“Jade.” Jade said. HuanJen nodded at her, his smile widening for a second, and then he ushered them into the apartment.
The inside wasn’t something Jade would have considered monastic or austere. There was a reasonably furnished living room, a kitchen next to it, a patio (with an open door for some reason) with two halls on each side. It was more a family-style apartment than anything else, though Jade had to admit her experience in such things was limited.
“Please, sit.” The Magician-Priest gestured at a large couch as he went and closed the patio doors; “Can I get you ladies anything? Tea? Water? Spectral?”
Jade glanced at Garnet. Garnet nodded, which would have been very helpful if Jade had known what the hell she’d meant. Some people just assumed that you could carry on a conversation with simple gestures, and Garnet was apparently one of them.
“Spectral, please,” Garnet replied politely, “Jade just arrived on Xai this morning.”
HuanJen nodded as he slid into the kitchen - the man didn’t seem to make a sound as he moved. “Ah, well, Jade, Spectral is the name of a local, colorfully-rinded fruit, and its juice is quite popular. Acceptable?”
“Sure.” Jade didn’t feel like criticizing any local plant life. Besides, she was too busy watching HuanJen. If she was going to end up staying with him, Garnet’s opinion be damned, she wanted to figure him out.
The holy man certainly seemed pleasant enough, polite and un-self-conscious. HuanJen quickly set down three glasses of, and waited for she and Garnet to take theirs before selecting the remainder for himself. Jade took a small sip - the juice was sweet but tangy, not unpleasant at all. It also had a very fresh taste.
“Well,” HuanJen sat in a chair across from the two Vulpines, “I’m always glad to be of assistance. What brings you here?”
“Getting the hell away from Colony.” Jade was surprised at her own bluntness. She couldn’t shake a feeling of paranoia. It was probably due to being in unfamiliar territory, but still …
“Oh, I understand that.” the mystic sat back in his chair. “I hear a lot of that from the Vulpines I know. I hope you’ll be happy. I’ll be able to show you around, my schedule is reasonably open for the next few days, barring emergencies.”
To Jade he seemed sincere, which, of course, made her more suspicious. “That’s very kind of you. How long have you been doing this?”
Garnet gave Jade a surprised look, but HuanJen reacted calmly.
“I came here about four years ago from my Order. I didn’t really do this until I got a larger apartment. It took me time to settle in myself. “
“Hard life for a Holy man?”
HuanJen laughed at the edge of sarcasm in her voice. “A little. Life in a spiritual order is not always the best preparation for life here - or anywhere else. I learned. I think I’m doing better at helping newcomer settle in.”
“You did fine with me.” Garnet smiled a bit. “I was … a basket case, I think.”
“You were scared, Garnet. You adapted. I’m really proud of you. I just wish you dropped by more.” HuanJen’s voice was kindly, colored with sadness.
“I get busy. So do you.”
“I understand. So Jade, well, any questions for me?”
Jade raised an eyebrow. HuanJen had thrown open the door to questioning, and she was going to march right through.
“Well …” Jade nodded. “You do this as part of your religion?”
“Philosophy, yes. My order practices a semi-mystical branch of Taoism, but I won’t bore you with details unless you’d like me to.”
“Taoism, I’m familiar with it.” Jade made a note - naturalist/mystic Chinese philosophy. Nothing mainstream and hypocritical or bizarre and dangerous, at least in her experience.
“What do you do, as a holy man?” Jade felt a bit like she was interrogating someone about to date a daughter. Weirdly, she wanted him to trip up for some reason, confirm the creeping bad attitude the day was giving her.
“Several things,” HuanJen’s response was methodical, “like some members of Guild Esoteric, I provide various social, spiritual, and health-related services for a specific area - counseling, exorcism, weddings, and herbal preparations. The proper term is ‘Zone Cleric,’ a kind of social worker if you prefer. I’m also a licensed consultant for the city, mainly for troubleshooting parapsychological events.”
The words flowed out of the mystic’s mouth effortlessly, taking moments for their sheer strangeness to detonate in Jade’s mind. It was the first time in her life that she’d met a sane person who could use the word “exorcism” in describing their career casually.
“You do get around,” Jade said dryly. There wasn’t much else for her to say.
“Part of the life. My life.” HuanJen’s words were matter-of-fact, as if he’d said ‘the sun rose this morning.’
Jade’s mind scrambled for more questions. HuanJen’s sincerity had gone from the suspiciously pleasant to the downright creepy. Of course if he’d had someone as vulnerable as Garnet stay with him and had done nothing …
Ah. Perfect.
“Ever sleep with a woman you were helping, or otherwise take advantage of a woman sexually - or a man for that matter?” Jade asked, hearing Garnet gasp. It was pretty blunt, she’d admit, but she wanted to see how he’d deal with a full-frontal assault of personal questions.
“Well, I prefer women sexually, but I’d never take advantage of anyone that way.” HuanJen seemed a bit offended, not at her question so much as the idea itself “I’m no prude, Jade, but I’m no predator. I have had sex numerous times in my life. Sexual matters were part of my training. But I will not hurt anyone in such a manner. Ever.”
Jade couldn’t help but smile, both at his innocent distaste and Garnet, who now appeared to be on the verge of a heart attack. HuanJen wasn’t a simple as he seemed, but he had a kind of forceful honesty she appreciated. He was comforting, yet so different …
HuanJen seemed to intuit her concerns. “If you don’t trust me, I’m sure I can help find a place to put you up, Jade. I’m sorry if this wasted your time. I don’t mind if you don’t accept.”
Jade laughed. “No, no, I … I think it’ll be fine. Garnet, judging by that expression, you didn’t interrogate HuanJen here?”
“I was sort of desperate, Jade, I …”
Jade waved a hand dismissivley. “It’s OK. Look, Mr… . Jen …”
“Huan or HuanJen please.”
“Huan,” Jade continued, “no offense, but I hope you understand that I’m not going live with a strange man, no matter how nice he seems, without a few questions. No matter how desperate I am. No matter who trusts him, no offense Garnet.”
Garnet seemed annoyed for a moment, then nodded sadly, apparently embarrassed over something. “Yes.”
Huan smiled broadly, as if he’d just heard a good joke. “I understand entirely. Believe me, sometimes people come to Xai and healthy skepticism and common sense are left behind on their Earths of origin. Then it seems I or others have to help them find it …”
“Counseling, as you said?” Jade asked. “You’re a shrink, basically.”
“I don’t have a degree.” Huan took a sip from his drink. “I do what I can. People have their needs.”
“Yeah. OK.” Jade thought for a moment. Any objections she’d raised or could raised had been flooded out by the man’s sincerity. She wanted to say no, but she couldn’t think of a reason to. “Fine, we’re roommates. You done interviewing me?”
“I think the question is are you done interviewing me?”
Garnet stifled a giggle. Jade attempted a reply, failed, tried again, and then smiled. “Yes. Yes I am.”
HuanJen leaned forward, a little friendlier. “Good, because to be frank I thought I was handling it terribly. I’m sorry, I know this must be an awful amount of change for you, I have no idea what to say to make it any easier on you.”
“Tell me about it.” Jade rolled her eyes. “I swear, I prepared for months and I’
d say about half of what I learned is wrong or useless. So, yeah, it’s a change, and I wasn’t gonna sit down and room with any Taoist Fang-Shih.”
“Again, no offense, really. It’s a refreshing change, actually.”
Garnet managed to fall into the conversation; “HuanJen is a bit used to crises. He lives them.”
“I’m not … well, yes I am.” HuanJen nodded. “It comes with the territory.”
“You should have seen him when I was here.”
HuanJen suddenly blushed. “I was busy, then, Garnet.”
“I know, but …”
Jade felt her eyelids getting heavy as the two discussed the past. He didn’t seem like a bad choice at all really, and he made Garnet feel comfortable enough to actually speak at a normal volume, and …
A snoring cut through the conversation between HuanJen and Garnet as Jade slumped back on the couch, asleep. Garnet blinked at the now-unconscious Vulpine.
“She must have been more tired than I thought.”
HuanJen nodded, standing silently, “I have no doubt.”
“You don’t …” Garnet began with a whisper.
“No. I can read her well enough; she’ll be fine, of that I have no doubt. Lets make her more comfortable. Could you please get her boots off?”
Garnet nodded, doing as she was asked while the cleric carefully shifted Jade to a prone position. HuanJen pulled a blanket from beneath the couch, and placed it over the sleeping Vulpine.
“I’d better go.” Garnet minced towards the door. HuanJen followed her soundlessly.
“I’m glad to see you again,” he said once the door was closed behind them.
Garnet smiled and looked down. “I get busy, and with Slate working so much I have a lot to keep me occupied.”
“Happy?”
“Yes. Finally. I better go. I’ve got to see our broker before making diner. Take … take care of her?”
HuanJen grinned, “She can take care of herself, I’m sure of it. I’ll just be along for the ride.”
Jade dreamed …
… she had colorful dreams, big ones, like epic tales. Unconstrained and broad. No boundaries or limits.
It wasn’t like Colony. Colony was all limits and boundaries. Even though only half her people lived at Colony, there were within its walls all the time. Walls of rules and traditions, walls of methods of survival, mazes of conspiracies to manipulate the humans from which they’d been torn by science and history.
Lies and deceptions and when to do and what to do and who to do it with, and the overwhelming fear that the normal-humans would find out who and what you were …
Jade didn’t dream walls. She dreamed of wide spaces and freedom. She sometimes dreamed that there was a sound like a river, throbbing with life. It was …
… it was much later.
Jade sat up on the couch, rubbing her eyes. A few thoughts coalesced and she realized where she was.
Xai.
Metris.
HuanJen’s apartment.
Her new life, such as it was.
Her situation soon came into focus. Someone had taken her boots off, she was covered in a blanket, and her satchel was gone, doubtlessly stored. It was a strangely secure feeling to have someone … well, take care of her while she was dead to the world.
Jade looked around for a clock and spotted one on a VCR. About 5:30 in the afternoon. Well, it was late and she’d learned her benefactor could set a VCR clock. Both useful pieces of knowledge.
Her stomach growled. And it had been about six hours since she’d eaten while searching for Slate’s, some kind of meal-in-a-bar hawked by a vendor. It hadn’t been much, but it was all she’d had time for.
“Hello, Jade. Hungry?”
HuanJen had appeared behind the couch, as if out of the proverbial thin air. It wasn’t exactly a surprise, it wasn’t as if he’d deliberately snuck up on her - he’d just … appeared.
“Yeah.” Jade noticed her boots on the floor and began to slip them on. “What do we do for dinner, I’m not the greatest cook …”
“Feel like going out?” HuanJen circled around, giving her a warm smile. “My friends and I get together at the Nax every Tuesday. You can meet some people, maybe get some leads on settling down.”
Jade’s more paranoid instincts flared for a second at the mystics friendliness, but quickly subsided. She was going to have to watch herself around him; her suspicious nature had to be annoying him. “Sure, I don’t have much else to do, do I. Oh, and … hey, look, I don’t know what to say, but … Huan, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” The Fang-Shih extended a hand. “Shall we?”
“Of course!”
Jade took his hand - it was callused and long-fingered, surprisingly strong. Not the hands of a simple intellectual. HuanJen helped her off of the couch, and ushered her towards the door.
“I think you’ll like this place,” Huan began, “everyone is at home there …”
“That - that sounds nice.”
The Nax was one of those specialty pubs. There were gay bars and single bars and sports bars and such across the various Earths, and like them the Nax specialized.
It hadn’t been the intention of the new proprietor, Richard Nax, to do so. He’d been an accountant for years, and when he’d inherited the bar from a dimension-savvy uncle, he’d taken the opportunity - since being an accountant for years can be a quick path to insanity. Managing a nice bar in an interesting city sounded like the perfect way to end one career and begin an actual life.
His knowledge of finance proved to be easily applied to making a profit. He was introverted, but sociable enough that people were glad to discover he was the manager. He had just never considered the location of his bar, nor whom a reopening would attract.
Metris University was nearby. Temple Street and the guildhall of Guild Esoteric were a few blocks away. Giving the reopened pub the trendy-sounding but bizarre name of “The Nax” didn’t help.
Richard found his new patrons consisted of students, researchers, occultists, and more. Such unusual clientele attracted even more unusual clientele, including the engineered or altered humans like Vulpines. Whereas other people had family bars and gay bars, he had created Metris’ first, he would say (in private) weirdo bar.
Richard Nax, however, didn’t have a biased bone in his body. He’d been a polite, quiet man of numbers and calculations, and he felt no malice that his bar had become so unusual. Richard believed in his heart that anyone should be able to buy drinks and food from him despite their age, species, religion, or the amount of questionable herbage they consumed. Thus, he gave his clients what he wanted.
The Nax was redecorated. Exotic and bizarre foliage from Xai and other Earths was brought in. Posters and paintings were replaced with strange art, mystic designs, idols, and sculpture. Consistency in furnishings was foregone for stocking the place with any unusual table or chairs that could be found. The overall impression was a head-on collision between an exotic florist’s and a museum. The clients loved it.
It was Xai. You had to adapt - and it was often quite entertaining to do so.
” … and that’s the story of this place.” HuanJen said simply. “You may meet Richard, he’s very nice.”
With those words, HuanJen ushered Jade into the Nax. From the outside it didn’t look particularly remarkable - a tasteful lit sign, a few unoccupied chairs and tables outsides. Inside …
Inside, it was as Huan had described it to her: strange and friendly.
Among unusual plants and decorations a cross-section of Metrisian strangeness and human exotica ate, chatted, smoked, and drank. Robed clerics talked with scarred adventurers, tattoos clashed with business suits, researchers of Metris University shared food with diviners of Guild Esoteric. The cross-section of humanity outshone Richard Nax’s decorating skills. Even a few Vulpines were visible in the crowd, along some beings whose humanity Jade had to wonder at.
“Damn.” Jade whispered. It was the most colorfu
l populations in Metris reflected in miniature.
“Colorful, isn’t it?” HuanJen pointed at an area near the back of the pub. “Everyone meets over there, the gang usually has a spot to themselves. Sort of ‘ours.’”
The Vulpine let herself be maneuvered to the rear of the establishment, and up to a group of people sitting at a long table. They greeted the pair in a friendly manner, and HuanJen introduced everyone.
“Folks, this is Jade, she’s going to be staying with me while she settles in. Jade, these are my friends, starting left-to-right, Lorne Thompson, from the Gendarmes.”
A handsome man with short, curly blond hair and a tiny ponytail nodded. He wore a black uniform Jade remembered as belonging to the Gendarmes, the Metris police. She’d seen a few on “beat” while trying to locate Slate’s place, though none as large as Mr. Thompson.
“Clairice Bell from Metris City Hospital. Nurse.” A brown-haired woman with a slightly tired, pinched expression managed a smile.
“Rake, minister of the Church of Jesus Christ the Worker.” A short, black-dressed man extended a slab of a hand, which Jade shook carefully. His face appeared to consist of a smile under sandy curls of hair. A few blue-beaded braids gave his mane some order.
HuanJen, much to Jade’s surprise, pulled out a chair for her, before sitting himself. No one there seemed to think she was the least bit unusual for her appearance or that it was unseemly that she was suddenly rooming with a Magician-Priest. It was comforting in an unsettling way.
“Brandon and Negative Joe couldn’t make it, I assume?” HuanJen passed Jade a menu.
“Ah, yes, the usual.” Rake nodded, raising a glass of dark red liquid. “Brandon, ah, had to work and Joe said he had some new, ah, songs to write.”
“We didn’t expect you to show up,” Clairice intoned, smiling, “You weren’t here the last two weeks.”
“Duty calls.” HuanJen flipped through his menu. “You order yet?”
“No. Just got her about five minutes ago.” Lorne leaned on the table and smiled at Jade. “What brings you here?”
“Getting away from Colony.” Jade flashed him a humorless grin. Lorne nodded knowingly.
Crossworld of Xai Page 2
