I'l have to admit all three of them took it much better than I'd expected. Hou-Jin spoke first. "Very clever. Now tell us how you did it and what's it got to do with what's going on."
"What is it you think I did? Do you no longer trust your own senses?"
Linda Wong spoke in response "You want us to belive that what just happened wasn't some clever illusion?"
Robert answered "No it wasn't an illusion. Sulin is an .. Sorry Cordie what did you call her?"
"She's an Illiarri. They crop up in legends, but they're refered to as Succubi, but as with a lot of things truth and reality are somewhat contradictory and often, as in this case completely wrong."
Robert looked at Sulin. " And you and I?"
"Yes we did. You needed the release, and the healing. You're more at ease with yourself now are you not?"
He blushed. "It's hard to admit it but yes I am. But I still don't see what this has to do with everything else."
"I'll get to that shortly. I need to know what Hou-Jin and Juan-Qiangwei Wong think before I can continue."
She looked at me askance, aware that I'd just used her Chinease name.
"How did you know my name? I didn't tell you it!"
"You know the answer to that question, you just have to admit it to yourself. It's the same answer to the question you've not asked me about Brad, which reminds me I must commend you on your opening statement to Frank Gray, I thought it was very clever."
She started shaking. Hou-Jin moved towards her. "No Hou-Jin. Let her be. She has something of a difficult reconciliation to perform"
"You've lost us again"
"If she accepts that Sulin's change in appearance was not an illusion, then she has to accept the reason why I know her given name is because I read her mind this morning."
Hou-Jin stopped dead in his tracks. "Say that again"
"No you heard me quite clearly the first time."
He stood still for a while then sat down.
"If I accept what you've said is true, then what's to stop you reading anybody's mind you like or making them do anything you want?"
"Two things. One, I have to be in a position where I can do it, sort of like Vulcans in Startrek, and two, nothing in theory other than them having a strong enough psyche to prevent me."
"The other night when I was drunk you read my mind - didn't you?"
"You know I did. It was the easiest way to get to the root cause of all your problems."
"And as a result you had the girl, sorry I can't remember your name, help me upstaris, and then you made Sulin come to my room."
"No I did that of my own accord. Cordellia is not currently a match for my own abilities". I looked at her. "You know as well as I do you're not."
"I wasn't questioning that, but you said 'currently', which is not the first time somebody's said that."
"You're still young and have barely stared to explore your abilities let alone put any serious effort into developing them to their potential."
"I think I see. Hou-Jin in answer to you earlier question, yes I did ask Palrity to help you upstairs, because I wasn't prepared to have you grope me, and because I wanted Palrity to learn a few truths, and hopefull put her off a pre-occupation that I was partially responsible for starting."
"You knew what would happen and you didn't warn me"
"Would you have done what I asked if you'd know what was going to happen?"
"I'm not sure, probably not."
"Did you learn anything from the experience?"
"Well," she blushed.
"I think that answers it dosen't it."
"Anyway it's not put me off."
"But it's made you think a lot more about it now hasn't it?"
"I suppose so"
"What happens if Miss Wong doesn't accept what's happened as the truth?"
"She'll most likely spend the rest of her life in psychiatric care, or I'll have to erase the whole of her memory of what happened today, including her memory of Brad."
She looked up."I had everything planned you know, how I was going to get you to admit your involvement with the Traids, how your step father was involved, what you and your mother had done with your real father's body, and how you were laundering money for Marcus Trent, all planned out untilI walked up behind you and you pulled that damned gun out the car. Everything just seemed to fall apart after that.You just wouldn't do anything I wanted. Every time I tried another track you just forced me to do what you wanted. I can even see now that you deliberatly provoked me in the kitchen. What I don't understand is why, and why you didn't hide the memory of what you'd done, you can do that if you want to can't you."
"Yes she can but she doesn't work that way. You have to either trust her or ....."
"or what Robert?"
"I'm not sure. They don't remember do they?"
"I prefer not to anwser that if you don't mind."
"Okay Cordellia, I think we get the point, you can read minds, and you can make us do anything you want as a result, but you don't work like that, or so your boyfriend says, but I don't see how any of that relates in any way to Sulin or this girl Marcie, or why you asked Sulin to perform her little party trick."
"Because she doesn't want to tell us what the answer is, because if we have to work it out for ourselves we're more likely to believe it."
"I still don't see the connection"
"If I'm right, she want's us to believe that Sulin and Marcie are the same, but I can't reconcile that with Brad being her brother, unless they're both the same as Sulin, but .... " she stopped, obvioulsy to perform some sort of reconcilliation between discordant facts, "but that doesn't make sense either because that would mean they're very good actors, or they're very good at covering up, but if that were the case she'd have just called their bluff, so they can't know. grr it doesn't just make sense or I'm missing something."
"Let me pose another question then... if your supposition is correct and Marcie and Sulin are the same race how would you feel about it?"
"I'm not sure. There'd be a bloody good story in it, and....."
"Really where's your evidence?"
"Well I've just seen Sulin perform some sort of shape shifting trick, and ....." silence reigned for perhaps a minute before she continued... "O alright I don't have any, so if I wrote anything I'd just be made a laughing stock"
"And you'd most likely ruin her life in the process."
"I think I get your point. What is and what I can prove are two totally different things, so I suppose I'm just going to have to get used to the idea, but suddenly being confronted with physical proof that something from legend exists and is living next door just takes a little getting used to."
"There is nothing from legend living next door, Marcie has other accomdation now, and Brad and his parents are as human as Hou-Jin, Robert, or yourself ."
"How do I know you're not lying?"
"You don't, although your instincts might be telling you I'm not. Your just going to have to take it on trust, which will be far easier than trying to deal with what you already know."
"I don't see what you mean"
"Well outside of the people in this room who are you going to tell. Even her brother doesn't know what she really is, as far as he understands it, he's got a very attractive, very smart, nymphomaniac younger sister. Of course you could discuss things with other Illiarri, if you could locate them."
"Did I just miss something, what other Illiarri?"
"What makes you think that Sulin and Marcie are the only two on this planet?"
"Well.... I..."
"Daunting isn't it. Then there are other shadows that are equally home to Illiarri, or not, which is why Sulin is here."
"Cordellia, can we just slow this down, you've turned our lives upside down and you expect us to carry on as if nothing's happened. It may have escaped your attention that I've no idea what I'm going to do now, let alone what you expect Miss Wong or your boyfriend to do."
"What's done is done Hou-Jin. Miss Wong I expect to finish writing her article, which she may need your assistance with, and if you remember I made you an offer which still stands, all I have to do is make a phone call."
"My whole life has been spent on the otherside of the fence. I've made too many enemies. I wouldn't be safe even with your connections."
"Who said anything about you working for me or my assocaites? I'm well aware of where you stand on the subject."
"Will you two stop speaking in code? I know she's the step daughter of a Triad boss, her mother's a Geisha, she practically owns the Purple Dragon, which like Wang's motorcycyles which she also owns, is a Triad money laundering front."
"Either you don't understand Miss Wong, don't care, or have a death wish. There is a difference between what you know, what you can prove, and what you can and can't discuss in public, and her family have a very long reach."
"She's got a death-wish Hou-Jin, so she doesn't care, in fact for her being left alive, as she has been for the last 3 years, is the worst thing they can do to her. But she is forgetting one thing, something she refuses to admit to herself. Something they'll exploit when they find out, and find out they will, or do you think you can keep Brad a secret?"
"No. Please you can't tell them. I beg you. I won't write the article, I'll forget everything, forget I ever met you. Please"
She'd thrown herself at my feet and was no sobbing uncontrolably. "What makes you think I'd tell them. They don't control me and haven't done since I took over Wangs motorcycles. We have a mutually beneficial understanding. That's not my point though. If it's not Brad it'll be somebody else. Perhaps a chance meeting in a coffee shop, turns into a regular meeting for that first cup of the day, until one day a motorcyclist rides past and puts a bullet through the brain of her coffee drinking partner, and nobody will every fathom out why it happened. The only person who'll know why is Juan-Qiangwei Wong and she can't say.
"Li Feng are you saying she's "
"Yes. But you *really* don't want to know the details."
He sat back, made the symbol of the Great Dragon, and uttered a small prayer. This was the second legend he'd encountered in the space of less than an hour.
"Now Juan-Qiangwei. Pull yourself together and look at me. There are two things you can do about the situation. The first is that you can write your article, and get it published, and when you do you will ensure that a photograph of a piece of parchment I will give you is included. Alternatively you can go get the Gloch from my desk draw, go outside and blow your brains out."
"A photo of a tacky piece of paper won'tmake any difference."
"It will because of what it has drawn on it. It and the article will attract sufficient attention that I will get you a hearing before the council, and you will apologize, and you will submit to whatever punishment the council see's fit to administer."
"I can't. Please don't make me. I can't do it again. Please."
" Juan-Qiangwei look at me. You can and you will. That you are here now is testament to what you can do if you chose to. But it won't get that far."
"You can't know that. You know what happened last time."
"I do, but I have no intention of losing."
"If you're thinking what I'm thinking Li Feng, then you can't champion her, women aren't allowed."
"And that's written where?"
"But to my knowlegde it's never been done"
"That's not the same thing is it."
"They'll never allow it"
"They won't have much choice in the matter"
"You'd challenge the council?"
"If they put me in that position then yes."
"But that's suicide."
"It is if they stand in my way."
"You never did do things the easy way, and I see time hasn't changed you. I don't suppose I've any chance."
"None what so ever."
I checked the time. "Palrity you need to go and pack your stuff if you haven't already. Hou-Jin I've a favour to ask, can you house sit for me and look after Sulin, take her shopping if she needs to go, and generally look after her. I was going to get Marcie to do it but she's now otherwise engaged."
"How long for?"
"A couple of weeks, maybe less, maybe more, depends upon whether I run into anymore hitches. I was only supposed to be here for 48 hours, and it's been nearly 6 days, and Palrity and I have a tide to catch in about 3 hours."
"Well I've got no where else to go and nothing to do, so yes I can do that. I'll need money for groceries and the like, and a car would be useful."
"Use the Rangerover, Robert can use mine. And don't go out Monday night or be back by 11pm if you do, Sulin's got a ball to attend. The same goes for you Robert. Now you'll have to excuse me I need to pack"
It took me about 40 minutes to organise everything into my trunk and get it into the car. Given we had to fit Palrity's trunk in as well we were forced to take the Rangerover. And anyway all things considered it was far more comfortable than mine. I said goodbye to Hou-Jin, handing him a roll of hundred dollar bills. I then turned to Linda Wong and hugged her, "go easy on Brad. Hou-Jin can help you sort out your article, and I'll have more time in a couple of weeks, and can sort out an interview to fill in any remaining blanks.". Finally I turned to Sulin. "Sorry I can't take you with me, but the cabin is going to be crowded enough with Palrity and myself. Get Hou-Jin to show you some of the sights. I'll be back to collect you for the ball on Monday night.." I hugged her and was hugged in return.
"At least I'll get some sleep tonight. Now go before I start crying."
I kissed her lightly, hugged her once more, then got into the back of the Rangerover.
Our arrival at the docks just over an hour and a half later went more or less unnoticed, save for a few curious sightseers. It's surprising how quickly a media sensation becomes yesterday's news. Our trunks were duely loaded, and an additional hammock installed, in what had until my arrival, had been the Captain's cabin. I kissed Robert goodbye, reminding him I'd see him in about 40 hours for the Ball in Amber.
Our departure from the harbour was almost as unceremonious, only the harbour master, the port controller, and the US coastguard marking our passing.Once free of the tug, and again under sail I had the captain head directly out to see and rig for storm conditions. I had a lot of time to try and make up.
I've calmed the storm and we'll sail normally for a while, after 20 hours of hell riding. With about13 hours to go in Amber before the ball there is no way I can get us to HongKong before it, and given that we're going to be away from the ship for about 24 hours, I need to rest and then create a trump of the cabin when I wake. The Captain is not best pleased with another absence, but given his passengers will reach HongKong in 14 days rather than the more common 30 days they are not complaining.
On other fronts things have been a mixed bag. Palrity suffered really badly from sea sickness for the first six hours or so, but she now appears to have developed some sea legs. She finds the whole shadow crossing concept facinating, and has spent several hours getting soaked on deck trying to pick out things in shadow as we've passed through them.
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| Supporting Cast - Cordelia | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |