Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [228]
Meena smiled. “I’m fine. It’s quite a surprise, but still, it’s only one person in all of Vision. I doubt I would be chosen for such a task.”
Meena pulled Wataru away from the crowd so as not to get in the way, and pranced over to sit on some nearby wooden crates.
“I wonder where everyone in the Spectacle Machine Troupe was when they heard the news. I hope the children aren’t too frightened. Then again, with Bubuho in charge, I’m sure he’ll keep them all in line.”
Wataru looked down at the ground.
“How about you? You look pale,” Meena said, still holding his hand. “You’re worried for us, aren’t you?” She smiled. “Well, don’t be. We kitkin may not be as fervent as these waterkin here in our faith for the Goddess, but we are devout in our own way. Starting tonight, I will pray to the star in the north. I will ask the Goddess. If she must take a sacrifice, I would ask that she do it with kindness, that there not be more sorrow.”
“Is that enough?” Wataru asked sharply. “Don’t you think it’s cruel of the Goddess to demand something like that in the first place? Shouldn’t we try to change it somehow? I mean, it just doesn’t seem right. Even if it’s only once in a thousand years, why should they need a sacrifice to defend the world?”
“Well, it is the Goddess’s world after all. We didn’t make it. I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it.”
“Could you say that, even if you are the one chosen as the sacrifice?”
Meena withdrew her hand from Wataru’s and put it on her cheek. “Why, I—I don’t know.”
“You do know! You wouldn’t like it one bit!”
“I suppose. But maybe being chosen would free me from that. Maybe the people left behind wouldn’t be sad either. I’m sure the Goddess would arrange things that way.” Meena shook her head. “It’s like what the messenger said. The sacrifice, the Great Barrier of Light, and Halnera have all existed for as long as we know. They were only kept hidden until now, save in places like this, where knowledge was passed down the generations by stories.”
“That’s the way it’s been in the past. It should stay there. It shouldn’t have to happen now, still. Isn’t the fact that the United Southern Nations decided to make the knowledge public proof enough that times have changed? I was relieved to hear that there were disturbances in Arikita and Nacht, to be honest. It would be weird if everybody just took it smiling like these waterkin here.”
“Wataru…” Meena said, her voice choking, “do you know what you’re saying? Didn’t those fanatics almost kill you back at that hospital? Have you forgotten that? What you’re saying is no different than what those believers in the Old God say.”
No, it is different. But Wataru couldn’t bring himself to say it. It’s not about faith in the Goddess…
I’m just frightened. I was scared when I heard the sacrifice would be chosen from the people in Vision. I was scared when I thought it might be you or Kee Keema.
And now it’s worse. I’m a Traveler. That gives me a fifty percent chance of being chosen. It’s either Mitsuru or me. One of us has to go. Of course I’m scared.
But Wataru didn’t know what to do. Should he try to get to the Tower of Destiny before Mitsuru, have his prayers answered, and escape to the real world? Would that make him happy?
Or would he ask the Goddess directly? No, don’t change my destiny. I only ask that you abandon the practice of taking a sacrifice. Then I can go home in peace.
But what would happen then? He would be alone with his mother, hurt, without hope. His father would never look back, that was clear. Even if Wataru tried to chase them, he’d just have to face that woman again, Rikako Tanaka.
It’s not fair, it’s not right, it’s cruel. No matter which way I go, it’s a dead end. And if I sit here feeling sorry for myself, Mitsuru will reach the Tower of Destiny before me, and I’ll be left alone. The sacrificial Traveler.
“Traveler!” a loud voice called out.
Wataru looked up. The Elder’s adviser from the gathering was standing at the foot of their stack of crates, looking up at him.
From this close, Wataru could see that around