Tempest Reborn (6 page)

‘Grizzie,’ I said. ‘What’s going on? Can you hear me?’

‘She can hear you, child, and she is safe. Do not fear.’

The voice that spoke from Grizzie’s mouth wasn’t hers. Instead of the usual husky, dark tones I was used to, this voice was resonant. It carried power, and although it wasn’t that loud, it felt as if it were booming.

‘And who are you exactly?’ I asked.

Grizzie’s form laughed, a rich chuckle that sent shivers up my spine.

‘I am all, my child. I am everything.’

We all stared. ‘That’s not very helpful,’ I said, frantically calling the creature’s Bat Phone.

[Hush,] was all I got in reply. [And listen.]

‘What have you done with my wife?’ Tracy yelled, struggling where Caleb held her in a tight grip.

‘I have done nothing to this vessel,’ Grizzie intoned, casting those eerily blank eyes on Tracy. ‘Your children will have its mother, have no fear. Both of its mothers.

‘I needed a mouthpiece, and this one was perfect. So open, so free, and so fluid in her identity.’

Were we about to have a lecture on Judith Butler? ‘Look, can you hurry it up?’ I said, losing patience. ‘Who are you and what do you want?’

The creature tsked in my brain, but I didn’t care. But neither was I ready for the response when it came.

‘I represent the universe,’ the voice said, the glow encompassing Grizzie pulsing faintly.

‘The whaaa?’ I asked, completely nonplussed.

‘You humans are so small,’ it marveled, causing me to stand at my full (not at all impressive) height. ‘Do you have
any
idea what surrounds you?’

‘Apparently not,’ Ryu said, doing his ‘humble supplicant’ voice. He was good at these kinds of games, while I wasn’t.

‘You are part of something greater. You must know this after everything you’ve seen.’

I made a face. This was getting far too religious for me.

‘What do you mean, something greater?’ Ryu said so I didn’t have to. The Friend Formerly Known as Grizzie ignored him.

‘Forces must be balanced. There may not be good or evil as you know it, but there is power. And power must be aligned, or all will fall.’

I made a face. ‘What power?’

Grizzie’s blank eyes stared directly into mine, and my whole consciousness swam. ‘Power, child. Power. The power that propels the world!’

That last bit ended in a boom, and Grizzie’s glowing form shone even brighter.

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘And?’

‘You must restore the balance.’

What the fuck is going on? This is like being lectured by the Sphinx
, I said to the creature. It sent a warm wash of thought through my brain, as if to comfort me, but I wouldn’t accept it.
Tell me what’s happening
, I demanded.

[I am exactly what I say,] came a voice in my head. But it wasn’t the creature’s, it was the same voice pouring out of Grizzie. My heart beat faster in my chest, but I tried not to panic.

But what is that?
I asked silently.

[I told you: I am the universe!] With that, it took control of my vision.

I saw the birth of the worlds, the coming together of powers that exploded, rocketing outward. I saw the creation of first light and then matter – gases becoming solid, solids glomming together, the creation of suns and planets and galaxies.

That power radiated throughout this process, dancing in and through all of creation, as the universe bucked and spun…

Until here and there throughout the galaxies, in pockets where conditions were just right (and those pockets were very few, and far between), life flared.

With life came renewed interest from the powers, which promulgated around these bright beacons of existence. Some life, however, plodded along … never changing, never challenging, never learning. But others were not so staid. Across the universe rose beings that could manipulate the powers that had created them. They were the power, were of the power, and could
use
the power.

The universe shuddered with delight, sensing kinship and opportunity. Sometimes these new forms of life took too much, however, or tried to throw out the rules of the game. Then balance needed to be restored.

The Red and the White upset the balance
, I put together, hints and images and echoes of thought.
But how do we stop them?

This time, the universe changed tack. Instead of seeing the macrocosmos, I was made party to the microcosmos. I saw it all: how the universe interfered to right the balance. Creatures like the one underneath Rockabill, given power or knowledge at crucial moments in their fight against the Red and the White. Then, as those creatures faded, new creatures were made into weapons. I saw dozens, hundreds, including a stranger with a great destiny saved from a childhood illness. The blonde girl who’d been tricked into dividing her kind into factions made into a champion. An ax forged at the critical time with powers beyond the comprehension of even the being that had helped create it. A boy drowned on a beach while a girl hovered over him, keening to the skies…

What does Jason dying have to do with anything? And I already know I’m the champion
, I pleaded. Where were the answers?

I saw then the not so lucky. The other beings – elemental beings, pre-Schism Originals like Blondie, Alfar, other strong supes – who could have led, who should have led, struck down before their prime. Suspicious accidents, outright murders … the Red and the White were creatures made of the same power that sought to destroy them, and they could sense the universe’s interference…

So truth needed to be hidden. Power needed to be contained as knowledge, and hidden away. And what better place to hide dangerous knowledge than in the ones who could only bear witness to the powers that bore them, never tapping into them themselves.

Humans.

A spate of glassy-eyed, gibbering faces ran by me: artists, hermits, saints, writers, soothsayers, prophets – all men and women made mad by the powers seeking to use their hands, their voices, their minds.

Using these humans, small secrets were buried here and there, as if the universe were a squirrel hiding away nuts.

Then another human was chosen, inspired to collect all these scraps of knowledge. Another inspired to transcribe them. Another to translate. Another to archive. Another to say the right words at the right time…

All humans, made into tools of the universe.

With that, I was given back control over my own body. My eyes sprang open, to find myself recumbent in Ryu’s arms, his voice saying my name and his eyes peering into mine. I turned my head to see Grizzie similarly propped up by Daoud, Tracy kneeling next to her while Caleb hovered over both protectively. To my relief, Grizzie sat up, looking as groggy as I did.

‘We’re looking for a human,’ I said then, my voice scratchy. ‘The universe gave us a human.’

I think I fainted then, for just a second. That happens when one has the powers of creation rattling around in one’s mind. When I came to, I heard more speech in my head. It sounded like it was coming through cotton wool, but I recognized it.

[I’ve been seeking through relevant minds,] the creature said, its thought colored somehow with its findings. It was excited. [There is a voice calling us. He seems to be expecting me. How curious … I can only take two of you, if you are ready now?]

The choice was obvious, and it flashed through my mind in a second.

And then, like that, Ryu and I found ourselves in another room. I was still lying in his arms, but when I tried to sit up, everything spun.

‘Easy, Jane,’ Ryu said.

‘What the hell just happened?’

‘I was going to ask you.’

I gave him a squinty look, trying to fix my vision, which was swimming alarmingly. ‘Either somebody slipped me some shrooms or I was talking to the universe.’

‘The universe?’

‘Yeah. The universe.’

‘The universe,’ Ryu repeated, looking as skeptical as I’d ever seen him. ‘You have been under a lot of stress…’

‘Don’t be so doubtful. The universe is closer than we know,’ came a chirping, friendly voice from somewhere behind us. I tried to crane my head around, but could see nothing. Ryu helped me clamber to my feet, and we got a good look at our surroundings.

Instead of a cave, this room appeared to be a very sumptuous, modern hotel. Chrome and glass were everywhere, and a modern cityscape lurked outside the huge wall of windows. I also located our speaker, sitting a distance away.

Amid all this modernity, he cut a figure not modern at all. Small and bald, with a round, friendly face sporting even rounder glasses, sat a Buddhist monk in full regalia. He sat in a very large chair.

He had tea prepared, waiting on a low table in front of him, and he was definitely expecting us. He certainly wasn’t surprised by the sight of two strangers appearing by magic in front of him.

‘Welcome,’ he said in perfect English. ‘I believe you have a problem with dragons?’

‘In this instance, who I am is of no importance,’ the man said, never losing that wide, welcoming smile. I made a small sound, for although I was pretty sure I knew the identity of the bespectacled figure, I couldn’t help wanting clarification.

The man laughed, a lovely, bell-like sound. ‘So curious!’ he said, his eyes twinkling from his smile-creased features. ‘But while I, as an individual, can acknowledge that there is far more to our world than one answer will ever account for, as a spiritual leader I must toe certain lines. So I’d like to keep our conversation off the record, as it were.’

While the monk talked, Ryu wandered toward the wall of windows on one side of the hotel room.

‘Hong Kong?’ he said. I joined him at the window to see a riotous city, full of signage in all different languages, but mostly in Chinese and English.

‘Yes. I’m sorry it couldn’t be more convenient,’ the man said.

It was my turn to smile at him. ‘Oh, believe me, it was no trouble getting here.’

‘Now, let us get to the problem of your dragons.’ The man gestured toward the chairs opposite him.

Ryu and I took our places as the man poured tea. I took one of the shortbread cookies lying on a silver platter, because snacks keep a body going.

‘I have been expecting you,’ the man began, which was not at all what we expected to hear.

‘You have?’ I said, unable to stop myself from interrupting.

The man gave me another wide smile, but this one held a note of ruefulness.

‘Of course,’ he said. ‘For what is happening in your part of the world affects everyone. I love Westerners and the West, but you do have a tendency to act as though things only happen to you and your own people.’

I blushed, although the chastising was very gentle.

‘The truth is that what you call the Red and the White are a global problem. Yes, their physical appearances have, by accident of geography, been bound to your Great Island, but their reach is far wider.’

‘Really?’ said Ryu, leaning forward.

‘Of course. They are a manifestation of great power, and as such they inevitably act on the balance of things.’

‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand,’ I said.

The man took a sip of his own tea, taking the cup and saucer with him as he leaned back to place them on his robed knee.

‘As elements, as avatars of the forces that created not only our physical world, but our emotional and spiritual world as well, the Red and the White have far more power than we can really understand. Their thoughts infect the thoughts of those creatures around them that share their nature.’

‘Beings of fire and air?’ I asked, referring to the supernaturals that could wield those forces.

For the first time since we’d met him, the man frowned, but in concentration.

‘That is an obvious response, yes, but not necessarily true. There will be creatures of your world that can wield air and fire, yes, but whose
natures
are not of air and fire.’

It was my turn to frown. ‘Huh?’ I said intelligently.

‘What I mean is that what we are isn’t always what we should be. You know creatures, I’m sure, who are big and powerful, yet their souls are gentle. In the same example, I’m sure you’ve met delicate beings who have the souls of tyrants.’

I thought of Gog, who could flatten a door by poking at it with a finger, but who was as gentle as they came. Then I thought of Phaedra, the tiny doer-of-evil, and Morrigan, whose delicate beauty contained a monster.

‘Don’t judge a book by its cover,’ I said, turning to clichés to help me understand what the man was saying.

‘Essentially, yes,’ the man said. ‘The Red and the White were created by forces that permeate all of us, in different measures. We all have many conflicting characteristics. In a single person, goodness sits next to rage, which dines with generosity and pettiness, before going to meet greed that lives next door to empathy. We are all conflicted creatures, but not all in equal measures or in equal ways.’

‘Are you saying that the Red and the White represent characteristics that we somehow pick up from them?’ Ryu said. He didn’t appear too invested in the idea.

The man took another sip of his tea, radiating calm as he spoke again. ‘Yes and no. The fact is that people are a combination of many things, environment being just as important as genetics. But I do think that the Red and the White spring from something essential. What you think of as your elements are, I believe, similar to our understanding of DNA. They’re the building blocks of our world; your people are just able to interact with and wield them in ways that my people can’t. But we all come from the same source, do we not?’

I nodded vigorously. Back when I’d fought Phaedra in the creature’s lair, the night I became the champion, the creature had beamed a vision out to me and any of the surrounding minds close enough. Well, it wasn’t a vision really. It was the creature’s memories, and in those memories was revealed the fact that supernaturals were not a separate species. They were humans who’d evolved to manipulate the elements that were all around them. Supernaturals such as Ryu, born and raised to think of themselves as very much separate from and superior to humans, had been unhappy to discover we were all originally humans. Indeed, since then many had dismissed the vision as impossible. But I knew it was the truth and was thrilled, for it meant I hadn’t really changed. I was still essentially the human I had always believed myself to be.