"The Bridge Of Birds"
Part 2
by Osiris Brackhaus
- The August Personae of Jade (Sean) -
I am the Jade Emperor.
I am the August Personae of Jade, the one deity running this whole bloody universe.
And if there's one thing that really, really makes me lose my temper, it is one of my bloody employees not doing their goddamn job.
Running the celestial bureaucracy and governing each thing in the world is a bit too much even for my admittedly immense abilities. So I am in the painful position of needing staff. And good staff, nowadays, - oh well, you get my point.
Over the ages, I have learned that though trust is a nice
thing, control is better, and have gotten in the habit of going here and there,
checking on things in one of my many disguises. From minor gods to the pebbles
of a riverbank, I see if all is as I decreed it to be, though I have to admit
that especially river pebbles do need very little attention.
They're very decent, benignly happy spirits and, to be honest, some of my
better subjects.
Gods, on the other hand, are a different matter all together.
Worst of all when they suddenly change their behavior without any discernible cause, creating havoc in the minutely planned clockwork I have set this universe to be.
So when one night I wandered along the shores of the Yellow Sea and a tiny, completely confused starling crashed onto the sands, I was in the mood to strangle a certain god. Looking up into the sky, I could hardly believe what I saw.
Not a single star was at its place, not one of them. The
big celestial river was flowing in all directions at once, like a muddy flood
ankle-deep above a field. This wasn't the sky as it should be, this was a
mess. Like leaves in autumn, stars were falling from the sky, most of them
shocked and confused as they had just collided with another of their kind.
I felt bile rise in my throat, for there could only one be responsible for
this disaster. And this one person I had trusted for many ages, for he had
been the kindest and most diligent of all my aides.
But this was irremediable. An utterly dishonorable failure
of the worst kind.
I felt like he had betrayed me personally, with the dagger still in his hand.
So I picked up the little wailing starling and went up to my celestial palace, skipping the Thousand Halls of Grace and entering directly in my throne room.
The small star was still whimpering pathetically, and I set it down on a table left of my throne, hoping if I just let it alone for some time it would stop crying. On my right, on a similar table, the Celestial Book of Protocol was lying, its jade covers as coolly detached as its iron pages within.
We had a funny kind of relationship, that book and I.
As the August Personae of Jade, my decrees were law to the universe itself,
becoming real and binding as I spoke them. But like a nursemaid, this heartless
book noted each and every thing I said, fixing it onto its pages for all eternity.
And not even I, the August Personae of Jade, was able to violate any of my
laws once they had been written down. Nor could I ever undo them, negate them
or get rid of them in any other way.
They say that there is always a greater Lord to obey, yet for someone in my exclusive position, this is a thought very hard to get accustomed to.
Right then, I was furious, my heart beating with all the thunder of the Hell of Docility's myriad anvils, where the souls of the haughty are forged into different shapes every day I make happen. The starherd had betrayed me, had failed his duty, and of all my gods, I had never expected him to shame me so. Still, the little lost starling on my side was wailing like a lost kitten, and slowly, the sound was getting on my nerves.
"Starherd!", I called out, ignoring all proper forms of summons and invitations. "Your Emperor calls you! Appear now, before I have to come and get you!"
There was only enough time for the God of Proper Greetings to draw a shocked breath, then in a flash of light as searing as my wrath, the starherd appeared in the middle of the hall, pulled by my call from whatever misbegotten place he had been dawdling at.
Before I had a chance to hurl something dramatic at his stunned face, that blasted starling switched from wailing to hooting, and dashed off to his master across the room, snuggling against his chest like a little child.
"Now look who's coming home for a change," I said with a questioning look at the details of my aide's outfit. He truly looked as if I had pulled him out of some mortal's bed. "In mortal guise, half-clad, tousled, unshaved. Would you mind telling your Emperor where you have been these days? Obviously not in the heavens, for your stars are running every direction at once. And this little fellow you are hugging in such dramatic display of bad conscience I personally have plucked out of the sands of the Yellow Sea's shore down below."
Finally, the starherd seemed to realize what was happening and fell to his knees, bowing down to touch the ground with his forehead, never even once letting go of his little star.
"I am sorry, my Emperor, I am sorry."
His lame attempt at groveling didn't do anything to soften my mood.
"I was down on earth, sharing some time with my beloved."
Of course. The ever-favorite excuse. A good one, actually, and in my eyes the only one I might have been willing to accept. But no one failed me in such a flamboyant way and got to live without scars.
"Do you have any idea how long you have been down there?", I bellowed, "Or how much time has passed since you last were in heaven, doing what I had decreed your duty to be?"
The starherd looked up at me from the ground, his dark eyes filled with unusual insecurity.
"A week?", he asked, and the fact that he actually ASKED me made me want to smash him like a gnat. But I thought better and merely stared at him instead, with apparently pretty much the same effect. The starherd was growing flatter and flatter on the cold floor in front of my throne, asking in a hushed voice: "Two weeks? A month, maybe?"
Instead of answering himself, I gave a hardly discernible nod at the Speaker of the Celestial Archive, who in turn nodded at one of his aides, who handed him a large scriptroll.
"Since the last visit of the starherd to heavens," the Speaker intoned in a slightly nasal voice, "a time has passed counting three month, four days, sixteen hours and thirty-two minutes."
Both me and the starherd gasped at this frighteningly large figure. How could I have become so lax that one of my minions could steal off for more than a quarter of a year without me noticing? This whole affair was outrageous!
"How could you fail me so, starherd", I asked, the whole place reverberating with the pain I felt. I didn't want to punish him, not for loving some sweet little girl so much he lost track of time, which to us admittedly meant very little. But he HAD failed me, and there was no denying in that.
"I just wanted to be with my love", the starherd on the ground explained softly, and I could feel the anguish in his heart almost as if it had been my own. "There are so precious few days in a mortal's life, and I just couldn't bring myself to miss even one."
"I know enough of love to understand why you did what you have done. I am not made of stone." Throwing a sidelong glance at the book to my left, I went on: "But your duty, the very reason I have called you into existence for, is to guard the order of the stars in heaven, to ensure they run their path as I have decreed."
Silence spread in the large hall, and only the slight rushing sound of silk told of the many deities gathering in court for this extraordinary and unpleasant event. Softly, the little starling in the starherd's arms started crying, and even in his position, the starherd had a heart to gently shoo at him.
It was really hard to be angry with him, I said to myself. Still he had failed me, but maybe we could see that this little mortal had some more days than usual to live after the Starherd had finished his sentence.
"You will stay in heaven until you have rearranged all the stars, and repaired them to their proper state. And once you are finished - "
"My exalted Majesty, I beg your pardon."
The whole court drew in a sharp breath of shock and exasperation. I was about to sentence him for his failure and he DARED to talk back at me?
"My Emperor, I will gladly serve any sentence you will decree, and none will ever be able to wash off the shame I have laden on me by failing you. But one thing I have to beg from you despite anything." The whole court, and this time including my usually quite jaded self could hardly believe what we heard. "I beg you, my Emperor, allow me to return to earth if even only for the time it takes a leaf to fall from its branch to the ground. But my lover's humble heart has not deserved me leaving without a word, and my heart would break if I were unable -"
"YOUR bloody heart WILL break if you speak a single word more!", it burst out of me in an outbreak of pure anger. "How can you DARE?! Never has such disrespect been shown in this hall, never has any of my minions acted so out of place right in front of my throne!"
The whole place shook with my wrath, and I could hardly think of any instance I had been that angry ever before.
"Never again will you leave the heavens, will it be for farewell or any other reason", I bellowed, glaring at the starherd on the ground. "Never EVER again will you go anywhere else, and if ever you dare to act like this again, I will personally chain you to the Pit of Salt and Iron in the deepest of the Thousand Hells! Have I made that point clear?"
With cold tears of dread brimming in his eyes, the starherd looked up at me, whispering: "Yes, my Emperor."
And as I heard the soft crackling sound of the Celestial Book of Protocol taking up my latest decree among it jade covers, I wondered with a very bad feeling in my stomach if I hadn't just made the worst mistake in a very, very long time.
If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to: Osiris Brackhaus
go to PART 3