Incarna

50 - Fire Horse

Day 12: Yunnan Burmese Border

Jing Shen sat quietly, his stunned expression having frozen on his face like a sudden winter blizzard. Of all the outcomes of his prodding to acquire the name of who his nemesis truly was … This was a farce!

Qing waited, bemused at how much of a shock her pronouncement had made upon him. She quivered with the excitement of watching him wrestle with all of his instincts. Come to me Jing Shen, there is nothing left for you now, she willed him to breakthrough his intransigence in returning to the rightful path.

“A Qilin,” Shen guffawed. His roar of laughter shattered the silence, Qing’s expectations and rattled the french doors. He stood up from his chair, turned and strode to the middle of the study. “Kill me now whoever has their finger on the button of my future for I choose not to go forth into a world full of the insanity of mythology!”

He turned to her, “you are the one who has been drugged! The Qilin is a myth! Used by the Theocracy to maintain power over the religious illiterate masses!” He stood hands on hips in complete defiance of everything Qing had put in place to bring him back to the moist thighs of the Order of the White Tigress. Qing held her smile though inside she was reeling at his response.

He raised his right hand and pointed his index finger directly at her. “So this is how it works! Can’t you remember seeing all the news stories about mythical creature sightings? No? Really!” He shook his head at her immobility. “then the dust storms began and the heavenly lightning began destroying and executing the evil ones and their minions!”

Qing blinked for what seemed the first time. Somewhere in her memory where all these things that he spoke of, yet she disregarded them. In her heart of hearts she she had been blessed by the presence of a Fire Horse who came to her and revealed the truth and gave her the means to right the world.

He stood pointing at her from the middle of her study, leering his disgust at her stupidity. Jing shook his head in pity. “The Qilin belongs to the faery tale realms of our great mythical emperor Huang Di, not to the politics of our modern world.” Jing Shen’s shoulders slumped. He sighed and shook his head his outrage spent and his pity for her, now in full residence in his heart.

“I thought for a moment there, that you had truly become a great Baihu. A White Tigress whose name would resound through the coming centuries just as Su nu still does today, but I was greatly mistaken. The Qilin is a myth, based on some meditation addled monk who had to make up excuses for his mistakes in the royal court!”

“I’m a scientist Madam Qing. Every herb, every mineral, every manipulation I perform has centuries of documentation behind it’s application. I don’t require myths to make sense of my world.” He walked toward her purposely. He stopped just in front of her and knelt down and closed her gown. She shivered at his touch and for a moment she imagined what might have been as his hands had cupped a breast and parted her thighs. She saw his tears and knew that any possibility of his coming to her was now lost.

“I will find whoever or what ever this Qilin really is and I will return and free you from it’s spell. No one should ever be held in thrall of anyone of anything!” He stood and stepped back away from her as if to release himself from any spell she may be casting upon him.

Qing Senlin stood, her gown falling completely open and stepped up to him and placed her hand on his chest. “Incarna, they are called the Incarna and my Qilin is but one of many who have returned to guide us!” She reached across to the table and picked up his tea cup. “Here take this cup, it will help you in your quest!” She lowered her head and drew her gown about her concealing from him the only gates of heaven he would have the blessing of if he took up such a path.

Jing Shen stepped back, “Incarna, yes, that makes complete sense,” and he turned and strode from the room. 

Qing let he tears roll down her cheeks unhindered as she watched him leave. She listened to his footsteps as he crossed the stone floor of her entrance hall and his pause as the armoured doors swung open for him.

The french doors opened and a shimmering form approached and stepped through into the room.  Was it humanoid or was it four legged this time?" she thought. The figure searched the table then turned to the open door, “good, he has taken the cup with him!” It turned back toward the french doors in a haze of defracted light and electrostatic fizzing and zinging.

“Will I see you again,” asked Qing, not quite pleading for reassurance. “Perhaps, there is much to do,”and the Qilin disappeared into the garden. Qing waited a few breaths, then turned and closed the french doors. She sat back down at her desk and poured the last of the tea for herself. She held the cup and let the warm aroma draw her awareness away from all that had just happened. She drew a breath of resignation, set down her cup and tapped the screen. Qing waited for the static from the Qilin to fade and tapped a screen icon.

A virtual keyboard appeared on her desk and she began to record all that had happened.