Authors: Miyuki Miyabe
“My Brave’s Sword!”
Wataru recalled throwing it aside when he leaped to save Romy. He now walked over to the light and reached out to recover the sword. Whether Wataru grabbed the weapon or whether the weapon jumped into his hand—nobody could say for sure.
He gave the sword a swing, and the gold light began to spread from the second gemstone until it enveloped Wataru and half the room.
Wataru could hear shouts of surprise, but he kept his eyes focused on the gem.
Ding.
The gemstone winked. And then, in a flash, a boy appeared. His body, hair, eyes, and skin all seemed to be fashioned from scintillating golden rays. A pair of golden wings beat slowly upon his back. In his right hand he held a sword. In his left, a shield.
—We meet at last, Traveler.
The golden boy called to Wataru, his face filled with pride.
—I am the spirit of bravery, who gives honor to those with wills strong as steel.
His voice sounded like the notes of an exquisitely crafted instrument, yet his tone was serious.
—I am the one who opens the way for those Braves whom the Goddess has summoned.
Wataru nodded.
—Listen well, Brave. I appear before all those who desire me. Yet, when I leave upon these wings, it will be without sound, and swifter than time itself.
Bravery is not difficult to summon or to create, but it is very difficult to keep.
Be wary. There are few doors to me, and many windows out of which I may be lost.
“I understand,” Wataru said, a slight tremble in his voice.
The Spirit of Bravery’s mouth was a flat, unmoving line, but his eyes smiled.
—Blessings of the Goddess be with you.
Then the spirit disappeared, and immediately the circle of light began to dwindle until it was sucked entirely within the second gemstone. Wataru reached out his right hand and the stone settled into his palm.
Until Wataru placed the second gemstone into its spot on the hilt of the Brave’s Sword and sheathed the sword at his side, the room was completely silent.
It was Captain Ronmel who first spoke. “So this is the power of the Traveler.”
Someone began chanting a prayer to the Goddess. It was Romy.
Her voice was beautiful as she prayed, eyes closed, hands clasped before her breast. The Knights, the Highlanders, the starseers, Dr. Baksan, and even Meena joined in.
When the words of her prayer were finished, Romy looked at Wataru. Her eyes sparkled.
“That button—no, actually it’s not a button, in my house we called it the starseer’s stone. It’s a family heirloom.”
As it turned out, the Romy family had been starseers for generations. Her father, his father, and his father before that—all of them had been scholars of the heavens.
“When he learned that I would come to study at the observatory, my father took the stone off his own sleeve and gave it to me. He told me to wear it always, and keep it safe. It is a gift from the stars, and from the past.”
A long time ago, so the story went, one of Romy’s ancestors (also a starseer) had been out one night, when he witnessed a golden shooting star. He ran in the direction in which it had fallen, and found a brilliantly glowing stone upon the ground.
“Every scholar in my family has worn the stone during their time of study. My father gave it to me so I would remember my heritage. He hoped it would keep my mind on the task at hand. But I had no idea it contained a spirit of such deep importance.”
Behind her, Dr. Baksan cleared his throat. While they had been talking, he had managed to once again climb to the top of his wooden platform boots, putting him more at a level with the crowd.
“It takes great bravery to search for knowledge and continue one’s studies,” he began. “Not all new knowledge is beautiful, or even to be desired. Yet there comes a time when, no matter how hard it is to accept what we see, no matter how much we do not want to believe it, our studies will cease and we will learn no more. Though the world may point and criticize, if the truth has been found, sometimes you must shout it from the rooftops in the face of all opposition. The pursuit of knowledge requires an iron will that always looks forward and never falters. Thus, I find it quite appropriate that a spirit of bravery should have found a home in the family of a starseer.”
Romy nodded and smiled. “Thank you for saving me, Wataru.”
“Well, Knights of Stengel,” Dr. Baksan began, addressing the crowd, “other places await your arrival in these troublesome times, I’m sure. I’m afraid their number grows by the day. Please, be on your way. Highlanders, I fear that the events of the day will have struck more fear into the hearts of the uninformed. Console them, and put them at ease. And, to my students…”
Dr. Baksan clapped his hands and coughed smugly. “Get this room cleaned up right away!”
“It may be my first time meeting a Traveler, though I have some knowledge of the related phenomena,” Dr. Baksan said, trudging up the stairs ahead of Wataru.
“You can use that gemstone to peer into the real world, is that not so?”
“Yes, I’ve done it once before.”
“And for this you need a sigil, similar to the one engraved on the hilt of your sword? It just so happens that we have one here. It’s in the room with our observational equipment. Follow me.”
They ascended a gently curving staircase and quickly reached the observation room. The walls and floor were made of a lustrous shining white rock, polished so well that Wataru could see his reflection. The room was circular, with a giant telescope sitting in the very middle. It was at least ten times larger than the one Wataru had used at Shin Suxin’s home. The barrel of the telescope was pointed up at the translucent ceiling like a cannon.
“When the sun goes down, the roof becomes transparent,” Dr. Baksan explained, waving his hand in the direction of the ceiling. “It’s made from a special kind of stone that becomes cloudy white under sunlight, yet perfectly transparent when it’s dark. Yes, a curious stone. Only a single vein of it has been found in a mine in Arikita.”
The starseer stopped beneath the barrel of the telescope. “See?” he said, pointing down at his feet. “The sigil is here. But it is not visible now. The sigil is made out of the same stone as the ceiling. While the sun is up, it blends in with the floor. When the sun sets, it will rise from the stone.”
Turning to Wataru, the starseer continued, “But before that, I would have a word with you. First, let me thank you again for saving my student. I have seen with my own eyes the extent of your courage and kindness, and the rightness of your heart.”
He’s praising me,
Wataru realized belatedly.
Then…why is he staring at me like that?
“Because of this, I shall tell you something. Know that I tell you this only because I am assured by your actions that you will understand my meaning.”
Subconsciously, Wataru straightened his posture.
“Remember I told you that Vision is a reflection of your own heart? Wayfinder Lau told you the very same thing. Think on this a moment. If the events that occur in Vision are a reflection of what lies inside you, then why is there prejudice? Why does the Goddess demand a sacrifice?”
That’s what I want to know! That’s why I came here…
“Why does such backwardness and cruelty exist here in your Vision?” he asked again. After a pause, he resumed, speaking slowly. “There is one answer, and it’s simple. It is because there is backwardness in your heart. There’s a part of you that hates what is unlike you and avoids those who think differently, that curses, hates, and wants to live better than others. It envies what others possess, and schemes and plots to take what is theirs for your own happiness, and their despair. Vision reveals this part of you only in such a manner that you cannot look away from it.”
“Wait a second…” Wataru began, startled by the sudden criticism. “I don’t think those things…”
“Oh, I know, I know,” Dr. Baksan said, holding up his hands. “You are brave. You are kind. You think well of others, and your friends. You have a good heart. But within you there is also hatred, jealousy, and the will for destruction. This is a fact you must learn to accept. You cannot turn your back to it and hope to run away.”
Wataru stood there dumbfounded, when a memory emerged that made his jaw tighten and snapped his eyes wide open.
How could he forget the events he had seen in the Swamp of Grief? He remembered his ghostly twin, the one who killed the image of his father. And, later, how he witnessed the senseless slaughter of Lili Yannu, and how he ran from the stone-baby who accused him of murder.
Was that part of my truth too?
Maybe it hadn’t been an illusion after all. Maybe it was a part of himself he hadn’t noticed until now.
“It is not only you. All people are like this. There are no exceptions. No one can have a perfectly good heart. If someone did, he would doubtlessly be capable of doing more harm than evil itself. If there were a Vision made by a heart such as that, you wouldn’t find me going there anytime soon.”
“Dr. Baksan…” Wataru began. The strength went out of his legs. “Are you saying that the hate, and the rage, the prejudice, and the desire for sacrifice in my own heart are causing pain to the people of Vision? If I left, if I went away, would the bad things go too?”
“Not at all, not at all.”
“So then what do I do? How do I fix it?”
Dr. Baksan took a step toward Wataru and took his hand into his own. “It is all within you. Vision exists as a reflection of the entire being that is you. Go on, knowing this fact. Let yourself and your heart wander in your search for the way to the Tower of Destiny. In your doubt lies the true path.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!” Wataru cried, trying to free himself from Dr. Baksan’s hands, but the tiny scholar merely tightened his grip.
“If prejudice and destruction and hate are you, then friendship and kindness and bravery are you as well. If the one who does not wish to be sacrificed is you, then so is the one who feels anger at a Goddess who demands that sacrifice. If the fellow who disdains other races and wishes to pin the injustices of the world on them is you, then so, too, is the one who would give his own life to save that of a friend. Your life has been in danger many times since you have come to Vision. Yes, there are those here who would kill you. Yet, at the same time, there are those who seek to aid you, and save you, without a thought for their own personal gain.”
The followers of the Old God. The guillotine. The ankha boys who dreamed of a day when they would rule the south.
Meena’s song. Kee Keema’s smile.
It all came from me.
“Look at yourself. Hatred and anger, kindness and bravery. They are all yours, and rightly so. Accept this, face it straight on, then ask yourself what it means to change your destiny. When you have your answer, the way to the Tower of Destiny will be open to you. By the time that path opens, you will know what you must ask of the Goddess. You see, you will not find your answer from the Goddess. It is the path to the Goddess that is itself your answer.”
Wataru shook his head. “But what about the sacrifice? I can’t accept it. I can’t imagine it happening to someone else, and I sure wouldn’t want it to happen to me! If I could, I would go to the Tower of Destiny right now and ask the Goddess to stop it once and for all.”
“And then you would return to the real world,” Dr. Baksan said quietly. “You would go back to the real world, your destiny, and yourself, unchanged. The desire that brought you to Vision in the first place would be unrequited.”
“And if I said I was fine with that?”
“Perhaps you are fine with that now. Perhaps you would be fine for a year. Perhaps even five.”
But what about the future?
“I believe you would reach a point in your life when you would regret your decision. You would regret having given up your only chance to change your destiny because you lost to your fear of being chosen as the sacrifice, you lost to your anger at the cruelty of the tradition. You will feel responsible, and you will hold your friends responsible as well. You gave up your chance to save them from being chosen. If no one had been kind to you while you were in Vision, perhaps you wouldn’t have cared who was chosen to be the sacrifice. This is what you will think. You would think that, instead of letting yourself be chosen as a sacrifice, you should have overtaken the other Traveler, changed your destiny and gone home before he had the chance. Yes, you will grind your teeth and spit curses in your regret. All the unhappiness and ill luck that befalls you in the real world will be due to that one decision you made here in Vision. And then the ultimate irony: your wounded, hating heart will create another Vision, filled with horrors more terrible than any prejudice.”
I won’t—I won’t ever be like that,
Wataru thought, but he couldn’t say it out loud.
“You see? You have not yet found the true path,” Dr. Baksan said, his voice becoming gentle. “That is why the decisions you make now betray your future. Make no mistake, you would betray yourself. The Elder of Sakawa was right. Take his words at face value. It is no riddle. Find the path, and meet the Goddess. I will give you the same advice. It is the only advice I can give.”