Perry looked down at the caved-in skull of some unfortunate soul. The blast from the mountain had sent a huge amount of rock into the air, and while the biggest pieces had largely been taken care of, the smaller pieces had still caused all kinds of destruction, punching straight through windows and roofs.
“What kind of horrible monster would he turn into if he wasn’t buried?” asked Perry.
“A wild golem,” Luo Yanhua answered. “They possess hardened skin, superior strength, and a desire to crush those they come across.”
“Wait, seriously?” asked Maya. “This man would become a monster?”
“He won’t,” said Luo Yanhua. “He will be buried in time, cleansed, purified, and loved in death. If there are other victims from the explosion of the mountain who are not found, they might become golems, yes. They’re difficult to fight, scabrous and ill-tempered. We may be called to deal with them, in the coming days.”
“Alright,” said Maya. She looked at Perry. “I’ll grab the feet, you grab the arms?”
They moved the corpse while the villagers looked on. Why this fell to them, he had no idea, but the villagers seemed grateful. Bodies were dangerous, clearly, and though Perry and Maya were technically on the same level as the villagers, in another sense they were very clearly not. There was no quick burial this time, like the shallow graves in the woods: as Luo Yanhua had explained it, the body would be washed and cleaned, dressed, and then placed into a coffin, which would be placed in a favorable location. All of this was in order to ensure that the poor soul would contribute, in death, to his village. According to Luo Yanhua, death was a part of the first sphere, an element of the internal alchemy of the region, and there were meridians and vessels within a village, pathways of power that needed to be respected.
The explosion on the mountain delayed them for half a day, all told, though Perry didn’t particularly mind it. They were heroes, in a sense, checking in on the people, making sure that everything was okay. Perry helped to move a giant beam into place for quick repair to a communal bathhouse. They had dinner again, and again there was as much meat as he wanted. Mostly, Luo Yanhua talked, giving assurances that the fight between these godlike men had moved on to somewhere else, and was unlikely to return.
“There’s something that’s been bothering me all day,” said Maya. “These two guys were fighting, right? And it’s a huge fight of monstrous proportions, they’ve got beef with each other, all that.”
“They’re still fighting,” said Luo Yanhua. “Battles last longer in the higher spheres. Between two men of the first sphere, a fight can end in a single blow, but if I’m right and those men were fifth sphere, then they might continue on as they’ve been for weeks, though not quite as intense as we saw. The battle will take them to different locations, through traps and counter-attacks, focusing the power of the land for specific tactics.”
“I’m hoping we’re not going to see them again,” said Maya. “But my question, or my thought or whatever, is how this huge battle caused all kinds of problems for more or less everyone. People died, they had their homes destroyed, that kind of thing. So where’s the karma in that?” She was still working on her food, thinly sliced chicken over a bed of rice with stewed vegetables on the side.
“There is cosmic debt incurred in a battle of that scale, always,” said Luo Yanhua. “It is one of the reasons that such battles are rare.”
“And that’s it?” asked Maya. “That’s the whole answer? They did this thing that’s going to give them some blowback, and they had just … decided that it was worth it?”
“One of them, seeing the costs, decided that it was worth it,” said Luo Yanhua. “It is possible that both were a party to the decision to battle for their lives, as the two of you did when you came here.”
“That was different,” said Maya. “We weren’t killing a bunch of innocents. It was just us, against each other, not bringing hundreds — thousands — of people into it. That mountain exploded and people died, for basically no reason. You can’t equate the two.”
“I suppose,” said Luo Yanhua with a careless shrug.
“No, you can’t just shrug this off,” said Maya. She was pointing with her chopsticks for emphasis. “People get powerful, they can do what they want, start wars with each other where innocents die, that’s the sort of world you want to live in? That you think is just?”
“I have not put it in those terms,” said Luo Yanhua. Her demeanor, as always, was mild.
“You’re describing the world I come from, Maya,” said Perry. “Millions dead for the stupidest, shittiest reasons.”
Maya stared at him. “Yeah, I’m describing the world that I come from too,” said Maya. She turned to Luo Yanhua. “But only the worst people in my world tried to cloak that injustice as being the proper working of the world.”
Perry stayed silent. She was hiding something about the world she came from. He agreed with her, overall, or at least thought that it was true in his own world. There were always people who said that bad things only happened to bad people, which was both moronic and odious. It was associated with the worst ideologies, at least in Perry's opinion, but he worried that Maya meant something different than he did. Sometimes bad things happened to people through their own fault, and absolving everyone of every sin with a huge blanket explanation was something he might have cause to fight with her about.
“There are imbalances in the world,” said Luo Yanhua. “The pursuit of proper functioning is one of the fundamental goals of Moon Gate.” She cocked her head to the side. “This is a personal issue for you?”
“I don’t even know what that would mean,” said Maya. “Personal how?”
“You suffered some injustice,” said Luo Yanhua.
“No,” said Maya. “I had a pretty boring life, all things considered. But to see the things that happen to others and think that it’s simply the way of the world — I can’t fathom that, and I certainly can’t stomach it.”
“Seeing that dead man today affected you,” said Luo Yanhua.
“Of course it did,” said Maya. “Not because he was dead, I’ve seen plenty of dead guys, and unfortunately, plenty who didn’t deserve it. No, what got to me was the way you people just sort of accepted that this was a thing that happens. There’s a ‘move on with your life’ kind of vibe that I just hate.”
“Hatred tends to be unproductive,” said Perry.
“Nah,” said Maya. “Hatred helps keep you going. But you’re Mr. Ice Man about it, that’s what you’re telling me? Or do you just not care?”
“Today?” asked Perry. “We can’t do anything about today. We can’t do anything about this world. Even if we can jump up to the second sphere, or maybe even the third sphere, we’re not going to be able to match the titans here, assuming that the power scaling works how it seems to. So yes, I would like for this world to be rearranged, for it to be good and just, but I’m not going to get emotionally invested in being angry at the assholes who I’m never going to be able to touch.”
“You’re compartmentalizing,” said Maya.
“I don’t know,” said Perry. “I’m trying to do what I can, and trying not to get torn up about what I can’t do.”
“You would both topple this world, if you could?” asked Luo Yanhua.
“We’d bring it out of its current imbalance,” said Perry. “Yes.”
“You have a way of twisting around words,” said Luo Yanhua. “I’m not sure I like it.”
“Anyone can twist words,” said Maya with a roll of her eyes. “I was a professional word-twister, before I was doing … this. It takes two brain cells to talk like Perry’s talking, finding the seams of thought he thinks will get you on his good side.”
“He does desire to be on my good side though,” said Luo Yanhua. “You are dangerous because you see no desire for common cause.”
“I see it,” said Maya. “But I’m done concealing what I think and feel out of a sense of prudence.”
“It is not so radical a position, I suppose,” said Luo Yanhua. “But it is not favored in these parts, and not all companions in discourse will be so forgiving as I am.”
“Noted, I guess,” said Maya.
“Try not to get us both killed,” said Perry. “Or worse, you could get yourself killed and then leave me to face down the other thresholder alone.” If there is another thresholder.
Once dinner was over and done with, they headed for the woods while there was still light. It would have been easy enough for them to find a place to sleep among the villagers, who seemed to bend over backward to accommodate Luo Yanhua with no hope or expectation of reward, but they had business that could only be conducted away from civilization: testing his transformation.
“In theory, we can do this so long as it’s still daytime,” said Perry as he took off his armor. He was going to have to be naked in front of the two of them, which he wasn’t entirely looking forward to. “I need a half hour buffer in order to get back in the armor.”
“I’m looking forward to this,” said Maya. “Particularly blasting you with light. Either I get a good shot in against an angry wolf, or I do, in fact, have the power to neuter you.”
“I don’t think it’s going to work like that,” said Perry. “Sunlight does cancel moonlight, from what they said, but your sunlight power probably isn’t the same.”
“We’ll see,” said Maya. She was grinning at him, maybe because he’d just removed his pants.
“We’re hoping to help you learn control,” said Luo Yanhua. “But I can leave at a moment’s notice, and you won’t be able to find anyone to hurt before you change back. Do you think it would be better for me to stay as long as I can, or to leave at once when the transformation overcomes you?”
“Stick around,” said Perry. “Not killing allies is the number one priority.”
“More than not killing civvies?” asked Maya, eyebrow raised.
“I want to be able to wolf out in a combat scenario,” said Perry. “If it happens around enemies, no control needed, that’s fine.”
“No,” said Luo Yanhua. “You fight with speed and strength in your other form, but you are a creature of instincts, made stupid. Control is needed there, as well.”
“Okay, fine,” said Perry. He finally removed his underwear, and was standing naked in the woods. He was going to have to find some spandex like the Hulk had, the kind that would never rip or tear no matter what form he took. He’d look pretty stupid as a wolf with pants on, but that was better than the alternative. “I don’t even remember what I was saying.”
“Something about allies and not wanting to hurt them,” said Maya. “It’s fine, I get it, and you’re right, you’ll probably need the wolf more around allies. You can keep yourself in the tin can under normal circumstances, no control needed there either so long as you can hide from the moon.” She looked up at the sky. “Moons.”
“You had said that your sense of smell aids you,” said Luo Yanhua. “Do you have ours?”
“Yeah, as much as will help, I guess,” said Perry.
“Creepy,” said Maya.
“It’s how I recognize people as a wolf, more than by sight,” said Perry. “I think it’s something that will help keep me from killing you. So sure, creepy, but also necessary in this case.”
Luo Yanhua smelled of parchment and ink, most strongly on her fingers, but it hung about her, underneath a floral scent that became overwhelming when he was close by her. That came from some kind of perfume, he thought, and she didn’t always wear it. The dirt of the road didn’t stick to her, and there was little in the way of grime, which meant that she smelled like clean linens. There was another scent too, one that was hard to pin down, almost like the air after fireworks have gone off, slightly sulfurous. He didn’t know whether it was because of something relating to her scholarship, or if there was some other source.
Maya Singh smelled chemical, which was almost certainly because her hoodie was made of synthetics. There was nothing else like it, aside from Perry’s own power armor, though the smells were very distinct from one another. It wasn’t a bad chemical smell, nothing that burned his nose, in part because she’d been wearing those clothes for so long. Beneath that, there was the smell of sweat and the oils of her skin, which grew stronger throughout the day. She smelled more human than Luo Yanhua, but at the same time, there was something different about her, a difference in a body that had been altered in the back-alley of a crumbling megacity. Still, the base of the smell was earthy, sandalwood and cinnamon.
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Perry didn’t say any of that out loud. It would have been too embarrassing, and that was coming from a man who was literally naked in front of them.
“I’m ready,” said Perry. “I’ll try not to kill you.”
Luo Yanhua nodded. She turned to Maya. “If I take you with me, do not resist.”
“Why?” asked Maya, more combative than she should have been.
“You would be left behind and mauled to death by a wolf,” said Luo Yanhua.
“Fine, fine,” said Maya. “Though I don’t think you’ve seen how fast I can run away.”
Luo Yanhua squared up, thrust a hand toward the moon, and directed her other hand at Perry, palm out. He had expected a blast, as Master Shan Yin had done, but her touch of moonlight was slow, deliberate. He felt the hairs on his forearms stand up, and his mouth began to water, but he could hold off the transformation, at least when there was so little moonlight being focused on him. For a small moment, he wondered whether Luo Yanhua might not be strong enough to provoke a transformation, but he realized quickly enough that he was being stupid: she was keeping the intensity low on purpose, to find the tipping point.
It was like holding in a sneeze, or like trying not to eat a meal set in front of him when he was ravenous. He had always been bad at willing his body into submission, but he felt like he had a finger wedged in a crack, like it was going to come to him at any moment. The attempt at mastery failed though, and he transformed, fur and claws.
Luo Yanhua held. He recalled her name, but more, her scent, the cleanliness, the ink and paper. He wanted to tear her apart, rip flesh from bone, but he held back, even as she basked him in moonlight. He growled, then whined, and held steady, which lasted right until the wind shifted and he caught the scent of the other woman, full blast.
He turned on Maya and ran for her, jaws open, teeth moving to crunch the black plastic shell over her face, but she bounced away, pushing off the ground with her needle. She was into the woods in a moment, moving swiftly between trees, and Perry followed after her. The chase didn’t last long though, because as soon as he had caught up with her, she folded her hands together and blasted him with pure sunlight.
Perry changed back in mid-air, a fast transformation that left his mind spinning, and he slammed into a thicket of bamboo, which only partly broke his fall.
“Nice,” said Maya. “Good to know that works.”
“Ugh,” said Perry as he climbed to his feet.
Luo Yanhua was slow to meet them, and when she did, she looked Perry over. He was scraped up and would surely be bruised, if not for the fact that this wasn’t a one-and-done.
“It’s unclear to me where the energy is coming from,” she said.
“Yeah, me too,” said Perry.
“The vital energy flows along the meridians,” said Luo Yanhua. “Yet the energy from the moonlight is not enough to account for such a transformation, nor should sunlight be sapping energy from you.” She pursed her lips and put her hand to her chin. “It’s possible that the moonlight is only a catalyst, which would make it easier for you to control the process. I will need to see it again.”
“Again,” nodded Perry.
They reset their positions, and Luo Yanhua channeled the moonlight again, still slow and steady, giving him time to feel it. He was trying to pay attention to the meridians, as though they were wires running through his body and there might be a switch somewhere, but it didn’t seem very fruitful. What worked better was trying to hold it in, like holding in a fart, and the second time around, it worked much better. He lasted longer, but eventually the change came over him again.
This time he went to Maya straight away. He knew she was there, smelled her scent lingering in the air, and leaped for her at the first moment, hind legs digging gouges in the earth as he launched himself. She was less quick this time, and his claws cut her thick shirt to ribbons, knocking her backward rather than rending her flesh. Beneath the cloth was something hard, chitinous, and he moved in with his teeth this time, powerful jaws ready to snap her in half.
Her blast of light was just a moment too late, and he tasted blood in his human mouth.
Maya was clutching her hand, letting out a restrained scream. He had bitten through the armor, teeth piercing the carbon black. He was tasting the nanites too, or something like them, ozone and charcoal.
“Asshole!” shouted Maya. The skintight black peeled back, and Perry could see the extent of the wound, a mangling of her hand, part of it ripped open. She seethed for a moment, then tried to hold the shaking hand steady. To Perry’s surprise, light formed around the wound, spilling out of her where the skin had been pierced. In only a moment, it was healed. Maya looked at him, black shell of a helmet coming down, with hatred in her eyes. “Why do you keep coming for me?”
“I don’t know!” said Perry, throwing up his hands. “I can’t control it. That’s the whole point of this.”
“Again,” said Maya. She glared at him. “I’ll be ready for you this time.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you,” said Perry, though not in the tone of calm rationalism he might have hoped for.
“Again,” said Maya.
They went again, then again, and again. Maya was more wary, ready to spring back at a moment’s notice, just barely fast enough not to get nipped by him. She didn’t drop any of her anger.
Perry was more focused on Maya now, trying to hold back when he was turned into a wolf. He was getting better, rapidly going through cycles of human to wolf and back again, gaining experience that would have taken him months in Teaguewater. It was still difficult going, which wasn’t helped by Maya taking it personally when he tried to attack her.
“Why me and not her?” asked Maya.
“You smell different,” said Perry, giving a shrug that failed to feel nonchalant. If it was possible to aggressively shrug, that was what he was doing. “I think that’s all there is to it.”
“I smell like prey?” asked Maya.
“Like a threat,” said Perry.
That seemed to please her, and some of her aggression faded away.
They got in ten cycles before the sun was threatening to set. Perry made it a full ten minutes the last time through, resisting the change into a wolf, and it was only when Luo Yanhua increased the power of the moonlight that Perry couldn’t hold it in any longer. When he changed, he went for Maya again, as he had every time before.
The exercise was taking its toll on her, and she was moving slower, the light coming less readily. He went in to bite her, covering the distance between them in a flash, and she hit him with the flash of sunlight late — but this time he didn’t sink a fang into her. Instead, his very human teeth touched her armored fingers.
She retracted her armor and gave him a bemused look. “Almost.”
“Sorry,” he said.
“Still can’t stop yourself from going after me,” said Maya with a cluck of her tongue. “It doesn’t bode well if we’re doing the combat thing together. Better for you to stay swaddled in metal.”
“He could control the transformation, at least,” said Luo Yanhua.
“I can?” asked Perry.
“As much as full moonlight from the largest moon at its fullest,” said Luo Yanhua.
“It takes concentration though,” said Perry. “I need to be able to control it in my sleep.”
“I have other findings,” said Luo Yanhua. “But I suppose that they should wait until your armor is in place.”
Perry got his armor back on just as the sun had touched the western horizon. He had no confidence in holding back the transformation, but he was getting there, slowly. If they did this through their full trip, he would be able to stop himself from becoming a wolf and killing random strangers. Being able to not kill people while a wolf would also have been ideal, but that wasn’t anywhere on the radar yet.
“Your findings?” Perry asked.
While he’d been getting dressed, they’d made camp, a very simple affair, nothing more than some bedrolls which had little chance of keeping out the cold. Perry didn’t need that, obviously, as the power armor would keep him sheltered from the elements and putting a blanket on top of the armor would be ridiculous. Similarly, the fire that Luo Yanhua had made for them provided him no warmth. The supplies had been taken from the moon, where Luo Yanhua had a second home, and they would, apparently, return there once this was all done.
“This smells,” said Maya, sniffing the bedroll. She was inhaling it, pressing her nose against it. “What does it smell like?”
“The moon,” said Luo Yanhua.
“No,” said Maya. “No, I refuse to believe the moon smells like,” she sniffed it again. “Burnt gunpowder?”
“Your findings?” Perry repeated.
“The energy comes from within,” said Luo Yanhua. “It is either stored within a vessel, or within some internal compartment that I do not understand, separate from the normal vessels. It is a matter of the internal alchemy, and troublesome.”
“You still think I have the wrong approach?” asked Perry.
“When you have transitioned to the second sphere, and understand the internal alchemy, I believe you will be able to transform at will — or not transform, as the case may be.” She cocked her head to the side. “I would be eager to help you in that endeavor, but I worry that whatever has happened to you, it will be difficult or impossible to replicate.”
“Am I going to be locked out of learning moon magic, do you think?” asked Perry.
“We do not call it moon magic,” said Luo Yanhua. “But no, I do not think you will. Lunar energy causes a reaction in you, but once that reaction is under your control, I don’t think the transformation will have any impact on your ability to store or manipulate the energy.”
“Aw,” said Maya. “He was hoping for special moon powers.”
“Special how?” asked Luo Yanhua.
“I was hoping for … I don’t know,” said Perry. “Synergy?”
“Is control of your transformation not synergy enough?” asked Luo Yanhua.
“It is,” said Perry. “But … I don’t know.”
“He wants more,” said Maya.
“I want more,” Perry agreed.
“Anything more will take time,” said Luo Yanhua. “The gulfs of time are the one thing I think the two of you will struggle most with. It is possible that if you have an extra vessel with its own generative processes, you might be able to tap into it, carefully, yes. This would take an extraordinary control of the process though, akin to being on the edge of transformation, at least until your internal alchemy can be rearranged.”
“Power from edging, got it,” said Maya with a laugh.
Luo Yanhua looked at her. “You’re referencing … something untoward?”
“She is,” said Perry with a sigh. “But it’s sort of — I mean, I was holding back a sneeze kind of, right? And you’re saying that I might be able to channel that power into something, throw a haymaker with the energy?”
“I do not suspect that your vessel holds a limitless well of power,” said Luo Yanhua. “It is, at this point, possible, but like Miss Singh, you will almost certainly run dry. In fact, I’m surprised that this exercise hasn’t already done that.”
Perry turned to Maya. “You run out of power?”
“I’m solar-powered,” said Maya. “And yeah, the battery gets tapped. It’s almost tapped now, mostly because I had to heal up. Not sure I could have gone another round.”
“You can heal yourself,” said Perry. He gestured at the faded bruise on her face. “What’s with that then?”
Maya gave him a guilty look. “Sympathy,” she said. “It was on my face, I thought people would cut me some slack if they saw that I had taken a hit. Plus if I smile through it, it makes me look tough.” She reached up and touched her face. A splash of light came from her fingertips, and the last of the bruise vanished. “You’re the big bad bully who beat up on the small wittle girl.”
“That must have hurt,” said Luo Yanhua.
“Oh, yeah, it was terrible to sleep with the first few days,” said Maya. “Hard to eat, hard to smile.”
“So it wasn’t looking tough,” said Perry. “It was being tough.”
“Meh,” said Maya.
“It was also at my expense,” said Perry. “You made me look bad.” He’d been very aware of that while they were training. He was so much bigger than her, and her having a bruise on her face made it seem like he’d been the aggressor, a brute who’d bashed in a poor defenseless woman. He didn’t think that was how these people saw it, but it was how he had seen it, some part of him feeling like he’d done something wrong.
“You dealt with it,” said Maya with a shrug. “What good is sexism if I can’t weaponize it?”
“It’s not sexism,” said Perry. “You really are at least a head shorter than I am. Without powers, I’d crush you.”
“Duh,” said Maya. “But we’re not without powers, are we?”
“Differentiation of the sexes is a matter of the first sphere, at least when it comes to combat,” said Luo Yanhua, who was watching the conversation with some interest. “It is the case, in the worlds you’ve been to, that women are seen as lesser combatants?”
“They’re not typically seen as combatants at all,” said Maya.
“Eh,” said Perry.
“I said typically,” said Maya. “Women fighting are the exception, not the rule.”
“Odd,” said Luo Yanhua. “But from what you have said, everyone in your other worlds is of the first sphere.”
“Not really,” said Maya. “Some people have powers, there’s stratification, it’s just not, uh, like here.”
“The Great Arc is unique,” nodded Luo Yanhua.
“No,” said Perry. “I think that’s really unlikely.” He looked at Maya. It was hard to know where he sat with her. “I think we should get some sleep. There’s a long trek up the mountain tomorrow, and we might have to run from a dragon, so …”
“There was one final thing,” said Luo Yanhua. “The reason that you continue to attack Miss Singh.”
“You have some insight into that?” asked Perry. “Because I really do think it’s something about the smell, though I can’t imagine what.” He sniffed the air, and got mostly the campfire. Maya had repaired her hoodie again, and that had given off its own smell, faint but distinct. He could smell them both though, the complexities of their scents there, perhaps with a little more sweat on Maya.
“We speak often of the light and the dark,” said Luo Yanhua. “Perry is possessed of the dark, and Maya by the light. Your individual relationships with these are complicated, not as simple as a common imbalance, but it might be driving some tension between the two of you.”
“We’re opposites?” asked Maya.
“You are imbalanced in opposite ways,” said Luo Yanhua. “You crave the darkness as he craves the light. It is only a theory though, as the inner workings of your techniques — and perhaps your vessels — are still opaque to me. I have been focused on Perry for the time being, as publication is an urgent matter, but you both have your own unique configurations of unclear provenance.”
“So if we get our internal alchemy under control, he’ll stop wanting to kill me?” asked Maya.
“Possibly,” said Luo Yanhua. “It is a problem for another time. And as you have shown, you can control him well enough.”
“Yeah, assuming I’m awake,” said Maya. “But if his teeth can pierce the armor, I’m sleeping with one eye open.”
Perry went to sleep slowly. The armor wasn’t a comfortable sleeping bag, and it was worse on the ground than it had been in his bed, in part because it was difficult to get the angles of his arms and legs just so. He was on his back, looking up at the sky, and could see the other side of the Great Arc, bathed in sunlight, providing nearly as much light as the three moons. As he watched, he saw a flash of light, then another at the same location, tiny things that stood out in contrast to the immense expanse of world.
“Do you see the fight?” asked Luo Yanhua. Her voice was soft.
“Yes,” said Perry.
“What is it?” asked Maya. “Fifth sphere?”
“Higher, if we can see it from here,” said Luo Yanhua. “When I was seven years old, I was watching the sky on a night like this, and looked up to see a brilliant light that lasted for a full minute. Thousands must have died, for such a light to reach my eyes.”
“That’s horrible,” said Maya.
“It is,” said Luo Yanhua. “We must understand our lives to be insignificant in the face of such people, such forces.”
“No,” said Maya. “We just need to get stronger. To stop them. Except Perry and I will be long gone before we’re even third sphere.”
“Then I hope that you find what you seek, and that you are able to bring your conception of justice to the other worlds.” Perry looked over, and saw her eyes were still on the spot where the flash had been. “Perhaps if I study you closely enough, I might find my own way between the worlds.”
The more Perry pondered that, the more scary he found the thought.