10 Chapter 9 - Snakes and Flip-flops

"The dragon lies hid in the deep"—the strong and undivided line's being in the lowest place.

---Book of Changes

"The warlords have now become so arrogant and so unprincipled that like knives and swords hacking cattle and fish, they hack the people to pieces... The warlords conspire with foreign imperialists, while the so called republican governments, controlled by the warlords, abuse their authority to serve the pleasure of foreign powers."

---Declaration of the Nationalist Party

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Spade circled the spots on the map. "So looking at where the shrine appeared, these places are all on knots of energy that have 'the same vibe', according to Joyce." He tapped the pen on the page and leaned back. "So really, we have nothing."

"We do not have nothing," Joyce protested, "We have the fact that they have the same vibe!"

"We're no closer to finding the shrine," Spade replied, voice filled with a finite amount of patience on the verge of running out.

"Yes we are, there aren't that many more places it can appear. There's only a few spots with the same vibe." Joyce tapped on the map. "And I don't know where it is on a map, so there's that."

"Remember how it showed up on a ship?"

"The ship was over the spot. Also, it proves that it doesn't appear in the same spot twice when there are similar vibe spots." Joyce tapped her fingers together and glanced around them at the harbor. Kajio hung back, just out of earshot at a respectful distance. She waved at him. He returned the gesture with a polite smile.

"Let's do this again, point me to the spots and I'll put them onto the map, alright?" Spade said. Joyce sighed.

"Alright, one more time from the top," she said. Spade closed his eyes and pulled on their mental link until they tapped into the net of spiritual energy together.

The city became a suspended planetarium of faintly pulsing lights that connected and intertwined into a three-dimensional web that shrank smaller the further he looked.

It seemed clearer and sharper than the last time they had looked, and Spade felt each flicker of energy as though it was etched into his veins. Reaching out to where the shrine had surfaced before, Joyce pointed out the spots.

'Look, they have the same vibe.'

Spade had to admit that they did indeed have the same pulse to them. He looked for the remaining two spots Joyce spoke of, catching them from the corner of his eye.

'So those are the spots.'

'Yeah, they be vibin'.'

Spade tried to hone in on the spots, matching the energy to a place. He felt Joyce's attention shift briefly.

'Stay focused, I need a little longer,' Spade warned. 'Or we'll have to start from the beginning again.'

;Oh, try matching it to the subway,; Joyce suggested.

Damn, he hadn't thought of that. The metal spirits underground clung to the subway lines in a way that they wouldn't for the pipes. It was probably the presence of human activity and kinetic energy that they liked to feed on. Spade dug down until he hit the familiar chain of energy bound in an intricate braid. He mulled at the spots.

'One's near Line 4, one's near Line 2. They're both close enough to the harbor though, so that narrows down the stations. I'll get an estimate of how close they are and we can figure it out on a map,' Spade sent to Joyce. He felt her mentally nod.

He opened his eyes, squinting at the sunlight as it bounced off the water like a dodge ball bounces off a child's face during a particularly vicious sporting event. Joyce grinned at him toothily, pulling out her phone to find a subway map. She promptly handed it over.

"I can't read most of the names," she complained. Joyce had memorized the stops closest to their place, desperately straining to remember the unfamiliar characters, as part of her campaign to get down the most commonplace ones. It hadn't been that successful, given how little time they had.

Spade took the phone wordlessly, writing down the subway station closest to where he'd seen the energy spots. "This isn't half bad," Spade said with a note of satisfaction. Joyce took the notepad.

"Next up is when it'll happen," Joyce squinted down at the files. "Look at this, it doesn't seem to have a set time, so it's probably when the vibe in each place is at its strongest." Spade nodded. The energy cycles in every place were different.

"Let's try to ask the water-spirits then," Joyce said, standing up and stretching her knees out. Spade sighed, reluctantly stepping out from the shade. He gulped as Kajio approached.

"How is it, my friends?" Kajio asked cheerfully. Spade's mouth felt very dry. He nodded for Joyce to speak and took a gulp of water.

"Going great, we're just gonna talk to the water-spirits and then we should be set," Joyce gave him a thumbs-up. A brief look of surprise flickered over Kajio's face and was gone before Spade could be sure he'd seen it.

"That was certainly fast," Kajio said.

"Yeah," Spade choked out, "Not that fast though. We have to wait until it shows up at the spot." He ignored Joyce's smirk. "We'll do our best."

Kajio smiled warmly. "I'm sure of that, we really appreciate it." Joyce gave him another thumbs-up and jaunted towards the water. Spade nodded to Kajio and headed after her. To his mild concern, Kajio followed closely behind.

Joyce squatted by the water, a bright light swirling around her clasped hands. Spade slowed to a stop.

"She's really something," Kajio murmured. Spade felt his heart skip a beat in shock. Shit, he couldn't know something already!

"She's really talented," Spade replied calmly.

"Very easy to like, that's for sure," Kajio continued blithely. "Our guys will definitely be really grateful after this, so come by whenever and I'll treat you to sweets." Spade recognized the gentle lilt in Kajio's voice. He swallowed with difficulty.

"Yeah, thanks," he managed. Joyce stood up and ran over, her flip flops thudding against the wooden planks.

"Dude, it's today," she said, "The two are in the same area so it'll be about the same time too. Guess we'll have to split up?"

Spade bit back a curse. They'd split up to do pincer attacks in the past, but never in a city with so many watchful eyes. But it'd be suspicious to refuse and fuck up the mission. Fuck. He sighed.

"Alright," he said. "I'll take Line 2."

"Right, Line 4 then. But can we get lunch first? I'm starving."

///////

Joyce stared in horror. When she'd suggested splitting up, she hadn't expected whatever the fuck this was. It had started innocently enough when the shrine popped into place in the empty parking lot.

Joyce had hastily finished her food and sprung off the bike rack, cautiously approaching the coil of scales wrapped around one of its pillars. 'It has wings,' she had thought with wonder before she promptly decided there was no room for anything but regret.

The winged-serpent grew till it coiled around the entirety of the shrine, wings sending a gust of wind that nearly knocked Joyce off her feet.

"Holy shit!" Joyce shouted, stumbling backward into a bicycle rack. She crashed to the ground, taking half the bikes with her. They landed on a painful heap on her, the basket of a bike smacking her in the face. "Ow, shit, ow!" She struggled to her feet.

The spirit flapped its wings again, knocking Joyce back onto the ground. She gave up and scrambled to her hands and feet, flinging herself forward at the shrine. She landed painfully a few feet short of the entrance.

"Ow!" She let out a whining noise. Joyce's eyes widened as the spirit's wings lifted a third time. Giving up any last shred of dignity she had left, Joyce desperately crawled forward as fast as she could, throwing herself past the end of its tail and grabbing onto the pillar of the entrance.

A wave of panic rolled over her as she grabbed for the salt. The salt that apparently never worked to begin with, according to the best shamans in the city. The next gust of wind flattened her to the steps of the shrine. The bike rack flipped over completely and crashed against the fence.

Fuck it.

Joyce snarled with irritation induced rage that would have made Spade proud. She lobbed the plastic bag of salt into the shrine.

'Fuck you, this ain't your house!'

The spirit stilled for a second before letting out an agonized howl, the sound sending a shockwave into the air. Joyce cringed as the bike rack flung into the fence again, knocking it askew. Joyce scrambled inside the shrine, hurriedly getting her very breakable legs out of the way as the spirit's tail lashed up.

The spirit began to flail. It screeched like a banshee that had been attacked by a dying cat, desperately flopping as it uncoiled and shrunk, faster and faster until it was the size of a python. It dropped off the roof with a thudding noise, hitting the steps of the shrine. Joyce edged backward, watching in horror as the spirit turned towards her.

"Oh shit, I feel so attacked right now," she gasped. The spirit opened its jaws, gaping until its lower fangs hit the floor. It fanned its wings and then shot at her like a rabid water hose. Joyce flung out her hand blindly, letting out a wordless scream as the serpent flew into the temple.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment, and the shrine disappeared. Joyce's eyes bulged with shock as the floor gave way and dropped her into the middle of cold, dark water. The serpent writhed as it shrunk, sinking downwards a few inches away. Trying not to panic, she held her breath in and her limbs still.

Instinctively, she knew they were in the ocean. In the fucking Spirit World. She didn't even know how to swim.

'Shit, I am so dead.' As a gasp of breath escaped from her mouth, a strange noise like a bugle played from a boom box sounded out. Joyce's eyes snapped to her right.

A giant orb extended from what looked to be a barnacled stone wall, diameter almost twice her height. An instinctive fear gripped her heart and Joyce flailed away. Nope nope she was out of here-

The giant orb cracked apart through its center. As she watched on in horror, the orb opened, a giant golden pupil slowly revealing itself. It was an eye. A fucking eye. She let out a gurgled scream, blindly grabbing onto the winged-serpent and squeezing it to her chest, kicking uselessly at the water.

She promptly crashed onto the floor of the parking lot. She gasped for air, salty water cascading down her face like she had been splashed with a bucket. Joyce pushed herself up and glanced around wildly, still gripping the winged-serpent in one hand like a lifeline.

"What the fuck!"

The shrine was gone, only a puddle of salt water in its place. Joyce swatted away her disbelief and stood up, ruefully glancing at her single remaining flip flop as she cuddled the spirit against her chest. She sighed. Looked like she would be going barefoot.

Joyce headed towards the harbor, winged-serpent bundled tightly in her arms. She was soaked from head to toe in salty water and one of her flip flops was gone, the other one hooked by a plastic strap on her pinky finger, smacking lightly against her as she walked.

Looking in every way of speaking like a drowned rat being strangled by a snake, she carelessly plodded down the hot cement towards the harbor. People sprung out of the way for her, staring as if they'd seen the Anti-Christ attack Obama.

Her cellphone was assuredly dead, without any cool waterproof functions or wards to protect it. Joyce resigned herself to using the mental link, something that made her a little nervous every time. She was deathly afraid she would accidentally send something inappropriate, like whatever song was stuck in her head at the time or the shitty one-liners that popped into her head at random.

'Spade,' she called out, 'Spaaaade.'

;What's happening?' He replied almost immediately, a keen sense of worry showing through the message. She was a little touched.

'I caught the flying snake and now my phone's dead. I'm walking back to the harbor now. Where you at?'

She felt Spade's mental sigh of exasperation and grinned.

'A flying snake? Why am I not even surprised? I'm still at the spot, I'll head back to the harbor too.'

'Nice, meet you there.; Joyce shifted the weight of the winged-serpent, which continued to drip with an ungodly amount of seawater that splashed on her toes. At least it was a good cooling system.

'Are you alright?' Spade sounded vaguely nervous. Joyce sent back a mental nod and a thumbs up. It was their first time working separately in Canton, after all.

Somehow it just hit differently when they were in a place with this many shamans. And spirits, for that matter. Joyce couldn't think of the last time she'd dealt with so many dangerous spirits within one week.

'Oh, I broke my shoe,' she added, shattering Spade's brief bout of relief.

'Are you hurt?! Wait, are you barefoot?!' Spade managed to sound more concerned about the second option.

'I'm fine. I'm barefoot but what's so bad about that? We're not in Victorian England, no one's going to be scandalized by a flash of the ankle or whatever.'

'It's your dignity that I'm worried about, no one would care about your ankles unless they have a thing for that.' He managed to drip with enough sarcasm to put down a horse.

'Oh, ew. And no one expects me to be dignified anyways!' She squinted, spotting Kajio as she walked into the harbor. Kajio turned and saw her, eyes immediately widening in what appeared to be horror. She paused in confusion. Was the winged-serpent really that bad? Kajio sprinted over.

"Joyce!" he stopped short a few feet away, approaching slowly and with a lot more caution than necessary. "Joyce, are you alright?" He scanned her for injuries, grimacing slightly as the winged-serpent snapped its fangs at him.

"I'm fine, is the shrine back?" she asked. Kajio glanced back at a structure that noticeably wasn't there before. "Oh, never mind, I can see it just fine."

Kajio smiled at her, his face still taut with concern. "Are you sure you're ok? What happened to your shoes?"

Joyce wiggled her pinky, proudly displaying the flip flop she'd managed to hold on to. "I lost one grabbing the snake," she said.

"I'll get you a change of clothes, and another pair of shoes," Kajio promised, reaching out to gently put a hand on her shoulder as he guided her towards the office, dockworkers gaping at them as they went.

They turned at the sound of footsteps pounding against the pavement. Spade ran into the harbor, swiveling and heading towards them. He stopped to glare at Joyce's unkempt appearance and proceeded to march the rest of the way.

"Where's your other shoe?" he demanded. Spade spared the winged-serpent a glance. "How is that not strangling you?"

"I'm taking her to get a change of clothes, my cousin Leila will give her something to wear," Kajio offered, "Though it might be impractical to keep the spirit with them."

Joyce promptly plopped the winged-serpent into Spade's arms, ignoring his hiss of disapproval.

"I'm off," she said as Kajio nudged her towards a young woman who looked like a model. "Wow, hi." Leila smiled back uncertainly.

"I'll get you something nice," Leila promised.

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Kajio stared at the spirit hanging precariously from Spade's grip. It writhed a little before stilling under Spade's unimpressed glare.

"Shrines back?" Spade asked as if he wasn't holding a spirit no one had ever heard of before.

"Safe and sound," Kajio agreed. They both turned to look at the structure facing the water.

"It looks at home here," Spade said. Kajio nodded silently in agreement. It did, much to the delight of the harbor community. Kajio glanced at the office where Joyce had disappeared to.

"She did well," Kajio offered. Spade smiled like a proud father and shifted the weight of the winged-serpent.

"She did," Spade seemed to have no intention of letting their conversation grow any longer than five words each.

Kajio mulled over the events of the day and Selva's text message from earlier.

'Looking into a license plate, nothing yet,' Selva had sent, followed by an unimpressed emoji. They had worked through the problem all too quickly, finishing in less than a day. Kajio had thought they would at least have a few days to figure each other out, or for Selva to find something. The only hope he had now was that they would be willing to come back for tea.

"Hope we didn't stir up too much of a fuss," Spade said, finally breaking the five-word limit. Kajio felt a small rush of relief.

"Of course not, we're really grateful for this, all of us. Won't you have dinner with us? We'll probably go drinking to celebrate."

Spade smiled a little. "If we can figure out what to do with this first," he said, lifting the spirit slightly. "After all, the job was to fix the shrine, not to banish the spirit." Kajio bit down a smirk. Looked like they were following instructions to a word and pushing all the responsibility to their clients.

"We can certainly wait for you, most guys wouldn't get off that early anyhow," Kajio offered. Spade smiled wider.

"Let's go along and see," he replied. They turned as Joyce emerged in Leila's robes, the light red fabric and combed hair making her look presentable for once.

"Hey, this is really breathable," Joyce said cheerfully. "No wonder you guys always look so nice. You're not drowning in your sweat all the time."

Leila smiled at her, adjusting the light cloth over Joyce's shoulder so the accessories were visible. Joyce turned towards them, the new braid on her back swinging back and forth.

"Given how thick your uniforms are, it's a wonder you haven't dropped from heatstroke yet," Leila said. Kajio glanced at Spade as the man stilled for a second. While Joyce never bothered properly wearing the uniform made for Northern weather, Spade always wore the full set without any fear of the heat, as if he wasn't bothered at all.

"Northern men are made hardy," Spade said dryly. Kajio laughed lightly and gave him a nudge, feeling a jolt of satisfaction as the man didn't flinch away from the familiar gesture.

"Don't be so stubborn, I'll introduce you to some good tailors. You should get some lighter robes before summer truly arrives." At that, the man whirled to stare.

"You mean it's not here yet?!" He sounded genuinely horrified. The dockworkers laughed, several of them forgoing their fear of the spirit in Spade's hands to slap him on the back.

Without asking what was going on, Joyce joined in with a smack to his shoulder, earning her a glare.

"Let's call Feng Xia, if we wrap this up quickly we can go for drinks with everyone," Spade said, dumping the spirit back in her arms. He nodded towards Kajio and walked away. Joyce followed after, waving the spirit at them for lack of free hands.

Kajio took Leila aside, raising his eyebrows in an unspoken question.

"She's a good kid, even if she acts...unusually," Leila said. She met his eyes. "She was soaked with seawater but didn't seem bothered in the slightest. She didn't complain about it at all, and she complimented my hair a lot. And my style. She said I had a...hella cool closet or something." Kajio nodded slowly and let out a long sigh.

"I thought I had a good grasp of Canton's situation and that it could get us through just fine...but they've changed things. I can't help but feel like I'm missing something about those two," he confessed. Leila patted his arm comfortingly.

"If you think we should keep an eye out, we'll do that. If you want to befriend them, I'm sure we'll like them too. Whatever it is, maybe you'll figure it out when we go for drinks," Leila said soothingly. Kajio nodded back. Hopefully, there would be word from Selva soon.