Hello everybody. I have spare time to update again or time is sparing me this moment to update. This is a sectional of the turning point in the story. I hope everyone will enjoy this and let me know what everyone thinks.
Bests,
MistyWing
"Chapter 12"
If I were to scale down the size of the land that Governor Fujitaka and his son Touya governed in the past, it was small enough to fit in your pocket. Now it was large enough to put it in a wagon. This was one of the few things I learned about Touya in this dreamlike spell that was cast upon us. This was one of the few things I learned about myself as well, but I must stop myself here before I digress again.
In order to make any sense out of this I must start from the beginning and explain the complicated spell-bound events in the order that they happened. Remember how Master Wei Fong mentioned that this was going to be a journey that only Touya and I could embark on? No one may follow us or interrupt us. I stand by him to say that he was as right about all that as he was most spectacularly right about everything else. It's difficult to explain what happened in the next few minutes which felt like hours to us. There's a lot of magic involved and I think I only understand half the mechanisms in this sort of spell.
Here it was in a nutshell; this spell's main essence was the power of love. Certain feelings, such as love could be extended in life through the sustainable memories from the dead. Fujitaka had cast a sort of spell on the charm bracelet when he died, so that his offspring might luckily stumble upon it and learn everything of their history and origin. In order for such a spell to work, one must know when he would die, or else he could destroy his soul and create a new matter in the world. A destruction of one's soul would be a horrible thing, but creation of matter would be much worse. We live in a world balanced by opposites and if new matter was to be added to the cosmos it would create a kind of entropy that we could all do without. Remember, the First Law of Thermodynamics states that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Laws are made to keep order and remind us that we shouldn't do naughty things. No one should try to change what would always be naturally there or not there. Fujitaka wasn't even a sorcerer, but he was brainy enough to know the consequence of his spell casting if it were to fail, so he took careful measures to make sure it would not fail. He had the advisories of a number of magically inclined folks to ensure that his spell would not go astray. Once he created the medium on the day of his death, he left behind traces of his memory for us to obtain. When I say, 'us', I mean Touya and me. In order to obtain these memories we must leave our bodies and go soul-traveling. In the spell, our souls would only be partially departed from our bodies to guarantee our return. Also, the spell gave off the impression that every minute in the real world would feel like an hour in the dream world. The spell had a way of transcending the confines of time and space. In every setting Touya and I would fit in only a pocket of space that was not seeable to the naked eye. Try to wrap your mind around the impossible science of all this. Yes, it's still a science whether you want to accept it or not. I would also point out that you are entitled to your own opinion about things, but I hope I could change your mind as we progress along.
Things happened in the order that was logical instead of the order that was chronologically correct. The first point that we swung ourselves to—yes, swung like we were one pendulum with the potential energy to move from one end to the other with one single swing—was the time before Touya was born and before Fujitaka met his wife. Touya's father and his family were poor farmers in the small land of De Ding. Super small compared to what it was now. Fujitaka was just a small boy and an extra farm hand around the place.
As we watched him run out into the field before the break of dawn, Touya began his narration: "Father was adopted by a poor family. His adoptive father found him sleeping on a pile of garbage when he was passing by an alley. Back then, they said that if you don't know where you come from that's usually a sign of luck. Not knowing one's past meant that one could fix his present and man his future. Father never remembered where he came from. He only talked about his adoptive family as if they were truly his family, which they were."
The boy, Fujitaka, bent in the fields and worked the back-breaking hours that his aging adoptive father could not work anymore. There were so many plants to check up on. I could not believe my eyes, but that was what I saw. The infinity of work that seemed to stretch to the size of this universe. Near impossible, and yet Fujitaka knew not how to linger or rest; only work hard. We watched him run in the mud until the mud on the pads of his feet caked his waist, too. Touya continued in his monotone; "They still say that Fujitaka died in bed because of exhaustion through endless days of hard work. No one but I knew that Father died because he wanted to be reunited with my mother."
Touya and I must have turned to stare at each other at the same time because when I turned to face him he was staring back and saying, "He met my mother in the village. It was around the time that the emperor left the region after 'The Cleansing Period' and my father traveled around the small province to check-up on everyone. Back then, he was already the traveling scholar who had passed every governmental examination China had to offer. He made it his life goal to rise above and beyond, so that he could help provide for his farming family. Later he did it for the family that he would soon have to raise. Even later, he toiled on for the sake of all the villagers and the townspeople. He had hoped to see a better future in his lifetime."
At that point, Touya broke off. I thought I saw tears in the back of his eyes, but he hardened as quickly as the beginning of biting winter just after the last leaf fell in autumn. I worried that he was going to break at any moment for withholding so much emotion. "It wasn't that time yet. Peace still won't come for us."
Our setting blurred and swished to different colors. I readjusted myself in our space and looked out at the many apartments rising on either side of me. We were standing in the middle of the street at what looked like the town in De Ding. Actually, right behind me was the Governor's House. People were building the De Ding that now stood. Fujitaka was standing just ahead of us, but all I could make out was the back of his profile. A woman materialized at his side, but all I could see was the back of her, which was covered in a mass of rich, black curls.
"There they are. I remember Father saying that he and Mother helped build the town after they got married. It was almost finished before I was born," Touya said, a whimsical look on his straight face.
The picture panned to the right and we were somewhere else again. We were in the sky, flying above De Ding. The province was fading from its former small land to the glorious bountiful area that was all of De Ding. The picture below us, as we drifted overhead, went back and forth as if mocking us that the glory days would not last or that the glory days never really was if we were able to see the former De Ding and break our hearts over its original bareness.
"That's a big difference," I said, trying to liven up the silence that settled between us. I believe Touya was following my former track of mind because he frowned as if there was no tomorrow.
"We don't want to be reminded of the past. I never knew that was how it was before Father took over and applied for governorship. I thought it was something close to extraordinary that the Red Emperor allowed him to be governor. Everyone loved Father; he seemed like a different breed of man even though he was as normal as the next man. Mother was the real wizard in the family. She wasn't particularly good at it, so that saved her life. The emperor hates to let live anyone who might be stronger than him. He does not realize the size of De Ding, so he rarely bothers us. I make sure we continue to pay our dues to him, so that it remains that way."
Then, we were sucked down from our height. This wind took us from below and pulled us to the ground again. I stared at a scene in a conference room. I was standing behind the Governor and his son who were sitting on the raised platform and looking across the room at all the officials. The Governor spoke, "We must take precautionary actions and send some police to the borders…" The Touya that was sitting next to the governor was bobbing his head in agreement. The officials sitting in their cushions on the floor were nodding, too. Some of them were scribbling rapidly on their scrolls laid out on their low-legged tables, turning over characters before the ink had dried.
I voiced, "It's very disturbing that I never get to see your father's face."
"Nor my mother's," he added. "Sakura, you should not use the word 'never' so lightly."
My vision widened as if there was a person standing on both sides of the canvas and stretching the piece that I was admiring. I watched the picture tear in two to be replaced by a different scene. It was a more frantic and crazy scene. The moment we landed my ears met a piercing scream of agony. Oh my gosh! I slammed my hands over my ears and clenched shut my eyes.
"I remember this," Touya's voice echoed in my mind even though I had my hands covering my ears. I glanced to my side and watched as Touya pointed ahead of us. This was when I finally assessed our situation. We were in the Governor's House except there was barely any light, but the lamp in the hall. Little Touya, for I could always recognize my older brother's kid frame, crouched next to the door with the lamp next to his feet. He was leaning heavily against the door frame as he rapped at the door and whimpered for his mother. "Mama… Mama…"
The soul Touya I was presently standing with tried to turn away. "I can't watch this again."
It got brighter, snuffing out the gloom. I looked down the hall at the window that was glowing with the new sunlight. "Touya," I said.
At the same moment, the door creaked open and a man stepped outside. Little Touya did not move from where he sat. The man stepped around him, cradling a bundle in his arm as if it were the most precious thing in the world. I saw his face, then, with the sunlight streaming through the window. I saw the shine of the streaks that his tears had left on his pale cheeks. There was no cheer on Touya's father's face. There was only deep sorrow on MY father's face. Yes, my father's face. I was crying, too. At least my heart was because my soul couldn't shed tears. Dad was always smiling in the photos. He was always cheerful and bright in the home-made videos. This was such an awful contrast to what I knew.
Little Touya spoke as he stood and I heard Governor Touya's voice overlap the younger. "I never wanted her. I never wanted a sister who would hurt my mother. Never!"
My soul stumbled backwards and I crashed into something behind me. The invisible glass wall shattered to pieces at initial impact. The world was changing. I felt a release of anguish that I figured came from Governor Touya. Maybe this was the end of the spell. It would be better if that was the case because Touya was in the kind of misery that I could not bear to watch. I was in a kind of misery I could not bear to feel.
