Crossworld of Xai

by Steven Savage

  “What has no definition is that from which definitions come. So when we realize that all of these divisions of self-not-self, profitable-unprofitable, arise from one source, the triad begins to vanish. By seeing definitions arising from an undeniable, we begin to understand the mutual arising of things and find reconciliation. My divisions come from the Unity of things.”

  “All things come from one source, but as it is where they come from, they are not the source. We cannot grasp this source for it is where grasping comes from. We cannot see it, as it is where seeing comes from. But by realizing all comes from one source, we find it. Definition loses.”

  Jade smiled to herself, and stifled a laugh. She would never have listened to things like this in Colony, but then she was trying to escape colony. After that, she had to escape herself.

  … and in the Where-We-All-Go, find her way back to the where-we-come-from.

  A red car drove away from the Lyceum. Though it was one of the electric cars common on Xai, it didn’t have the comapct, almost toylike look most designs have. This was a car made out of hormone-powered dreams and engineers who had gotten tired of efficiency and wanted to have some fun.

  The fact it was driven by HuanJen thus, seemed rather inappropriate to those watching the vehicle pull out of the Lyceum’s south parking lot. It was harder to find a person less suited to fast cars without a comprehensive search.

  “So, how does it feel to be mobile?” Jade asked, relaxing in one of the deep seats.

  “Useful,” HuanJen nodded, “Kevin has let me have my own set of keys for emergencies. He rarely uses it.”

  Jade’s mouth twisted slightly. “What the hell does he do these days anway?”

  “Works with Harkness and manages his Zone. I don’t know for how long.”

  “Think he’s going to get rotated out?”

  HuanJen shook his head. “I do not know. The Guild was willing to change for me, yet keep Martina in her … or his … Zone while she worked things out.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know.” Jade tried to restrain her opinion on Kevin. HuanJen had risked his sanity for the man only to vanish into the bureaucracy of the Guild. Though he didn’t seem to bear any malice, Jade found she could handle unborne malice effectively for her lover.

  “So, how did I do?” HuanJen asked, sensing Jade’s mood.

  “Good, actually.” Jade nodded. “Definitely accessible. You seemed relaxed.”

  “I’m more comfortable at the Lyceum than the Guildhall, for some reason.”

  “And more comfortable with the change of pace?” Jade asked. The change had come recently, and there’d been more discussion of it than in its effects.

  “Very. I will miss some of the work at the Galenica, but at least I will still help, perhaps even moreso. And I rather like the idea of working more behind the scenes with the Guild. Actually, just working with the Guild in general.”

  Jade nodded. “I’d think you wouldn’t work well with bureaucracy.”

  “The bureaucracy is a side effect. I work with what it is. I do not let it entangle me.”

  “Um, dear? You are off the clock. Punch out,” Jade said with a lash of loving sarcasm.

  The cleric nodded. “It comes naturally. You should know”

  “I noticed. Gods of Xai protect me from acquiring any more of it.”

  HuanJen smiled. “Well, as I corrupt you … any plans for the evening. We are heading home …”

  “Actually, I don’t feel like heading home,” Jade said, “It’s nice being out. Free. Open.”

  HuanJen nodded. “There’s a place I know, you may like . .. “

  “In the Valley?”

  “Oh, it’s safe. Trust me.”

  “I always do …”

  The Valley of the Crypts was a place not every member of Guild Esoteric preferred to navigate. The physical geography was secondary to the supernatural geography. There were places that seemed one second to the side of reality, others where the temperature was never right. You could hear voices on the wind and see reflections not quite yours in water of the river that ran through the valley.

  There were no human threats in the Valley. Though some of the outlying areas around Metris had occasional trouble with brigands, no one would enter the Valley for simple greed. The Mounties occasionally used this to their advantage, as several would-be-Highwaymen found themselves pinned between angry men in red suits and the Valley.

  A red car sat parked next to a small shrine, surrounded by monoliths of black rock. A few peculiar torch-like-lamps lighted the area.

  “It is a safe place,” HuanJen spoke reverently as he stopped the car, “the Valley has spots of this and that, of terror and enlightenment, guardians and gateways. This is one of the safe spots.”

  Jade looked at the odd obelisks. “Stonehenge in microcosm.”

  “More finished. I think these were built by visitors from a level 3 earth. Note the dark stone and the smooth finishes. Plainly machined, likely artificial”

  The Vulpine nodded. The stones were like shiny chunks of night. The place did have a peculiar peace about it. It reminded her, ironically, of the Nax after Richard had had it thoroughly exorcised and warded.

  “A little piece of peace.” Jade said thoughtfully.

  “You can feel it?”

  Jade nodded. “Yes. It’s not quite like some of the Valley, it’s got a warm feeling, no that edgy feeling you get around a lot of the parts. That little feeling of something almost cutting you.”

  “Your sesne of the Way of things is improved.” HuanJen nodded, looking at the setting sun for a moment.

  “I know. I think … eh, I’ve stopped dividing the world as much. Especially that little stint over what’s normal. And … I feel better about us. A lot. Even asked Riakka to go to the Orchard.”

  HuanJen nodded. “Nothing says, ‘I am sorry I was angry over you having a crush on my lover’ like a strip bar.”

  “Damn right. So we going to sit here? It’s pretty warm for a September, but the nights do get chilly lately.”

  “I figured for a bit. Besides, there’s something else I want to show you.” HuanJen opened the car doors. “Just an odd thing.”

  “That’s my life,” Jade replied, opening her own door.

  Outside, the vulpine found the air warm, and a big muggy. Metris and the surrounding area, as far as Jade could tell, was located in the equivalent of the southern coastal area of North America, or at least the equivalent on Xai. It meant usually mild winters and warm falls - and less money spent on warm clothing.

  “What’s up? Jade asked.

  “Just wait.” Hua-Jen looked at the horizon, at the setting sun, then gestured at the ground, where he promptly folded into a cross-legged position. Jade, after a moment’s thought, did likewise, taking his hand in hers.

  “I am so glad this crap with … attention is over. Hopefully over.”

  “I think it will be,” HuanJen nodded, “After the incident with Domino I at least appeared a less serious figure. I won’t let it get to me either way.”

  “Even you get entangled in things,” Jade pointed out with a playfully accusing wave of her finger, “I’m the one supposed to be working on being void, being empty, and you …”

  “Emptiness is that state where we exist without clinging. But one can cling to emptiness. That has been my problem.”

  ” … right.” Jade sighed. “I read something like that in those books from, what, the Complete Reality School?”

  “… Northern Branch …”

  “… Northern Branch,” Jade continued, “See, I study. I’m a good little apprentice.”

  “You are many good things.”

  Jade’s eyes flashed strangely then she sighed. “Thanks.”

  HuanJen leaned against his lover, and she in turned leaned into him. They sat there for a quiet moment.

  “No more worries?” HuanJen asked.

  “Nah. I worried about us being normal. That was a waste.”

  “We’re not
normal,” HuanJen said calmly, “As normal is merely a reference, why worry?”

  “Bingo. It’s nice finally accepting … well we’re us.”

  “I know … and, ah, it’s here!”

  HuanJen stood swiftly, extending a hand to Jade and helping her up. He pointed at the setting sun.

  “Wait, and …”

  The sun set. Suddenly, there was a low hum around the couple, a chorus of different sounds emanating from the monoliths. Jade felt it pass through her body. Each stone seemed to make a different sound, all harmonizing strangely. It was like standing in a weaving of sound.

  … and it faded, slowly, trailing off into the darkness and into time.

  “What was that?” Jade asked, mind whirling into a maelstrom of analysis. “Wait, piezoelectric effect, or some photovolatic one. A discharge of energy, the stones are probably hollow. Hmmmm. Still damn neat.”

  “Well, actually I just figured you’d like the, ah, ‘damn neat’ part.”

  Yeah. The Vulpine looked around. “Of course …”

  “Most people figure the stones were some artificial creation. We just have no idea who put it here. Just a mystery.”

  ” … just a neat thing.” Jade finished.

  Jade felt HuanJen put his arm around her and draw her close. She felt his warmth enwrap her - for a cool personality, there was a peculiar fire to his presence, like sunlight. HuanJen leaned into her.

  “Happy?” the cleric asked. A few stones let off a faint hum then fell silent.

  Jade nodded. “You?”

  “Wonderfully.” HuanJen inhaled, Jade’s scent firing into his brain. “I think I shall enjoy the changes, if all goes as planned.”

  “I think it will. Look at the lecture, no one bugged you. It’s just a matter of context.” Jade shrugged. “And again, the onion did help. So did …”

  ” … don’t …”

  “That guy in the Xaian Wrestling Federation. The Exorcist … “

  HuanJen stood back a moment and put his hands on his hips. “Let’s not forget his manager, the Vulpine ex-stripper.”

  “Yeah, but I’m famous by association. It’s easier.” Jade tapped her chest meaningfully. “The advantage of being your assistant. Less limelight, less spotlight, more sunlight. Besides, she’s not as good looking as I am.”

  HuanJen appeared to think for a moment, then looked over Jade appraisingly. “Well, I shall not argue, biased as I am.”

  “You better not.” Jade slid over to her lover and draped herself over him. “Gods, this is the most relaxed I’ve been in ages. Sitting here among singing standing stones in a haunted valley right after you bore the piss out of people with Basic Taoism.”

  “We are, as you noted, very weird people.”

  “Damn right.” Jade planted a kiss on HuanJen’s neck.

  HuanJen reached down, and lifted Jade’s face up to his own, cradling her chin gently in his hands. He kissed her deeply, tongue gently fluttering around her lips, their breaths intertwining.

  “That’s … nice.” Jade said huskily, when their lips parted.

  The Vulpine’s green eyes looked into HuanJen’s, emerald meeting obsidian. There was a very quiet and tiny eternity passing.

  “Let’s go to the car,” HuanJen suggested.

  “Sure.” Jade said with a wink. “What, going to show me the back seat?”

  “Not quite …” HuanJen opened the car door, and began some arcane operation with the drivers seat. It folded back quickly, and the cleric leapt inside.

  HuanJen flipped into the back seat and in moments, the back was folded down. A few quick switched and shifts, and the front seats shifted as well, leaving the cars interior, suddenly, an invitingly horizontal surface.

  “Green chose well …” Jade remarked, climbing into the car and closing the door. After a moment’s thought, she kicked off her short boots.

  “He actually liked the idea of being able to sleep when necessary.”

  “It has other uses?” Jade inquired, voice a happy murr.

  HuanJen nodded. “Yes. If that’s not to blatant?”

  “Oh, like I’m Miss subtle here.” Jade stretched luxuriously across the strange “bed” formed in Green’s car. She smiled up at her lover. She could feel his gaze, like silk being drawn across her body.

  “It’s been awhile since we’ve been … alone.” Jade’s voice strongly suggested alone concealed a variety of more intimate terms.

  “I know.” HuanJen ran a long-fingered hand up Jade’s neck, eliciting several appreciative sounds. “I know. That is changing. Has changed. No more falsehoods crafted out of the dreams of others.”

  Jade raised herself on her elbows and gently kissed HuanJen’s lips. “No more ‘normal’ with the idea we’re supposed to be something else.”

  The Taoist mystic gave his lover a deeper kiss. “We are, as we will be, as we are.”

  “What I am right now is rather … aroused,” Jade remarked casually, “Just so you know.”

  “I somehow intuited that.”

  “What a remarkable man.” Jade wrapped her arms around HuanJen, drawing him into a tight embrace. “I love you, HuanJen. Don’t you ever doubt it. Come what may don’t you ever doubt it.

  “Why would I?” The cleric asked plaintively. “Jade, I have no reason to. There’s an advantage to seeking to be without guile or cunning, and that’s not seeing it in others.”

  “I have my neurotic moments,” Jade answered, “I know you love me.”

  “I do.”

  “… and what is it you’re doing with my jeans?” Jade asked.

  “Undoing them, is that a problem?” HuanJen’s voice held an odd innocence. There was the sound of a zipper being undone.

  “Nah, just confirming.” Jade began to nip at and lick her lover’s neck, alternating teeth with slow, sensual strokes of her wet tongue.

  HuanJen slid Jade’s pants off with her help. After undoing the Lakkom harness on her back, Jade doffed her top and bra, and grinned with a mix of lust and love, eyes glowing with something deep and bright.

  “You know, I remember the first time I caught you looking at me. It felt good. It feels better over time.”

  “You’re beautiful.” HuanJen’s words were simple. Sometimes pictures were worth a thousand words, but simple inflection could make words mean a volume - his words suggested something beyond physical appearance.

  Jade touched HuanJen’s face, tracing it’s angles. He seemed to be made of angles and straight lines; angles without sharp points, lines that didn’t cut.

  She ran her furred hands through HuanJen’s short, thick dark hair. The white streak, that odd band of non-color in his hair, stood out. The flesh from which it grew seemed paler, slightly discolored. A streak of white in blackness.

  She wanted to say something. Words weren’t needed.

  HuanJen leaned forward and kissed Jade. After a few kisses, he lowered his head, nipping at her chin, then her neck, until he caressed her right nipple with his tongue and teeth. Jade sighed, enfolding his head in her hands.

  The mystic moved his attention to Jade’s left nipple. The smell of her flesh and fur was poetry. His senses were changing places, moving about within his head. There was always a new way to experience.

  The stones outside let off a mild hum, for half a heartbeat.

  Jade found the zipper at the back of HuanJen’s coverall and undid it. Time was slowing, exiting her mind. Sometime she’d found time went away with HuanJen. She suspected time was really optional.

  HuanJen exited his clothes with an economy of motion. Jade’s fingers danced over his chest, across well-defined muscles.

  “I never had been with a man without fur,” the Vulpine commented between breaths, “you have no idea what it’s like, how you feel . . “

  Jade ran her tongue over HuanJen’s chest. ” … how you taste. Gods of Xai, how you taste. How different it is. To be able to just taste all of you.”

  “I … am at a loss for words …” HuanJen end
ed his sentence in a gasp. Jade was brushing the furry back of her hands over his erect manhood. Shoft fur played over sensitive skin.

  “I sometime like you that way,” Jade smiled, “sometimes. So, if I like smooth skin …”

  “Fur has many pleasurable aspects … ah, yes. You, dearest Jade, are ever with surprises, ever a source of wonder.”

  “Just myself,” Jade shrugged, stopping her strokes and caresses. She felt strange with the praise.

  “Yes, I know,” HuanJen answered, “that is what I rather enjoy.”

  The mystic lay back on the makeshift bed within the car, beckoning to Jade. With little hesitation, the Vulpine straddled her lover, carefully avoiding banging her head on the roof. She’d heard of people talking about intimacies in the back of vehicles, and was glad that, if she was going to experience it, it was in a car designed by a late nonagenerian sex fiend like Old Man Green.

  She still remembered when Green died, and she saw how human HuanJen was.

  Human naturally. Human the way the stars shined.

  HuanJen grasped her thighs and buttocks, gently positioning her. Taking the cue, Jade gently guided his shaft into her. Sensation ran up her spine in smooth strokes of silver lightning.

  HuanJen drew Jade too him, his hips moving rhythmically, Jade responding in kind. He intimate embrace was like hot silk, enwrapping his manhood perfectly.

  Black fur brushed along his flesh. Jade’s breath thundered in his ear, the heartbeat of everything. The mystic continued his thrusts, slowly and evenly.

  Jade seemed to fall into him. HuanJen was a creature of knowing-by-not-knowing. He was an open being. As sure as his body was inside Jade’s, her sensations poured into him.

  The yin-yang pendant Jade always wore lay over his shoulder, metal and inlay warming on his skin.

  Breath …

  Body pressed against body …

  “Huan, I …” Jade closed her eyes, sensing something within her lover.

  “A few arts, dearest.” HuanJen answered the unfinished question. “A few arts of pacing so we can enjoy together.. Can you feel it, building within me, as within yourself.”

  “Yes,” Jade looked down at HuanJen. His eyes were pools of midnight.