The Bridge To Nihon (BOOK ONE)

Chapter 22 - The Traveling Theater

Sofia's left arm was stretched out in front of her, the sleeve of her tunic rolled up. Her fingers were reaching out as if she was trying to touch an invisible wall.

"I can't," she said, frustrated.

But before she could let her arm fall, Kaido interjected,

"Leave it up. Don't stop now. I'll help you."

So, she left her arm as it was, letting out an angry breath. Kaido made circles with his own hands around her arm, but she couldn't see how that was supposed to help her. She was trying to coat her skin in warmth, first through fabric or fur, then with the mere invisible sensation of warmth. The way Orì had done, and the way everybody appeared to be doing, laughing at Sofia when she complained of feeling cold or hot, or physically uncomfortable in any other way.

She started feeling what Kaido was doing. Freezing polar air circled her arm, cold piercing through her skin like a thousand invisible needles.

"What are you doing?" Sofia said, panicking. She couldn't imagine Kaido doing her harm, but this hurt. Her skin was turning red and blue, every hair was standing up as if mirroring her terror.

"You know how to stop it."

"No. No, I don't!"

But Kaido didn't cease, and with what felt like her last bout of energy, a mass of fabric weaved itself around Sofia's arm, messy and muddled, brown and grey, a thick ugly woolen mix, until she couldn't feel the cold any longer, and blood returned to her arm and hand.

Kaido looked at the thick, fuzzy mitten and laughed. Even Mica couldn't withhold a smile.

"It looks silly," Sofia said, aghast.

"It's -, uhm," Kaido started, looking for the right word, "improvable."

For the rest of the morning, they trained as if for a presentation. Sofia's frustration turned into ambition as she finally started making progress. In the end, she was able to keep herself warm without any visible support, although she couldn't hold it for long, and not at all if distracted.

As a treat, Mica showed her how to cover her hands in dark green leather that fit around her fingers like a second skin.

"Looks much nicer," Mica said, as Kaido looked on adoringly.

In general, Mica was a better teacher. She was quicker, more intuitive and more inventive. But Kaido, while slower, was somehow able to grasp where Sofia's difficulties lay, and how to explain to her the various ways in which her usual reasoning wasn't sufficient for these tricks of the mind.

Sofia asked Mica and Kaido to teach her how to make a part of herself jump out, or move out of her own body, the way Orì had used to do. Yet, just like Orì, they seemed uncomfortable with the request, brushing it off, and instead asked Sofia how she knew about this.

It was Sofia's turn to be evasive.

"I don't remember. I think I saw it somewhere."

Kaido and Mica left it at that, not asking further. There was an unspoken agreement between the three of them that certain topics were left untouched as if knowing too much about each other would inevitably lead to their separation.

There was something about the truth in Nihon... Sofia couldn't put her finger on it, but it felt to her as if truthfulness was deeply unwelcome, be it for small things, like a person's real appearance, or more important issues, like the allocation of power or the interaction between strangers.

When Sofia asked who made decisions in Nihon, for example, on where their nightly performances were being held, both Kaido and Mica became evasive, saying that they were just 'held wherever, for no reason'. Sofia found it hard to believe that their lives were governed by chance and nothing else, but they looked so uncomfortable that she didn't go on. She thought that maybe she was too used to the rigid system of her own world, where every movement was decided beforehand and checked upon by the Assessors.