Chapter 51 The Traveler’s Path

Chapter 51
The Traveler’s Path

Wataru didn’t want to see anybody else crying, and he didn’t want anyone else to see his own tears. He walked to the edge of the woods, hiding behind a tree from the thin light of the crescent moon. Alone, he wept.

Where had all the sadness come from?

He had been sad when he met his father that time in the park. He had been even more sad when he had run from his mother as she fought with Rikako on the balcony. He had never thought he would be sadder than when Uncle Lou came to drag him out from under the bed afterward.

That’s right. I didn’t want to be sad anymore. That’s why I came to Vision to change my destiny. Yet here I am feeling like my heart will break, crying like a baby.

If this is the way it’s going to be, I never should’ve done anything in the first place. I should’ve grit my teeth back in the real world if the end result was going to be the same. No matter where I go, sadness follows. No matter how much time passes it won’t go away. You get only one heart when you’re born, and you can’t turn it in or get it repaired. The only thing that fills it is more sadness. I’m surprised there’s any room left in there at all.

Wataru cried and cried until it hurt to breathe. He wrapped his arms around the tree and hugged it tight, pressing his cheek to the rough bark, and waited until his breathing slowed.

My destiny…

I tried to change it, and only ran into a new sadness. What will happen if I try to change it again?

What has to change, what needs to change, is my, is my…

My what?

What can I possibly do, here in this corner of a Vision just waiting to be destroyed by a horde of demonkin?

Wataru heard soft footsteps coming across the grass. He looked up, quickly wiping his eyes with the palm of his hand.

It was Meena. She had been crying too. “There you are.”

“Yeah.”

“I…I said goodbye to Kutz.”

Her eyes were the color of the night forest. Wataru wondered if his eyes looked the same. Maybe the forest was covering the pain of their loss, and the failure of all their plans, so they wouldn’t have to see it in each other’s eyes.

“How is everyone else?”

“They’re resting.”

“Good.” Wataru wanted nothing more than to leave this place, and then he remembered he had a good reason. “I’m going to go take a look around before we bring the survivors to the cave. There might be some more who lived out there. I’d hate to leave them behind.”

Meena shook her head. “There’s no one.”

“How can you be sure?”

“How far would you go? It’s too dangerous to go back to the city.”

“I’ll be careful…”

Before he had finished speaking, a large shadow loomed from behind Meena. It was Kee Keema. His face was frozen. He was damp, cold, and exhausted. The lizard-like skin around his eyes was drawn tight with grief.

That’s right. It had always been Kutz’s passion that kept us going. There were so few like her, with that indomitable energy. There would never be anyone to take her place.

And yet…

“Going on patrol? I’ll come too,” Kee Keema offered.

Good ears. Wataru sighed. “I was thinking of going back by the city gates. There might be some people there who couldn’t walk with the others this far.”

“You’re right,” Kee Keema said, reaching for the axe on his back and pulling it out of its harness. He looked at Meena. “We are Highlanders. Even if we’re in the north now, we still have a duty to Vision.”

Meena looked down at the ground.

“Kutz would have it no other way,” he continued. “She would want us to look for stragglers. That’s why I…”

Tears were welling in the corners of Meena’s eyes. Kee Keema put a large hand on her shoulder. “What will you do? You can stay here and keep watch, if you like.”

“No. I’m coming with you,” Meena replied, lifting her chin. The movement sent tears trickling down her cheeks. They sparkled in the moonlight.

“Good, then let’s keep sharp. Things seem quiet for now, but those demonkin fly, after all. Never know where they might be spying from. We’ll keep to the shadows wherever we can. Keep your heads low.”

“You stand out the most of all of us, Kee Keema.”

“I know, I know.”

At least the crescent moon was on their side. When they wanted to look around, it lit their surroundings, and when they hid in the shrubs and thickets, it wrapped itself in clouds and the night grew dark. I’m your ally, it seemed to say, and though I be too far away to help much, I will do what I can.

The broken wall of the city looked like a giant tsunami frozen in stone. The line of its shattered ramparts curved like a wave, a strange by-product of the destruction. As they crawled closer, straining to see in the dark, it almost looked as though it had been designed that way—some mad artistic project of the late emperor.

“I can’t see the mirror,” Meena muttered, narrowing her eyes. “It should be up in the sky where the Crystal Palace stood.”

She was correct. They should’ve been able to see it in the moonlight—unless the moon itself declined to light such an evil thing.

“It’s probably just too dark to see.”

The stench of death drifted from the burnt shell of the city. The fires had died completely down and the night air was cool. But the area still reeked. How many corpses lay buried under that mountain of brick and stone?

All by himself, and all at once, Mitsuru had taken an uncountable number of lives. He had known it would happen too, yet he never once wavered from his course. He never even tried to think of a different way.

Wataru’s feet brushed through the dry grass. “I was knocked out so I never saw it,” he said suddenly. Kee Keema’s and Meena’s feet stopped.

“Saw what?”

“What the people from the city were talking about. They said that just before the Mirror of Eternal Shadow appeared, a single column of light rose into the sky from the central spire of the Crystal Palace. They said it was like a pillar. And they could see a figure in it, rising upward.”

Meena turned her back on him, looking toward the forest. They had come quite far. Tufts of grass and low-lying shrubs swayed in the night wind.

“Did you—did you two see it?” Wataru began walking forward again, his eyes scanning the darkness around them.

“We saw it,” Kee Keema answered at last.

“Yeah?”

“It looked like he was going up to heaven all right.” Kee Keema swung his axe as though striking at something. “But that doesn’t mean he made it to the Tower of Destiny. If I were the Goddess, I’d kick him straight out. How could she grant him anything after the mess he’s left Vision in?”

His words reminded Wataru of something the Elder had said way back in Sakawa. The one who runs the fastest wouldn’t necessarily get to the tower first.

But those words could merely have been wishful thinking—a pep talk to keep him from descending into total despair.

Wataru looked up at the night sky. A thin, translucent cloud passed like a net across the crescent moon.

And there was the Blood Star, still shining red. It hadn’t disappeared. That meant Halnera wasn’t yet finished. The sacrifice hadn’t been chosen.

What is she waiting for? Why prolong the cruelty?

“Who’s there?” Meena suddenly said, her voice a hoarse whisper.

Wataru and Kee Keema both whirled around, their weapons at the ready. A thin, twisted tree grew not ten paces behind them. The edge of a white dress peeked out from behind its trunk, fluttering in the cold night air.

“It’s her,” Wataru said, lowering Kee Keema’s axe with one hand, and calling out. “What are you doing here?”

The girl fearfully looked out from behind her hiding place, her hands pressed to her mouth. Wataru ran over to her. “Why did you leave the forest?”

“You go to the capital, no?”

The girl was shivering terribly. Her dress was too thin to protect her from the cold. Her teeth were chattering. “Please, take me with you. There might be someone left—someone from the palace.”

Wataru hesitated a moment, then took off his jacket and gave it to her. He would have put it on her himself, but she was taller by a head.

“We were just going as far as the city walls. If it doesn’t look like we can go inside, we’ll have to stop there.”

“That is good enough.” Still trembling, the girl drew Wataru’s jacket over her shoulders.

Though it had been the gentlemanly thing to do, Wataru was now feeling cold wearing just a shirt in the chilly air. “Didn’t you hear what everyone was saying back in the forest? The Crystal Palace is gone. They say it was sucked into the Mirror of Eternal Shadow. I don’t imagine anyone in the castle survived.”

The girl’s cheeks were pale with cold and fear. But when Wataru turned to rejoin Kee Keema and Meena, she followed him.

Now they were four. Meena walked in the rear, staring at the girl in the white dress. “Are you from the castle?” she asked as they walked.

The girl hunched her shoulders and didn’t answer.

“That’s a nice dress you’re wearing. Nobility, are you?”

The girl still said nothing. Perhaps she could hear the barely concealed thorns in Meena’s question.

“Well, you must be of high birth, at least. Tell me: when the capital was being torn to pieces, where was the emperor’s army? Where are they now? Aren’t they even going to try to help their own people?”

Before Wataru could say anything, Kee Keema cut in. “When those golem monsters were tearing the city apart, I saw several groups of Knights come down from the castle. They didn’t stand a chance against those things. They were crushed. If any of the troops were left behind in the castle, well, I suppose when the mirror came out…”

Meena was bristling. “Then what about the rest of the army? And what about Sigdora—those special forces? Where were they? What are they doing? You know, don’t you?”

From what he had seen in the mirror hall, Wataru could guess who the girl in the white dress truly was. She was none other than the daughter of Emperor Gama Agrilius VII. She was a princess.

And she looked exactly like Mitsuru’s aunt back in the real world.

As Wataru had met people that were the spitting image of his father and Rikako, so had Mitsuru met ghosts from the real world too. Wataru still didn’t understand the meaning of what Mitsuru had said to her just before he left for the tower. What did he mean, the tilted scales of fortune? And that cheating man and woman he had met in the Swamp of Grief were doing the same thing as his father and Rikako were, and justifying it with the same twisted logic. Yet he had never thought of any of them as being particularly fortunate or unfortunate. Who had Mitsuru met in his Vision, Wataru wondered. What did they remind him of? What did they make him think about?

“Sigdora isn’t an army,” the princess said in a voice barely more than a whisper. “There’s nothing they could do at a time like…”

“They’re useless, then?” Meena said quickly, cutting her off. She turned up her nose in disdain.

The emperor’s daughter stayed as much in Kee Keema’s shadow as she could. Her lips trembled and her body seemed to shrink. “I fear that the palace guards are all gone, if what you say is true. The Imperial Army’s elites, led by General Adja, were sadly missing from Solebria at the time the seal was broken. They may be rushing toward the city even now. If they have encountered the demonkin along the way, I expect they are already in battle somewhere out there on the road.”

“So you mean to tell me they’re out there fighting for the people?” Meena said, pursing her lips with distaste. “Even though Solebria is destroyed? Even though the emperor is gone? Who will take charge of the North? Who will lead the armies now?”

If blood lineage had anything to do with it, the responsibility for the army would fall to Lady Zophie herself. Perhaps that was why she was so desperate to locate Crystal Palace survivors.

“Give it a rest, Meena,” Kee Keema gently scolded. “I know how you feel, but now’s not the time.”

“Give what a rest? I’m just asking her some questions.”

“So give the questions a rest, all right? Talk too loud and you’ll bring the demonkin down on us.”

The remains of the city walls stood before them. The location of the gates were further to the east of where they were now, but they would be easy to find if they decided to follow the main road. Still, none of them savored the idea of walking out on a road or any other open place.

“Maybe we could climb over? Nah…let’s just walk around until we find a place with easy access.”

This time Wataru took the lead, with Kee Keema bringing up the rear. Lady Zophie cowered behind Wataru’s shoulder, walking as close to him as she could without actually bumping into him. Wataru could feel Meena’s eyes burning into the small of his back.

“You remember that old couple that prayed for Kutz back there?” Meena said suddenly. Kee Keema and Wataru were busy searching through the wreckage and listening for any sign of people. It seemed that Meena had entirely forgotten their purpose for coming here. Her face was frozen in a scowl, her eyes glaring at the girl’s slender back. “They said that about ten years ago their children left for the south, taking their grandchildren with them. They were looking for a way to escape. That’s why they said those prayers to the Goddess. It didn’t make sense for believers in the Old God to be asking the Goddess for forgiveness.

“Just like my family,” she added in a small voice. “For the people living in the Northern Empire life was hard, even for those who were lucky enough to be in the rich capital. The only people living any kind of good life were the royal family and those surrounding them. Everyone else struggled to make it through every day. And now that the seal on the mirror has been broken, not only the North but all of Vision is in danger. What good did the emperor ever do? None! I bet even now he’s run off somewhere, worried more about saving his own hide than helping his country.”

This was more than Zophie could stand. She whirled around to face Meena. “My father is dead!”

“Father?” Kee Keema’s eyes opened wide. “Then you’re…”

“Zophie, the daughter of Gama Agrilius VII,” she said, standing tall and looking straight into their eyes. “I am the successor to the throne. Now that my father is gone, it falls to me to defend the country and move our armies.”

Meena stood dumbfounded. But she quickly recovered, a belligerent gleam in her eyes. “Then what in the Goddess’s name are you doing here?! Shouldn’t you be off somewhere leading?”

Wataru stepped between the two. “Stop this.”

“Stop what?!”

“It’s not like you, Meena, to talk this way.”

The fire went out of Meena’s eyes as though doused with water.

“She might be the empress-in-waiting,” said Kee Keema, “but how is she supposed to do anything all alone like this, huh?” Meena turned her back to him, whipping her tail around so fast it slapped into Wataru’s side.

Kee Keema looked up at the wavy top of the wall. “How far do we plan to walk tonight? I still think it’s too dangerous to go inside.”

“It would be nice if we could climb up somewhere—get a view of the city.”

“We won’t be getting up the wall here. Too high. There must be a place where it’s fallen down a bit.”

They began walking along the wall again. After a while, they heard a faint noise, like a person weeping. They all stopped and perked up their ears. After a moment they realized it was only the whistling of the wind.

“Still, that’s an odd sound. I wonder what it’s blowing through. Maybe something up there?” Kee Keema pointed up ahead to a place where rubble had spilled out through the city wall. Burned beams jutted out of the wreckage like leftover fish bones after a meal. “Maybe we can climb up on those?” Kee Keema walked over and tested one with his foot, but it crumbled almost immediately. Though it looked solid, it was like trying to climb a hill of sand.

“That’s funny…” If these were the remains of a house or some building, they should be a bit more solid, Wataru thought. And what’s with all the sand and rock?

Then it hit him. It’s a golem. This mountain of rubble was the remains of a giant golem.

Mitsuru’s words rose fresh in his mind. Each golem required materials: sand, rock, and a person. The stone giants that wreaked havoc in the city were themselves more sacrifices to Mitsuru’s cause.

“Wataru,” Meena said, grabbing his sleeve. “Do you see something glimmering in there?”

Wataru looked in the direction she was pointing, and there, in between the lumps of sand and earth, he could see a tiny shining light.

Could it be? But how…

Still uncertain, Wataru put a hand on the hilt of his sword. The light flared brighter, shining on his face.

There was no mistaking it. Wataru calmly drew his Brave’s Sword and held it up before his eyes.

The spirit in the gemstone spoke to him.

—Alone I waited a long time in my prison for you to come, Traveler.

A pure curtain of light began to spread before Wataru’s eyes. The curtain opened, and the figure of a tall man stepped through, wearing long-sleeved robes of platinum, and a veil of the same color over his hair.

The fourth gemstone. Even now, when all seemed lost, and Wataru himself was nearing the depths of despair, the gemstones still hadn’t given up hope on him.

—I am the one who honors what is true in people, the spirit of mutual grace and friendship. Though many of flesh and blood lived here in this northern land, they had long forgotten to honor life. They had long forgotten the true path. I was buried in the frozen earth, embraced by stone, and made to sleep.

Wataru knelt on one knee before the spirit and lifted his eyes.

—Do not waste your life in vain, or take life in vain. Where there is faith, there is also kindness and forgiveness, and where there is forgiveness, there will you find true balance—the most coveted prize of all. It is easy to stray, misled by one’s own greed, or by easy pleasure. Men are weak, and many step off the path never knowing it. It is nothing but a gentle lie to say that most will find heaven when they die. Traveler, by your faith, forgive those who stand in your way. Yet, if they should seek to betray truth, then wield justice to bring their journey to its rightful end.

The fourth gemstone came down, like an angel descending from on high, and found its place in the hilt of Wataru’s sword. The Brave’s Sword glimmered once, sending a wave of energy coursing through Wataru’s body.

“D-did you see that, Wataru?!” Kee Keema gasped, then quickly knelt on the ground and bowed his head low. “It’s a sign, a sign from the gemstones!”

Then he leaped to his feet, picking up Wataru in his arms and lifting him high over his head. “Did you see it? Did you see it? The Goddess is still waiting for you! Your journey isn’t over yet, not by a long shot!”

Wataru’s eyes swirled with the sudden motion. How can he have so much strength after today? “Okay, okay! I saw it, Kee Keema! I saw it! Now let me down!”

Kee Keema didn’t cry when he heard about the death of Kutz. But now tears streamed down his face.

“You’re a Traveler too?” Lady Zophie said, almost staggering in surprise.

“Yes. Mitsuru and I—we come from the same place in the real world. We were friends.”

“Then you, too, will follow Mitsuru to the Tower of Destiny?”

Wataru’s momentary elation quickly cooled. He still lacked the final gemstone. His Brave’s Sword was not yet complete. Mitsuru had already found his—the Gem of Darkness—in the mirror room of the Crystal Palace. If his was there, then where could Wataru’s be hiding? Did he even have enough time left to find it?

The wind whistled through the wreckage once again.

Meena’s ears shot up. “What’s that sound?

Fweeew…

“That’s not the wind! That’s something calling…”

The four tensed, looking around, trying to determine the direction from which the strange whistle came. On top of the city wall? Beyond the mountain of rubble? Hidden in the night grasses?

Just then a cloud moved away from the moon, and the night brightened around them. Something small and swift darted under the clear moonlight, slicing through the wind.

They heard the sound of wings flapping nearby. But before they could react, a bird of pure white appeared suddenly, perching on Wataru’s shoulder.

“Now, now. No need to be so startled,” the bird said, its red beak snapping open and shut.

“Wh-what’s that? A bird?!” Meena practically shouted in surprise, forgetting where they were. Zophie slid behind Kee Keema’s back. The waterkin’s big mouth was wide open.

“Why it’s me,” the bird replied, and the next moment was enveloped in a cloud of white smoke. Wataru leaped back.

Wayfinder Lau was standing before him.

For the space of several seconds, no one said anything. Wayfinder Lau stood with his jaw firmly shut, obviously expecting someone else to break the silence.

“Well, say something,” the old man said at last.

Wataru’s jaw moved, but no words came out of his mouth.

Wayfinder Lau’s long eyebrows lifted, then sank. “Is this all the greeting I get? I would think such a reunion deserving of a bit more fanfare.”

“F-f-fanfare?” Wataru squeaked. His heart was doing somersaults in his chest. “Wayfinder Lau? What are you doing here?!”

“What, this old coot is the Wayfinder?” Kee Keema snorted.

“This is the guy who guides all the Travelers?” Meena asked incredulously.

Wayfinder Lau lifted his staff and gave Wataru a sharp crack on the head. “You ask me why I have come? I came because you called for me! But if you’ve no need of me, I suppose I’ll be on my way.”

“I-I called you?”

“You wanted to know where the last gemstone might be found, didn’t you?”

At once, a palpable tension spread over Wataru and his friends’ faces.

“You’d tell me?” Wataru asked, his voice cracking. His heart did another somersault, refusing to settle back into place.

“If you have the will to continue your journey, then I shall,” the Wayfinder said almost casually, looking up at the night sky. “Yet you must hurry, or the demonkin will pick up your scent for sure. Now is no time to tarry.”

Suddenly, time lurched back into motion. The clock was ticking. Wataru felt a chill run down his spine. “Tell me! please!”

Now that he wanted him to hurry, Wayfinder Lau stopped, staring long into Wataru’s eyes. Wataru remembered when he first met the old man at the Village of the Watchers. Then, as now, the Wayfinder had looked at him long and hard, as though judging him, measuring his worth…

The way he’s looking at me now, it’s even harsher than when I first came here. He’s measuring me on a different scale. Have I become heavier somehow? Is the old scale not big enough to measure me anymore?

“Will you confront Mitsuru again?”

“Huh?”

“Listen up, boy. I’m asking if you plan to confront Mitsuru—if you’re ready to face him.”

Wataru looked back at Meena’s face, then up into Kee Keema’s eyes. “I am,” he answered at last. “I’ve pretty much already been doing that for a while now.”

“It won’t be like it was before,” Wayfinder Lau said, tapping at the ground with the butt of his staff. “You see, the fifth gemstone, the one you need to transform your Brave’s Sword into the Demon’s Bane, is none other than the very same Gem of Darkness that Mitsuru has already claimed. Though there may be two Travelers, there is only one final gemstone.”

Then how am I supposed to get it? Mitsuru’s already left. Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?

Wayfinder Lau watched Wataru’s eyes, reading his thoughts. His staff connected with Wataru’s forehead once again, just as it had in the Cave of Trials.

“It will not do to make such an ill-mannered face at a Watcher, boy. Yes, the final gemstone you need is in Mitsuru’s hands. Therefore, should you wish it for yourself, you will need to take it from him. Understand? Take it from him.”

Up until now, Wataru’s competition with Mitsuru had been a kind of parallel race. He had never had to challenge him directly. He had never tried to take something away from him.

Why does the last challenge always have to be the hardest?

“Then I have to fight him. I have to fight him and win,” Wataru said, halfasking, half-telling himself. Wayfinder Lau said nothing.

You can win, someone said. For a moment he couldn’t tell who it was. It was a voice he had never heard, high, yet firm, and full of resolve.

It was Meena. Her eyes glimmered in the reflected light of the crescent moon. “You can win. I know you can, Wataru. You will win. You have to go.”

How can you be so sure? Wataru felt his heart shrink. I couldn’t even draw my sword when we were standing on top of that golem. I can’t even win an argument with Mitsuru. How can I win a fight?

Meena hadn’t seen any of that. She hasn’t seen the weak me.

“You will go even if you cannot win. You will go because you must. If you do not know this in your heart, I will not open the way for you.”

Wataru looked up, into the Wayfinder’s eyes. An old man’s eyes, wrinkled and teary. How does his gaze skewer me like that, like a knife going right through my heart?

Though the old man’s mouth was closed, his question rang in Wataru’s mind.

—What will you wish for at the Tower of Destiny? What do you wish for most, right here, right now?

What do I wish for most? What?

Wataru could hear Kutz’s voice as though she were standing right next to him.

—You’re a Highlander. You swore an oath to defend Vision. If you would break that oath, you aren’t fit to wear the firewyrm band.

Wataru looked down at the band, still circling his left wrist. He touched it lightly with his fingers.

What do I wish for most?

Then he saw the meaning behind the Wayfinder’s question. He knew what he was searching for. How could he not know? It was a straight path—there could be no stepping off. But once he chose that path, he would never be able to choose another. Am I okay with that? Is that what I want? Will I not regret it? Will I achieve what I set out to accomplish in the first place?

Charity and wisdom, bravery and faith, all in the sword.

It isn’t my destiny that has to change.

It’s me.

Wataru looked Wayfinder Lau straight in the eye. “I’ll go. I’ll confront Mitsuru and take the Gem of Darkness from him. I have to go to the tower. Wayfinder, open the way for me.”