Chapter XVI: Enigmas and Archways

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Had to get the ever-mysterious Jade Court in this story somehow. So, here it is. Enjoy. Let me know what you think of the valley descriptions. Tried to up the mystique there, so please do let me know if that worked.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

Weatherwax leaned forward in her seat, long elegant fingers curling together in front of her. Her hood fell further over her face, blocking the tranquil sunlight and casting deep shadows over her expression. "Try again, Max. Feel the cold, and harness it. Make it dance to your whims."

"That's not how... anything works, y'know Weatherwax." Chloe drawled, from her comfortable, warm spot in the doorway.

"Winners make their own rules, Chloe." Weatherwax responded simply, without looking at her. "And Max, you are a winner. You've survived everything life has thrown at you and you've prospered. You've gained power, and the perspective to use it. Believe." That last word was said with so much force that I half thought she'd laced it with magical compulsion, but no. She just... genuinely believed in me. How weird was that?

"Fine, fine!" I threw up my hands. "I'll give it another go. But we do have the war room meeting in, like, ten minutes."

"So, you'll just have to get it right this time." Her mouth, the only part of her face I could see, curled into a teasing, vicious smile.

I shook my head and turned back to the clearing. Frost fog lay gently over it, the power of Winter in physical form. I picked up my wands and focused, firmly and confidently, on the frost. I stretched out my senses and tried to feel. Tried to believe. The shivers down my spine, the cold air a gentle sting on my skin. The chill of snow on my fingertips, and the crunch of it beneath my boots. The warmth of a fire, people huddling around as they desperately tried to stay warm in the harsh cold.

This would work. I spoke a word of lyrical Sanskrit and thrust out my wands. The cold surged upwards through my feet and out through my wands in a torrent of snow and ice and freezing air.

I could hear Chloe woop distantly, but every bit of my attention was focused on this. The feeling running through me, the power of the world at my feet - literally!

There was another word in my head, something I didn't recognise, and the flow stopped. A wrinkled, liver-spotted hand reached out and turned me to face Weatherwax. "You understand, now. There is a power in the world beyond the magic of individual wizards. Tapping into it, controlling it, it takes a powerful mind. A powerful focus. You have that power, but you also have the mind to understand when it is right to use and when it is not. Keep that understanding."

I still couldn't see her eyes, but I could feel them piercing through me.

I just... nodded. What else was there?

She watched me for another few moments before nodding and standing, just in time for Chloe to swoop in and wrap me up in her arms. "That was fucking awesome, Maximus! You're like the Ice Man!"

"It was pretty... cool, wasn't it?"

Chloe groaned. "And you ruined it. Pun game is worst game."

I gasped. "You take that back! Puns are the height of comedy!"

"Too bad you're so short then."

"Oh," She went there? "You did not just..." I jabbed a finger at her. "Just wait, Chloe. My revenge will be well-planned, surprising, and merciless."

Chloe just stared at me, an expression I couldn't parse over her face. "What?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "I don't know... I just... didn't think you could be so... cold."

"Chloe!"

"So, where is Ancient Mai, anyway?" I asked, leaning back against the wall of the War Room.

"China." Luccio brought out the map for the main table and centered in on the north-western edges of the country. "She was assigned to the Yangtze River Valley. It is less... dark, a place than we would usually pick as a retreat, but it was shown the water was sufficient. It carries enough magical energy away to dampen any detection."

She ran a finger along the river until she found a certain spot, then tapped it. "The Senior Council," She gave the collection of powerful wizards a grateful nod, "helped narrow down her position to here - the hidden valley of the Jade Court."

There was a collective sigh rippling throughout the room. Not many people liked the Vampire Courts, for all they were tolerated as a lesser evil than just letting everything run rampant. The Jade Court was the only one outside the Big Three that anyone found worth the time - the others were barely more than mosquitoes. But they were the weirdest of the bunch, in my opinion. The White Court fed on emotion, the Red Court on blood, and the Black Court on Death. Or life, depending on who you asked - reports were... sketchy. Anyway, the Jade Court were the weirdest - they fed on breath. Breath!

There was this old story of an Asian Warlock Warlord type from somewhere down near Thailand, who sent an emissary to link up with some of the Jade Court's enemies. They found him dead in his hotel, almost completely blue. The autopsy showed his lungs looked like raisins.

Needless to say, the Warlock Guy was pissed and sent more of his people, who kept dying suddenly and mysteriously of collapsed lungs. Eventually, he got so pissed he declared to his whole army that he was going to go himself and bring all his forces to wipe out the court. He was found dead, with shrivelled lungs, the day before he was gonna leave.

And in all that time, with all those deaths, nobody ever saw a single vampire. I've never seen a single description of what they look like - they could be people-shaped, they could be giant, hopping umbrellas with big lolling mouths. We just don't know.

Needless to say, possibly annoying these vampires was not something I was particularly in favour of doing.

I tuned back out of my introspection and back to the plan. There was a Way available, but it was a decent distance away from the Hidden Valley. We'd have to walk. Fuck.

We step out of the Way once again. I was immediately hit by a sweltering heat. The valley felt... wet, somehow. I took a few deep breaths to counter the sudden narrowed-feeling in my throat. Okay. That was going to be... annoying. I shook my head. No distractions.

We'd stepped out onto a ridge, or maybe a spur? Either way, it was some low thing with more mountains and hills looming behind us and yet more off in the distance ahead. Between us and those distant peaks there was The River - and dogdamn did it deserve those capitals. The Yangtze was impressive, to say the least. It had to be a few hundred meters wide, and it practically thrummed with energy. Definitely a Powerful place. Capital P intended.

"Ancient Mai really knows how to pick 'em, eh?"

"It is a very beautiful place."

"Eh. It's a bit warm for me." Caoimhe took a step back toward the Way. She did look thoroughly uncomfortable, squinting vividly with an expression familiar to anyone that's had a migraine before. "If you don't mind, I'm going to sit this one out."

"What?" We all looked at her in shock.

She shrugged. "Yeah, this place isn't my kind of vibe and I'm not gonna do too well here. Might as well stay back and let you non-Winter types take care of it."

Ah. Right. Winter Fae and sweltering wet heat probably not the best mix. And it's not like she was under the Council's command - she was here voluntarily. Or at least under the command of the Winter Court. I still wasn't sure there. Ebenezar nodded. "Fair enough. Look after yourself, Caoimhe. We'll take it from here."

We said our goodbyes and off we went.

It was a hard trek through soggy soil and rough terrain. I'd thought the Cave walk was hard, but it didn't compare to this. It did feel a little bit like being in Lord of the Rings though, so it wasn't all bad. Okay, it really sucked, but I was trying to be optimistic, okay?

Eventually, after what felt like hours of nothing but trees, ground, and The River, we finally found something, standing alone in the middle of an empty glade.

"Huh."

It was odd. I'd've almost described it as a Paifang - traditional Chinese gate - if it wasn't so... plain. Restrained. It was a large arch, probably three people across and at least four tall. Assuming none of those people were me, anyway. But where normal arches were decorated, marked with words and images that represented the thing they were dedicated to, this was completely without anything. It was plain wood without any adornments whatsoever.

As we stepped out beyond the treeline, a tiny old woman stepped out from the arch. Out from, not through. She never seemed to have entered from the other side, only stepped out of the empty threshold between the beams. Her dark hair was held up in an intricate bun.

I recognised her immediately. The woman we'd come to find - Ancient Mai, the most terrifying little old lady Dresden had ever met. She gave off the purest form of "Don't fuck with me." energy I'd ever seen, despite also looking as frail and delicate as the finest of fancy little teacups.

Despite her look, her voice was strong and unwavering. "You're late." Her eyes stared at all of us like she could see the darkest depths of our souls, piercing through all the bullshit. I shivered, ice dripping down my spine. Yep. She definitely hasn't lost any of her spooky-time-inducing talent. Fucking hell.

She suddenly whistled, harsh and clear, and gave a sharp gesture with one hand. Four large stone dogs, the same granite colour as Ancient Mai's hair, thundered out of the treeline around us. Three of them each went to take a sniff at us, while the fourth went over to Ancient Mai. Her mouth pursed as she watched. The Dogs paused over us - I noticed mine stayed for a little longer than the others - before going up to join Ancient Mai. She tapped each one, then sent it back off into the woods. "Good." She said. "Come with me. We have much to discuss."

She turned and walked back through the archway, vanishing the second she stepped into the threshold.

Fuck it. We followed her in. The moment we passed through, that glade was suddenly an open plain. I could see the faintest shadow of the trees that were there, but we could walk through them now. Dog, magic is weird. I peered around me in curiosity. The River was still there, and still as present as back before we came to wherever this is. Ghost trees... yep. Still weird. In the very faint distance, I could see hints of buildings, but whenever I tried to focus they vanished.

It made me slightly dizzy, so I stopped trying to study things quite quickly and instead focused on Ancient Mai, who was an increasing distance away as she strode off. Ebenezar and Luccio were a few paces behind her. I thought about asking her to wait up, but honestly fuck that. I sprinted after her and caught up with them.

"If you are here looking for allies, the Jade Court will not help you."

Both Ebenezar and Luccio seemed surprised at that, like they'd never even considered the thought. Which to be fair, made sense. I'd only barely heard of the Jade Court of Vampires, but basically all I knew was that they were enigmatic as fuck and Did Not Get Involved. They were barely even Unseelie Signitaries.

Ebenezar answered her. "We're not lookin' for aid from the Vampires. We're getting the Council back together to retake Edinburgh."

"A targeted response, without the confusion of the initial attack?" Her voice went considering. "Perhaps it might work. But I cannot leave at this time."

"Anything we can do to help, Ancient Mai?" Luccio asked. "I assume it's the Court keeping you here?"

"Not the Court itself, merely a promise made. I require an item to finish a creation of mine. The Court has that item and is willing to trade it for services rendered."

"And what's the service?"

"A plane was brought down and crashed into this place a few miles in that-" She pointed east. "-direction. Every person aboard was a member of the Black Court or a slave of theirs. They have taken over a few key storage areas that the Court relies on. As most of their number do not Breathe, there is some wariness amongst the Jade Court about an assault. So, they have turned to me."

As Ancient Mai explained, something distracted me. A faint shiver down my spine, the feeling of being watched. On display. I turned to check out the treeline, but saw nothing. But the feeling remained.

"Brought down? What could bring down a Black Court protected plane? Was it a missile?"

Ancient Mai shook her head. "There was no obvious sign of tampering, but our... hosts were very emphatic in their use of that word. This was no accident, merely a subtle attack. Perhaps another Vampire wished to eliminate whoever was aboard, perhaps it was something else entirely. It matters not."

With a disregarding swipe of her hand, she turned and strode forward once again. Slightly faster, this time.

With that same sudden not-being-to-being transition, a hall appeared in front of us - raised slightly off the ground on a a stepped platform. A green roof and paper walls marked it as local, but there was an odd sheen to it I couldn't quite identify. I knew a little, but I certainly wasn't an expert. None of the others seemed bothered by it, so I dismissed it.

I still felt like I was being watched.

We entered the building - it was empty of any inhabitants - and followed Ancient Mai over to a table holding a large, blank piece of paper. As she put her finger down, ink and paper shimmered to reveal a map. Or part of one, at any rate. A few centimeters from her finger, the paper was blank again. I blinked in mild admiration and thorough acknowledgement of the effort - these people really were enigmatic as fuck.

Ancient Mai ran her finger over the map, explaining the layout of the area and her plan for attack. Luccio and Ebenezar chipped in with some additions, pointing out the presence of three extra wizards allowing more options. Ancient Mai agreed and they all drew up some kind of agreed-upon idea. But Ancient Mai gave us one more out. "Do you still wish to help?" She asked, direct to us all.

We didn't need to think. "Yes."

"Good." She responded, "Then we shall remain here until the appointed time, at which point - we strike!"