Sun Wukong

Part Five · The Two Documents

The mountain

Wei climbs Five Elements Mountain alone, a blank scroll in his satchel and Guanyin’s jade fragment in his breast pocket. At the seal, the being inside answers him through the stone in five lines.

Scroll to approach

Ink painting: the grey face of a vast mountain threaded with red heat; on a ledge in the foreground lie an inkstone, a brush, an unrolled blank scroll and a small green jade fragment, with gold-edged cloud behind.
Plate V Brush, inkstone, a blank scroll and the jade fragment, set down on the warm stone.

At thirty leagues the mountain is already in view, though the Court’s managed sky is not meant to show anything that far away.

The mountain was not growing larger. The mountain was growing more real. Chapter 41

By ten leagues the Court’s hum is gone. The quiet that replaces it belongs to stone older than the Court.

At the base, the checkpoint guard stamps Wei’s commission. The stamp comes down without a sound.

He starts to climb. The path is warm underfoot, and warmer with every step: the heat is coming from inside the mountain.

A system can contain a body. A system cannot contain the warmth of what it has contained. The warmth is what reaches you when everything else is sealed. Chapter 41

The character 封, sealed, carved thirty feet high in the Buddha’s gold 封
  1. The lower slopes
  2. The middle slopes
  3. The seal face

This gold is not the Court’s. The Court’s gold always announces its authority; the Buddha’s makes no claim at all.

Before a character thirty feet high stands one scribe with ink-stained hands, smaller here than anywhere in the investigation.

Chapter 42 · the seal face

Put your hand on the stone.

Wei presses his palm flat against the seal face. The stone does not give. It is warm, and the jade fragment in his pocket warms with it.

Hold for a few seconds, or hold Space or Enter. Press anywhere on the stone to choose where your hand goes.

The record of the interview, as Wei heard it

  1. From inside the mountain“You’re thorough.”
  2. Wei gives his name, his rank and his commission, and offers a chance to answer the official account before it is filed.
  3. Four seconds of silence.
  4. From inside the mountain“You’re thorough.”
  5. Wei“The official account states that you were wrong … That you disrupted celestial order without justification. Do you disagree with this account?”
  6. From inside the mountain“The official version says I was wrong. I was right. These are different things.”
  7. For three seconds his brush stays where it is.
  8. Wei“What did you want? Before and during the Havoc — what were you asking for?”
  9. From inside the mountain“What I was. Which is what I am. What I will be.”
  10. Wei“Did you know the Buddha would come?”
  11. From inside the mountain“I knew something larger than the Court would come. I was curious what.”
  12. He stops writing.
  13. He closes the notebook and gets to his feet.
  14. He turns back to the stone.
  15. Wei“Is there anything you regret?”
  16. Eight seconds of silence.
  17. From inside the mountain“Regret is for beings who had other options. I didn’t. I don’t. You might.”
  18. Wei removed his hand from the stone. The warmth remained on his palm like a fingerprint in reverse — not the impression of a being on stone but the impression of stone on a being.
Next room · Part Five · The Two Documents The filing Write what you found. Two scrolls, one jade fragment between them, and a stamp that falls.