Side Quest: Zheng

Elizabeth helped me lay down on my makeshift bed and rewrapped the wounds before taking over the helm. We were both enraptured by the night sky. I explained to her that the constellations here were different and we’d be navigating by new points. My back was hurting enough to keep me from sleeping so I started giving Elizabeth a graduate level lecture on the astronomy of the Indian Ocean. She ate up every word on it I had to say.

When the sun rose, she gave me some medicine and I managed to sleep. The heading was simple and I wasn’t expecting any issues this deep into the ocean during this era. Deep sea vessels were few and far between as humanity remained focused on the land in front of them and the nearby shores. They were more concerned with cinnamon and torture and conquering than exploration at the moment. Only once they were bored with torturing their own people did they seek other shores for more souls to plague.

We were in prime trading and merchant season, lots of negotiations along the silk road. Zheng would expect me to get to work quickly in order not to miss out on any more time. She'd be disappointed I wouldn’t be able to resume transporting cargo until I healed. Whatever. That bitch owed me some vacation time. She could just lump it and house me and my first mate until I could resume my duties. 

I spelled Elizabeth for her own rest in the afternoon. So long as the winds were with us and we didn’t hit any storms, it would take two days before we made it to Zheng. The course was a simple east north east. As long as we raised Zheng’s colors we would be safe and escorted into port without issue.

The next morning she helped me dress for our entrance. This was another place I needed to ride in with my helmet on full display. Luckily there was no need for cloaks or heavy furs. I could stay in my linens and waistcoats and just let the helmet announce my arrival. The sunrise out here in the real world took the normal amount of time this morning. Elizabeth situated me on the prow of my ship and I gestured to her to take us in.

“Zheng’s ships will begin to flank us. Don’t swerve. Don’t panic. We outrank them all. Without me, Zheng’s fleet is shit!” I hollered to her over the wind. The first ships began to approach once we sighted land. They hoisted Zheng’s colors and waved. I nodded to them in my helmet. Several more joined us as we neared port and shouted greetings. More than likely I was supposed to know and remember these ships and captains. I didn’t. Elizabeth stayed true to our course while shooting the other ships panicked looks.

I saw the familiar sights of Zheng’s compound and started to breathe and relax. Aside from the Try Your Luck, I had spent more time with her at these pop up pirate ventures than anywhere else. Everything was familiar. Lanterns were strung along the docks and over the whole compound. Tents and yurts and temporary structures of all shapes and skill level littered the shoreline and back into the trees. Massive docks, floating and permanent, stretched out into the deep water. My ship dwarfed all those already docked as well as those flanking us. A few decades more and they’d begin to catch up to me. My ship was the jewel of Zheng’s fleet and in her time I’d been gone a whole month. She would have a list of commitments for me a mile long. Elizabeth jumped as drums and horns announced our arrival into the compound. One month was not an extraordinary length of time to be away except that I used the portal to assist with transportation of cargo and to add to Zheng’s god-like stature in the merchant community…not that she needed much help there.  

A party exited the largest, most ornately adorned tent. Zheng led the way with a phalanx of guards and servants. She didn’t bother with her helmet. Her dark hair was swept up and back in an ornate style that sat like a crown on her head. She was shorter than I was by a few inches but she was built out with enough muscle to knock any of her guards flat. Zheng sat atop these compounds but only after years of hard work, terror, and successes. She built these places from the ground up each time she founded one. She fought her way to the top and it showed in her physique. Her physical age measured close to around mine (none of us knew how old or physically progressed we really were). It was one of the reasons we connected in the temple. Another reason was that we were from similar times. She was born several decades on from me in the future but we were closer than some of the colonial era sacrifices in their skirts, or the sacrifices in chitons and togas, or the stone age women weaving mats out of dry grasses for their hovels. 

She and I were used to synthetic materials and memory foam mattresses and it brought us close together. That, and the fact that at our core we were incredibly similar: scrappers who didn’t back down and fought for what we wanted and scared the shit out of the rest of the sacrifices there. We’d had a good time together at the temple. It felt wrong to miss such an alien and brutal place but I did. I was content there. Perhaps that’s why I was so comfortable here in Zheng’s compounds. In many ways it felt like temple life.

Elizabeth tossed the lines to Zheng’s people. I was grateful as I couldn’t twist or bend to tie them off. Zheng stood still on the dock, eyes narrowed as she watched Elizabeth offer me assistance standing and getting off the ship. I handed my helmet to Elizabeth to hold and went to greet my old friend.

“That’s not Marco,” she criticized me. “I sent you to get Marco. That’s not him.”

“Yeah, Marco couldn’t come.”

“Why’s that? I told you we needed him.” Zheng was cranky. She kept eyeing Elizabeth critically.

“I shot him.” It was true. I had originally left Zheng to go find Marco, but it was complicated and I ended up shooting him instead of recruiting him. That was a long story. Here in the 14th century I had no idea where that bastard was.

Last time I saw you, you were in my bed, under my sheets…That could have been hundreds of years in his past. Just because it was new to me meant nothing. 

“Oh. Well, fine then. So who is this?” Zheng indicated Elizabeth. Elizabeth straightened as we both looked at her. Zheng and I were speaking Cantonese and Elizabeth had no idea what we were saying. “Wait,” Zheng grabbed my arm, “Is this Izzy? Did you finally get the balls to bring her with you?” 

“This is Elizabeth.” I gestured for my first mate to step forward for an introduction.

“But she’s black,” Zheng barrelled on.

“Yes.”

“You said your sister is black.”

“Izzy is black.”

“This girl is black, but she’s not your sister?”

“There’s more than one black girl in the world.” That’s right, Zheng gave me headaches, just, all the time headaches. I switched back to English. “Elizabeth, this is Zheng. An old and solidly annoying friend. Zheng, this is my first mate Elizabeth.” Zheng shook Elizabeth’s hand.  

“Welcome to Sunda, Not-Izzy.” I was going to shoot Zheng, I could feel it. “So now that you are here there’s cargo that needs to go to Egypt.” Zheng was already getting down to business. I rotated my shoulders. If Elizabeth could help we could do a few runs – 

“No,” Elizabeth spoke up. “The captain needs to rest.”

Both Zheng and I stared at her in shock for speaking up so boldly. Even Zheng’s people backed up a half step. Elizabeth stood firm and gripped my helmet. Before I could explain (or flat out lie which was plan A) Zheng spun me around and lifted my shirt and wrapped her fist into the fabric. I cried out as the wounds tore open again but it was lost in her scream of annoyance. 

“You can’t go half a second –”

“Oh my god, let go!” I shouted back.

“--Gone for a month! No Marco! No note!”

“You have a whole compound of ships!”

“They can’t time travel! They don’t know where Yemen is! You know where Yemen is!”

“Get off! You are going to break them open again!”

“Did you go back to the future? Is that where you picked up this Not-Izzy? Did you bring back anything useful besides yet more wounds that keep your ship as useless as yourself?” She yanked my shirt back down and stars burst in my vision as the fabric grazed the raw skin. Elizabeth caught me before I could fall over.

“I did have souvenirs for you but your stuff was taken along with Charlie’s, hence the blood on my back. I’ll make it up to you.”

“Damn straight you will.” The people allowed to flee Zheng’s presence had evaporated during our yell-fest. Elizabeth helped me straighten up. She was wide eyed but stalwart. She wouldn’t have understood any of the yelling but she for sure understood that she was in the midst of two temperamental bitches. “What did you get me that was then stolen?”

“A few of those Monet paintings you like. Some cut glass dishes. Ming dynasty vases.”

“I wanted a bicycle and some video games.” She sighed and dismissed the rest of her people. They fled. She switched to English. “Are you alright? Dammit, Anne. That looks bad. Do you have any Fountain left at all?” Zheng always took my blood and death hard. Even at the temple she’d be grateful but pissed that I stepped in front of her beatings for her. Personally, I never regretted it.

I tried to stretch and show her I was fine-ish. “I don’t need –”

“She’s already had two measures but I would argue she needs more,” Elizabeth spoke up again. I grumbled about how I was doing fine and how everyone could just shut up about it. Zheng laughed out loud and threw her arm around Elizabeth.

“I like you, Not-Izzy! This one has needed a nurse looking out for her since I’ve known her! You and me, we are going to have some fun.” Zheng took my helmet out of Elizabeth’s arms and handed it back to me. “What do you like to do for fun, Elizabeth?” She led my first mate deeper into the compound and I followed. “Boys? Girls? Both? Do you gamble or sing?”

“I enjoy playing cards.” Elizabeth looked back at me, nervous at Zheng’s enthusiastic reception of her. I nodded encouragingly and went to find my yurt. I’d go check in on the two of them later and make sure Zheng hadn’t corrupted her too much. 

My yurt was mostly the same as I’d left it one month/few hundred years ago. I deposited my helmet on a table just inside the door and saw I wasn’t alone. Mo sat at a small table smoking a joint and shuffling a deck of cards I’d left here from Atlantic City. His hair hung in long waves past his shoulders. It was streaked with gray, a feature he lorded over the rest of us. Today he sported a close cropped beard. His eyes were a piercing ice blue that cut right through your soul. Physically he only had ten to fifteen years on the rest of us. Mo lived at the temple full time. We all accused him of retiring, calling it his old age home. He’d make trips out to see us and since Maui killed himself those trips increased in frequency. These days he couldn’t go one visit without proselytizing life at the temple and its would-be benefits to me in particular. He was constantly on alert that I was going to follow in Maui’s footsteps…which was all too prophetic considering the recent events on our little cruise to Greenland.

“I should have guessed you’d be here.” I lit a few more lamps to see the final member of my family more clearly.

“You told me ‘not yet’ back in that storm. Figured I’d come meet you here.” He exhaled a cloud of smoke.

“Never were good at taking hints, were you.” I tried to sit down but couldn’t bend without tearing up and gasping. After a few attempts, Mo got to his feet and helped me to sit. He pulled up the back of my shirt gently and inhaled. He handed me his joint.

“Just the one,” he cautioned and watched as I took a puff. I was not stellar at handling smokables, a lesson both Izzy and Zheng learned the hard way. The substance took a small amount of sting from my wounds and harshness from my thoughts. It reminded me distantly of taking Izzy’s medicine. I tried for a second but he held his hand out. “Hand it over, I’m not interested in a repeat of San Francisco.”

“You have a long memory.” I handed it back to him and winced at the movement. 

“And you have no tolerance. Did you Fountain? Secondary measures?” 

“Fountained. Twice.” I tried to get comfortable in the chair. I needed to get to bed. I gave up and leaned against the table. Mo watched me struggle then handed over the joint once more.

“But that’s it,” he insisted. I took an extra long drag to see me through. The smoke hit my system and I relaxed. Mo took what remained and watched me as I calmed and settled into my chair. “Talk to me, Anne.” He didn’t mince words. I knew what he was asking. I knew why he was here. 

“I had a bad moment,” I admitted. “I’m doing better.” 

“No one wants to lose you. I can see that you are doing better but you have a history.”

“I’m not Maui.” Even before Maui had bowed out, all eyes had been on me. After he was gone they fixated on my flaws and I felt like they’d begun a countdown till I followed in his footsteps. “I’m not,” I repeated.

“But are you okay?” He skewered me with his gaze.

“No.” It was useless to lie to him. He handed me the joint one last time. A blanket of relief enveloped me and I began to believe I’d actually sleep tonight instead of lay on my cot in torture as I tried to get comfortable. 

“I’m here to offer you, formally, a home at the temple.” This was not the first time he’d brought this offer to me. It was the first time he’d stated it so plainly.

“I’m not ready. My sister is traveling with me now –”

“Where is she then?” He looked around and gestured to the Izzy-less space. “You talked of her so much and yet you are here without her? You know I’ve got my concerns.” Mo had met Izzy before and thought she was a great girl…who belonged in her own time and her own place. A place I no longer belonged. “Your skills at sailing the current are unmatched. None before you have ever been able to remain connected to their prior life. We are unsure whether this bond of yours is beneficial. You must consider that it is time to let her go…for both of your sakes.” 

“I’m not ready. It’s not time. It can’t be.” I held onto my resolve.

 

Mo sighed. “All I can do is offer. I won’t force anything on you you aren’t ready for.” He was silent a moment. “Yet.” He needn’t have clarified that. I’d heard it loud and clear.

“It’s not time,” I repeated.

Mo was silent for a minute as he chose his next tactic. “They all remark on what an incredible gift you have to navigate the time and space of this world. I’d argue that perhaps, if you were less talented, you might burden yourself with a weight you could actually carry.”  

“Mo, I’m doing better…I want to be doing better.” There. That was actually closer to the truth. I wanted to sleep. I wanted not to be in pain. I wanted life to feel like less of a chore.

“Do you know what you need?”

“Rest. Food. Routine,” I summarized Izzy’s list for him. “Medication when I’m having trouble.” I motioned to the finished joint. My mind was already fighting me, seeing the sun blasted fields of the temple and not the cool dark of my tent in Zheng’s compound. 

“Then that’s what you’ll get.” He helped me out of the chair and into bed on my stomach. He reached out and held my hand. “We are not losing you. You will not be lost.” It sounded like a threat. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that that’s exactly what it was too. Maui’s loss reverberated in each of us, ringing out a mourning knell whenever we got together in pairs or as a group.

“I don’t want to be lost,” I assured him before the world dissolved around me. 

“You won’t be.” Again, it was a threat.

“Thanks, Mo.” I loved him. 

****

The sun blazed down on the sacrificial fields. Mo and I toiled through our latest grave. We’d done fourteen so far today. My hands had long since calloused over. We tossed number fourteen in and started covering the body with all the dirt we’d just dug out of the ground. Three more to go after this. It had been a large group and Mo and I were in punishment, him for running away again, me for giving five acolytes black eyes and chipping one of their teeth. The split on my knuckle from said tooth glistened, still ragged and raw. Our punishment was to dig and inter all the sacrifices alone as the guards watched with their whips and yawns of boredom. 

Mo glared at the body, at me, at the guards, and back again at the body as we shoveled the dirt over number fourteen. I fought against my instincts to apologize over beating him to the better shovel. I’d defend this shovel to my own grave. He could just suck it. I’d marry this shovel and have shovel babies and they could make fun of Mo’s shovel babies and their splintering shafts and weak sockets. I cackled as I started digging number fifteen. I was hungry. The guards were withholding water. It was hot. My shovel was hot. Going to have hot shovel babies.

“Tell me again,” Mo said as he started at the head of the new grave while I worked the foot. “Tell me again how to get there.”

“How far did you make it this time?”

“Almost past the peninsula. Their loud boats cut me off.” Mo griped and tried to stretch his back out. There were motorboats here. The stores of fuel for them came intermittently and the guards rarely used them except for lately when they needed to chase my friend here down. 

“You’ll have to get farther. The portal entrance lies a half day’s sail beyond the tip of that peninsula.” No, I didn’t know how I knew this except that I knew this. Even here, far from the water I could feel it waiting, ready for me when I was ready for it. If I decided to make a run for it I’d get there. I wasn’t running though. Nothing to run to, in my opinion. I kept digging.

“How will I know when I’ve arrived?” he asked as he tossed a shovel full of dirt towards the closest guard who crossed his arms and kicked it right back.

“It’s just there. Very easy to spot. The current will draw you in if you are in the right spot.” I stopped and leaned on my shovel, reminiscing. “You follow it in, ease over the edge, and then…nothing but space and time and opportunity. I swear I can smell it even from here.” I was smiling. Sailing the portal was my happy place. Even happier than I was here. I should have sailed a houseboat into it and lived there forever.

“I can smell you from over here.” Mo grumbled but grinned. He and I both smelled awful. We laughed. Zheng and Marco were sure to kick up a fuss about our filth when we were finally released…which wasn’t going to be anytime soon. Marco was probably working his magic touch on the acolytes and securing us water and soap. I hope he charged Zheng an exorbitant price to use it, something like sweeping the hovel all by herself for two months.

The guard Mo had showered with dirt came over and struck us both for our laughter. We got back to work. I kept up a steady stream of instructions about how to find and recognize the portal. I don’t know how much he understood. It turned into me just reminiscing about my portal and my glory days of sailing it before the storm that wrecked my ship and landed me here.

“The portal favors you too, Anne. To sleep now. Rest.” Mo put down his shovel…or his drink…or something and pinched out the lamps so there was darkness. After the unrelenting sun of the fields, the cool darkness was welcome.