Insignia (8 page)

“Do you know what happens next?” I
asked.

“No, but surely it is good? We may be reborn
on earth straight away, or perhaps we’ll be needed for a quest of
some sort.”

This sounded ludicrous, and more like the
brother I had grown up with. The truth was, he was lazy, an
under-achiever who thought the world owed him for everything, yet
he never lifted a finger for anyone else. The idea of the gods
needing him for an important mission almost made me burst with
laughter.

Xun kept me occupied during the time of my
funeral. The season changed from autumn to winter in the real
world, but the plane we now resided on did not change at all. I
grew accustomed to my weightlessness, and learned such tricks as
passing through objects and moving like the wind. The idea of
existing for no purpose began to settle with me.

Then, something did change. The significant
event Xun had insisted we wait for. As we took our regular stroll
through the enormous parkland one day, two spirits appeared in the
distance, from nowhere.

“Are they ghosts, like us?” I whispered
unnecessarily to Xun.

“Most certainly.” Xun beamed from ear to
ear.

“Who are they?” I asked. It was my first
encounter with other spirits since I had arrived here. My curiosity
was high to say the least.

“I believe I know, but let’s make sure and
ask,” he told me.

“Very well.” I walked by Xun’s side towards
the strangers.

The four of us met in the middle of the
square and there was silence as we all appraised each other. The
strangers were a man and woman; the man, tall and distinguished,
perhaps in his mid-thirties. The woman was tiny, but with a
delicate beauty. Her eyes suggested she was not as meek as the rest
of her appearance implied.

The man gave my brother only the slightest
inspection before turning to me and smiling warmly.

“I am Ma Sheng Li. Are you Ho Ming Yue?”

“Yes,” I replied, surprised he knew my name.
“This is my brother, Xun. How do you know me?”

“I hope it is joyous news, Ming Yue, that
our parents have wed us this day.” Sheng Li bowed to me, but I
caught the slight blush to his cheeks.

“I..I..excuse me?” I didn’t know how to
respond.

Xun spoke on my behalf.

“Of course, my sister is filled with
happiness at this news. As her brother, I welcome you to take her
as your bride in Heaven.” Xun bowed to his new brother-in-law. “And
you, beautiful flower? Are you to be my wife?” He asked the woman.
The hope in Xun’s voice was clear to all.

“Yes. My name is Li Xiao Hong.” She bowed to
Xun and then looked to me. “Big sister, it is my pleasure to serve
you.”

“Ah, thank you. But such formalities are
surely not necessary here?” I asked, looking at all three
faces.

“Certainly not,” Xun agreed. “Now that we
have been properly partnered, I hope we’ll be leaving this plane
imminently.”

“Perhaps, then, we could take our new brides
for a walk, Xun? To get acquainted.”

“Excellent idea.” Xun held his arm out to
Xiao Hong. “Please, let us walk the square together as a
couple.”

I’d never seen Xun so gracious with a woman,
but he had been alone for a long time.

“Your brother seems very pleased with his
match,” Sheng Li observed.

“Yes, you’re right. He has been here alone
for two years, praying for a bride.” The guilt hit me then, that it
was my fault he had been stuck here. “I should have supported my
parent’s wish to find him a ghost-bride. I didn’t believe it, you
see,” I confided in this stranger, just because it was someone to
talk to besides Xun.

“Don’t blame yourself. I see you are an
educated woman, and that leads me to believe you took your
brother’s place at college after his death?”

“That is true. How intelligent you are,” I
said without thinking.

Sheng Li laughed. “I have no doubt you are
too. But, I’m afraid I have some prior knowledge of your situation.
In fact, I was a professor of science at your university, and alas,
a witness to your murder.”

I gasped in surprise.

“You saw what happened?”

“No, I was some distance away and only saw
you slump to the ground. I rushed to your aid, but there was
nothing I could do.” He hung his head as if in shame. “I learned
your name and some details the following day.”

“Oh, so that means you…haven’t been here
long?” I asked gently.

“No, my death was sudden, and my service was
held only a week after yours.”

“How terrible! How did you…”

“Food poisoning. I have a weakness for raw
fish, despite the risks from eating it.” He smiled as if he
accepted his own mistake easily.

“Well, what a coincidence that our parents
married us together. Perhaps the college connection impressed
them?”

Sheng Li looked a little sheepish.

“I must admit, it is no coincidence. My
mother has a strong connection to the higher spirits and I was able
to speak with her, and request the marriage be arranged for us
immediately.”

“You did that? Why?”

“I wished to take care of you, and see that
you moved on quickly. Your death was most heinous and unjust. Had I
not died myself, I would have fought to identify your murderer and
see him punished.”

I took Sheng Li’s hand lightly, and looked
him in the eye.

“What a selfless thought, indeed. I am
nothing but grateful for such kindness from you,” I said, tearing
up. Strange, I had thought my human emotions had left me.

All through winter, I observed Xun and his
new bride falling in love with each other. At first, the guilt I
felt at blocking his death-marriage had hardened my soul, but Sheng
Li’s company and words of wisdom gradually lightened my heart. Xun
too, held no resentment towards me, especially considering how
happy he was with Xiao Hong. In his mind, she had been worth
waiting for.

One day, as the first signs of spring poked
through the earth, Sheng Li and I visited the university for what
turned out to be our final day of crossing planes. I looked up at
him as he wrapped his long arms fully around me and he recited a
poem he was particularly fond of.

“I love you,” I said, for the first time. I
knew he had loved me for some time, since the day we went
ice-skating together, but he had been patient and not forced my
feelings. He had accepted his death much sooner than I, and
understood my need for extra time.

“And I love you, my flower.” He kissed the
tip of my nose and I let myself imagine what his warm breath might
have felt like if we were both alive.

I had closed my eyes then, and when I opened
them, we were no longer in the university garden nor in the
parkland.

“Where is this place?” It was pretty enough,
with a soft, flowering grass underfoot, but a low mist shielded any
other sights from view.

“I don’t know, but I have a good feeling.”
Sheng Li was positive about everything. I could love him for that
alone.

The mist parted, forming a walkway ahead of
us.

“Are we going to Heaven now?” I asked in
awe.

Sheng Li looped his arm through mine and led
me on our way. “Wherever this leads, we are together. I care for
nothing else.”

I smiled and nodded my head, though I knew
he was not watching my face just then.

We walked through the mist, our footsteps
growing in confidence with each passing second. I waved to Xun and
Xiao Hong, far ahead of us on the path, waiting.

The End

Singaporean, but with a global outlook,
Joyce Chng
write science fiction and fantasy, YA and urban
fantasy. Her fiction has appeared in the Apex Book of World SF II,
We See A Different Frontier, Visibility Fiction, Crossed Genres and
Bards & Sages, to name a few. Her urban fantasy novels are
written under her pseudonym, J. Damask (which she will tell you is
a play on her Chinese name). The Rider trilogy, a YA SF, was
published in 2013 by Math Paper Press, an imprint of Books
Actually, an independent bookstore in Singapore.

She can be contacted at A Wolf’s Tale:

(http://awolfstale.wordpress.com)

David Jón Fuller
studied theatre at
the University of Winnipeg, and Icelandic at the University of
Iceland in Reykjavík. His short fiction has appeared in Tesseracts
17, Tesseracts 18, Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From the
Margins of History, Accessing the Future, and Kneeling in the
Silver Light: Stories From the Great War.

He trained in Northern Shaolin style kung-fu
for two years, and more recently trained with Bissett Jiu-Jitsu for
five years. He lives in Winnipeg, Canada.

Website:
www.davidjonfuller.com

Twitter:
@DavidJonFuller

Holly Kench
is a writer and feminist,
with a classics degree and a fear of spiders.

She enjoys writing a range of genres, but
has a particular love of fantasy. Holly seeks stories that
contemplate the world as much as books that provide escape, but
doesn’t think the two are mutually exclusive. These are the sort of
stories Holly tries to write. She is convinced we can change the
world through popular culture.

Holly manages
Visibility
Fiction
, a project dedicated to the promotion and
publication of inclusive young adult fiction. Visibility Fiction
began as a result of Holly’s desire to create a space that
celebrated and facilitated the telling of stories with diverse
characters. In this capacity she has had the privilege of working
with both Kelly Matsuura and Joyce Chng, who have assisted her in a
journey of not only editing, but also writing her own stories
exploring diverse cultures.

Holly also writes about her life as a
stuffed olive at:

www.stuffedolive.com.au.

Kelly Matsuura
grew up in Australia,
but has lived most of her adult life in the northern hemisphere.
After a year teaching English in China, she moved to Japan where
she met her husband and lived for ten years in Nagoya, Aichi
Prefecture. Due to her husband’s work, she’s enjoying a few years
back in a western country, living in Michigan, USA.

Kelly has published numerous short stories
online, in group anthologies, and in two self-published
anthologies. She enjoys writing in various genres: fantasy,
literature, young adult, and romance.

She majored in Asian Studies and Japanese at
university, and currently studies Chinese, German, French and
Spanish purely for interest.

As the creator and editor for
The
Insignia Series’
anthologies, she hopes to use her knowledge of
Asian languages and culture to assist the other authors produce
great stories and to share the group’s work with a new
audience.

Kelly’s website:

www.blackwingsandwhitepaper.com

Thank you so much for reading
Insignia
Vol.2: Chinese Fantasy Stories
! We hoped you enjoyed the
diversity of work in this collection.

The Insignia Series
blog
is a great place to get in touch with the authors,
find links to more Asian fantasy stories online, and follow updates
about future anthologies.

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