March 24th

Caine walked beside The Ancient, fearing that he would fall in his weakened state. He had recovered but there was still weakness in his limbs, and especially in his qi. The poison had been particularly vicious, and Lo Si had been the only one to survive.

"I am not suddenly made of spun glass." Lo Si said a little irritably. He had reached an age where everyone thought they needed to treat him like a delicate flower. He was a Shamballa master for pity's sake.

"No." He answered. " But you are made of things that are just as breakable if you should fall while on the stairs. You will not need my assistance in a few days."

"You sound like the nurses at the hospital, but you are far less attractive."

Kwai Chang laughed softly.

Once inside he helped Lo Si to his sofa. "I will make tea."

"Good, then you can tell me what it is that you have been not telling me."

Caine took his time preparing the tea. He chose the herbs that would help replenish their qi. He added hibiscus flowers to cover some of the less pleasant flavors of the other herbs. He brought the pot and two cups into the living room on a tray.

He took a seat on the floor and poured the tea, serving The Ancient first.

"Thank you, Kwai Chang Caine. Now… what is it you thought I was too weak to hear?"

"I believe The Harbingers have a major ritual planned." He said "according to Captain Blaisdell violence is increasing around the city. "

"And it is increasing everywhere?" He asked. "Not sporadically."

"Yes." He said.

"And you believe this ritual could involve Peter."

"It is the only thing that makes his abduction make sense. I just don't know what it is they have planned for him. Or where to start looking."

"We have to find the artifact." Lo Si said "Regardless of the ritual. We must focus on preventing the city from falling to their chaos. In doing so we may be able to prevent what they have planned for Peter as well.

Peter was back to Elapidae training. This time he was taking it seriously. Before it had been an annoyance or just something to do. Now he knew his life depended on it.

"Again."

He sighed in frustration but started at the top. "I've noticed that Kline hasn't been stalking me around the penthouse."

"He has your old room at the moment." She said.

"Is he the one that tried to kill me?" Peter asked.

"He says no, but I have doubts. As you said before he was up to something."

"Killing me would prevent you from destroying the Shaolin," Peter said, strangely he was finding it easier to accept his role in both prophecies. He had heard the snake talking in his sleep. It told him that it was so. "Maybe he's from a different sect and he was sent to cause you trouble."

"It's possible. Next Kata." She said, and he knew that meant the topic was closed for discussion.

There was a knock at Lo Si's door. It took both men by surprise as people did not usually knock. For the most part, The Ancient had an open-door policy much as Caine had.

Caine opened the door to find his son's girlfriend. She carried a box. "Kelly, please, come inside."

She entered the apartment slowly. Captain Blaisdell said you wanted some of Peter's books. I found them and some other personal items you might want. Photos and things"

Caine took the box and set it on the floor. "You have given up?" This saddened him greatly.

She looked as though she was about to cry. 'It's… I… yes. It's been so long. If he were just a kidnapping victim he would have escaped by now. Peter was very good at getting out of tight situations."

"There are times when even the best of us cannot surpass our enemies."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Caine, but I can't go through this anymore. I need to let go and move on or I'll be caught in this trap forever. I've gotten a storage unit. I'm putting all of Peter's things there and I'm moving out of the apartment. I've paid for 6 months of storage. The information is in the box. I'll give you the key to the lock when I have everything moved in."

"Kelly-"

"I'm sorry." She said and left the apartment before the tears began to fall.

He picked up the box and went back to where the Ancient was sitting. "Everyone is giving up. All the connections that could give him strength with their belief in him are falling away one by one."

"He still has us, It will be enough."

"It has to be," Caine said. He sifted through the items in the box, not wanting to linger over them just yet. It would feel too much like saying goodbye. He found his grandfather's journal and took it out to read.

He wished Peter had started one, but he supposed that he had been kidnapped too soon after learning about the family journals. "My grandfather encountered the Harbingers when he passed through California. He did not encounter the more mystical sects or individuals often."

"During his time there were racists to worry about and no one to stop them from doing as they wished. Despite his shame, he was a good priest for his time and place."

"Sometimes I think it has not changed as much as people like to think," Caine said as he leafed through the journal looking for the entry he remembered reading so long ago.

"I think you are right."

"Here it is… " He said "It was a town in California in 1880… race riots escalated until nearly everyone was killed… They were elevating one of their devotees to a higher rank. They have two at the head of their organization. Nag and Nagaina. Male and Female. He thought they were a … mated pair… They were using the chaos energy to imbue their new Nag with power as he was elevated. The artifact is the statue of a large black snake. This could be what we are looking for. It would explain the rise in violence."

"Surely they would not put Peter in such a high-ranking position."

"I do not know. He has been their captive a very long time." He said, "They could have twisted him into anything they want by this time." What were they doing to his son? "I should never have left."

"Enough." The Ancient said, sharply. "Your guilt will not help him. You cannot blame yourself for what he yelled at you in your vision. They have been twisting him, turning him against all things Shaolin. It is what they do to every captive they take. You are his father and Shaolin. They will want to make him hate you to keep him vulnerable. This can be undone, but we must find him first, and to do that we must find their artifact. They will be guarding both heavily. I suspect they will be in the same place."

"Where are we going?" Peter asked as she unlocked a door. He had tried picking that lock several times and failed. He was curious about what was on the other side.

"To the roof." She said.

"Gonna throw me off for being a pain in the ass?" He teased, he didn't think she would. Not until after the initiation was done. Then he figured he needed to be watching his back constantly.

"That would be a bit messy on the sidewalk below. Not to mention lead to all manner of questions from the police even if they couldn't identify the jello on the pavement right away."

"I'll give ya that." He said and followed her. She wouldn't be taking him there if he could escape from the rooftop, so he took no hope from being taken somewhere new. "So… what's on the roof if not a one-way ticket down."

She laughed "Are you always so impatient?"

"No, usually I'm much worse. Especially when I'm a prisoner." He said.

"Does this happen to you often?"

"Like this? Never. Usually, I get knocked out by a regular everyday criminal, tied up and threatened." He shrugged. "Then I get away."

"Then that is where you're making your mistake. You're treating me like a criminal."

"No. No, I'm not. You're just treating me like you've kidnapped Houdini's better-looking, more talented brother. But just to be clear you are a criminal. Kidnapping is a crime."

"I see captivity hasn't diminished your ego." She said laughing.

"Not about that anyway." He lied, he was pretty well shattered and he knew it. Sometimes he thought he could feel it physically. He was a grown man and he was afraid of the dark and invisible demonic snakes. How could he not consider that shattered?

She unlocked the door at the top of the stairs and pushed it open, allowing him to follow her out.

The roof was beautiful. She had reinforced the roof so that it could support a layer of sod. They stepped out onto that grass and it was like a little of the weight left Peter's shoulders. The open-air, even if a bit windy more than 30 stories in the air felt like heaven. There was an elegant greenhouse in the center the sort you saw in movies set in Victorian England.

He took 5 steps away from the door and lay down on the grass, staring up at the night sky. "You know it's funny the things you take for granted." He said "I didn't even know I missed the sky," He said in a quiet tone.

She sat down on the grass beside him and brushed a stray lock out of his face.

He took his eyes off the sky and looked at her. She was beautiful, of that there was no doubt. Auburn hair, hazel eyes, and Features that were just slightly exotic. Nevertheless, the way she was looking at him left him feeling uncomfortable. She didn't look at him like he was a man she was attracted to, but like he was a piece of property she wanted to try on for size or devour whole.

"I…" he swallowed. "I have a girlfriend. We live together… lived together." He was never going to see Kelly again. He knew that. Then again he had thought he'd never see the sky again either.

"She has no place in your life now. I don't give visiting hours, or allow conjugal visits" She said.

"I know." He said, "But I'm not ready to move on just yet." Stockholm syndrome was a thing but not with him. Not yet. He wasn't going to pull a Patty Hearst or fall in love with his captor just to survive. Not when he could almost smell the corruption oozing off of her like cheap perfume. No amount of beauty or superficial kindness could overcome that smell.

"I'm patient."

He laughed at that, and without thinking, he laughed. " You are anything but patient."

She let that go. "Shall we have dinner up here?"

"A picnic? Sure why not." It beat the dress-for-dinner fiasco they had been calling dinner since he'd been allowed out of that nightmare chamber.

She nodded to the guard at the door and he turned to go downstairs to inform the cook.

Peter propped himself up on his elbows. "So, this sudden interest, does that mean you think have a chance of surviving this fight, or is this supposed to be my ahm… last hoorah."

"I think it's possible. You have the forms right, now you need to toughen yourself as much as possible. When it's done, I will tell you all there is know about Serpentes."

He nodded and turned his face upward again to look at the sky. "Because I'll be one of you then. I wonder if this is going to be one of those altering history paradoxes. I destroy Shaolin, which means my family doesn't come to America so I cease to exist, but if I cease to exist I won't be able to destroy anything so the world goes back to the original timeline. Ultimately affecting nothing and wasting all that quality time with the darkness. "

"Do you think that destiny wouldn't find a way to make things happen? One doesn't need to be a priest to run from a murder charge in 19th-century China. You would always come to be. Maybe next time you won't be separated from your father… if he's not a priest with deceptive friends and violent enemies."

"Or he really could be dead next time. I don't want this."

"I know." She said, "You won't understand any of this until after the initiation."

"Try me. Who am I gonna tell ?"

"There are rules Peter. Even I don't break the rules."

"When is this initiation supposed to happen."

"Two weeks from now."

March 26th

Caine and Lo Si got off the bus in New River City. "Mr. Zhiao is the apothecary. Mrs. Lin is retired. I stayed with her for a time because she was afraid. Or so she said." Caine saw it for what it was now. He had been manipulated and kept distracted while they weakened his son's reserves.

"She is the one that says I told her about Peter?"

Caine nodded.

Lo Si huffed. "Master Jian is expecting us."

"His home is this way." He said and led the way through the city to the edges of china town, where the local priests resided.

It was a small home, with three bedrooms, with a nicely landscaped backyard. Three priests resided within. Master Jian, Master Lixin, and Master Tianyu. They welcomed Caine and Lo Si into their home.

"And you are certain the Harbingers have set up shop in New River City?" Lixin asked. It made his blood run cold to think of it, at the same time, one did not let a nest of cobras grow in your backyard no matter how deadly and frightening they were.

Caine nodded "I do not know how extensive it is, but I have reason to suspect Mrs. Lin and Mr. Zhiao." He explained what had happened from the moment he had arrived in NRC the first time, and his return. He left out the part about the prophecy. Some things were not meant to be shared.

"We will help in any way we can," Jian said with a firm nod.

"We need to gather information. Those involved here may know where I can find my son and their artifact. I cannot ask you to take part in what I must do." Caine said.

"Then don't. We will simply … help" Jian said with a shrug. "These are our enemies too. They have destroyed many temples. Killed many priests, and even the younger students. We will do everything we can to help bring an end to this cult."

"Or at least to chase them from our cities," Tianyu said, he was the elder of the three priests from New River City. He knew that the cult, like many others, could never be completely destroyed. Their poison had spread for too long and set in too deep.

Peter waited until the penthouse was silent, then pulled the bobby pins from his pocket and went to his bedroom door. They weren't as useful as lock picks as film and television made them out to be, but Peter could make them work once, then they were pretty much useless. He'd been collecting them from the main bathroom since he'd been allowed out of his cage.

He slipped out of his room and went back to the main exit. He took out his notebook and put in number sequences, five numbers at a time into the security lock, writing down the ones that failed to open the door. He added another 20 numbers to his list, which took him to 240 combinations out of more than a thousand possibilities. He wanted to spend more time working on it but he needed to be back in his room with the door locked before Hendricks made his nightly bed check. He could not afford to be caught trying to escape. They would make sure he didn't get another chance.

He put the notebook back into his pants pocket and quickly made his way back to his room. He quietly closed the door and fought with the makeshift lock picks to put the lock back in the locked position.

He glanced at the clock nervously. Hendricks kept better time than most clocks as far as Peter could tell, so the longer it took to get the lock back in place, the more his hands shook. "Come on, come on, Come on." He whispered.

He could hear footsteps in the hall, and his blood ran cold in his veins. Finally, the lock slid into place. Peter leaped for the bed barely getting under the covers and his head on the pillow before Hendricks slid the key into the lock and opened the door. He turned off the light.

Peter focused on keeping his breathing slow and even until he heard the door close and the key in the lock. He gave a shuddering sigh. "That was cutting it close." He didn't know if he would get through all the numeric code possibilities within the next two weeks. He had to keep trying. He got back out of bed and took the bent bobby pins into the bathroom. He wrapped them up in toilet tissue and flushed them down the toilet. He couldn't afford for the cleaning staff to find them.

He turned the light back on before stripping down to boxers and once more getting into bed. The snake was always in his mind now. He could feel it squirming around in his thoughts. He wasn't afraid of it any longer. Not when he wasn't trapped in the cell below. It was the dark that he was afraid of. It felt as though it was a living breathing entity that could swallow him whole.

He turned over onto his side and closed his eyes, willing himself to sleep.