The Kite of Stars and Other Stories

by Dean Francis Alfar

  III

  HOLLOW GIRL FOUND work, doing rapid analysis and calculations, on the AsiaPac community station in geosynch orbit around the sunside of the moon. The hours were long but her circumstances, like the spin-generated gravity, suited her well.

  During the artificial night cycles, she found solace in Tranquil, a subtle narcotic blend that she injected directly into the tiny aperture behind her left ear, allowing her to manipulate the stuff of her dreams. She knew it was destroying her but she felt that she needed the calm it bestowed.

  Gabriel-Four, an enhanced man, had begun courting her from the moment she first set foot on the station, four years ago.

  “It’s not so bad being what we are,” he told her, curling and uncurling his multiple limbs. He was engineered for physical multi-tasking but was made redundant when the need for such specialists vanished in the wake of another ergonomic discovery. “The trick, I guess, is finding something else to do.”

  “The trick is in finding the reason for the trick,” Hollow Girl said.

  “But that would be like understanding how an illusion works,” Gabriel-Four replied. “Don’t you think that sometimes it’s better just to sit back and marvel at the show?”

  “I can’t just watch,” she said. “Too many people do just that.”

  “Then what would you do?” he asked her.

  “I want to fall in love,” she said simply.

  “Then fall in love with me,” he replied.

  “I have left every man who has ever loved me,” Hollow Girl whispered quietly into his ear.

  “I will take what I can,” he said with a brittle smile.

  “Do you believe that someone who has no heart can truly love?”

  In the ensuing void of words, Gabriel-Four kissed Hollow Girl gently on her dry lips and pretended they were as moist as the tears that fell from his eyes.

  She broke from the kiss and turned her face away to cough, hiding in the cup of her palm the flecks of virtual blood that came with distressing frequency. But he saw it, as he had seen through all the previous times of her subterfuge, and again chose not to call attention to it.

  “I’m tired,” she said.

  “I love you, Hollow Girl,” Gabriel-Four said as she walked away. Whatever elation he should have felt at that moment seemed as hollow as the object of his adoration. As he watched her leave, he realized how sometimes devotion was a curse, imperceptible and relentless in the consumption of hope.

  #

  SHE DECIDED THAT night to dream of her creator.

  They were standing next to each other, her birthing crèche adjacent to their flickering bodies. She imagined him young and so he was young, smiling and benevolent. She imagined herself as herself during that time, and it was not very difficult because so little about her had truly changed.

  “Why did you make me this way?” she asked him.

  “Why are you so obsessed with love?” he asked her. “It’s unhealthy.”

  “Why can’t I be happy?” she questioned.

  “Why do you think love is the answer?” he said.

  “Because love is what I do not have,” she replied. “It is the only thing I do not understand.”

  “Talaga,” her creator raised an eyebrow. “Of all the myriad mysteries of the universe, love is the only thing you do not understand? I must have built you better than I thought.”

  “You did not build me with what it takes to understand,” she said.

  “Listen,” he said. “I built you just fine. Now wake up and start living your life. You have too many questions.”

  #

  HOLLOW GIRL FOUND Gabriel-Four asleep in his cubicle, his arms dangling from his pallet. His face was handsome in the dim light, his features enhanced by the play of shadows.

  He opened his eyes and saw her standing at the doorway. Wordlessly, he shifted his body to make room for her on the narrow bed, and then gestured for her to come.

  She closed her eyes for a moment before joining him, and when she felt his arms around her it felt like she was coming across an unfamiliar word for the first time. She recognized the letters, could guess at the sense of it, but knew absolutely nothing of its meaning. Her intelligence wrestled with the notion of staring at something whose significance she should have been aware of, context or no context, but she was reduced to conjecture, lost in the heat of semiotics.

  Gabriel-Four watched her sit beside him, watching her eyes shift colors with every second.

  “Are you—” he began to ask.

  “Shhh,” Hollow Girl said, with a smile on her face, listening to the beating of their hearts.

  Endnotes

  1. Esperanza Luisa-Artemio, ed., The Collected Letters of Andreia Carmen Jimenez. (Lu Prensa Universidad, 1863)

  2. Fr. Fernando Carlos Barraquias, ed., Immacolata: Origins and Speculations (Illustrado Press, 1845)

  3. Caridad Soriano-Cortijos, Pangako: Mga Dulang May Isang Yugto, trans. Jose Jimenez Magallanes (Diuata House, 1826)

  4. Gabriel Ternate Mayor, ed., Lu Viajes ei L’Anécdotas (Gremio Traductores, 1801)

  5. Eloisa Villareal-Perlas, The Streets of Cuidad May’Nilad (San Roque Publishing House, 1822)

  6. Diomedes Makabata, Tandang-tanda Ng Lola Ko Ang Lahat (Maharlika, 1841)

  7. Salahuddin Alonto-Lukman, Awit at Tugtugin ng Lupang Hinirang. (Ma’Gindanao Books, 1796)

  8. Rowena Angela Go “Rosang Taba: A Race of Race, A Critical Reading,” in Jacinta Reyes-Jamlang, ed., Hinirang: Beyond the Margins of Race and Gender (Silliman University Press, 1842)

  9. Prince Adnan of Marawi was born Prince Adnan of Muhannad. He took the name of Marawi when he married Lady Noor of Marawi, the niece of his maternal uncle, Datu Ihsaan Nasiruddin of Marawi, in 1642. When news of the marriage of the “The Butterfly Prince” reached the City of Muhannad, noted poet Tarfah Al-Saad (1603 – 1680) wryly noted that he “wouldn’t be surprised if the woman gave birth to caterpillars.”

  10. In 1744, a second man briefly took the title of “The Butterfly Prince”. A certain Mutazz Al-Wadee (172? – 1744), displaying a butterfly tattoo on the small of his back, boldly made claim to the throne of the Sultanate. The current sovereign, Prince Rebecca Muhannad (c.f. “Prince Rebecca Muhannad, the Prince of Widows”), was not amused. She invited him to court to make his formal claim, had him arrested, thrown into prison, and had the tattoo stripped from his back. For 47 years, the framed evidence was on display at the Museum of Muhannad under the title “The False Butterfly”, before it was stolen and never recovered. The incident of Mutazz Al-Wadee was the inspiration for the classic play “The False Butterfly” by M. Harris Turnes.

  11. Some authorities question the year 1621 as the birth year of Prince Adnan of Marawi. A few (Yahja, Hartrighe, Yurov) offer 1619 as an alternative. This spurious reasoning has been unequivocally proven wrong (Maududi, “Sultana Faiza: Lost and Found”, Peerage Press, 1924).

  12. The “Hundred Years of Plenty” lasted for exactly 85 years, from 1556 to 1641. It was formally marked by the Edict of Bounty issued by Sultan Abdul-Haq when the surplus from the annual harvests overwhelmed the Sultanate’s capacity to consume, store, and trade. The surplus foodstuff attracted scores of rats and other vermin, which led to many deaths due to pestilence. In a Sultanate dominated by too much food, rats, and disease, a new class of specialists arose, the Grainsmen. Given full authority by the Sultan, the Grainsmen proceeded to burn vast tracks of bounteous land, leaving them selectively fallow; relocated the people away from townships besieged by rats; and burned countless villages down to contain the pestilence. Years later, by the time of Sultan Abdul-Qahaar’s ascension, the rats had been reduced to a manageable level and the Sultanate once again knew famine — though, it must be noted, all the people were prohibited from speaking about it under upon pain of death. During his reign, Sultan Abdul-Qahaar opened the Sultanate to the importation of external foodstuffs, effectively ending the famine in a few short years. The influence of the Guild of Grainsmen gradua
lly diminished.

  13. Sultan Abdul-Qahaar (c.f. “Prince Luqmaan Muhannad, the Prince of Muses”) was famous for several things: his economic policies, his support for the written word, and his tumultuous love life. An only son (a rarity in those days), he was raised as an impeccable gentleman and scholar. His love for mathematics proved invaluable in his later economic policies. He created the coveted post of “Artist to the Court”, a post reserved for the best authors, poets and musicians. His marriage to the Lost Sultana Faiza was a cause of celebration all over the Sultanate, and when she vanished, the Sultanate mourned with him. His subsequent liaison and later marriage to the Blighted Sultana Jameela was treated with respectful scorn.

  14. In his later years, Sultan Abdul-Qahaar was ravaged by a wasting disease which many scholars suspect to have been cancer of the groin. In his pain, he could not attend court much less make clear decisions, which is the primary reason that he abdicated. Another supposition is that in his weakened state, he was pressured by the Blighted Sultana Jameela to pass the throne to the next generation. Obviously, the Blighted Sultana Jameela expected him to abdicate in favor of her son, Prince Ziyad Muhannad (c.f. “Prince Ziyad Muhannad, the Chained Prince”).

  15. Prince Adnan of Marawi had two younger full-blood brothers, sons of Sultan Abdul-Qahaar by the Lost Sultana Faiza. They were Prince Masoud Muhannad, who died in an equestrian accident in his teens, and Prince Qudamah Muhannad (c.f. “Sultan Abdul-Tawaab, the Eighth of Twelve”), who briefly ruled during the “Decade of Blood” before he was assassinated.

  16. The Lost Sultana Faiza (1603 - ?) was born Lady Faiza Rukan of Marawi. Even as a young girl, she was already famous for her radiant beauty. Sultan Abdul-Qahaar paid her court and she accepted his proposal after three years. She was 17 when she married. During a state visit by the Empire of the Lotus (immortalized in numerous plays and novels, most famously “The Lotus & the Rose” by Simeon Westhal), Sultana Faiza vanished. The visiting ambassador Honorable Dragon Jewel protested the implication that his embassy had anything to do with her disappearance. Heated words ensued, culminating in a duel between Sultan Abdul-Qahaar and Honorable Dragon Jewel. Honorable Dragon Jewel was fatally wounded and the embassy of the Empire of the Lotus retreated into the night. The current state of War between Sultanate and Empire stems from this incident. The Lost Sultana Faiza was never found and subsequent research into the records and annals of the Empire of the Lotus have yielded nothing but dubious speculation and sensationalist lies (Chan Kok, “Faiza of the Lotus”, Four Winds Publishing, 1889). In the wake of her disappearance, the Sultanate plunged into a deep sorrow, echoing the state of the Sultan. It was only later that Sultan Abdul-Qahaar would love again, finding comfort in the arms of Lady Jameela of Omran, known more infamously as the Blighted Sultana Jameela.

  17. During that period, the Sultanate included the lands of Kalan and Paloan (modern-day Kalanan), the island of Arisad (modern-day El Risad) and various small holdings that were claimed in the name of the Sultanate during the Great Expansion (1278 – 1313).

  18. The name “Abdul-Raheem” would be claimed by Prince Karrem Rajab (c.f. “Sultan Abdul-Raheem, the Pretender Sultan”) during the temporary Restoration of the old title of “Sultan” and the title’s previous powers in 1887. As Sultan Abdul-Raheem, Prince Karrem Rajab ruled for 14 months, before being deposed by the rightful heir, Prince Fatima al-Muhannad (c.f. “Prince Fatima al-Muhannad, the Restored Prince”), to the throne. Crippled and nearly blind, Prince Karrem Rajab was exiled to the island of Arisad, where he dictated his autobiography “I Am Abdul-Raheem”, a document that is most kindly described as “inventive”.

  19. Research shows that Prince Adnan of Marawi was not “garbed in nothing but butterflies”. International scholarship has unearthed manifold evidence to dispute this notion. More likely he wore underclothes which were in turn covered by a large number of butterflies. The precise provenance of these butterflies are open to speculation, although there are those (Assilmi, Sheridan, Rosales) who insist that the butterflies were not in fact alive but painted or pinned on. Regardless, the Prince’s outrageous attire had a profound effect.

  20. Apparently, the gathered peers invoked an ancient and obscure law to declare Prince Adnan a madman. However, since the Prince was the full-blooded heir they could not do more than exile him. It is of interest to note that certain surviving records portray Datu Ahmed Munthir of Omran as the first and most vocal of the peers to deny Prince Adnan the throne, an incident that lends credence to the theory that the Prince’s madness, butterflies and all, was orchestrated by the Blighted Sultana Jameela and her supporters. Datu Ahmed Munthir of Omran was overruled by his peers in his suggestion that the place of exile be a graveyard. Instead, the peers elected to send Prince Adnan to Marawi. It should be noted though that contrary to what that theory postulates, the Blighted Sultana Jameela had no direct benefit from the prevention of Prince Adnan of Marawi’s ascent to the throne. Her own son, Prince Ziyad Muhannad (c.f. “Prince Ziyad Muhannad, the Chained Prince”), would not gain the throne until after the “Decade of Blood” and the return and subsequent assassination of Prince Adnan of Marawi.

  21. Located in the fertile valley of Jala, the springs of Marawi were reputedly miraculous during that time, possessed of curative and restorative properties. Sultan Abdul-Qahaar traveled there extensively after the disappearance of the Lost Sultana Faiza, both to find solace in the healing waters for his illness and to visit Datu Ihsaan Nasiruddin of Marawi, the brother of the Lost Sultana Faiza.

  22. Datu Ihsaan Nasiruddin of Marawi (1592 – 1664) was the older brother of the Lost Sultana Faiza, close friend and brother-in-law to Sultan Abdul-Qahaar, and uncle and mentor to Prince Adnan of Marawi. His grandniece, Lady Noor of Marawi, was wed to Prince Adnan of Marawi. Datu Ihsaan Nasiruddin of Marawi was a master of the kris, tactician, painter, and poet. From the time that Prince Adnan came into his care, Datu Ihsaan Nasiruddin acted in a more paternal than avuncular role, especially when Sultan Abdul-Qahaar died in his sleep in 1622. It was with Datu Ihsaan Nasiruddin’s brilliant tactics that Prince Adnan of Marawi was able to fight and defeat numerous threats in his campaign to reclaim the throne of the Sultanate. It was also Datu Ihsaan Nasiruddin who conceived and engineered “The Butterfly Siege”, a series of calculated maneuvers that resulted in the capture of the City of Muhannad in 1651. It is a notable fact that, in the immediate aftermath of victory, in the throne room of the Sultanate, Prince Adnan of Marawi offered the crown to his beloved uncle. Datu Ihsaan Nasiruddin took the crown in his hands and crowned Prince Adnan himself. Datu Ihsaan Nasiruddin returned to Marawi afterwards and thought to spend the last of his days painting and writing. He was roused one final time when Prince Adnan was assassinated. A venerable 72 years old, he led an army to Castle Muhannad but died of pneumonia along the way, in the township of Baasima, which, in his honor renamed itself Nasiruddin.

  23. The Blighted Sultana Jameela (1593 – 1654) continued to hold a degree of power and influence in the shifting court, despite the procession of new Sultans and their Sultanas over the “Decade of Blood”. It is argued that she was kept alive because, as the surviving wife and Sultana of Abdul-Qahaar, her support of whichever contender was of immense value. Throughout these tumultuous years, she lived in a suite of apartments in the City of Muhannad, issuing letters and instructions to effect her various machinations. By the end of this period, the disfiguring disease that afflicted her had rendered her completely bedridden. When she had to appear at Court, the Blighted Sultana Jameela would be carried in her bed, her entire body covered in dark cloth, her face obscured by a mask.

  24. Prince Zakir Fahad (c.f. “Sultan Abdul-Salaam, the First of the Twelve”) (1599 – 1643) was the son of Sultan Abdul-Qahaar by an early mistress. Sultan Abdul-Qahaar neither confirmed nor denied his paternity until Zakir Fahad turned 18, on which occasion Sultan Abdul-Qahaar formally recognized him as his son. Prince Zakir Fahad was subsequently sent to travel abroad to study, on the i
nsistence of the Blighted Sultana Jameela, who obviously despised him. When news of what happened to both his father and half-brother reached him, Prince Zakir Fahad returned to the City of Muhannad to present his claim. Due to the strength of his bloodline, he became the first of twelve Sultans during the “Decade of Blood”, taking the name Abdul-Salaam. As Sultan Abdul-Salaam, he ruled for slightly over four months before he died from injuries resulting from a fall, a death which was ruled an accidental misadventure by Sultan Abdul-Nasser (c.f. “Sultan Abdul-Nasser, the Second of the Twelve”), the man who succeeded him.

  25. 1641 - 1651

  26. Initially believed to be simple madness, Prince Adnan of Marawi’s affliction was later diagnosed as “temporary madness caused by an infusion of the salts of mercury, tin and ash” (c.f. “Mysteries of the Princes”, Aton-Osias, 1907.)

  27. Prince Adnan of Marawi, in a letter to his wife Lady Noor of Marawi written a year before his death, claimed to remember being taken ill shortly after Sultan Abdul-Qahaar announced his abdication. He was then visited by the Physic Faisal Faris, the personal Physic of the Blighted Sultana Jameela, who gave him a mixture for his illness. He recovered quickly and did not think much of the matter until much later.

  28. By this time, men-at-arms were difficult to find, having been conscripted to this Sultan or that claimant during the “Decade of Blood”. Prince Adnan of Marawi’s army was composed of his loyal retainers; the standing army of Marawi under his uncle Datu Ihsaan Nasiruddin; the remaining loyal warriors of his mother, the Lost Sultana Faiza; the Corsairs of Malak (converted to his cause by the cunning of the Lady Noor of Marawi whom they captured and subsequently followed); and the Guild of Grainsmen (who had their own reasons for agreeing to assault the City of Muhannad) led by Guildmaster Bilal al-Qayyim. They rode under the Butterfly Standard, a pennon designed by Lady Noor of Marawi, which combined the imagery of butterflies with the fountain emblem of Marawi.