The Third Crossing

4. Seijos and Mahonos

The knocks on the door of his room awakened him. What was wrong with the people of this tavern? Couldn't they mind their own business and leave him in peace?

Akira closed his eyes and tried to resume his sleep, but the knocks sounded again on his door. "Get lost!" Akira cried.

"Open, Akira."

The female commanding voice startled him. Can't be. At once, he pushed the blanket, jumped out of bed, and scurried to the door to open for the last person he wanted to see right now. "Mother? How did you find me?"

The fortyish lady wearing the Seijo tutors' yellow cloak peered at him, one hand on her waist. "We are not going to have this conversation in the corridor, are we?"

For a week, he hadn't returned home to avoid this very conversation. Reluctantly, he let his mother into his room and closed the door behind her.

The lady in the yellow cloak sat on the edge of the bed, looking judgingly at the small wardrobe and the mirror next to it. "What are you doing in this rathole?"

Only Kim knew he was in this 'rathole.' "Didn't you ask the one who revealed my whereabouts to you?"

"I want to hear the answer from you, son."

Akira puffed, groping for the answer his mother never wanted to hear. "I failed you, Mother. I will never be a Red Cloak."

"That's what I heard," Akira's mother pointed out impassively. "So, what are you going to do next? Spend the rest of your life hiding in this hole with your shame?"

My shame. His mother's words sank deep into his heart. Her support was not something he needed for the time being. Should he bother to defend his hurt pride?

"Say something," his mother demanded. "Don't tell me I gave birth to a boy who grew to become as helpless as his father."

Akira was unable to take any more of her nonsense. "You know what? I'm sick of you bringing him up whenever something wrong happens. Why do I have to carry the burden of his despicable deeds?"

"Why did I?" his mother snapped. "My entire life was ruined because of someone else's despicable deeds! After more than two decades of service in the Foundation School, they tried to release me from duty, claiming that I wasn't qualified to teach anymore. Do you know why? Because an adulterer's wife could never be a role model for younger generations!"

Akira was too young when his father was publicly executed for his sin. His mother had never told him about her troubles with the school. "Who were they?" he asked. "The school supervisors?"

"Them, fellow tutors, and pupils' parents," she said bitterly. "I struggled to defend my position there, and I barely kept it. But they made it clear to me that this was the farthest I could get. The orange cloak was something I had to forget about because I was blamed for a sin I never committed."

The orange cloak was the highest tier any Seijo outside the Imperial Court could ever dream of. It meant for his mother what the red cloak meant for him.

"Nobody has the right to judge anybody except the Light Himself," Akira said.

"We are nothing but sinners who judge other sinners." His mother grimaced. "It's not right, but that's the reality that we have to deal with." She rose to her feet, approached Akira, and held his cheeks with both hands. "I had to fight to earn my place, Akira. So, instead of fretting about the reason why your life has become like this, ask yourself what you must do to change it the way you deserve."

The prestige of the red cloak; Akira was aware that many mothers in Koya—other than the one holding his face right now—were obsessed with the idea of seeing their sons and daughters wear this distinguished attire. The attire of the Light's soldiers in the holy war to liberate their occupied homeland. But in Akira's mother's case, it wasn't all about the honor of fighting the Goranians.