Chapter 23

Missy walks into the Wards common room for the first time since she was called in to rescue the people in the underground base in the commercial district.

As the door closes behind her with a thunk, she muses that this is also the first time since she joined the wards that she'd prefer to be somewhere else.

Shadow Stalker sneers, "Look what the cat dragged in. Finally gracing us with your presence?"

Missy swallows her first response and instead directs her comment towards Dennis, "Hey Dennis, did you have a good break?"

"Yeah, I got to read to dad a few times."

Missy stretches space to pat him, gently, on the shoulder. "I know I've asked this before, but why haven't you asked Panacea to look at him?"

Missy can almost feel the temperature in the room drop as Dennis sags in the sofa, "He has an inoperable brain tumor, and Panacea can't do brains."

Shadow Stalker makes a pff noise before she stalks out of the room muttering something under her breath. With a leaden heart, Missy walks around the couch and sits down next to Dennis.

"Dennis, um, do you know what I was doing for the spring break?"

Dennis forces a grin, "Weren't you going to Disney World with your mum? No, wait it was California, or was it the gulag?"

Missy pouts at Dennis, "I'm being serious."

Dennis rolls his eyes, "Fine, you were doing some sort of tea making camp that required you to be meditating whenever you weren't doing anything else."

Missy nods and takes her meteor hammer from her ring, "Mostly true. It was a Cultivation camp, not a tea making camp."

Dennis' eyes goggle as he stares at the tennis ball on the end of a chain. "Where did that come from?"

"My spatial ring, I've got everything in here. Anyway, the point is that Dakala is following the Dao of Life."

"Who?"

"PHO calls her Tea Master."

"Oh. Why didn't you say so?"

Missy rolls her eyes, "Because she's a Cultivator not a cape. Cultivators don't do the whole secret id thing. Apparently, it's pointless once you've got past a certain level of cultivation, as you can tell who everyone is due to their qi signature. I'm not there yet. Anyway, the important bit is that it's a Dao that Stellar wrote when she changed over to another Dao. Get this, I accidentally broke Mrs Anders arm while we were sparring last week, and Stellar merely glanced at it, and it healed right back up."

"How the hell did you break her arm?"

Missy looks down and twiddles her thumbs, "I, um, punched her too hard."

"Wait, you punched someone too hard? Miss I can't lift 100lbs punched someone so hard it broke their bones?"

"That's beside the point! The point is that Stellar healed her! Um, she can't interfere in mortal affairs, but if you write a request and send it to her through the correct channels. She might heal your dad for you."

"How am I supposed to do that, nobody can even get close to the place."

Missy barks a laugh, "That's not true. I can. So can the members of the White Moon Sect. Dakala can even do it without a protective token."

"That doesn't tell me how I can do that."

Missy giggles, "Just say 'Stellar Empress, I wish to know the mandate of heaven. Then learn everything on the jade coin."

Dennis gapes at Missy for a moment, before he says, "Ok, but if this is a prank, I will get you back for it."

As Missy's phone beeps, and she looks at it she says, "Sure… Either way, I'm off to go through power testing again. Enjoy."

As she's walking to the inner door, there's a yelp from behind her. Smirking she looks back and says, "The Empress recommends putting the coin on your forehead while you're sleeping. That way you're learning everything without wasting your time."

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Dakala smiles as she enjoys a leisurely walk to the tea shop, rather than needing to keep an eye out for tourists and being waylaid by people wanting her autograph, or to have photos taken with her.

Her smile drops as she spots an obviously overweight woman leaning on a cane. The expression on the woman's face is obviously hard, even in a relaxed state.

As she gets closer, the woman turns to face her and holds out a scroll in one hand as she bows as much as she's able to. "Honored Cultivator, please allow this humble messenger a moment of your time."

Dakala startles a little at the use of the language of heaven. Once she's recovered, she responds, "Please stand up, I am but a lowly Cultivator and see no reason to stand on ceremony."

"Wouldst my missive be of a more mortal nature, I would agree. However, it is not to you I speak, rather it is to your Honored Ancestor."

Dakala suppresses a groan, and instead returns the bow, dipping a little lower than the woman, "Then I will gladly bear your message to my master. May I ask what the missive is about?"

"It is but a trifling matter for the heavens. If it was not for the fact that there are no mortal sects capable of dealing with the problem ourselves, I would not be troubling your Master with such an issue. However, this is an issue that I have a personal interest in, and it is also tying up valuable mortal resources merely keeping the problem contained."

As the woman holds the scroll out with one hand, Dakala reaches out with both hands and places them palm up underneath the scroll. "I will convey this to my Master at my earliest opportunity. I am about to start a lesson that cannot be delayed while I run to my Master forthwith. Would you care to join us and take some weight off your feet after a long journey?"

A slight smile breaks the woman's face as she lowers her hand so that the scroll rests on Dakala's palms. "I thank you for your kind offer, but this humble servant of the people must return to their duties."

"I still have a few minutes, please at least allow me to help you along your way."

"It is a nice day, and I might partake in a beverage on the way, so there is no need to trouble yourself."

Dakala returns to an upright position and puts the scroll into her ring, "May I at least know the name of this messenger, so that if we meet in the future I might know you."

The woman nods as she straightens up with an effort of will, "My name is Piggot Emily, Director of the PRT ENE."

Dakala puts her hands together in front of her and bows, "Well met Director. May the heavens smile on your journey to whence you came."

With the formalities finally done, Dakala walks straight backed into the tea shop with her head held high. As soon as the door closes behind her, she relaxes with an explosive breath.

As she looks around she says to Michelle, "No Charlotte?"

Michelle shakes her head with a smile, "Not until half three, that's when Winslow lets out."

"So much for your desire to join the lessons."

Michelle nods, "At least for the next few weeks anyway. I've got a meeting with the administration next week. Hopefully I'll be able to get Charlotte here for Tuesday and Thursday afternoons."

Dakala starts laying out her mats and tools. "How are you getting on with your Dao?"

"It's, hard. I don't envy you and Missy. At least I can take my time and consider things properly."

"Don't take too long though, as everything I've read suggests that violence follows Cultivators whether they want it or not. Not that capes are much better. Especially in this city."

Michelle sighs despondently, "I know. It's just. I spent years of my life and destroyed my own health trying to help people that were the victims of violence or the legal system. I just don't want to add to that."

Dakala stands up and walks around the counter to Michelle. After a moment's indecision, she pulls her into a gentle hug. "Michelle, learning to defend yourself isn't going to add darkness to the world. On the contrary, you are a light in this world. A fairly important light in this part of Brockton Bay. If you were killed because you couldn't defend yourself, how many lives would be affected? What would happen to Charlotte?"

"Life would go on. It might be harder for a while, but it would still continue."

"Maybe. But for some people, their lives would be darker. Possibly irrecoverably so. My Dao, Life. It's. It's teaching me how to see the flows of life in the world around me. Not literally, but I'm paying more attention to what I can see and sense. I want to go back out into the wild soon, as there's so much I didn't understand then that I think I'd understand now. The point is that there's always a balance in life. I guess you could call it a type of harmony. Plants grow, animals eat the plants, and other animals eat the plant eaters. Then insects and fungus eat the remains. It doesn't take much to disrupt that balance. Introduce a plant like kudzu, or remove a hunter or herbivore, and the entire system will collapse in a matter of months. This is what I think happened in Brockton Bay. The big three gangs are like an overpopulation of vultures, picking away at healthy parts of the city. It's people like you that help counterbalance that. People like me too."

Michelle nods and gently pushes away from Dakala, "I know. And I help in my own way."

"I know you do. I'm not going to start patrolling like a hero. But I am going to start visiting areas where people are troubled, and try to put time and money into the areas. Especially the no-go areas for the police."

"Isn't that just inviting trouble?"

Dakala shrugs, "It's better that it's someone who can defend themselves, than people who can't. And I don't have any family in the city either. Life is about living, and, I, can't, do that from the pagoda. Life is about living, why didn't I think of that before…"

Dakala trails off into inaudible mumbling as she has an ah-ha moment.

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Michelle holds the door open as Sue and Danka file out past her. As she glances around the deserted street, her eyebrows furrow as something seems off.

"We're going to try and climb to the pagoda today, do you want to join us?"

Sue's voice distracts Michelle from what was bothering her, and she steps out of the shop as she pulls her keys from her ring, "I think I will. Sunset's in what? 45 minutes?"

Danka nods, "Something like that. It's at seven..."

Michelle turns around as Danka trails off and Sue pulls a pair of sai (weapon form of Japanese Pitchfork) from her ring. Filtering out from the couple of alleyways in the area are a dozen skin headed thugs.

Michelle quickly turns the key in the lock and pushes the keys back into her ring as one of the men says, "We heard you're employing niggers and kikes now. As upstanding members of the community, we're here to object to that. Now, you can either…"

Danka pulls her naginata from her ring and sets the butt on the floor as she interrupts, "My grandparents fought against your kind in the only way he could after our country was invaded. He helped smuggle Jews out of the country."

While they're talking, Michelle pulls her phone out of her pocket and hits the emergency call button on the login screen. A moment later her phone lets out a series of angry beeps and shows a message saying 'No Signal'.

Michelle's eyes widen as the men laugh, and she hoarsely says, "I've got no signal!"

Sue glances back and says, "I think we're going to have to fight our way out."

At the same time one of the men shouts, "Don't worry girls, we're not going to hurt you just have some fun before letting you go!"

Reluctantly, Michelle pulls out her brush as Danka shouts back, "I'll gut you and use your guts for garters before you can!" In a near whisper she adds, "Sue, don't forget to cycle qi into your body."

Belatedly, Michelle realizes that applies to her too, and starts to try and push the qi she's cycling into her body. Something it's clear that both Sue and Danka have practiced before while she kept putting it off till later.

That's when the men charge forward and Michelle freezes as Sue and Danka ready their weapons.