Traveler of the Void - Part 1 Chapter 3 - Wind in the Flower Pavilion

  Traveler of the Void

(Book 4 of the Guardian of the Spirit Series)

Author: Uehashi Nahoko
Translator: Ainikki the Archivist
 

Part 1 - City on the Sea

Chapter 3 - Wind in the Flower Pavilion

    The evening rays of the sun lit the Flower Pavilion in a golden glow. The Flower Pavilion was at the western edge of the royal palace near the tip of the cape that jutted into the ocean. It was a place of repose for the women of Sangal's royal family.

    The women permitted in the Flower Pavilion were of the highest rank: princesses and queens, island guardians' wives and their daughters. The pavilion's structure was a dome supported by six large pillars. There were no walls. The roof was curved.

    The women were afforded clear view of the cliffs and the waves of the sea crashing to shore from the edges of the pavilion. To the east and north, flowers bloomed in profusion, so thick and lush that in some places they were overgrown enough to conceal people behind and under them. This was not just a place of repose, but a place for women that wanted to hide—or to conduct discussions in private.

    The floor of the pavilion was paved in smooth white stone. In the very center, a decorative fountain gushed forth. Water from the fountain flowed down into irrigation grooves that watered the garden; the water eventually flowed over the edge of the cliff into the sea.

    The evening wind carried a tang of salt commingled with the fragrances of the ranguna flower and the floral perfumes of the women in the pavilion. Right now, aside from Prince Karnan's wife Zina, every woman of prominence was present. Zina's health was still delicate from the recent birth; when she wasn't conducting her mandatory ceremonial duties, she spent most of her time resting and recovering.

    The king's second daughter, Roksana, reclined while sipping a liqueur laced with flower petals. "Ah, how refreshing. Rokkari must have put ice in it this time. I can't get anything so fine outside the capital. On Nōrmu, we want for nothing except ice."

    Ice needed to be imported to Sangal from the north and stored specially in natural caves to preserve it at a low temperature. With the exception of the capital, no other islands or territories in Sangal maintained such caves, so ice was a great luxury.

    As the women lounged and stretched in the pavilion, the topic of conversation turned to the welcoming reception of the foreign dignitaries during the Martial Arts Demonstration Ceremony.

    "Saluna, you're so lucky!" Roksana said with a wink. "Crown Prince Chagum is pale, but very handsome."

    Saluna gave her a slightly uncomfortable smile. "I suppose so...his eyes are striking." The women surrounding her tittered. "The men of Sangal are tough and strong, but their eyes hold no secrets."

    "I liked the man sitting next to him," Roksana said. "He was taller than the prince by a full head at least."

    "Ah, that's the prince's counselor," Saluna said. "In New Yogo, he is considered a very gifted Star Reader. Star Readers divine the shadow of the future of their nation. They also have the opportunity to become New Yogo's Holy Sage. Certainly, there are no disadvantages in cultivating such an acquaintance."

    Cousins and aunts mingled and spoke to one another lightly in this way, but the king's oldest daughter, Karina, appeared vexed. Seeing this, Saluna took a seat next to her and asked, "What troubles you, sister?"

    Karina smiled fondly at her, but her expression soon set itself into grim lines. She lifted her head and said in a voice that carried, "I have a concern to bring before you all."

    Everyone ceased their conversations and looked at Karina. She was just thirty-four years old, but was possessed of a calm and quiet steadiness that caused many of the other women to view her as sailors would the captain of their fleet.

    "Have any of your husbands been behaving strangely lately?"

    The women looked at Karina with nervous smiles and shook their heads.

    "Well," Karina said, "perhaps you can correct me if I'm mistaken. But I have cause to suspect treason."

    Roksana plied her fingers over the edge of her glass and tilted her head toward Karina. "What cause? Do you have evidence? What kind of unusual behavior should we be wary of?"

    "Let's see," Karina said. "Training extra-hard for a military competition, maybe? Or receiving an unusual number of messages via carrier pigeon, or attempting to open trade routes to the south...or holding private consultations without you present?"

    Nearly half of the women's faces clouded over. "Hit the nail on the head, have I?" Karina asked sharply.

    One of the middle-aged women shrugged. "Are any of those indicators really evidence of guilt? Traders come up from the south all the time, and people often communicate by carrier pigeon. Last year, I also grew suspicious at a sudden increase in the number of messages my husband was sending and receiving, so I bribed the bird keeper to pass me any messages going in and out. But when I did so, I discovered nothing suspicious."

    "It is possible that the increased amount of messages was a smoke screen, my dear aunt," Karina said. "It may be that the messages were meant to draw your vigilance and that their contents were meant to put you at ease." Whispers broke out among the women as Karina spoke.

    "My husband's communications have also increased in the past year, and I too have maintained constant vigilance," Karina said. "He has also increased his hours spent in physical training, though the messages he received had nothing to do with that. The messages were not suspicious in and of themselves, either. They concerned matters of shipping and cargo, and a certain something discovered by one of his longshoremen."

    Karina produced a lump of tar from her clothing and suddenly split it in half, revealing a sheet of white paper concealed inside. "The discovery was masterfully done. One night, a trade ship arrived in the harbor from the Talsh Empire. There was a welcoming banquet for ships that evening. One of my husband's longshoremen noticed a sailor from the Talsh ship leaving the banquet early. He followed him back to the dock. At first, the longshoreman believed that the sailor had only returned to his ship to check its moorings, but then the sailor suddenly dove into the ocean.

    "After a short time, the sailor made his way back to shore, appearing entirely unconcerned. He returned to his lodging house shortly after.

    "The longshoreman is a conscientious man as well as an observant one. He waited until dawn and dove to the same spot as the sailor. While underwater, he noticed this pressed tightly into the grooves of the anchor chain.

    "Ingenious, isn't it? If he hadn't noticed the sailor leaving the banquet, he would never have thought anything suspicious about a small lump of tar attached to an anchor chain."

    The oldest woman present, the deceased queen's mother Torana, rose from her seat and beckoned Karina over. Due to her advanced age, she was little involved with the goings-on of government any longer, but because of the early deaths of many of the women's mothers in childbirth, Torana's opinion was relied upon as if it came from their own mothers.

    Karina stood up and took a place beside Torana. The other women pressed in, eagerly trying to read the letter that Karina had in her hands. The paper was full of holes, but nothing at all was written on it.

    "The message is encrypted," Torana said. "There must be a trick to reading it."

    "Yes, I thought the same thing, honored grandmother. In messages that my husband received from carrier pigeons, I thought there might be a cipher used to disguise my husband's true intentions."

    Torana lifted her head from the paper and looked at Karina.

    "Were you ever able to confirm if there was a cipher?"

    "Yes, but this is not a message that can be read now. In order to discover its contents, it must be read in the light of the morning sun."

    Torana frowned and slowly shook her head. "It seems the men have gotten worked up over something. Every man of Sangal that goes off his chain is always bound to be a little dangerous."

    "What should we do? Should we tell our husbands what we have discovered and prevent them from doing anything reckless?" Roksana asked while looking at her sister and grandmother.

    Torana shook her head. Karina took a guess at what she was thinking: "For now, we should continue to pretend not to know and keep constant watch. We need to find out who the instigator is and anyone lending them support. We also need to discover the root cause of this plot and destroy it."

    Instead of anxiety or nervousness, the expressions of the surrounding women settled into a decisive grimness that would be considered most improper by outsiders. Like the men of Sangal, the women also preferred the challenge of strong winds to the boredom of calm seas.

    "We have changed out any number of island guardians before, when the need arose," Karina said. "But what's critical here is that we avoid rebellion. It is our duty to prevent Sangal from collapsing from within. We have to find the leader."

    One of the women said, "Keeping the hundreds of islands in the Yaltash ocean unified is no simple matter. But I am concerned about the matter of the traders to the south. It seems we may need to block them from access, and that worries me."

    Karina's face tightened. "Hm. Well, we have cause to distrust at least one southern merchant, so it stands to reason we should distrust others. The person that concealed the letter in the anchor chain was a merchant from Yogo. Since that man and my husband have started business dealings, they've been in constant communication."

    "A merchant from Yogo? Not a merchant from Talsh?" Roksana asked.

    Karina nodded. "Yes. He was aboard a Talsh vessel, but his features were Yogoese. He was even wearing a Talsh uniform, but at the time I simply considered it a costume to make doing business with the Talsh simpler. Still, it was a bit odd, which is why I remember."

    "My husband has frequent dealings with Yogo," one of the island guardians' wives said. "Perhaps it's worth investigation."

    Roksana turned her head toward her. "Perhaps. But wasn't the man on the Talsh ship working alone? The man your husband deals with and the spy on the ship aren't necessarily the same. Do you remember his name?"

    "Um, something like Togum."

    "And is the man we have been speaking of also called Togum?" Roksana asked.

    "No," Karina answered. "I've been informed that his name is Rasugu. But names are easily changed, as are appearances. What we need to do is find out who is manipulating these spies so that we can shed light on this plot."

    The women surrounding her nodded. The future of the nation depended on them. They had been taught and disciplined to always work together on their shared goals.

    "Karina," Torana said. "I am old, and my mind is not what it once was. I will delegate you. Hear every voice and take decisive action. We are most vulnerable now, before the new king is crowned. It is now that any traitorous island guardians will make their move. On top of that, your husband will soon arrive with the Eyes of the Nayugul Raita. I have only ever seen one once and have no desire to repeat such an experience. We are approaching a storm. Everyone, I entreat you, take every possible precaution and leave no stone unturned."

Sunlight streamed over the ocean waves, sparkling and scattering light where it fell. The women looked out upon the waves at sunset, their thoughts clearly weighing heavily on their minds.


8 comments:

  1. HYUUGO? I mean probably not, BUT IT COULD BE.

    Their pavilion sounds lovely, and I'm impressed that Sangal has ice imported. They must be rich as anything. It's especially interesting to contrast Sangal with Kanbal. I really appreciate when authors take the time to figure out every little detail about their invented worlds, and while it's natural an anthropologist would do so, it's still really neat.

    This chapter would be very different if read from the perspective of "extramarital affair" instead of "treason". XD That mystery Yogo/Talsh trader suuuuure does get around, wink wink nudge nudge say no more.

    I'm also very, very amused that they're chittering about how hot Chagum and Shuga are. Maybe they have cute accents, too. LOLOLOL I went to an all-girl's high school, and I remember how everyone just about flipped out when a boy's choir from England visited and gave a musical performance in our auditorium. They could have all been butt-ugly; I honestly don't remember. All we heard was their voices, and every last teenage girl in the school was smitten in a single instant. Of course, these women are all ages and plenty (most?) of them are married... but it's still really funny. *serious politics* *important strategy* *OMG DID YOU CHECK OUT THE FOREIGN PRINCE* *conspiracy and treason* *I NO RITE AND HIS TUTOR WAS LIEK TOTES ADORBS* *more serious politics*

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    2. The tone shifts in this chapter were INSANE. Like, I thought these women were going to be all serious and politically minded, but nope, let's start this conversation by gossiping about boys. (*translator confusion* *translator laughter* *gradual acceptance that this is how things are*)

      There's a bit more of this coming (including a conversation between Chagum, Saluna and Tarsan that is absolutely precious). When I first watched the drama I didn't feel much for Sangal because we didn't know it very well. Knowing this much about them makes it easy to care. :)

      The main villain (or villainous antihero?) in this book is *not* Hyuugo IIRC, but I do think the merchant on board that ship was him! It certainly sounds like him, to a T.

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    3. 8D Hyuugo cameo then! I don't think he's a bad guy so I'm not surprised he's not the villain here. Like, I couldn't see him using a little girl without any regard for her life. But that's just based on what I've absorbed about him, and the drama version, so... could be wrong.

      It's true, reading all about Sangal here makes me feel sad for them that they end up getting pulverized by the Talsh. :/

      I forgot to ask, how do you decide how to anglicize the katakana names? Like, for instance, Saluna vs. Saruna? I'm just used to Saruna because that's the spelling I used in my fanfic, but one of the links you sent me included rare kana that specifically indicate sounds like L, none of which I think I've seen Uehashi use. I wish she'd include a pronunciation guide. :/

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  2. I always liked Hyuugo, even when he did the occasional terrible thing. His motives are usually good and he's compelling as both a sort-of friend and as a representative of a terrifying empire. One of the short stories treats his backstory in depth (several hundred pages), which I'll get to eventually. :)

    What I like about this book is that it takes a lot of time to breathe and let us get to know people just like Chagum is (because that's what Chagum wanted), but something significant and plotty still happens in every chapter. This is one of the main benefits of books over movies--greater level of detail (including the details on the characters' inner state) without sacrificing too much in terms of pace.

    For the most part, I've been using the names in the Moribito fan wiki to anglicize the katakana. There are definitely some choices that I would have made differently, but I figure if English speakers are going to be looking up characters and events in these books, those are likely the names they would use.

    Surina (Rassharou) and Sulina (princess) is one of the ones I originally did transcribe differently (Surinaa-long a-is her literal name, while Sulina's was Suurina-long u); their names are similar for a reason, but I do kind of get why Sulina's name would get the L; the Sangalese language is the only one where "r" regularly gets standardized to "l" (Nayugul, Talsh, Kalsh, and Yaltash being the main examples). L and R are extremely similar sounds in Japanese and they don't have a common separate letter for L (except weird kana that are virtually never used). My last name starts with L, and I use R to spell it in Japanese. So that's just what's common. :)

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    1. That makes sense. In re-watching the drama I've been trying to pay close attention to how the actors pronounce the names, which is helpful sometimes (they're definitely saying Kashal, not Kasharu, for instance, for the Rota Hounds) but other times totally not (like, I could not tell AT ALL whether they were saying Rarunga or Lalunga, or other times where one actor will pronounce a name different from another *in the same conversation* ugh). But Uehashi speaks English, and she definitely knows whether she wants x name pronounced with an L or an R, or if the U is silent, or what... so I really wish she'd just write her own list of anglicizations for everyone to use. I trust the Scholastic ones for that reason, since I believe that Uehashi and Hirano were in contact over the translation. (Though I prefer Sun to Sune because I can't not read the latter as "soo-ne". But that's also a really simple one, not like, say, Torishia. Is it meant to be Torisha? Teresa? Torishya? or Torishia? Or, say, Asura - in the drama they definitely seem to be saying Asura, but the subtitles have chosen Asla, and other places it's Asra... SIGH)

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    2. For now, I am taking the Wiki as the source for names, because there doesn't seem to be any sort of standard rule. Japanese phonemes are quite limited compared to English. In the drama they might actually be trying to say "Asla," because most Japanese people cannot pronounce an English L to save their lives. (The Wiki gives "Asra" for her, so that will be her name in my translation.) This is a running joke in "Death Note," where one of the main characters is named just "L."

      I never understood why Sun's name was anglicized as Sune. That's not the katakana for "ne." And it should definitely be pronounced like "soon." It's an example of the translation trying to make things easier on the audience (don't pronounce this like "the sun") while introducing a lot of room for error.

      The main complication in names that I'm facing is that not every character or place name has a Wiki entry (characters that don't appear in the anime/drama, or who do but aren't named). Some of the novel synopses are pretty good, which leads me to believe that others have done what I've done, learned Japanese, read the books, and were kind enough to dump a detailed synopsis on the world. :) So hopefully I'll have good references throughout. Otherwise, I'm gonna have to guess.

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    3. The person translating Dream just told me they picked the ones they thought looked best - and that for Noshir they picked the one that looked worst because Noshir is the worst. XD

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