bluedragonauthor

The Blue Dragon: Chapter 22

Added 2024-07-10 15:00:17 +0000 UTC

-- CHAPTER 22: The Truth --

****

Camila - the real Camila - remained unconscious but upright after I buckled her into her cabin attendant’s seat next to the Executive Class Car’s galley.

Angel kept her legs straight and bent at the waist with her incredible ass thrust back, folding her left arm beneath her breasts while raising her right hand palm-out in front of Camila’s face with all five fingers splayed.

Dong had disappeared, and I leaned against a bulkhead with my arms crossed, trying (and failing) to not stare at Angel’s ass while wondering what the hell she was doing to Camila.

“If I didn’t want you to stare at my ass, I wouldn’t be standing like this,” Angel stated without looking back at me. “And so you don’t have to wonder anymore, I’m erasing her memory.”

“You’re doing what?!?”

“Not all of it. She’ll still remember having sex with you, but the part about seeing another version of herself and then fainting, that part I’m erasing. Plus, I’m going to keep her out until after we’ve reached Venice.”

I blinked twice and stood up straight in surprise. “How…? How did you do that?”

“I’m a mind-reader, in addition to other mental abilities,” Angel stated casually, again without looking back at me. “They allow me to hear your thoughts, alter Camila’s memory, and even use my shapeshifting powers to transform into your idealized version of female perfection.”

The gorgeous, busty blonde before me turned to flash me a winning smile over her shoulder, the kind of winning smile that the internet model she was based on only rarely displayed in her photos.

I cleared my throat, took a deep breath, and tried to subtly adjust the massive boner in my pants to point down my leg instead of peek up above my waistband. Looking back into the train cabin, I observed yet another doppelgänger of Camila puttering about to attend to the other passengers, not one of whom showed any signs of being able to see me, Camila, or Angel even though we were in plain sight. I was reminded of when Rae had put up an illusion of the two of us smiling for pictures at The Fremont Troll back in Seattle. But then I was reminded of Rae trying to get me to hurry, as if maintaining the illusion was a bit of a struggle for her.

Clearly, Angel wasn’t struggling at all.

“May I assume you’re a huli jing like Rae?” I queried, gesturing to the other Camila attending to the passengers, still a little surprised that Rae’s shapeshifting abilities were that powerful. She’d told me that she could’ve expanded her bustline or made herself six feet tall if she’d wanted but had no need to modify her physical appearance. But just because she didn’t need to apparently didn’t mean she couldn’t.

“That is correct,” Angel replied.

“But you seem far more powerful than Rae. Do you like… have nine tails or something?”

Angel laughed musically and shook her head. “No. Very, very few huli jing ever achieve nine tails. But I am older and more experienced than Rae.”

“You don’t look a day over twenty-two.”

Angel shrugged, finished passing her hand in front of Camila’s face, and then stood up while turning to face me. She crossed her arms beneath her massive breasts, lifting and squishing them together with her biceps, and gave me another scintillating smile. “I may look like this right now, but you can’t judge a woman’s age by her appearance. Twenty-two would be underestimating me by quite a bit.”

“I figured.”

Angel’s eyes glittered golden for a second. “Have you ever been with a truly older woman before?”

I smirked easily. “Ziyi is over a thousand years old.”

Not expecting me to go there, Angel’s smile thinned and her eyes narrowed at the mention of Ziyi’s name. “Ah yes. The hui yaoguai.”

“Please don’t call her that.”

“Call her what?”

“A yaoguai. She’s not a demon.”

Angel pursed her lips and studied me for a second with the kind of expression that told me she was sifting through my mind. It might’ve been my imagination, but now that I knew she had these mental abilities, I thought I could actually feel a gentle, almost tingling physical touch inside my head.

A moment later, Angel stood up straight and frowned, saying dubiously, “You’re in love with a snake?”

Standing up straight, I glared at Angel and telepathically challenged, ‘Yeah. You got a problem with that?’

She apparently got the message loud and clear, because she raised both hands and gave me a look that clearly said, You do you. And after flashing me a rather wicked grin, she suddenly shapeshifted again, her smile widening as her canine teeth extended into fangs. And within a matter of seconds, she’d physically transformed herself into an exact doppelgänger of Ziyi clad in the red shanzi crop-top and flowing, pale-green qunzi skirt that I’d purchased for “my wife” from Huang’s clothing shop over a millennia ago.

I immediately stepped forward and thrust a threatening finger at her. “Stop that. NOW.”

Remaining exactly as she was, ‘Ziyi’ clucked her tongue disapprovingly and shook her head. “Touchy, touchy.”

“You’re trying to fuck with me.”

“I thought you liked it when girls wanted to fuck you.”

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head and then walked away. But I only got three steps before a hand reached out to grab my elbow. And I turned around before jerking back in surprise to find that ‘Ziyi’ had remained standing exactly where she was, next to Camila’s still unconscious form, but had stretched out her arm like Mr. Fantastic in order to reach me.

She let go of me and allowed her arm to shrink back to a normal length. Then, within a matter of moments, she shapeshifted back into Angel, or at least the version of Angel that looked like an internet model. She then shifted her hip out as if posing for an Instagram pic and then recrossed her arms beneath her breasts, and when the motion drew my gaze down to those marvelous mammaries, her skintight ribbed crop-top opened up a diamond cutout to reveal deep, creamy cleavage.

Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to raise my gaze to Angel’s face. Actually, no, I wanted to think of her as ‘Angelika’, not ‘Angel’. Because this woman very much gave me vibes much more akin to the Devil.

“I’m not the Devil,” Angelika said with a sigh while rolling her eyes. She made the diamond cutout in her crop-top disappear and then stood up straight. A moment later, she donned a bulky olive-green trench coat that hid her curvaceous body completely, complete with a fedora, although her face was still the makeup-perfect face of an angel. And she spread her arms out, saying, “Better?”

I sighed and shook my head. “What do you want with me?”

“The obvious. No, not that obvious thing you’re thinking about, although I’m honestly quite curious about what sex with you will be like; I’m led to believe you’re quite the stud in bed.” Angelika chuckled and let her eyes rove up and down my body quite lasciviously. Then she winked and added, “No, the obvious thing that I want from you is your help in unlocking the gates to the remaining two relics and ultimately recovering Faguang Long. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” I agreed and then gestured towards the front of the speeding train. “Is one of the remaining relics in Venice?”

Angelika shook her head rather than answer me, stating, “Need-to-know basis.”

I frowned. “I’m The Chosen One of Qinglong. I’m the most important part of this entire fucking mission. -I- need to know.”

Canting her head to the side, the busty blonde bombshell with the impossibly perfect body took two long steps to suddenly invade my personal space. She seized the front of my shirt with one hand and parked her lips only inches away from mine, staring deep into my eyes quite challengingly. Her light-blue irises glowed with their own inner light, and her lips pulled back in such a way that I couldn’t quite tell whether she was about to kiss me or gnaw my face off.

“Let me make one thing abundantly clear,” she said very softly in volume and yet with steel hardness running underneath. “You are not the most important part of this ‘fucking mission’. You are nothing more than a tiny pawn caught in the middle of a bitter feud between warring factions that have been fighting each other for almost two thousand years. I’ve been fighting this war for centuries, while you’ve barely been alive for one quarter of a century.”

“You people are old. Really old. I get it.”

Her smile was thin. “You think you are so special. Why? Because you found two of the relics? That alone does not make you The Chosen One of Qinglong. There ARE others with enough Shu Han blood purity to unlock the gates to the remaining two relics. If you die, one of them may be the key to Faguang Long. And if you give me any reason to believe it would be in my best interests to kill you and take my chances on one of them instead, I’ll slit your throat myself.”

“NO. YOU WILL NOT.”

Angelika suddenly jerked a step back and whirled around in a complete circle at the sound of the booming, thunderous, deep-bass voice that filled the air around us and seemingly came from every direction all at once. She raised both hands into the air as if preparing to cast some kind of defensive spell, although she had absolutely no idea where to cast it. Because ominous black storm clouds had rolled in within a matter of seconds, completely surrounding the two of us so that the train bulkheads, the galley, and even Camila in her seat were completely out of view.

I couldn’t see my feet through the clouds that covered the floor up to my knees. I couldn’t see the ceiling of the train car, although a shining light as if from the heavens beamed down from above, blinding in its intensity. All I could see was Angelika in front of me, and despite my sense of fear at not knowing what the hell was going on at the moment, I couldn’t help but also feel a smug sense of schadenfreude seeing the expression of total panic on the previously haughty Angelika’s face as she raised a hand to try and shield her eyes while staring desperately up into the light.

That’s when I noticed that Dong had reappeared on my shoulder, the little blue gecko standing erect with his arms folded across his chest and a similarly smug expression on his face that clearly said, I got you, bro.

The booming voice from the heavens continued, “HE… IS THE CHOSEN ONE. YOU… WILL NOT HARM HIM. PROTECT AKSEL ANDERSEN AT ALL COSTS. FOR ONLY HE CAN COMPLETE THE PROPHECY OF FAGUANG LONG.”

Angelika continued staring wide-eyed up into the light with one hand up as a shield. But then the heavenly light went out, the black clouds started rolling away, and within seconds the two of us were once again standing next to Camila’s unconscious form in the cabin attendant’s seat, with not a single remaining trace of what had just happened to us.

The blonde gawked at me for a second, uncertainty obvious on her face. “Did… Did you just see that?”

I fought down the urge to reply, ‘See what? I have no idea what you’re talking about’ just to mess with her. Instead I shrugged and nodded, saying, “The whole voice-from-the-heavens thing telling you to protect me at all costs because only I can complete the prophecy? Yes, I saw that.”

Angelika’s eyes got big again, and she nodded slowly while covering her mouth, taking a step back, and evaluating me up and down in a new light.

“Tiānshǐ!” a voice called from across the cabin.

I turned and looked to see ‘Camila’ approaching us, but as she did so, her busty blonde body in a Trenitalia uniform shapeshifted back into the familiar petite, blue-haired figure of Rae. She smiled at me with comfortable ease, showing no signs that she’d noticed any black storm clouds or booming voices from the heavens. And I thought I caught Angelika likewise studying Rae’s face looking for the same.

But after only a second’s pause, Angelika stood up straight and asked sternly, “Yes? What is it?”

“We are nearing Stazione di Venezia,” Rae stated rather wearily, as if maintaining her ‘Camila’ form for so long had worn her out. “You told me to notify you when we were fifteen minutes out so that we could trade places back.”

“Already?” Angelika checked her wristwatch and frowned, looking confused as to how she’d lost track of time. And then without another word or glance back at me, she strode forward while shapeshifting once again into the uniform and figure of Camila to take over the cabin attendant’s final passenger duties.

That left Rae standing next to me, catching her breath. And the impish girl gave me a pixie wink while elbowing me in the ribs.

I blinked at her, asking, “What?”

Smiling a shit-eating grin, Rae gestured towards Angelika, saying, “That’s her thing: reading someone’s mind and becoming their idealized version of female perfection. I knew platinum blondes with big tits were your type.”

I shrugged and said, “As for most men, evidently.”

“What’s Ziyi gonna say when she finds out?”

I crossed my arms and turned to face Rae directly while shaking my head. “Forget hair color. Forget cup size. Do you know what really makes a girl a man’s particular ‘type’?”

“No, but I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.”

I grinned and clapped Rae on the shoulder. “When she wants him. Simple as that.”

****

Our Frecciarossa arrived at Stazione di Venezia midday just before 1PM local time. Just outside the train station was the Statua dell'Immacolata Vergine: a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary atop a pedestal. From behind, though, it looked more like a floating Dementor from Harry Potter, and on that inauspicious note, the four of us headed for a nearby dock where a number of water taxis were picking up passengers.

It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining. The skies were clear. The green dome of the Chiesa di San Simeon Piccolo across the canal stood out amidst the white and orange buildings, the Ponte degli Scalzi stone arch bridge in the distance, and… wait, was that a Burger King?

As we headed across the piazza, I recalled the way Rae had matter-of-factly shepherded me around our various destinations like Chicago, Seattle, or even Rome, briskly walking in the lead three steps ahead of me as if she always knew exactly where she was going. But today she neatly fell into line two steps back and to the right of Angelika, following her teacher’s lead. Keeping her phone out, Rae kept up a near-constant stream of typing like some high-powered executive’s assistant. Noting the way she and Angelika would silently look at each other back and forth without actually speaking, I had to assume they were communicating telepathically, and I wondered to myself what that would be like.

I haven’t the foggiest idea, dude.

‘Oh. Right.’

Hannah held my hand the whole way as Angelika and Rae led us directly to a water taxi at the dock, this one with an open cockpit for the driver and a closed-roof cabin for passengers. Not a word was exchanged between anyone. We simply got in, the boat pulled away from the dock, and we were off.

Hannah and I got seats together, with the luscious dirty-blonde snuggling herself against my side while simultaneously gawking at the buildings, bridges, and other boats beyond the window as we passed them by.

“First time in Venice?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied breathlessly before glancing at me. “Isn’t this your first time in Venice?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

“Then why aren’t you staring out at all the sights?”

I grinned, pecked Hannah’s forehead, and replied warmly, “Because the most beautiful sight to see around here is you.”

She giggled cutely, puckered up, and gave me a fat kiss.

And then she went back to gawking out the window again.

I had absolutely no idea where in Venice we were heading. Unlike highways or roads that more or less headed in one particular cardinal direction - north, south, east, or west - the Grand Canal of Venice was shaped more or less in a backwards “S” shape, and I hadn’t been paying much attention to the turns.

I do know that our water taxi left the Grand Canal and took us down one of the much smaller “alley” canals, and then turned at another one, even smaller than the first. We pulled up to a tiny dock near a low pedestrian bridge, although our dock did not dump us out onto the street. This was a private dock, with direct access to an apartment building that looked like it had been constructed in the 5th century and only occasionally remodeled since then. And when Angelika stood up, the rest of us silently stood and followed her off the boat.

“The rest of us” included the driver, who tied up the boat and then joined the line behind Angelika as we entered the building, made a turn, and then started ascending the stairs. Once again, we were staying in an ancient Italian building that didn’t appear to have an elevator, but I only needed to carry both my carry-on suitcase and Hannah’s, and it was a short trip up to the third floor and then into one of the apartments.

For some reason, I was expecting a cramped apartment that would be small in size due to its age and the lack of available real estate in Venice but with charmingly Italian furnishings, and the front entry room was just that: a confined space with colorful wallpaper, Corinthian columns, and a fresco painting on the ceiling. There was even an ornate, classically Italian upholstered sofa with way hand-crafted gold leaf, too many buttons, and seven pillows on it. The thing looked like it had belonged in the 1700s.

But there must have been some magic at work, because as soon as I walked through the archway into what I thought would be a hallway, I was astonished to find myself in an expansive, open, modern space that looked more like a Tesla showroom than a Venetian apartment. The floor was dark gray. The ceiling was black save for long, parallel lines of LED strip lights. The walls were bare and satin smooth, with no pictures or posters or any decorations of any kind save for three massive flat-screen TVs embedded flush with the wall surface displaying charts and what looked like satellite maps over distant parts of the world. And there were several workstations facing the wall TVs that gave the space a “Mission Control” kind of vibe, two of which were currently occupied by young Asian women whose attention remained glued to their screens instead of the new arrivals.

“This is NOT an Airbnb,” I remarked, staring wide-eyed at everything.

“Cool…” Hannah breathed while clutching herself closer against me.

“You are correct. This is not an Airbnb,” Angelika stated tersely while giving me a wary look. Those were the first words she’d spoken to me since we’d gotten off the train. And when she looked like she didn’t want to say anything further, Rae cleared her throat and took a step towards us.

“I’ll show you to your room,” the blue-haired girl said softly, gesturing with an almost military stiffness and formality now that she was amongst other Shu Han operatives, including the water taxi driver, who removed her hat and sunglasses before silently taking a seat at one of the available workstations.

“Should introductions be in order?” I asked, gesturing at the three women at the workstations.

Rae shook her head. “They know who you are, but the less you know about them, the better. If captured, you can’t reveal information you don’t have, remember?”

I pursed my lips, unable to argue with her logic but not particularly pleased with it either. From their absolute lack of interest in even looking at me, I had to assume all three women were supernaturals who were immune to The Ax Effect. But I still wanted to know who they were and what their capabilities were, if for no other reason than to better understand who I would be working with. We were supposed to be a team, weren’t we?

“Then why even bring us here?” I asked. “This is obviously a more permanent safe house than the hotels and apartments we’ve been renting. Aren’t you worried about us revealing this location if we’re captured?”

“I could solve that problem when you leave,” Angelika stated with a hint of menace in her voice, raising her fingers and then rapidly curling them in sequence much in the way I’d remembered her doing when she made Camila suddenly pass out.

I made a face, not liking the idea of letting the powerful huli jing fox spirit fuck with my memory.

“But in this case, that’s less of a worry,” Angelika continued. “This location is already known to our enemies but is immune from assault for… reasons.”

I frowned and furrowed my eyebrows, air quoting, “‘Reasons’?”

“Reasons that do not concern you.”

I sighed, rubbed my forehead, and muttered, “Just when I thought I was getting past all this cloak-and-dagger need-to-know bullshit.”

“Answers will be forthcoming. You want to know who the bad guys are, and who is the woman who kidnapped your hui serpent friend. You want to know why you’ve been chosen for this quest. You want to know what we are expecting you to do in order to recover the next two relics. You want to know about the other descendants of Shu Han with the potential to unlock the remaining gates. And you want to know why Faguang Long itself is so damn fucking important.”

“Yes!” I exclaimed in agreement, thrusting both arms forward. “Yes, I do.”

Angelika closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then reopened her eyes to stare at me coldly while she slowly exhaled. And her voice was the very definition of ‘reluctant’ as she finished, “You are The Chosen One of Qinglong. Settle into your room, and then I will tell you the truth.”

****

Once again, I found myself astonished immediately after walking through a doorway to what I thought would be a hallway, only to find myself seemingly somewhere else. Well, this was a hallway, but it was the third-floor hallway of a fifth-century Venetian apartment building. And when I turned around to look back at the Tesla-showroom Mission Control area that I’d just left, I realized that it wasn’t there anymore.

“The fuck? Did we just teleport or something?” I asked, gawking at the original front entry room with colorful wallpaper, Corinthian columns, fresco painting on the ceiling, and even the 1700s upholstered sofa.

“Or something,” Rae deadpanned before gesturing down the hallway. “Your apartment is this way.”

We started walking, and two doors down came to a stop at a door numbered 314. Rae led us into a small living room with a sofa and a circular dining table for four, an adjacent kitchen, and windows that looked out over the “alley” canal. One door to the left was ajar, revealing a small bathroom. Rae then led us into the back of the apartment and the only bedroom. Like the rest of the apartment, it was ornately decorated with hand-crafted gold leaf, Corinthian columns, fresco murals, and thick fabrics. Also like the rest of the apartment, it was relatively cramped with barely enough room for a queen-size bed and a single dresser with an oval mirror on top of it.

“Ooh! Wanna try out the bed?” Hannah asked excitedly, tugging on my hand.

I smiled, setting aside my carry-on suitcase and allowing the sexy blonde to pull me forward. But I had a lot on my mind and didn’t feel particularly horny at the moment, a little too preoccupied with everything going on. Angelika had promised me “the truth”, and I felt like I wouldn’t be able to relax until she fulfilled that promise.

We got to the bed and I turned around to sit on the edge, raising my heels to rest atop the wood frame. Hannah snuggled herself in beside me while tucking her legs beneath her on the mattress. And we both looked up at Rae.

“So how much of ‘the truth’ do you already know?” I asked.

“Nothing more than I’ve already told you,” she replied with a sigh, folding her arms across her chest and then leaning back against the doorjamb. “I know the bad guys are the Cao Wei but have no idea how many operatives they have here or what they look like. I think an Italian demigoddess kidnapped Ziyi, but I don’t know who she really is or what is her involvement in all this. And I know there’s a great evil coming for which we need the Faguang Long to defeat it, but I honestly don’t know anything other than that. I’m as in the dark as you are.”

“Then let me bring you all into the light,” a woman suddenly said, and all three of us turned to face the bedroom window where a shimmering figure seemed to materialize out of thin air, translucent at first and only slowly coming into focus and gaining solidity over the course of several seconds.

Rae had once told me that huli jing were natural beauties. The woman was certainly beautiful but in an ethereal, inhuman way, as if she’d stepped off a painting in order to become three-dimensional. Her skin was smooth and porcelain white - a little too smooth and too white - like literal porcelain. Her lips were a deep plum color that stood in stark contrast to her pale face, her eyes were heavily shadowed with rose and plum-colored makeup, and her irises were startlingly white, almost like diamonds.

She was exceptionally tall for a Chinese woman, perhaps six feet. Her face was that of a young woman, about twenty years old, with silky, jet-black hair elaborately adorned with white and pink flowers placed in a way that seemed to evoke fox ears. She wore a formal Chinese qixiong ruqun hanfu dress with overlarge, draping sleeves, all in black with red accents. And she carried herself with a regal bearing as she stepped forward.

“Tiānshǐ,” Rae stated almost formally, bowing at the newcomer, and I wondered if the word meant ‘teacher’ or something similar.

“Actually, Tiānshǐ translates to ‘Angel’ or ‘Heavenly Master’, depending on the inflection,” Dong stated helpfully as he appeared on my shoulder. “Probably why she goes by ‘Angelika’ as a Western name.”

The serene expression on Tianshi/Angelika’s face faltered at the little blue gecko’s sudden appearance. She reflexively raised both hands into the air as if preparing to cast some kind of defensive spell before catching herself. She then took a deep, calming breath, regathered her composure, and stood up straight while fixing her gaze on my shoulder.

Hannah sat up with a frown, checking out my shoulder as if trying to figure out what the newcomer was looking at. She obviously couldn’t see Dong, nor hear what he’d said. But when the regal Chinese woman refocused her gaze on me, Hannah settled back down.

“I know now that Qinglong has truly made you his Chosen One,” the woman began. Despite her youthful appearance, her cultured voice carried significant weight with an accent that reminded me of Michelle Yeoh from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

I found that I couldn’t think of her as ‘Angelika’, the name I associated with the platinum-blonde model, so instead I decided to stick with ‘Tianshi’ for now.

“Didn’t Rae already tell you I was The Chosen One after this little guy showed up?” I asked, gesturing to the gecko still on my shoulder.

Tianshi sighed and visibly worked to keep her gaze on me instead of looking at Dong. “An animal spirit avatar alone was not sufficient proof. I had to meet you myself before deciding whether or not you were ‘The One’.”

I shrugged, thinking back to the whole voice-from-the-heavens episode on the train. “Because you’ve met other descendants of the Shu Han line with enough blood purity to unlock the gates.”

“Wait, what?” Rae interjected, uncrossing her arms and taking a step forward. “There are other descendants?”

Tianshi raised her hand to Rae, gesturing for patience, and then returned her gaze to me. “The others are all female, of course, and we have been keeping our eyes on them for some time. As a male, you were considered unimportant for many years.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Being considered unimportant kept you safe for many years. Otherwise, your enemies could have assassinated you long ago, well before any of us could step in protect you.”

“I’m still not entirely sure who are my enemies and who are my friends,” I replied with arched eyebrows. “A certain Italian demigoddess who kidnapped Ziyi comes to mind. You claimed to know who she is.”

“Magdalena of the Knights Templar. She is a powerful demigoddess of Zeus.”

I frowned. “The Knights Templar? Why the hell are THEY involved in this?”

Tianshi sighed. “I do not know for certain, but I can speculate that the Templars made some kind of arrangement with the Cao Wei. Magdalena was also present during the Carabinieri attack on our group in Rome. You said she demanded you bring her the relics in exchange for the hui serpent, and I do know where the Templar strongholds are located.”

“Not that you have any interest in giving them the relics in exchange for Ziyi.”

Tianshi’s eyes narrowed and she gave me a mocking smile. “Just so you and I understand each other.”

I took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, flaring my nostrils but otherwise containing my anger. I didn’t see the point in trying to argue with her about this. But I still asked, “Why do you think they kidnapped her? Why not kidnap me?”

“I think they WERE attempting to capture you, Aksel,” Rae jumped in. “But once the ambush mission failed, Magdalena settled for kidnapping someone… anyone… to use as a hostage.”

“You believe they wanted to kidnap Aksel? Not kill him?” Tianshi inquired skeptically.

“That’s what it seemed like to me,” Rae confirmed.

“The sheer number of bullets they shot at me would seem to disagree with that theory,” I pointed out.

“Those were Carabinieri,” Rae pointed out. “All they have are guns.”

“Didn’t you tell me I didn’t need to worry about getting shot? Something about ancient rules of engagement and karmic consequences?”

“I don’t think the Cao Wei sicced the Carabinieri on us. It must’ve been the Knights Templar, and they don’t worry about karma.”

“Greaaat,” I groaned.

“Still, this is new information,” Tianshi stated thoughtfully. “I had believed the Cao Wei only wanted to eliminate Aksel, and therefore prevent Faguang Long from being found and used against them. If they are trying to capture him, however, it suggests they have other plans we have not yet discovered.”

“And capturing Ziyi is part of those plans?” I asked.

“Doubtful.” Tianshi shook her head in the negative. “The hui is a pawn, nothing more. So long as they believe she remains useful to them as leverage, she will remain safe. But if they should decide she is no longer of any value, they will dispose of her.”

“So I can’t let them believe she’s of no value. I have to somehow communicate to them that I want her back.”

Tianshi pursed her lips and waggled her head. “Messages to that effect can be delivered to the Templar strongholds. Stall for time by asking for where and when to meet, delaying such meetings, etcetera. In the meantime, the rest of us can proceed towards the primary objective.”

“The Faguang Long.”

“Please, it is Faguang Long, a name. Not ‘the’ Faguang Long. You don’t want me calling you ‘the Aksel’ now, do you?”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

Tianshi glared at Rae as if the younger girl should’ve have corrected me a long time ago.

Rae held up her hands and admitted, “Actually, -I- didn’t know that either. I’ve been calling it ‘the’ Faguang Long too, just like ‘The Golden Dragon’.”

Tianshi put on an expression that clearly stated she wanted to eyeroll like a tween, but her regal bearing prevented it.

Now that I thought about it, I seemed to remember that Ziyi had never said the word ‘the’ in front of Faguang Long, although I had perhaps chalked that up to her stilted English grammar. And that reminder of her made me raise my hand and say, “Ziyi told me that it has the power to warp and shape the very fabric of reality. That it can build bridges between the realms of Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld. Is all that true?”

Tianshi scowled once again at Ziyi’s name, but she nodded her head in confirmation. “Faguang Long possesses unfathomable power, and by that I mean it can do things the human mind cannot possibly fathom or comprehend. But in this particular case, there is one specific power of Faguang Long that we need.”

“Which is?”

Rather than immediately explain, the woman in the elaborate dress rather daintily lifted her baggy-sleeved arms and slowly walked across the room. It wasn’t a very large room, remember, especially with four people inside, one of whom was wearing an elaborate, baggy-sleeved dress. And Tianshi came to a stop next to Rae.

“Tell them about Shen Wu,” she instructed.

“Oh. Me?” Rae suddenly got a deer-in-headlights expression on her face, but she swallowed thickly and nodded quickly, as if gearing herself up for public speaking. “Right. Right. Shen Wu. Well… He’s the Cao Wei leader right now. I’ve never met the guy myself, but he’s supposedly this really powerful sorcerer who gave himself the name ‘Shen Wu’. That’s pretty common among Chinese despots, to give themselves high-and-mighty names and titles.”

“I know,” I replied dryly, thinking back to the tenth-century warlord who styled himself ‘Emperor Taizu’.

Rae caught my smirk and grinned. “The character for shén means ‘God’, and the character for wú means ‘I’ or ‘me’.”

“‘I am God’. Figures,” I drawled with a head shake.

Dong popped up on my shoulder, clicked his tongue, and pointed both index fingers at the elder huli jing. “Kinda like you naming yourself Tiānshǐ for ‘Heavenly Master’.”

Rae immediately snorted before clapping both hands over her mouth and turning bright pink while the elder huli jing in question shot her a dirty look.

“Y-yeah, so, uh, that’s all I really know,” Rae muttered lamely while gesturing for her teacher to take back over.

Tianshi turned to face me and Hannah. “Shen Wu is dying. So he seeks--”

“Wait-wait-wait,” I interjected with one hand raised. “I’ve read this book before. The aging bad guy wants a supernatural pathway to immortality so that he can maintain his iron grip on the forces of evil for the rest of time, so he seeks Faguang Long in order to use its power to grant him eternal life.”

The older-but-younger-looking woman smiled. “Close, but not quite. We believe Shen Wu has already found a supernatural pathway to immortality, but that is only a secondary issue to the real problem.”

“Which is?”

Tianshi took a deep breath and stared at me with a deadly serious expression, as if waiting to make sure she had my full and undivided attention. Her body was unnaturally still, like that of a mannequin, and her unblinking diamond-white eyes bore straight into the back of my skull.

What felt like a minute later, she finally spoke in a grave tone, “Shen Wu is planning to unleash a supernatural plague that will turn all of humanity into zombie slaves.”

I barked a laugh. “I feel like I’ve read that book before too.”

“This is no laughing matter,” she seethed quietly.

“Sorry, sorry. I know, I know.” I held up my hands and gave her an apologetic look.

“I need you to understand the gravity of this situation,” Tianshi stated seriously. “Shen Wu is extremely powerful - more powerful than me. No mortal weapons can harm him. Now he has apparently found a way to become immortal, and no one will be safe from harm if he succeeds in unleashing this plague.”

“I get it, I get it,” I insisted. “So where does the Fagua--. Sorry, where does Faguang Long come in?”

Rae spoke up, staring distantly out the window. “Only Faguang Long has the power to stop the plague.”

Tianshi nodded. “In simple terms: yes.”

“How, exactly, would Faguang Long stop the plague? WHAT, exactly, IS Faguang Long? I know it’s ‘The Golden Dragon’, but is it like… a statue of a golden dragon? Would I be able to hold it in my hands? If I’m The Chosen One of Qinglong, am I the one who’s supposed to wield it? Or do you only need me to unlock the gates so that you can wield it? And don’t take this the wrong way, lady, but I barely know you and I’m not entirely sure I trust you. Within mere minutes of meeting me for the very first time, you flirted with me, insulted me, shapeshifted into Ziyi in order to fuck with my head, and threatened to kill me.”

“She threatened to what?” Rae interjected.

I ignored her and kept going. “So forgive me for not being one hundred percent certain I can believe the story you’re telling me about evil sorcerers unlocking immortality and unleashing zombie plagues. For all I know, everything you’ve said is utter bullshit designed to trick me into doing all the dirty work of unlocking these magic gates so that you can get your hands on Faguang Long and weaponize it for your own nefarious purposes.”

Rae blinked at me. “Did you really just use the phrase ‘nefarious purposes’ in a conversation?”

Hannah piped up, “If she really did threaten to kill you, I actually think that gives you more reason to trust her.”

“What?” I glanced down at the blonde. “Why?”

Hannah shrugged. “Well in the movies, the evil seductress pretends to be on the good guy’s side, flattering him and seducing him and basically acting like a complete… well… a complete angel for three-quarters of the runtime, and only THEN stabs him in the back. So for Tianshi to threaten to kill you within minutes of meeting you, I’d actually take that as a sign she’s a good guy.”

“Threatening to kill me makes her a good guy?” I furrowed my eyebrows and processed that with a frown. Hannah’s logic did sorta make sense.

From a certain point of view, Obi-Wan’s voice intoned from Dong’s little blue gecko mouth.

I closed my eyes and mentally face-palmed.

Tianshi fixed me with a serious look. “To answer your questions: First, nothing I can say now will convince you that I am not secretly evil and trying to trick you into delivering Faguang Long to me in order to use it for my own ‘nefarious purposes’, so I will not even try. Second, I do not actually know what form Faguang Long will take once we discover it, whether it be a statue or a sword or any other physical object. It has been lost for over a thousand years, and there are no drawings or other records of what it looks like. I do not know if you are the one meant to wield it, or if someone else would be able to wield it once found. I am not even certain it is meant to be wielded by a user at all, or if it is a self-directing entity with which we would need to interact.”

“You mean we might end up asking Faguang Long to stop this zombie plague and The Golden Dragon could end up saying, ‘No’?”

Tianshi grimaced. “Hopefully not.”

I nodded slowly while processing all that. “But none of it matters if we can’t recover the other two relics, anyway. The Cao Wei are either trying to kill me in order to prevent Faguang Long from being recovered or trying to capture me for some as-yet-unknown purpose, but the next few steps seem pretty clear: find the red feather of Zhuque, find the Sword of Baihu, and then go after Faguang Long.”

Tianshi frowned. “How do you know what the other two relics are?”

I blinked. “Ziyi told us.”

The older woman exchanged a glance with Rae before looking at me. “-I- didn’t know what the other two relics are.”

“You didn’t?”

She shook her head and then pursed her lips. “But she did, and it makes me wonder what other information she may possess. Perhaps your… Ziyi… may be more valuable than I thought.”

I smirked hearing Tianshi actually use Ziyi’s name instead of calling her a hui, a serpent, or a yaoguai. “-I- happen to think she’s very valuable indeed.”

“So should we prioritize recovering her first?” Rae asked curiously.

Tianshi took a deep breath and looked thoughtful, clearly processing this new information. But after only a few seconds of consideration, she shook her head in the negative. “No. We have no idea where she is being held or what resources would be necessary to recover her, and it would take too long to formulate a rescue plan. Our first goal is to recover the feather. Our enemies know we are close and that we are hunting relics. So we must move swiftly before they can bring more forces to bear in stopping us.”

I pursed my lips, unable to argue with her logic but not particularly pleased with it either. I understood the mission was to recover Faguang Long, and I understood that Ziyi would never be Tianshi’s priority, no matter what knowledge she possessed.

But I also knew that Ziyi would forever be my priority.

For all eternity.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue & Chapter 1: The Ax Effect: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102225387

Chapter 2: Santa Monica: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102437478

Chapter 3: The Zellij Fountain: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102691018

Chapter 4: Euhemerism: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102919819

Chapter 5: The Fremont Troll: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103191700

Chapter 6: Jade: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103443053

Chapter 7: The Blue Gecko: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103699709

Chapter 8: Yaoguai: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103978374

Chapter 9: Rome: https://www.patreon.com/posts/104213388

Chapter 10: Seeing Sights: https://www.patreon.com/posts/104466709

Chapter 11: Liu Kang: https://www.patreon.com/posts/104728056