She knew suddenly she was going to get some kind of odd and weirdly mystical answer. Certain questions were just invitations for HuanJen to become an amiable over-six-foot-tall Fortune Cookie.
“Supposed, Jade, is part of the Big Picture. The Tao. But supposed is a feeling, an idea, no more. It is part of things, it is not outside of things. Don’t try and lead your life based on supposed, it’ll only be partial.”
The words sounded like they’d come out of some deeply pointless self-help book. But from HuanJen they made sense.
“I’m trying to keep it all together,” The Vulpine stated lamely.
“It’s Garnet, isn’t it? She was a trigger?”
Jade paused, the nodded. “It changed so much …”
“Including people treating her like she’s glass,” HuanJen noted.
“Yeah, she’s gonna start ripping off heads if that doesn’t stop.” Jade looped upward, “I don’t know. I … we have our lives and our job and everything all tied together, I flash back to Kevin, I … can’t find an end to it. But it made sense until awhile ago. I mean, I had it all, and …”
“Then you asked what it should be. What it had to be.” HuanJen’s words were not questioning.
“Yeah.” Jade looked around. “I guess I created my own problem.”
“We miss things,” HuanJen said.
“So do you, buddy.”
The mystic blinked.
“Huan, I’m going to bet a month’s income that Solomon’s little possession is based on what you were getting into. The stuff you were supposed to avoid. The stuff Harkness wanted you warned off of. You know why it was bad you were messing around with spooks and haunts?”
“Yes?”
Jade sighed. “Something’s up with some of the Watching Dead and you, love, are a hitman to them. You are not the man to deal with subtle issues involving ghosts. You scare the dead.”
“And you bring this up why?”
“Because I feel like a massive fuckup, reminding me you, my mentor are not perfect helps … and it reminds me that we should not keep things from each other. I sorta … worried for awhile you weren’t Mr. Popular among the watching dead.”
“It makes me human?” The mystic asked.
“I need that sometimes, love. It’s not that you’re less, it’s just sometime that you’re more, and in the wrong ways.”
“Yes,” HuanJen noted, “I understand. I … will keep that in mind. Jade?”
“Yes?”
“I want you to go to Sanctum after this is over. To the Order. For a week. Take time to think. Away from it all. Away from me.”
“Hey, wait, we’ve got … ” Jade caught a sparkle in HuanJen’s eye, a mote of celestial humor.
” … work to do.” Jade stopped. “I need to think. Why is it you are so calm, why is it we can have all this crap happen and you’re calm. What is it?”
“Everything that happens is part of something larger. I call it Tao. Therefore nothing is out of place - even feeling out of place is part of it all.”
“Yeah. I feel it’s all out of place, I … I guess I had it all. I had it good. I didn’t know it. Thanks … for being part of what’s good,” the Vulpine said sincerely.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“Same here,” Jade wrapped her arms around her knees, “What a couple we are. Now …”
Solomon Dell groaned. The two mystics leapt to their feet automatically.
“Wakey-wakey …” Jade muttered. “The question is who woke up?”
“Huan …” Solomon whispered, “Untie me, you don’t understand …”
“Ghost,” Jade and HuanJen both said at once.
Dell’s eyes opened, he tried lunging forward.
“Do you know about the lost city? Let me tell you what happened, mystic, I …”
Dell jerked, gritting his teeth. HuanJen walked over and grabbed the man’s head in both hands, staring him right in the eyes.
“I can get you out of there,” the Magician-Priest said with dreadful calm, the air about him seeming to bend, “I can remove you. So, let me talk to Solomon.
“He’s not kidding,” Jade added helpfully, “you know his reputation!”
HuanJen tried to keep his composure. He was witnessing the classic good-cop/bad-cop routine on a rather odd level. Jade’s occasional moral fluidity was often surprising as well as effective.
Dell jerked, then managed to stand on his feet. He seemed taller somehow.
“Huan …” he whispered, “It was a mistake. I … am not holding on very well …”
“I understand,” The mystic began searching through his pouches, “Do you have any allergies?”
“None I … he’s trying to … I shouldn’t have participated, but the dead needed to move …”
“Yes,” Huan held up a small vial. “Open your mouth.”
Dell staggered, his expression changing from heartbeat to heartbeat.
Jade, who did not have patience for some things, walked over, grabbed his face, and forced his jaw open. Unceremoniously, HuanJen dumped the contents of the vial into the Rancelman’s mouth. He swallowed hesitantly.
“What was …” Jade began.
“Stimulant.” HuanJen answered. “It should help until we sort this out, I merely need to make sure Solomon is the one stimulated by it.”
Jade nodded, then was surprised to hear HuanJen yell.
“You’re not popular Solomon, the Rancelmen are considered to be a necessary evil, you aren’t that much fun to be around, and I find you whiny and often self-centered.”
Dell glared at HuanJen. “Why you …” he shuddered.
“Usually, you can get people to the surface with insults. It is crude, but effective,” HuanJen said to Jade conversationally, “The stimulant helps.”
“I’d add to it, but I think we got his attention.” Jade acknowledged. “I’ll criticize his looks if we need to later.”
“Clever, Huan,” Dell grinned with no mirth, “Huan … get this thing out of me.”
“I …” for a moment, the mystic looked at Jade.
Jade looked at Solomon. He looked miserable.
“You’re possessed Solomon, but …” HuanJen looked at the man.
… a hitman. He’d been called a hitman. But there’s a time for everything.
“I guess there is a time to be the hit man after all,” he said absently.
The world bent around him, and something concealed inside of Solomon Dell screamed.
Very briefly.
The Rancelman facility had a lot of spare rooms where things may be stored for awhile. The Rancelmen were usually storing things - things that usually needed to be analyzed or destroyed.
In this case, one of the rooms now stored HuanJen, Jade, Solomon Dell, a table, some pastires, and a coffeepot.
“This is amazing stuff,” Jade said, greatfully downing the coffee, “Really a new breed?”
“A new breed,” Solomon said, “It should resist the diseases that killed off so many other plants and that odd degeneration problem.”
“Yes,” Jade set her glass down and looked at HuanJen.
“What happened,” Huan asked carefully, “All of it, Solomon. No politics, no traditions, just honesty.”
“The dead need to get around as well,” Solomon stated flatly, “Guild Esoteric and the Rancelmen made sure that some of the Watching Dead could move around. Sometimes the Dead from other worlds want to come through. We established an alliance a few months ago to deal with that need. No, you were not included.”
“At your request?” HuanJen asked.
“No, actually we only wanted people with ten or more years experience on Xai. You weren’t even on the long list. To be frank, I don’t know if you would have been on the list if you had the experience.”
“So I have been informed …”
“And what happened to you?” Jade asked. She was feeling a bit of her old self - the team of Jade and HuanJen. Or maybe not her old self but
her real self.
“Someone … special needed transport. Someone who was dead but very important. I volunteered. It is … the reason that double date was cut off.”
“Wow, turning down a night with us and your wife to have some spirit invade your body. You are kinky, Sol.”
“Jade, Huan insulted me enough to get my attention with that stimulant. It’s not necessary to continue.”
“I’m trying to add humor tot he situation because otherwise we’re going to all be immensely depressed. Well, except Huan. You know him.”
Vulpine and Rancelman looked at the cleric. He looked back - on anyone else, his look would have been a glare.
“Anyway …” Dell sipped his coffee, “It appears someone else … got to me. Someone who had an agenda that would have been very non productive. And … he wanted to reveal something. He chose you two.”
“And that thing?” HuanJen asked.
Solomon’s answer was looking the cleric in the eyes. HuanJen nodded, a half of a smile on his face.
“I am sorry,” Solomon said, “He chose two people from my memories who were … appropriate. And no I won’t say anymore. And I know you won’t ask.”
“Professional Courtesy?” HuanJen asked.
“Friendship,” Dell replied quickly. “Personal reasons.”
There was a pause that lasted for a tiny bit of infinity.
HuanJen nodded. “It’s hard to keep the professional and personal separate.”
“Yes,” Dell looked at his coffee.
“And let me guess, your wife doesn’t know you’re doing this?” Jade asked suddenly.
“No.”
“Somehow … I don’t think that was the best thing, Solomon,” Jade said in a sad, friendly manner, “I don’t think it was at all …”
Jade and HuanJen stood outside of the Rancelman facility, at a small outbuilding that was apparently used for people taxing to and from Metris. There was a chill in the air, and both hoped the taxi they had called would arrive soon.
“No prying?” Jade asked.
“No, not … now” HuanJen answered.
“Of course,” Jade nodded, “One more little thing to file away. You think we’ll get in trouble?”
“Do you think anyone wants it to get out that the head of the Rancelmen was possessed due to work with a behind-the-scenes plan with Guild Estoeric and that two people warned off studying the situation solved it?”
Jade grinned. It wasn’t an evil grin, just more of a misunderstood one.
“No.”
“Exactly. Things will balance out in time. All things in its place.”
Jade nodded. “Sure I should go to Sanctum? I mean after this, with Scribe there …”
“Go,” HuanJen raised a hand, brushing off her concern, “People trust us. After this, as we will do nothing, they will continue to do so. And you need it. We need it.”
Jade sighed. “I do. Get away from this all. Find out who I am. Then what?”
“Then? We go on with the rest of our lives. As always.”
“Together?”
“Yes, together …”
Solomon Dell sat alone, sipping his coffee, staring at the wall of the storage room.
He was smiling.
“What are friends for …”
VARIED POSESSIONS
Solomon Dell was in an unfamiliar situation.
He was going to be social.
He was social, of course. With his wife. His friends at work. But …
Here he was, the Head of the Rancelmen (as if you could tell without his armor), entering an apartment building with a shopping bag. With beer. And a tin of chips. And …
… Dell shuddered …
… a bag of those greasy snack sausages the people at work liked. Some of the local butchers made them. He himself didn’t like them unless you had really good mustard, and it was hard to get good mustard.
Hopefully his friend would enjoy them.
He looked up at the Crosspoint apartment complex. Friend. He’d never thought of HuanJen in very warm ways but, yes, he was a friend. He cared. He shared.
The Magician-Priest could also keep a secret. He respected that.
He should have one more secret.
Dell walked down the tenth-story hallway. No one in the building gave him a second look. There were perhaps a hundred or so people in the complex, he worried he’d stand out. He was used to standing out, and had to remind himself without his position, his armor, he wasn’t remarkable. Another native with his braids and a bag of food.
He paused in front of a door, looked down, then knocked.
The door opened immediately. HuanJen was there, smiling at him.
He was dressed as he almost always dressed - an undistinct black coverall. It went with his plain oriental features. Indeed the only distinct part of his appearance was the white streak in his black hair. Even that had a sort of unremarkable quality. One often got the impression HuanJen could stride into the street stark naked and not get any commentary.
“Solomon, glad you could come over. I see you brought food?” HuanJen honestly sounded enthused. This was comforting, as Solomon had thought up their little get-together about three hours ago.
“Yes,” Solomon nodded. “Can I come in?”
“Of course,” HuanJen ushered him into the living room of the apartment, “I was just cooking.”
“Cooking?” Dell looked around the living room. The kitchen was essentially an extension of the west part of the living room. A strangely sweet smell was wafting from it.
“Those cookies Jade likes. You’ve tried them?”
“Oh, yes, the moon cookies you called them.” Dell nodded, vaguely remembering some comments Jade had made once. “Um, where is she?”
“Away.” HuanJen replied, walking over to the kitchen.
“You mean Sanctum,” Dell sat his sack down on the living room’s coffee table, in front of the couch.
“I see you pay attention to events,” HuanJen sighed, before looking into the oven.
“Scribe is there. Yes, I keep up.”
Dell immediately regretted his comment.
Scribe was the … victim … of ambitious Historian Paldayne, whose experiments in the occult had given him unusual mental powers. Scribe had become the repository of the secrets he ferreted out of the minds of Guild leaders, a way to create a Gordinain knot of a problem for the Guilds Paldayne had grown to despise.
HuanJen, in his usual way of thinking, had found a solution - and shipped Scribe off to The Order, the place he had been raised on the alternate Earth known as Sanctum. He’d solved the problem by simply having the problem take up another profession. His profession.
Dell had never asked how it had felt. HuanJen had been left at Sanctum by his father. He had some idea how he felt, but …
“Sorry, “Dell said hastily.
“I understand.” The Taoist mystic sounded forgiving. “She needed to think. It is … a matter of relationships and appropriateness.”
“Appropriateness?” Dell shrugged. “Is this like that time she told me about, about not being sure she fit the profession?”
HuanJen waved off the question. “No, she went through that fine. She is just reconciling some aspects of her life.”
“So we …” Dell looked around …
“Get to talk. Like friends.” HuanJen smiled.
The mystic sat on the couch. Dell looked around, then laughed.
“This isn’t like you.”
HuanJen smiled crookedly. “I’m not being your counselor. Even in part. You aren’t used to that.”
Dell nodded, then quickly picked up his bag, deposited the contents on the table, along with two bottles of beer, and placed the rest of the beer in the refrigerator. He then returned, and wordlessly handled one of the bottles to HuanJen.
“But first?” Dell asked. “I know you.”
A moment of utter, dead quiet.
HuanJen nodded. “I had wanted to reconcile something. I ha
d hoped to do it later.”
Dell nodded, pulled the cork out of his beer and took a drink. Then, he took a chair and sat. He knew what was going to happen. He’d planned to do it himself, actually. “Ask.”
“The entity that possessed you. He wanted to show me something,” HuanJen said simply.
“Yes.” Dell’s voice was as neutral as a gray slab of ice.
“How could he get that much control?” HuanJen asked.
Dell was silent.
“He didn’t have as much control as he thought.”
Dell took a deep breath, than nodded.
“You trusted me. He used that. You thought that, if summoned I was trustworthy. Even if what I found out what it was, I was trustworthy. You tricked it.”
“Maybe,” Dell’s motuh quirked into the ghost of a smile. “It’s a good theory, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Yes it is.” HuanJen sipped his drink. “I know about Tarvalon, Dell. I know about the lost city. I know what he wanted to show me.”
Dell’s expression didn’t change, though it was fighting too.
“People still wonder why Metris is the center of Xai. They don’t know about the invasion. And the accident. And the bomb’s the Traveler’s keep in case.”
The Head Rancelman stared into nothingness. HuanJen didn’t make it sound cold. He made it sound sad and real, and that was worse.
“The story … the story, is that the Guild was trying to help, there was a threat from a Reichworld, one too … stupid to understand. Their only portal connected to … “
“Portal Vau,” HuanJen said smoothly, “Interesting that with the new Portal classification system, it’ll be lost in bookkeeping …”
“Yes, I didn’t catch that for awhile,” Dell looked at HuanJen painfully. “There were the bombs, then. Para-nuclear. The Guild kept them, kept them in case they had to seal a portal off from the other side. The radiation and the electromagnetic pulse would … make anyone unlikely to use it for awhile.”
“Only there was an error, and the bomb exploded on this side …”
” … the one who possessed me, he … when I was helping a haunt move to another world, he snuck in. He had died there, HuanJen. He didn’t think it was an error. Those that know still wonder if the Travelers’ wanted to rid themselves of competition in the time of the Guildwar. I’d rather not …”
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