and where the two worlds are connected, the Soul Call should be easier for her.”
Chagum narrowed his eyes at Tanda’s words. “Tanda, wait.”
“Yes?”
“When I was invited here, I think I saw something strange. I was dreaming of being at your fireplace, but you know how dreams can sometimes suddenly change location? It was like that. For a while, I thought that I could see something like a palace.”
“That’s what this place actually looks like, probably. I told you, didn’t I? The Flower is blooming in a garden inside an empty palace.”
“Yes. The thing is, this palace looks really similar to the royal mountain villa.”
Tanda looked at Chagum’s surprised face. “Is that right? Now that you mention it, I did hear that the mountain villa was built on the bank of a lake…”
“Yes. It looks just like it. I go there with Mother and her attendants every summer. I wouldn’t mistake it for anything. Also…” Excitement transformed Chagum’s face. “Kokoru, who used to teach me before, said that the previous Mikado, Yamur, built the mountain villa about fifty years ago. It was built there because the Second Queen at the time, who had just lost her son, had a very sad but beautiful dream and asked the Mikado to build a palace just like the one in her dream in memory of her son. In the dream, she followed a singing voice across the Aoyumi River to a palace on the bank of a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. This was investigated, and a lake just like the one in the Queen’s dream was found. And so they built a mountain villa there.”
Tanda’s eyes sparkled. “There is no mistaking it. We know that Master Torogai was not the only one called by the Flower. She told me that the others, who the Flower’s Keeper didn’t fall in love with, left without ever entering the palace. The Second Queen of Mikado Yamur must have been one such individual. I’d love to see the face Torogai will pull when she hears this! Anyway, Chagum, please tell Shuga everything you just told me too.”
Feeling like a small load had been taken off of his shoulders, Tanda let out a small sigh. “I didn’t think you’d be one of the invited ones, Chagum. Was the song really that beautiful?”
Chagum laughed a little in embarrassment. “Yeah. The words were just a love song, but the melody… I don’t know how to put it. It was a melody that clawed at my heart and stirred up the things hiding deep within. The first time I heard it my chest hurt, but I told myself to calm down and managed to contain my emotions.”
He continued after a pause. “But… when I heard about you guys from Shuga, I remembered all that stuff and I couldn’t bear it anymore.”
Chagum was trying his best to explain how he felt when he found out that Shuga was meeting Torogai in secret. “Then, when I went to sleep while feeling like that, I could hear a woman’s voice calling me. The voice was kind, and when I looked its way I saw a very nostalgic and fiery light. When I woke up, I was here…”
Tanda scowled. “A woman’s voice?”
Chagum nodded, then suddenly turned pale in fright. “Oh! Then that was the voice of the First Queen. Speaking of which, she has been asleep for quite a while already.”
Tanda shuddered as he remembered the white face of the woman he saw behind the Flower’s Keeper.
Chagum collected himself and spoke again. “After losing Sagum to an illness, the First Queen couldn’t overcome her sadness and locked herself up in the mountain villa. But, six days ago, she fell asleep and wouldn’t wake up…”
Tanda was gripped by a terrifying thought while listening to Chagum’s whispers.
Since the son of the First Queen passed away, Chagum, the Second Queen’s son, became the Crown Prince. The First Queen didn’t just lose a son; she was going to be the mother of the next Mikado, the very highest position a woman in this kingdom could attain. That bright future was suddenly taken from her along with her son. All that was left for her now was to watch over the son of the Second Queen. To watch him become the Mikado instead.
Tanda remembered the feelings of the woman standing behind the Flower’s Keeper. The strong feelings of wanting to remain dreaming forever, to never wake up, and the feverishly hatred-filled desire for others to suffer the same sadness as her.
Tanda paled.
Suddenly, the scent of the Flower thickened significantly. Chagum was soon enveloped completely by it and his eyes began to droop.
This is bad…
There was no doubt, then, that the First Queen had been listening in on everything so far. As soon as it was clear that Tanda was aware of her, she attempted to control Chagum without hesitation!
Tanda put his hands together and concentrated. He took a deep breath of air and then released it slowly, changing it into a white mist to surround Chagum and himself.
Tanda placed his hands on either side of Chagum’s face and continued to exhale towards him, waking him from his trance abruptly, with a shock as if cold water had been poured all over him.
“What is all this?” Chagum let his eyes open and moved away from the forming wall of mist. Tanda extended his hand and pulled Chagum into a tight hug. Outside the wall of mist, a human form could be seen writhing around, their voice resounding in a drawn out moan and filled with an obvious and terrifying hatred.
The wall was being pushed against from the outside, but it didn’t budge in the slightest.
“Don’t worry. This is a barrier I created. I’m not like the souls sleeping in the Flower. At the last moment, when the last spell was being cast on me, I managed to protect my soul. My barrier will not be broken so easily.”
The strength of the barrier was the strength of the soul that formed it. Tanda thought to himself with determination that he would protect this barrier no matter what.
“Tanda, what happened? Whose voice is that?”
“The First Queen woke up. She most likely wanted to bring you here to drag you down with her. Your heart was in a state that made it easy for her to do so. Now she has you within her grasp, she isn’t going to just let you go.”
Chagum frowned. “But the First Queen is a kind person. I haven’t met her too many times but she was always beautiful and gentle, an ephemeral flower. I just can’t see her as someone who could curse others like this…”
Tanda smiled. Chagum was a stubborn child, but at times like these you could see his kindness shining through. “Is that so? I think everyone feels some resentment when they are hurt. Kindness is unrelated. Also, in dreams, people’s feelings become embarrassingly frank, right?”
Tanda continued after looking at Chagum. “I’m not saying that she’s a bad person. I’m saying that this is a place where the darkness we all hold deep within our hearts is brought to the surface and exposed. Either way, it’s good that we noticed the First Queen before I sent you back. If we didn’t, you would have surely been caught in a trap along the way. She is very cunning. I was almost completely fooled as well.”
Tanda smiled bitterly. “My barrier lets us hear sounds from the outside, but our voices and bodies are still concealed. Listen well, Chagum. To escape from here safely you must change your shape. Not to fool the First Queen, though. She won’t be fooled so easily. What you really want to do is to draw out the full power of your soul. The shape of a soul shows its nature. If the shape is human, then you can only run as fast as a human, but if you take the form of a bird, you move with a bird’s speed too.”
“What if I become an arrow then?”
Tanda smiled slightly. “It’s the fastest at the time of release, but it has no power of its own to fly with after that, so it will not be enough. I’ll have you change into a falcon now, so fly as fast as you can. Follow the thread closely and do not turn around. The First Queen will most likely try to trick you, but do not turn around no matter what she tries.”
Tanda grabbed Chagum’s shoulders and squeezed. “You were invited here because your heart wanted to come here. The Flower has a lot of power over you because of this. But, listen well. It still shouldn’t have enough power to stop a soul that has decided to return to its body. If you don’t show any uncertainty, you should be able to return. Don’t stray. If you get lost, you’ll be dragged back.”
Chagum’s face stiffened. “By the First Queen?”
“No. By your own heart.” Tanda gazed at Chagum. “Isn’t it strange? People can want to just sleep forever, or even choose death, despite being alive and well. Why do people have souls too big for their bodies?”
Chagum inhaled sharply. His voice trembled. “This Flower is a cruel being, isn’t it Tanda? Using people’s dreams, making them feel like this… I couldn’t realise my dream on my own.”
Tanda hugged Chagum. Chagum buried his face in Tanda’s chest and sobbed. “Tanda. I feel bad for the first Queen. She was surely in so much pain that it was hard to even breathe. It’s not her fault.”
“But her dream became a true nightmare when she ensnared you in it, it would seem. If only she could hold you here, lock you up forever, dragging you down with her. The moment she thought that, her sadness turned into resentment. It’s not really directed at you. She probably resents her fate. ‘Why is it just me?’ The Second Queen has you, and you will become the Mikado eventually. She envies the Second Queen so much… But the kind First Queen didn’t want to think such thoughts, she punished herself for it. In the dream though, her deep-seated resentment cannot be held back.”
And, unfortunately, that resentment gained control over the flower, as troublesome as that is…
Tanda added to himself. He remembered the brilliance of the plan that fooled him into giving up control of his body, and felt that something didn’t quite fit.
If the Flower can be taken over by the invited souls in this way, then how did it survive this long? There must have been other souls that wished to end the world and drag other souls into death with them.
In fact, all the souls that were invited over by the Flower should have been so strongly disillusioned with their current lives that they wanted to escape from it. If there wasn’t some power protecting the Flower from souls like these, that wanted to die, then the Flower would never have been able to disperse its seeds and repeat the cycle. It would have died out long ago.
Tanda shook his head. This was not the time to be thinking these thoughts. “Anyway, we need to release you from the First Queen’s nightmare as soon as possible. For the sake of the other dreams that are trapped here too.”
Chagum pressed his lips and nodded in determination.
Filled with Chagum’s courage, Tanda reflexively put his hands on Chagum’s cheeks once more. “If you ever lose your way, remember that me and Balsa think of you as our son, even if we share no blood and we vary greatly in status. We want you to be well.” Tanda continued after a pause. “Your power to fly is the same as your will to live. Fly! Cut through pain and darkness. You have the strength to do that. Both me and Balsa know you have what it takes.”
Tears welled up in Chagum’s eyes. Tanda clapped him on the back and helped him stand up. Desperately trying to reign in his tears, Chagum asked a question. “What will you do, Tanda?”
“I can’t go back. I let the Flower take over my body, you see.”
Seeing Chagum’s screwed up face, Tanda laughed. “Silly. Don’t make that face. I only have my own inexperience to blame. If Master Torogai finds out, she’s going to turn me into a turtle. That’s how bad I messed up. I guess I got what’s coming to me.”
Chagum paused for a second before answering. “Torogai or Balsa will definitely come and save you.”
“Yeah. As pathetic as it may be, that’s what I’m hoping for at this point too.” He replied as he was getting to his feet. His face returned to being serious and he placed both his hands on Chagum’s head. “Anyway, close your eyes and calm your heart. You’ll feel a warm light in your chest… Do you feel it? It’s warm, isn’t it? That heat is slowly changing you. Both of your arms are becoming wings, aren’t they? Dream of a beautiful, strong falcon. Just like that. Try spreading your wings now!”
While releasing warm light similar to that of a firefly, Chagum’s shape changed slowly. Tanda grabbed the warm falcon with both hands and threw it up into the air. “Fly straight back home! Fly with the wind in your face!”
After pausing for a second, just beating his wings in place, Chagum rode an incoming wind and rose up high. He left the mist farther and farther behind him. As he rode the wind, as he felt it gently blowing on his face, he heard a voice from behind. “Wait! Chagum, wait!”
It was Tanda’s voice. Chagum almost turned without thinking, but stopped himself in time. Even if Tanda did forget to tell him something, the risk was not worth it.
The mist started swirling, and he saw visions of times long past. The grand hall of the Yogo palace. A blushing Sagum stood before his father, wearing his golden crown. Sagum stepped forward onto a pure-white woollen rug and his father placed a cape weaved with golden thread on his shoulders, signifying that he was now the Crown Prince. The thread caught the afternoon light and shone brilliantly. Sagum smiled widely enough to show his teeth.
Chagum’s chest was pierced by a sharp sadness. He didn’t speak with Sagum all that much. He didn’t feel like they were really brothers, either. What saddened him so was the unreasonable transience of life.
Sagum probably didn’t think at the time that in just less than a year he would no longer be alive. He must have thought that he was going to continue maturing as a Crown Prince, until one day he would put on the Mikado’s crown.
Why did he have to die, leaving me to become the Crown Prince. I don’t even want to.
Chagum thought that destiny was a cruel thing.
Suddenly he heard a thin voice. “Why did Sagum have to die? Even though he wanted to become the Mikado…”
He felt like someone had ripped his chest open with claws.
“Why did he, who wanted to live, have to die, while you who would rather die than be Mikado, have to live? After you return to the palace will you be able to live out those cold days, insipid as sand? What have you even got to look forward to?”
Chagum’s wings moved as if they were made of lead. It was true.There was not exactly an enjoyable life waiting for him upon his return. As soon as he thought that, he was plagued by an unbearable exhaustion.
How nice would it feel to stop beating these wings and sleep for a bit… Maybe the First Queen’s sadness would lessen then. Her hatred of me would disappear as well.
At that moment, a wind from the East rubbed against Chagum’s cheek. With it, Tanda’s voice resounded in his ears with surprising strength. “If you ever lose your way, remember that me and Balsa think of you as our son, even if we share no blood and we vary greatly in status. We want you to be well.”
It felt like light was shining within his eyeballs.
“Your power to fly is the same as your will to live. Fly! Cut through pain and darkness. You have the strength to do that. Both me and Balsa know you have what it takes.”
An image of Balsa appeared in front of his eyes. She stood in front of him protectively, pointing her spear at the terrifying monster, Rarunga. She was willing to put her life on the line to protect a child that wasn’t even hers.
Balsa has also had many things stolen from her. Her parents, a normal life. But Balsa would never run away into a dream like this. Even if she wanted to do so, she never would.
From deep within his heart, Chagum felt hot power welling up. He beat his wings strongly and felt his body rising on the wind. For the first time ever he felt that his life, in all its transience, that could be taken away at any point, was nevertheless very precious.
Before his eyes the cold and vast landscape of Nayugu that he had seen as the Guardian of the Spirit stretched out. The world where life is as it is. That quiet, bare mountainscape.
Suddenly, his body felt weightless. Chagum continued to fly, following the faintly glowing thread, but he was eventually engulfed by a bright light.
As if thrown out of the dream, Chagum jumped to his feet. In the bright light of pre-noon, Chagum gasped. The feeling of the silk nightwear on his skin told Chagum that he was awake. His heart was hammering painfully in his chest.
That was a rather strange dream.
Tanda’s words were so true that it was amazing.
At the loud sound of a teacup breaking nearby, Chagum turned to look in the direction of the doorway. The young chamberlain that took care of him was standing there. “Is everything okay, Rasam?”
“Y…Your Highness…” Upon hearing Chagum’s whisper, he turned on his heel and ran down the hallway shouting “His Highness has woken up!”.
Chagum only found out that he had been asleep for three days after the chamberlain had shortly returned with a physician in tow. As soon as he realised that, the memories of the still-asleep First Queen, his meeting with Shuga and his encounter with Tanda hit him with full force. “Oh no! Call Shuga immediately!”
After shouting so at his attendants, he noticed their surprise and panicked a little. He rephrased his earlier request. “Inform Star Reader Shuga that I have urgent business with him.”
For those interested:
- Kokoru is written ココル in katakana.
- Yamur is written ヤムル in katakana.
- Rasam is written ラサム in katakana.
Here are the epub and pdf versions:
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