Chapter 15: 2.1

It started with another rock.

The little pests wouldn’t let Jade rest and kept throwing rocks at her head. What was their problem? This was just too petty. Bleary, she looked around and noticed that Chloe was not in the cage anymore. How? The prison was still closed. Had they taken the heroine away? Surely she would have struggled and Jade would have woken up. Had Chloe left her behind?

Before the panic could settle in, the world lurched, and Jade fell.

The sorceress closed her eyes waiting for the impact. Her backside hit something soft and bouncy. She kept her eyes closed, but nothing else happened. Slowly, she opened one eye. The thing that softened her fall jerked and Jade jumped in surprise. Beneath her, Chloe convulsed. The woman’s face was a mask of pain. Her teeth clenched and her eyes rolled back into her head.

Jade felt relief Chloe had not left her behind, but also panic about the heroine's situation. She paced around and tried to move Chloe, the other woman grunted in pain and the sorceress immediately stopped. Jade whimpered, distressed. She wanted to help; Wanted to flee; Wanted it to stop.

She half-remembered some first aid lessons they had ordered her to take, Jade gently and slowly turned Chloe onto her side. She then crumpled the sash and the threads she was wearing into a soft ball and put it under the heroine’s head. After a bit more consideration, she also removed the mask and opened her costume near the neck. Just to make sure, she told herself.

Now that the adrenaline was fading, the aches, headaches, nausea, and thirst made themselves known once more. Nothing she could do, so she talked. Softly, trying to calm herself and Chloe.

“You know. I hated you from the start.” Jade confessed. “We were both from Eleven. They loved you. They hated me. Not that it bothered me that much.” The sorceress lied again. “I had friends, you know? Still have, even if I think I won’t see them again.” Jade sat, holding her knees. “I’m going to miss Mr. Snuggles.” Jade rolled her eyes and huffed. “Yeah, laugh away. I was thirteen. What else I would name him? He was ugly and maybe has too many teeth and eyes, but he had the best hugs ever.”

The talk might have helped, because Chloe had stopped convulsing, and Jade had also calmed down. Jade took the chance to look around. Talking about Mr. Snuggles was silly. The entire gang and Mr. were stranded gods know where, and she couldn’t open portals anymore.

It was a minimalist foyer if she had to name it. They had fallen in the exact center. A quick look around, revealed only some doors at the sides and one antique-looking couch, next to a mural. A big door behind Jade had the distinct light of the sun shining through. The walls were painted a soft grey, with designs of trees and flowers. She also saw doors on the left and the right. On each side of the doors, a black banner with squiggly lines drawn in golden relief. They shared the design, but the message was different for each banner.

The wall in front had the mural and the couch. It depicted a gigantic turtle swimming among the stars. On the turtle's back, were continents and oceans. Jade scoffed, it was certainly interesting for a planet theory, better than flat earth, that’s for sure, and more creative as well. The man sitting on the antiquated sofa seemed to agree. He was grinning like a maniac.

Jade jumped in surprise and took a fighting stance. A moment later she remembered she was naked and tried to cover herself, while still preparing to fight. It didn’t work that well.

The man had spiked orange hair and a bandanna over his forehead. Muscular, but not exaggeratedly so, with no shirt, and dressed in loose trousers and strange sandals. He had tattoos on his chest and arms with the faces of many beautiful Asian-looking women. He had arm bands, that made Jade think of those pra jiad that some fighters used. The man sat hunched forward, one of his arms resting on a wooden club he had over his shoulders.

Jade blinked. The guy was a picture of an anime thug.

“గ్వువాహాహా. నువ్వు నాకు చాలా సన్నగా ఉన్నావు చిన్నమ్మాయి.” The thug got up from the couch, a hand going for the pocket of his trousers. He took a toothpick and put it in his mouth. Still hunched forward he looked at Chloe. “మరోవైపు ఆమె...”

Jade did not know what he was saying, but she didn’t like it one bit the way he looked at Chloe.

“Who the fuck are you? And get away from her you creep!” The sorceress growled, eschewing covering herself to lunge at the man.

She feinted a punch, only to pivot and kick at his crotch. The man, not even looking at her, ignored her feint, and then raised his leg, protecting his weak spot. Now closer to him, she stepped inside his guard and punched at his kidney. The man laughed, bringing down his club to deflect the punch.

Jade prepared to attack again, but the man placed a hand over her head, and images and thoughts, and a blink of pain took her by surprise.

“Gwuahaha. Aren’t you a feisty one!” The man laughed again. Stepping away, looking at her with interest.

“W-what?” the sorceress froze. The man was speaking in the same strange language, but she could now understand him.

Still grinning like a fox in the henhouse, the thug stepped around her. Looking her up and down, like an interesting bug he’d just found.

“Nice foundation. Young, and vital Yin still intact.” He paced a bit more, “You need to eat more little chick, you all but skin and bones.” He tutted. “No boys…” He grinned again taking another gander at Chloe’s curves, “or gals gonna want a round with you if you like this.”

He waved his hand grandiosely, and a dark green robe without ornaments, very similar to the ones from ancient China she often saw on the supernet appeared in his hands. “Cover yourself, ya? Bring a man’s mood down looking at all them bony edges and no curves.”

Still startled and moving on autopilot, she draped the robes over herself.

“Now, this is interesting! Possession technique? Hum, maybe.” He said looking at Chloe and then Jade. “Nah. Clone? Ya, that checks out. Split the soul and shove it deep into the puppet.” He said wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

He crouched down, putting a finger on Chloe’s forehead. The woman that was jerking, struggling to get up calmed instantly. He looked pensively at Jade.

“The soul split and merge were amateurish. You left the puppet with too much autonomy, and you crippled your soul.” The man tutted again. “Pay attention little chick, emperors would kill their entire family for a single pointer from me!” The man boasted, a bottle appearing in his hand. He drank from it and then tossed it at Jade, who caught it dumbly.

“The choice of puppet was a good one, her cultivation helps with the control, a nice find. Here is where you went wrong.” He looked at Jade, suddenly serious. “You insert only a sliver of your soul into the puppet, make the puppet subservient.” He tsked looking at Chloe once more. “Not the entire half of your fucking soul!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands up. “Worse, she still has too much control. She will turn on you, eventually. Your best bet is to kill her and recover your soul, then you try again later with another puppet, but you integrate the soul more carefully, and correctly.”

He sighed. “Shame tho, she’s packing some good stuff there. I approve!” He grinned and flashed her a thumbs-up and another suggestive eyebrow wiggle.

Jade stared blankly, trying very hard to not look too out of place. Dazed, she took a drag from the bottle, the sweet liquid burning her throat pleasantly. Soon after, the flame spread through her body and she saw the minor injuries all healing up and her hunger and thirst disappeared, as did the aches, pain, and nausea.

She pulled at the collar of her new robe; she looked again at herself. Yeah, a bit on the skinny side, but she had nice legs and good thighs for her size. Nice abs as well, she just needed to squint a bit. Yep, all there. Skin and bones her not-so-bony behind!

The man had moved back to the couch, sitting cross-legged, observing her curiously.

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The sorceress looked at the man, mentally steeling herself, and taking a step closer to the heroine. When he didn’t object, she dropped small sips into Chloe’s mouth.

“That won't help her little chick. The puppet is suffering from backlash. She tried to break the soul tether using brute force.” the man scoffed at that.

“I’m Jade,” Jade said. She wanted to ask why he kept calling Chloe a puppet, but she didn’t like the implications. Then she pointed at the now sleeping heroine. “She’s Chloe.”

The man scoffed again, he surely enjoyed doing that. “You can call me Suriya little chick.”

Jade nodded. “Thank you for the clothes and the drink Suriya, but can you tell me where are we?”

The man froze for a moment before he started laughing. It miffed Jade his reaction, Suriya kept laughing so hard that the sorceress thought it had to be fake. No one laughed that long or that hard.

“Little chick, you enter this old man's inheritance knowing nothing about it?” The man waved her response away. “Nah, don’t really care about why. It is just too funny.” he mimed clearing tears from his eyes. “This is your new abode,” he mentioned around. “Fulfill the conditions, and you gain stuff. A new cultivation method,” he rolled his eyes, “new techniques, artifacts. The whole shebang, you know how it goes. Fail, and you’re stuck in that forest out there. Succeed and you can leave.”

There was a lot to unpack, and there were lots she wanted to ask, but Jade asked more about the trial since the man seemed willing to talk.

“How do we succeed in this trial?” She ventured.

“Nay, little chick. No cheating. I only showed up because I thought your puppet technique interesting, if flawed.”

“Can you teach Chloe the language?” She asked.

“Already did, precocious chick,” he said disinterestedly.

“Food and clothes?” She tried, and the man pointed to the other two doors. In one last attempt, she pleaded. “Can you help her?”

Suriya sighed. “Look chick. I got it. She is beautiful and sexy. You like her, and you think she’s your friend. She is not. She’s a puppet, don’t get attached. If you ignore everything else I say, pay attention to this.” The man got up and walked towards Chloe. He put a hand on her head and a golden glow appeared. “Use the puppet as much you can, then discard it before she turns on you.”

The glow faded, and the man got up. “Well, if you need anything else, call me. I’ll answer, but just the one time. Think carefully about what you want. I’d hate it if you called me for the boring stuff.” Without fanfare, the man disappeared after saying that. No lights, explosion, or smoke. One moment he was there, the next he had vanished.

Jade blinked and looked around, she didn’t know what to do, and it scared her to leave Chloe alone. “Crazy dude,” she said after a moment. She moved closer to the now-sleeping heroine. She moved Chloe’s head to her lap and idly ran her fingers through the other woman’s hair. It was oddly comforting. Something felt different. Or maybe she was imagining things. Suriya had said a lot of strange things, and now she was just overthinking stuff like always.

She stayed there for a moment, but soon Jade felt restless. Her body was full of energy, and she started fidgeting. Whatever she had drank, felt like two full cups of very sugary coffee that someone had spilled a kilo of sugar inside.

Taking Chloe’s head from her lap and placing it in the cloth bundle again, she looked around. The bottle Suriya had given her was still there. Jade didn’t remember putting it down. That was lucky, the man had forgotten to take it back.

Looking around, she noticed she could now read the banners.

To the left, one seemed a haiku about rest.

The hard dark scales

nurtures the desolate world

with sleeping eyes.

The second banner was the name of a sect, the World Bearing Black Tortoise Sect.

On the right side, was another Haiku.

Sustenance amidst

An extreme winter landscape

A warrior born.

The other, seemed to name a person. Great Patriarch World Venerate Black Turtle.

Jade looked at the names again, then at the mural depicting the giant turtle. She shrugged. “Weirdos,” she said in the new language without realizing it.

From far away, she heard rambunctious laughter.