Chapter Sixty-Three

Fai stared at the blond man in front of him, trying to come to terms with everything he'd been told over the past two hours.

At first, he'd thought the one-eyed man was nothing more than an eccentric addition to Cirrus country, unremarkable among the odd population except for his physical scars. But when he'd said the impossible words, any notion of this being a stranger fled from the baker's mind.

"You can call me Yuui," he'd said, so casually.

Yuui. Yuui, who had perished over a decade ago in a hospital bed outside of Cirrus. "How do you know about Yuui?" he'd demanded. For a moment, it had looked like his copy's single eye had flashed gold instead of blue.

Fai had decided, in that moment, to treat everything he heard from that point on as a sort of dream. He'd come to Cirrus hoping for a break from the pain—the constant torment of seeing the empty chair where his twin brother had sat to watch TV, or of picking a box of frosted cereal from the cupboard only to remember it had been Yuui's favorite. Fai had convinced himself that, despite the childish surroundings and quirky townsfolk, he was recovering from the loss.

"So there was someone like me in this world," the one-eyed man had said, a moment later.

Fai had shot to his feet then, fighting the stabbing agony of the memory, the unbearable images of his brother's wasted face. "I have to go back to the bakery," he'd said, snatching his coat from the bench and shoving his arms through the holes.

And the one-eyed man—the one who looked exactly like him except for the eye patch and the extra inch or so of hair hanging over his face—had snatched his arm and said, "I'm not him" in such a sorrowful tone that Fai had slumped back into the bench for an explanation.

It had taken an hour for this Yuui to explain. At first, Fai had wondered if this man was actually insane. They allowed quirky people to come up to this country—sent them in droves, in fact, just to get them out of their adult world and into a place where they could be better cared for. Half an hour in, after the one-eyed man had described in detail two countries that didn't exist, Fai had revised his initial assumptions, guessing this Yuui was a creative genius of some sort.

"And that's when Mokona took us to this country," the man said with a note of finality. Fai stared at him.

And stared. Waiting for the cameras to pop out at last so his look-alike could tell him it was all an elaborate trick.

When nothing happened after several minutes, Fai sunk into the bench. "You said your name was Yuui?"

The one-eyed man nodded. "That's right."

"And you're from another dimension, where you're the highest ranking magician at a royal court?"

"Mm-hmm."

"And you've been traveling through various dimensions in search of these magical feathers?"

"That's correct."

Fai closed his eyes. "That sounds like a fairytale," he whispered.

Yuui—or, if the man's explanations weren't utter bullshit, an alternate version of Yuui—opened his mouth to speak, but Fai held up a hand to give him pause.

"This is insane," Fai said shakily. "I should be back at the bakery, making cakes with Cato, or frosting cupcakes for tomorrow morning, or . . ." His head dropped into his hands. "This is insane."

"It's a lot to take in. But you have magic in your world, too, like those birds that teleport from place to place."

"Jumpjays," he said, giving Yuui the name for the common creatures. "They're just pests."

"But they have magic that allows them to jump from place to place. Is it so hard to believe that other magic exists as well? Like the power to jump between dimensions?"

That's the problem, Fai thought. It makes perfect sense, and it's still insane. "Give me a minute, okay? I need . . . Just a minute"

The one-eyed man nodded, frowning. He looks like a lost puppy when he frowns like that. Just like my brother did, before he got sick. But that was so long ago. My Yuui was only ten when he died. And this guy . . . He's says he's hundreds of years old, but there's no way. He sighed. "Why should I believe that? You said you used to do magic, but you won't show me anything."

"I can't. That was part of the price I paid to cross dimensions."

He says that like it makes sense. How much science fiction does this guy read? Then again, strange as his explanations are, they aren't very technical. But this is too weird. Who makes up a story like this and expects people to listen?

No one. There'd be no point in such a detailed explanation. It's like he's really telling the truth. And he certainly doesn't talk like he just flew over the cuckoo's nest.

"Do you believe me?" the one-eyed man asked, after a long moment.

Fai opened his eyes and gazed off at the crowds of people as they stepped off the train. He sighed. "Yeah, what the hell. I believe you. But why? Why are you so compelled to explain this to me. I mean . . . I don't even know you."

"No," Yuui said. A lump rose in Fai's throat at the sorrow in his voice. "But I wanted to know you."

"Why?"

"My brother . . . He jumped from a tower and died. You remind me of him." The man curled up, hugging his knees as his eye drifted up to the tiled ceiling. He didn't seem inclined to say anything more.

Fai leaned against the back of the bench, shutting his eyes for just a moment. Thinking of Yuui—his Yuui, the one he'd lost years ago—brought a whole host of unpleasant sensations back to him: the medicinal stench of the hospital, the papery bed sheets his brother had curled up in at night in those final, nightmarish months, the sound of shoes clicking against the tiled floor as the doctors returned to the waiting room to give them the news. Yuui had died of natural causes. His death had, ultimately, been inevitable.

But this Yuui had lost his brother to suicide. Fai couldn't think of a more traumatic end. "What was his name?" he asked quietly, already knowing the answer.

"Fai. His name was Fai."

Fai glanced down at the wooden slats of the seat. "You really are telling the truth."

The wizard—Fai could accept the fact that this man was a wizard now, even if he hadn't witnessed a single spell—nodded absently. After a few minutes of silence, Yuui spoke again. "My friends and I have to leave first thing tomorrow morning. We have to start looking for Princess Sakura's feathers again."

"You're leaving?"

"I have to."

"But . . . So that's it? You told me all this, and now you're just going to leave?"

The magician shrugged. "When I can't handle what's going on around me, I run away. I ran away from Ceres, and I ran away from my friends tonight because I couldn't bear the thought of missing this chance. I'm still running from my king, in the hopes that I'll be far away when he awakens. But you don't have to run. You can stay wherever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. You have the option to make a life for yourself."

"So do you," Fai responded, more fiercely than he'd intended. "The Yuui I knew died before his time, but he never would've run from anything. So, if you're really him . . . or even if you just have the same soul . . . don't run away. Whatever your problems are, face them head on, without hesitation."

Yuui stared at him, eyebrows disappearing into his hairline. Something he'd said had rendered the wizard speechless, though when he reviewed his impassioned speech, he found nothing that could've specifically triggered the silence.

Fai glanced around, disquieted by Yuui's unwavering stare. His gaze fell upon a young boy with cinnamon-brown hair and chocolate eyes. The boy stood across the station from them, not far from the doors, but his gaze was almost as intense and unnerving as Yuui's had been a moment ago. "Hey," Fai said, pointing. "Do you know that kid?"

Yuui blinked(winked?) and turned toward the brunette. His shoulders stiffened for a moment before he rose to his feet. The boy's attention shattered, and he darted off, shoving his way through the revolving doors and into the street.

"Thank you for speaking to me," Yuui said earnestly, standing up. "But I have to go." The one-eyed man plucked his coat from the bench and skipped over to the door, leaving Fai behind.

What a strange world this is, he thought as Yuui vanished.