Stuck in Shamballa

"So what business brought you two here again?", Doctor Ema asked in her gentle voice.

We hadn't said anything about our business. At this point, I didn't intend to.

"Well, it's a rather long story but...let's just say it doesn't have anything to do with Shamballa. You do understand that we have nothing to do with any disturbances in town, don't you? We only came here yesterday...to Agartha, I mean."

"Of course, I understand. Don't get so worked up about it."

"Yes, well, if we're okay here, we'd like to leave. We don't want to cause anyone any more trouble", I replied.

Her face shifted a bit under the dim light of the single flickering bulb.

"That's...well...", she looked away to her side.

I waited for her to give a response, a proper one. Her calm and composure were suddenly making me anxious.

"I did tell you that people here don't trust outsiders, didn't I?", she paused for a short while, shifting her gaze toward us.

"You can't leave just like that, I'm afraid."

"And why not?!", I was getting flustered. Something didn't feel right.

"I'm sorry. But unless someone were to vouch for you...then perhaps...", her broken sentences were beginning to get on my nerves.

"You are the law around here, aren't you?"

"Not at all, not me. Shamballa has its own laws. I'm just someone that a lot of people here owe."

"Well, vouch for us then."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I am neutral. I can't even leave this place, let alone help you out."

She wheeled towards the table. Before I could open my mouth to say anything, the door behind us swung open.

"Mother! Food!", a familiar voice sounded from where we had come in.

"Ah, how nice of you, dearest", Doctor Ema's voice took on a whole new level of gentle.

Lubbock and I turned to look at the "dearest" intruder.

"Ah!", the intruder exclaimed upon seeing us.

"Princess Klutz", Lubbock addressed her as casually as one could imagine, "Yo".

He raised one of his hands like a Buddha to greet her.

"Wahaa!!! It's the guests. Wait, why are you here? Could it be...Were you following me?!", just like that, she raised her hands to cup her face in surprise, dropping the tray of food on the ground. She seemed to take no notice of that.

"No, no", Lubbock smirked, shaking his head, then pointed at me, "I was following this guy."

This was the first I'd heard of that. I was a little taken aback. Now that I thought about it, he hadn't given me a clear answer about how he found me. So that was it.

"You know them, Serena?", Doctor Ema chimed in, unbothered about the fact that her lunch had been destroyed.

"Yes! They came to the tavern, Mother", Serena answered.

Mother, I thought, what a small world.

"Is that right?", Ema smiled, "Ah, dearest, you've dropped the food."

It was only then that Serena's attention was drawn to it. She gasped loudly in surprise. Then stooped down and began whimpering about the mess she'd made.

"No need to worry now, Serena", Ema treated her like a child, "You can clean it up, can you not?"

"Yes, I can! I'll be right back", saying this, Serena hurried out of the room.

"Please don't mind her, this happens every other day."

Ema was rather casual about her clumsy daughter.

"Princess Klutz isn't a princess, after all. So just a random klutz, then", I heard Lubbock speaking to himself under his breath. For someone that was always fawning over every woman he laid eyes upon, he sure was indifferent to Serena.

"Wait, we aren't done here", I remembered our conversation from earlier.

Ema opened her mouth to say something but Lubbock interrupted.

"We ARE done! Enough about leaving, I don't want to leave here. What's the hurry?! I'm the one looking after you, Seraph, so I should get to make that decision anyway."

Of course, he'd been silent for far too long.

"In any case!", he turned towards Ema, "I wanna see the cyborg."

I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Cyborg?", Ema was a little surprised too.

"Yup! I heard it. They said Agartha made a cyborg. There's only one in the universe, you know. I want to see it!"

"Ah, that!", Ema smiled, "Agartha did make a cyborg. But that was such a long time ago, I wonder what happened to it. We've heard stories that were passed down to us, but it may still be in Agartha even now. Shamballa is just full of stories, isn't it? There isn't much to do here except tell stories passed down to us. You must think we are such foolish people. I won't deny that."

Lubbock seemed bummed about the fact that we couldn't see a cyborg.

"Ah", I suddenly remembered, "I saw a ghost coming up here. A ghost on the mountain."

"A ghost?"

"Yes, do you know something about it?"

"As you can see, I haven't left here in a long time but there's a story about the Third Climber. I forgot the story but it's about a phantom that appears on the mountain. It eats children...or does it guide people? I wonder which one it was. But something along the lines of that."

Along the lines of what? She was being way too vague. I wanted to ask her why she was locked up in here in the first place. It certainly seemed like an inconvenient place for a doctor to live in. People must have hated getting sick all the more because of her. If she wasn't the lone doctor in town, she'd have been out of business already.

"You two, I must say, I can't let you stay here much longer. As you can see, I don't exactly live in a friendly space. I can't have you stay over. And the villagers wouldn't like that either, I'm sure."

Sometimes, it sounded like she was under their thumb. Anyways, we didn't intend to stay at her place either.

"No, we're...we'll be leaving now", I answered.

She nodded and smiled, turning towards the table to gather the dishes that had been sitting there, probably since this morning.

"Um, Doctor", I turned to ask her before leaving, "Will we be able to see you again?"

She smiled but said nothing, resting her head on the back of her seat. She probably wanted to sleep. We left her there, knowing that Serena must have forgotten to come back and clean up. We closed the door and started towards the exit.