“Clairice?” HuanJen turned the single word into a complex question. He had a way of using inflections that could express “what the hell are you talking about” in very polite and concise ways.
Rake merely shrugged. “Who am I to judge?”
“Well it is kind of … “Zero began, before catching two dirty looks from the holy men. “Sorry, sorry.”
“You ought to come,” Rake spoke suddenly, “Unless you got, ah, tickets to the League performance?”
“Wouldn’t want them.” The diviner answered with a touch of haughtiness. “Sure. I’ll be there. I … and where is everyone else?”
“Should be soon.” HuanJen checked his watch. “And no, Jape is not coming.”
“Thank God,” Zero breathed.
“Please,” Rake chided, “that is my line.”
“Jape isn’t coming,” HuanJen stated flatly.
“Thank God.”
January 5, 2001 AD, Xaian Standard Calendar.
Jade stumbled into her apartment, a box under one arm, a determined look in her eye.
“Huan?” Jade half-yelled as she slammed the door shut. “I got that dress. Finally. We almost ready to go?”
“About.” The answer seemed to come from the left-hand hallway, the one leading to the master bedroom and study. It wasn’t an enthusiastic response.
“You OK?” Jade tossed the box onto the living room couch and then yanked the top off. After checking to see if the fancy green dress inside was intact, she considered where to change.
“I am … thoughtful.” HuanJen emerged from the hallway dressed in a smart black suit. His only black suit, Jade admitted, acquired when he had, for a brief time, actually had to look professional.
“That’s … not the good kind of thoughtful.” Jade half said, half asked.
“Kevin came by.” The mention of the neighboring Zone cleric perked up Jade’s ears. Jade had been close to Kevin, but over time had felt he had lost interest in his job - a job she took quite seriously.
“Yeah?”
“He’s been offered a position to work full-time with the Guild Council.”
“Hey, that’s …” Jade’s mind suddenly collated all the facts.
Kevin was a local Zone Cleric - a bit odd, she had to admit, but a good guy. Trained by the same man that helped HuanJen settle in, the late Old Man Green.
A full-time position with the Guild Council of Guild Esoteric was probably due to his relationship with Crone Harkness.
A full-time position would not allow him to function as a Zone Cleric.
His Zone was next to HuanJen’s. In fact, HuanJen still served some people that Kevin technically was responsible for. Old Man Green’s illness had resulted in some informal changes in the local Zone Cleric territories.
“What the fuck are we going to do if he signs out?” Jade asked with effective crudity.
“There will be a reorganization,” HuanJen stated simply. “In the end it will probably resolve some conflicts. Some immigration changes, and …”
“Sister Cynthia, yeah, I know.” Jade exhaled trying to force her rage out with her breath. Zone Clerics in general had very stable territories to serve - and in return got a stipend from the guild along with other pay and donations. Reorganizing things radically was not common.
“Well Cynthia was getting tired.” The Magician-Priest admitted to his apprentice. “We will deal with this …”
“After the League and after their little performance, yeah, I know.” Jade tossed the dress over her shoulder.
“You still wish to go?”
“Did I … is it that obvious?” Jade switched from harshness to frank admission quickly.
“Yes,” HuanJen walked over to his lover and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Jade, you …”
“I’m almost ready to talk to M. I’m just … sensitive about the supernatural. And yes, I know I don’t have to go, but I am. Not because I’m forcing myself but because … I am. OK? Any arguments.”
“None whatsoever. Can I help you get dressed?”
“That’d just distract me.”
“That … would be the point …”
” … in a way that’d keep us from the performance. Sorry, we have to go watch the League show off and end itself …”
“Yeah, yeah. Just give me time to comb my legs.”
Hixx’s Convention Hall was a more active than usual, at least for a cold winter’s night.
The Panoramic League’s final performance wasn’t announced in signs or posters - the right people knew where it was. The right people came. It was enough.
Outside the Hall, a warmly-bundled Jade noted there were a lot of right people.
Her mind carefully slotted the attendees into categories. She recognized a lot of University personnel - especially Historians, wearing their brown and red robes. There were a few Esotericists in their uniforms or lack thereof appropriate to their religions. The native population attending the event was very high, to judge by all the native braids and colorful outfits.
The Vulpine mystic was feeling very out of place.
Actually, it wasn’t that she was out of place, the place didn’t feel right. She felt the place was out of her, which was even more annoying.
Her perceptions were changing as HuanJen had noted. It had struck her today that she wasn’t annoyed by his self-transport, the “zappy-thing” as she called it. Some things no longer irritated her - and new things did.
“You feel it too?” HuanJen asked under his breath.
“Yeah. It feels …”
“Like a funeral or a wake.”
“More or less. Right before everyone argues over the will.” Jade said bitterly.
“Then let us keep watch.”
“You suspect anything?” Jade queried nervously.
“A gathering of diviners and artists and mystics in an emotionally charged moment. I already caught the glimmer of an Obsidian. Over by the water tower, for a moment.”
“Wonderful.” Jade looked around. Obsidians were peculiar creatures, the come-when-called, the Otherworld given form by what people avoided. Call them demons or messengers, they were annoying.
“Come.” HuanJen put an arm around his lover. “Let’s go.”
The Panoramic League had provided them tickets and papers that got the cleric and his apprentice past the guards quickly. A quick trip down some private hallways by one of the red-uniformed ushers, and the two were led to one of the “private boxes” overlooking one of the auditoriums in the Convention Center. Below was a large platform, the center of the auditorium, ringed by seats.
Jade looked at the box - it was essentially a miniature balcony. There was even a bottle of champagne or wine sticking out of an ice bucket. She felt conspicuously and uncharacteristically classy.
“Damn.” Jade put a lot of feeling into the single curse. “I sense lips on my backside and they aren’t yours.”
With a snakelike gesture, HuanJen picked up a small card by the bottle. “Jape.”
“Great …”
“No, it’s actually a nice little card.” HuanJen smiled. “Well, he was able to step out of his role. Shall we watch? We have about twenty minutes.”
“Yeah. If you don’t mind …”
“Yes?” HuanJen asked, guiding Jade to her seat in a gentlemanly manner.
“I’m going to meditate a bit before it starts. It may calm me down.”
“I see.” The Taoist cleric sat down himself. ‘The Turning the Light Around?’”
“Oh, definitely.” Jade exhaled. “I need to be calm.”
“I understand.” HuanJen replied, seeming to withdraw into himself, like a cloud dissipating.
Jade concentrated on her breathing, letting distinctions in her mind drop away. Breath was the key - everything depended on breath. Breath happened naturally. As you focused on it and lost those distinctions, you happened naturally.
The key was turning your mind around so you weren’t so focused on outside. Outside bot
h caused you to loose yourself and caused a split in existence. It was a mystery she was still figuring out …
“Honored Guests!”
Jade’s eyes flew open.
“I was going to rouse you.” HuanJen’s voice poured into her ears like the scent of incense.
“I am …”
Jade felt it all crash back onto her like a punch in the stomach. Below her Father Sun and Sister Moon were making their introductions. She was listening to them, but not so much the words, but the meaning. The space left in her by her meditation filled quickly.
Sun and Moon talked about performance.
About art as a mirror to life.
About tradition and history.
About how they had come here from a journey of centuries.
“It is a damn wake,” Jade said simply.
“Yes. I rather feel sorry for them.”
“I don’t want to … but I do. A little.”
” … creation is the act of letting things be,” Father Sun said, golden robes flowing like liquid dawn, “and here for you we will probe and create, dream and dance, and through these works, see around corners, into seconds, and into ourselves.”
The audience was silent.
“Honored Guests,” Sister Moon began.
“The Final Performance of the Panoramic League!” Both leaders said at once.
And then everything turned into organized insanity.
Lights flashed of different colors. People lept out of trapdoors or ran in from offstage. Colorful people - juggling, dancing, wielding torches that burned odd hues.
Jade watched, and began to understand Huan_Jen’s sadness better.
She recognized people dressed as the Gods of Xai, who suddenly changed outfits. Random lights would play about and suddenly form strange symbols. For a while people ran about the stage carrying sparkling metallic banners, and the stage was like a whirlpool of rainbow metal.
Some people in the audience laughed. Others cried. Time vanished.
There were few words. There was instead something else, some riot of activity and action from the heart. Something that reached out and spoke to you even if you didn’t know what it was saying.
And Jade felt sad and weary. Everyone was getting something out of this - a joke, a reference, awe. She was just here to preside.
They were ending it and they didn’t have to, she realized. Just trying to end and cut if off. All of this would be gone, and she was just beginning to understand it.
She clutched HuanJen’s hand. He whispered words of love into her ear and then looked on. He sounded unsure of something, nervous beneath his comforting statements.
The Mocks began to run around the audience, others on stage argued with each other. They bantered and insulted and the audience laughed and gasped. Some attendees insults back, prompting articulately vicious responses and more laughter.
She noticed Jape, leaping and prancing, a demented jester crossed with a debater and a bawd. He seemed far less irritating in his element, a viridian streak of painfully funny insight and commentary, a tour guide of punctured egos.
For the first time in weeks she felt more than annoyance for him. He seemed happy, alive. Himself.
“This … is a shame.”
“I know,” HuanJen answered.
“I …” Jade’s green eyes flashed. “What’s going on.”
“A reading of poetry and a performance in lights.” HuanJen checked a program left near the champagne, which had gone untouched. The two of them had not wanted to risk any insobriety. After this, however, Jade considered getting completely decimated by alchohol.
“Yeah.” Jade looked around. “Anything seem funny?”
“Yes. I … did you just notice anything with red eyes in the crowd?”
“Obsidians?” Jade asked carefully.
“A flash,” HuanJen speculated.
“Hmmm. I don’t feel good. Scratching at the back of my head. Sound familiar?”
“Yes. Give me a Guilder, please.” HuanJen asked politely.
Jade fished a coin out of her purse and gave it to her mentor. He flipped it a few times.
“Dear?” Jade asked.
“All heads, beyond statistical likelihood.” HuanJen looked at the Guilder. “We’ve got syncronicities running. Lights?”
“I’m … getting a bit of distortion around the edge of my eyes. Like rainbows.”
“I see.”
“Something … not quite a ritual or a working is it?” Jade speculated.
“No. A happening. An inevitability … something may be coming … something is building up from the Otherworld, or the Otherworld is responding to the activities and the stress …”
Several people on stage unfurled fancy scrolls and began reading. The lights in the auditorium played over them gently. They didn’t seem that coordinated, actually.
“The poetry is nice, but … you see that one on the end?” HuanJen pointed at a nondescript woman in blue.
“She looks like she’d rather be anywhere else.”
“Yes. I rather suspect she’s sensitive.””
“I don’t …” Jade began.
The woman in question unfurled a scroll.
Jade felt something shift. That horrible moment when you knew what was going to happen. Something had been building up, and those feelings had been ripples cast through time by this moment …
The lone scroll-holder began to scream.
HuanJen stood, moving like dark quicksilver.
The other poetry-readers backed away from the wailing woman. The light show stopped.
Jade saw a few shadows out of the corner of her eye. Things you were afraid of always came back to you, and she felt fear. Someone’s fear was manifest now.
Attendants charged onto the stage. Some very large and very unartistic looking members of the Panoramic League gathered about, sending a very distinct message that no one was to approach. The message was communicated with muscles alone.
HuanJen vanished into the air. Jade sighed. He would occasionally do what she called “the zappy thingy” without thinking. She knew it drained him, but still he would pass between space when there was an emergency.
Jade unhooked the Lakkom from its harness and headed for the stairs.
They were going to be needed.
Jade got to HuanJen via a lot of pushing, shoving, showing her Guild Esoteric membership card, and the fact that the Lakkom’s firing end was glowing an evil green. If none of these factors worked singly, a combination was usually effective.
She found her lover near the back rooms which the League had co-opted as dressing rooms. HuanJen was arguing with some of the more muscle-oriented members of the Panoramic League. Well, he was arguing in a HuanJen fashion, which meant he was polite but as persistent the ocean tides. He could wear you down over time without you realize he was doing it.
” … I repeat, I sensed …” the Magician-Priest began.
“No one goes in,” said one of the living mountains of muscle.
“What’s up boss?” Jade slid into “helpful but dangerous assistant” mode.
“They won’t let me in,” HuanJen said simply. “They escorted me off the stage impolitely.”
“We had a crisis. No one goes in. And we know who you are, so don’t try anything,” said the other human pectoral.
“They won’t let us in.” Jade confirmed, eyes flashing.
“They didn’t even ask Father Sun. Or Sister Moon. Or Tradell. Or any member of the Court of Mirrors.” HuanJen’s expression appeared neutral, but Jade had long ago learned how to read him - or he had let her learn.
“Well, you have their names?” Jade queried. The game had begun.
“Oh, I’ll remember them. This is unpleasant considering the end of the League.”
“True. It looks like the performance is breaking up. We’re gonna have to deal with what happens when rumors start spreading, and people will want to find out what we know …”
“Yes. We
ll, we will have to remain silent …”
“Excuse me .. . ” one of the hulks began.
“Yes?” HuanJen asked with a guileless politeness that left Jade feeling somewhat disturbed and very amused.
“I …” the guard began.
“Out of my way.”
Father Sun pushed both of the guards away, exhibiting a strength beyond his average build. He looked at HuanJen and Jade, breathing heavily. A scroll was clutched in his right hand.
“Come with me,” Sun spat.
Father Sun turned to go in a swirl of gold, never seeming to acknowledge the potential HuanJen and Jade would ignore them.
HuanJen looked at Jade. Jade raised an eyebrow. HuanJen nodded cautiously.
“Take care you two.” Jade patted both guards on their large shoulders as the two of them passed. She felt an odd sense of triumph.
Father Sun led the pair past various members of the League, past ushers, past confused staff of the Convention Hall. Jade felt the League members look at her and HuanJen. Sometimes with hope, sometimes with anger, sometimes with confusion.
She had been trying to help them …
… she passed Jape, who was sitting in a chair, staring into space, pale as a corpse. Jade felt her heart clench at the pain in his eyes …
… the eyes of everyone they passed …
Sun finally stopped in a small storage room, slamming the door. He thrust the scroll in his hands into HuanJen’s face.
“What is this?”
Huan_Jen didn’t move. He regarded the circular symbol “It’s a symbol of Death, derived from Mortru’s symbol, but in general secular. Meaning death. You find it in graveyards and tombs and combined with other symbols of warning.”
“Yes. A shame it was placed in a collection of poetry for the Reading of the Hopes. It was supposed to be part of the final act, all of us carrying this symbol and the rune of Art. Yet, it found its way somewhere else.” Sun glared. “Do you know what this means.”
“I have utterly no idea.” HuanJen’s voice was honest.
“I …”
Sun seemed to deflate.
“It is acceptable to be angry,” HuanJen’s voice was comforting. “It will be easier if you accept it.
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