Omega Point

With a gasp, the knife fell from her grasp and onto the kitchen floor. Bliss blinked, staring at her hand in shock. Time seemed to stand still as blood began to seep out of the cut on her finger, filling in the ridges and grooves that made up her skin. It pooled there, a fat droplet forming before her eyes. Bliss stared at the trickle of blood as it began its slow descent down her finger, staining her pale skin as it went. Its color was one of the most brilliant she had ever seen; while the rest of the objects within her eyesight were dull and faded, the blood was red. Bright, bright red.

A flicker of a memory ran through her mind, like a ghost chasing her heels. Bliss gazed with unseeing eyes at her slight wound, her mind turned towards the past. She frowned, applying pressure to her hand to stop the bleeding. It was almost a sense of déjà vu. The flicker of an image in her mind was foreign and strange; it felt fake, somehow, like a murky dream she barely remembered the next morning.

She remembered running through a field in the winter, breathless, her heart racing a million miles a minute. The sensations were as vivid as the emotions; she could almost taste the crisp air rushing past her, like biting into an apple that had been sitting out in the cold. Ah, the cold! Bliss felt the memory wrap its chilly hands around her until she could feel the ice in her bones. She closed her eyes, as if the sudden darkness behind her lids would somehow help her to see through the fog in her mind. Although the emotional aspect of the memory was strong, the most she could pull from her past was the image of the snow falling around her as well as the little droplets of crimson falling from her body, marring the pure white landscape as she raced towards the tree line.

Her eyes snapped open and her vision swam with crimson. Bliss clutched the edge of the table where she had been working, attempting to keep herself steady. She reached for a dish towel, and dabbed at her cut. Lucy hurried into the room not a second later, in a state of panic. She had heard the cry of surprise Bliss had uttered, and fearing the worst, had dropped what she was doing to check on her only daughter. Bliss would have been touched, had she not been lost in thought.

Bliss sat down quietly, allowing Lucy to fuss over her. She felt as if she had just been violently awoken from a deep rest; disoriented and disturbed. It wasn't just her odd trip down memory lane that had unnerved her, either. No, what was really worrying her was the fact that Bliss hadn't even seen how hazardously close to her fingers she had been coming with the knife. Her vision had been getting increasingly worse over the past couple days; objects were beginning to lose their lines, the colors bleeding together until it was difficult to make the distinction between a knife and a finger.

"What ever shall I do with you, nǚér?" Lucy mumbled, a smile quirking at the corners of her lips never the less. Bliss simply smiled back, her demeanor as sweet as honey.

"Maybe I should take a break and run some errands for Zhi instead," she suggested, and Lucy nodded her permission. With a grin, Bliss pushed herself up and made her way into the hall, her fingers immediately darting out to touch the wall. Her ever-trusty sense of direction guided her towards Zhi's garage, where he was currently working on a broken carbon dioxide converter.

Zhi Liú was a mechanic, and a damn good one at that. He could completely dismantle an engine one day, and put it back together as good as new the next. Bliss was convinced that there wasn't anything he couldn't fix, and Zhi let her continue thinking that way. He had a fairly steady amount of business; it seemed like everything was breaking in Little Chinatown these days. The City of New York was practically ripping at the seams. Zhi was forced to get creative. The only way he kept their own heating system running was through adhesives and plenty of prayers to the ancestors. Bliss was his apprentice, of sorts. She spent hours in his workshop, messing with broken appliances, working silently by his side. She loved every minute of it.

"Jílè, pass me the melder." Bliss nodded, although her father couldn't see due to the pair of goggles that concealed his eyes. She maneuvered her way through the junk piles with her eyes closed, her steps steady and sure. She found the tool box in the back, and brought it to where Zhi was working, hunched over the converter. "Do you require anything else? I will probably be going into town to deliver Mr. Hugh his communicator."

"Lucy kicked you out of the kitchen?" Zhi smiled, pulling his goggles off. Bliss nodded, her lips quirking slightly.

"I cut myself, " she mumbled, pushing her the sleeve of her green sweater down over her bandaged hand. Lucy had been a bit too enthusiastic with the medical kit. The cut had probably healed over already, thanks to the nanites that had been injected into her skin. The minuscule robots had already gone to work, repairing the broken cells. And yet, Lucy has insisted she wear the bandage on her finger, even wrapping it over her hand and wrist.

Zhi nodded, going over to pick up Mr. Hugh's communicator. "Well, you can deliver this, with my regards. Oh, and buy your mother some flowers."

"What kind do you want me to get?" Bliss grinned. She loved flowers, and Zhi knew that. He was just using Lucy as an excuse. "She really loves those synthetic orchids."

"I believe she will love anything you buy her. Now get going, while the day is still young." Saying this, he kissed her head and turned back to his work. Bliss bounded out of the room, almost running into Grandfather Hui in the hall.

"Sorry!" she squeaked, grinning. "Do you need me to get anything while I'm out?"

"You are going out?" Hui frowned slightly, his white, bushy eyebrows drawing together. "No, no, I am fine. Just be safe, child."

Bliss nodded, giving him a reassuring smile that hardly left him reassured, and wrapped a purple scarf around her mouth. She fumbled with the buckles on her dirty black boots, boots that once belonged to Zhi and were several sizes too large for her. Bliss was halfway out the door within seconds, pulling on her scarlet coat over her body as she went.

Bliss loved the streets of Little Chinatown. They were crowded and overshadowed by the ramshackle buildings that were piled on top of each other, but it was almost magical to her. The shouts of the vendors behind their stalls, the smell of spices and frying foods, it was all very familiar. Little Chinatown was full of color; oranges and reds and the purest blues, to name but a few. There were rolls of silk lining the street, spun by genuine silk worms and woven into fabric through the ancient ways. She passed bags of rare spices and headless fish, her eyes drinking in everything that she saw. Bliss had grown up on these streets, with these people, and she loved it. She knew most of the streets like the back of her hand; which was fortunate as her eyesight had been steadily declining lately. She belonged to this world, and this world belonged to her.

Bliss hurried through the crowded streets, slipping through the crowds easily. She waved to a few friends, and stopped to talk to one of Zhi's customers for a moment or two. She considered buying the orchids first, but decided against it. It could wait a few more minutes; Bliss always put her duties first. She worked hard at whatever task she was set to, and saw it through to its completion. It was both a blessing and a curse, in some ways. Often, she would find herself so focused on a single task that she didn't see the bigger picture. Although Bliss was by no means a perfectionist, she hated failure.

It was for that reason, and that reason alone that Bliss took a shortcut on her way to Mr. Hugh's apartment. Although she wasn't willing to admit it, the side streets of Little Chinatown weren't always the safest, especially for one such as herself. Never the less, she hurried through the dark alleyways, keeping her head down and pressing herself up against the buildings. She arrived at her destination without a scratch, feeling quite relieved and rather proud of herself. Bliss delivered Mr. Hugh his communicator, turning down his offer of tea. She was less familiar with that particular part of town, and she wanted to be home before dark anyway. Having successfully maneuvered the back streets of Little Chinatown once, Bliss turned her mind to more pleasant things, such as orchids and peonies and all sorts of flowers. She wasn't paying very close attention to the people around her, or the uneven road before her.

It happened in the blink of an eye. It was as quick as a beat of a hummingbird's green crested wings; in her preoccupied state, Bliss never saw it coming. A man stepped out in front of Bliss, and she stumbled. He grasped her upper arm roughly, catching her before she fell. Bliss winced.

"Xièxiè," Bliss mumbled, gently trying to pull her arm away. The man grinned.

"You're welcome." His smile was insincere. Bliss attempted to jerk her arm away from his grip, more firmly this time, but to no avail.

"What is she, a Ficial?" A man from her left leered at her. She glanced over at him, her eyes widening. She couldn't make out his features; he was simply a flesh colored blur. "She isn't very pretty, is she?"

"Please, just go about your business and leave me be." Bliss lifted her chin, looking at their leader in the eye. The two men to either side of her snorted, apparently finding much more amusement in the situation than Bliss did.

"You are our business." The short man spoke, chuckling to himself. It wasn't a pleasant sound.

"She is with me." A melodic voice from behind her spoke, addressing the men before her. Bliss turned around, coming face-to-face with one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen. She was wearing a classic Japanese kimono; layers of finely crafted fabric, embroidered with dragons and peony blossoms, held together at the waist with a pink silk tie, trussed up into a bow in the back. Her ebony hair was piled into an elaborate arrangement of arches, adorned with hair ornaments in the shape of flowers. She was, without a doubt, one of the Elite.

The men must have reached the same conclusion. They bowed hastily, and quickly retreaded from the alley from which they had come, scrambling over each other in their haste to get away. Bliss turned her wide green eyes back to the magnificent woman before her.

"What is your name, child?"

"Bliss, Bliss Liú." The woman nodded, a brief smile flitting across her face, and held out her hand for Bliss to take.

"I am Lady Musaki. Follow me, if you please." Bliss didn't hesitate; she slipped her fingers into the woman's cold palm, her eyes on the woman leading her. Lady Musaki made her way through the streets of Little Chinatown, moving quickly through the flow of people. It almost appeared as though the crowd parted for her, and Bliss would have sworn that she saw one or two people bow as they passed by.

They turned down a side street, moving with less urgency. Bliss suspected that they were soon to be arriving at their destination. They came to a stop, and she squinted at the building before her, frowning a bit. The architecture appeared to be foreign, and was rather unlike anything Bliss had ever seen in Chinatown. She wasn't even sure she was in Chinatown anymore. She had never ventured this far away from her home before.

Lady Musaki opened the sliding doors to the building, and with a glance backwards, went inside. Bliss slowly followed her in. She brought Bliss into what Bliss assumed to be the sitting room, nodding to a pot of tea that rested on a table in the middle of the room. Lady Musaki knelt before the table, prompting Bliss to do the same. She poured Bliss a cup, before doing the same for herself.

"Would you mind terribly if I asked you a personal question?" Bliss picked up her cup of tea, glancing up to look at her host under her eye lashes. Lady Musaki shook her head no, so Bliss continued.

"You are Japanese." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Never the less, the woman inclined her head gracefully. "What are you doing in Little Chinatown?"

"I am afraid, child," Lady Musaki sighed, her voice low, "that any answer I would give you would raise even more questions, each more puzzling than the next. I will merely say that I am here because you are here."

Bliss felt her eyes widen for a moment, then a frown settled across her face. The lady was right; her answer was not only unsatisfactory, but confusing, and slightly unsettling. "But what do I have have to do with anything?" She felt her mouth open and the words tumble out before she could stop herself.

Lady Musaki sighed, and set her steaming drink down. She placed her hands in her lap, and slightly bowed her head. "Once again, you pose some excellent answers. You must take my word that all will be explained in time, if you are patient."

"Is it too much to ask for answers now?" Bliss gave a forced laugh, and sighed. "Fine, I will not pressure you into answering me. But I will remember your words, and hold you to them."

"You are under no obligation to be here, Bliss Liú. You are free to leave at any time you wish." The woman hesitated, and smoothed down the fabric of her kimono. Once again, she did not meet Bliss's eyes. "However, I feel it is my duty to inform you that the man I work for has something for you. Something from your parents."

Her fingers tightened around the little cup, and Bliss stared down into the murky depths of her rapidly cooling tea. Her voice was soft and steady, although her lips trembled. "You are not talking about Lucy and Zhi, are you?"

Bliss glanced at the woman, hesitating. For a moment, she considered running back out into the alleyway and forgetting that this had ever happened, but something stopped her. That little bit of curiosity she kept inside was curling its spidery fingers around her wrist. It was holding her back; perhaps it was the elation that came with disobedience, or perhaps it was the thick, paralyzing sense of danger twisted in the pit of her stomach. It might have been the little spark in her chest when Lady Musaki had mentioned her parents. Either way, Bliss decided to stay.

"You said they had something for me." Bliss straightened her shoulders, looking straight into Lady Musaki's bottomless eyes. The older woman inclined her head gracefully. "I would like to see it."

"As you wish." Her voice was smooth, and as soft as liquid velvet. She motioned towards a door in the back of the room with a slight smile, nodding as Bliss stood up. Bliss touched the wall, making her way carefully towards the door lest she trip and fall on some object she couldn't see. She pushed aside the black and pink beads that hung from the archway, glancing back towards where she had last seen Lady Musaki. The woman was gone, having made no sound to announce her departure; she moved like a summer breeze.

Bliss stepped through the beaded curtain, having entered a courtyard. It was a miniature garden filled with lush reeds, as tall as Bliss, surrounding a koi pond, as well as foreign flowers growing in large bunches, their ostentatious colors vying for attention. With a soft intake of breath, Bliss could not hide her admiration. There was so much color, so much life here. The smog that hung above the cities and clogged the airways was gone, as if it were merely a figment of her imagination. Bliss stood in the garden, her hands clasped behind her, and simply took it all in.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice that came from her left. Bliss turned her head ever-so-slightly as she sensed someone approaching.

"I have been waiting a long time for this moment."