“I’m fine, love.” Jade inhaled deeply. “Thinking, really. Or sort of not thinking. It was nice most of us managed to get together tonight.”
“Slate seemed tense.”
“This is my brother, HuanJen, that’s like saying he’s breathing. At least no one talked about work much. Rake was a bit tense, but, well, he’s been that way since the incident.”
“Yes. I …”
Jade interrupted her mentor firmly. “So when do you talk to Riakka?”
HuanJen cocked his head, then smiled slightly. “I see the trend of not talking about work has ended. Tomorrow. We shall see how it goes.”
Jade shrugged. “I guess we shall. I wish we had more contacts with the Historians. Brownmiller kinda surprised me, I figured he’d know more people.”
HuanJen nodded thoughtfully. “Still, it fits all I’ve heard. She was one of the displaced Historians, she’s in my Zone. And to be honest, she’s the closest contact we have.”
“You aren’t happy?” Jade asked.
“It is a slim lead. I still suspect Paldayne being involved if not … the actual repository.”
The noise of the street cut between their conversation for a few minutes. Jade was thankful that it was a chill night; few people were out. She hated having to watch her words so often.
Then again, considering she was apprentice to a cleric who was hunting a bizarre supernatural entity with his fellows, she’d had to adjust. Guild Esoteric, the Guild of clerics and mystics, wouldn’t be happy if a panic ensured over something that turned out not to be a threat. The Otherworld was a trickster when you pursued it.
“You sure …” The Vulpine began.
HuanJen raised a warding hand. “It is best if I do this first. I am the Zone Cleric here, and … it is appropriate.”
Jade rolled her eyes. “No apprentices allowed. What, its not like I’d go up, grab her by the throat and ask her what she knows. OK, mostly unlikely.”
“A time for everything Jade, no matter how insane that time is.”
Jade stopped, thought, then turned to face HuanJen. “Do you make this stuff up beforehand or does it come naturally?”
“Oh, you get the ability to do this once you’re a full Zone Cleric.” HuanJen smiled in a kind of seriously non-serious way.
“You are so full of shit sometime I could fertilize a garden with you …”
May 3, 2000 AD, Xaian Standard Calendar
“Riakka?”
The young Historian looked through the cracks he’d opened in her apartment door. HuanJen, looking as he always did - some dark simple outfit and a belt of pouches. He had, she reflected, a rather exotic appearance; thin oriental features, dark eyes, the white streak in his hair. However, he just didn’t stand out despite these traits.
It was rather unsettling. He just belonged wherever he went.
“Yes, hello.” Riakka nodded. “Um, come in.”
She had a flash to some rather florid novels she’d read about vampires, and how you’d have to invite them into your home. HuanJen, however, looked about as gothic as a manhole cover, which was comforting.
The Magician-Priest walked into her small apartment living room silently, looking around for a second. He already seemed at home.
“Just you?” HuanJen asked casually.
“Yes,” Riakka answered nervously, heading to the small kitchenette. “Tea? Or Spectral?”
“No, thanks.” HuanJen gestured at one of the chairs set erratically around the apartment. “May I sit?”
“Sure.” Riakka looked in the refrigerator, thought for a moment, then grabbed a bottle of Northwest Larger. It was costly, but she felt she was going to need it.
“So, what brings you here? You said you had some research?” Riakka asked casually, selecting a seat near her visitor.
“Yes.” HuanJen produced a Guild Esoteric membership card. Riakka inhaled as she noted a red-and-black sticker that indicated he was involved or cleared for official situations. Official being the Guild-correct way to say “dangerous.”
“This is also official Guild Business, so I’m going to have to ask that it be kept between you and me.”
Riakka felt the bottle slip from her hand. She blinked, only to find HuanJen had caught it without seeming to actually move. He handed it to her gently.
“Sorry.” HuanJen smiled sadly. “This is important. I even have the papers with me.”
“No … I believe you.” Riakka felt her heart restart. “I hope I can help.”
“I think you can. Dean Paldayne hasn’t been seen in awhile. That is causing some concerns.”
HuanJen’s voice was innocent, honestly concerned. She desperately wanted to believe he was being manipulative. If he was being manipulative, whatever he said wouldn’t be real.
“I … I know.” Riakka closed her eyes. “He’s in Piscion, and I wish he’d come back. Or … there’s more?”
“I wondered why there were so many Historians dispersed into the city. The story about problems with a dorm or reorganization aren’t consistent. I’m concerned something dangerous may have been stumbled on.”
“We were doing research.” The young Historian threw the word like a knife.
“For what?”
“Social trends.” She felt the response in her heart like a desperate prayer.
The mystic shook his head. “I won’t lie, but I can tell you don’t believe that. In fact, you don’t actually know, do you?”
Dark eyes cut through her like obsidian scalpels. She wanted to run.
Shit, this had to happen, they had to stick her in the Zone of the Freaky Taoist. She was angry at Paldayne for a minute. Angry at her fellows.
She also felt, in part of her head, that Freaky Taoist was a great name for a band. Her sense of humor was trying to rally to support her, but it didn’t have much practice.
“It messes up the research if we’re don’t do some of it blind.” Riakka finally answered.
“Did you find anything?” HuanJen asked.
“Not really.” The young Historian tried to conceal her relief. “I was studying myths and patterns, and noting. Ziggurat Jack was my focus, you know.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, I found nothing. He’s gone, and all I’ve seen is a few memories. I mean people knew, like the way … er, you know a cross-storm may come. But that was it. Hunting ghosts? I’m as paranormal as …”
“No.” The answer was serious and final. “What was Paldayne doing with his research?”
“The usual.” Riakka suddenly felt tense again. It was like HuanJen was in the back of her head.
“Which is?”
“Just research. Look, something is wrong isn’t it?” Riakka asked with more force than she’d expected.
HuanJen’s emotions were unreadable. “Maybe, and you already know that is the answer to expect. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here. Can you find out what the research was, Riakka.”
“Why?”
A pause. HuanJen weighed the value of his words. “I think something is wrong and I think it involves the Historians and Paldayne, and I don’t think you’re the kind of person to let things happen if they’re dangerous.”
“And …” Riakka cut off the sharp retort in her throat. “You’re good, cleric. Look, you want my help?”
“That is obvious.” The answer was painfully sincere.
“I’m not sure I can do anything, I mean, look, I’m twenty-one, I’m not high up. I … what makes you think I’ll help?”
“I have a thing for people,” HuanJen smiled. “It’s part of the job. I can’t force you, Riakka.”
“Um . . let me see, OK?”
The mystic nodded calmly. “OK. You do know how to reach me.”
“Yeah, you gave me enough cards when I moved in.”
Riakka accompanied HuanJen to the door, and he departed with a cordial greeting. Then, calmly, she went into her bedroom and punched a pillow repeatedly.
She was angry and wasn’t sure why.
<
br /> May 7, 2000 AD Xaian Standard Calendar
Bryal Garseen was one of those people who lived to counteract the image Historians had no lives. He wore his brown hair short and stylish except for one blue-beaded native braid, elegantly woven. He was well-muscled, his Historians robes flattering his form where they concealed it for most of his Guild. Students seemed to find him a pleasure
Riakka for some reason, wondered why the other female Historians she knew found him attractive. He seemed artificial, contrived, sculpted. You expected Avoks to crap on him.
But he was also close to Paldayne, or had been. So, against her usual instincts, she was talking to him.
Carefully, Riakka sidled up to Byral. The muscular Historian sat on a bench in the Octagon, the park in the center of the University. It was where he always sat between teaching classes, unless it was very cold or raining. The Octagon had a way of sucking up sound so it there always seemed to be a kind of silent buzz.
“Bryal?”
“Riakka?” Bryal closed the folder he’d been thumbing through. “What brings you here?”
“I … I’m worried about Paldayne.” Tact didn’t seem appropriate or necessary, not now.
“Yes.” Bryal nodded with a calculated lack of emotion, which only made his concern more obvious. “He has been gone for sometime …”
“What did he have you doing when he was studying the city’s social changes?”
“That is my business.” Bryal’s voice was calming, but an edge of paternalism caught on Riakka’s raw emotions.
“No …”
“Riakka …”
“Bryal, spill.” She rammed the words out of her mouth. She was getting tired of people acting like they knew better than her. “Look, I think he’s probably still waiting on stuff. And … I dunno, maybe we can get him back.”
The older Historian gave Riakka dirty look, then nodded. “Fine. He had me researching social phenomena.”
“Like?”
“That old myth, Ziggurat Jack. Look, don’t take it wrong, but I think Paldayne really got freaky over the vote, he was looking into the weirdest things. I know you really looked up to him, but he was tired and a bit paranoid. He probably needs his vacation.”
Riakka kept her composure with great difficulty. She felt like her mind wanted to escape and run away.
“Yeah,” she finally nodded. “I was doing something similar. I just worry about him.”
“Hey, he’ll be fine, probably. I wish I was out of town for the Council crap to,” Bryal said comfortingly, sounding more geniune, “he’ll be back in no time. It’ll be like he never left.”
“Yeah, yeah I’m positive you’re right …”
She tried to say a pleasant goodbye, but one name ripped through her mind. A name she’d heard whispered among her peers when they weren’t even in their teens, and then one you forgot because things you heard when you were young were never relevant later.
Ziggurat Jack.
May 12, 2000 AD, Xaian Standard Calendar.
Jade heard the knock at the door, and scowled. She had hoped for a nice night of studying, and watching the latest set of incredibly bootlegged tapes Lorne had gotten a hold of. A mix of strange occult documents and some cute show with an animated Japanese girl and magical cards seemed the ticket.
Of course, she couldn’t get a break. HuanJen was off with some meeting. Probably Solomon Dell again. She didn’t quite understand their relationship, but it seemed friendly, and Dell wasn’t trying to recruit anymore. He had a lot of meetings as of late; Guild Esoteric, Guild Medical, clients, everything.
“Just a moment.” Jade yelled, setting aside an interesting photocopied document on some very nasty phenomena.
She hoped it was something simple. The City had gone from concern to elation, to concern, to exhaustion over the Communicant mess. Now it was “simmering” as she put it.
She opened the door …
… and found a Historian.
Her mind froze for a moment, then kicked back into activity at the realization of who it was.
“Riakka Bane?”
“Bale,” the shorter woman answered. She gave Jade the impression that she was trying to blend with her surroundings. Actually, Jade reflected, Riakka’s straight brown hair, simple native braids, and robes seemed calculated to make her unremarkable - as if she was afraid to be noticed.
“Can I help you?” Jade felt herself slip into her Zone Cleric personality.
“I … is HuanJen in? Or did I get your apartment by mistake?” Riakka asked carefully.
“Uh, no,” Jade adopted a pleasant expression, “We live together. Please, won’t you come in.”
“Oh,” Riakka walked through the door stiffly. “Isn’t that, uh, complicated?”
“Not really. If you don’t know, we’re involved, but I was staying here as part of the deal before. Don’t let it get to you.” Jade tried to sound tolerant.
“I won’t.” Riakka looked around the apartment. “So, he’s not in?”
“HuanJen? No. Like I mentioned.” Jade flipped through her mental files on Riakka, and found nothing to go on. “He had a meeting to go to. What can I do?”
“I …” Riakka seemed lost in thought.
Jade’s mind whirled through a large amount of social and emotional calculations. It eventually centered on “This is the woman that knows something about a psychotic supernatural nutcase.”
“Anything you need to talk to HuanJen about, you can talk to me about.”
“Thanks,” Riakka said gratefully, “I … what’s that pile of lumber in the corner?”
“We’ve got a new bed coming in. Anyway, you were saying?” Jade tried to encourage her visitor without pressing her.
“I have some information on … what I was doing. And … the Dean.”
“Ziggurat Jack?”
Riakka jumped, then nodded. “Yes. I wish I knew more about what was going on, but … it involved him, yes. Some people were studying it, other legends, some religious history. Apparently Paldayne was very interested in Ziggurat Jack, before he left for Piscion.”
Jade crossed her arms. “If he did leave, you mean.”
“Yes.” Riakka stuck her hands in the pockets of her robe. “I don’t think he did. I think he had his assistant with him. We called him the Scribe, Derek Jacobi.”
“I … the guy with the photographic memory? Came here through portal Beth years ago? I heard about him at the last apprentice’s meeting before everything in the city went wonky.” Jade half-asked, half-reminisced.
“Yes. University kind of adopted him, and it was better than leaving him with the Travelers. He was Paldayne’s sort of go-for person, and … well his memory is remarkable. He has a real future with us..”
“You’re worried?” Jade asked. Some of Riakka’s behavior seemed familiar. She’d seen it in Garnet’s face when Slate was late for work. She’d seen it in herself when HuanJen did something stupid, or at least not obviously intelligent.
Riakka appeared to relax, slightly. “Yes. So, I have some information for you two. Now, do I find out why?”
Jade blinked. Suddenly Riakka was all business, a rather disturbing transformation.
She nearly told her to wait for HuanJen, then it struck her that she was really his representative. Besides, they had Riakka right now, a brushing her off could lose her.
“We think he did something with Ziggurat Jack, something that gave him access to some paranormal power. More than those Obsidians and crap we had recently, I mean. That’s usual shit.”
Riakka stared at Jade, or at least her general direction. Her eyes more seemed focused on something internal.
“Not subtle, huh?” Jade tried to smile. “Sorry, I suck at that.”
“What the hell did he do?”
“He was apparently ridden by Ziggurat Jack. I’m not sure how familiar you are with the principles, but it gave him enough of a connection to the Godworld to reach Galcir …”
“Telepathy and re
call …” Riakka whispered, clutching herself.
“Riakka?” Jade asked carefully.
“The gifts of the god of Historians. Sorry. Sorry. I need to go.” Riakka headed for the door, robes fluttering.
“Riakka?”
“Yes?”
Jade looked at her sympathetically. “Look, I really am not Miss Sensitive, but if you aren’t OK, you call. I’ll have HuanJen talk to you, OK? As soon as possible.”
Riakka nodded. “Thanks. I … sorry, sometime your boss makes me nervous. He’s sort of creepy and dark and mysterious.”
The Vulpine scratched her head. “This is the same HuanJen we’re talking about, right …”
Riakka had already shown herself out.
May 13, 2000 AD, Xaian Standard Calendar
“It’s not my idea of the usual meeting place, no,” HuanJen commented.
The mystic looked around the bookstore. It had that musty-paper smell and organization-by-accident look he’d come to know well in his career. It was quiet, like a library or temple, and most of the people there, the few that were there, seemed to be making an effort not to talk to each other.
The only people talking were he and Riakka, back in a small section on cooking.
“No one pays attention,” Riakka said softly, “this is a place you go to get things, and that’s it. You know. Things.”
” … like X Libris, yes.” The Magician-Priest nodded comfortingly.
“Without the, uh, personal elements,” Riakka added smoothly. “I’m sorry I left your apprentice, I was pretty upset. Apologize to her, please?”
“I understand, and she will too. Mr. Paldayne is well-regarded, the idea he did something untoward is upsetting.”
Riakka nodded, staring at a book on cooking animals that didn’t exist on many earths for a few moments.
“I’m scared, Mr. Jen.”
“Huan, please, if at all. Why are you telling me? I’m obviously one of the things you are scared about. Sorry about that, by the way.”
Riakka looked at HuanJen. His face was, if not exactly kindly, at least peaceful and inoffensive. His eyes still felt like they were inside her, but the presence was not as egregious as it had been.
Besides if someone like Jade trusted him …
“I’m not used to being in shit like this, and … you can be overwhelmingly ‘there.’”
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