Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [116]
Wataru sighed. “Sorry.”
Wayfinder Lau walked across the room, his robes dragging behind him, delicately picking up a woven basket from the corner. He placed it on the log table before Wataru. “Your weapon is inside. Open it.”
Wataru’s heart beat in his chest, and his hands began to tremble.
The lid of the basket was light and opened easily—there was no lock or fastening to bother with.
A sword sat askew at the bottom of the basket. It was sheathed in a worn, grimy scabbard. The blade was no more than a foot in length, maybe shorter. The aged leather straps wrapped around its handle were so loosely bound they seemed ready to fall off at any moment.
“The Brave’s Sword,” Wayfinder Lau said, looking up.
“This…is my sword?”
The Brave’s Sword? More like the Coward’s Pig-Sticker.
“What, you find it lacking?”
“It doesn’t look too, um, powerful.”
“Of course not. And neither do you. A fitting match, I’d say.”
Wayfinder Lau sat across from Wataru and rested his hands on the table. “The Brave’s Sword is no mere blade. It grows together with its wielder. As it is now, it is merely a reflection of your own ability and preparedness—or should I say inability and lack of preparedness. As the sword is weak, frail, dull, and altogether unattractive, so too are you weak, frail, dull, and displeasing to the eye. So you see, Wataru, it’s not the sword’s fault.”
The old man gave Wataru a sharp slap on the forehead. “Take it in your hand, look at it closely. See the design on the hilt?”
The Brave’s Sword was even lighter than the basket it came out of. A lightweight… like me. The blade seemed to drift in his hand, unreliable, without purpose. Like me.
The hilt bore the same star-pattern he had seen at the entrance to the cave. At each of the five points of the star small holes about the size of a tablet of aspirin had been bored into the hilt.
“This mark—I saw it on the entrance to the Cave of Trials.”
“Ah, so you did notice. Knowing you, I was afraid I was going to have to point it out.”
Wayfinder Lau explained that the star pattern was a sigil—the symbol of power of the goddess who ruled Vision. “If one of due strength completes the sigil, then they will be able to work magic, create powerful Wards, fly through the air, and command the powers of water and wind. You will encounter this sigil in many places as you travel through Vision. Remember that when you wish to use the Mirror of Truth, you must be at one of these locations with the sigil for it to work.”
“The Mirror of Truth?”
Wataru seemed to remember having heard that word before. Mitsuru…
—When I looked into the Mirror of Truth…
That’s right! When he came to get me from Vision, he talked about using a mirror…
“It seems you know of it already.”
Wataru mentioned what Mitsuru had said, and Wayfinder Lau nodded deeply. “Travelers from your world can use the Mirror near a star sigil to create a link between Vision and the other world—a Corridor of Light. Travelers may pass along the corridor to go back to their world, but only for a very short amount of time. Should they not return to Vision before the way is closed, then they will not be able to return home, nor will they be allowed back into Vision. They will be stuck forever in the Vale of Eternity—the gap between two worlds—lost vagrants in time.”
That explained why Mitsuru had been in such a hurry to leave. The Vale of Eternity? Vagrants in time? It seemed like there was still much more for Wataru to learn about this place.
“Okay, I think I understand. So how do I get a Mirror of Truth?”
“What, Mitsuru didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
Wayfinder Lau smiled. “You need not search for your Mirror of Truth. It will come looking for you. It shouldn’t be too long before you’re found.”
“Huh?”
“The Mirror of Truth knows when Travelers have arrived in Vision, only then does it appear. It’s really not that complicated a concept.”
Wataru wasn’t sure. The number of things it seemed like he was expected to remember was dizzying.
“You’re confused. It’s understandable.” The wizard wiped