Jack woke up, suddenly, to see a face looking down at him. It was not the face of his host, but someone else, a snow-skinned man with pale yellow hair and strange-looking eyes. He was not alarmed by this at all – he knew the man, though he could not for the life of him figure out how…
The man drew back from the edge of the bed. Come with me. We are going to find what you need to repair your sword. The voice seemed to enter his head without using his ears. Jack did as he was told, throwing back the covers and getting out of the bed. He was surprised and more than a little puzzled to see that he was wearing his ghi and sandals. His wounds, and the dressings on them, were gone. He reached out his hand to take his katana from the stool by the bed, but the pale man shook his head no. Jack drew back his hand and looked at the strange visitor. He was a tall, thin man in a white silk kimono decorated with golden embroidery. Around his neck he wore a silver necklace, upon which hung a twinkling emerald the size of a sparrow's egg.
"Who are you?" he asked. "I am sure I have met you before, but I do not remember your name."
Everyone knows me, the man said. But my name is of no importance. You know who I am, and you do not need it.
Jack realized that this was true, and he nodded. The man reached into the sleeve of his kimono and withdrew a crystal sphere that fit comfortably into the palm of his hand. He walked to the door and motioned for Jack to follow him. The door opened without being touched, and he walked through it. Jack did too, and was not at all surprised when he found that the door no longer led into the upstairs hall.
~***~
Instead, the two were in a vacant lot in a big city. Tall buildings blocked out most of the smoggy sky and hovering vehicles zipped about their errands far above. Jack could smell and taste the pollution in the air, and his ears cringed at the noise. He hated these places and avoided them whenever possible, but since the pale man had seen fit to bring him here, he could not complain.
Look, the man said, pointing to a heap of derelict cars and broken furniture. Jack did so.
A group of children ran out from behind the heap, shrieking at the tops of their voices. One of them, a chubby little boy, was wearing an old black hat, battered with much use and abuse. In pursuit of him was a girl in a tattered white bathrobe, wielding a wooden sword in her hands. The other children were following after them. None of them seemed to notice Jack or his companion.
Jack had seen this game before. It usually brought him a mix of pride and embarrassment, but now it was embarrassment and shame.
The little girl finally caught up with the boy in the hat and commenced to whack him repeatedly with her wooden sword. "Gotcha now, Aku! Yaaaah!" The other children let up a cheer, except for the boy in the hat, who was yelping with every blow the girl in the robe delivered. She pushed him over, planted a foot on his back and struck a heroic pose, smiling triumphantly.
"Okay, whose turn is it now?" another child called out.
"My turn to be the samurai," the chubby boy insisted.
"No," piped up the smallest of the children. "I haven't gotten to play in forever and it's my turn now!"
"You're too little to be the samurai!" A boy in a blue shirt mocked him.
"No, he's right, it's his turn," the girl in the white robe declared.
"Why's it his turn?" the blue-shirted boy sneered.
"Because I said so," the girl snarled, raising her fist in a threatening gesture. The boy in the blue shirt backed down. The girl removed the bathrobe and helped the small child put it on, then she handed him the wooden sword. He squealed with delight.
The girl took the black hat from the chubby boy's head, then looked around at the other children. She smiled mischievously before putting the hat on the blue-shirted boy's head. "You can be Aku this time," she decided. With a high-pitched yell, the smallest child leaped at the boy in the black hat. The unfortunate Aku impersonator scrambled over the junk pile, the other children in hot pursuit.
There. We have all we can get from here. Jack looked at the pale man. The crystal orb in his hands was now glowing with a faint golden light. He turned and walked through a gap in a nearby wooden fence. Jack looked at the children running around the pile one last time before following him.
~***~
They emerged into a small library. The walls were covered with bookshelves, packed full to bursting with tomes, volumes, novels, paperbacks, hardbacks, and other objects of lore. In the center of the room was a small round table, at which an old man was sitting. His head was mostly bald, but his beard was long, and all his hair was very gray. He was poring over a large book, moving his lips silently as he read to himself.
Jack approached one of the bookshelves and examined its contents. Some of the books he knew, or at least he knew the stories they contained – others he did not. There was the chronicle of Beowulf, the legend of King Arthur, the Odyssey, and – he felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him – a book of the Lotus Sutra. With a jolt, he realized that all these were banned books, books that Aku had forbidden the people under his rule to read.
He heard a door open, and turned around to see who had come in. It was a young woman, carrying a tray laden with teapots, cups and snacks. She set it down on the table near the old man. "Father, it's teatime now."
"Just let me finish this paragraph, Leila," the old man said. The woman sighed, but she waited for him to conclude his reading. A few moments later, the man put a bookmark on the page he had been reading and closed the book. Jack looked at the cover, upon which the title was displayed in flaking gold leaf: The Holy Bible.
"I've just been reading a very interesting story," the old man said to his daughter, "Called the Exodus."
The girl shook her head and smiled as she poured him some tea. "I've read that one, father."
The old man blinked in surprise. "You have? Hmm." He took the cup of tea she proffered him. His hands, while they were gnarled and spotted with age, were steady.
"It's a good story, even if the language is a little hard to work through," she said. "I wonder if anyone else has read it, besides you and me?"
The old man frowned. "Maybe, but it's not a good idea to go about asking. Not yet." He took a sip of his tea. "But times are changing, Leila. Soon you'll be able to share these books with the whole world, if you want to."
"You mean we," Leila said, taking a sip of her own tea.
Her father sighed. "I may not live long enough to see it. But you will, dear. The time will come when you won't have to worry about getting caught with these anymore," he indicated the library with a sweep of his hand. "Then you can be proud of them. You'll be famous for keeping them safe." He smiled contentedly.
Leila looked around the room at the books. She looked right at Jack, and at the pale man, as her gaze swept over the shelves, but she did not perceive either of them. "Then I can read Robin Hood stories to my kids at bedtime," she said. She and her father broke out into laughter.
There was more than I thought there would be, the pale man said, sounding pleased. Jack turned to him again – the orb in his hands was glowing with more light than before. We have two more places to visit, the man announced. He walked to the door through which Leila had come a few minutes ago. It opened for him as he approached it. Jack entered after him, and the door closed behind.
~***~
Now they were in a room that was slightly larger than the last one, but very crowded. The windows were covered by shades. The only light came from some fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. Jack and the pale man were standing behind several rows of chairs, in which a number of people were sitting. Most of them were armed, with rifles, spears, bows and arrows, or farm tools.
There was a woman standing at the front of the room. She was a gangly creature with unkempt brown hair, and glasses whose wire frames were held together with tape. She was pacing back and forth before the audience, addressing them in a voice filled with zealous fervor.
"Are we gonna let Aku take our land?" she roared.
"NO!" was the resounding response from the assembled folk, who raised their weapons for emphasis.
"Are we gonna let him push us around?" she shouted.
"NO!" returned the audience.
"We've had enough of him and we ain't gonna take no more!" the speaker declared, punching the air with her fist. "Liberty or death!"
"LIBERTY OR DEATH!" the people repeated after her.
"Now let's show 'em what we're made of!" the girl announced, pointing to the door.
The audience cheered and got up from their seats. Jack flattened himself against the wall to avoid being crushed by the tide of people going through the door. The pale man did not move, and indeed did not notice as the crowd passed right through him. The scrawny girl who had been addressing the group was the last to leave.
Look, the pale man said, holding up the orb. It was glowing brightly now, like a warm fire on a winter night. We only need a little more. Let us go and get it. He went to the door and it opened before him. Again, Jack followed him through.
~***~
Jack recognized the place where they now stood. He had passed through it on his travels. The weathered, moss-covered stones, the hills that had once been the foundations of great buildings, the remains of the palace road. It was all that remained of his home. He felt ashamed to be here, among the ghosts of his people and his family, without his sword or his honor. He hunched his shoulders, wishing he could just disappear, and looked at the ground.
"Don't worry, they understand," said a girl's voice. Jack turned to look and saw a smiling young woman standing there. Her skin was as pale as her brother's, but her hair was black and gathered in a somewhat dilapidated bun on the top of her head. She wore a black silk kimono with silver gilt embroidery, and a silver ankh – Jack had learned the symbol during his studies in Egypt – hung on a chain around her neck. Her eyes sparkled with all the mirth and joy in the world. Her very presence brought him a great deal of comfort. She was, Jack thought, the most beautiful person he had ever seen, or ever would see. She was also, somehow, very familiar, like a sister or a best friend, but he couldn't recall having met her before.
He bowed respectfully to her, as did the pale man. She returned their bow, then smiled at each of them. "Hello, Jack. Hello again, little brother." She looked at the orb in the pale man's hand. "Wow, you have a lot already," she remarked.
But it is not quite enough, the man replied, and only you can get it from this place, my sister. He held out the orb to her, and she took it carefully.
"Okay," she said. "Just hold on a minute." She held the orb up to the sky.
The air had been still before, but now a breeze began to blow. Jack could hear whispers in the air, bits of conversations, laughter and music. He heard the sound of merchants at the market, drums being played at rice-planting time, and carts rumbling along the streets.
Then an image superimposed itself on that of the ruins – that of the city in its heyday, happy and bustling and alive. People walked through the streets, children played in the gardens, and flags bearing the crest of the Emperor flew from the tops of the buildings. Unlike the people in the places they had passed before, these people noticed them; they smiled and bowed and spoke greetings to them as they passed.
"It's ready now," the girl in black said. Everything began to glow with golden light – then the buildings and people and things became a whirlpool, centered on the orb in the girl's upraised hand. It glowed brighter and brighter as the whirlpool shrank around it, as it drew in the light. The sounds, as well as the images, became a swirling blur.
In a few seconds that seemed like forever, it was over. The orb in the girl's hands was glowing so bright that it hurt to look at. She smiled and held it out to the pale man. "There you go. Always glad to help." The pale man thanked her and tucked the orb into the sleeve of his robe again.
She turned to Jack. "And remember, we wouldn't have been able to get any of it if it weren't for you." After this cryptic remark, she smiled, winked and vanished.
Now we have all we need, the pale man said. He walked through a stone doorway, still standing after all this time. After taking a last wistful look at his home, Jack went through the doorway too.