"Stop!" "I was told that the mysteries of this play would bring enlightenment." "I have seen, I have listened, yet understood nothing." "I regret that you did not." "Perhaps the Shaolin priest can explain this play." "Take me into the garden where it is cool." "How are you called?" "Kwai Chang Caine." "I have invited you here as a compliment." "You should consider this an honor to take tea with me." "I am flattered." "Your tread must be light and sure as though your path were upon rice paper." "It is said a Shaolin priest can walk through walls." "Looked for, he cannot be seen." "Listened for, he cannot be heard." "Touched, he cannot be felt." "This rice paper is the test." "Fragile as the wings of the dragonfly, clinging as the cocoon of the silkworm." "When you can walk its length and leave no trace you will have learned." "You may sit." "You may stay here and no one will question it because I am Shen Ung." "You know my father is dying." "Yes. lt is sad. I am sorry." "Do you not wish to know why he spends his small strength watching a play from a foreign land?" "Yes." "My father hopes to learn the secrets of death before he dies." "It would be proper for you to drink, now that I have done so." "You said one can know death before he dies." "Yes." "By watching the play." "The play?" "You did understand the play, didn't you?" "Yes." "I loved it. lt was beautiful." "Why did my liking of the play amuse you, Shen Ung?" "It is of no importance." "I just find it laughable that a lowborn who feeds on temple grain should take such an interest in entertainment more suitable for nobility." "You confuse me." "Do not the players perform for everyone?" "Perhaps." "You said one can know death by watching the play." "Yes, by seeing the warrior's journey through the land of the dead." "Please leave, all of you." "Master Kan, come closer." "I have not led a blameless life." "I have discovered there are three kinds of power." "Wealth." "The gun." "Knowledge." "I value the power of knowledge." "How will knowledge aid you now?" "If I...." "l speak the right prayer in the proper manner to the right gods I will seek amends." "And with your help maybe I can build a new and bigger temple for your gods." "I cannot." "You do not wish my money?" "What you ask can only come from within you through understanding." "In my search for wealth maybe I served the wrong god." "Maybe I...." "l served the wrong god." "My father hoped to discover what awaits him when he arrives in the land of the dead." "So that he be certain to be one of the few rather than one of the many." "The few?" "The many?" "In this life there are many who sacrifice themselves for the few." "The son of a farmer is one of the many." "The son of a mandarin is one of the few." "ls this arranged before birth?" "My father believes so." "As I watched you at the play, I thought of my father." "Why?" "I saw the movements of your mind as you were with the doomed warrior in the land of the dead." "I saw what might have passed for sensitivity, bravery sympathy and strength all inscribed on the tablet of your face as I thought of my father, whose end is near and whose fear is great." "How clumsy you temple drudges are." "Your manners are as rude as your clothing." "Now I must change." "Forgive me, please, Shen Ung." "It was a foolish act." "I feel pain. I am sorry." "Another robe." "Now." "Hurry." "Must you always work so slowly?" "How do you like it?" "It is most...." "Most elegant, Shen Ung." "Have you not wondered why one of the few takes tea with one of the many?" "is it--?" "is it not for friendship?" "You have been poisoned." "Why?" "Why, Shen Ung?" "I obtained the poison from a chemist." "The few sips you took were all that was needed." "It is said your mind will be clear when you undertake the journey into the land of the dead." "I hold the antidote." "If you do as I ask, it is yours." "Without it, you will die." "Please summon a physician before I die." "Your fate means little to me." "You are a temple slave who never smiles as are all the others who kneel to old men." "Foolish little slave." "Do you think it wise to give up the treasures of the earth for a lonely existence?" "What--?" "What would you have me do?" "Tell me what it feels like to die, so that I may tell my father." "If you allow me to die, they will punish you." "Nothing will happen to me." "I can say anything and it will be believed." "This place is vast." "It is unlike your lowly Shaolin temple." "At this moment, my father rests using his last words in one of the many gardens of our palace." "Though his distance is far." "We hear nothing from him." "He is unable to hear us." "You will be questioned." "lt is of no matter." "I am one of the few." "You are one of the many." "We are not the same." "All men are the same." "My father says not." "And if I live?" "You will not live, unless I give you the antidote." "Tell me what you are feeling." "Tell me." "Tell me." "Tell me." "Tell me." "Tell me." "Bless Atl." "Bright Atl, who gives us the manioc and the maize." "Bless Atl." "Bright Atl, who gives us the manioc and the maize." "Bless Atl." "Bright Atl, who gives us the manioc and the maize." "Bless Atl." "Who sustains our lives and gives us our purpose." "Who sustains our being and gives us power." "Come away, before the walls collapse." "How?" "With the help of Atl who sustains our lives and gives us power." "Only through his compassion can you be led to freedom." "I do not understand." "I see no way to leave this place." "How can this be done?" "By accepting Atl as your god and by accepting the gift, his gift, of your life." "His gift?" "Of my life?" "Speak these words:" "Bless Atl." "Bless Atl." "Bless Atl, who sustains our lives and gives us purpose." "Come live with us, that you may be saved." "I have been taught not to believe in gods." "Would you rather die here alone in the dark than accept the blessing of a god?" "Soon this small pocket in the earth will close forever." "I have been taught to believe in men." "I cannot accept your words." "Tell me what you saw in the land of the dead and I will give you the antidote." "Tell me what you saw in the land of death and I will save you from the poison that burns in your body." "Even as you slept, I could see your eyes dart beneath your lids as though you watched some inward wonder." "Tell me what you saw." "Only a man." "He told me the name of a god." "He told me to worship this god as he did that I might be saved." "Tell me the name of this god." "How can I be sure the vial does not contain more poison?" "I swear to you, this is the antidote." "Now tell me!" "Bless Atl." "Bright Atl, who gives us the manioc and the maize." "Bless Atl." "Bright Atl, who sustains our lives and gives us a purpose." "Who sustains our being." "Coward." "Bless Atl." "You choose to die?" "Bless Atl, who sustains our lives and gives us purpose." "Bless Atl." "Bright Atl, who sustains our lives and gives us purpose." "Bless Atl." "Bright Atl, who sustains our lives and gives us our purpose." "Then you must be brought to accept our help for your own welfare." "Submit." "Submit." "Come to Atl." "Submit." "Submit." "And bless Atl." "Tell me the name of this god." "The name and how to worship." "If you tell me, I will return your life to you." "You do not have the power." "It is not a matter of power but of cure." "I alone can save you." "I have the antidote." "Now tell me." "I will tell you nothing." "I believe what you have is more of the poison..." "...and not the antidote." "You are wrong!" "You behave with a weak mind." "You are brainless." "Prove it to me, then." "Drink so that I may see that it is not more of the poison." "Do as you wish. I care no longer." "Die!" "Die." "Die." "Die." "Die." "Die." "Desire for wealth never brought me what I had expected." "What did you hope for?" "Happiness." "And what of your son?" "What do you wish for him?" "At first, I thought I wanted my son to act as I have had to do." "But now I know it's not the life I wish for him." "Caine." "I will give you more than life." "These and more." "All for you." "If you will tell me the name of the god and how to worship him." "Bless Atl." "I beg you." "Say the words." "Submit and bless Atl." "Bless Atl." "The tea is cold and bitter like you are." "Tell me about the tea, Shen Ung." "Then I will tell you something you wish to hear." "The tea?" "The poison has brought madness to you." "There is little time, none of it to waste on words about tea." "Tell me about the tea, and I will tell you" "About your journey through the land of the dead?" "Tell me about the tea." "Very well, then, but quickly." "A tea ceremony is an art passed on from royal hands." "It is an art of the educated and requires much schooling to master its graces." "Yes, I remember how graceful you were when you placed the teacups on the golden tray, and presented them to me in a formal manner." "Since you understand, there is nothing further to say." "The tea is of noble origin." "The ceremony is for the few." "But I am one of the many." "I know that you are." "Poison tea is for one of the many as is the death you will soon face if you do not tell me what I wish." "It is easy to die in battle with the blood singing in your veins." "is not death also for those of the few, like your father?" "Do not toy with me!" "Tell me what I wish to hear!" "I have been taught that the art of tea grew from humble poverty with hot water and a few herbs and grasses." "The poorest of men could serve a visitor with the greatest dignity." "I will talk no further of tea!" "Then listen of the tea, Shen Ung." "Do you recall when, in error, I spilled a few drops of tea on your robe?" "Of course. lt was an awkward act." "And you went behind the screen to put on a new garment?" "Did you not watch me while I sat here by the table?" "What?" "One robe was pulled over my head, the other put on me." "Why should I be concerned with you?" "Do you think I feared you might steal the golden tray?" "No, not the tray." "All right. I shall play only a few moments more." "What did you steal?" "Your life." "What do you mean?" "While you were behind that screen I changed the placement of the teacups." "I held the cup intended for one of the few." "You held the cup intended for one of the many." "Why do you lie this way?" "It cannot help you." "If I drank from your cup, why have I not been poisoned as you?" "You drank later and less than I did." "But added to those cold and bitter sips taken just moments ago you have consumed enough to die." "You have been poisoned, Shen Ung." "It is said your mind will be clear when you undertake the journey into the land of the dead." "What a monster you are!" "You would murder the son of a mandarin?" "Who for love of his dying father seeks answers for him." "But you'd murder me to find these answers." "You are one of the many!" "Your life has no meaning." "I am one of the few!" "My life shapes the people's destiny!" "Wait." "The antidote, Shen Ung." "Take it from your robe." "Take it and drink." "I hate you, Caine!" "More than the most loathsome insect that crawls through earth." "I pray to the gods that one day I might crush you like a scorpion till you breathe no more!" "Come to Atl." "To accept his compassion is your only salvation." "It is you who will be victorious." "I ask so that you may be saved." "If you will not come to Atl you will be forced." "How can I be forced when I am only of a dream?" "It is truth. lf you doubt, touch your wound." "Bless Atl." "Speak the words!" "Bless Atl." "No." "You will not die in battle." "That is the remaining amount he will need." "I would never have summoned you here, great one had not the matter been this urgent." "How did you know so quickly what to do?" "It was the easiest part of it and yet the part that concerned me most gravely." "It is the reason I asked that the youth's father come here." "I sold the boy an expensive compound a poison, just a short time ago." "The antidote I gave was for that poison." "Forgive me, my great lord." "I wish to express my fear that your son, in his deep grief for you has tried to take his own life." "It is a lie, Father." "I was tricked. I was poisoned." "Who did this to you?" "A boy. I do not know his name." "Where is young Caine?" "Did not you and he leave the No play together?" "I do not remember." "You seek to make amends before death." "I ask you begin now by drawing the truth from your son." "Shen Ung." "It is a trifle, Father." "The boy mistakenly drank the poison as I did." "But he is well now." "How do you know?" "At first he became wet with fever and closed his eyes like me." "Then he awakened and spoke clearly the way we do now." "Which of you took the poison first?" "It was not me." "We must hurry." "That is the nature of the poison." "You sleep, you wake, you sleep again." "It can repeat itself one or two times." "But if the antidote isn't given there is one final time when you wake no more." "I understand little here." "It does not matter." "Why?" "Because I am not one of those who have names." "You come here because you must." "It is only proper that the many should submit to the few." "I was bidden to attend you to the very end." "I was told you need only cry, "Bless Atl"  and all will be saved." "You cannot go outside?" "There is no outside." "How can this be?" "It is the will of Atl, our god of fire who lives in a great cavern." "Bless Atl, who feeds us and tends to our needs." "Once our people lived in a glittering city in the center of a crystal lake and dined on thousands of birds." "There was no sacrifice then and everyone followed the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl." "One day, a giant hand came out of the sea and loosed the birds." "There was starvation everywhere." "Our god had abandoned us." "Deep in the cave, the people found a new and greater god, Atl." "Now we live in these caverns, where we hide from the wrath of time making sacrifice to Atl." "Why is there a need for sacrifice?" "lt is the will of Atl." "Without a suitable sacrifice his compact with the people of the sun is broken and we shall all die." "But I am not from this place." "I was going elsewhere." "There is no elsewhere." "You are the one." "To be suitable for the sacrifice, one must betray his own god." "Our people all bless Atl." "None would dare betray him." "None are suitable." "I am yours to take if you wish." "He is in a deep delirium." "If he wakes from this dream he will live." "If he does not wake, he will die." "Why do you stop?" "I am here to please you in any manner you wish." "You offer me beauty that surpasses dreams." "Yet I cannot receive it." "Why?" "I am unable to give you what you ask in return." "Nothing is asked of you." "You are to receive the grandest of honors." "When you please Atl, you shall become as he a god and live for all time." "I wish to live only as a man." "They will treat you as none other." "Your strong body will be brought forth and stretched upon the altar." "Your wrists and ankles will be placed over the troughs carved into the stone so that your blood may be collected in Atl's cup." "Your chest will be bared to Atl's gaze and the sharp flint knife raised high." "The stroke will be sure and your heart still beating will be presented to Atl." "Bless Atl, who gives us our purpose." "Bless Atl who feeds us and tends to our needs." "Kwai Chang Caine I did as I had been taught." "I thought the life of one of the many to matter little if it could serve one of the few." "I wanted to know the land of death for my father whom I love above all else." "Yet my father has spoken with your master and learned he has worshipped the wrong gods." "Though I know that you hate me with all of your being I pray that a time will come when you will find a place within yourself for forgiveness." "Submit!" "Submit!" "Bless Atl." "You are the enemy who is not the enemy." "We are of the many not of the few." "We are necessary and useful." "We have life." "My son asks forgiveness of the boy as he lies lifeless before him." "Yet, Master Kan it was a temple student who poisoned my son." "Yet I suppose it was justified." "No." "It could never be justified." "I did not poison your son." "I only told him that I moved the teacups." "He believed he had been poisoned." "He is well." "He must rest." "Master Kan..." "Much time has passed before me in this life." "I have now reached a point of my deepest sorrow that I was not able to learn more of the...." "The earth that has much to teach." "You asked me to save the life of your boy." "I did that." "For which I am eternally grateful." "Please help me in my final moments." "What am I able to do?" "I thought my son was one of the few." "But it seems he is meant to be one of the many." "Please take him into your Shaolin temple." "He is older than the ones we begin to train." "And he must prove himself worthy." "He would be required to undertake difficult tests of the mind and body." "And if he fails the tests?" "And if he does not prove worthy?" "Then he would be dismissed." "Then you...." "You must dismiss him if he fails." "Thank you, Master...." "Master Kan." "You have gone through much." "Perhaps the experience of being so close to death will be of help in your future life."