21 - Shang Simla

Maia felt it was important to go to Shang Simla, and try to get some answers about her past, so she decided she would travel the very next day, before she changed her mind. But she also decided to spend the night with Aashif, and leave the rest to fate. 

  

They fell asleep immediately afterwards, and dreamed of each other.

   

    

But the next morning, as planned, Maia called her travel agent and booked a trip to Shang Simla.

   

   

Upon arriving, Maia checked out the adventure board and found a map of the Forbidden City. 

   

Her first stop was going to Peony Estate, the home where she had lived as a toddler before the fire.

   

   

It had been rebuilt after the fire, but there was no one living there to ask what had happened to the former inhabitants, so Maia went to the Shang Simla Market, looking for some of the locals who might share some information with her, and possibly help her track down her family.

   

One of the shopkeepers said she knew of some of Shang Simla elders who might remember the people who used to live there, and introduced her to a woman named Abi Yat Sen.

  

The elderly woman was friendly and talkative, but she didn’t remember anyone by the name of Tao.

“Although,” she said, “I do recollect that one of Old Master Han’s daughters lived there for a time.  Han owned an orchard that he bequeathed to his daughter upon his death, along with a home in the Ancestor Hills.  She might be able to tell you more of the history of Peony Estate, and perhaps something about those who once lived there.”

Before Maia set out to the Han’s home, she stopped for a bit of lunch.  The chicken teriyaki was excellent, and Maia did a lot better with the chopsticks than she thought she would.

   

The countryside was beautiful, and Maia enjoyed her walk in the Ancestor Hills.  Before long, she came to Han’s Orchard House. She wondered if the daughter of Old Master Han would know anything about her family.  Maia desperately hoped she would.

With a rapidly beating heart, Maia knocked on the door.  She heard soft, shuffling footsteps approach, and the door opened to reveal a smiling, elderly woman who seemed strangely familiar.

   

In order to hide her confusion, Maia lowered her eyes as she bowed her head respectfully.

   

“I’ve been expecting you, Sying,” the woman said.

Startled, Maia raised her eyes to the woman’s face.  Though time had left its mark on her, the woman’s eyes still shone with the same love Maia remembered from the old photographs Charlie Ray had shown her.

“Mother?”

“Welcome home, daughter,” Hui Han Tao said, and folded Maia into a warm, familiar embrace. 

  

“And Father?” Maia asked as she clung to Hui.  “Is he here with you?”

“Not right now,” Hui told her.  “But he will arrive soon, when night falls. Until then, come inside; we have much to speak of, Sying.”  Then she laughed.  “But I have forgotten about all the years that have passed since last I saw you, and you have another name now.”

“It’s Maia, but I don’t mind if you wish to call me Sying,” Maia said with a smile.

Once inside, the two women talked the day away. Hui asked Maia about her life growing up, and Maia asked Hui about her sisters.

“Have any of them returned to see you as I have?”  Maia wanted to know.

“No,” Hui told her, “and I do not know if they will. Your father and I would’ve looked for all of you ourselves, but we never knew the names you were given. It’s likely that they don’t know ours or how to find us, either.”

    

Both women were silent for a time after that.

“Oh, but now look at the hour,” Hui broke the silence.  “Your father has returned, and I have yet to prepare dinner!”

Maia looked out the window, but saw no one, and looked with puzzlement at Hui.

“He’s in the courtyard, dearest,” her mother said, “messing with that sculpture again.”

Maia went out into the courtyard.  She still didn’t see anyone, but the rock sculpture was moving and floating about in the air!

   

Hesitantly, she called out, “Father?”

And a ghost popped right out from inside the rock!

   

“Sying!” shouted the ghost happily.  “I told your mother you’d come!  But from the look on your face, she didn’t mention to you that I was dead, hmm?”  He laughed. “But don’t be frightened; come give your old father a hug,” Chen urged. “I’ve missed you, darling girl!”

But Maia wasn’t frightened; she’d seen ghosts before.  She’d even been one herself! No, she wasn’t afraid, just sad. After all, her father was dead and gone and she’d never gotten to know him...  But wait! Although he was a ghost, he was right here before her eyes, and though he probably couldn’t stay for long, he was here now, holding out his arms to her. Maia ran to her father and hugged him.

  

Hardly a minute later, Hui called out, “Dinner’s ready!”

“Race you to the table!” her father said, and floated right through the wall.  Maia had to go around to the door again, so it was hardly a surprise that he won.

They sat down together and had dinner together, and strangely, it wasn’t strange at all!

   

Well, it was a little strange, but not because her father was a ghost so much as the conversation they had, since they talked mostly about supernatural things. Chen had not only been a witch, like her mother, but had the gift of foresight as well, and had worked as a true fortune-teller.  Old Master Han had been well-pleased to have a son-in-law who could predict the weather, as that ensured the health and success of his orchard.  And it was also because of Chen’s foresight that their family had been able to escape the fire that had been set so many years ago at Peony Estate.

Chen insisted Maia stay at their home while she was in Shang Simla, and since he could only come at dusk and was forced to leave at dawn; it was Hui who would be giving her lessons in magic during her visit. And it was then that they gave Maia her first witch's wand.

  

In the morning, Hui began Maia’s magic lessons.

   

Maia was more than a little apprehensive.

    

But soon enough, she got over her nervousness.  Maia was doing magic; real magic!

   

“Now here’s a simple, but very useful spell I want to show you, Sying,” Hui said, and conjured an apple out of thin air! “Now you try!”

   

And on her first attempt, Maia conjured a nice apple.

   

   

“There, you see,” Hui smiled.  “The ability to conjure fruit so easily proves you are a true descendant of Han.”

During the time Maia spent in the Orchard House, she learned some other spells too, including how to use a conversion spell on her apple.  First she changed it into a beetle.

  

Then she turned the beetle into a chunk of gold.

   

Her mother explained how these things could be used in the potions she would learn to make from studying alchemy on her own in the future.  Some of the potions were worth quite a bit.

   

And then there was the broom riding.

“You mean witches really can fly on brooms?”  Maia was amazed.

    

“Yes, and brooms can be used for many other things as well,” Hui told her.  “It’s used in ritual circles to symbolize the sweeping away of negative energy, for example.  But for now, you get to focus on learning to ride one.”

So Maia did, racing around the Ancestor Hills on a broom under her mother’s watchful eye.  It was certainly a fun way to travel!

   

Throughout the weeks that Maia spent at her parents’ home, she and Hui talked about many things, including the time that Maia had died.

“You died? And the Grim Reaper brought you back?” Now it was her mother’s turn to be amazed.  “The Reaper never releases a soul back to the land of the living without a great price. Sying, how did you get him to agree to that?” Hui pressed.

   

   

When Maia explained she had given him a deathflower, Hui seemed to relax, until Maia added the part about him making her a deal.

“What deal?”  Her mother asked fiercely. “The flower alone should have been enough, that schemer! What ill bargain did he force you to make?”

“He told me he’d bring me back and give me an epic lifetime if I would agree to bear and raise one hundred children,” Maia said carefully.  “Why?” 

Hui’s face paled.  “The 100 Baby Challenge? Then the prophecy must be true.”

“What prophecy?”

“The prophecy that convinced certain individuals to attempt to kill us all in the house fire.  Your father and I hoped it wasn’t true, or at least that it didn’t involve our children, but if you’ve begun the 100 baby challenge, then I’m afraid it must be so.”

And Hui handed Maia a very old and worn book, which fell open to the page of the forecast her parents had worried over.

   

And Maia read: 

And Thou Willst Know the End is Nigh

When the Seven Sisters of the Sky

Are Reborn to the Witches of the East

And if Such Ones Survive the Fires

By Prophecy Their Destiny Requires

These Sisters to Bear One Hundred Infants Each

Lest Earth’s Peril Become So Dire

That Grim Death Should Himself Expire

And His Undying Evils Be Released

   

“But I don’t understand,” Maia said.  “I mean, I guess some of it makes sense if you figure that the seven sisters are my siblings and me, and we’re born to Eastern witches from Shang Simla, and we survived a fire, and now we all have to have 100 children.  But what end is nigh and what dire peril could cause the Reaper to die? What are his undying evils? And what part of this prophecy made people want to kill us in the fire?”

“Your father believes the prophecy is about the end of the world,” Hui said softly, “and I believe him. We suppose that there are those who thought that by killing you and your sisters in a fire, the prediction could not come to pass.  After all, what woman could succeed in the task of having 100 children?  We think they believed at least one of you would fail, so the easiest way to avoid the end of the world was with the death of our daughters; to sacrifice you all to the Reaper’s scythe, and thereby avert the prophecy.  But your father’s foresight enabled you all to live, and it seems the only way to avoid the end of the world now is by all of you completing the 100 baby challenge.”

“As to what could cause the Reaper to die, we aren’t sure,” Hui continued. “But Death is master to many dark and evil beings that would escape from the depths of the Earth if he is no longer there to keep them at bay.”

  

When Maia was able to speak again, she said, “But what about the part that says we were reborn from the sky?  Surely, we didn’t all appear out of thin air!”

At that, Hui chuckled weakly.  “No, you were all born in the normal way, and some of you came with more pain than others.”  Hui arched an eyebrow at her oldest daughter. “But there are some who believe in reincarnation; that we are born again and have many lifetimes and many challenges to learn from in each one. I don’t know if there is truth in that, and perhaps I’ll never know.  But what if it’s true, Maia?”

Maia blinked at her mother. That was the first time Hui had called her Maia. It surprised her enough to make her really think about what Hui said. It might not be true, but what if it was?

“Then I have to return home,” Maia said slowly, “and resume my challenge.”  She put her hand on her still-flat belly, knowing there was no baby growing within her.  She needed to get home to her children, home to Aashif.

Hui simply nodded.

Mother and daughter embraced one another tightly, and then Hui let go, like all mothers must, to allow her daughter to fulfill her destiny. Then Maia made the call to return home.

  

After her daughter had gone, Hui stood outside for a time, gazing at the night sky.

“Seven hundred grandchildren,” she mused. “Just imagine that.”