Magicium Disfigurement By T.N. Baldwin

Chapter 4: The Operation

Wěi had clearly done this before. He was a flitting shadow, noiseless and almost impossible to track. Despite his opposition to the assignment, and Gabriel himself, the boy waited whenever he got too far ahead and refrained from commenting at their slow and clumsy passage.
Well, I am carrying a small child.
On several occasions Wěi dipped into hidey-holes and other dark recesses, dragging his impediments behind him. Each time, Gabriel had no idea why they had stopped and was prohibited from speaking by Wěi's glare. Once the real or imagined danger had passed, Wěi hurried into the darkness before Gabriel could ask questions.
At first, Gabriel tried to remember the labyrinthine route through the tunnels and caves. Most of the initial twisting, climbing, dipping and splashing occurred in darkness, making this almost impossible. Gabriel was soon bewildered by the paths they followed, wondering how Wěi kept the changes of direction in his head. He fell into a stupor, his mind and body almost robotic as they entered another open junction of arterial passages.
Without warning, Wěi swore and grabbed Gabriel's collar, almost hauling him bodily into a filthy sewer. They crawled through the muck, Lee-Lee slung across his aching back. Wěi led him around a slight bend in the pipe before slipping back to the entry.
Time passed. No matter where he sat with Lee-Lee nestled in his lap, a drip seemed to find him, spattering more unknown liquid over his already repugnant clothing and hair. His charge's skin seemed to have cooled. He was not sure this was a good sign.
Wěi's hiss startled him awake. A gasp exploded from Gabriel's lips, reverberating through the pipe. "Shut it," whispered Wěi furiously, the first words Gabriel had heard since entering the underground maze.
Gabriel grabbed the boy's arm, a puff escaping through the younger boy's teeth. "What's going on?"
"Let go of me." Despite the almost imperceptible volume, his tone was murderous.
"Tell me what that was."
"Let. Me. Go. Or I will cut you, little girl or no little girl."
Gabriel imagined a blade gleaming despite the darkness, its sting as sharp as a stonefish's. He released Wěi's arm.
The boy's tone was curt. "We call them Rustlers. They take háizi our age or younger and train them to be soldiers. Just rip them away from their families, never to be seen again." His voice growled as it had when he first spoke through his door. "They've been haunting the Drains these last few weeks."
"Drains?"
"Where we are. Where I live. The seedy underbelly of Shanghai City."
"Shanghai? Where's that?"
"What do you mean, where's that? Everyone knows..." A slow realisation seemed to dawn. "You aren't from China." Horror etched his voice as it became more high-pitched. "You're here to sell me out to the Rustlers. That's why you won't move quietly. That's why –"
"Don't be stupid. Think about it. Would they send someone with my disease – someone easy to spot? Wouldn't I have abandoned you just now? Would I bother having a sick child with me?"
"Maybe a child you kidnapped for the army. But she's too young. Kě yǒu kě wú háizi." SeeingGabriel's confused look, he tried to clarify. "You know. A child you found that you can get rid of. There are too many of them down here." His voice sounded like it was on the edge of a precipice. Gabriel could feel Lee-Lee's – and his – life hanging by the direction Wěi chose to jump.
"Look at how I'm dressed. Well, think about it," he said, realising looking was not an available option. "Barefoot – walking in this muck?" He had another idea. "Feel my shirt. It's woven from palm fibres. My name's Gabriel. I'm from Papua New Guinea."
Wěi fingered the rough cloth. "Where's Papua New Guinea?"
"Over the ocean. To the south."
Suspicion turned to scepticism. "You sailed over the ocean? No-one sails over the ocean." He shuddered. "Too many Mythtakes."
"Mythtakes?"
"You don't know what..." Wěi sounded even more disbelieving. Gabriel heard him swallow. "Alright, you don't want to tell me where you're from. That's fine. A lot of people don't these days, especially not down here." He paused. "And I don't think you're faking it. No-one would bother pretending they don't know what Mythtakes are. Especially not in Shanghai."
"What are they?"
"Wild, manmade creatures. They were first created here in Shanghai, at Fudan University. I've never seen a Mythtake but they're scary. Even scarier than the Rustlers." Now that he had started talking, Wěi seemed unable to stop. "Dragons, trolls. Krakens and sea serpents in the ocean. Heaps of others too."
"We saw a sea serpent on our way here. And a dragon."
"Yeah, good one. Look, I don't need to know any more. Though Gabriel's the wrong name for you. Should be 'Gaping Hole'. Like the huǎng – the gaping holes in your story."
Lee-Lee lay very still across Gabriel's numb leg. He decided he could not be bothered convincing this idiot. "If those Rustlers or whatever they're called are gone, we'd better get Lee-Lee to this doctor."
"Fine, Gaper." Gabriel flared at the name but bit the inside of his mouth to stop himself antagonising the boy. "And she's an Architect, not a doctor."
"What's the difference? You know what, don't worry about it. Let's get going."Wěi muttered something that sounded like, "You'll see," before returning along the sewerage pipe. He was cautious as he left the tunnel, scanning the underground plaza, taking a few steps and scanning again. He stuck to the shadows at the edges, except when they came to a gap leading to another path, when he darted across the lit space. Gabriel mimicked him as best he could while bearing his burden.
Soon they reached a cleaner area, more well-lit, and Wěi seemed to relax a little more. Abodeswere marked with proper doors and they even saw people in the streets, quite willing to turn their noses up at the filthy urchins scumming up their district. After several more turns, Wěi led Gabriel into a blind alley with a tall wooden fence that looked impassable.
Looking over his shoulder, Wěi strolled to the fence, delivering a curious, rhythmic knock. About a minute passed before three boards swung upwards, revealing a narrow tunnel with strange lanterns glimmering along its length. "She loves her xiǎo gōngjù," Wěi muttered to no-one in particular before leading Gabriel into the hole. He heard the palings click shut behind him.
They padded along a floor of smooth stone, its clean simplicity reminding Gabriel of his own questionable appearance. As he walked past them, he realised that the lights in the wall were not lanterns but little white balls emitting a steady glow. His neck craned, trying to figure out how they worked, as Wěi hastened him along the tunnel.
After ascending a steep flight of stone stairs, they walked through a door that opened itself as they approached, fascinating Gabriel despite his exhaustion. He was distracted from pondering how it worked by a heavy pounding blasting through the air and vibrating through the tiled floor.
It was a huge room, lit with larger versions of the lights in the passage. Around its edge, sections were partitioned using thin, portable walls. Tubes hung from the ceiling in the centre, some still, some wriggling, their tentacles trailing like the strands below a box jellyfish. Each bunch connected to one of eight clear capsules fixed to the floor below. All eight cylinders rose almost to the ceiling. Within five of the chambers lurked different oddities, none of which Gabriel could comprehend.
In the nearest capsule, he saw a pair of broad, filmy wings, their texture a dragonfly's but shaped like a butterfly's. Several thin cables linked to the outer edges of each wing. The chamber alongside held a long black device with a clear tube hanging from each end. A handle projected from the device's underside. Another capsule held unattached cables, writhing within their cell. Yet another series of cables lifted and smashed a heavy chunk of metal within a fourth giant canister, explaining the thumping he had felt as he entered.
Gabriel was drawn to a disquieting chamber on the far corner. Gently pulsing cables were fastened onto fourteen eggs, slightly smaller in size than hen's eggs but with a broader abdomen. They looked like evil transparent snakes latching on to their own unborn babies. A moment later he realised the eggs were snake eggs, similar to those in a taipan's nest he had discovered a few months before leaving his home. He backed away from the capsule, looking for Wěi.
The other boy had vanished. Gabriel circled the unnerving containers in case Wěi was inspecting the contents on the other side. "Wěi?" Holding Lee-Lee tighter than before, he backed towards the sliding door. "Wěi? Are you there?" He whirled, ready to run...
...and discovered an older woman being assisted through the door by his missing confederate. Gabriel blinked. Despite being immaculately groomed, the similarities – no, sameness – between this woman and Wěi's mother was impossible to miss. "Gaper, this is Yímā Jing, my auntie. You will call her Yímā – or Architect. Yímā Jing, meet Gaper."
Jing limped forward, shaking off Wěi's ministrations. She looked him up and down, taking in the entire picture: a foreign teenager with rustic dress and bare feet encrusted with every type of filth available underground, some of which he had transferred to her pristine blue floor. Longish hair like unkempt seaweed, an odour other smells would flee from and a face and chest smothered in stonefish deformities. Oh, and let's not forget the broken little girl crumpled in his arms. I'm a walking ode to the pathetic. He brushed his hair back from his forehead.
She said nothing about his appearance. "Gaper? An unusual name. Tell me, where have you come from?"
Gabriel bristled for a second, glaring at Wěi who seemed to have developed an interest in the light blue tiles on the floor. "It's Gabriel, actually." He managed to convert his growl to a grimace mid-sentence. "From Papua New Guinea."
Jing cocked an expressive eyebrow. "That's... unusual." She searched his face, her dark eyes like a brush dusting for fingerprints. "It must be quite a story." Those eyes shifted to the girl balled in his arms. "But it can wait." She limped across to the nearest cubicle, opening a partition. He noticed that one leg seemed to be shorter than the other. She looked impatiently at Gabriel. "Well? Bring her across."
Gabriel looked at Jing. Shorter than Gabriel, her hair strangled her scalp in a severe bun and, if anything, swirled with more grey than Wěi's mother's. She wore a long blue coat that reached to her knees. Despite the similarities, there was an absence of chin hair on her rounded face and her penetrating eyes squatted in dark pools within their sockets. He was not sure whether to trust her but, looking at the grey face of his little companion, he knew he had no choice. Gabriel carried LeeLee to the bed inside the cubicle and fumbled her onto the mattress. He slumped into an armchair that matched the tiles. "Are you related to Wěi's mother?"
"How did this girl get into this state?" Jing demanded as if Gabriel had not spoken.
"She hasn't had much food and water. And she vomited on the way here. We sailed across the ocean over the last few weeks –"
"I don't need a life story," she snapped, taking Lee-Lee's pulse. "But has she been over-exposed to some sort of magicium recently?"
"Well, she... She powered a magicium motor to get us across the water."
Jing's hooded eyes lifted, reminding Gabriel of a black honey buzzard. He remembered one glaring at him as he had climbed a tree back home, clearly coveting the beehive Gabriel had his eye on. The buzzard had piped at him in a series of staccato notes. Gabriel had quailed and slunk away.
He didn't think that was an option this time.
"How old is she?"
"Four." Gabriel tried to say it as if it was normal for people in his village to push a four-year-old so hard, which was very difficult to convey in only one word.
"You mean you let a four-year-old help power a boat across the ocean for weeks?" Jing's hostile tone would have withered live coral, even as she continued to investigate Lee-Lee's still body.
Gabriel could feel Wěi's satisfaction at the way the conversation had progressed. He also suspected it might be best not to mention that he had done nothing to help operate the boat. "There was a terrible monsoon – and a dragon attack. We couldn't have done any more than we did."
"She couldn't have, certainly." Jing looked Gabriel up and down again.
"She only started it each day," he said defensively. "Don't these motors run themselves once they're started? Using magicium in the air or something?"
Jing stood upright. "You mean," she said quietly, "that this little girl was propelling the boat every single day?"
Without looking at her, Gabriel nodded.
"A girl her age can't just do that. I wouldn't want her starting it more than twice a week, let alone running it day after day." She held up her hand, although Gabriel had no intention of interrupting. "And yes, magicium motors mostly run by themselves. Starting them takes the most energy, but as they go on, there is still a slow drain. Devices are more convenient than doing things by the mind alone; even lighting a candle can knock out experienced magic users for half a day if they haven't been well trained. But for a little girl like this..." She shook her head. "I can't believe she's still with us."
Rather than bite, Gabriel gritted his teeth and asked, "So, can you help her?"
"Do you have payment?"
Gabriel stared into those suddenly hideous eyes. He knew he could trade the motor but had begun to think maybe this woman would help Lee-Lee out of the goodness of her heart, given how concerned she had seemed a moment ago. He felt sick. He was sure the motor was his ticket to success in this new place, a way to start off with something in his pocket...
A proverb from his father sprang into his head: 'Mani em i no laip.'
Money is not life.
Another proverb sank like silt into his mind: 'Taim i no inap kambekgen. Em go na go olgeta.'
Time cannot wait. It goes and goes completely.
His eyes betrayed their way to Lee-Lee's face. He pulled out the motor. "Will this do?"
Jing wrinkled her nose. Gabriel felt the smallest vibration as the motor started.
"Yes, that will be fine." She pulled a glove onto her hand. "More than fine. A piece like that will be helpful for my operation. I'll help the little girl..."
"Lee-Lee."
"I'm almost surprised you know her name," she sniffed. "But I'll give you a second Architect'streatment for free – you or her – if you should need it – for that motor."
Gabriel hesitated, looking at the motor. He really needed money more than...
His eyes snagged on the pink-white skin of his arm. Trying to keep his voice steady, he said, "One treatment?"
"Yes," she said, placing a cold rag on Lee-Lee's head.
"Can you fix my skin?"
Jing sucked in a breath. "I think you'd be better to save it for something more life-threatening than that. What if Lee-Lee has a relapse –"
"Then you won't have done your job properly," he interrupted, energy returning as he imagined being whole again. "You'd have to help her anyway."
"We have a proverb about vanity. 'The big tree attracts the gale.' You would do well to remember it."
Several answers spun through Gabriel's mind.
I've been through the gale already.
Papua New Guinean proverbs are better.
Do I look big to you?
Just fix my stupid skin!
In the end, he just said, "I have chosen."
It felt like a turning point.
She pursed her lips. "I doubt I can fix it perfectly," she said, looking at the marks on his face."But I'm sure I could make it... less obvious. She lowered herself, staring into Gabriel's eyes. "It is not the best use of an Architect's talents."
"To me it is." Gabriel looked at the motor one last time before nodding, holding it at afflicted arm's length.
"I think that one day you will regret this situation. Perhaps not today or tomorrow, but you will."
Shaking her head, Jing tucked it in a pocket, then scooped Lee-Lee from the bed. "She's not at death's door yet, but let's not waste any more time. You wait here. I'll deal with her first." Her shoes clacked unevenly on the floor as she waddled away, favouring her right leg.
Once her footsteps had faded, Wěi popped his head around the edge of the partition. "Hey, I've seen my aunt go at some irresponsible parents before, but that – that was a huǒchē shīshì." Seeing Gabriel's confused look, he added, "You know – a train wreck."
"Why are you still here?"
"Can't go back till the morning," Wěi said, stretching theatrically. "The streets around the Drains are dangerous now. Course, they're always dangerous but night-time..." He drew a finger across his throat and gave a lop-sided grin. "Look, I can tell you've both had a jiānnán shíqí." He rolled his eyes at Gabriel's vacant look. "A pretty hard time. And it seems you aren't contagious, like you said. How 'bout we go and raid Yímā's kitchen and then you get a bit of sleep? You look like the corpse of a child soldier."
Gabriel stood up, his eyes going blurry for a moment. His stomach felt like an empty sack hanging from a boat in a high wind. He walked over to Wěi, trying not to show how tired he was. The smaller boy led him to a door he had not noticed in between two of the partitions.
"So, Jing's – sorry, Yímā's – your aunt?"
The door led to a brightly lit corridor with a number of closed doors either side. Wěi opened one and said, "Yeah. They're twins. Mama don't hold with magicium stuff except when it's absolutely necessary, as a last resort. Also, not everything Yímā does is totally legal. Course, she's made a bit more of herself than Mama has." He said the last in the tone of someone preparing for a fight.
Gabriel found he had no fight left in him. "Your Mama looked after us as well as she could. I'm grateful." He looked into Wěi's hard eyes. "To you too. Even if you have been a jerk."
Wěi's mouth tightened, his face closing over. "Bathroom," he said. "Clean up, then we'll get some food."
They ate cold chicken and rice with vegetables. Gabriel, having learnt his lesson, tried to eat slowly and managed to resist guzzling his water. He told himself he would forget his hunger as soon as he fell asleep, which was not too far away.
Wěi entertained him with far-fetched stories about life in the Drains. To hear him tell it, Wěi had been involved in every petty criminal activity in the last six months, had managed to survive two gang brawls against the Snow Leopards and the Jade Pins, and had witnessed a murder. Gabriel found himself enjoying the other's company, especially the dry humour that laced each punchline, although he confused Gabriel sometimes with his hybrid of Mandarin and English. Before long, Gabriel's burst of energy flagged and his mouth opened in a yawn that could have swallowed the ocean they had crossed.
"Sure, I can take a hint," said Wěi, his eyes going hard despite the grin splitting his face.
He led Gabriel across the hall and into a room with a small cot built close to the ground. It just had a pillow and coverlet and looked hard and uncomfortable.
"Hey, reckon I'll stick around and take you back to Mama in the morning. The bǎobǎo too, if she's better." Wěi's body was silhouetted in the doorway, his face unreadable. "Hope your operation's all right." He closed the door with a click.
The bed was hard, the mattress thin, the pillow lumpy. Gabriel told himself that was why he was unable to sleep and not the journey he had just finished or the doubts about fixing his skin or the stories of the Drains or Wěi's unpredictable reactions or his worry about Lee-Lee or his questions about the strange experiments Jing was conducting.
How is a doctor different from an Architect anyway?
He knew he was overtired. After rolling from shoulder to shoulder until each seemed to ache with the effort, he padded from the room and into the hallway.
Everything was silent. It seemed the light out here was never switched off or else Wěi had forgotten about it. Gabriel plodded back to the entry room to see if he could work out what Jing was experimenting with in the clear chambers.
He avoided looking at his dirty footprints trailing over what was once a spotless floor as he ambled to the centre of the room. The thumping lump of metal had stopped and Gabriel thought he could make out a clear, flat surface raised above the floor, though on certain angles he could see nothing. The filmy wings fluttered gently, as if a cool breeze was caressing their edges. The writhing cables had stilled, looking thicker and more solid than they had previously. The device had not changed, as far as Gabriel could tell.
Three empty chambers stood around the final one, as if protecting the other active capsules from whatever evil it was manifesting. The eggs were a blur, making it hard to tell whether they really were snakes' eggs or if it was just a fanciful notion spawned by his exhausted state.
Gabriel tapped the chamber. Strangely, it made no sound.
The disjointed clacking of Jing's gait interrupted his musing. Uncertain whether he was allowed to be in there, he moved towards the sound as if he had just come looking for her.
Best not to appear too curious.
Before he could speak, she held up her hand. "Lee-Lee is fine. She hasn't woken yet but her life is in no danger. Almost as importantly, I think I have saved her from losing her magicium ability. We won't know for sure until she has to try using it."
A spasm of guilt tinkered with Gabriel's stomach for a moment. "I promise I'll never ask her to use it again."
Jing just smiled sadly.
Rather than dwelling on her reaction, Gabriel decided to change the subject. "I was just wondering –"
"I can work on you in a few minutes. I just need to –"
"No, I was just going to ask... What's going on in those glass capsules over there?"
A portion of Wěi's sarcasm rose to the surface. Great cover story. I thought we agreed not to bring that up?
To his surprise, Jing seemed pleased he had asked, though no smile touched her thin lips. "This is the work of an Architect. Using magicium, we seek to learn, to build, to create. Some of my experiments are for others, some for my own benefit and interest." She led him to the thickened cables. "This is magicium cable. It is attracted to any creature of magic, helping subdue it when wrapped around it." She moved to the next. "On the floor is solid magicium." She gestured to the place where Gabriel thought he had seen something raised from the ground. "I've just been conducting a bit of an experiment to work out what happens when extreme force is applied to it. I'll have to test the results tomorrow night."
"What do you expect?"
"I'm just going to wait and see." She sighed as she came to the next one, the device on the ground."And this is another failure. For some reason, I can't get devices to work. I've heard some Architects have learnt to construct them but I've never met one. It's more art than most people realise." Jing glared at the black contraption. "And I haven't found an Artificer willing to share their secrets."
Fascinated, Gabriel filed away the idea that Artificers worked with devices and Architects with creating life. I'll need magicium help if I'm going to destroy those beasts. Micella's face rose from the coals in his stomach as he imagined wreaking revenge on those who had attacked his village.
Jing had limped to the wings. Gabriel hurried to join her. "And these... These are for me. For fun." She muttered, "As long as the damn things work this time." She turned back to Gabriel. "Well, I'm going to get something to eat, then we'll –"
"What about the capsule down the end?" blurted Gabriel. "The one with the eggs?"
Jing pursed her lips, though he thought she was thinking rather than angry. At least, he hoped she was. "That... that is something totally new. For my most important customer, at least from a financial point of view. She has rather... unusual tastes."
"Who is she?"
"There is another proverb I apply when working with clients: 'What is told into the ear of a man is often heard a hundred miles away.' This experiment is so... sensitive... I would rather not compromise it." She looked Gabriel in the eye. "Or the person who ordered it." She said the last like someone whacking the last shovelful of dirt on a grave.
Gabriel knew better than to push, though the coals flared again, making him wonder how important this information might be. Maybe once she knows me better...
Somehow, he doubted it.
Within an hour, Jing had prepared him for his operation. Holding a needle in front of his eyeline, she said, "Are you sure you want to use your free treatment on this? Life stretches many years and much can go wrong tomorrow."
"Another proverb?"
"Yes. My own." She looked at him, the needle gleaming in the harsh white light. "Well?"
Gabriel lay there for a moment. Remembering Micella. Remembering his father. Thinking of Lee-Lee. Thinking of the times where having a genius doctor... Architect... whatever Jing was... might have been helpful.
He looked down at his orchid-stained chest. "Let's do this," he growled.
Lips pursed, she pricked his arm.
Bright lights, beeping machines and a sterile smell greeted him when his eyes rose from the dead.
"Where am I?" he asked no-one in particular.
He fell asleep again.
It could have been minutes or days later when he woke again, his head still hazy. He lifted his arm, which responded in a rubbery way. He looked at it for a moment, his eyes crossing with the effort. Something seemed not quite right about it...
When he woke the third time, a familiar face was perched above his. He cried in shock as her black eyes bored into him, the light haloing behind her head somehow making her visage even more sinister. "How are you feeling?"
He slowed his heart, trying to remember why he was there. He trawled through his mind, fighting to link the face to a name.
"Yímā Jing?"
"Yes, that's very good, but how are you feeling?"
"Dizzy?" He put his hand to his head, wondering why it came out as a question. Dizzy was definitely the right word for it. His eyes focused on the hand, trying to remember...
"The operation. Did it work?" He blinked to clear his vision, trying to take in his hovering hand.
"See for yourself."
Jing propped him with pillows. Clearing the light from his direct line of vision helped and he started to make out dark objects in the room. Before he could clearly discern anything, Jing held a mirror in front of his face. He recoiled for a moment; he had avoided looking at his reflection ever since the spots had appeared.
His face was mottled, stained by lighter shades of brown amongst the natural colour of his skin. While it was an improvement, he could not deny he was far from attractive. Aside from the patchwork skin, his lips were thick and pale pink, hiding crooked teeth. His nose was the last tomato in the bunch, the one everyone threw away. Already he was developing a thickset jawline, even though he had hardly eaten in weeks.
And then there were his strange grey eyes.
Flat.
Cold.
Dead.
Like a shark's.
No.
Like a stonefish's.
"As I said, I couldn't cover the skin condition entirely. There's only so much magicium can achieve without injections – which make you dependent on the stuff for life – or replacing the skin entirely." Her voice had a decrepit quality, as if her tongue was a piece of sandpaper that had been used until it was worn through.
Gabriel took another look. He didn't look great, but he no longer appeared so obviously... sick.
He smiled.
Like a camouflaged stonefish.
"Thanks for doing this." He toddled back through his memory, little pieces clicking to remind him how the operation had come to pass. "And thanks for telling me the truth about how much the motor was worth. This would never have happened if you hadn't."
For the first time since meeting her, Jing smiled. "There's another proverb my father used when I got into this business: 'Whenever there is profit to be made, then think of honesty.' I might be in an illegal profession, but I try to tell the truth – to be fair – to every client who comes for help."
He looked at his smooth face. Still blotchy, still imperfect, but no longer a source of ridicule.
Maybe that's a proverb I can get on board with.