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As if they were hidden in plain sight, but he couldn’t see or touch them.
He could hear them, though. They didn’t communicate telepathically, not in words that he could understand. But they snorted and sighed, grunted and huffed.
He tried to speak to them at first, when he sensed one was near. Both out loud and in his mind. But while they seemed to still and listen, they never talked back. They weren’t like him.
They were ghosts.
Shadows.
There, but not there.
For all the time Lancelot spent in the realm thus far, he hadn’t yet come across the Master. He could see the Celestial Palace in the distance, but he’d not set foot upon the one hundred golden steps that led to its entrance.
He heard thexian nütalk about the Master, however. They revered and respected the man. Like a benevolent father figure. Though, from Lancelot’s few conversations with Erebu the Black Dragon, the Master was anything but.
Certainly, he’d not met the Jade Emperor either, though there were legends and myths carved into the structures of this realm that extolled the god’s countless virtues.
He was known by many names: the Heavenly Grandfather or Heavenly Duke. The Jade Lord. The Highest Emperor. The Great Emperor of Jade. The wisest and most powerful of all who had existed over eons. Who had vanquished a Great Evil that threatened all life on earth and in Heaven. Who protected the Universe and kept it in Balance.
But there was no record that told of the Jade Emperor’s creation of dragons.
Everyone, including Lancelot, merely assumed that he did, as he created all fantastical creatures. It was an understandable deduction, for thexian nücalled himlong-er.
Dragonling. Child dragon.
If all of the magical creatures in the Celestial Realm belonged to the Jade Emperor, wouldn’t a “child” behischild?
Lancelot also found engravings about the Jade Emperor’s daughters. There was brief mention of his wife, the beautiful Queen Mother of the West. Each of the daughters was portrayed in a stylized way, with no resemblance to any real person.
The Seventh was the youngest. She was always shown to be weaving. It seemed that it was her imagination that painted the Celestial Realm in the beautiful colors and hues that everyone enjoyed.
The other sisters were portrayed in various activities, but there was no mention of a sixth daughter, as if she was entirely skipped. In her place among the murals and engravings, there was only an outline, a shadow.
A darkness beside or above the image of the seventh daughter that made the latter appear even brighter, more vibrant.
Lancelot wondered what it meant.
Join me for afternoon tea,long-er.
Lancelot jerked his head toward the voice.
Across the bridge he’d stopped at, there sat a stunning red pagoda, built on three tiers. On the topmost level, the latticed wood railing guarded built-in seats that wound all the way around the structure, with tables spaced out along the way.
A small man with long white hair and beard, wearing flowing white robes sat at one of those tables overlooking the bridge, the bubbling brook and the lush grass below. He raised a dainty teacup no bigger than a thimble at Lancelot, curved his mustache in a smile and inclined his head in greeting.
He must be the Master, Lancelot thought. And the moment he thought it, he knew it to be true.
Dutifully, he made his way to the pagoda and climbed the spiral staircase to the top level. He found the Master and sat on the seat slightly beside, slightly opposite him across the table.
A delicate set of tea pot and two teacups were placed on the table, along with a large round plate piled with pretty, sweet and savory treats. They were so intricately made, they didn’t look real. But Lancelot knew they would be delicious; his mouth already watered at the scent of them.
“Please have some,” the Master invited, gesturing to the delicacies.
He picked one up himself, divested it of the gold foil on its bottom, and plopped it into his mouth.
“Sticky rice with red bean paste inside,” he explained after swallowing the small bite.
“Each one of these has a different filling. I am always happily surprised by what I find.”
