“Eh, nevermind …”
“Clairice, did you … do something?”
Clairice crossed her arms. “No more than anyone else has done in our twisted little family, like Joe and his drinking problem, or Rake and his wife, or Brandon, or you for that matter …”
“Most of what we do doesn’t result in innocent furniture being destroyed., Lorne chided gently.
“Do you want to know, really want to know how I recently got involved in HuanJen and Jade’s sex life?”
Silence. Lorne tapped his beer on the chair’s armrest.
“It’s that whole ‘things men was not meant to know thing,’ isn’t it?” The Gendarme finally asked.
“More or less.” Clairice winked. “So, do I disturb your peace of …”
“No, no, I’ll just be glad everyone’s happy and remain confused. It’s easier that way …”
DARKNESS
January 21, 2000, Xaian Standard Calendar.
Jade lay awake in her bed, trying not to think, and failing utterly. To not think she had to think, which completely destroyed her efforts. It was one of those ironies she would have been glad to comprehend had she been in a better mood - a much better mood.
She was trying to calm down. Part of her wanted to rush to HuanJen, leap into his arms, and ask him to hold her. The rest of her wasn’t going to do that. It wasn’t anything wrong with her lover so much as she didn’t act that way.
Besides, if anything went wrong, he was only a few yards away, probably in his room or the study.
Nothing to worry about. Everything was perfect - she had a new world that had become home, a caring boyfriend, and a job that mattered. Everything was fine, everything just needed “Happily Ever After” stamped on it.
The shadows hovered around her. Darkness reminded you that you were there, but you couldn’t see what wasn’t there, and there could be anything outside of you …
… and it could find you.
It was a typical job for HuanJen and herself, or at least something she assumed was typical. There were all sorts of bits of supernatural and social weirdness in Xai, things people wouldn’t admit to on most Earths. HuanJen and people like him, Zone Clerics and exorcists, solved those problems with a minimum of fuss and mess. It kept this world and the next running smoothly.
“It’s a standard investigation,” HuanJen said calmly, “it’ll probably just be an assessment and some advising.”
HuanJen was smiling. He smiled a lot really, little proto-grins that meant a lot. It was usually reassuring; it meant that things weren’t bad. When he stopped smiling or looked grim, that was a sign of trouble.
“Another haunt?” Jade asked causally, looking around the small neighborhood, one of the many clumps of houses scattered across Metris. She was used to haunts by now, and figured whatever the local community had paid them to deal with was the same; mindless remnants of the deceased and the psychically inclined, sometimes enhanced by technology or bad wiring by the Powersmith’s guild.
“An Obsidian,” HuanJen said, still smiling.
Jade sighed, sitting up in her bed. She looked at the mirrored sliding doors that led to her clothes closet.. With her black fur, she appeared to be a pair of green moonlight-reflecting eyes floating in the darkness.
Green eyes - at least no red eyes were present …
“An Obsidian,” the Vulpine whispered, looking at the darkness. HuanJen had said it the same way a plumber would say “a broken pipe.” He did things like that, and in his view, an Obsidian wasn’t something to panic over. His mind encompassed a great deal, and he didn’t always fill her in.
Of course, idly, she figured if she didn’t know enough about Obsidians, it wasn’t his fault. He usually didn’t have to remind her how much she didn’t know - she tended to find out herself.
“You did read up on them?” HuanJen asked.
The people who had called on behalf of the haunted neighborhood had offered the pair their front porch as a vantage point. HuanJen sat on an old wooden bench, looking into the night, at ease, as always. Jade sat next to him, less at ease, which was her usual state as of late.
“Well, a bit . . ,” the Vulpine began, attempting to compose an argument.
“Jade?” The cleric raised an eyebrow. For a moment, Jade’s ego flared, fearing criticism. HuanJen tended to express himself when he was sure he was right, which made arguing a disillusioning experience. He didn’t mean to make her feel small, but she did it on her own.
Jade shook her head. “Yeah. Look, they’re fear-spirits right?”
“No.” HuanJen looked down, thinking for a moment. “The Otherworld is a world of balance, connection. But what we expect, can come for us, what we run from can return for us. We turn things dark at times, in severe cases, the world balances out in terrible ways.”
Jade smirked, paring down the words in her head. “Fear-spirits.”
“No.” The reply was as firm as the core of Xai. “They are what you see when you divide the world, and the world responds. The Otherworld provides, Jade.”
Jade strode out of the bedroom, and paused. There was moonlight streaming in through the glass patio doors, the curtain drawn aside. She considered returning to her bedroom to get her robe, but she doubted anyone was spying on a tenth floor apartment, and if they were and got a glimpse of her in her bra and panties, let them get a cheap thrill.
She didn’t want to turn on the lights. She wasn’t going to let the darkness beat her.
Judging by the light from the study, HuanJen was still awake. A glance at the microwave clock told her it wasn’t very late - she’d decided to head to bed early after tonight. Knowing him and his unscheduled scheduling, he’d be up for another half hour …
… and she still didn’t want to talk.
Sometimes HuanJen didn’t talk when she needed him to, especially when he was focused or on ‘the hunt’ for a spirit or an idea or a problem. As there were times he couldn’t shut up, it was a strange experience for Jade. He could at least have been consistent.
HuanJen looked down the alley, profiled dramatically in the moonlight, or at least as dramatically as he could. In the end, he was just a lanky, average-looking Chinese man whose only outstanding trait was a white streak in his dark hair. He didn’t have a lot to profile dramatically with, but the moon was trying.
“Well, anything?” Jade hissed. She clutched the Lakkom in her hands, feeling its reassuring weight. It may have looked like a strange black-and-green sculpture, it may have been an unpredictable kinetic discharge weapon, but it was, of all things, a weapon. It was a security blanket that dealt destruction and pain.
“I feel something., HuanJen replied, loud enough for the crowd that had formed behind he and Jade to hear it.
Jade judged the tone in her partner’s voice and gestured with the Lakkom. The crowd dispersed like a fog on a sunny day, though considering the look she had given them, she could have driven them off by waving a handfull of marshmallows. Sometimes Jade suspected she was useful as an assistant as she did menace better than he.
The mystic advanced slowly down the alley, Jade behind him, her senses painfully fired from curiosity and some fear. The alley had formed haphazardly, several houses built back-to-back giving it a rough shape, smaller “alleylets” leading off here and there. It was the perfect place for somethng dark, occult, and very sneaky to lurk.
So, of course, she and HuanJen were there, doing their own lurking.
“OK, you’re really sure it’s one of those things?” Jade whispered quietly.
“Yes. The … feel is different than a Watcher or a mindless pattern. You’ll understand some day, love.”
“Well, OK, then why is it here?” Jade felt uneasy. Whatever intuitions HuanJen had developed, she had her own, and they didn’t feel right. She wondered if she should be grateful she didn’t have his odd senses; she may have felt worse.
“One of two reasons, I suspect,” HuanJen said didactically. “It’s a native neighborhood
, and we’re probably dealing with one generated by fear of immigration …”
“Lovely.” Jade grimaced. Xai was a very civil place, but sometimes the native-born population was a little standoffish towards newcovers.
” … or …”
” … here we go again. I’ve already heard crap about the Travellers and the University and …”
“Politics,” the Magician-Priest said flatly. “As much as you’re sick of hearing about the Communicants, and who hates them, and them going public, and everything else, it’s a fear. The fear of the Other.”
“And the Otherworld responds.”
“Think of it as an invitation too polite to not accept. Think of it as a lens that affects what we see. Think of it as a balance being maintained.”
“And think of us out here, coldest night of the week, hunting boogeymen …”
Jade sat on the couch in the living room, in the dark, a glass of water in one hand and a bar of chocolate in the other. Spare chocolate; HuanJen was in charge of the cooking and planning the grocery shopping, and he knew what she liked.
The darkness was still around her.
There had been times like this before. Times when she’d felt something … larger, that sense of root-of-the-world. But those had been different, those had been comforting, and most of those had involved HuanJen who could be aggressively nonthreatening.
But these were different times …
… and she was a different person, when you thought of it.
HuanJen scouted ahead into the alley, darkness without threat, a shadow cast by himself.
Jade watched carefully as he had instructed, Lakkom at the ready. HuanJen could arguably take care of himself, but there was always a first time for everything. Besides, he was technically in charge, and he had given her an order, and there wasn’t any reason to disobey him yet. If such a time came, she was ready to loyally tell him where to stick his commands.
“Find anything?” A voice next to her asked.
Jade rolled her eyes. You think the people that had hired them would back off when they told them. “I told you, please, let us handle it. We’ve got Obsidians, remember?”
“Ah,” the voice said, “I see.”
“We’re looking,” Jade continued, the tone in her voice transmuting the two words into “go away you moron.”
“Yes. Obsidians. Find any of us yet?”
Words ricocheted around Jade’s mind for a terrifying eternal half-second.
The Vulpine whirled around, bringing the Lakkom up like a mace. A man stood behind her, dressed all in black, like a Xaian shaman’s outfit without the motley colors. His hair was black, his skin was dried-bone pale, and his eyes …
… were red holes to somewhere else. They didn’t glow, they were the kind of red that was going to be red no matter the light or lack of light in the area.
“Tsk-tsk. I’d better confiscate that for the good of everyone. You’d better come with me. I know all you need to know. Surprised?”
Jade felt the world become shackles and chains wrapped around her. She was a little girl with her father yelling. She was alone, and someone very big was going to hurt her over and over again.
“Want to go home?” The Obsidian asked pleasantly.
The words bored into Jade’s head, making no sense, but also making a kind of meta-sense. The man kept smiling, and she tried to find the part of her that would smash that smile with a fist, and send blood and teeth flying.
“Jade?” HuanJen appeared at her side, in that mysterious way he moved between spaces when he had to. The Vulpine started, the shackles in her head snapping.
“It’s …” Jade began.
The dark-dressed man was gone.
“It was here, yes?” HuanJen queried.
“Yeah …”
Jade found herself finished with her snack. It hadn’t been so much that she was hungry but that she’d craved a distraction. Something not to think too much on. Besides, it was chocolate, which she considered not so much a food but as a medicine. You had trouble getting good coffee on Xai, but there were some things humans just wouldn’t go without, and long ago some wise farmers had worked very hard to ensure a chocolate supply. A shame they hadn’t managed to solve the coffee problem …
“Damn it …”
She was going to think about what happened, and think about it until she talked to someone. There was, of course, only one real candidate for that position.
There were a few noises from the study, the sound of books being moved. HuanJen was probably preparing for bed. It was now or never. Jade hated nevers, you tended to regret them.
The Vulpine slid to her feet and stalked towards the study. With no ceremony, she opened the door and stormed in. The smell of paper and old documents and wood ran through her nose - the study had a sense of age, of history, solidity. It was comforting.
“Huan … we have to talk?”
The Magician-Priest was busy moving some books off the desk and into the extensive shelves that dominated the room. He was out of his work clothes, dressed in a simple pair of boxers, which made him look distinctly unmystical. Normally she found his lean body graceful and attractive, but she felt nothing at this point.
“Yes dear?” HuanJen looked at her with one of his looks, this one suggesting he knew what she was going to say. She hated that look when she was the target.
“I need to talk about … what happened. That thing.”
“The Obsidian?” HuanJen pulled out the desk’s chair, offering it to Jade.
“Yeah.” Jade dropped into the proffered seat. “You know how I feel.”
“Yes.” The her lover sat on his desk. She could feel his eyes on her, but she couldn’t look at them.
“I feel … rather not good.”
“Yes.” HuanJen crossed his arms, obviously waiting.
Jade sighed. He wasn’t going to say it. He was going to make her say it … well, not make her say it, but she was going to say it anyway.
“I’m scared, HuanJen. It scared the shit out of me.”
“I can understand that. Still, it was really just a non-localized manifestation, very general. It latched on to whatever was around.” The cleric’s voice was as comforting as cool sheets, but the words weren’t soothing.
“Yeah, you said, not something you could even exorcise, it just had to fade.” Jade bit her lip. “It scared the hell out of me, it was so damn real. You know its usually bits of light or weird feelings, or … I’ve been studying, Huan.”
“I know, I figured.” HuanJen gently lifted Jade’s chin until she was looking at him. His expression was kindly, and perhaps a bit frustrated, as if he wasn’t sure what to say. “I learned my lesson, I let you set your pace and … cultivated.”
The cleric’s fingers gently stroked Jade’s black fur. She sighed. Fear and comfort tore through her soul. She should have felt better, but didn’t feel as good as she wanted to.
“I wanted to look deeper. I wanted to be ready, you said supernatural stuff was coming up. When I saw Rake Sunday, he mentioned Zigguart Jack. That’s why I insisted I go with you. Gods, all this is real.”
“Very.” The Zone Cleric nodded. “They tend to balance things. You were looking … “
” … and I found. Damn.” Jade felt cold. “You know it was easier when I’d have those weird little flashes and you’d get all gooey and poetic and the world seemed right.”
“I understand.” HuanJen slid off of the desk, sitting on the floor by his lover. “I had hoped to help educate you on some of the more egregious entities. As I said, I have learned you have to be taught in your time.”
“Yeah.” The Vulpine shook her head. “That’s me. Gods, his eyes … I was looking at the Universe looking back at me through a black mirror. I mean the Ossuary was an orgasm compared to this. This … “
“Yes?” The Magician-Priest gently took one of Jades bare feet in his hands and began massaging carefully. Jade felt the tension flow out of her body and into
his long-fingered hands.
” … is me, still trying to be all happy and so on. I want to dip my feet in the supernatural and not go swimming. But you can’t stop, can you. I wanted to know, I’m curious, and … this is my life now.”
“And you scared yourself. Let me guess, Compendium Esoterica … the 1995 version. I threw my ‘83 out thanks to all the errors. My predecessor hated it.”
“You got it.” Jade let out a purr as her lover continued his ministrations. “Yesterday when you were out. I just kept reading and … feeling how much I didn’t know. And Rake’s got some real thing about Ziggurat Jack. He’s like King Obsidian?”
“No.” HuanJen stopped his massage, much to his lover’s regret. “He’s something else. He was a killer years ago, I think even a Navigator who suffered from Parallel Paranoia of some kind. But he became … something else. Xai’s a remarkably stable place, but the fear of instability, it leads to things.”
“The Otherworld provides,” Jade said, eyes focused on ideas cavorting inside her head.
“Yes. He seems to appear in a decreasing cycle. He was due to appear two years ago, and didn’t. Four years before that there was one report. Rake was one of the people assigned by Guild Esoteric to deal with him if he appeared two years ago. He didn’t show.”
“Rake thinks he will this year.” The apprentice mystic said flatly. “Especially with the political unrest, the crap with the Communicants, the University and the Merchants and the Travelers playing games. Hell, there’s Obsidians already, I don’t even want to know what the hell poured out of the spirit world during the Guildwar.”
“It wasn’t pleasant from what I’ve read.” HuanJen’s voice came from years away. “Those times are where some of the Compendium comes from. So, tell me what’s on your mind?”
HuanJen’s dark eyes were gateways to somewhere else, someplace dark but warm. Jade smiled and ruffled her love’s white-streaked hair affectionately. The action wasn’t devoid of nervousness, but touching him made her feel better.
“I …” Jade paused. “The same story. I keep finding out how much I don’t know, only this is different. This is what hides behind things. And there’s going to be more of this.”
Crossworld of Xai Page 36
