Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 145 by Neil Clarke

Author:Neil Clarke [Clarke, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magazine, science fiction, Science Fiction And Fantasy, science fiction magazine, short fiction, short stories
Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
Published: 2018-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Thunder rumbled. The scene on stage gradually transformed into the graveyard that Cang Jie had taken Ling Xi to. Yet now, the graveyard was no longer veiled in fog. The howling wind parted the mist cloud, revealing the rows of massive, black tombstones. Ling Xi realized that all of the tombstones were indeed, three-dimensional Chinese characters, carved from black rock.

“洪”“玄”“地”“天”“冈”“昆”“霜”“剑” . . .

All of those characters came from the Thousand Character Classic.2 Why would they be there then, in the graveyard? Were they the puzzle pieces of a scrambled Thousand Character Classic?

No. They were the remains of a dead Thousand Character Classic.

All the spectators, utterly astounded, were trembling from the sheer power contained in those simple characters. In front of them, in the center of the stage, the other eleven performers encircled Cang Jie. As he ascended, the tombstones of characters slowly rose into the air as well. Hanging in midair, they rotated and shifted, gradually reordering themselves into the way that the Thousand Character Classic used to be.

A deep, solemn chant echoed in the auditorium:

The dark heaven and the yellow earth,

After the great chaos was their birth.

Rising and setting, the sun; waxing and waning, the moon,

Then came the stars born from the universe’s cocoon.

Coldness and warmth arrive in turns,

Harvest for the fall and store for the winter, in nature we learn.

Merge scattered days into an extra month for the leap year,

It’s the music of yin-yang that makes time clear.

When cloud emerges, down pours the rain;

When morning dew freezes, frost coats the plain.

The best of gold is born from the Goldsand River,

The best of jade, only the Kunlun Mountains may deliver.

The sharpest sword, Juque, ends all doubts in a fight;

The brightest pearl, Yeguang, can illuminate the night.

The plum and the apple, sweetest of fruits, are most commonly seen;

The mustard and the ginger are essential for tasty cuisine.

The oceans are salty, and the rivers are fresh;

The fishes swim and the birds’ wings spread.

The dragon master, the fire lord, the namer of birds, and the ruler of humans, as legends go,

For their honor we strive and sow.

Characters were first created to express the mind;

To shroud the flesh, then, clothes were designed.

Only the most brilliant may wear the crown,

From Yao to Shun, the legacy passed down.

The scene on stage was collapsing. The black tombstones changed form rapidly, disintegrating into radicals and strokes, shuffling, and then coming together again. Finally, all the characters flew to Cang Jie and disappeared into his palms.

Grasping the characters, Cang Jie’s hands clenched into fists. The veins on his arms throbbed as if he was struggling to hold back an unimaginably great power.

From his palms emerged beams of light that painted the sky purple. Wherever the light swept past, tufts of purple grass emerged and hovered overhead like thick purple clouds. The purple grass—Purpureus Herba—sprouted and bore grain. The pods cracked open after the grain was fully mature, and the seeds rained down into the audience.

The raw grain seeds pricked Ling Xi’s face. As soon as those seeds touched her, she saw an overwhelming illusion rise before her eyes:

Earth was a living hell.

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