Chapter 3 (The spy)

At an outskirt resthouse, Zeya was lying and thinking back on all his experiences in the monastery. There were phantom-like robots, there were cyborgs, and there was advanced technology. “What is wrong with that place?” he muttered. The so-called ascetic may truly be an alien, he supposed. Knowing it was a threat to the undeveloped society, Zeya tried to figure out how to deal with it. How could he take the mutant back with all these mechanical horrors? When he landed on Earth, his first goal was to find his parents’ house. But then, all changed, and retrieving the mutant became his first matter.

With all this thinking and planning, the night was darker. The air got chilly. The hounds howled more. The leaves flowed with the sand and the air. Snakes suddenly fall from the trees. Zeya felt a chill in his spine, and his back felt insecure. Carefully, he prepared his power to face the upcoming encounter.

The snakes grouped before him but made no threats to him. So, he strained himself from using powers on them. Within a blink, the snake transformed into a beautiful maid.

Her age seemed no more than 20 and just as a typical rich woman from Ava, she wore a longyi up to her chest. A gray shawl wrapped around her pearl-white neck. Her dark hair cascaded over her waist. Her eyes were glowing as a quartz. At the height of men, she stood. Her lips, her nose, her ears, all in a perfect ratio. Yet with no other makeup or jewels, with no gold or silver, she looked simply magnificent, an icon of natural beauty. And she opened her velvet lips and started saying,

“Brave art thou. At the prime of youth, with the might of power, ye came out of U Agga’s monastery alive. Both of us were the only ones to do so,” Zeya recognized her voice as the one he heard before the monastery.

“Tell me thy name and who thy is,” Zeya asked in a serious tone and the lady answered.

“Saw Nan Mon is my name. A womb-born witch, as people call me. Who are ye and what kind of Weizza (Mystic/Wizard) is ye? What magic did thou possess? For what reason ye entered U Agga’s layer?”

“Zeya is my name. No Wizza nor magician, I am. My reason for entering is because that so-called ascetic captured and detained a dangerous creature. Let me ask you. Who is that U Agga? Never had I heard an ascetic by that name before,”

“He was just an ordinary man before. Only around the last three years, he became famous in the field of alchemy. He makes Nanarupas (Robots) for the king. He also makes fake golds like this,”

Saw Nan Mon gave Zeya a golden ingot. Strangely, upon touching it, the Ankh Figure appeared on his chest again. Zeya felt that he had seen this metal before but could not recognize it.

“Alas, what is that figure on thy chest? Where did ye get?” Lady Saw Nan Mon questioned in surprise.

“When I tell, will thou understand? Lookup to the sky, to the stars,” he said, pointing to the night sky.

“Right there, at the belt of Orion, you see. There are many worlds just like ours orbiting these stars. From the world orbiting the third star of the Orion’s belt, I got this figure,”

Although he used the term “worlds” instead of “planets”, he explained in simplest terms, Saw Nan Mon still didn’t seem to understand.

“Pardon me for I know nothing on what thy have just said. I’m a witch and not an astrologer. But when ye come to our meeting place of weizzas, I hope someone will understand,” the girl said.

“I too know nothing about how thy weizzas’ power work. But, that brat in the bush has heard all we said,” Zeya said, pointing at a bush.

The lady was aghast by Zeya’s words, and the bush shook more. Zeya quickly went to the bush before the listener escaped and grabbed him by the shoulder.

His age was no more than 15, noble-born, medium height, and fair skin. His posture was strong and had a handsome face. But what he wore was ragged clothes in contrast to his noble look. The clothes did not match him. It was like a ruby tied to a coir rope. Zeya dropped the boy before Saw Nan Mon and Saw Nan Mon observed him with arms on her waist.

“This creature is a psy. Having a real hair knot means he’s not a Mon. He’s probably from Taungoo. He had been listening since ye arrived. What do ye think?”

“To kill him, of course. No one will doubt if I killed him with my snakes,”

The words shook the observer boy heavily. But he controlled his fear and in a disregarding tone,
“Hey…Hey. If thou kill me, the Kingdom of Ava will ruin for I am Shin Ye Htut, the brother-in-law of Taungoo’s crown prince,”

“Bamp!” Zeya kicked Shin Ye Htut’s ass and said,
“Thou truly art bad at spying. You look like a palace-born without hiding. In serious cases, you would be dead by now. Don’t be proud of yourself that much, Nga Ye Htut. (Nga is a word used to degrade a person) It was because the Taungoo officials did not care about ye that they sent ye here,”

“Wrong! Not as ye said, “did not care,” Whether the officials cared for me or not, I came here by my will. I want to know about you people. Get it? The Ava kingdom is ruined by all means, but machine-like horrors appear on the front line occasionally, fighting on its (Ava’s) side. To investigate them is why I came here,”

“Alas, isn’t he brave? He dared listen to us. Even though captured, his tone didn’t get lower. Ma Saw, let’s spare him. (Ma is a feminine word for honor and respect) I saw success in his life with that mindset,”

“Your will, Zeya. But isn’t leaving him dangerous for us? He had heard a lot and known about us,”

“Hey, Nga Ye Htut, is thy aim is to investigate about U Agga?”

“Well, as thou said, that ascetic is making those machine-like horrors (He’s referring to robots). So, of course, I got to investigate him,”

Zeya thought for a while. The thing Shin Ye Htut can do is tell his master, Mingyi Nyo of Taungoo Kingdom about them. If so, they might get unwanted attention. He did look smart.

“We are on the same boat, Ma Saw. Let us get him in and help us. It is at least better than talking about us. We have the same enemy after all,”

“Thy will, then. But I’m now taking ye to the place of weizzas. Should we leave him to hear? If we take him with us, will he keep it a secret?”

“Hey, Hey, I cared nothing about your weizzas and magic pieces of stuff. All I care is about the machines. Knowing secrets about machines will make my trip fruitful. I’m just getting tired of people calling me “A brat staying under the shade of his brother-in-law,” I will keep secret,”

Saw Nan Mon looked at him and nodded. Then, she drew strange shapes on the ground using a stick. At first, both Zeya and Shin Ye Htut did not understand what she was doing. All she was doing a drawing a gigantic circle and putting strange yet beautiful shapes in it. But then, the strange shapes began illuminating in a bright aura. Strong winds fluttered the surroundings. Saw Nan Mon gestured to Zeya and Shin Ye Htut to come inside the circle she had drawn. And so they did.

Then she chanted some spells quietly, and rays of light surrounded the circle, blocking the surroundings. Zeya felt as if he had levitated. Shin Ye Htut was amazed due to the sudden feeling. Zeya compared the feeling with riding an elevator.

Soon, the lights faded away, and the trio found themselves in a mysterious location instead of the outskirt resthouse.