Flying Swords 15 (Patreon)

SUMMER IS HERE! SUMMER IS HERE! I am singing. I am dancing. I am cursing myself for agreeing to teaching new-teacher workshops the end of July because I want to soak up every bit of them freedom that I can. But guess what I worked on this weekend? Do you wanna take a guess? I had to get back to my tragic boy and his struggle to be someone better.

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“Father!” Shanlin called as he hurried into the room. Leander jerked upright. He’d been dozing, his head pressed against the carved side of the ornate bed Xi had been sleeping on.  Xi groaned as Leander hit his cheek by accident. Master Teacher Wang followed behind with a bemused expression. At least that was a significant improvement over the expression he could have worn given Shanlin’s propensity to be annoying.

“Are you being a good boy?” Leander asked.

“I am,” Shanlin promised and then he turned his attention to Xi who still lay on the bed looking as though he had one foot firmly planted in a grave. “Are you feeling better?” Shanlin asked. He bounced on his toes as if he had been given too much sugar. Given the indulgent expression on Master Teacher Wang’s face, it was possible.

“Much. Thank you for asking,” Xi said in a strained voice.

“I’m glad she didn’t get away with poisoning you,” he said.

“Who is she?” Leander asked sharply.

Shanlin cringed in the face of his displeasure, and guilt ripped through Leander. Shanlin said, “Most poisoners are women. I saw it on this television show I used to watch with Mother. It was all about how criminals got caught, and the show said that women were more likely to use poison than men, just like women were more likely to kill themselves in a bathroom so that it would be easier for the family to clean up the mess.”

Leander lost the ability to speak for a moment. He could not imagine a less appropriate television show for children. He was angry that Tecca would have allowed Shanlin near a show with that sort of content. He’d thought she had some common sense, but apparently not.

“That sounds interesting,” Xi said weakly.

Completely missing the horror in Xi’s voice, Shanlin nodded enthusiastically. “There was one episode where they thought this man had killed a woman because his phone and car and credit card were all used to get her to visit him, and he someone must've stolen his phone and his credit card and his car and then return them before he noticed and everyone thought he was the killer and then it turned out that his friend who he had let stay because he got kicked out of his apartment had borrowed all three and then return them and was going to let him go to prison for murder.” Shanlin managed to say all that without taking a breath. Either sugar or supernatural forces were involved.

“How fortunate that he cleared his name,” Leander said. He gave Xi a desperate look hoping that he had some change in topic that could rescue them from this shit show, but Xi just looked back with the same mute horror.

Master Teacher Wang cleared his throat. “Heng had hoped that you would sit examination for our school. Is there a chance you would be interested in that?”

“I’m afraid I cannot take that risk,” Leander said. “I know that it would temporarily weaken my magical abilities, and this is not the appropriate time.”

“I promise you are perfectly safe in the school, and your little brother and son would be welcome to stay with you. We do encourage people to separate from their worldly obligations once they are in the later core foundation stages, but that should happen in an appropriate time and now would definitely not be appropriate for you to end either relationship.”

Leander hesitated, not sure how to navigate these waters. Master Teacher Wang was offering an incredible opportunity, especially given how much Chinese magic users disliked outsiders, but he was painfully aware that he was an outsider. He needed to protect himself and Shanlin because he could not be sure of anyone else’s protection. If the Chinese government came, Master Teacher Wang or Heng would be obligated to tell the truth. He could not risk weakening his own magic, even for the promise of stronger magic later.

“I take it as a great sign of respect that you would even offer me a chance to sit for examination,” Leander said slowly, “but I fear this is not the right time and I am not in the right mental state to commit to my magical education.”

Master Teacher Wang nodded. “It is a wise man who knows his own limitations.” He turned to Shanlin. “And an even wiser one who can teach his elders something new.”

Horror washed through Leander as he considered Shanlin’s guilty expression. What had he done? Leander had been very explicit that elders were to be treated as infallible and listened to at all costs. They were just lucky that any misbehavior was in front of Master Teacher Wang and not Pill Master Yang. He would have demanded punishment.

Before Leander could mentally compose and appropriate apology, Master Teacher Wang spoke. “Since you are not going to sit for the examination, then we must find alternate living arrangements for you.”

“We can go back to Accolyte Heng’s house,” Leander said. They should pack and be ready to move, even if relocating was a problem right now. 

“I don't think that would be safe,” Xi said, and his pale complexion and shaking hands reinforced that. 

“I quite agree,” Master Teacher Wang said, “and that is why the Nie family will take you in. You are brother to their son, even if all the proper ceremonies have not been completed.”

“Ceremonies?” Leander had no idea that he had failed to complete adoption rites. Knowing how seriously the Chinese took their traditions, he would be surprised if Heng’s family wanted to have anything to do with him. It was a major breach of etiquette to neglect family ceremonies. “We would not wish to impose,” Leander said.

“Sure we would,” Xi interrupted, and Leander glared at him.

Xi held up both hands as though surrendering. “I've been poisoned, they may have been trying to poison you, and we have nowhere else to go. Staying with your friend’s family sounds good.”

Leander opened his mouth to protest, but Master Teacher Wang slapped his hands together with a sharp crack. “Excellent. I will contact them and let them know that you are ready to leave when they are prepared to host you.”

Horror clawed at Leander’s ribs. He disliked people in general, but he was supposed to impose on his ex-lover’s family after he had apparently failed some tradition. If he was lucky, he would drop dead before they could reach the home in question. 

Master Teacher Wang gave him a cheerful grin that did not fit the image of a staid and noble elder. If anything, his face looked gleefully naughty. He held out a hand toward Shanlin. “Come, I will introduce you to Nie Heng’s parents who will, no doubt, be very pleased to meet you. And in return, you can teach me more about Star Wars.”

Shanlin practically flew toward Master Teacher Wang, grabbing his hand before being whisked out of the room.

Leander rubbed his eyes and wondered when his life had gotten so out of control.

Probably when he was twelve-years-old and the staff had brought Finn to the group home. Before that, Leander had done an excellent job of being the loner who hid in the corner of any room. But Finn had been so good at making friends that he had dragged Leander almost involuntarily into a big friend group that had become their family. Sometimes Leander thought he hadn't had a real choice since then. He was the flotsam pushed about by the ocean to wherever the currents took him.

He sank into his chair and stared at Xi. “You could have backed me up and said you wanted to go back to town.”

“The potential murder plot argues otherwise,” Xi said without an ounce of remorse.  Leander hated Xi sometimes.

“Now we’re going to be caught in the middle of a potentially complicated family situation, and I don’t even know what ceremony I missed. But trust me–someone is going to be offended and insults will be shared and passive aggressive….” Leander sighed. “Something passive aggressive will definitely happen, and if we’re lucky it will progress to aggressive aggressive.  Probably not, though. Probably they will smile and serve us food and kill us with detailed lists of our inadequacies.” Leander wondered if he could get himself some of that poison.

“You’re overreacting. Again.  You either overreact or completely stick your head in the sand.  You should find the middle ground.”

Leander stopped rubbing his eyes just long enough to glare at Xi. “Family obligations are complicated in China, and I don't know where we fit into the family given that it was my friend who adopted me as his little brother.”

“If his parents are willing to take us in, it sounds like there are some good feelings.”

Leander stared at Xi blankly. “Have you ever seen a Chinese drama? Even one?”

“No,” Xi said slowly as though feeling his way around the word.

“Adopted family members are not generally given the hero role in those stories,” Leander said. That was an understatement.

Xi gave him a crooked grin. “Then we’re right back to where we started, hating people who pretend they might adopt us while looking down on us for being orphans. It’ll feel like home.”

Leander hated it when Xi brought up the history they shared. Life would've been much easier if he had never connected to people, never learned to love them and then lose them over and over until he had no one left and he sat in a shitty, little apartment filled with shitty, little plants because he had no one else.

“Hey,” Xi said, reaching out for Leander even though he was too far away. Still, his hand stretched across the distance. “We’re going to be okay.”

“The way we're always okay? The way none of us have ended up dead or disappeared or addicted? Yes. Because things always turn out well for us.” Leander clenched down on the urge to scream.  Xi was such an idiot.

“We're still here.”

“And how many of us aren't?” Leander demanded. “I saw Ireen that day, you know. The druggies she was living with, they knew we were friends. They wanted someone to take her to the hospital so they didn't get sucked into her drama, so they called me. By the time I got there….” Leander closed his eyes. He hadn’t seen the bodies of Tecca or Karn… or Finn, and Petel had disappeared without a body, but he often imagined Ireen’s empty eyes in their faces. He imagined her slack expression and the odd angle of her neck on their bodies. And then he had worked hard to never remember anything about any of his friends at all. He locked thoughts of them away until Tecca had shown up with one of Druwolf’s lieutenants.

Xi winced as he forced his body up and sat on the edge of the bed. “We've all been given shit hands in this game, but we do the best we can with it. It's what we've always done. If this family is more than we can handle, we’ll leave.”

Leander shook his head. He’d envisioned himself having a normal life here.  Working in a small village. Raising Shanlin. Being, if not happy, then content. “I shouldn't have reached for something more. When you have more, when you love more, it's just more that the world can take away from you.”

Xi hissed with pain as he stumbled to Leander’s side where he practically collapsed to his knees. 

Leander looked down at him. “You idiot. You should be in bed.”

Xi caught both his hands and held them tightly. “Life has always given us this shit hand, but don't ever say that you're sorry that you loved any of us. When I was first taken, knowing that there were people who loved me was the only thing that helped me keep my sanity in that government school.”

“It was my fault,” Leander whispered. “They wouldn't have caught you if it wasn't for me.”

Xi shook his head. “That's not true.”

Leander pulled his hands free and stared at them, the long fingers and calloused pads. These were the hands he'd used to touch those damn plants in biology class. “Freshman biology. I made those plants grow. They were looking for someone with talent.”

Xi rocked back on his heels. “Christ. You thought that all these years?”

Leander locked away every emotion except hatred and glared at Xi. “The damn government wanted weapons, and I put up a flag that showed them exactly where they could find one, a nice, young, untrained, easily brainwashed weapon. Of course they were looking after that.”

“Leander.” Xi  ran his fingers through his hair. “Within a week, they knew I controlled shadows. I couldn't have done anything to those plants, and they knew it. If they thought the plants were a clue as to where to find another magic user, they would've kept looking until they found you. I don't know if the teacher even reported that.”

“Of course she did. They all spied on us.”

“The group home spied on us,” Xi said. “I couldn't sleep because of that damn light they left on in the hallway all the time, and I thought it was so late that no one would notice, so I wrapped shadows around it.” He pressed his lips together for a second before continuing. “I just wanted to sleep through the night for once, and we had a math test the next day. I didn't think it was a big deal. I still don't know whether someone saw me or if they had hidden cameras, but they came and got me in the morning.”

“What?” Leander's world tilted on its side and suddenly all the pieces of his life didn't fit together neatly. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, only he had pieces for two different pictures, and he couldn't get them to fit.

A dark laugh slipped out of Xi. “I was so worried about a 10th grade math test that I screwed the rest of my life.” A whine escaped him, Leander didn't know whether it was the memory or the physical pain, but he stood and got a hand under Xi’s elbow. 

“Come on you idiot, you shouldn't be out of bed.” He pulled Xi to his feet and eased him back to the bed.

“Have I said ‘thank you’ for saving me from the poison? What you did was kind of awesome,” Xi said.

“You were bleeding out of every orifice and blood was even oozing from your skin. I don't think awesome is the correct word.”

“You saved my life. That’s kinda awesome.”

Leander hesitated before answering. Another day, he might have dismissed the whole conversation, but he was emotionally raw, and Xi’s near death was only part of that. “We’re the only two left. How could I do anything else?”

Leander thought of happier days when they’d claimed the corner of the lunch room closest to the lunch line. Other kids didn’t want to sit where the lunch ladies could watch, but the seven of them… that had been their territory. Seven group home kids within a year or two of each other in age, all holding onto each other and believing they could survive the evils of the world if they just had each other. 

Creek’s capture had been the first crack in that idealism, but now he was the last shard of childhood Leander possessed. He sat on the bed next to Xi and made him lay down, pulling the sheet up over him. “Now stay down before you get sick and drop dead. I didn't save you from poison just for you to kill yourself with stupidity,” he snapped. 

Xi grinned at him. “Got it. No dropping dead from stupidity. I will put that on my to do list.”

Leander huffed. Creek's hand way laying on top of the sheet, his skin still waxy. Before he could talk himself out of it, Leander grabbed that hand and held on tight. Maybe he was being an idiot, but he wanted to believe for just one second that they had a chance. He had learned over the years that it only took a drop of hope to get yourself out of bed even on the darkest of days, and today… Today was dark.