“Fuck you,” was all he heard from Jade, then the whine of a Lakkom. Several whines, actually.
The first invisible blast took the Historian in the left shoulder, spinning him around. The second took him in the stomach, and he sat hard on a pile of bricks, robes fluttering. It crossed Ahn’s mind that the specter’s robes seemed too bright, too clean somehow.
“What, the …” Jade panted. The Historian should have been unconscious.
“Scared of History? You should be,” said the strange entity. “You will be …”
Ahn raced forward, feeling the world bend around him as the meditations he’d learned years ago roared through his mind. Words and chants focused, and the world slowed down and he was motion and nothing else. His dagger seemed to writhe in his hands.
The Historian was ready for him. A single sinewy hand shot out and seized his throat. An economical motion sent the Runner into a painful encounter with a wall.
“Typical,” The Historian snorted. “Now …”
The Lakkom blade hovered inches from his face. Jade was smiling, but there was no humor in her expression. Her leaf-green eyes gleamed like polished hate.
“Going to do something?” The Historian asked. “Looking for Ziggurat Jack? Oh, my dear lady you found so much more.”
“Really?” Jade sneered.
“Yes, and now what shall you do? Banish me? If you could have you would have, and I know those things have limited energy. So, no exorcism today?”
“Actually, that’s my job.” The words seemed to come out of the sky.
The Historian turned to find an tall, thin man behind him, oriental, a white-streak in his black hair. He didn’t seem menacing at all.
Then you looked in his eyes.
Jade started at HuanJen’s expression. There wasn’t so much HuanJen there, but HuanJen as a manifestation of something else. It was one of those few, very few moments, she could almost be scared of him.
“You people are like rats in the walls,” the Historian smirked. ” Hello I’m what you’ve been looking for. Surprise.”
“End.” The Magician-Priest’s voice was thunder.
The world twisted around HuanJen, as if his weight pulled at reality. Jade had seen it before - his exorcism, where somehow within himself the world leveled out.
“Physical …”
Jade looked over at Rake’s crumpled form. The minister was trying to move, one thick arm gesturing wildly.
… the world slowed. Lighting-thoughts blazed into her mind as she realized what was going on …
“Huan …” Jade began.
Physical. The spirit had a body. It wasn’t something that HuanJen could exorcise. She realized she could smell The Historain’s sweat. His reaction to the Lakkom hadn’t been a humans, but it had been one of a physical creature.
The Historian’s fist cracked across HuanJen’s jaw. Apparently as startled as he was hurt, HuanJen fell backwards onto the pavement. Jade felt her heart go cold.
“Sonova …”
The Lakkom whined like an animal in pain, a barely-perceptible bolt of force tearing out of it and into the specter. The Historian, already moving, barely dodged the attack, pausing only to leap over Ahn. Jade managed to get two more blasts out of the Lakkom before the glowing green sphere on the end dimmed - a sure sign she’d used its power up.
“Shit!”
HuanJen felt like he’d been kicked in the head. Then he corrected himself - he had, instead, been punched in the head, which mainly differed on the limb used. He got to his feet uneasily.
…sounds of laughter, something vanishing into the night in a streak of nothingness …
Pursuit. He could give pursuit, but people were hurt and he didn’t know what that thing had been. He also was not particularly sure on up, down, left or right.
“Crap. Fucking bastard.” Jade. Angry Jade.
“Sorry, Jade.” Ahn, apologetic as always. The orange-robed man, the side of his face bloodied, looked at the Vulpine painfully.
“Ahn, can you pursue?” HuanJen asked. The Runner nodded after a moment’s thought.
“Pursue.” HuanJen pointed in the general direction his attacker had fled. The younger man did as he was asked, his body seeming to stiffen for a moment before he streaked off at unnatural speeds, dagger in hand.
“Jade?”
“I’m fine,” Jade stood, fuming. “He did something to me, but it … I’m fine. What?”
“I. You seem fine. Rake. Assist me.” HuanJen was walking over to the minister, who had propped himself against a wall, breathing heavily.
“Sure …” Jade managed. There were times you questioned HuanJen, this wans’t one of them.
HuanJen knelt by Rake, the concern obvious on his long face. He quickly checked the man’s pulse. Rake’s breathing was rapid, deep, his weathered skin flushed.
“Huan …”
“Hush,” The Magician-Priest’s voice was almost tender.
“I don’t see any marks …” Jade began helpfully.
“I don’t think he was hurt physically.”
“I don’t think he was. Huan … that guy made me … remember stuff. Bad shit. The Historian. I bet he did the same to him.” Jade said unevenly.
HuanJen touched Jade’s cheek for a moment, then turned his attention to Rake. With little ceremony, HuanJen reached into Rake’s mouth and pulled out a pair of dentures, which he dropped into Jade’s hand. Then, he began opening Rake’s shirt.
“What should I …” Jade started, somewhat sickened by the mass in her hands. There appeared to be some blood mixed in with the saliva.
“Clean. Check for damage. He used the Voice, I can tell. He may have damaged them.”
“He … I was so angry, ah, HuanJen. He made me remember her …” Rake gasped. His skin was flushed red.
“Wait,” HuanJen cautioned. “Let me check you … yes.”
Jade was still trying to figure out what her partner was up to. A strange scent played in hr nose.
“I smell something burnt.”
“Yes.” HuanJen managed to get Rake’s crucifix off of his neck. Jade could smell the hot metal.
“What the hell did he do?”
HuanJen set the crucifix on the pavement carefully. “He called upon the Voice. I imagine he was quite angry and that has unpleasant results. Focus on me, my friend.”
“Huan . . ,” tears were streaming down Rake’s face. “I was so angry. God, so angry, and I wanted to flatten him, but I, ah, I was so angry …”
“I know, I know. Jade, dentures?”
“Gross and drooly. I got them in a handkerchief. Er, they look ok. Go easy on him, all right?”
“Good.” HuanJen acknowledged. “He goes through them too quickly. Rake?”
“I can’t … focus …” Rake gasped. “So hot …”
HuanJen fumbled in one of the many pouches on his belt and withdrew a vial of red liquid. He quickly forced it down Rake’s throat. The minister shuddered, them seemed to relax. In moments his breathing was calmer and his flush was gone.
“Um, Huan?” Jade queried.
“Yes?” HuanJen’s eyes were focused on Rake.
“What the hell happened?”
“I have no idea.”
There was a swirl of wind behind her. Without looking up, Jade merely asked “No luck, Ahn?”
“None,” was the reply. Ahn sounded like a puppy awaiting a swat with a rolled-up newspaper. “What, er, what happened?”
“I think Ziggurat Jack is something else, now.” HuanJen said flatly.
The quintet of Ziggurat Jack-hunting mystics sat in Brownmiller’s den. The shaman’s son had gone to sleep, his wife was wisely elsewhere. There were times when people who discussed Things Man Was Not Meant to Know needed to have people Not Knowing.
“I am, ah sure.” Rake took a huge draught of hot chocolate from the mug thoughtfully provided by Brownmiller’s wife.
“A composite entity?” Ahn asked. “A man, ah, ehm, tulpic spirit, and
a Xaian deity? Are you sure?”
“I could tell,” Rake muttered, “I may not have the sight of some, but it was obvious. He made it obvious.”
“He was fucking powerful. He made me remember … bad shit from Colony.” Jade added.
“Ridden by Ziggurat Jack?” Brownmiller’s jovial demeanor had faded into something else. He toyed with the ritual hammer that hung on his belt. “It’s possible, merely stupid. Now if he drew power from Galcir …”
“What do we, hem, know?” Ahn asked. “The Historians hold the rituals to invoking Galcir. His worship is otherwise casual. He is essentially a Guild diety, and all that entails. The secrets that entails.”
Jade listened, making sense of the conversation as best she could. Galcir, the Historian, was a strange figure in the Xaian pantheon of gods; father to the Historians of the University. Their own spiritual exercises and secrets were outside of Guild Esoteric’s jurisdiction by Guild Treaty of decades past.
The Vulpine mystic sensed regret hovering in the air. She tried not to think about what she remembered.
Rake gestured in an agitated matter. “It doesn’t matter! It’s, ah, just he’s … it’s something else, ah new!”
“Someone new.”
The gathered clerics and lone apprentice turned to look at HuanJen. The Magician-Priest sat in the back of the office, writing in a notebook. He wasn’t looking at anyone, eyes focused instead on his scribbles.
“He adsorbed the locus of Ziggurat Jack. He is ridden by or shares something with the Historians’ god. What is the specialty of Galcir the Historian?”
“Information,” Brownmiller said suddenly. “That we know. He’s used for divining …”
“And getting to thoughts, I imagine,” Rake growled.
“Combine them all and we have someone new new.”
HuanJen’s voice was level, friendly, but his worse were things carved out of mystery, falling like a slow rain of iron nails.
“He haunts the world, the Ziggurat Jack locus providing him a connection to the Otherworld. The rituals of the Historians gave him a connection to Galcir. He is a new entity, a haunt not for fear of death, but a specter of fear of discovery, of secrets. All he said to Rake, that stereotypical prose …”
“A new boogeyman for the times,” Brownmiller added. “No one fears the stalker in the street. He fears politics and secrets and mystery and revelation.”
“Yes.”
“Is it me,” Jade asked, “or is fucking with us sort of his way of playing along with what he is?”
“We played at, ah, demon hunter.” Rake shook his head. “He is trying, ah, to pull us into his Pattern. These things, ah, they sometimes need, ah, us for form. He was marking his, ah, territory.”
“Not that he could resist anyway.” HuanJen finally looked up at his friends. “From what Rake said, if our friend is to be trusted, he hunts secrets. He’s got his role to play.”
“Wait,” Jade waved her hands about, “I know that people ridden by entities can only last so long. How the hell is he keeping this up since Ziggy made the scene?”
“Did you smell him?” HuanJen asked.
“Sweaty, yeah. And actually he looked pretty pale. Shit, that’s got to take a terrible toll on his body.”
“I’d estimate …” Brownmiller stroked his stubbly chin. “He’s probably active maybe one out of five days. It’s been weeks, he’s probably suffering actual physical harm unless he’s managed a transumtation, and that’s unlikely.”
I think waiting for him to die is a bad idea,” Ahn said, mustering his low reserve of sarcasm.
“We’re going to have to report this.” Brownmiller sounded dejected yet defiant. “We’re going to have to say something to the Guild.”
“Great, and now, ah, the true horror begins,” Rake managed.
Carlton, one of the doormen of the Crosspoint Apartment complex, saw a lot of strange things in his job. Most of them were tenants, so he kept a look out for the dangerous, instead of the unusual.
Tonight, there wasn’t much of either, unless you counted HuanJen and Jade coming in late. Then again, they kept strange hours. Many times he’d be standing in his cubicle by the doorway and see them enter at the oddest times.
“Evening Huan, Ms. Shalesdaughter,” He tipped his blue cap at them. He liked to dress a bit formally on the job, and the Crosspoint had a nice official looking blue uniform for its Doormen.
“Hey,” Jade managed to say. HuanJen said nothing.
He figured it must have been a more difficult night than usual, and kept his peace.
A quick trip up the elevator, and the Magician-Priest and his apprentice tumbled into their apartment. Jade threw herself on the couch without ceremony while HuanJen headed for the kitchen.
“Drink?” The mystic asked.
“Water,” Jade replied.
The Vulpine stared at the ceiling. White. Clean.
HuanJen moving about the kitchen. The occasional clink of a glass.
Almost peaceful …
“He made me remember, HuanJen.”
HuanJen looked over at Jade. Her voice was flat, emotionless.
“Jade?”
“He made me remember Colony, HuanJen, what I was like.” Jade sat up violently, galvanized from some force within her. “When I was a manipulative bitch.”
The cleric scurried over to his lover and knelt by her. Jade stared at the floor, not meeting his gaze.
“You were right,” Jade shook. “Gods damn it, you were right. I wanted to control everything, when I asked you to fix this place. I wanted control back, to make people do things … “
“He dug for what would hurt you, Jade. He is apparently a creature set on manipulation …”
“No.” Jade scowled. “He was me. I can tell. I can tell from what he said, what he did”
HuanJen said nothing, a pillar of silence in the night. Jade shook her head violently.
“You won’t deny it, and it’s true. Some stupid arrogant motherfucker with a half-ass grasp of the mystical and plans to save the damn world. With two bodies to prove it. Given a few more years or without you … I’d probably do something equally dumb. He said he’s going to change things. Like I wanted to.”
“Dear?”
“I have the fucking Colony taint!” Jade nearly screamed. “Created a hundred-and-crap years ago by some pervert with weird visions and otherworldly technology, hiding until that hideous war, using the secrets left from the death camps and the deals and the weapons of lies. Using, manipulating, those meetings where people trusted us because we were different so they didn’t think it the same. A daughter of lies, manipulation. Poison.”
Again, no response. Jade felt tears running down her cheeks, matting her fur. She sniffled and wiped them away with he back of her hand …
… and another hand was already wiping them away.
“I trust you,” HuanJen said simply, his fingers dabbing away Jade’s tears. “You learn and go on. You don’t want to be like him, like them, and you aren’t. You didn’t try and save the world.”
“Yeah. Because you kicked my ass,” Jade spat.
“I prefer to save your ass for other things. But you trusted me, you listened, you respected me. You didn’t understand everything, but you understood.”
“Could you, at least once, rip into me and get it over with? Just tell me when I’m stupid? “
“No. You’d either listen because you felt I was better than you or be angry because you felt attacked. More ineffective action. HuanJen paused. “I love you.”
“I … know.” Jade leaned against HuanJen. It felt like the pain was spiraling away into the Magician-Priests unknown depths.
HuanJen placed an arm around his lover, pressing himself to her. Her anguish was a palpable thing, like a spiked chain wrapped around her. He knew all to well that he couldn’t unwrap it or yank it away - Jade for all her lack of subtlety, required subtlety to deal with.
“I love you too,” Jade said with a mix
of happiness and misery. “Oh, gods of Xai, that bastard walked into the Otherworld and thinks there’s not going to be any repercussions. He thinks his ego is greater than what it comes from.”
“Yes. That, dear, is why you won’t be him.”
“I know my own sickness and get over it. I guess.”
HuanJen planted an affectionate kiss on Jade’s cheek. “You take nothing seriosuly Jade, and that applies even to yourself. It saves you from more than you know.”
“I … know. I am so tired. We need to rest.”
“Yes,” HuanJen acknowledged. “Tomorrow, I am betting we will have to talk to someone from the Guild. Feel up to it?”
Jade paused, then nodded. “I’ll probably end up not doing much, being a lowly apprentice and all.”
“Sarcastic and disrespectful. I see you’re better …”
August 22, 2000 AD, Xaian Standard Calendar
Guild Esoteric was one of the oldest Guilds on Xai, depending how you reckoned history. It was said that they and the Travelers’ Guild had been one ages ago, when the best technology to cross a Portal was years of mental discipline, some highly cultivated herbage and fungus, or both. For centuries uncounted they had kept to the Valley of the Crypts and the Lyceum, but things changed.
The Guild kept the stained-window shattered-glass quilt of religions, psychics, alchemists, and philosophers in a vague form of organization. Xai attracted the religious and the spiritual a bit like Sanctum, but unlike the distributed population of Sanctum, most of Xai’s Portals were near each other. Thus people of differing faiths, inclinations, and attitudes towards burning heretics had to live together, all one a world that had attracted the spiritual and the supernatural like a sweater attracted lint.
So as Xai grew and as Metris grew, the Guild came out of the Valley and commissioned a Guildhall, organized their guild taxes and payments, and subjected their Guild Councilmembers to the life of running a Guild in Metris.
One of those so subjected was Cardinal Byrd.
Byrd stared out of his office window. He didn’t look like people expected a high-ranking member of the Xaian Catholic church to look - he looked more like an aged bodybuilder. An aged bodybuilder in the red-cloaked “casual vestments” of his church, but an aged bodybuilder nonetheless.
Crossworld of Xai Page 51