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To Dream of Darkness

A story by DoggyStyle57

Chapter 27, Written January 2012

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Chapter 27 - West meets East

At the hour of the Dragon (eight in the morning, according to a western clock), 'Feng Wu' arrived at the gate in the wall that surrounded the home of the magician, Jiang Wu, and tapped on the door.

The door opened at once, and a feline boy with fluffy grey fur looked fearfully out at the visitor. "Y-yes?" the boy said.

"This is the home of Jiang Wu, is it not?" the visitor said politely. "I am expected. My name is Feng Wu."

The boy looked slightly disappointed at the calm and harmless appearance of the visitor, who appeared to be only a young male mink, dressed like a Chinese scholar. He bobbed his head and opened the gate wider, saying, "Master Jiang Wu is expecting you, yes, honorable Feng Wu. This way, please."

Feng Wu followed the boy inside, and waited patiently while the servant closed the gate and latched it from within. Then the two of them crossed a small red bridge that arched over a koi pond which dominated the small inner yard, and went up three steps and through two large, elaborately carved doors, into a large, high-ceilinged room that was clearly intended as a formal audience chamber. There was a raised dais on the far side, on which was a wooden chair decorated on the arms, legs and back with many kinds of stylized animals. But there was no other furniture for the guest to sit on.

"Wait here, please, and I will tell my Master that you are..." the boy started to say.

"I already know," a voice said from behind a curtain on the far side of the room. The person the voice belonged to was a well-muscled tiger, dressed in elaborately decorated robes of crimson silk, hemmed with blue silk, and embroidered in gold and silver. "I felt his presence. You may go, Li Pang. Why don't you see if the wine merchant has any good wines available today? Take your time."

The boy wasted no time in scampering out of the room, running so fast that his circular cap flew from his head, to lie discarded on the floor.

Feng Wu and Jiang Wu regarded each other in silence for a moment, as they subtly tested the mental defenses of each other, and each found no easy entry. Then Feng Wu bowed, just to the degree that was proper between peers, and said, "I thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Jiang Wu."

"I thank you for coming, Feng Wu, though surely that is not your true name. It is an amusing choice, however. The name means 'wind sorcery' in our language. Did you know that? Well, no matter. It is not often that I get such an... unusual visitor. The boy will remain at the wine merchant for quite some time. The others in my household staff have also been sent away for the morning. We may have our chat without interruptions."

"That also ensures that you will not have to be concerned for their welfare, if your guest should prove dangerous?" Feng Wu replied with a smile. "I assure you, I am only as dangerous to you as you attempt to be to me. Deal honestly with me, and I will repay you well, and leave you quite unharmed. And before you ask, the old scholar is quite well, and was well paid in honest coin for his advice and services to me. I did not harm him, nor did I cheat him."

"I know. I sent my boy to make sure of that, late last night," the tiger replied. "Li Pang returned and told me what the scholar says he saw in his mirror. May I look at your reflection in my own mirror, to verify what he said of you?"

"You may, if you wish," Feng Wu replied calmly, with his green eyes softly glowing.

The tiger took a palm-sized metal disc from a pouch attached to his sash, and looked at Feng Wu's reflection in it. "Very interesting," he said. "Your image in my mirror is blurred. It should clearly show me your resting form - how you truly look, when you are not trying to assume a false appearance. Yet I see both a male mink and a female spirit fox, and I cannot count the fox form's tails. How ancient are you, huli jing? Your mind is closed to me."

"Your mind is also guarded against me, I see. Does my exact age matter? I honestly cannot tell you. The seasons of your world have changed enough times since the year of my birth that the exact number of years may be meaningless. If I had to guess, I would say perhaps 500 years or more, as you count them? You are said to know divination. I would like to see how that is done here." Feng Wu replied evasively. What Feng Wu stated was quite true, however, since coming to this realm via a portal had apparently moved Sarina and Asha far ahead in the river of time from the era in which she had been born.

"Most Chinese methods of divination require that you know the exact date and hour of a person's birth. I would at the very least need to know the correct month and year to cast your horoscope, which is done by checking the alignments of the stars and planets at this time, as well as what they are recorded to have been when you were born. But there is one form of divination I could perform for you, without knowing your exact age. Come with me," he said. The tiger led Feng Wu into a smaller side room, and handed his guest a small bundle of 50 small sticks, made from some sort of dried reed.

"What am I to do with these?" Feng Wu asked, as they each took a seat on opposite sides of a small table. The tiger had an ink dish, calligraphy brush, and several pieces of paper ready on his side of the table.

"Think of a question you wish answered. As you do so, sort through the yarrow stalks in this manner," The tiger said, as he led Feng Wu through a method of dividing the sticks into piles, counting off four at a time from each pile, and placing the left-over sticks in small piles. Each time three piles of left-over sticks were completed, the tiger examined the number of sticks in each pile, and then drew either a straight line or a broken line in two columns. This was repeated until after about twenty minutes, he had two sets of six lines drawn, some of them broken lines, some straight. "There. Now, what was the question?" the tiger asked.

"Hummm. My question was 'how can my journey further east be successful?' I can see how this exercise with the sticks can focus the mind on a certain subject, and perhaps bring old memories into the person's surface thoughts. Yet that would not avail you, as my mind is protected. How then are the lines interpreted, to make the divination work?" Feng Wu asked.

"We now consult the I Ching, or 'book of changes'. Each line in the hexagram pattern has a meaning, and the transition for each line between the pattern on the left and the one on the right also has meaning. These writings are said to be thousands of years old, passed down from one of the first Emperors of China." He took a thick book that was written on laced together strips of bamboo, and spent almost an hour consulting the diagrams, writing notes, and checking what the book said.

At last he set aside the ink brush and looked over his notes. "I see you waiting at a distant border. To achieve your desire, you must be consistent in your purpose. Then you are waiting on sand, by a mountain stream. Some may speak against you, but it will not deter you. Then you stand on mud, inviting injury." He paused, looking a bit shaken, before continuing. "You stand next in a cavern where there is much blood, yet you walk out unharmed. There is a feast, and you have good fortune. Three unexpected guests arrive, but if you receive them respectfully, there will be good fortune in the end."

"Well, that certainly fits with my plans, but it seems not to be much of a prophecy," Feng Wu said. "Anyone could predict that if I go East, a traveler may encounter such experiences."

"But you have only heard half of it. That was indicated by the second hexagram, which speaks of your future course, and which spoke most directly to your question," Jiang Wu said. "The first hexagram speaks of your past, and what I see there is very troubling. What I see is much success for you at first. But your success led to blame, and an attack upon you in the night. I see a solitary flight from your attackers. Then... Much death, and no remorse. There is a great darkness, and much change. You stand alone in adversity, and there are very few who would stand at your side, or offer you aid."

"In that there is much truth, I will admit. That was very interesting. I have told no one here of my past. That you can divine so much that is true speaks well of your skill. I am impressed! My family was indeed attacked when I was young, and I was the sole survivor. I took my revenge upon those who killed my family, and it is true that I do not regret doing so. If someone killed your family, would you not also feel justified in seeking vengeance?" Feng Wu said.

"I would, I must admit. I mentioned to you that our astrology requires precise knowledge of the stars and planets and their positions. Come, and allow me to show you a wonder." The tiger said.

They went into the central courtyard. In the middle of an elaborate diagram on the raised wooden floor was a disc at least three feet across. It stood on three legs, which were capable of being adjusted to make the disc level. Its upper surface was a deep, velvety black.

Feng Wu examined the diagram, while pretending to keep his attention on the odd disc in the center of the raised floor. He could tell that part of the diagram was in fact a summoner's circle, very similar to the one that Sarina used to summon Asha. But there were subtle differences as well, and this circle had no identifying name for the creature to be summoned. Intertwined with that was a much more elaborate diagram whose purpose was not immediately obvious, but which had references to compass directions, and a repeating theme of the dominance of night over day.

"And what is this, may I ask?" Feng Wu inquired.

"This is where I observe the heavens," Jiang Wu replied. He pointed to several elaborate brass instruments on stands just outside the circle, and said, "At night, I can use those instruments to determine the exact positions of stars and planets. But during the day, the enchanted mirror in the center allows me to observe the stars even at mid day, for its perfectly polished surface excludes the lights cast by the sun. The diagram around it enables the mystic mirror to perform that miracle. Go, and gaze into the mirror, and tell me what you see."

Feng Wu examined the diagram once more, and in the light of that explanation much of the greater diagram did make sense. He rested his hand on a small lump under his sash, and went to the mirror, gazing down into it. "Remarkable! I do see the stars, as if it was night! But I warn you, it would be most unwise of you to attempt to trick me."

"Too late for that, huli jing! Already you are in my trap, and bound in place! No demon can cross the bounds of that summoning circle once it has been activated! I control you now, oh mighty demon!" Jiang Wu said triumphantly, as the part of the intricate design that was the actual summoning circle glowed with a scarlet light. From behind a pillar he withdrew an odd sword, made entirely of laced together Chinese coins. He pointed the blade at Feng Wu and shouted. "I command you now, Demon! Show yourself to me, huli jing! Discard that false appearance, and reveal your fox spirit form. You cannot deny me!"

Feng Wu's appearance immediately dissolved, and re-formed into a seven-tailed fox woman, wreathed in an aura of fire, as Sarina had chosen to appear to the old scholar. She was completely unclothed and stood there defiantly, with her fists tightly clenched. "You dare! Foolish mortal! You dare to attempt to enslave a huli jing?"

"Rant all you want, fox demon, for you are my slave now!" Jiang Wu exclaimed. He jumped around with maniacal excitement, taunting Sarina from outside the protective circle. "You will use your sorcery for my benefit, to bring down my foes, and elevate me above them! We will start with those hated foreigners from the West, and their mind-killing opium merchants. I command you to set their ships ablaze with your celestial fire! Rain destruction upon them, my slave!"

Sarina's eyes glowed like the very pit of hell, a sickly acid green that tinted the entire area around her. The golden flames around her body swirled like a tornado, and were joined by a great gout of flames from her upraised muzzle, as they merged into a pillar of fire that shot straight up into the sky. Where the fiery column struck the gathering clouds, they boiled and blackened, thickening in moments to form the heart of a tremendous thunderstorm, with massive bolts of lightning leaping from cloud to cloud.

"Yes! Yes! Fire and lightning! Bring your wrath to bear on them, my slave!" Jiang Wu shouted above the roar of the increasing winds, and holding the coin sword above his head.

The column of fire ceased, and the creature in the circle looked at the Chinese mage with those hellish eyes, as the dark clouds came lower and lower, blotting out the sun itself. In the courtyard, it became dark as night, as the wind swirled and blew over one of the brass observation instruments outside the circle.

"Fire and lightning, as you command, oh wizard!" Sarina said, in a voice that reverberated from the nearby buildings and shook the walls of the mage's home. And in that moment, a bolt of lightning lanced down from the clouds, to strike Jiang Wu's sword!

The mage fell to his knees, screaming in pain as he discarded the half-melted sword. Stunned and barely able to raise his head, he looked up, to see the huli jing effortlessly crossing the summoning circle, and advancing to bend over him. "Impossible! No demon... could defy... that spell!" Jiang Wu gasped.

Sarina reached out and lifted up three amulets on cords that had been around Jiang Wu's neck, snapped the cords and tossed the amulets aside. She smiled viciously as she touched a hand to one side of Jiang Wu's head, forcing him to look deep into her eyes, while with her other hand showing him the ivory fox head that she had concealed in her sash. Its eyes were also glowing green.

"I am not a demon, fool, and this charm protects me against compulsion or binding spells!" she said, as she savagely tore into his mind, ripping past his remaining defenses.

As pure terror overwhelmed his conscious mind, Jiang Wu's last coherent thought was the sight of those inhuman green eyes.