SKY OF PAPER: AN ASIAN STEAMPUNK FANTASY

CHAPTER 41

A few nights later, the Young Emperor roused me from my sleep, just as he’d done a few nights before, and a few nights before that. There was a sort of enjoyment he’d found in these evening meetings. After all, being alone with no family, and no one young enough in the imperial court to play with must have left him with an unbearable measure of both boredom and despair. 

During the day, amidst his study and royal duties, there was no free time for him to act as a normal child should. I suppose the same could be said about my life as well, but his was one of constant diligence, of tireless attention and focus to learning the details of divinity and the right to rule. He was a great and important figure, and such devotion to that image meant that he would never see a life of simple content. Going to a normal school with friends and playing in the forests and hills were judged as belittling to his position, at least by Dae Jung. And so I was his only connection to these things, a window to his lost innocence.

We talked about all sorts of things, but mostly about my life before I became a chienkuu ko. I told him about how I made pottery with my mother, and about how I used to play with my classmates in the river during the long, humid summer months. I told him about festivals, fireworks and how sometimes I missed the taste of cheap octopus meat, bought from a tiny shack across the way from my house. The more I told him about my life, the more he longed for it; which made me all the more ashamed, because I couldn’t bear to tell him that some of my stories were completely made up. I lied about how I came to serve the Imperial Palace. I told him that I was judged to be the most gifted student at the temple and that my shyo mah and I came to the palace as court performers, entertaining foreign dignitaries and ferrying them about in sky boats. 

Though I was not proud of falsely glorifying my life, I had to accept that these were among some of the duties given to me by Dae Jung, who personally had to approve my lies before they fell upon the Young Emperor's ears. Though I was required to keep Dae Jung informed about our conversations, there was a fearful secret that I was determined to never reveal. 

He would never know that I possessed the Young Emperor's true name. 

I learned from school of the terrible punishments commoners faced if they were ever caught in possession of forbidden knowledge. 

Knowing the grim consequences, I was left to wonder why the Young Emperor had cursed me with such misfortune. Perhaps he was testing me. . . or maybe it truly was out of friendship that he trusted me with his sacred name. 

Did he mean for me to feel honored for bearing such knowledge? 

Though it pained me to worry about such things, I’d managed to convince myself to ignore these trivial burdens that night as he and I walked the main deck of the ship. Kassashimei followed close behind us, casually waving her ritual stick about. 

"Why is she with us?" the Young Emperor asked.

"Because she and I both need your help," I said. "Since you’ve entrusted me with your name, I’m going to tell you something that I feel is just as forbidden. My shyo mah and I are going to do something tonight that Dae Jung might not approve."

For a moment, the Young Emperor seemed confused, then he craned his head about, probably checking to see if the guards were nearby. 

"It's about your tamma isn't it?" he queried in a hushed voice.

I did not reply at first. Immediately, I felt myself a fool for even mentioning this to the Young Emperor. I looked away slightly, wondering if I’d already gotten myself in trouble.

"That's it isn't it?" he said.

"How do you know about-"

"About your tamma?" he interrupted. "I know about it. Everyone does. Including Ai. She was the one who allowed the King's nieces' to keep it as a gift."