Blade of Bones

This story is based of the Feng Shui game by Atlas Games. This story is not a challenge to any of their copyrights and I am earning no money for its publication.

Jason Masters, Kwan Loo and the rest of the troupe of players (except where noted in later chapters) are of my creation.

As this is my first independently published fan fiction, comments and criticisms are welcomed and encouraged. Feel free to send them to wynterfyre2002@yahoo.com as well as listing them here.

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Chapter Two

Jason Masters found two things odd when he began to awaken. First was that he was not feeling a great deal of pain, despite the fact that he had been basically disemboweled. The second was the fact that he was feeling anything at all, much less alive, after having been basically disemboweled. However, he decided to put both facts aside for the moment, as he simply tried to force himself further awake.

He had not opened his eyes yet. Rationally, he knew that he was alive, even though, also rationally, he knew he should have been quite dead. Still, he feared to see the sight of sulfur and brimstone aflame (appreciatively, he couldn't smell anything like it) as well as some beet-red devil with a pitchfork looking to herd him toward some pool of lava to burn with the rest of the sinners. After all, it was pretty much unlikely that he was in Heaven.

He began to sit up, however a soft cool hand lightly but firmly pushed at his chest, which was apparently bare based on that touch. With reluctance, Jason lowered his head back down to where he lay. He did, though, open his eyes with a groan.

"Easy there, son. Just try to relax. You're among friends." The voice, with a bit of gravel in it, maybe from an older male, came from one side of him. "Or at least you're among friends until you prove otherwise."

Jason opened his eyes with a flutter. Thankfully, wherever he was, only a few candles were lit; he didn't think he could take a brightly lit place at the moment. After several seconds of his vision adjusting, he was finally able to focus on his location. The room appeared to be a small, relatively plain bedroom. The bed on which he lay was probably a double, and he was currently covered in light blankets, though they had slid off his chest as he had attempted to rise. Off to the left was the room's single window, curtained in a sheer white fabric. It was still dark, if he went by the lack of any light coming through the window. The room's only light was provided by a small number of candles, none of which were placed close to him.

Surrounding the bed were three individuals. At the foot of the bed was an older woman of around fifty. She was short and rather curvy, though not what Jason would term overweight. Her build gave her a rather sizable bosom, and though Jason could just make out a few silver hairs in her curly blonde tresses, she was quite attractive. A pair of round wire-framed glasses sat at the end of her nose, and she looked down at Jason, giving him a quite matronly glare with her narrow green eyes. She also had her arms crossed right under her breasts, making it very difficult for Jason to maintain eye contact with her, drawn as his vision was to her chest.

'If I'm not I Hell now,' he thought 'I will be eventually if she has her way.'

On Jason's left was another woman, who smiled at him soothingly rather than glaring at him. Her features made him think she was possibly Native American. Her brown hair came down in two ponytails, just above shoulder-length, while rather sizable bangs sat on her forehead, giving her eyes a bit of a veil. Her skin seemed quite tanned, though Jason was not sure whether that was due to the dim lighting or that she was that dark. Yet despite the smile she was giving Jason, her black eyes seemed to hold a restrained sadness in them. He did not think she was aware of how she looked, as if she had been carrying that sadness around for quite some time, to the point where it was too ingrained for her to know any different. She was much more slender and younger than the other woman, though close to the same height, probably a little over five feet tall, and maybe in her mid- to late twenties. Her hovering over Jason confirmed her as the person that had pushed him back down.

The last person in the room was the only other male besides Jason. He looked as if he might have been Greek, with olive skin and curly, dark brown hair that fell just below his shoulders. His eyes were a deep blue and looked weary. Like the first woman, his build was a bit on the chubby side, though he had a more average height. Despite his original thought, the other man was probably actually younger than Jason, maybe early thirties at best.

The one thing that Jason did notice was their clothing was not particularly modern. The two ladies wore simple floor length dresses. The dress of the older one was wool, dyed a green that matched her eyes, while that of the younger looked as if it were one of buckskin. The gentleman wore a white cotton shirt with a black string bowtie, black pants and suspenders.

"How are you feeling?" the dark-haired woman asked, placing a hand on his forehead.

"The fact that I'm feeling anything surprises me more than everything else." Jason tried to make a heavy sigh, but he found his abdomen was just a little too sore. He winced, despite his attempt to hide it. "I don't mean to seem ungrateful but why am I still alive? I mean, that…thing…"

"Naga," said the older woman. "They're called Nagas. Or at least that's what I've read." Her accent was definitely British, though it sounded a bit odd.

"Naga, then. In any case, when it gutted me, I should have been dead."

"Actually, you were, technically," the man said. "For about a minute and a half. No pulse, no breathing. As for why that's not a permanent state for you," he looked over at the Native American woman," you can thank these two ladies with me here."

Jason attempted to sit up again. This time the younger woman gave him a little help so that he would not have to strain his abdominal muscles, which, now that he was more awake, Jason could tell were most definitely sore. He touched the area where he had been stabbed. There were no signs of puckered skin or scarring. He then looked down at his stomach, as if to confirm that for himself. His chocolate skin definitely bore no scars, though he did have a dark red area, which was approximately where he had been stabbed.

"You've got to be shitting me," Jason said in a low whisper. "I can accept that I'm alive, but there should be some sort of mark from surgery."

"Umm, Enid, could you go get Marion or King? I think it's time we explained to him what's going on."

Enid, the older blonde, sighed lightly, and her chest rose and fell seductively. "I told you he would have hard time accepting it."

"You did, Enid," said the younger woman, "However, he at least deserves to hear what is going on, if he does not already know."

"That's why I want her to get Marion or King, Tama. It's really for them to decide."

Jason frowned at the group before him. "Excuse me, but would you mind not acting as if I'm not here. Speaking of here, where the hell am I?"

"Fine, Sherwood," Enid said, with a forlorn sigh. "I'll find someone in charge. I just hope I don't miss anything juicy while I'm gone. You will be a dear, Tama, and tell me if he says anything worth repeating, won't you?"

Tama rolled her eyes as if she was dealing with a long-suffering joke between them but gave a genuine smile and nodded. Enid fluttered her fingers at the group, and exited the room through its only door.

"We really should not let her watch any more talk shows, Sherwood. They have become a rather bad influence on her, I believe."

Sherwood rubbed his chin absently. "Maybe, but I'm not about to be the one who tells her. I like having all my body parts intact." When he spotted Jason's quirked eyebrow, he continued. "Enid has a wicked sense of humor, despite her serious exterior.  One doesn't go about telling someone like her to turn off their TV, unless they want to deal with the potentially messy consequences."

"Messy? Should I ask?" Jason was becoming rather intrigued with what Enid could do, especially if she was capable of curing what had been basically a fatal injury.

"Let us just say that you should hope that you never find out," Tama said with a rather shy chuckle.

The door opened again. Enid returned, but not alone. Behind her were two individuals. Like Enid, Tama and Sherwood, he now realized that he recognized them all from the battle (he was not certain he could call it that, given his quick removal from it) at Kwan Loo's house. Both of the people trailing Enid, another man and woman, were far dourer than any of the three he had been introduced to informally. The woman looked to be a mix of black and Hispanic or maybe South American Indian and looked to be in her very early twenties. She wore her straight, dark brown hair down to her waist. Her brown eyes seemed to take in more of Jason than just his appearance; in fact, she seemed to be weighing the assassin in some way he could not understand. The man was Asian- Chinese, if Jason guessed correctly- though his hair and eyes were very unusual colors. With silver hair and eyes the color of wild moss, Jason suspected a dye job and contacts. Some of that shoulder-length hair hung over one eye, the way Tama's hung over both as bangs. However, his hair somehow completely obscured Jason's view of one eye, once the man stood still. If the woman had been analyzing Jason based on some unknown scale, this man apparently had already made his judgment, and it was not in Jason's favor. If that meant that he knew what Jason was, the assassin would need to find a way to make a quick escape.

"If you're looking for your weapons, and I suspect that you are," the man said as he closed the door behind him, "they are currently being…stored, but are otherwise safe. We'll consider returning them to you after you answer a few questions."

Jason remained calm, snorting a laugh at the silver-haired man. "You save my life and then turn around and interrogate me?" He nodded toward Enid and Tama. "Thank you for the save, by the way. I didn't have much of a chance to mention that before." He turned back to the new people. "So, is this how you treat everyone you save?"

"Only those who are carrying enough weapons on them to arm a small gang," the woman responded neutrally. "By the way, nice Colt. I hadn't even known that they had made one with a built-in silencer. There aren't that many Colts left…where I come from." Jason saw a number of emotions rapidly cross her face in the couple of seconds she let her mask of ambivalence drop, with a sort of wistful longing chief among them. Then the mask was back up and as solid as it had been before.

"Be that as it may, Marion, he was still at Kwan Loo's and from that shot he attempted, definitely out to try to kill him. I for one would like to know why. He cost nearly cost us our mission as a result of his interference."

"Take it easy, King. We got most of what we had wanted." Enid waved a hand as if to dismiss the man's concerns. "The fact that we had someone else trying to kill Kwan Loo at the same time we wanted to…well, do want we wanted to do, says a lot about how much of a bastard the man really is."

Sherwood shook his head at Enid, though he gave her a small smile as he did so. "Nevertheless, King is correct. He did come in at rather bad time to say the least. And we did risk ourselves and our mission in an attempt to save him."

Jason was about to argue about who interfered with whose mission. He stopped himself, though, when he took a moment to realize how it probably looked from their point of view. From what he could gather from what he had overheard at Loo's house, this group had been there to attempt to steal a scroll or possibly whatever information was on the scroll. He had no way to know if they were there to kill Loo as he had been. And to be honest, he was in no real position to demand much from them. That still did not mean that he had to appreciate their intervention in his own mission.

"Well, before we get into that debate," Marion said, raising her voice slightly to ensure that she was heard, as well as to forestall any arguments, "we might as well find out who we rescued first." She looked at him inquiringly, though not unkindly.

Jason debated about whether to give them a name at all, much less his real one. Yes, he owed these people his life, regardless of his choice in the matter. However, he knew things were going to get very complicated very soon. After all, he was a hit man, a paid assassin in the employ of a Mafia family. He knew almost nothing about these people other than their names, which of course assumed that they had used real ones in front of him. Tactically, he would have not. Hell, he used fake identification on every mission he undertook. In addition, he had never even given his real name to any clients; they knew him only as 'The Troubleshooter'. The title was rather pretentious, he had to admit, but it did an excellent job in describing what he did. And for this particular mission, he had not even bothered to carry any identification. For what was supposed to be a 'hit and run' mission, it would have compromised his as well as his client's secrecy if he had been caught. And he had little to no problem with shooting any police that got in his path; he would not necessary have killed them, but disabling them was definitely not out of the question.

In the end, however, he had learned that sometimes the only way to ensure that people didn't look for a lie in everything one did was to tell the truth, just enough to keep them guessing.

"Jason. Jason Masters."

"Well, Mister Masters…"

"Jason. I've never liked the sound of my last name with 'Mister' in front of it."

"All right, Jason, then, I'm not going to demand that you tell us what you were doing at Kwan Loo's. We're not here to interrogate you, as much as we would like to discover and confirm a few facts."

"Aren't they the same, Marion, wasn't it?"

Marion nodded at him. "Good enough for now. And, to answer your question, not exactly. We're not going to force you to give us any information that you don't want to give." She looked pointedly to King who narrowed his green eyes as his only response. "But we would like to ask some questions that might help us in what we need to do with Kwan Loo."

"I take it he's still alive, then."

Marion crossed her arms. Though she was not a full figured as Enid, she was still a very attractive woman. Still, Jason could see her being quite capable of handling not just herself, but all the odd personalities he had encountered with this group so far. She weighed her response before answering. It was apparent that Kwan Loo was still alive from the talk Jason had heard even before Marion and King had arrived. However, it would have been nice to get some kind of 'official' confirmation of it.

He had not expected King to provide it. "For now, thanks to your screwed-up sense of timing."

"That's enough, King!" Marion said. Her voice was almost a growl. It was obvious that the man did not care for what Jason had attempted to do. It was also apparent that Marion and King had come to loggerheads before, given the scowls they both gave each other. Jason filed that observation away for the future. Any ammunition, even a pebble, was better than none whatsoever.

However, King backed down, though it was more because everyone else seemed to resent his outburst than any real fear of retribution from Marion. "Sorry," he said through clenched teeth, in a quiet voice.

"Yes, Jason, Kwan Loo's still alive." Marion took a seat at the foot of Jason's bed before continuing. "When the Naga skewered you, we pretty much had to grab you and make a rather hasty retreat. We had gotten what we had come for, so at least in that vein, we succeeded. Kwan's death, as satisfying as it might have been, had always been secondary in our plans. And I must admit that you came damn close to doing it on your own. You might have succeeded if it hadn't been for the sacrifice of that Naga."

The reference to the creature was more than a little frustrating for Jason. "Would someone please just tell me what the hell a Naga is?"

He caught Enid's look of question to Marion then King. However, Marion was in front of Enid and could not see the look. King, however, caught it and nodded back. "The simplest way to describe a Naga is to say it's a shape-shifting demon," Enid replied in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me well enough, Jason. They're demons."

"I think this is the part where I say that 'You've got to be bullshitting me again'."

"Enid is telling the truth," Tama said quietly. "There are many things going on in this world of which you are not aware."

"And demons are among them, hmm? All right, I can't exactly deny what I saw, much less deny what happened to me when that bitch of a snake tried to make a shish kabob out of me. Let's just assume that I believe you. It'll make things a heck of lot easier for both of us."

"Believe what you want to, Masters," King said. Jason noticed that although King was currently unarmed as far as he could tell, the man, whose arms were crossed as well, kept reflexively reaching for an area just under his left armpit. It didn't take much for Jason to conclude that he normally kept a pistol or the like there.

"Bad itch, King?" Jason said. He gave him as charming a smile as he could as he said it. King, reacting as if a dirty little secret had been aired threw his arms down to his sides, which, other than a frosty stare, was his only reply.

Tama and the others tried to cover broad smiles…and failed badly. Apparently, it was not so much of a secret as it was a habit that he had been teased about before. Another pebble…

"Getting back to the issue at hand now," Enid began, "yes, there are definitely demons, among other nasty, hellish creatures. Whether they are from Hell, well, that's best left for more philosophical debates. Suffice it to say that they do come from a netherworld. The Netherworld, in fact."

Jason did not miss the change in tone, which seemed to indicate the capitalization for Netherworld when mentioned the second time. If he had not seen and experienced what he had, Jason would have immediately written these people off as lunatics right after they mentioned that demons existed. But Jason was a very practical individual. Given his job, he had to be, even if sometimes, such as when he decided to enter Loo's place after seeing the others enter, he let his ego speak a little too loudly.

"Actually, I'll give you this much, Masters," King said, reluctant admiration in his voice, "you did find the one spot where it was possible to kill them. Even in human form, Nagas possess a kind of tough skin. They aren't immune to bullets, but it takes quite a bit of firepower to bring one down permanently otherwise." He turned to Marion. "Even the one that Erich cut into with his shotgun got back up after having one side of its stomach vaporized from the blast."

"You're telling me it takes a direct shot to the eye to kill one of those things?" Jason asked incredulously.

"No, but it's the only way it seems to take them down with a single shot," Marion responded. "They also have one hell of a healing ability. Anything short of a killing blow won't take 'em out of a fight for too long. Speaking of shooting…" She reached behind her and removed a gun- his favored Colt, no less- from the waist of her jeans. She spun it in her hand so that the grip was facing Jason. "Nice piece, as I mentioned." She prompted him to take it.

Jason remained stone faced, though inside he kept looking for the catch. It was a sign of trust, even if the clip turned out to be empty. He met her eyes and was surprised not to find any sign of guile or deceit. Seeing the look of distain on King's face was enough to convince Jason that Marion was for real, at least on this issue. He locked eyes with the silver-haired Asian as he took his weapon back, and didn't shift them until he had removed the clip to look inside. The clip was fresh, as he had drained the previous one trying to kill the two charging Nagas. "Thank you," he said quietly. His debt to them was growing, and for a man who usually worked alone, owing anybody anything was an uncomfortable feeling, especially when his life was one of the things owed. He took out the clip and placed it and the gun beside him, within easy reach, but he was going to at least show he could play the game by their rules: a trust for a trust.

King looked visibly shocked, though he apparently had known what Marion had intended to do. The others seemed to release a collectively held breath, except for Tama and Marion. The latter simple smiled tiredly, while the former seemed to not be surprised at all by Jason's action. For the life of him, Jason could not figure out why she had known, however. Jason did not really care, though; if necessary, he could have the gun loaded, and a round chambered and fired in a single breath or less if needed. They didn't need to know that, however.

"Now that we've finished playing 'Whom can we trust?' may we please finally get to the gist of the matter?" Enid was giving Marion the same kind of matronly stare that Jason of which Jason had just recently been a victim. It also pretty much had the same unsettling effect on Marion and King (even though he was not a target of it at the moment) as it had on Jason. "I for one would like to know if he would be prepared to help us."

"Help you?" Jason queried, not bothering to hide the caution in his voice. "I'm not sure if I'm going to like the sound of this."

"Probably not," Marion replied. "However, I doubt that you're going to like the explanation behind everything else either. Enid, Tama, you two are probably the best out of all of us to bring him up to speed on the Secret War. Why don't you go ahead and give him a primer, while King, Sherwood and myself give him some space, not to mention get something to eat for all of us." She looked to Sherwood, but did not say anything.

"That shouldn't be a problem. From what I can tell, the job that Tama and Enid did seemed to have worked. I haven't found any signs of internal bleeding so far. He could probably use something to eat, as long as it's not too acidic. Definitely no alcohol for now, though." He turned back to look at Jason. "Doctor's orders," he said with a wry smile. Then he got up, and, after giving Jason a brief wave, left the room.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Marion?" King asked. Though he seemed to not care much for Jason, the assassin seemed to get the feeling that his question was less about Jason's job, as it was something else.

Marion sighed deeply, giving Jason the impression that it was not something she wanted to do, as much as something she needed to do, whatever the reasons might be. "We've gotta start somewhere, King. Besides, if he had wanted the scroll he would have gone after us first, or joined, temporarily at least, with Loo. I'm guessing he doesn't have a clue." She stood up and placed a hand on King's shoulder. " Come on. We've got a breakfast to fix. And for the love of God, King, please do not make any of that General Tso's chicken that you seem to adore. I could use it to remove the serial numbers from a gun. Jason doesn't deserve that kind of torture. None of us do." With that she headed for the door.

King had obviously been insulted and was not about to let Marion get away. "What is that supposed to mean? There's not a goddamned thing wrong with my chicken. You're just too much of a weakling to appreciate it." The goad did not seemed to ruffle Marion, who simply opened the door and left it open for King. He closed it behind him, but Jason could still hear him availing Marion of how good his cooking was.

"Actually, Jason, King's chicken is not that bad, if only very hot." Enid winked at him, a playful smile on her lips. "Marion just did that because she knew King would otherwise insist on staying here or just outside while we talked."

"Is there any reason for him not to hear what you're going to tell me," Jason asked.

"No, he's knows everything. But he can be a pushy man sometimes, as you've probably guessed. And Marion probably figures it's much easier for a man to listen to a pair of lovely women than to those same women and a man who already does not have much like for you because of what happened."

"Now we're getting somewhere. What in the world did I do, other than run into an obvious theft of an old scroll?"

Enid looked at Tama, who indicated for her to go ahead.

"I'm not going to answer that directly, basically because by the time we're finished, you'll probably have come to the necessary conclusion on your own. Instead, I'm going to ask a simple question."

"Which naturally isn't going to be that simple to answer."

"I wouldn't think so, but then again, try to surprise me." She gave him a broad but very brief smile. "How much do you know about this world?"

"That's your simple fucking question?" He barked a harsh laugh. "Sorry, sweetheart, no chance of me surprising you on that one. Why don't you simply ask me to explain nuclear physics? I'd be just as successful."

Enid frowned at him, causing Jason to wonder if he just crossed a line somewhere that he had not seen. The frown was almost as brief as the smile had been, though, then her face went back to a more neutral expression. "Actually, that was part of my point. There is much you don't know, but it is out there just the same. Your lack of knowledge does not mean it doesn't exist, but that lack can be fatal nonetheless. Fine, I'll be a blunt about it as possible. Then you can ask me to clear up any points you don't understand." She took a deep breath, and this time Jason paid no attention to her bustline. "Magic exists. Time travel, after a certain form, exists. The future is hell, and different factions are attempting to take over the past, present and future. Oh, before I forget, I'm a sorceress and Tama here is a ghost, both of us brought forward from what is now, or more correctly then, 69 AD. And you already know that demons exist."

Jason sat stunned, though less by the information as much as he was by the rather nonchalant, if rapid, way it had been presented. He was beginning to wonder if maybe he had died after all, as that seemed to be the most logical answer to his confusion. Yet, he was far too sore to be completely dead, so it could be some sort of dream and he was lying in a coma or bleeding to death on the rug in Kwan Loo's library. But some other instinct that he could not fathom told him that he was not dead or dying. In addition, the sincerity in the way Enid passed on the information convinced him that even if she was wrong, she certainly believed in what she said. But then again, didn't most madmen believe in their own ramblings?

"Not convinced yet?" Enid asked patiently. There was a sly look in her green eyes as she asked it, which worried Jason. "Well, it'll probably be some time before the food arrives, so we might as well go over the basics. Mind if we have a seat first, though? I'm definitely not as young as I used to be. And Tama's been up all night watching over you."

Jason turned to face Tama, who seemed to blush, though Jason could not understand why. However, having both women in the room alone with him made him quite aware of something else.

"Before you go on, where are my pants? Actually, the hell with that, where's my underwear?"

This time Enid blushed, and Tama laughed at her friend's discomfort. "Well, you were bleeding so badly," Enid began, "that when we needed to get a look at the immediate area, which meant that we had to remove your pants and underwear. But they were both so blood-soaked that they were pretty much clinging to you."

"We managed to cut the pants from you, however," Tama said, picking up when Enid seemed to have trouble continuing. "As for your undergarments…"

"Yes?" Jason prompted when Tama also paused for an extended period.

"I…I…had to remove them in a hurry," Enid pale face was flushed crimson now, "so I…used a spell to disintegrate them."

"You what? Where are they?"

Enid cleared her throat but could not meet Jason's eyes. "Umm, to the best of my knowledge…" she waved a hand into the air.

"Oh, for Chrissakes, you're telling me you made my boxers disappear into thin air?" Jason's voice went up in volume, though he resisted yelling.

"Yes, if you prefer a technical term."

He hung and shook his nearly clean-shaven head. Then his shoulders began to shake which was followed by a quiet laugh. "If I am in Hell, I guess it makes sense somehow. If not, at least I can replace them. It's a little hard to replace my life." He lifted his head to find Tama's sad gaze on him. "Sorry. I'm still trying to take all this in. I didn't mean to…"

"Please, do not worry about it, Jason. I have come to accept my current state, even if I do not know everything about it myself. But I think we should return to the original point."

"Right. You might as well take that seat that you were asking for."

There were no seats in the room, so Jason expected to see the women sit on either side of the bed or maybe the foot of the bed or the floor. Instead, Tama simply pulled up her legs and crossed them, while Enid said something under her breath and did the same. Now, both women were simply hovering in the air as easily as if they had taken a seat on the floor. "I take that little stunt is as much for my benefit as it is yours?"

"You are a bright one," Enid said pleasantly. The friendly tone of her voice took any sting that might have come from the blunt phrasing. "Now, where do you want to begin?"

"I'd say the beginning, but I don't think it's going to be that simple. All right, let's take the time travel part first. You had qualified it by saying 'after a certain form.' Why the qualification?"

"You would go for the most complex one first," Enid said with a sigh. "Fine. You remember my mentioning that there was a Netherworld?" He nodded. "Well, it can be accessed through what are known as portals, though some people also refer to them as gates, just in case you hear that term. The best way to describe what the Netherworld is would be saying first what it does not seem to be. It does not seem to be Hell in the biblical sense, though some from China argue it is one of their many infamous, and seemingly infinite, Hells. It's probably better termed a nexus, self-contained and possibly boundless at the same time. In any case, these portals lead to and from the Netherworld and from the Netherworld, other portals lead to various times."

"But it is not true time travel, as some of your more fantastic stories suggest," Tama said, picking up the thread of the conversation. "You cannot simply walk in one portal from the current time, pass through the Netherworld and arrive at any time that you wish. There are only four other times, what we call Junctures, to which you can currently travel. Still, if you find the right portals, you can travel from one spot on Earth to almost any other area on Earth in a particular time."

At Jason's understandably bewildered look, Enid took one finger, lifted it into the air just in front of her, and traced five glowing lines in the air, each maybe six inches long or so and which glowed a dark blue as her finger traced them. They were parallel to each other, but they were staggered so that the first was higher in the air relative to the last one. As Jason watched, they began to ripple in the air, as if composed of water. In fact, Jason could have sworn that there was the muted flow of several rivers echoing in the small room.

"Think of each Juncture as one of these streams. Now each one appears to run independently of the others, correct? But what if I do this?" She drew another line from the bottom of the first so that it touched the top of the second, connecting them. She did the same for the second to the third, third to the fourth and finally the fourth to the fifth. At the end, there was at least one line touching all the streams. "Now they are all touching at least one other Juncture, right?" Again, he nodded. "But each stream is still running independently of the others. That's similar to what the Junctures are. Each is a separate year, either in the past or the future, running exclusive of the Juncture next to it, flowing normally as if the other did not exist. But the others do exist, and from the Netherworld- which is indirectly represented by the lines connecting the streams- you can find portals that will take you to any one of these other streams."

"Enid's illustration simplifies it quite at bit," Tama added. "The Netherworld allows you to get to and from more than one Juncture, but as far as we know, all portals in the other Junctures only allow you to enter the Netherworld. You can't simply pass from one time to another without passing through the Netherworld first."

Jason sat quietly for several seconds before making any comment. Eventually, he pointed to one of the streams. "Do the individual years keep moving on irrespective of the passing of time in the others? I mean if I enter this one, can I go to a day prior or after in that same stream or any of the other streams?"

"No, unfortunately. If I go into a portal on this particular day in 1996, the current year, passed through the Netherworld to a portal I find leading to, say, 1850, one of the Junctures, I would arrive on roughly the same day, travel time not being taken as a factor. That's why it's not quite the most free time travel. You are not so much moving back in time, as sidestepping and backwards or forwards. So you cannot step back through a portal to stop yourself from taking a foolish action from the previous day, even in a past Juncture. Or step from the past to give yourself a little hint about something to do to make yourself rich"

"So the streams are all really one stream, but with gaps? And so as one year passes in this world…?"

"A year will pass in the other Juncture as well, yes." The eyes of both women grew much brighter. "You do catch on very fast indeed. When 'this' year ends, and 1996 becomes 1997, the Juncture known as 1850 will become 1851."

"What about these portals? Where do they appear? What do they look like? I mean, how the hell does someone recognize when they've found one."

Enid scratched the back of her head as she responded. "That is not so easy to explain. No one knows for certain. Portals seem to appear and disappear without warning. A portal could be a the same location for months or years, well at least in that Juncture's frame of time, and then disappear without warning. Others pop up suddenly, leading to the Netherworld, but could just as easily be a one-way gate, vanishing after some poor soul steps through it.

"As for what a portal looks like, that's even harder to say. It could be a darkened area in a back alley somewhere, or a cave mouth. They don't even have to be dark, as some may glow from some unknown source of light, but when you get to the other side, they looked like a open area with nothing distinguishing about it."

The assassin put both his hands behind his head and then leaned back against the pillows. "I can't believe I'm listening to this. I'm not saying I don't believe you. If I'm alive after what happened, then just about anything seems possible. But just never expected to ever hear about something like this."

"I am quite certain none of us, maybe with the exception of Enid, were quite expecting to find out the things of the world that have been revealed to us" Tama placed a hand on his. Despite Enid's statement that the young Native American was a ghost, her touch was as solid as any other person's, if a little cooler. Jason was surprised to be disappointed when she withdrew that hand. "Did you have any more questions about what we have discussed so far?"

"Of course, but nothing that can't wait until later. I'd rather move on to something else that was mentioned. You said that there were other factions attempting to take over the other times, these Junctions. And Marion mentioned something about a Secret War. I presume that they're both related?"

But before I go into who they are, let me try to explain what most of them are after." She paused and placed a finger against her lower lip, tapping it lightly. "You saw me create those streams in mid-air, right?" Jason nodded; it was hard to miss, after all. "As I said previously, magic does exist. Though those of us who use it are not necessarily limited to one school of thought, it all stems from one source, a source with a number of names."

"Nothing's simple, is it?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Hush now," Enid chided, but also smiled. "I'm from what will eventually become England, as you probably have guessed. There the source goes by 'mana', 'ley lines', even 'faerie rings'. The most common name seems to be chi, however, originating in the Far East. I'm not sure of the best way to describe chi, though. Mages such as myself are quite capable of harnessing it, but so are non-mages, though they might do it more unconsciously. The spirit of the Earth is one way some see it, such as Tama's people. Some might consider it the work of the Lord. Others might even chalk its effects up to simply luck. In any case, chi is a motivating force of life. And the more of it one possesses, the more things…simply fall into place in one's life. Though it is generated naturally, it can be enhanced by manipulating the environment where it gathers."

"Jason," Tama said, interrupting her friend with a brief nod," have you ever heard of the concept of Feng Shui?"

"I think so. Isn't that whole mystical thing about moving furniture around so that the next lottery ticket'll be a million dollar winner?"

"Something like that," Tama said with a light laugh. Jason had to admit it was much better than ostensibly sorrowful look she had. "According to the practice, where you place a building or furniture, or even what color they could be can change the flow of chi through an area. It's not quite that simple, but that's the general concept. However, some places are not reliant upon just the structure of a building or where some one places a table or bed. Nevertheless, these sites, often called Feng Shui sites, are what the factions are fighting for overall. A person- or group- who is attuned to these sites can do amazing things." She lifted one delicate eyebrow. "For example, being able to save the life of a man who would otherwise have died."

"Here?" Jason asked. He looked around the room. It was so small and relatively barren that he had a difficult time believing that it could hold that kind of power.

"Well, the house actually," Enid said. "Or maybe more specifically the land and house in combination. I guess we should fill you in a little more on what happened after you were struck down. Sherwood is a doctor from the year 1850 and was the first of us who managed to reach you. The second he moved, however, the Nagas were about to strike him down. Several of the others, including Marion and King, fired their weapons, hoping to distract them. It worked, all too well. Sherwood, however, was able to staunch the bleeding initially, but the Naga must have punctured a lung. Marion ordered an emergency evacuation, which meant I teleport us all out of there. Thankfully, we held off the Nagas long enough for me to cast the spell. I got us back here, literally to this room. Sherwood placed you on the bed, and Tama and myself cast spells of healing on you. However, as he mentioned, you were dead for a short time, and all our spells could initially do was to bring you back to a much lower level of health, but at least you were no longer dead." She winked at Jason, whose look of amazement probably only began to show the surface of what he was feeling at the moment. "Sherwood's modest, actually. He did much of the other work, until Tama and I could regain our strength."

"Wait a minute! How long have I been unconscious?"

"I'd say the better part of a couple of days," Tama said plainly. "Being a spirit, I do not really need the same kind of rest that Enid here does. So we watched and healed you in shifts."

"Yes, but you could have left the room, Tama," Enid said. Her voice, though calm, held a touch of scolding in it. Tama either did not notice it or did not care.

"Why? It was just that much easier for you to let me know when it was my turn."

Jason gave a brief whistle between his teeth to get their attention again. When then looked back at him, Jason said "Ladies, regardless of who watched over me or why, I value the effort made. But could we get back to the issue at hand?"

Enid tilted her head slightly to one side while she hovered. "Sorry. Where were we?"

"You were going to tell me who these factions were."

Enid and Tama both proceeded to explain to him about the sides of what was called the Secret War, so named because despite its depth and scope, it was generally kept hidden from the public of the various Junctures. Fairly easy for 69 AD and 1850, since news rarely traveled so fast in those times and 2056, since a group called the Architect of the Flesh more or less controlled the complete flow of information. It was 1996 where it seemed that the information should have been the hardest to keep covert when one considered the proliferation of news agencies around the world, especially in the United States. Yet there was, according to them, a group that controlled the flow of information in that Juncture as well.

It was a very odd mix of magical, social, technological and political agendas involved in the Secret War. Enid and Tama tried to explain the groups and their agendas in the simplest terms, not because they did not believe Jason could handle it, but because the groups had to work on so many different levels that, as Enid said "Trying to explain what everyone did in general would entail giving you everything that they've all done specifically, it's gotten that complex."

The first ones they described were called The Guiding Hand. They were from Sherwood's Juncture of 1850 and began in the China of that time. They apparently not only wanted to eliminate all magic in the world as well as supernatural creatures, they wanted the teachings of Confucius to dominate and discipline the world. They generally disliked the West and the corruption they saw as stemming from it, but they would use aspects of it in extreme situations. Many were martial artists and manipulated chi through their practice of the arts. The women both seemed to hold a especially strong dislike of the group, which showed in their expressions and choice of words (Jason never would have expected Enid to know as many choice vulgar words as she displayed during that discussion), probably due to the faction's dislike of sorcerers and supernatural creatures, the latter of which Tama would have been seen as by them.

Next came the Architects of the Flesh. Their description of them and the genetic and magical raping they had done to Jason's future made the man's stomach roil. The year 2056 was meant to be a paradise, with no war, lack of food, and equality for everyone. And it was, but only at the expense of free will and original thought. These Architects had gained control of the majority of the Feng Shui sites by that time and had used their power to not only create the 'ideal society', but to also create a version of Orwell's 1984. Except here, their will was enforced by the use of demons enhanced by a type of cybernetic wear called Arcanowave. Humans could use it as well, but it tended to have rather bad effects on them if used too often for too long. Jason wondered that if this were to be his future whether he would be better off just killing himself now.

As a counterpoint to the Architects were the Jammers, a group of rebels from 2056 who had fled for the most part to the Netherworld to strike back at the totalitarian society of their time. However, they were unlike any of the other groups. It seemed that they believed that man had been a slave to the power of chi for too long, letting the forces of the world determine man's destiny, rather than letting him determine it for himself. And what parts of fate he had been able to control had been corrupted by this need to use chi to dominate others. Their agenda was the simplest of all in thought: they wished to destroy all Feng Shui sites, and to otherwise remove the ability to manipulate chi in the world through all time. Simple and ambitious, because it would also entail destroying all sorcerers, supernatural creatures, arcanowave-using beings (which included some of the members of the Jammers) and, according to Tama, effectively destroy the Netherworld itself. Jason could not see how they could ever hope to eliminate every site, if sites, like portals, seemed to appear somewhat randomly. To him, they were a group of punked-out terrorists who were way over their heads. Still, 'scorched land' tactics were the easiest to carry out since one never needed to hold on to land once it was taken. And they intended to never let anyone use those sites ever again.

The next group was the one that possibly surprised Jason more than any other. In truth, it was not the group itself that bothered him. Rather, it was the truth that they represented that did. For the Four Monarchs apparently were evidence that the possession of enough Feng Shui sites could change the future, quite literally. According to Tama and Enid, the four were not only incredibly powerful sorcerers, but had formally ruled Earth for nearly 300 years- until 1988, to be more exact. When Jason claimed vehemently that there was no way that that could have happened, since he and everyone he knew had no idea about it, he was told about one of the unique aspects of the Netherworld. For some reason, possibly due to its state as a nexus for the Junctures, anyone who visited the Netherworld at least once was immune to what was called a critical shift. When enough sites were gathered under one banner, the state of reality could be changed. The world had gone from one of magic to a world of technology. More importantly, Enid made mention that when a critical shift occurred, souls of those who had never been to the Netherworld could be placed in bodies that they had not necessarily been a part of in the previous reality. However, that also meant that people that had existed in the previous version of reality might not exist the same way in the updated version; in other words, Jason may never have existed in the previous state of events or he might have existed but everyone he ever knew from there would no longer know him. Also, with all the various wars that he had known to occur in the reality he knew during what would have been the Monarchs reign, Jason wondered which reality had been an improvement. Even as a paid killer, Jason had never agreed with deaths on such a massive scale.

The assassin did not fear dying much; given his job, death was always a strong possibility. Yet it troubled him more to consider that he might never had existed had it not been for the whims of magic. He consoled himself by remembering that no one existed without a little bit of random luck. After all, it took more than magic to have his parents meet each other. Or did it?

The Ascended were the next group up, and it seemed to be the one group that neither woman knew much about. In fact, it seemed that no one knew that much about them. The one thing that was known was that they were powerful and controlled many of the sites in Jason's time and the 1850 Juncture. They also seemed to have access to countless politicians, media powerhouses, and financial institutions, at least in 1996. The Ascended reminded Jason of the urban myth of the Illuminati, though now he was beginning to wonder just how much of what he heard was not based on the Ascended.

"And what group is Kwan Loo from?" Jason asked. His head was spinning from all the information he was trying to absorb in such a short time, but he needed to find out what he was up against in Loo. Assuming that they let him walk out of wherever they were, he still had an assignment to finish.

"Make that 'is' a 'was', first of all," Enid replied. "I'll tell you about what he used to belong to first. I have a feeling that Marion is going to want to talk to you directly about Loo."

Jason hid his irritation. It seemed odd that they were being so free with information that he had would never had discovered about the world and time, yet seemed reluctant to give him a little bit of information about who they just robbed a couple of days prior. He could play their game for now, though. "Fine, then. What group was he with?" he said, crossing his arms defiantly.

"A faction known as The Eaters of the Lotus," Tama said calmly. "They are sorcerers from China in the year 69 AD." She smiled. "Eunuch sorcerers, actually."

Jason smirked as he replied. "Well, that sure as hell explains his voice. And what are they looking for? A way to reverse their condition? Damn well, I would be!"

"Power. Correction, more power. Many are servants of the Emperor of that time, though they actually run the day-to-day affairs of government, pretty much making the Emperor that only in name." Tama and Enid both looked quite angry suddenly. Jason wondered if the anger was directed at Loo or these Eaters of the Lotus. "They have used demons and other supernatural beings to further themselves. That has included enslaving ghosts as well."

That certainly would explain why both women were no fans of the eunuchs. "Easy there, Tama. With all these factions vying different things, why not turn them on each other?"

"Make no mistake," Enid began," none of these factions generally like each other. Most are after the same things, in the long run, though they'll take different paths to get the results. Almost none of them like the Jammers, since they would love to destroy the Feng Shui sites all the others are looking to possess. Even the Hand sees the sites as being needed to grant them power for their brand of martial arts, though they argue it's not related to magic in any way." Enid shrugged. "I say let's indulge them their delusions. In any case though, the factions will fight each other often enough, but the potential amount collateral damage can get out of hand."

"If the damage can get that bad, why in the world haven't we seen or heard about this war of yours by now?"

"In this era, the Ascended seem to be quite able to cover it up so far. There probably have been incidents that people have heard of, but only by whatever information the Ascended wanted leaked out. Destroyed buildings became intentional demolition. Shootouts in public became motion picture filming in town. Mundane explanations for unusual events. It might sound odd, but you would be surprised how easy it can be to fool the uninitiated."

"If this has been going on as long as you say, I'm not surprised it's been easy to fool people."

"Yes, but doing so too often leads to more and more questions. There comes a point when it becomes impossible to cover things up any more. That is why the war has been fought from the shadows more often than it's been fought publicly."

Jason remained silent for several seconds as he looked at the two women out of the corner of his eyes. His arms were still crossed, and he shrugged his shoulders as he said, "I've noticed you still have neglected to mention which faction you all are under."

"I was beginning to wonder if you were going to say anything about that," Enid said, with a hearty chuckle. "We are not under any one faction, to be honest. The closest would be one that we had not yet mentioned called The Dragons." She stopped for several moments. It looked as if she were trying to gather her thoughts. "The Dragons don't represent any single idea about the Feng Shui sites, other than to prevent the abuse of them by the other extremist factions. They are the one group that seemingly fights for the 'Little Guy'. That's not always true. They are just as interested as the other factions in gaining sites. The only difference is how they tend to use them. They tend to focus more on using the chi to better themselves to combat those who would use the sites to harm so many others."

Jason smirked, as he said, "Why aren't you with them, if they represent everything you like?"

"It is not so simple, as you have probably figured out," Tama said. "Though as a group and even as individuals we might agree with what they do and what they stand for, we have discovered that sometimes their methods are…not as effective as we would prefer."

Jason decided not to pursue that particular line. Both women were beginning to look uncomfortable. Despite his own curiosity, he had a growing respect for them that was only partially due to their saving his life.

"So where are Marion and King? I thought they were getting breakfast?" Until he thought about it, Jason hadn't realized how hungry he was.

"Hopefully, returning soon," Tama replied. She placed her feet back on the floor and walked toward the door. After opening it, she placed her head outside. "Smells as if they are nearly done," she announced, following the taking of a deep breath.