Shadowdance
Chapter 10
The shadowmasters meticulously searched everywhere, not sure what Sakura could have done to escape, but not sure where she was either. At length, after about an hour of waiting for them to do something other than looking for her, Sakura smiled when Lee finally lost his patience and aborted the search. With some complicated magic he raised some barriers for a private meeting with his advisers, but Sakura managed to slip through before the barriers sealed all sound and information. Huddling, actually, on top of Lee's boot (several times she nearly fell in), she listened in as Lee reluctantly began discussing other important matters.
As impulsive as Lee had seemed before, when he first attacked Syaoran and chased Yue practically all around the neighborhood, the shadowmaster was not as spontaneous as Sakura had first assumed. He was different from Hiko. Hiko seemed almost childish compared to Syaoran's father; the firespeaker was overly ambitious and excited to get rid of the only threat to his legacy, and all that really made him a threat was Lady Jin. Lee however, had twice their cunning combined and was apparently far older.
Apparently, Syaoran's first attack was thwarted by Yue's determination. For some reason Lee had not predicted Yue would rescue Syaoran. As he spoke more with the other shadowmasters about the hall, Sakura took a brief moment to recall what would give the lord such an idea.
At a certain point, one of the shadowmasters left, leaving only Lee and another shadowmaster, a man with a nose like a hawk and beady little eyes, in the quarter.
" My lord," The way the man said it sounded like the two of them were on more casual terms than the rest, " Are you sure it will work the way you say? Dimensions are a tricky thing."
" So you have said."
" Look, just because our calculations say he will merge with his other self over there does not mean he will. And how do you think he will merge? Are you sure you would not just get rid of that world's Li Syaoran instead?"
" He is the intruder."
" The dimension might like him."
Furrowing her brow, Sakura tried to understand exactly what they were talking about.
" There is no chance of that."
" You know there is." The shadowmaster insisted. " If he substitutes his self in that world he will not only still have a chance to return, he might even draw your powers to his dead father in that realm, making him shadowmaster."
" Shadowmasters do not exist there."
" Neither does a second thunderspeaker. If you are going to get rid of a thunderspeaker here, you will have to be prepared to sacrifice your own matching powers."
" There will be no sacrifices, except for him."
" It is risky! You have to realize—you do not know what that child might do there, what influences he will have over the plan. He is beyond our control, the only thing we can do is prevent the deities from rescuing him on time. Other than that all we can do is pray—he may actually twist it so that instead of shrouding this world in darkness, this dimension is forced to get rid of all shadowmasters. What then?"
" As I said, he is the intruder. And no stable system will allow intruders to have say. The dimension will kill him off first. Once that happens we can then move freely."
" And if it does not kill him?"
" As long as he does not return, he cannot affect us that much." Lee replied. " The world will destroy him as soon as he does too much, and what little he is allowed to use will not tip the balance against us. I will not have another bureaucracy running simply because some overly-ambitious firespeaker decided to challenge a prophecy. The magical world is a republic. It is far more important to eliminate any chances that a thunderspeaker should assume more power than the rest. They have left us alone for now because of our magic type, but the thunderspeaker can seek us out and destroy us much more easily than you can whine. Go at once, see to it that the beast sits at the portal, and I want no more complaints about the plan. We have planned too long in case the firespeakers lose to risk doubting ourselves."
The shadowmaster looked woefully at the lord before bowing silently and taking his leave.
Huh. Sakura blinked. So Syaoran is apparently in another dimension? She considered her options. Lee wanted to prevent a bureaucracy? How is getting rid of a thunderspeaker going to prevent that? And what about this beast that is sitting in the portal?
The entire situation did not make sense. But then, she can hardly expect the Lord of Shadowmasters to recite a plan he probably already explained numerous times already. She would have to piece the things together and fill in wherever she can.
So Syaoran is in another dimension. The other shadowmaster said something about merging, replacing, the dimension liking him. Obviously, Lee wanted Syaoran out of the way—that went without saying. She thought about what Lee said in the end. The shadowmasters had been left alone…because of their magic type. They are roguish, that is for sure. But they are afraid of the thunderspeaker being able to destroy them. That made some sense too, actually, with shadow being, well, shadow, and thunder being essentially light in its purest and deadliest form. If Lee was so afraid of that, why did he not take advantage of Syaoran being his son?
Why did he father Syaoran anyway? And according to Eriol, he did not father his sisters…how did that work?
Baffled now, Sakura continued to think as Lee started pacing. So Lee wanted Syaoran to either merge with the other dimension or be destroyed. He seemed to be pretty sure that the other Syaoran would not get this Syaoran's powers. They also mentioned the other Syaoran's father being dead…this is giving her an outright headache. Sakura rubbed her temples with one hand while grabbing a shoelace with the other.
The other shadowmaster…what was he worried about again? That the other Syaoran might not even get replaced, that her Syaoran would take over. So it was not so much eliminating Syaoran as it was eliminating the thunderspeaker…how do dimensions work anyway? And the thunderspeaker assuming more power than the rest…the magical world is a republic…
The magical world is a republic.
Sakura thought quickly. What if Hiko did win? Then he would be some sort of lord, right? The prophecy seemed to say as much, and Lee knew about it, apparently. And since it involved the descendants of Clow, perhaps Lee had gone there in hopes of siring some kind of knight. He would never have imagined that his son would become a thunderspeaker instead of a shadowmaster, and perhaps left when, disappointed, he discovered Syaoran had no unusual abilities.
I am totally grabbing at loose straws here. Sakura thought ruefully, but it was all she had to go on.
It made some sense. Hiko was definitely older than Syaoran, which meant that there had to be some kind of clue as to who he was when he was born. That gives Lee some time to decide on fathering his knight. Well it still did not make sense how he managed to make Yelan believe he was her husband all along. Some kind of shadow magic? Even Eriol seemed to shudder at it when she had brought it up, back in Tomoeda. What if shadow magic consisted more than just black shadows. What if it was memory, the soul, the mind? He could have confused Yelan. And then when Syaoran turned out to not only be a child of special abilities, but the enemy of the shadowmasters, Lee realized he had created another threat. So now he wants to get rid of it. Why does he not just kill Syaoran?
Iie, none of this makes any sense. Sakura decided. She had no basis to believe shadow magic could do anything to a person's memory. She felt, instinctively, however, that she was somehow on the right track. There was a reason Lee did not choose to kill Syaoran. Something must be preventing him, or there was a better alternative. Hm, the shadowmaster had mentioned that if Syaoran replaced the other Syaoran, Lee's shadow powers might go to the dead father…
Magic never followed the laws of conservation of mass before, but they seemed to have their own system, and granted, Sakura had never heard of magic disappearing by itself. It could apparently be used up, as it did with Yukito, and earlier when Syaoran had destroyed the fire demon the elementals all seemed to be affected when the fire magic had nowhere else to go. Supposing Lee wanted to get rid of his son. The other dimension would not take the thunder magic. But it has to go somewhere.
Crud, he wanted Syaoran's magic.
What a roundabout way of doing things! Suddenly certain she was right, and frustrated because she had no clue why, or how he planned to accomplish such a thing by sending syaoran to another dimensionnot to mention the motive should have been the most obvious thing in the world because Kami knows, everyone on this freaking planet wanted power, Sakura suddenly jumped from Lee's boot. The barrier lets things out, keeping only sound in, so Sakura slipped away easily. And using the Shadow Card she made her way out of the shadow coven.
oO
Talking or interacting with himself did not start out so weird, but as time went on Syaoran began to realize it was distinctly odd to see Li when he was not looking at a mirror. There were times when they would think the exact same thing, say the exact same thing, and it was starting to become more and more frequent. Often times when they talk to each other it was hard to start a conversation precisely because they already knew what the other was about to say, the answer to that, and what was to follow. Things became especially awkward when Sakura was introduced to the picture, and the poor Card Mistress did not really know how to wrap her mind around the fact that yes, both Syaorans cared about her, but she could only rightfully return the feelings of one of them.
It was not so hard to see the danger of him staying too long either. The synchronized thinking was not the only evidence. Syaoran found himself getting more and more tired, whereas Li seemed to be getting more and more energetic. Syaoran wondered if this was what Yukito felt like when he was fading.
And then, of course, there was the frustration that he had to sit and wait like he had been doing pretty much for the last few months ever since the whole thunderspeaker fiasco started, while everyone else did their best to save him. Even Li, who had very few powers that can actually help. His counterpart had the decency to occasionally keep him company for a while, disregarding the whole creepiness of talking to himself in favor of maintaining Syaoran's sanity.
Happily, Syaoran still had Chul. He was so relieved to feel his guardian's concern for him that night during dinner. Chul, on his part, seemed determined to maintain the contact as long as both were able. The connection seemed to be stuck at emotions for now, no thoughts could really be transmitted, but the protectiveness Syaoran was feeling lessened the weight in his heart a bit.And while it mentally tired him to keep trying to connect to his guardian, Syaoran found it seemed to keep him from fading away from existence completely. He wondered if it was coincidence.
No, nothing with magic is ever a coincidence. Though whoever planned out that he should have this link has been very helpful. At least Syaoran could feel somewhat safe.
But there he was, waiting around.
" Hey, think of it this way," Meiling soothed him, " Once you get back you can start doing things again."
Well, not really, since he still needed Chul's protection as long as his…as long as Lee was alive, but at least he could practice magic again. Somewhat. And her comment, especially since it came from her, reminded Syaoran that in fact Meiling probably was more used to his situation, and was probably fated to remain used to it. " I'm sorry." He apologized.
" Hm?" Meiling gave him a puzzled look. " About what?"
Deciding to change the topic, Syaoran mumbled, " I am really bad company these days, huh."
" Not really." Meiling gave him a sweet smile. " I think you're handling it pretty well, actually.
Well, of course. After all the nonsense that has been happening to him, crossing dimensions just looked like one out of many misfortunes.
At about three in the morning, everyone who had gone to the portal to help, including Sakura and Li, returned, all looking very put out.
" There's some beast at the portal and it's just sitting there." Ritsuko explained, wiping her forehead with a towel. Her clothes were drenched.
" It was just sitting there?" Syaoran asked.
" Hai." Li replied, scowling. " It was not even doing anything. It was all black. Which side do you think it came from?"
" Theirs, presumably." Ichiro cocked his head. " We did not start this issue, at any rate."
" Why would some beast be able to stop you?" Meiling asked.
" Because, upon inspection," Ichiro replied wryly, " It is not alive. Which means we cannot kill it. And unfortunately, none of Kinomoto's erasing, nullifying, or what's it spells were able to work on its very black and polished exterior, let alone get it out of the portal."
" It's wedged." Sakura added.
" Only thing that seems to be helping is a bit of qigong," Li told the thunderspeaker, " Seems to punch it in a little, but I can't keep doing that forever, not to mention the results are pretty pathetic, to say the least."
" Huh." Syaoran sighed, reaching instinctively toward his Chul's presence, warm and healing. " What do we do now?"
" You stay put. Don't panic." Sakura told him, not that Syaoran was panicking. " We'll get you home."
Feeling tired again, Syaoran did not respond.
" Advanced math," Ritsuko was talking to some of the elementals while drying her hair with a towel. Why she did not just evaporate the water, Syaoran did not know. Perhaps it was the act of drying with a towel? " How the blazes does math have to do with anything?"
" Dear, math has to do with everything." One of the elementals replied, with a thick accent. " He actually has a decent time, six months, if not more. His bond with his current guardian is pretty strong. That Lord Chul must be fighting tooth and nail to maintain the connection."
" You know about the connection?" Syaoran asked.He had just known about it yesterday!
" We can see it," Sakura informed him, causing Syaoran, bewildered, to spin around in a circle looking for some tangible thread, or whatever it was, that the connection could appear as.
" You can see it?" Syaoran exclaimed.
" Well, yeah, it was always there," Sakura replied, " It's how we tell the two of you apart."
Syaoran suddenly realized that in fact that made sense. He did wear different clothing than Li, but sometimes that did not account for how they recognized him, like when both were sitting on the sofa and only their heads were visible to the perspective of the viewer.
" It kind of thickened recently." Sakura squinted at what Syaoran assumed to be the connection. " You can't see it?"
" Well, iie, not really."
" Hoe!" Sakura blinked. " Well, it's there. It looks like a thick string, very blue. Look like water keeps running through it."
Made sense, Syaoran supposed.
" We deduced it was between you and the Water Lord." Meiling told Syaoran. " Because the Water Lord is the best candidate. And Prince Nataku keeps talking about Chul on the other side. Which reminds me, when is our Chul coming back?"
" He can stay for an infinite time then!" They heard someone yell. " He'd have to at this rate?"
" What's that?" Li called out.
Nataku stormed over, furious. " The connection." He jabbed at the air, and Syaoran felt a resounding pain, sharp and cutting, in his chest, the echoes of it coming from his Chul as well. " The connection made the beast. It wasn't blocking the portal. It was keeping it open."
" But it was black!" Said an elemental.
" That doesn't matter!" Nataku waved his hands. " The point is we can't remove the beast. If we remove the beast we risk closing the portal and we can't open it."
" Why can't we open it again?" Asked a deity Syaoran did not recognize.
" We may, but we might not." Nataku shook his head.
" Drill a hole through the beast then?" Ritsuko suggested.
Li and Syaoran winced.
" Nezha, don't jab the connection again," Syaoran told the firespeaker while he was still pacing, " It hurts. Like hell."
" Oh," Nataku gave him a sheepish look, " Sorry about that. But the fact remains. Beast is the connection."
" Who put it there?"
" I don't know!"
The yelling made Syaoran uneasy, and he sensed reassurance waft through the connection between him and Chul. He had no clue where the connection everyone else saw actually was, but when Nataku stepped forward again he instinctively ducked to the side.
" I won't poke at it again, I'm sorry." Nataku apologized. The firespeaker was reining in his temper now. " We'll figure this out, alright kid?"
But then Meiling's earlier question was a premonition.
" The Water Lord has returned!" Came the announcement from the front of the mansion. Everyone fell silent. It was a silence that was both morbid and distressing.
Syaoran really did not want to see this version of Chul.