From alt.pub.dragons-inn Wed Aug 17 09:08:50 1994 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:7527 Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!math.ohio-state.edu!jussieu.fr!univ-lyon1.fr!swidir.switch.ch!newsfeed.ACO.net!Austria.EU.net!EU.net!uunet!mozz.unh.edu!christa.unh.edu!mca From: mca@christa.unh.edu (Marc C Allain) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [LC-OQ] L'ai Ch'i - OwnerQuest Date: 16 Aug 1994 19:52:07 GMT Organization: University of New Hampshire - Durham, NH Lines: 140 Message-ID: <32r5d7$8o8@mozz.unh.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: christa.unh.edu Admin: This story is copyright 1994 by Marc C. Allain. The author reserves all rights including repost. Permission is granted for distribution through usual net channels and for archiving. L'ai Ch'i is the exclusive property of Marc C. Allain. Longo is a free-use NPC. Story: L'ai Ch'i: OwnerQuest. Part Four. L'ai Ch'i hated mysteries. He hated running into unknows and he hated running down the answers. Yet here he was again. All he'd wanted was to buy a quiet little shop and sink into peaceful obscurity far from anyplace he was known. Instead, he was hip-deep in a mystery and he knew - he just knew - that his own past was going to come up at some point. L'ai Ch'i looked up. Of their own, his feet had brought him to the Dragon's Inn. Well, he could use a drink and he'd been wanting to give the place a try... As he opened the door, the wizard finally heard the harpsong that he suddenly realized had been playing in the back of his mind as he walked. A sudden suspicion hit him and he looked around. Sure enough, there on the performers' platform was the same bard he'd seen before at the Net And Trident. Now it was too late to back out. He went to a table in the middle of the room and signalled for a barmaid. By the time the beer arrived, the bard had finished playing 'Come Hither, Brave Lad," and was heading for L'ai Ch'i's table. The wizard half-bowed from his seat. "Be welcome at my table, bard," he greeted the harpist, half-formaly,half-sarcastically. "I thank you, my friend," the bard replied with a grin, sitting and signalling the bar-maid. When the man's ale arrived, L'ai Ch'i raised his mug in salute. "Slainte! Skaal! Salud!" he said very clearly and supressed a laugh as the bard started, visibly shaken. The wizard didn't know what the harpist's game was, nor exactly how it tied in with the missing Master of Greenstone Manor, but he was determined to gain the upper hand right at the outset. Letting the bard know that L'ai Ch'i knew what he was was the quickest way, and even without the summoning song, the little jewelled harp half-hidden in the folds of the man's cowl screamed his identity. Besides, that come-hither trick had annoyed the wizard for many, many centuries. "Salud! Skaal! Slainte!" the bard finally replied in proper response as he forcefully composed his aged, weather-beaten features. "Excuse me, but how do you come to know the old greeting?" - Good! thought L'ai Ch'i. He hasn't added things up yet. It gave the wizard at least one more card to trump with later if needed. "I know many things, good bard. That includes some things I shouldn't know." "That is evident," the old man replied, trying to sound ominous but still too shaken to manage it convincingly. "If I could ask, who betrayed our secret? It's an important matter, internally you understand." L'ai Ch'i smiled. "You wouldn't believe me. And anyway, it doesn't matter. 'It was long ago, and besides, the wench is dead.'" The bard frowned, not recognizing the quote. "It is important. If you know as much as you seem to, you'll understand that." "Okay then. It was Andrea. She-who-slew-the-emperor. She-who- toppled-the-empire. And quite by accident, she-who-beatified-Saint- Karimartra." The bard's frown turned into a scowl. He suspected he was being teased and didn't like it. "You're right. I don't believe you. That tale is millenia old." L'ai Ch'i shrugged. "The let's drop the small talk and discuss whatever you came to discuss." "It is...a proprietary matter. I cannot discuss it in public. Perhaps my room?" The wizard snorted. "Sorry, but no thank you. I prefer to have a few witnesses handy - just in case." He switched then to a musical language where the words were window dressing and the melody was what carried the message. "We can duet, and no one will be the wiser. What more normal that a bard and his...friend singing together in a bar?" The bard goggled. Really! L'ai Ch'i thought, he should have been ready for this much at least. "Truly you know many secret," the bard sang back. "Enough! Tell me your business." "Very well, you are seeking a man. I seek him also. What do you want with him?" "I just want to buy a building from him. Nothing more. Is he one of yours?" "He was. Now he is rogue and must be eliminated." L'ai Ch'i had begun to suspect something of this sort. "You are of the militant bards?" "Yes, and so was he. He knows too many things to be allowed to roam free." "You've grown more militant over the ages. I too know things. Will you kill me, too?" "If I must. If you cannot assure me some way that your silence will be kept, I will have no choice." "Then I must convince you. That should be easy." "How will you do so?" "I will tell you who I am, and call in a very old debt." The old bard's voice took on a skeptical tone. "What name and what debt can save your life?" The wizard abruptly dropped out of the bard's secret speech. He rolled back his sleeve and displayed a small tattoo in the hollow of his elbow. It was a gold colored hand curled into a fist. "I am Feng Chuan, the Yellow Fist. That should assure you of my silence," he snapped. L'ai Ch'i enjoyed watching skepticism become uncertainty and then awe. He understood what the bard was going through. It isn't every day one meets an ancient legend face to face, let alone sitting down, drinking with one. L'ai Ch'i continued. "If I wanted to destroy you, I would not have spent a century of my life hiding your prede- cessors and erasing all memory of the Exposure. "By the agreement I made with you then, I will continue to guard your secrets - and destroy you myself if I ever judge it needful. And you will leave me to my own affairs, not seeking to cross my purposes." Watching the bard absorb al of this, L'ai Ch'i wondered how many more centuries the bluff would last. The truth was, he was terrified of the bards and kept their secret because he knew they would hunt him down and make his death long and unpleasant if he ever exposed them. He was surprised that they hadn't realized the truth ages ago: that psychology and creative storytelling had had more to do with making people forget the ones who could control their minds with music than any magic of his had. "Very well," the bard finaly replied. "In repayment of the debt, I will let you live." L'ai Ch'i nearly panicked. Play it tough - he told himself. "Wrong, Minstrel," L'ai Ch'i snapped, using the most insulting term known among bards. "You leave me alone because I have shown over the course of the centuries that I will keep faith. And as payment on the mere interest of your debt to me, you will tell me everything you know about this rogue bard. I will assure you of his continued silence, if and when I find him. I give you the proven word of Feng Chuan." Would the bard buy it, or finally call his bluff? How superstitious were they these days? The old man was silent for a long time. At last, he said, "Agreed," and finished off his ale at one gulp. Signalling for another drink, he began telling the little wizard everything he knew about the man they'd both sought. Admin: Comments are welcome, and in fact desired. -- Prophet is: Marc "I don't have a life, I have a family" Allain MCA@CHRISTA.UNH.EDU