Sky of Paper: An Asian Steam-Driven Fantasy Tale

by Matthew Seaver

  "What’s wrong with you?" she exclaimed. "Quoli is always angry at us, because you sleep in too late. If you don't want me to wake you up like this, then you'd better-"

  "I can't see!" There was a pain in my eyes, a deep stinging sensation that felt as though dirt had been thrown in my face. My screams must have called the attention of everyone in the tea house as the sound of rushing footsteps filled the hall.

  "Who's making all that noise?" I heard Miss Nishio say.

  "The lazy boy has cracked, he's throwing a temper tantrum."

  "Madame Quoli, I don't think that's it," Kassashimei said.

  "Meng, hold him down," Miss Nishio ordered.

  She pressed her weight against me as she tried to keep me still. I’d clamped my hands against my face with such force, she had to fight to pry them away. A cold set of fingers jabbed one of my eyes and opened my lids. Suddenly, my vision was bombarded with blue, white and violet glows so intense that it pained me to look. I swatted the invasive fingers away and shut my lids as hard as I could.

  "They've changed color," someone said, surprised.

  "Finally yellow I see," Miss Nishio chimed.

  "No. . . they're silver."

  "The child is tainted."

  Quoli’s voice sounded menacing in the next room as I lay on the futon, helpless. Someone had placed a wet cloth over my eyes, which helped ease the pain. But the stinging sensation continued to pulse unbearably under my eye lids. I breathed hard, fearful of my own body and what I heard through the thin, paper walls.

  "We cannot accept him as he is. Did you see his eyes? No chienkuu ko should have eyes like those. All the money that we spent on him and now he’s useless."

  "Quoli, eye color means nothing," Miss Nishio said. "If anything, it could mean that he possesses gifts unique from everything else."

  "They should be either purple, yellow, or green. Anything other than that, and he has no future. If you won’t do it, then I will. I’m going to the old man to see about getting our money back."

  "Then what about the boy?"

  "We give him back to the temple. They were going to make him a servant were they not?"

  Quoli was huffing angrily as she stomped down the hallway and went down stairs. Miss Nishio sighed, then I heard her shuffle out of the room, probably to chase after her.

  Shaking and apprehensive, it felt as if hours had passed, and then I heard the bedroom door slide open, followed by the careless thudding sound of someone sitting down beside me.

  "Let's run away." It was Kassashimei, talking so casually, I wondered if she were teasing me. "We're not wanted here, and Mai is truly starting to annoy me."

  I slapped my palm against the floor in an attempt to silence her, then waited until the pain in my eyes subsided slightly before speaking.

  "No. These eyes were given to me in a dream. They’re all wrong to think that they're worthless."

  "Oh?" She must have leaned into my ear, because I felt her breath against my lobe as she whispered. "Then why are you afraid of them?"

  She pulled the cloth from my eyes.

  "Open them."

  She was mocking me now.

  I reached out, hoping to take back the cloth, but my hand only found empty air.

  "Go ahead. Open them," she said in a more forceful tone.

  "No. It hurts."

  "I said open them. Do it right now or I'll open them for you."

  I felt her hand against my face and I immediately slapped them away.

  "Stop it. I'll do it," I said reluctantly.

  She sounded pleased with herself, adding all the more to my agitation.

  I took a deep breath.

  Slowly, I opened my eyes.

  The air stung like needles.

  So I shut them, then took another breath.

  Before she had a chance to mock me again, I opened them quickly and as widely as I could, crying out more from the surprise than from the pain. There was so much light. I thought was gazing into the sun.

  Then in the next instant, the flash died away and all that remained see was a sea of blue, green and violet. These were not the faint shades of colors I had seen before, but rather, a brilliant glow, moving and shifting like a writhing serpent.

  I imagined myself under water with sunlight beaming through at strangely slanted and curved angles.

  "Boo!"

  A bright green silhouette-of-a-face jumped out, inches in front of me. I uttered an embarrassing gasp and fell backwards. She laughed, then perched beside me. "I can't believe you opened them! What do I look like? Am I ghost?"

  "You're a green spirit," I said, for all I could see of her was a bright, green wisp with faint tentacle-like limbs I could only assume were her arms and legs. "The ether, it's so clear now."

  The door opened and two figures rushed in. Curiously, they looked nothing like Kassashimei's wispy glow. They were dark and shadowy, as if there were an emptiness moving through the room.

  As soon as they spoke, I immediately knew who they were.

  "What are you doing out of bed?" Lai said taking me by the shoulder and guiding me back to the futon. "You're lucky Miss Nishio hasn’t seen you like this. Lie down and close your eyes. Keep them shut or they may get worse."

  "What do you mean worse?" Kassashimei protested. "They're perfect."

  "You need to keep quiet," Mai said sternly ."It was probably you who pulled Terr out of bed and turned him into this mess."

  "Of course I pulled him out of bed. He's not sick. His eyes have turned; that's all. Now he can see everything so much better. Probably even better than Lai."

  "Mine are green, his are silver. . . or maybe gray," Lai replied calmly, ignoring Kassashimei's insult. "But whatever they are, they are not the color that proper chienkuu ko should have. It could ruin his health or worse."

  "No. Nothing’s going to happen," I said angrily. "You're trying to say that I’m cursed. But I’m not. These eyes were given to me in a dream. They're a gift. I'm sure of it."

  "Listen to yourself Terr." Mai sounded like a mother consoling her child, but amidst my growing frustration, I only saw her belittling me. "Dreams don't grant you anything. You're just sick. When a shyo mu does not turn properly, when his eyes do not change to the right color, often they go blind, turn ill, or even worse."

  "So that’s what you think then?" I said as I took to my feet, and pushed Lai away. "You think that just because I haven‘t changed the way that you all expected, that I‘ve lost my worth to this tea house? I heard what Madame Quoli said a moment ago. She wants to get rid of me. She wants to send me back to the temple. But I can see the Ocean of Ki so clearly now. I can see everything Lai can."

  "But for how long?" Lai interrupted. "Many others have turned with black, red, even white eyes. They all ended up the same as you, but in the next moment, everything turned dark, and some became consumed by sickness."

  "I’m not sick," I bellowed. "And I will not I let Quoli send me away."

  I wanted to leave. I wanted to get away from that house, from all that doubted me.

  My patience gone, so I headed wearily for the door.

  There was a terrible, pulsing pain in my head, but I drew the strength to ignore it and carried on, all the while swatting away Lai‘s arms as he attempted to grab at my sleeve. Another pair of hands took me by the shoulder, but this time it was Kassashimei, as strong-willed as ever.

  "You're right Terr," she said. "We should leave. I can't stand being in this dirty place anyways."

  Despite Lai and Mai’s vain protests, I took Kassashimei’s lead and quickly went down the stairs. They followed us, but did nothing more than watch at a distance.

  Meng blocked our path at the front door, uttering a few desperate pleas. I suspected that our outburst had brought the attention of all the guests in the main dining room. As painful as my second sight remained, I succumbed to the urge to view my surroundings.

  There were shadows, small blotches of emptiness sitting at black, mist-like tables. Ka
ssashimei remained the only figure with any amount of color. Her hazy form shined like the sun through a thin, green-colored cloud.

  We shoved past Meng and made our way outside. All at once the Ether became known to me.

  I looked up at the endless sky and saw a vast, turbulent, lively world where brightly colored currents moved like slithering eels. Vast, spinning pools far in the distance formed and dissipated in the shadows of strange, storm-like celestial clouds. Mesmerized, I realized for the first time what it truly meant to see this hidden world with such scope; with such wonder.

  How strange this feeling was, to be moving through water, but to only feel air against my skin.

  It was then, after traveling a good distance from the tea house, that I realized I was sweating and that my lungs had begun to heave. I smeared away the sweat with the cloth of my sleeve, but as Kassashimei lead me on, dizziness consumed me my every step and I began to stumble about uncontrollably.

  In the distance there was a glimmer.

  It seemed to hover in the sky, then grew larger as it approached, rippling massive waves across the ether. At first, it was a small, dim mass glistening ominously over the horizon. As it took form, I began to realize with great fear, its familiar shape. It was the dragon from my dreams, coming for me like a vengeful spirit. I reeled at the sight, but Kassashimei continued to tug earnestly at my wrist.

  The looming creature rumbled closer, adding to the merciless euphoria that plagued my body until suddenly, the silhouette fell away to reveal not a dragon, but a common airship huffing and smoking as it lumbered over-head. It swooped just over the tops of the buildings, recklessly billowing steam through the streets below.

  I cringed instinctively, afraid to be swept away in its wake.

  As the air cleared, I realized that Kassshimei was no longer leading me on. She’d let go of my wrist and the wispy glow of her body stood there, frozen like a statue. Somehow, I was glad for the brief moment to catch my breath, because the sickly sensation in my head, legs and stomach, grew steadily worse.

  "Did you see something just now?" she asked.

  "I thought I did, but it was nothing."

  "You screamed like something was coming at you. Was it the airship? Did it scare you?"

  "I told you. It was nothing. Now let's go."

  I reached out for her, but she slapped my hand away.

  "No.” Her voice was strangely solemn. "Terr, I have a confession to make. I think I messed up. I wanted the both of us to run away, but I don't have any place to take us. How pointless is that?

  I've been acting so foolish. All this time, I wanted to feel important, to be of use to someone, but all I was able to do, was lead you out here to tell you that I've never been useful to you, that you never needed me."

  Her words were almost like sister‘s shortly after my mother died. I remembered how she came into my room to confess how unskilled she was, how utterly meaningless it was for her to ever hope to be like my mother and take care of me as she did.

  It was at that moment that I grew a little, and I told Kassashimei what I told my sister.

  "Whatever happens, both of our lives will go exactly as they are supposed to. So there‘s no sense in making us feel any less than we really are."

  I wish I could’ve seen her reaction, as my newly formed sight hid her face behind a shimmering blue.

  For what seemed like an hour, the both us lingered while I wondered what had caused her to be this way so suddenly.

  In the next moment, I felt all my energy leave me and my legs finally gave out. The pain in my eyes died away as my feebleness shut them from the world.

  There was no dream this time, no images of fire breathing serpents passing wisdom to me. There was only a moment of dark silence, and then the tired agony of waking up. I found myself lying on a bed in a metal room. The walls hummed from the vibration of some distant, clattering engine.

  I wiped away a small bit of perspiration from my forehead and looked around with curious eyes. Feeling well enough, I got out of bed and shuffled to the steel hatch on the other side of the room. I pulled the latch and as it opened I was greeted by Meng's surprised face.

  She was holding a bowl full of water and a damp cloth.

  "Miss Nishio, he's awake," she called out.

  "Good, then go get the old man." Her voice reverberated from the room next door.

  "Please, wait here," Meng said, before scurrying away.

  Still in a daze, I stepped out into the corridor and stuck my face into one of the portholes. Gazing beyond the glass, my instincts were confirmed. I was aboard an air vessel. Below hung a loose blanket of clouds and just below them, was the rippling sea.

  Behind me was an open door to a room next door to mine. Inside, was Miss Nishio, writing away on official-looking papers. She glanced at me with a small bit of annoyance, then reached over and shut the door.

  "So the little trout has had enough of sleep," the old man said as he approached. "Let’s go back to your room. There are things that need to be discussed."

  I sat on the bed.

  Though confused and scared there was some comfort in knowing that the old man was present. He closed the hatch, shuffled towards me, then carefully widened one of my eyes and gave a curious grunt.

  "Silver," he uttered in triumph. "Definitely silver. If anyone tells you they're gray or the color of fish scales, you tell them that the old man says that they are a bright, glistening silver and nothing else."

  He pulled a chare and settled himself down in front of me.

  "Now little trout," he said, plopping his hands energetically onto his lap. "I hear you tried to run away. I don't suppose you knew where you were going."

  "No," I confessed. "After we left the tea house, we just stopped. There was no place for us to go."

  "Well in my opinion, you certainly did not run away. All you did was take a small stroll. I imagine being cooped up in a rickety building with nothing to do but chores surely warrants a bit of a refreshing walk through the streets of the capital.

  Of course, convincing Miss Nishio of this is going to be a far more challenging matter. She see's you as an investment. And she certainly can't have her potential profits go running off when they please. I suppose she may forgive you in time, but Madame Quoli will most certainly keep a closer eye on you from now on."

  "So I'm not going back to the temple?"

  He gave an exaggerated chuckle as if he were hiding a deep feeling of concern for me.

  "No. The only thing that waits for you there is a lifetime of servitude."

  "But I heard Madame Quoli say that I was worthless."

  "Yes, you probably did. But did you believe it?"

  I gripped the sheets and tugged at them angrily.

  "No. I’m not worthless. How can anyone think that of me? How can they?"

  "And when she came to see me, that is exactly what I told her, little trout. How can she, a simple business woman, understand our ways? She may not understand what it means to bear the gifts that you have, but you are going to prove to her that there is truth in my claim and yours."

  The hatch screeched open and Kassashimei sauntered in. She wore faded rubber overalls and her hands and face were smeared with soot and grease. To see her in such a slovenly state was certainly a rare and shocking moment for me. She had a frustrated gleam in her eyes that accented her dirty appearance, making her seem more wild than sane.

  At first I was surprised to see her come in so suddenly, then it turned to feelings of concern, but that was only for a short moment as my pity gave way to a smirk that slowly crept across my lips. I suppose that annoyed her, because she threw a dirty rag at me and stomped incessantly like a small child.

  "Do you know how selfish you are?" she growled. "You've been sleeping for the past three days while the hag has been making me do both your chores and mine. And now she has me cleaning the pipes on this stupid ship. It's not even hers. But the hag told the captain that I had a penance to work off. And no
w here you are, waking up like some prince and you have the nerve to mock me?"

  Her tantrum only emboldened my heartless sneer.

  "By hag, do you mean Madame Quoli?"

  "She's not a madame, she's a stupid hag," she said, throwing another dirty rag, this time hitting me square in the face.

  "Now that the both of you are together again," the old man said light heartedly. "It is time we put any doubts about your skills to rest."

  The common man aboard a Rui Nan air vessel learns that it moves skywards with the help of powerful, steam engines which exhumes an unexplained, but vaguely scientific force that allows the ship to push forward through the sky. During the era of my youth, such explanations were only half of the truth. The engines certainly made the ship go much faster, but in reality, they really weren't needed. As a matter of fact, they did nothing to float the vessel. Such a task was given to us.

  One of the first things that I had come to learn about air vessels, is that they are also floating shrines with one or two decks deemed as sacred. These were known as the ritual decks; places forbidden to commoners. This was where the chienkuu ko resided, slept and ate, sealed away from the curiosities of peasants and normal citizenry. Within these decks sat a place at the bow of the ship, half-encased by a glass dome, overlooking the vast expanse beyond. This was called the ritual room, the pilot room, or simply, the glass chamber, depending on who you asked. This was the most sacred place within these honored decks, for this was where people used their special gifts to part the way through the sky.

  This was what truly drove the vessels of our country through the heavens.

  Unlike many of the other rooms in the ship, which had oval-shaped doors made of steel, the entrance to the ritual room was usually a pair of ornate wooden doors, decorated with vine-like patterns made of brass.

  At the time, two monks were diligently watching over the entrance. As soon as the monks caught sight of the old man, they bowed reverently and opened the doors for us. Kassashimei and I followed the old man inside where we found Madame Quoli and Miss Nishio waiting.