“Then, you’ll, ah, visit me then?” Rake asked.
“Rake runs a job placement service for charity.” HuanJen said in a businesslike fashion, still looking at the menu. “I figured he’d be a good choice, that’s why I want you to meet.”
“I do, ah, my humble best. HuanJen has sent, ah, people to me before. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Jade couldn’t think of anything to say in response, and just nodded. It was ironic really - shed been dropped into a strange world and a strange city and then a very strange man’s apartment. She’d managed to stay on top all the time with a few moments of doubt. Now, with a group of friendly people who knew each other, she was at a loss.
What did you say, “nice dimension you have here” or “so, what’s it like living at a crossroads of alternate Earths?” She’d rarely had trouble striking up a conversation, but this was beyond her social skills.
The Vulpine meandered along in the conversations as orders were taken, trying to understand the group of friends. Rake’s words came and went, he always spoke unevenly. Lorne had the looks of a model, but was quite articulate and polite. Clairice was obviously tired, and Lorne kept prodding her to get some sleep.
“No, stop trying to get me into bed.” Clairice had finally responded in mock-irritation.
“You’re hardly my type.” Lorne jested. You had the impression they were practically married.
“No, Richard was your type.”
Lorne sighed. “No, he wasn’t, nor was he yours. Why were we …”
“Struck with bad taste at the same time.” Rake and HuanJen chorused together. Lorne and Clairice smirked at them both.
“You’re going to hear these two, ah, complain a lot.” Rake gestured at the Gendarme and the Nurse. “Love does leave, ah, its scars.”
Clairice waved a finger. “And burns from five o’clock shadow.”
“Hey!” Lorne nudged the tired woman. “At least he shaved when he dated you. You never encountered beard-lock …”
“Oh, thanks for bringing that up …”
The conversation trailed off into unknown territory, and Jade felt lost again. Despite her background, Lorne and Clairice’s bizarre exchange had been the closest thing to some human interaction she could relate to. It wasn’t a comforting thought.
When the food arrived, she hoped she could find something to talk about. Of all the things she’d prepared for, it hit Jade that somehow fitting in here, anywhere in Metris, wasn’t something she’d considered. Well, she might as well get some practice now …
There was a ringing sound from HuanJen’s belt. He put his fork down on his plate of baked fish, and pulled a phone from his belt. Jade wondered about the device for a moment, then figured its existence wasn’t unusual. She doubted anyone on Xai had gotten satellites up, but there were other technologies that could explain portable phones.
“HuanJen. Yes. No, Richard, I did show up. I’m in back. As usual. Really? Yes. Yes I’m fine. I’ll be right there.”
The cleric stuck the phone into its belt pouch. He suddenly looked tired. “Zelman got into some Pandemonium. He’s in back and it looks like he’s possessed.”
“Lovely.” Clairice rolled her eyes. “I hope he didn’t cook any of this.”
HuanJen shrugged indifferently. “I’m going to be awhile, er, Lorne?”
“I’m with you.” The Gendarme stood up - though in his case it was more like a kind of unfolding. “The usual?”
“Sure.”
The strange couple walked towards the kitchens, leaving Jade staring after them. Questions fired through her head …
Rake chimed in, sensing her wonder. “Pandemonium. It’s an, ah, drug. A very nasty one that can leave you open to, ah, various entities entering your mind. The fad comes, and, ah, goes.”
Jade stared at the Minister. Behind him, Clairice nodded sadly, almost sympathetically.
“We’re at the crossroads of Earths,” Clairice’s voice was didactic, “You’re going to see things rare in some Earths aren’t uncommon here, and things that are usually hidden in the open.”
Possession? Something flared in the back of Jade’s mind, her often-hidden curiosity awakening. It was the part of her that just had to see everything, at least once.
“I …” Jade pointed at the kitchen doors, which were swinging shut. “I hate to ask this, but … can I see?”
Clairice and Rake looked at each other, as if they’d never heard the question before. Jade felt like she’d transgressed on some unknown boundary for a moment. Maybe there was some tradition or something she didn’t know about involving possession …
“Ah, go ahead, I suppose, um, be careful.”
Jade headed to the back of Nax’s, as if hypnotized. It was like approaching a Zoo that someone in all good faith had told you contained some fantastic mythical creature. Jade’s taste for the unusual began unfurling like a flag. As she opened the kitchen doors, the thought struck her that of all worlds, here such tastes were easily sated.
“Look at me …”
It was HuanJen’s voice, though calm, sonorous. It was the only calm thing about the scene in the mess that had been the Nax’s kitchen.
Lorne held a struggling, aproned man, apparently a cook, in a bearhug. Though his prisoner was not a large person, even the muscular Gendarme was having trouble restraining him. Next to the battling pair stood HuanJen, looking calmly into the prisoner’s eyes, while a crowd of disturbed pub staffers tried to keep their distance in the confines of the kitchen.
“Come on out, you know you can’t resist.” Huan’s voice was as even as a lake on a windless day. It seemed to fill your ears.
The struggling man snarled, trying to form words with a mouth apparently trying to say two things at once. HuanJen walked closer to the man …
… and inverted. The cleric appeared to become a hole in the middle of the kitchen, a void in the form of a man. It was him, Jade’s eyes told her it was him, but her mind felt him become filled with a kind of powerful emptiness. She couldn’t stop staring at him.
“No!” the man in Lorne’s grip tried struggling, but seemed fascinated by the sight as well. The world was bending around the Fang-Shih, everything receding into the background.
Jade started as something leapt out of the possessed man’s body and into HuanJen, like a white ribbon of light, like silk blowing in the wind. She could feel it as well as see it, like the rumbling of a train in your bones when it passed by. It was alive, she somehow knew.
The undulating glow kept pouring into HuanJen, who trembled occasionally during the experience. His breathing picked up, each breach echoing in Jade’s sensitive ears. The possessed cook was being emptied into the mystic, the thing inside him drained away like fluid from a lanced boil.
The luminous presence finally vanished into the mystic’s body. The cook slumped in Lorne’s arms. HuanJen was suddenly an unremarkable-looking oriental man again as opposed to a distant, disturbing presence.
“Huan?” Lorne asked, letting his captive stand on his own.
“I’m fine.” The mystic waved off his friends concern surely, but not impolitely. “I still say Mr. Nax needs to give this place a thorough going-over. He hasn’t got all the haunts out. Oh, hello Jade.”
Jade stared at HuanJen for a moment, stunned by his casual attitude. There was something disturbingly unflappable about him, which was both comforting, and yet instilled the desire to see what it took to unsettle him.
“Hello … Huan. Sorry. I was curious.”
“That’s OK.” The Magician-Priest took her arm gently and led her out of the kitchen. “I think we’d best leave the situation to Mr. Nax, I expect he’s going to have words with that cook. Pandemonium seems safe in small amounts, but its effects can sneak up on you.”
“That was … impressive,” Jade managed to get out.
“Really? Thank you.” Huan smiled at her. “Just, please, be careful when I have to do something like that, I don’t want anyone getting hurt.�
�
The two returned to the table, with Lorne joining them shortly. There was the distinct sound of yelling from the depths of the kitchen, but the patrons politely ignored it.
“Pay up.” Rake extended a hand to Lorne when the muscular Gendarme sat down.
Lorne gave Rake a curious look. “I doubt it counts. He never left the premises.”
“You’d, ah, stiff a Minister? Shame, shame!”
“Don’t you have some prohibition against gambling?”
“Not really. Come on, ah, ten guilders.” Rake gestured expectantly.
Lorne dug into his pocket and tossed a coin to Rake, who snatched it out of the air and vanished it into his robes. Clairice snickered at HuanJen’s bemused expression.
“Sorry, Huan, they had a bet you wouldn’t be in this evening or would get called away.”
“Ah.” The cleric’s face fell. “I know I’ve been less than social, sorry, my friends.”
“Relax.” Lorne clapped HuanJen on the shoulder. “Look, we we’re … playing. Sorry. At least I had faith you’d be here.”
“Thank you, ah, Lorne.” Rake’s face was split with a crooked grin. “Faith always seems to, ah ,reward someone.”
Jade picked at her food as the friends bantered. She’d seen an exorcism. Something out of horror movies and tabloids. She’d felt many emotions since coming to Xai, but suddenly one that she had to control and that she hadn’t let run free since her arrival blazed in her mind.
Curiosity.
Jade stretched, and rolled over in bed, her mind assembling a picture of where she was. Guest bedroom. Chinese guy’s place. A clock indicated it was a few minutes after midnight.
She needed a snack.
For a moment, she wondered if it was impolite to ransack the pantry when she was a guest, but then again Huan had made her feel welcomed and told her to make herself at home. She hated to turn down an invitation like that.
Stealthily, she padded into the hall, past the bathroom, and into the living room. Before she could home in on the kitchen, she noticed the patio door was open. Curious, and a bit concerned, she peered out.
“Hello, Jade.”
HuanJen sat on one of the patio chairs, looking out at Metris. He wasn’t looking at her at all, but she somehow felt his attention, like a barely audible sound. He knew she was there.
“Um, hey Huan. Couldn’t sleep?”
“Actually, I was about to go to bed. Just contemplating for a bit. Getting a feel for things, for tomorrow.”
“Busy day?” Jade pulled up a chair and sat down.
“It comes and goes. My schedule is chaotic, moreso as of late. What woke you?”
“Hunger.”
“Ah.” The cleric handed her a bowl “Xai-grown dates. The soil south of here is quite good for them.”
“Thanks.” Jade sampled the bowl, then around a mouthful of dates, asked. “Some day, eh?”
“For you, I imagine, certainly. Sorry you had to see that back there.” HuanJen’s voice was friendly, and his attention still on her, but Jade still couldn’t shake the feeling he wasn’t quite all there, or that a lot more of him was there than should be.
“Yeah.” Jade shrugged. “I mean … look, I read about stuff like that but I’ve never seen it. You live that kind of stuff, exorcisms, and all don’t you? That’s all real here.”
HuanJen glanced at her and smiled, before looking back at the city. “Some of it. I hope that’s not unsettling?”
A shrug. Jade really didn’t know what to say. Yes apparently his life involved the truly occult, but she really wasn’t one to judge. Admittedly, it was pretty damn interesting - she wanted to just say “tell me the strangest things you’ve seen here” and listen.
“Hey, if there aren’t going to be any bogeyman under the bed, I’m not concerned.” Jade laughed, then reality hit her upside the head. “There isn’t anything I should worry about here, right?”
“No. The Crosspoint is well-secured, as is this apartment. You have nothing to fear.”
“Good. Hey, no offense, just checking.” Jade tossed another date in her mouth.
“I understand. You have a question, Jade?”
Jade finished the date before replying. “Actually, yes. How did you get into all of this? I mean, was there a want ad, or what?”
HuanJen turned his chair around face her, leading Jade to realize he was wearing little but a simple pair of briefs. Jade wondered if he was aware he had a female guest, then realized there was a great deal about him she didn’t know - though a nudity taboo was not likely in his past.
The mystic spoke as if reading off of a card, probably having had to explain his life many times before. “I was raised in a religious order on the Earth called Sanctum, having been left there by my father, a member of The Order. At twenty, I realized my experiences were nothing without someone to share them with …”
“The … the wise man has no desires of his own, his desires are those of others?”
HuanJen smiled. “The Tao Te Ching. Popular chapter numbering, chapter 49. Yes. I came here, Jade, to serve. Here, between the Earths.”
HuanJen folded his hands and smiled at her. Jade nodded. He kept smiling. She waited for a moment, then spoke.
“That’s it?” She’d expected something more grandiose, more eloquent, or at least more detailed. Instead she’d gotten HuanJen’s Life, the Cliff Notes.
“Er … yes.” HuanJen’s expression was suddenly one of mild guilt. “Sorry, my life is really not that interesting.”
“A matter of perspective, HuanJen. You’re the only person I’ve met here who seems … to fit in. That’s interesting.” Jade continued as the sorcerer gave her a curious look. “You seem comfortable here. Like the world fits around you. To be honest, it’s comforting.”
“Thank you.” The Magician-Priest seemed honestly grateful at her statements. His eyes sparkled.
Jade set down the bowl of dates. “And thank you. Again. For everything. This - all this - has really made a difference. More than I can say.” For a moment, she desperately wished she could say more.
HuanJen’s face lit up. “I’m glad.”
Jade stood and stretched, noticing that HuanJen stared at her for a moment before looking away. She nearly laughed - he’d finally done something as human as look at her breasts. She was tempted to embarrass him with his action, but decided it wasn’t polite.
“Well, Huan, I’m back to bed. You?”
“The same. Get some sleep, Rake expects you tomorrow, and I know you have a lot to do …”
HuanJen had a talent for understatement. A lot to do indeed …
First, Jade had to figure out the Trolley system, which was summed up in a helpful booklet that was only mildly inaccurate in its near-microscopic print. Cars were bit of a luxury on Xai and in Metris - petroleum wasn’t used for power very much, and large cars weren’t in demand. Thus the use of small electrical cars and the complicated trolley system had arisen.
Once Jade had navigated the trolley system to Temple Street, it was necessary to find Rake. Temple Street would have been more accurately named “Big Meandering Place with Lots of Religious Stuff” but the City’s Tourism Agency would have looked down on such an accuracy. Xai brought the people of many Earths together, those people brought their religions, and Temple Street was the open-air market of the soul that situation produced.
Temples and booths and unusual and interesting stores were everywhere. Signs in multiple languages, colorful buildings, and exotic clothes caught the eye. Debates and chiming bells and prayers seized the ears. Herbs, incense, and foods for those with specific diets due to their religion ensnared the nose.
Jade had never really gone for religion, and she remembered why. It got damn confusing and not very productive, much like her search for Rake.
She eventually arrived at the Church of Jesus Christ the Worker five minutes late. She’d been looking for a large structure, but found a small, squarish, sturdy-looking building. It looked mo
re like a bomb shelter than a temple.
Rake was waiting at the door, dressed in the same kind of robes he’d worn at the Nax. He grinned at her as if she was the brightest spot in his day.
“Ah, Jade, ah. Come on in, I was worried, ah, about you!”
“Sorry, I’m …”
“No worry! No worry, come!”
The minister led her through a small, simple church and to an office in back. There was little decoration, except for several prominent icons of Christ on the cross, surrounded by mechanical-looking symbols. Rake was either a paragon of simplicity, the minister of an unpopular religion, or both.
“Sit, sit!” Rake gestured at a chair before sitting at a pile of papers and files that was likely a well-camouflaged desk. Jade, having little else to do, accepted the invitation.
“Well, ah, well.” Rake held up a sheaf of papers. “I wondered, ah, what would fit you. I have a few common, appropriate jobs here …”
“Appropriate?” Jade asked icily.
“Er, ah … assuming standard Vulpine background, Jade. An, ah, jump on the situation?”
Jade crossed her arms defensively, trying to quell a sudden burst of anger. Rake was nice, even though his way of speaking made you want to slam him against a wall. However, she knew where this was going.
“Appropriate for my background. Let me guess - security, surveillance, perhaps detective work …”
“Er … quite a good call, Jade. I am sorry, ah, forgive me.”
Jade closed her eyes, letting the anger drain away. “It’s OK. Look, Rake … hell. I know you’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart, Huan’s told me all about you. I just don’t want anything to do with Colony or the lifestyle there. No conspiracies, no games. Something honest, something real … hell, something interesting.”
“Interesting?” Rake looked at her oddly. It wasn’t a look of ignorance, it was a look of a man confronted with the unexpected.
“Yeah. Look, I’m at the crossroads of Earth, Xai, the Crossworld, the Where-We-All-Go, and a bunch of other really pretentious nicknames. I want to do something different and meaningful if I can, you know?”
Crossworld of Xai Page 3
