From where him and Ming Jia Ying were observing, Ku Wei could see the whites of Tomo's eyes turning red as he stared at Ku Pa. Ku Wei had expected to see rage and loathing from the way Tomo had spoken about the Gaian Empire, but neither was present. Instead, Ku Wei sensed bottomless despair and profound longing from Tomo's gaze.
“We need the room. Leave,” Ku Pa waved a hand dismissively toward Ku Fu and the others without sparing them a glance.
Ku Pa's voice wasn't as deep as the young princes had expected, but it carried a commanding presence that none of them dared go against. Ku Fu, his sons, and Ku Wen all bowed in unison. “As the Emperor commands!” they all intoned before making their way out of the throne room.
“Can we speak face to face?” Tomo's voice was quiet and shaking, on the edge of tears.
For the first time Ku Pa's eyes left Tomo and glanced in Ku Wei and Ming Jia Ying's direction, causing the two to jump back. “When we're alone,” Ku Pa said flatly as he turned back to face Tomo.
“You may wish to hide the truth from the Ku Clan and the rest of the country, but I have no intention of hiding anything from my disciples,” Tomo countered, his voice much firmer than before.
Slowly lights began to drift from Ku Pa like embers on the wind. The process sped up, causing the image of the man before them to fade. The woman that now stood in his place was a head and shoulders shorter, with dark skin that Ku Wei had only seen in pictures of Alkebulan[1]. Her round face reminded Ku Wei of his aunt Ku Wen and those piercing blue eyes were unmistakably the same as those of his father and brothers. The other feature Ku Wei took note of was her hair, it was pulled back into a large bun, but he could tell it was even harder to tame than his own curly hair.
“Fine, have it your way Ezra,” as she spoke the name a smile blossomed upon her face causing her small button nose to turn up slightly.
Before Ming Jia Ying and Ku Wei had even noticed Tomo was before the woman, his hand caressing her cheek as she gently leaned into his touch. “I still miss him too and I would never tell you how to grieve, but it's okay to let go. You don't have to continue wearing his face to keep his memory alive.”
“I didn't create the image to grieve, I made it for vengeance. I wanted his face to be the last thing those responsible would ever see.”
“Oh Charlatte, it's been over a thousand years since we lost Little Wei. Those that were responsible for the attack are long since dead and gone.”
“Lost!? He wasn't lost! He was taken from us! Our boy was taken from us because instead of knowledge and peace this country chose ignorance and war! It's a decision I will never let them unmake! I will drown this country in never ending war until there is nothing left!”
Tomo pulled the raging woman into his embrace. She pounded her fists against his chest, but made no attempts to leave his arms. Eventually she quieted down and the two just held each other for a moment.
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Tomo was the first to break the silence, “Why don't we go home? Haven't they suffered enough?”
“As long as I have to suffer so will they... wait... home?” Charlatte pulled away from Tomo, a look of shock on her face, “Did you solve the fifth dimension issue?”
The current language used in the Gaian Empire is a combination of several Chinese dialects that is simply referred to as Gaian. However, the language Charlatte just switched to is Old Gaian, the language spoken by The Academic and The Contender before they arrived on this world. Ming Jia Ying was completely lost. Despite learning to read Old Gaian, it was considered a dead language, as such Ku Wei wasn't much better off.
Wearing a self congratulatory smile, Tomo began to explain, “The fifth dimension actually turned out to be a nearly infinite set of dimensions working in tandem. Fortunately, using Sir Martin Hairer's work on the general theory of ergodicity, homogenization, and path sampling I was able to approximate these dimensions as a single plane. Unfortunately, that plane was in the shape of a one dimensional complex manifold, so I used methods popularized by Maryam Mirzakhani for understanding Riemann surfaces. Finally, I had something I could use to map the multiverse. After plotting the locations of a few parallel universes I realized that the distribution seemed to be following a similar pattern as the distribution of prime numbers. Therefore, I was able to approximate the positions of all nearby parallel universes using James Maynard's work with prime numbers.” Towards the end he trailed off before smiling bashfully. “You weren't following any of that were you?” he asked, switching back to Gaian.
“No, but...” Charlatte nuzzled back into Tomo's arms, her fingers traveling suggestively across his chest, “you know I find your intelligence incredibly attractive.”
With a wave of Tomo's cane Ming Jia Ying and Ku Wei found themselves back in the tea room of his grand library. Charlatte sensed the nearby presences departing and giggled, “I thought you had nothing to hide from your disciples.”
Tomo didn't say anything, instead he reached down, cupped her thighs just below her generous posterior, and lifted the petite but muscular woman into his arms. Her giggles quickly turned into excited shouts as he carried her to the throne.
The stories of Ku Pa's three day long battle with an unknown intruder would quickly become a local legend. Gravitational waves emanated from the palace and shook the very foundations of the city followed by the Emperor's signature light element lighting up the night sky the final day, driving off the invader.
The throne room was unrecognizable. The throne itself had long been reduced to rubble. Laying among the debris two entwined bodies stared at the stars through the large hole that had been blasted in the ceiling.
A sudden thought caused Charlatte to sit up, “You mentioned mapping the fifth dimension, but what about navigation?”
Tomo answered with a question of his own, “When we passed through it we could still see everything, right? So that means?”
“Light can travel through it,” realization dawned on Charlatte as she looked at the crumbling roof she'd just unintentionally destroyed with her light blasts. “You need someone that can use the light element.”
“Not someone. You, Charlatte, I've always needed you,” Tomo's voice was barely more than a whisper as he pulled her close and lightly kissed her forehead.
Charlatte began to fidget, she was acting timid as she struggled to find the right words for fear of disappointing the one true love of her life. The fear was unwarranted. Tomo could read her like a book, he knew what her answer was and loved her anyway. His soothing voice echoed off the cracked marble floors, “Why don't we play a game? We'll let this world decide it's own fate. I'll train up my disciples and they'll face off against your armies led by Ku Fu and the Empire's Pillars. If Ku Fu wins I'm sure he'll want to continue the war and if my disciples win we'll follow their lead.”
“Even if your disciples wish to continue the war?”
“Yes.”
“Interesting,” Charlatte thought over his proposition, “A game with a wager we can't control. That is quite a novel idea.”
Author's Notes:
[1]Reminder: Alkebulan is the oldest known name for the African continent, meaning mother of mankind