2003

Republic of Singapore

Ang Mo Kio

“Oy, go home lam gaou!” The yell piercing through the air barreled all the way towards the transparent shields at the end of the asphalt road.

“Lang kau ngiauh-khì! Lang kau ngiauh-khì!” The chanting continued. Chattering rain fell upon the people on the road; their shorts and T-shirts drenched in the water descending from the sky. As the great crowd continued to move through the street, cars stopped in the sidewalk and a wall of riot shields greeting them at the mouth of the road; the tall apartment blocks to their left and right standing tall, the protestors swarming through with umbrellas over their heads.

The officers stared. One peered over the wall of riot shields, raising a thumbs-up towards the men behind him.

“Baseplate, how do we continue, over?” He muttered into his radio, the rain battering his helmet as he walked around, staring at the mass of people ahead of him, slightly bewildered. Nothing emerged from his radio as he walked up towards some of the men holding shotguns behind the shieldwall, one very clearly having his finger on the trigger.

“Ei, Wang, what the fuck ah? We not going to do anything about these people ah?”

“What the fuck you want us to do ah, siow za boh want us to kill all of them ah?”

The muttering travelling throughout the officers continued as the policemen stood firm, their positions remaining static as the crowd continued on. “Lang kau ngiauh-khì!” They declared once more, as a passing Caucasian man and a small news crew followed, the camera focused on the events unfolding ahead of them.

“‘Scuse me ma’am, Australian Broadcasting Corporation.” He asked a woman sitting at one of the benches near the protest. “What are they chanting?”

“Go die, blue dogs. Go die, blue dogs.” The woman recited, glancing back at him, nodding away. “Tell you ah, feel like they should focus on the promises broken, not just the popo lah…”

Passing through Ah Seng continued to sweat bullets, the running feeling of water flowing down his face and drenching his suit weighing down on him, the briefcase in his hand dripping wet. He walked up to a makeshift stall on the side of the road with several volunteers covering bags, plastic bags and other containers with plastic sheets. “Oy! You got space for more ah?”

One of them, still in a school uniform, shouted back, “Yah! Move it ah, we’re already covering all of it!”

He ran over before slapping a small sticky note on the side, scrawling Tan A-Chen - in suit and tie before passing it to the student. “Ei, Mr. Tan, you don’t need help us here today. We got people in Toa Payoh need a quick ride home at about five p.m, can help ah?”

“Can, can. Didn’t bring the clothes today though, so get me on the register with that can?”

“Can! Thank you Mr. Tan!”

Ah Seng nodded and turned around, vanishing into the crowd. Within seconds one could hear his hoarse, croaking voice also chanting, “Lang kau ngiauh-khì!”

The rain only continued on.

2020

Kura Territories

Outskirts of Fort Sekyo

“Explain your plan to me.”

“Mercenaries. Basically all I know about this time period in history, although it’s not the same ah… basically, I’m going to be a mercenary. A really efficient and fast mercenary.”

“And what you’re offerin’ is that if I produce your… ‘bullets’, don’t tell, you gimme coins.”

“That’s correct. I wanna survive lah. Get a steady income, I’m not too into the business of trying to survive in the woods for ten years and wait for gahment to come get me.” Wei remarked, cleaning out the muzzle of his gun.

“You could have just told me this earlier rather than all of that technical bullshit.” Enik groused, turning to the large wall of tools behind her for a moment. “You do realise I can’t do this one-man, right?”

“Of course you can’t. But try to involve as few people as possible.”

“Who are you?”

“The partnership’s off if you ask that.” He pointed, wobbling whilst waving around his gun. “And I’ll kill you if you refuse.”

Enik rolled her eyes. “Lots of people have threatened me in my day. Lots of blacksmiths get threatened like that. If we’re gonna have a working relationship, it’s gotta have trust.”

She stood up and walked through the smoky room, well-lit by two large fires and some candles placed upon lanterns. Strewn across the floor were metal powders; although otherwise the stone ground remained empty, the two anvils and large boxes and tables she walked by, before pulling from one of the boxes a mould. Wei continued to tremble as he held a bullet in his hand.

Pulling a small metal plate over her face, she muttered, “You do realise I ain’t got no mould that could produce something with that precision?”

“Exactly, so I’m going to bring over several innovations from where I come from in the hopes that magic is going to make the difference.” He muttered, placing down the gun. “What do you say?”

“If you’re lying, I’m going to run out of materials to last till the next harvest.” She stopped, looking through the moulds all neatly lined up inside the stone container. “You showed me power - now can I trust that power?”

“You can trust me…” Wei’s voice trailed off as he scratched his increasingly bushy beard. “...shit. Come on, let’s just work together here.”

“You just threatened to kill me inside my own workshop after giving you shelter for two straight days. You realise that?” Enik muttered under her breath before she took out a small club and wiggled it around. “Around these parts, you have no idea how much I have invested into trying to make this relationship more productive. So, fer the love of the lord, please give me something more useful here than just your useless suggestions.”

He held his palm against his face and leaned back in his chair.

“I’m trying my best here…” He remarked, groaning under his breath. “I’m sorry. Sorry. Can I go over this again?”

“You’re so convincing…” She replied, bunching up her shortened hair as she pulled a few coals from the stone container that had been wheeled into the middle of the room, dumping them inside the fire.

“...how, how much money did you spend?”

“About 7 golds, 12 silvers. You got enough from when you threatened the hell out of those gents back at the bar, but you sure you got enough to make this my while?”

“I have to, y’know. Gotta survive around here ah…” Wei stopped before scratching his head. “Take the cash you need, I’m going to go get some more money. How the hell do you have people hire you for mercenary work?”

The sun disappearing behind the hills, Wei turned around and remarked to Enik, “Hey - we got the right place?”

“...the people who you’d be trying to find wouldn’t exactly host themselves wide in the open would they?” She remarked, the wind rushing by carrying a torrent of leaves through the settlement. “Just in case, I’ll be takin’ me leave now. Don’t want nothing screwing up with the kiln…”

Waving, her figure vanished into alleyway as Wei peered up at the three-storey black brick wall; the shadows dark, looming over him like some kind of monster. A cold, bitter breeze fettered through as he continued on through the network of alleyways and passageways and tunnels that merged into the hilly, mountainous terrain. The choking scent of charcoal kicked his nostrils in the moment he unfolded the door and entered the room, giving him a cough with the garish yellow light illuminating the place.

Surrounded on all sides by various characters. Not a single woman - but lots of elven men, and some Korun; the three Korun that immediately caught his attention wearing green military uniforms with othala armbands on. The Elven swarming the place all wore some matter of regal clothing - frivolously gold lining and green robes seemingly made fully of cotton. He slowly stumbled through into this mess of people, the othala banner on the wall waving about with the breeze coming in through the windows above. Most of them wore large oversized masks which covered the top parts of their faces; moustaches underneath evident enough - all except him.

Wei stared. “What’s with the masks?”

“The Meet policy. We’re all friends here, as long as you don’t know who the other person is. You a rookie?” A man standing behind the counter remarked, waving around a small piece of parchment in his hand.

“Maybe. Just want to get some money.”

He pointed to the left wall. “Board’s over there, active requests down by my side. You gotta sign on if you want to see the board.”

“Active requests... okay. Anyone wants me to go out and kill a bunch of animals?”

“Hunting? You a precision shooter?”

“Whatever. Point is, any of them pay well?”

“Not tellin’ a rookie that. We have a few small-coin options here,” The counterman said as he ran through a list on the wall behind him. “You could take those. You want the big ones, you finish those, and you prove to me you can do ‘em cleanly. I never entered this business so you bumfucks can get babysit by me.”

“Right, right… I’ll register. What do I say?”

He groaned. “Are you prepared for this at all? We got a code, and you need to tell me what you want them to know you as. ...not that you seem to have a problem with that, showin’ up here without a mask.” Pulling out a piece of parchment, he then looked up at Wei with drooping, wrinkled eyes.

“Codephrase?”

“Tango.”

“Countersign?”

“Go fuck yourself…” Wei’s voice trailed off as he took a swig from his canteen. “That’s it. Use it.”

“Whatever pleases you.” He scrawled it down on the parchment, the pen bleeding all over the brown piece. “What name?”

“Eh… Mr. Tombstone.”

“The fuck’s that name?”

“Whatever. Can I go get some cash already?”

“You wanna be so damn impatient you make me think I’m talkin’ to that whore of a wife.” He scowled, pulling out the list of active requests and slapping it on Wei’s side of the counter. “Around here, you call me Midas, just for your con-ve-ni-ence.”

“This one,” Wei remarked, pointing at one in the middle. “This works ah?”

“The hell’s your accent? Otisk?” Midas paused for a moment before checking it up. “Just so you know, we will screw you over if you even try to piss on this request. You either finish it or you don’t come back.”

“I’ll finish, I’ll finish lah…” Wei muttered, pushing away the list. “I’ll be done with this animal in a day.”

“A day? You kidding me?”

“Why, is it that hard to get a clean shot?”

“Damn straight. Kukry literally whine their asses to death after you fire a single arrow at ‘em, y’know? God, where the hell are you from that you don’t know basic shit like this?!”

Wei turned around and inspected his weapon for a moment.

“Somewhere just as insane as this.”