Lia/ Seoul, South Korea
Lia came down to the lobby a few minutes before seven and stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the young mage from the club lounging in one of the armchairs and looking directly at her with his expressionless face. He wore black slacks and a shimmering black shirt with jetty buttons. His hair was also black today, and there was only one small earring in his left earlobe. Yet even without blue hair and long earrings, he looked no less flamboyant than the previous night. Or any less alluring, judging by the reactions of women and quite a few men walking by. Maybe he was some kind of celebrity, she thought, and inclined her head to him.
'Isn't that K-Pop?' Nico asked behind her.
Jass followed his gaze and said, 'Hell if I know. Didn't he have blue hair?'
'Guys, it is seven, and he is the only one here who is like us,' Nico said.
'You think that is the Lao guy? Master Su sent us a kid? He might have as well saddled us with one of his disciples.'
'He is not a kid. I doubt he is much younger than you,' Nico objected.
Lia looked back at the young man. His eyes were still on her, and she forced herself to smile. She was not a coward, but something about him raised her inner alarms.
'He is a bit creepy, though,' she said from the corner of her mouth, and the young man suddenly smirked.
'Well, no use standing around here. Let's go and see if Nico is right,' Jass decided, straightening his massive form and strolling decisively forward.
'Just imagine you do not know Jass, and he strides towards you that purposefully,' Lia whispered to Nico.
'Pant pissing time,' Nico agreed, then added, 'Though that is probably not the best approach when you want someone to help you.'
Jass stopped in front of the armchair and asked, 'Are you Wan Lao?'
'You could have at least led with 'good evening',' Lia muttered behind him, but he just ignored her.
The young man calmly looked up at Jass and nodded. Nico pushed forward, remembering that he was technically in charge.
'Very nice to meet you. Thank you for coming', he said, and introduced everyone. The young man remained sitting, not offering to shake hands. He just inclined his head lightly every time a name was mentioned.
Nico had exhausted his polite small talk and seemed at a loss, so Lia suggested, 'Maybe we should go somewhere less public to talk.'
Wan Lao inclined his head again and was suddenly on his feet in one graceful move. Without a word, he proceeded to the door. The others looked at each other.
'He is already getting on my nerves with all this high and mighty and mysterious shit,' Jass grumbled.
Lia nodded in agreement. Nevertheless, they all followed him out. Wan Lao did not even turn around to check until he came to a stop in front of a black van.
When he still said nothing, Lia commented, 'Why are we following a strange man into a van? He does not even have candy.'
Wan Lao's eyes focused on Lia, and he smirked at her, asking, 'What is the Wicked Witch of the West afraid of?'
He had a surprisingly deep and melodious voice, with only a trace of a soft accent. She blinked at him, and he opened the door to the driver's seat to get a chocolate bar.
'Less creepy now?' he asked in an almost seductive tone as he offered it to her.
'I do not think that you understand the concept of candy and vans, Sparky,' she said, and Nico once again remembered his leadership role.
'Where can we talk?' he asked.
'We'll speak on the way to Incheon,' Wan Lao informed them.
'You want us to leave right now?'
'Do you think they mean to stay on a desolate island forever? You don't even know if the Jades are still with them.'
'I cannot track non-organic matter, but they are not just going to give it away, are they?'
'No one in the Xiang Clan has the ability to control them. Why would you assume they want to keep them?'
'Who would they give it to?'
Jass butted in, 'How do you know them?'
'I never met any of them. Once upon a time, when there were still more witches in the world, the Xiang used to be a formidable clan. They have been declining in numbers and power for the last 500 years. As far as I know, only those two you are after have any real power. Both are Elementals. Fire and Water. Twins. I do not know who they may have stolen the Jades for, but it is not likely to be some low-level mage. That is why Park Su wants me to go with you.'
They all stared at him until Nico finally asked, 'Is it impolite to ask what you are?
'I am the closest thing you have to your Warlock lord right now. He should not have left.'
Jass frowned at him and asked, 'What's that supposed to mean?'
'It means your powers do not work on me. The lady Assassin, however, was made as insurance against my kind, so you should be safe enough, even if you don't trust me. We can go see Master Su again, but that is a waste of time.'
Lia sighed. 'I actually preferred the Wicked Witch of the West.'
✽ ✽ ✽
Once they were all in and Wan Lao had set the van in motion, Nico asked, 'Is there a reason why you didn't talk in the hotel? Do you think someone was listening in or something?'
'Not by any magical means. But you don't want to discuss witchcraft in a busy hotel lobby. Koreans may seem all polite and uninterested in your business, but that does not mean they are not eavesdropping.'
'Like you?' Lia asked behind him.
'I'm Chinese, lady. We are very polite and do not eavesdrop,' he deadpanned.
'Well, it would not have killed you to say 'Good evening'.'
'I somehow doubt it will turn into a good one.'
'Why are you doing this then?'
'Master Su asked me to do it.'
'Or he just does not trust us not to commit murder on his soil?'
'I wouldn't know about that.'
'So, you have heard of the Jades of Lin?' Nico asked, obviously hoping to defuse the situation.
'I am familiar with the legend.'
'Can you tell it to us?'
'Your Warlock sent you to retrieve something you do not know anything about?'
'We know it can allegedly be used as a weapon of mass destruction. Isn't that enough?'
Lia caught the young mage's gaze on her in the rear-view mirror and said, 'I know a legend about it, too. But tell us the version you know first, if you do not mind. Mine is just a translation of a translation of an old book and quite confusing.'
'The gist of the story is that a goddess fell in love with a mortal and was punished for it. She was exiled to a lonely place. Her father eventually took pity on her and gifted her with sparks of the first creation so she could create her own companions and not be lonely anymore. Once she was done, she caught the last remaining spark in her hairpin, which was made of two entwined jade pieces. Eventually, she gifted it to her last creation – a boy who was to replace her dead human sons. The foolish boy, however, got bored watching the world from the heavens and asked to be put on earth to have adventures and be among people. He lost the hairpin to an evil Warlock who twisted it with blood and sacrifice into what it is today. There is no English word for what it does. The closest I can come is 'un-creation'. If it is used on you, you will not only die. Not only will you stop existing, but you will have never existed, never have been created, never have been known or remembered by anyone.'
There was a long silence until Wan Lao finally asked, 'How does it differ from the story you heard?'
'The story the High Warlock told me did not mention that 'foolish boy'. It did, however, start with the Legend of Zhinü and the Milky Way. It said she had a hairpin with a spark of creation in it to create things that would make her exile more bearable. A Warlock somehow managed to steal it and invert its power through the slaughter of innocents and their blood. He told that part much more dramatically, though. Julien and I liked to listen to horror stories when we were children. Of course, only if the good triumphed in the end. He told us that the white warrior prince of the Lin Clan managed to kill the evil Warlock in the end and seal the Jades in such a way that they could not be used, leaving it to the Lin Clan to guard it for generations. That is why they are called the Jades of Lin.'
'How did they end up in the possession of your High Warlock?'
'He did not say.'
'Did he tell you how it got stolen then?'
'It was not in the secure place it was supposed to be. It was taken out at the request of a Council Elder who wanted to examine it.'
'That was foolish,' he growled.
Lia made to retort heatedly, but Nico butted in, 'If it was foolish, she paid for it with her life. Isn't that enough?'
'She could have done it. It was just bad luck,' Lia insisted.
'Why didn't she do it on the High Warlock's island then?' Jass suddenly asked, and she frowned at him. 'What? I've been wondering that since we found her,' he admitted sheepishly.
'I cannot say.'
'Does that mean you do not know?'
'I do, but it is not my story to tell.'
'Well, I'm with K-Pop on that one. It wasn't the brightest idea,' Jass shrugged.
'K-Pop?' Wan Lao inquired with raised eyebrows.
'Dude, when someone agrees with you, it is not the time to become picky,' Jass complained.
'I think I preferred Sparky,' Wan Lao sighed, then asked, 'How did she die?'
There was another moment of tense silence.
Finally, Jass said, 'She clawed her eyes out and then repeatedly hit her head against the wall until... well, I guess you get the picture.'
'You could not stop her?'
'I wasn't there.'
Lia barely pulled herself together. It was hard not to cry at the memory of her gravely injured granny sobbing over the body of her dead and mutilated friend. Still, she tried to sound calm as she said, 'My grandmother was alone with Signora Visconti when they came. She is a minor earth witch and couldn't do much against them or stop her friend from hurting herself. She could only trap the talisman in some tree roots. They were already gone when I arrived, but an Italian witch caught up with them and wounded the man. The woman used another talisman on him, so they escaped, but at least we had the blood to track them with.'
Nico asked, 'Is it common for witches here to use those talismans? The High Warlock said they are like written spells. The Xiang twins are Elementals. Where we come from, only a Spell Mage or a Warlock would dare use something like that. The rest of us would suffer repercussions to our own magic and body.'
Wan Lao seemed to hesitate before finally saying, 'It is the same here. From what Master Su told me about that língfú, it is very far from common. In fact, nothing about this sounds normal.'