Dulce waited under the warm and comfy blankets, snuggling in tightly. She was waiting for a bedtime story from Lǎoshī as promised. Her eyes were beginning to droop, but she had to stay awake. It was her reward for thinking of an effective survival plan in case she was lost in an urban area, and she wanted Lǎoshī to tell her favourite story.
The pillow was so inviting though…she could almost feel her head relaxing into the fluffy pillow and her drifting off into a comfortable and restful sleep. Her bedroom was dark, but she saw the little paint splashes from when she was experimenting with different colours. There was electric blue, jade green, silver, scarlet red, and royal purple. She also saw splotches of a warm golden orange, lemon yellow, earthy brown tones, gunmetal grey, a deep sea green, magenta, peach, and vermillion. All of the colours intermixed on her white canvas-like walls, like a beautiful tapestry. Dulce wondered what the best colour was. She had an affinity towards greens, reds, and purples; however she could not decide on what single colour to paint her room. All three colours were equally good in her eyes. Lǎoshī told her that she was in no rush to pick, but Dulce wanted to…
A creak of her wooden door signified his entrance.
“Xiǎo Yáng, are you still awake?”
“Yes!” She cupped her mouth. That came out louder than expected.
He chuckled. “Sometimes, I doubt you are a goat when you roar like a tiger.”
Dulce laughed. Lǎoshī said funny things sometimes, like when he believed that her drawings can bring out “inner powers”. He still displayed them around the house, especially her special room with all of the watercolours and oil paints.
Lǎoshī pulled up a once white chair, now drenched in a long dried mix of peach and vermillion. “What story do you want to hear tonight?”
She wiped her eyes. “The Zodiac Race!”
“Again? You asked for it last month as well.” He smiled. “But I’ll read it to you, as long as you’re not tired.”
She nodded. Dulce was five going on six, she could stay awake for twenty minutes.
“Where should I start, and where is my book? Ah here it is.” The man with greying hair and a long moustache and beard got up and plucked a hefty and well-worn book from a bookshelf facing Dulce’s window. “The old Yuè family history book, passed through the centuries.”
She was always awed by the book and how thick it was. Lǎoshī treasured the book, which was a record of his family history, along with myths from China. From his quiet and reassuring voice, Dulce had immersed herself in the star-crossed romance of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, the happier legend of the White Snake and her attempts to marry her beloved, and the misadventures of Sun Wukong from a rocky birth to gaining immunity from death for him and his fellow monkeys through trickery and deceit. She wrapped her dark grey blanket around herself and watched as Lǎoshī turned the yellowed pages of the book.
“A long time ago, before us, before the Calamities, before my family moved here, before the oldest imperial dynasty of China, there was only Heaven and Earth. Earth was where all animals resided, where they were free to do as they wished, but there was no time. No calendar had been set out, no structure, and no order.”
Dulce nodded.
“In Heaven, there was a deity known as the Jade Emperor, who wished to create a calendar for the inhabitants of Heaven and Earth to live by. There was a second purpose as well: he alone could not defend Earth from outsiders who wished harm on its inhabitants, so he wanted protectors as well. For this task, he decided that twelve animals and twelve protectors would be sufficient enough. He sent out a pronouncement to all members of the animal kingdom: Compete in this race on behalf of your species, and you will be granted a place among the zodiac.”
Dulce’s eyes were beginning to close shut, but she wiped them with the back of her hand.
“Two best friends, the rat and the cat, heard of this proclamation and both mutually agreed to help each other get a spot on the zodiac. Once the race started, the cat and rat were racing past the woods, leaping over small ledges, and were almost at the end when they came across a large and fast-flowing river. They were both equally terrible swimmers, and both were bound to drown if they attempted to swim across. Suddenly, there was a tremor!”
She gasped.
“Much to their surprise, there was an ox preparing to cross the river. The rat and the cat begged for a ride on the ox’s back, for if they were to swim on their own, they would surely die and be swept away by the swift current. The kindhearted ox was ever generous, and let the two climb on his back. As the ox was making his way across the river, the rat’s secret ambitions bore fruit. When the cat wasn’t watching, the rat pushed the cat off of the ox’s back.”
Dulce always felt bad for the poor cat. She tried to imagine being betrayed by her best friend, but it was too sad to think about.
“Once the ox was near the river, the rat leaped off onto the shore and ran the rest of the way, securing first place. The ox lumbered in at second place, happy and content with his position.”
She nodded. “The rat seems mean.”
“They are known for their intelligence and quick wit, so it might have been in the self-interest of the rat.” He cleared his throat. “A roar resonated throughout the clearing as the tiger, the second most powerful animal, had battled the currents to take third place.”
“Was he happy about being third?”
Lǎoshī chuckled. “I was not there, but I would say that it was unlikely the tiger was satisfied. On a small log was the rabbit. She had thought that hopping on the rocks was the best solution, but the jagged edges cut into her paws, so she decided that a log was best. Her little kicks weren’t doing anything against the mighty river—until a gust of wind blew her to shore and she was able to claim fourth place for her courage.”
Dulce nodded.
“The source of that gust was the dragon, the most powerful animal. He was expected to be first, but first he had to bring rain to a village stricken by drought and then he saw the rabbit in distress and blew her to shore. For this, the Jade Emperor awarded the dragon with fifth place.”
She waited for the next part.
“The sound of thundering hooves signalled the arrival of the horse. He had managed to find a shortcut and expected to speedily secure a position. In his haste to charge to the finish line, he failed to notice a stowaway in his hoof. When he was about to reach the finish line, the snake slithered out of his hoof, startling him, and managed to secure sixth place. The angry horse was seventh.”
Dulce created a miniature blanket fort around her. Her favourite part was coming up.
“Next were the goat, the monkey, and the rooster. All three decided to cross the river together, with the goat helping direct the monkey and the rooster on when to paddle. When they finally got to shore, they decided that the goat should take eighth place because of her role in bringing the group together in harmony, the monkey ninth place, and the rooster tenth place.”
She loved this part. Three friends working together to achieve their goals appealed to her, especially the peaceful goat.
“The dog dragged itself onto shore. Even though he was a strong swimmer, he found the river water too tempting and frolicked in it for an hour before returning to the race. He was granted eleventh place.”
Swimming sounded fun, she thought, maybe Lǎoshī would teach her one day.
“Hours passed and the Jade Emperor briefly thought about closing the race when suddenly, an “oink” was heard from the shoreline. It was the pig, who had been racing until he discovered a cache of food. Scarfing it down, he promptly fell asleep and when he woke up, crossed the river. Thus, he was awarded twelfth place.”
Dulce was getting tired, but she still wanted to ask a question. “What happened to the cat?”
Lǎoshī stayed silent for a moment. “Some say that the cat survived and swore eternal vengeance against the rat. That’s why rats and cats hate each other now.”
She nodded. “What happened—” She yawned and tried to keep her eyes open. “What happened to the twelve animals?”
“They were placed on the calendar, and the Jade Emperor placed them as his guardians of the Earthly Gates. Now I see that you are starting to fall asleep, so I’ll let you rest. Tomorrow, we can practise on how to stitch wounds and small injuries, but go to sleep first.”
Dulce had already fallen asleep under her blanket. Lǎoshī smiled and closed the door behind him. She briefly mumbled something, but quickly fell into a deep sleep.
----------------------------------------
Lǎoshī had promised to take her to the beach. When asked if she preferred the Pacific or the Atlantic, she said at the time it didn’t matter to her. Both sides held equally wondrous beauty, and truly, all that mattered was that she had someone to share the experience with.
She had seen both oceans alone during her momentous journey. Two great bodies of water, sea green and azure blue brimming with white seafoam that waxed and waned with the tide. She had trekked through verdant green forests, stared into the eyes of a slow moving sloth and its long three claws, discovered a holy ghost orchid deep in meditation, and ventured through rocky grey mountains all by her lonesome.
Right, she thought, that was the issue.
Dulce was facing the coast of a different sea, far removed from the azure blues and turquoises she familiarised herself with over the course of her travels. The Mediterranean was a deep blue-green, and she had not seen seafoam in a while. Once Felícia had woken up, she found a small island with no inhabitants.
“La Fauchelle,” she told Dulce. “It’s part of the Galite Islands owned by Tunisia. No one lives here so we should be safe. Hey, can we do something about the dumbass rooster?”
“No.”
“Well, if she didn’t gulp down an entire glass of whatever it is that those insane rich people gave us, maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about being chased around by their private security?”
Dulce decided not to mention that Felícia also drunk half of her cocktail and simply nodded.
There was another island, but she found it hard to make out any features with the constant fog. Felícia mentioned that it was not foggy here before the Calamities. The Sun Summoner had proclaimed it as a sign of “a subtle taint upon which the abyss had lain upon the lands for impropriety towards itself”. The gold edged brunette rolled her eyes at this and mumbled something about “weather patterns” and “chicken-headed fluff”. She was grateful for Felícia deciding to teach her more Portuguese, but Dulce was still left questioning the wisdom of teaching her all of the swear words first.
She went swimming with Nahla yesterday. The girl had gone on her daily fishing trip and wanted to show Dulce the wonders of the sea. At first, she was hesitant. She could not swim, but the girl promised that she would be safe. Dulce heard of the sea’s beauty before, but she would have never believed that it would be that gorgeous! All of the iridescent patches beneath sparkling turquoise waters, Nahla’s rippling dark sea green tail, the violet streams that flowed from her waist, the way her hair billowed like a jellyfish underwater—Dulce felt awed at the visual appearance of the undersea world. Sometimes it felt a little…too beautiful, but she was content enough to not question it.
Most of them had settled into a routine within the week they had been on the island. Samir would help prepare the fish, clams, and other mollusks that Nahla brought in, then everyone would sit by an open fire that Felícia helped start. The flames and the heat made her a bit wary, so she usually took her meals further away from the fire than everyone else. The Sun Summoner had a talent for storytelling as she regaled a captive audience with epic tales of bravery, sacrifice, and courage beyond words, except Felícia, but Dulce had caught Felícia smiling at the younger girl’s impassioned delivery.
Lǎoshī would be happy for her, she mused. He was always pushing her to make friends with people her own age and not “spend her precious time with old men”. She wondered what he would think of Felícia, the Sun Summoner, Nahla, and Samir. Would he like them? Dulce thought he would. He liked everyone back home, no matter who they were or where they hailed from.
“‘Something passed down through the ages.’” she repeated. Help everyone, no matter what.
Her eyes turned towards the sketch she was working on. She drew out a sheet of paper, and had the barest outline of a face. Dulce tried to recall as many details as she could. Did he have a strong jawline? She remembered it being that way. His ears were large enough that she liked to pull at them as a toddler. His eyes should be a little smaller than hers, and…did he have an angular nose? A Roman nose? Maybe even a hooked nose? How many forehead creases did he have? Did he have any?
She stared at her unfinished drawing. It had only been a month…she can’t have forgotten everything about the man who raised her. Come to think of it, was Lǎoshī’s eyes actually shaped like a teardrop? She wished she had a reference photo, but they would be all lost by now…
“Hail to the fair lady!”
Dulce turned around. The Sun Summoner had her hands behind her back, her beaklike mask observing Dulce’s sketches.
“Whose visage are you envisioning now?” The girl brushed away her red…comb? Dulce still wasn’t sure what to call it.
“It’s…someone I once knew.” Could she tell the Sun Summoner? Her integrity was unquestionable, but she wanted no burdens for today. “What are you holding behind your back?”
The Sun Summoner whipped out a wreath of bluish purple flowers with a wide grin on her face. “This one knows that the taint of the abyss has lingered on this land long enough that this one can sense it, but this one is assured that these flowers are free from any such miasma.” The white gold mask tilted as the Sun Summoner moved closer to Dulce. “Would my fair lady like a flower wreath for her troubles? This one blessed them with the clarity of the Light.”
“Yes.”
Dulce found the girl’s gestures of kindness sweet and endearing. First there was kissing her hand after the battle in Rio de Janeiro, then the Sun Summoner professing a desire to write a song for her, and now the flower wreath. She watched as the girl gently placed the wreath around her black hair—and murmured in shock as the girl started singing a rousing ballad, causing a metal pavilion to spring up and enclose the two. A small easel sat in the corner.
“If the fair lady ever finds herself led astray by dark thoughts that cloud one’s clear vision, there will always be a place for her no matter where she finds herself as long as this one takes breath.” The Sun Summoner motioned for Dulce to take a seat.
Dulce sat down. She decided to detransform out of tiredness. Thankfully, she no longer had a massive cloak to worry about draping over the metal chair. Listening to the Sun Summoner chatter about the Light and its wondrous benefits, it brought a smile to her face. Did she know…maybe not the specifics, but the general feeling of loss? She must say, the Sun Summoner was quite different from Dulce’s first shameful impression of her. When she used such strange pronouns, Dulce thought that she was a delusional idiot, not helped by the mentions of the Light. As she had come to learn, that was clearly not the case. The Light was the way by which the Sun Summoner perceived the world, just as how an artist perceives through tints, shades, and tones. It just happened that her view was more diametrically opposed to most others’ perceptions of reality. A lot of creative minds were eccentric. Lǎoshī liked to talk to the moon. She used to draw crabs and pretend that the crabs talked back to her. It was not shameful, but merely a difference in sight.
“---This one was amazed by your prowess at cartography.”
“My prowess? Did you mean the map I drew?” She must have been a child when she drew it, and Dulce still couldn’t wrap around the fact that Lǎoshī would save her work.
“The peaks of each mountain sharp enough to cut through any lies, the blue of the ocean so deep to drown oneself, the light of the Sun that so fairly gazes upon the Earth below—it’s as if you captured the very essence of the physical world! Truly, such a talent could have only been bestowed on the fair lady by the machinations of the Light!”
Dulce took out the well-worn map. Before she knew about her powers, she had always found it strange why Lǎoshī would save every drawing she had ever drawn. They used to be hung in the meditation room, swaying in the breeze whenever Lǎoshī decided that fresh air was needed. If she can bring her drawings to life…she scanned the map. Every scribble, every stroke…if there was a way to decipher it, it must have been hidden within the map itself. It was part of Lǎoshī’s final gift, it must have meant something beyond another one of her doodles.
“Thank you Sun Summoner for the inspiration!” She opened the door to the pavilion. “Do you need anything else or do you want to come—”
“No,” the girl stated. “If the fair lady is happier now, then this one’s task has been successfully completed.”
There was a small clearing up on the hill that Dulce was climbing. It used to be completely flat, but the first thing Dulce noticed was the massive hole in the middle. Despite the fact that there was no pile of dirt nearby, she knew where it had gone, staring at the massive peach tree with its succulent fruit hanging perilously close to the ground.
“Hey Dulce! You should eat one of these! They’re amazing!”
Felícia was munching on a ripe peach, its juices running down her mouth. Dulce had been teaching Felícia Spanish in return for Portuguese lessons, and the younger girl had been a bright and curious student. She pronounced every word perfectly, all of the grammatical articles were almost correct, and rarely mixed up similar sounding words. There were a few mistakes, but it was better than what she expected from a first time learner. Dulce nodded, and was given a peach. She pulled out a knife that she drew on their first day here and a plate, and began cutting the peach into slices.
“What should we try first?” Felícia waved her hand over a small patch of grass, creating a napkin to wipe her mouth with.
Dulce unfolded her map carefully, setting it out on top of sheets of blank white paper she had drawn out previously. “I was thinking that we should use your transmutation powers—”
“I’m not one for laziness, but maybe we can take it a little easy today?” Felícia was moving her hands, stretching them and rotating them around her wrists. “Changing things takes a lot of energy.”
She nodded. “What are your suggestions for today?”
“Well, we already tried the secret lemon writing, but I’m guessing that your teacher didn’t want to ruin your drawing because nothing showed up. What about the Sun? If you can encode hidden passageways with moonbeams like that fantasy series I read as a kid, the Sun could work. More useful too, the Moon changes like that.” She snapped her fingers.
Dulce always enjoyed painting under the cold moonlight. The full moon tickled her creative fantasies and drew out her emotions onto the paper. The Sun could work, and Felícia was right, the Sun was more constant than the Moon with its waxes and wanes. She placed it in the centre of the clearing, the afternoon Sun shining radiantly upon it.
“On the other hand, I don’t remember the Sheep being strongly associated with the Sun. Did your Lǎoshī say anything about the Sun? Different times, like ‘is it special in the morning?’” Felícia asked.
“Not that I remember. All I know is that to have the Goat or the Sheep as your Hour Pillar, you have to have been born between the hours of 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm,” was Dulce’s reply.
Felícia looked around. “Not enough stuff here to make a clock.” She covered her eyes and looked upwards. “The Sun is past noon, so give it a few hours?”
A few hours later, Felícia was unleashing creative insults and swear words at the luminous Sun. Dulce was not proud to say that she recognised all of them, but she did. Once the girl’s monkey tail stopped lashing wildly, Felícia relented.
“The Sun isn’t helping and I don’t see the Moon. I don’t remember the Moon being special to the Sheep, do you?”
Dulce shook her head.
“It had to be specific to you then. Did your Lǎoshī teach you any special drawing techniques? An ancient brushstroke passed down through the family lineage? Calligraphy brushes blessed by the ancestors?”
She was taught special techniques, but none of them were related to drawing, and she had no tangible possessions that weren’t consumed by fire. “No.”
“What are your thoughts? It’s not like it was meant for me, you did draw it as a child.”
Dulce squinted at the arcane symbols marked upon the map. A few jumped out to her, like the four directions. There was a wind rose in the left corner…wait. She looked at the compass.
“Lǎoshī, what does this hanzi mean?” She had asked.
“This hanzi means south.” He traced a brush over each individual stroke.
“Why is it pointing up? Should it not be north?”
“It should be, but in the days of ancient China, it was tradition that a compass always pointed upwards to the south.”
Dulce rotated the papers, reversing the map so that the bottom of the compass rose was pointing north and the top to the south. The shapes within better resembled the six continents, yet still as enigmatic and mysterious as ever. Withdrawing her obsidian amulet from her green kaftan, she looked at it. Black and white, just like her clothes. She wished that the world was as monochrome as her amulet.
“I want to redraw this colourless world so that all will know shades of resilience, tints of flexibility, and tones of tranquillity.”
The amulet exploded into black and white. Dulce was affixed in a void of white, black paint running along her midsection. From the void came a stream of white paint. She felt herself used like a canvas, watching as her clothing was sketched into existence. Her hair was erased and then redrawn with a fluffier texture and recoloured with white, leaving two long strips of black at the front.
When she opened her eyes, she first noticed Felícia holding the map while they and the tree were both strapped down.
“I honestly love floating around weightless but,” Felícia gestured to the barren ground. “Not a lot of good places to climb. I’m also tired, so there’s that.”
Dulce nodded and motioned for everything to obey gravity. Both she and Felícia slumped to the ground while the tree remained rooted. She summoned her calligraphy brush and hovered over the map. Still, nothing jumped out at her. She drew out a few transparent strokes. Nothing.
“Should we try again?” Dulce’s eyes flickered to Felícia’s ochre coloured hands. “Or should we try a different approach?”
Felícia sighed. “I’m a bit tired, but I want to know as much as you do.”
It was at that moment that Dulce noticed Felícia’s bloodshot eyes. “You are not well, we can pursue this tomorrow morning—”
“It’s been a month, we do this now or never.” Felícia’s hands started moving, changing the dirt into an object with a metallic glint. “This should—”
She coughed to her right side. Dark crimson blood splattered on the pale beige dirt. Before Dulce could react, Felícia’s eyes rolled to the back of her head as she fell backwards.
Oh no no no no no no—Dulce started screaming. What was she thinking!? If she had been more attentive, she would have noticed that Felícia was not healthy enough to use her powers. If she had not pushed Felícia to help her with deciphering the map, then Felícia would not be lying on the ground bleeding from her mouth and possibly close to death—quickly, Dulce touched Felícia, whose wide open eyes were staring at the sky in open horror. Out of sheer panic, she squeezed her hands tightly—only for Felícia to close her eyes. Dulce continued screaming.
Wait, her mind muttered. Focus and think clearly and carefully. The Sun Summoner and Nahla were either far away or fishing in the depths of the ocean. She wasted valuable seconds panicking and screaming when she should have devised a solution. Dulce stopped hyperventilating and took in deep breaths. Like Lǎoshī taught her, the more she hyperventilated, the less oxygen flowed to her brain. Turning Felícia to her side and taking up her brush, she drew a map of the body meridians outlined in various colours. Dulce knew that it was not a correct anatomical model, but it helped her visualise each organ system when she was younger.
From what she remembered, blood fell under water. She drew a small stroke, outlining every major blood vessel in black. It was a destaurated shade though. The woman had caused a lot of blood loss. Dulce highlighted all of Felícia’s bone marrow in black. In order to stimulate the bone marrow with Lǎoshī’s healing techniques, she needed to find Felícia’s large intestine. Thankfully it was handily outlined in white. Dulce drew a small tube, inserted it into the white reservoir, and led the flowing energy into the bone marrow. Lǎoshī would have used needles and potions, but she could not remember how to draw those. The white energy was accelerating the development of red blood cells, but Felícia was not waking up.
She was about to call for the Sun Summoner when Felícia suddenly woke up, gasping for air and coughing up dark crimson blood. Dulce steadied her as she hacked the rest of the blood out.
“Wh-what was that!?” Felícia gasped.
“Ancient healing techniques passed down through generations,” recited Dulce.
“Where did your Lǎoshī learn this? And why did you put me to sleep?”
That shocked Dulce. “I put you to sleep?”
“Yeah?”
Dulce looked at her hands. Putting people to sleep? Her mind thought back to the mansion, and the cocktails. They were black and white…just like her clothes. The owner of the mansion knew more about them than he let on…
“Do you remember the cocktails that were served at the mansion?” She asked Felícia.
“By that asshole with too much money who tried drugging us? Of course I remember.” Felícia’s tail curled around her. “Wait—if you can put me to sleep, and that put us to sleep—”
Dulce nodded. “Then it’s likely that we have more undiscovered gifts than we know of.” She hoped that one of them was the key to unlocking the enigma of the map.
“You didn’t answer my first question.” Felícia tapped the ground lightly.
Dulce thought about how Lǎoshī first explained it to her.
“Lǎoshī? Why do you like to talk to the moon?”
Dulce snuggled up closer to Lǎoshī. The moon was full tonight, a lonely light amidst a sea of midnight black. It was chilly, so Lǎoshī brought out the extra large dark grey blanket for them.
“Because she’s visible tonight.” Lǎoshī sipped his specially brewed green tea.
“Who is she?” Dulce’s small voice asked.
Lǎoshī smiled knowingly. “Have I ever told you the story of how the Yuè family received its name?”
Dulce shook her head.
“Before my ancestor chose his name during the first Emperor’s reign, he consulted his grandfather on the most auspicious name. His grandfather was a respected apothecary who had left his work in the hands of his skilled children and grandchildren, but he had learnt his trade from his grandfather before him. The man’s great-great-grandfather had learnt his trade from someone else…for he had not the success that his descendants would come to have. Only a small ramshackle cart and an ox that had seen better days, many people scorning him as he travelled. He had come across a large hill, saw the moon, and prayed for good fortune in business. The night was cold, and he was about to give up when a woman appeared before him. Knowing much of traditional medicine, she taught him how to brew medicinal potions, the different medicinal uses of each herb, and special techniques revolving around the balance of energy within one’s body and mind. He cultivated his knowledge for ten years in her company until he proposed marriage. The woman accepted, but she would tend to his house only when the moon hid her face from the earth. They soon wed, and he set up his business in a small village. Immediately, he won renown as an expert healer, but he always deferred to his wife in difficult medical matters. Soon, the moon grew fuller, and the couple were blessed with many children. Unknown to the man, his wife had other duties and was soon called away by a silver chariot. Her husband pleaded with her to stay, but she could only give him a kiss and a book before being whisked away.”
“In honour of his ethereal ancestor, my ancestor took on the name of Yuè, a homophone for the home of my many times great ancestor who still lives there…” His smile turned wry.
“Can I see her?” Dulce asked.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Yes you can.” He pointed at the dark spots on the moon. “She’s carrying out her duties to this day, if you look closely enough.”
“What does she do?”
“She pounds and pounds away with her mortar and pestle to create humanity’s ultimate dream: immortality.”
Dulce knew what to tell Felícia.
“My teacher inherited his knowledge from his ancestors, and his ancestors learned the trade from their ancestors before them, and so forth until the progenitor of the lineage: the Moon.”
Felícia gave her a bewildered expression. “How did that work out!? The Moon doesn’t have a—”
Dulce tuned out the rest as Felícia launched into a graphic description of sexual reproduction, complete with hand gestures.
“That was not what happened, the Moon took on a human form.”
“Well, that makes things easier, but at this rate a human having sex with the Moon isn’t the weirdest thing that has happened to the world.” Felícia yawned. “Gonna have to retire for today, I guess that woman had drawn more blood than I thought. See you tomorrow.”
With that, Felícia turned into a monkey and left Dulce alone on the hill with the peach tree and the distant map. She picked up the map and studied the corners. There were a few scribbles on the map on various locations; she had counted twenty four scribbles in total. Did they mean anything? No one could decipher them. Even when she briefly showed Nahla, the girl could not recognise any of the symbols. Dulce re-examined it, holding up the corners. Every angle yielded nothing. No great revelations, no tantalising finds—
As the sun started to set, Dulce found herself in disarray. She tried everything: the light of the sun, looking at it from the peach tree, drawing navigational tools with her brush—nothing. Looking at the shifting map, she wondered what compelled Lǎoshī to pick up a crying baby in the midst of a Calamity and raise it as his daughter. This was something she created as a child, and yet she was no closer to solving it than when she was fleeing her home. Compared to everyone else, she barely knew how her own powers worked. If she knew how to use them better, maybe they wouldn’t have been in the mansion, maybe she could have saved Lǎoshī, maybe Felícia would not have had to deal with her community uprooted from the ground…sometimes, she felt like an extraneous extremity compared to her friends. What good was she? She accidentally put Felícia to sleep out of ignorance—ha, what a joke.
Maybe she should retire soon. It was late, and she had not been gaining any insight for the past four hours. Sleep was better than staring at a map for hours. Dulce briskly walked past the flickering embers of the fire and crawled into her makeshift bed, watching the fog cloud the starless sky. Seventeen going on eighteen, and still she was lost. Dulce closed her eyes, and slept with tears brimming her eyes...
Where was she? The sky was clear, and she could see colourful streamers blowing by. There was the small pond that she once called a lake when she was younger, and there—
Her house. It was modest, more similar to Felícia’s house than the Moroccan mansion. She remembered the white columns well, and the painted exterior! The sky blues, the grass greens, and the blush pinks all came together, while the navy blue door stood out. She walked up to the wooden veranda and twisted the brass knob to open the door.
The smell of freshly brewed tea rolled through the corridor. Everything was as it was: the billowing curtains, the ink wash paintings, Dulce’s small corner of various art supplies—and Lǎoshī was pouring tea in white robes. Dulce took her customary seat in front of him.
“Where have you been?” he asked.
Dulce sipped her white tea. “I have been…elsewhere.” How was he alive, she wanted to ask. She saw the ocean, she wanted to add.
Lǎoshī nodded. “I see that clearly. Was there anything you would like to share further?”
Dulce was still staring when his voice snapped her out of her trance. “You entrusted me with a box before—” She stopped herself. “I need help with one of the items: a map with indecipherable lines.”
The maple box suddenly appeared on the table, Lǎoshī quickly opening the lid. Inside was a single item: the map with curled edges.
“Tell me what you see,” Lǎoshī prompted.
Dulce looked it over. The black lines were swimming in front of her eyes, changing thickness and direction. “I do not see anything.”
“There has to be something,” Lǎoshī prodded. “Something you must’ve discovered.”
“I–I do–do not know.” Nothing made sense. The continents were splotches of ink now, the scribbles becoming more meaningless… “Please help me.”
“You have to figure it out!” He clasped his hand on her left shoulder.
“Bu-but I–I do not know how!” Why was everything so hard?
“You must!” At that, his wrinkled hand burst into flames.
Dulce yelled in panic, trying to find a source of water. She reached out for her brush, but nothing. The flames leaped across the maple floors and devoured it, leaving Dulce trembling and crying for Lǎoshī. She screamed louder once she realised his hands were becoming ash in her palms. No, not again, not again, she can find a way to avert this, somehow, somehow, lift the house!
It failed.
Dulce crumpled to the ground, watching her home become lost to fire again. Her tears ran hot and heavy down her cheeks. She barely mustered the strength to stand when seawater started lapping at the edges of her cloak and doused the flames.
“Are you alright? I saw your door pulsing, so I came here to help!”
The scene shifted so that the fires never touched the world. All traces of her home were erased, much to her consternation. Nahla noticed her downcast expression and restored her home.
“How much did you see?” Dulce asked her.
“Enough.” Nahla dried Dulce’s tears. “Do you want to wake up?”
“No.” The answer was quick. It was not likely she would be able to experience home untouched. “We can sit on the veranda.”
Nahla spread her skirts so that most of it was covering her legs, but her feet remained barefoot. Dulce shed her cloak in the hot weather. Both were sitting over the edge, watching the “lake” shimmer under the full moon.
“Your home is beautiful,” said Nahla.
“It was,” replied Dulce.
“Do you want to—”
Dulce shook her head. The image of Lǎoshī in his last moments…
Nahla looked down. “I’m not going to lie, I don’t think I’ll understand how you feel. At least not in any way that doesn’t come off as patronising. If you ever want to talk though, I’m here.”
Dulce brushed against Nahla’s teak coloured hands. The sea green scales felt surprisingly smooth. “Maybe later.” Maybe never.
“Was it ever deep enough to swim in?” Nahla held Dulce’s pale hands now.
“It only reached my knees. Do you swim often?”
“Yes! Usually by myself since Samir prefers watching from the shore. We should find a place to swim together, and I can ask the Sun Summoner and Felícia. If I see Khalid again, I’ll ask him to join us, if that’s fine with you.”
The name stopped Dulce’s heart. Khalid. Nahla’s friend or crush, the one who lived in the mansion. “Maybe not Khalid.”
Nahla’s face morphed into one of surprise. “Why?”
“He is…” Dulce tried to find the right words. “We still do not know who ordered those cocktails.”
“It’s not Khalid.” Nahla stated with utmost certainty. “He’s not the kind of person that would drug his friends.”
“Why did he invite you to his house?”
“He wanted to know me better.”
Dulce wanted to point out that Nahla should not have accepted an invite from someone she had only known for a week at most, but she herself was travelling with people she had only known for three weeks. A hypocritical statement for a fallible girl.
“Do you think that the woman is alright? I know it’s a strange question, especially after what happened, but I hope she is.” Nahla asked.
An obvious attempt to change the topic, but appreciated. “She left, she must have been satisfied.” After slaughtering most of the security forces, she should have been.
“I know I sound naive, but I think that she doesn’t have malice in her heart. There has to be a reason.”
Malice enough for all of those guards, but Nahla struck a chord with Dulce. When they were cowering underneath the onslaught, they saw the woman. She could have drawn their blood like she did to Felícia, or poisoned them like she did the Sun Summoner, but she did not. The woman had simply shown them an empty path in the hedges. No harm came to them.
“You are right. Her target was the security, Khalid’s father, and his associates.” That did not excuse what she had done to Dulce’s friends or Khalid, no matter her ambivalence on the boy. If they met again, she hoped that their goals aligned; she feared for their survival if they clashed.
The moon was dipping lower, its rays scattering across the surface of the placid “lake”.
“You’re waking up now,” Nahla said. “I’ll see you soon. Remember, I’m here, and so are Felícia and the Sun Summoner when you need them.”
Dulce nodded and watched the moon sink below the horizon…
She woke up to the Sun shining—and a familiar white gold beaked mask looming over her.
“The fair lady has awoken.” The mask tilted. “This one had sensed that you require a companion.”
“Did Nahla tell you anything?”
“No, the dream weaver bore no revelations to this servant. Rather, your howling into the night made it abundantly clear that you were in need of the Light and its cleansing powers.” The Sun Summoner fixed her gaze. “What dark forces conspire to confound you and lead you astray from the path?”
She was screaming in her sleep. She needed to control herself, else she would disturb everyone else. “How long have you been here?”
“Since the first morning rays, as is custom with followers of the Light. This one was almost compelled to wake you, but sleep was becoming of your countenance. Therefore, this one awakened the monkey in your stead and kept vigilance until such time that you had awoken.” The mask shifted. “Does something trouble you?”
Dulce wanted to say nothing, but what Nahla had said resonated. She barely had any friends at home, only acquaintances, and her guardian was dead. She already trusted Felícia with everything. The Sun Summoner was a good listener, and so she told her everything.
The girl brushed away her red comb. “You have a lot of strength carrying such dark matters within your heart, and if the darkness troubles you again, this one is here to dispel any corruption from your midst.”
“Actually I—I wanted to ask for your help with the map. Would you know anything about these?” She unfurled the map on her lap, along with the requisite papers.
The Sun Summoner’s mask betrayed nothing, yet she knew the girl was deep in thought. She pulled out a white gold amulet and opened it. All of a sudden, the girl’s jade green tail feathers were standing alert.
“This one has beseeched the Light for mental clarity, and it has delivered a revelation. The Light has distributed blessings among a select few, yet some are sealed away from us. Whether due to the frailty of our mortal bodies or a divine restriction, the matter remains: we must achieve enlightenment before we are to uncover the secrets of the fair lady’s map.”
What would enlightenment entail? Dulce looked at her hands, the hands that put Felícia to sleep. “We should bring in Felícia and Nahla.” Samir was still recovering from the wound the woman in black dealt him. She decided to heal him after she was finished conversing.
The Sun Summoner tsked at the mention of Felícia. “As you wish, but should the monkey impede our endeavours, this one will not hesitate to dispel her from the island.”
“Please do not.”
“Very well.”
As the Sun Summoner summoned a beaming Nahla and a belligerent Felícia to the clearing, Dulce was thinking of the cocktails again. If the cocktails were connected to her, then either Khalid’s father or Khalid knew about them before they arrived. How though, and for what reason? Lǎoshī was generous with his medicine, but he had always forbidden her from bringing anyone to their house or showing her drawings to others. Except one time with the woman in emerald green…
“Felícia?” she called out.
“Yeah?”
“Have you ever had a woman in green robes visit your avó or you?” When she was six, Lǎoshī was sitting in the drawing room with a woman in green robes covering her head and an emerald green brooch. He told her the woman’s name, but she found it difficult to pronounce. All Dulce remembered was that it started with an A.
Felícia started laughing. “A woman in green robes visited you too? The same thing happened to me—but yours wasn’t attacked with a broom and chased out by an angry old woman cursing her, or was she? I remember watching from my room that day. Funniest thing that year. Avó mentioned ummm, what’s the word? Ah yes, extortion. We stopped getting visits after that and after my avó whacked a curious passerby with a cane.” She looked at the sky. “Now that I think about it, that’s probably how your Lǎoshī and my avó knew each other. Beats my ex-lovers theory.”
Dulce tried and failed to picture Lǎoshī in a relationship with Felícia’s avó. She did not doubt the possibility. “Do you think that the women were connected to the cream—no.” Wrong shade, the cream container was too dark to be connected to the women.
“This one has never been visited by any green women in the past. It appears that there are machinations beyond even the clarity of the Light,” the Sun Summoner proclaimed with a hint of…resentment?
Dulce translated everything for Nahla, who replied with a shake of her head.
“Since we’re answering each other’s questions, here’s something on my mind: Any of you know anything about hot pink rods? I saw them stuck to my house back in Rio, then I made them into the peaches we were eating over the Atlantic,” Felícia exclaimed.
Dulce stilled. “Were they long and thin with a hot pink sphere on top?”
“Yeah.”
Dulce’s eyes widened. “I saw them in the middle of the forest a few days before—a few days before the fire.” The look on Lǎoshī’s face chilled Dulce to her bones. She had never seen him that fearful in her life.
Felícia stopped fidgeting with her hands. “Good thing that Avó fled the house. Does anyone have an idea where they came from?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Well shit, so there’s at least two groups chasing us for whatever reason, one of them’s killed your Lǎoshī, the other one tried to drug us, and we’re running around blind. Or they’re working together, again for unknown reasons. Oh, and there’s the woman in black, who we also know nothing about other than she’s really good at killing people and hates one of the groups.” Felícia looked at Dulce. “Any progress with the map?”
“The Sun Summoner thinks that we have to be enlightened to understand it. I-I think we have hidden powers.” She translated all of this for Nahla.
« Des pouvoirs cachés ? Samir m'a dit depuis longtemps que je ne doive pas chanter, mais je n'ai jamais demandé pourquoi. Ce serait peut-être à cause de mes pouvoirs magiques ? » Nahla explained. She was not allowed to sing? That was strange.
« Soyez-vous capable de construir un rêve commun donc que la Lumière soit apporté chez nos esprits faibles ? » The Sun Summoner asked. Such a lyrical voice, Dulce noted.
« Oui ... mais parfois des malheurs se passent lorsque je crée des rêves. » Nahla responded.
A shared dream sounded wonderful. Interesting how the Sun Summoner mentioned a special connection between herself, Dulce and Felícia…
“Next were the goat, the monkey, and the rooster. All three decided to cross the river together, with the goat helping direct the monkey and the rooster on when to paddle.”
Dulce’s eyes flicked between her sheep ears, Felícia’s dark brown tail, and the Sun Summoner’s light orange hair. The map lightly pulsed before falling silent. Maybe the answer was cooperation, but she hoped that Felícia and the Sun Summoner would get along one day. Dulce found them more similar than both would care to admit.
She did not question how likely they carved a place into her heart. She could not, not when her heart was overburdened with a hole shaped like her teacher’s white tea and pondering.
Before she slept, she checked on Samir and Nahla. Both of them were chattering animatedly in Arabic. Samir waved at Dulce and muttered thank you in accented Spanish. Dulce mouthed “you are welcome” in return. Once she was safely ensorcelled in her bed, she let herself sleep under the foggy night.
Dulce awakened into a robin egg blue void. Black and white piano keys encircled a white platform while colourful streamers entwined themselves around the keys. Felícia was slowly waking up while the Sun Summoner looked alert and ready for what came next.
“This took a lot of energy, so I apologise if anything is out of place.” Nahla’s violet streamers waved as if in a nonexistent ocean. “I’ve created artificial dreams before, but things happen in these dreams. Bad things, things that people want hidden.” She looked pointedly at Dulce as she spoke.
If Dulce wanted her friends to work together, she should be willing to share. It did not mean that they should be forced to share. Glancing at Felícia, she noticed the return of fidgeting hands. The Sun Summoner stood without any seeming trace of emotion, though Dulce noticed a brief grimace.
“We’ll go,” both said in unison before looking at each other with pointed stares.
“If neither of you are willing, we can try and find another way—” started Dulce.
“This one knows and understands the consequences beforehand.” The Sun Summoner stepped forward. “The plan had been set in motion. Do it now.”
Nahla conjured up a wall of water that rose high into the air. Dulce noted that her eyes flashed a dark sea green—almost alien.
“Drown in your sorrows.”
The water crashed onto the white platform, and all went black.
“Lǎoshī! Stay with me!”
All she heard was gurgling. His clothes had fused with his skin, but she could not bear to look. Only a few minutes, they practised this, thirty compressions, two breaths, thirty compressions, two—
“Lǎoshī?” Nothing. She tried again. No breath came. Before she knew it, the tears hit her hard, leaving her shaking and sobbing.
There was a garden shovel nearby. Dulce grabbed it and stared at her grimy hands.
The only sounds that day were incessant sobs, a dying fire, and the sound of a metal shovel digging into the earth.
Her tears running hot, Dulce’s inner wound ripped open and bared for everyone to see again—
She was running. It was a rare starless night. No one was awake. In other words, she alone was the master of this twilight world. No one could judge her tonight.
“You, the President of Brazil? Get real, you’re just going to end up as one of those washed up good for nothing favela dwellers—”
“Shut up…” she gritted through her teeth as she leaped over a rooftop and landed with a thud.
“You’re at the top of your class, I’m not sure why you want to do this.”
“Shut up…” She vaulted over Senhor Garcia’s clothesline, breaking into a running sprint.
“How could you throw away your future like that? Do you know how much I invested in it?”
“Shut up!” she screamed into the sky. How could her avó say that? She was confined to a wheelchair, how was she going to navigate the streets!? She needed help, and school was getting in the way. Dropping out was the right decision, no matter what anyone said!
Right?
This was not hers. She never ran across buildings or leaped onto roofs like—this was Felícia’s.
She never told Dulce, and she knew this was never how Felícia would tell her, if at all.
“Get out of my house!” CRASH.
“So it’s your house now? After all of these fucking years, now you want it?” BANG.
“At least I’m better than you at cleaning this shithole—” SMASH.
She was in her tent. It wasn’t a true tent, but it served its purpose well. She got grounded again, so she had no books to read.
“Ahem!” she coughed.
The sounds of pots smacking into the kitchen cabinets made her wince.
“Back in the day, there once lived a brave knight—”
The yelling crescendoed.
“He was on a quest, as all knights are. It was a quest to find—”
They were swearing at each other again. They were always fighting.
“A quest for…peace and quiet in the realm.” She peeked out of her tent.
A stray cutting board hit her in the head. She was about to cry, but remembered. They weren’t going to pay attention to her anyways if she did. All she could do was retreat into her tent and wish that the throbbing pain would go away…
Dulce found herself hoarse, staring into the void. Felícia shifted her feet and the Sun Summoner adjusted her mask. The Sun Summoner, who—Dulce could not have recontextualized that memory. She could not, how, what—
“That was better than most amusement park rides.” Felícia laughed, but Dulce knew she was forcing it. The Sun Summoner was staring into the distance.
She found herself staring too long at both of them, and them at her. Dulce averted her gaze. Nahla was right, that was…harrowing. What could she do? She thought about Nahla and their conversation, so she held out her hands. They held her hands as the scene shifted—
They were in a chamber. Above them were engraved carvings of twelve colourful animals, ones that Dulce instantly recognised from Lǎoshī’s stories of the zodiac. Indigo, navy blue, white, jade green, azure, teal, bay, black and white, peach, vermillion, terracotta, magenta. Below was a square table surrounded by twelve chairs, but Felícia’s attention was elsewhere.
“Is that me?” Felícia smirked. “Good to know I age well.”
Indeed, there was an adult version of Felícia with her tail wrapped around someone’s foot. Dulce instantly noticed the other woman’s furry tail. White with black stripes, and bushy like a tiger.
“Oh really? You think you can do better than me?” Adult Felícia taunted the woman. “Besides, why would I ever overthrow the Gates?”
“Because you desire chaos above all else.” The tigress pushed Adult Felícia aside. “And I know that you don’t care who is trampled over in your pursuit.”
Adult Felícia leaned against the table. For the first time, Dulce noticed that there were others watching. “I think you’ve spent too much time stuck in your partner’s house, or how else can I explain how out of touch you are, General?”
The General’s tiger ears flared outwards. “You dare? She’s an essential part of our defence, so shut your mouth.”
Adult Felícia cocked her head. “Oh really? I have an electrum throne, but at least I can always change it to whatever I want. Diamond this century, granite the next. All you have is plain wood, and how unfitting is that? You’re too big to fit through the trees, unlike my nimble limbs.” Adult Felícia backflipped onto the table. “Can you do this?”
The woman growled as Adult Felícia pulled something from behind her ear. It was toothpick sized and black in colour. With a flick of her wrist, the small pole grew larger until it reached the floor. Adult Felícia stuck her tongue out at the increasingly enraged tiger woman from her high ground.
“Silly General, underneath your armour and your bravado, you’re just a big cat who doesn’t know when she’s bested by her better.” Adult Felícia artfully dodged a punch from the General and sprang onto the beams.
“Wow, I’m amazing.” Felícia stared in awe.
Adult Felícia’s tail curled inwards. “Awww, such a big cat, so feisty and angry. I feel a little generous today…you know what, you deserve a snack!” The woman smiled—before gracefully falling backwards to the surprise of all three girls. “But there’s a catch—You have to capture me first!”
The General tried to grab Adult Felícia’s tail—which immediately transformed into the soft pink flesh of a peach. The resulting peach rolled around the floor with the tiger woman chasing after it. It rolled past a woman with large ox-like horns who seemed to be staring at the window before noticing the rolling peach and trying to grab it. The peach kept rolling underneath the table until it stopped near a black iron chair. The occupant bent down, her mouth completely full. With surprisingly fast reflexes, the pig-eared woman tried to grab the peach but the fruit quickly slammed into the nearby wall and ricocheted past the horned woman’s confused face and a quiet black-haired woman’s watching eyes. Dulce noticed that the black-haired woman’s hair was slightly iridescent. It hit the other window and bounced back onto the table—onto a porcelain plate in front of the woman who tried to grab the rolling peach. The woman’s pig ears perked up and she tried to stab the peach with a fork, looking at the runaway fruit with hungry eyes. The peach transformed in a burst of peach coloured dust as Adult Felícia flipped the contents of the pig woman’s plates into the air. The pig woman lunged after Adult Felícia, only to be met by a black pole in the belly.
Adult Felícia grinned wildly as the pole sent her across the room and shortened to the size of her body. The tiger woman was in front of Adult Felícia in an instant, dealing blow after blow, but Adult Felícia expertly dodged every single punch—until the General roared. All three girls froze in place, with Dulce’s bones feeling a bitter cold. Adult Felícia chuckled.
“Try and freeze me in place? That’s an old trick, I thought you retired it decades ago.” Dulce watched as Adult Felícia moved her right pinky finger. “Just because I’m small and easily overpowered doesn’t mean that I haven’t found neat little ways to undermine you. Second most powerful animal, and yet I can do this.” In a flash, Adult Felícia sidestepped the General’s punch and skirted back to the other side of the room. “Clearly, no one can match me—”
“Tǔ, bind the Sage.”
A yellow pulse filled the room as earthen columns formed around Adult Felícia. She tried to transform but a harsh wind rebuffed her. “Why you—”
Dulce blinked for but a brief second—and that was all it took for her to witness Adult Felícia being thrown out of a window, screaming as she was slowly encased in stone.
“Okay—who was that?” asked Felícia. “And how do I get my revenge?”
“An unparalleled being, their might only matched by the supreme General, they of incredible domination of the Earthly Gates,” was the Sun Summoner’s reply.
The word “General” rang familiar to Dulce’s ears, but she had no time to ponder it. The being who had sent Adult Felícia plummeting turned around. In her hands were two crystals, an earthy yellow and a blue-green that reminded Dulce of rustling leaves. The azure scaled tail coiled around the dragon woman as she took her seat in a pearlescent throne.
“Anyone who wants to endanger our survival by planning an ill-advised coup may speak now or forever hold your peace,” the woman stated.
No one spoke. The only sound was the shuffling of a few seats and the low growl of the tiger woman
“Very well then. Summoner of the Tenth Gate, would you pass me the documents we are to go over today?” The dragon woman is handed some documents. “I see more has been added.”
Dulce watched as the woman shuffled the documents.
“The Summoner wants me to…release the Sage?” She turned to a woman who looked like the Sun Summoner, except older. “I’m aware of your friendship and you have made very convincing arguments for her release, but I have already cast judgement on the matter.”
Felícia and the Sun Summoner exchanged glances. Were they all friends once, Dulce wondered. One day, maybe the Sun Summoner and Felícia would be friends again.
“I shall read the next two in succession as their arguments are opposing. First is the General of the Third Gate who wants the Sage of the Ninth Gate to ‘be punished further for her crimes in the custody of the Third Gate’.” The acrid tone of the woman’s voice was noticeable. “Second is the Alchemist of the Fourth Gate who proposes that the Sage of the Ninth Gate be allowed to repent and atone by serving those residing on Earth.” The dragon woman stared. “This can be accommodated for.”
A woman with white hair and rabbit ears fiddled with a small bottle, filling it up with tinctures of dried plants. Dulce was more interested in her eyes. A lively jade green and creased like someone used to laughter. It almost reminded her of Lǎoshī’s eyes. What would he think of the rabbit woman? Their faces were deeply similar too. Come to think of it, her eyes were the same colour as the container in Khalid’s mansion.
“The next document concerns the Auspicious of the First Gate and her statements against the Sage of the Ninth Gate in the belief that both the Artist of the Eighth Gate and the Summoner of the Tenth Gate are incorrect in their assessment. The following statements are…”
Artist of the Eighth Gate? All seemed so familiar, yet Dulce could not grasp the substance to it. Her eyes were drawn to chairs of glass, coal…and obsidian. The long white cloak and the paint brush tucked aside—there could only be one person.
Dulce looked at herself, or rather, an older version of herself. She looked elegant in her cloak and composed—some part of Dulce ached. Could she be like her one day? Ever?
“This one must discern the meaning of this scene. There must be an underlying message here,” proclaimed the Sun Summoner.
A woman in a fur coat with rat ears and the woman with iridescent hair from earlier were standing on their chairs, much to the pig eared woman’s boredom as she yawned.
“Clearly, you have spent too much time entwined with the Keeper. That you would presume that the Monkey, of all of us, was innocent? Ha! You are so blinded by your friendship, you don’t see what’s in front of her.” The rat woman flipped her coat haughtily. Dulce took an immediate mislike to her attitude and judging by the annoyed look on Felícia’s face, so did she.
“What gives you the authority on such matters?” The snake woman asked.
“I’ve had more friends than you, Snake. Have you had a friend that you haven’t had to hypnotise or manipulate?”
“Oh please, we all know what you do to your so-called friends.” The snake woman leered.
The Auspicious grimaced. One of the shadows subtly shifted.
The adult version of herself and the adult Sun Summoner nodded at each other, the Summoner quickly swiping what Dulce reasoned looked a lot like a knife—
“Woah, so the chicken chuunibyou was cooler? Or will be? Are we seeing our future selves?” Felícia grinned. “I want whoever taught my future self all of that, and where can I get a compliant staff?”
The room exploded into pandemonium. Dulce caught sight of smoke rising, ink crawling along the walls, a discus flying off the walls, paint splotches in every corner, and the Rabbit quietly brewing an elixir. Felícia was cheering along the chaos and cackling, while the Sun Summoner watched over the proceedings with dismay.
Eventually, much to Felícia’s audible disappointment, the meeting settled down with Adult Dulce and the adult Sun Summoner being restrained by great chains of ice. The surly horned woman held the chains with a stoic expression.
“Since the Sovereign can’t keep this meeting orderly,” the Tiger snarled, showing sharp teeth. “Throw them in the Second Gate.”
The scene shifted to Adult Dulce sitting alone with her white cloak draped over a long stone bench. Outside the crystalline formations, Dulce saw the shapes of horned people marching. There was a small hole in the pulsing ice wall.
“Wèi Yáng, do you see Shēn Hóu?” came the voice of the adult Sun Summoner.
“I see her undertaking a great journey westward, along with three companions.” Wèi Yáng smiled. “She looks gleeful.”
“I’ve always been envious of your ability to project yourself across the boundary, but if we want to reach her, we have to escape. The Watcher has a Door in Alemannia, and she knows where all of the Doors are. Once we get there, you can draw a map for future reference.”
“We can all unlock it together. Because you need it.” Was she talking to Dulce? Dulce waved at her. No response.
“You still have the taste of the Unbound’s urn in your mouth.” The adult Sun Summoner laughed. “Why did you ask for it?”
“She is right, something is coming. I do not know if it will be this century or ten thousand centuries later, but when it does, we have to be prepared.” She looked directly at Dulce. “The inkstone and the beacon: those are the keys to the map. My friends, even more than my actual Key, are dearest to my heart and my creations. I know you are here now, even though the one you loved isn’t, and you won’t be lost for long. There will be others in the hereafter after loss.”
The vision became a multicoloured ripple.
She awoke to the sounds of her friends fighting.
“There’s no way that we are, or ever will be friends!” Felícia shouted. “That dream was a lie!”
“The dream weaver does not employ falsehoods, such delusions are the province of the forces of darkness, of which this one is certain that the dream weaver is not consorting with filth.” The Sun Summoner’s tail stood upright. “Misrepresentations are known to happen. It is doubtful that we will be friends in the future, especially if you continue in your impetuous ways—”
“Say that again!” One quick lash of Felícia’s tail, a dash from the Sun Summoner, and both of them were brawling on the open field. The fog was still ever present, but Dulce’s spirits were a little higher.
“Please stop fighting! We need to work on the map!” she yelled at the brown and gold mass rolling around.
Nahla was watching dumbstruck as the Sun Summoner and Felícia untangled themselves from their ball. Felícia wrenched away one of the Sun Summoner’s boots from her hair and threw it back at her. The Sun Summoner calmly handed back some of Felícia’s dark brown hair.
Dulce unfolded the map. The winding black lines and the hastily written scribbles no longer daunted her.
“Did you hear what Wèi Yáng said?” Dulce asked Felícia. Are you fine, she wanted to say, but kept quiet. At a later time.
“Yep.” Felícia put her hand on her chin. “She was really subtle about the inkstone thing. I probably can turn into a peach. Maybe seventy other things. Can’t talk as an inkstone, so I’ll see you later.” Dulce watched as peach coloured energy concentrated around Felícia’s body—until all that was left was an inkstone suspiciously the same size as one of the shapes on the map. Dulce placed the peach coloured inkstone in that spot.
“The beacon’s creation is this one’s duty.” The Sun Summoner sang in a grandiose manner. Her white gold mask was glowing and her red comb was lifting higher as she sang. Dulce wished she knew more French. The shape of a vermillion beacon took form in the middle of the map, on a vermillion circle.
“Are you—” How should she say this? “I saw you and Felícia…how old were you—?” That did not seem right. “If you need anything, I am here.” Much better.
The girl in vermillion nodded. “When the Light deems it the right time to think on the trials and tribulations of this one’s past self.”
Now or never. Dulce suppressed a coy smile. How was she supposed to project herself? She imagined a ghostly image of herself holding…Lǎoshī’s elixirs, grinning excitedly. The thought of it made her lose all hope. The fact that the rabbit—the Alchemist looked similar to him…jade green eyes…the colour of that container…could the rabbit and Lǎoshī be related?
If she was right, and the rabbit was the mysterious ancestor of Lǎoshī’s legends, then Khalid’s father knew more about them than they did themselves. She knew that if Lǎoshī was here, he would have asked her to push herself.
“You’re more flexible than you think,” he would have said.
She positioned herself in a meditative pose and concentrated…black and white tendrils formed around her—
She was no longer in her body. Her body was perfectly still and the Sun Summoner was more intent on the map than anything. Dulce manipulated the beacon, pointing its tip to the peach-coloured inkstone. The beacon started drawing from the inkstone. Vermillion and peach coloured lines whirled around the map, transforming into new colours. Emerald green, pastel pink, terracotta, silver, golden orange, earthen brown, black and white, peach, vermillion…twenty four spots congealed on the map. The most notable one was the monochrome spot, located in a small jagged peninsula attached to some islands north of Europe…Wèi Yáng had mentioned a location.
Felícia had transformed back into a girl now. She would know what Alemannia was.
“Felícia? Where is Alemannia?”
“That’s an old name for Germany or German-speaking regions. The local fruit vendor was from Argentina, but his ancestors were from Germany. His peaches were always good.”
Germany and the surrounding regions. If she could project herself, she might be able to determine the exact location of the Door! Dulce detached herself from her physical body. Should she find someone? If they were similar to her, they might be able to resonate and she could get help! Lǎoshī would have been proud. She cast her consciousness out to that region—where she was met with hues of scarlet red.
She found herself in a metal container, with voices of discord arguing in English. There was a woman lying on the ground and a continually struggling redheaded girl tied up on the floor. Dulce guessed that she was slightly younger than herself.
“Hello,” she called out. “Can you hear me?”
The girl took one look at Dulce and started screaming.