I.
“Let me carry that for you, Sir Old Man,” a pitched voice offered. The old man who carried a sack of rice turned and raised his left brow. A bizarre young lady stood tall; she had a dark top hat and darker wavy hair; her face was pale and had a red heart on her right cheek. She wore a blue cloak over a plain corset shirt and thigh-high leather boots over cream trousers. The girl held her arms outward while she smiled at the old man and nodded.
The old man grabbed another sack and carried it both to his cabin. While he walked, the girl trailed alongside him, arms still extended. He entered his home, walked to the kitchen where he set down and stacked the sacks he carried. The girl still stood outside, beady green eyes in need of an awkward embrace. “Go on,” the old man resigned. He watched the girl haul the bulk of rice sacks into the cabin even if it made her limbs wobbled.
“Here you go, child.” The old man handed a cup of water to the feeble child that drew a heavy breath. The girl gulped down the refreshment, sighed, and handed the old man the empty cup.
“You are from the Commission, aren’t you?” the old man asked.
"Yes, sir! Robert Anne Katipunan. Guild chaos wielder and Commission-affiliated handler,” the girl replied.
She took her top hat and whirled it in the air. She extended her arms outward, then twirled her entire body. The girl ended her theatrics when she caught the hat before it fell to the ground and snapped it back into place. Ah, there it is, the eccentricities of a chaos wielder.
“Well, what does the Commission want with me today?”
“Ah yes—they—we.” The girl put her hands over her chest and took a deep breath.
“Captain Commissioner Bernard has requested your presence at the House of Commission, sir! He gave me the task of personally picking you up and accompanying you on the journey. He also noted that I shouldn’t disturb your daily chores and stuff—wait for you to—” Robert smacked her cheeks; her pale face turned bright red, and the inked heart disappeared.
“Wait—have I?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that.”
“Arggrhhh! This is baaaaaad! I must record this! This is a demerit! They should account for this in this month’s commissioner's deliberation!”
The girl put down her hat and pulled out a tome half the size of her body. Labeled THE FANTASTIC ARCHIVES on the cover. “Day 21, at noon, I disobeyed the captain’s orders. Sir. Old Man was disappointed,” she said. The book flipped through the pages on its own, then stopped. Light runes in the shape of letters appeared out of thin air; they printed what the girl had quoted. She closed the book and shoved it back inside the hat with ease.
The old man's eyes widened, raised his right brow, and he ruffled his greying moss beard. That ability, was that a conjuration of a chaos artifact? If indeed it is, that is rare. It often takes decades for a chaos wielder to be able to manifest chaos vividly and to add complexity to the structure of it. The Trifecta gave blue cloaks as an official inauguration item for an individual that passed the chaos wielder examination as a handler. The girl only had one sapphire trigon pin on her collar which signified that she was in her first year of Mastery of Chaos Guidance. Yet even in that early stage of her academic years, at that age, not everyone could… Curious, curious—she may be one of those children in the chaos inherent type.
“Do you have other things to do, Sir Old Man? I won’t bother you this time around!”
Robert ran towards the ruins over the grassy plains near the old man’s cabin. Remnants of a fortress once strong, fragmented stone pillars, and deteriorated limestone walls, those that withstood the tempest of time. The girl found a mound that she fancied, jumped on top of it, and sat down.
“I’LL WAIT FOR YOU HEEEEEEEEEREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Robert shouted while she waved at the old man. She pulled out a pocket-sized book out of her hat and read it.
The next on my list is knitting—actually, never mind that. This morning could use a change of pace.
The old man grinned and went back to his cabin. He approached the chest of valuables in his room that made a nice metal clank whenever he opened it. He grabbed a gray knitted cloak that he flared out in the air and donned it over his white camisa. He put on a pair of giant round lenses and his sage cap, a hand-sewn straw hat with prickly points at the top and edges, and a brim that creased upwards. Of course, the old man wouldn't forget his staff by the door. It was a curved, darkened wooden staff. Its branches grasped a shiny amethyst orb.
The old man walked out of his home and embraced the wind. He took a long breath, absorbed the air filled with the essence of nature, and turned his gaze towards the sky, a blue hue highlighted by stark clouds; an image that reflected onto his glasses. He tapped the ground three times with his staff and marched. I can’t wait to unravel what this day has in store for me! Wherever there is chaos, I must follow!
###
When the old man found Robert, the girl was distracted, she strolled through the ruins and inspected the stone walls’ crevices. She even climbed one of the pillars. “WAAAAAAAH! I CAN SEE THE CITY FROM HERE!” The girl raised her arms, and her cloak flowed outward along with the wind. Ah, to be so young, so much to experience and learn—so much to unravel.
The old man decided to let the wonders of youth blossom. He sat on the field and ruffled the blades of grass beside him. The ruins' familiarity welcomed him, an ancient neighbor he hadn’t met in a while. A sandwich would’ve been nice, and fruit as well. I would have the ham and chicken while she—a vision came to him.
It was a time when the old man had hair as saturated as the green around him. He chased a woman—white dress and brown silky hair that waved with grace. She giggled, ran across the field, and called out to him. A young man of his vigor could catch up to his beloved in a heartbeat. Yet, when he got close, his legs sank into the sea of grass and halted his pursuit. The woman kept on her strides and faded into the horizon. He tried to call her name, but the wind drowned out his voice. No, wait for me! Don't leave me behind. Please. The old man felt a tremble in his heart. He looked down and saw his hand on his chest; it was spotty and wrinkled. Time had caught up to him, a little late—yet still too early to finish the job.
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Robert noticed the old man and waved at him. The oblivious girl stepped forward. “AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” She fell from her grace but was quick to react. The girl grabbed her top hat and pointed it to the ground. A white and soft cloud thing expelled that cushioned the fall. When the old man approached her, she bounced back. She pivoted, twirled, and snapped her hat in place again.
“You forgot the cloud,” the old man reminded.
Robert scrambled and took off her hat and pointed it towards the cloud thing. PLOOF. The girl turned to the old man, red face and teary-eyed.
“That may be kept from the record."
The girl bowed to him.
“We may go and meet Benny now.”
“Yes—yes, right away, sir!"
The old man wanted to take the scenic route through Storm Lock Valley. Yet, after he witnessed Robert’s awkward demeanor—he couldn’t risk it. The winded and sloped terrain might hurt the child. The boring route was to take the road that cut through the forest of the Engkanto, to the farmlands, and finally the east front of the city. The girl seemed to find it the favorable choice as well. As they strolled, she was appeased by the scenery of verdant forestry and bountiful rice fields. When they reached the mouth of the east gate, the sun was already at the highest point in the sky.
The east gate was inconspicuous among all the gates of Intramuros. It wasn’t exactly a gate but a cave that protruded on the ground beyond the stone walls which connected to the underground tunnel of the city. In the distant past, no soul could locate this secret pathway without a special compass as it was overgrown by moss and canopied by ancient sentinels. It was the place where the first hunters of the Trifecta emerged and fought against the malignant forces that once roamed the lands beyond. A few centuries later, an era of peace brought a paradigm shift towards agricultural development. The east gate became the convenient entry point for farmers to transport their goods. Hence, the Trifecta repurposed it from a landmark of historical fables into a road of commerce that led toward the future, or so they claimed.
Robert perked her shoulders up and moved closer to the old man. The old man observed the girl as they plunged into the depths. She fidgeted left and right and gasped at whoever they came across inside the tunnel. First was the merchant who chased after a hen that gawked and thrashed about after it escaped the cages. Second was the carabao that expelled a huge green turd while the farmer, nauseated by the stench, caught it with his arms to avoid a fee. Third was a guard on patrol who waved around the torch he carried and cursed at the mosquitoes that plagued him.
The girl exhaled a deep breath when she resurfaced inside the city. The old man nudged her shoulders with his staff. “You alright, child?” the old man asked.
Robert took a deep breath, “while of course, sir," she replied, took off her hat and bowed.
The old man raised his left brow when he looked at the girl. “Are you sure?”
Robert stepped in front of the old man; she tilted her face and smiled. The old man seemed to have shrunk in the presence of the young lady. He only realized how enormous the girl was when they faced each other. The old man was shy of six feet, yet Robert towered over him even without her hat. The girl’s shadow engulfed the old man. She was a mountain found in Storm Lock Valley. Grand and bizarre, but with a subtle gentleness within.
“Did you know, Sir Old Man? Centuries ago, the grand stone walls of Intramuros were built by the remnants of the Imperio to protect the people of this city from monsters that lurk out in the wilds. Books found in the Commission’s library stated that each stone used to build this barrier was imbued with chaos to better strengthen its structure," the girl said as she turned back towards the street and continued to stride. The old man followed and trailed behind her.
“During the reign of the Children of Bakunawa; the east gate, the one we passed through—” the kid glanced back at the tunnel.
“That was once the secret entrance of the city, where the recruits of the newly built Trifecta were deployed to survey the lands beyond the forest. A lot of them were former soldiers of the Imperio, some were sons of farmers—tailors, and there were a few scholars among them. But all of them, all of them were afraid—”
The old man looked at the child with intent, curious to where the story might lead. Robert stopped in her tracks. Her hands trembled at her side.
“Now we mainly use it for travel. It’s a tourist spot too! Ohhhhhh such a place of history!
Robert smacked her face. The sound echoed throughout the street; even the people that walked by glanced at them. The girl looked back at the old man; face masked by a smile with some red hand painted on it.
“I don’t know why I am telling you this! HAHA! You probably already know about it. Maybe even more than me—being old, you know! I mean—OLDER—no, wiser! An esteemed gentleman of your age must be full of knowledge and wisdom! Yes—of course!” the girl said while she flailed her arms in the air.
The old man chuckled and caught up to the kid. He poked the child on the rib and flinched her. Robert grinned and they began to walk side by side again. A grandfather and an overgrown granddaughter. This land is riddled with mysteries of old that a whole city was built over to bury them; let the child keep hers.
###
The old man and Robert took half an hour until they reached La Casa de Comisión, the House of Commission. The Trifecta’s masons built the conspicuous stone mansion with white limestone all over. Their craftsmen built the second-floor structure with bleached nara wood and topped it with white stone tiles. The starkness of the overall design represented the Commission’s oath to fairness, to serve people of all ages and statuses.
A trifecta architecture wouldn’t be complete without the trinity insignia at the forefront. The symbol of balance were four trigons of equal measure unified to make ONE coherent trigon piece. A diamond at the top, a sapphire on the right, a ruby on the left, and an emerald in the center. Artisans emblazoned the gemstones at the high point of the mansion's exterior where they emitted a prism glow when light struck once the sun had risen.
“Welcome! Welcome to the House of Commission!” the girl announced. She took off her hat and sparkles flew out of it.
The old man clapped and nodded in acknowledgment.
“I hope that you have a nice day today, Sir Oldman. Captain Bernard will be waiting for you in his office. It’s across the main hall. But I am sure you already know that.”
“Thank you, child.” The old man replied before he walked inside the building. He then looked at the girl and smiled with his eyes.
“You did great today. I’ll make sure to put in a good word for this commission.”
“THANK YOU! YOU ARE TOO KIND!” Robert said and bowed.
The old man waved to her goodbye. But he noticed the girl stiffened, this prompted him to approach and give her a nudge again. The girl turned her back on him, her cloak hit the old man in the face. The old man saw the amethyst orb on his staff glow. Chaos approaches.
“Help me…. Pleaaaaaseeee… my son... MY SON!”
A woman who wore a stained baro and saya stood outside the compound barefoot. She trembled when she walked toward the house of commission. The old man could see with keen eyes accustomed to despair that a green haze of chaos engulfed the woman. An emergence.
“CRIIIIIIIISPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!” the woman screamed. The haze spread out.
The old man prolonged his stance on the incident. Robert was a different matter. She treaded towards the woman, on the back of her cloak the trinity insignia emerged and her green eyes gleamed with determination.
“Thank you for your courage. I swear on my oath as a chaos handler of the Trifecta, I will do my best to help you.”