Sky of Paper: An Asian Steam-Driven Fantasy Tale

by Matthew Seaver

I picked up the brush and dabbed it in the ink bowl. My hand began to shake as I raised the brush. I continued to look back and forth between him and my hand, and he ushered me on impatiently as I held it above the floor for a brief moment, hoping the ink wouldn’t dribble or splatter. I held my breath and drew a small, coin-sized circle, then quickly put the brush back into bowl and stood up, shaking slightly at the vandalism I had done.

  "No one told you to put the brush away," Mr. Takaya said. "Pick it up. We’re going to do this again."

  "Why? why are we doing this?"

  He sighed, then turned back to the tray to refill his tea cup. "Because she said so. Now pickup the brush."

  I did exactly as he said. He took a long sip, then proceeded to pickup both the tray and the basket.

  "Now, I'm going to leave. You have until the afternoon to draw one hundred small circles across the floor. It doesn't matter where on the floor, just make sure you think carefully before you decide where to draw. Take your time. You can work as slowly as you like."

  Mr. Takaya was absolutely right. Miss Nishio was crazy, utterly and completely. Why would she make me do something like this? I wondered if this was a trick of hers so that I would end up being in debt to her for the rest of my life as her servant, paying her back for the destruction of her precious floor. Or perhaps this was Mr. Takaya's idea of a joke.

  I stood in the middle of the room for what seemed like an hour, the brush held uneasily in my hand as I thought about this strange task I was given. Though doubt filled my mind, I tried hard to convince myself there was indeed some sort of sense in all this, that the circle that I’d drawn was there for a reason.

  After staring for sometime at the mark I‘d created, I came to realize that there was a harmony to its location, like I drew it there because I wanted it to be at that exact spot, and nowhere else. I looked around and thought about other places where I might use my ink and brush.

  I imagine that when an artist looks at a blank canvas, he sees the picture already there. So when he begins painting, all he’s doing is copying what he sees in his mind. As I painted those circles that day, I found myself thinking much like the artist. But I could feel something else guiding me, something beyond my understanding.

  By the time I’d finished my one-hundredth circle, my eyes ached. I felt as though I’d worked away the entire afternoon and had forgotten to remind myself to blink. They felt dry and itchy. I sat down in the corner and rubbed them with my palms.

  The door slid open behind me as Mr. Takaya strolled in with another basket.

  He looked at the small, coin-shaped circles dotting the floor and said, "are there one-hundred?"

  "One-hundred circles," I confirmed quietly, still rubbing away at my eyes.

  "Good. Now comes your test. In Miss Nishio's letter, it says that if you and I are not surprised by what we see next, then you are not ready."

  "Ready for what?" I asked.

  He didn’t answer. Instead, he tossed the contents of the basket into the air. A great plume of feathers exploded outward and drifted in every direction. He and I watched them so intently, we probably thought that at any moment, they’d magically transform into birds and fly away.

  There was no sense or measure of sanity to the reason the feathers were thrown, that is, until they all landed onto the exact center of each painted circle. Incredibly, not a single one remained unoccupied. Exactly one hundred feathers, each claimed one circle for itself.

  The both of us stared in disbelief, unable to pry our gazes away, that is, until he glanced in my direction and suddenly pressed his palms against my cheeks, lifting my face to his.

  "Your eyes Terr. What happened to your eyes?"

  I squirmed, but he was determined to keep me still.

  "They're itchy," I said hesitantly.

  He grabbed my arm and led me out of the room. I almost tripped trying to keep up with him, but he insisted that I follow. Finally, we came upon the room he was staying in and presented me in front of a mirror. My expression widened in a mix of surprise and horror as I took a step towards the reflection. My eyes had changed color. Instead of the familiar dark brown that everyone possessed, mine had become a shimmering bright purple.

  The next day, the same doctor with the chrysanthemum pin on his jacket studied me with renewed interest. He was so meticulous, he treated me as if I were a newfound diamond just discovered from a bed of coal. He studied my eyes, mumbling curiously to himself. At times he gave little grunts as if he were agreeing to his own murmurs. There was no question that I was scared. I even went so far as to ask him if I was going to die. He chuckled, but didn’t reply. Finally, he stepped out of the room to speak privately with Mr. Takaya.

  A while later, I heard the doctor's footsteps thump towards the main room, followed shortly by the sound of the front door opening then closing shut. I stepped out of my room and went down the hallway to Mr. Takaya, who was standing in the main room. He was beaming, as if someone had taken away his troubles and replaced them with bags of gold.

  "You are a very talented boy, Terr, " he said, strolling up to me and patting my head affectionately.

  "So then, there’s nothing wrong with me?"

  "Nothing. Nothing at all is wrong with you. As a matter of fact, the doctor has told me what you are, or rather, what you have become." He kneeled down and brought his gaze to my level. "Don't you see Terr? What we saw yesterday, the feathers, the change in color in your eyes. You Terr, you are a chienkuu ko."

  The name brought visions of the summer festival and the elaborately-robed children I saw that danced and made things float in the air.

  I blinked at him questioningly, then said, "I'm a performer?"

  He groaned as he scratched his head. " No Terr, you are much more than that. You can see things that other people cannot. You can predict the motions of the air just like you predicted where the feathers were going to land yesterday. You can do things so incredible, that you will most likely gain the favor of the Emperor himself. That is why Miss Nishio wants you. That is why she wants me to watch over you. All this time, I’ve been caring for one of the great cultural treasures of our country."

  If he had told me I was a monkey or a dog, it would not have been as great a surprise as what he had just told me. I had trouble understanding the things he was saying, but for him to tell me that I was a national treasure, well. . . that was something I couldn‘t even begin to comprehend. It was as if he had begun to idolize me. Certainly, I was now more than just a boy to him. As a matter of fact, I had suddenly become the most important and most valuable person he had ever met.

  "You have powers Terr," he continued in an admiring tone. "Have you been able to do anything else in the past? Anything else that you thought wasn’t normal?"

  I was silent for a moment, trying to allow my mind to catch up with everything he had said. Then I thought about his question and the answer came immediately to me.

  "I can see things in the sky," I said. "Not all the time, but when I see them, I can tell it's going to rain."

  It was then, that I saw the color leave Mr. Takaya's face. His mouth slipped open and looked as though he had just seen his house burn down. He remained stone-faced and silent until so much time passed that I had to ask him if he was alright. He blinked, waiting for me to perhaps say something else. I think he learned reading minds was not one of my powers, so he stood up and clasped his hands firmly on my shoulders.

  "When is it going to rain again?" he asked earnestly. "When? And how bad is it going to be?"

  "I don't know. I see strange lights, and then a moment later it rains."

  “What about predicting rain in the far future? Can you do that?”

  “No. So far, I can only see when it’s about to happen.”

  "Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure you can't predict rain any better than that?"

  "I'm sure Mr. Takaya. I'm sorry. I didn’t know you wanted rain that badly."

  He stepped across the room and slid open t
he front door, then looked up at the sky for a moment. It was clear. There wasn’t a single cloud to be found. I suppose he was looking for signs of rain, but he seemed relieved when he found none..

  "That terrible thing I mentioned," he said concerned, "when Miss Nishio told me to take care of you, she also gave me a prediction. She said that the village would soon be swept away by a storm. Being a fortune teller I suppose she could even forecast the intentions of the weather, but hearing what you said just now; I’m starting to believe that she’s getting these predictions from people with talents like yours. Why she chose not to warn the village, I don’t know, but she made me swear not to tell anyone." He turned his attention from the sky and faced me from the doorway. "Of course, as I mentioned before, I told your sister all about this, so I‘m sure she‘ll be safe. Miss Nishio is looking out for us too, and it won‘t be long before we leave this place."

  "I don‘t care about what Miss Nishio says,” I said suddenly. “We should be telling everyone about that storm."

  "Don't worry. I’ve already told the village leaders. Miss Nishio will most likely be angry with me, but at least she’s already paid me." He gave such a self-satisfying smile, that I couldn’t help but smile back.

  The next few days, I sat with him in the back room, watching him copy down the circle patterns on the floor I’d made. Miss Nishio had instructed him in her letter that he record such things as proof that I had taken the test. I was amazed at this deceptively simple thing that I had done. No matter from which direction we threw the feathers, they all landed on the circles, in the exact same spot. We tried another room where the letter instructed that I draw five hundred circles instead. After a long, arduous day, vandalizing yet another one of Miss Nishio’s rooms, we tossed around five hundred feathers and sure enough, they landed exactly where I had predicted. Aside from this incredible feat, I felt the need to ask Mr. Takaya if he knew anything more about the coming storm. He told me that he was just as clueless as I was, but he reassured me that Miss Nishio would be summoning us long before it arrived.

  Yet a few more days past, and only a few rooms remained unblemished by the black circles created by my ink and brush. Though her letter was clear about the deed, I still felt guilty about drawing on her precious floors. We took great care in clearing out the rooms before I went about painting it and stored her valuables in whatever closet or cupboard we could find. Eventually, things were shuffled around so much, that nothing was left in its original place. The only rooms that were spared were the one I slept in, Mr. Takaya's room and the kitchen. If the storm was indeed coming, and if it was as ferocious as she claimed it be, then it probably didn’t even matter at all what we did to her home.

  One evening, when the snow began to fall, there came a knock at the front door. Mr. Takaya went to the main room to answer it and I followed at a distance. When he slid the door open, I saw what looked like two separate families. One was a couple, both clutching the shoulders of a portly boy about my age. The other couple also had a boy at their side, slim, slightly taller, and perhaps a little older than myself. There was also a young girl standing beside the skinnier boy, who was probably his sister. I instantly recognized her. She was the girl whom I’d witnessed diligently practicing her instrument almost everyday. I couldn’t hear the words that were being exchanged, but I noticed that Mr. Takaya hadn’t invited them inside. Instead, they handed him some official-looking papers and bowed respectfully. Afterwards, the families affectionately hugged one another before they turned away, leaving both of the boys behind.

  Mr. Takaya lead them inside.

  "Clearly, our village is blessed. We‘ve got two more with the same gifts as you," Mr. Takaya said, gesturing at the two boys. Then waving the documents in his hand he said. "It seems Miss Nishio has had her eyes on these two as well. And you Terr, have some new companions."

  I realized that they too had bright, purple eyes. It felt awkward at first, meeting others who shared the same strange-colored features. Yet, the more I looked at them, the more comfortable I felt about myself. I bowed and quickly introduced myself.

  “I’m glad to meet the both of you. My name’s Terr.”

  "This one over here," Mr. Takaya said pointing to the portly boy, "is Kidou."

  He regarded me with his large chin slightly raised. He had very short hair that looked like bristles on a brush and his tiny, glistening eyes were like beads glued onto a pear-shaped head that sat hunched atop a set of very broad shoulders. He greeted me with just a slight, unamused bow.

  Mr. Takaya then pointed to the taller, much slimmer boy. "And this one is Han."

  The skinnier one gave a grin so wide, I thought he was about to laugh. He had large, round eyes that reminded me of my sister's and his hair was tied up in a very traditional bun on the back of his head.

  He placed his hand on my shoulder. “A pleasure to meet you Terr. From what I hear from my little sister, you‘re quite an interesting person."

  For a brief moment, a strange feeling of satisfaction welled up inside me, knowing that I had left such an impression upon his sister.

  Mr. Takaya led the three of us to my room where he explained that we would be sharing the same sleeping space, especially since Mr. Takaya and I had left the other rooms in a mess of misarranged furniture, piled trinkets, and crookedly stacked vases. After the two boys put what few belongings they had brought in the corner, Mr. Takaya mentioned the ink circles I had drawn and the tests that we did with the feathers. Han immediately asked if he could see them. We toured the house from room to room showing them what I had done.

  As Han inspected my work he uttered a phrase in a language I didn’t understand, but by the manner of his tone he was most likely impressed. Mr. Takaya threw a large heap of feathers and we all watched carefully where they landed.

  "This is amazing," Han said with a soft, but excited voice. "Miss Nishio had me do the same test about a year ago, but I only did it with one room and she only made me draw fifty circles."

  "My test involved two-hundred circles," Kidou said in a slow, regal-sounding tone.

  "Yes, but the feathers only landed on half of them."

  Kidou crossed his arms and said, "one hundred and fifty four."

  "Do you two know each other?" I asked bluntly.

  Han laughed, spiritedly patting the somewhat rounder boy on the back. "Kidou and I are classmates. Our families have lived next door to each other for decades. He’s not very talkative, but trust me, he‘s friendlier than he looks."

  Kidou frowned slightly, his arms still crossed tightly across his chest.

  I had so many questions to ask them, but I decided to wait until Mr. Takaya left for the kitchen to prepare some food.

  "Han, you said you did this test a year ago. Why are you here now?" I asked, watching Kidou stroll around the room, idly studying my ink circles.

  Han paused as though he didn’t understand my question at first. "Hasn't Miss Nishio told you about how all this works? Han and I first showed signs of our special skills a year ago. That was when Miss Nishio discovered us and asked us to perform these tests. Afterwards, we were supposed to wait until our eyes changed color, then report immediately here. My eyes changed two days ago while Kidou's, only last night. That‘s the reason we‘re here now. Of course all of this was kept a secret. Even our extended family isn’t aware of what we are.”

  "Han was crying like a baby when he first turned a year ago," Kidou interjected from across the room.

  "Turned?" I asked.

  Han was certainly taken aback by what his companion had said and was quick to offer a response to his insult by punching him playfully on the shoulder. Kidou reeled back a few steps, all the while chuckling at his sudden aggression, obviously amused that he had managed to annoy his friend.

  "You really don't know anything do you?" Han turned his attention back to me. "When you start to see things, that’s when the sickness comes. Miss Nishio calls it turning. Your mind and body goes through a transformation, o
ne that will probably give you eyes like the ones you have and let you see the world in a whole new way."

  I finally understood. That night when I saw lights in the sky for the first time and fell unconscious, those days I spent in bed, everything became much clearer to me.

  "Then do you know where we’re going from here?"

  Just as Han was about to speak, Kidou interrupted, proudly answering the question before him. "We are going to the Imperial Temple. It’s there that we will train in the arts of the cheinkuu ko and ultimately use our skills in service to the Emperor."

  Most of what I had learned about the chienkuu ko were from rumors and casual descriptions from my sister. As far as I and everyone else knew, they were performers, children and young adults who danced and played instruments in front of crowds and high ranking officials. I wasn’t aware of their strange-colored eyes, nor had I ever thought that they would come from places as humble as my own village. I suppose watching them perform at the summer festivals, the thought never occurred to me to look at their eyes. They were kept so far from the crowd it would have been impossible to see such a detail in the first place. And now here I was, set on an uncertain path to become one of them.

  "So we’re going to train to become entertainers for the Emperor?" I asked innocently..

  Han shook his head. "There‘s more to it than that. At least that‘s what Miss Nishio says."

  That night, I was glad that I’d managed to keep my bed. Although, the other two didn’t seem to mind sleeping on the floor. Kidou was the first to fall asleep. His snoring was just as loud as Mr. Takaya's, leaving Han and I to spend a portion of our waking moments to make fun of his stuttering nasal sounds. I asked him about Miss Nishio, but he could only speculate that she was much more than just a fortune teller, that she was somehow connected to some mysterious purpose greater than our understanding. The fact that she was so intent on recruiting the three of us was proof of that.

  He also told me about his family, and about how he moved here from the western continent of Kin Ju when he was very young. He was quite proud about his heritage. His parents had taught him to speak the native tongue of his homeland in addition to the language of Rui Nan. This explained his slight accent, and the reason I found it difficult to understand some of the things he was saying. He mentioned his little sister and how she’d recently given up music. His grandfather died of a strange sickness a few weeks ago, leaving her without a teacher. Unfortunately, according to Han, his wasn’t the only case. He explained that the coming winter was making a lot of people sick. The poor village doctor had his hands full, working himself to exhaustion. His mother had caught the sickness just a few days ago, leaving him worried about the health of his entire family. Han’s growing concerns only made me more anxious to leave the house to find my sister, but I knew there was no sense in trying, as the island was quite large, and with Mr. Takaya’s connections, he’d probably just track me down and drag me back to Miss Nishio‘s home.