Xifeng noted a new addition to the front of the Fess-T-Burger on Neu Holgaard. A brand new, almost two-meter-wide statue of a Big Festus sat there. On the ground in front of it was a bronze plaque stating that a “super-fan” had made the sculpture. It was a meter-and-a-half tall, and each part had been lovingly carved out of the rock by a precision tool that made an almost perfect replica of the single patty burger with onions, pickles, cheese, and sauce. In addition, it had been airbrushed and lacquered and looked almost lifelike.
Nine-and-a-half-year-old Mei Ming was sitting on the burger statue, almost glowing in happiness. She was kicking her legs and making a V symbol with fingers on both her hands as Xifeng went to take her picture with his dataslate. She was wearing blue overalls and colorful sneakers and had her hair in twin pigtails.
“Together!” Xifeng said in Sidhe accented GmbH German. Mei Ming gave a bright, happy smile as there was a click on the dataslate. He looked at it, “Oh, this is a good one!” He showed it to a very pretty late teen elf girl that was almost his height.
She looked at it and nodded, her long tresses falling around her shoulders. They were dressed similarly, in cargo pants and generic shirts with appropriately famous bands. Her clothes were more colorful than his, but you could tell they shopped at the same stores. “Yeah, that was a good one, I guess,” she replied in the same GmbH German, this time without an accent, sounding somewhat bored.
He’s acting the part well, Xifeng thought as he examined Xi Yong’s new look that had taken a week of biomantic sessions to make. They had both been stressed for a while as he removed several centimeters of height from his brother’s favorite spy and modified his body to resemble a college girl.
The days had been stressful for them both as Xifeng sculpted Xi Yong’s body with biomancy. There had been a few nights when Xi Yong had punched him after a session, and who could blame him? The biosculpting was excruciating. Mei Ming’s mother was the only mage in their cell with any biomancy. She wasn’t very good at biomantic anesthetics and couldn’t do a full body redo like Xifeng. Nevertheless, he had done a good job as far as he was concerned. There was no pain after the procedures, and Xi Yong looked exactly like he had wanted to.
My brother is going to blow a gasket, but I wasn’t going to sculpt Xi Yong to look masculine, especially after he begged me not to, Xifeng thought as he handed Mei Ming’s dataslate back to her.
“Shinyue! Shinyue! I look cute, don’t I?” Mei Ming said as she hopped up and down with her dataslate showing the picture off. That was the name Xi Yong was using as her cover here. Er, his.
Xifeng smiled to himself. I’ll fall into the same habits as my brother, he thought. They really should just get married. It was an open secret that the Commander and Subcommander were deeply in love with one another. The only ones that wouldn’t admit it were the two in question.
Wuying had personally led an assault on a prisoner transport that was moving Xi Yong between one of the four prisons he was shuffled between. Of course, his presence wasn’t required there, but he had insisted on rescuing such a “valuable asset” himself. The Strong Ant fellow had gotten the schedule for the prison transfer for them but was sad to have been informed that ‘Carolyn’ had been reassigned and he had a new handler.
Xi Yong had been smuggled into Neu Holgaard three weeks ago when The Brisbane had sent one of its ship’s boats to a lesser-used maintenance dock on the bottom of the sky island. From there, they had brought him in through the maze of corridors, old facilities, and former mining tunnels to the bottom of the Pan’s restaurant. The spy had needed healing from long-term damage that had happened on Edelweiss and further injuries sustained in captivity. Unfortunately, the wounds had never been properly healed by a biomancer.
There were also magical scars on him from where he had overloaded himself that night. This was compounded when they placed cuffs and a collar on him that rerouted his magic back into him if he tried to use any mana above their absorptive capacity. In addition, almost three years of constant wear had damaged Xi Yong’s mana channeling. The biomantic surgery took most of the time Xifeng had been with him, and it was both tedious and painful.
If I hadn’t known what his mana had felt like before the scarring, I couldn’t have done reconstructive surgery on his mana channels, and he wouldn’t have been able to cast Sidhe elemental magic correctly anymore. It was awful what they put him through, but they are our enemies, he thought as he looked Xi Yong over. He was talking like a young co-ed and getting along with Mei Ming well, chatting and acting a little aloof but happy to be with a younger sister or cousin. Nevertheless, there was a bit of sadness in the back of Xi Yong’s eyes.
Xifeng attributed this depression to Wuying not staying with them during the procedure. Wuying called every night and didn’t want to be seen as doting on his junior officer, so he told Xifeng to not inform Xi Yong. Fortunately, he hadn’t seen fit to obey that directive and had told Xi Yong how his brother worriedly called about him every night. This had kept up his morale and led to today’s outing to the Fess-T-Burger.
He had gone to a few places with Mei Ming in the three years he had trained with her father. Xifeng’s animal control had grown much stronger, so he didn’t have to concentrate on having a minimal hold on several of the more willful creatures. Pan Xuefeng had said that he was a prodigy and was rather annoyed that Xifeng would have only been fit as a stable keeper or an animal caretaker, like himself, under the old Imperial system. Xifeng had found that his abilities for scouting and battle were rather strong once he had been able to control dozens of animals. Even on that ill-fated night on Edelweiss, when he had less control than now, he had shown his potential.
The training sessions with Pan Xuefeng were long in the mornings, where Xifeng would control many of the doves his trainer kept. The birds were invaluable spies and informants. He had even worked out a two-way communication system with the teens with whom Mei Ming was friends so that their activities went unnoticed. Even now, he had about five of the birds around the area, making sure that Xi Yong hadn’t been recognized. However, the sessions with the few larger animals they kept in the bowels of the Island drained him considerably. Nevertheless, Xifeng had always found being around Mei Ming to be soothing after a long session. The girl seemed spiritually radiant, and just being near her had an uplifting effect.
“Brother Xifeng! Brother Xifeng!” Mei Ming said excitedly as she patted the burger statue. “This feels like Golden Cat!”
He put his hand on his forehead as if in pain. Her one annoying trait was referring to the restaurant’s gold-colored money-bringing cat statue as if it were alive.
“Mei Ming…” he started slowly.
Mei Ming held up a finger and said, “It has the same psychic feeling. We learned about it in my extra afterschool class at the Guild.”
“Ah,” he began. “Well, maybe it was made in the same place?” Xifeng offered.
It was a bit of a painful reminder that his magic tutelage had done nothing to help her because the adorable child had no magic in her at all. Her father had confided in him that it had hurt him deeply when she brought home the letter from her teacher and the Navigator’s Guild. Apparently, her sunny illusionary light “magic” had been constructs held in place with psychokinesis. Mei Ming was the first known child of the True People that had been born with psionic abilities rather than their magical birthright. However, she was not only gifted in psychokinesis but also had tested high in divination, clairvoyance, psychometry, and empathy. As such, they offered her a full scholarship to Navigator’s Guild College after graduating from high school. She was now attending beginning psionic classes after school to prepare for some of the coursework.
“Maybe, Brother Xifeng!” she said brightly. Mei Ming shrugged and hugged the hamburger statue. Xifeng swore he saw some of the rare Hurricane glowing golden fireflies swirl around her for a moment. But he blinked, and they were gone.
“Brother Xifeng?” Xi Yong asked in a whisper in his ear.
Flicking his ear up and blushing as he backed away, Xifeng tried to regain composure. “Er, well, it’s like calling you ‘Auntie.’” Xi Yong gave him a hateful glare for a moment. He laughed nervously, “Which I’d never do! You’re much too young, Sister Shinyue! Ah-ha-ha!”
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Xi Yong nodded at the appropriate use of his cover name and gender. “Ah, then it’s vanity,” he said. “ Brother Xifeng,” he whispered huskily into Xifeng’s ear. The man blushed again.
“You can call me that when you get married to Wuying,” he stated and walked over to Mei Ming. “Let’s get some burgers!” he cheered with the child.
Xi Yong blushed red all over his face and ears, standing there embarrassed and pressing his long pink nails into his fists. He looked rather pretty as he worked his lip-glossed mouth in embarrassment, trying to find a rebuke. “H..hey! It’s not like that!” he called after Xifeng as he and Mei Ming headed into the restaurant.
Twenty minutes later, they sat in the restaurant’s rather noisy dining room. The faux wood table that held their food was in full view of the animatronic characters cavorting around the mountain hometown of Festus in song and dance. They were enhanced with holographics and minor illusion magics to make them seem rather lifelike. Mei Ming had eaten her food and had run to jump into a large pool filled with colorful plastic balls. It had been empty not five minutes prior because all the balls had been sucked into an automatic cleaning cycle that began once every hour while the Festy Singers were on stage with their show that was timed to coincide. Xifeng thought it was rather ingenious and kept things hygienic while distracting the children.
Xi Yong had just daintily finished his Festus Jr and wiped his mouth. Then, the feminine man kicked Xifeng's leg under the table and leaned in closer, “Brother Xifeng,” he said through a rather fake smile.
“Yes, sister dear?” he replied with a tiny pained smile.
“Putting aside my relationships,” Xi Yong said. “When will I be getting back home?”
He wants to know when he can see Wuying again, he thought. “You can ask him tonight when he calls after your shift at the restaurant,” Xifeng replied. “Maybe you can wear the blue qipao with the phoenixes. It looks pretty good on you, I think.”
“Oh, are you falling for me?” Xi Yong said elbows on the table and chin cupped in his palms as he batted his eyelashes at Xifeng.
Xifeng rolled his eyes, “I’m your doctor. Besides, I have no time for romance with my training.” Especially with my brother’s crush. That’d be a one-way ticket to an early grave. “And you already have Wu… Ow!” He pulled back his foot that Xi Yong had stomped on rather hard. Then, rubbing his pained appendage, he stared at Xi Yong, the feminine man’s arms crossed and looking away in a combination of mad and pouting. He’s going to be a cute aunt, he thought.
Changing the subject, Xifeng said, “Well, um, how are your mana channels feeling?”
Xi Yong looked at him from the side and said, “They’re fine. I don’t need any more pain inflicted on me.” He sniffed, “Besides, I learned some standard League magic that didn’t set off the cuffs while I was there.”
Xifeng blinked. This was news to him. “Oh, which kinds? I thought the cuffs would get you if you used any magic?”
A pained look came across Xi Yong’s face, but he hid it well. “It did for anything below a certain threshold and above another. Our people’s magic was at the frequency it really attacked at. But I caught a few prisoners using light or healing spells at night, and I… I learned from them.”
Xifeng looked the feminine man over and saw a dead look in his eyes when he said that and decided to not pursue it. Something horrible must have been done as payment for those skills. “So, you have more schools than before now?”
“Yes, I have been able to expand to several of the League standard schools, mainly Evocation, Illusion, a little Transmutation, and very minor Biomancy,” he said quietly. There was a long pause as Xi Yong stared at the idle cycles of the Festus Singers. It was getting awkward when Xi Yong suddenly broke the silence.
He switched to his native tongue, “I couldn’t complete my mission, and I was captured. I’ve disgraced the Jǐnyīwèi.” He swallowed, tears welling up in his eyes. “I need to practice more. I need to get stronger.” Then, trembling, he started to cry. “I can’t lose again like I did before. I can’t fail Wuying again.” The feminine man shook as if that were the worse failure.
Xifeng slid over, put his arms around Xi Yong, and held him, patting him on the back. The smaller man turned and cried into his shoulder. “That was a horrible night,” Xifeng said in the same dialect, stroking Xi Yong’s back soothingly.
“Why didn’t you come for me!” Xi Yong whispered, quiet and hoarse. “Why did you leave me?” he gripped Xifeng with his long nails digging into his arms as he began to sob.
Xifeng knew this wasn’t directed at him but at his brother. “I know, I know,” he said reassuringly. “We thought you were dead. Wuying was inconsolable for days,” he said quietly. A few people were looking over at them, and he smiled sadly in response. “It’s the anniversary of her mother’s passing. She’s just taking it hard,” he said just loud enough in standard GmbH German for the people closest to him to hear. They went back to their food but kept an eye on them.
“We found out you were alive a few months later, and he was ready to just go in and rescue you then, but we didn’t have enough people,” Xifeng whispered and stroked Xi Yong’s hair again. “I helped him plan it on the few nights he was here. If we had gone after you while you were in prison, there’s a high probability that both of you would have died. We feared that the Jǐnyīwèi would have died with you.”
He shivered at the thought. Xi Yong was about to be rotated to a particular prison on the Island of Sarigan in the Northern Marianas. The place had a horrible reputation primarily due to its warden, a human woman named Vishi. The few Sidhe released from there told tales of her megalomania and obsession with protecting her ‘domain.’ She had the reputation of never letting any prisoner escape, even if she had to kill them with her own hands. If they had attacked there, Xi Yong would have likely ended up dead before being rescued.
Xi Yong looked up at him in confusion, “What do you mean that the Jǐnyīwèi would have died without us?”
“We’ve just been doing poorly without you,” Xifeng said quietly. “Wuying locked himself in his cabin for a week afterward, and he was speaking to someone who wasn’t there. The organization seemed to just coast while he was in there. No one did anything beyond the basics after I was put here for training.”
He sighed, “They returned to doing things after he came out. But they were a shadow of their former selves. He has grown odd in the time I’ve been here and has been more bloodthirsty, but he hasn’t been suicidal, at least.”
Xi Yong looked at him, tears still in his eyes and his mascara running. “Odd? How?”
Xifeng looked away, “You’ll see. It’s frightening.” He looked back to Xi Yong. “He needs you. His eyes lit up when he found out we could rescue you, and he talked about nothing else.”
“Really?” Xi Yong asked. “But I’m just so weak….”
He held Xi Yong tighter. “We’ll help you get stronger. We have a few ideas of what to do next, but Wuying needs you to be there for him,” he said quietly and fiercely.
Suddenly there was a small warm body hugging both him and Xi Yong. He looked, and Mei Ming was hugging them both, small tears brimming in her eyes.
“Please don’t cry, Shinyue,” she said quietly. “I’ll give you my blackcurrant pie.”
Xi Yong blinked back his tears and smiled with a little laugh. “Bribing me?” he said and smiled at Mei Ming. “You really are a good kid.” He closed his eyes and moved his arm to hug her back.
Xifeng followed his lead and did the same, wrapping his arms around both girls. Er… whatever… Mei Ming really was a nice girl.
Mei Ming smiled brightly at that and hugged them hard, her brow furrowed in concentration. There was a small bright light, and Xifeng opened his eyes to see extremely tiny Hurricane fireflies swirling around all three of them. No one else around them seemed to be reacting to the light. When he blinked, they were gone again. What the hell? he thought. Hurricane fireflies were supposed to be as rare as a phoenix sighting, but he’d seen them twice in one day?
Xi Yong pulled away with a light sniff and a smile. Mei Ming offered some brown napkins free of ketchup and mustard. He took a proffered napkin and carefully wiped his eyes, avoiding his eyeshadow and mascara. “Thank you, kiddo. I am feeling a lot better,” he said. “How about we split that pie?”
“Sure!” Mei Ming said and bounced to the other side of the table. “And I’m not a kid; I’m nine!”
Xifeng looked at both of them and blinked. Xi Yong wasn’t hiding his sadness. That tell-tale depression in his eyes was just gone. He knew the child was an empath, true, but that should have been limited only to the detection of emotional states. As far as he had known, only masters could do that. He picked up a plank chip and started chewing on it. Something odd was going on, and he would find out.
Hiding his feelings, he smiled at both of them and asked, “Do you girls want to hit the amusement park after this?”