Sky of Paper: An Asian Steam-Driven Fantasy Tale

by Matthew Seaver

  The Empire's divine airship lay shattered, its pieces strewn about like dead leaves from a withered tree. Meandering outside the ship were those of the Imperial and Royal courts while inside various crews and some monks picked at the wreckage, salvaging what they could. It had been some time since the fighting concluded. Though few had died, it did not excuse the fact that their deaths were needless. Too many were injured including my guardian who walked about with a terrible limp from the wound in his leg. Even so, he still remained loyal to his duties and helped carry supplies down the main boarding ramp, where most of us stood huddled, consolidating all that we had into ordered piles.

  Our animosity for one another continued to linger and a great divide had formed. Those belonging to the Royal Family gathered on one side of the ramp while those belonging to the Imperials were on the other. Whispers and talks of distrust still murmured within both groups, but their lust for violence had subsided as each had had their fill. We were too busy mending our wounds to allow our hate to get the better of us.

  I watched with a bleak feeling of uneasiness as I sat amongst a pile of stacked crates while Kassashimei bandaged my head. Dae Jung and a small group of the ship's officers strolled down the ramp towards Ai who was with most of monks, tending to those injured on both sides.

  "Lady Ai," Dae Jung said loud enough for the rest of us to hear, "of all the people I have ever trusted, I never would’ve imagined you to be someone reckless enough to attack one of the Empire's own airships."

  Ai seemed hardly shocked. She seemed ready for his accusations. "Your words pain me Dae Jung. Surely you wouldn’t think that I would ever use my abilities with such force unless there was a proper reason behind it. As I returned, I saw fighting, and I knew the Young Emperor's life was in danger. Putting an end to the quarrel and protecting his life was more important than the ship itself."

  "Well I fear it is now damaged beyond repair. And in your impudence you have brought further injury to my men."

  "I don't like him," Kassashimei said to me in a hushed manner, tightening the last of my bandages. "All he does now is complain."

  "I don't like him either." I propped myself up, and though I knew it was not my place to address him directly, I walked towards him. "Leave her alone. You shouldn't speak to her like that."

  One of the officers blocked my path. Dae Jung redirected his attention, the frustrated look on his face deepened by my presence.

  "And you," he said, "the one who had the audacity to kidnap the Young Emperor and endanger his life by dropping him heedlessly into the middle of a battle. If not for the fact that you saved the Young Emperor from that fire, I would’ve sold you long ago."

  At that moment, I saw in his eyes, a strange, bleak kind of hopelessness. The same ones I’d seen on the Young Emperor's face during the battle; that expressed the same feeling I had when I first learned of my sister‘s passing. And now, the most prideful of us all, a man who had lead everyone away from the turmoil of our country was poisoned by it.

  Since the beginning of our exile, we had sought refuge in city after city, but none would take us. Amidst our waning spirits we all coped in our own way. Some, like the Young Emperor, looked for comfort in the company of others, seeking me out whenever he could. Some, like Etsu, kept their minds occupied by working in the Atrium. Lai could not cope at all as he had given in to his doubts and sought to bring an end to our journey. Still others simply left the ship while at port, never to return.

  Dae Jung however, refused to give up. He refused to see the reality of our predicament. Seeking, but failing, to drug the Young Emperor into submission, punishing Princess Xianfeng's mother and sparking a terrible feud; I knew, as I looked into his eyes, hopelessness had driven him to paranoia. It had made him mad.

  "The both of you are banished," he said. "Leave this place at once, and be sure to take that disgusting princess with you."

  "Lord Dae Jung." Ai spouted his name with such resentment, that one of the officers took her by the arm.

  "Don't you dare lay a hand on her!" I cried out. One of the men grabbed a hold of my wrist and gave it a sharp twist, immediately silencing my disrespectful words and replacing them with shouts of pain.

  I clenched my other hand into a fist, then swung as hard as I could. I knew that no matter what I did, I could not break free from his grasp. Yet, I wanted to strike him anyways. As my arm came around, a sudden rush of wind surged from beneath me, wedging the two of us apart and blowing both our bodies in opposite directions. I immediately sat up and looked to Kassashimei.

  "What was that?" I said.

  But she seemed just as confused as I was, for she only gave a small shrug.

  For a few seconds, a curious silence fell upon us, that is, until a single voice filled the quiet void.

  "Lord Dae Jung, I'm afraid it is you whom I must banish."

  All eyes turned to the ever familiar voice of the child emperor as he strolled down the main boarding ramp with Ren Tzu and a few other loyal members of his court following close behind. Princess Xiangfeng and her injured mother were at his side. Dae Jung and his officers quickly faced in his direction and bowed their heads.

  "Young Emperor," Dae Jung said. "Please do not concern yourself with these matters. For someone as young and as fragile as yourself, it would be best that you remain in the ship's throne room until we plan a course for a country that will grant you refuge."

  "Did you not hear me?" the Young Emperor said, stopping a few paces in front him. "You are exiled."

  For one long moment, he had nothing to say. While his peers kept their gazes to the ground, the old advisor, a man who had served the Imperial Family all his life defiantly lifted his eyes to meet the child's.

  "I don't understand," he said hesitantly.

  "Of course you understand. You already know of the dangers you’ve put me through. You already know of your attempts to subdue me with drugs. And you know of the insults you’ve caused to our allies. . .to the Royal Family."

  "Young Emperor please. I’ve only had your best interest in mind."

  "Then you should know that if you stay, you will continue to put me and the lives of everyone else in peril." His tone softened, lowering the commanding sound of his voice to one of empathy. "Please, leave; while you still have your dignity, while your honor is still intact. The princess still holds her vow to kill you. But she will not act as long as she stays beside me. For as long as you remain here, I will continue to fear for your life."

  Dae Jung peered over the Young Emperor's shoulder at the princess who stood brooding behind him, her angry gaze taunting him. He then looked at her mother. She was utterly defeated, tired, with tears still prevalent on her cheeks.

  "Young Emperor, I beg of you. If you send me away, my oath to you, my honor will be broken."

  "No. By leaving, your oath will be kept. You will be assuring my safety."

  The man’s face hardened. I knew that his pride was taking over. He would not allow a child, even a child emperor subdue him.

  "I will not allow this to happen. You cannot send me away. I am the leader of this ship and of everyone here. You are too young to understand what it means to lead. So I will stay. I must stay."

  "Ren Tzu." The Young Emperor's cold, commanding tone interrupted Dae Jung's words. My guardian obediently came to the front. "Escort Dae Jung to a sky boat. Take him far away from here. The princess has agreed to not immediately pursue him, so take him some place where he will not be easily found."

  Dae Jung resisted at first and sought his officers for support. But they all remained where they were, their heads lowered. None moved to his defense.

  "Someday," he said, "if your family survives, I will return to Rui Nan, and you will have need of my services again."

  "Not if I take your life first," the princess growled.

  Without ceremony and with little regard for all that he had done for us, he disappeared from our lives. As the sky boat ferried him away, only a few of his peers looked on. E
veryone else seemed too tired to care. A few of the guards and some of the officers gave their respectful bows as he departed, but in the end, the very man that had lead everyone from a country consumed by unrest, the one who had hoped, just like everyone else, to bring refuge to the last free vestige of the Imperial Family, would disappear, largely forgotten.

  ****

  From what little rumors I could gather, he lived the rest of his life quietly in the mountains up north, as far from the Eastern Kingdom as possible. When Queen Xiangfeng rose to power a few court officials publicly disclosed that she had sent assassins to scour the world for the ghost of man she claimed visited her amidst the dark corners of her palace and spied from the high branches of the trees whenever she casually strolled through the forest lands of her country. A few silently admitted that she had gone mad with her obsession for the man, but none could understand her feelings as I had that day, when Dae Jung would become the one to fuel her anger and haunt her for the rest of her days.

  ****

  Deep inside the ship, in one of the damaged cargo holds, among shattered crates and jagged piles of wood and metal frames was a boy much older than I. He lay hidden amongst the debris, away from anyone who would find and ridicule him. But everyone knew he was there, and hardly anyone cared to bother him.

  One of the clerks shopping for supplies had found Lai running about in the market. After he was caught, Ai brought him back to the ship. His treachery became known to everyone, but there was no need to imprison him, or even assign a guard. He had no place to go. And so, he remained in that cargo hold, away from everyone else, scorned by his own shame.

  As I came down the corridor, I saw Etsu stammer out of the hatchway from the cargo hold. Her face was in tears.

  "You lied to me," she said screaming into the open hatch. "How could you do what you did to me? I trusted you. I believed in you. Now you won't even talk to me? I hope you die in there!"

  She strode away, not even caring to acknowledge me as she passed.

  I stepped through the cavernous room searching the corners and crevices. For a moment I found no sign of him and thought he had left out the rear hatch, but shortly, I heard his voice echo from the walls and ceiling.

  "I don't want to be bothered," he said. "Go away."

  "And then what?" I replied still searching the room. "Will you stay here forever? You know this ship isn't going anywhere. Come out. Face me."

  "I’ll stay here as long as it takes. The Rui Nan Imperial Fleet is on its way. And when it comes, I’ll be going home."

  I climbed up a hastily piled stack of splintered wood and stood at the top, looking out across the room. Small shafts of light gleamed in from scattered tears in the hull, illuminating misty clouds of dust and dirt that drifted ominously through the air. Even from where I stood, I couldn’t find him.

  "So you won't tell anyone, even Ai, why you did it? Tell me then. We're still friends aren't we?"

  "You, above everyone else should know why I did it." Some distance away, the clouds of illuminated dust swirled, disturbed by his sudden movements. His gray shadow drifted across one of the metal girders in the ceiling while beams of light gave color to small portions of his body. His face was still hidden but I knew his gaze was fixated upon me. "After I ran away from the tea house, I went after my sister. The temple she’d been taken to had been claimed by General Fung‘s new government. She, like all the others, were recruited to fly the ships that would fight his war.

  It wasn't too long before I was found by General Fung's men. They offered to reunite me with her if I agreed to spy for them and inform them the location of this ship and where it was going."

  "So all this time, you've been secretly sending messages back to Rui Nan about us?"

  "No, not at first." He leaned into the light until the top of his head was illuminated, but his eyes remained dark, unreadable. "I wanted to get away, just like everyone else. They beat me Terr. Every time I demanded to see my sister, they beat me. They thought that I was unpatriotic, that I didn’t believe in the spirit of our country, in the new government, so they beat me some more. I was in so much pain, that when they released me to be picked up by Dae Jung and his people, the only thing I could think about was getting away from the ones that hurt me. I wanted to be as far away from them as I could. After I realized you were on the ship as well, I thought things would get better. Even Etsu was kind enough to be by my side and provide me a comfort I‘d dearly missed.

  But as we traveled from place to place, unable to find a country that would take us, I began to see the same scorn and despair in the faces of the crew that I’d felt when my sister was taken from me. After that, I could only think of her. I lay awake at night thinking about the pain, the agony she must be going through. She must be worried about me, wondering when she would see me again. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.

  I learned of the deep distrust that the Royal Family had of Dae Jung, so I decided to use them. They were going to help me get this ship and everyone in it back to Rui Nan where they belonged."

  He hopped down from the metal girder, onto a pile of crates. His entire body was lit now. He allowed me see his face, his eyes, the sad expression that seemed to betray his stern, convicted tone.

  "Tell me Terr," he continued, "would you commit betrayal, sacrifice your honor and all the respect that you had for the sake of your sister? If you knew that doing so would mean saving her from death? Would you have done anything different?"

  "I would do anything for my sister." I said. "But you do not have the right to compare yourself to me."

  When he first came aboard the ship, I thought of him as a coward for abandoning his sister. And now, realizing the terrible things he’d done for her sake, brought to light something worse than my hatred for him. I was jealous. He’d gone as far as betraying the Imperial Family while I did little more than fruitlessly hijack a sky boat from the Imperial Temple in a vain attempt to rescue my own sister. Even if I’d failed just like Lai, I still could’ve done so much more, but I didn’t.

  He stood proudly in the light, unashamed of what he’d done while I sulked back into the shadows, unwilling to show my face to him. I quickly left the room feeling his judging eyes upon me.

  I went down the corridor and bumped into Kassashimei as I turned a corner. She looked as if she’d been waiting for me outside and I wondered if she’d been eavesdropping.

  "What is it?" My sudden outburst surprised even myself.

  She was silent for a moment, her curious, but hesitant eyes hovering over my face as if she were trying to read me.

  "It's him," she said. "He wants to speak to you."

  I found the Young Emperor at the bottom of the boarding ramp, waiting patiently. When he saw me, he gave a strange, peculiar smile. There was a content look about him, as if a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

  He motioned for me to follow; and so we walked along an empty area outside of the ship devoid of prying ears.

  "I've learned something these past few months." He kept his eyes casually to the ground as if he were counting the blades of grass at our feet. "The world does not want us. There is no place for us outside of our country. Too many distrust us. Foreigners see us and judge us before we even exchange words. There's no home for me out here Terr. Out here, I'm alone."

  We stopped underneath the ship's bow. Across the way was a small group of monks and clerks taking tally our remaining supplies while guards from the Royal Family, along with some of the crew, were busying themselves with clearing debris.

  "You're giving up aren't you?" I said. To say such audacious words to a member of the Imperial Family could have easily been seen as rude, even vulgar, but after all that had happened I felt as if the delicacy of our politeness had long since faded. He must have felt the same way, because he looked on, continuing to smile, as if in agreement with me.

  "My father used to tell me that in dire times, we do not give up. We simply face the truth." He reached down and
picked up a few lengths of grass, bending and tearing them in his hands before tossing them into the wind. "How strange it is that you helped me face mine, even if you had to lie about it. That day you found me in the cargo hold, that day I set everything on fire, you told me that my family was still alive. I knew you were making it up. But I chose to believe your words, because I saw in your face the unconditional trust of a stranger. You weren't bound by some lofty pledge or oath. You were just there when I needed someone to talk to.

  It was like you were some sort of spirit, sent to watch over me. I talked to your shyo mah as well and everything I hoped to know about you, she confirmed."

  "I saw her with you that day I visited Ai in the throne room," I said. "Was that what you were talking about?"

  "Well mostly. She insisted on seeing me. She's very stubborn you know. And when I learned that she was your partner, I decided to listen to her. She said all sorts of amazing things about you. She talked about how you saved a merchant ship that was caught up in the stormy ether of the Dragon's Back, how you even insulted Master Lu while at the Imperial Temple and got yourself kicked out. That story was my favorite.

  She also claimed that she used to be a shrine priestess's apprentice. Of course I couldn't resist. I had her read my fortune. She waved some stick around saying that she was communing with the spirits. Then she told me that my family was still alive and safe, and to not fret about them. After that she said something sort of eerie. She told me not to trust Dae Jung, that I was to stay away from any food or drink presented by him or his staff. When I asked Ai and a few trusted monks to look into it, they informed me that my tea, my food, everything was drugged. I couldn’t believe that Dae Jung wanted to subdue me, to make sure that I didn't do anything rash that would cause him trouble. What she predicted was true."

  "That’s strange." I was so taken aback by his words, I briefly peered over my shoulder as if anticipating Kassashimei to appear suddenly.