by Jeremy Finn
Looking up, he could just see the outline of the forest before him thanks to the pale glow of the sky that heralded the retreat of the stars as day began its slow battle to overcome the night. He remembered the warning Mi Lin gave him against using violence, so he chose to flee. He dashed into the wood line and found himself once again blinded by darkness as the foliage overhead obscured the weak light. Hounded by the fear of his pursuers and the possibility of being stranded with them here until the sun set, he crashed through whip-like branches that stung his face and repeatedly bruised his shins and knees stumbling over sharp rocks. As exhaustion caused him to slow to a quick walk, James realized he did not know exactly which direction he needed to follow. In his retreat, he struck out blindly uphill and his vision was now limited severely by the forest around him.
“I need to find the way,” he mumbled under his breath half to himself and half hoping somehow the Light itself might be able to hear him. “Please help me find the portal.”
Immediately out of the corner of his eye James saw a dull flash, almost like a distant firefly in a twilight summer meadow. Almost instinctually he turned toward the direction of the ghostly light and picked up a jog, since he was now moving horizontally up the hill rather than directly up the incline. Just as he was wondering if he had imagined the flash, he bumped into a large stone and, running his hands along it, realized it was a weathered statue of a lion or some similar animal. He paused to take stock of his surroundings and realized he was at the edge of the ruined hold. The sun had not risen yet, and it looked like it would be another few minutes before it did break the horizon. The distant thrashing of leaves told James he was still being followed, so he rapidly assessed his surroundings and crawled into a small building with a loft in which he hid.
After about two minutes, he could hear the two men cautiously walking around the ruins and whispering to each other. A glance out of a crack in the roof told James the sun was just about to crest the horizon, so he waited for the men to cross to the far side of the ancient hold and then he dropped silently down from the loft and crept to the doorway of the building. The two men were standing about ten meters away apparently arguing about something. Since the horizon was lined with blazing gold and the edge of the sun was just cutting the tops of the distant hills, James felt confident he was safe at last and decided to boast his success by strolling calmly to the center of the remnants of the courtyard and smiling at the two men who jumped at the sight of him and quickly turned to rush toward him.
Just then, James experienced a lesson about over confidence that stuck with him the rest of his life. As he grinned at the men futilely running toward him, he opened his mouth to say the name of his desired destination and then suddenly drew a blank. In a moment of panic that seized his insides, James watched helplessly as the men closed the distance, the one without the bat gaining the lead. Then, the lead man leapt into the air. His foot flew forward in a flash, while at the same time the word James so desperately sought popped into his head – Pungyan Nam.
“Pungyan-“ was all James could get out before a flying kick met his soft stomach and knocked the wind out of his lungs. He flew back, but before he hit the ground, an unseen force seized him and he was once again hurtling along the track between portals. For a short time, the pale landscape of the early morning scene zoomed by him and his stomach throbbed with pain. Very soon, though, he felt solid ground slam against his back and he lay still for a moment before he could overcome the dizziness the rapid journey caused him.
At first, it appeared he was standing amidst another set of ruins looking down into the large capital city of the south region, which seemed to fit his expectations since the Intercessor said he would arrive at an old hold in the hills on the eastern side of the city. The sun still had not risen above the surrounding hills here, and the shadow from the mountains rising behind him made the city appear dark. At that moment, three things happened simultaneously. James suddenly realized the darkness of the city was too dark and too still. Even though morning was breaking, there should still be some lights on in the windows of the buildings and on signs as well as cars passing through the streets in great numbers. On the contrary, James could not spot a single light in the hollow-looking buildings below, and the streets, though wide, were devoid of cars completely. It was like gazing at the skeleton of the city he was familiar with. Just as this was dawning on him, a horrible scream pierced the silence. Judging by the direction, it came from the city below, but the murderous cry carried so well in the morning stillness that it caused James to jump. On top of it all, he was suddenly filled with a sense of oppressing grief and mounting fear.
James’ mind raced as he tried to reason out what had happened to the city. Had the Darkness consumed it in the mere twelve hours or so he had been absent? As he instinctively moved out of the exposed open area around the portal and subconsciously searched for a place to conceal himself while he thought, it struck him that the ruins he currently occupied were expansive. There were many more buildings than at Hanasan Hold and they were much larger and more elaborate. The area he could see was at least four times as big as Hanasan; and, although it appeared to have suffered serious neglect, it still inspired awe.
As he walked past a large stone column thrusting out of the ground, something caught his eye. Like many other monuments he had seen, native text covered the face, but the thing that made him do a double take was the short paragraph carved below the native text. It was in James’ native language. He crouched down trying to read the worn writing in the dim light and was able to see it:
Pungyan Fortress.
May the Light reign in this region forever through the leadership and guidance of this academy and the seat of our governance.
-Director William Meyers
Then James realized he was not in the same city he left the night before – the same city over-watched by Hanasan Hold. This was someplace different. Could it be the fact that he only said Pungyan brought him to this place instead of another place called Pungyan Nam on the east side of the capital city? There was only one way to find out, and James hoped the sun had not climbed high enough yet above the horizon to seal the portals. The sense of menace and approaching doom surrounded him, and he very much did not want to spend the day in this place while he waited for sunset.
James raced over to the grass-covered spot where he appeared and clearly spoke, “Pungyan Nam.” Once again the earth dropped away from under him and he felt himself soaring weightlessly through a blazing orange sky. In moments, he touched down in a very similar scene with some important differences. Now James was looking down into a city again, but the city throbbed with activity and vitality. The hold around him was also in ruins, but it was small – smaller than Hanasan even – but the sense of dread he felt was gone. Instead, he felt warm for the first time in a while as he watched the rays of golden sun spill down the mountainsides and penetrate the crevices of the urban jungle below.
James walked over to a wooden staircase leading to a building without a roof and sat down facing the city. His stomach ached from hunger and the flying kick he received just minutes ago, but thousands of miles away. No matter, he felt content and relaxed as he dwelled upon the blessings he just began to realize he enjoyed in this city.
After a brief respite on the stairs, James collected himself and began to blaze a trail down the hillside toward the city. He knew it was very important to pass on the information he received, so he decided to try to find DaNyang. He would know what to do with it. After all, he seemed to be the Intercessor’s right hand man.
PASSING OF THE OLD LIFE
To understand freedom,
you must first become a servant to others.
To truly live,
you must first die to self.
-inscription over the door of the Hall of the Servants.
After stumbling through undergrowth for about ten minutes, James came to a well worn trail – apparently one used by local hikers for weekend ou
tings. As he picked up the trail heading downhill, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket to call DaNyang. With a sudden sinking feeling, he realized the cover of his flip phone was bent at an angle and the front screen had a crack in it. When he flipped it open to examine its condition, the front piece popped off and hung by a single wire from the rest of the phone body. Somewhere along his recent adventures it was smashed beyond possible repair, it seemed. Though he was not certain of the urgency of the news he was carrying, he felt it would probably be best to get it to DaNyang as fast as possible. Fortunately, he remembered writing DaNyang’s number on a piece of scrap paper in his apartment and decided to head there and call from his home phone. It would give him a chance to check on things too since he had been absent for quite some time, and at least his mail box and refrigerator would require attention.
After a while, the trail started to level off and the forest thinned. It was a frigid morning, but the brilliant sun promised warmer weather later in the day. Soon, James found himself entering through the back of a large restored palace. The buildings were grandiose and crowded with colorful patterns and symbols much like the large buildings at Hanasan Hold. Schools of orange and white carp populated an ornamental pond so densely that James believed he could walk out to the small island at the center of the lake on the backs of the hovering fish. There was a thin layer of ice attempting to spread its way across the surface of the pond, and the fish seemed lackadaisical in the cold environment. The air was fresh and icy and the sky wore the pale blue color of a clear winter day.
It took a while to find the entrance to the palace park, but if not for the urgency of his errand, he would not have minded the delay in the beautiful palace at all. After exiting the park grounds, James entered a crowded common area bordered by a six lane road and surrounded by towering modern buildings. He caught sight of a bus stop on the road and walked over to check the route. Oddly, he seemed to be receiving more hostile looks than usual from a few passersby. True, the nature of his foreign appearance occasionally drew eyes, but they were usually curious eyes. The eyes of these people seemed wary, or even hateful. Maybe something bad happened with a foreigner while I was gone, he thought, and it made big news. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Fortunately, he learned he could take this bus and make one connection to bring him back to his apartment at the Silver Towers. It was a long journey, though, and the connection forced him to take a roundabout way of heading home. Much later, as he slumped with his right cheek pressed against the bus window a couple stops from his apartment building, the bus paused at a stop to pick up an elderly woman and then began to pull away again. Through half closed eyes, James saw two young, scruffy-looking men glance at him out of the corner of their eyes as they passed by on the sidewalk just outside the bus. Suddenly, both men did a rapid double take, shouted something to each other and bolted after the bus as it began to maneuver its way back into the flow of traffic. They caught up to the front of the bus and slammed their fists on the door while shouting to the bus driver to let them on. The aged bus driver lethargically glanced at them and then turned his attention back to the traffic – apparently this type of activity was nothing new to him or to the passengers who all continued dozing and studying their periodicals. As the bus accelerated into the flow of cars, the two men fell back. When they receded by the spot where James sat, one of the men jumped up and slapped his fist against the window in front of his face. James jumped back instinctively and watched over his shoulder as the two men were lost in the crowd of vehicles and pedestrians. The event left him shaken a bit, and he hunched down in his seat for the remainder of the journey.
Finally, James reached his apartment building and jumped off the bus with an eagerness to be somewhere familiar for once in what seemed like a never ending misadventure. As he rode the sleek, clean elevator to his floor, he fantasized about raiding his refrigerator and taking a shower. Sure he needed to get the message to DaNyang, but a phone call would take care of that and it wouldn’t hurt to take a few minutes to get himself back into decent shape.
The door opened smoothly and James strolled down the corridor to his door. As he began to punch in his key code, he noticed a note jammed in the crack between the door and its frame. As he was pulling it out, the keypad buzzed to indicate his code was not accepted. James sighed and punched in the numbers again, this time very carefully. The annoying buzz sounded again so he unfolded the note and attempted to read the elementary attempt at communication by his landlord. He got the basic gist that he was intentionally locked out of his room, but decided to go see the landlord himself to try to work out the details of why and convince the man to let him back into his apartment. He found him sitting outside with his feet propped up on a folding chair watching some kids playing on the apartment complex playground.
“Excuse me,” James began, “why can’t I get into my apartment?”
“You don’t pay,” the older man complained. “No pay, no live here.”
“But the company sends you money every month,” James replied. “I never do anything. They do. It’s part of my contract.”
“Well they don’t pay,” he said with agitation. “I don’t know where you are, so I put your stuff in the back room. You better take it now. I throw it away if you don’t.”
“What!” James exclaimed. “I was just gone for a little while. You mean my company fired me!”
“I don’t know,” the landlord said without concern. “Just they don’t pay. You talk to them. But I already have new tenant, so no room for you here. Come.”
Suppressing his less than chivalrous desire to punch the elderly man in the stomach, James followed him as he made his way to the temporary storage room in the basement beside the underground parking lot. Once they arrived at the room, the old man pointed to the half opened door.
“It all in there,” he explained. “No lock so maybe some people take stuff.” He turned to walk away.
“What!” James exclaimed in exasperation. “Are you kidding me? You just let people rummage through my stuff?”
“You gone, no pay!” the landlord yelled without turning. “Tomorrow I throw away!”
James watched him hobble back outside and wondered what he was going to do now. Finally, he accepted his situation and decided he better get to the office before the workday was over and find out why his apartment payments stopped. Granted, he had been absent for a while, but he was expecting at least a chance to explain himself before he was booted. While, then again, how could he explain the reasons for his absence without sounding like an inexperienced liar? Before leaving, he grabbed an old knapsack and filled it with some dry packaged food thrown in a pile in the corner, a little wad of money he had stuffed in a jacket (all the rest of his cash and moveable valuables were apparently stolen already) and some items of personal importance like pictures of his parents and other keepsakes. He meant to come back for his stuff before his treacherous landlord threw it away, but just in case, at least he had some essentials in his possession. On the way out, he pestered his prior landlord into letting him use the phone to call DaNyang’s office. He received an answering machine, so left a message for DaNyang to call him at the office immediately and jumped in his car (the keys had also been in the jacket pocket) to head to the office. He would sort things out there and then try to catch DaNyang at the police station this evening. On his way out of the parking lot, the old landlord hollered at James in an attempt to convey the fact that he was no longer welcome to park his car here either. Lovely old man, he thought sarcastically. I’ll really miss the guy.
James arrived at the office with a whole box of cookies and a bag of chips in his stomach. He took the elevator to the floor that held his office and headed directly for his supervisor’s desk. All along the way, coworkers expressed their relief or surprise to see him back at work. His supervisor, as well, seemed a bit shocked to see him trudge into his office, but his expression quickly turned stern.
“James,” he bega
n as if speaking to a wayward child, “I don’t know what you have been doing or where you were, but you have to know such unexcused and sudden absence is unacceptable.”
“Yes, I know,” James agreed, “but there is a good reason…” He hesitated as he thought about how he could explain his recent adventures without appearing to be a wild liar, but before he could begin his defense, his boss continued.
“Look, you have probably been by your apartment already, so you know the company is no longer supporting you. We just can’t accept this kind of behavior. There are many other qualified people who would love your position, and we can’t take the losses your absence causes. Did you know the Liajin project was cancelled because you weren’t around to finish it by the deadline yesterday? By the way, you smell horrible. Have you showered yet this week?”