SKY OF PAPER: AN ASIAN STEAMPUNK FANTASY

CHAPTER 47

Castleberg was the Republic of Brien's third largest city, and one of the most peculiar things noticeable by visitors such as myself, was that every building was made of red brick. The entire city looked like one big blotch of red splattered against a canvas of flat, green fields and blue sky. Even with the unnaturally bright crimson colors, what stood out even more, were the windmills. Almost every building that stood two stories or more had a great big wind-catching wheel attached to the roof, or the very face of the building itself. It was this unique detail that made the city seem alive, like an enormous animal stirring at the slightest gale. Wind chimes sang from window sills and in some places there were large, intricate flutes hanging from ledges and balconies that played stirring melodies whenever a gentle breeze floated by.

Every person we saw on the streets wore western-looking suits and delicately frilled dresses. Dressed in our own formal robes it was evident that we stood out as foreigners as Dae Jung lead us to the international consulate to secure a place for us to stay. 

At great expense, we were granted a small, mansion-like resident in the very center of the city. Though we had guards of our own, the consulate thought it prudent that they provide us domestic body guards for an additional fee.

It was the first time I had ever been in a western style house. Everything; the walls, the stairs, even the marble pillars shined in decadent pearl-white. Carpets of intricate floral patterns covered the floors of every hallway, and hanging from the ceiling of each room were crystal chandeliers, which gave a rich alluring sparkle when it caught the rays of the afternoon sun through the large windows in the foyer. 

I‘d never seen the interior of a home so boldly illuminated. All manner of subtlety was all, but gone; and in its place, was a vivid, unbridled display of what must have been the lifestyle of that far-off land. 

Everyday we trained on the roof. Amidst the curious eyes of domestic officials who came to visit, we practiced our kaikua under the careful tutelage of the Boar while Ai lead us though our sky watching meditations, honing our abilities to pick out details with our unique sight. The ether was unlike anything I had ever seen. Restless and untamed, it shaped the winds and skies under its own will, as if the land itself harbored the ether‘s very origin. 

Still, we embraced its currents, respecting its every motion. And when the provincial governor came to visit us, I was all-too happy to take him into the air in one of our sky boats.

"Well, this really is something else," the tall, broad-shouldered governor said to Dae Jung, petting the length of his thick, red mustache with his finger. "How is it that your country has such gifted children, and yet in no other place in world do such people with this sort of talent exist?"

The two sat at the back of the boat where a thick, cotton canopy had been erected to shade them from the sun. They sat on either side of a small table, upon which a servant had been serving them tea and small, fruit flavored cakes. 

"Every culture respects the nature of flight in their own way," Dae Jung replied. "Your country's airships uses the mechanics of heated air while ours is more of a spiritual discipline. There is an invisible ocean of ki, or energy around us you see, a kind of flow that moves without end. It has taken hundreds of years for my people to learn its properties and to use the gifts of certain people to bend it to our will."

"That's all quite perfectly mystical and all sir, but you still have, as of yet, to answer my question."

Though I’d been flying the boat at the bow with Kassashimei, and my back had been turned to the governor, I knew his eyes were squarely fixed upon me. From the moment he arrived, he had been looking at nothing else, but me and the rest of the children. He seemed not only curious, but intensely infatuated with our ways.