unTalent, Chapter 8 of 11
May. 23rd, 2011 01:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laleiaChapter 8:
Please see Chapter 1 for the Summary, Author's Notes, additional details, etc.
Additional Note: I recognize that there's not enough research/planning in some part of this. (Specifically the heist scene ...) It will get fixed on the next edit, hopefully.
Avi ended up making a very diplomatic phone call to Wang Family’s officially-listed telephone number, informed them that they had a dead retainer on her floor, and gently suggested they not repeat the experiment lest they wanted to reduce their numbers any further.
She then spent the next few hours calming her nerves with tea and a calming conversation with Jason, who very kindly did not call her out on her hysteric panic, and instead talked at her about his theories and findings, while she offered the occasional suggestion. He offered to stay the night on her couch, since his presence (as Heir of Liang Family) would deter most assassins in case they accidentally hurt him and his Family retaliated. She rather gratefully accepted, since she was planning on working through the night anyway.
The two worked on and off throughout the day, until they started hitting a breakthrough around midnight.
Finally, the two sat back and looked at the solution to the puzzle, and then looked at each other again.
“This can’t be right,” Avi said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“You’ve double- and triple-checked it,” Jason pointed out. “The signs all point to 拙政园in Suzhou. It’s the most well-known garden in Southern China and it has the wisteria in the right place.”
“But we tracked his days – he never left Beijing. How could he have gone to Suzhou?” She growled in frustration. “He couldn’t possibly have buried it there!”
“Maybe he used Talent?” Jason said dubiously, knowing it was a long shot.
“You know he had dwindling resources of Talent, what with following through on the curse, constructing the container for the Talent, and setting up a hiding place. Since his Family had collapsed by then, he had no other source to draw on – traveling all the way to Suzhou and back with his Talent was beyond his ability. I mean, I don’t even think he had enough Talent left to do even that much, so he certainly didn’t have enough left to spirit himself away to Suzhou!”
“There are portals …”
“You know they hadn’t been invented yet, and not only was Yang Family short on Talent, 老杨 (Old Yang) was short on money as well. He couldn’t have afforded it.” Avi wanted to cry. They’d finally figured out the solution to all of the symbols, and the riddles, and it pointed towards an impossible answer.
“Then we’re missing something,” Jason said simply. “We just need to look harder.
“That’s what I said!” Avi scowled, and began rereading the lines on the map, repeating the words over and over again as if hearing them would somehow trigger an inspiration. The symbols and the pictures they’d figured out, but they hadn’t spent as much time analyzing the riddles and poems as she might like, obscure Chinese language being a weakness both of them shared. “It can’t be too hard. He meant for his descendant to be able to find the thing, after all. It’s solvable.”
They both worked in silence for another ten minutes. Suddenly, Jason whooped! “I’ve got it!”
“Got what?”
“It’s so easy,” he laughed, “I think this riddle was in a children’s book my parents had for me.”
“Well?” Avi demanded impatiently.
“Have you ever heard the riddle: 远看山有色,近听水无声。春去花还在,人来鸟不惊?” Jason asked.
Avi paused and gave it some thought. “No, but that’s easy, isn’t it? A painting.”
“Now read the first word of each line,” Jason prompted.
“山…色…水…生…花…在…鸟…惊!” Avi turned to look at him with bright eyes. “You’re a genius! It’s a painting!”
“He didn’t hide it among the wisteria in some garden in Suzhou – it was a painting of it!” He nodded. “That makes more sense – it’d be easier for a painting to mark a hiding spot, and it’d be easier to hide without gather attention.”
“Let’s see what Baidu pulls up,” Avi said. “I’ve got one famous picture by a Wen Zhengming. He’s a famous brush artist, I think.” She briefly skimmed the article, and looked up. “I think this might be painting. It fulfills two of the other requirements as well!”
“Where’s his painting?” Jason asked expectantly.
“It’s in …” Avi began, excited, but then she found the information she was look for, and all her anticipation expelled from her in one breath. “London.” Avi sighed.
“So even farther than Suzhou. So much for that idea.” Jason sat back and rubbed at his eyes.
“No, wait!” Avi said. “It’s on tour in London right now, but let’s see where it usually is. More specifically, let’s see where it was back in 1985.” She input some words, and searched through the results until she found it. “Got it! 798 Art District!” She rolled her eyes. “Of course it’d be there.”
Jason pulled up the art district on a map, and let out a low whistle. “How much theory did they go into at your Talent School?”
“Why?”
“I’ve never noticed this before, but the Art District rests on a Fold. One of the reasons why it’s so successful at fostering creative-types.”
“And what’s a Fold?” Avi asked patiently.
“It’s a fold in reality that means there’s another dimension in the same space as this. If you get to the right spot and say the right spell, you can go there. They tend to be eerie barren wastelands, completely boring to anyone who’s not made a life of studying them. It would be pretty easy to set up, say, an elaborate obstacle course there with minimal Talent, though, because so much of the raw material is already there.”
“And that’s where he’ll have hidden the thing.” Avi exchanged looks with Jason. “Well, then, I guess it’s pretty clear where the thing is hidden …”
“Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming?”
“This is too easy. I’m worried it might be a trap.”
“Too easy? You had to have your sister decipher the 古文 (ancient writing), we spent a whole week on the stupid riddles, and then we had to put it all together! And we almost ended up going on a wild goose chase to Suzhou.”
“But it was hard for us because we’re ABCs. A native Chinese person would have gotten it so much more quickly, especially someone with a basic knowledge of history and literature, and a little bit quick on the uptake. My grandmother, for example, could have figured it out in five minutes flat. So why hasn’t your grandmother gone and taken it?”
“It’s your Talent, not hers. She doesn’t have any reason to try to find it.”
“Bullshit. Don’t tell me that Talent beyond her wildest dreams has never tempted her. She would have tried to at least check to see if it were something she could control. The only reason she wouldn’t have made the attempt is if it weren’t worth it, if there were some reason it was dangerous …”
“It’s because your journey won’t be measured by distance, but by challenges,” a voice said.
They turned to see Maya, who had somehow appeared in the room.
“You need to stop doing that!” Avi said crossly. “What is it with you and not knocking before entering?”
Jason, sweetheart that he was, had already moved to a defensive stance in front of her.
Maya rolled her eyes. “If I wanted to kill Avi, she’d be dead already. Your defenses are pathetic.”
“I was rather hoping that my message to the Matriarch got through and I wouldn’t have to worry about attacks on multiple fronts in the near future,” Avi said dryly.
“It did. And she’s agreed to your terms. She’s sent me to help you get through safely.”
“Why should we trust you?” Jason demanded. “You’ve tried to kill Avi, what, three times in as many days?”
“First of all,” Maya said sharply, “I don’t need you to trust me, I just need Avi to. And I’m sure if you ask her, she already does.”
Jason looked to Avi, who sheepishly nodded.
“Second, if I had really tried to kill Avi, as I mentioned, she’d be dead. Those were all warnings. Finally, it is now in my Family’s best interest that Avi remains alive, so it is my task to ensure that she remains so. I’m sure you of all people understand what the duties of Family may mean.”
Jason flushed.
“The Matriarch has given me a week to aid you in your endeavors. If you do not achieve your goal, it can be presumed that you will not able to, you pose no threat, and you will then be invited to leave the country whether you like to or not,” Maya said plainly.
“A week? We can’t just barge into a Fold without more preparation than that!” Jason protested.
“Fortunately you’re not making those choices and Avi is,” Maya said, “as I’m sure she appreciates the importance of timeliness in this matter.”
“What were you saying about challenges?” Avi intervened before the two could bicker any further.
“You think that your quest will be easy because the Fold is in Beijing, because it’s not far. But any proper Chinese quest isn’t measured not in distance but in challenges to overcome. So when Sun Wukong went West to retrieve the Scriptures, it doesn’t matter how far he traveled, but that he battled 81 obstacles.”
“I thought that quest was Tang Seng’s more than Sun Wukong’s,” Avi said, amused at the same time Jason said skeptically, “Are you saying we’ll have to face 81 challenges?”
“I doubt the ex-Patriarch Yang had enough time to set up that many,” Maya said impassively, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to go with a significant number.”
“Three,” Jason suggested. “Or … seven?”
“Too American,” Avi corrected. “Or Western, or whatever. Eight?”
“That’s a lucky number, not necessarily a mystical one in this sense,” Maya corrected. “I would suggest five, one challenge themed around each element, or nine.”
“Nine,” Avi echoed. “Sun Wukong faced nine times nine challenges, he could change into eight times nine forms, and his companions could manage four times nine and two times nine respectively.”
“Nine … didn’t I read somewhere that it’s important because it’s the biggest single-digit number?” Jason said. “And there are nine layers to heaven in Chinese mythology.”
Avi laughed. “We have got to be the most up-to-date-on-Chinese-culture ABCs on the entire planet.”
“Like I said. Five or nine.”
Avi smiled. “So, we just have to choose a date and go for it.”
---
Of course, it wasn’t that easy. They had to do a bit more research.
Jason’s task, since he had a bit more schooling in Folds than they had, was to look up the nature of Folds, how to enter them, and more importantly, how to leave them. Maya, meanwhile, looked up how best to trespass into the specific gallery they needed at the Art District, and also she was in charge of general research into the types of challenges Yang Family was famous for. Avi, meanwhile, had the task of interpreting the map and relating it to the challenges they would face inside the Fold – because Jason was insistent that there must be a second map hidden within the first that would give us some clues as to what awaited them.
It was all very slow going, not helped by Jason’s and Maya’s antipathy for each other.
“It’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that-”
“If you’d only listen to me finish, you could clearly see that-”
“-the likelihood that something of that caliber-”
“-though I know you love to hear the sound of your own voice-”
“-past your arrogance-”
“-no better than incompetence-”
“That’s enough!” Avi shouted. She’d been making some real progress, too, before the bickering in the background had gotten loud enough to drown out her thoughts. “Let’s take a break,” she said. “We can get some food, rest our brains, and not fight.”
Maya and Jason both nodded in agreement, and they set off to eat out together, Maya and Jason taking care to put her between the two of them and addressing her rather than each other. It was really rather exasperating, and Avi didn’t understand why they rubbed each other the wrong way.
They were seated rather quickly at a ramen place, and placed their orders immediately.
“Do you remember the time you ordered the pork ramen?” Jason asked. “And it turned out to be so spicy your entire face was red?”
Jason had taken her here a few times on their pseudo-dates. “And you kept on laughing at me?” Avi asked dryly. “Yeah, I remember.”
Jason chuckled. “The face you made with each bite, and you were too stubborn to get something else-”
“How could I, when you were paying? You would have had to pay for me twice!” Avi interrupted.
“I wouldn’t have minded-” Jason began.
“Food’s here,” Maya interrupted coldly.
Avi rubbed her hands in anticipation – she loved the ramen here! As she smelled the broth of the soup, she made a sigh of satisfaction.
As they started eating, Maya casually asked, “So Jason, why did your parents move to Seattle?” It was the first civil thing she’d said to him all evening.
“What?” Jason asked, as surprised as Avi to be addressed by Maya.
“They had a nice setup here even if you weren’t in the direct line of descendants. Being a Member of a big Family means a lot here. Yet your family uprooted to a new country? Not even to start their own Family like Mr. and Mrs. Lau did? Not an expected move.”
“Maya, it’s none of our business,” Avi said, even though she was itching to know. Reasons for emigration, especially among the Talented Families, were a sensitive issue. Typically, there was a lot of scandalous gossip involved, the hastier the emigration.
“No, I want to answer,” Jason said evenly, wiping his mouth with his napkin and putting his chopsticks down. “My Mom expected to be named Heir her whole life, as she was the older child. It’s a bit unorthodox considering it usually goes to the male line of descent, but there’s some precedent. Frankly speaking, she had always been more clever, more Talented, and more politically savvy than her younger brother. She ended up being passed up at the last minute, which upset her to no end. She ended up eloping with one of the Family retainers, which upset her mother to no end.
“So my parents decided to just take things as they were and both emigrated to America to have some margin of freedom and control over their lives, and to get away from Grandmother and Grandfather.” He tilted his head. “Grandfather was alive, back then, and he was especially upset at the emigration, so neither of my parents have been back in China since they left,” he added.
“Well,” Avi said bravely in the face of this rather bittersweet tale, “at least they had a love match of it and got to live their happily ever after.”
Jason barked out a laugh. “What makes you think it was a love match? Just because they chose it themselves doesn’t mean it was any less politically-minded. This is my mother we’re talking about after all. My mother married my father because he was powerful, and had been a member of a Family before it collapsed. He married her because she was a potentially powerful player. When the two realized their gamble hadn’t paid off, the two fled the country rather than the face the shame of the resulting I-told-you-sos.” He made a face. “They slept together in the same bedroom for long enough to produce a single child. They haven’t slept in the same room since. In fact, for the last ten years, they haven’t been in the same city for longer than day.”
At the horrified look on Avi’s face, he relented.
“It’s not that bad,” he said grudgingly. “The arrangement seems to work for them, and they’re on good terms with each other.” Jason turned to Maya. “So now that we’ve cleared the air on that count, why don’t you ask the question you’ve really wanted to ask all along?”
“Okay, I will,” Maya said. “So what kind of retainer could attract the attention of an up-and-coming Family Heir-to-be?”
Jason smiled bitterly. “Ah, but you know the answer to that question already, don’t you? That’s the reason you asked all these questions to begin with.”
“Guys, what’s going on?” Avi wanted to know. “What do I not know?”
“Why don’t you tell her?” Jason challenged. “That’s what you want to do, isn’t it?”
“It’s okay, I’ll let you be honest this one time,” Maya said bitingly.
“Bit rich, coming from you,” Jason snorted, then turned to Avi. “Avi, what Maya has been getting at all night is this: My mother would have been Heir of Liang Family, and if she’d been patient enough to wait out my uncle’s inevitable fumbles, she might still have been if she hadn’t precipitously run off with the man your mother was once betrothed to.”
“You mean-”
“Yes, I mean my father was the younger son of the now-defunct Yang Family.”
“So-”
“So it was my grandfather who sealed away your Talent. That’s the reason Grandmother has this map in the first place. It’s the reason I was able to convince her to give it over to you. It’s mine by right, but I wanted to – to restore some justice to the way of things, in apology.”
Avi looked back and forth at Jason and Maya. Obviously, this was an example of something very important that Jason had hidden from her. And Maya had evidently known, only instead of informing her, she’d decided to make some sort of spectacle about it. She would be upset with the both of them, but she needed their help too much to make an undue fuss.
“Okay, the two of you?” Avi said evenly, “need to get over this rivalry. This is ridiculous and it’s affecting our progress. I don’t care how you resolve it, but you will or I will swear I will go the rest alone. As for the matter of both of your honesty, I must admit I’m not surprised to hear that you both have been hiding things from me. I don’t care if you have secrets – but if you keep important information concerning me and my quest from me anymore, I will go through the Fold on my own, without either of you.”
“That would be suicide,” Maya pointed out.
“What, just because I don’t have Talent means I can’t handle myself?” Avi asked.
“Well, not having Talent would make it a little difficult to come back through the Fold,” Maya said dryly.
“I’d think of a way,” Avi said. “Now that I’ve made myself clear, I hope we can put this matter behind us – though since it turns out you have Yang blood running through your veins, Jason, I hope you won’t mind shouldering the additional role of Yang expert when our research resumes – so let us continue dinner peaceably, and I hope things will go more smoothly.”
Of course, they didn’t.
But things went well enough that they were set to prep the portal in two days, and make the jump in three.
---
“I probably should have called in sick,” Avi said thoughtfully as they tried to discreetly map out the exact locations they needed to place their touchstones without arousing the suspicion of the gallery owner.
“We’re set to step foot in an alternative dimension in less than twelve hours, and you’re worried about your job?” Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You got it through your parents anyway,” Maya pointed out reasonably at the same time. “If you want another one, you can just ask them to pull some more strings.”
Maya and Jason kind of scowled at each other, and then set off in opposite directions to pace the wall and estimate its length and width.
Avi had just finished noting down the last calculations when Maya came close to where she and Jason were pretending to have a conversation and hiding their tape measures.
“Guys, I have bad news,” she said grimly.
“What?” Avi asked.
“Well apparently, we have to break into the only art gallery in the entire 798 Art District with top-notch security.” At their uncomprehending looks, she elaborated. “I took note of their security cameras and looked it up on my phone – they actually have a security system, not with lasers and shit, but with cameras and doors that will sound an alarm and stuff that won’t be too difficult to circumvent, but does mean we can’t just saunter in here after hours.”
“Great,” Avi said. “So what’re we going to do?”
“About that …” Maya grinned a small grin. “I have a plan. Are you afraid of heights?”
---
“You know,” Avi remarked, “I’ve always wanted to go rappelling. It sounds fun even if, uh, this isn’t quite what I always had in mind …” She looked very dubiously at the ground which seemed so far away, and tried not to think about the different ways she could die if this went wrong.
“You’re sure the safety equipment is secure?” Jason asked Maya nervously. “You’ve done this before, right?”
“Everything should be fine,” Maya smiled toothily. “We probably won’t have anything to worry about.” So saying, she hopped off the ceiling and started her descent.
“Should? Probably?” Jason yelped after her retreating form. “I knew we should have gone with my idea. Hiding in the bathrooms until the museum closed worked for the kids in that Basil Frankweiler book.”
Avi laughed at him. “Yes, because hunkering down in the squatters would have been an effective way to hide,” she said sarcastically. “Anyhow, this way is so much more fun, don’t you think?”
Jason smiled at her, and she could see his muscles as he forced them to relax.
And then she wasn’t focusing on him anymore, but the thrill of the air rushing past her face. She would whoop with glee, but that would probably negate the point of their whole stealthy entrance and then they’d have to deal with security guards after all, and all their plans would be for naught.
She landed with a thump, and Jason landed not long after. Maya’d already unhooked herself, and started disabling the security cameras that were all off from the EMP she had sent out earlier. (Where’d she’d gotten an electronics-disabling electromagnetic pulse emitter, Avi didn’t even want to know, because that couldn’t be legal.)
Maya and Jason promptly started measuring out the five locations equidistant from each other and the Fold location that Jason had pinpointed, and then started setting up the touchstones. There was one for each element – fire, metal, water, earth, and wood. There were small talismans for each, hastily put together a few hours ago, and Avi was not to touch them, in case her touch nullified them. UnTalent didn’t always nullify pre-charmed objects, but it never hurt to be cautious. Instead, Avi was busy cleaning and disinfecting the floor around the Fold point.
When they were done setting up, it was Jason’s turn to take the lead, what with both the academic background in Folds and the Yang blood running through his veins. Jason activated his Talent, and Avi could clearly see the blue “x” that marked the exact spot he needed to stand. He started out by chanting the formula to open the portal, and then waved his hands in the air, blue Talent trailing behind them. Then, he took out a small silver knife and sliced his palm with it. (Avi winced.) He smeared the blood on the ground, and Avi winced again. Even though she’d sanitized the floor, she couldn’t stop imagining all the bacteria that was sure to infect his wound. Luckily, he had Talent to counteract that when he (eventually) healed it.
Jason then held his hand out, palm up, and said, “Open!” clearly.
And suddenly there was a shimmering blue portal right in front of him. It wasn’t terribly impressive, not like anything she’d ever seen in the fantasy movies. It looked simply like a blue mirror that was hanging on nothing, only she couldn’t quite see the reflection in the mirror.
Jason smiled grimly and Maya and Avi.
“Let me heal that before we go in,” Maya offered.
Jason shook his head. “You never know when we’re going to need my blood again. Let it keep until we’re done.”
He nodded grimly, and stepped through. Maya gestured for Avi to go next.
Avi took a deep breath, closed her eyes, stuck her foot out, and stepped.
Please see Chapter 1 for the Summary, Author's Notes, additional details, etc.
Additional Note: I recognize that there's not enough research/planning in some part of this. (Specifically the heist scene ...) It will get fixed on the next edit, hopefully.
Avi ended up making a very diplomatic phone call to Wang Family’s officially-listed telephone number, informed them that they had a dead retainer on her floor, and gently suggested they not repeat the experiment lest they wanted to reduce their numbers any further.
She then spent the next few hours calming her nerves with tea and a calming conversation with Jason, who very kindly did not call her out on her hysteric panic, and instead talked at her about his theories and findings, while she offered the occasional suggestion. He offered to stay the night on her couch, since his presence (as Heir of Liang Family) would deter most assassins in case they accidentally hurt him and his Family retaliated. She rather gratefully accepted, since she was planning on working through the night anyway.
The two worked on and off throughout the day, until they started hitting a breakthrough around midnight.
Finally, the two sat back and looked at the solution to the puzzle, and then looked at each other again.
“This can’t be right,” Avi said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“You’ve double- and triple-checked it,” Jason pointed out. “The signs all point to 拙政园in Suzhou. It’s the most well-known garden in Southern China and it has the wisteria in the right place.”
“But we tracked his days – he never left Beijing. How could he have gone to Suzhou?” She growled in frustration. “He couldn’t possibly have buried it there!”
“Maybe he used Talent?” Jason said dubiously, knowing it was a long shot.
“You know he had dwindling resources of Talent, what with following through on the curse, constructing the container for the Talent, and setting up a hiding place. Since his Family had collapsed by then, he had no other source to draw on – traveling all the way to Suzhou and back with his Talent was beyond his ability. I mean, I don’t even think he had enough Talent left to do even that much, so he certainly didn’t have enough left to spirit himself away to Suzhou!”
“There are portals …”
“You know they hadn’t been invented yet, and not only was Yang Family short on Talent, 老杨 (Old Yang) was short on money as well. He couldn’t have afforded it.” Avi wanted to cry. They’d finally figured out the solution to all of the symbols, and the riddles, and it pointed towards an impossible answer.
“Then we’re missing something,” Jason said simply. “We just need to look harder.
“That’s what I said!” Avi scowled, and began rereading the lines on the map, repeating the words over and over again as if hearing them would somehow trigger an inspiration. The symbols and the pictures they’d figured out, but they hadn’t spent as much time analyzing the riddles and poems as she might like, obscure Chinese language being a weakness both of them shared. “It can’t be too hard. He meant for his descendant to be able to find the thing, after all. It’s solvable.”
They both worked in silence for another ten minutes. Suddenly, Jason whooped! “I’ve got it!”
“Got what?”
“It’s so easy,” he laughed, “I think this riddle was in a children’s book my parents had for me.”
“Well?” Avi demanded impatiently.
“Have you ever heard the riddle: 远看山有色,近听水无声。春去花还在,人来鸟不惊?” Jason asked.
Avi paused and gave it some thought. “No, but that’s easy, isn’t it? A painting.”
“Now read the first word of each line,” Jason prompted.
“山…色…水…生…花…在…鸟…惊!” Avi turned to look at him with bright eyes. “You’re a genius! It’s a painting!”
“He didn’t hide it among the wisteria in some garden in Suzhou – it was a painting of it!” He nodded. “That makes more sense – it’d be easier for a painting to mark a hiding spot, and it’d be easier to hide without gather attention.”
“Let’s see what Baidu pulls up,” Avi said. “I’ve got one famous picture by a Wen Zhengming. He’s a famous brush artist, I think.” She briefly skimmed the article, and looked up. “I think this might be painting. It fulfills two of the other requirements as well!”
“Where’s his painting?” Jason asked expectantly.
“It’s in …” Avi began, excited, but then she found the information she was look for, and all her anticipation expelled from her in one breath. “London.” Avi sighed.
“So even farther than Suzhou. So much for that idea.” Jason sat back and rubbed at his eyes.
“No, wait!” Avi said. “It’s on tour in London right now, but let’s see where it usually is. More specifically, let’s see where it was back in 1985.” She input some words, and searched through the results until she found it. “Got it! 798 Art District!” She rolled her eyes. “Of course it’d be there.”
Jason pulled up the art district on a map, and let out a low whistle. “How much theory did they go into at your Talent School?”
“Why?”
“I’ve never noticed this before, but the Art District rests on a Fold. One of the reasons why it’s so successful at fostering creative-types.”
“And what’s a Fold?” Avi asked patiently.
“It’s a fold in reality that means there’s another dimension in the same space as this. If you get to the right spot and say the right spell, you can go there. They tend to be eerie barren wastelands, completely boring to anyone who’s not made a life of studying them. It would be pretty easy to set up, say, an elaborate obstacle course there with minimal Talent, though, because so much of the raw material is already there.”
“And that’s where he’ll have hidden the thing.” Avi exchanged looks with Jason. “Well, then, I guess it’s pretty clear where the thing is hidden …”
“Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming?”
“This is too easy. I’m worried it might be a trap.”
“Too easy? You had to have your sister decipher the 古文 (ancient writing), we spent a whole week on the stupid riddles, and then we had to put it all together! And we almost ended up going on a wild goose chase to Suzhou.”
“But it was hard for us because we’re ABCs. A native Chinese person would have gotten it so much more quickly, especially someone with a basic knowledge of history and literature, and a little bit quick on the uptake. My grandmother, for example, could have figured it out in five minutes flat. So why hasn’t your grandmother gone and taken it?”
“It’s your Talent, not hers. She doesn’t have any reason to try to find it.”
“Bullshit. Don’t tell me that Talent beyond her wildest dreams has never tempted her. She would have tried to at least check to see if it were something she could control. The only reason she wouldn’t have made the attempt is if it weren’t worth it, if there were some reason it was dangerous …”
“It’s because your journey won’t be measured by distance, but by challenges,” a voice said.
They turned to see Maya, who had somehow appeared in the room.
“You need to stop doing that!” Avi said crossly. “What is it with you and not knocking before entering?”
Jason, sweetheart that he was, had already moved to a defensive stance in front of her.
Maya rolled her eyes. “If I wanted to kill Avi, she’d be dead already. Your defenses are pathetic.”
“I was rather hoping that my message to the Matriarch got through and I wouldn’t have to worry about attacks on multiple fronts in the near future,” Avi said dryly.
“It did. And she’s agreed to your terms. She’s sent me to help you get through safely.”
“Why should we trust you?” Jason demanded. “You’ve tried to kill Avi, what, three times in as many days?”
“First of all,” Maya said sharply, “I don’t need you to trust me, I just need Avi to. And I’m sure if you ask her, she already does.”
Jason looked to Avi, who sheepishly nodded.
“Second, if I had really tried to kill Avi, as I mentioned, she’d be dead. Those were all warnings. Finally, it is now in my Family’s best interest that Avi remains alive, so it is my task to ensure that she remains so. I’m sure you of all people understand what the duties of Family may mean.”
Jason flushed.
“The Matriarch has given me a week to aid you in your endeavors. If you do not achieve your goal, it can be presumed that you will not able to, you pose no threat, and you will then be invited to leave the country whether you like to or not,” Maya said plainly.
“A week? We can’t just barge into a Fold without more preparation than that!” Jason protested.
“Fortunately you’re not making those choices and Avi is,” Maya said, “as I’m sure she appreciates the importance of timeliness in this matter.”
“What were you saying about challenges?” Avi intervened before the two could bicker any further.
“You think that your quest will be easy because the Fold is in Beijing, because it’s not far. But any proper Chinese quest isn’t measured not in distance but in challenges to overcome. So when Sun Wukong went West to retrieve the Scriptures, it doesn’t matter how far he traveled, but that he battled 81 obstacles.”
“I thought that quest was Tang Seng’s more than Sun Wukong’s,” Avi said, amused at the same time Jason said skeptically, “Are you saying we’ll have to face 81 challenges?”
“I doubt the ex-Patriarch Yang had enough time to set up that many,” Maya said impassively, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to go with a significant number.”
“Three,” Jason suggested. “Or … seven?”
“Too American,” Avi corrected. “Or Western, or whatever. Eight?”
“That’s a lucky number, not necessarily a mystical one in this sense,” Maya corrected. “I would suggest five, one challenge themed around each element, or nine.”
“Nine,” Avi echoed. “Sun Wukong faced nine times nine challenges, he could change into eight times nine forms, and his companions could manage four times nine and two times nine respectively.”
“Nine … didn’t I read somewhere that it’s important because it’s the biggest single-digit number?” Jason said. “And there are nine layers to heaven in Chinese mythology.”
Avi laughed. “We have got to be the most up-to-date-on-Chinese-culture ABCs on the entire planet.”
“Like I said. Five or nine.”
Avi smiled. “So, we just have to choose a date and go for it.”
---
Of course, it wasn’t that easy. They had to do a bit more research.
Jason’s task, since he had a bit more schooling in Folds than they had, was to look up the nature of Folds, how to enter them, and more importantly, how to leave them. Maya, meanwhile, looked up how best to trespass into the specific gallery they needed at the Art District, and also she was in charge of general research into the types of challenges Yang Family was famous for. Avi, meanwhile, had the task of interpreting the map and relating it to the challenges they would face inside the Fold – because Jason was insistent that there must be a second map hidden within the first that would give us some clues as to what awaited them.
It was all very slow going, not helped by Jason’s and Maya’s antipathy for each other.
“It’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that-”
“If you’d only listen to me finish, you could clearly see that-”
“-the likelihood that something of that caliber-”
“-though I know you love to hear the sound of your own voice-”
“-past your arrogance-”
“-no better than incompetence-”
“That’s enough!” Avi shouted. She’d been making some real progress, too, before the bickering in the background had gotten loud enough to drown out her thoughts. “Let’s take a break,” she said. “We can get some food, rest our brains, and not fight.”
Maya and Jason both nodded in agreement, and they set off to eat out together, Maya and Jason taking care to put her between the two of them and addressing her rather than each other. It was really rather exasperating, and Avi didn’t understand why they rubbed each other the wrong way.
They were seated rather quickly at a ramen place, and placed their orders immediately.
“Do you remember the time you ordered the pork ramen?” Jason asked. “And it turned out to be so spicy your entire face was red?”
Jason had taken her here a few times on their pseudo-dates. “And you kept on laughing at me?” Avi asked dryly. “Yeah, I remember.”
Jason chuckled. “The face you made with each bite, and you were too stubborn to get something else-”
“How could I, when you were paying? You would have had to pay for me twice!” Avi interrupted.
“I wouldn’t have minded-” Jason began.
“Food’s here,” Maya interrupted coldly.
Avi rubbed her hands in anticipation – she loved the ramen here! As she smelled the broth of the soup, she made a sigh of satisfaction.
As they started eating, Maya casually asked, “So Jason, why did your parents move to Seattle?” It was the first civil thing she’d said to him all evening.
“What?” Jason asked, as surprised as Avi to be addressed by Maya.
“They had a nice setup here even if you weren’t in the direct line of descendants. Being a Member of a big Family means a lot here. Yet your family uprooted to a new country? Not even to start their own Family like Mr. and Mrs. Lau did? Not an expected move.”
“Maya, it’s none of our business,” Avi said, even though she was itching to know. Reasons for emigration, especially among the Talented Families, were a sensitive issue. Typically, there was a lot of scandalous gossip involved, the hastier the emigration.
“No, I want to answer,” Jason said evenly, wiping his mouth with his napkin and putting his chopsticks down. “My Mom expected to be named Heir her whole life, as she was the older child. It’s a bit unorthodox considering it usually goes to the male line of descent, but there’s some precedent. Frankly speaking, she had always been more clever, more Talented, and more politically savvy than her younger brother. She ended up being passed up at the last minute, which upset her to no end. She ended up eloping with one of the Family retainers, which upset her mother to no end.
“So my parents decided to just take things as they were and both emigrated to America to have some margin of freedom and control over their lives, and to get away from Grandmother and Grandfather.” He tilted his head. “Grandfather was alive, back then, and he was especially upset at the emigration, so neither of my parents have been back in China since they left,” he added.
“Well,” Avi said bravely in the face of this rather bittersweet tale, “at least they had a love match of it and got to live their happily ever after.”
Jason barked out a laugh. “What makes you think it was a love match? Just because they chose it themselves doesn’t mean it was any less politically-minded. This is my mother we’re talking about after all. My mother married my father because he was powerful, and had been a member of a Family before it collapsed. He married her because she was a potentially powerful player. When the two realized their gamble hadn’t paid off, the two fled the country rather than the face the shame of the resulting I-told-you-sos.” He made a face. “They slept together in the same bedroom for long enough to produce a single child. They haven’t slept in the same room since. In fact, for the last ten years, they haven’t been in the same city for longer than day.”
At the horrified look on Avi’s face, he relented.
“It’s not that bad,” he said grudgingly. “The arrangement seems to work for them, and they’re on good terms with each other.” Jason turned to Maya. “So now that we’ve cleared the air on that count, why don’t you ask the question you’ve really wanted to ask all along?”
“Okay, I will,” Maya said. “So what kind of retainer could attract the attention of an up-and-coming Family Heir-to-be?”
Jason smiled bitterly. “Ah, but you know the answer to that question already, don’t you? That’s the reason you asked all these questions to begin with.”
“Guys, what’s going on?” Avi wanted to know. “What do I not know?”
“Why don’t you tell her?” Jason challenged. “That’s what you want to do, isn’t it?”
“It’s okay, I’ll let you be honest this one time,” Maya said bitingly.
“Bit rich, coming from you,” Jason snorted, then turned to Avi. “Avi, what Maya has been getting at all night is this: My mother would have been Heir of Liang Family, and if she’d been patient enough to wait out my uncle’s inevitable fumbles, she might still have been if she hadn’t precipitously run off with the man your mother was once betrothed to.”
“You mean-”
“Yes, I mean my father was the younger son of the now-defunct Yang Family.”
“So-”
“So it was my grandfather who sealed away your Talent. That’s the reason Grandmother has this map in the first place. It’s the reason I was able to convince her to give it over to you. It’s mine by right, but I wanted to – to restore some justice to the way of things, in apology.”
Avi looked back and forth at Jason and Maya. Obviously, this was an example of something very important that Jason had hidden from her. And Maya had evidently known, only instead of informing her, she’d decided to make some sort of spectacle about it. She would be upset with the both of them, but she needed their help too much to make an undue fuss.
“Okay, the two of you?” Avi said evenly, “need to get over this rivalry. This is ridiculous and it’s affecting our progress. I don’t care how you resolve it, but you will or I will swear I will go the rest alone. As for the matter of both of your honesty, I must admit I’m not surprised to hear that you both have been hiding things from me. I don’t care if you have secrets – but if you keep important information concerning me and my quest from me anymore, I will go through the Fold on my own, without either of you.”
“That would be suicide,” Maya pointed out.
“What, just because I don’t have Talent means I can’t handle myself?” Avi asked.
“Well, not having Talent would make it a little difficult to come back through the Fold,” Maya said dryly.
“I’d think of a way,” Avi said. “Now that I’ve made myself clear, I hope we can put this matter behind us – though since it turns out you have Yang blood running through your veins, Jason, I hope you won’t mind shouldering the additional role of Yang expert when our research resumes – so let us continue dinner peaceably, and I hope things will go more smoothly.”
Of course, they didn’t.
But things went well enough that they were set to prep the portal in two days, and make the jump in three.
---
“I probably should have called in sick,” Avi said thoughtfully as they tried to discreetly map out the exact locations they needed to place their touchstones without arousing the suspicion of the gallery owner.
“We’re set to step foot in an alternative dimension in less than twelve hours, and you’re worried about your job?” Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You got it through your parents anyway,” Maya pointed out reasonably at the same time. “If you want another one, you can just ask them to pull some more strings.”
Maya and Jason kind of scowled at each other, and then set off in opposite directions to pace the wall and estimate its length and width.
Avi had just finished noting down the last calculations when Maya came close to where she and Jason were pretending to have a conversation and hiding their tape measures.
“Guys, I have bad news,” she said grimly.
“What?” Avi asked.
“Well apparently, we have to break into the only art gallery in the entire 798 Art District with top-notch security.” At their uncomprehending looks, she elaborated. “I took note of their security cameras and looked it up on my phone – they actually have a security system, not with lasers and shit, but with cameras and doors that will sound an alarm and stuff that won’t be too difficult to circumvent, but does mean we can’t just saunter in here after hours.”
“Great,” Avi said. “So what’re we going to do?”
“About that …” Maya grinned a small grin. “I have a plan. Are you afraid of heights?”
---
“You know,” Avi remarked, “I’ve always wanted to go rappelling. It sounds fun even if, uh, this isn’t quite what I always had in mind …” She looked very dubiously at the ground which seemed so far away, and tried not to think about the different ways she could die if this went wrong.
“You’re sure the safety equipment is secure?” Jason asked Maya nervously. “You’ve done this before, right?”
“Everything should be fine,” Maya smiled toothily. “We probably won’t have anything to worry about.” So saying, she hopped off the ceiling and started her descent.
“Should? Probably?” Jason yelped after her retreating form. “I knew we should have gone with my idea. Hiding in the bathrooms until the museum closed worked for the kids in that Basil Frankweiler book.”
Avi laughed at him. “Yes, because hunkering down in the squatters would have been an effective way to hide,” she said sarcastically. “Anyhow, this way is so much more fun, don’t you think?”
Jason smiled at her, and she could see his muscles as he forced them to relax.
And then she wasn’t focusing on him anymore, but the thrill of the air rushing past her face. She would whoop with glee, but that would probably negate the point of their whole stealthy entrance and then they’d have to deal with security guards after all, and all their plans would be for naught.
She landed with a thump, and Jason landed not long after. Maya’d already unhooked herself, and started disabling the security cameras that were all off from the EMP she had sent out earlier. (Where’d she’d gotten an electronics-disabling electromagnetic pulse emitter, Avi didn’t even want to know, because that couldn’t be legal.)
Maya and Jason promptly started measuring out the five locations equidistant from each other and the Fold location that Jason had pinpointed, and then started setting up the touchstones. There was one for each element – fire, metal, water, earth, and wood. There were small talismans for each, hastily put together a few hours ago, and Avi was not to touch them, in case her touch nullified them. UnTalent didn’t always nullify pre-charmed objects, but it never hurt to be cautious. Instead, Avi was busy cleaning and disinfecting the floor around the Fold point.
When they were done setting up, it was Jason’s turn to take the lead, what with both the academic background in Folds and the Yang blood running through his veins. Jason activated his Talent, and Avi could clearly see the blue “x” that marked the exact spot he needed to stand. He started out by chanting the formula to open the portal, and then waved his hands in the air, blue Talent trailing behind them. Then, he took out a small silver knife and sliced his palm with it. (Avi winced.) He smeared the blood on the ground, and Avi winced again. Even though she’d sanitized the floor, she couldn’t stop imagining all the bacteria that was sure to infect his wound. Luckily, he had Talent to counteract that when he (eventually) healed it.
Jason then held his hand out, palm up, and said, “Open!” clearly.
And suddenly there was a shimmering blue portal right in front of him. It wasn’t terribly impressive, not like anything she’d ever seen in the fantasy movies. It looked simply like a blue mirror that was hanging on nothing, only she couldn’t quite see the reflection in the mirror.
Jason smiled grimly and Maya and Avi.
“Let me heal that before we go in,” Maya offered.
Jason shook his head. “You never know when we’re going to need my blood again. Let it keep until we’re done.”
He nodded grimly, and stepped through. Maya gestured for Avi to go next.
Avi took a deep breath, closed her eyes, stuck her foot out, and stepped.
