“Our heroes have been chosen,” said Nian Zhen. “Tomorrow, the Princess SJ and the Princess Mauvrey will face Xēshēng.”
“Wait, hold on,” Daniel protested, looking angry and rightfully confused. “Kai is my girlfriend. She’s my responsibility. I need to go on this mission to save her.”
“No woman is any man’s responsibility,” Nian Zhen said. “I understand your grief, but you will not be making this journey. Only the princesses have received the spiritual blessing, which means only they can wield the ancestral blade against Xēshēng.”
“I can’t let SJ and Mauvrey fight that monster without me.”
“You can’t? Or won’t?”
“What?”
“Daniel,” Nian Zhen said patiently, sauntering over to him. “You have not been able to leave Xanadu because you have not passed your test of ‘Respect.’ I wonder now if you even could. Do you not trust the strength of your friends because they are girls? Because they are princesses?”
He glanced at me, as surprised as I’d ever seen him.
“That’s not . . .” He turned back to Nian Zhen. “Of course I trust them. But I have more experience fighting monsters.”
“The three of you have the same level of experience fighting this monster,” Nian Zhen said. “Therefore, you are equals on the matter. However, SJ and Mauvrey have been recognized by the Bixie and Tianlu for having the special bravery and power necessary for this quest. You have not been blessed. That makes them more adept for this journey than you. Which means the only reason you would object to their going alone is that you do not respect their strength and heroism the way you respect your own.”
The warrior women watched the confrontation silently, as did Mauvrey and I. Daniel seemed unable to form a response. He did not refute Nian Zhen’s claim; he did not even so much as rebuke it. He just stood there. In that silence, I had an emotional reaction that I honestly did not expect. Perhaps it was the stress. Perhaps it was so many different things happening at once. Perhaps it was the swirl of loss, confusion, and fear I felt. Whatever the exact trigger, all these ingredients inside me boiled over like a bad brew. My heart thudded loudly, and I felt my chest well up, and my eyes do the same.
“Excuse me,” I said, hastening up the bank and toward the school.
“SJ!” Daniel called after me. But I did not turn back. I continued to hurry away until my feet were pounding the earth as I broke into a run. I ran and ran until I tripped on a root and stumbled. I took a hard fall, and for a moment let myself lie there, panting. When I looked up, I saw a set of golden beacons and knew exactly where I was.
The statues of Mulan and Princess Xianniang shone in the moonlight with as much power as they did in the sun. Steadily I got up and walked toward them, gazing up at their faces. I stared for a long while. Then I felt compelled to ask them the questions circling my brain. I whispered those vulnerable queries into the darkness.
“How did you do it? How did you find the strength to stand tall and earn their respect?”
“They respected themselves first.”
I turned at Yunru’s voice. She had caught up with me and stood at the edge of the garden.
“SJ!” Daniel came cantering into the scene a moment later. He skidded to a halt when he saw me. I gave him a hard glare.
“Both of you should come with me,” Yunru declared.
“You will forgive me if I am not in the mood for another history lesson,” I said to Yunru. “I need some time alone.”
“I don’t believe that,” Yunru said. “And I don’t have a history lesson for you. I have a now lesson for you—about what I have seen in the world and why you and your friends are the answer. You want respect?” She pivoted toward Daniel. “You want to be respectable? Come with me. Both of you.”
She marched into the building. Daniel and I exchanged a glance before inevitably conceding and following her inside. Yunru led us to a darkened room. As she lit an array of candles, shelves of books and scrolls became visible, falling to shadow as they extended beyond the reach of the light.
“Welcome to our school’s library and archives.” Yunru gestured for us to sit at a table. She grabbed a lantern and disappeared up a dark row of shelves, returning a minute later with several books in one arm, which she set down in front of us.
“Nian Zhen and the others charge me with going to other worlds to learn of important happenings—government, geography, leaders and rulers, big updates in culture and humankind. But before I came here, my passion was cinematic production, as you already know. So I also like to keep up-to-date with the latest film and television stories from my home world. It is my guilty pleasure when I return to Earth.”
Yunru spread the books out before us. One was titled Film History, another Television: 1952 to Present Day, and the third book was Superheroes in Popular Culture.
“There is a term I have learned in my studies of Earth culture. In the West, they call it the ‘Smurfette Principle,’ which—from what I can understand—is a name inspired by a popular children’s story about little blue elves, where there is only one female among an isle of males.”
Daniel blinked. “What do blue elves have to do with us?”
“It is not about the elves,” Yunru replied. “That is just a name. The principle is a theory that highlights how traditionally story ensembles are made up of male main characters with just one female included. She is an accent to the cast, the obligatory girl that storytellers insert to try and balance things out. She may be exceptionally strong or smart—she has to be a lot of the time in order to keep up with what the male heroes bring to the table—but she stands alone. The result is a male-dominated narrative where women exist only in relation to men, not to each other.”
Yunru opened the books and curtly flipped through the pages for dramatic effect.
“The majority of stories mentioned in these books fit that theory. I actually believe that is the reason so many versions of Mulan are not well-known—why Xianniang in particular is not recognized in modern interpretations of Mulan as the heroic, powerful, and honorable princess and general she was. Society has trained itself to think of men as the norm and women as the variation. Given that, there cannot be two equal female protagonists in a story. And if there are two powerful females, one usually takes on the role of the villain for a portion of the story. Goodness forbid we have two honorable women standing side by side in a cast of heroes—never fighting against each other, not competing with each other, just two heroines of equal strength leading the charge. Then I look at you.”
Yunru gestured to us. “You came here—three girls and one boy on a heroic quest—and I thought to myself, they don’t even realize what they represent. The four of you treat each other like equals. You share responsibility and accountability and support each other’s unique skills. In your group, Daniel is the variation, the outlier. And none of you notice or care because gender comes second to being a person and doing what is right. We respect that. We respect you. So I am not going to stand by and watch heroes who break the mold push each other away because they cannot have an honest conversation about their fears.”
Yunru straightened up and gave us a stern look, much like a schoolteacher disciplining students. “Talk to each other. Find common ground. And put these books back when you’re done. Their placement number is on the binding. I will see you in the morning.”
I turned in my chair to follow Yunru with my eyes as she left. “But Mauvrey—”
“I will have our healer tend to her,” our hostess said without looking back. “Good night.”
“Yunru,” I called after her. But she did not answer or return. Daniel and I sat in silence, staring at the books as the candlelight flickered. Eventually he looked up.
“I’m sorry . . .” he said. “About before. Nian Zhen caught me off guard with the whole telling me I can’t rescue my own girlfriend thing. I’ve been on thin ice with Kai lately, and I couldn’t even process the idea of not going after her.”
>
I held his eye contact. “I understand that,” I said carefully. “What hurt me was that you did not answer Nian Zhen’s question about respect.” I paused and drummed my fingers against the table for a moment. “Do you respect me, Daniel?”
Confusion and shock crossed his face. “SJ, how can you ask me that? I trust you, I value your friendship, I admire your intelligence. You are one of the best people I know.”
“I am not talking about respecting me as a person, or a friend. Do you respect me as a hero?”
Daniel blinked. Then he nodded. “I do.”
“Enough to have faith that I could take the lead and save the day—save Kai—as well as you could?”
Daniel grimaced a bit, though he tried to conceal it. I leaned forward with a sigh.
“That is what this comes down to, Daniel. Of course I am scared to fight some demon monster with Mauvrey. I do not lead fights against monsters. But for Kai’s sake and yours I am willing to put aside my fear and second-guessing to try. Other people I have spoken to recently seem to think I am more capable of branching out than I give myself credit for. However, whether that is true or not, I am going out on a limb here, and I would go out on it with a lot more confidence if I knew you believed in me too.”
Daniel leaned back in his chair. “I do believe in you, SJ. But you’re asking me to wait on the sidelines when someone I care about is in trouble. That’s difficult.”
“I am asking you to stand down while someone who cares about you rises to the challenge and risks everything for you.” I took a deep breath and steadied, fully accepting what I was about to say. “I have faith in myself. That I can adapt to and lead this challenge; I will conquer Xēshēng just like you, Crisa, Blue, or Jason would.”
I extended my arm to him and opened my hand. After a pause, he took it and nodded. “I know you can adapt and lead, SJ. But don’t do it like us. Be you. If I’m going to step back, I don’t want it to be for some version of SJ Kaplan that tries to copy other people’s styles. I’ll only settle for you—the original, brilliant princess I’m genuinely glad to call my friend. Okay?”
My heart pumped a little harder thanks to a mixture of courage, conviction, and affection. “Okay.” I gave him a small smile and nod, then I stood up. “You can put away the books then. Because your friend needs to get some rest if she is going to fight a monster tomorrow.”
All was strangely calm the next morning as Daniel, Yunru, Nian Zhen, the rest of the warriors, and I sat at the long dining table and ate a bowl of rice with scrambled eggs and pickled cucumbers. Mauvrey was not with us; Wang Shu had been monitoring her all night. By now, the Magic Mite removal cure had been in her system for almost twelve hours. We were not to crowd our friend in the meantime, and the healer said she would summon us when the process was complete. It was pure bad luck that our friend’s most recent suicidal possession happened just before she was free of this magic insect.
I had tried calling Mark on my compact to see if he too had been afflicted by a possession last night, but he did not answer. When I asked Yunru about this, she explained that because of Xanadu’s high spiritual energy, magic technology did not usually work here.
Fantastic.
I would have to get in contact with Mark later. For now, I had Mauvrey to worry about, and she and I had Kai’s deadline ticking away. Xēshēng would feed on Kai’s energy at twilight, so the sooner Mauvrey and I departed to save her the better.
The doors to the dining room opened then, admitting a short warrior who marched to the head of the table, bowing to Nian Zhen. “Apologies, but Wang Shu has sent for the visiting heroes. There is an update with the Princess Mauvrey.”
“May I escort them?” asked Yunru respectfully.
Nian Zhen nodded and we excused ourselves.
I was relieved to see Mauvrey up and about in the apothecary. “Are you doing all right?” I asked her.
“Thanks to you,” she replied gratefully. “And Wang Shu.”
“Behold, the Magic Mite,” Wang Shu said. She held up a jar. Daniel, Yunru, and I peered inside. A termite-like bug lay motionless at the bottom of the glass.
“It was secreted out of the princess’s hand this morning. It is dead now. But we can still study it.”
“Wang Shu has prepared another special brew,” Mauvrey explained, pointing at a boiling cauldron. “When she drops the insect in, we should learn more about the enchanter who created the spell stored in my Magic Mite—perhaps detect some form of magical fingerprint he or she left behind. We were just waiting for you to get here.”
Wang Shu carried the cauldron to the main table. She twisted the lid off the jar and dropped the Magic Mite into the vat. The brew sizzled dramatically and steam began to rise and curl until it transformed into the glowing white energy that engulfed Mauvrey when she was possessed. As the energy collected above the cauldron, a single word suddenly whispered out of the cloud: “Dasvidaniya.”
“That is the word I have been hearing in my dreams,” Mauvrey said in awe.
“I have heard that word during my travels on Earth,” Yunru said. “Dasvidaniya means goodbye in a part of Earth called Russia.”
A haunting humming seeped out of the cloud, no doubt the same tune Mauvrey and Mark heard during their episodes. The ghostly white energy took the shape of a woman’s face. She had a long braid and sharp chin. The image started to grow. Before we knew it, the face was the size of a chandelier.
“Wang Shu?” I asked.
The healer held up a finger to silence me then rapidly grabbed a glass jar filled with red liquid, which she threw into the cauldron. The ghostly image screamed and dispersed in a gust. Only a small amount of liquid remained at the bottom of the cauldron, along with bits of leaves and splotchy potions gunk. As the remaining liquid dissolved into steam, the gunk at the bottom of the cauldron inched together to form letters.
My friends and I rushed in as the last droplet of liquid dissolved. The gunk at the bottom of the cauldron spelled out the word Rasputin.
“That is the name of the enchanter who created this Magic Mite,” Wang Shu said.
“The name is familiar. I have also encountered it during my studies of Earth,” Yunru thought aloud. “But you must forgive me. Russian history is not my strong suit.”
“You can’t know everything about everything, Yunru,” Daniel said. “We have a name, and that’s a start. The more important win is that this bug is out of Mauvrey. She can’t be possessed again, right?”
“That is correct,” Wang Shu nodded.
“I am so lucky I met you,” Mauvrey said, wrapping her arms around the healer. “Thank you.”
The woman looked surprised and slightly uncomfortable. She patted Mauvrey on her blonde head and wriggled out of the hold. “I am sure you were due for some good fortune, my dear. Especially considering someone in your life gave you this affliction.”
“I am sorry?” I said.
“Magic Mites are transferred from person to person through skin contact. That means that someone would have had to touch the princess long enough to implant this diseased insect.”
“Is there a way to find out who did it, or how specifically?” I asked.
Wang Shu gestured for Mauvrey’s right hand. The princess extended it and Wang Shu drew our attention to the same freckle by the knuckles that she had shown me last night.
“That is the Magic Mite bite. This is where the creature entered the princess, and where it was excreted this morning,” Wang Shu explained. “Two signs will mark the one who gave her the mite. First, the carrier will have a bite in the same place. Second, your culprit will bleed black blood thanks to a special potion one must take to be immune to the Magic Mite prior to infecting a target. Even after the Magic Mite has left the carrier’s body, the blood of the carrier stays dark for months.”
“Maybe someone infected Mauvrey and Mark during all that time they were asleep,” Daniel suggested. “The antagonists could’ve planted the Magic Mites as contingencies.”
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I shook my head. “We always had someone watching Mauvrey when she was asleep. And the possession did not start until weeks after she and Mark were freed from their curses. If this was a contingency, why not try to take them out sooner? Logic suggests that someone gave them these Magic Mites a while after they woke up.”
“To echo you, any thoughts on who and how?” Daniel asked.
I shook my head. “At least when we get back to Book I can replicate Wang Shu’s brew to take the Magic Mite out of Mark. To echo you, that is a start.”
“A new start,” Mauvrey said.
We turned to her as she exhaled deeply. “Two in one summer,” she said. “I am on a roll. Forget Xēshēng. I feel so good right now I could fight an army of monsters.”
“Let us start with one,” I said warily. “But I admire your enthusiasm.”
It was just before noon and Mauvrey and I stood outside two grandiose doors. The pair of us had been decked out with battle gear courtesy of the Mount Aborra armory—chest armor with big shoulder pads and skirt armor that draped over our pants to mid-thigh. Leather fighting gloves covered my hands, while Mauvrey sported her fingerless glove weapons. Both of us also donned traditional helmets modeled after the helmet Xianniang wore in her statue—a wing branching out from each side by the ear, a rounded main shell, and a pointed top like a fin.
Wearing armor like this was an entirely new experience. It was not as heavy as I would have expected, and I was grateful the warrior women did not go over the top like the knights of Camelot did. This seemed like agility-friendly armor, and truthfully, I rather liked the reinforcement. Point one for trying new things.
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