‘Tell me what happened,’ I said.
He closed his eyes and pretended to meditate, his dark face rigid with concentration.
‘They found out, didn’t they.’
He didn’t move.
‘What did they do to you?’
He remained completely still.
‘One of the Celestials could help you, you know. Meredith could clear it all up for you.’
‘Not an issue,’ he said, then threw himself up and stalked down the stairs into the cabin at the front of the boat.
I moved to sit near John, and he looked at me over the top of his book. ‘Do you know what happened?’ I said.
‘No. He’s never told anybody. Most of them think that somebody sabotaged the seatbelt in the helicopter rescue simulation.’
That was too horrible to be true. ‘I know about that,’ I said. ‘They put you in a mock helicopter, strapped in, high above a big pool. Then they tip it upside down and drop it into the water. You have to release your own seatbelt and swim out after you’re submerged, still unsure about which way is up. Sounds terrifying.’
‘Imagine what it would be like if the seatbelt wouldn’t unfasten,’ John said, turning back to his book. ‘And the safety crew were hanging back, enjoying the sight of watching you drown, only rescuing you when it was obvious you were in serious trouble.’
‘No. They’re much too professional to do something like that.’
‘That’s where the money is. Some of the Celestials agree with you, that the crews are more professional than that. There’s also money on a Nitrox accident at very extreme depth.’
‘They have a book running on it?’
‘Since Leo arrived and it became obvious.’
‘That is so wrong.’
He shrugged almost imperceptibly. ‘Most of my staff are Chinese, Emma.’
‘You don’t have money on it, do you?’
‘I’m running the book.’
‘Oh my God, you bastard!’ I hissed. ‘Does Leo know?’
‘Yep. He finds it highly amusing. I think he asked Gold to wipe the records in the States so that nobody will ever know.’
‘Good.’ I jumped up and went to talk to Simone and Michael at the back of the boat.
I stood against the long wall of the training room back at the Peak, unsure. We hadn’t invited the Dragon along; we wanted to see what would happen first, just the two of us.
‘Let’s try it on a little one,’ John said. He reached into the jar. ‘Level five.’ He glanced up at me, eyes sparkling. ‘It was a level three that nearly broke your nose that first time. Now you can handle a whole battalion of these with one hand.’
He threw the demon under the mirrors, and it formed: a normal-looking Chinese female. He released it and it went for me.
I generated black chi and threw it at the demon. The demon imploded completely, taking my chi with it—a visible suction into a shrinking black hole that quickly disappeared. The chi was gone.
John didn’t move at all. Then he pulled another demon out of the jar. ‘Do that again.’
He threw the demon onto the floor. It was a level ten, a small humanoid in True Form.
‘Can you lose that much chi without draining yourself?’ he said.
‘Yep,’ I said. ‘Not a problem at all. Let it go.’
He released the demon, it went for me, and I threw black chi at it.
It melted like a wax sculpture, losing its form slowly, the black stuff oozing into a puddle on the ground. The puddle moved towards me and I realised with a jolt of horror that the demon was still alive.
‘Black again,’ John said.
I threw another bolt of black chi at it and it reformed and shook its head.
‘Again,’ John said. ‘Stop if you become too drained.’
I threw black chi at the demon and it imploded, disappearing completely. But this time the chi returned to me.
‘This is ridiculous!’ I said. ‘It’s different every time.’
‘Fascinating,’ John said. ‘Want to try something bigger? How’s your energy level?’
‘Let’s try a level twenty,’ I said. ‘I’ll hit it with ordinary chi to top myself up if I’m too drained.’ I stopped dead as I understood. ‘If I can use both types of chi alternately, I’ll never drain myself or explode from absorbing too much. If I balance it out correctly, I’ll be able to use energy for as long as I like.’
‘Precisely,’ John said, and reached into the jar. He pulled out a bead, threw it under the mirrors, and it formed. It was a small cockroach, about a third of a metre long.
‘Oh God, you hate me, Xuan Wu,’ I said, running my hands through my hair.
‘Let’s see what the black chi does to one of these,’ he said. He released the insect and it waved its feelers at me.
‘Don’t you dare turn,’ I said softly. ‘I hate you things.’
It raced towards me and I hit it with a big ball of black chi. Nothing happened. Damn, now I had to take it out hand-to-hand; my weapon was too far away.
‘Shit!’ I shouted. ‘I don’t want bug goo all over my hands!’ I hit it with a huge ball of gold chi instead and it exploded into feathery streamers of black stuff. Some of it hit my pants, but not enough to worry me.
‘You okay?’ John said.
‘Fine. Let’s try that again. Another level twenty.’
‘Another bug?’
‘Yeah, I think so, then we’ll try a humanoid.’
‘Okay.’ John shuffled around inside the jar. ‘Here we are.’ He threw the bug demon onto the mat under the mirror and it formed. He released it and it went straight for me.
I hit it with black chi and the bug changed into a miniature Mother, only about a metre tall. It slithered towards me.
‘Again,’ John said.
I hit it with black chi again, and it exploded exactly as if it had been hit with gold chi, returning the energy to me.
‘Different every time,’ I said with exasperation. ‘This is ridiculous.’
John shuffled in the jar and pulled out a humanoid. He tossed it in front of the mirrors and it formed. He released it and it went for me. I hit it with black chi and it changed into a young human Chinese female of about sixteen years old.
She fell to her knees. ‘I plead! I swear allegiance! I am yours!’
‘Get up,’ John said.
The demon didn’t move.
‘Rise,’ I said, and the demon shot to its feet. ‘Go and take the Dark Lord’s hand.’
John waited patiently with his hand out. The demon winced. It sidled towards him and took his hand. Nothing happened.
John’s eyes widened. ‘Emma, what have you done?’
I moved to John and the demon. The demon still held John’s hand, its face rigid with awe.
‘Has it definitely turned?’ I said. ‘It didn’t change to True Form.’
‘This is its True Form,’ John said softly. ‘Release my hand, dear.’
The demon dropped John’s hand, burst into tears and fell to her knees. He stood over the demon, seemingly unable to decide what to do.
‘What’s the problem?’ I said. ‘Where will we put her?’
‘I don’t know,’ John said. His face was as full of awe as the demon’s was. ‘I’ve never seen anybody do anything like that before.’
I was thoroughly confused. ‘Like what? I just tamed her, that’s all.’
‘Emma, you changed her into a human. She’s not a demon any more, she’s a perfectly normal human female.’
The demon fell over her knees and sobbed more loudly.
‘Holy shit,’ I said softly, studying her. I was speechless. I dropped to crouch so I could face the demon…the girl. ‘Are you okay?’
She glanced up at me and wiped her eyes, still gasping. Then she threw herself into my arms and held me tight. ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.’ She pulled away and tried to say something more, but the words wouldn’t come.
I moved back to sit on the floor and Joh
n did too.
‘Nobody’s ever done that before?’ I said.
‘Nope,’ John said, beginning to smile. He glanced at me, about to say something, then turned back to the girl. ‘You have your freedom now, little one. What will you do with it?’
The girl looked helplessly at both of us. ‘I don’t know.’ She shook her head. ‘This is all so sudden. I have no idea. It will take me a while to become accustomed to having a mind and a will of my own.’
‘You can stay with us until you’ve worked out what you want to do,’ I said, my heart going out to the poor thing. ‘We’ll look after you.’
She threw herself into my arms again and clutched me. ‘I think I would like to serve you, if you will let me.’
‘You can’t,’ I said, holding her. ‘You’re free. You’re not tamed. You’re your own woman.’
‘Would you like a job with us?’ John said.
The girl fell back from me and smiled through the tears. ‘A job? Earning money, like a human?’ The smile broadened. ‘It’s true. It’s all true. You are the most generous creature on the Plane.’ She shook her head, her face still alight with the beautiful smile. ‘Yes, I’d love a job, thank you, Dark Lord.’
John pulled himself to his feet and held his hand out to the girl, who took it, still smiling.
‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ she said softly.
‘You’ll need to find yourself a name, pet,’ I said.
‘Set her up in the other student room,’ John said. ‘Then I think you’d better take her shopping—she was extremely lucky she was able to conjure the clothes the way she did. I’ll put the jar away, I’ve seen enough. If that happens again, I’ll have to take back the unit downstairs.’
‘Come on, sweetheart,’ I said, taking the girl’s hand. ‘I think you need some very speedy lessons on being human.’ I turned back to John without letting go of her. ‘Call Ah Yat, tell her to come into the room and help us. I think she’ll understand.’
The girl clutched my arm as I took her out, obviously wobbly on her legs. Whether it was from the shock or the change in form it was hard to tell.
I was sitting cross-legged on the couch watching a DVD in my room when there was a tap on the door. ‘Ma’am, it’s me.’
‘Come on in, Ah Yat. What do you want?’
Ah Yat opened the door and smiled at me.
‘Is the human girl okay?’ I said.
‘She is fine, ma’am,’ Ah Yat said. ‘She’s learning quickly. She has chosen the human name of Sonia, but she is trying to work out a family name. I had to explain to her that Donahoe wasn’t appropriate.’ She hesitated, obviously uncomfortable about whatever was coming next.
‘You want me to teach her the facts of life?’ I said.
‘She knows about that already, ma’am,’ Ah Yat said. She looked down, still uncomfortable.
‘Okay, ask me, Ah Yat. What do you want to know?’
‘She says that you did it to her.’
I sighed. ‘Yes, I did.’
Ah Yat fell to her knees in front of me. ‘Please do it for me, ma’am. Can you? I will stay with you, I swear, I will not leave your service. But I would give anything,’ she took a huge gasping breath, ‘anything to be human.’
‘You’re nearly there anyway, Ah Yat, the Dark Lord said so himself.’
‘You could do it now, my Lady.’
I turned off the television with the remote and turned to face her, leaning over my knees. ‘Get up, Ah Yat, I can’t talk to you like that.’
She pulled herself up from the floor and stood twisting her hands together.
‘She doesn’t know the rest of what happened before I changed her,’ I said.
Ah Yat was silent.
‘We were testing out an unusual type of energy that apparently only I can generate. It destroyed about half the demons I used it on. Others, it changed. It turned a humanoid into black goo, but it was still alive.’
Ah Yat winced.
‘It turned a bug into a tiny Mother. And then it changed Sonia into a human. About one in ten, I think.’
‘The others were destroyed or changed?’ Ah Yat whispered.
‘Yes. Except for one, which was undamaged.’
‘Can I see the energy?’
‘It’s black, Ah Yat.’
‘Can I see, ma’am?’
I held my hand out and generated a ball of black chi about the size of a tennis ball.
Ah Yat inhaled sharply. ‘I have seen that before.’
I reabsorbed the chi and shot to my feet. ‘Where? Who?’
‘It was during the Trouble Times, ma’am, just over a thousand years ago. The King had been destroyed by his Number One son. The son could produce that.’ She pointed at my hands.
‘But that would be the current King,’ I said.
She bowed slightly. ‘That is correct, ma’am.’
‘Did his black chi produce similar results? Just random effectiveness?’
‘No, ma’am, it just destroyed things. It destroyed everything. It was very scary.’
‘And you want me to use it on you? I don’t think so.’
‘I have one chance in ten?’
‘I think so. Maybe more, maybe less. I’m not trying it out on anything else, the results are too unpredictable.’
She fell to her knees and touched her head to the floor. ‘Please, ma’am. Ngoh kow nei. I beg you.’
‘If you continue to serve us as you have, how long before you attain perfection?’
‘Not more than twenty years, ma’am.’
‘You would give that up for a one in ten chance?’
‘I could be human now, ma’am.’
I went to her and held out my hand. ‘Up you get, Ah Yat.’
She took my hand and rose, then bowed slightly.
‘Ah Yat,’ I said, patting her shoulder, ‘as far as all of us are concerned, you’re already human. Would you like a salary? We could pay you. You could have a job, exactly like Sonia. The difference at the moment is purely academic. To us, you’re human.’
‘If you give me an order I am forced to obey, ma’am,’ she said softly, head bowed. ‘If I were human I would have free will.’
‘Ah Yat, I want you to consider something. Say you were human and were still working for us. If the Dark Lord gave you an order, would you obey him?’
‘Of course, ma’am,’ she replied.
‘Well then,’ I said, patting her hand, ‘there you go. No difference whatsoever. I won’t do this to you, Ah Yat, the risks are too high. Stay and attain perfection, and be glad for Sonia. Will it be the same for you when you get there?’
‘No, ma’am, it will be completely different for me, but I can’t tell you how. It is one of those things that cannot be shared with mortals, even nobility such as yourself.’
I laughed. ‘Nobility? I think I’m about the furthest you can get from nobility and still be human.’
‘If you say so, ma’am,’ Ah Yat said diplomatically.
I laughed again and patted her back. ‘If you ever want an evening off to go and do human things, like shopping, let me know. In fact, I just had an idea. You show Sonia—take her shopping, show her how to buy and how to budget, how to dress.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ she said, and turned to leave.
‘Ah Yat,’ I said, and she turned back. ‘You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. It’s your choice. You’re free to decide whether or not you want to do this.’
‘No, I’m not, ma’am,’ Ah Yat said, and went out.
John was in the television room, watching a tape of an appalling Cantonese period drama with martial arts so laboured that you could actually see the actors counting as they performed the moves. Yat, yee. Yat, yee.
‘I don’t know how you can watch that trash,’ I said, leaning on the arm of the couch. ‘I need to talk to you.’
He switched off the television and paused the video. ‘What?’ He moved to the end of the couch so that I could sit and turned to face
me.
‘Ah Yat asked me to change her into a human.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ he said, pulling his feet up to sit cross-legged.
‘She asked to see the black chi, and when I showed it to her, she said she’d seen it before.’
He straightened, suddenly much more interested. ‘Who? Where?’
‘Apparently when the current King of the Demons took over, he used this black chi.’
He rubbed his hand on his chin and studied me appraisingly. ‘I’ve never seen him use it. Interesting.’
‘Are you sure I’m not a demon?’ I said fiercely. ‘Is there any doubt at all in your mind?’
He shifted, making himself more comfortable, flexing his bare feet. ‘I am sure. No doubt whatsoever.’
‘Then what am I?’
‘Stay still,’ he said, and leaned to tap the stone.
‘Hm? Yes?’
‘She’s worried she’s a demon again. Apparently the King has used black chi similar to what she produced.’
‘Really? Interesting,’ the stone said. ‘Not surprising, though.’
‘Why?’ I said.
‘Because, young Emma, you are becoming more yin all the time. The more time you spend with this yin creature, the more yin you become yourself. When you first arrived in his household, you were extremely yang. Now, his influence is affecting you, in more ways than one.’
‘Is it because he is such a powerful creature, even though he’s drained?’ I said. ‘He’s inundating me with himself because he’s so big and I’m so little?’
‘You have it precisely, Emma,’ the stone said. ‘I think you knew that all along.’
‘But he can’t generate black chi.’
‘Never tried,’ John said, bemused. ‘But if I wanted to, I probably could. Must try it when I return.’
‘I’m losing my personality into yours,’ I said.
Both the stone and John snorted with amusement. ‘Not very likely,’ John said.
‘No way,’ the stone said. ‘You have an extremely powerful personality, and I don’t think you’re in much danger of “losing” it as you say. In fact, I think you have changed him just as much.’
‘You are quite correct,’ John said. ‘Go back to sleep.’
‘I certainly will,’ the stone said. ‘I was having a lovely dream. I dreamed I was an active volcano and I had erupted, driving hundreds of fleshies from their homes.’ It sighed with bliss. ‘You interrupted me right in the middle of it.’