Chapter 6: 6. The Emperor VI – “Days Go By”

The entire cinema catching on fire provided a good distraction for Reed to disappear into the night. While volunteers formed fire brigades to put out the inferno, Isaac, Reed, and the captive Alfie made for Reed’s car, hidden in plain sight down the road. As evidenced by its rickety, boxy design, it was an Arcadian-produced car, rather than one imported from Zhanghai (who knew what they were doing in terms of building cars).

Reed tossed Alfie into the backseat while the adrenaline subsided from Isaac. That allowed all the formerly subdued pain to rise to the surface; sharp burns and stinging sensations stretched from Isaac’s seared arms to the rest of the body. Noticing his plight, Reed unveiled a bottle of Rusalkan vodka from her greatcoat. Isaac gritted his teeth as she poured it over his wounds. This pain felt even worse than the burns, but after a quick swig, Reed tied bandages over his arms. Her fingers moved roughly and erratically.

“I’ll be back in three days,” she informed him. “Not for you, it’s for the cinema…assuming it survives, I guess…well, in any case, it’ll be playing Lionheart Blossom Warrior: The Prequel that day. It’s the only one of Suga’s movies I haven’t seen in cinemas yet. Should you choose to, you can come back with me to the Navy that day. Otherwise, you can enlist on your own, or go mine rocks, or do whatever you want.”

When Isaac didn’t have an answer for her, she adjusted her collars again, then slipped into the driver’s seat.

“Take care, Isaac.”

And then she was off, headlights disappearing down a dark rural road.

---

Isaac made his way back to the tenement hall in a blur. He came to his senses right as he arrived at his door - he carefully examined it for any signs of forced entry. None appeared, so he stepped back into his room. The familiar sights of the cramped living space offered him some relief. But it just wasn’t the same. His sleeping bundle looked far more ragged and smaller now, even though it was the same pile of blankets and sheets he had always slept in. Despite the changes, the familiarity made him sink right into it all the same. He placed a hand over his forehead and tried to collect his thoughts. He didn’t wake up this the morning expecting any of this. Maybe nobody ever does. But still, something felt odd about the whole thing.

Unlocking the Rddhi felt far easier than Isaac could’ve ever imagined. People went their whole lives trying without success. Isaac just did it in the heat of the moment. The whole situation felt odd and off-putting. He even had a feeling that somehow, this was all planned by an outside force. Predestined in some sort of way. Maybe everything was. And his brother was dead.

One moment, he blinked; the next, it was already dawn. He hadn’t even fallen asleep; he just let his thoughts carry him through the night. He turned his alarm clock off and then realized he had fallen asleep with the documents still on him.

He still had that hour of sunlight before work started. Should he even go to work? He had bigger fish to fry, but beyond checking in with the town doctor, Isaac ached for the familiarity of everyday living. And yet, something unusual called for him. Isaac pulled out the envelope contacting the documents and held it carefully in his hands. The envelope was one of those manila ones designed to be reused and could fit multiple papers inside. Isaac didn’t feel anything unusual about the unassuming envelope itself - no odd shapes or weights inside stuck out to him. It was probably just filled with papers. Yet, despite its small size, it cast a long shadow over him at the moment.

A hasty seal kept it shut. Isaac slid a finger over the top, then slipped it beneath the sealed fold. One movement would be all it took to open it. But once he saw what was inside - Greg was right. There could be no going back. Once he had that knowledge, he could never return to Patuxet and its mining cavern. Maybe he already couldn’t, but Isaac clung onto the illusion like a shipwrecked man on his plank of wood amid an endless sea. With a resigned sigh, he opened a cabinet hidden within the wall and slipped it inside the false bottom. Greg had designed the whole thing to hide his communications with the Restorationists - but he took all those documents with him to college, leaving his final envelope all by its lonesome in that false bottom.

The warning from that Reed girl circled around his thoughts. Maybe it was already too late to go back to normal living. But Isaac had been so accustomed to his usual routine that it was tough to slip out of it. The familiarity helped him pretend that nothing had changed.

He donned a ragged, soiled white shirt and a ragged, soiled light jacket. He packed his lunch. He kept the radio off. He left his apartment. When he arrived outside, the breeze came, but it was just a breeze, holding none of its meaning anymore. As Isaac headed down the road, he passed by a telephone pole. A man in a black suit and fedora leaned against it, facing the other way, reading the daily newspaper. Isaac continued on.

First stop - the clinic. Perhaps the doctor had found something. Maybe a miracle would occur and his brother would still be alive. Wishful thinking, sure, but many people in Patuxet were carried through the day by wishful thinking.

When he stepped inside the clinic, the doctor sat behind his desk, his hands clasped together in prayer. The noise of Isaac closing the door startled the doctor, who viewed him suspiciously for a moment before his face dropped. “Isaac, what can I do for you?”

“My brother…did you find anything?”

The doctor remained motionless for an uncomfortable amount of time. His voice sounded robotic when he spoke. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

Isaac gave him a dumbfounded look. “My brother…I brought him last night! You said you’d take a look at him.”

Nervous eyes looked past Isaac. “I think you should lie down. Your brother was never here. He was arrested by the State Police last night at his university for being a Restorationist.”

“What?” Isaac stepped forward and leaned over the counter; the doctor tensed. “We sat my brother down here together last night!”

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Trembling hands grasped Isaac; they felt surprisingly weak. “Isaac, if you’re going to lie, I suggest you leave here. I run an honest clinic to support an honest family.”

Family. Isaac stared down the doctor for a moment, then averted his gaze. He understood - the State Police took Gregory’s body and threatened the doctor’s family if he told the truth. When Isaac forced him to face a life-altering decision, the doctor chose his everyday life. But he had a family to protect.

“I see,” Isaac finally said. “Sorry to disturb you.”

The doctor sighed in relief as Isaac departed. The air felt stale as he headed towards the mine. Nobody paid him any mind. The foreman gave him the usual morning nod. Isaac had just proclaimed the previous night he could no longer keep his eyes closed when facing injustice. But he didn't need to keep them closed if he was already surrounded by darkness. He descended down into the cavern.

---

The second day rolled by. The envelope remained unopened. Isaac deluded himself. He avoided Kassandra - but since nobody else knew of Greg’s murder and alleged arrest outside of the town doctor, she had no reason to be concerned about anything. She could continue her blissful life just as Isaac lived his. The man by telephone poll continued to read his newspaper in the morning. Isaac continued to eat turkey sandwiches and live his lie.

---

The third day arrived in no time at all. If she was true to her word, Reed would return to town today. She was his ticket to the Navy - if he enlisted on his own, there would be a decent chance they would assign him to the Army. Considering the Army had been responsible for founding Arcadia in the first place, overthrowing the dictatorship seemed unlikely if he joined up with them.

Overthrowing the dictatorship. To fight injustice. To gain vengeance. That’s what Isaac swore the other night, and when he woke up that third morning, it was something he could no longer ignore. He had moped around for three days, pretending to smile. He needed time to get those hazy days out of his system. But his strength, both physically and mentally, had returned. Today he would finally step into the sunlight and face his crossroads of destiny. But would he join up with the Restorationists or the Navy? That was the million-dollar question. Isaac decided to enter the mines one last time to say a proper goodbye. After that, he would visit Kassandra and get the dope on the Restorationists. He hadn’t even told her he was a cultivator yet. He had just been going in circles the past three days while pretending everything was normal.

The whole morning felt bittersweet. Every small action, actions he had done thousands of times, felt a little tragic. Turning off the radio. Putting on his clothes. Packing his lunch. Exiting the tenement hall. The man behind the telephone pole staring at him with bulging eyes.

Isaac stopped halfway down the road. The man had no newspaper this time - he just stared and stared. For a full minute, Isaac just stood there, and the man never blinked. With a deep breath, Isaac walked off, a little dash in his step. To put in bluntly, he just wanted to get the eff out of there.

More feelings of bittersweetness arose as Isaac put the staring man behind him. The final walk down the road with the rest of the town. Arriving at the front of the mines. The foreman holding an arm out to block Isaac’s path. His eyes looked despondent and he spoke while facing off to the side.

“Isaac…the State Police notified me this morning that they arrested your brother for being a Restorationist. They told me it’s possible…it’s possible that you’ve been infected with the ideology as well. I…I…”

His head hung low in shame. “Zhanghai told me to fire you, otherwise I’d get the boot as well. I have a family to support. I’m sorry.”

The whistle went off as workers scurried into the cavern. Only a few of them gazed at Isaac with the same level of sadness; most of them kept their heads down. The lie finally caught up to Isaac for good. He made his choice in that movie theater - having left the metaphoric cave of normal living, Isaac couldn’t return.

“I see,” Isaac finally said. “Thanks for everything these past few years.”

The foreman clenched his fist, then walked off with slow steps as Isaac returned to town in a daze. As the masses of the town moved toward the mines, Isaac walked in the opposite direction; he felt like a man trying to swim upstream.

And then he gasped. If the State Police put pressure on the mine…then they might know about Kassandra, too. What have I been doing these past three days? I’m out of time. I’m putting people in danger. I need to go to her now.

Isaac took off, sprinting down the streets. He no longer struggled with the lie; he understood the new reality he lived in now. He could’ve chosen like the town doctor and mine foreman, deciding to ignore the injustice to live a normal life, but he made his decision. He chose his path, and he vowed then and there to follow it to the end, no matter what. He just hoped this three days of moping, living in a blur and a lie, hadn’t hurt anyone.

When he arrived at the schoolhouse, a crowd had formed outside. Well-dressed parents held their well-dressed sons and daughters close to them as they escorted them away from the schoolhouse in a hurry. Isaac pushed through them, a gnawing feeling emerging in his stomach. After arriving through the crowd, he almost bumped into a corporate samurai.

Five of them surrounded the entrance to the school, and Kassandra stood on the other side.

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