Feng Xia stared at the pair before her with a mixture of shock and horror. Joyce was looking decent for once, but between the outfit and the winged-serpent spirit, she looked like a snake charmer had gotten up with a terrible hangover and sent his untrained teenage daughter to perform in his stead, resulting in an impressive 100% injury rate. Spade stared back, looking disgruntled and completely unaffected by whatever was going on next to him.
"Why would you bring that here?" Feng Xia finally managed. And right after Li Peng had predicted she would have a bad day.
"The shrine's back," Joyce said as if that explained a single thing.
"I am aware, thank you, but why did you bring the...spirit here?" Feng Xia gritted out.
"The job was to bring back the shrine, which we did. What you do with the spirit is up to you," Spade said. He lifted the spirit from Joyce's arms and held it out towards Feng Xia. She stared at it.
If Feng Xia slapped him in the face with the spirit, Li Peng would never let her live it down. She could already hear his mocking tone.
"Actually, would you mind waiting for a moment? I would like to confirm something," Feng Xia said. Before they could reply, she whirled on her heel and marched down the hall. She kicked open an office door to her right, greeted by the scowling face of Li Peng.
"You're up," she snapped her fingers at him.
"I'm not, this is your job," Li Peng reminded her. Feng Xia glared at him.
"Well, if you don't want me to ruin the reputation of Jia Xu's students, you had better be up," Feng Xia snapped. Li Peng's expression shifted to a confused frown. He stood up and peeked out the door before hastily sitting down.
"I'll just pretend I didn't see that. I'm not dealing with this," Li Peng said. Feng Xia rounded his desk and started dragging his swivel chair to the door.
"For god's sake!" Li Peng leaped to his feet and glared at her. "Just take it to the Chairman if you don't know what to do!" Feng Xia let out a whine. Li Peng shook his head.
"Not happening," he said firmly. Feng Xia ignored his response, plopping down into the swivel chair and spinning back and forth.
"Guess it's fine if I ruin my reputation then since it'll probably only wreck yours a little," she muttered.
He gave up with a sigh. "I'll make them tea or something, so just go talk to the Chairman, ok? I don't know how to deal with endangered animals either!"
"That's a spirit. Thought you'd know that," Feng Xia shot back. Li Peng stuck out his leg and stopped her from spinning around again.
"I don't care," he said patiently, "Get out." Feng Xia sprung up, shooting a victorious glance at him as she left. She headed towards where Spade and Joyce were waiting expectantly.
"Apologies for the wait. I had to confirm something with my colleague," Feng Xia said. Spade nodded slowly.
"So we're done here?" He made to pass off the spirit again. Feng Xia dodged back.
"I confirmed with my colleague that this warrants the attention of the Chairman, so please wait in his office for a bit, okay?" Feng Xia waved towards the door they had seen her kick open and left before they could respond.
She rushed up the stairwell, annoyance and disbelief fueling her speed. The secretary hurriedly let Feng Xia in at the look on her face. Jia Xu raised her gaze from the files on her desk.
"Feng Xia," Jia Xu greeted. Feng Xia briefly dipped her head in a bow and jumped into her report.
"Chairman. The Flying Dragons have restored the shrine, but they've bought a highly unusual spirit back. They said we didn't tell them to banish it so they didn't, so I wanted to ask your advice."
Jia Xu raised an eyebrow and pulled up the security footage on the screen above her desk. Spade and Joyce entered Li Peng's office, the spirit now hanging precariously from Spade's grip. Feng Xia blanched, watching as the winged-serpent attempted to curl itself around the door handle before Spade yanked it free.
"I can't say I'm surprised," Jia Xu mused. "No shaman in their right mind would attempt banishing something like this alone. I had thought they would be arrogant enough to do so, but I have often thought wrong about them." She didn't look at Feng Xia for a response, seemingly lost in thought.
"Chairman, what is that spirit?" Feng Xia asked, patience ebbing after ten seconds passed without a word from Jia Xu. "I've never read of such a thing in my life. They said it only appeared when a...vibe, they called it, was at its highest in each spot, but that doesn't make sense. There are spirits that can transport from one spot to another, but where did it go in-between with an entire shrine?"
Jia Xu smiled slowly with no hint of pleasure. "That plague spirit was native to the Western Plateaus and has never in recorded history appeared anywhere East of Ningxia province. The mantis-ray spirit was native to the oceans of Northern Japan, and it had shown up in a Canton sewer. That the spirits are amok is clear enough, but what I didn't expect..." she paused to sigh deeply, "May my ancestors protect us. This spirit came over from the Spirit Realm."
Feng Xia felt herself gaping. She quickly shut her mouth, tamping down on the rush of excitement in her chest. Something like this hadn't happened in over a millennium. All the spirits in existence were either native to their world or had been brought over the last time there had been a doorway to the Spirit Realm, and shamans lived by the spirits' energies within a closed cycle.
But the Spirit Realm changed things, it changed things a lot. The Councilwoman side of Feng Xia knew it meant that their chaotic world was about to erupt, but the shaman inside her was excited at the chance to live through history.
There had always been war, and there have always been shamans, and opportunists, and spirits that needed banishing, and rival factions battling for political control. But the Spirit Realm was different. It was an opportunity that people dreamed of, and it was here.
Jia Xu looked at her and smiled. "It's alright to be excited, if I were your age I would surely feel the same." The Chairman held up a hand to stop Feng Xia's protests.
"No need to deny it. After all, I chose you as my student for that very reason. As long as you can balance your passion with your responsibilities, you are still the perfect fit for the Advising Council." Feng Xia nodded nervously, taking Jia Xu's reassurance and warning with a respectful bow.
Jia Xu drew in a deep breath. "The problem is what this will do. The delicate balance we've held on to despite all our ambitions is bound to be shattered, for better or for worse."
Feng Xia gulped. Most of the younger shamans were itching to put down Hengshan and take on the warlords. Taeyun's shamans were just as eager for a fight. Take Pania and her muscles, that woman was literally bench-pressing until an opportunity presented itself for her to physically punch out someone.
Feng Xia watched as Jia Xu shook her head slowly. The Chairman drew in another deep breath and changed her expression to a neutral face. "Call the Flying Dragons here," Jia Xu said lightly as if she hadn't just dropped a bombshell on Feng Xia.
"Yes, Chairman," Feng Xia said. Her head was in a daze as she walked out of the office. 'Well shit,' she thought, vaguely recognizing that she nearly took a wrong turn, 'this would definitely be interesting.'
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Jia Xu smiled as the source of her current headache entered the office. They definitely knew what this was about, and Jia Xu supposed she should even thank them for making it clear to her. The problem is what they intended with this information. She doubted they would keep it from Hengshan Association, given their statement of neutrality. Yet all through history, few who claimed neutrality had been able to resist being dragged them into a fight.
"Chairman," Spade greeted, shifting the spirit to his other arm.
"Thank you for bringing this to our attention and meeting with me on such short notice. First, congratulations and a thank you is in order to the two of you. Feng Xia tells me that the harbor has welcomed back its shrine, a great relief to all its community members," Jia Xu said warmly. Joyce smiled thinly, eyes flickering to the spirit as it twisted itself around Spade's arm.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Thank you," Spade offered. "And what would you prefer to do for the next steps?"
Jia Xu nodded solemnly. "I suppose I'll just cut to the chase then. This spirit hails from the Spirit Realm. I expect banishing it will be no easy task since it would require returning it to its homeworld. From what I understand, there has been no such occurrence in over a millennium, so we may have to examine the possible methods before taking action."
"So a gateway to the Spirit Realm is open?" Spade asked slowly. "I've heard stories about that during my training." Jia Xu nodded, allowing him to feign ignorance for now.
She wondered if they understood the implications. The Spirit Realm had a gateway open, and it was close enough to affect a city with 50 thousand shamans. It practically ensured mutually-assured destruction if she and Taeyun tried to find a way to channel energy from the Spirit Realm.
"For now, finding the gateway is beyond our capabilities given the limited information we have, so our top priority is banishing the winged-serpent spirit," Jia Xu said. Joyce and Spade both stilled slightly, and after a long pause, Spade met her gaze.
"I think we can do that," he said, "if you'll give us a little while to figure it out." Jia Xu wouldn't put it past Mohan's students to actually be capable of it.
"That would be wonderful. We will also pursue an investigation, as to not keep all our eggs in one basket," Jia Xu said. If they failed, she wouldn't be allowing a spirit that had entered her jurisdiction to run loose in the city.
"That's fair," Joyce said, giving her a thumbs up. Spade promptly kicked her in the ankle and she dropped the gesture.
"Thank you, I really appreciate your cooperation on this endeavor," Jia Xu said.
She bid them goodbye, watching as they trekked out, leaving the spirit on her desk. Jia Xu wrapped it in a powerful ward, and brought it to the altar at the innermost corner of her office, placing it within an additional seven layers of wards.
It was a precaution she rarely used, but one she thought she'd be using more. The altar's wards had been one of the few that survived the Flying Dragon's audacious debut, and she hoped it would survive the trials to come.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the most powerful shamans had burned up their own life force to channel abnormal amounts of spirit energy. The destruction had been unimaginable.
Mohan, for one, had decimated almost an entire rebel army before he disappeared. If the gateway to the Spirit Realm was open, any shaman could be as powerful as those individuals had been, and she doubted the country could survive that.
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Spade sighed deeply, nodding at Li Peng as the shaman waved at them from his office. Joyce returned the gesture cheerfully as they walked out. She was nowhere as cheerful beneath her mannerisms.
'Dude, this can't be good,' she sent through the mental link.
'This is bad timing. With that Selva guy looking into Hong Kong, something could uncover itself at this rate.' Spade replied. He glowered darkly as they stepped into the street.
If people start looking for that gateway, they'll figure things out really quickly. Eventually, they'd realize the gateway was walking among them. He supposed he should really be grateful that ancient shamans had been purposefully vague about the "gateway" in their records, or Joyce would be completely and utterly screwed.
'And that thing about banishing, what did she mean that they don't usually send the spirits back?' Joyce was genuinely confused. Spade sighed softly, heading over to the closest vending machine.
'No idea, I don't know much more than the legends say about shamans, or I'd have stopped you from using salt to begin with. But like I said, definitely not the time to tell her we've been sending every spirit back to the Spirit Realm so far.' Spade thwacked the machine.
'Guess I better make it look a little harder then,' Joyce sighed as well. 'I hope they don't start fighting. Or notice anything. I really don't want to be that nuclear warhead that people start a spat fight over.'
Spade elbowed the machine until it spat out two cans of herbal tea.
'You may be right about Kajio, we need an ally who understands the local political arena better than us. He might even know more about shamans than we do, considering how many shamans live and work around the harbor.'
'Damn straight I'm right.' Joyce grabbed her can before Spade could chuck it at her. 'Does that mean we're going to dinner with him? Did I just indirectly get you a date?'
'I don't want a date with him, and if you bring that up one more time, I swear.' He ignored her snicker. 'Also, it's nothing close to a date.'
'Yeah, it is, you're having dinner and drinks with him.' Joyce sounded smug.
'Yes, dinner and drinks. With just me, him, and at least twenty other people.' He looked at her as she nearly choked on her herbal drink with a laugh. He smiled slightly.
"Let's go," he said, turning to head for the harbor.
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The celebration dinner last night had gone as well as it could have, in Kajio's opinion. The half-Persian restaurant owner served up a slew of dishes that ranged from British breakfast items to stewed chicken feet, with no identifying theme beyond going well with alcohol, and Joyce had demonstrated her aptitude for underage drinking with a vengeance. Kajio rubbed at his temples with a wry grin.
"The sign says legal age is eighteen," one of the dockworkers had teased her.
"Bold of you to assume I can read," Joyce had shot back.
Before they each went their own way to stumble home, Spade had tugged lightly on Kajio's sleeve. "We need to talk," Spade had whispered, serious and completely sober. Alarm bells had gone off inside Kajio's head like someone had set off the smoke detector with burnt curry.
Kajio checked his phone for any messages from Selva. Nothing, but that was hardly unusual. The man would disappear for days on end when he was investigating, and people familiar with him knew to take the radio-silence as a representation of Selva's work ethic rather than a sign that he was in need of extraction.
'Come on Selva, I really need that information now.'
As a non-shaman, Kajio needed to rely on instincts and information to survive in Canton. Which was how he knew that whatever was in Hong Kong, it was important. When he arranged for the Flying Dragons to see Selva off, he had confirmed that.
For someone who could remember street-vendors she had met in passing, Joyce hadn't shown any sign of recognizing Selva. They were trying not to set off a deeper investigation then, Kajio had concluded. So he had specifically requested Selva to dig as deep as possible.
He pulled up Spade's phone number and began composing a message.
'How are you feeling after last night?'
A reply sprung up on his screen almost immediately.
'Fine, how about you?'
Kajio blinked. That was fast.
'Also fine. Last night you said you wanted to talk? Did you have a time in mind?'
'At your earliest convenience.'
Kajio felt an ominous feeling in his gut. Whatever Selva was looking for, he'd better find it quickly.
'Want to meet for lunch at my place at 12?' Kajio sent after glancing at the clock.
'Sure, we'll bring you some fruit.'
'Sure, see you then.' Kajio set down his phone and sighed deeply.
They arrived promptly at 12, Spade balancing a fruit basket on his hip with one hand, keeping the other free for his sword. It was the first time Kajio had seen both of them in casual clothes, and Spade was much more muscular than the robes let on. It explained his stabbing abilities.
Kajio let them in and accepted back the dry-cleaned clothes Joyce had borrowed from Leila. An unexplained tension hung thick in the air, a growing sense of impatience from both sides rendering the air as choking as an inordinately dry chunk of bread.
"So what did you want to talk about?" Kajio asked as they settled down to eat, purposefully keeping his voice calm. Spade put his chopsticks down without having taken a single bite.
"I'll get straight to the point if that's alright with you," he said. Upon Kajio's nod, he continued, "As you might have noticed, the spirit responsible for the shrine was very...unusual." Kajio nodded again. Spade fought to find his words for a second before giving up and going for it.
"That was because it came from the Spirit Realm. A gateway to the Spirit Realm is open, and it is somewhere very close to Canton," Spade said with an air of resignation.
Kajio gulped. Well, shit. He really needed an evacuation plan. "Is that why you came here?" He watched carefully as Spade nodded, and decided to make a bolder move.
"Is it related to what happened a month ago in Hong Kong?"
Spade's eyes flashed with anger as he moved for his sword. Kajio jumped out of his seat and reached for his gun.
"Spade, wait! Kajio, listen, the situation is pretty complicated, alright? I'm not going to lie, it is related to Hong Kong, but also I'm not just gonna spew out everything that happened right now. The thing is, we need you." Joyce tugged on Spade's arm insistently.
"Joyce," Spade hissed, but allowed her to pull him back into his seat. Kajio slowly lowered himself into the chair as well, adrenaline still buzzing excitedly in his ears.
"You need me? I can't say I understand what you would need me for," Kajio replied. A flurry of thoughts sped through his mind.
He'd never expected her to admit it straight up or that they would be the ones to propose an alliance. And if there was a gateway open and they were involved, Kajio couldn't see a single way this could end well.
Joyce stared at him with a completely serious expression. It almost looked creepy on her.
"Lemme just put it out there, that unless you can shoot me dead right here and now, you can't get us to stay out of the clusterfuck that's about to go down."
She ignored Kajio as his jaw dropped.
"But if this thing's going down, we need someone who can help us make the right decisions. Let's just say it this way- if I fuck up too much this whole city will look like Godzilla stomped through it, and I'm not too politically minded either. The only politics I'm familiar with is the whole dirty business with earmarking, lobbying, and racist rhetoric, and Spade's a bit out of the loop as well. That's why we wanted to ask for your help."
She stopped to breathe, Spade looking at her with a chagrined expression. Kajio watched her silently, with no idea how to respond.
"I think your guy Selva's going to find what he's looking for, and I think he's going to find it soon. That's why I wanted to let you know our intentions beforehand, so you can think about it when you get your answers," Joyce said. She sighed. "Anyways, weather's great today."
The heavy rain pattering on the windows seemed to lull briefly in response. They sat awkwardly, Spade and Kajio still eyeing each others' weapons.
"I don't know what to say," Kajio said honestly, "If you two would be willing to wait a bit for my decision..."
Spade nodded slowly, the steely glint still in his eyes. The muscles in his arms were taut, ready to pull out the sword at any moment.
"We apologize for being so abrupt, and we would hardly force you to make a choice now. Please just remember that we will not screw you over, so we'd strongly prefer you to honor the codes of reprisal." Spade shifted his weight a little, and the air around him seemed to grow colder. "After all, we all have the freedom of choice, but not that of consequence."
"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind," Kajio said, trying to ignore the thinly veiled threat.
'Don't screw us over or I'll run you through with a sword,' was essentially what the shaman was promising. Spade's muscles suddenly seemed a lot less attractive. Spade stood up and bowed his head slightly.
"Thank you for your time today, we will take our leave now," he said. Joyce got up from her chair, untangling her flip-flop from the table legs and waved at him as they left.
Kajio stared blankly at the now-empty room until his phone rang with an incoming message. He opened it to see a wall of text from Selva.
He read it with a growing sense of nausea before he dropped the phone onto the table and turned his despairing glance to the ceiling.
"Shit," he groaned. This was the worst scenario.