“This is a great blessing,” said Yeoh Gaik Tin. “I heard the Permatang Timbul tokong was destroyed. Everybody there, gone.”
They were seated in a parlour opening on the central courtyard of Madam Yeoh’s mansion. Tet Sang nodded awkwardly at the servant pouring him tea. Guet Imm’s eyes were burning holes into the side of his head.
“Why you didn’t say you knew Yeoh Gaik Tin?” she’d whispered as Madam Yeoh had whisked them into the house.
“Idon’tknow her!” said Tet Sang.
“She seems to know you!”
Certainly, Madam Yeoh’s hospitality suggested some prior acquaintance. The moment they sat down, servants poured forth from parts unknown, covering the blackwood table with a bounty of kuih. Guet Imm ate three in rapid succession, while Tet Sang sat with his palms pressed against his thighs. The aunt who had greeted them retired from the scene, grumbling.
“But you escaped, Sister Khanti,” said Yeoh Gaik Tin. She clasped her hands. “This is all thanks to Heaven!”
Tet Sang had racked his brains but could not unearth any familiarity with the nameAnitya. It was unnerving. His problem had always been that he remembered too much about the Order, not too little. Perhaps his efforts to forget had been more successful than he had thought.
“Yes,” he said. “I escaped. And you, sister… were you at Permatang Timbul also?”
A cloud passed over Yeoh Gaik Tin’s face. “You don’t remember me!”
Tet Sang coughed. “Well…”
“No, no. There’s no reason you should,” said Yeoh Gaik Tin. “I was at a different tokong.”
“The tokong at Bukit Hitam,” said Guet Imm. “I was there also.”
“Ah, really?” said Madam Yeoh, glancing at Guet Imm without recognition. “Very good! Welcome, sister.”
She turned back to Tet Sang. “Yes, I was at the Bukit Hitam tokong. I joined a delegation to Permatang Timbul in the year 2483. I attended your lecture on the Clear Heart scriptures. Wah!” She shook her head. “I’ll never forget it. It was like drinking from a spring of fresh water.”
Guet Imm’s fiery gaze intensified. “You gave lectures?” she said to Tet Sang.
“That was one of sister’s earliest lectures,” said Yeoh Gaik Tin. “It was only later on that she became famousfor them.” She said to Tet Sang, “I attended as a layperson when you came to Kempas also. That was after I’d left my tokong. But that time, I had no chance to speak to you. There were too many people there.”
“I thought you were a novice,” said Guet Imm, indignant. “You said the mysteries were closed to you!”
“I said I didn’t know anything about shaping the air,” Tet Sang corrected her. “I focused on the scriptures. Anyone can read the scriptures with training.”
“But few could explain them the way you did, sister,” said Yeoh Gaik Tin, in a tone of reproof. “Even the elders admired you. My Abbot had all your exegeses in her study.”
Tet Sang inclined his head in acknowledgment of the compliment.
“It was a long time ago,” he said, with—he hoped—more composure than he felt. “A lot of things have happened since then. Please don’t call mesister,Madam Yeoh. I am not a member of the Order anymore. That title is not for me.”
Yeoh Gaik Tin looked at him, taking in, for perhaps the first time, the long hair and the men’s robes. The light in her eyes faded.
“Yes,” she said. “A lot of things have happened these past few years. I am sorry, sis—I am sorry. I shouldn’t have talked so carelessly about the past.”
Tet Sang shook his head. “It is good Madam Yeoh isnot scared of speaking about such things. Sister Nirodha and I have come on a mission from the past.”
He glanced at Guet Imm. She glared back at him, as much as to say,We’re not done talking about this. But she said nothing, reaching into her robes and drawing out a small bag, which she offered to Yeoh Gaik Tin.
Madam Yeoh took the bag, opening it. She shook the sarira out onto her palm.
Her eyes widened. “But these are…”
“The relics of the deity,” said Tet Sang. “The most precious treasures of my tokong, and the only ones that remain. The rest have been confiscated.”
He told her an edited version of the events that had led them to her door, including their agreement with her father and the ambush by the mata at Sungai Tombak.
