The next day dawned.
Early that morning, Rosa walked along the shore holding Nana’s hand. Mist lay heavily over the water. Both were barefoot. Little ripples traced marks at their feet, then drew back. Here and there on the narrow beach lay rubbish cast up by yesterday’s storm. Hermit crabs crawled across it.
Clinging to Rosa’s arm, Nana had a pale face and disordered clothes. Beneath her eyes, thin red lines had appeared like the marks on a sleepless person. By contrast, her hair had grown half an inch, her eyes burned, and the shape of her redder lips had sharpened. She had always looked unusual, but now she seemed closer to a fairy than a human child. The hem of her old blue dress looked ready to dissolve in the waves.
“This is the sea,” Rosa said.
Nana made no reply, merely looked about.
“There’s new land beyond it. Not Yurial Harbor, but much farther away. Beyond even the Epeha Peninsula. They say it’s a land of old ruins and beasts. The Ipna must have crossed that far.”
The Ipna were a people who had ruled the world in the distant past. Guided might have been a better word than ruled. In those days, the peoples of the present, including humans, had either not existed or had lived in very primitive conditions. The Ipna were said to have led them to establish civilization. Then they vanished. The present peoples did not know what the Ipna had looked like or how they had lived.
There were almost no Ipna ruins either. Ipnerna, once their capital, was now merely the name of a mountain in the central region. Even on its summit, all that remained were a few columns and foundation stones, so scholars had abandoned their research. Yet rumors said many Ipna ruins still survived across the sea. Whether those rumors came from people who had actually gone there was unclear.
“If there are plenty of ruins, that must mean it’s a place one could live. It won’t be a little island. How did the Ipna cross all the way there? Has no one gone that far now? Or have people arrived and found it so good a place to live that they decided not to come back?”
Though Nana did not answer, Rosa kept speaking. It was not that the land across the sea particularly interested her. Nana had brought her to the shore, and she was merely continuing a story that might draw her attention. At last Nana tugged at her hand and pointed.
“Over there? Is there something?”
Following where she led, Rosa saw a piece of cloth washed in by the tide. It seemed to be a flag, large enough to be used as a blanket or a tablecloth. When she spread the wet cloth open, she found the eighth character of the Ipnish script, Sia, embroidered beside a black tree with a strangely great number of branches.
She turned toward Nana.
“Nana, what is this?”
Nana pointed to the tree emblem. A thought seemed about to come to Rosa, making her head spin. She had never seen a tree like it, either in a picture or in life. Then she must have heard of it. Or read about it. Where…?
After a long while, the words “the great black tree” came to her. She remembered too who had said them. Then the situation grew clear. Her lips tightened.
“Sing?”
Nana stared up at her. Taking both her sister’s shoulders, Rosa asked again.
“Nana, tell me. Is this the emblem of Sing? Where has it come from? And how did you know?”
Nana’s face twisted faintly. She narrowed her eyes, then blinked, like someone dreaming sweetly and forced awake. At last her lips opened.
“Sister.”
A radiant smile spread across Rosa’s face. It was the first time Nana had spoken since the siege. Sitting on the sand, Rosa embraced her.
“Yes, tell me. Anything.”
“Do you know how I was until just now?”
Her voice was still hazy, as though in a dream. Rosa had gone through this many times and knew it was part of returning to normal.
“Yes.”
“I smelled something.”
The smile vanished from Rosa’s face. Wherever the scent came from, something important was always hidden there.
Nana pushed Rosa away and turned toward the sea, pointing at the horizon. It was almost hidden by mist, but something was there. When Rosa frowned and stared, at last she saw it: a very small rock, like a dot.
“Do you see it?”
Rosa nodded. With it out on the sea, she could not tell how far away it was. Yet if she could see even a little, she ought to be able to learn by asking sailors.
“All right. But Nana, it lasted quite a long time this time. Today is the eighth day. Did you perhaps not want to come back, as you said before?”
Nana looked steadily at her. Her face seemed much more human now.
“It’s more comfortable for me there. I’m free.”
“Nana…”
“Sister, you know. I can’t remain on either side. I can’t belong wholly anywhere. But I love you. That’s why I came back. To stay here as long as you want.”
When Nana spoke like an adult, it was because she had come into her full senses, as she had now. Soon she would return to her childlike self, though not as a seven-year-old.
“It’s better if I’m here, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Without you, I’ve no reason to be here. Don’t abandon me. Stay beside me.”
Not understanding, Rosa blinked.
“What do you mean? I’m beside you even now, aren’t I?”
“Yes. Like now. Always.”
The sisters embraced again. Before long, Rosa began walking back across the beach toward their lodging. Nana kept close, studying her expression.
“Where are we going?”
“To the lodging.”
“Will you stay there all day today?”
Nana had seemed absent from this world all the while and apparently knew nothing of what had happened. Rosa opened her mouth to explain.
“Gene is fighting the general who kidnapped you today. At the Grand Theater. Everyone will go to watch, so let’s go together too.”
Nana’s lips pushed into a pout. Suddenly understanding, Rosa said, “You’re hungry? Come, then. I’ll make you something good.”
Nana began following without answering. But her green eyes had narrowed as though in thought.
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