The seating at the table mirrored the chairs on the platform around the throne. Yubi sat between Toi and Loya. He stared at the empty place at the table before him.
I could’ve sworn… he was my friend… I thought I knew him…
Yubi turned to Loya. Weakly, he asked, “What… exactly did Rio damage?”
“The diagram to Kassia.”
Yubi just looked at him blankly.
“Oh my, the amnesia’s that bad?”
“What is the diagram to Kassia?”
“It’s the diagram that sends you to Kassia.”
“...okay?”
A woman in a black tabard with white frill trim placed a tray in front of Loya. She walked away and then another did similarly for Yubi and so on down the table. Each tray had four things on it: a thick paper straw, a metal object which looked like a small, flat pair of tongs, a cup, and a round object with a narrow top which looked something like a vase or a gourd.
The cup was filled about four fifths of the way. Its contents smelled of fruit with a light sting of alcohol. Maybe they can’t purify water in this world. He put the straw in the cup. Do I know how to do that?
Toi tugged at his sleeve and whispered forcefully. “What are you doing?”
Yubi took the straw out of his mouth and looked around. Loya hadn’t started yet. Was I supposed to wait? A couple people around the table had already picked up their cups and started sipping from them. He looked back with confusion.
Toi sighed and tried to speak gently. “Yubi, the straw is for the soup.”
Yubi leaned forward to look into the vase thing. It was indeed filled with soup.
“O- okay. Thanks.”
“So Naiouyubi,” Gor leaned forward from the other side of Loya, “how did the expedition fair?”
Toi put his hands up and stammered, “W-well you see, at the moment Yubi’s-”
Loya spoke. “The other world is momentarily obscured by a fog of amnesia. When this fog lifts, we will reap the other world’s spells.”
“Well,” Yubi said, “actually, I-”
Gor interrupted, “A shame, that. I would have thought you’d come to court more prepared.”
“Gor,” Loya warned.
“But I suppose using untested methods like you did was bound to carry some risk.”
Toi defended, “It wasn’t untested. We were able to consistently send out tulpas and have them return unharmed!”
Gor chuckled. “Do not insult your friend, Toinoioeo. Is Yubi here nothing more than a clump of mana to you?”
“W- well, I-”
“In any case, I was referring to the other part of your spell. Remember that?”
Yubi looked up with eyes of fear and guilt. He means sharirachori, the body stealing spell.
“You know what they say about lawbreakers, Naiouyubi. They hesitate to bring God back in fear of His judgement!”
Loya put his hand up. “That’s enough, Gor.”
The bearded man leaned back, seemingly satisfied.
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Yubi moved his straw and tried the soup. It was a creamy thing that felt heavy in his stomach.
“So, Yubi,” Loya said, “Has anything returned to you about the other world?” He grinned, “Tell me, what were the women like?”
“I was one of them.”
A silence hung in the air. Yubi sipped his soup.
“I was reborn in the other world in a woman’s body. I lived decades there without ever using mana. Instead of diagrams, they became masters of fire and lightning. However, the family I was born into did not give many opportunities to learn this mastery. And, furthermore, I got amnesia when I went there just as I now have, so I didn’t know to search for anything. Does that answer your question!?”
He regretted his tone the moment he looked into Loya’s eyes. The king was reduced to the child he’d been when Yubi first met him.
Yubi was head diagramist at the time. Ouyavaoya had assigned him to teach his son how to focus mana. Little Aiyaloya was a slow learner at first. He would take the glowdust stone in his hand and would only get it to flicker unsteadily. Then Yubi had him hold a fireleaf root and return to the stone again. And again. And again.
At one point, Yubi had lost his patience. “Do you not feel what the root pulls from you? Can you not just do that? Remember your name! Is it just for show?”
Little Loya had looked at him the same way back then. It was an expression of sad, scared powerlessness. Yubi had regretted his tone back then too.
“I’m sorry, young master. Look, let’s try something else. Take the stone in your right hand and sit down. Good… actually, let’s try your left hand for a change. Okay. Now, using your left, try reaching out to me. No, don’t lean forward, just extend your arm out as far as it goes. Further. Come on, you can go further. Now, keep your arm out and close your eyes. Imagine stretching your arm out towards me. Imagine you could stretch across the room to reach my voice. Now, stretch for real. Reach your arm across the room, I’m right here. Good, now open your eyes!”
Loya dropped the stone the moment he saw how brightly it was glowing.
“And that, young master, is how you focus mana!”
Yubi had never raised a child, but the way Loya smiled that day made him understand why someone would.
He opened his eyes and found himself slumped over the arm of his chair. Looking around, he saw figures standing around him with concerned expressions. The vase had a trail of soup running down the side which led to a puddle on the table, as though it had been knocked over and set back up.
Did I pass out?
Yubi looked up at Loya, who had regained his regal demeanor. He was so much bigger now. I remember you now. Yubi wiped a lone tear from his cheek and got up.
“It seems I still have some recovering to do. Please excuse me.” He started toward the door.
Loya stopped him momentarily. “Be careful, okay?”
Yubi nodded and continued on his way.
He passed Gor on the way to the door. “Looks like you aren’t the smartest man in the room anymore, eh?”
Yubi didn’t respond. I don’t even know who you are.
It took some trial and error, but he eventually found the staircase back to the room he woke up in. He walked down the hall and then remembered Rio. The door was open, but he knocked as he approached regardless.
“Old friend,” Yubi said, “it seems a lot has indeed happened.”
Rio looked away. “If you were there to see, then surely your memory has healed?”
“Not all, but enough. Now, Rio. What was all that about? I want to hear it from you.”
“I didn’t do it.”
“That’s not what you said-”
“You think I would betray Loya like that?!” He took a deep breath and then looked away again. “I said I accept the punishment, not the accusation.”
“But… why? The punishment is to give your body to a demon! You would defile yourself like that?”
“In service of Ya and Loya? Yes. Of course I would. Toi says the demons will trade farming techniques for copies of historical documents which could dramatically increase the consistency of our crop yields. I don’t like it, but he says that we can’t kill the Demon King if a famine wipes us out first. That was enough to convince Loya, so I’ll follow it. If it came to volunteers, you know I’d be the first to give Loya my life.”
“So you didn’t do it?”
“Of course not! Your memory needs more work if you don’t believe that.”
“Perhaps… It’s just that Loya just told me you weren’t at church when the sabotage occurred?”
Rio chuckled. “That, too, is Toi’s doing. He said he had something urgent to discuss with me and had me wait at his office instead of attending church. Then, when he finally arrived, he acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about.”
“You don’t suppose Toi…”
“That soft bodied academic? He’d faint at the destruction of a diagram, let alone a man. It’s not in his nature to do such things.”
“Hmm… and they said someone saw you at the place…?”
“Yes, that I can’t explain. Whoever Kain saw enter the facility, it wasn’t me.”
“Alright…” He started to leave. “I’ll look into it.”
“Wait, Yubi. Don’t.”
“What? Why not?”
“I’ve already accepted my punishment and you have better things to do, like developing the tools from the other world.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, have some faith in Loya’s judgement. And let me have some of the heroism too, you’ve been hogging it.”
Yubi didn’t answer. Some heroism. I barely remember how to eat.
