SKY OF PAPER: AN ASIAN STEAMPUNK FANTASY

CHAPTER 11

My skin still burned and my eyes watered as the pain persisted.

"I didn’t know, I swear," I pleaded. "I was told that it was your favorite tea. I thought serving it to you would finally end my punishment."

"Stop lying to me. You're part of the plot to stop me aren't you? You’ve been listening in on my talks with General Fung and you’ve told the other temple masters all about it. Now all of you want me out of the way, is that it?" My vision blurred as Paya vainly attempted to restrain him, but he lunged forward and pulled me up again, this time by the collar. "That‘s it isn‘t it?!"

"Your son gave it to me. He gave me the key," I confessed struggling in his grip.

Suddenly, the anxiety and fear I’d been feeling up to this point gave way to anger and spite. I finally had enough and I didn’t care that I’d almost poisoned him, nor did I care about his confessed delusions about others plotting against him. I decided to let loose all my pent up hatred from all the days serving tea to a thankless, selfish, vile man. "He ran away just last night, and he took Ai with him too."

I said the words with such venom, that I relished the surprised, wide-eyed look on his face.

His body froze, as if he were unable to comprehend my words. Then he said, "I told you to stop lying. This was all a plot, I know it. And now you're trying to make up stories to cover it up. Well, I won’t have it."

I finally pulled free from his grasp, my face still stinging, adding only to the anger growing within me, beckoning me to outdo Master Lu's wrath with my own.

"All this time, you’ve ignored your son's feelings," I lashed out. "And now he hates you. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with you anymore. You spend too much time despising me and not enough caring about your own family."

"Check my daughter's room," he ordered Paya. She bowed and ran off.

He paced about with much distress, watching me with a continued look of disbelief. His bright green eyes were so focused on me, I was afraid that at any moment, he might lunge at me again.

"And you,” he growled. ”Such disrespect. Speaking to me in this way. You’ve not only shamed yourself, but in trying to poison me, you’ve shattered any future you might have had."

"Good, I don't care about this place anymore." I was lying of course. I wanted to remain at the temple, to continue my training and be a chienkuu ko, but I was so consumed with emotion that I didn’t want to give Master Lu the satisfaction of knowing that he’d hurt me, that he was taking away my hopes and aspirations. "At least I’ll be going back to my sister, and I won‘t have to see you ever again."

He gave an triumphant laugh, as if pretending he’d already won our petty game of insults.

"Rune was it?" he chided. "Is that where your sister is. Such a filthy village. You should know that I never intended to take my airship there for something as mundane as picking up a few ungrateful children. You and those other farm peasants, your friends, were never meant to come here."

"I know that already. Ai told me. You went there for your other daughter. She was living there, and she was sick. No one would have let you go, unless you had a good reason. You told them about me and the other gifted children, and you used that as an excuse to save her."

"Do not mention her. Do not dare mention her!" He spat out the words with such fury, that the entire shrine rang with his voice.

He swiped the scroll off the table, letting it fall among the broken tea pot shards. "You have no right to speak of her."

At that point, I should have apologized, but I refused. He was certainly waiting for one, but when I answered his expectant silence with my own, he turned his back to me, his palms pressed shakily against the table.

"Then if Ai has told you everything," he said slyly. "Then you would already know that you can‘t go back home."

"And why not?"

"Oh, she hasn’t told you everything then." He looked over his shoulder relishing my surprise in the same way I’d relished his a moment before. "No one goes to the island of Rune anymore. It’s forbidden. Do you know why?" He paused, as if daring me to answer. He allowed me to simmer in silence for one, long moment, then he said, "The very disease that killed my daughter, has been plaguing that island for months. You and your friends were the last to leave that place before it was quarantined, before it was cut off from the rest of the world." Like a snake, striking back, he said his words with the same spite as my own. "By now, your sister is either deathly sick, or already dead."

An intense feeling of dread came over me, one I‘d never felt before. My body suddenly became numb with the realization of how everything came to be. One day, the airships had stopped coming to my village. No one came to visit our tiny island anymore, save for one, lone ship led by a temple master who came only for his daughter, but also, and with great reluctance had come to take, Han, Kidou and myself. I was not aware of the reason at the time, but we were thoroughly checked and examined by imperial physicians before we boarded the ship. They even gave each of us shots, making sure that any traces of the sickness were removed.

On that day, and every day afterwards, I catch myself reflecting on those final moments I spent in my home village. It all made terrible, terrible sense, and when I recalled that moment when Master Lu unveiled the truth, I could still remember the awful feeling that crashed upon me like a tsunami, echoing in my mind for all the years that followed.