Part XXVII

          He awoke the next morning to soft sunlight dancing across his face.  He gingerly rolled onto his back, suppressing a groan.  Exhaling slowly, he pushed himself into a sitting position and rolled his head around his shoulders, then looked over at the clock on Cee's nightstand.  Eleven oh-two.  He turned his gaze to the bed.

          Cee had rolled over in the night and was facing him, her curls again obscuring half her face.  She was tightly snuggling a pillow.  He clumsily lurched to his feet, and, panting slightly from the exertion of lifting his huge body off the floor, stepped closer to the bed to check her bandage.  Satisfied that her wound had not broken open during the night and bled everywhere, he stretched, rubbed his eyes, and decided to go downstairs to see if anyone else was awake.

          He opened the door and the delicious scent of frying eggs raced into his nostrils and down to his stomach, which then growled painfully.  Of course I'm starving, he thought with weary bitterness.  He plodded down the stairs, cringing whenever the wood made a particularly loud creak under his weight and hoping desperately that the noises wouldn't wake Cee.

          The kitchen had been cleaned up since the night before.  The table had been righted and the chairs replaced around it, and the broken dishes, splotches of blood, and pile of dust where the demon had been destroyed had been swept up, though Xander could see a faint dark stain on the tile where Cee's energy had disintegrated the thing.  Ling sat at the table, a half-eaten plate of eggs and toast, a tall glass of orange juice, and a steaming mug of tea before her.

          "Good morning, Xander," she said with a weary smile.  There were faint dark shadows beneath her eyes, but the color had returned to her skin.

          "Wow, I feel like a bum," he said sheepishly.  "I thought you'd still be sleeping."

          "I'm too used to getting up early.  Ten hours of sleep and I was done.  I'll still probably go to bed early tonight, though.  How's our patient?"

          "Still sleeping," he replied.  "She rolled over and she's holding onto a pillow, but I checked her bandage, and I guess it looks okay.  I couldn't see any blood or anything, anyway."  A faint growl from his empty stomach alerted him to the fact that he was looking hungrily at Ling's plate.  He brought his eyes back up to her face.

          "Good.  With any luck, it'll be after dinner time before she wakes up and we have to convince her to stay in bed."  She stood and walked over to the counter, picked up a small ceramic jar, and handed it to Xander.  "I had to have Ken run out this morning to restock my herbs, so I had him pick up what I needed to make your tea, as well."

          "Oh, you didn't have to...worry about that," he choked out, feeling blood creep into his cheeks.

          "No worries," she told him simply, tucking a lock of her silky hair back into her bun.  "Have you ever had loose tea before?"

          He shook his head.

          "Alright.  It's pretty simple.  I put a tea ball in there -"  She lifted the lid and showed him a spherical metal contraption resting atop a mound of dried plant material.  "You open it up like this...and scoop about a teaspoon of the herbs into it...then lock it like this...and just put it your mug.  Then you'll pour boiling water over it and let it steep for about four minutes, then just lift it out carefully - it'll be hot.  You can add a little bit of lemon juice and honey to the tea, if you like, but not too much.  No more than a teaspoon of each.  Drink a cup before each meal.  And make sure that you eat at least a little bit after you drink it - if you have some and then don't eat, it will upset your stomach."

          "Um, can I...can I just microwave the water?"

          "That's right, of course you don't have a stove in the dorm.  Yes, microwaving the water to boil it is fine."

          "Thank you," he said.

          "Now, Xander..."  She placed her left hand over top of his right hand, which was clutching the jar tightly.  "I wasn't able to charge this batch because I'm running low on energy, but this is still some powerful stuff.  There is a very real possibility that it will cause unpleasant side effects.  If you feel dizzy, nauseated, upset, paranoid, if you get a bad headache, anything, please stop drinking it immediately and let me know.  I can try to modify the recipe, but it's not something that everyone can handle, alright?"

          Xander fought to quash the shame rising in his chest.  He nodded and thanked her again.

          "You're welcome.  And if all goes well, just let me know when you need more and I'll be happy to make another batch.  Would you like to try a cup now?"

          "Um, sure."

          "I'll help you get it ready."  She put the kettle on to boil, got a mug out of a cupboard for him, and watched him prepare the tea ball, nodding as he scooped a small amount of the tea into it and latched it.  By then the water had boiled and he poured it into the mug, the liquid awakening the earthy, cinnamon-y scent of the herbs.  Ling handed him a bottle of honey and a thin slice of lemon from the refrigerator.  "You'll put those in after it steeps.  Have a seat."

          Xander glanced anxiously at the kitchen chairs.  "That's okay, I'll stand."  He leaned back against the counter, very aware of the feeling of his ass squishing into the edge of the granite.  "How...um, how soon will it...work?"

          Ling had sat back down at the table and was chewing a mouthful of eggs.  She swallowed and replied, "It'll start to work immediately, but its effects will intensify the longer you drink it.  You should generally only use it for about three weeks at a time, and then take a week off.  If taken too long, it can make you not want to eat at all.  But usually after three weeks are up and you take a break, your appetite has significantly decreased, so you won't be nearly as hungry during your off week."

          Yeah, but with my appetite...he thought.

          "Like I said," Ling continued, as if in answer to his thoughts, "it's powerful.  Three weeks at a time, max, okay?"

          He nodded.  "So...what happened last night?"

          Ling swallowed another bite before answering.  "Ken and Darshan were out patrolling and came across the Kirid's trail.  They tracked it for a few miles before they were able to get close enough, and then they somehow managed to catch it.  I'm not clear on how they accomplished that, as Kirids are notoriously...difficult...to trap.  It's why they sometimes carry messages.  They brought it back here, we tried to restrain and question it, and it ended badly.  We did get a bit of information from it, though."

          "What did you find out?"

          "Well, the word in our circles has been that they're planning a major attack, that they're organizing.  Megaera, one of the most ancient of their kind, is most likely behind it, and we've suspected that she's been getting the message out to everything she can reach.  Other groups of hunters have been saying that the information they've been receiving from captives indicates that the attack will happen in the city during the summer, but their information was strictly verbal. 

          "That's where Cee comes in.  Cee's talent is more rare than she'd care to admit, and she's one of the only ones who can read demons' minds.  The way clairaudience generally works for us is that the individual can hear the thoughts of others, and Cee is certainly skilled with that.  However, all but the highest order of demons cannot speak or think any human language unless they are, like the Roene demon you encountered, in human form, so what she would hear from them would be gibberish.  What makes her unique is that her clairaudience is paired with some measure of clairvoyance, but a different sort than what Darshan possesses.  Rather than seeing the future, or seeing the true nature of things, she can actually see thoughts as well as hear them."

          Xander's face blanched.

          "So she is one of the only ones who can truly tell when a demon is lying, when she is paired with someone who is able to speak their language.  And she's only just recently realized what she can do and begun working on developing it, so we don't even know what she'll be capable of as she continues to work with this power.  Last night, the Kirid was telling Ken the same thing we've been told: that the attack will occur during the summer in the city.  But when it was speaking, Cee was able to see that its thoughts didn't match its words.  It was thinking of snow in the mountains.  So we think that the attack is going to happen this winter, and that they're going to come through in the mountains to the west.  It's a huge breakthrough, but we still don't know where they're going to go from there."  She took a swig of her tea and made a face, then rose and placed her mug into the microwave.  "Yours should be good now."

          Xander turned back to his mug, removed the tea ball by its long, delicate chain, and carefully squeezed a teaspoon of honey into the steaming water, which had turned a deep, greenish-brown.  He squeezed the lemon slice and dropped it in and cautiously took a sip.  It wasn't bad - a little bitter, but the honey and lemon helped.

          "Think you'll be able to manage?" Ling asked as the microwave beeped.

          "Uh, yeah," he said.  "I've certainly tasted worse things."  He took another gulp as he inadvertently thought back to the brief time he'd spent at a fat camp one summer during high school, and the nauseating slop they'd served the campers there.  He'd been so obviously depressed the director had called his parents and demanded that they come and get him after only a week.  They'd brought him home to an elaborate system of locks they'd set up on the refrigerator and cabinet doors.  "So, um..." he began, trying to push the memory away, "who was Ken asking it about last night, another demon?  One of their leaders?"

          "Hmm?"

          "The last thing he asked it...when it...laughed..."

          "Oh.  Yes...he was asking about one of the...eldest demons.  To see if he was involved in any way."

          "And it just laughed?"

          Ling shifted uncomfortably.  "Yes.  Quite ominous."

          Xander swallowed another mouthful of the tea.  "And why...why wouldn't Darshan let me come in?"

          "Kirids are..."  Ling stopped and crinkled her nose.  "They are a higher class demon, much more powerful than a Fuom or even a Roene.  They don't look like much - they actually look sort of like large, mutant skunks - until you make eye contact with one.  Kirids feed on despair.  When you make eye contact with a Kirid, it transforms in your mind into something incredibly disturbing to you, sort of a combination of your deepest fears and shames - something that you may not even be aware of yourself - and it makes you believe that what it shows you is reality.  It's a difficult thing to endure even with training.  Kirids are one of the only demons that can truly drive a person mad."

          "Oh."

          "So, you see, with your having no knowledge of what would happen if you looked into its eyes...we couldn't risk that."

          Xander silently stared into his mug, swirling the scant inch of remaining tea around and around.  He could think of a whole list of things that he might see, but what had Cee seen?  He glanced up at the ceiling, wondering if she was still sleeping and, if she was, what horrors her dreams might contain.

          Ling followed his gaze.  "I don't know what she sees," she said softly, "but the energy I gave her last night will keep her dreams peaceful for now.  The rest of us will take dreamless sleep tincture for quite a while."

          He downed the last of his tea.  "Are you sure you don't have telepathy, too?"

          Ling chuckled.  "Quite sure.  I'm just good at seeing what's right in front of me.  Now, let's get you some breakfast."

          Just then, the back door opened and Ken and Darshan walked in carrying handfuls of grocery bags.

          "Ah, perfect timing," Ling said.  "I'm just about to use the last of the eggs."

          "Oh, are you making that bread again?  Please tell me you're making that bread," Ken said somewhat desperately as he plunked his bags down on the table between Ling and Xander.  "I need your bread."

          Ling rolled her eyes.  "I'm sorry, but I don't have the energy for that today, Ken.  I was just going to make Xander some breakfast."

          "Oh, you don't have to..." Xander trailed off.

          "Breakfast?" Darshan said with an air of disapproval as he opened the refrigerator and began placing items from his bags inside.  "It's almost lunch time.  Besides, we should get him back to training, and he shouldn't eat before that.  Remember what happened yesterday?"

          "He needs to eat breakfast," Ling said calmly.  She deftly removed the carton of eggs from his hand before they could make it to the shelf and retrieved the almost-empty carton from the refrigerator.  "How many, Xander?" she asked over her shoulder as she bent to get a bowl from a bottom cabinet.

          "You really don't..."

          She turned her stern gaze on him.  "How many?"

          "Um, two's fine."

          She turned back to the bowl and promptly cracked five eggs into it, and Xander found himself wishing she would put in a few more.  I don't feel any different, he realized, dismayed.  I'm still starving.  What if it doesn't work at all?  He tore his sight from his future breakfast and saw Ken looking at him with a raised eyebrow as he lifted items out of the bags and set them on the kitchen table.  Xander crossed his arms over his chest uncomfortably and stared at the floor.

          "Oh, and no one is doing any training today," Ling added.

          "Excuse me?"

          "Or tomorrow, for that matter."

          "And why not?" Darshan practically spat.  The refrigerator door closed with a thud.

          Ling turned to him.  "Because we are all exhausted, Darshan.  And not only is it cruel to expect any of us to expend the little energy we have left on pretend-fighting each other, it's irresponsible.  Aside from a whole host of other reasons, it is very likely that, in our compromised states, someone will end up getting injured, and my reserves are very low.  I will not be able to heal anything more serious than a paper cut.  No training until we are all at full strength again."

          "But he needs to -"

          "No."

          Xander raised his eyes from the floor just high enough to see muscles in Darshan's jaw clenching repeatedly and Ken chewing on his lip, his chest hiccuping with suppressed laughter, as Ling poured the egg mixture she'd prepared into a pan that had been heating on the stove.  Darshan made a slight, strangled noise deep in his throat and stalked out of the kitchen.

          "Wow, somebody's got her bossy pants on today," Ken remarked after they heard Darshan's footsteps fade as he ascended the stairs.

          "I'm sick of him taking out his-" Ling stopped and sighed as she swished the eggs around in the pan.  "We all know that we should be resting right now.  Cee is still unconscious, for goodness' sake.  We re-charged all the trips and the perimeter two days ago.  We will know if anything happens.  We are as prepared as we can be.  And Xander is not going to learn to be a bloody ninja in one afternoon, so he needs to stop acting like he will."

          "Whoa, tell us how you really feel."

          "You know I'm right."

          Ken slid into a chair, raking his hands wearily through his already-messy brown hair.  "I'm not disagreeing with you.  Plus it's hot when you shut him down like that."

          "Kenryk Evan Waite, I may be drained, but I will send you flying across this kitchen.  I am in no mood."

          "Chill out, you know I'm teasing.  What's wrong?"

          Xander saw her eyes flick towards him and then back to the eggs, which were fluffing up nicely.  "Xander, if you'd like toast, now would be a good time to get it started.  The bread is in the top corner cabinet.  I just..."

          Xander complied, finding half a loaf of wheat bread and placing four slices into the toaster.  Ling's lily scent was becoming increasingly tinged with rain.

          She continued, "I'm tired of his superior attitude.  That's all.  He may be the one who reports to our parents, but that doesn't mean that he gets to make all the decisions when he is obviously lacking perspective."

          "'Obviously lacking perspective?'  What the hell do you mean by that?  He's clairvoyant, for fuck's sake."

          "Ken," she said sharply.  "Xander, your eggs are ready.  Would you grab a plate from this cabinet to my left?"

          He started over towards her, but had to stop, helplessly staring at the gap between Ling's back and the kitchen table that he knew he simply would not fit through without the removal of one obstacle or the other.  He knew he wouldn't fit between Ken and the counter to go around the other way, either.  "I...um...could you..."

          She looked up at him.  "Oh.  That's alright, I'll get it."  She took the pan off the burner and opened the cabinet.

          "Sorry," he mumbled, feeling worse by the second.

          "It's no bother," Ling told him with a gentle smile.  She scooped the steaming mound of eggs onto the plate and handed it to him.  "The butter is over there on the counter.  Would you like orange juice?"

          "Yeah, but I can -"

          "Just have a seat, I'll get it for you."

          "That's okay..."  He turned to the counter behind him, sheltering his reddening cheeks in the shadow of the cabinets.  He could feel Ken's eyes burning holes in his back.

          "Are you sure?" Ling asked from the other side of the kitchen.

          Xander nodded mutely.

          "Alright, suit yourself.  Here you go."  She slid a glass of juice in front of him and sat back down at the table.

          Xander eyed the full stick of butter and decided that they would probably notice if he used his usual half-stick, and just scraped a little bit across the warm, crisped slices of bread.  He took a small forkful of eggs, feeling his stomach gurgle demandingly as he chewed and Ken began to speak.

          "So...what are we going to do now?"

          "We wait.  Darshan already alerted our parents last night, and it's really up to them to decide how to react.  We carry on as usual until they let us know otherwise.  Well, not entirely as usual.  As I said, we need to recover.  So we take it easy."

          The chair legs squeaked against the floor as Ken shifted in his seat.  "I am all about taking a break.  But, uh, what about him?  His babysitter's unconscious.  And I don't think we can really afford to spare another one of us to go have sleepovers in the dorms. "

          Ling said his name.  Xander, who hadn't been listening, swallowed, realizing that all but one triangle of toast and a few mouthfuls of eggs were gone.  He set down his fork and took the last gulp of his juice, deciding that he wouldn't finish, that he wouldn't let Ling see that her tea seemed to be having no effect on him.  He turned to face her.

          "Ken is right.  With Cee out of commission, and the rest of us so low on energy, none of us can afford to come stay with you.  But we can't leave you alone, untrained, and risk something getting to you again.  Would you be alright with staying here at the house for the time being?"

          She was so...nice, he thought.  Why is she being so nice to me?  They could just make me stay here and there would be nothing I could do about it.  I'm sure Darshan would do exactly that.  So why is she even asking me?  "I guess...I guess I don't really have a choice, huh?"

          "You always have a choice," she told him.  "I just wouldn't recommend choosing something else in these particular circumstances."

          He sighed.  "Yeah, I'll stay.  Can I go back and get clothes and stuff?"

          "Of course," she said.  "Ken will go with you."