The Absurdium

The sun beams crept slowly up the wall and then faded entirely. Darkness fell. Someone had brought her a tray with tea and a small dinner and lit the room with candles. People had moved on, the beds had been carried out; the others were obviously sleeping in another room tonight. At some point several men had covered Li’s body and carried it away on a litter. Occasionally an attendant would visit the far bed and then stop at hers and Mika would wave them away without looking. The tea was cold by now but she drank a little. Abruptly she realised that someone was sitting in the chair beside her.

“Fong?” she asked softly, rolling over. Then in the candle’s glow she suddenly recognised the creased face and bushy eyebrows of Master Zhou!

“You’re okay!” she cried, nearly dropping her tea into her sheets. She struggled to sit up but Zhou, his right shoulder heavily bandaged and his right arm in a sling, raised his left hand to stop her, “No, please, do not get up,” he implored. “You must rest. I am just glad to see that you are alright.”

“How is your shoulder, were you hurt badly?” Mika asked. “I’m sorry I hurt you when I pushed you, I, I just…” Mika trailed off.

Zhou smiled. “Thank you. I owe my life to you Mika, as does everyone here. Who knows how many more people that man might have tried to kill had you not confronted him.”

“Li died,” Mika said quietly and her eyes, swollen and bloodshot from crying, looked away from her Master. “I knew I had heard something, I… I could have gone sooner.”

With his free hand Zhou stroked his white beard and drew a slow, deep breath.

He spoke in a quiet voice. “Palemika, the arrow that killed Li was meant for me. You saved my life, and nearly died defending everyone here. That man killed Li, and neither you nor I could have done anything to change that. Be careful not to put blame where it does not belong. Everyone is accountable for their own actions and the choices they make. He came here today to kill me. Do not blame yourself.”

Mika nodded, not sure of what to say.

Zhou closed his eyes and sat silently. Time passed and from outside Mika could hear the buzzing of insects and nightbirds calling in the darkness. Somewhere a raven cawed and she smiled. Mika was beginning to wonder if Zhou had fallen asleep when suddenly he spoke with surprising clarity and a return to his usual vigour. He fixed his grey eyes on her with a piercing gaze.

“You are lucky that you survived. Tell me, what happened in the woods?”

Mika recounted the details of her fight with the assassin as best she could but the details were fuzzy and she could not recall what had happened after he discarded his robe and they had sized each other up.

Zhou filled in the blanks. “Ma Xing and the other masters followed you into the woods although you had quite a head start on them. They recounted to me that they saw you fighting and as they drew near they saw him knock you down, disable you and then deliver a kick to your head. They thought you were dead and pursued the man but he escaped on a horse he had tied up nearby. I think he had every intention of killing you with that blow.” Zhou smiled faintly but his eyes glimmered with tears. “You are a tough one Mika, a real fighter. I am very proud of you.”

Mika could feel her eyes begin to burn with tears again and she reached out and closed her fingers around the old man’s one free hand. It was rough and dry, but powerful. She whispered thanks.

Zhou sat for a long time and his eyes, steel grey and alert beneath his bushy white eyebrows, were fixed somewhere far beyond the walls of the dormitory. He inhaled deeply.

“I am leaving Mika.”

“What?” she cried in reply, momentarily losing her composure and squeezing his hand involuntarily. “You can’t leave here, you are this school!”

Zhou continued with an added sternness. “I am going to move to my old village and spend my time there gardening, drinking tea and practicing my forms.”

“Don’t leave,” she pleaded, her cracking voice barely audible. She knew trying to change his mind was useless but felt as though somehow an atrocity was being committed, and she had to try. “Your forms are perfect though, and… and, but hey, you don’t even like tea!”

“I know,” he said with a wry smile, “but that’s what old people do.”

Regaining his sagacious appearance, Zhou continued. “Mika, perfection is a goal that one never achieves, but must always pursue. I must leave. There are people in this world that would rather I were dead, and it is obvious now that they do not mind killing others to get to me. My students will be in danger as long as I stay here, so the time has finally come for me to leave this place.”

Mika nodded slowly, and she remembered how just the night before Zhou had told her that it was time she left the school and made her own way in the world. It seemed so long ago now, that conversation. She had been very upset and very hurt and had lain awake for hours last night, furious with Zhou and terrified of an uncertain future. Now, as she lay in bed and looked at her injured, venerable, vulnerable old teacher, she was suddenly ready to leave the school that had been her home since she was thirteen years old.

But she also reached another, more powerful decision. The candle stub sputtered momentarily in its dish and a shadow danced across Mika’s face. In that moment of flickering darkness, she vowed to herself that she would find that man and whoever was behind the attempt on Zhou’s life, and avenge Li and her wounded master. Mika’s steel-like resolve closed around her vow of vengeance and she buried it deep into her mind.

“Ma Xing and the other masters are more than capable of leading this school,” continued Zhou, drawing Mika back from her malevolent brooding.

There was a pause and an awkward tension seemed to rise between them.

Mika disliked and distrusted Ma Xing and Master Zhou was well aware of her feelings and the reasons behind them.

“I think when you go, it will be time for Little Sister to go too,” Zhou said. “Take her with you, look after her. Finish her training for me, please. You can consider her your first student!” he added with a smile.

Mika had been worried about leaving Little Sister, the school’s only other female student, behind with Ma Xing in charge. Little Sister was a beautiful, talented girl four years younger than Mika whom she had taken under her wing and Mika truly cared for her like a sister. She was relieved that Zhou’s insight saw this too, and the idea of having her own student, as well as Zhou’s trust in her abilities, made Mika smile.

“You can roam the world together, like two little Shi-jin,” Zhou said with a smile, not realising how prophetic his little joke would turn out to be.

Zhou paused for a moment.

“Of course there is no rush. We have to get you back on your fighting feet and I have some affairs to settle before leaving.”

He patted her hand gently as he stood up. “Before you leave though, I have a task to request of you. It will not be easy.”

“Of course, anything,” Mika replied earnestly.

“I will explain more tomorrow. Good night Mika, get some rest,” Zhou said as he moved slowly towards the door, “and thank you.”