“So we are being evicted?” Huan Li asked icily.
“Of course not, our home is yours. But we do have business that your people are interfering with and can’t possibly understand.”
Ansuya nodded quickly and curtly, the message was understood loud and clear, ‘get out.’
Huan Li spread his hands palms upward towards the Elders and bowed again, Ansuya followed his lead. “Thank you for your time and consideration, Elders. We leave you in peace. Maa Salama.”
The Elder nodded and muttered, “Salama.”
Huan Li and Ansuya quietly exited the room and then the building. By the time they made it back onto the street Ansuya was fuming. The culture here was just one slap in the face after another. Now in, probably the politest way she had ever heard before, she and her people had just been told to get out. And the fact that respect was not returned in kind from one Elder to another, forget that she was also an Elder, the way he dismissed Huan was infuriating.
Huan Li placed a comforting hand on the young-looking woman’s shoulder, “It’s alright, Ansuya. I have been treated worse in other meetings. It’s their way. I don’t like it anymore than you do, but we are guests in their house.”
Ansuya shook her head, “A pox upon their house if this is the way they treat you… us.”
Huan smiled at the retort. “Ansuya, we knew that our time here was going to be short. Our only goal right now should be to gather other allies. Have you been to any of the other Cities?”
Ansuya nodded, “Yes, the City Under the Rock and the City Under the Snow have both pledged to help us. The residing Elders of both were about as vague as a love song when it came to actual numbers but I expect, like here they would be willing to commit anywhere from four up to maybe seven or eight packs from the City Under the Rock, the City Under the Snow was a little less enthusiastic.”
Huan Li nodded smiling, “well that’s some good news at least.”
“Huan,” Ansuya began, “We still don’t have enough Shape shifters, even with the help of the three other cities. We need more help.”
“I know.”
The two began walking down the street in a quiet repose. Huan Li was troubled by everything that had happened in the past month. Ansuya was thinking about tactics and how to get back into the City Under the Mountain. They both knew that they would have to find a new home. They couldn’t go back to the mountain. They couldn’t just leave it either. The vampire Houses had struck a blow against the Shape shifters that needed to be rectified, and returned in kind. For the first time since she could remember as a little girl, she was once again in a full scale war. Only this time, she wasn’t an innocent naive little girl, she was a werewolf and she would take back what was hers, or die trying.
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“We mustn’t be so quick to throw our lives away,” Huan commented in the silence.
Ansuya should not have been shocked at his comment seemingly directed at her own private thoughts, but she was. Sometimes she was certain the older man walking beside her could read people’s hearts and emotions.
“I have no intention of throwing mine or anyone else’s life away. But I will not hesitate to kill to get our home back,” Ansuya replied evenly.
“Yes, I and everyone else from the Mountain know this, but we are better and stronger than that. If we cannot find the support we need here, or in the other Cities, then perhaps we need to look for allies elsewhere.”
Ansuya smirked, “You’re talking about legends now Huan.”
He shrugged his shoulders at her comment, “Are we not still spoken of in hushed whispers in darkened rooms? Have we not ourselves benefited from the obscurities of lore and legend?”
Ansuya nodded at the logic and wisdom of her friend’s words. “We have not sensed or encountered anything like what you speak of. What if we do as you suggest and find nothing?”
“What if we find people like us, only stronger, faster, and more resilient?” Huan asked calmly.
Ansuya wanted to say something, anything. She wanted to fight against chasing shadows out of desperation. But there was a part of her, that sliver of innocence from her childhood that she had never let go of, that told her what he was proposing wasn’t just some fool’s errand. That even now she felt a shiver of fear run down her back, as it had when she was little, thinking of the wondrous and terrible possibilities that the world held in secret.
She shook the thought away and with it her remembered fear. “We have to get our people to a safe place first. We can’t stay here, that’s obvious. We could move our people to Agra, perhaps or Singapore, maybe Hong Kong.”
Huan Li nodded, “You sound as if you’ve been thinking of this for a while.”
Ansuya smiled her lips curved upwards just slightly at the compliment. “You have been busy with this City and her politics. That left me with time to care for our people.”
“I don’t have to guess which of the three you would choose,” Huan replied. “I have to say I have always meant to visit the home of my grandparents. But the tourism of the Taj Mahal and rampant corruption in your country would serve us better, I think. It would be easier for us to stay hidden from discerning eyes.”
Ansuya looked out over the sand tan city as they walked. Agra, it was deep in the heart of her home country of India. She could still remember the rank smell of humanity from the streets where she grew up. That, covered with the sharp spices of the various street food, masala pav with fresh roti or naan, and dark colored kala Jamun, all spoke to the inner child that wanted to go home more than she had realized before that moment.