Sky of Paper: An Asian Steam-Driven Fantasy Tale

by Matthew Seaver

  He reached into his sleeve and took out his pipe again as well as a small pouch, holding his smoke leaves. It was a gesture that he was finished conversing with me.

  "Report to class Terr," he said in a tone that seemed so uncaring, that in a fit of frustration, I grabbed his pipe and threw it across the grounds as hard as I could.

  Surprisingly, he did not raise his voice or shout terse words at me. Instead, his face grew cold and bland and his green eyes seemed to glow slightly, adding to the growing discomfort I felt from his gaze.

  "Terr, go get my pipe," he said.

  "No," I blurted. "Not until you prove to me that my sister is safe."

  He gave a small grunt and strolled past me, to where his pipe lay. My anger had left me frozen. I refused to turn and follow him as he walked a good length to retrieve his pipe. Instead, I kept my back to him, heedless of the great amount of disrespect I’d just committed. He returned, brushing the dirt off his most prized belonging.

  "Accept the truth Terr." As he spoke, I kept my head low, unable to face him. "There’s nothing we can do for Rune. Things have gotten worse there and obviously, we won’t be sending anyone. Not even for your sister."

  For the first time in my young life, I cursed. I don’t remember what it is was exactly that I said, but I do remember yelling it loud enough that everyone across the temple grounds must have heard its echo. In a final, regretful childish act, I tore the pipe from his hands again, broke it in half and threw each piece in a different direction.

  I ran from him, my eyes clouded in tears, screaming the curse over and over again.

  It wasn’t hard to find Etsu's class. Unlike the male students, whose classes were scattered in various places all about the temple, the female students trained in one, very large three story building on the eastern edge of the grounds. Her class was in one of the first rooms I happened to peer into.

  Everyone, including the teacher was startled at the sudden smacking sound the door made as I furiously swung it open. I paid little attention to the teacher's blathering about how rude I was being and went amongst the rows of seated students until I found Kassashimei. She regarded me as if I were a bear about to maul her.

  "Terr, what are you doing, you can't be in here. Hey!"

  Etsu started shouting as soon as she realized I was taking Kassashimei.

  She gasped as I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of the room amidst the sharp protests of the teacher as well as the class leader.

  "Fly!" I said coldly, pushing Kassashimei against one of the sky boats, lined up in neat rows next to the main courtyard. "We need to fly."

  By then, a small crowd of students and curious onlookers had already gathered. Some had followed me out of the female students' building while others were attracted by Kassashimei's constant wailing as I pulled her along.

  As determined as I was, even I understood how incredibly vain all this was. To fly a tiny sky boat to Rune seemed just as impossible as forcing a young, stubborn shyo mah to cooperate.

  She pushed me back, then planted her hands angrily on her hips.

  "Idiot. Moron," she said trying to kick me in the shins as I avoided her vicious approach. "If you wanted to fly so badly, you should have told me, instead of dragging me out here without so much as an explanation."

  By then, the numb sensation of my own anger had receded slightly and I became more aware of the other students slowly gathering around us. I felt a small inkling of shame as I started to come to grips with the kind of ruckus I was causing.

  "My sister is in trouble," I said. "We have to go back my village. It’s in one of the southern islands."

  "You really don't have any common sense do you? You, with hardly any experience or training, think you could fly across the ocean to some far away island." She pressed her finger against my forehead, then, lifting her chin in a dignified manner, she turned around and stepped into the boat, casually brushing the dust off her robe. "Well? Get inside Terr. But we're not going south. We're going west, to the capital instead. It's at the base of this mountain. From there, you can take an airship home."

  I was surprised by her sudden willingness to help. So much so, that I hesitated, wondering if this was some sort of trick.

  "Well, are we going or not," she said. "Etsu could be here at any moment to take me back."

  "So you don‘t mind helping me? I‘m grateful, but why are you so cooperative all of a sudden?"

  She gave an annoyed sigh. "Because, dummy, yesterday was the day of the Cloud Spirits. A dragonfly, a well-known messenger of the cloud and air spirits I‘ll have you know, came into my room last night and whispered that I was to help someone on a desperate journey. You seem pretty desperate right now, so I imagine I have an obligation to you."

  She was certainly crazy, but considering the audacity of what I was doing, I supposed the both of us were. Her pompous, impatient expression willed me quickly onto the boat. Though there were murmurs within the small crowd, there was not a single adult or senior student among them. All of them looked on with curious indifference, until Han appeared.

  By then, we were already hovering high in the air, and with steady, sweeping arm and hand motions, Kassashimei and I slowly willed the boat to turn west. The children below had never seen a beginner student fly a sky boat before. They pointed up at us, buzzing excitedly.

  "Terr, what are you doing?" Han bellowed. "You can't go back to Rune. You have no chance of flying there, and no airship will take you. Terr, please listen to me, Rune is sealed off. You'll never make it."

  Kassashimei tugged at my shirt. "Rune? That's where you're going? No, I can’t let you go there."

  "We have to go. What about the things you said?"

  "I was wrong. No airship will ever take you to that horrid place. There are rumors that it's a wasteland of death and disease. There‘s no way you‘re going. You'll most certainly die, and I'm not going to lose the person I’ve been paired with."

  "I‘m not taking us back to the temple. You said you would help me."

  "Not if it means your death. Now help me land this boat.”

  "No."

  "Help me land, or we'll all fall."

  I glared at her in stubborn silence.

  "Fine, then I'll try landing by myself."

  She violently shifted her weight from side to side, causing the boat to twist and turn like a bobbing cork. I lost my balance at the bow and fell backwards, landing clumsily onto Kassashimei's lap.

  "Get off me," she growled, and shoved me to the side, focusing all her attention on a way to lower the boat safely to the ground. But without my help, she must have discovered that it was an impossible task. Though my vision was still cloudy and undisciplined, I could still see the turbulent currents around us; and in the distance, came a rippling swell that was sure to flip the boat.

  "Turn right, hurry."

  "So now you're going to help?" She said in a pompous tone.

  "I said turn it. Do it now."

  Telling her what to do, and willing her to manipulate the fragile currents with hand and arm motions were two separate things. What I was doing, was no more useful, than if I had been a dog, barking mindlessly at her. In what must have been her blind, desperate attempt to turn the boat, she created a beast of a wave that struck the bow like a charging bull, sending the boat spinning and careening out of control.

  Again, we were fluttering helplessly through the sky just as we had all those months ago when Kassashimei and I first took to the air. But this time, that free-spirited feeling I’d felt before was all but absent, replaced by a sensation of dread and fear.

  We bounded off the roofs of buildings and slammed against the tall, massive outcrops of one pagoda after another. Roof tiles shattered, raining shards in all directions. Wood splintered and cracked, making horrific sounds like the piercing, cracking whip of heavy leather slapping against the ground. Hanging on the railing with all my strength, I had neither the courage, nor the skill to stand and guide the boat out
of its helpless, lurching dance.

  Then, all too soon, the ground came charging at us.

  It was hours before I awoke in a dreary daze amidst a lonely, drab and brown colored room. The temple physician and one of his staff stood ominously next to my bed. They mumbled a few words about my health, then quickly left, as if they had little care for their patient.

  A familiar voice whispered gently beside me and I turned my head to see, with great surprise, Ai standing with her brightly colored eyes, gazing past me with almost majestic scrutiny.

  "Poor Masa. Poor, poor Masa. It didn’t take long for father to find us. Not long at all." Her voice was full of pity and nothing else. I felt no sadness from her, or regret; not even a feeling of loss. It was as if she’d always known the outcome. "Masa thinks he’s saving me, but he doesn’t understand that this is something I want. Many people, including my brother don’t realize it, but I’m not frail, and I‘m not helpless."

  She sat down on one of the wooden chairs beside the bed and leaned in so close to me, that I could see every detail of the eerie, emerald shimmer of her eyes. I blushed, entranced by her unfocused gaze.

  "I am a chienkuu ko, the rarest of them all. I can see the flows of the ether just as a shyo mu does, and I can manipulate its currents just the same as a shyo mah. When my father realized this, he demanded that I go into training. Even though my sister was a gifted shyo mah, and my brother, a very talented shyo mu, they refused to lead the life my father demanded of them. I suppose that was why my sister fled to your village. But I was different. I aspired to learn and master the abilities our family had been blessed with for generations.

  But even though, as a single person, I could do both the skills of a male and female, it was not without its terrible price. The more I trained, the more I lost my sight, until one day, my common sight was completely taken away from me. When Masa learned that I’d turned blind, he furiously approached my father and told him that he would train in my place. He made a deal with him that as long as I was left alone, kept away from what he saw as a curse, he’d embrace our family's chienkuu ko traditions and become, at least in his father's eyes, one of the best of our kind.

  Poor Masa, he thought he was protecting me. All this time, and he still doesn’t understand that this is what I want. He thinks my blindness was a curse, but even so, I can still see you Terr, I can still see the world around me, but in the way that you see things when you take that sky boat into the air.

  I see you, because the ether moves around you. I witness the motions of the world, because of the way I see the currents flow. For me, my second sight is my only sight, and I am perfectly happy with that."

  Until that moment, I felt a small bit of sadness for her, but she gave a soft, reassuring smile that seemed to bring a comforting aura to the room's drab, cheerless atmosphere.

  "Why are you telling me all of this?" I asked.

  "Because I don't want you to leave the temple hating my brother. He’s a good person, if a bit lost."

  I sat up immediately. "Leave the temple?"

  That afternoon, after the physician confirmed that I had nothing more than a few bruises, I was lead to the Great Hall, past several large doors that lead from one grand hallway to another, until I found myself in a room that was so cavernous, I almost felt dizzy as I gazed at the broad, red and white walls that towered to a ceiling that seemed high enough to reach the clouds. Kassashimei, the Boar, Master Lu, Paya and a few officials dressed in formal looking suits were there, standing before Master Hotaka, who was seated at a richly ornamented wooden desk. Seeing that Kassashimei was unhurt gave a small bit of calm to the guilt I was feeling, guilt for the actions I‘d committed, but the angry look she gave me seemed to heighten my worries all the more.

  "So this is the troublemaker," said the droopy, bald man eyeing me as if I were someone beyond redemption.

  "He’s no trouble maker. He’s simply ambitious," the Boar said in my defense. "Perhaps a child too ambitious for his own good, but he’s extremely gifted, and what he did today was a testament to his skills; barely a few months into training and already he’s flying sky boats."

  "Something which is forbidden to students of the stream, " a thin, pale faced man uttered coldly. "And this girl has already confessed to being his shyo mah, also forbidden among beginner students. He should know, that pairing a male and female student together is so sacred, that it is only considered after years of training, and only after much deliberation. He certainly has ambition enough, Master Ichiro, to think himself above the rules, and to shame the traditions of this temple."

  "Master Hotaka, there are scheming forces at work here," Master Lu said expressing himself in a calm, respectful tone that seemed almost laughingly exaggerated. "We all have our reasons to distrust the military. And for some time now, we've even pondered on the possibility of them overthrowing the Emperor. Well I believe this boy was the instrument of their backstabbing plan to replace us one by one. He tried to serve me poisoned tea today, but when I found out, the coward tried to run away. I think we should condemn him and this accomplice of his and make them serve the rest of their days as imperial court slave."

  Kassashimei gasped and her eyes grew wide with fright.

  "They’re just children," the Boar interjected. "They know hardly anything of politics, let alone the motivations behind assassination. You cannot blame them for what other people made them do."

  "Oh can‘t I?" Master Lu approached the Boar, his eyes hungry for someone to accuse. "Well you’re probably right. There has to be a mastermind behind all of this. Someone had to have paired these two students together and taught them such advanced techniques. I believe that person to be ten times more guilty than these two. Tell me Master Ichiro, you should know something, considering that you’ve been watching this boy from the very beginning. "

  "Why don't you ask them?" the Boar replied, unmoved by Master Lu's advances.

  "No one taught me," I blurted. "I learned it all on my own. Kassashimei too. We met one day in the dining hall and thought it would be fun to learn things ahead of the other students. Isn't that right Kassashimei?"

  Kassashimei nodded quickly, on the verge of tears.

  "And no one told me to poison Master Lu. I was simply trying to guess what tea he might like. I had no idea he was allergic to the last batch I served him."

  "Liar!" Master Lu took a few ferocious steps towards me, but was halted by the shuffling sounds made by Master Hotaka as he stood from his desk.

  There was an air of expectancy in the room as everyone gazed silently at the head temple master. Finally, he said, "Terr, would you like to continue to serve tea to Master Lu?"

  "This boy poisoned me, I would never-," Master Lu’s scoffing was swiftly interrupted as the head temple master fervently continued his address.

  "Or perhaps you would prefer serving tea to someone else? After all, you still have a punishment to carry out. It seems, given the events that have happened, Kassishimei would also serve tea beside you. Now Master Lu demands that you be put into imperial slavery which, in my opinion, might seem a bit much. Maybe it would be better if I offer a compromise more befitting a child and make both of you permanent tea servants to the temple."

  "Master Hotaka, what about their studies?" the Boar protested. "How can they be expected to be proper chienkuu ko if their time is spent on these distractions."

  "That part of their life is over."

  Master Hotaka's sudden cold, uncaring tone, brought a smile of satisfaction to Master Lu's face, as well as a few of the adults. Kassashimei on the other hand was eerily silent as she kept her wide, unbelieving eyes to the ground. I’d gotten used to her talkative nature and I knew that there were unfiltered, hateful words, waiting to burst from her mouth. But she held them back as hard as she could, though her eyes seemed to glaze over with helpless frustration. Any moment, I expected her to break into tears. If she did that, I knew that I would also. But I would not allow Master Lu to revel in seeing me so
degraded. So I focused all my energy on keeping whatever pride I had left and made my face like stone.

  All day, I was left alone in the dorm, forbidden from leaving my room, forbidden from attending classes. I was not to see or speak to any of my class mates. Even my evening meal was an insult of grim solitude as I was permitted to go the dining hall only after everyone had left. But as I made my way there, I saw, with great sadness, the last echoes of my old life as I watched the sky filled with boats far in the distance as the senior students left for their home temples. I felt like a withered leaf shaken from a tree and lost to the foreboding winds. I felt envious, angry, helplessness and despair all at once. It was as if I’d become a lesser person and everyone else suddenly had a purpose greater than I; Masa, Etsu and Kidou, all of them with shining futures while mine was faced with an even darker uncertainty.

  It was then that I remembered my sister, and everything that I’d sacrificed, everything that I’d lost came crashing down upon me all at once. I felt dizzy and my body grew numb. I was no longer hungry and I turned away from the dining hall, stumbling in a helpless daze, back to the dorm. That evening, I lay awake, alone in my room. I suspected, with everything that had happened, that Masa would not be returning. But my thoughts were not with him, nor with my friends, and least of all, myself. I could only think of my sister. Every memory I had of her became much clearer with solemn detail.

  I remembered sobbing the day my mother died, screaming like an unruly baby, and yet, my sister never gave in to her tears. When I finally had the strength to lift my eyes to her, she gazed back at me with a determined spirit I’d never seen before. She told me that she cried, just as I had when our father left. But she made a promise to herself that, that would be the last time. She said that she’d never cried since and I would never have worry about her. It was that day that she proclaimed that she would be my mother from then on and wiped away my tears.