Fate's Attendant 1.30

Hong Fei sat in his chair, looking aggrieved, while Sun Han paced the salon. The scholar’s hat had gone askew, and it stayed that way unnoticed. The story of how Hong Fei had found Andrew’s corpse had greatly affected the young man.

Auntie Ling huffed to herself. She was correct yet again, she thought. This was always the way when humans talked to each other. All they did was make each other unhappy, and a badger was needed to set things right.

She approached Hong Fei to nudge the hand holding his card. He absently transferred it to his other hand, so that he could pet her. When she glared at him, he realized his mistake and brought the card to life.

Sun Han had been muttering to himself about sympathetic transference and causality warping, but he noticed the glow of the summoner’s card. He rushed to gaze at it at in wonder, kneeling as he read the text. “The deck truly does belong to you.”

“But at what cost?” Hong Fei protested.

The question forced Sun Han to pause. “You were serious asking about your soul?”

“What else am I supposed to think?” Hong Fei replied. “I feel an emptiness, that I’m only half complete.”

Sun Han shook his head and noticed his hat was off kilter. As he fixed its placement, he replied, “I didn’t take your soul. You’re merely supporting the burden of me being here.”

“Supporting?” Hong Fei asked.

Sun Han nodded, and this time the hat stayed in place. “When I am dismissed, your soul will return to its normal state, but for now it’s creating the space for my presence. Otherwise, I would just be another ghost roaming the world.”

“Ghost?” Hong Fei asked, startled.

“As dead as Ming the Uncompassionate,” Sun Han answered, smiling wryly.

Hong Fei looked at Auntie Ling. She was so very alive; it couldn’t be true. Yet, she nodded to show that the scholar was telling the truth.

“The strength of your soul is the key to giving us mortal bodies, at least temporarily.” Sun Han gestured to the attribute on the summoner’s card. “The world can only hold as many summons as your soul can carry.”

“That’s the number 2 there,” Hong Fei noted. While he remained alarmed about the potency of the magical artifact in his possession, it was sounding like he hadn’t been corrupted. His warrior’s spirit was still true to the Dao.

“Yes. My understanding is that each card has a total value equal to the sum of its offense and defense ratings. That number halved is what counts toward your soul’s burden. With a 2 in the attribute, you can maintain… only my card, since 2 plus 2 is four, and four halved is two.”

Hong Fei glanced toward the giant badger. “And what of Auntie Ling?”

“Auntie?” Sun Han turned to the giant badger.

She sat up and looked back at him with obvious pride.

“Can I see her card?” he asked.

Hong Fei put away his own and retrieved the Uncommon Badger card. He turned it, so that the young man could read the symbols on the back.

“If you could hold your finger over the words...” Sun Han instructed, and when the string of new symbols appeared, he explained, “This is the explainer text for each… Sorry, there isn’t an equivalent word in the People’s language. In English, it’s ‘keyword.’ Never mind, this is the word for Free, and this one is Tough. They describe her most important characteristics as a summons.” Sun Han checked to make sure Hong Fei was following along. “Free means that there’s no burden for your soul to carry.”

“That must be why Auntie Ling can summon herself,” Hong Fei said, leaning forward. “She doesn’t need me to support her.”

To the side, the giant badger raised her snout higher into the air.

Hong Fei took his own card out and projected it. “Can you translate all these other words for me? I believe I generally know what they’re meant to convey, but there are a few important ones that are beyond what Auntie Ling and I have been able to work out.”

Sun Han pulled over a chair, so that he could sit beside the summoner. “That’s your name at the top, and the next line reads Fate Points. You currently have 2 unspent and 9 spent. The—”

Hong Fei placed a hand on the young man’s arm, stopping him. “Fate?” he asked. It’d taken an effort to ensure his voice remained steady.

Sun Han was confused. “Yes? What else did you think it was?”

“I didn’t know,” Hong Fei replied. “It was the one word even more confusing than soul.”

Auntie Ling huffed in agreement, mourning the lengths she’d gone to trying to explain the nature of fate using only gestures and drawings.

Hong Fei licked his lips. “So, the numbers above people heads are these points?”

Sun Han nodded slowly. He finally understood how much his summoner had struggled. “Yes,” he replied gently. “There are people who, for whatever reason, become separated from their fates. That’s your role now—to help them return to where they belong. That’s what it means to be Fate’s Attendant.” He gestured to the trait listed on Hong Fei’s card.

At the summoner’s touch, the explainer text appeared:

“The Dao of Fate follows its own path, returning all to the natural order. As its attendant, you are gifted the tools to right what has been made wrong.”

“This… this…” Hong Fei didn’t have the words to address the immensity of what was being asked of him. “How?”

“You’ve already seemed to have made a good start,” Sun Han replied. “That you’ve earned Fate Points is a sign of that.”

“But my loyalty is to the Duke and Duchess Yu,” Hong Fei explained.

“Are the two roles at odds with each other?” Sun Han asked.

Hong Fei rubbed at his face. In his mind, he clearly saw the array of numbers above the heads Yu Hui, Chen Wenbin, and all the rest. “I don’t know yet.”

Sun Han considered the situation. There were clearly mysteries involved, but one thing was obvious, his own fate was now tied to this man called Hong Fei.

The scholar stood up, walked a handful of steps, and turned to face him. He carefully straightened his robe, taking a moment to also readjust his hat. “Let’s begin again, shall we?” Then, when the summoner looked up from his thoughts, he added: “Hong Fei! At last! I greet you! I am the scholar Sun Han, and I am in your service.”

###

The scholar explained each word on Hong Fei’s card, even the most mundane. The young man had a habit of being particular once his interest was aroused, like a dog worrying a bone for every bit of meat and gristle.

The additional context did help Hong Fei understand his situation better, however. For example, the attribute of mind wasn’t just a quantification of the summoner’s ability to think and remember, it also represented the potency of his spells once he returned to the Qi Gathering realm and climbed past it.

He also learned the nature of milestones, which had been another mystery. Once Hong Fei spent enough of Fate Points, he would be rewarded for his service with abilities that modified the powers that came with being Fate’s Attendant.

Neither Sun Han nor Auntie Ling knew how often these milestones would come. Only that the first was at five points, which led to a surprising insight—while the two summons broadly understood how the cards worked, they didn’t know everything.

They’d been ghosts prior to being offered a chance to serve fate and been given certain knowledge and abilities to prepare them. That was all. The cards were a unique existence. There weren’t other examples in the world they could reference or compare them to. As for where the cards themselves came from, Sun Han’s words struck Hong Fei deeply.

“My understanding is that they are a direct manifestation of the Dao of Fate,” the scholar explained. “Why are they in this form? Why did fate go to such lengths as to bring Andrew Sylvester of Seattle Washington to our world? Why do the cards choose the beings and artifacts to summon that they do? These are all questions for which I have no answers, though I am as deeply curious about them as you.”

“What happens when you’re dismissed?” Hong Fei asked.

“I exist in a shadowed place,” Sun Han replied. “There is no light or dark as you know it. No hunger or pain. Only a state of perpetual waiting.”

“For rebirth?” Hong Fei asked.

“I am…” Sun Han paused, consternation on his face. “I am outside of the cycle of reincarnation while in your service. As you see me is as how I’ll remain until the end of our days together. My hope is that I do not return to a ghostly state. My memories from then are blurry, but I know that I would prefer to rejoin creation as I ought to rather than linger as a shade.”

Hong Fei didn’t know what to make of that. These concepts were too big and too weighty for a night as long as this one had been. His body was telling him to rest, but before he could, he had to know: “What does it mean for a number above someone’s head to be black?”

The scholar frowned. There was graveness to expression; it was the same as when he’d thought Hong Fei had killed the previous summoner. “A black number indicates when someone’s fate has been warped by another.”

“They’re cursed?” Hong Fei asked, seeking clarification.

“Not necessarily, they might also be the person tampering with fate,” Sun Han replied.

Hong Fei’s stomach sank. The situation at the estate was even more complicated than he’d feared.

“What is it?” Sun Han asked. “What’s wrong?”

Hong Fei looked up at him and felt utterly weary. The day’s events were catching up to him, and he needed time to think and a night to rest. “Later,” he said. “Tell me about the other colors.”

Sun Han nodded. “There are nine in total. Black, I’ve already explained. White relates to death. The tasks associated with red numbers deal with marriage and love. For orange, they are restoration and purification. Yellow numbers deal with unity and order…”

Hong Fei held up a hand to stop the scholar. “Not connection?”

“A good question.” Sun Han smiled enthusiastically. “The answer depends on the type of connection. The task can fall under the scope of unity or even order if it involves something or someone finding their rightful place in society, for example.” The scholar paused, and when Hong Fei didn’t ask for clarification, he continued: “Green is the color of change, growth, and departure. Blue, meanwhile, represents action, responsibility, and karma.” He cleared his throat. “Indigo is penance and endurance. Violet is the last color, representing deeds of aspiration and transformation.”

“I’ve only seen black, white, yellow, and red so far.”

“The world is wide, and fate encompasses all,” Sun Han replied. “Surely, the other colors will make their way to you, and you will make your way to them, too.”

Now that was a heavy thought on a night full of them. Hong Fei rubbed his face vigorously, but the weariness wouldn’t leave him. “Let’s continue in the morning,” he said. “For now, all that’s left is ensure my soul is intact.”

Sun Han looked away. If he was disappointed, it wasn’t visible. “I understand.”

“Until the morning, then,” Hong Fei said, but there was an awkward delay while he fiddled with the scholar’s card. It wasn’t until his intention to dismiss Sun Han crystalized that the man disappeared in a series of brushstrokes reversing.

Hong Fei felt his soul return to him just as the scholar had promised. He felt whole once more, though his confusion remained. He’d finally come to understand the words on his card, but the knowledge itself and what it implied was daunting. The clarity he’d been expecting was nowhere to be found.

Auntie Ling came over to place her head on his lap.

“You want to be here, just like Sun Han,” he said. “You were a ghost and then chosen.”

The giant badger blinked.

“This magic is not unholy. Neither of you are slaves to it,” Hong Fei said. “And neither am I, which I must admit is a tremendous relief.”

She glanced up at him, then sighed.

“A half-truth, is it?” Hong Fei observed. “We are not slaves, but there is a responsibility that comes with the cards. If we ignore it, then we fail in our duty.”

Auntie Ling shifted, so that she could nod.

###

Early the next morning, even before the first bell, Hong Fei left the estate so that he might pretend to hire Sun Han onto his staff. There were already restaurants open to feed the workers heading to their jobs, so he stopped for a bowl of warming soup before heading to the Local Bounty of Treasure Carvings to check if Rock Head had visited them. The young laborer hadn’t, so Hong Fei moved on to finding an isolated alley.

Checking twice to make sure no one was nearby, he drew Sun Han’s card and—apparently the intention was enough, because no words were needed for the tug on his soul, the feeling of it being pulled out of him and into the colors painted onto the early morning light.

The drain was tolerable now that he knew what to expect. The dizzying confusion lasted only a moment as he became accustomed to the emptiness.

Sun Han clearly delighted in his body. He took joy in examining the alley, then the street beyond it and the people walking around him. To Hong Fei, he seemed like a peasant farmer visiting a city for the first time.

At a stall selling dumplings, Hong Fei was forced to buy a bowl for the scholar. The expression on the young man’s face was indescribable as he meticulously ate each one.

“You must’ve been hungry after… after where you’ve been,” Hong Fei observed.

Sun Han paused to reply. “Not at all. As I told you last night, your… ah, servants… are unchanging. Bodily processes affect us while we’re present, but they don’t impact our natures. We’re immutable, except for our minds—in how we think and feel about things.”

“You don’t need to eat?” Hong Fei asked, thinking about the bowls of food consumed by Auntie Ling. “Wait, does that mean you can’t ascend in realms either? Is unity with the Dao beyond you?”

“I can grow hungry,” Sun Han replied, “but if I die from it, I will return from the shadowed space whole after my card is refreshed. I can gather qi in my cauldrons, but any attempt to climb in my cultivation is rebuffed.”

“That’s—” Hong Fei was stunned. To be cut off from finding unity with the Dao was a tragedy. Then another thought came to him: “I’ve seen Auntie Ling meditating.”

“If she gathered qi,” Sun Han said, tilting his head in thought, “then it was for a different purpose than cultivation. Perhaps she needed to refill her cauldrons, or she enjoys the experience?”

“Maybe,” Hong Fei replied, unsure.

Meanwhile, Sun Han continued to eat. When the bowl was emptied, he asked, “Another?”

Hong Fei shook his head. “We should return to the estate. I’ll brief you as we walk, but there’s a commendation to be delivered to me. The situation I’m in… that we’re in is a complicated one.”

“Then I am all eagerness to begin.” Sun Han said dabbing his lips with a handkerchief pulled from his sleeve.

“Mmm,” Hong Fei said, having observed the smoothness of the draw. “I’ll give you a tour of the estate, introduce you to the staff, and also need to spend some time in my courtyard. I want to make sure I understand what you’re capable of. To know the translations for Versatile and Support is one thing, to see them in action is another.”

“I will endeavor not disappoint you,” Sun Han replied.

“Somehow, I don’t think you will,” Hong Fei said. In his thoughts, he added, ‘Not if you’re as capable as Auntie Ling.’

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ToC | Next Chapter >

Characters Mentioned in this Chapter 

• Auntie Ling, a summons 

• Scholar Sun Han, a summons 

• Andrew Sylvester, the previous Fate's Attendant, deceased

• Yu Hui, the duchess 

• Yu Wu, the duke