Crossworld of Xai

by Steven Savage

  “And I get a free haircut?” Jade asked playfully, or at least as far as she could manage.

  “Well, I will offer. But it also allayed any suspicions Rotan may have. He’s a dear, but he doesn’t always understand women’s issues.”

  “He seems sensitive enough …” Jade hazarded. Rotan was many things, and nice was definitely one of them.

  “He’d try to help too much. Now, my private studio is this way …”

  In short order, Jade found herself in what had probably been a small study, which had been semi-successfully converted into a private salon. It was strangely ordered and had almost a military feel to it. Eileen took her job seriously.

  “Haricut or talk?” Eileen asked. “I’d hate to be made a liar.”

  “You just want to play with Vulpine hair.” Jade accused. Eileen was being less formal than usual, and it was very relaxing.

  “I’m … doing my best. Like most of us, helping things along,” Eileen crossed her arms. “Besides, it’s the first time anyone’s come to me for anything.”

  Jade blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “You talk to Brandon when you’ve got computer trouble - or you just want to get laid. You talk to HuanJen when you need a little remedy or he or you for a little counseling. Lorne lends out the truck and is always reliable. Clairice gets us free checkups. Me, I cut hair. I feel …”

  ” … a little unimpressive? Useless?” Jade asked.

  “Outclassed,” Eileen said, “Useless.”

  “Yeah, but you’re high up in the Guild, you … look like a million guilders. You’re raising Junior … yeah, I know.” Jade smiled. “I do need your help, Eileen.”

  “Sit,” Eileen gestured at the chair, “I’m always used to people talking anyway. It keeps their minds off the fact I have sharp objects near their faces.”

  The Vulpine mystic eased herself into the chair, “I’m not sure how to deal with life. I’m so many different things I don’t know what I am. I’m trying to be a mystic, but with Garnet an you and Rotan … someday … I want to marry HuanJen. I want a family. I think he was too. But I don’t feel like I’m anyone …”

  “You don’t waste time,” Eileen noted pointedly.

  “I don’t have time,” Jade retorted, “Look, ever since that big double date failed … eh, well. What of all these things am I? Apprentice? Lover? Future wife? Future mother? I can’t focus on any of it. Whenever I try it either falls apart or something else intrudes.”

  “So you don’t feel like you’re a ‘you’.”

  “Exactly.” Jade leaned forward. “Exactly. I’d talk to Huan, but he’s all wrapped up in a case … and I’m not sure.”

  “He’d be best for the mystical things, Jade.” Eileen stated the obvious. In her experience it was very important to do so, so other people could blame you for things they were thinking.

  “No. He’s only the mystical things. Even when he’s not other things, that’s where he’s grounded, and … I don’t understand it right now. I need to talk to someone like you. How do you balance it?”

  “Would you believe I haven’t worried much about it?” Eileen answered quickly.

  Jade thought for a moment. Rotan had become a shaman after a bizarre religious experience after a construction accident that had, incidentally, caused every hair on his body to fall out. Her son still didn’t grasp the fact that what his father did had dangerous levels, even if Rotan was a Zone Cleric and not a street shaman anymore.

  “No, I don’t believe it,” Jade said frankly. Rotan Junior was a supernatural accident waiting to happen.

  “Oh,” Eileen’s face fell, “Usually that works. People talk to me all the time at work.”

  “Yeah, well, you handle some high-class clients,” Jade noted, then sighed, “At least I can share what goes on with HuanJen. You aren’t dealing with what Rotan deals with.”

  “Well, that’s the problem isn’t it?” The beautician asked frankly.

  “Huh?” Jade’s response wasn’t articulate. She couldn’t manager articulate right now.

  “Rotan does his job. I do mine. We work tougher when we do, and when we don’t, we don’t. I make people feel better and look better, he makes people feel better and deals with the supernatural. You and HuanJen, you have no separate parts of your life.”

  “Yeah?” Jade began to feel an answer crawling around her head. Something unpleasant, made of slithering-snake thoughts.

  “How long have you been together?”

  “I …” The apprentice cleric thought, “Year and a half or so. Intimately, less, but … well it worked pretty good.”

  “Yes, and I suspect that with Garnet and other changes, you’re feeling … more separate. That double date idea was completely out of the blue, Jade … why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Huan … part of how he is training me involves meditation. Part of that involves sort of stepping back from yourself so you can see how things are connected, even yourself, even the stepping back. But that’s all gone fuzzy for me. I don’t feel coherent, neither does anything else.”

  Eileen paced a bit. More and more she was reminding Jade of a professor or lecturer than a beautician. The profession of Beautician was not one regarded with disdain, but still this was surprising.

  Another part of Jade’s mind slid into place, and for a moment she was analyzing the culture of Xai again … another fragment-self at work.

  “Rotan and I have everything in its place,” Eileen said frankly, “You had everything in one place. You’re also the kind of person who would wait for something to go wrong.”

  “Probably.” Jade leaned forward, propping her chin up in her hand. “Why don’t I worry about anyone else?”

  “This is personal.” Eileen took a chair from a corner and sat by Jade. “You, Jade, are a hunter. Like Rotan. Like HuanJen. Like Lorne. Your nature is to go and do things. Even if there is something not to do, it will find you. But now you have to share it with someone. Now you have to deal with the fact you chose something … where there are no boundaries. No where to go and you’re trying to go somewhere.”

  “is it difficult, living with Rotan?” Jade asked suddenly. She tried to imagine what it was like being married to Rotan, and drew a huge blank.

  “Sometimes. I’m not a religious person, I wasn’t born here, but he shares with me. He can feel how things are built. He knows gods and spirits and religions. He has a familiar spirit that warned us about the basement leaking. He has fewer boundaries. Sometimes it is difficult.”

  “I have none,” Jade noted, “no boundaries.”

  “I think Jade you’re not trying to find something, I think with all that’s gone on, you want to find your way back to something.”

  “Before the Historian, before it all, but … no, I do’t want to go back. I want to know what kind of life HuanJen and I can have. Will have. I can’t go back, can I?”

  Eileen smiled. It was a pleasant smile. “No one can. I hear a lot of people talk, when I cut their hair, when I tend to them. So many regrets. I don’t have time for regrets, they’re baggage.”

  “I’m going to ram forward. Try and figure it out, I … wish there was a guide. And I’d desperately like to do something not supernatural for awhile.”

  “Let me cut your hair,” Eileen said simply, “I’ll get you some tea and we can do normal. And when it is over . .. you can see.”

  “Sure … did you ever ask questions about you and Rotan?”

  “Yes,” Eileen said frankly, “He was large, somewhat uncouth if very nice, and had an erratic income.”

  “The whole supernatural thing never got into it?”

  Eileen stood, picking up the chair, “You have met my husband. That was surprisingly normal.”

  Jade laughed, leaning back in the chair. “He reminds me of a XWF wrestler.”

  “Really, you should have heard Junior’s suggestion to make some extra money …”

  Jade walked into the apartment she shared with HuanJen, her he
ad full of thoughts, and her long hair somewhat shorter and styled in a way that framed her face. She would have felt attractive except she was to mentally occupied to do so.

  HuanJen sat on the couch, in front of the television. It was an unusual position for him - he rarely watched television, and only kept it for videotapes and visitors. He was wearing a long black robe decorated with Chinese symbols, telling Jade he was probably planning to turn in for bed early.

  “Hello dear!” Huan smiled at her happily, “I … I like the new haristyle.”

  “Really?” Jade felt a moment of odd vanity.

  “Yes,” Huan smiled, standing to greet her, “I have some good news for you as well.”

  “Really?” Jade said distractedly.

  “Yes. Solomon Dell called. He would like to try the double-date with you, I, and his wife. So we can still try it … without the complications of last time.”

  “Dell?” Jade felt herself shifting through a variety of mental states, thoughts shuffled like cards. “Really?”

  Solomon Dell was not Jade’s favorite person, but she did find that he and HuanJen’s odd friendship seemed to comfort them both. He was also, she admitted, a hard worker and he really did seem to care. She realized over time that Dell was a lot like Slate, except even less fun.

  “Well, I haven’t seen him in awhile, and he wanted to see me and be social. I thought it would be nice, you seem to want to … get out more.”

  “Yeah,” Jade said thoughtfully, “That would be nice. How is Eileen?”

  “Fine,” Jade sat on the couch, and looked at the television. It was news, of course.

  “You seem distracted, dear?” HuanJen said in a concerned manner. He sat next to her, placing a hand on her knee. Jade felt a slightly electric current.

  … he was going to try and be seductive. And she wad not exactly in the mood. This was very annoying to her.

  “Oh, just a long day.”

  “Well, anything you need to talk about?”

  “No. I’ll be fine. I’m going to head to bed early.”

  “Really …”

  “And get some sleep. Sorry to disappoint you, loverboy. I’m … going to hit the sack.”

  “I understand.” HuanJen nodded, kissing her on the cheek. “Good night dear.”

  Jade smiled, then rose tiredly and walked towards the hallway leading to the bedroom and bathroom. HuanJen watched her go.

  He paused for a moment, then walked over to the refrigerator, removing a small but elegant vase of flowers from it. The magician-priest looked in the direction of the bedroom, and then the flowers. He shook his head sadly,

  Quietly, with a wan smile on his face, he dropped them into the garbage can, adding a the day’s issue of the Metris Times to cover them.

  It was amazing what people could miss, but sometimes you had to let them miss them.

  April 22, 2001 AD, Xaian Standard Calendar

  Solomon Dell was on the phone.

  He was at home.

  It was a work call.

  He was not happy.

  There was a very simple mathematics of displeasure at work.

  “Then take care of it,” Dell said, pacing around his office. It was supposed to have been a reading room. It had become an office.

  Dell paused, then closed his eyes. “I would rather my personal life be left out of this.”

  More silence. More listening.

  “Jade. No. Jade. Talk to her. Oh, yes, it’s much easier than trying to convince him of anything. Yes, if you do he’ll convince you instead. Yes, talk to her, and kindly leave me out of this.”

  Solomon listened.

  “Well of course he’s not the only one aware of this. We’re doing something that should have been better planned. Yes. Anyway, try Jade. Yes. Thank you, and please, don’t call me at home unless its unavoidable.”

  Dell hung up the phone, cramming it into the cradle on the desk. He shook his head.

  “I can’t even get out of the armor …”

  He began to peel the armor off of his body. It was something like a puzzle box - you had to know the right parts to remove first and when. When you weren’t at your best, it was difficult.

  “Dear?” Dell stopped his work as he head his wife’s voice on the other side of the door.

  “Yes? I had to take that call.”

  “I know.” Marfina Dell walked into the room.

  She was taller than her husband, which wasn’t much of a statistical anomaly. She had luxurious brown hair, and a few green-beaded braids like most native women. She had a sympathetic but serious expression.

  “Work again?”

  “Yes.” Dell was struggling with the back of his armor. Marfina moved quickly to help him.

  “I try not to let work interfere. Anymore.” Solomon said wearily.

  “I know.” Marfina caressed his fine hair. “Well, at least we’re going out with that friend of yours.”

  “Yes …” Dell said distantly, “Yes we are …”

  April 23, 2001 AD, Xaian Standard Calendar

  Jade was watching a pendulum swing over a board that bore simple block letters. It hung from a wooden arch on what was if one looked closely, a shoestring. The fact it was moving on its own didn’t seem to disturb Jade at all.

  “Uh-huh,” Jade wrote a few things down on a small, dog-eared notebook, “And nothing else?”

  The pendulum swung around, first to an ‘N’, then to an ‘O’. Jade nodded.

  “Thanks Alben.” Jade folded up her notebook. “Glad everything’s going well. I think the Brenner kid really likes you.”

  Jade stood up and stretched. She was alone in a very quiet, simply furnished living room. A room designed to be too normal for its own good, which fit the people that lived there. The Brenner’s had moved to Xai, straight into HuanJen’s zone, and gotten a great deal of rude awakenings - starting with discovering the story of their new house being haunted wasn’t a colorful selling point.

  “I’m done!” Jade yelled in no direction in particular. “It’s fine!”

  There was silence.

  “I’m going now, Mrs. Brenner!” Jade added.

  “Thanks.” Came a call from a nearby stairway.

  “I’ll … let myself out,” Jade added, more unsurely.

  With a shrug, Jade folded up the odd divinatory device, and walked out of the house. There was a strange breeze that ruffled her hair, eliciting a smile on her face.

  Alben was one of the Watching Dead, the sentient haunts and specters and ghosts that had over the ages formed their own alliance, really their own Guild. Their alliance with Guild Esoteric and other Guilds was invaluable considering the supernatural situation on Xai.

  And Alben owed Jade, who kept him from getting inappropriately exorcised. Jade was not a person to hold favors over people’s heads, but she was the kind to call them in when needed.

  HuanJen was going to be interested in what she had to say. Something seemed to be up among the dead. Alben was a house-bound spirit, but even he heard things.

  … something tingled around the edge of her awareness.

  “Jade?” The apprentice mystic heard the words. They sounded oddly smeared.

  “Hey, Ahn.” Jade turned around to find Ahn behind her. He was a dark-skinned, young, oriental man who wore orange robes, though in this case he had added a similarly colored coat. A representative of Xai’s patchwork Buddist community, he was known for his supernatural discipline in moving at high speeds.

  “Hello,” Ahn smiled, “I’m glad I caught you.”

  “Let me guess, I’m not going to be glad you caught me.” Jade asked.

  Ahn grinned sheepishly. “Crone Harkness wants to see you immediately.”

  Jade crossed her arms. “Why?”

  “She just asked me to get you,” Ahn said.

  “Emphasis on you,” Jade said pointedly, “She knows I’d listen to you.”

  “Actually I think it was hoped that you’d be sympathetic. Within the next two hours,
Jade. And it’s private.”

  “No HuanJen?”

  There was a pause. Ahn shrugged.

  “I think that’s part of the issue …”

  Crone Harkness didn’t live up to the stereotypes some would expect. “Crone” was used as a respectful term used by some natives for older women in the shamanic profession, but she didn’t look old.

  Even in her fifties, she appeared young - her hair had started to go gray, but she still styled it in long, flowing locks. She was athletic and was known to work out almost as much as Caridnal Byrd.

  And she … radiated.

  Some members of the spiritual profession, in Jade’s experience, seemed to pick up a kind of charge as they aged, a kind of spiritual static. Harkness seemed to fairly glow with power. It was rather irritating to the Vulpine, and she wasn’t sure why - there was the oddest sense Harkness was about to go off like a bomb.

  She didn’t like Harkness, and chalked it up to “one of those things,” which, she found, was an explanation she used often. There wasn’t anything wrong with Harkness, Jade just didn’t like her. She made her fur stand on end.

  So, she was less than thrilled to be ushered into her office at the Guild Esoteric Guildhall.

  It wasn’t what she’d expected. It more resembled a small museum - knickknacks and fine old wood furniture, bookshelves and strange decorations. It vaguely reminded Jade of the museum Mr. Alexander had built over the years.

  Behind a large desk sat Crone Harkness.

  She wore more muted clothes than most Xaian shamans, an elegant coverall of ranbow colors with a good deal of white. Her long, graying hair was drawn into a ponytail, beaded with large, green beads. She gave an impression of largeness.

  “Jade,” Harkness stood, extending a hand, which Jade shook carefully, “I’m glad you made it. I know things get busy.”

  “They always get busy,” Jade acknowledged, one professional to another, “so . . “

  “So . .” Harkness nodded, looking at her desk for a moment, “How are things with HuanJen?”

  “Fine.” Jade waited for an opportunity to sit, and realized this was not going to be a long conversation, or at least was not indented to be. “Now, what’s the real story?”