CHAPTER 65: 65

"I’m here for two main reasons," said Xu Yidi. He looked down at the thick notebook in front of him. The breakfast ware had all been cleaned away leaving room for only serious discussions.

The dining table had become a round conference table and around it sat Bran, Misha, Xu Yidi, Malcolm, Aunt Yeung, Cheungyi, Ah-Boon and another woman who Misha didn’t know but assumed should be associated with Gou Ngaam (based on the fact that the woman’s lower half was in the shape of a snake’s and she had the same calming aura).

"The first reason is to give an update to Misha Long and Bran D’Arcy on some matters they were involved with, namely... the mindscape of a mundane girl named Coral Chan has been cleansed of all contamination, and the issue with currency fluctuations has been resolved and the exchange rates are back to normal."

"Coral’s better," Misha said happily. "I’m glad to hear that!"

"Helen said you might be," said Xu Yidi.

"Do they know who was messing about with the currencies yet?" asked Bran.

"This is... that matter involving the Walled City transparent Coil, is it not?" cut in Aunt Yeung.

"It is," said Bran. "The nostalgia generated by the residents of the place was being substituted for gratitude and sent the whole market out of whack."

"I believe Gou Ngaam complained about the price of buying materials..."

"As did Master Bou," mentioned Ah-Boon, a hand raised up like a student in a class.

Aunt Yeung shook her head. "Such worldly matters," she muttered.

"If you’d like to rid yourself of worldly matters, I’m sure Master Bou would be happy to take on the temple," said Bran.

His aunt glared at him while the rest of the adults in the know tried to not draw attention to themselves. "Moving on," said the displeased woman. "Little-Xu, you said there was another reason you came here?"

"Ah, yes." There was a quick flick of the notebook page. "I was also tasked in an official capacity to deliver a message of, um, warning."

"A warning

, you say." This seemed to amuse Aunt Yeung.

"Uh, not a warning in the sense of warning you or Whale Toes not to do something, I mean, it’s a warning about recent events. Uh," Xu Yidi consulted his notebook again, "to date there have been three cases of adult dragons going missing, five dragonlings, and... one ancient dragon."

A chill came over the room and the various people around the table looked at each other with alarm.

"An ancient dragon?" said Ah-Boon. "But surely..."

"I have not heard of this," said Cheungyi with a cold tone. "Why has the SSD been keeping secrets?"

"No, no!" Xu Yidi quickly waved his hands. "No, we haven’t been. Everything has just been happening too quickly and we’re understaffed. That’s why I was sent down actually, to help. It took some time to confirm that each of the dragons had indeed gone missing and were not hibernating or otherwise, that’s why it’s taken some time."

Malcolm gave a commiserating nod. "Lack of funding. It’s the same back in Pretan as well. Even the Merlin Club’s had to shut down for good."

Aunt Yeung brought her hand down on the table in front of her and the room went silent. "Is that all, Xu Yidi?"

Xu Yidi gulped and nodded.

"Very well. Now, Malcolm. What are you doing here? Someone as busy as you wouldn’t fly halfway round the world just to check on the Little Raven."

Malcolm chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Surely I’m allowed to visit the headquarters of the organisation I’ve dedicated my life to from time to time," he said.

"Naturally, if you had dedicated your life to it," replied Aunt Yeung.

Misha ducked his head to hide his smile. The more he saw and heard Aunt Yeung speak, the more reminded he was of Bran and his curt way with words. No wonder an argument between the two had resulted in Bran flying off in a huff to another continent.

"I know, I know," said Malcolm. "It looks like I haven’t contacted Whale Toes all that much recently, but-"

Aunt Yeung raised a hand. "Just say what you want to say. I don’t have time to listen to your excuses. Why are you here?"

Malcolm shut his mouth and glanced at Bran who was too busy playing with Misha’s tail to pay him any attention.

"Fine," he said. "In addition to making sure Bran is alright, the Pretan Library and the Bibliothèque Nationale, when they knew I was coming around this way, asked me to inquire if Whale Toes know about any break-ins that have occurred recently in both institutions."

Aunt Yeung scoffed. "You mean, they want to know if Whale Toes has stolen anything from them. You can tell them that if they think we’d admit to something like that, then they must think we are stupid."

Malcolm sighed and rubbed his face with a hand. "Alright, I’ll just..."

"What was stolen?" asked Bran. He was still looking down into his lap where he had Misha’s tail lightly twisted back and forth between his fingers but his hands had stopped moving.

"Just two sheets of paper," said Malcolm, "two pages actually, one from each library. They’re Chinese in origin, from the, oh what was it... The White Ze’s Map, I think it was?"

Bran’s fingers closed around the tip of Misha’s tail, sending a shot of electricity up his spine. "The Baize Tu?"

"Ah, yes, that was it."

The rest of the table, minus Misha, exchanged a look and Misha turned to Bran. "What’s...?"

"You remember the Shan Hai Jing? It’s a similar book, but it’s said to be more focused on beasts, ghosts, deities and things like that. It describes them and-"

"How to counter and control them," finished Aunt Yeung. "Little Dragon, I know from Bran that you were raised as a mundane human and I can see that he has done his best to teach you, but it is not adequate. I will send for you later and to discuss what should be done about your education."

Surprised at suddenly being singled out like that, Misha nodded dumbly.

"Aunty-" Bran began but his aunt raised a hand. This was not the time for discussion.

Instead, she turned back to Malcolm. "If it is the Baize Tu, you speak of, then I can tell you that Whale Toes was not involved with any thievery."

"No? Ah well. I’ll let them know," he said with a casual shrug.

"Mr. Best," said Xu Yidi. "If you would like the assistance of the SSD, or if those libraries would like our assistance in tracking down these artifacts, I would be happy to help arrange it."

Malcolm grinned and slapped the table. "That would be massive help! I’ll figure out the details then talk to you about it."

Misha was surprised to see the two suddenly get along but a slight tension in Bran’s hands on Misha’s tail told him that things were far from simple.

"Does anyone have anything else to add before we move on?" asked Aunt Yeung. "No, good. Then, Cheungyi, see to it that Xu Yidi and Malcolm Best are settled into the guest quarters."

The sentry stood abruptly and gestured to the pair to follow her.

"Aunt Yeung," said Bran. "I think, if you’re going to discuss last night, it might be a good idea to keep Xu Yidi in the room. He might be able to give us more information about the two people who came here."

Xu Yidi, Malcolm and Cheungyi all stopped and everyone looked to Aunt Yeung. She cleared her throat.

"Do the names Zhan or Morgan mean anything to you?" she asked.

Xu Yidi did not disappoint. He gasped and his eyes went round. "You mean..."

"Alright, you can stay," said Aunt Yeung with a wave of her hand.

Cheungyi gestured again at the door and Malcolm sighed. "If I said I knew them too, would you let me stay?"

"Out."

Malcolm left and the room seemed to take a collective breath. With Cheungyi and Malcolm gone, it was just six sitting around the table.

Misha leaned closer to Bran. "Why does your aunt dislike Malcolm so much?" he asked.

"Ideological differences," replied Bran.

"More than ideological differences, Little Raven," said Aunt Yeung. "I’m not sure I like you consorting with him."

"I’m not consorting with him..." Bran grumbled.

Yeah, if Bran’s consorting with anyone, it’s with me.

That got a chuckle out of Bran.

"Cheungyi, bring the book," said Aunt Yeung and one of the other sentries standing by the door stepped inside. She looked exactly the same as the Cheungyi who’d just left to show Malcolm to the guest area.

"Puppets. Multiple puppets," Bran quietly explained before Misha could ask.

Cheungyi went to her master and placed a large tome in front of her. As she did, Misha noticed that her fingers were segmented like a ball-jointed doll’s.

Aunt Yeung, seemingly unaware of Misha’s awe, opened the large book with a dull thud, grabbed a chunk of pages, and began to flip them.

Immediately a glowing 3D image appeared above the book depicting two people.