Legacy: Aftermath

We were standing around as the cameras were settled into place and the director chose his first angle. We would have to leave once the shoot started. One of the safety crew climbed into the vehicle and started the engine. They called out a warning as they slipped the vehicle into drive. They were checking the rollers to make sure they were working properly. All was well until the building went dark and a blast of white light filled the studio. A deafening crash of thunder disrupted communication completely.

This is what I saw. The lightning arced and hit three things at the same time. I felt the bite as it struck me in the back and lifted me off my feet. The second bolt hit the rollers and sent the vehicle soaring backward. The third and last bolt hit the jade vase shattering it into air born shards. As my body fell to strike the concrete floor I saw the vehicle strike the cat as it raced across the floor. The other thing to strike the cat were several shards of jade. My skull decided to hit something hard and unyielding, darkness followed. I woke up as I was being loaded into an ambulance. I was bleeding from several punctures and I felt the delicious sensation of morphine coursing through my body. I drifted in a semi lucid state. I woke several times but consciousness came slowly. I cracked an eye open and found Lily and Scarlett asleep in chairs in my hospital room.

"What the fuck." I moaned waking the pair.

"Shifu, you are alive." Lily said blinking away her sleep.

"It happened again," Scarlett said. "You are a freaking lightning rod. Someone left the front door open and a bolt somehow found its way into the green screen and caused chaos. The cat is dead. It got run over and hit by flying spikes of jade. You got hit with the same spikes of jade. Luckily, they hit you on your arms and nothing vital."

"I think I should buy a lottery ticket." I muttered as another burst of morphine hit my system. "When do I get out of here?"

"They have ruled out infection from the jade and somehow despite being hit by lightning a second time your heart and brain are fine. They are baffled as hell. I have a child that needs me. I am leaving for home tomorrow. They are releasing you tonight. Come with me, you can't possibly want to... I can see it in your eyes. You are going to look for this thing that your dad left behind. I guess I should be happy that Jackie has agreed to go with you. This is crazy you know. I am going to worry about you until you are back home safe and sound."

"I love you too," I said and she cried.

Scarlett hugged me and wept at the insanity I was willing to endure. I didn't have a choice. This was my legacy. I had to find out what secrets he had left for me to discover. Eventually I was given the green light and left the hospital. Scarlett and I agreed to have dinner at her favorite restaurant when I got back to the states. We spent the night together and the next day I drove with her to the airport. This time she had her private jet to fly her home.

Sorcerer Cat:

I stayed at Scarlett's hotel until principal shooting was done and Jackie was free to join me on my road trip. There was one little change though. Lily begged me to let her go as well. I agreed and went around gathering supplies for her. I had spent far too much time on the road to know that things could go wrong and it was good to have food and clothing. The morning we collected our rental vehicle I got the shock of my life. Lily arrived at my hotel and with her the dead cat, except that it wasn't dead. The tortoiseshell cat with the miss matched eyes was in her arms. I saw it crushed under the wheels of the vehicle the day of the thunderstorm.

"That can't be the same cat," I said but she shook her head.

"It is Shifu, I pulled the jade from its body myself. It came back the next night."

"Life's a bitch," the cat said and I nearly fell over as I stumbled backward.

"What the holy hell," I cried out and the cat hopped into my arms.

"Relax Thomas," the feline purred. "I am here to help. I can stop you being hit by lightning."

"How," I stammered as the cat rubbed the side of its head against my cheek.

"Your sister is going to follow my instructions and use acupressure to fix your meridians and get your chi back into alignment."

"My chi is out of balance?" I said as the cat licked its asshole.

Jackie arrived with our ride. He stared at the cat in my arms and he appeared equally confused by the sight of the feline. He commented on how much it looked like the other cat. The cat remained silent and hopped into the back seat when the door was open. I guess it was going along too. Soon we were on the ferry that would carry our vehicle across the bay to the mainland and one step closer to our goal. The land rover was equipped with GPS so it was simply a matter of programming in the coordinates my father had left behind and we were off. The cosmopolitan landscape fell away soon enough. We had a full gas tank and a clear path to our goal. If our plan worked out we would reach the mountains in two days' time and reach our goal on the third. I plugged in the MP3 player to the sound system and soon we were all singing to classic rock songs.

While Jackie took his turn driving I handed out snacks and we shared stories. Jackie was a wealth of tales about his early movie career and I shared memories about my travels with my dad. Lily was our eager audience. She had lived a quiet life so far and the cat remained annoyingly silent. It wasn't until I took over and Jackie napped that the damned feline spoke. I learned what had happened on the day I had been struck by lightning a second time. The urn carrying the ashes of the Taoist sorcerer had been destroyed and his life essence had been transferred into the cat. A dead mage was reborn into a dead cat, happens all the time.

"How the hell did this happen?" I asked the cat and he explained.

"There was a spell etched onto the jade vessel carrying my ashes. The lightning triggered the spell and I was transferred into the nearest available host. In this case the cat. Trust me I was hoping for something more human. I'll tell you this, the universe has a sense of humor."

"My dad didn't have anything to do with this." I said but the cat decided at that point to cough up a nice juicy fur ball.

"It was impeccable planning on his part. Death isn't the deterrent you might think it is."

"The letter was quite specific Shifu," Lily added.

"What letter? You never mentioned a letter." I growled feeling left out of the loop. "Tell me everything..."

Lily launched into the details I had not been told. My father had set things into motion long before his death. He found the ashes of the sorcerer when he was a relatively young man. He had spent a hefty sum having the jade vase crafted. He had been there when the spell was etched into its surface. He had transferred the ashes into it as well. There were prayers that needed to be intoned for future success. The vase was given in safe keeping to a trusted follower. The same vase was sent to Lily's mother a month before I arrived in Hong Kong. Everything else that had happened was dictated by a letter held by Lily. A letter penned by my father on the day of her birth. It was his hope that Lily and I would sire a golden child. This gifted child would possess abilities that would change the course of history. The vase was a fall back plan in case a child was not conceived. The sorcerer was meant to be my mentor in the ways of magic.

"I will teach you the ways of the Force..." the cat said before laughing. "Shit, your dad thought a lot of himself. I spent a life time mastering the forces of nature and he thinks I will just hand them over."

"How the hell do you know about Star Wars?" I asked.

"Cable TV and reruns," the sorcerer said matter of factly. "Lily has a silver package on her wondrous flat screen television. I even saw one of Jackie's movies as well. Give me one good reason I should teach you."

"He believed I was something called a Broken." I said and the cat leapt into the front seat.

"No shit..." the sorcerer stared at me for a long time. "I'm an idiot, of course you are. That is why your chi is out of whack. I will teach you and maybe Heaven will take pity on me."

Jackie stirred and I turned up the music. He sat up and pointed out the window towards an upcoming town. He said they had a great little place for us to get a hot meal. He had shot part of a movie in the village and had made a few friends. He reminded me of my dad in that part. I pulled off and he directed me to the diner. We were welcomed like family. While we waited for our food to arrive Jackie signed a few autographs and posed for photos. He cheerfully and patiently stood with locals and took pictures until our food arrived and they kindly left so that we could eat in peace. I doubted the same would have happened elsewhere. He was right, the food was amazing and beat the hell out of energy bars and a bottle of water. There was a bed and breakfast we stayed at and I felt a sense of peace despite the strangeness that surrounded me. I sat on the porch with the sorcerer cat in my lap. He urged that Lily perform a treatment before I went to bed.

"Shifu, I am ready. I gathered what I needed from a wise woman in this village."

"Lead the way," I said getting up from my chair.

I stripped down and lay on my bed while my sister worked my chakras and meridians into alignment. It was the first of many such treatments. She wasn't sure what had thrown my body out of whack but she offered to keep an eye on me. I agreed as I dressed and went out for some fresh air. I noticed an elderly woman smoking a long metal pipe. She was seated and regarded me curiously from her seat by a fire.

"Your aura is much improved," she said after blowing a rather impressive smoke ring.

"My sister is gifted with acupressure," I replied and she smiled.

"She has your father's eyes." She added with a grin. "Where are you going?"

"My father left me a location to go. I have no idea what is waiting for me." I said and she laughed.

"You just described my entire life. No one knows what is waiting for them. That is why I like to smoke. It is a known. It relaxes me and I like blowing rings."

"There you are," the sorcerer cat said as it jumped into my lap. "Ooh, she is really good. That was a big one."

"Aren't you worried about talking in front of her?" I asked and they both laughed.

"Do you smell tobacco?" Lily asked as she appeared. "It smells just like the kind my grandma used to smoke."

"Yes..." I said looking at where the old lady had been sitting but the chair was empty. "What the hell?"

The cat didn't explain it but I realized that she was a ghost. The old lady had appeared to me for reasons known only to her. Maybe because my aura was enticing. Would I see other spirits? I glanced up and remembered the storm dragon that had appeared the first time I had been hit by lightning. I giggled when I thought about that. Yeah doc the first time I got struck by sky fire was a doozy. I scratched the cat behind his ears and he purred loudly. Lily suggested I scratch her itch and I got to my feet displacing the cat. It was time to thank her for taking care of me.

Lily and I shared a shower the next morning after a night of hot sweaty lust. She checked my chi flow and found it much improved. We dressed and caught up with Jackie having breakfast at the diner. He appeared to be in a good mood. I asked him how he was doing and he said he had a dream about his grandmother. I wondered whose ghost it had been last night. Did it belong to Jackie's or Lily's grandmother? I fed the cat on the sly but when the diner's owner caught me she offered it some milk. We were soon back on the road. The weather was holding but there were hints that it could rain or even snow as we reached higher and higher elevations.

"I wasn't sure about buying coats but it looks like you were right," Jackie said as an errant snowflake struck the windshield.

"It's just from experience. I remember when my dad and I got caught out in a typhoon. It was a nightmare. If it wasn't for some villagers I wouldn't be here today. They took us in and gave us shelter for the worst part of the storm."

"You and the weather seem to have a bit of a history," Jackie said trying to suppress a smile.

The snow fell steadily but never hampered our progress. It was Lily who spotted a village nestled between two hills that was our stop for the second night. I wanted to drive through the night but was outvoted. I parked in front of a shrine that appeared to be the center of the town. Jackie's celebrity saved us a second time and we were welcomed generously. While they treated us well in general I did notice a certain cooling when I was by myself.

"You are a fucking round eye," the sorcerer cat blurted out as I was taking a piss after dinner. "Of course, they don't like you. If it weren't for Chan you'd be up shit's creek."

"For a dead guy, you are picking up things pretty quick." I growled.

"We all have our talents. You are going to make a great mage one day... not now of course but one day."

"Asshole cat," I cursed.

The cat and I returned to the table and the locals treated the cat better than they did me. It didn't help that my Cantonese had improved the last few months I had been in country. I was still looked at suspiciously and I felt like something was off. I grabbed a bottle of plum wine and headed outside. I stood next to a fire sipping the wine from the bottle. The sense of wrongness was stronger outside. I closed my eyes and practiced the Phoenix Breath. I tried to feel for the direction of the uneasiness I was feeling.

"Here," Lily said pressing something into my free hand. "The asshole cat sends his regards."

I opened my eyes and opened my hand. Nestled in my palm was a glittering crystal on a silver chain. I looked at Lily and her eyes were shimmering with eye shine like you might expect from a cat. Was the cat using her as a puppet? She turned and awkwardly shuffled back inside. I ignored her for now. I held up the chain and let the crystal swing freely. I used the scrying spell and focused on the sense of ill ease. The transparent stone began to swing easterly and I walked in that direction. It took a little bit since I had never used the spell before but I quickly got a handle on it. I found the overgrown path and I cringed when my footfalls sounded so damn loud in my ears. The crunch of dead leaves and dried twigs announced my approach to anyone but the utterly deaf. I needn't have worried. The uneasiness turned to dread. The source was a stone monument. The singular cyclopean shrine was weathered and ancient. The faint markings were alien and strange. Whoever had erected it they weren't Chinese or even proto-Chinese. The single stone must have weighed two hundred tons or more. It was a dark stone that didn't match anything nearby. The strangest part was the way snow refused to fall upon it. It was free of it and was a stark contrast to everything near it.

"Where the fuck did they dig you up?"

"It has been here even before the village was founded. It has been here before the first emperor united China."

"Sorcerer cat, why the hell are you out here?"

"I am here to observe," he said. "I want to see how you react to evil."

I recalled binding spells for this kind of thing. They were tricky but if a sorcerer could utilize one of the elements then success was more likely, nothing in life is ever guaranteed. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize my connection to lightning. I walked around the stone singing the binding spell and pleading to the powers of the sky to aid me in this binding ritual. The first clap of thunder was loud and overhead. I thrust my fist holding the crystal on its chain at the stone. The bolt of lightning split the night apart. It hit the stone at its apex and sundered it in two. I staggered back and took a generous swig of plum wine. I finished the ritual and waited. My skin no longer crawled and the sense of dread was gone.

"I'll be damned," the sorcerer cat gasped. "You nullified it."

"Let's get back before... aw hell..." I said as I saw the village elders arriving. "Hey, I am so sorry... it just kind of happened."

They shouted at me but there was no anger. They were shocked that a mere foreign devil could remove so great an evil from their midst. I saw Jackie and Lily at the rear of the pack and they were both smiling. We returned to the village and I was treated like a hero. The local winemaker gave me an entire case of his best plum wine. I accepted their gifts since I understood they would be insulted if I did otherwise. What had I quelled out there in the woods? It was evil but its nature was alien and elusive. I hoped my actions didn't have long term consequences for the village and its inhabitants. I've seen way too many horror flicks. In those cases, the evil came back bigger and stronger than ever before. The words of the sorcerer cat came back to me. In life, there are no guarantees.

Gods what a hangover! Jackie woke me the next morning and I was fed water and rice for breakfast to help absorb the alcohol still in my system. The trunk of the rental was loaded with the gifts from the villagers. What had been a light dusting of snow last night was now a good three inches of accumulation. Jackie agreed to drive while I recovered. I lay in the back seat and used the Dragon Breath to purge the alcohol from my body. Lily sat next to Jackie in the front seat but she was watching me intently. She appeared quite concerned about my recovery from the near alcohol toxicity I had brought upon myself. I shut myself off from the outside world and focused my full attention on restoring myself. There was one technique in the Taoist text for ridding the body of poison. I sang the spell softly and felt the warmth spread slowly from my belly button outward. Soon my entire body felt hot. I sustained the spell as long as I was able. Eventually I ran out of steam and fell asleep. Lily shook me awake and told me we had reached our destination.

"Shifu, we are here! Come look, it is amazing!"

"Wha... we made it?" I grumbled as I sat up.

The Range Rover was parked on the side of the road. Its headlights shone on the steps leading upward. Jackie was outside and looking up the steps. If you have ever seen a martial art movie with the hundreds of steep steps the student must transverse while carrying water up to the monastery. This was it and in spades. Snowflakes drifted in the air illuminated by the headlights. The only sounds were the soft rhythmic pattern of the windshield wipers and the soft rumble of the idling engine.

"What now?" Jackie asked.

"I go up and see what's up there." I replied.

"We go up," Lily announced.

"I agree, we go up once we find a safe place to park the car." Jackie added with a smile.

"Fine..." I conceded. "Let's find a parking spot."

We got back into the car and drove slowly looking for a place to park that wouldn't leave the car exposed. Lily spotted an ox trail and Jackie pulled onto it. The trail circled up in a serpentine path up the mountain. It didn't reach the top but it did eventually come up to a flat area that would act as a parking spot. We put on our coats and shouldered our backpacks. It took nearly half an hour to find the steps again. We took our time. The steps were slick as shit and the footing treacherous. We spoke little since most of our attention was on remaining on those god-awful steps. My gaze was locked on my feet and so I didn't see the torches above us until Lily called out. We were close to the top now. I saw the walls encircling the monastery and thought that anyone without artillery would be in for one hell of a fight trying to capture this place.