Old Friends 2.7

(Aw jeez.)

Now that she had them, Kuei seemed to be at a loss for words. Sunwhisper noted that her wounds had healed well. She had been left with a fine crisscrossing of scars, but no obvious mobility issues.

“Hello,” he said, “how have you been?”

“How have I been?” Kuei’s mouth opened and closed. “We are not old friends, meeting for tea. You are both fugitives.”

“Look at our arms,” Janna held out her own. “We belong to the Azai now.”

Kuei’s eyes widened when they found the marks. “How is this possible?”

“Lady Makoto has taken responsibility for us,” Sunwhisper said.

“And she allows you to walk freely?”

“So it appears.” Sunwhisper smiled at her. Kuei was agitated, confused, and distracted. He read the emotions on her face as easily as if they had been written there in script. Then he focused on his own sense of inner calm, a well of peace that had been developing since he began boosting his EQ to inhuman levels, pushing aside his surprise at seeing their onetime foe, as well as Ogumo’s hunger, which he carried with him and struggled against always.

It was necessary for him to be aware of his own emotions, and not to give undue attention to any one of them he didn’t want to spread to others. His Aura of the Bleeding Heart caused those around him to experience his emotions as their own, albeit in a diluted form, and the effect could only be suppressed with an effort of will and a small expenditure of mana.

While Kuei was not suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of wellbeing, some of the tension drained out of her, and she no longer looked ready to haul them off for questioning herself. Not that she could have, anymore.

“What brings you to Poppy City?” he asked.

Kuei was about to answer when the presence of the two sacred beasts finally registered with her.

“Karasu?”

The raven cawed in recognition, and Kuei shook her head. If their other crimes had been forgiven, then freeing the raven was moot, especially given that the First Elder was dead, and the town under the rule of a foreign power. In light of what had come since, Sunwhisper being a demon and Janna taking up with him had become irrelevant. They both had stars on their arms in addition to their debt markers, which meant that they had value, and the law was being observed.

A twinge touched her heart, remembering the way Timu had been killed.

“The Red Spider,” she said, “where is it now?”

“Do you want revenge?” Sunwhisper asked.

Kuei wasn’t sure. Certainly, there were bigger threats to be dealt with, and greater crimes than those committed by the demon. Still, TImu had been her partner for many years, and she had grieved for him.

“If I thought I could kill it I would try,” she said, “but I will not throw my life away.”

“Our relationship is complicated,” Sunwhisper said, “but we are no threat to you.”

(Complicated? What’s complicated about two alien robots hanging out, doing karate together, one of them living in the other’s chest compartment, etcetera etcetera?)

“You have your own road to walk,” Kuei said, beginning to regret that she had accosted them at all. “And I have mine. If the heavens are kind, we will not meet again.” She started to move away, but Janna caught her sleeve.

“Wait,” she said, “why are you in Poppy City? You weren’t looking for us, were you? Did something happen? Do you have any word of my family?”

Kuei considered the girl who traveled in the company of demons. She had robbed the town’s Soma stores, fled justice, and apparently been rewarded for her deeds with service to a clan. Debt or not debt, if Lady Makoto had extended her trust and her resources to these two, they were fortunate indeed.

What would she think if she heard that not only had her home been invaded by barbarians, but her brother had joined them? Would she run back to fight? Doubtful. It was an odd quirk of fate that they had met each other in a crowded street. Their group certainly stood out, because of the beasts, but still, they could have lived in Poppy for months and never once crossed paths with her.

The girl had made her choice already. Fringe Town was not her home anymore, and she had no claim on Kuei, who felt a small satisfaction at being able to withhold something from her.

“There is nothing. I am on the business of the Elders, which is not for you to know.”

Janna’s gaze fell, and she let go of the older woman’s sleeve.

“You’re lying,” Sunwhisper said. He did not need his Echo of the Inner Heart technique to know she was hiding something, but it put him beyond certainty.

Kuei spun so forcefully that for a moment the crowd gave her as much room as it gave the spider. Her fists clenched.

“You insult me?”

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The people who were near enough to hear her started shoving their way clear, which only drew more attention to the scene, and in mere seconds, without any order being given or sign of leadership, the section of the street they were in had been blocked off. There was still a crowd, but it was as if the world had stopped around them, and quiet spread from the center in a wave until even the cries of the vendors fell away.

This was a city of cultivators, and if a hundred bystanders lost their lives as collateral damage in a tiff between two old rivals, it would not have been the first time.

“I am merely stating a fact.” Sunwhisper let his hands rest at his sides, keeping his stance relaxed. Ogumo reared, waving his steel-clad forelegs and hissing a warning, but he dropped back down a moment later. Karasu spread her many wings, crowning the man she rode in darkness, her eyes flaring purple.

Janna stepped between them. “He did not mean offense,” she said. “My friend can be blunter than a hammer, but he does not mean anything by it.”

Kuei glanced again at their arms. The girl had one star, and the demon had two, not to mention the beasts he traveled with, and the Red Spider, wherever it was hiding. She couldn’t win against them all, and besides, he was correct.

With an effort of will, she held onto her calm. It was easier than she would have thought possible, under the circumstances. Her fists unclenched.

“You’re right. It was a lie.”

Just like that, the crowd unfroze, and chatter resumed around them. They hardly noticed.

“What are you saying?” Janna asked.

Kuei told them everything. A palanquin was forcing its way down the street, and their party moved aside to make way for whoever was too important to walk on their own two feet. They stood at the mouth of an alley, the stench of rotting vegetables wafting in the air, and listened to the fate of Fringe Town.

Watching Janna’s face as she learned about her brother was actually more satisfying than withholding the truth had been, and Kuei did not regret telling the story. She was able to give a fuller accounting than she usually did when she was merely trying to lure would-be treasure hunters to go after the barbarians, even mentioning some of the odd behavior she had observed.

“They are forcing the townsfolk to dig trenches in a pattern?” Sunwhisper was intrigued. “Is it an array?”

Kuei shrugged. “Barbarians don’t use arrays.”

“But you said these have enchanted armor.”

“Yes, and the patterns in the armor look like the ones they are putting up everywhere else. Lots of strange shapes, curves and spirals. It isn’t script, and there’s no visible mana. Barbarians don’t use mana.”

“And the flags, they were another spiral? A curled snake?” Sunwhisper had a faraway look on his face, but Janna was too caught up in the tale to notice his introspection.

(Don’t think it. Don’t say it.)

“What does that matter? We have to go back.” She had the look of someone who had just accepted a divine mission. “The village needs our help.”

“Will you fight your brother then?” Kuei sneered. “Traitor against traitor?”

Janna recoiled, her cheeks pale, and her nostrils flaring. “You take that back!”

The reaction from the street wasn’t as dramatic as the last time, but no one was exactly pressing to get into the alley.

“Which part?” Kuei twisted the knife. “Your brother’s treachery, or your flight from justice? I don’t have the power to change the past.”

Janna looked ready to pounce. She was weaker than Kuei, but the distance between them was not so great as it had been, and she was surrounded by allies. Ogumo reared again, and Karasu cawed angrily as Kuei slowly adopted a fighting stance.

Sunwhisper clamped down on the rush of fear and agitation that had come over him a moment before, suppressing Aura of the Bleeding Heart along with his own emotions.

“Stop!” His voice rang out, carried on a pulse of mana. His companions all stared at him, as did Kuei, along with half the street.

(Don’t think it, don’t say it.)

“It’s the spiral dragon.”

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