Divine Madness

by Harmon Cooper

  I took one more look at the rune, Bah-Mo, and made my way toward the back door, Saruul and her mother joining me.

  “Where’s Roger?” I asked, wondering why I hadn’t seen the bird yet.

  “I think he slipped out at some point in the night to go visit the other birds,” Saruul said with a giggle.

  “That sly little bastard,” I said as I traced up the rune.

  I started with a circle on top, followed by two straight lines and then the curl and the legs of the character Mo. As soon as I was finished, a spark of energy erupted from my fingertips, forming a semi-translucent…

  “Monkey?” I asked as the three-foot creature finished taking shape.

  The monkey wore what I would equate to samurai armor with layered shoulder pads, a vest made out of a ribbed material with a horizontal cut, a belt, and a skirt made of the same materials as the vest, the ends of the skirt adorned with sharp spikes.

  The monkey had a pair of scimitars.

  “Oh my…” Dohna started to say.

  The monkey stood there with a serious look on his face. He didn’t brandish his weapons, nor did he make any sudden movements.

  “Can you speak?” I asked the monkey.

  He glanced at me and shook his head.

  “Okay…”

  We waited in silence to see what the monkey would do. Eventually, after about two minutes, the warrior monkey started to fade away.

  “Fascinating,” Dohna finally said. “Your guardian spirit has given you a fighter, something to cast that will help you in a battle.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I believe so. But it would be best to speak to Jigme about this when you see him later today. Perhaps he will know more.”

  While Saruul’s mother prepared breakfast, Saruul led me upstairs to the washroom, where she told me to strip down.

  I did as instructed, and it wasn’t long before she brought up two pails of hot water. She put them in a tub made of stone which was already slightly warm, curiously enough, and told me to get in, slapping me on the ass with her tail as I moved past her.

  “I want you to be clean for tonight,” she said in a way that told me that she had some plans for later in the evening.

  Saruul brought four more pails of water, enough to fill the tub, and then she went about cleaning me, occasionally flirting with me by keeping her hand below the water longer than I expected.

  We hadn’t had sex since I’d come to Dornod, which was something I could definitely sense now that we were alone. The fact that my training was at night really was messing with the time that we had to be intimate with one another.

  But as she bathed me, and then eventually kissed me, she announced her plan to do something about this.

  And soon.

  Damn, I loved how forthright the lion women were.

  After a breakfast of porridge and bacon, along with a juice made from boiled mountain berries that had a tangy after-spice to it, Dohna asked me to join her outside.

  “I can help,” I started to tell Saruul, who had been instructed to clean up the bloodied mess I’d left on the living room floor.

  “It’s fine,” Dohna told me. “It won’t take her very long, and you and I have a limited amount of time together, considering you need to get to the monastery.”

  “I’m sorry,” I told Saruul anyway.

  “It’s fine, Nick.”

  I followed Dohna outside, recalling that she had said something last night about doing something different today.

  Maybe I was imagining it; it had all been such a blur that it was hard to tell.

  Once we reached the spot where we had normally trained, clouds in the distance making it look like we are floating above the world, Dohna brought her fists up. “It is time that I teach you how to fight like a snow lion,” she said.

  Chapter Sixteen: Plans of Departure

  Jigme and Lhandon sat in their raised positions, a small bag of rice before each of them. Tashi approached, the fire spirit standing about a foot tall, careful not to ignite anything. He had his hands behind his back, head slightly dipped, blue plumes lifting off his shoulders.

  “How many prostrations has he performed?” Lhandon asked the rice, and as the words left his lips, the rice began to rearrange itself into a number that I didn’t recognize. “Great,” Lhandon told the fire spirit. “There are more steps, of course, before you move to the cultivator stage, including the full meditation on karma and compassion, but at least you have performed the physical aspect, joining Altan in leading the task.”

  “It is my pleasure, Exalted One.” Tashi bowed to Lhandon again and floated away.

  “Are you okay, Nick?” Lhandon asked me.

  I was definitely sore; Dohna had put me through quite a bit, and she never seemed to let up. Saruul’s mother was a fierce combatant, and while she never did anything too rough, she definitely knew key places to land blows.

  To make matters worse, my healing power would not be reset until midnight, meaning I’d have to suffer through the pain for the rest of the day and then some, considering that I would still need to meet my mysterious opponent later on.

  I only hoped the masked lion man showed up alone.

  Roger was perched on the table, the tropical bird in his fur vest, a few of his feathers missing. He’d apparently had a hell of a night last night, and refused to talk about it. Saruul was beside me as well, a soft smile on her face as she glanced between Lhandon and me.

  “I’m fine,” I finally said. “I’m learning how to fight like a lion.”

  Jigme chuckled. “I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone,” he said, Saruul and the young lion monk at the back of the room laughing too.

  “What can I say? It has been an interesting last couple days,” I said, “and that was before my dakini visited me last night.”

  “She visited you?” Lhandon asked, a curious look coming across his face.

  “Yes, and she told me a number of things, including that the people I came here with all have dakinis.”

  Lhandon ran his hand over his shaved head. “I hadn’t considered that.”

  Altan entered the room and sat to Lhandon’s left, a fresh stack of parchment in his hands. His quill and ink were set up on a small table in front of him, ready to go.

  “It makes sense,” Jigme said, the lion man biting his bottom lip. “Why would Nick be the only one with a dakini? They all must have a power as well, which I’m sure you already discussed.”

  I nodded. “Even though I was a bloodied mess from my training, our conversation was enlightening. She explained that there are five paths of the Way of the Immortals because there are five Immortals, something that I’d never considered earlier.”

  “Yes, and this is also a detail that I plan to have at the beginning of the new edition of the Path of the Divine,” Lhandon said. “Even though it is going to ruffle some feathers—no offense, Roger—I think it is important for people to understand the context of the Path of the Divine within the Way of the Immortals, and the other paths available, and just as importantly, where these paths come from.”

  “It definitely will aid in wider understanding, and will also show people the options they have within the Way of the Immortals,” Altan added. “It makes sense that Kenzo the Written created the Path of Cultivation with its energy movement; that Misake the Whisperer created the Path of Sudden Enlightenment considering she could speak words into existence; Thupten the Corrupted created the Path of Divine Madness, which is fueled by iniquity; that Ganbold the Strong created the Path of Possession, with the fact that he was a warlord; and that Padme Lung the Virtuous created our path, the Path of the Divine.”

  “Okay, I’m going to be honest there,” Roger said, throwing his wings up. “That is all news to me. I was unaware that the Immortals actually created the paths. As simple as that sounds, no one ever told me. How come no one ever mentioned this?”

  “You never asked,” Saruul said.

  “No, this is a failure in tra
nsmission. So tell Lhandon that I agree with him, that this information needs to be in the book, so more people can understand, and that he has failed me as a monk by not already telling me this information.”

  “Roger agrees with you,” I translated to Lhandon, leaving the last bit out.

  “That’s not what I said!”

  “He agrees whole-heartedly with you,” I told Lhandon, smirking at Roger.

  “I’m glad to hear that. So is that all your dakini told you?”

  “She confirmed our suspicion that the person that brought me and my friends here is from the Overworld, and the person that is trying to stop us, possibly the man that attacked us, is from the Underworld. Dema also explained why she can’t come to me as often as she would like. Apparently, it’s easiest for her to appear when I’m in distress, when my grip on reality isn’t as tight as it would normally would be.”

  “That does make sense, but I hope it doesn’t mean that you have to injure yourself to get her to come again.”

  “We will see. It’s pretty easy for me to get injured here,” I said, smirking at Saruul. “One could say that it’s something that could happen right after breakfast. Every morning.”

  “You were the one that wanted training,” she reminded me.

  “True, true. One final thing,” I said, returning my attention to Lhandon and Jigme, “and this is something that I would like for us to look into sometime today. She taught me a rune.”

  “She taught you a rune?” Jigme asked.

  I nodded. “That’s right, one called Bah-Mo.”

  “Bah-Mo,” Jigme said, quickly jotting down notes. “Never heard of it. Have you tested it out yet?”

  “We did. It created a monkey.”

  “A monkey?” Lhandon asked.

  “Yeah, a semi-translucent one.”

  “You didn’t tell me that,” Roger said.

  “He also had two curved swords,” Saruul added. “But he didn’t engage us. He simply stood there until he faded away.”

  “So, she gave you an avatar?” Jigme asked, his ears flickering, the monk unable to control the surprised look on his face.

  “I don’t know what it is yet, but I figured you would be able to help me find out.”

  “This is fascinating,” Jigme said, “truly fascinating. And sure, we can look into it after we finish up today’s discussion.”

  “Yes, I believe it is important to look into,” Lhandon said with a firm nod. “Now, regarding today’s discussion, I’m going to lay out the other stages on the Path of the Divine, and explain their requirements. Even though this is going to be explored in greater detail in the actual book, I think it’s important to set our parameters now. What I’m looking for here is any added input or ideas on the stage requirements. After we go over this, we will break for an afternoon meal, and then continue our series on cultivation and karma. Following that, I believe it is important for us to see what we can discover about this new rune that you have learned.” Lhandon looked to his notes, glancing back up at us once another thought came to him. “One more thing: we’re leaving in four days.”

  “You are leaving on the last day of the Winter Moon festival?” Saruul asked, immediately trying to hide the disappointment in her voice.

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Lhandon said, “Jigme and I have discussed this over tea this morning, and we feel that it is important to not only begin the search for your friend, Nick, but the Exonerated One’s reincarnation. This will also give us time for what we have conceptualized here to simmer a bit, for us to think of other ways that we could address the various stages that would be most beneficial to the general public, and to those seeking a more religious path by becoming a nun or a monk. Altan will stay here in Dornod while you, Roger, Tashi, and I will journey to the Island Kingdom of Jonang.”

  I looked to Saruul and she glanced away. I knew at that moment that she probably wouldn’t be coming with us, but rather than be disappointed about it, I decided to look at it a different way, that coming back here would give me something to look forward to, a reason to live.

  “What about Bobby?” I asked.

  “He will rest here at the Temple of Eternal Sky until he is better,” Jigme said. “In the meantime, Altan and I will continue to look after him.”

  Altan nodded at me. “He’s breathing more easily now. Hopefully he wakes before you set off. It will be an arduous journey, and it may be many months before you return. I believe he’ll be able to recover in that time.”

  “Good, and I hope so.”

  “As previously discussed, we will have to leave by way of Sarpang, which means we will need to cross the Great Plateau,” Lhandon explained. “There is little food and water out there, so we will want to prepare accordingly.”

  “Is it cold there?” I asked.

  “Not so much during the day,” Jigme answered, “but it will be bitterly cold at night. You will have to pack smartly, but having a fire spirit and a bird with you should offer some help.”

  “See?” Roger asked me. “I can be useful.”

  “No one claimed you weren’t useful,” I told the bird.

  “When we return to the Kingdom of Lhasa, we can try to make our way back to Dornod through Cultivation Hills, but that does put us closer to Bamda where war may break out. The problem lies in the fact that Mabel’s forces are in Nagchu, which is on the southwestern side of the continent; Darwina lives in Mongar, which is due west; and Madame Blanche lives north of her.”

  “They are sort of all sandwiched together, aren’t they?” Roger asked.

  “Sounds like it,” I said.

  Lhandon continued: “Darwina and Mabel had joined forces against Madame Blanche, but now that Mabel is dead, there is no telling where they stand. I can’t speak to the relation they had before, but Madame Darwina may see an opportunity in taking Nagchu, which will lead to more conflict. We shall see. We will have more enemies on the western side of the continent then we do the east, but coming through from the east to return to Dornod can be treacherous, as the east is a mostly unexplored region aside from the Forbidden City of Trongsa, where the cat people hail from.”

  “Considering the enemies you have on the western coast, it may be better to go to the east,” Jigme said, “but you are correct, it won’t be easy. I do have a map that you can borrow which may help you navigate the east, if you decide to come through there, and if you can make it to Trongsa, you will be able to hire a guide to bring you here, at least halfway up the mountain, where you could call one of us.”

  “We will continue to solidify our plans over the next four days,” Lhandon said. “For now, we should begin discussing the points in the other stages. For one, all the stages, until one gets to the divine master, or Spineless Book stage, will all have a component of physical exercise through prostrations. The most difficult one will be the stage designed for hermits, the master stage, or Hollow Peacock. The number of prostrations Jigme and I have settled on for this stage is one hundred thousand.”

  Roger whistled, eliciting a chuckle from Saruul.

  “I guess we all know who’s not becoming a hermit,” Tashi said in a rare display of humor.

  “You guessed right,” Roger told the fire spirit, “I’m going to make it to the cultivator stage, and that’s it. I don’t want to be an advanced student, I don’t want to be a teacher, I don’t want to be a hermit, and I don’t want to be both a teacher and a hermit. I just want to be a happy bird on the path to becoming a human next go around. Where’s the harm in that?”

  Tashi nodded his head in agreement. “You make a fine point, Roger.”

  Chapter Seventeen: Visualization

  It had been a good day.

  Even as I stood on the cold stone with my blindfold on, awaiting my nightly training, I couldn’t help but smile.

  After the meditation, Jigme had found a book on legendary avatars in the temple’s library explaining exactly what casting Bah-Mo actually did, which was along the lines of what I expected, but more
so.

  Bah-Mo would definitely come in handy in the future...

  This was followed by a long stretch of alone time with Saruul, the house curiously empty as Dohna left to prepare for some of tomorrow’s festivities, and Roger went off to hang with the birds.

  It was worth the wait, and as I stood in anticipation of my opponent’s inevitable arrival, I couldn’t help but recall how wonderful our intimate moment had been, Saruul much more gentle this time, taking things slowly, the extent of how much she missed me evident in her movements.

  With a deep breath in I swallowed this thought, knowing that being distracted at a time like this usually resulted in a kick to the chin.

  I was rewarded for my mindfulness when I heard a grunt, my natural reaction being to remove my blindfold.

  Sure enough, I found two masked lion men, one larger than the other.

  “Here we go,” I whispered under my breath as I brought my fists up, remembering some of the things that Dohna had taught me.

  She wanted me to focus on being lighter on my feet, and I was starting to feel it now.

  Even though I should have been tense, my knees were a little bouncy, my hips gyrating in a small circle.

  Dohna had also instructed me on a few of the better pressure points to target on someone, rather than going straight for someone’s face.

  With my Fist of Force power, I was able to easily shatter bone, and hitting someone at a certain point would double the power of my strike.

  The only thing was, thinking about it too much would lead to me not defending myself accordingly, which was exactly what happened as the smaller lion man came forward, feigned a punch, and swept me off my feet instead.

  My back hit the ground, but rather than roll over to the side, I brought my legs back and flipped back up to my feet, blocking the lion’s next strike. I delivered a fist to the small lion’s gut, the man letting out a grunt and falling to the ground.

  The other lion man leaped over him, morphing in midair and tackling me.

  He started to maul me, his claws cutting into my chest and shoulders, the sting eliciting a scream from my lips.