‘Dismiss and resummon them, Simone,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Just bring one. Then you and Eva can match skills.’
‘How do I dismiss them?’ Simone said. The elementals disappeared. ‘Oh.’
‘Summon one only,’ the Phoenix said.
Simone made a seed of water in front of her.
‘Without the seed,’ the Phoenix said.
The seed disappeared. Simone concentrated for a moment and five elementals appeared in front of us.
‘Looks like you need some practice,’ the Phoenix said wryly. ‘Dismiss all but one, if you can.’
Nothing happened.
‘You may have to do it out loud,’ the Phoenix said, ‘until you are more skilled.’
‘All but one of you disappear, please,’ Simone said.
All of the elementals disappeared.
‘They’re being deliberately difficult,’ Simone said, exasperated.
The five elementals reappeared.
‘Tell them which one,’ the Phoenix said. ‘They can’t decide themselves.’ She raised her voice and spoke pointedly at the elementals. ‘They’re too stupid.’
Four of the elementals disappeared. The remaining one appeared to be glowering at the Phoenix.
‘So what sort of thing can they do?’ Simone said, studying the elemental.
‘That’s entirely up to you,’ Eva said. ‘You are only limited by your imagination and your knowledge of what your element is capable of.’
Simone thought for a moment. ‘Freeze,’ she said.
The water elemental froze with a loud crack.
‘Very good,’ the Phoenix said.
‘Steam,’ Simone said.
The elemental changed from ice to a human shape of steam with no water transition.
‘Very nice, sublimation,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Eva, Simone is using the different states of water. You don’t have access to that.’
‘I want to battle!’ Eva said, still enthused. ‘I’ve seen the kids at CH do it, I want to try!’ She raised one hand and a fire elemental, a glowing sphere of flame, appeared next to Simone’s water elemental.
‘It’s something of a status symbol to be able to do it,’ the Phoenix said with amusement.
‘And they obviously do it at CH despite the ban,’ I said.
‘Just like they still play AIPets at the Australian School even though it’s been banned for a long time,’ Simone said, still pensive. ‘Orb.’
The water elemental changed to a glistening sphere of water.
‘Bird,’ Eva said. The fire elemental changed to the fiery shape of a phoenix, about one-and-a-half metres tall.
‘Snake,’ Simone said.
The elemental changed form to a snake, but it had long tendrils coming from its head and large, bulging eyes, similar to a dragon. Scales appeared along its length, even though it was obviously still made of water.
‘Simone has better control, Eva,’ the Phoenix said. ‘She’s added the details of scales and whiskers.’
Eva stared, concentrating, at her fire elemental and its form appeared more polished, with glowing feathers of red tapering to orange tips.
‘Oh, wow, that’s really pretty,’ Simone said.
‘Thanks,’ Eva said, and she and Simone shared a smile.
‘You could colour the scales on yours if you like,’ the Phoenix said to Simone.
Simone studied the water elemental, and its scales changed from transparent to opaque, glistening from dark blue-green to the pure turquoise of sunshine in clear water. It swayed on its tail and turned its head to admire itself. I like.
‘Yours is pretty too,’ Eva said.
‘Both of you have an artistic streak,’ the Phoenix said, pleased. ‘You can use your elementals as works of art as well as battle creatures, if you prefer. There are competitions for the most elegantly decorated elementals on the Celestial Plane. A metal elemental has won the last two years in a row—I think the Tiger’s arranged for his children to receive special training. A water elemental has never won; the Turtle’s children aren’t really interested in this sort of thing.’
‘Not good enough,’ Eva said. ‘Fire or water need to win some.’
Simone concentrated and her elemental changed to a bird with glittering royal blue and purple feathers and a crown of peacock-like feathers on its head.
‘I’m not trying to outdo you,’ Simone said quickly. ‘I just wanted to try it.’
‘No, no, that’s fine,’ Eva said. She changed her fire elemental to a glowing orange serpent, its flat triangular head more snake-like than Simone’s had been. Its scales had feathery edges of flame, glowing with heat.
‘I wonder if there’s a way we could combine them,’ Simone said. ‘Make them two creatures, but like yang and yin.’
‘That’s an interesting idea,’ Eva said.
‘There’s never been a combined work of two elementals entered into the Decorative Elemental Contest,’ the Phoenix said. ‘It would be an interesting innovation.’
‘Want to try?’ Eva said, her smile to Simone now shy. ‘We could work together, make something really pretty, and put it into the competition.’
‘When’s the competition start?’ Simone said.
‘The judging is held just before Chinese New Year, in a couple of months,’ the Phoenix said. ‘The elementals are displayed as part of the New Year celebrations on the Celestial.’
Simone turned to me, bright with pleasure. ‘Is that okay, Emma?’
I nodded.
‘Hey, Simone,’ Eva said, and Simone turned back to her. ‘My art teacher at CH might be able to help us with the design, she’s a phoenix too. I don’t know if she can do ellies, but she can help us with colours and designs and stuff. What do you think?’
Simone quickly turned to shoot an angry glare at me.
I raised my hands. ‘I had no idea. Don’t look at me.’
Simone stood thinking for a moment, then turned back to Eva. ‘Sounds like fun.’
I recall an agreement to battle, Simone’s water elemental said. Also, please release me from this GODAWFUL form!
Me too! Eva’s elemental said. It turned its serpent head to the Phoenix. Mom! They’re making me into something that’s WATERY!
Simone and Eva collapsed laughing. The elementals lost their shapes and became roughly human-shaped fire and water forms.
‘I don’t really want to battle; I’d rather play with your form,’ Simone said.
‘It’ll be fun, Simone, have a try,’ Eva said. She gestured towards her elemental and walked to the other end of the roof. ‘Target the elemental, not the summoner. It’s very bad form to injure your opponent, but sometimes the Tiger’s kids do it if they’re losing.’
‘Wow, they are assholes,’ Simone said.
‘That would not be an issue for Simone,’ the Phoenix said.
Eva turned to face Simone from the opposite end of the roof. Her elemental glided to stand about two metres in front of Simone, facing her. ‘Position your elemental the same way.’
‘Water elemental, I choose you!’ Simone said, and giggled. She made her elemental take the form of a large turtle with a spiked shell and water cannons coming from its shoulders, and it moved into position in front of her.
‘It’s a Blastoise!’ Eva said, laughing. ‘I used to watch Pokemon when I was a kid too!’
Lame, the elemental said. Change me back. Simone nodded and the elemental returned to its human shape of water.
‘The objective is to make your opponent’s elemental so uncomfortable in its position that it leaves,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Whatever it takes.’
‘I don’t want to hurt yours,’ Simone said, unsure. ‘That’s wrong.’
‘They don’t feel pain, but you can put them in a situation where they’re unhappy,’ Eva said. ‘Like when we made them take the form of animals that were the opposite of their essence, it made them unhappy. If you make them do something like that for long enough, they’ll take off.’
‘Any r
ules apart from not hurting the other summoner?’ Simone said, intrigued.
‘Nope,’ Eva said, and her elemental sent a blast of fire, like a flame-thrower, directly at the water elemental.
Simone’s water elemental took the shape of a doughnut with a hole through its centre, and the flame passed through it. The edges of the hole boiled.
‘Good job, Simone, quick thinking,’ the Phoenix said.
‘The ellie suggested it,’ Simone said.
The water elemental retook its human form and raised its arms. It sent a wave of water over the fire elemental.
Eva squeaked and raised her arm towards the fire elemental. It changed from red to white flame within the water, then glowed very bright and hot. The water around the fire turned to steam.
‘Plasma!’ Eva cried, her voice hoarse with effort.
The elemental took the form of an arc of glowing liquid light and arched over to strike the water elemental, vaporising it. The water elemental turned to steam, then dissipated.
‘Eva wins,’ the Phoenix said. ‘Well done, Eva, using the different states that fire is capable of; I never even thought of plasma. That would be very useful against the Tiger’s children; plasma is an electromagnetic force as well.’
‘We just did plasma in physics,’ Eva said, subdued. ‘It was hard to get the elemental to do it.’ She turned to Simone. ‘You okay? I promise I didn’t hurt it, I just made it go away.’
Simone grinned broadly. ‘I did plasma in first semester. Did you play with plasma lamps too?’
Eva nodded, smiling back.
‘That was great, what a good idea.’ Simone paused, thoughtful. ‘I wonder how cold I could make my elemental go. Plasma won’t be much good when the water it’s facing is only a few degrees above zero…’
‘It’ll still destroy it, I think,’ Eva said.
‘…Kelvin,’ Simone finished.
Eva stopped, then, ‘Oh.’
‘No destroying the world for fun,’ the Phoenix said.
‘Awww!’ Eva and Simone whined at the same time, then collapsed in giggles together.
CHAPTER 15
Simone and Evangeline chatted excitedly about what they would like to do for their elemental quasisculpture as we headed back downstairs. Simone stopped directly in front of me at the bottom, making me nearly crash into her. Both she and the Phoenix raised their hands and their eyes unfocused.
‘What’s going on?’ I said.
‘Demons,’ Simone said, as if from a million miles away. ‘Something’s up.’ She gasped. ‘They think they’ve found Daddy!’ She snapped back and stared at me, eyes wide. ‘There’s a whole bunch of demons in Sai Kung at the seafood restaurants, and there’s a freaking enormous black loggerhead turtle in one of the tanks!’
‘There are a large number of extremely small demons there, only level three to five, some as low as one,’ the Phoenix said. ‘And what appears to be a natural turtle in one of the tanks.’
‘Go,’ I said, but Simone was already gone.
The Phoenix bowed slightly to me. ‘By your leave, ma’am.’
‘Go,’ I said again. ‘Can you teleport?’ I asked Eva.
‘Not yet, Mom says I’m not ready,’ Eva said. ‘Can you drive the car? Or have someone pick us up and teleport us?’
‘Can one of your elementals carry you?’ I said.
Eva’s face cleared. ‘I think so. Just a sec.’
She concentrated a moment and a fire elemental appeared in its human-type form.
Eva turned to me. ‘It will take me, but how will you get there? One of these would burn an ordinary human like you down to nothing.’
Emma, I need you here now, Simone said into my ear. I don’t know what to do! All these little demons want sanctuary! There are big demons here, and I’m not even sure if this is Daddy or not. It’s sending out some very strange vibes.
Take the Lotus, the Phoenix said into my head.
‘Tell your mother I couldn’t drive one of those things in a million years,’ I said to Eva, ‘and my own car is too slow. I need to be there now. I’ll get a Celestial from the Academy to take me. You go.’
‘Okay,’ Eva said, took the elemental’s fiery hand and disappeared.
‘Stone,’ I said, turning back to the building. ‘Call a Celestial Master to take me.’
The stone was silent for a moment, then said, ‘I’m looking, but there are three attacks happening right now. They are probably timed to coincide with this to separate you from your protection. I’m trying to find someone to guard you or take you, but all the Celestials are tied up.’
‘It could be John,’ I said desperately. ‘And that place is full of demons. Find someone!’
‘Edwards says to wait, he’s bringing a car. Gold is on his way in his Boxster but he was in Kowloon. We’re doing our best.’
For some reason my voice sounded deeper and stronger. ‘Get Simone back then, she can carry me.’
‘You’ll fall into demon form if she touches you…’ The stone sounded desperate. ‘Emma, control it!’
Suddenly I was perfectly calm and in control, and more comfortable than I’d been in ages. ‘Never mind, I’ll take myself there.’
‘Emma…’
‘Yes?’
‘You still in there?’
I slithered through the hallway to the lift lobby. ‘Yes, of course I am. I’m fine. Don’t worry. Tell Simone I’ll be right there. Oh, hold on, I might be able to do it myself.’ I concentrated, trying to contact Simone directly. ‘Nope, have to work on that. Tell her for me, will you?’
I stopped at the lift lobby in front of a large fung shui mirror and saw myself. A lot of good a fung shui mirror would do against something as big as me—I had slipped into Mother form, about two metres long from head to black snake tail. I turned to see my back; my spinal column appeared as bony ridges poking through the skinless muscle. Damn.
Thank you so much, Simon Wong and Kitty Kwok. If I ever laid my hands on Kitty Kwok, that bitch would definitely see exactly what she had done to me. There had been rumours of her appearing and disappearing, sometimes in Hell, other times on Earth, but none of them had been definitive.
‘Find a safe spot for me to land, will you?’ I asked the stone.
The stone hesitated for a moment, then a map appeared in front of me, projected into the air. ‘Here should be good. Is that still you, Emma?’
‘Of course it’s me.’
I took off, and landed where the stone indicated—an alley behind some particularly fine-smelling dumpsters. I was at the back of the Sai Kung market: a typical purpose-built two-storey building with tiled walls and floor running with blood and water.
‘Turn left, head to the end of the alley, you’ll come out onto the promenade next to the ocean,’ the stone said.
I cast around with my demon senses: there were a number of humans nearby. Although they would be good sport to play with, right now I was more interested in the contents of the tanks at the seafood restaurants.
I gathered my demon energy, my dark chi, and focused it. I made the twenty or so humans along the waterfront suddenly feel nauseous and convinced them that they’d smelt a gas leak from one of the restaurants. They didn’t bother calling the authorities; they were too panic-stricken and ill. They just fled, some of them not even aware of what they were fleeing from except a general feeling of foreboding. This was a lovely powerful demon ability that could be used both to lure people towards me and to frighten them away; a shame I couldn’t use it in human form. I should really take demon form more often; there was great fun to be had with unsuspecting humans.
I slithered to the end of the alley, feeling the cracked tiles beneath my coils, the water and rubbish sliding away from my snake back end. The Sai Kung waterfront looked much as it usually did: a raised concrete waterside promenade with seafood restaurants lined up opposite the water. Their tanks held a variety of seafood, and tables and chairs were set up on the worn concrete, thin disposable plastic tableclot
hs their only cover.
Then I saw the tanks, and my tongue flicked out at the banquet spread before me. They weren’t full of the usual prawns, fish and shellfish; they were full of demons in the form of seafood. Tiny ones, only levels two or three, some as small as one. I grinned. Demons this small couldn’t teleport; they were trapped in the tanks. If their Lord had made them take this form, they couldn’t change to run either, and as seafood they probably wouldn’t be able to leave the water anyway.
A feast.
I slithered to the nearest tank. The demons inside, in the form of mantis prawns, squealed with terror and climbed over each other in an attempt to get out of the tank. The walls were clear Perspex, about twenty centimetres high, and they had no chance of escaping.
I reached out with my skinless hand, grabbed a particularly fat and juicy prawn, and brought it, legs waving pathetically, to my mouth. I bit it in half and savoured the flavour. These small demons didn’t taste like seafood; they tasted like warm roast meat rich with wine and herbs and a dash of something spicy, a robust and satisfying taste. I realised I was starving; it had been such a long time since I’d eaten properly and I needed more, now! I swallowed the remaining half of the demon, unlocked my jaw, and grabbed a handful more out of the tank to make one huge, delicious swallow. They squealed with terror as I held them in front of my skinless face, their fear adding to the pleasure of eating them.
Suddenly I couldn’t move; I was bound. Someone with a will greater than my own was holding me.
Well, to hell with that, these demons tasted good and I was hungry. I fought the binding but whoever had me was immensely powerful. I turned my attention behind me, using my demon sight, to find out who was messing with my dinner.
I saw her with my demon vision: dark and blue and gold. That little cowardly bitch Simone, who didn’t even have the guts to summon elementals. A bird spirit stood behind her, nearly as powerful as she was; essence of pure flame. A fire child cowered behind the fire spirit, its strength minuscule compared to the two larger entities.
‘You don’t know what you’re doing, Emma,’ Simone said.
‘That’s Emma?’ the fire child said.