Where the Veil Is Thin

by Alana Joli Abbott

  “You look worse than when I saw you last. Have you gone to a doctor?”

  “My lord, the magistrate, sent me to one, respected sir. But he could find no cause for my condition. Since I have no appetite, he advised that I continue to work so that I would grow hungry from it.”

  “To no avail, I take it.”

  “No, respected sir.”

  “Have you been doing anything differently recently? Some new food or drink you’ve been taking?”

  To Tranquil Cloud’s surprise, Bull Dung’s sickly face blushed with embarrassment.

  “No, respected sir. Not that I can think of.”

  Tranquil Cloud had spent enough time interrogating people at the Ministry of Punishments and the Office of Forbidden Affairs to know when someone was lying. So he found it odd that Bull Dung was obviously hiding something that he apparently knew to be making his health deteriorate. It was apparently better for him to keep getting sicker than to reveal the cause of his illness. But the servant was not a prisoner brought before Tranquil Cloud to be examined, so he did not to press him further.

  Bull Dung got some rest, and then he set out to leave. When he walked out the house gate, some vague intuition made Tranquil Cloud follow him. On the road, he saw that Bull Dung was not heading back to the magistrate’s house in the village but going in the opposite direction, toward a nearby forest. Tranquil Cloud hesitated for a moment before setting off after him.

  A few spans away from the house, Bull Dung suddenly left the road and entered in among the thickly standing trees. Tranquil Cloud went in as well, keeping his distance without losing sight of the servant. After a while, when he realized that Bull Dung was not alone, he quickly hid behind a tree. He peeked carefully around the trunk to see that the man was talking to a young woman in a white dress whose beauty, even at that distance, made her luminous. As he watched on, the woman stepped up to Bull Dung, took off his clothes, and pulled him to the ground. She then disrobed herself, revealing immaculate skin of pure white, and straddled Bull Dung. After she moved vigorously on top of him for a time, she got up, dressed again, and walked away.

  When she was gone, Tranquil Cloud walked cautiously over to Bull Dung and found him dead with his eyes wide open with a look of horror on his face. The expression sent a chill down his spine. He looked around and saw that darkness was descending with the onset of dusk, so he started running back to the road. But the terror from what he had witnessed disoriented his mind, and he lost all sense of direction. As night fell, he found himself completely lost among the dark trees.

  After wandering through the woods for an accountable period of time, he came across Bull Dung’s body again, having apparently walked in a circle. When he approached the corpse, he was horrified to see three foxes feeding on its vital organs.

  “It is all right, my lord,” a quiet, gentle voice came next to him, startling him greatly despite its reassuring tone. “That will not happen to you. You are safe.”

  Tranquil Cloud turned and found another fox looking up at him.

  “Do you know who I am, my lord?” the fox asked.

  “I know what you are,” Tranquil Cloud replied, on the verge of fearful panic.

  “What am I, my lord?”

  “You are a fox demon. You and the others.”

  “What do you know about us?”

  “You appear before men in isolated places,” he said, remembering the stories the old servant woman had told him during his childhood, “you tempt them into lying with you, then you take away their vital strength until they become weak and obedient. When they are at the end of their strength, you finish them off and eat their organs.”

  “Why do we do that?”

  “Because you are hungry, and because you are evil.”

  “Are human beings evil because they hunger for the meat of cows and pheasants?”

  “What will you do to me?”

  “You will be not be harmed, my lord.”

  “Why do you call me that?”

  “Because I have served you for a long time.”

  “What?”

  “Do you not see who I am?”

  Tranquil Cloud stared at the fox until the animal transformed itself into a young girl.

  “Butterfly? Is that you?” he asked in astonishment.

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “How… you ran away and became a fox demon?”

  “I did not run away, my lord.”

  “What happened to you then?”

  “When we first came to this village, Bull Dung befriended me. One day, I was on my way to the village market when I ran into him. He promised to show me a short cut through the forest. There, he raped me, killed me, and buried my body here. But my sorrow and rage over how I died turned me into a fox spirit so I could avenge myself. I met other fox spirits who had been women and girls who died under such circumstances. We came together, and we helped one another.”

  Tranquil Cloud jumped with fright when he realized that three other women were standing near him. One was elderly, another young, and the third a mere child. He could see that they were the foxes who had been eating Bull Dung’s organs because their lips and chins were covered with blood.

  “That is Cricket,” Butterfly said, indicating the young woman, who bowed respectfully to Tranquil Cloud. “She was also a servant, at the house of the richest merchant in the village. He and his family abused her terribly, the merchant, his mother, his wife, and his sons. One day, they beat her so badly that she died. So they buried her body and pretended that she had run away. She was also transformed into a fox spirit, so that she could take revenge against the family.”

  Butterfly pointed to the elderly woman, who also bowed to Tranquil Cloud. “That’s the blacksmith’s widow. After her husband died, his brother wanted to take her property, so he accused her of having killed the blacksmith with poison. He bribed the judge who ordered her execution.”

  Butterfly turned to the last of the fox spirits. “And that’s Spring Blossom.” The little girl bowed to Tranquil Cloud. “Her father wanted a son as he already had three daughters. When Spring Blossom was born, he did not want to raise another girl, so he took her to a river and drowned her.”

  Tranquil Cloud looked at each of the women, feeling his fear replaced by pity for their terrible end.

  Butterfly addressed Master Tranquil Cloud again. “Yes, we sometimes lure men into isolated places and sap their vital strength before eating their organs. We also sneak into houses and eat the people there without making a noise. That much of what you’ve been told about us is true. What’s not true is that we are evil. We do not do such things out of hunger or desire to cause harm for no good reason. In this world where we do not have a voice, where we cannot attain justice for the evilest crimes committed against us, Heaven has seen fit to grant us a way of redressing the wrong done to us. We do not kill innocent people. We only harm those who harmed us. Those who have vilified us as evil, they judge us only for our actions without knowing the reasons behind them. But you, my lord, I know that you can understand our position, being such an eminent scholar of justice.”

  “If that is so, then why… why have you shown yourself to me? What have I done that I deserve the same fate as Bull Dung?”

  “You do not, my lord,” Butterfly said in a reassuring tone. “As I told you, you are safe. We have brought you here for a completely different reason.”

  “What is it?”

  “Please come with us, my lord. I promise you once again that no harm will come to you.”

  Tranquil Cloud hesitated for a long time, but he ultimately decided to trust Butterfly’s word. Besides, he reasoned, if they meant to kill him and eat his organs, there was no reason why they could not do so then and there.

  “Very well,” he told Butterfly.

  They walked in silence through the dark forest for a long time until they came across a clearing with a great flat rock in the middle. When they got near, a gate appeared on the rock’s surface, which op
ened to let them in. Beyond the gate, Tranquil Cloud found himself in a beauteous land of abundant fields of green and yellow grass, freshly flowing water, and willow trees with their slender branches dancing gracefully in a gentle wind. There were also clean and well-kept houses here and there, from which women of all ages came out to greet them.

  In the middle of the wondrous place, there was a magnificent mansion with lofty pillars holding up a roof with bright red tiles. As Tranquil Cloud and the crowd of women approached the place, a screen door slid open and an elderly woman in a shimmering white dress emerged.

  “Your Majesty!” Tranquil Cloud said out loud as he beheld the sight of the executed queen dowager. He immediately prostrated himself before her.

  “Master Tranquil Cloud, please get up,” the queen dowager said. “It is I who should be prostrating myself before you, for all that you did to try to save my life. I know that you could not even see your wife in her last days or mourn her properly because of your actions.”

  “Your Majesty! How I grieve over what befell you!”

  “It was a sorrowful end for me indeed, but raise your head and see that I am well now. Heaven has seen fit to turn me into a fox spirit. Even as we speak, the fate of the man who has done me wrong is being sealed. For what he did to me, to you, and to so many righteous officials who sought to dissuade him from his unjust course, he will come to no good end.”

  “But why have you brought me here, Your Majesty?” Tranquil Cloud said with tears streaming down his face. “I feel nothing but guilt at how I failed you.”

  “It was not within your power to save me, so trouble yourself no longer. Come, stand before me, I beseech you.”

  Tranquil Cloud got to his feet but kept his head bowed in a respectful manner.

  “I have remained in this world not just to avenge myself,” the dowager queen said, “but also to reward those who sacrificed themselves on my behalf. In a few years, the current king will be gone, and a new king will summon you back to the capital. But you no longer desire to return to officialdom. I know this because my transformation into a fox spirit gave me the power to see into the souls of living people. You have secured your reputation as a brilliant scholar, a revered statesman, and a courageous official who stood up for justice when it was dangerous to do so. You have also lost all those you loved in this world. What you want now is to rest, to find some measure of peace in the remaining years of your life. For the service you have rendered me, that is exactly what I offer. Stay here with us, in this secret world of fox spirits, where you will lead a comfortable and tranquil life. If you decide to go back, I will not stop you. But I know that your soul is so very tired, and you want nothing more than to be at peace at last.”

  “Stay with us, Master Tranquil Cloud,” all the fox spirits chanted in unison, their heads bowing in respect. “Let this be your final home.”

  The story ends in this way without revealing Tranquil Cloud’s decision.

  What is known in the historical records is that six years after Tranquil Cloud’s exile began, the king was dethroned in a palace coup. The new monarch exonerated Tranquil Cloud and summoned him back to the capital. When the royal messengers arrived in the village, they could find no trace of him as, according to the testimony of the local villagers, he had disappeared some years back. The only thing of significance they found in his abandoned house was his last writings, which included the addendum in defense of women.

  — YOUR TWO BETTER HALVES —

  A Dream, with Fairies, in Spanglish by Carlos Hernandez

  Welcome! As you read this story, you will occasionally be asked to record a letter. Do so using the table below! (Suggestion: make a tiny mark, so you can read the story again and record your choices many times!)

  Don’t read this story straight through! As you read, you’ll be asked to make decisions. Jump forwards or backwards in the story to the letter or punctuation mark that corresponds to you choice.

  Also, sometimes you won’t have a choice, and the story will tell you where to go. Like now. To start dreaming in Spanglish, go to ¡.

  — ¡ —

  You are in Fairyland. ¡Llegaste después de todo! ¡You made it! “Here” is a field. You stand inside a circle of boulder-sized mushrooms. It’s a beautiful, blue, green-smelling day, clouds like dumplings, breeze rushing by like the blood of the world.

  You’re not alone in the circle. Quite the contrary: you’re surrounded by fairies. Scores of them. They’re just now deciding amongst themselves whether they should eat you.

  ¿How will you stop them?

  If you brandish your mighty magical sword, go to F.

  If you try to explain everything calmly and rationally, go to X.

  If you grab the nearest wineskin and start drinking, go to CH.

  — A —

  Big mistake. The fey swarm you, baring their mismatched, impossible teeth. Some of their teeth are like bouquets of needles as they pierce you, fine, straight lines of pure pain, and some are like blunt knives that, yes, can cut, but only after a great deal of sawing.

  Your screaming and begging matters not to them. When one fey has eaten its fill of your flesh, it makes way for three other fairies, who dine with equal gusto. It’s only a matter of time until the last mouthful of your marrow has been sucked out of your bones. What’s left of your skeleton lies scattered over the sward like a vase irrevocably shattered.

  You are dead.

  ¿So what, exactly, was your big mistake? You read this section. There is no fair choice that leads to section A. That means you cheated, you cheating cheater. Your punishment is to be eaten alive.

  ¿Okay? ¿Got all the cheating out of your system? Excellent. Now, start the story again, and make an honest choice at the beginning.

  THE END

  TO START A NEW STORY, go to ¡.

  — B —

  ¡RECORD THE LETTER B!

  You love your cloak so. It is Bibliocapa, The Library Cloak, and it can take you anywhere. Every word that’s ever been written is as easy to look up as making a wish. Every book that’s ever been written lies waiting inside, begging for you to break its spine.

  It saved your life. While your parents tried to trap you in an oubliette of words, to demean so thoroughly, you would become blind to truth and life and even yourself, you stole Bibliocapa out of the family treasure chest. They never noticed, for they hated reading. The Library Cloak was wholly repugnant to them.

  But not to you. Whenever you put on Bibliocapa, you were transported, far from your parents. You became a bodiless watcher of other peoples’ lives, a spectating specter who traveled to cities that exist and cities that don’t.

  All the while, your understanding of the human pageant grew. You have tasted foreign foods without tasting them; you have been governed by physical laws that do not apply to this world; you’ve had every kind of sex, thanks to Bibliocapa. Every kind of sex.

  To be frank, however, Bibliocapa is part of the reason you feel confused. It is so easy to disappear within it. It is so easy to become an eye, just an eye and nothing else, absorbing any light that strikes your retina. ¿Wherefore an ego? ¿What good a point of view when the vistas are endless? ¿Why bother with an “I,” when there is so much of everything else beyond the self?

  IF YOU RECORDED THE LETTER F, READ THE BONUS TEXT IN THE BOX!

  And the answer, of course, is that you’ll wink into unexistence, just like la dragón Fuegadura once she pooped out that sword. The life in your eye will die without an I

  In short, you’re not sure if you will continue to exist if you lose Bibliocapa. You’re keeping the cloak.

  You strip off your dress and drop your sword beside it. You pull your cloak around you, but you leave the hood down defiantly, and look from fairy to fairy. The grass beneath your bare feet writhes like a bucket filled with fey who are half shredded paper and half earthworms. The wind smells like the blood of the world.

  “¡A new fey is born!” say the fey, reverential, yet jocun
d.

  “¿Where?” you ask.

  But it is happening right in front of you. ¡The new fey is half your former sword and half your former pretty dress!

  Now a unified, if violently hewn-together, whole being, the newborn fey hovers in front of you. Its posture brims with menace.

  “¡Pelea! ¡Bronca! ¡Lucha!” yell the fey. “¡Fight!”

  The newborn fey launches itself at you.

  If you use your cloak to defend yourself, go to G.

  If you refuse to fight your former pretty dress and former sword, go to O.

  — C —

  You have no history of swallowing swords, no training, no practice. You have no idea what will happen if you stick Quitanombre down your throat. On the one hand, this is a very bad idea.

  On the other hand, fuck it. Que se vaya el mundo al infierno.

  You brandish Quitanombre and, just as your name leaves your body, you slide the blade all the way down your esophagus. The sword goes down surprisingly easily: but as you proved when you swallowed your parents to get to Fairyland,

  IF YOU RECORDED THE LETTER S, READ THE BONUS TEXT IN THE BOX!

  as well as the size-13-men’s-oxfords-shoebox-cum-diaorama,

  you can gulp down great big objects when you have a mind to.

  “¡No!” yells the Queen of the Fey. But she is powerless to stop you. When you swallow Quitanombre up to the hilt, you not only forget your name, but erase the Queen’s name from her mind as well.

  “¿Who am I?” says the Queen of the Fey, using your mouth. There’s presently a huge hilt sticking out of it, so your voice is somewhat muffled.

  “¡You are the handmaid to the Queen of the Fey!” yell all the fey at once. “¡You are sworn to obey the Queen of the Fey!”

  “¿And who is the Queen of the Fey?” asks the fey formerly known as the Queen of the Fey.