The Way Back 2 (Return of the Blind Captain II and Almost home)

Over the days the followed, Bo Jing, Bayan, and Shoji directed the efforts to remove wires and other eldritch attachments from the Binggongchang. They considered throwing these objects overboard or leaving them on the beach, but at last elected to keep them in a waterproof sea bag, well doused with holy water. Other sohei were sent ashore to fill their water barrels, collect food, and recruit additional crew members. Upon their return, the sohei reported that they had found a good spring, but food was scarce, and they had alienated themselves from the local inhabitants, who seemed to have encountered the blindman and associated him with the benevolent newcomers. But the sohei contended that they had learned how to sail the ship at least as well as the sailors who had hired on back in Zhou Dang. Shu Yin, in studying the blindman’s books and nautical charts had learned that if they could find a westward current, their return travel could be accomplished in about a month. They had enough water, and their chances of finding food, in the form of fish, were better on the open sea than in this accursed land.

And so the Binggongchang began its homeward voyage. Early setbacks came in the form of submerged reefs and the kelp fields, but one night when they found the westward current, there was a stirring below decks. A walking skeleton, with burning red eyes emerged from below, sending the sohei not terrors. It was the blindman, and he demanded an explanation. Bo Jing directed him the bag where they had secured his instruments. Opening it eagerly, he splashed himself with holy water. Screaming with rage, he lunged at the nearest sohei, threatening to kill him if his demands weren’t met. Bo Jing drew his katana and attacked. The blindman release the sohei who fell to the deck, trembling and retching. With a last kick, the blindman turned and ran toward the captain’s cabin. Shoji castigated him with a blistering sermon; the blindman screamed and stumbled, but continued his mad dash, pushing other sohei out of the way. The blindman made it to the cabin and closed the door, but Bayan was right behind him. She battered the door down and found the blindman holding his spellbook and a small box, while opening the cabin window. Bayan splashed him with a vial of the holy water from Saradin’s cave and the blindman was consumed in a burst of blue flame. Bayan suggested the book should be destroyed. They doused it with oil and set it on fire. After it had burned for a few minutes, they cast it into the sea. They did the same to the wooden chair that had been set at the nexus of the gold wires. The small box, was empty, but they decided to keep it.

The voyagers on the Binggongchang enjoyed several days of smooth sailing, even finding what appeared to be verdant island. After sending a boat ashore, they found that it was blessed with waterfalls and fruit trees.

After leaving the island, the Binggongchang sailed into a fierce storm. The sky was so dark, that Shu Yin could not get a bearing day or night and Bo Jing ordered the crew to out all their efforts into keeping the ship together rather than holding a particular course. Days and nights merged together. When the weather cleared one fine morning, they beheld a huge island or continent, and as they approached, a small location of human settlement.

The first people they encountered were fishermen piloting small, narrow boats. The fishers were friendly and greeted the voyagers in a language that Bayan recognized, having heard Beatriss use it in conversations with Tetsukichi. Shu Yin confirmed that they were in northern Zipang, close enough to home that they could afford to linger. The Binggongchang was anchored in a sheltered harbor and the voyagers were welcomed ashore.

The Way Back 1 (Return of the Blind Captain I)

The explorers, with Saradin’s assistance, climbed out of the pyramid, and drew untainted clean air into their cramped lungs, and then rinsed their mouths with long pulls from their waterskins. Still thirsty, they searched for water, Bo Jing leading the way toward the stream he remembered splashing through when being chased to the pyramid. They found the stream, but its flow was reduced to a trickle, the surface coated with a fine layer of ash. They drank half-heartedly and surveyed their surroundings, noting that the vegetation looked dry. They sky was hazy. They discussed their next move. Unanimously, home.

For Rhialle, Maztica was everything he remembered and worse. These people had risked their lives to bring him home; his home then should be with them. “I am not ungrateful, but . . .”

Bangqiu assured him that he would be glad for his support in whatever future adventures he pursued, starting with the voyage back to Oa.

And so the explorers set off through the untracked jungle to find their ship. Traveling due west they came to edge of a steep-sided valley where they encountered many mysteries: a monkey wearing a feathered hat, a cacophony of birds feasting on a panicked mass of snakes and birds and insects, a stone altar strewn with flowers and a twist of paper with a prayer for rain.

Strangest of all, they met Mai-Thi, the sohei who had been left in charge of the boat. She wore the simple smock of a Maztica woman and greeted them without surprise, advising them that the valley was a place of peace that she did not want to leave. “However, if you desire to continue your lives of meaningless striving, do not stop, even to sleep. If you meet any of the people who live here, you must not harm or threaten them in any way.”

Bayan was dubious, but did not argue. Marching through the night, they crossed the valley and climbed up the other side by morning, finding themselves on a high ridge overlooking a misty sea. From the ridge, they found a path that led down to the cove and, hopefully their ship, where they’d left it anchored. Hopefully, but not actually. Just open ocean. They climbed back up to the top of the cliff for a better view. It was midday, the fog had lifted, and the Binggongchang was visible, anchored much further out, beyond sight of the cove. But it was there. So they marched down to the cove once more and spent the rest of the day cutting trees to build rafts, and then camped on the beach.

The next morning, they set to the tasks of assembling the felled tree trunks into something that could carry them out to the Binggongchang. But they hadn’t been working for long when Hayam spotted a boat—the landing boat from the Binggongchang.

Shu Yin, one of the sohei, piloted the boat together with four other sohei and explained that he “had a good feeling I would find my master today.” Shu Yin, it turned out, had been selected by general consensus to lead the sohei in Kafka’s absence after Mai-Thi went crazy. Went crazy? Strange things had happened on the ship in Kafka’s long absence—

Long absence? Oh, there was so much to explain, and it was difficult to talk and pilot he boat at the same time.

As they drew closer to the Binggongchang, it became more and more apparent that much had changed. Gleaming metal objects had been attached to the railing. Golden wires were strung from the prow to the stern. “I have made some changes,” Shu Yin explained, “and I hope you like them.”

Once on board, Shu Yin became increasingly animated in expressing his excitement about how the Binggongchang had been enhanced. The objects nailed to the railings turned out to be the “oddly-formed metal shapes” retrieved from the ghost ship. At the nexus of the gold wire (which they had also taken from the ghost ship) there was a chair. And Shu Yin asked Bangqiu to please sit in the chair so that he could demonstrate the ship’s new capacity. Bangqiu refused. Hyamsam expressed interest, but the others restrained him. Sharp words were exchanged and at last Shu Yin retreated to his cabin.

Bayan, Bangqiu, Bo Jing, and Hyamsam began asking questions of the sohei on deck, most of whom seemed to be preparing the Binggongchang to set sail, with some conducting both typical nautical duties like checking lines while others polished the strange metal instruments or plucked at the gold wires. Those who could be exchanged in conversation said contradictory things, especially when it came to explaining Mai-Thi’s disappearance.

At some point, a group of shei went to the captain’s cabin and knocked on the door. Not long after, a figure emerged, dressed in a monk’s robes, but with his face wrapped in bandages, just like the captain of the ghost ship. By his bearing and at last his voice, they knew they were dealing with a familiar adversary. And he was accompanied by eight more just like him. In a strange chorus, they commanded Hyamsam to sit in the chair at the center of the wires. Hyamsam refused. Bangqiu wanted to know what would happen.

“We will sail to the stars.”

Bayan refused to discuss the matter further. She attacked with her katana and was joined by Kafka, Rhialle, and several of the sohei, who seemed to have been waiting for just this opportunity. The blind man’s many doubles proved to be illusions, but he showed himself to be a formidable opponent in his own right. His frightful voice struck several party members into paralysis—Bo Jing, Bangqiu, Bayan, and Shoji were unable to move. Most of the sohei found themselves too frightened by the blind man’s presence to attack him directly, but could only attack his illusions. He focused his magic on the party’s most powerful henchmen—Kafka, Sing-ha, Rhialle, and Damai were all overcome by powerful illusions. The blindman continued to plead with Hyamsam to try sitting in the chair, even as Hyamsam blasted him with missiles.

Bangqiu silently called upon Sarandon for help again, and help appeared in a pillar of flame. Bangqiu and the others were freed from their curses. The blindman fled to the Captain’s cabin. Damai and Bangqiu chased after him. While Damai battered the door down, Banqiu prepared a spell. As the door burst open, Banqiu saw the blindman standing with one foot out the cabin window. Not giving him a change to speak, Bangqiu blasted him with magic missiles. He burst into flame; the bandages burned away revealing a gleaming white skull. In an instant, there was nothing left of him. Saradin warned his friends that their enemy stored its soul in a magical box and that the blindman would likely return.