18
The healer led me towards a private section of the garden that butted up to the house. Then she silently offered me her hand. I placed my hand in hers with a curious smile, and the world flickered away.
I next found myself staring up at a twilight realm of royal purple skies with millions of huge, twinkling stars that appeared close enough to reach out and touch. We were in the cherry blossom fields beyond Xuanwu’s home—that otherworldly plane I had seen from his garden. The gentle breeze was floral and pure, as if it had never known the stink of mankind. I spun in a slow circle with my fingers outstretched, mesmerized by the surrounding field of swaying, waist-high, bluish-gray grass, soft as feathers. I smiled as it tickled my fingers, and I watched it roll and sway in the breeze, awed by the tranquility of the place.
I spotted a bioluminescent tree less than fifty yards away that stood proud and tall, celebrating the fact that it was the only tree in this place, making it a mythical unicorn for that aspect alone. Its trunk and branches were a dazzling white, and the pink cherry blossoms were neon. Hundreds of the psychedelic petals were swept away in the gentle breeze, but hundreds more replaced them, growing out from the branches of the tree so that it never seemed to change its pregnant vibrancy.
With the tree swaying and the blossoms floating up into the sky in an endless stream, it reminded me of a bonfire spewing up sparks but never dying down. Except these sparks were beautiful petals of life rather than burned husks of death.
The woman smiled at the joyful look on my face, and then guided me towards the glowing tree. We soon stepped out from the tall grass and onto a carpet of thick, spongy grass that led beneath the canopy of the otherworldly tree.
Except the grass was yellow. Not a sickly yellow, but a perfect canary yellow. And the tree looked older than anything I’d ever seen.
A rice paper, tri-paneled divider—like those used in dressing rooms—was literally rooted to the ground, looking as if the entire thing had grown up from the soil. About fifty yards farther on from the tree was a small pond with a low, hand-carved bridge that could have come from a royal palace in feudal Japan. One of those iconic bridges seen in almost every martial arts movie. Bright pink blossoms covered most of yellow grass in a thick, perfumed blanket of fallen petals.
The young woman gestured at the divider. “You may disrobe. We are private,” she assured me in a soft tone, like we were in a library and she didn’t want to get us in trouble. I found myself struggling to label the healer with the term woman. She looked young enough to barely qualify as an adult. Yet she also seemed wise beyond her years. She was not matronly, but she was…sagely.
“That’s swell and all, but my mother always taught me names before nipples. I think she was referring to men on the prowl, but I never specifically asked her, so…what’s your name?”
The healer smirked, bowed, and then left, disappearing around the divider in the direction of the pond.
I frowned, leaning out from the partition to see where I was supposed to go after disrobing. My eyes widened to see her black silk robe flutter to the ground behind her as the pale, petite woman continued walking without a care in the world, as if she hadn’t yet noticed she’d suffered a wardrobe malfunction. But the carefree sway of her hips told me it had not been accidental and that the woman beneath had been released from the unseen binds of the restraining silk.
Like a caged bird suddenly flying free.
Like a woodland nymph entering the darkest depths of the forest.
Or she was an elite level nudist.
I realized that I was still staring at her, slack-jawed. Even though we had met once before, we hadn’t actually communicated. She’d given me a sponge bath. To her, that had apparently set a precedent for hey, we should hang out naked again! I averted my eyes and leaned back to assess my own shredded, bloody clothes, feeling remarkably self-conscious about stripping down to my skin with her in another dimension—especially when she didn’t want to give me her name. It certainly put a whole new spin on the phrase supernatural, turning it into super-naturale.
I was beginning to realize that most of my acquaintances seemed more concerned with getting naked or getting high on questionable plants than they were about helping make the world a better, safer place.
The air was soothing and warm, so at least I wouldn’t be risking frostnip by taking off my clothes. I leaned out from the partition again to check on the voyeur healer as I set my weapons belt down and began untying the laces of my boots.
The woman was calmly wading into the pond, and I squeed excitedly as I noticed thick steam rising up from the water. Hot springs were definitely more my style, and skinny-dipping was better than skinny-walking. Even better now, thanks to my consistent training with Ryuu, at least I wasn’t concerned about turning it into chunky-dunking or a cannonball calamity. However, compared to the petite Asian woman, anyone would look overweight. I felt like She-Hulk compared to the dainty creature.
I hurriedly emptied the contents of my pockets into my boots, hesitating as I picked up the rings I had found in my mother’s lab. I’d almost forgotten about the surge of power I’d felt from them when Michael had taken off his mask. I inspected them warily, but I noticed no change in the physical or magical spectrum. They felt exactly the same as the first time I had seen them, so I tossed them into my boots.
I continued to undress, wincing as I peeled the blood-soaked fabric away from my wounds. When I tried sliding my arms out, both sleeves simply tore free from the garment, thanks to Ryuu’s surgical slashes. The same thing happened when I tried tugging the jacket open. And the pants. Within moments, I had a pile of shredded strips of bloody cloth at my feet. There was no chance of wearing any of it again, so I would have to knock the healer out and take her robe if she hadn’t thought to bring a spare.
That was on her. I would take no pleasure in it. But she hadn’t even given me her name.
I inspected my wounds, confirming my earlier analysis that none of them were particularly concerning. I did count over a dozen red scratches that made me look like I’d gone streaking through the woods at night. Ryuu’s unseen cuts. I shook my head absently, marveling at the requisite precision it had required. I slipped out of my underwear in an ungraceful stumble, but I did manage to catch myself before falling head-first through the priceless rice paper divider like the Kool-Aid man. That was a win.
Since my clothes now resembled a pile of used surgical pads after an off-the-books cartel surgery, the only things worth keeping were my boots, my bra, my panties, and my sword. All things considered, that was all a woman really needed to take over the world. I considered taking my boots with me to the pond since they now doubled as a purse for my stuff, but I knew Xuanwu’s people were not thieves, so I left them.
I took a reassuring breath and stepped out from the divider, feeling uncomfortably exposed between one step and the next—even though I’d been just as naked behind the divider as I was now. I ignored the reflex panic and pressed on. The grass was ridiculously soft and spongy beneath my little piggies as I made my way towards the bank of the pond, and I realized I was smiling in anticipation of the warm soak. I touched my fingers to the wound in my side, grimacing at my imagined reflection. I probably looked like a terror. But the nameless woman was a healer, so she probably wanted to get me cleaned up in the pond before getting to work. Or maybe the pond was full of magical Koi fish that would heal me with playful nibbles.
I paused at the shore, my smile slowly fading into to a frown as the woman turned to face me. A thick cloud of white steam hovered over the surface, but the water was as smooth as glass. Her movements hadn’t caused even a single ripple or disturbance in the fog. She stood so that the water only barely covered her perky breasts. Then she smiled and dipped beneath the surface.
I felt a wave of goosebumps roll down my spine. Even submerging hadn’t caused a ripple.
Maybe it wasn’t water but some denser, healing liquid.
If Ryuu hadn’t
vouched for her, I would have been long gone by now.
I dipped my toe in and let out a sigh of relief to find that it wasn’t just warm, it was invitingly hot. That perfect temperature for relaxation. I waded out into the steaming depths, wondering why she was still underwater. My muscles loosened up with each step through the hot muddy floor of the pond, and I was definitely causing ripples. I frowned self-consciously, reassessing my chunky-dunk parameters. My wounds tingled pleasurably upon contact with the water, and I took a deep inhale of the thick steam, appreciating the privacy of the thick white fog. I reached the spot where she had submerged, yet I didn’t see any telltale bubbles of air or feel her hiding beneath.
“Strange Asian lady?” I asked, trying to wave away the steam surrounding me. She didn’t answer, and I found it difficult to prioritize my concern over the seductive pull of the water. “Mind doing some healing—”
I cut off as I felt a cool breath of air across the back of my neck, but a gentle finger touched my shoulder before I could turn or cry out. I gasped as an explosion of heat radiated outward through my body from the frisky finger.
And…I shuddered in relief. The fiery heat raced through my body, stretching from my fingers to my toes in a healing wave, and I felt a sharp tingle in my more serious wounds before the pain simply disappeared. I checked with my fingers and found only healed flesh. Then the finger broke contact and I spun dazedly to see the tiny woman smiling at me.
“Hi,” she said, with one of those impossibly infectious smiles. The kind that made their whole face light up as if you were the most important thing in the entire universe and they didn’t want to miss a single moment of your interaction. The kind of smile that made you feel their opinion might actually be true.
She was entirely different from the almost coy and reserved woman I had met earlier. As if she was safe in her natural habitat and could finally be herself. Yet through the kindness in her eyes, I saw a deep intelligence and a well of power within easy grasp. I couldn’t define that power, but I could feel it.
“Um. Hi,” I said, still trying to shrug off the abrupt tremors of relaxation rippling through me. “You’ve got quite the gift.”
She giggled, the sound rolling over the motionless, steamy water like wind chimes. “I do,” she agreed, obviously amused.
“What is this place?” I asked, knowing she obviously still didn’t want to mention her name.
She smiled, glancing left and right. “This is the training fields. Where we die and are reborn. In this pool, specifically.”
I gawked at her in disbelief. “What?”
She nodded excitedly. “Rebirth. Here.”
I pursed my lips. “I heard the words, they just didn’t make any sense.” I was swimming in zombie soup. Disgusting. “Are you immortal? Some kind of water goddess? Is that why you won’t tell me your name?”
She smiled. “My name is unimportant,” she said in a gentle tone. Then she scrutinized me like I was a patient with a particularly meddlesome parasite she hadn’t quite figured out how to remove.
Time to nip that in the bud. “Thank you for healing me.”
“Thank Ryuu,” she said, fondly, grinning to reveal that perfect dimple. “You do understand that you are quite the enigma around here,” she mused, assessing me thoughtfully. “Ryuu has never offered to protect someone before. Ever. He hardly even likes people. So, it shocked us all when he announced his intention to guard the White Rose.”
Despite her sweet smile, there was a very surgical warning in her casual tone. “To be honest, it probably shocked me more,” I admitted. “I wasn’t given much of a say in the matter.”
She smirked knowingly. “That sounds accurate.”
I took a gamble since the ninja wasn’t looking over my shoulder at the moment. “I honestly don’t know very much about him, but I’m quickly learning that he is far more than the leader of the shinobi. I heard Ryuu was quite dangerous—and I heard it from people who I thought were at the top of the food chain.”
She nodded absently, not seeming particularly interested. “I once heard that orgasms feel nice.”
I stiffened, and my eyes widened in confusion at her baffling comment.
She was smirking deviously. “Dangerous is an understatement. As is devoted, demanding, daring, dauntless, defiant, determined, and disciplined. And that’s just using one letter of the alphabet.” She stared deep into my eyes as if digging for something. “Who told you this?”
I shrugged. “The topic came up tonight with Ryuu, Xuanwu, and Qinglong. I thought Ryuu would downplay it, but he was very determined to convince me,” I said, enunciating one of the words she had used to describe him.
She narrowed her eyes, looking more annoyed than angry. “That’s why he set this up. So I could clean up his mess,” she said sternly, in the tone of someone who had known him a very long time. Which made her…equally as inhuman. Because Ryuu was definitely something more, judging by his fighting skills. She took a calming breath before focusing back on me. “I’m afraid we’ve only healed the easy part. Next, we get to fix your chakras. They are a hot mess, if I’m being blunt.”
I smiled crookedly. “My chakras?” I asked, reeling at the rapid shift in topic—let alone the fiery independent dragon of a spirit that had been slumbering inside this petite little woman before she’d stepped into this pond. What the hell was in this water, and could I bottle it?
“Bodies are easy to heal. The roots of pain and injuries lie deeper in the soul, and those roots often force the lines from the chakras to take strange, inefficient detours.”
“Oh. Well, if you insist,” I said.
She nodded. “I do. Follow me,” she said, and then she turned and began swimming back to the shore without disturbing the surface of the water.
I let out a resigned sigh, speaking to myself since she was halfway back to shore already. “Okay.”
19
We sat beneath the cherry blossom tree on a bed of fresh petals, facing each other. The woman regarded me, but she seemed to be staring into me rather than at me. It was unsettling. We had not gotten dressed, because she’d absently swatted my hand the moment I’d tried to grab my underwear. And the effortless motion had struck me as hard as a wet, metal ruler.
“Why are we still naked?” I asked, folding my arms.
“So I can see your chakras clearly,” she murmured distractedly, pursing her lips as if annoyed. “I am looking into your very essence. What it’s wrapped in does not matter to me. Not in the slightest.”
“What a relief,” I grumbled. True to her words, she did have a vacant look on her face; her eyes darting around, looking over my shoulder or at specific points of my body like they were tracking a ping-pong championship.
“I see why he asked for me,” she finally murmured, scrunching her nose up.
“What does that mean?” I asked, scowling. “He wanted you to heal my physical wounds.”
Her eyes came back into focus and she blinked a few times. “Your entire soul is a tangle. It’s all knotted up, as if trying to protect something.”
I hesitated, eyeing her warily. “Like…a spear?” I asked.
She gave me a vaguely condescending look. “Is that what you think it is?” She resumed her study for a few moments, as if testing my theory. “It is not a weapon,” she finally concluded, sounding intrigued.
I kept my face calm upon hearing her parrot Ryuu’s claim. Knowing how concerned Ryuu was about my safety, I began to suspect that this had been his plan all along. He’d had the healer on standby long before we’d drawn swords. And getting a second opinion about my Spear also served to possibly benefit Xuanwu by giving us guidance on how to use it to save them. I couldn’t fault him for that. I would have done the same in his shoes.
“Anything else buried inside I need to worry about?” she asked, dryly. “An axe, maybe?”
I frowned, giving her question serious merit despite her tone. “Well, not anymore.”
She cocked her head and
furrowed her eyebrows. “I was joking…” she said, and I watched as her puzzled look shifted to surprise. “But you were not. You really had an axe hidden in here? No wonder it’s such a mess. You do know there are other places to hide things, right?” she asked, exasperated.
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, doc. I’ll keep that in mind. And it was a sword, by the way.”
She studied me for a few seconds, shaking her head. “You are zero for two. It was a Name, not a sword. And a big Name,” she added, her curiosity obviously piqued again.
I gritted my teeth at her utter lack of bedside manner. She’d been fun before putting her chakra-scope on, and it was unsettling to hear about scar tissue in my soul. “It was Excalibur.”
She threw her hands up and let out a flustered breath. “You had them both inside you at the same time? Don’t tell me you’ve had Ryuu’s dark blade in there, too.”
My cheeks caught fire at her phrasing. “You know,” I growled in a warning tone, “I’m beginning to feel slightly awkward, sitting here in the nude with a stranger, getting judged for what I put inside my body, and at what times. I’m being soul-shamed.”
She blinked, and then she suddenly looked just as embarrassed as I felt. “Oh, my. That did sound rather inappropriate, didn’t it?”
“Exceedingly,” I said.
“I’m sorry. When my mind is at work, I have a hard time focusing on social courtesies.”
I waved a hand. “The phrasing threw me off, is all.” But she had inadvertently brought up a good point. “What is the deal with Ryuu’s black katana? You called it the dark blade like it meant something.”
She nodded soberly. “Some call it Angel Killer.” The hair on my arms pricked right the hell up. But she wasn’t finished creeping me out. “And God saw the light, and it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness,” she said, quoting the Book of Genesis—which made absolutely no sense. Ryuu wasn’t Christian. “The Angel Killer was made from particles of that dark void, predating angels and demons. And that terrifies them,” she explained in a sober tone. She let out a wary breath. “Ryuu does not call it that. He prefers to believe it was made from the ashes of a dead universe. That the sword was forged from the scraps no one wanted. The scraps the original gods feared to use.”
Anghellic: Feathers and Fire Book 8 Page 11