Crossworld of Xai

by Steven Savage

  “Before you ask, you probably do not wish to know. I need you to watch it.”

  “For what?” Zero queried. He wasn’t sure he was going to like the answer, but his curiosity was egging him on.

  “There is the chance that the performance was deliberately sabotaged, or … or that it was skewed in order to induce certain events. “

  “Obsidians, bad syncronicities, little disasters?” Zero’s curiosity was now screaming in his ear.

  “Yes. And … no offense, but with your past and the fact you’ve known some rather shady people …”

  “I think of them as ethically challenged, it makes it easier,” Zero couldn’t resist the joke. It got a slight smile out of the Magician-Priest. Zero had once been involved in shady dealings and false divinations, and HuanJen had been responsible for monitoring him - and still didn’t like to deal with that side of Zero’s past.

  “Think you can help me out. Jade and I have a copy as well, but you do have an eye for these things. For odd things.”

  Zero sated his curiosity. “Sure. I …”

  HuanJen produced a small package, apparently out of thin air and set it on the table, next to the bag of elixir.

  The tape radiated a peculiar something that set of sparks in Zero’s soul. He’d be first to admit his soul was a fixer-upper-opportunity, but there was enough there to tell when something wasn’t quite right.

  Zero was part of Guild Esoteric, if not the most honored or respected member. He knew of books who supposedly documented eldrich horrors. He knew tales of ancient ruins of various earths that contained strange secrets. This was an echo of that kind of painful truth, all in a video tape.

  “I’ll do it,” the diviner said, looking at the package.

  “Thank you,” the cleric said sincerely.

  “But, you aren’t doing this officially.”

  “That depends how you define officially.”

  “Ah, moral and organizational ambiguity. I can handle that …”

  “I’m virtually counting on it.”

  The Council of Mirrors was meeting.

  The Council handled the day-to-day workings of the Panoramic League, of hirings and firings, of budgeting, of when to buy a new transport and whether a trip to Piscion was profitable. They decided who received the position of Father Sun and Sister Moon - thus putting them in the ironic position of choosing who was over them.

  They met now to discuss the future, but the future was much smaller than it had once been.

  All the council members wore robes of a single color - in this case, twelve of them were still with the League. Bustling around their meeting room, beneath the multi-hued mirror that was their symbol, they looked like a rainbow having a nervous breakdown.

  Only Tradell didn’t participate. He watched. Tradell was good at watching.

  He sat aside from the others, a lone, green-robed figure of calm in the midst of chaos. He spoke occasionally, walked over to a crowd of Council members occasionally. This and that, not much. He was the representative and leader of the council - any good leader didn’t have to do much. If he did, he was a terrible leader.

  And he watched.

  “Tradell.”

  Tradell looked up from his seat, where he’d been half-listening to a conversation about how few people were left in the league. Barthomos, who wore Red, was glaring down at him. His bristly beard gave one the suggestion of an extremely angry anthropomorphic porcupine.

  Barthomos was always angry. It seemed he liked to be angry on the off chance it would be needed.

  “Yes, Barthomos?” Tradell asked calmly.

  “I wanted to discuss something with you.”

  “Here, or privately?”

  Barthomos looked around suspiciously. He was a very suspicious man by nature. Tradell suspected it went with the temper - Barthomos was not so much worried about what others would do, but what others may do that would make him do things to them.

  “No one is paying attention to us,” Tradell noted. This was true. The Council as of late had tended to revolve around little clumps of members and their specific duties. There was little governing to be done anymore, really.

  “Fine.” Barthomos sat by the Council Master. “It’s about Jade.”

  “Really?”

  “You know how some of our people detected oddities about her?”

  “Quite.”

  Barthomos whispered conspiratorially. “They’re gone.”

  Tradell’s expression was neutral. “You’re telling me something that’s not happening. You’re telling me there’s something not going on and that is significant?”

  “Yes. She’s a Vulpine. You know what they’re like - we never had one in the League for good reason. I find it suspicious. You know, there are other odd things that went wrong with the performance I don’t think the Outside understood.”

  For an infinite moment, Tradell thought. Barthomos couldn’t make out anything behind his slate-blue eyes except furious activity.

  “Have you …”

  “I asked Moon. I asked her about it before. All HuanJen said was that Jade was going through some ritual or something. The usual answer you can expect from a Guildie like him.”

  “Barthomos, our people are on edge, if a local shaman passes wind we feel it.”

  “Or would, but so many of our people are gone.” Barthomos fidgeted. He had a thick build, but he could fidget in a way that made one convinced inside his bulk was a very agitated and aggressive thin person trying to get out so he’d have more room to be nervous.

  “I’m not concerned,” Tradell said evenly. “HuanJen and Jade have done well, our people are being placed, and they really are unobjectionable people. Their personal spiritual lives are not our concern.”

  “I … see. Thank you for your time, Council Master.” Barthomos wrapped formality around his temper, a blanket around a rod of iron.

  Tradell watched Barthomos stride off, and out of the Council champer. No one noticed him go. Everyone was involved in their own lives.

  Tradell watched. He was good at watching.

  January 11, 2001 AD, Xaian Standard Calendar

  The Panoramic League was smaller now.

  People heard about it less. There was some incident, but such things happened, and admittedly, the Panoramic League was old news. The Panoramic League was ending.

  Xaian culture was adaptable. It knew what to keep and what to let go. What didn’t exist was preserved in history and could be resurrected again when needed. Life went on.

  The League had gotten smaller. People had gotten jobs. People had left. Some who had joined out of less than pure motives had given up.

  Smaller, like a fistfull of sand draining away.

  Or smaller, like a spring being compressed or a coil wound tighter. In the arena human mind, less people didn’t always mean less effect.

  Jade Shalesdaughter was in an altered mental state she found vital to her work as a cleric’s apprentice.

  She was sleeping. In this case, sleeping on the huge, fluffy white couch in the living room of the apartment she shared with HuanJen. It was one of those couched that had some ambitions to be a bed, and occasionally you just had to oblige it.

  Now, she fell asleep easier. For weeks her sleep had been troubled. She’d been given a test to prove herself … to herself. A quest to find out the identity of M, the representative of Guild Esoteric. A chance for her to know she was ready for the tasks ahead.

  Then she’d found M was the Guild, literally. A process. It had given her a new insight - everything was a process, even her. Life was strangely relaxing when you didn’t feel like you lived in a fortress in your own head.

  A noise awoke her. She slid into consciousness smoothly. Someone had entered the apartment. Through the patio door.

  “Hey, Huan …” Jade said muzzily. Only HuanJen had a key to the patio, only he would use his strange disciplines to transport himself to the tenth floor, and only he would risk doing it. Anyone else would find
themselves circumcised from the forehead down.

  “Good afternoon, dear. Done for the day?” HuanJen’s voice was pleasant, but there was a businesslike air to it. It told Jade that her day was not done, no matter what she thought.

  “Yeah. Brenner’s doing good. The kid’s fine. New immigrant family says that tea cleared up that digestive problem, though you may want to check the new rules on Guild Medical and Guild Esoteric shared services. Got the herbs. You?”

  HuanJen appeared in Jade’s view. He held up a dog-eared notepad. “Zero has a few comments.”

  “Uh-oh. And?”

  “They sound like our … suspicions.”

  Jade was suddenly wide awake. Terribly so.

  “I’ll make some tea, you cue up the videotape … oh, and … I heard a few more people were posting comments about us on the Guild Esoteric message boards. My guess is Leaguers.”

  “Lovely.” HuanJen slipped the videotape into the VCR.

  “It’s annoying me …” Jade commented as she was heading off to the kitchen, ” but yes, I can deal with it.”

  “Good, because I have a suspicion we have more to deal with.”

  Shortly, with tea (and the traditional sweet butter in it), some biscuts, and a great deal of resignation, the couple watched one of their videotapes of the Panoramic League’s last performance.

  The tea and rolls pastry vanished over times. A notepad from Jade’s satchel filled with notes. The papers from Dealer Zero were shuffled through meaningfully.

  Two hours later, HuanJen stopped the videotape, and sighed.

  “It’s just as we thought.”

  “Yeah.” Jade loked down at the notes in her hands. “I can’t believe it.”

  “Yes.” HuanJen nodded.

  “There was nothing suspicious at all,” Jade fumed, “you know, I was really looking forward to proving Zero and ourselves wrong. Nothing.”

  Jade’s companion stared into space, eyes focused back in time. “The League was under stress, and their rituals naturally attract supernatural attention …”

  ” … there’s also the Esotericists there to consider,” Jade added. “I mean, you never know when one of our gang contributed a little subconcious energy to the obsidians …”

  ” … so the events hovering around the League could literally be one of those things,” HuanJen finished, “no dark rituals, no supernatural sabotage, no sign of things to come. Random events ending in an unfortunate happenstance. The results of stress and strain.”

  The pair was silent for a few strained heartbeats.

  “Yeah, but who’s going to believe that?” Jade asked.

  “That is the problem …”

  January 12, 2001 AD, Xaian Standard Calendar.

  It was Wrestling Night at Slate and Garnet’s.

  Wrestling Night ahd quickly earned the capital letters as it was much like Usual Tuesday, if somewhat more violent.

  It had been, everyone admitted, Garnets doing. She’d become taken by the antics of the XWF, the Xaian Wrestling Federation, the result of some changes at the Communicant’s Guild. Garent’s new interest had quickly spread to the rest of her friends - gathering on a Friday for many meant they didn’t have work to worry about the next day, and as most Xaian television was merely tapes from other Earths, it was original.

  And it was never boring. Most life on Xai wasn’t boring, so it took a special kind of not boring to get people’s attention.

  “I don’t believe this,” Jade commented.

  She had a lot not to believe. For instance, seeing Garnet, Slate, Rake, Clairice, and Dealer Zero together watching people bodyslam each other was unbelievable. It was unbelievable that she herself was watching this, considering one of the wrestlers, the Exorcist, had based his image on HuanJen - and his manager was obviously inspired by her.

  Jade also didn’t believe she was having fun. It was nice to truly just relax sometimes, and see what happened. To HuanJen, to many of her friends on Xai, there wasn’t really a boundary between career and hobbies. Someday perhaps she’d understand that, but sometimes you needed to relax.

  “My gods,” Jade said reverently, leaning her chair toward the television, “that’s …”

  “No padding there,” Garnet said from her perch next to Slate on the living room couch, “Summoner Seven is for real. Cute for a Heel.”

  “How do you know he is, ahem, for real?” Slate queried.

  “We women know,” Clairice answered for Garnet, joining Jade in looking closer at the screen. “I swear he’s more cut than Lorne.”

  “You know, ah, he is a talented, ah, performer,” Rake chided. “Really, we, ah, men aren’t just pieces, of ah meat.”

  “Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt.” Jade sat back. “So … hey, the Exorcist is challenging him, right after that match?”

  “Plot’s been coming for weeks,” Garent said casually, “You should visit www.xwfspoiler.xai. They’ve got some great inside stories, and news on how things work behind the scenes.”

  Dealer Zero spoke up. “I actually had someone ask me if I could do a reading on the events. He had a bet going.”

  Everyone looked at the diviner.

  “I said no,” Zero continued primly.

  “Oooh. Clothesline,” Jade squinted at the screen in pain. She tried to imagine how the camerapeople were keeping up with the action and the drama.

  “No, that’s the Exorcist’s Iron Arm,” Garnet corrected. “Seven felt that one no matter how much of this is a work.”

  “Yeah, Huan’d never so anything like that.” Jade admitted, scowling slightly. “OK, I admit, he no longer comes across as a HuanJen economy sized.”

  “And the Black Fox?” Clairice asked, thin eyebrows arching knowingly. On the screen, the Black Fox, another Vulpine, shouted encouragement while wearing an outfit that apparently had been based on the idea fur made up for clothing.

  “I’ll stick with the judge-not-lest-ye-be-judged approach.”

  “Lifting my, ah, lines, ah, again.” Rake smirked.

  “She’s going to be hooked,” Slate said airily, “I know my sister. She cannot resist the unusual.”

  “Fine, yeah.” Jade shrugged as a commercial started. “Hey, its relaxing and fun, and maybe … maybe … I’ll show up more.”

  “And drag, ah, HuanJen here?” Rake asked. For all their differences in religion, there was a brotherliness between the minister and the Magician-Priest, and one always seemed to follow the other.

  “He could use it. Things are …”

  ” … tense.” Zero finished Jade’s sentence. The Vulpine nodded at the diviner. Zero had an odd, rather concerned look in his eye.

  “Oh, and HuanJen is OK,” Zero added, “So you don’t all bug Jade and make her violent.”

  “See that in the cards?” Clairice queried.

  “No, just a good guess.”

  “We’ll see,” Jade shrugged. “Things are a bit tense … OK, fine, you’re all going to ask …”

  Several pairs of eyes said “We probably would, but were not pushing you, really.” Jade was amazed how people could communicate alike when they weren’t speaking.

  “We got some anonymous complaints. About us. To the Guild. After the message board incidents.”

  The stilted words got attention.

  “Wonderful,” Slate said bitterly. He crossed his arms and glared at life in general. In his heart, he was both concerned about his sister and breaking heads. He had a kind of lovingly violent side.

  “I heard, ah, Ahn got some nasty letters and, ah, he wasn’t even, ah, involved,” Rake added. “I, ah, am at least, ah, removed from it all.”

  “No, I haven’t tried any more readings,” Zero added, “I knew you’d ask. Us diviners have sorta agreed not to interfere. It’d look bad.”

  “And you’re still helping those imbeciles?” Garnet asked angrily. She liked the fact Jade was independent and ornery. You could appreciate that. She didn’t like Jade appearing to be beaten down.

  W
ell, this was Jade, she wsn’t exactly beaten down, but it annoyed Garnet nonetheless. Especially after HuanJen’s heartfelt speech. It really made them both more … human.

  “I think its best to remind yourself it’s social work, Jade.” Clairice patted one of Jade’s furred hands. “It’s not the end of the world.”

  “Yes, we, ah, had that last summer,” Rake said with a wink.

  “Yeah.” Jade looked down at the floor. “Well, we stay the course. It’s hard not to take it personally. It may not be the end of the world, but … it is about some people’s worlds …”

  January 14, 2001 AD, Xaian Standard Calendar

  HuanJen was taking a moment to dine in the Tradewinds.

  “Dining” really didn’t apply to the Tradewinds, but he couldn’t think of any other appropriate words. The restaurant was one of the sites on Temple Street - a large, simply-furnished building filled with chairs and tables. Clients selected a variety of meats and vegetables and sauces from several convenient buffets, brought them to the large grills to be cooked up, and ate at their tables. It was simple, fast, reasonably healthy, and inexpensive - the ideal Xaian dining experience for a person on the go.

  The Magician-Priest found he enjoyed it. It was full of life and had a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere. He wasn’t bothered, and he could take a nice table by a corner, eat, and relax.

  “Ayaho, Guildie!”

  HuanJen sat down his chopsticks. The relaxing was over. The sage could sense two people behind him.

  The accent wasn’t normal Metrisian, or even central Xaian. It was an accent from the fringes of Xaian Civilzation, from the outskirts.

  The term Guildie was a very uncomplimentary native term for people who belonged to Guilds. It was very old. It wasn’t in use much these days.

  “May I help you gentleman?” HuanJen turned his chair around slowly.

  There were indeed two people behind him - a larger, swarthy man with dark hair and a shorter one with similar features, likely relatives. Both wore heavy clothes with abstract, colorful designs on them. Each of them had their hair woven into a single braid, bound by a clasp studded with blue glass.

  HuanJen rarely encountered people from the outskirts. He felt at a bit of a loss - and he did not feel they were there for friendly conversation.