I walked in the front door and went into the dining room, Ben and Tom trailing behind me. Ronnie Wong and LK Pak were already there sitting at the table.
As soon as I walked in the door, Ronnie shot to his feet, knocking his chair over, and leapt backwards so violently that he knocked his glasses off. He stood spreadeagled on the wall behind him and stared at me, wide-eyed and trembling.
I backed up as well, then took a deep breath and controlled it.
‘You okay, Emma?’ LK said. ‘You look like you saw a ghost.’
‘I’m fine. I just had enhanced vision for a moment,’ I said.
I moved away from Ben and Tom, but Ronnie didn’t stop staring at me. It was definitely me, not Tom, that had freaked him out.
‘It’s me, Ronnie,’ I said. ‘What do you see?’
Ronnie retrieved his glasses, put them back on and peered at me. ‘Emma?’
‘You don’t even need the glasses,’ I said. ‘What did you see?’
He picked his chair up and returned it to its place. ‘I can’t really describe it,’ he said without looking at me.
I strode to him and he shifted uncomfortably away from me. I held my hand out. ‘Show me then.’
‘I’m not sure I want to touch you right now,’ he said, looking at my hand as if it was something toxic.
‘You’ve seen her serpent form many times; this can’t be what’s causing this,’ LK said. ‘Tell us what you saw.’
‘Serpent form?’ Ben said.
‘It’s a long story,’ I said. I didn’t lower my hand. ‘Show me.’
‘He can’t show you, you’re only a human. You need to be more than human to touch minds with a demon,’ LK said. ‘Don’t risk the damage from trying.’
I reached out, grabbed Ronnie’s hand and made the link.
He let his breath out in a long gasp, like he’d had the wind knocked out of him. ‘Holy shit.’
‘Did you just link to him?’ LK said.
‘Let me see what you saw, then I’ll show you what I saw,’ I said.
‘What did you see?’ LK said.
‘I’ll show you after he’s shown me,’ I said. ‘Do it, Ronnie.’
‘Wait,’ LK said, and came to us. He put his hand on my shoulder. ‘Good God, Emma, you really did that.’
‘Take a seat, Ben, Tom, this won’t take a moment,’ I said. ‘Help yourselves to the food if you like. The demon will be coming in a moment to take drinks orders.’
‘This is it,’ Ronnie said. ‘Tell me if you need me to back off.’
He showed me, and LK hissed quietly behind me. I wasn’t just a serpent; I was huge and black, my head brushing the ceiling. My eyes were as black as my scales, and I was covered in intimidating spikes over my head and down my back, with a frill around the back of my head instead of a cobra hood.
‘Looks like a Serpent form of John’s Turtle …’ I said, and my voice trailed off. I released Ronnie and fell to sit at the table, my head in my hands. ‘Oh dear Lord, no.’
‘More demonic than the Dark Lord,’ Ronnie said. ‘That thing was scary. Immeasurably big; I think it could take down the King easily. Immense destructive power, and so damn dark the centre of it was like looking into the Abyss. Whatever you were, Lady Emma, it certainly scared the living shit out of me, and I’m big enough to sire spawn on a Mother.’
‘You saw something too?’ LK asked me.
I nodded into my hand.
‘Are you concerned you’re his Serpent?’ Ronnie said, sitting next to me. ‘Is that what this is about? I’ve heard stories.’
I wiped my eyes. ‘If I’m his Serpent, then when he rejoins — well, that’s it, isn’t it? I’d be gone.’
‘You’re afraid of losing your identity into his?’ Ronnie said.
‘No, I’d welcome it,’ I said. ‘But for Simone, it would be the same as if I died. She’d gain him and lose me, and I’m like a mother to her. She’s lost enough family members as it is. I really can’t do it to her.’
‘You may not have a choice,’ Ronnie said.
I nodded.
‘Show me what you saw,’ LK said to me.
I raised my hands and each of them took one. I re-established the link and our minds touched.
LK was a human Immortal, not a Bodhisattva, so his soul didn’t have the ringing purity of a Buddha, but he was connected to the Universe and one with Eternity. His soul smelled of mint-fresh shen energy, intertwined with constantly regenerating ching energy, tasting of firelight and summer heat. His chi enveloped both and moved with his breathing, full of the essence of sunshine and autumn leaves. His Immortal nature sang in tune with the Universe, and was at the same time as small as an atom and as vast as a galaxy.
‘That I could attain such heights,’ Ronnie said with awe.
‘You have made the first step onto the Way,’ LK said.
‘It would take so long for me to travel there,’ Ronnie said.
‘You cannot travel to a Path, you are already on it,’ LK said. ‘And as you travel, time has less and less meaning. Eventually you are pure thought and time does not exist at all.’
Ronnie’s essence was the dark roiling thickness of demon, but there existed strands within it of chi; he had cast off his nature and turned, and was attempting to attain humanity. He didn’t taste of the foulness of demon; he was more like dark chocolate, deep and bitter, with the chi making sweeter and lighter strands through it. My heart went out to him; he’d turned hundreds of years before and still had achieved so little.
‘Remember what I said. Time is an illusion,’ LK said.
Ronnie nodded agreement inside my head.
I showed them what I’d seen when I walked in the door. I’d tasted LK’s pure Shen nature and Ronnie’s dark demon nature, made sour by his fear. I’d smelled Tom and Ben behind me; Tom’s demon nature was similar to Ronnie’s but in many ways different. Ronnie saw it as well and his mind glowed gold with the smell of spice and curiosity. Ben I saw as human; he was the only human there. Compared to LK his nature was earthy and rich, but he did have traces of something greater within him, like flashes of a deeper scent that came and went.
‘You aren’t supposed to be able to do that,’ LK said.
‘That’s something I haven’t heard anyone say in a very long time,’ I said.
‘No, Leo said it yesterday,’ the stone said. ‘And before you ask, I have no idea what you are.’
‘You don’t see people’s souls, you taste them,’ LK said. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. Usually we have a sight or sound analogue for the way we perceive the higher senses. Why are you experiencing them as smell and taste?’
‘Probably because I’m a snake,’ I said. ‘We work off taste and smell more than anything; that’s why we flick out our tongues all the time.’
‘Snake?’ Ben said weakly.
I released their hands and turned to speak to him. ‘Many spirits on the higher plane are the essence of nature, weather and animals,’ I said. ‘Dragons, tigers, wolves, foxes — many types of animals. Reptiles as well, including turtles, dragons, and snakes like me.’
‘Any cockroaches?’ Tom said, amused.
‘I’m