Tides of Empire

by C. S. Harte

  “Master…” Ren was unable to find words of comfort to finish his sentence.

  “Do not be sad for me. I have lived a productive life.”

  “I wasn’t…” Ren swallowed his words.

  “Many have told me about the sharpness of your mind. But you have doubts about our Order and purpose.”

  Ren nodded.

  “We will never defeat the gifteds. Not entirely,” Master Tsai said matter-of-factly.

  Ren’s jaw dropped.

  “That is not our goal. It never was. The Jin-song exist as a balancing force. We can never rid the world of all gifteds as they can never rid the world of opposition to their powers. There will be times when one side seems more in control than others, but the pendulum eventually swings back the other way. Trust this 225 year-old-man. It always does.”

  “Master, does that mean no matter what we do, nature will find a way to balance the gifteds by itself?”

  “Every life in this universe has a purpose. Nature is only in harmony if we each fulfill our life’s intentions.”

  The tension in Ren’s shoulder suddenly released. Ren nodded without saying a word.

  “You have many questions which is reasonable. Understand that answers do not always come when needed. They come in due time. Have patience in your heart.”

  “Thank you, Master.” Ren bowed.

  Master Tsai placed his palm on Ren’s scalp. “I have a different list for you.” He handed him a small, rolled-up piece of paper.

  Ren took it without looking at the contents and left the class. He stopped in the stairwell to look out the window. Again, he watched the hand-to-hand practice, paying close attention to Crystal. The day after he passed his Kaoshi, Ren and Crystal agreed to be Huoban. He looked forward to their Jiameng ceremony, where they would formalize their partnership. At that point, until the day they die, they would be each other’s Huoban. Their success and failures viewed as one.

  At least, that was the plan. Ren figured he and Crystal would be able to spend more time together now that they’re both Luse in the Jin-song Order. With their focus on different disciplines, they hardly had time to see each other. Their day consisted of 16 hours of training with four 30 minute breaks for eating, showering, and bathroom time, which left only six hours for sleep and recovery.

  The Jin-song suffered heavy losses over the past five years. Gifteds seemed able to detect the presence of Jin-song Warriors despite their training to block the mind scans of mentally-talented gifteds.

  As if psychic, Crystal looked up into the window where Ren stood. She waved and smiled at him.

  He returned the wave even as a heavy feeling filled his stomach, and an unpleasant thought entered his mind. How many of the 100 Luse below would die next year? Ren stepped away from the window but didn’t notice a girl walking behind him carrying a large jar of a sepia-colored liquid. His arm clipped hers. The lid jostled and she spilled a few drops of the substance on his shirt. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” Ren blurted.

  “No, I’m sorry!” She hastily retorted. “You’re going to want to change your shirt right away!”

  “Why? What…” A hostile scent assaulted Ren’s nose. “What is that?” He pinched his nostrils closed.

  “Concentrated dragon carp extract.” She winced.

  “It’s so vile!”

  “I’m so sorry!” She stepped backward.

  “No, it’s my fault. I have to go.” He ran down the stairs and into the open air. The smell only seemed to intensify.

  On the way toward his dorm, Ren saw Crystal walking a parallel path across the grassy courtyard. Meng was with her. Their fingers interlocked with each other as they walked. At that moment, Ren felt a dagger pierce his chest. He stopped and stared at them, forgetting that he was a walking stink bomb.

  Crystal turned around and said something to Meng. He laughed at whatever she said to him. Their mouths mirrored each other in a smile. Ren saw a connection he didn’t know existed or at least one he wished didn’t. In some ways, it would have been better for Ren not to have seen the shared chemistry between his future Huoban and Meng. Unable to process his sadness, he pretended not to have seen them and began jogging away. He slowed when he heard a patter of footsteps closing behind him.

  “Hey! Ren!” Crystal’s voice reached out liked a hook, stopping him in his tracks. “Wait up!”

  Ren turned around and forced his lips to smile. It occurred to him that the interaction was innocuous. Just two friends sharing a private joke. A private, probably intensely intimate, very funny joke. But why HIM? Why couldn’t it have been anyone but him? His smiled faded. And why were they holding hands?

  “How was your…” She pinched her nostrils shut. “Wow! You really stink!” Crystal slowly backpedaled.

  Ren tried to fan away the smell with his sketchbook. “Yeah. I had an accident I guess.” Unable to keep eye contact with her, he glanced down at his feet. “I have to change.” Without a goodbye, Ren spun around and continued walking.

  Crystal ran to him and pulled his shoulder, forcing him to spin around. “Ren, what’s wrong? Everything OK?”

  He sighed. “Could we sit? Or do you have to be somewhere… with Meng?”

  “We have evening training. Tonight we’re practicing with halberds. But it’s dinner time, and I’m not that hungry.”

  Ren shook his head. “No, you should go eat. We’ll talk later.” He ran away leaving a confused look on her face.

  “See you later, Ren!” She yelled as he ran around the corner.

  He stopped behind a tree. His heart pounded out of his chest as he waited for Crystal to leave his vision. I feel like I can’t talk to her anymore. The more important the words I have, the harder it is for me to say them. Ren covered his face with his hands. There was a second feeling rolling around in his stomach. He recognized it from when his brother died.

  Dread.

  Ren couldn’t shake the sensation that something horrible would eventually happen to Crystal. Why do I keep feeling like this when I see her?

  5

  Chi Philters

  Ren carried two clear flasks as he made his way to the training grounds. One flask contained an opaque cerulean liquid that glowed whenever the contents inside stirred. The other was scarlet red, the color of fire and anger.

  A year ago, Master Tsai gave Ren a list of ingredients for a new type of Chi Philter, one that was a vast improvement over the previous iteration, and one that could potentially shift the balance of power in favor of the Jin-song. Ren toiled day and night for the past few months refining and perfecting the new solution.

  In doing so, he spent less time with Crystal who in turn spent more time with Meng. Ren hoped the new Chi Philters worked as intended, lasting longer than previous versions with fewer side effects. He also hoped on some level, his work would impress Crystal and perhaps reverse the sharp decline between him and his Huoban.

  As he turned a corner, he saw Crystal and Meng practicing their hand-to-hand form in the center of the soccer field-sized, dirt-covered training area. He hid behind a tree and watched their interactions, looking for clues to suggest they could possibly be something more but at the same time, wished to find nothing instead. They were completely in-sync, down to the movements of their fingers. Ren’s stomach began to twist.

  Crystal waved at him.

  Ren pretended to examine something on the ground and continued toward his classmates.

  “So these are Chi Philters,” Meng said with wide eyes.

  Crystal reached for the blue flask. “It’s so cold,” she said as she placed one hand underneath the glass. “This is from a Cryomancer isn’t it?”

  Ren nodded. “I’m testing a new stabilizing solution. This new formula should increase the Chi potential of the harvested cells while also reducing unwanted negative effects such as dizziness, vertigo, and loss of motor control.”

  “I don’t understand half of what you said, but are you sure this is safe?” Meng asked.

  “I’ve
been working with Master Tsai on this for almost a year. It’s a breakthrough and something I’m quite proud of, if I do say so myself.” Ren smiled.

  “It’s safe.” Crystal winked at Meng. “Ren is a Chuji now, the youngest person ever to become a Chuji in Alchemy. He wouldn’t give me something that’s dangerous. Right, Ren?”

  “We’ve already been using this in missions with the Jibie upperclassmen. It's still in the testing phase, but it’s safer than past Chi Philters.”

  Meng reached for the red flask in Ren’s hands.

  “Careful, it’s hot.” Ren released the flask into Meng's eager palms.

  Crystal and Meng twisted off the rubber caps at the same time.

  “Drink it fast! It’s not going to taste good.” Ren chuckled.

  Meng gave Crystal a sideways glare.

  She nodded at him.

  They downed the contents of the flasks in big gulps.

  Crystal wrapped her arms around her body as she shivered and heaved frosted breaths. “I feel so cold.”

  A small flame shot out of Meng’s mouth as he belched. “I feel sick.” He wiped the beading sweat from his forehead.

  “Give it a few seconds.” Ren smiled.

  Crystal brought her hand up to her face. Her arm turned a pale white and emitted a turquoise glow. “What’s happening to me?” Sapphire flames danced around her fingers as she wiggled them.

  Meng’s arm up to his elbow glowed a crimson red. Yellow and orange fire swirled around his hand in a continuous stream.

  “Follow me, please,” Ren said as he headed toward the target range where bamboo dummies stood on wooden poles. He pointed at the first dummy and said to Crystal, “You first.”

  “What… What do I do?” She squished her eyebrows together.

  “Well, I’ve never taken Chi Philters myself, but in watching the Jibies, they reach their arms out and open their palm like this.” Ren demonstrated the hand position to his Huoban.

  Crystal mimicked his motion. Her hand briefly flashed an icy blue color, but nothing happened.

  “The instructors say to think of Chi as an extension of your physical body. With it, you can go beyond your corporeal limits. Reach for the dummy believing that you can, even though you’re standing ten feet away.”

  She scrunched her face as she tried to comply with Ren’s directions. White sparks of light twinkled around her open palm, transforming into snowflakes as the glow faded. Still, no magic beam. “I… I don’t know if I’m doing it right.”

  “Let me try,” Meng said as he stepped forward and held out his right arm. He closed his eyes and began to growl as the fire in his hand surged in size and intensity.

  Ren and Crystal moved away from him as the heat radiating from his body began feeling uncomfortable.

  After several loud grunts, a stream of fire gushed out of his palm, billowing as it neared the dummy, engulfing the bamboo target in an inferno. “Whoa…” Meng’s mouth dropped.

  “Whoa,” Crystal repeated. She looked at him, and together they roared with laughter. “OK. My turn! My turn!”

  Meng stared at his arm, watching his fist open and close. “I pictured my hand reaching out and crushing the target. The more I squeezed, the more heat I felt, the more I could feel the dummy in my palm.”

  Crystal nodded. She faced the second dummy. Her eyes closed.

  “You don’t have to try too hard,” Meng said from behind her. “You know you can do it, so just do it.”

  “I can do it,” she whispered to herself. A cloud of frost formed around her as indigo flames whirled around her arm. In the next moment, a solid beam of white and blue light burst from her palm, completely freezing the dummy in a thick block of ice. “I did it!” Crystal shouted and jumped in the air.

  Meng and Ren clapped and cheered.

  The first person Crystal turned toward was Meng. Their arms coiled around each other in an ecstatic embrace. The blue and red flames on their hands weaved together in a ballet of fire and ice.

  Without realizing it, Ren took three steps backward. There were two groups of people in the training grounds. Crystal and Meng were together as one. Ren stood alone in his corner. He smiled with them, or rather, at them. It was his formula that gave them their new abilities, but somehow he didn’t picture himself in their happiness. He wanted to impress Crystal, to pull her closer to him, but it seemed he pushed her toward someone else instead.

  Ren’s mind began to wander. He pictured them getting married, having children, and Crystal falling further and further away from him. His smile faded. Ren's eyes darted away from the couple, unable to continue looking.

  “Ren. Ren? Ren!” Crystal waved her icy hands in front of him. She grazed his shoulder.

  Dense sheets of ice formed on his shoulder. Ren howled in pain and dropped to the ground. “My… My bag. Healing Cordial,” he said, fighting through the agony to speak.

  Meng quickly grabbed a green vial from Ren’s backpack. He ripped off the cap and handed it to Ren who downed the viscous liquid in one gulp.

  “I’m so sorry, Ren… I didn’t mean…” Crystal fumbled her words.

  A white light washed over Ren’s shoulder, melting the mini-glacier on his torso, and healing his frostbitten wound. In a minute, the tension had faded from Ren’s face as did all the pain from his injury. Ren slowly pushed himself up. “It’s OK. I’m fine.”

  Her eyes began to tear as her lips quivered. “I don’t understand. How could I touch Meng and not you?”

  “You can turn your Chi abilities on and off.” Ren looked underneath his shirt. White foam fizzled around his injury, a by-product of the Healing Cordial pushing out damaged cells. “You’ll be able to control it better with more practice.”

  Meng offered Ren a hand. The crimson-glow was no longer a part of his arm.

  Ren accepted the help and got up. He stared into Crystal's eyes. “I’m fine. Please, it’s OK.”

  She hugged him. “I’m so sorry.”

  Ren covered his face with a mask of smiles and forgiveness, hiding his pain and sadness. “I know you didn’t mean it.” He unwrapped her arms around him. “I should get changed and washed up. But keep practicing. This new and improved Chi Philter lasts up to five times as long as the previous version.” Ren began walking away.

  “Take care, man,” Meng said and waved.

  “I’m sorry!” Crystal shouted as Ren picked up speed.

  After some distance, Ren stopped and looked back. Meng and Crystal returned to the dummy area holding hands.

  A cold shiver traveled throughout his body. He felt as if the wound on his shoulder re-opened. His lungs burned like he had forgotten how to breathe. A dull ache spread across his chest. Ren wondered if his heart was still beating. It took all his strength to make it to a bench. He buried his head in his hands as he sat down. “When? How did I lose her?” Ren muttered to himself. Without realizing, a chasm seemed to have formed between himself and his Huoban, threatening to divide them forever if he couldn’t find a way to bridge the gap.

  A murder of bloodravens landed on the tree next to Ren. He looked up and exhaled a single word, “No…” As a child, Ren’s mother instilled in him that bloodravens were a bad omen. A sickening feeling filled his stomach. Without hesitation, he picked himself up and ran toward Master Tsai.

  6

  Ambush

  The path to Master Tsai’s laboratory took Ren past the Kunlun Angel Steps Portal. ASPs were mystical doorways allowing the Jin-song to travel quickly from one point to another, like a spiritual rail system with stops in thousands of locations worldwide. Only gifteds with the Planeswalking Chi talent could access them. Song Yingxing, a Jin-song scientist from the 16th century, isolated a genetic marker that activated ASPs, suggesting that ancient gifteds created ASPs. A hundred years later, another Jin-song scientist discovered a way to vaccinate Warriors to carry the ASP marker allowing anyone inoculated to use ASPs without needing the Planeswalking talent.

  There was a gathering of peop
le around the Kunlun ASP — dozens of Warriors with severe burns, gashes, and bloodied faces. Ren watched as more exited the portal on stretchers. He approached a Jibie barking orders.

  The Jibie looked at Ren. “You there, alchemist.” Alchemist students were easily identified by their green school uniforms. “We need Healing Cordials, as many as you can get!”

  Ren reached into his pack and gave the Jibie his remaining Healing Cordials. “Yes, Senior.” He sprinted to the alchemy lab where he saw Master Tsai organizing a cluster of students in the production of a new batch of Healing Cordials while another group prepared finished cordials for transport.

  Master Tsai waved at Ren to come over. “The White Lotus has attacked us in Hong Kong, taking out most of the Warriors there. I’m afraid our base there is lost.”

  Ren grabbed his head. “No…” A disaster such as this shouldn’t be possible. Jin-song bases had numerous precautions to prevent such catastrophes. He gave his teacher a blank stare.

  “There will be plenty of time for questions and mourning. We must help who we can still save.” Master Tsai pointed at the empty workstation and instructed Ren to help.

  Ren worked through the night, fighting exhaustion. He only stopped when Master Tsai forced him to go home. The events of the day haunted his dreams as he slept. Ren kept replaying the image of Crystal’s fingers wrapped around Meng’s. Her icy blue flames entwined with his scarlet fire. The thought continued to spread like a wildfire in his mind, one he had no hope of controlling.

  Sleep proved the exception on most nights for Ren, ever since he passed his Kaoshi. He sat at his desk and began drawing his thoughts in his sketchbook. One image in his mind showed more vividly than others, a memory of Crystal from when they were fourteen. They sat next to each other in the library while studying for an exam. Her head perfectly aligned against the light of a lamp, cast a warm halo around her profile. Ren’s mind captured every detail of that moment, remembering the position of each strand of hair. His heart ached as he gazed at the glow. He knew he loved her then, but could not speak the words. Ren continued drawing till his eyes closed and he fell asleep on his sketchbook.