Chapter three: The city of Venusia

Trigger warnings for those who need them

No trigger warnings (yet).

After crossing three bridges and traversing five rooftops we end up at a platform the size of a double bed and three doors attached to it.
The door we’re interested in is part of a set, made of paper and captured in between an intricate wooden pattern.
This part of the building looks to be Cheya era in origin. Which is quite fitting for a Jigani restaurant. Most of the iconic red roof tiles got taken away to make room for the upstairs neighbours, but I still think it looks quite nice.
I look over to Hamala whose eyes are sparkling and Xuiyo who looks suspicious as always. “Hamala Nao?” The man asks as he opens the door.
“Yes, I’m Halama.” She says extending her hand to him.
The man ignores the hand, looking past her “You brought an entire entourage?” the man observes and I can hear disapproval in his voice.
Hamala looks at me for a moment “Is that a problem?”
“I can’t imagine why?” I smile politely at the man “Well, six eyes see more than two.”
“They certainly do. Very well, it’s this way.” The man steps out the door, then walks to the door next to his and unlocks it. “The offer is for three rooms. One shop front, one storage and one with plumbing you could fashion into a kitchen. The previous owners used it to just wash vegetables though.”
“Who’s the one responsible for putting a kitchen in?” Xuiyo asks.
Our guide looks at me expectantly. Looks like I’m the interpreter today “He’s wondering who needs to put in the kitchen.”
“If you want the kitchen, you take care of the kitchen. If you wanna turn it into a bathroom, you turn it into a bathroom.”
“Then what are your responsibilities as the owner of the establishment?”
I translate.
The man shrugs “I lend out this key to the highest bidder.”
“I see.”
The man looks at me again. I translate. He rolls his eyes “Can he understand me?” The man asks pointing at Xuiyo.
“Yes, as long as you don’t talk too fast.”
“Look kid. If you want a house that’s taken care of by the owner. You should look outside Venusia. Because you won’t find it here.”
“Well that’s-!”
“It’s okay Xuiyo.” Hamala smiles sweetly before turning back to the man. “How do we bid?”
The man leads us to a box with a stack of papers beside it. “Just write it down on here with your address and put it in the box. If your bid is highest, I’ll let you know by mail.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll leave you to it then.” The man walks out, leaving us with the three rooms in question.
The biggest room by far is the shop front. I haven’t been to the old restaurant Hamala’s yaye owned often but what from what I remember, I think it might be a bit bigger than that even.
Hamala darts around imagining tables and a stage. Xuiyo just inspects the windows and light fixtures for leaks or cracks.
We progress to the storage room, which is just a bare space with some mismatched shelves. The ‘to be kitchen’ isn’t much to look at, brick walls and a single pipe coming down from the roof.
“So what do you think?” I ask Hamala.
She frowns “It definitely needs work, but it would be big enough.”
“I don’t think there are any big issues that need resolving aside from the way this place looks and the kitchen.” Xuiyo adds.
Her mouth draws into a smile “That means we can bid right?”
“I don’t like this system.” Xuiyo tells us as we head back to the bidding box. “Even in the badao the owner came in every spring to patch up the walls. And that rent was a whole lot cheaper.”
Hamala shrugs in response “But I can’t build a restaurant in the badao now can I? And three rooms is kind of a big deal. Most of the offers I’ve seen were either one or two rooms.”
“There’s no harm in putting in the bid we already thought about.” I try.
“But that feels too low now, I’ll get outbid.”
Xuiyo crosses his arms “But if you get accepted and then can’t pay the rent you have a bigger problem.”
“I know… but-“
“How about you make the bid one-hundred-seventy coppers and if it poses any problems down the line I can help out.” I offer.
“We shouldn’t be dependent on you.” Xuiyo grumbles.
“Why not? I thought this was a joint effort. You’re not in this alone.”
“You don’t even have a job yet.”
“I know but-”
“Will the two of you stop bickering?” Hamala huffs as she steps in between us. She grabs the piece of paper, scribbles her bid onto the piece of paper and puts it in the box.
“How much did you offer?” Xuiyo and I ask almost simultaneously.
“Not saying, now come on, let’s go back home.”

The atmosphere on the way back to the ship is tense.
“How much did you offer?” Xuiyo asks.
“Enough, hopefully.”
“That’s not a number.”
“That’s because I’m not telling you the number.”
“But-“
Hamala hugs Xuiyo for a bit.
He stops asking after that.
Part of me wonders whether Hamala just whispered the number in his ear.
As I think, my eyes glide past the onslaught of posters and advertisements lining the free spots on the walls that are low enough to reach.
My eyes drift to a poster of a woman with flaming red hair surrounded by two men, one with a human face, the other with a snake’s head oddly enough. ‘Mariella and the snake’ it reads in big curly letters.
Well then, I take it the lady is Mariella, and the snake is quite obvious, but what about the other guy? Doesn’t he deserve to be in the title?
I step a little closer to it and read the bottom text.
It’s a play combining opera and ballet? That sounds amazing!
“Alice are you coming?” Xuiyo asks.
I look up to find the rest five steps ahead already.
“I found a poster for a play at the theater, I kind of wanna go.”
“The theater?” Hamala’s eyes light up “I’ve never been to the theater before.”
“Wanna go? My treat.”
“I do, it’s just…” Her eyes point to Xuiyo meaningfully “Can we go?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Because you probably think it’s a waste of money.”
“I…look I just want to make sure we don’t have to starve to death at some point.”
“And I appreciate that.” Hamala wraps her arms around her boyfriend and hugs him “But we did leave Choumuri to build up a new life. I think I want my new life to include a visit to the theater. Even if it’s just this once.”
Xuiyo sighs “All right. When is this play?”
“Tonight, right after dinner.”
“Will there be tickets still?” Hamala wonders.
“I don’t know but we can try?” I propose.
“In that case we should probably go back and tell Dana about our plans.” Xuiyo adds.
“Yes, good point.”

A couple hours later, after dinner and some asking around, we arrive at the Magnolia theatre.
It’s set on a tall terrace with a fountain in the center and a smattering of expensive looking stores and restaurants on either side.
It’s gorgeous.
The facade is a typical Fiora style with a marble frieze covered with mythical figures. Each playing out their plots with vacant glass eyes and gilded hair and hands.
I expected there to be a long line at the box office but it seems most people already have their tickets and can pass the checking station directly.
“I’ll get the tickets, you stay here.” I tell the others and cue up.
The woman behind the ticket booth looks friendly in that forced way that makes it look like she’s smiling on the outside but on the inside she’s probably bored, annoyed or tired.
“Welcome to the Magnolia theatre, how may I help you?”
“Good evening, uh, do you speak Cygnian?”
“I do speak Cygnian yes.” She responds and to my surprise I think the smile that starts curling around her lips is genuine.
“Do you have four tickets for tonight’s show still?”
The sucks up breath between her teeth “Tonight is pretty packed since it’s the last show of this production, but I’ll give it a check for you.” She refers to a ledger set to her right and concludes “The only set of four I have left is on the first row at 8 coppers a ticket.”
That’s steep.
But on the other hand, if we’re wasting money better do it right, right? Hamala looked so delighted by the idea I’d feel bad telling her we don’t get to go. “I’ll take them, thank you very much.” I pull out father’s wallet and hand over the amount.
She pulls the tickets from a small stack of cards and writes on the seat number in a shimmering teal ink. “There you go, enjoy the show.”
I look at the seat numbers and wish I had a map to check but I should probably put Xuiyo and Hamala next to one another and then I can be next to Xuiyo with Dana at my other side.
It could be like a double date…except not at all like that.
I mean Dana doesn’t know and shouldn’t know until she’s washed her hands of her responsibility as teacher.
But it still feels nice in a way.

“I have the tickets.” I signal the others who have taken up shop against a pillar sunk into the cladding.
Once they’re at my side I hand the tickets to the doorman “There you go.”
The one checking tickets is a boy not much older than me. He looks at the tickets, counts our heads and then punches little triangles from the tickets. “Enjoy the performance.” He gives the stack of cards back.
I feel a bit annoyed at the way the snips were just taken haphazardly and now they no longer match.
But I guess that’s just me.
I hand the tickets round again and upon entering take in the beautiful bright interior with soft purple accents dotted throughout.
There’s a wardrobe on the left side with little curtained booths where you can leave your coat and hat. Considering the thickness of my winter coat it’s probably a good idea to leave it here rather than trying to drag it to our seats. “We should leave our coats at the wardrobe.” I tell the others.
Xuiyo looks at the setup with suspicion.
“Oh don’t worry, they give them back afterwards.”
“That’s not-“ he swallows up the rest of his sentence, then starts taking off his coat. The others follow suit. We get a ticket per coat.
“Excuse me sir.”
Xuiyo grunts “Yes.”
“The gun is not allowed inside the theatre, we can keep it here with your coat.” the woman smiles but I don’t think she’d take no for an answer.
Xuiyo looks to me “They’re complaining about the gun, aren’t they?”
“Well, yes.”
Xuiyo pulls the weapon from his holster and lets out a bitter sounding “Fine.” He lays it down on the wooden counter. The woman takes it carefully and slips it into his coat pocket “Thank you sir.”
Xuiyo just shrugs in response. Hamala puts a hand on his shoulder.
I note a second line which seems to be for a bar at the end of the hallway.
We don’t need to be there right now.
The room is roughly u-shaped, with the house and seats supposedly taking a chunk out of the lounge. Back towards the entrance if you turn right there’s a long strip of seating and standing space for people to wait and walking all the way to the end and taking a left there we find the lavatories and a staircase that leads up to who-knows-where.
It’s also very crowded, with people chatting and drinking and making a lot of noise.
“How long until the show starts?” Hamala asks me and I check my watch against the time stamped on the tickets “Thirty minutes until curtain.”
“Then I suggest we go look for our seats already.”
“But we have time, we could-“
“Alice.” Hamala’s voice sounds harsher than normal.
I wonder why, but then her eyes point back to Xuiyo whose expression is tense and with his hand hovering near his holster I can surmise he isn’t happy to be here.
Is it because he had to leave his gun?
I doubt the kashuya will be here of all places.
But I also don’t think telling him that would help much “All right we’ll go to our seats.”
I’ll just check out the stage instead.

The doors to the house are already open and slowly but surely people are sitting down to wait for the show to begin.
We make our way past a battalion of chairs all the way to the front row.
From the orchestra pit rises a vague discordant tune as the musicians all play different parts of the piece in unison. I can hear a piano running up and down the keys and a herd of violins dragging their feet.
There’s also an instrument I can’t quite put finger on. It sounds like bells but if bells said ‘ratatata’ instead of ‘ding’.
Fascinating.
“Well, these are our seats.” I point to the four seats adjacent to the central path and realize we’ll have to do a lot of standing up and letting people through before we can sit down proper.
“How much were these tickets?” Xuiyo asks and I hiss, having hoped he wouldn’t.
“It was 32 coppers for the four of them.” Does that make it sound better or worse, I’m not sure.
I hear Hamala gasp next to me.
Well that’s not helping.
“That’s way too much money, that’s thirty chui a person” He shoots back.
“Look they were the only tickets left next to one another. Besides it’s not that much by theater tickers standards.” I think.
“Are you kidding me? I rented a room for two weeks in the badao for that. How long is this play, I doubt it’s two weeks.”
“Yeah, but that’s the badao, that’s supposed to be cheap…”
“To me it wasn’t.”
“Well you-” I close my mouth before I say something I’ll regret down the line. It’s not like I don’t get his argument but he doesn’t get to decide how I spend my money.
“Go on.” Xuiyo challenges but Hamala grabs his hand and kisses it. “Look the money is spent now anyway and I’m still excited to see this play so how about we just try to enjoy the show and if the two of you wanna argue afterward, be my guest.”
Xuiyo huffs “Fine, but you need to learn how to spend money like an adult.”
“And you need to learn how to control your temper. It’s my money.”
“Your dad’s more like.”
“Come on.” Hamala gently drags Xuiyo into the row of seats and sets him down on the fourth chair, she sits down on the third one herself and tells Dana “You’re sitting with me.”“Okay.”
Dana looks up at me with the question of whether I’m okay.
I shrug and sit down on chair one.
I look around the room to get my mind off things.
The stage is covered with a large pale purple curtain to hold the suspense.
Behind me I find some opera boxes that we apparently walked under when coming in. They have the same reliefs on the fronts of them as the frieze outside.
I wonder if there’s a story there, jumping from balcony to balcony like chapters in a book. But if there is I don’t see it.
“Excuse me.” .
I get up from my seat and let a well-dressed couple pass by in black suits and with flowers in their pockets.
Then an older lady with a truly monumental hat.
And a young woman with square glasses.
And then we get to sit down again.
The lights dim around us and the chattering of the audience fades out into an eerie silence.

The silence erupts into applause as the conductor walks into the pit. Stepping onto the pedestal. We clap as he bows to the audience, then turns to the orchestra. Ready to lead them.
Then the music starts with a jaunty piano piece.
The curtain rises to a garden with a large bridge in the background and five young dancer wearing flower-like costumes at the front.
They’re knelt down on pedestals shaped like flower pots and rise gracefully with the sun as the stage lights beam over them.
A man strides in holding a watering can. He’s the same man from the poster although in this context it’s much more clear to see he’s a gardener.
I guess Mariella, the snake and the gardener doesn’t roll off the tongue.
He greets the flowers and scolds the unruly that are still gossiping among themselves before dancing solo’s with each and every one of them.
That is until a new song starts playing off stage, overtaking the first.
A young woman rushes excitedly up the stage. Recognizing her from the poster as well this must be Mariella.
She signals for her parents, wearing crowns and royal regalia, to come in and then the three of them sing together for a while about flowers and beauty and kids growing up too fast.
I feel like I’m missing a layer of meaning as the some of the words are put in odd places and some I don’t understand outright.
But it does sound very pretty.
Meanwhile the gardener explains in dance that he loves Mariella but can’t have her, being just a lowly gardener. Which makes sense, since it’s a fairytale but in reality he could very simply be her mistruss. No one would bat an eye at that.
And then the snake crawls onto the stage lurking and menacing, coiling his way up to the gardener with waving arms and rolling shoulders.
He reaches out.
The music stops.
The actors freeze as if stuck in a painting except for the snake and gardener.
And away from the rest they make a deal.
A secret pact.
‘I can make your dream come true, if you give me your first born child’.
A ridiculous proposition.
No one would make such an agreement in the real world.
But the gardener accepts and just like that the woman’s agency was sold away as a bargain.
The snake plucks her from her picture frame and enchants her with some sort of magic.
Her protests strong at first, then weak, then silent. Before the music returns and the Lady professes her undying love for a man who doesn’t love her, not really.
Can’t love someone without respecting them.
I’m not sure what I should think of the messaging in this play.
Even the queen doesn’t seem to buy it as she questions Mariella’s change of heart, but she is convinced too easily and the king gives his blessing without a second thought.
And then the curtain falls.
The lights come back into the room halfheartedly as behind the curtain I can pick up shuffling and pushing noises.
They’re changing sets.
Is it time for the intermezzo already? I wonder.
Around me I spot people looking around themselves in the same manner.
No one gets up however.
The doors are still closed.
Then the lights dim again.
Oh, I guess it was a false alarm then?
The curtains open on a richly decorated ballroom where the gardener is running around like a stressed bride.
He berates the flowers for not looking happy enough but considering there’s only two of them instead of five I think I sympathise.
Okay the joke with the cello was actually quite funny.
Three dancers wearing revealing costumes with flowing trims and trains burst onto the scene. They run after one another pick each other up and perform impressive feats of acrobatics.
Meanwhile three more people enter the stage, singing excitedly about the wedding as they make their way to their seats.
As the dance comes to a close, the three dancers bow towards the other guests and away from the audience before sitting down on the floor.
The bride enters the stage in gorgeous gold and holding a bouquet reminiscent of the missing flowers.
The king and queen follow and they all sing the same words, but Mariella’s singing feels jarring compared to that of her parents.
As if she’s doing it wrong and not matching up. It’s strange but I can’t put my finger on it. The pastor sings by himself as the couple act out the wedding ritual.
And then the couple is married.
From there on the wedding itself is a mix of ballroom dancing, solos and well wishes from the singers in canon.
It’s overwhelming is what it is.
But in a pretty way.
And then the wedding ends.
The curtain falls once more and this time it truly is time for a break.