The Bird and The Dragon

”Are you sure they didn’t recognize you? You just said they saw you leaving.” The woman on the stage turned looking around in the dimly lit theater. Only some stage lights were on and the auditorium was dark except for the lonely light by the middle exit door.

The woman was Ayu. Patrik had put serious effort into helping his niece and believed the young woman had lots to give both for her homeland and Patrik’s plans. The strategej was convinced Ayu was willing to one day claim her place in the core of the political power. Patrik agreed that scheming with a southern thief could fit into a woman’s ambitions, but such straightforwardness was against the image he had formed of Ayu.

“To see does not mean to recognize,” the man on the stage said. The southern accent was thick, but his speech was fluent.

“We must assume it happened. I understand you have had it rough, but this forces me to redesign the plan. What made you to…on the other hand, never mind. This idea had no sense to begin with. Did you believe you could settle here again?” Ayu said.

“Kvenrei didn’t take no as an answer. I didn’t want to die.”

“I know.” Ayu’s words were quivering with controlled rage. “And I worked hard to get your useless, half-baked mockery of a plan into working order. Neither of you made it easy and this…this is the last nail in the coffin of sensibility. This endangers everything I do, my position, my Dad’s standing, and your life. Was this a part of the plan from the beginning and no one happened to mention it to me?”

“Kvenrei didn’t know about this. I just saw a chance and took it.”

Patrik listened to the discussion walking to the spiral staircase. He had tracked his brother’s movements and knew he had been assigned to check an expelled spy in Shibasa.

“Ayu, have you kept secrets from me?” Patrik said stepping onto the stage.

Ayu pressed her lips into a thin line. “Kvenrei has been the one keeping secrets.” She stood her ground even if she had just been found to scheme behind his supporter’s back. Patrik was proud of the direction Ayu was developing.

“I’ll get to you soon,” Patrik said to the man. “Let’s start at the beginning, Ayu. Why are you in the theater?”

“Don’t try that official tone to me, uncle. I am taking a second set of measurements of the stage because my good-for-nothing assistant didn’t comprehend the plans for the new play. The sewing must start in the morning.”

“I would have never come here should I have known about your presence,” the man added quietly.

“Who is he and what he has to do with you?” Patrik had his guesses, but no certainty. He didn’t connect the face in front of him to the trip in the hot segment.

“He is Cassine. He is from Shibasa, an ex-terrorist in the organization called Umbra. He was kicked away from Sandau two years ago, but Kvenrei followed him and recruited him as a double agent. Umbra continues its underground work and this arrangement allows us to control their communication and actions.” Ayu spoke clearly and with a purpose, just like Patrik had expected.

He was not surprised that Ayu guarded his father’s secrets. Patrik had done it himself, reporting only the selected parts of his half-brother’s doings to Anhava. Ayu had enough sense to understand that this situation required truths.

“Did Kvenrei mention, Cassine here attempted to murder the dragon?” Patrik connected the man to the incident a few years back. He didn’t know about Ayu’s part. Cassine’s face betrayed Agiisha’s memory wipe had held. He opened his mouth, looked at Ayu, and kept his silence.

“He didn’t have to. I was there.” Ayu said.

“That’s why I miss the memories?” Cassine said, testing the story, but not immediately trusting it.

“I suppose you haven’t spread the word, Ayu.”

“Even you hadn’t heard about it. Kvenrei found Cassine in Shibasa and appeared at my door with him claiming Cassine had forsaken his old loyalties. Until this evening, I had no evidence to suspect the story.”

For Patrik, this sounded like a hurried romantic conclusion, the kind of thing Kvenrei was bound to jump into. The brother had returned from the south only two months ago, which meant the case was still fresh and Cassine probably hadn’t had time to cause any relevant trouble. “And what went on tonight?”

“I am sorry. I only took one of those three writing cases. I didn’t intend to cause injuries.” Cassine said.

“Cassine, details,” Patrik commanded.

“Well. I got into the National Gallery as an avec. I hid and waited for the visitors to leave, but then the guards came around and started to inspect the place.”

“You planned this,” Patrik said.

“Was this why you promised to teach Numia the southern language?” Ayu sounded surprised.

“In a way yes. I was not sure I would do anything before I got the chance.”

“What was the smoke?” Patrik asked.

“A weapon given by Umbra.”

Ayu frowned and Patrik continued: “Kvenrei didn’t check his stuff?”

“He was checked. Cassine had only a pistol and it is in a locked place.”

“There was also something else,” Cassine shrugged. “It was supposed to be a stun grenade, a new version of a past weapon. There was a wave and after that, the whole place was full of smoke with a horrible smell. I escaped.”

Patrik nodded deciding to tackle Ayu down to the orchestra pit should Cassine do anything suspicious.” Was that all?”

“Uncle, there indeed is something else.” Ayu looked at Cassine, who nodded with a tired face. “Cassine used to have a companion. Miklen, who got into trouble after his previous visit. It burned their relationship.”

Patrik took his cold face. He knew Astrida had visited Miklen about the spy and knowing Astrida the meeting had not been enjoyable.

“I had nothing to return to here. Kvenrei was the only one to imagine I could continue from where I left.” Cassine said.

Strategej remembered talking with Kvenrei in the hot segment about killing Cassine. He remembered his brother’s words ‘I am not going to kill people because they have fallen in love with the wrong person’. Kvenrei had played Cassine alive out of Sandau and brought him back because he believed it was the right thing to do.

Similarly, Jesrade had believed she was serving the moral right while messing with the southern politics. Both his siblings had acted upon their principles, while Patrik admitted he took commands from the dragon he didn’t trust and followed a commander, who was generally thought mad.

Patrik’s thought jumped towards conclusions. Cassine was an illegal alien in the New Freedom, a terrorist, and Anhava would want to interrogate him. On the other hand, Ayu’s part in the incident had to be kept secret and the obvious solution was to kill Cassine. The thought felt bad, and it was not because of the killing. Patrik realized he had reached the limit and didn’t hold his commander worthy of loyalty anymore.

“You can’t step in the same river twice,” Patrik answered hazily. His hand was not cooperating with the knife, even if the responsibility and sensible operation were self-evident.

“But you can fall through the same river’s ice twice,” Ayu pointed out sounding like her father: “Agiisha didn’t consider Cassine a threat.”

“I don’t want to be a threat.”

“You used to live here under the cover of trade. You learned to know Miklen and used him as an excuse to return to the city. After getting expelled you led us to Umbra and turned your coat to serve Kvenrei. But today you once again forsake your vows. Why?”

“It all is useless. I am alone and tired of being a vessel to other’s plans,” Cassine said.

“Until this night it was all under control, strategej,” Ayu said calmly, but Patrik saw how hard she was thinking.

“In the future, you will tell me about these schemes before they backfire Ayu. In the command chain, I am superior to Kvenrei.”

In the name of the nation’s safety, the dragon’s orders, and the continual wellbeing of his own family Patrik was ready to pass all the fairness and reasonability, willing to show Ayu the bloody side of the politics and to end the pattern of mistakes his brother had started with one strike. But no one had heard about the dragon. Patrik’s long-buried frustration and suspicion towards Anhava had broken to the surface at last.

“I’ll see he gets back to the south. I accompany him if needed,” Ayu said.

Patrik noticed he had stared at Cassine and turned his eyes to his niece. “We must clean this treason where Anhava will never find it. Ayu, you carry on whatever it is you are doing. Cassine, follow me.”

“Thanks, uncle. But Father is not around. He said he was leaving.”

“I am not going to Parisya. Kvenrei will not mess things any further.”

Patrik strode to the stage doors Cassine in tow.

“I’ll try to get you out alive. We’ll travel north and find a fishing ship to take you west. You’ll return the item you stole to me.”

They walked the dimly lit halls to the second floor. The theater was closed and Patrik needed a few items from his mother’s office. Cassine had given him the writing case he had stolen. It used to belong to patriarch Taan, one of the rebel leaders.

Marya occupied a three-room apartment in the theater. Patrik walked Cassine straight to the last room, where he kept some of his clothes in the cabinet. “Put this on. That suit is too fashionable.”

Cassine took the simple black suit and looked around.

“Dress where you stand. It is close enough to your size.” Patrik turned his back and walked to his mother’s office considering writing a message to Anhava. The corridor carried laughter and steps were rising to this floor. Cassine was without trousers, searching for the hidden buttons. Patrik signed him to be quiet and pushed the man behind the sofa. He took the shoes and trousers with him and hid in the same poor cover.

“As I said, a sad occasion, but I see no political connections,” Marya’s smoky, but clear voice said as she stepped in.

“Your safety is my priority,” Anhava said.

“Such sweet words.” A drawer was opened and a silky paper rustled.

“You know that possessing that is strictly speaking illegal.”

Marya laughed. “It can’t be illegal when you are around.”

“Smuggled substances from the south are not of interest to the internal safety.” A spicy smell drifted in the air. Cassine had frozen in place, holding the clothes in his lap.

Marya leaned on her table pointing her cigarette towards Anhava. Her long ocher-colored coat hugged her figure and widened towards the hem. Patrik’s mother was a self-conscious woman with a fiery temperament. Anhava smiled lighting her cigarette with an effortless touch of his resonance.

“As you can see, there are no thieves in my theater. The only thing worth stealing are the actors but they are not present.”

“I needed to be sure. Now we must make sure they don’t steal you.” Anhava’s voice moved towards the door.

“You’ll safeguard my evening. But to answer your earlier question, I have no contact with Agiisha. She doesn’t answer the messages anymore.” The voices disappeared to the stairs. Patrik and Cassine waited until the way was clear.

“Dress up. We’ll leave.”

“Was that commander Anhava?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“His voice. It brought back some memories. He once wanted to kill me in this same theater.”

“Put those trousers on and maybe we don’t have to do a revival of that play.”

A week later Patrik and Cassine were standing on the northern seashore, waiting for the boat to take Cassine along the coast to the west. The water was shiny from the oily film of liquid excreted by the reefs. It stuck to the waterline rocks making them slippery. The cold air smelled of sea and reefs. Patrik took a package from his pocket. He had bought it on the way. “Take this.”

“What is it?”

“Something to replace the writing case you stole. These are easier to sell.”

Cassine took out one of the plates smoothened out of the end-of-the-world glass. It was covered with matrixes. “Are they real?”

“Yes, but harmless. They are a set of calibration plates for volumetric planning. The engraving is empty and you can fill it with a liquid of your choice.”

“Thanks. I must come up with a suitable story for these.”

“If it is good for your business.”

“…Patrik, why did you do this for me?”

The strategej watched the dark waves reflecting the emerging auroras. The answers fluttered in his mind like the particles in the magnetic field above, but he was certain of the treason he had chosen. However, he was not saying it aloud. “You are just a tool to the ainadu politics.”

“If you say so. It just feels that under that surface you are similar to your brother, Kvenrei.”

“What do you mean?”

“Neither of you wants to be a piece in someone else’s play. I know your loyal reputation, strategej Patrik, but it seems not to be the whole of the truth.”

Patrik shrugged letting the unasked evaluation dilute into the silence. The boat arrived rowed by two men and Cassine climbed in. The strategej watched them disappear to the sea. Cassine meant nothing to him, but the Southerner had been right. Patrik was still willing to serve a leader and a cause he believed in, it hadn’t changed. His satisfaction and joy were derived from well-planned and organized operations, but Anhava’s volatility had taken it away.

When the sounds of the boat had disappeared, the man picked a fist-sized stone and threw it as far as he could. He threw another stone and many more in fervent progression until his searching hand found only the gravel.

Patrik breathed hard pressing the gravel in his fist and shouted without voice. It made something to move inside him, something buried in the silent trust and obedience. “Void to take your blood, Anhava,” Patrik said quietly at first but then shouted the curse to the empty sea.

The strategej stood on the beach for a long time letting his emotions rage. The cold wind wiped away his tears, it cleaned his soul flying away all the gathered dust, revealing the shatters in his belief in the dragon and his commander. Patrik was still going to serve his home country and his dragon, but he would not accept the madness connected to them.