“I’ve always dreamed about being a plane.”

- Kimari Tamaki, A Place Further than the Universe

Season 1, Interautumnal Interlude IV - "Moonlight Cocktail"

Three years ago.

Audrey looked in wonder at the town’s blacksmith as he worked at his craft, illuminated by moonlight shining down upon his open-air smithy. Powerful muscles banged the hammer down on the metal, shaping it into a long blade. Audrey exhaled alongside the hissing noise made when the blacksmith used tongs to dip the heated blade into a black cauldron of water.

Himura, an old man with gray hair and a salt and pepper beard, was the name of this blacksmith, according to the villagers of East Androscoggin. Androscoggin itself was a decent-sized city situated along a river that powered old sawmills, while imported coal from the Remnant States and Gulf States Confederation fueled the newest textile mills and factories.

While traveling along the road from Androscoggin to East Androscoggin village, Audrey witnessed a region in the midst of change. Small, independent farmers once cultivated the small amount of arable land in northern New Hampshire; now, many of them were moving to the cities, draining the villages of their already-low populations. The same happened with independent logging operations, many of them taken over by large corporations or even the Presidential Administration - more specifically, the State Police - itself.

People always moved to and fro, and Audrey herself was no exception. But to see a region in transition from lively farmlands to massive cities, it seemed a little bittersweet.

Himura finished his work. With the blade now cooled off, he held it up in the air, letting the light of a full moon bath over it. In another hand, he let sand fall between his fingers. As the last strands fell, he set the sword down on a nearby table.

Audrey’s stomach rumbled. “This is really mystic and all, but do you have anything to eat?”

Himura ushered Audrey to a nearby firepit. While he had a large blacksmithing shop all to himself at the edge of East Adroscoggin with a hearth inside, on nights where he worked under the moonlight, he preferred to eat under the night sky as well. Audrey pulled her own weight, chopping up carrots and potatoes that went into a pot held in place over the firepit.

Some time later, Audrey sighed in relief, feeling full from a stew in a far-off place.

“You seem like you haven’t eaten in days,” Himura supposed. The two sat on large logs position across from each other on either side of the firepit.

“I haven’t,” Audrey admitted. “I was working in the mills at Androscoggin and sending all my money back home to the Slot – Salem Slot, I mean. You been there?”

Himura poured himself another bowl of stew, the fire illuminating his face with an orange glow. “I’ve been all over. Salem Slot is a mill town to the southeast. It sounds like a good place to call home.”

“Yeah, well...” Audrey looked up at the moon. “That’s why I’m here. I heard rumors that you’re also a mystic. Like a fortune-teller. Or even a genie!”

“...I don’t grant wishes,” Himura answered, an eyebrow raised. “But perhaps I can tell you your fortune.”

Audrey grinned. “I had just enough money saved up to get back home to the Slot, but I wanted to see you first. But I ended up wandering around all over the region, and I needed to save my money for the train, so no food for Audrey for a day or two.”

Himura ate his stew calmly. “You must seriously desire a fortune from me, then.”

Audrey raised her hands. “I do, but it’s not like that. I didn’t come all this way just for a fortune! I also wanted to talk to you.”

Owls hooted in the woods surrounding the smithy. Trees swayed in the breeze.

“I like seeing all sorts of things and meeting all kinds of people,” Audrey explained. “I can’t sit still. I have to move around. So I try to find interesting places and make new friends. And you’re a blacksmith! Who’s also a genie! I want to walk a mile in your moccasins – well, blacksmith boots, I guess.”

She opened her arms wide, gesturing to the trees around them. “No offense, but blacksmithing seems kind of old-fashioned, I guess. Everybody here’s moving to the city. Less people are buying from ar-ti-sahns of yore.”

Audrey giggled at her own theatrics. Himura remained quiet and calm, listening intently to her train of thought.

Audrey concluded her spiel. “I guess my point is...why? Why are you still blacksmithing? I don’t mean it in a rude way, I really want to know. Rifles have replaced swords by this point. Who do you make swords for and why?”

A long howl from a pack of far-off coyotes interrupted their conversation. At first, they only heard a long, low call from the wilderness – but soon, more and more howls joined in, until it sounded like the entire forest was singing. Audrey listened intently, enchanted with the noise.

Himura let the coyotes finish their melody before he spoke. “Over fifty years ago, I met a blacksmith apprentice the same age as myself. I was an apprentice swordsman while he was a complete novice in actually using the blades he crafted, but he ended up besting me with a lightning sword of his own in a duel. After that, we continually crossed paths and fought together as comrades in the Presidential Restoration. I have not spoken with this man in over forty years, yet his knowledge of the art of blacksmithing inspired an interest in me that has lasted a lifetime.”

Himura let out a long sigh that carried with it decades of both wisdom and tiredness. “As time went on, I found myself less inspired in the how of swordsmanship and more interested in the why. I had less desire for defeating others and more desire into knowing why we fought in the first place. That led me back to the art of blacksmithing – I found an old war buddy who taught me his craft. He died from illness some time ago, and this smithy is now my own.”

“Did you figure out the why?” Audrey asked.

Himura scratched his beard. “The role of a bladesmith has few comparisons. The bladesmith crafts a tool whose sole purpose it is to take lives. In the present, rifles and artillery are made in factories with no personal connection between the worker who makes just a single part of the completed whole, and the soldier on the front line who uses it shoot at an enemy. But for a bladesmith...”

Himura looked at the blade he just built, now hanging on a wooden wall of his smithy. “I know all the contours and edges of that blade because I have constructed it from start to finish. Any man, woman, or child slain by that sword – it will be because of the work done by own two hands. My decision to create such weapons means I now play a hand in the destinies of others, most of whom are unknown to me. It's not something I should take lightly.”

The fire below to the stewpot crackled calmly, embers gently gliding onto the dirt surrounding it. Audrey drew lines in the ground with a shoe, wondering.

Playing a hand in the destinies of others. Do I do that, just by crossing paths with them? Because I’ve crossed paths with people all over! Are we all intertwined? And the place that has the most intertwining, the intertwiningest, where destines all overlap – would that be home?

“I take it you desire a fortune to find something,” Himura simply said, watching the lines Audrey made in the dirt.

“My parents left a long time ago,” Audrey admitted. “I want to find them.”

“Is that all?”

Audrey looked at him blankly.

“Do you want to find something beyond your parents?” Himura asked. “Not just your parents, but the feelings they represent to you." His eyes were full of knowledge and he spoke calmly. "You want to find home.”

“Well, I mean, home’s Salem Slot,” Audrey answered. “I think so, at least. That’s where Esther is. But at the same time...I get this nagging feeling that I should be somewhere else. That this can’t be it. I go to a place, enjoy everything it has to offer, then I move around. I can never stick around anywhere for too long. I guess maybe if I find my parents, I can find a place I can stay for good.”

Himura set his bowl down and rose from his log. “Very well. I shall help you find what you seek. I understand your feeling. After the Presidential Restoration, there were many of us on the victorious side wondering if we truly won after all. Those of us who are still alive carry with us the same sense of confusion over where we belong in the modern world we created.”

Himura walked back over to his smithy, examined a long row of swords he crafted on a wooden wall, then pulled one off of its hooks. The sword seemed long in his hands, moonlight shimmering over its gray metal.

“I earn money by crafting tools. I craft swords for myself,” Himura explained, eyeing the sword he selected. “Swordsmanship has been one of the most important arts in the history of humanity. Bladesmiths have crafted weapons that have killed millions over the years. Entire trajectories of peoples have been determined by the quality of the sword and the one using it. A form of art such as this should not be forgotten. There should always be someone to carry with them that knowledge - that art and death are often two sides of the same coin.”

Himura motioned for Audrey to stand. After making her way over to him, Himura handed her the sword. Audrey had never held a sword before – she felt clumsy with it, unsure how to handle it. It was light, but now that Himura mentioned it, an ancient weight did seem to come with holding a blade.

Himura grabbed another sword off the wall and led them a little ways away from the smithy and firepit, arriving in a small clearing with the full light of the moon shining down upon them. Himura had Audrey stand on one side of the clearing while he stood on the other.

“The relationship between the blade and destiny has led me to dabble in fortunes,” Himura explained. “In a duel, you must see a few moves ahead in order to win. A few seconds into the future. While crafting a blade, you must see into its future use. You must come to terms with the fact that, somewhere down the line, it will be used for the purposes of combat. Decades of studying this phenomenon has made me able to glean the future of those I clash swords with.”

Audrey just scratched her head.

Himura reached into a pocket and pulled out a blindfold that he covered his eyes with. “I will be able to tell your future through combat. A duel is communication through another method. One that doesn’t involve language, just feeling. When we fight now, you will talk to me through your sword. I will understand you better. I will see the next moves you make in your attempt to win the duel. I will then extrapolate this knowledge of just a small portion of the future to predict your future at large.”

Audrey looked down at her sword. “So...I fight you, and get my fortune, basically? But I don’t really like fighting.”

“There are times when you must fight for your future.”

“But you’re wearing a blindfold!”

“There are times when you don’t need eyes to see.”

Audrey felt the sword’s weight in her hand.

I want to find out where home is.

“Alright,” she said. “But I don’t really know much about swordfighting. Or...anything about swordfighting, actually.”

“That’s fine,” Himura answered. “An untrained opponent will make moves that are harder to predict. I will be able to break through farther into the future with a challenge like this.”

Audrey’s eyes widened at the sight of red sparks of Rddhi coursing up and down Himura’s arms, down into the sword.

A Rddhi user! I’ve only met a few of them. He really is magic! Just like a genie!

Himura smashed his sword into the ground, and the weapon suddenly erupted into a flaming inferno that cast flickering shadows over the two of them.

“Come at me with the intent to kill,” Himura said, raising to the sword into a defensive stance. “This is only way it will work. Fight for your future.”

A breeze rustled the grass of the clearing, then Audrey charged at him, the sword in her hands. She swung a blow at him, holding back since Himura was both old and blindfolded and Audrey didn’t like violence.

Himura easily deflected her blow. That first contact of steel made Audrey’s teeth clatter and she stumbled away. Striking Himura felt like hitting solid rock.

Audrey regained her footing in the grass.

“Do not hold back,” Himura repeated, making eye contact with Audrey despite wearing a blindfold. “Fight for your future.”

Audrey recalled the last time she saw her parents – the middle of the night in Salem Slot, looking out the window of her room, seeing the two get into a horse-drawn carriage waiting for them. Audrey thought she was dreaming, but then she and Esther found the note the next morning from their parents.

Things were too dangerous for them to stay. They had to leave. They had to leave them behind. They never said why or when or where. Just that they would be gone for a long while. Because they had something they wanted to find.

Audrey charged with the sword again, gripping it tightly, swinging it with all her might. Himura deflected the first blow, but Audrey struck with a second, then a third. On the fourth blow, Himura knocked away her blade, sending it into the grass. Audrey sank to her knees, exhausted, and rubbed her eyes.

Himura stuck his blade into the ground and knelt next to her. “You will find the first layer of what you seek near a dragon head of flashing neon. As for beyond that, I could not see much, but you will undergo a great deal of hardship in pursuit of it. The question is not whether it exists or not – this home you dream of does exist, but not in a manner that you expect. The real question is whether or not you shall reach it, and that’s a question only you can answer.”

Audrey blew her nose on his sleeve. Himura sighed and gave her a handkerchief.

Audrey took a few deep breathes and settled down. “I see. So everything I’m looking for is out there. I just have to find it.”

“Both the path and destination are equally important when it comes to the destination,” Himura warned her. “Don’t lose sight of either.”

Audrey saluted. “Roger that!”

Himura helped Audrey to her feet and started back toward the firepit. As she walked alongside him, Audrey thought on his words.

“...what’s neon?”