Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [299]
Wayfinder Lau took off his glasses and squinted. “M’lady?”
The someone standing in the room shook with laughter and took a halfstep away from the circle of light. “Don’t look so surprised!” said a girl’s sweet voice. The voice that had made Wataru think of fairies.
“Your appearance…” Wayfinder Lau began, setting down his pen and standing.
“You don’t think it suits me? I occasionally wish to appear as a person, you know.”
Still hidden in the dim light at the corner of the room, the one Wayfinder Lau had called “m’lady” walked in a little circle. The hem of her skirt fluttered as she twirled.
She appeared as a young girl, incredibly slender, with a fragile beauty. From her clothes, she was not someone of Vision. “I don’t look so horrible all the time because I want to, you know. Sometimes, well, it’s good to get out.”
“And where did you borrow that little girl?”
“She was in the Tower of Destiny.”
“Then she is from the real world?”
“Yes, in fact. Must be one of his friends,” she answered, raising her borrowed right hand and placing it upon her borrowed right cheek. “I wonder if she’s his girlfriend? In any case, his mind has been tuned to her for some time now.”
Wayfinder Lau maintained his silence, unsure of where she was heading with this.
“Don’t you think if I appear to Wataru like this he might grow to like me—and her—all the more?”
“Not your best plan ever,” Wayfinder Lau said gently.
“Oh? But I merely want to make him happy.”
Make him happy so he’ll take your side? People are not quite so simple as all that. Perhaps she does not yet realize this.
“Besides, I’m rather fond of this look,” the little girl said, twirling around once more. Despite her childlike bounce, Wayfinder Lau’s keen eyes could see the weight that lay upon her heart.
The two were silent, listening to the sound of the rain on the forest leaves outside.
“He’s going to the north,” she said suddenly.
Wayfinder Lau knew this without being told. All the birds throughout Vision had been keeping tabs on the Travelers, informing him of their every move.
“He’s gotten quite far. One more step to the tower. Things are racing toward a finale.”
Wayfinder Lau replied slowly. “Then the path ahead of him, as you know, is his true test.”
She didn’t seem to be listening—instead, she seemed preoccupied with the circle of light on the floor. “It sure rains a lot around here. I don’t like the rain.”
Sitting in the warm lamplight, staring at her profile, Wayfinder Lau felt a sadness—a kind of pity—swell in his heart.
“Whose side are you on? Mitsuru’s? Or Wataru’s? Which do you want to win, Wayfinder Lau?”
“What I think is irrelevant.”
“But one of them must be chosen for the sacrifice, to become the Lord of the Underworld.”
“That is up to the Goddess to decide.”
“Why does she get to decide all these important things anyway?” The girl pouted, resting her borrowed hand upon the window frame. “Not that I care who wins. Even if Wataru should lose, my feelings will remain the same. If he is to become the Lord of the Underworld, then I’ll become the Goddess. Then we can rule Vision together. If he is to go back to the real world, then I’ll follow him like I am now.”
The girl sighed. “I’ve grown quite tired of Vision anyway. You know, I think we should just let the chaos win this time. The people in the real world have active enough imaginations—they’ll just make a new Vision. I’m sure there are plenty of little future Visions out there somewhere. One of them will grow, and bloom, and we’ll have a whole new world. How beautiful.”
“Are you jesting with me?”
“Oh no, I’m quite serious.”
Wayfinder Lau sat back down, slowly shaking his head. He reached his hand out toward the lamp.
“Stop!” came a sharp command from across the room. “Leave the light as it is. Please.”
“I thought you were