by Kylie Chan
The buildings had been thrown together in a hurry, and the low concrete ceilings bore the rough markings of the plywood formwork used to create them, without any smoothing or attempt to cover it. No lights or floor coverings were provided; each resident was renting a bare concrete box with cold running water and a single electrical point.
Many Hong Kong residents chose to remain in these flats long after they could afford to move to something better because the rent on them was ridiculously cheap — three thousand Hong Kong dollars a month instead of twenty to twenty-five in a private apartment that could be similarly tiny. It amused me to see high-end Mercedes, owned by the residents, parked in the car parks of these estates.
Kwun Lung Lau had been built on the side of a steep hill above Western. In its heyday its five connected blocks had held more than a hundred flats to each of its twenty-two storeys, putting nearly two thousand five hundred households in an area covering less than two hectares. The retaining walls around the building weren’t thick enough, however, and during one of Hong Kong’s enormous rainstorms the retaining wall on the playgrounds at the base of the estate had failed. A huge wash of mud and concrete had swept across the walkway next to the playground and five people had been killed. The estate had been tagged for demolition shortly after, and the thousands of residents had been resettled, but the demolition was proceeding slowly even though the huge estate was empty and fenced with construction fencing.
I parked the Mercedes behind the Phoenix’s red Lotus just down the hill from the estate. Simone and I walked up to the entrance; the area was eerily quiet and devoid of people.
‘I wonder if the Phoenix made everybody go away,’ Simone said. ‘They should be still working on it, shouldn’t they?’
The Phoenix walked out of the ground-floor corridor and up to the gate, accompanied by a girl of about sixteen. ‘They had an extremely convenient gas leak and fire at lunchtime,’ she told us. ‘It was a huge mess and in the end they just sent all the workers home for the day.’
The Phoenix appeared as a slim, long-haired Chinese woman of about thirty, wearing a scarlet polo shirt and a pair of tan pants. Her daughter was half-black and half-Chinese; her long hair was braided into cornrows and her dusky face was fine-boned and intelligent. She saluted me and then Simone, bowing slightly. ‘Lady Emma. Princess Simone. I am honoured.’
Simone and I nodded back.
‘This is Evangeline, she’s a couple of years older than Simone,’ the Phoenix said. ‘She’s showing a great deal of talent, so we’re going to try summoning. Come on up to the roof and let’s see if we can’t damage it any further.’ She concentrated and the gate swung open with a squeak. ‘Let’s go up.’
We walked along the road through the estate, down a small flight of stairs, and into the central foyer. The lifts only stopped at every fourth floor and residents had to walk up or down stairs to reach the other floors.
The Phoenix pressed the filthy button to call the lifts so we could travel up to the roof using the sixteenth to twentieth floor lifts.
‘Call me Eva,’ the Phoenix’s daughter said as we waited for the lift. She grinned at Simone. ‘This should be fun. If I can bring out fire and you can bring out water, we should be able to throw them at each other and see who wins.’
‘I’m not into competition,’ Simone said stiffly.
Eva shrugged. ‘Whatever. Anyway, Mom says for a human I’m pretty good. I hear you’re human too? You can’t take any animal form? I used to feel left out when I couldn’t take bird form.’
‘I’m human all the way through,’ Simone said, her demeanour still icy.
Tell Simone to cut it out. Eva’s trying to make friends, I said to the stone.
Simone glared at me.
The lift doors opened and we went in. Eva and Simone promptly put their hands over their noses; the smell of urine was overpowering and the metal walls were rusting away, revealing the plywood beneath.
‘They put cameras in the lifts with monitors in the foyer to try to discourage people from peeing in them,’ the Phoenix said, ‘but late at night it made no difference — there was nobody in the foyer to see the monitor. And many people had dogs, even though they weren’t allowed, and never controlled them.’
‘That is so gross,’ Simone and Eva said together. Eva broke out into giggles behind her hand, and Simone grinned behind hers. The Phoenix shot a fleeting smile at me.
We exited the lift on the twentieth floor and walked up two flights of worn and cracked concrete steps to get to the roof.
The roof had a high chain-wire fence around it, and a floor of plain concrete tiles. A tired, half-fallen basketball net stood at one end against the large tanks that provided the water for the residents of the estate.
The building was quite high up on Hong Kong Island and gave an impressive view over the harbour to the misty hills of Kowloon beyond. The hillside behind the estate was still largely untouched, its steep slope covered with jungle growth and dotted with occasional old graves — concreted platforms with a concrete back indicating the number of generations in the grave. Each was about three metres wide, shaped like the back of a sofa, with a large red circle in the centre.
The Phoenix took us to the middle of the stained rooftop. ‘We’ll have Eva summoning first, and you can watch, Simone. If Eva has it, then you’ll be able to see how she does it and then you’ll probably be able to do it too.’ She studied Simone. ‘If I were to engulf you completely in flames, would you be hurt?’
I opened my mouth to protest but Simone answered first. ‘Nope,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Wouldn’t bother me.’
‘Sure? It would be hotter than standard fire. There’d also be nothing to breathe, it’d take all the oxygen out of the air.’
‘I don’t know,’ Simone said, unsure now.
‘Kids at CH get tested for this sort of thing, Simone, but since we don’t know I’ll test you myself. Come a little closer.’
Simone appeared reluctant but she moved closer to the Phoenix.
‘I’ll ramp it up slowly; let me know if you get into trouble,’ the Phoenix said, and raised one hand towards Simone.
Simone was encased in a cage of fire, the flames dancing around her. She was unharmed, so the Phoenix moved the fire closer to her. Simone nodded, and the Phoenix made the flames appear to be incinerating her. Simone stood quietly, a shape of fire.
‘I’m going to take it to full,’ the Phoenix said.
The flames went from red to blue then to white. The sound of the fire changed from a crackle to the dull roar of a blowtorch. I moved back; the heat coming from the flames was almost painful. The fire snapped off and Simone stood there quietly, completely unharmed.
‘Wow,’ Eva said softly.
‘Yes,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Not many can take that much direct fire. That was more than just flames, it was pure Fire Essence. Nicely done, Simone.’
Simone let out a small sigh. ‘Can we start the summoning now?’
‘Of course. Ladies, if you will. Eva, hold my hand and observe what I do. Simone, you can watch from the outside, but if you need to, just touch one of us to see what we’re doing.’
The Phoenix took Eva’s hand with her left. She raised her right hand and a fire grew from the ground, a metre high and about two metres from them. ‘A seed of fire. Eva, repeat.’
The fire blinked out, then Eva did the same thing, making a small fire in front of them, then making it disappear.
‘Emma, move back now,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Watch carefully, Simone.’
She lowered her head and made a similar small fire appear in front of them. Then she made a low keening noise, similar to the noise made by a night bird, and the fire abruptly changed. It grew and twisted, becoming white, and took the form of a bird of flames.
Mother, sister, the elemental said into our heads. I am needed? How may I serve?
‘Just a summoning lesson for Eva here,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Would you like to help?’
The
bird spread its wings of flame and lowered its head. More than happy to. It turned its fiery head towards Simone. Hello, Princess. I have not tested my strength against any of my watery brethren in a while. Please free them, and allow us to play once again.
‘Free them?’ Simone said.
It is like a prison not to be called to serve, the bird said. They wish only to be with you, their sister, and serve you any way they can. We exist to serve.
‘When you’re not out causing trouble by yourselves,’ the Phoenix said with amusement.
Not our fault if you don’t give us enough to do, the elemental shot back, and both Eva and Simone giggled.
The Phoenix waved her hand at the elemental and it disappeared.
‘I will give you a starter,’ she said to Eva. She took Eva’s hand and engulfed both of them in blindingly hot fire. They became two shapes within the flames. ‘Now you’ve met that elemental, ask him to come.’
‘Any particular way of asking?’ Eva said.
‘Not really. If you are aligned enough with the Pure Flame, the elementals will run to you the minute you desire their presence. Once you have the skill, we will need to spend some time teaching you not to summon them, as they’ll be coming to visit you every time you think about them, wanting something to do. Keeping them occupied is a chore sometimes; they never have enough to do and if they’re bored they get into trouble.’
‘Oh,’ Simone said softly.
The bird-shaped fire elemental appeared in front of us, raised its fiery wings and trumpeted. ‘Evangeline, Forty-third Child of the Phoenix, is given the Pact.’
The fire around the Phoenix and Eva blinked out and they stood watching the elemental.
‘Dismiss it,’ the Phoenix said.
Eva concentrated on the elemental. The bird lowered and turned its head to gaze with one eye at Eva, but didn’t disappear.
‘Please,’ Eva said with emphasis, and bowed slightly to the elemental.
It disappeared.
‘Well done. Bring it again.’
The elemental reappeared.
‘You have the skill, Eva,’ the Phoenix said. ‘I think we can do more at home, practise dismissing and bringing more than one, have a couple of battles. Just remember the rule about battles at CH — no summoning elementals at school to fight.’
‘Sounds like Pokemon,’ I said.
‘Exactly the same,’ the Phoenix said. ‘The Tiger’s kids are always trying to see if they can beat one of mine. If they can it’s terrific kudos. Metal is weak against fire so it takes some skill to beat one of ours.’
‘I can take them,’ Eva said grimly. ‘Assholes,’ she added under her breath.
‘No you won’t, because if I hear about you summoning at school you’ll be in serious trouble,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Now it’s your turn, Simone. Eva, to one side. This will be water and we’re weak to that, so there is a slight chance of injury. Simone, over here with me.’
Simone moved to stand next to the Phoenix.
‘First, encase yourself in water,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Fill yourself with it; attune yourself to it.’
A glistening, moving sphere of water appeared around Simone, about three metres in diameter, its sides gently moving in and out in time with her breathing.
The Phoenix moved slightly away to give the water room. ‘Good. Now, do what we did: place a seed of water in front of you.’
Another sphere of water, about a metre across, appeared in front of them.
‘Feel for the spirits of those who seek you, and guide them into the seed.’
It all happened at once. The sphere of water around Simone froze with a loud crack that resounded through the hillside, then went black. The smaller sphere of water also froze, then shattered and fell into a pile of ice.
Eva, DOWN! the Phoenix shouted into my head. Emma, Eva, JUMP! Get out of here!
I ran, grabbed Eva around the waist and leapt over the chain-wire fence around the rooftop. As I took us off the edge, an explosion of blackness erupted behind me, nearly sucking me back. I was struck by a blow of heat from behind, almost losing my grip on Eva, then we were falling.
I used my energy centres to slow our fall, and felt Eva doing the same thing. We drifted gently to the ground, touched down, then quickly turned and looked back up to the roof. It was engulfed in a blinding, pulsing light, the heat from it easily felt from the ground.
Eva’s eyes went red and she gasped. ‘Simone summoned yin! Mom’s making yang and feeding it.’
‘Is she all right? She’s not hurt?’
We’re fine, the Phoenix said. I’m helping Simone take control of it. Give us a couple of minutes. You should be all right to head back up now; by the time you get here we’ll be done.
When we got out of the lift on the twentieth floor I stopped. A hole had been blown in the ceiling, going through the two storeys of flats above, as well as to the level below us. Twisted reinforcing steel rods bent around the edges of the hole; their ends looked as if they’d liquefied and then solidified again.
‘Check that it’s safe for us to go up, Eva,’ I said.
Come on up, Emma, Simone said.
We walked up the two flights of stairs, now littered with gravel and concrete, to the roof. Simone and the Phoenix stood near the basketball hoop at the end of the rooftop with a pair of water elementals next to them. The hole in the roof was about ten metres across; nearly the width of the roof itself. The walls and floors of lower storeys were visible beneath.
‘Wow,’ Eva said softly.
Simone appeared stunned, her face pale, and I moved closer. ‘Are you all right, Simone?’
The Phoenix smiled wryly. ‘Completely my mistake, Emma. I told Simone to feel for the spirits of those that seek her, and she did. She pulled the essence of the one who seeks her the most.’
Simone lowered her head. ‘Daddy.’ She turned away to hide the tears.
‘Yin itself,’ the Phoenix said. She shrugged. ‘Elementals heard the call as well. You did it, Simone.’
Simone sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve. I went to my bag, found some tissues and handed them to her. She accepted them with a nod.
‘That was yin?’ Eva said, breathless.
‘The real thing,’ the Phoenix said with amusement. ‘I think we need to bring Qing Long, the Lesser Yin, in to do some yin training.’
‘He can’t help me,’ Simone said into the tissue. ‘He says I’m much more yin than he is and the only one who can do it is Daddy.’
‘Lazy bastard,’ the Phoenix said under her breath. She raised her voice so Simone could hear. ‘Let me talk to him.’
Simone nodded into the tissue.
Eva went to Simone and put her arm around her shoulders. ‘That must have been awful. Yin is really scary.’
‘This was nothing. This was the yin under control with your mom helping me.’
‘Well, you have your elementals now, Simone,’ the Phoenix said briskly. ‘Let’s do some practice.’
Simone sniffed into the tissue, nodded and straightened. Eva released her with a final friendly pat.
‘What about the roof?’ I said.
The Phoenix shrugged again. ‘Not much we can do about it, I’m afraid. I’ll need to find a new training area here in Hong Kong.’
‘What is the construction company going to say?’
‘They’ll probably scratch their heads and then blame the gas leak,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Highly unlikely that someone would drop a bomb on an unused building, but they will be wondering about it for a while.’
We can fix it, one of the water elementals said. We can put it back together so that it appears nothing has happened. The concrete won’t have the reinforcing metal, but that shouldn’t be a problem as it’s being demolished soon anyway.
‘You can do that?’ Simone said.
Both elementals, appearing as human-shaped globs of water, bowed to Simone. It would be our pleasure to serve.
Simone waited for them to move, but
they just stood there before us.
‘You must order them to do it, Simone,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Tell them exactly what you wish them to do.’
‘Please fix the roof up so it looks like nothing happened,’ Simone said.
Sister, the elementals said, and disappeared.
The bent reinforcing rods sticking out from the edges of the hole straightened and the concrete grew like an organic creature from the edges of the hole. Below us, the walls inside the hall were visibly growing back. It was like watching a slow-motion recording of a flower opening, strangely natural. The concrete slid together on the roof and the tiles reappeared on it.
‘Is it strong enough for us to walk on?’ the Phoenix said.
The water elementals reappeared near us and bowed to Simone. Sister.
‘You’ll have to ask them for me, Simone,’ the Phoenix said. ‘They won’t talk to any other now that you have summoned them.’
‘Can we walk on it?’ Simone said.
It is strong enough to walk on, one of the elementals said. Princess, we have a request now that we have performed this task for you.
The Phoenix made a soft sound of amusement. ‘Pushy. You need to discipline these little fellows, Simone.’
Neither of the elementals had any facial features but both appeared to be staring, disgusted, at the Phoenix.
‘How do I discipline something made of water?’ Simone asked.
‘Easy,’ the Phoenix said. ‘When they make their request, it’ll be obvious.’
‘What do you want?’ Simone asked the elementals.
A battle, Princess, the elemental said. We have not fought worthy opponents in a very long time. The Princess Evangeline has just gained the Pact, as have you. Why not test your skill at summoning against hers?
‘How can we match skills?’ Simone said, intrigued. ‘We call you, you do as we say. How much skill can there be in that?’
Without moving, both elementals radiated amusement. If she defeats you, you will know. Particularly since fire is weak to water.