Authors: Miyuki Miyabe
—Remember the song of the birds in the Northwood.
The wizard’s parting words of advice. Wataru remembered the pretty song of the birds, like ocarinas playing in harmony.
Desperately, he tried to remember what they had said.
Something about questions and answers…I think I’m past that part, though. And the Wayfinder, yawning. And what was that about going home? Hop on home? What an odd thing to say…
And then it hit him.
Hop.
A light went on in Wataru’s head.
The frog! The frog is the way home!
He forced his weary legs to move one last time, jumping away from another blow of the Wards’ axes, and running up the side of the room, staying close to the wall.
Where was it? Where?!
Wataru breathed ragged breaths as he ran, checking the contents of each room he passed.
Found him!
In the last room to the right sat a statue of a massive, plump bullfrog. Wataru leapt into the room and rolled to the statue’s base.
Bong!
went his head on the bronze foot of the frog. Sparks flew before his eyes. “Ouch!”
Wataru was holding his pounding head in his hands when he heard a heavy clunking noise. The base under the statue began to slide forward. He looked closer and saw something very interesting—where the base was a moment before there was now a large opening. He could see the rungs of a ladder descending into the darkness.
I found it!
Wataru rubbed his head and began to climb down the ladder. It wasn’t that long, ending before the twelfth rung. Wataru stepped off the ladder onto soft, damp earth.
He was surrounded by darkness. Above him he could see something like a cave mouth, and through that—
stars!
Wataru looked up to see something shining like hundreds of stars above him. Occasionally they would flit from one side to the other in a seemingly random fashion.
Fireflies?
Perhaps these were the fireflies of this world.
By the wan glow they cast, he could see that the cave continued on, deeper. The walls were of jagged stone, and the floor was wet here and there with rivulets of water coming out of the rock.
The cave twisted and turned but eventually began to climb. It seemed to be heading for the surface—which gave Wataru much hope. He began to walk faster. At last the cave tunnel ended, and he found himself in a small courtyard paved with flagstones. In the middle, a single ray of light stabbed straight down from above. It seemed to be centered on a blue symbol of some sort drawn on one of the flagstones. Wataru felt his body grow lighter. He seemed to be walking on clouds.
Then, he blinked. He was standing in the middle of the forest, back in front of the entrance to the Cave of Trials. He could hear the birds singing. The sun shone through the trees at an angle, and a faint blue mist was beginning to creep through the woods.
The entrance to the cave was already closed, leaving only a featureless lump of rock in its place. He touched it. No rumbling in the ground. No southern accent. Nothing.
Wataru followed the path back through the woods to the place where the five huts stood. The wizard was nowhere to be seen, and Wataru saw smoke rising—not from the first hut, nor the second, but from the chimney of the third one.
Wataru walked straight up to the door and knocked.
Immediately, he heard the sound of approaching footsteps. The door opened and the old wizard stuck out his head. Wataru gasped. He was crying.
“Y-you’ve come home at last!” the old man said, sniffling. He wiped away the tears with one hand, and waved Wataru inside. “It took you quite a while to solve the riddle, didn’t it?”
Wataru sat on a sturdy chair hewn from a single tree stump, and watched the old wizard sit down and brush the tears off his cheeks.
At the first hut, he was angry. At the second, he was kind, and now…
“Um, Wizard?”
“What? If you’re wondering about your weapon, I was about to explain that to you.”
“Well, before that…”
“Ah, yes, an introduction is long overdue. My name is Lau. You may call me Wayfinder Lau. Though I suppose I’m more of a way-shower than a wayfinder, but no matter. Yes, I am a wizard by trade, but my role here is to serve as a guide to Travelers such as yourself. You’ve been through the Cave of Trials, you’ve passed the test, so you may call me Wayfinder…actually, why don’t you call me Lord Wayfinder. Yes, I think that will do quite nicely.”
“Yes, Lord Wayfinder,” Wataru said, speaking quickly so that he wouldn’t be cut off again. “Just let me ask one question. Does your mood change depending on which house you appear in?”
Wayfinder Lau stroked his narrow chin with a bony hand. “What, you just realized this now? You
are
slower than Mitsuru.”
Wataru winced. That one hurt. “But I’m right, right?”
“Quite, yes. That is the way of this village. The Watcher is bound to guide travelers to the best of his ability. Should I let my own emotions get the better of me, and become lax in my duties, then Travelers would needlessly suffer. That’s why each hut is set with its own mood. That way I’ll never be confused. I know I’m to be mad when I’m in the Hut of Anger, I know I’m to be kind when in the Hut of Kindness. And…”
“Let me guess, this is the Hut of Tears?”
“No, Wataru, the Hut of Sorrow.” The Wayfinder blinked glistening eyes. “Tears can fall even when one is joyous, no? One can even cry from laughing too much. No, I cry in sorrow—because you disappoint me so.”
Wataru sighed. “Sorry.”
Wayfinder Lau walked across the room, his robes dragging behind him, delicately picking up a woven basket from the corner. He placed it on the log table before Wataru. “Your weapon is inside. Open it.”
Wataru’s heart beat in his chest, and his hands began to tremble.
The lid of the basket was light and opened easily—there was no lock or fastening to bother with.
A sword sat askew at the bottom of the basket. It was sheathed in a worn, grimy scabbard. The blade was no more than a foot in length, maybe shorter. The aged leather straps wrapped around its handle were so loosely bound they seemed ready to fall off at any moment.
“The Brave’s Sword,” Wayfinder Lau said, looking up.
“This…is my sword?”
The Brave’s Sword? More like the Coward’s Pig-Sticker.
“What, you find it lacking?”
“It doesn’t look too, um, powerful.”
“Of course not. And neither do you. A fitting match, I’d say.”
Wayfinder Lau sat across from Wataru and rested his hands on the table. “The Brave’s Sword is no mere blade. It grows together with its wielder. As it is now, it is merely a reflection of your own ability and preparedness—or should I say inability and lack of preparedness. As the sword is weak, frail, dull, and altogether unattractive, so too are you weak, frail, dull, and displeasing to the eye. So you see, Wataru, it’s not the sword’s fault.”
The old man gave Wataru a sharp slap on the forehead. “Take it in your hand, look at it closely. See the design on the hilt?”
The Brave’s Sword was even lighter than the basket it came out of.
A lightweight… like me.
The blade seemed to drift in his hand, unreliable, without purpose.
Like me.
The hilt bore the same star-pattern he had seen at the entrance to the cave. At each of the five points of the star small holes about the size of a tablet of aspirin had been bored into the hilt.
“This mark—I saw it on the entrance to the Cave of Trials.”
“Ah, so you did notice. Knowing you, I was afraid I was going to have to point it out.”
Wayfinder Lau explained that the star pattern was a sigil—the symbol of power of the goddess who ruled Vision. “If one of due strength completes the sigil, then they will be able to work magic, create powerful Wards, fly through the air, and command the powers of water and wind. You will encounter this sigil in many places as you travel through Vision. Remember that when you wish to use the Mirror of Truth, you must be at one of these locations with the sigil for it to work.”
“The Mirror of Truth?”
Wataru seemed to remember having heard that word before.
Mitsuru…
—When I looked into the Mirror of Truth…
That’s right! When he came to get me from Vision, he talked about using a mirror…
“It seems you know of it already.”
Wataru mentioned what Mitsuru had said, and Wayfinder Lau nodded deeply. “Travelers from your world can use the Mirror near a star sigil to create a link between Vision and the other world—a Corridor of Light. Travelers may pass along the corridor to go back to their world, but only for a very short amount of time. Should they not return to Vision before the way is closed, then they will not be able to return home, nor will they be allowed back into Vision. They will be stuck forever in the Vale of Eternity—the gap between two worlds—lost vagrants in time.”
That explained why Mitsuru had been in such a hurry to leave.
The Vale of Eternity? Vagrants in time?
It seemed like there was still much more for Wataru to learn about this place.
“Okay, I think I understand. So how do I get a Mirror of Truth?”
“What, Mitsuru didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
Wayfinder Lau smiled. “You need not search for your Mirror of Truth. It will come looking for you. It shouldn’t be too long before you’re found.”
“Huh?”
“The Mirror of Truth knows when Travelers have arrived in Vision, only then does it appear. It’s really not that complicated a concept.”
Wataru wasn’t sure. The number of things it seemed like he was expected to remember was dizzying.
“You’re confused. It’s understandable.” The wizard wiped away more tears from his eyelashes, and gave Wataru a kind look. “I don’t expect you to understand everything about this world, your world, and the Vale of Eternity anytime soon. Most come to an understanding over the course of their journey, and that’s really the best way. For now, I’ll tell you only the things that you must remember, the things that are most important.”
Lifting the Brave’s Sword from Wataru’s hand, Wayfinder Lau pointed at the star sigil engraved on its hilt. “Look. See the holes at each tip of the star? These are not mere holes, mind you. They are settings. In your travels through Vision, you must search for five gemstones. These stones will fit into these settings.”
“Gemstones? You mean, like diamonds?”
“Something of the sort. When all five gemstones have been placed in their settings, only then will this tiny, worn blade reveal its true nature. It will become a true Demon’s Bane, fit to cut a path to the Tower of Destiny.”
A Demon’s Bane?
“Around the tower where the Goddess of Fate presides lies a thick mist made by the demons. Only the Demon’s Bane blade can hope to cut through that barrier and open the way to the tower. Thus it was named. So, no matter how frail it might look now, do not show it disrespect, young Traveler. Understood?”
“I think so,” Wataru said, feeling a kind of confident strength welling up inside. He gripped his hands tightly. “Where will I find these five gemstones? What do they look like?”
Wayfinder Lau gave Wataru a sharp slap on the forehead. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t have asked you to search for them!”
“What, I don’t even get a hint? I have to search all of Vision?”
“You do. But should you find yourself near one of the gemstones, it will call to you in a fashion. Follow the call, Wataru.”
This is ridiculous.
Wataru felt what little confidence he had draining away.
“You…do not seem prepared.” Wayfinder Lau lifted his hand, as though to deliver yet another slap, but then he changed his mind, and instead covered his own face. “For many long years have I been a Watcher, but never have I found myself so lacking in faith in a Traveler as I am now. And to think you might be the Half…I fear rough times ahead.”
“The Half? Half of what?” Wataru asked, wincing at yet another term to learn.
Wayfinder Lau jerked back, as though surprised. “N-never you mind about that. I swear, if the rest of you was as exceptional as your hearing, you’d be a force to reckon with.”
He rubbed irritably at his face, then he lifted the sleeve of his robe and wiped at his nose.
Eww. His sleeve is filthy.
“As for the gemstones, there is another important thing you should know,” the old man said, looking calm again. “It has something to do with the Mirror of Truth.”
There was a connection, the wizard explained, between the number of gemstones and the number of times the Mirror of Truth might be used.
“Find a single gemstone, and you will be able to use the Mirror once. Find another, and you will be able to use it once more. Of course, should you find a gemstone but have no need of the Mirror, you can save it up for later. The Mirror doesn’t charge interest, you see.
“A moment ago,” Wayfinder Lau continued, “I mentioned that one may use the Mirror only where there is a star sigil to be found.”