It had been two days since they had brought the old one to the village and as far as they could see he was getting worse, not better.
"We must get you to your home," Sparrow said, worriedly.
"I fear you may be right." Lo Si said from his bed. "But first go and get a satchel full of the red flowers. I have a friend in my home realm that may have better luck than I have had."
"One of the Caines you often tell stories about?" Wukong asked.
"Yes. Kwai Chang Caine is an apothecary and above reproach." Lo Si said, closing his eyes in exhaustion. He was so tired. He hadn't felt this way in a very long time.
"I will get the flowers." Sparrow said, "You stay and protect the Holy Priest."
"You do not need to call me that. I am not as holy as one might expect."
WuKong nodded, then shook his head, his expression uncharacteristically grave. While she was gone he made tea and rice for the Holy Priest. "You must eat, and regain what strength you can." He said worriedly as he helped the old one to sit up.
"I will do my best." He said and allowed Monkey to put the pillow behind his back. "I fear that my experiments may have affected my immortality. Which is why I need Kwai Chang Caine to continue my work. He is not immortal."
"What if the flowers are poisonous rather than mystical?"
"Then he will find this out as well." Lo Si said and picked up the cup of tea to sip. "He is gifted as both a warrior and a mystic. If given time the son will surpass the father. I had my doubts in the past. I thought that perhaps the prophecy was about another generation, but now, I believe it is about Kwai Chang and Peter."
"The prophesy that you are tasked to protect?"
"Yes." He answered. "Prophecies, not one but many throughout the history of the bloodline. From the first Kwai Chang to the current generation. I do not know if there are more for the future. I do not know if there will be future generations. The last prophesy that was fulfilled was that the last of the line of Kwai Chang would save the first temple." He said tiredly, "I told you of this already. It was where I first met them."
Wukong nodded. "Yes, and how this meeting has been one of your fondest memories." He pushed the bowl of rice closer to Lo Si, urging him to eat.
"The last prophesy that I have been charged with protecting, involves Shamballa. It is the one that I have kept secret even from my fellow Shamballa masters."
"Why so, Old One?" He asked, and once more indicated that Lo Si should eat. The aged man sighed in frustration but began to take small bites.
"Because the danger to Shamballa comes from within. I only suspect who is responsible for the danger to come. I suspect he has been working with Yeoh and many of those who have renounced Shamballa or turned against its principals. I do not know and I am not ready to accuse anyone who may be innocent." He said, "Caine must continue my work as I fear I will not be able to do so."
"You must eat. Our journey may be quick but it will be taxing." Wukong said.
"I need you to remember what I tell you so that you can tell Caine if I cannot."
Wukong's expression went from concerned to fearful, but he nodded and remained silent so that Lo Si could complete his instruction.
Lo Si pushed the rice away, having no energy to eat. "The scroll with the prophecy is hidden in my home. Caine will know where. It speaks of the line of Caine, the last of the line of Caine shall free Shamballa of an evil force." He sipped at his tea. "I do not know if Peter is the last of the line in that prophesy, but I believe he is. For evil is building within the order and Peter does not have a child as yet."
"I will tell him," Wukong said. "Where do I find him?"
Lo Si laughed quietly. "Go to Chinatown and ask for Caine. It does not matter which Caine you find, if it is Peter he should know where to find his father."
(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)
The last two days had been tense. Leanne was waiting for the other shoe to drop. She knew Peter was worried about her, but she didn't know how to reassure him when she couldn't reassure herself. So instead she just went about pretending nothing was wrong.
It wasn't working.
She looked up when the door chimes ran. "Julian, hello." She smiled at him and the dark-haired girl that entered with him.
"Hello." He said, "Is Peter here?"
"No, but he should be back any minute now if his day has stayed on schedule." This would please him, she thought. Peter had been worried that Julian wouldn't want anything to do with him once Javier had been arrested. She just hoped this wasn't a bid to make them drop the charges.
"This is my sister Amelie." He said.
"It's nice to meet you, Amelie."
The girl looked to be in her mid-teens, and thoroughly displeased to be there. She shrugged. "Thank you. You as well." Amelie said politely, even though everyone knew it was anything but.
"I was about to put the kettle on for tea, would you like some?"
Amelie shook her head, and quietly said "No thank you."
"Yes, please," Julian said. "This is where you and Peter teach?"
She nodded "Yes." She said and walked to the far wall away from the tatami, where the stereo and the electric water kettle shared a table. She turned it on. "We won't have another class until 4 P.M. He'll be happy to see you."
"I just wish it was under better circumstances," Julian said.
Amelie rolled her eyes. "Like maybe a time where our father hadn't been arrested for-"
Peter had come up through the back entrance. "Trashing our home, breaking some things that are irreplaceable… Yeah, I wish we had met under different circumstances too." He said, "But since we didn't, how about we let that situation sort itself out and just get to know each other."
Amelie folded her arms across her chest. " I just came here to find out why you set my father up."
"Amy you promised," Julian said in frustration. "I never would have brought you if I'd known you were going to do this."
"How can you stand there and let him say things about Papa." She accused. "Like he doesn't matter."
"I never said he doesn't matter."
"Hey, hey," Peter said stepping closer. "I didn't arrest him. I'm not a cop anymore. I didn't tell the police he did anything either. They told me when they found his fingerprints in our apartment. I've never met your father, I don't have anything against him at all." Aside from the destruction he left behind. "So like I said, we should let that situation sort itself out, because there is nothing any of us can do to change it." He offered his hand to the girl. "I'm Peter, this is my fiance Leanne. I assume you're Amelie."
She nodded and reluctantly shook his hand, then folded her arms once more. "Yeah. I'm Amelie. I guess we have the same mother."
"We do." He said. "Why don't you guys come back into the office, we have actual furniture in there,"
"Yeah okay." She said in heavily accented English.
"I apologize for my sister," Julian said.
Peter grinned a little "If you had met me when I was her age you wouldn't apologize. I was a ball of attitude with chips on both shoulders." He said, "Don't worry about it."
"Why? Was your father arrested for something he didn't do too?" She asked sarcastically.
"No, I thought he was dead and I was in an orphanage," Peter said.
"So both of your parents faked their death? Wow, they really must not have wanted you."
"That's enough," Julian said.
"No, my father and I were separated in a fire and we each thought the other was buried in the rubble." He wasn't going to go into that whole story. The cliff notes version was sufficient. Neither was he going to comment on their mother. The girl was probably right and Laura had never wanted him in the first place.
"The hot water kettle has just shut off. I'll go make a pot of tea." Leanne said. "I'll join you shortly."
Peter nodded and led the way back to Leanne's office. He wasn't sure how things were going to go between him and this new little sister. But he couldn't blame her. He would have been more than a little sarcastic at her age if anyone had said anything against his father. Who was he kidding? He'd had sharp words for anyone that had anything negative to say against the man just a few years ago.
(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)
Wukong and Sparrow helped the Ancient through the portals to his living room. He lay back on his sofa and closed his eyes for a moment. "This is not a realm anything like you have seen before." He said. "You mustn't wear your true face out there, neither should you fly. There are no monkeys like you here and people cannot fly."
Wukong wrinkled his nose in disapproval of the mortal realm but nodded and slipped back into his human guise. He didn't mind appearing human. It often made things easier for him and others. He thought that it was very foolish of this realm to not have monkeys like him.
"We are in Chinatown… you may be able to find someone that speaks one form of Chinese or another. You need to tell them that The Ancient needs Master Caine urgently. If you cannot find him one of them might see him and relay the information."
Wukong nodded and bowed slightly to the Ancient. He turned toward Sparrow. "Stay here and protect the Holy Priest. If we can walk through the realms so can our enemies."
"I will keep him safe." She said.
Sun Wukong left the apartment and went down the stairs to the street. The first thing to strike him was the noise. How could they stand the noise? Or the stench. True there were pleasant smells, food smells, and flowers, but the roar of the car engines (Not that he knew what they were) and the acrid smell they produced was too much.
He walked down the block until he found an aging gentleman playing a board game with a slightly younger man outside of a tea house. "Excuse me." He said, hoping that he could communicate. He didn't hear much in the way of Chinese so far.
The gentleman looked up.
"I am looking for Master Caine. The Ancient needs him urgently." He said and was relieved to see the look of comprehension in the man's eyes.
"I have not seen him today. He lives across the street from the Kwoon. You might find him there or perhaps in the kwoon. His son teaches classes there in the afternoon."
Son? That would be the one called Peter. "Where is the Kwoon located?"
He was given direction to the kwoon and which brownstone Caine lived in. Sun Wukong gave a slight bow. "Thank you."
He wanted to fly or to use his great speed to get to this Kwai Chang Caine that his master revered so deeply. But having looked around himself, he decided that for once, even if just this once, perhaps he should heed the advice given him.
He did, rather, walk quickly through the crowd, weaving around the others on the sidewalk until there were but a few stragglers on the same path as he. Then he began to run, arguing with himself in archaic Chinese as he went. Discovery was bad but taking too long was worse. He was relieved when he found the Kwoon and the brownstone across the street.
He looked up to the terrace above, this was how he had been told to recognize Master Caine's abode. He looked down the street, in both directions, and seeing no one he flew to the terrace and landed softly on the concrete floor. He drew in a deep breath through his nose and then nodded, satisfied he had found the place he was looking for. It smelled of herbs and rice and camellia tea.
He heard faint sounds of movement within and went to the French doors, peering inside. Within he saw a man, taller than the old one, thin longish hair pulled back from his face in a ponytail. The eyes looked kind, but wary as well. The eyes of a man who had seen many things and not all of them pleasant.
"You may enter if you wish," Caine said quietly. He was curious about his visitor and how he had come to be on his terrace rather than walking in his door. "If you prefer I can come to you."
Sun Wukong nodded. Yes, this was a holy priest. The man he had come to seek. He opened the door and stepped into his humble abode. "I am sent by the Holy Priest… the one you call the Ancient. He has need of you, quickly."
Caine's gaze went from the herb mixture he was grinding with his pestle. "Is he in danger?" He asked, studying the man in front of him. It was the second time in as many days that he had seen someone who was not as human as they appeared to be. First the fox and now the monkey.
Sun Wukong shook his head "No, I left Sparrow with him to keep him safe. He has grown weak suddenly, as though his age was catching up to him. This should not be. Will you come?"
"Yes," Caine said and grabbed his satchel. He put a few herbs into a muslin bag and put this into the satchel. "Take me to him." He got the impression there was no time to waste.
He followed the man to Lo Si's home and walked in without preamble. The woman in the room rose from the floor beside Lo Si's sofa and was immediately in a warrior's stance between him and Lo Si.
"This is the one we seek," Wukong said and Sparrow relaxed her stance, stepping aside.
Caine moved quickly to his friend's side. "Can you tell me what has happened?" He asked, looking for changes in the man's eyes, in the color of his nail bed. It would not be the first time his old friend had been poisoned.
Lo Si shrugged "I am very old." He said again as though that would explain everything.
"You were very old when I left for Paris." Caine said, "This is different."
"It is not important." Lo Si said. "You must continue my work. There are lives that will be lost if you do not."
"Yours will be lost if I do not find the source of your weakness," Caine said, continuing his examination of his friend. It worried him that it did indeed seem as though the only thing wrong with him was his age and the subsequent weakening of his qi.
"I fear that his immortality has left him," Sparrow said.
"That is not possible," Wukong said, not liking the sound of that at all.
"Was he not seeking an elixir to remove our enemy's immortality?" She countered.
"That is not important." Lo Si insisted.
Caine gave him an almost stern look. "We will deal with that once you are back on your feet." He took a leaf from his pouch and held it up in front of Lo Si. "Keep this under your tongue." He said with gentle firmness. Lo Si sighed but opened his mouth to accept the leaf. He was clearly frustrated but knew better than to argue with Caine when he was in doctor mode.
Caine rose to his feet and went into the kitchen to start the kettle to make the tisane. "You two are from Kunlun Shan, Yes?"
Wukong nodded. "Yes. He came in search of Yulong Yeoh."
Caine frowned and nodded thoughtfully. He mixed several herbs in the teapot. "And did he find Master Yeoh?"
Wukong shook his head. "No. We found his workshop. Many of my brothers were dead, just left laying on the floor as though they were nothing. Something found in his notes worried the Holy Priest."
"The source of the immortality in Yulong Yeoh's elixir," Caine said. "I learned of this on a recent visit to Shamballa."
Wukong nodded. "He has found a way to reverse the immortality and free the souls that were used. But he is afraid that it will hurt the girl if it is used on her."
Caine's frown deepened. "I looked at her qi and her aura and I could not find another entity within her. Nor any spark of evil." She was as human as anyone else but human failings were not the same thing as evil.
"This will please the old one."
"It pleases us all." He said. The kettle whistled and he poured the boiling water over the herbs in the teapot. "When did Lo Si's symptoms begin?" He asked.
"A few days ago," Sparrow said as she entered the kitchen. "He sleeps now. It seems a peaceful sleep."
Caine nodded "Good. He needs to rest. Can you tell me what he was doing before these symptoms began?"
"He was experimenting with the predatory red flowers from the Qiangtang Prairie." She said. "He thought that they were what the evil one used to steal the souls of the monkeys and foxes to make his elixir of immortality."
"Did you bring any of these flowers with you?" He asked, worriedly.
"Yes. He wishes for you to continue his work." Sparrow said.
He found a tray and placed the teapot on it as well as a cup. He put several pieces of candied ginger and dried peaches onto a saucer. "I need to see the flower. But take it to my home, do not leave it here. I do not yet know for certain, but I believe that the flower may have affected his immortality."
"This we will do," Sparrow said respectfully. She could sense great peace in this one. Also a great sorrow.
"Be careful. I believe there is a fox from your world sent by Yulong Yeoh. She calls herself Hu Li."
Sun Wukong snorted. "That one… Hu Li is not her true name. It is his little joke to rename her as nothing but her race. To name her as he would a pet."
"She is our little sister," Sparrow said although the sibling reference had nothing to do with physical kinship and everything to do with the bonds of friendship and respect. "But she has long been trapped by the evil one. We do not know if she has become a willing servant or if she is his servant against her will."
"The evil one captured many of the foxes as he did the monkeys," Wukong said. "Sun Tiao Hu was taken with them. Not all willingness is willing."
Caine nodded. This he understood well. Sometimes you did what you had to do to protect those you love. "Be careful." He admonished once more. "And be mindful of the fact that the mortal plane has never seen your kind, and they are easily frightened."
"We will be cautious," Sparrow said.
"Thank you." He said and carried the tea and food into the living room where Lo Si rested.