To Dream of Darkness II - Ch 26
#6 of To Dream of Darkness, Part II
To Dream of Darkness
A story by DoggyStyle57
Chapter 26, Written January 2012
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Chapter 26 - Oriental scholarship
The old wolf scholar called for his boy, who blinked in amazement to see that his master had a guest, since Sarina had made the young ferret forget he had admitted anyone.
"Y-yes Master? Ah, should I fetch some wine for your guest?" the boy asked.
"Yes, and bring two glasses. When you return, I have an errand for you," the scholar said.
Once the boy had brought the wine, the scholar told him, "Go to Jiang Wu. Tell him that I have a most unusual visitor, who wants to speak with him. A huli jing, who says they are from a very distant land."
On hearing the mysterious visitor referred to as a huli jing, the boy became quite afraid, and backed away, seeking the door.
"Please, stop acting as if you expect me to devour you, boy. I have no intention of eating you. Please also do tell this Jiang Wu that my request is to meet at his convenience, when we may have several hours to talk. If today is not convenient, tomorrow or the next day will do," Sarina said politely "You may tell him that I am a Western oneromancer, and I wish to discuss Chinese methods of oneromancy and divination, if he knows of these arts, which I believe he does? If he asks my name, tell him that 'Feng Wu' is how he may address me. Thank you, boy. Now go."
The boy glanced quickly at the enchanted mirror, meeped when he saw a female fox reflected in it, and not the male mink that his eyes perceived, and ran from the room.
"Please forgive him. The boy is a student of mine, and has never met an unnatural creature before. You are like a legend to him, a feared creature he has only read of in ancient stories. Would you like some wine, while we wait for Jiang Wu's reply?" the scholar asked. "I will drink some myself. I think I could use a glass of wine right now."
"You hope to trick me, and get me drunk, so you can force me to leave?" Sarina asked. "Yes, your thoughts are that open to me. Do not try to trap me or deceive me, ancient one. I will go when I have what I want, and you and your boy will remain unharmed, as long as you have treated me well. But try to cross me, and I swear that this place will burn to the ground with both of you in it, and they will have trouble finding your ashes!"
"N-no, oh great fox spirit! The thought did occur to me that some of your kind may be banished if they get drunk, but I meant no harm! Y-your kind do like wine, do they not?" the scholar said, his hands shaking as he poured a measure of wine for himself and took a large gulp of it.
"Drink your wine, if it calms you. I do not care to drink any myself. Amuse me, while we wait. Tell me the history of this land. Some of its tales and legends," Sarina requested.
"You toy with me, mighty one," the scholar said. "I will do as you ask, but... may I first make one request? May I see your fox-woman form, with its many tails? If you are openly asked, and choose to comply, it cannot be used against you. And if I am to play host to such a wonder as yourself, I would appreciate seeing your magnificence with my own eyes."
Sarina smiled, seeing in his mind an image of a beautiful humanoid female fox, with red-gold fur that seemed almost aflame, and seven tails swirling and swaying sinuously behind her. And in his mind, that beautiful huli jing was nude. The old scholar may fear death from mating with a huli jing, but he was enough of a letch to want to see one unclothed. "As you wish, old wolf. You do not fear the temptation of what you seek?"
"Mighty huli jing, I fear that no matter what I do, I will not survive the day, given your capricious nature," he replied. "If I am to expire, I would at least like to see such a wonder with my own eyes, before I perish. That is the honest truth. And if I am to die, better it be in the arms of a beautiful vixen, however unnatural and deadly, than to be burned alive by your wrath."
Sarina stood and smiled, her eyes glowing as she made her stolen male garments vanish, and changed her shape to Sarina's form, but with seven tails at once. She enveloped herself in a shimmering aura of fire, whose heat could be felt, but which burned nothing. Standing there in the nude, with her eyes glowing green like burning copper, she asked, "Does this satisfy you, old scholar? Is it all that you expected, and hoped for?"
"More than I could have dreamed of, mighty huli jing. The enchanted mirror's magic does not do justice to the radiant beauty before me," the scholar said, gazing at her with a mixture of lust, and abject terror.
Sarina looked carefully at the old wolf. She guessed he was in his late sixties, but he might be young enough to still be sexually capable. Really, he wasn't that much older than her lecherous 'uncle', Lord Pennington. "Are you still capable of lying with a woman, old scholar? Unless your heart fails you, mating with me need not be harmful. I give you my word that I will not intentionally harm you, if you truly wish the experience. Or if you can resist the temptation, you have but to ask, and I shall become Feng Wu again. It matters little to me."
"My fur may be sprinkled with grey and white, but I am still capable as a male, o mighty one. Sometimes, women who seek my advice do pay for it with their favors. I have a bed in the next room, for that purpose. Never has it been graced by one more beautiful than yourself," he replied.
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The old scholar was capable, but lasted only half an hour. In that time Sarina drained his memories, making them hers, and learning copious volumes of information on Chinese culture and society. She also learned that the mage she had asked to see, Jiang Wu, was a specialist in divination and dream interpretation, but also was quite capable as a summoner of demons and other unnatural creatures. He had summoned creatures far more powerful than mere elementals, and bound them to do his bidding, for short periods of time. Sarina would need to be cautious with that fellow.
She left the scholar sleeping peacefully on his bed, smiling happily with the memories of pleasures far exceeding what he actually experienced with Sarina. When he awoke, he would remember having had a stamina matching the best years of his youth, and would suffer no other ill effects, but one - any female companion after this would pale in comparison.
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When the ferret boy returned, he found ' Feng Wu' seated in the scholar's room, examining old maps and journals of traveler's tales from various sailors who had once visited the island of Japan, before they closed their ports to foreigners.
"W-where is my master? What have you done with him?" the boy asked fearfully.
"He is unharmed. In his fear of me, he drank a little too much wine. He is in the next room, sleeping it off," Sarina replied diplomatically. "What news have you of the mage, Jiang Wu? Will he see me? And when?"
"H-he said, he will meet with you at the hour of the Dragon, tomorrow, at his home. He says that is the most auspicious time for your meeting," the boy replied, referring to a time a few hours after sunrise. He looked in the door to the back room, and seemed relieved to see that his master was still breathing, and looked unharmed. Then he carefully explained to the strange guest how to get to where the mage lived.
Sarina examined the boy's surface thoughts, and found no indications that he was lying. She nodded, gave the boy a handful of silver coins, and then said, "Then I will take my leave of you, and thank you. I am taking two maps and three journals. That sum should pay for their replacement. Your Master already knows where he can obtain new copies of these items. I made a list of them so he can easily do so."
"Y-you aren't going to harm us, then?" the boy asked.
"It does not benefit me to harm you. Your master dealt fairly with me. You will remain unharmed," she replied, as she left.
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The rest of that day, 'Feng Wu' seemed to run errands through the town of Canton, making small purchases, buying meals and tea, and keeping a low profile. No one knew him. He was just another face in the crowd, unremarkable.
Sarina refrained from peering into other people's thoughts, after seeing a group of Chinese soldiers searching the area near the city gates for an officer that had failed to report for his duties. She made note not to assume that officer's identity again, and quietly incinerated his uniform and belongings in an alley behind a tea shop, where the smoke would be lost in the fumes from the kitchens.
As night fell, she sought the home of the mage she was to meet the next day. She teleported to the roof of a nearby building, where she watched as the mage carefully inscribed a large diagram on the wooden floor of an open courtyard within his home. She smiled, fairly certain that she knew what the diagram was for, and how the mage intended to use it.
She walked to a house about a quarter of a mile from where the mage lived, cast a spell on the residents to cause them to sleep soundly, and calmly spent the night in their best bed, while the owner of the home and his wife lay in their spellbound sleep on the floor.
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In the morning, Feng Wu left the house that he had slept in, releasing the inhabitants from their sleep spell. The owner of the home and his wife believed that they had both rolled out of bed as they awakened, and tumbled to the floor. They laughed at how silly it was that they both did that at the same time, and went on about their day.
Feng Wu purchased a bowl of congee with roasted fish, and a small pot of tea, and ate that for breakfast, while he waited for the appointed time for the meeting with the mage. The skies were getting cloudy, and it looked like it might rain by nightfall. But for now, it was merely windy and cool.
From what Sarina could recall of the memories of the sailor, Hui Ding, his ship was not scheduled to load cargo and return to Hong Kong for two more days. That left plenty of time for Sarina to conclude her business with the mage, and return to Hong Kong in the guise of Hui Ding.
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Meanwhile, outside the city walls, the wife of the real Hui Ding was becoming concerned. She had confirmed that the ship her husband served on had returned to port two nights earlier. She had located several of his crewmates, and they all agreed that he had been on the ship when they offloaded their cargo, and that the last they had seen of him, it appeared that he was headed for his home. But he had never arrived at home, as far as his wife could remember. It was unlike him. He was not given to gambling, drinking or whoring, and never missed a chance to enjoy her cooking and her company in bed. One of the wolf sailors suggested that perhaps he had met a lovely concubine who was just too beautiful to refuse. That earned him a withering glance and a severe tongue lashing from Hui Ding's wife.
She feared, however, that they may be right. Her mother had warned her about the ways of sailors, and their bad habits. Even if her husband was not the type to do such things, that did not mean he could not have fallen in with bad companions, who tempted him beyond his limits. Perhaps her husband had gone off on a drinking binge with other sailors? Or worse yet, what if he had gone to an opium den? She had heard of such vile places, and how men could lose themselves for days or even weeks, smoking the drug until their money ran out, and the owner of the den threw them out on the street.
She refused to contemplate the thought that her husband might be dead, or might have been attacked and even now be lying in a gutter somewhere, severely wounded. Surely if something that bad had happened to him, the city guard would have found him by now?
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In Hong Kong, the real Hui Ding was unconscious. He was dead drunk, and in the arms of a Tanka prostitute. Since he awakened with no memory and no identifying papers on the day his ship was to have sailed, the whores had assumed he was a Chinese sailor who had abandoned his ship. If he was willing to spend money on them and whore with them they were perfectly happy to hide him on the 'flower boats', where most native Chinese would refuse to set foot. They plied him with wine and took him to bed, taking money each time, but only what he owed for the wine or the girl. They hid his sailor clothes, and dressed him in a Tanka loincloth and pants.
For his own part, Hui Ding had decided that until his memory returned, he was safer among the Tanka whores. Sarina had adjusted his memories enough that consorting with the hated 'salt water girls' did not revolt him. Yet he dimly recalled that most Chinese had a very low opinion of the Tanka people. If he was a Chinese sailor hiding among the Tanka, as the whores said, then he must have done something very bad. Until he could remember what he had done, it was safer to remain where he was.