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This story doesn't have much sex in it at all, but is rated extreme because of the violence and killing in the story.","count":"3"}],"description":"\"To Dream of Darkness\" is a tale of dark magic, and the cycle of fear and revenge. This story doesn't have very much sex in it at all, but is rated extreme because of the violence and killing in the story, and for references to inter-species breeding. It describes the life of a magically talented little girl, whose mother was a Kitsune, and whose father was a part-animal shapeshifter and mage, of a sub-species called the \"Feral Folk\". When the child uses her magic to punish a heartless and cruel farm boy, and unintentionally kills him with her nightmare spell, she starts a cycle of revenge that literally takes her to hell and back again. When we fear the monster in the dark, and attack out of fear, we may create an even worse monster then that which we feared... Is there hope for her, or an end to the cycle of revenge? Read it and see.\n\nNote: This is primarily a story of magic and one person's response to the challenges life has faced her with. While there will be some cross-species erotic scenes, sex is not the primary focus, and none of the erotic participants will be fully Human where such scenes are detailed.\n\nChapters 1-20 are found here: https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=181834","description_bbcode_parsed":"<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>&quot;To Dream of Darkness&quot; is a tale of dark magic, and the cycle of fear and revenge. This story doesn&#039;t have very much sex in it at all, but is rated extreme because of the violence and killing in the story, and for references to inter-species breeding. It describes the life of a magically talented little girl, whose mother was a Kitsune, and whose father was a part-animal shapeshifter and mage, of a sub-species called the &quot;Feral Folk&quot;. When the child uses her magic to punish a heartless and cruel farm boy, and unintentionally kills him with her nightmare spell, she starts a cycle of revenge that literally takes her to hell and back again. When we fear the monster in the dark, and attack out of fear, we may create an even worse monster then that which we feared... Is there hope for her, or an end to the cycle of revenge? Read it and see.<br /><br />Note: This is primarily a story of magic and one person&#039;s response to the challenges life has faced her with. While there will be some cross-species erotic scenes, sex is not the primary focus, and none of the erotic participants will be fully Human where such scenes are detailed.<br /><br />Chapters 1-20 are found here: <a href=\"https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=181834\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=181834</a></span>","writing":"To Dream of Darkness - Part 2\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 21-40, Written January - February 2012\n\n===\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 21, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 21 - Death in the dark\n\nLady Portia finally managed to remove the wards protecting the area near the rear cellar door. She double-checked to make sure the wards were gone, and then used a portal to pass through the hole she had created in the mansion's outer defenses, and into the locked cellar below the townhouse. \n\nThe darkened room was filled with a sickening stench. It was absolutely dark in the cellar, with not the faintest glimmer of light showing anywhere. The canine mage touched her left wrist, causing one of her swords to appear in her right hand, and she enflamed its blade, to give her light, as well as a ready defense.\n\nShe was in a small room, whose windows were painted over on the inside with what looked like lead paint. From the outside, the windows had merely looked darkly reflective, as one would expect for an unused room with no lights lit. At one end of the room was a coal bin, well-filled, but heavily coated in grey dust. No one had taken coal from that bin in months. There were two other doors. One was ajar, and she could see that beyond it was a narrow flight of 'servant's stairs', that most likely led up to the rearmost rooms of the main floor of the townhouse, where she might expect the kitchen to be. The other door was closed, and its lock was sealed with a warding spell. But the door and wall itself had no protective magic. She opened another portal, and passed through the wall into the next room.\n\nThe stench here was worse, and she could immediately see why. On a pair of trestles near the door stood an open coffin, and within that coffin was the decaying, headless corpse of a black furred male in a navy officer's dress uniform. The three day old corpse of Sir Reginald was bloating, and stank like an open grave. Portia could detect no sense of presence from it, and when she poured a bit of holy water on the fur on the back of one of the corpse's hands, the water hissed and bubbled like acid, but the corpse remained inanimate. The mage looked at the severed neck, and satisfied herself that the cauterized wound showed no signs of regeneration. Just to be safe, she rested the flaming sword across the foot of the coffin, reached behind herself and took a mallet and a heavy wooden stake from a sheath on the back of her belt, and pinned the corpse into the coffin with a stake through the heart. The stink of escaping gas as his chest was penetrated was nauseating in the extreme. \"You got that one, My Lady. But what else have we here?\" she said, as she put the mallet back, and took up her sword again.\n\nIn the flickering light of her flaming blade, she could see three more coffins set on trestles, all open.\n\n\"Three more?\" she said quietly. \"But who is the fourth one for?\"\n\nShe heard the faintest scrape of a foot on the dirt floor, and turned, to find her answer...\n\n===\n\nUpstairs in the foyer, Amara and Sarina faced off against each other, the vampire with eyes glowing red, and Sarina with her own eyes glowing acid green.\n\n\"Is this the 'welcome' that you said I spurned, cousin? Not your parents welcoming me into their home, but you and your minions intending to turn me into one of you?\" Sarina asked. She was interrupted by a loud crash from the cellars, like some large wooden furniture being shattered.\n\nIn the moment of her adversary's distraction, Amara grabbed a heavy metal coat tree with one hand, and threw it forcefully at Sarina.\n\nSarina spun around and held up her left hand, and halted the flying object in mid air with telekinesis. She then sent it whistling back at Amara, barely missing the vampire's head, and smashing into the railing of the foyer stairs that led to the second floor of the townhouse.\n\nAmara hissed and grinned, saying, \"You missed me, cousin! I am ever so much faster than before!\"\n\nSarina's eyes glowed brightly, as she replied, \"I hit what I was aiming at.\"\n\nAmara turned her head to look, in time to see half a dozen shattered wooden spindles from the destroyed stair railing levitating from the wrecked staircase, and hurtling point first at her, like flying wooden stakes. She screamed and writhed to avoid them. Three struck her, but none pierced her heart. She yanked them out of her arm, thigh and abdomen with distain, as she glowered at Sarina, saying, \"Nice try. But I still move too fast for you to get me that way, cousin. Can you move with equal speed?\" She grabbed a broken section of the railing itself and hurled it at Sarina, the thick bar of wood flying sidewise across the short gap between them.\n\nSarina teleported out of harms way, and reappeared briefly behind Amara. Swiftly she touched her own hidden necklace, and then touched the steel chain of Amara's protective medallion, before teleporting back to where she had been now that the railing had smashed past that position and gone clattering down the hall. With one finger she touched her necklace again, saying, \"Your 'protection' against me shall be your downfall. I will take that necklace now.\"\n\nAmara's eyes bulged and she screamed briefly, as the steel chain around her neck rapidly began to shrink! She clawed with both hands at the cut developing in her neck, but it was too late. The steel chain inexorably constricted, losing none of its strength as its size diminished, until it was no larger in diameter than a ring for the smallest finger, whereupon her spine snapped, and her head and headless body fell to the ground, the head still staring with hatred at Sarina. The necklace and medallion became a silver charm on Sarina's necklace, which only she could see or touch.\n\nSarina incinerated Amara's head with a firebolt spell, and using her dagger she cut the heart from the body, incinerating that as well, to be certain Amara would not resurrect. \"The rest can wait for the police, as proof of the bounty,\" she said to herself.\n\n\"You have killed her, I see,\" said Lady Portia from behind Sarina. Her shirt was ripped, and she seemed very tired. She held one flaming sword as a torch, for light. \"I found Sir Reginald's corpse, which definitely was a vampire's remains. And there was another vampire in the basement, shielded from mind detection. It snuck up on me, and gave me quite a fight. It even threw a coffin at me.  But look who I found, down there in the cellar.\"\n\n\"Sarina? Oh my child! We were so wrong about you!\" wailed Lady Pennington. \"My poor, poor Amara! She sent for me, and asked me to come here to pray for Sir Reginald's soul with her this evening. But when I arrived, she locked me in a horrible, dark and stinking room with his corpse, saying she was going to turn you into a vampire, and then force you to do it to me and then force me to kill my dear Thomas, and turn him into a vampire as well! She told me that their house girl was bitten by a vampire over a month ago, and then the girl then infected Sir Reginald, and Sir Reginald infected Amara. Oh, my child, she wanted our entire family to become vampires, with her as our queen!\"\n\nThe gentlewoman sobbed and reached out to Sarina as if wanting to hug her, saying, \"But it is over now, my child. Now we can put this behind us, and be a family once more.\"\n\nSarina stepped back a pace, asking, \"Lady Pennington? Why can I not read your surface thoughts? I would expect Lady Portia's mental defenses to keep me out, but you are no mage, my Lady.\"\n\nLady Pennington paused, and then said, \"Why? That would be because I borrowed my husband's protective medallion before I came here - the one that you made for him. After all, we believed still that you were a vampire, and he was safely under police protection. Why do you recoil from me, my beloved niece? All is forgiven, and I apologize for ever doubting you.\"\n\nSarina looked relieved, and accepted the hug, saying, \"How will we tell your husband, my lady? He will be heartbroken that his only child is dead.\"\n\nLady Pennington nuzzled Sarina, and said, \"There there. We will tell him together.\"\n\nSarina was about to speak again, when Lady Pennington suddenly bit her neck, and held Sarina's arms pinned to her sides to prevent her from gesturing to cast a spell. Sarina's vision swam as the sudden loss of blood made her woozy, and she fell to her knees. She could see Lady Portia and Lady Pennington standing over her, with their eyes glowing red. \n\nLady Portia stepped between Sarina and Lady Meghan, created a glowing barrier between them, and said, \"The Turning doesn't take long, My Lady. You see, Lady Meghan was the vampire I found in the basement, and she bested me. Amara had already turned her, and now she has turned me. Soon you, too, will be one of us, and we will follow our Queen, Lady Meghan Pennington, and you or I shall induct her husband into the clan, as well. Do not fight it. Nothing can move through the wall of force between us. If you try to get past it to attack either of us, I will create more such barriers, and will defend with magic as strong as your own. You have no time to defeat us.\"\n\n\"Time enough, for this,\" Sarina replied. Kneeling, she drew her dagger and swiftly reversed it in her hand, before plunging it into her own heart, screaming as she did so.\n\n\"What?\" Lady Portia cried, as she dropped her barrier, and reached for the dagger to pluck it out.\n\nBut the instant the barrier dropped, the dagger was not there, nor was there a wound in Sarina's chest, though a hole clearly pierced her blouse. A small blue sphere was visible in Sarina's left hand for a moment, before vanishing into her chest.\n\nThere was a thump behind Lady Portia, as Lady Pennington fell to the ground, with Sarina's dagger precisely piercing the vampire queen's chest.\n\nAs the canine mage turned to see what had happened to Lady Pennington, Sarina rose, no longer injured, and clapped both hands on the temples of Lady Portia's head, invoking an intense sleep spell.\n\n===\n\nThe next thing that Lady Portia knew, she was choking on the most vile-tasting concoction that she could imagine. She spat it onto the bed beside her, and stained the sheets red with blood.\n\n\"Welcome back, Lady Portia,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"What... what happened? How did you fight off the turning? Where am I? Why am I alive, and unbound?\" Lady Portia asked.\n\n\"You are alive because that cure you taught me does work. I used it to cure you. Lady Pennington is still cursed, but the cure may also work for her, if we get that really skilled healer mage that fixed your arm to her bedside in two more days, to cure a pierced heart when the cure takes effect,\" Sarina stated. She gestured to where Lady Pennington hung in mid air, suspended in a magical bubble of energy, while still pierced through the heart with the slender dagger, and its embedded wooden stake. \"She has to wait, because she fed on you.\"\n\n\"But you... I saw you stab yourself in the heart. How did that dagger get into her heart instead, and how did you survive?\" Lady Portia asked.\n\n\"I took a very large risk, there,\" Sarina said. \"I staked everything on a hope that a direct wound to the heart isn't necessarily instantly fatal, for me. My mother was a Kitsune. Just before I stabbed myself, I tried for the first time to concentrate my life energy into a Kitsune ball. I wasn't at all sure it would work, but it did, and with my life energy out of my body, that gave me a few precious seconds between my heart being pierced, and death. It was enough time for me to be able to cast a dark combat spell, which inflicts an injury affecting my body onto someone else, while curing me. The dagger, and the wound, transferred to Lady Pennington, paralyzing her. Then I restored my life energy, reabsorbing my Kitsune ball. When that little miracle distracted you, I forced my way past your mental defenses, and made you sleep, until I could cure you.\"\n\n\"That still doesn't tell me how you resisted becoming a vampire yourself, or how you managed to create the cure potion,\" Lady Portia said.\n\n\"I knew I would be immune to a vampire's bite before she bit me,\" Sarina said. \"You see, my soul is already damned. Before I came to this plane of existence, I murdered many people, in revenge for them killing my parents. I have also contracted with hell, to gain more magical power. But you won't remember that, I'm afraid, or think to ask it again. Sleep, and forget,\" she said, as she touched the canine mage's forehead, and sent her back to sleep, while erasing her memories of Sarina's confession.\n\n===\n\nAt midnight, the police found the two sleeping officers, and cautiously investigated the townhouse. Sarina met them at the door, with proof readily at hand that Amara and Sir Reginald had been vampires, and that she was not. She asked them to keep quiet on the discovery for two days, while she attempted to cure Lady Pennington and Lady Portia, whose only sin was to have been Amara's victims.\n\nTwo days later, a rather frantic Lord Pennington was reunited with his missing wife, who still needed to have bed rest for several days thereafter, while the healer mage continued to work on her. Lord Pennington was told the sad news that his daughter and son in law had been vampires, and were slain, after trying to turn Lady Pennington into a vampire as well. Once Lady Pennington was well enough, a small private funeral was held, and the remains of Amara and Sir Reginald were carefully buried on consecrated ground, staked through where their hearts belonged, and with a silver crucifix buried just above their coffins, to insure they could never again rise to harm anyone.\n\nSarina and Lady Portia collected the bounty on four vampires, as the police gave them credit not only for slaying Sir Reginald and Amara, but also for curing Lady Portia and Lady Pennington of vampirism. They could find no trace at all of the vampire girl that the elemental had incinerated. Not even a single flake of ash had remained of her.\n\nSarina's name was cleared, and she re-opened her shop. Word soon got out that there was another powerful mage in the city - one that was capable of slaying vampires, and also of curing them. Her business was brisk.\n\nFor a while, Sarina's life was peaceful, interrupted only by an occasional hunt for a vampire or werewolf. She lived with the Penningtons, and took the place of their departed daughter in their hearts. But her peace was not to last...\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 22, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 22 - Sins of the father\n\nTwo months after the tragic incident with Amara being found to be a vampire, and her slaying, life in the Pennington household had settled into a precarious but at least predictable new routine. As much as they mourned the death of their only daughter, the Lord and Lady Pennington could not blame Sarina for slaying their vampire-cursed child. Not when Sarina had also cured the Lady Meghan Pennington and Lady Portia, saving them from the same grisly, soul-damning fate. Sarina moved back into her room in the family manor, and rapidly the Penningtons began to look on their niece with the same affection they had reserved for their own daughter. They even had a new will drawn up, clearly designating Sarina as their sole heiress.\n\nBut having been a vampire, for however briefly, was having a very unsettling effect on the Lady Pennington. Sarina had to use her magic to prevent her aunt from having recurring nightmares about attacking Lady Portia and turning her into a vampire. That had worked, but Lady Pennington had refused to allow Sarina to give her the oblivion of not remembering the events of that night at all, or the reason for her daughter's tragic death. So the memory that her daughter had damned herself and killed others as a vampire, and that Lady Meghan herself had come so close to damning not only her own soul, but that of another, continued to weigh very heavily on the good Lady's conscience. Even though she was cured of having been a vampire, she was still frightened that her own soul was damned, for what she had done that night. \n\nLady Meghan had never been a particularly religious person, and formerly she and her husband had attended Church only on the major holiday celebrations, and for special services like weddings and funerals. But now, she went every Sunday at sunrise to the nearby church, attended both the morning and evening services, and spent most of the day between the two services in the chapel, praying fervently for the damned soul of her deceased vampire daughter, and for her own soul's salvation and forgiveness as well. When she was not at the church, she spent much of her remaining free time reading scriptures at home, or praying at a small devotional altar that she had set up in the sitting room, next to her bedroom. She also made sure that every room in their home had a mirror and a crucifix in it.\n\nLord Pennington accepted his wife's new-found devotion, and tried to be supportive. He joined his wife each Sunday morning, attending the service and praying during the sermon for their daughter's soul. But he still had to tend to his correspondence and business interests, and spending all day in church grated on him. As a result, most of each Sunday found him at the mansion, with only Sarina and the household staff for company. And the staff went to the evening church service, leaving the two of them alone.\n\nEarly on one Sunday afternoon, after they had their mid-day meal, and the servants had gone about their chores, Lord Pennington looked particularly uncomfortable. They sat together in his study, he with the paper, and she with a book on magic. He had been polite to Sarina all day, but he seemed unwilling to look at her directly.\n\nFinally, Sarina asked him, \"Uncle? What is it that troubles you so? I see you glancing at me, but then you look away, and say nothing. Why does it bother you so to look at me? Is it because I was unable to save Amara's soul as well?\"\n\n\"No, I understand and accept that Amara was already too far gone into vampirism, and too violent, to take a risk of trying to save her. Especially when you didn't know what other threats might lurk in her lair. What is bothering me is not a problem that you are to blame for,\" he said. He took a deep breath, and then hesitantly continued, saying, \"Sarina, you have grown into such a lovely young vixen. I was struck today by how much you look like your mother. A bit too much for my comfort, I fear.\"\n\n\"I see. If my resemblance to your sister, my mother, is worrisome, I can change it, you know. I could make my fur dark brown, perhaps? Or my hair jet black?\" Sarina offered. \"My magic will even allow me to change my facial features, or my height and figure, though I should need new clothes, if I change my body very much.\"\n\n\"No! Please, do not change yourself. Not for that reason, Sarina,\" Lord Pennington said. \"We are alone, so I can admit to you what we both know, that I loved my sister Mary, your mother, far beyond the bounds that society allows. Please forgive me, but... when I look at you, I have... impure thoughts of her. But at least I have those pleasant memories, and I thank you for that.\"\n\n\"There is nothing to forgive, uncle. You also have your wife to consider, who you almost lost to the vampire's curse, and you don't want to be seen as unfaithful to her, do you? But then, I've never seen you flirt with the ladies, since I came to live with you. Never have I known you to go out alone, and come back smelling of a woman. Yes, I do know you cheated on my aunt before I was born, by sleeping with your sister. But you haven't been unfaithful recently, have you?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"No. I have been completely faithful to my wife, ever since the time when my sister became pregnant with you. It frightened Mary and I, when she became pregnant. We didn't know if your father had impregnated her, or if I had. We both feared what might happen if the child favored my appearance, and not my sister or her husband. Since that day, I have mated with no one but my wife. I still do love my wife, and find her beautiful. But lately... well, my wife and I are both over fifty now, and there are... changes that come on a woman as she ages and can no longer bear children. Between that, and her newfound religious fervor... it has been over two years now since we shared a bed, for any reason other than sleep. She admits that she no longer feels the need for sex. I am... not so fortunate.\"\n\n\"It does seem unfair, I suppose. A male strives for so many years to be faithful to his mate, but when she ceases going into heat, and he still wishes to mate, what is he to do?\" Sarina said. \"I suppose it wouldn't do for you to be seen in a brothel, or for fallen women to come calling when your wife was away. Surely that would cause a scandal. Nor, I dare say, could you take your pleasures with the maid or the cook, though both are comely girls. Not that other gentlemen of your standing don't often dally with the girls that work in their homes. But I would guess that you fear your lady wife would learn of it, in time, and you are much too kind to break her heart like that. And now I make you uncomfortable, because when you look at me, and recall your beloved sister, you are tempted to ask your own niece, or perhaps one who might even be your own daughter, to fornicate with you, is that it?\"\n\n\"Yes. It shames me to the core to confess it, but dash it all, yes! I am so glad you understand, and please do not abhor me for my weakness and moral corruption,\" Lord Pennington said. \"I will persevere. I must perforce continue to be celibate. It makes me uncomfortable, but I have no other choice.\"\n\n\"But you would like to fornicate with me, wouldn't you, uncle? Well, it would certainly not be without precedent, even in the most acceptable of social circles. It seems to me that if our honorable Queen Victoria can marry her own first cousin, Albert, and bear his children, that there is little reason why a gentleman might not enjoy a dalliance with his niece, or even with his daughter, if she was willing, and he and she were discrete.\" Sarina said with a smile. \"Your lady wife will not be home for many hours, and the servants have gone by now to attend the evening church service, and will not return until it is time to make the evening meal. No one need know, if you come to my room.\"\n\n\"You're... serious?\" he asked. \"You actually are inviting me to do such a thing?\"\n\n\"I am quite serious,\" Sarina stated. \"Lord Pennington, I do not care that you are my uncle, or that you might even be my father. You are still a virile and handsome fox, for all that you have some grey in your fur, and yes, I would mate with you, if it pleases you to have me. I am not a virgin, though if it pleases you I could use magic to make myself seem to be one, and could even bleed on the bedding. I could make myself appear to be your sister Mary at the age she was on the day you first mated with her, or as she would appear today, if she yet lived; or I could look just like Aunt Meghan, but years younger, revitalized and eager to welcome you to her bed; or I could even make myself appear to be your dear departed daughter, Amara, innocent of her later crimes and seeking the comfort of her daddy's arms. You have but to tell me what you wish of me, and I can accommodate that desire. No one will know, and I will not judge you for having such incestuous impulses. I assure you that such thoughts are quite common among men, and there are many women who also harbor such feelings. The choice is yours, Uncle. I will be in my room.\"\n\n===\n\nTen minutes later, Lord Pennington came to Sarina's room, with his fur and hair carefully brushed. He timidly knocked on the door, and asked \"Mary? May I come in?\" \n\n\"Come in, dear,\" said a sultry voice as the door swung open. Sarina stood inside, one hand resting on the door. She was unclothed, and looked precisely like Lord Pennington's deceased sister, Lady Mary Randall, but vibrantly healthy and of the right age to match her brother. \"I've been waiting for you, my beloved brother,\" she murred.\n\n\"Ohhh, Mary. How I have missed you,\" Lord Pennington said, as he closed the door and took his niece in his arms, seeing only his sister.\n\n===\n\nAt dinner that night, Lord Pennington looked much more relaxed. His wife even commented that it was good to see him smile again, and that she took it as a sign that he was overcoming his own grief at the loss of their daughter.\n\n\"Sarina? Your twentieth birthday is almost upon us,\" Lady Pennington said, as they finished their meal. \"Have you given any consideration to accepting the attentions of a suitable young gentleman, and starting a family of your own?\"\n\n\"My studies in magic keep me quite busy, Auntie,\" Sarina replied demurely. \"There are a few nice young men who I know, that would probably be eager to have me as their bride. They tend to come calling at my shop, rather than here at our home, as none are yet so serious as to seek to ask the two of you for my hand. But I am not so enamored of any of them that I want to rush to my bridal bed. When I do seek a mate, I would rather that he be a gentleman who I already know well, and who I can respect as a friend. That takes time, and I am content with the life that I have.\"\n\nLord Pennington looked at his niece adoringly, and said to his wife, \"Now now, my dear. I am sure our Sarina is in no danger of becoming an old maid. You and I knew each other very well as friends and neighbors, before I asked you to marry you, and that turned out quite well for us. The girl has a good head on her shoulders. She will know when the right man for her comes along.\"\n\nHer aunt nodded and replied, \"I suppose so. Yet I was still only nineteen when we wed. I only want to see Sarina being happy. But how would you like to celebrate your birthday, Sarina? We could hold a nice ball, in your honor, perhaps?\"\n\n\"I would be honored, and I am sure that the gentlemen who already come calling, as well as other hopeful suitors, will find that a quite welcome event. Make what arrangements you will, My Lady. I am certain it will be splendid,\" Sarina replied.\n \n===\n\nOver the next two weeks, Lady Pennington immersed herself in the preparations for Sarina's birthday party. She seemed happy to have something to dwell upon other than her lost daughter, and the questionable status of her own soul.\n\nMeanwhile, Sarina and Lord Randall became increasingly bolder in their trysts. It was not enough for Lord Randall to only have Sarina's favors once a week, when the Lady Pennington was in church. He also arranged for Sarina to cast a spell upon his wife each night, so Lady Pennington would dream peacefully and not awaken, while her husband and niece rutted lustily each evening in Sarina's room. In spite of being thirty two years older that Sarina, Lord Randall was still a quite capable and experienced lover. At Sarina's request, he did not wear the talisman that protected his mind, when they mated.\n\nSarina took a number of forms while mating with her uncle. Of course, she knew she had no relation to him at all, but it intrigued her how maintaining various fantasies for him increased his stimulation. Their mating was always enjoyable for her, but still she formed no emotional attachment with him. It was merely a pleasurable pastime that she knew made the old fox happier, and which helped increase her personal security as he became more enamored of her. Though she lacked the emotional responses herself, she could feel in his mind the types of responses he desired from her, and could mimic those responses quite believably. His most common request was for her to appear to be his sister, Mary. But she also mated with him as Sarina in her early teens, calling him daddy, and on rare occasions, in the appearance of his daughter Amara at a similarly young age, and he got to experience what it would have been like to be the first lover for both Sarina and Amara. \n\nThe one thing he forbade her to do was to take the appearance of his wife, Lady Meghan Randall. \"While my wife lives, I ask that you do not imitate her form, my dear girl. I would never wish to make the error of speaking to her as if I was speaking to you in her form, and your ability to take someone else's form is so uncanny, that I am certain I could not tell you apart if you took her form,\" he said one night, as he mated with what appeared to be Amara at the age of twelve.\n\n\"As you wish, Daddy,\" the false Amara said to him, as she lewdly bounced up and down atop him. \"I only desire to make you happy! Mummmm, you're sure making me happy now! I love you, Daddy!\"\n\n===\n\nOn the morning of Sarina's twentieth birthday, the maid came into the Solar. She was fairly new to the household, a sixteen year old mixed breed canine girl that they had hired two years earlier. She told Sarina and the Lord and Lady Pennington, \"Begging your pardon, Sir and Ladies. But there is a gentleman at the door, who has baggage with him! He would not give me a name, Sir and Ladies, but said to summon you at once!\"\n\n\"Were you expecting any visitors, my dear?\" Lady Pennington asked her husband, looking concerned, as the house was not ready for guests.\n\n\"I most certainly was not! What impertinence is this?\" Lord Pennington said. \"Sarina? Can you tell who it is with your magic, and what they intend?\"\n\nSarina's eyes glowed, but then she replied, \"I fear that I cannot, uncle, without it being perceived as a violent attack. His mind is protected very well. I sense several extremely potent warding charms on his person, protecting against mental intrusion, but also against many forms of magical attack. The carriage driver does not know his name or his business here. Only that he picked the gentleman and his luggage up at the docks, and was given this exact address to take that gentleman to.\"\n\nThey went to the window, and looked out at the hired carriage, and at the canine driver that was offloading the last of three large and well-worn portmanteau chests and several smaller bags. A fox in a long winter coat had his back to the window, as he paid the driver and sent him on his way. Sarina and the Lord and Lady Pennington all gasped in surprise as he turned to face the mansion. \n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 23, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 23 - Secrets of the Orient\n\nSarina blinked as she looked out the window, and then ran to the door, knowing only one reaction could be expected of her. She threw open the door and charged at a full run at the gentleman outside, clasping him in a hug and squealing, \"Daddy!\" like a young schoolgirl.\n\nLord Edward Randall returned her hug, while tightly holding a small satchel in one hand. \"Ah, Sarina, how I have missed you!\" he said, with tears coming from his eyes.\n\nLord and Lady Pennington came out behind her at a more sedate walk, smiling at the reunion.\n\n\"Edward! Good Lord, man! I thought you had fallen off the far edge of the Earth! Where have you been these last few years?\" Lord Pennington asked.\n\nLord Edward Randall detached himself from Sarina's grasp as he replied, \"You are not far from it, Thomas. I have been in India, and in China. Mail service is dreadful there, and the war the last three years hasn't helped a bit. You know about our scuffle with the Chinese?\" he asked.\n\n\"Something about them confiscating English goods, and our demanding restitution and free trade, wasn't it?\" Lord Pennington replied. \"Saw the recruiting posters, seeking young men to take up arms in the cause, and gentlemen to serve as officers.\"\n\n\"Yes, just that. I'm too old to take a commission again in the military, but I was still in the thick of it, trying to keep my investments afloat. I tell you, Thomas, there's great money to be made in trade between England, India and the Orient. Makes trade with most of Europe pale by comparison. I sunk my money in a trading venture based out of India, buying tea from China, for sale here. The Chinese would only take silver in payment, but we can get all the silver we need by buying opium in India and selling that to the Chinese, who can't get enough of it, even though their government disapproves of its use. But not long after I arrived in India, the Chinese impounded all the opium from the ships in their ports, and destroyed it! Could have bankrupted us all. With the Crown backing us, we've fought them these last three years for restitution, and to re-open trade with China on our terms. And we have won, Thomas! The Chinese even ceded an island off the coast to us, for use as a trading port. The British Flag now flies proudly over Hong Kong Island!\" he said enthusiastically. \"But that is the least part of why I am here. Have I made it in time, Sarina dear, for your birthday? You'll be twenty this very day, unless my mind has become completely befuddled by long travels, strange foods and the fumes of the opium dens.\"\n\n\"Today is my birthday, yes, father. And I am so pleased to see you! We are having a ball this evening, in celebration.\" Sarina replied. \"Do say you will stay, and attend my party!\"\n\n\"Come inside, Edward. You'll stay with us, of course? I'll have our servants take your things to a guest room,\" Lord Pennington said.\n\nLord Randall picked up one bag protectively, and said, \"I'd not miss your party for the entire world, my child. And I thank you for the hospitality, Thomas, though I shall not stay long. I'll keep this one bag with me,\" as he followed them inside.\n\n===\n\nOnce they were settled in the Solar, Lord Randall asked Sarina, \"You've not yet married, have you? I did get a few letters from you or your uncle, which caught up with me here and there. I recall you were making quite a name for yourself as a mage. But no mention of a husband, as yet, or any promising suitor you hope to marry?\"\n\n\"There is no gentleman of that sort in my life yet, father,\" Sarina replied. \"I am in no hurry to marry.\"\n\n\"No? Well, all the better, for I have something more to add to your dowry,\" he said. He opened his small satchel and withdrew a silver box with intricate Chinese decorations. \"The box itself and what's in the bottom of it is worth more than many a girl's entire dowry. But what is on top within it is far more precious. Open it, my dear, and happy birthday!\"\n\nSarina took the box, which was rather heavy for its size, and opened the lid. Within the box, resting on a tightly packed layer of rectangular gold coins, and nestled in a scarlet silk cloth, was a carved figurine, done in an oriental style quite unfamiliar to Sarina. It was only an inch or so across, and was in the shape of a fox head, with wide open eyes that had a slant to them. It was made of ivory, darkened as if by much handling and use, and as she turned it over in her open hand, she saw it was pierced through from side to side, just behind the ears, and threaded on a red silk cord, with about a foot of cord on each side of the knot that secured the ivory head at the center of the cord, and a pretty tassel at the ends of the cord. An odd spiral figure with nine sinuous arms, each like a slender fox tail, was carved on the back of the object. \"It is lovely, father! And magical too, is it not? I sense a great power from that little carving,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"I knew my girl would appreciate that one thing even more than the gold and chest,\" Lord Randall said with a smile. \"You are quite right. The little Human fellow from China that sold that to me wanted quite a lot of silver for it, but I just had to have it for you. He claimed he gave me a good price, because I was a fox myself, but it was still very expensive. He told me it came from an island nation eastward even of China - a place that has been closed to foreigners for decades. Even the Chinese can't sail into that tiny island nation's ports. That carving came from a place called Japan, and that one bears a potent magical protective charm. It was once worn by a priestess from one of their most sacred shrines. He said that one protects the owner from many forms of magic, and that it should have other unique properties as well. He had a strange word for what the Japanese called it. What was it? Ah, yes, that's it. He said it was a Kitsune netsuke. A netsuke is a carving that is placed at the end of a cord attached to a small pouch or box, so it can be carried hung from their waist sash, since their robes have no pockets. A Kitsune is some sort of magical fox. So I just had to get it for my magical vixen daughter.\"\n\nSarina tied the cord in a loop, and placed it on her left wrist, like a bracelet. \"I think it is lovely, father, and that your money was quite well spent. I can tell you one thing that it does already. While you had this on your person, I could not read your thoughts at all. But I can, now. You want me to return to this 'Hong Kong' island with you, don't you, father?\"\n\n\"I would like you to consider it, yes,\" he replied. \"The Orientals have a different magic from ours. I saw them using it in the war, and saw what our mages did as well. You could learn a great deal from them, I think, if you went there yourself. They have ways they never speak of to outsiders, but I'll wager you can still learn from them. I confess that I also would like to know there's a mage beside me who I can trust. We have them subdued, for now, but they may rise up again. And if what little I have heard of your skill is true, I could use you by my side.\"\n\nLord Randall had other gifts for them as well. He produced three splendid silk dresses for Lady Pennington, and four equally elegant dresses for Sarina, all in the English style, but made of splendid Chinese silk brocades, with intricate embroidered details. For Lord Pennington he brought two silk lounging jackets, and half a dozen small, intricate ivory carvings. \n\nThe ladies excused themselves to try on their new finery. Sarina had to use a little magic to make the dresses fit. Lady Pennington's dresses were only a bit small, as she had put on a little weight since her brother in law had last seen her, but Sarina's were considerably too small - suited more to the child she had been when her father had left England. But when they wore them to show to Lord Randall and Lord Pennington, they fit perfectly, and Lord Randall was none the wiser.\n\n===\n\nThe ball was quite the social occasion, with over 100 guests in attendance. Sarina wore one of her new Chinese dresses, and introduced her father to the guests. She insisted on giving him the first dance, and then dancing with her uncle. No less than a dozen young men, of several species, asked Sarina to dance, congratulated her on the occasion of her birthday, and tried to gain her interest in a quiet conversation, or a private kiss. Two declared their undying love for her, and asked her permission to speak their hearts to her father and her aunt and uncle. She was cordial to them, but declined to do more than dance, or to accept any more personal attentions.\n\nAs the ball neared its conclusion, Sarina announced that she had come to a very important turning point in her life. She thanked those guests who had been kind to her, or who had been customers of her magical services. Then she thanked her aunt and uncle for their love and support for the last six years. Finally she announced that she intended to travel, in the company of her father, and see the Orient. She would be leaving in one month's time, once the necessary travel arrangements could be made.\n\n===\n\nAfter the ball, when Sarina's father had retired for the evening, Sarina had crept into her aunt and uncle's bedroom and placed a sleep spell on her aunt. \n\nHer uncle spoke with her a while, before they mated. \"I will miss you, my child,\" Lord Randall said. \"You have been so much to me. My niece. My daughter, even my lover. But each child must find their own way in life. I will respect your decision. Before you go, I will return to you the dowry chest your father left, when first he asked that you live with us. Most of the funds he set aside for you are still in it, and you are enough of an adult to keep it safe yourself. Do not forget us, my dear Sarina. And if you should return before the march of years takes the capability from me, I would welcome any visit from you, in my home, and in my bed. You will be the only one, other than my wife, that I shall ever take as my lover.\"\n\n\"Do not regret, Uncle. We have one more month that we will be together. Love me tonight, and we will make memories to last the rest of your life,\" Sarina said.\n\n===\n\nThe time seemed to fly by, as Sarina said goodbye to the few friends that she had, such as the tavern girls, including Molly and Meridith; the innkeeper, Master Duncan; and the mage, Lady Portia. She concluded her business affairs, and closed her shop. When it came time to pack, she concealed almost all of her father's luggage and her own on her necklace, much to his amazement. When they departed, they boarded a ship bound for the Eastern Mediterranean, with only one small bag each, their coats, and their umbrellas.\n\nThey sailed the length of the Mediterranean, until they reached Cairo. While waiting for transportation out of Cairo, it occurred to Lord Randall to ask Sarina if her magic could get them there faster.\n\n\"Unfortunately, father, it is increasingly difficult with distance to open a portal or teleport to a place that I have never been. Once I have been to this island of Hong Kong, then yes, I could create a portal for us to travel rapidly back to my uncle's home in England. But if I were to attempt to make a portal to a place I have never seen, I could easily get the wrong island entirely, or some place on the Chinese Mainland, or even on that forbidden island of Japan! We are safer to travel without magic, until I can mark the destinations for later use.\" Sarina insisted. \n\nWhile they waited in Cairo, she amused herself with searching for Egyptian magical texts and artifacts, and with reading the hieroglyphics on the ancient tombs and monuments. Her facility with languages and her ability to read the surface thoughts of others gave her an amazing advantage in the marketplaces and the stalls of the street merchants. Once they knew she could speak their language fluently, the merchants showed her wares that they seldom offered to foreigners, and were willing to introduce her to several of the local mages.\n\nSomeone did try to kidnap Sarina once, while she walked alone through the streets of Cairo. A muscular fellow of some mixed feline breed tossed a large cloth sack over her head, tossed her over his shoulder, and tried to carry her off. Sarina set the sack on fire, which could not harm her, but which burned his hands, clothes, fur and back. Then she set his clothes on fire. She left the fellow suspended in mid air, upside down, with much of his fur burned off, and wearing only his loin cloth, with his head about three feet above a basket full of live cobras, and then paid the owner of the cobras not to move the basket until nightfall. The snake charmer happily agreed, and the sight of the floating would-be kidnapper earned the snake charmer many coins that day. The cat remained in the air until sunrise, when the magic dispelled as the sunlight touched him, and dropped him on his head.\n\nOnce further arrangements were made, they travelled with a merchant caravan across the Middle East, and to the ports on the Indian Ocean. From there, they took a ship to Bombay, where they stayed briefly while Lord Randall met with his business contacts, and made arrangements for their arrival in Hong Kong. As she had done in Cairo, Sarina explored Bombay, and searched for magical lore and artifacts unique to India.\n\nMore than four months after leaving England, they steamed into the harbor at Victoria City, as the English had named the small town that was the capital of Hong Kong Island. There were less than three thousand people living on the island, more than half of those Chinese natives who had agreed to work for the English, but who lived in their own settlements on the island.\n\nIn the English held areas, Western-style homes had been built, and there was even a Cricket pitch and polo fields.\n\n\"All the comforts of home,\" Sarina observed, as she looked at the simple bed and lumpy mattress in her room. The first thing she did was to replace the bed with the elegant four-posted bed with its feather mattress and down comforter, which she had kept from the Pennington Manor. Her wardrobe and dresser soon followed.\n\n\"I should have asked you to pack some furniture for me,\" her father mused, as he watched Sarina unpacking. \"I had no idea your magic could do such things for us.\"\n\n\"Allow me to rest, father, and I can probably make a portal from here back to England, and go back to fetch a comfy bed for you, as well. But for now, I need some sleep,\" Sarina said.\n\nLord Randall sighed and returned to his own room, where he spent a restless night on a lumpy, cloth-stuffed mattress on a rope frame bed, not realizing his daughter would have welcomed him to join her in her bed, if he had but shown the interest in doing so. \n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 24, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 24 - So much to learn\n\nIn the morning Sarina arose with the sun. It was pleasantly cool, but windy outside. Without even thinking about it, she thickened her fox fur into a winter pelt that made the cool weather much more comfortable. \n\nThe bungalow that her father had apparently purchased for their use was situated about half a mile from the harbor road, on the lower slopes of Victoria Peak. From their second floor balcony she could look out to the North and East, over the immense harbor of Hong Kong. But she couldn't see it very well, because of the rows of buildings closer to the harbor, and downhill from their bungalow.\n\nShe went outside, and looked behind the house, at the steep-sided peak above Victoria City. Her eyes glowed as she teleported to its summit, where she could get a better look at her new home. \n\nThe wind was fierce on the top of the peak, but the air was cooler, and smelled much fresher. She turned slowly in place, taking it all in, and then looked down at the harbor, now two miles or so distant. She had never seen such a large harbor in her life. It had to be at least four miles long, and almost two miles deep, with entrances on the East and West ends, and the coastline of the mainland forming a fourth side. A wide road went the length of the harbor, and was lined with buildings of as much as four stories in height. More boats than she could count were arrayed along the shore, in some areas she saw many boats were oddly tied to one another in long lines, side to side, so thirty or more lashed together boats formed their own peninsulas jutting out into the water.  Apart from those clusters of native boats, she saw European-style docks, with British and Indian ships offloading cargo and passengers, and a few British warships floating in the harbor. There was even an American ship there. \n\nVictoria City clung to the harbor's edge like a coat of moss on a tree trunk, taking advantage of what little flat land the island offered. Most of the rest of what she could see was inhospitable ranges of steep, rocky slopes, and cliffs that plunged into the sea. Sarina wondered for a moment why the English would prefer the lower areas, when it seemed so much nicer up here on the summit. Then she laughed at herself as she realized that anyone who could not teleport would have a hard time indeed getting up and down the mountain's steep sides. \n\nMages like Sarina were really not all that common. In the land where she was born, she and her parents had been the only real mages she had known of, though her parents had insisted that others with the magical talent did exist, in seclusion. In the town in England where she had lived as Sarina, there had been fewer that thirty five mages of any real power that she had been able to find the names of. Most of them had been like Lady Portia, skilled in some areas, and specializing in what they knew how to do best. They were more like skilled tradesmen than powerful and influential individuals. They might use portals to help offload ships, as Portia had done; or shape stone for sculptures or building supplies; or used their skills to locate magical creatures and potential troublemakers. To Sarina, it seemed such a waste of potential. There was so much that a mage could learn, and so much that they could do. She could never be satisfied with just shaping materials into useful forms. Sarina wanted more. She wanted power, and the ability to ensure that no one could ever again take from her what she claimed as hers.\n\nSmiling, she teleported back to her room in the bungalow. She would learn the ways of these Chinese mages, and perhaps even the secrets of that forbidden island of Japan, which sounded like the place her real mother had come from. Here they also referred to certain kinds of fox folk as Kitsune. She was determined to find out more about what Kitsune were, and therefore more about herself, and her own abilities.\n\nLord Randall found her an hour later, gazing out from the balcony, staring at the clusters of boats at one end of the harbor. \"Good morning Sarina. Did you sleep well?\" he asked. \n\n\"Yes, though I am getting hungry now, father. There is no food in the kitchen, and no servants to prepare it. I suppose we shall hire some natives to be our servants?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"Yes, that will be the first order of business, after we eat. Come along dear. Have you ever eaten congee?\" Lord Randall asked.\n\n\"No. What is that, father?\" Sarina replied, though she could see in his surface thoughts a steaming bowl of something white, with pieces of fish on top. She also got a fleeting image in his mind of herself and Lord Randall mating, when she was fourteen, on the night before they met with Lord and Lady Pennington. He believed it had only been a dream, but he had not forgotten it for the last six years. She knew then that he still lusted for his own daughter's flesh, though he wasn't allowing himself to act on his impulses.\n\n\"It's a rice porridge that they eat here for breakfast. Top it with fish or other tasty bits, and it's not half bad. There are at least a dozen shops between here and the harbor that sell it. We'll get a bowl and some tea, and then see about hiring some servants. After that, we need to meet with some of my trading partners,\" he said, while looking guiltily to one side, as his recurring sexual fantasy came up yet again. On the trip here from England, the erotic dreams had begun again, and he had been rather glad that Sarina had a separate room on the steamships, and separate rooms in their other accommodations. He set the thought aside, and got his coat and hat.\n\nBefore they left the bungalow, Sarina stopped Lord Randall in the parlor, and asked, \"Father? Have you told anyone here about me yet? About who I am?\" \n\n\"Not yet, no. As I said, I hoped to take you around and introduce you later today. Why?\" Lord Randall asked.\n\nSarina's eyes glowed briefly as she used her magic to make Lord Randall more open to suggestion, and then she said, \"I think you should introduce me as your wife, and not your daughter. No one here would know the difference, and it would give me a higher standing in their society, would it not?\"\n\nLord Randall stopped in mid stride, and stared at Sarina. \"I... You can't be serious.\"\n\n\"Oh, but I am. It would not be so remarkable that a prosperous merchant would return to his home country, and then bring back to the Colony a young and attractive wife, is it? It will make you look better, and it will ensure that no one tries to court me for their own. And I do remind you of mother, don't I?\" Sarina said, giving just a little more of a mental push to her suggestion. \"Besides, living with you here, would I not be serving almost all the functions of a wife anyway? The servants would respect me more, if they thought me your wife.\"\n\n\"I... Sarina, really. Think what you are asking. Would a man like me bring back a young wife, and then have separate bedrooms? We would have to... well, at least appear to...\" he stammered.\n\n\"Share a bedroom? Be affectionate with each other? I wouldn't mind. And if you are honest with yourself, you know you wouldn't mind either. I can read your surface thoughts, my beloved Edward. I can see that you longed to have me in your bed, even as you left me with Uncle Thomas and Aunt Meghan when I was fourteen. When we are alone, I can be any woman you could ever desire. Even how I looked to you when I was fourteen, like in your fantasies,\" Sarina said, eyes glowing as she stepped closer. She embraced him and pushed just a bit harder with her magic, adding an illusion that caused him to believe she was in heat, and saying, \"Take me, Edward Randall! Claim me as your wife!\"\n\nLord Randall couldn't speak. His hat tumbled to the floor as his daughter unexpectedly embraced him like a lover. He didn't even notice it had fallen from his head. Part of him wanted to decline, but that part was losing the battle rapidly. He sighed, took her hand in hers, and led her back to her bed, saying, \"We... never did have a proper honeymoon, did we, my beloved?\"\n\n==\n\nSarina mated passionately with Lord Randall, and as his mind opened to hers with the intimate contact, she devoured every bit of knowledge that he had about Asia, India, and the trade markets for tea and opium. She removed his inhibitions about incest, and even enhanced his desire to rut with his own daughter. She used their union to bind her to him, solely to increase her knowledge and to make him more dependent on her. By the time they were done, Lord Randall was hopelessly in love with Sarina, and more than willing to tell everyone that this girl was his wife, and that they had married while back in England.\n\nSarina used her magic to alter their travel documents, so their papers read that they were a husband and wife, and not father and daughter. Until they returned to England, where the Penningtons and others would know the truth, no one need be the wiser.\n\nShe was actually rather disappointed with Lord Randall's knowledge of Hong Kong and China. He had spent far more time in India, and had only visited Hong Kong on three occasions, all early in the year, and then returning to India before the monsoon rains of spring, and the typhoon storms of late summer and early fall. He had never lived here a full year, and had only been to the mainland once, to a city called Canton. His sole reason for moving here was the prospect of great wealth to be earned in the opium trade, and in buying tea to sell back in England.\n\nShe was glad however for what she had learned from Lord Randall this way, since it had saved her from a grave error in her original plans. Before it occurred to her to pose as his wife, Sarina had considered taking the place of a local brothel girl, and working her way up through the better brothels and their customers, until she could raid the minds of a number of highly placed Chinese officials. But here, the whores that served the English and other foreigners were of an indigenous people called the Tanka, who were outcasts that were not even permitted to live on the land. Those clustered of side by side boats in the harbor were their homes, and their brothels. Lord Randall had availed himself of them many times, and he knew there was no 'upward mobility' from their ranks. The Chinese natives would not ever hire a Tanka \"salt water girl\". There were no whores in Hong Kong that the Chinese officials would deign to get close to. She would have to get to the mainland if she wanted to try that approach. If she wanted to get into the minds of high ranking native Chinese by using the openness of mind that she experienced with sex, she would need to have access to their families, so she could try to impersonate their wives and concubines. But they never brought their wives or concubines to Hong Kong.\n\nHer only other choice would be a more brutal assault on the minds of Chinese natives, which could quite possibly leave her victims insane or dead. She would use whatever tactics worked, but really didn't want to stir up a hue and cry by leaving a series of dead or insane victims strewn across the land.\n\nThey had breakfast, hired some local workers to cook, do laundry, and clean the house, and then met with Lord Randall's \"Merchant Contacts\".\n\nThe first group was other English merchants, the captain of the largest British warship in the harbor, and the colonial Governor, a rather short bulldog who seemed very pleased to see a merchant actually bringing their family to the island. \"We need more English families here,\" he insisted, \"Good for the colony, and good for land values. Glad to have you both.\" As had been the case back in England, the British subjects in Hong Kong tended to be an assortment of humans, dogs, foxes and wolves, with a few other species also present, like ferrets.\n\nSarina found the mayor's surface thoughts intriguing. He really did want to make Hong Kong into a major port, and the pride of the English colonies. He had backed a number of 'social improvements', including a theatre, a polo grounds, and a cricket pitch. He was also planning a \"Gentleman's Club\" where the merchants and governments officials could socialize with their peers. The male merchants and government officials, that is. The club would be for males only, and elsewhere in Hong Kong colonial society a woman had little function, except as a wife, or a mistress.\n\nWhen she met with several of the Chinese officials, they were no better, when it came to their opinions of women. They had their place in Chinese society, but always below the men. Sarina realized that if she wanted in depth access to the knowledge of the Chinese mages, she would have to pose as a male. She could certainly do that, with her shape shifting abilities, but she had never attempted to live as a male for any length of time. They would be very unlikely to teach a female any magic. But this also gave her an advantage, in that they did not expect a female to ever be a mage. Among the Chinese natives, there were Humans, but the other Chinese people tended to foxes, ferrets, minks, and felines, with only the occasional dog and wolf among them.\n\nWhen their last meeting of the day concluded, Sarina went back to the bungalow with her father, and told him some of what she had learned from the surface thoughts of the merchants. She also removed the bed from his bedroom, leaving them with just her bed, and using his bedroom as an office and study for Lord Randall.\n\nAs they mated that night, Sarina wondered if she should tell Lord Randall one other disturbing thing that she had found in the thoughts of the Merchants, the Governor, and the Chinese officials. While the harbor was indeed superb, the Chinese did not think it was healthy to remain on the island, and they would only visit for brief periods, and then leave. Only the lowest caste individuals in their society were willing to live and work here. But on the mainland, foreigners were only allowed in certain port cities, and even then in only certain sectors of those cities. So if Sarina wanted to learn the secrets of the Orient, she would need to do it in the form of a Chinese native, and most likely while appearing to be male. She decided to wait a while and see if an opportunity arose for her to visit the mainland with Lord Randall, rather than speaking to him of the possibility that his 'new wife' would need to change genders for a while. \n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 25, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 25 - Piercing the wall of secrecy\n\nAfter breakfast the next day, Sarina prepared to explore Victoria City. She watched the street from the balcony of their home, observing several of the native Chinese who worked in the area, and in particular the males, while lightly probing their surface thoughts. An hour or so later, she went inside, to her 'husband', Lord Randall.\n\n\"I shall be out for most of the day, my dear,\" she told him. \"I will be exploring Victoria City, and preparing for a short journey to this Chinese city of 'Canton', where the actual trading takes place. There is much to learn in this area, if I am to be of assistance to you in your trading negotiations, my husband.\"\n\n\"Well, if you insist, I would be glad to escort you around the city, my beloved child,\" Lord Randall said, reaching for his coat and hat. \"I would like to see more of it myself! But I'm afraid that visiting Canton would be out of the question, for you. They allow very few foreign merchants to go there, and even I have to stop at the English Factory, outside the walls and on the river's edge, to do my business. Virtually no one goes within the city walls but their own Chinese people, and certainly no women. I am afraid they would never allow a foreign woman to even ride on the ship to the Factories outside Canton. They would insist you remain here, or in Macau.\"\n\n\"I will not need an escort, and honestly, you would be better off not being with me today, darling,\" Sarina replied. \"They won't see me as a foreigner, or a woman. Have you forgotten so soon, how easily I can change my appearance, after mating with a fourteen year old version of me all night last night, and again this morning?\" Her eyes glowed, and she shifted form, to become a male mink of Chinese ethnicity, with his hair in a tight braided queue, and wearing the clothing typical of the local Chinese people.\n\nLord Randall took a step back, saying, \"My Word! I would not have imagined you could change so much! I have seen you become younger and smaller, and make yourself more closely resemble your mother. But you can even change your gender and species? Remarkable! Although if I may say, it is also a little unnerving to see you as someone so very different. Very well. But please, do not stay away for long. I shall worry for your safety.\"\n\n\"Worry not for me, beloved, but for any who might oppose me. If for some reason I will be out past nightfall, I shall send word to you. But you should expect me to return in time for the evening meal,\" Sarina said, as she turned and walked out of the bungalow.\n\n===\n\nShe went first to the dock areas, where she posed as a sailor from one of the Chinese ships, waiting for permission to load their cargo. She sat and drank tea, while gleaning information from the real Chinese sailor's surface thoughts. It did not take long for her to find what she sought. A young Chinese male, also a mink like her current appearance, was drinking tea and daydreaming about returning to Canton very soon, and to the arms of his wife. His name was Hui Ding, and it seemed he had very few friends, being a new member of the crew, and from a rural village before he signed on with the captain of the trading ship that he served on now. His body was strong, but his mind was weak. He would do nicely.\n\nWhen Hui Ding got up to leave, Sarina followed him, cast an invisibility spell on herself, and then watched from the shadows of nearby buildings as he worked with others to offload crates of tea from one of the ships, and then to load cloth-wrapped bales that were filled with opium. As Hui Ding and his crewmates worked, she read their surface thoughts, until she knew each of them by name, and the names of the other crewmembers and their captain, and a few other details of daily life on the ship that came to mind for them. She determined that the ship would not leave port until the next morning, and went back to her bungalow, to enjoy dinner with Lord Randall.\n\n===\n\n\"I have found a ship that can take me to Canton,\" she told Lord Randall at dinner, back in her normal vixen form again. \"It leaves in the morning, but I must go now if I am to go with them. I plan to be gone no longer than two weeks. If anyone asks, tell them that I have gone to Macau to visit a cousin who lives there, and tell her of our marriage.\"\n\n\"Must you do this?\" Lord Randall asked. \"We can take our time, and learn their ways here. My negotiations have been going quite well already. And... I do not want to be without you, my love.\"\n\n\"We do what we must, my dear,\" Sarina replied. \"I will mate with you once more before we go, but I will do this. I promise not to get into too much trouble, darling. I will return to you before you know it.\"\n\n===\n\nTwo hours later, Lord Randall lay exhausted in their bed, as Sarina resumed her generic male Chinese appearance, and left to seek Hiu Ding in the harbor area. She found her victim in a tea house, drinking wine. Her eyes glowed as she implanted a suggestion in his mind, and then left the tea house. Hui Ding stood, paid his bill, and went outside, thinking he needed to relieve his bladder. \n\nHui Ding turned the corner into a narrow alley, and found himself face to face with what could have been his twin brother! But before he could react, the false Hui Ding's eyes glowed a brilliant green, and he fell into a waking dream. Compelled by Sarina's magic, he walked down the alley and into a back room of the tea house. There, in his dream, he thought he had returned home, to his wife, and was sharing her bed. Eyes blind to what was actually around him, he mated with a semblance of his wife, while Sarina invaded his mind through the sexual contact, and stole every memory that the poor fellow had.\n\nLater that night, it appeared that two drunken Chinese sailors wandered down the docks, in the direction of the \"flower boats\" of the outcast boat people. The real Hui Ding went out onto the boats, hired three Tanka prostitutes, and ordered more wine. After watching from a distance and allowing the sailor to debauch himself for an hour, Sarina cast a sleep spell on them all, so that they would not awaken until mid morning, and would all appear to be passed out drunk until then. When Hui Ding did awaken, he could not recall his own name, or where he was from, or anything that had happened to him in the last day. He also had been infected with Gonorrhea, by one of the 'salt water girls' he slept with.\n\nWhile the real Hui Ding slept with the outcast whores,  Hui Ding appeared to return to the Chinese merchant ship, slightly drunk. Sarina had taken his place.\n\n===\n\nThe next day, Hui Ding worked diligently with his shipmates, getting the ship out of port and steaming  up the river to Canton. No one noticed anything different about him, other than perhaps that he worked harder than usual. But they attributed that to his desire to get home to his wife.\n\nAfter offloading cargo at the English Factory in Canton, Hui Ding went home, to the small house that he had outside the walls of Canton, with many other sailors and their families. He greeted his wife warmly, and that night they mated, and again Sarina used the sexual contact to invade the mind of Hui Ding's wife, and stealing all her memories.\n\nIn the morning, Hui Ding left his home, leaving behind a wife who could not recall her husband returning last night, and who was wondering when her husband would return, and if his ship was delayed.\n\nIn the next two hours, Sarina changed her appearance five times, as she took the identities and surface memories of higher ranking Chinese males. Each of her next four victims thought he was encountering his lover or wife, and mating with them, though afterward they had no memory of the delay in their activities. Those four remained unharmed, and did not even know their minds had been tampered with, or that a second copy of their body was briefly in the city. By the time Sarina reached the gates of the walled city of Canton, she was in the uniform of an unmarried Chinese military officer of moderate rank. That last victim she had mentally assaulted and forcibly taken his memories, leaving him dead in an alley, as she stripped him, took everything he had, and then incinerated his body completely with her magic. At the city gates, she presented the pass that the military officer had carried, and entered the walled city of Canton. \n\nUsing the memories of the people who she had victimized, she sought the part of the city where she might find a scholar.\n\n===\n\nOnce she found a promising lead on a scholar, Sarina changed her appearance again, becoming a male mink again, and wearing clothing similar to what the scholar inside the building was wearing. She knocked on the door, and asked to see the scholar.\n\nThe young Ferret boy that answered the door asked, \"Who may I say is calling?\"\n\n\"I am Feng Wu. I have heard of your Master, and wish to exchange ideas with him,\" Sarina said.\n\nThe boy led 'Feng Wu' inside, and then went back to the door. Sarina immediately made the boy forget he had seen anyone at the door today.\n\nThe elderly Chinese scholar was a wolf. He looked fearfully at his guest and said, \"I have little for you to take, huli jing! Yes, I can see what you are, fox spirit, and sense your power! I am old, and my heart is likely to be tough and inedible, even for you. You do not want to prey upon me. Begone.\"\n\n\"I will not harm you, elder. I have come to you seeking knowledge, and not your life, or your flesh. I suppose you could say that I am a 'fox spirit', but I am not from these lands. What you know of the 'huli jing' may not apply to me. That is what you call a fox spirit in these lands? A 'huli jing'?\" Sarina asked. \"Tell me of these creatures, and why you fear I would eat your heart.\"\n\n\"That is how the huli jing gain power. Every 100 years, they must feast upon the hearts of ten people, so they can grow another tail. They live for as much as 1000 years, and after they gain their ninth tail, they can become a Celestial Fox, and become one with divinity. While they live, they can walk among us in the guise of a beautiful young woman, or in the form of other people, and if they mate with a normal person, they can drain the very life from them. They are said to prey upon scholars. So that is why I fear you, huli jing!\" he replied.\n\n\"I told you, I am not at all interested in eating you, old one. Or in mating with you, either,\" Sarina insisted. \"Tell me more of the huli jing. Humor me, and you will live.\"\n\n\"I do not wish to anger you, fox spirit. I know how vengeful your kind can be. Very well. Some huli jing can breathe fire, or make fire appear at will. They can possess the body of a person, and make them do evil things, or can drive them mad. It is true though that not all huli jing are evil. Sometimes it is said a huli jing will fall in love with a mortal, and be a good and faithful wife to him, unless her true nature becomes known. It is said that the children of a huli jing and a mortal will have very powerful magical powers, though they might not be huli jing themselves,\" the scholar said. \"Please, I know very little more of your kind. Do not kill me.\"\n\n\"It was sufficient. How is it that you could see what I am, elder?\" Sarina asked.\n\nThe scholar pointed at a mirror with an elegant frame, which was positioned so he could glance at it and see whoever was in the doorway. \"That mirror is enchanted, to show the true form of spirits and demons, and other false appearances made by magic. Never has it shown me an unnatural creature as powerful as you are. I doubted that it worked at all, until I saw your fox form reflected in it.\"\n\nSarina looked in the mirror, and saw that it did reflect her vixen form as Sarina Randall, which she had worn so much over the last six years that she considered it more her 'true appearance' than the human form she was born with. \"Are such devices common here?\" she asked.\n\n\"They are not, no. That was a gift from a mage who sometimes visits me,\" the scholar replied.\n\nSarina placed a large gold coin on the table in front of the scholar, and said, \"Thank you, elder. Your life is spared. I would like to meet that mage you mentioned. I will not harm him, if he will not try to harm me. I am a mage myself, and I want to talk to one of my peers from this country. That is all I ask of you now, though I may wish to talk to you again.\"\n\n\"And when you are gone, will that gold turn into sticks and leaves, or a dirty stone? The one I speak of may be willing to talk to you. I cannot say what he will do when you meet. Do not blame me if meeting him does not go well for you,\" the scholar said.\n\n\"The gold is real, as is my thanks for your information. You have dealt honestly with me, and I will deal honestly with you. Send your boy to see if I may meet with this mage,\" Sarina said. \"I will wait here with you, for his answer.\" \n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 26, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 26 - Oriental scholarship\n\nThe old wolf scholar called for his boy, who blinked in amazement to see that his master had a guest, since Sarina had made the young ferret forget he had admitted anyone.\n\n\"Y-yes Master? Ah, should I fetch some wine for your guest?\" the boy asked.\n\n\"Yes, and bring two glasses. When you return, I have an errand for you,\" the scholar said.\n\nOnce the boy had brought the wine, the scholar told him, \"Go to Jiang Wu. Tell him that I have a most unusual visitor, who wants to speak with him. A huli jing, who says they are from a very distant land.\"\n\nOn hearing the mysterious visitor referred to as a huli jing, the boy became quite afraid, and backed away, seeking the door.\n\n\"Please, stop acting as if you expect me to devour you, boy. I have no intention of eating you. Please also do tell this Jiang Wu that my request is to meet at his convenience, when we may have several hours to talk. If today is not convenient, tomorrow or the next day will do,\" Sarina said politely \"You may tell him that I am a Western oneromancer, and I wish to discuss Chinese methods of oneromancy and divination, if he knows of these arts, which I believe he does? If he asks my name, tell him that 'Feng Wu' is how he may address me. Thank you, boy. Now go.\"\n\nThe boy glanced quickly at the enchanted mirror, meeped when he saw a female fox reflected in it, and not the male mink that his eyes perceived, and ran from the room.\n\n\"Please forgive him. The boy is a student of mine, and has never met an unnatural creature before. You are like a legend to him, a feared creature he has only read of in ancient stories. Would you like some wine, while we wait for Jiang Wu's reply?\" the scholar asked. \"I will drink some myself. I think I could use a glass of wine right now.\"\n\n\"You hope to trick me, and get me drunk, so you can force me to leave?\" Sarina asked. \"Yes, your thoughts are that open to me. Do not try to trap me or deceive me, ancient one. I will go when I have what I want, and you and your boy will remain unharmed, as long as you have treated me well. But try to cross me, and I swear that this place will burn to the ground with both of you in it, and they will have trouble finding your ashes!\"\n\n\"N-no, oh great fox spirit! The thought did occur to me that some of your kind may be banished if they get drunk, but I meant no harm! Y-your kind do like wine, do they not?\" the scholar said, his hands shaking as he poured a measure of wine for himself and took a large gulp of it.\n\n\"Drink your wine, if it calms you. I do not care to drink any myself. Amuse me, while we wait. Tell me the history of this land. Some of its tales and legends,\" Sarina requested.\n\n\"You toy with me, mighty one,\" the scholar said. \"I will do as you ask, but... may I first make one request? May I see your fox-woman form, with its many tails? If you are openly asked, and choose to comply, it cannot be used against you. And if I am to play host to such a wonder as yourself, I would appreciate seeing your magnificence with my own eyes.\"\n\nSarina smiled, seeing in his mind an image of a beautiful humanoid female fox, with red-gold fur that seemed almost aflame, and seven tails swirling and swaying sinuously behind her. And in his mind, that beautiful huli jing was nude. The old scholar may fear death from mating with a huli jing, but he was enough of a letch to want to see one unclothed. \"As you wish, old wolf. You do not fear the temptation of what you seek?\"\n\n\"Mighty huli jing, I fear that no matter what I do, I will not survive the day, given your capricious nature,\" he replied. \"If I am to expire, I would at least like to see such a wonder with my own eyes, before I perish. That is the honest truth. And if I am to die, better it be in the arms of a beautiful vixen, however unnatural and deadly, than to be burned alive by your wrath.\"\n\nSarina stood and smiled, her eyes glowing as she made her stolen male garments vanish, and changed her shape to Sarina's form, but with seven tails at once. She enveloped herself in a shimmering aura of fire, whose heat could be felt, but which burned nothing. Standing there in the nude, with her eyes glowing green like burning copper, she asked, \"Does this satisfy you, old scholar? Is it all that you expected, and hoped for?\"\n\n\"More than I could have dreamed of, mighty huli jing. The enchanted mirror's magic does not do justice to the radiant beauty before me,\" the scholar said, gazing at her with a mixture of lust, and abject terror.\n\nSarina looked carefully at the old wolf. She guessed he was in his late sixties, but he might be young enough to still be sexually capable. Really, he wasn't that much older than her lecherous 'uncle', Lord Pennington. \"Are you still capable of lying with a woman, old scholar? Unless your heart fails you, mating with me need not be harmful. I give you my word that I will not intentionally harm you, if you truly wish the experience. Or if you can resist the temptation, you have but to ask, and I shall become Feng Wu again. It matters little to me.\"\n\n\"My fur may be sprinkled with grey and white, but I am still capable as a male, o mighty one. Sometimes, women who seek my advice do pay for it with their favors. I have a bed in the next room, for that purpose.  Never has it been graced by one more beautiful than yourself,\" he replied.\n\n===\n\nThe old scholar was capable, but lasted only half an hour. In that time Sarina drained his memories, making them hers, and learning copious volumes of information on Chinese culture and society. She also learned that the mage she had asked to see, Jiang Wu, was a specialist in divination and dream interpretation, but also was quite capable as a summoner of demons and other unnatural creatures. He had summoned creatures far more powerful than mere elementals, and bound them to do his bidding, for short periods of time. Sarina would need to be cautious with that fellow.\n\nShe left the scholar sleeping peacefully on his bed, smiling happily with the memories of pleasures far exceeding what he actually experienced with Sarina. When he awoke, he would remember having had a stamina matching the best years of his youth, and would suffer no other ill effects, but one - any female companion after this would pale in comparison.\n\n===\n\nWhen the ferret boy returned, he found ' Feng Wu' seated in the scholar's room, examining old maps and journals of traveler's tales from various sailors who had once visited the island of Japan, before they closed their ports to foreigners.\n\n\"W-where is my master? What have you done with him?\" the boy asked fearfully.\n\n\"He is unharmed. In his fear of me, he drank a little too much wine. He is in the next room, sleeping it off,\" Sarina replied diplomatically. \"What news have you of the mage, Jiang Wu? Will he see me? And when?\"\n\n\"H-he said, he will meet with you at the hour of the Dragon, tomorrow, at his home. He says that is the most auspicious time for your meeting,\" the boy replied, referring to a time a few hours after sunrise. He looked in the door to the back room, and seemed relieved to see that his master was still breathing, and looked unharmed. Then he carefully explained to the strange guest how to get to where the mage lived.\n\nSarina examined the boy's surface thoughts, and found no indications that he was lying. She nodded, gave the boy a handful of silver coins, and then said, \"Then I will take my leave of you, and thank you. I am taking two maps and three journals. That sum should pay for their replacement. Your Master already knows where he can obtain new copies of these items. I made a list of them so he can easily do so.\"\n\n\"Y-you aren't going to harm us, then?\" the boy asked.\n\n\"It does not benefit me to harm you. Your master dealt fairly with me. You will remain unharmed,\" she replied, as she left.\n\n===\n\nThe rest of that day, 'Feng Wu' seemed to run errands through the town of Canton, making small purchases, buying meals and tea, and keeping a low profile. No one knew him. He was just another face in the crowd, unremarkable.\n\nSarina refrained from peering into other people's thoughts, after seeing a group of Chinese soldiers searching the area near the city gates for an officer that had failed to report for his duties.  She made note not to assume that officer's identity again, and quietly incinerated his uniform and belongings in an alley behind a tea shop, where the smoke would be lost in the fumes from the kitchens.\n\nAs night fell, she sought the home of the mage she was to meet the next day. She teleported to the roof of a nearby building, where she watched as the mage carefully inscribed a large diagram on the wooden floor of an open courtyard within his home. She smiled, fairly certain that she knew what the diagram was for, and how the mage intended to use it.\n\nShe walked to a house about a quarter of a mile from where the mage lived, cast a spell on the residents to cause them to sleep soundly, and calmly spent the night in their best bed, while the owner of the home and his wife lay in their spellbound sleep on the floor.\n\n===\n\nIn the morning, Feng Wu left the house that he had slept in, releasing the inhabitants from their sleep spell. The owner of the home and his wife believed that they had both rolled out of bed as they awakened, and tumbled to the floor. They laughed at how silly it was that they both did that at the same time, and went on about their day.\n\nFeng Wu purchased a bowl of congee with roasted fish, and a small pot of tea, and ate that for breakfast, while he waited for the appointed time for the meeting with the mage. The skies were getting cloudy, and it looked like it might rain by nightfall. But for now, it was merely windy and cool.\n\nFrom what Sarina could recall of the memories of the sailor, Hui Ding, his ship was not scheduled to load cargo and return to Hong Kong for two more days. That left plenty of time for Sarina to conclude her business with the mage, and return to Hong Kong in the guise of Hui Ding. \n\n===\n\nMeanwhile, outside the city walls, the wife of the real Hui Ding was becoming concerned. She had confirmed that the ship her husband served on had returned to port two nights earlier. She had located several of his crewmates, and they all agreed that he had been on the ship when they offloaded their cargo, and that the last they had seen of him, it appeared that he was headed for his home. But he had never arrived at home, as far as his wife could remember. It was unlike him. He was not given to gambling, drinking or whoring, and never missed a chance to enjoy her cooking and her company in bed.  One of the wolf sailors suggested that perhaps he had met a lovely concubine who was just too beautiful to refuse. That earned him a withering glance and a severe tongue lashing from Hui Ding's wife.\n\nShe feared, however, that they may be right. Her mother had warned her about the ways of sailors, and their bad habits. Even if her husband was not the type to do such things, that did not mean he could not have fallen in with bad companions, who tempted him beyond his limits. Perhaps her husband had gone off on a drinking binge with other sailors? Or worse yet, what if he had gone to an opium den? She had heard of such vile places, and how men could lose themselves for days or even weeks, smoking the drug until their money ran out, and the owner of the den threw them out on the street.\n\nShe refused to contemplate the thought that her husband might be dead, or might have been attacked and even now be lying in a gutter somewhere, severely wounded. Surely if something that bad had happened to him, the city guard would have found him by now?\n\n===\n\nIn Hong Kong, the real Hui Ding was unconscious. He was dead drunk, and in the arms of a Tanka prostitute. Since he awakened with no memory and no identifying papers on the day his ship was to have sailed, the whores had assumed he was a Chinese sailor who had abandoned his ship. If he was willing to spend money on them and whore with them they were perfectly happy to hide him on the 'flower boats', where most native Chinese would refuse to set foot. They plied him with wine and took him to bed, taking money each time, but only what he owed for the wine or the girl. They hid his sailor clothes, and dressed him in a Tanka loincloth and pants. \n\nFor his own part, Hui Ding had decided that until his memory returned, he was safer among the Tanka whores. Sarina had adjusted his memories enough that consorting with the hated 'salt water girls' did not revolt him. Yet he dimly recalled that most Chinese had a very low opinion of the Tanka people. If he was a Chinese sailor hiding among the Tanka, as the whores said, then he must have done something very bad. Until he could remember what he had done, it was safer to remain where he was. \n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 27, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 27 - West meets East\n\nAt the hour of the Dragon (eight in the morning, according to a western clock), 'Feng Wu' arrived at the gate in the wall that surrounded the home of the magician, Jiang Wu, and tapped on the door.\n\nThe door opened at once, and a feline boy with fluffy grey fur looked fearfully out at the visitor. \"Y-yes?\" the boy said.\n\n\"This is the home of Jiang Wu, is it not?\" the visitor said politely. \"I am expected. My name is Feng Wu.\"\n\nThe boy looked slightly disappointed at the calm and harmless appearance of the visitor, who appeared to be only a young male mink, dressed like a Chinese scholar. He bobbed his head and opened the gate wider, saying, \"Master Jiang Wu is expecting you, yes, honorable Feng Wu. This way, please.\"\n\nFeng Wu followed the boy inside, and waited patiently while the servant closed the gate and latched it from within. Then the two of them crossed a small red bridge that arched over a koi pond which dominated the small inner yard, and went up three steps and through two large, elaborately carved doors, into a large, high-ceilinged room that was clearly intended as a formal audience chamber. There was a raised dais on the far side, on which was a wooden chair decorated on the arms, legs and back with many kinds of stylized animals. But there was no other furniture for the guest to sit on.\n\n\"Wait here, please, and I will tell my Master that you are...\" the boy started to say.\n\n\"I already know,\" a voice said from behind a curtain on the far side of the room. The person the voice belonged to was a well-muscled tiger, dressed in elaborately decorated robes of crimson silk, hemmed with blue silk, and embroidered in gold and silver. \"I felt his presence. You may go, Li Pang. Why don't you see if the wine merchant has any good wines available today? Take your time.\"\n\nThe boy wasted no time in scampering out of the room, running so fast that his circular cap flew from his head, to lie discarded on the floor.\n\nFeng Wu and Jiang Wu regarded each other in silence for a moment, as they subtly tested the mental defenses of each other, and each found no easy entry. Then Feng Wu bowed, just to the degree that was proper between peers, and said, \"I thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Jiang Wu.\"\n\n\"I thank you for coming, Feng Wu, though surely that is not your true name. It is an amusing choice, however. The name means 'wind sorcery' in our language. Did you know that? Well, no matter. It is not often that I get such an... unusual visitor. The boy will remain at the wine merchant for quite some time. The others in my household staff have also been sent away for the morning. We may have our chat without interruptions.\"\n\n\"That also ensures that you will not have to be concerned for their welfare, if your guest should prove dangerous?\" Feng Wu replied with a smile. \"I assure you, I am only as dangerous to you as you attempt to be to me. Deal honestly with me, and I will repay you well, and leave you quite unharmed. And before you ask, the old scholar is quite well, and was well paid in honest coin for his advice and services to me. I did not harm him, nor did I cheat him.\"\n\n\"I know. I sent my boy to make sure of that, late last night,\" the tiger replied. \"Li Pang returned and told me what the scholar says he saw in his mirror. May I look at your reflection in my own mirror, to verify what he said of you?\"\n\n\"You may, if you wish,\" Feng Wu replied calmly, with his green eyes softly glowing.\n\nThe tiger took a palm-sized metal disc from a pouch attached to his sash, and looked at Feng Wu's reflection in it. \"Very interesting,\" he said. \"Your image in my mirror is blurred. It should clearly show me your resting form - how you truly look, when you are not trying to assume a false appearance. Yet I see both a male mink and a female spirit fox, and I cannot count the fox form's tails. How ancient are you, huli jing? Your mind is closed to me.\"\n\n\"Your mind is also guarded against me, I see. Does my exact age matter? I honestly cannot tell you. The seasons of your world have changed enough times since the year of my birth that the exact number of years may be meaningless. If I had to guess, I would say perhaps 500 years or more, as you count them? You are said to know divination. I would like to see how that is done here.\" Feng Wu replied evasively. What Feng Wu stated was quite true, however, since coming to this realm via a portal had apparently moved Sarina and Asha far ahead in the river of time from the era in which she had been born.\n\n\"Most Chinese methods of divination require that you know the exact date and hour of a person's birth. I would at the very least need to know the correct month and year to cast your horoscope, which is done by checking the alignments of the stars and planets at this time, as well as what they are recorded to have been when you were born. But there is one form of divination I could perform for you, without knowing your exact age. Come with me,\" he said. The tiger led Feng Wu into a smaller side room, and handed his guest a small bundle of 50 small sticks, made from some sort of dried reed.  \n\n\"What am I to do with these?\" Feng Wu asked, as they each took a seat on opposite sides of a small table. The tiger had an ink dish, calligraphy brush, and several pieces of paper ready on his side of the table.\n\n\"Think of a question you wish answered. As you do so, sort through the yarrow stalks in this manner,\" The tiger said, as he led Feng Wu through a method of dividing the sticks into piles, counting off four at a time from each pile, and placing the left-over sticks in small piles. Each time three piles of left-over sticks were completed, the tiger examined the number of sticks in each pile, and then drew either a straight line or a broken line in two columns. This was repeated until after about twenty minutes, he had two sets of six lines drawn, some of them broken lines, some straight. \"There. Now, what was the question?\" the tiger asked.\n\n\"Hummm. My question was 'how can my journey further east be successful?' I can see how this exercise with the sticks can focus the mind on a certain subject, and perhaps bring old memories into the person's surface thoughts. Yet that would not avail you, as my mind is protected. How then are the lines interpreted, to make the divination work?\" Feng Wu asked.\n\n\"We now consult the I Ching, or 'book of changes'. Each line in the hexagram pattern has a meaning, and the transition for each line between the pattern on the left and the one on the right also has meaning. These writings are said to be thousands of years old, passed down from one of the first Emperors of China.\" He took a thick book that was written on laced together strips of bamboo, and spent almost an hour consulting the diagrams, writing notes, and checking what the book said.\n\nAt last he set aside the ink brush and looked over his notes. \"I see you waiting at a distant border. To achieve your desire, you must be consistent in your purpose. Then you are waiting on sand, by a mountain stream. Some may speak against you, but it will not deter you. Then you stand on mud, inviting injury.\" He paused, looking a bit shaken, before continuing. \"You stand next in a cavern where there is much blood, yet you walk out unharmed. There is a feast, and you have good fortune. Three unexpected guests arrive, but if you receive them respectfully, there will be good fortune in the end.\"\n\n\"Well, that certainly fits with my plans, but it seems not to be much of a prophecy,\" Feng Wu said. \"Anyone could predict that if I go East, a traveler may encounter such experiences.\"\n\n\"But you have only heard half of it. That was indicated by the second hexagram, which speaks of your future course, and which spoke most directly to your question,\" Jiang Wu said. \"The first hexagram speaks of your past, and what I see there is very troubling. What I see is much success for you at first. But your success led to blame, and an attack upon you in the night. I see a solitary flight from your attackers. Then... Much death, and no remorse. There is a great darkness, and much change. You stand alone in adversity, and there are very few who would stand at your side, or offer you aid.\"\n\n\"In that there is much truth, I will admit. That was very interesting. I have told no one here of my past. That you can divine so much that is true speaks well of your skill. I am impressed! My family was indeed attacked when I was young, and I was the sole survivor. I took my revenge upon those who killed my family, and it is true that I do not regret doing so. If someone killed your family, would you not also feel justified in seeking vengeance?\" Feng Wu said.\n\n\"I would, I must admit. I mentioned to you that our astrology requires precise knowledge of the stars and planets and their positions. Come, and allow me to show you a wonder.\" The tiger said.\n\nThey went into the central courtyard. In the middle of an elaborate diagram on the raised wooden floor was a disc at least three feet across. It stood on three legs, which were capable of being adjusted to make the disc level. Its upper surface was a deep, velvety black.\n\nFeng Wu examined the diagram, while pretending to keep his attention on the odd disc in the center of the raised floor. He could tell that part of the diagram was in fact a summoner's circle, very similar to the one that Sarina used to summon Asha. But there were subtle differences as well, and this circle had no identifying name for the creature to be summoned. Intertwined with that was a much more elaborate diagram whose purpose was not immediately obvious, but which had references to compass directions, and a repeating theme of the dominance of night over day.\n\n\"And what is this, may I ask?\" Feng Wu inquired.\n\n\"This is where I observe the heavens,\" Jiang Wu replied. He pointed to several elaborate brass instruments on stands just outside the circle, and said, \"At night, I can use those instruments to determine the exact positions of stars and planets. But during the day, the enchanted mirror in the center allows me to observe the stars even at mid day, for its perfectly polished surface excludes the lights cast by the sun. The diagram around it enables the mystic mirror to perform that miracle. Go, and gaze into the mirror, and tell me what you see.\"\n\nFeng Wu examined the diagram once more, and in the light of that explanation much of the greater diagram did make sense. He rested his hand on a small lump under his sash, and went to the mirror, gazing down into it. \"Remarkable! I do see the stars, as if it was night! But I warn you, it would be most unwise of you to attempt to trick me.\"\n\n\"Too late for that, huli jing! Already you are in my trap, and bound in place! No demon can cross the bounds of that summoning circle once it has been activated! I control you now, oh mighty demon!\" Jiang Wu said triumphantly, as the part of the intricate design that was the actual summoning circle glowed with a scarlet light. From behind a pillar he withdrew an odd sword, made entirely of laced together Chinese coins. He pointed the blade at Feng Wu and shouted. \"I command you now, Demon! Show yourself to me, huli jing! Discard that false appearance, and reveal your fox spirit form. You cannot deny me!\"\n\nFeng Wu's appearance immediately dissolved, and re-formed into a seven-tailed fox woman, wreathed in an aura of fire, as Sarina had chosen to appear to the old scholar. She was completely unclothed and stood there defiantly, with her fists tightly clenched. \"You dare! Foolish mortal! You dare to attempt to enslave a huli jing?\"\n\n\"Rant all you want, fox demon, for you are my slave now!\" Jiang Wu exclaimed. He jumped around with maniacal excitement, taunting Sarina from outside the protective circle. \"You will use your sorcery for my benefit, to bring down my foes, and elevate me above them! We will start with those hated foreigners from the West, and their mind-killing opium merchants. I command you to set their ships ablaze with your celestial fire! Rain destruction upon them, my slave!\"\n\nSarina's eyes glowed like the very pit of hell, a sickly acid green that tinted the entire area around her. The golden flames around her body swirled like a tornado, and were joined by a great gout of flames from her upraised muzzle, as they merged into a pillar of fire that shot straight up into the sky. Where the fiery column struck the gathering clouds, they boiled and blackened, thickening in moments to form the heart of a tremendous thunderstorm, with massive bolts of lightning leaping from cloud to cloud.\n\n\"Yes! Yes! Fire and lightning! Bring your wrath to bear on them, my slave!\" Jiang Wu shouted above the roar of the increasing winds, and holding the coin sword above his head.\n\nThe column of fire ceased, and the creature in the circle looked at the Chinese mage with those hellish eyes, as the dark clouds came lower and lower, blotting out the sun itself. In the courtyard, it became dark as night, as the wind swirled and blew over one of the brass observation instruments outside the circle.\n\n\"Fire and lightning, as you command, oh wizard!\" Sarina said, in a voice that reverberated from the nearby buildings and shook the walls of the mage's home. And in that moment, a bolt of lightning lanced down from the clouds, to strike Jiang Wu's sword!\n\nThe mage fell to his knees, screaming in pain as he discarded the half-melted sword. Stunned and barely able to raise his head, he looked up, to see the huli jing effortlessly crossing the summoning circle, and advancing to bend over him. \"Impossible! No demon... could defy... that spell!\" Jiang Wu gasped.\n\nSarina reached out and lifted up three amulets on cords that had been around Jiang Wu's neck, snapped the cords and tossed the amulets aside. She smiled viciously as she touched a hand to one side of Jiang Wu's head, forcing him to look deep into her eyes, while with her other hand showing him the ivory fox head that she had concealed in her sash. Its eyes were also glowing green.\n\n\"I am not a demon, fool, and this charm protects me against compulsion or binding spells!\" she said, as she savagely tore into his mind, ripping past his remaining defenses.\n\nAs pure terror overwhelmed his conscious mind, Jiang Wu's last coherent thought was the sight of those inhuman green eyes. \n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 28, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 28 - Hell storm\n\nThe neighbors of the magician Jiang Wu could not help but know that he was a mage. Those who could afford his services often went to him for divinations or horoscopes. Fewer sought him for more difficult types of magic, such as a general of the army seeking to have him summon a fire elemental to attack an enemy position, or another mage seeking his aid in crafting an enchanted mirror. Those who could not afford his magic watched the comings and goings of those strange visitors that could.\n\nThe one thing all his neighbors agreed on was that it was a mixed blessing, having the seventh most powerful mage in Canton for their neighbor. Even if you couldn't afford his services, few troublemakers would be so foolish as to cause trouble very close to a mage's home, and therefore attacks in the street and invasions of homes for burglary were uncommon. The risk was too great that the powerful mage might see the misdeed, and use his magic against the criminal. Yet at the same time, mages attracted powerful sorts of trouble that would never come to an ordinary neighborhood. And when a mage sought to reach too high, and took on a task that was beyond them, the results could be disaster.\n\nWhen a golden pillar of fire ascended without warning from the mage's courtyard, his neighbors fled in terror. They watched from what they hoped was a safe distance, as the gathering clouds erupted with unnatural swiftness into a dark and forbidding thunderstorm. The sky grew dark as night, and then one thunderbolt after another smashed earthward from the lowering clouds, every one striking the mage's courtyard! Yet there was no rain, and nowhere else did this hellish and unnatural storm deign to unleash its fury, although fierce winds made everyone stay out of the open streets, and seek shelter by the walls of buildings, or indoors. This assault continued for a full hour.\n\nThen, as quickly as it had appeared, the hell storm ceased, the clouds evaporated, and the sun came back out. Those who watched the mage's home saw it remained shrouded in a sickly-looking black smoke or fog, which did not rise naturally, as one would expect if the lightning had set the mage's home ablaze. Indeed, the home did not appear to be burning, although some parts of the roof had collapsed. Instead, the black smoke or mist or fog boiled and writhed like a living thing, and hid most of the home within its night-black mass. For another hour, no one dared enter the home, though the city guard, three high ranking mages, and several military officers and their soldiers came to see the source of this disturbance.\n\n===\n\nWithin the mage's home, wreathed in nightmare-inducing black fog, Sarina, back in her single-tailed vixen form, rummaged through the mage's belongings, taking what she wished, while the mage Jiang Wu, on his hands and knees in the courtyard, tore at his clothes and screamed in terror at apparitions only he could see. On occasion, as Jiang Wu tried to crawl into his home, another bolt of lightning would blaze into the courtyard, nearly missing the mage and causing him to scurry back to the center of the open area.\n\nSarina had forcibly ripped all the memories from the mage's mind, leaving him quite insane and unlikely to live for very long. She had taken from the mage his small magic mirror, and the three amulets that he had been wearing. She took his undamaged astronomical instruments, and added pieces of the broken one to piles of metal trash that she gathered from the home, and which she fused into unrecognizable lumps with further lightning blasts, as if the lightning had struck the stolen instruments and melted them. For a while she considered taking the night mirror, but she could re-create it easily now, and so she caused another lightning bolt to melt it into slag as well.\n\nInside the mage's home, she took his best books and scrolls on divination, astrology and summoning - the ones he had most treasured, and put them in a chest, with the other items she had gathered so far. This she shrunk and placed on her necklace, along with the mage's still-locked strongbox, and his keys. The strong box, she knew, had several traps and wards protecting it. But Sarina also had the mage's knowledge of how to remove or deactivate those protections. And within that chest, said the mage's memories, lay a large sum in gold, jewelry and silver. She would open that at her leisure.\n\nWhen she was certain she had taken all she desired of the magical lore and tools and the wealth that the mage had owned, she re-arranged things to make it seem that nothing was missing, and made an apparent duplicate of the strong box, filled only with scrap metal and heavy stones, and locked in such a way that it might take years to force open. This she left concealed where the real strong box had been, so it would not appear that robbery had been a motive in the mage's demise.  \n\nWhen she was ready to depart, she went back to the courtyard. Sarina looked over the summoning circle, and carefully altered three characters in its inscription. Jiang Wu was still there, and still alive, but clearly would not last long. He was screaming now about being swarmed by biting insects and spiders and ants, which he thought were eating him alive. In a moment of pity upon the foolish mage, she went back into the house, and came back with one of the tiger mage's own daggers, which she tossed on the ground within Jiang Wu's reach. Then she opened a portal back to Victoria Peak, in Hong Kong, taking her leave of Canton.\n\n===\n\nWhen the storm ceased and the unnatural clouds cleared, Jiang Wu's servant boy, Li Pang, fearfully went back to his master's home. There he found a crowd gathered, and the home still shrouded in an unnatural black mist. The screaming and wailing voice of Jiang Wu could be heard from within the mist. \n\nOne soldier tried to enter, at the orders of his superior officer. The moment his body touched the black fog, he screamed in terror and retreated, and nothing anyone could say would encourage him to try again. Two mages tried to dispel the terror fog, but it resisted their spells, and they did not know what exactly it was.\n\nThe remaining mage in the crowd, a grey cat, noted the servant boy, and called out, \"Li Pang? Come here, boy. What was your Master, Jiang Wu, doing today? Did he have any unusual visitors, or special plans?\"\n\nThe cat boy swallowed fearfully, and said, \"There... was only a scholar, who gave his name as Feng Wu. He had an appointment, and came at the hour of the Dragon. He... just looked like a young mink. Nothing special. But Master Jiang Wu, and the old scholar who lives by the well, both believed Feng Wu to be a huli jing in disguise! The scholar has an enchanted mirror, and swears he saw a seven tailed fox woman in it, instead of Feng Wu's reflection, and that the creature appeared to him in that form when he asked it to. My master...\" the boy swallowed hard, and continued, \"... said late last night that he hoped to trap the huli jing, and make it do his bidding. He sent the rest of the household staff away early this morning, before the appointed meeting. He sent me away just after the guest arrived. I have been hiding at the wine merchant's shop. I was to wait there until sunset, but when that strange storm happened... I had to come and see if my master was in danger!\"\n\n\"I see. A huli jing with seven tails is nothing to trifle with,\" the other mage said. Just then, a gasp went up from the crowd, as the black mist suddenly dissipated on its own, as if it had never existed. The screaming from inside the home continued.\n\nThe city guard and the three mages cautiously entered the home, following the screaming and wailing voice of Jiang Wu. They found him in the courtyard, scratching and clawing at his chest, while slumped over forward on his knees.\n\n\"They are devouring me! Get them off, get them off! The ants! They are eating my eyes!\" he wailed.\n\n\"Jiang Wu! Can you hear us?\" the feline mage called out.\n\nThe tiger crawled and turned to face the voice. His eyes had been clawed from his face, probably by his own hands, and his blood-soaked face and chest were shredded with the marks of his own claws. \"I am blind! They eat my eyes!\" he wailed pitifully.\n\nJust then, his hand landed on the dagger that Sarina had left him. He snatched it up, screaming, \"AHH! A weapon at last! A spider is devouring my heart! I must kill it!\" He plunged the dagger into his own chest, and fell forward, dead before his head hit the floor.\n\nThe guard and the mages examined the home. It was the conclusion of the mages that Jiang Wu had indeed attempted to enslave a huli jing, but had been sloppy in making his protective diagram in the courtyard. As it was constructed, there were errors, and it would not contain a demon. The death of the mage was ruled to be suicide, since the demon creature he had failed to enslave had caused no harm to the old wolf scholar, who when interviewed insisted that Feng Wu had been honest when treated with honestly, and had paid him well for his own services. He showed them the gold and silver coins that he had been paid with. The money was genuine, but was from the forbidden island of Japan.\n\nA search was made of Canton, but in truth no one expected to find the elusive magical creature. The city guard had no way to fight such a monster, and the mages did not wish to enrage it further. They prayed that it would leave the city in peace.\n\n===\n\nSarina appeared on the summit of Victoria Peak. She was unclothed, but didn't particularly care. The clothes she had worn had been burned away by the firestorm that she invoked. She stood for a moment in the wind, letting it blow through her fur. She looked at the Kitsune netsuke charm that had helped to protect her against the Chinese mage. Its eyes no longer glowed. \"I wonder. Were you made by a Kitsune? Or were you made to protect one?\" she said to herself, as she gazed at it thoughtfully.\n\nHer eyes glowed and she teleported the short distance to her bedroom, in the bungalow she lived in with her father. She got dressed quickly, and then searched the building, to see if she could find him.\n\nLord Randall was at home, in the parlor. He smiled warmly as he saw her, and rose to embrace her. \"Sarina! You have returned at last. Where have you been? I have been worried sick.\"\n\n\"You need not worry about me, beloved,\" she said, kissing him warmly. \"It is enough to say that I have been to Canton, and the trip was profitable. I learned much about the Chinese people. It will be very useful to you, in your negotiations, I think.\"\n\n\"Nothing is more valuable to me than having you back in my arms, my beloved child,\" Lord Randall said to the young woman who he believed to be his daughter, and his wife. \"My bed has seemed so cold and lonely since you left me.\"\n\n\"Well, I suppose we have time to remedy your abstinence before dinner, my husband,\" Sarina said, taking his arm and leading him back to their bed. In truth, she would prefer to read the books she had stolen, or simply take a nap. But she knew that fulfilling Lord Randall's incestuous fantasies was in her best interests, so she played along, and gave the old fox what he most desired from her. They mated.\n\n===\n\nSoon after that day, the monsoon rains of summer came to Hong Kong. For three months, they hardly had a single day without rain, and on most days, the rain was a torrential downpour, turning the streets to a quagmire of mud and upset cobblestones, and making it difficult to do anything other than remain indoors.\n\nSarina sat quietly in the parlor, reading a treatise on the summoning and control of Chinese demons. It explained the making and use of the unusual coin sword that Jiang Wu had expected would protect him against demons, and enable him to force them to obey his will. She briefly considered summoning Asha, and asking a creature of Hell if there was any truth to the belief that such a sword was effective against demons. Surely the fire elemental knew several demons that she could ask. But for now, it was not important enough to pay the cost that the elemental might demand.\n\nSarina also read the traveler's journals and examined the maps that she had taken from the scholar, learning as much as she could about Japan, and Kitsune, and how one might go to the island without being slain for being a foreigner. She began to formulate a plan, but it could wait for now, until the weather was better for travel.\n\nShe mated quite frequently with Lord Randall, who began to wonder when she would tell him that she was bearing his child. He even admitted to Sarina that he now hoped to impregnate her, even though she was his daughter. He loved her so much that he wanted her to bear his child. But no matter how often they mated, she never got pregnant.\n\n===\n\nAfter three months of rain, Hong Kong in August became a steaming, humid place. Sarina often left the bungalow to stand in the cooling breezes on the summit of Victoria Peak, and even considered building a small tower there to study in. But she did not want to draw attention to the fact that she was a mage. The local officials and the friends and neighbors of Lord Randall all took her for merely being his loyal and loving wife. She was known to be a woman of remarkable intelligence, and one who refused to be obstructed when she set her mind to a task, but that was all.\n\nThen, in September, a sickness the locals referred to only as \"Hong Kong Fever\" swept through the island. The crews of the ships in port all stayed on their ships, in the harbor, as it seemed the fresher air at sea was less unhealthy. Most of the trading ships stayed away, and would not enter the harbor, even to bring supplies to the barren island. The victims seldom lived more than three to five days, complaining of terrible headaches, pain in the eyes from light, weakness, being unable to stand erect, and a burning fever. Those who survived, mostly through constant nursing and mopping their bodies with cool wet cloths, were often weakened and debilitated, their health ruined.\n\nSarina had seen knowledge of this disease in the minds of several Chinese natives, and even in most British citizens in Hong Kong, who had lived there for more than a year. The scholar she had met in Canton had known of it, as had the mage, Jiang Wu. But no one knew of a cure. It was one of the main reasons the native Chinese thought the island was unhealthy. But there was no sense arguing over such matters with the British who chose to live in Hong Kong. Most of them knew of the risk, and still they stayed, seeking the immense profits to be gained here.\n\nOn September 17th, Lord Randall became ill with Hong Kong Fever... \n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 29, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 29 - Mortality\n\nMany of the native Chinese who worked for the non-Chinese families on the island fled for the mainland as soon as people started showing Hong Kong Fever symptoms. In Sarina and Lord Randall's home, the only one of their three servants who remained was their cook, a wolf who was half Chinese and Half American. His name was Lu Chen, and he was the bastard son of a Chinese woman and an American sailor, disowned by both sides, and had no family he could go to.\n\nSeveral of Lord Randall's trading partners had come down with the dreaded Hong Kong Fever. Trade had come to a standstill, as most of the ships from the mainland refused to come into port, and those ships that considered Hong Kong their home port took all their crews on board, and remained out in the harbor. Most families stayed in their homes, sweltering in the heat, and fearing contagion. It did no good. Somehow, the disease continued to spread, even though people had no contact with one another. The Chinese said there was 'bad air' on the island.\n\nOne morning Lord Randall awoke with a severe headache. By late afternoon, he was so weak that it was clear that he had Hong Kong Fever. Sarina sent Lu Chen to get a physician. The Chinese mink that came back with him told Sarina what she already knew - that there was little they could do but try to keep Lord Randall cool and comfortable, wash his body with cool wet cloths, make him rest, and hope he might be one of the lucky few who could survive. He left them with some herbal remedies that should ease the pain, but with little hope.\n\n===\n\nThree days later, Lord Edward Randall was near death, wracked with pain, and burning with fever. Sarina and Lu Chen had tended to him day and night for three days, as he lay on a small bed that they had set up in the coolest and darkest room of the bungalow, away from the windows.\n\n\"Edward?\" Sarina said, as she held a cool, wet rag to his forehead. \"My magic can do many things, but I cannot heal you. I have never had any luck or skill with healing magic, or even with using mundane medicine and herbs for healing. If... if it gets too painful to bear, I can give you sleep, so you will not feel the pain, and can rest. But that is the only relief I can offer you.\"\n\nLord Randall lay there, sweating and weak, and said, \"That's all right, Sarina. I can bear it. I know you would aid me if you could. Forgive me, my child. I never should have brought you here. You should use your magic and leave this place, before it claims your life as well.\"\n\n\"There is nothing to forgive. It was my idea to join you here. I wanted to see these foreign lands. You only came back into my life to give me a splendid gift, for my birthday. You never asked me to join you here,\" Sarina replied. \"I will stay here, and I will remain with you, while you live. If you die, then I promise I will leave this island, and not return. Do not worry for my health. The disease cannot harm me. I have... ways...  to ensure that. But I can only do that for myself. It is a limitation of the magic I would have to use.\"\n\n\"Still, I don't know what possessed me to agree to bring you here,\" he replied. \"No... No, I do know. It was my own base urges, my illicit carnal desires for you. When you said you wanted to be with me again, I could not resist the temptation. That is what possessed me.\"\n\n\"I encouraged you to mate with me, so do not blame yourself there, either,\" Sarina replied. Then she paused, saying almost to herself, \"What possessed you? Possession?\" She shook her head, and said, \"Edward, listen to me. It is a very slim chance, but perhaps there is a way I could help you. There is something that I have never tried to do before, but that perhaps I can do. I must leave you to see if I can learn how to do this thing. Lu Chen will have to care for you.\"\n\nSarina went to Lord Randall's study, and locked the door. Then she closed her eyes, and carefully sifted through all the stolen memories of the scholar and the Chinese mage, as well as her other victims, seeking anything they knew about huli jing or Kitsune. Sarina's mother had been a Kitsune, and Sarina knew she could manifest her own soul as a star ball, as her mother had been able to do. When the Chinese mage had commanded her to use her huli jing 'celestial fire' to destroy his enemies, Sarina had instinctively breathed a torrent of fire - a Kitsune-type attack she herself had not known she was capable of! Perhaps she had other abilities attributed to a Kitsune as well? She recalled that a Kitsune, or a huli jing, could actually possess the physical body of someone else. If she could do that, then perhaps, while in possession of their body, she might be able to use the combat healing spell to cast an injury or illness from them to someone else?\n\nAs she searched the memories, she found one possible flaw in the idea. It was also said that when a fox spirit possessed a mortal's body, it caused them to go insane. But was this true? Or was it a myth to explain insanity, blaming the strange behavior on the victim being possessed? There was only one way to find out. She needed to find a victim to test this ability on - someone who would not be missed if it went wrong, and who was in some way diseased.\n\n===\n\nSarina went down to the harbor, to search for someone of little worth, possibly among the Tanka people. The area seemed strangely deserted. She thought to change to a native form, and recalled the sailor she had impersonated before, Hui Ding. What had happened to him? She had left him with the Tanka whores, and without his memories. If he was still there, he would be as good subject for her experiment, at least to see if she could posses his body. And after five months among whores, it was likely that the boy had contracted at least one social disease.\n\nShe walked to the end of the harbor where the Tanka people lived on their boats, using the form of Feng Wu as her disguise. Standing on the shore, she reached out with her mind. She was amazed at the dense concentration of people on the boats. There were hundreds of them, and most whose minds she touched had lived their whole lives on those boats, never once setting foot on the shore. She found seven 'nursery' barges, where children were being reared specifically to be sold later as concubines, mistresses or whores. Some were the children of the Tanka prostitutes, while many others were Chinese and foreign girls, purchased or kidnapped for the purpose. Sarina didn't care about the vices and morals of these people, or that they sold children as slaves. She kept searching.\n\nEventually she found Hui Ding. He was standing on the side of one of the farthest boats, dressed as a Tanka native, in just a loincloth, and swearing in Cantonese as he painfully tried to piss. His surface thoughts showed that he had started fishing with the Tanka males to make a living, and to pay for the whores that he lived with. Sarina cast a compulsion spell on him, and he leaped into the harbor, and started swimming to shore.\n\nFeng Wu helped Hui Ding out of the water when he got to shore, and led the entranced young man to a shadowy alley, between two warehouses. The sailor stared blindly at Feng Wu, hardly acknowledging that he was there. Feng Wu stared back, uncertain as to how to proceed. The Chinese legends spoke of huli jing entering their victim's bodied through their chests. Perhaps it was similar to how a Kitsune summons their star ball? Feng Wu placed his palms on the chest of Hui Ding, and concentrated on entering the sailor's body, to take it over.\n\nThere was a disorienting sensation, as Sarina's point of view shifted from facing Hui Ding, to staring at a wooden wall of the alley. Feng Wu had vanished, and Sarina was in Hui Ding, controlling his body and his mind. She seemed to be in full control. Hui Ding wasn't acting strangely. \n\nShe walked back out onto the harbor's edge, and took his cock out of his loincloth. Hui Ding had a thick discharge coming from his cock, and it was painful. He had the symptoms of Gonorrhea. Sarina touched his cock and stared across the water at a Tanka prostitute on the flower boats, who had come out seeking Hui Ding. She invoked the combat healing spell, and felt relief from the pain in Hui Ding's groin. On the boats, the prostitute winced and went back into the building on the barge.\n\nSarina smiled. The spell had worked. But it remained to be seen if she could leave this body again, and if Hui Ding would be sane after she left him. She fastened his loincloth back in place, and walked back into the alley.\n\nShe thought to herself, 'I want to be myself again', but nothing happened. \n\nShe concentrated on seeing Feng Wu in front of her, as Hui Ding had seen just before he was possessed. She tried to remember just what his body felt like, and how it felt to be herself in that form.\n\nThis time, it worked. The disorienting shift happened, and Feng Wu was staring into the eyes of Hui Ding, with his hands on Hui Ding's chest.\n\n\"W-what has happened? Where am I? Who are you!\" Hui ding asked, with growing alarm. \"Why is my fur wet, and why am I on the shore?\"\n\n\"Calm down, my excitable friend,\" Sarina said, as Feng Wu's eyes glowed, and she re-established her control spell on Hui Ding. \"You have been lost, and very ill. I found you outside an opium den, and threw you in the harbor to wake you up, and wash the stench of opium from your fur. You remember that, don't you?\" She altered his memories so he could remember his name and his past life as a sailor, but also so he thought he had last been in Canton, and gone to an opium den with friends. She erased his memories of his time among the Tanka people.\n\n\"Opium... I don't use... Well, not much. This... this is not Canton? Where am I?' Hui Ding asked.\n\n\"Why, you are in Hong Kong! I don't know how you got here from Canton. You certainly swim well, though. Are you a sailor, or a fisherman, perhaps? Maybe you smoked too much opium in Canton, and came back to Hong Kong with your mind still befuddled by that drug? I cannot say. I only know that I found you here, reeking of opium in an alley. Do you have a name? A ship you can recall?\" Feng Wu asked.\n\n\"Name? My name is... Hui Ding. Yes, my name is Hui Ding! It is so hot and humid here! It should be cooler in April,\" he said.\n\n\"April? But it is mid September! You cannot remember the last five months?\" Feng Wu asked.\n\n\"I can remember nothing. Not since Canton. Oh no! I have a wife, in Canton! She must be thinking I abandoned her! Thank you, sir! But I must find a way to get home!\" Hui Ding shouted, as he ran from the alley.\n\n\"You do that,\" Sarina said quietly, as she changed back to herself. \"Good luck explaining your absence to your captain and your wife, but maybe you can. Whether you do or not is not my concern.\"\n\n===\n\nShe could do it, she was certain. She had found a way to heal Lord Randall.\n\nOver the next few hours she located another Fever victim close to their home. The human man was close to death himself. It would be difficult, but if she could possess Lord Randall, and then immediately infect their cook first, and then possess the cook while his strength was not yet weakened, and then get within sight of the human so she could pass the disease from the wolf to the human fever victim, then she could save Lord Randall, while only hastening the death of a human who was already doomed by this disease. It would, of course, be easier to simply have Lord Randall's body go to infect the human, but she feared Lord Randal's body was too weak to walk that far.\n\nThere was a very real risk to herself, however, and she was reluctant to take that risk. If she possessed Lord Randall's body, and if he died before she could remove the disease from his body and inflict it upon Lu Chen, Sarina did not know what would happen to her own spirit. Would she die, if the body she was in died? Or would her spirit re-form her body when the victim perished?  Was she willing to risk her own life, to save the life of a man that she was merely using, and did not love? She paused in a tea house and sifted through the memories again and again, seeking any legends or lore that might enlighten her. It took her a while to find the answer.\n\n===\n\nThe sun was setting as Sarina returned home. Lu Chen was sitting on the front steps, with his head in his hands. He looked up at her sadly, and said, \"He is gone, Lady Randall. Two hours after you left us, he suddenly got out of bed, claiming he felt much better. I tried to keep him quiet and resting, but he is... was...  much bigger and stronger than I am. He insisted on seeking you, to tell you he had improved. He... got only as far as the street, before he collapsed. I have already told the authorities. His body is inside, properly laid out, and they will be by in the morning for his funeral arrangements.\"\n\n===\n\nIn the morning, Lady Sarina Randall, dressed in black, signed the paperwork for the funeral arrangements for Lord Edward Randall. His remains were to be cremated, and Lu Chen was to personally take the ashes back to Lord Pennington, to be interred in the family crypt.\n\n\"Lady Randall?\" Lu Chen asked, confused. \"I will do as you ask, surely. But you are not coming with me, to see your husband placed in the family crypt?\"\n\n\"I have other matters to attend to here, Lu Chen, and faster means of transportation for my own return to England. Please, do as I ask. And when you get there, give Lord Pennington this letter. I am asking him to offer you a job, in his household, in thanks for your loyal service to my family. You should leave Hong Kong. I will try to be there myself in time for the funeral,\" Sarina insisted. As Lu Chen left, Sarina altered his memories, so that once he left Hong King, he would recall serving not a man and his wife, but a father and daughter.\n\nSarina sold the bungalow as soon as the cremation had been dealt with, and Lu Chen sent on his way. Then she gathered her belongings, including the funds in her late husband's bank account, and his strong box. The Governor and Lord Randall's other friends were told she was leaving Hong Kong on the next available ship for India, and from there back to England. Several people later remembered seeing her board that ship.\n\nHowever, Sarina did not remain on the ship, which was not the one she had booked passage on. She left Hong Kong as Feng Wu, on a boat headed for the port of Shanghai. \n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 30, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 30 - Trouble in Shanghai\n\nAfter two days on a British clipper ship, packed rather uncomfortably into a below-decks area with other ethnic Chinese passengers, Feng Wu arrived in the Eastern port city of Shanghai.\n\nWhen the British defeated China in the Opium Wars three years earlier, one of the terms the Chinese had been forced to agree to had been the opening of five Chinese ports to direct foreign trade. Shanghai was the port farthest to the east of these five treaty ports, and was situated at the mouth of a deep river that reached far inland into China. Soon after that, the French and Americans and several other nations also forced themselves upon the Chinese, and several areas of 'concession' land on the edges of the city were set aside for British, French and Americans to settle and build in. Unlike Hong Kong, this land remained Chinese soil, but the foreigners living there had certain extraterritorial rights.\n\nFew people paid any attention to the young mink scholar, as he walked off the clipper ship carrying only a simple bag that had contained little more than some food and personal supplies for the voyage. If anyone thought it odd that he apparently had no other luggage, it was of little enough consequence and they forgot about him swiftly. He had to watch his step. It had rained the night before, and the road along the dock area was muddy.\n\nFeng Wu walked to the end of the docks, and down onto a sandy beach beside the wide river that the town of Shanghai nestled against. Feng Wu had studied maps of the area, and the scholar and the mage had known the geography of this area fairly well. He knew that the river went far into the mountains in the heart of China. Standing on the beach, looking out at a seemingly endless sea, Feng Wu was amused that the Chinese mage, Jiang Wu, had so little faith in his own prophecies. If he had believed in the casting of the I Ching that he had done for Feng Wu, surely he must have realized that he could not keep the suspected huli jing captive? If he had been successful in enslaving the 'demon', how then would Feng Wu now be standing on the farthest shore of China, looking to travel elsewhere?\n\nHe left the beach and went back to the docks, and asked the same question among the seamen and dock workers. \"Can you tell me, if among the many merchants from foreign lands, any ships ever come to Shanghai from the island of Japan?\" \n\nAlways the answer was the same. One Chinese ship's captain told him, \"No ship from Japan has come to our shores in at least the last 25 years. No ship from any other nation is permitted to land on that forbidden island, even in an emergency. Shipwreck victims and ships in dire need of supplies receive the same treatment - the crews are crucified or beheaded, if they dare to set foot on the island, and any foreign ship approaching their ports is fired on by fortified cannon defending the ports, and driven back into the sea. Any native of Japan who leaves the island can never go back, on pain of death. The island has sealed itself against all outside contact, and shows no sign of relenting. No, if you seek to go there, or if you hope to meet people from those lands, you hope in vain, young scholar.\"\n\nFeng Wu asked, \"Ah? But if it is true that they kill all foreigners who land there, and no one from Japan is permitted to leave, then how do we know the fate of those who go there?\"\n\n\"The ships that have been driven off have told of seeing the crucified bodies of foreigners on the beaches, left there as a warning,\" he replied. \"And the ruler of that land issued a solemn warning, when he closed the port of Nagasaki, which for hundreds of years had been the only port they allowed foreigners in at all, that anyone who returned to Japan would be killed at once. Then he forced the Dutch and the priests and anyone else who was not Japanese, and any Japanese who followed the Western Church, to leave, or be slain.\"\n\n\"I see. Thank you for that information. Is it possible then that among the elder scholars, some may recall days gone by when there was contact with those people?\" Feng Wu asked.\n\n\"You seem very interested in seeking what is forbidden to you,\" the captain said, looking carefully at the young man. \"Why is that?\"\n\n\"I am a scholar, sir, and I seek more knowledge. I have been collecting old legends about the magical creatures of our land, and of those on other lands that are similar to what we tell of. I had heard some stories, or bits and pieces of tales, which were said to be from that island, but which were very similar to our own. That is all. Just a scholar's curiosity,\" Feng Wu replied.\n\n===\n\nFeng Wu went to the British Concession area, where he changed his form to resemble a British merchant that Sarina had known in Hong Kong. Now in the form a mixed breed canine male in his early 40's, he gave his name as Peter Jameson. He checked into the Richards' Hotel and Restaurant, a new establishment being run by an enterprising Scotsman. Once he had a place to stay in comfort, he left the hotel, resumed his appearance as Feng Wu, and went in search of older scholars. \n\nUsing the hotel as his base of operations, and appearing as needed as either Peter Jameson or Feng Wu, depending on which ethnicity got him the best reception, Sarina lived as a male for the next two months, and gathered what information she could.  Yet even though she had taken these two male forms, she found that she still thought of herself as a girl, and mentally still called herself Sarina. \n\nShe discovered very little that was of use to her. A few scholars knew that huli jing and Kitsune were similar, but they knew little else of the Japanese Kitsune, or of Japan. It was getting to be frustrating.\n\n===\n\nAs the time approached for when she expected that Lu Chen, with Lord Edward Randall's remains, should soon be arriving in England, Sarina pondered on how to proceed. Should she just close that chapter of her life, and forget about Sarina and those who knew her? Or should she keep her options open? Did it matter to her, really, if she went back there at all? She came to the conclusion that there was some advantage to maintaining the ruse that Miss Sarina Randall still lived. Lord Edward Randall had nothing of value left in England for Sarina to acquire. But he did still have relatives there, and so did the real Sarina. If she was to show up again as the bereaved daughter of Lord Pennington's brother in law, faithfully seeing to her last duties to her father as his daughter and sole surviving heiress, that would make a good impression on the Penningtons. Besides, Lord Pennington would be happy for another opportunity to give his niece, or possibly his daughter, a tumble in bed, the old letch. And if Sarina were to appear again in the lives of Lord and Lady Pennington, and they knew she was still alive and in contact with them, it might encourage the now childless old couple to keep her in their will.\n\nSo just before sunset one evening, 'Peter Jameson' gathered his things, concealed everything on his necklace other than the clothes and walking stick that 'Peter Jameson' was known to wear and carry, and checked out of the hotel. He headed for the docks, thinking perhaps to find a secluded section of beach where he could quickly create a portal, resume Sarina's form, and depart. \n\nAs she walked, she considered at first the possibility of attempting to open a portal directly from Shanghai to England. In theory, she could do it. She had a good idea of her own surroundings, and she still had a very clear mental image of Sarina's former bedroom at Lord Pennington's home, as well as several other locations in the city that should be safe to travel to magically. The safest location, in fact, would be to create a portal to the open, grassy field beside the inn where Darla/Heather used to live and work as a whore. But the distance was so vast that she doubted she could do it, without making some serious error. England was, quite literally on the other side of the world from Shanghai. She simply did not have enough experience yet in making portals to connect two places that were that far apart.\n\nStanding beside a warehouse on the docks, she decided that the sensible alternative would be to make several jumps, each to a place he knew sufficiently well. She had remained long enough in Hong Kong that she could quite easily go from her current location to Victoria Peak's summit, and be able to return from there back to Shanghai, now that she knew this area. From there, she had a fairly good recollection of the house they had stayed in while in India, before coming to Hong Kong. But going from India to Egypt might be a problem. Sarina had not stayed in Egypt for very long, nor had she concentrated very hard on the appearance of any one area there. The best location she could come up with was the market square where the snake charmer had performed, and where she had left that one would-be kidnapper dangling in mid air over the basket of cobras. That sight had remained well in her memories. If she could make it there, then a single jump from there to England for the last portal? But that would also be risky, as it was a busy place, packed with people day and night, and the merchant stalls and peddler's rugs were constantly being re-arranged. She might well step out of the portal and right into that snake charmer's basket full of cobras!\n\nWas there a better way, perhaps? A portal did not have to connect two places in the same world, or even at the same point in the river of time. She had travelled before from one world to another, and in the process she leaped 500 years or more into the future, at least in terms of how developed this world was, compared to the one she had been born in. She had made no attempt to control the time aspect, when she had come here. She had simply sought a world where she might be accepted for what she was. If she made a portal to another world, and then tried to make one from that world back to this one, could she be certain she would arrive at the desired time, and not hundreds of years off? Could she even be sure she would arrive in this particular world, and not one that was similar, but with subtle differences? The texts she had studied had hinted at such things, and the memories of Jiang Wu certainly contained thoughts of multiple planes of reality, each one similar, yet different. For example, a world might exist that might be just like this one, but with the exception that the real Sarina and her mother had never become ill. It was all so confusing!\n\nShe needed advice, and she really didn't have anyone she could ask about this topic. Or did she? There was one individual who had aided her in the past, whose advice she could seek here. She could summon the fire elemental, Asha. The creature had been very useful in finding information and selecting possible solutions to Sarina's problems. True, her price for seven years service had been rather high. But would she require all that much in return for some simple advice? There was only one way to know.\n\nShe looked around herself, and decided there were too many people on the docks and on nearby boats that could see her. It was one thing to open a portal and quickly leave the area. But standing in the open and summoning an unusual type of elemental might draw some very unfriendly attention. She retreated into an alley, hoping to find a more private place.\n\nBut others also saw Peter Jameson turn and walk into that alley. The docks of Shanghai were not a very safe place at night, and particularly so for what appeared to be a well-dressed foreigner. Several dark-clad individuals stealthily followed Sarina into the alley. \n\nThe squelching sound of a footstep in mud was the first indication Sarina had that she was being pursued. She had been paying attention to navigating the muddy alley in the pale moonlight, and wasn't being that alert for trouble. She turned, seeing six Chinese individuals, armed with wicked looking throwing hatchets, in the alley between her and the docks.\n\nThe six attackers saw Peter Jameson turn to face them, armed apparently with nothing more than a walking stick. One of the dark-clad attackers threw a hatchet, which struck with a meaty 'thunk' in the foreigner's left shoulder, causing him to drop his stick into the mud at his feet, and reach for the wound as he shouted in pain and anger. The thugs laughed and closed in for the kill.\n\nThe next thing they knew, the closest of their own number to their victim screamed in agony, as a throwing hatchet materialized in his left shoulder. No one saw it thrown, but it could only be the hatchet that had struck the foreigner, somehow hurled back at them with supernatural speed and accuracy.\n\nPeter Jameson stood up, apparently uninjured. No blood soiled his clothing, and even the shoulder of his coat seemed undamaged. His eyes glowed a brilliant acid green - glowing with a light impossibly bright for a reflection - a light that tinted everything in the alley with its eerie green color. \"You dare!\" the foreigner said, in fluent Chinese. \"You dare to attack me? Flee now, and save your wretched lives, or attack, and pay the price!\"\n\nA wolf and a bear who were as yet uninjured raced forward, with hatchets in each hand, intending to close on this strange foreigner and slay him before he could do any other unnatural things. A weasel closest to the docks turned and ran. The three others stood their ground, hesitating.\n\nPeter Jameson raised one hand, and the two charging thugs turned into living torches, as their bodies caught fire. They fell to the ground, dead before they could take three steps in their victim's direction.\n\nThe remaining three attackers next saw nothing at all. Before their eyes could readjust from the brilliant burst of flame that had incinerated their companions, a boiling black cloud erupted from nowhere and everywhere at once, blocking out all light. And from within that cloud came unspeakable horrors - creatures of nightmare that could not be touched by their weapons, but which tore their bodies to shreds.\n\nWhen the nightmare fog cleared, the only living thing in the alley was Peter Jameson. Five thugs lay dead, two of them burned to death, and the other three had been torn limb from limb. Out on the docks, the last of their number, the ferret who had run when warned, fled into the night as if a demon from the depths of hell was chasing him. Sarina allowed him to escape.\n\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 31, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 31 - Obligations\n\nSarina was angry. She was angry at herself for being so incautious, and angry at these thugs that had caused her pain. She waved her hand, and the corpses of her victims fell into five heaps in a rough circle in the alley. Blood flowed from their remains, and ran in rivulets that moved unnaturally across the mud, until trails of blood formed the invocation and control circle for summoning Asha. Sarina raised her hands, and all five corpses burned to ashes, as she invoked the summoning ritual.\n\nWhen Sarina completed the ritual, Asha stood in the circle, as a column of night-black fire that had the vague outlines of a female person. The elemental's fiery green eyes looked at the circle drawn in fresh blood, the smoldering, incinerated remains of five bodies, and finally at the one who had summoned her. And then she smiled, and her grin looked like a green crescent in the inky black flames of her face.\n\n\"So, you are the one who summoned me? You have changed. But I still know you. My kind can never fail to recognize the soul of those to whom we have once been bound. How should I address you, Mistress? Or is it Master, now?\" Asha asked. \"And what is it that you require of me?\" \n\nSarina looked at the file elemental, Asha. The creature looked stronger, more powerful than when they had parted company. But she sensed no hostility toward herself. \"Mistress will suffice, for addressing me. Sarina, still, if you wish to use a name, though I am not sure how much longer that identity will last. This male form is but a convenience of the moment, who has been known here as Peter Jameson. What I require from you is information, and advice. What is your price for serving me again, for a period of several years?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"I would say you've already paid a sufficient price for me to serve you again as your familiar, if that is what you want from me. You just sent five souls straight to hell, and used their bodies and the still-warm blood of your victims to summon me. That made them each a live sacrifice to power your sorcery, and bound their souls to me in Hell, to do with as I please. I still have little use for souls myself, but I can trade them to others in my realm for my own benefit,\" Asha replied. \"Your sacrifice of five lives has bought you ten years of my service, if it pleases you, Mistress Sarina.\"\n\n\"Very well then. I accept your service as my familiar for ten more years, paid for with the blood and souls of those five unfortunate wretches,\" Sarina said.\n\nAsha resumed her black furred vixen form, and after a moment's hesitation, clothed herself in the Chinese fashion, for a girl of no particular rank. \"Done, then. I shall serve you as before, to the best of my ability, for ten years from this date. How may I advise you, Mistress?\" she asked as she crossed the now unnecessary summoning circle to stand by the side of the apparent canine male that had summoned her.\n\n\"We are in Shanghai, China. I want to travel half-a world away from here. It is my desire to swiftly and safely return to the Pennington's mansion, in England, to deal with certain obligations, and later return to this place. I don't think I have quite enough experience and power to make a portal from here to there in a single step. Nor do I know enough safe places along the way to make a staged journey with several portals. Is there another way? Is there a better way? Can a portal be made from this ream to another realm entirely, and back again to a very distant location in this one, without losing my place in the river of time, or coming out in a slightly different world than this one?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"That you thought that through shows you have learned a great deal, Mistress. Your caution is justified. I do indeed know a way that you can make that journey in two stages, and come out again in this exact world, at the exact same time as when you left,\" Asha replied.\n\n\"And will you tell me how this is done?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"You can go to Hell, Mistress,\" the elemental replied.\n\n\"What? How dare you speak to me in that manner, after agreeing to serve me!\" Sarina growled.\n\n\"What manner is that, Mistress? I told you how it could be done, quite precisely. You can do it by going to Hell, first. Make a portal, and use it to travel to hell. Once you are in hell, you could make a portal from there to anywhere in this world, and use it to come out at the precise instant that you left,\" Asha insisted.\n\n\"Just as simple as that, is it? My soul is damned many times over for the murders that I have committed, and the forbidden magic that I have used. If I end up in Hell, do you really think I could leave there?\" Sarina asked. \"And how can you be so certain that I could return precisely to the same time and realm?\"\n\n\"I did not say it would be terribly easy, Mistress. I said I know how you can do it,\" Asha replied. \"Have you ever wondered why so many religions assert that damnation in Hell is for eternity? The region you call Hell has some very unique properties. It touches many possible realities at once, at virtually every place in the river of time. But when any individual crosses from a realm into Hell, if they ever make it back out again, they return to the precise moment in time and to the precise realm that they left when they entered Hell, no matter how much time has passed for them in Hell.\"\n\n\"So you're saying that if I do go to Hell, that it is inevitable that returning from Hell will put me back in this time, in this reality, though possibly at a different location?\" Sarina asked. \"Does the converse hold true, for those of your realm brought to other realms to serve a mage? Do you return to the time when you left?\"\n\n\"Yes, it does,\" Asha replied. \"For example, when you summoned me from Hell to serve as your familiar, and I served you for seven years, I traveled with you between the realms to this world, hundreds of years further down the river of time. Yet when I returned to Hell, no time had passed there as far as any of my kind would have reckoned. You summoned me now, and what you contacted was an instance of me that has experienced 500 more years of existence than when we last met. I have served many Masters and Mistresses since our last parting, and my power has increased greatly.\"\n\n\"I thought you seemed stronger. Are your kind immortal? 500 years is a long time, for my species.\" Sarina replied.\n\n\"We live much longer than those of other realms, but after tens of thousands of your years we still perish, and at any time we can be killed, if the necessary circumstances are met. I am still young among my kind,\" Asha replied.\n\n\"Tell, me, how could I ensure that I can enter Hell and leave again? How can I prevent my damned soul from being trapped there for eternity, once there?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"By making certain that your soul is not quite present in Hell as you pass through it, Mistress,\" Asha replied. \"One master that I served created a spell that allowed him to make a special magical gem. A soul could be placed in that gem - his own soul or someone else's. Placing another person's soul in the gem gave whoever possessed the gem control over that person. But placing your own soul in the gem protected your life force. As long as you kept the gem close, and the gem remained unharmed, your body was invulnerable to most forms of attack. He also found that having his soul in the gem allowed him to pass through Hell without being detected and trapped there. The spell did have disadvantages, of course. If someone else obtained the stone, they could control the mage, or destroy the stone, and in so doing destroy him! And if the stone was not kept on his person, he had to touch it once each moon, to restore the connection between body and soul. This also limited his control of others with such stones, as the controlled person's body must be touched by their soul gem once each moon, or perish.\"\n\nSarina looked down the alley beyond Asha, and saw that someone was peering into the darkness in their direction. She doubted that they could be seen clearly, or heard from that distance, but someone had apparently noticed the screams as her attackers died. She cast a fear spell at the observer, and he ran away.\"I do not like the idea of placing my soul in an object that can easily be stolen or destroyed, and which might be used to control me,\" Sarina replied. \"Is there no other way? Hasten, as we are beginning to draw unwelcome attention here.\" \n\n\"I was getting to that. You told me once that your mother was a Kitsune? Can you form a star ball, as they can, with all or part of your soul manifested in it?\" Asha asked.\n\n\"Yes, and my body does seem to be harder to kill if it has been manifested,\" Sarina replied.\n\n\"And I recall that wonderfully creative necklace that you had? Do you still have it? And what happens to living material placed in it?\" Asha asked.\n\n\"Plant material can be placed in the necklace, and can be restored normally, and is still fresh and usable. While in the necklace it gives no scent, and seems undetectable. But I have never put a person or a live animal in it. Why?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"Well, I believe that if you manifest your soul in a star ball, and then place that ball in a bag or chest and shrink it to attach to your necklace, it will still be close to you, but undetectable and impervious to harm. Try it. Or capture another victim from the docks, put them in a box or bag, and see if they survive being added to your necklace and restored.\" Asha suggested. \n\n\"I can see that might work. And how do we get to Hell?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"You have a gateway to hell right here. A summoning circle allows my kind to travel from hell to your world. It also allows your kind to travel into and out of Hell, if you remove the control elements from the diagram,\" Asha replied. She picked up the abandoned walking stick, and pointed to five symbols in the complex diagram. \"Remove those symbols, and my name, and if we both step into the circle, we will appear in Hell, and the circle with us, at the same point where I left Hell when you summoned me. That circle will vanish from this world. Once in Hell, we step out of the circle, redirect it, and step back in, to go where you wish in this realm. But we need to step into it quickly, once the symbols are removed. Until we do, anyone or anything can use the portal, from either side, without those controls.\"\n\nAngry voices at the far end of the alley drew Sarina's attention. She saw a few people furtively peeking around the corners of the building and into the alley. Then she saw one person boldly stand at the alley entrance, and invoke a sphere of light in his hand.\n\nSarina countered with a light-absorbing cloud of darkness halfway between them, and said, \"We have no more time. A mage is investigating the disturbance here. We will risk it, while this portal still has power.\" She gestured and the name and symbols vanished from the diagram. The remaining lines and symbols ignited into thin lines of flame.\n\n\"That did it,\" Asha said. \"Prepare your star ball, Mistress.\"\n\nSarina resumed her vixen form, and concentrated, holding her hands cupped at her breasts. A blue-white pearl-like sphere of light formed between her hands. She placed this on a pouch from her belt, paused just a moment, and invoked the spell to shrink the pouch and connect it to her necklace.\n\nAsha watched, and then said, \"You seem to have suffered no harm from that, but I can no longer sense your soul. Let us go then. I would recommend that we not leave your star ball in that state any longer than we have to.\"\n\n\"Agreed. I feel - strange. But I think I am all right. Let us go then,\" Sarina said.\n\nTogether, they stepped into the circle. The flames at the diagram's edge rose into a circular curtain of fire, and everything within that circle vanished.\n\nSeveral minutes later, the mage in the alley mouth dispelled the darkness cloud, and hesitantly investigated what was in the alley. He found only five mounds of ash, containing a few small fragments of burned bones. To his mage's senses, the area stank of dark sorcery. But he could tell no more of what had happened there. The type of spell Sarina had cast to summon Asha, and to go to Hell, was outside the mage's understanding.\n\n===\n\nThe circular wall of flames fell, and the lines of blood in the portal diagram ceased burning. Sarina and Asha found themselves on a barren plain, under an inky black sky that showed not a single star, but which flared everywhere with sinuous trails of shimmering, multicolored light that cast a soft glow much like moonlight. The horizon seemed to curve unnaturally. In stark contrast to the sky, the ground was covered with a white crystalline powder that glittered slightly, like freshly fallen powder snow, without a trace of a footstep or any other mark disturbing its pristine glory. The blackened magical diagram surrounding them was the only trace of life to be seen.\n\n\"It's actually rather beautiful,\" Sarina said. \"Not at all what I expected.\"\n\n\"Welcome to Hell, or at least the corner of it that I prefer to dwell in. I told you it isn't quite what the Church would have you believe. There are other areas that you might find quite unpleasant, with acid pools and noxious gasses, or seething with tiny creatures too numerous to count, that crawl all over you, and constantly try to get into the slightest opening or gaps. Not like this place at all. Now, we need to step out of the circle, so we can re-focus it on your desired destination. The portal can't be re-used while we stand in it, not even to go right back where we came from,\" Asha said, as she stepped outside the circle.\n\nSarina stepped forward, saying, \"All right, show me what to... aughk!\" She clutched at her throat, gasping for breath, and fell back into the circle, panting and shivering. \"What? S-so c-c-cold! C-couldn't... b-breathe...\" she gasped.\n\nAsha looked at Sarina curiously, quite unaffected by the bitter cold that had numbed Sarina's skin. \"Oh, that's right. Your kind needs air to breathe, don't they? There isn't any, in this part of Hell, and it is also extremely cold here, by your standards. I honestly had quite forgotten about that,\" Asha said apologetically. \n\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 32, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 32 - Stuck in a frozen hell\n\nSarina glared incredulously at the fire elemental. \"How could you possibly 'forget' that this part of Hell is an airless frozen void? You swore to serve me faithfully!\" she shouted.\n\n\"Calm down, Mistress. We will get you out of this... somehow... It wasn't intentional, I assure you,\" Asha insisted. \"This place is quite comfortable for me. I don't breathe air, like you do, nor does the very low temperature bother me. You rushed us unto this before I could consider where we would enter Hell. If we had more time to prepare, I could have gone to Hell on my own, first, and found a place more hospitable to your species, and then returned, so you would appear in Hell with me in that place instead. But when you summoned me, this is where I happened to be, enjoying some solitude. And this is where we must get you out of. Do you know any spells to protect yourself against a hostile environment?\"\n\n\"I never bothered to learn any of those,\" Sarina said sullenly. \"But I do have my collection of spell books with me. I should be able to find something.\"\n\n\"Start with the dark sorcery books that have combat spells in them, Mistress,\" Asha suggested. \"There should be something of that sort there. It is a common tactic in mage battles to make the environment hostile to the enemy. The mage needs to protect their own body before casting such spells as would remove all air, or invoke a blizzard, or create an inferno of flames. But work rapidly. I fear you do not have much air trapped within that circle with you. The flames that surrounded us only went about nine feet into the air. So in all probability, you only have as much air as a space the size of that circle and nine feet tall could hold,\" Asha stated. \"That wouldn't last you very long, would it?\"\n\n\"Probably not, no,\" Sarina said, as she removed from her necklace the chest that contained the book Asha had suggested, located the first likely-looking book, and started leafing through it. \"Couldn't I just create a new circle outside this one, and leap into it as the portal back to my realm opens?\" Sarina asked, as she located a promising entry and began to read the requirements for casting the spell, and what exactly it did.\n\n\"No, Mistress. I am afraid you can't cast any spell beyond the edges of that circle,\" Asha said. \"Until you fully cross its edge, you really aren't quite all the way into Hell. Just as a summoned demon can not affect you while the circle controls them, you, from within it, can cast no spell outside the circle. Any spell you use must affect you within the circle, first. Then, if you move through the barrier, that magic will remain with you.\"\n\n\"I see,\" Sarina said. She was quiet for a moment, and then cursed and went to another section, saying, \"Well, that was a fine one, but we are fresh out of goat livers and the other spell ingredients that it requires.\" She kept looking. After several more frustrating failures, she smiled, and said, \"Ah! This one I could do. I think it will work, and the only physical component it requires is an undamaged pearl or similar spherical gem, and I do have some pearls that are not pierced for a necklace. It says 'the Telekinetic Sphere encloses the mage and those near him with an impenetrable wall of force. Spells and environmental conditions originating outside the sphere can affect the sphere itself, but not those inside it. Spells cast within the sphere act normally within its limits, but cannot pass outward. Those within the sphere can breathe normally, even under water or in a poisonous atmosphere.'  It says also that those within the sphere weigh a fraction of their normal weight, and that the sphere can be moved by the thoughts of the caster. So if I cast that within this circle, move out of the circle, and cast a new portal spell within the confines of the sphere, we could use that portal to leave!\"\n\n\"It sounds worth a try. Prepare what you need, and I will step beside you just before you cast the spell,\" Asha said, as she hummed a very odd-sounding tune. A few pale lights, like will-o-the-wisps, danced around the elemental, like moths attracted to a flame, even though she was not in a flaming form at the moment. She snatched one of them out of the air with one hand, and the others vanished instantly.\n\nSarina did not notice the dancing lights, or what her familiar was doing. She read through the spell twice more, and then put away the book in the chest, while getting out a single pearl from her money chest. When she was ready, she nodded to Asha, and began the spell.\n\nThe elemental moved back into the circle, and stood close to her Mistress. She remained silent, to not disturb the casting of the spell.\n\nSarina held the pearl, and spoke the incantation for the spell. The pearl expanded greatly in size, becoming intangible and hollow, like a ghostly soap bubble. It stopped expanding abruptly as its diameter matched that of the portal circle. Then Sarina and Asha began to feel incredibly light, almost as if floating in water.\n\n\"Can you make it larger now? Or make it move outward and down a bit, so it forms a dome?\" Asha asked.\n\n\"I think so. Well, here we go,\" Sarina said. She concentrated, and the shimmering bubble moved forward slowly. They walked with it. As she got to the edge of the circle, Sarina took a deep breath, and then stepped forward.\n\nShe felt an odd twisting sensation as she passed the confined of the portal that had brought her to Hell. It seemed colder, but bearable. Looking behind them, the first portal circle was gone now, as if it had never existed.\n\n\"The ground feels very cold to my feet,\" Sarina mentioned. \"But I can still breathe, and the cold is not as bad as before. I'll try to make the bubble larger now.\"\n\nWith a thought, the bubble grew to twice its size, while its center remained roughly at the height of Sarina's chest. A large circle of the frozen soil of this part of Hell was now within the circle. The white crystalline powder on the ground seemed to quickly melt, and then evaporate, leaving a bare, smooth rock surface.\n\n\"It would seem that the 'snow' on the ground here was the very air itself, frozen by the cold!\" Sarina observed. She took a dagger from her belt and inscribed the portal circle on the bare stone, being careful to make it precisely as Asha had indicated before, while omitting the five control symbols and the name of the one to be summoned. \"Now, how do we get out of here with this?\" she asked.\n\n\"Concentrate on the place you want the portal to go to, while inscribing a name that you associate with the place where you would put the summoned creature's name. A place name, not a living creature's name,\" Asha said.\n\nSarina concentrated, and then inscribed a few short words, before saying, \"It feels incomplete. Like it should be doing something, but something is missing.\"\n\n\"You are correct. It is incomplete. I have the last needed component ready for you, to make it work from within Hell. This will be the hard part, Mistress,\" Asha said. \"The spell for that hell gate portal cannot connect to your world while this barrier is in place. Take a deep breath, and then I will hand you something. Hold it tightly, and do not let it slip from your grasp until you are ready. Then drop the protective barrier, and throw what is in your hand at the center of the circle. The portal will open, and then we can step into it and leave.\"\n\nSarina took a deep breath, and nodded. Asha placed something into Sarina's hand. It glowed faintly, and felt like an ice cold, squirming worm or slug, desperately trying to wriggle away. She tried not to think of how nauseating it felt to hold it in her bare hand, as she dropped the barrier, and threw it at the circle.\n\nThe numbing cold hit Sarina like an axe. She saw the portal enflame as the thing she threw hit the circle and vanished with a bright burst of light. Sarina plunged forward into the circle, with Asha at her side.\n\n===\n\nAn instant later, they tumbled to the ground in an open field, under a star-lit sky, as their momentum took them out of the circle again at their destination. It felt warm again, and a pleasant breeze blew over them, as the portal circle behind them vanished. There was no moon, and it was fairly dark. The nearest light was the windows of a familiar looking inn, several hundred yards away.\n\nWhen she got her breath back, Sarina asked, \"Augh! What was that disgusting thing you handed to me?\"\n\n\"Our fee, for leaving Hell without being summoned from outside,\" Asha replied, as she stood and re-arranged her clothing's appearance to something more like that of a tavern wench. She could see the inn that Darla and she had stayed at not far from where they stood, across the open field. \n\n\"Our fee? You mentioned no fee,\" Sarina said. She also stood, and assumed the appearance of Heather, the tavern whore. \"What further burden has been placed on me now?\"\n\n\"None. I paid the fee for us both, to make up to you for my error in bringing you to a part of Hell that you couldn't breathe in,\" Asha said. \"Just as a mage must pay a price for the service of a resident of Hell when you summon them, if someone from my realm wants to leave on their own, they must also pay a price. It is a price that is high enough that few of us choose to pay it, or are able to do so. A soul. I paid with one of the five souls that you sacrificed to summon me. What you threw into the hell gate portal to open it was the soul of one of the five thieves that you killed.\"\n\n\"That was a soul? It felt... horrible. Very unclean,\" Sarina said. \"Are they all like that?\"\n\n\"A pure soul, I am told, feels warm and comfortable when held. I have never held a pure one, myself. That was a very tainted soul, and one that had no time to atone yet for what it had done in life. He died without any regrets for the many victims he had killed or tortured. He will now have quite a while to contemplate how he ended up in Hell. Sacrificing that soul as we did, to pay for that spell, sent him to one of the most unpleasant reaches of Hell,\" Asha said. \"On the other hand, it may cause him to spend less time in Hell in the long run. That soul will have a great deal of incentive to get to someplace better.\n\n\"Someplace better? A damned soul can do that?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"Oh, eventually, yes. Even 'eternal damnation' doesn't last forever. After sufficient time is spent there, even the worst soul may be reincarnated, and given a chance to earn a better fate,\" Asha replied.\n\n\"Well, I'm just glad to be out of Hell, even if it did cost a soul for us to get out,\" Sarina said.\n\nBefore Sarina and Asha could talk further, they were briefly blinded as a ring of golden fire surrounded them, and bright lines of golden flames appeared at their feet, forming a complex constraint and control circle, with them trapped in the center. Beyond the thin wall of flames at the edge of the circle, a shadowy figure shouted at them, \"You will be back in Hell soon enough, hell spawn! I have you trapped, and you will not cause trouble here, while I can prevent it!\"\n\n\"WHAT? Wait! What do you mean? I am no creature of Hell!\" Sarina shouted in reply, as she tried to see their attacker through the bright wall of fire.\n\n\"Oh really? So speaks someone who has no soul, and who is accompanied by an elemental from Hell? So says one who I heard with my own ears talking of using souls to open a hell gate and come here from Hell? And yet you insist you're not from Hell?\" the person outside the circle said. \"How foolish do you think I am? I felt that hell gate open, hell spawn, and came at once to stop you. I will send you both back to hell for another hundred years, before you harm these people and their city!\" She began a low chant, drawing two swords with flaming blades and holding them aloft as she began the ritual for consigning a demon to Hell.\n\n\"Mistress! She can do it! If she finishes her incantation, we'll both be sent back to Hell, and we'll be stuck there for a hundred years! We're trapped in this confounded circle!\" Asha said.\n\n\"WAIT!\" Heather shouted. \"You accuse us wrongly! I DO have a soul, and I can prove it! We have done no harm here. Will you not give me a chance to prove my innocence?\"\n\nThe mage hesitated. \"There is only one soul in that circle, soulless one, and that is the elemental beside you! Do not seek to trick me! Your spells can not cross that barrier. But I am not an unjust person. I will give you one chance to prove yourself. Make it good,\" said the mage outside the circle.\n\nHeather faced her accuser, and said, \"I came here from hell - that is true. But I was only in Hell because I passed through that realm to get here more rapidly. I am a mage, from this world, and this creature is my familiar. I hid my soul before I entered Hell, so I would not be trapped there. Lower your wall of flames, and I will restore my soul from its hiding place, and you will see I speak the truth!\" Heather said.\n\nThe mage outside the circle lowered one of her swords, and the wall of fire became a fence only a few feet high, as she said, \"I will see this miracle. The barrier is still there, and your banishment all but complete. Cast a spell at me, and I swear I will send you to hell before you can scream.\" The flames on the sword blade that she had pointed at them made it hard to see the mage's face.\n\nHeather lowered her head, and cupped both hands near her necklace. She lowered her hands, and was holding her belt pouch, and from within the pouch she produced the Kitsune star ball that held her soul. She looked at the mage, holding the star ball up where it could be seen, and said, \"Here is my soul, mage. Can you sense it now? I will make it a part of me, so you can see it belongs to no other.\"\n\nThe star ball floated above her hand, and drifted to her chest, where it entered her body. She took a deep breath, as it re-united with her, and then looked more carefully at the mage outside the circle. Then she smiled, as her appearance became that of Lady Sarina Randall, and she asked, \"Are you satisfied now? And by the way, this is a fine way to welcome a friend who once saved your own soul from damnation, Lady Portia!\" \n\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 33, Written January 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 33 - Obligations\n\nThe canine mage lowered her swords. \"Sarina? By the stars, it is you! I didn't recognize you with your soul completely hidden like that,\" Lady Portia said. \"How did you do that, anyway? And where have you been, that coming here through Hell was a sensible shortcut?\"\n\n\"I'd be happy to discuss that over a glass of wine, in the inn, but first, would you mind dispensing with the banishment circle? And since when do you bother with a visible diagram of that type?\" Sarina said, gesturing to the enflamed circle that still burned at their feet.\n\n\"Oh! Well, when dealing with an unknown soulless entity that has appeared out of Hell, it is best to take no chances in the casting of a spell to banish them. With the diagram visible, it is harder to make an error in its formation. You will please forgive me, but will you take one more test? Catch this, and have a sip,\" the mage said, tossing Sarina a silver flask.\n\nSarina caught it, laughed, and took a drink from the flask, holding it a bit from her mouth so the mage could see the holy water flowing from the flask and into her open mouth, and then swallowed. Then she said, \"I am still no vampire, nor an evil creature that holy water can harm. Some may question my methods, or the spells I choose to use, but I assure you, I am not a creature of evil, and I do not intend any harm to your city or its inhabitants. You have my word of honor on that, sworn to with my hand upon the holy symbol on this flask.\"\n\nLady Portia dismissed the circle, and took the flask back from Sarina. \"Sorry. But I had to be sure,\" she explained, \"because so few untainted things do come out of a hell gate. So why were you there? Where have you been?\"\n\n\"Let's discuss this over wine, please, rather than standing in a field under the stars,\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"Oh! Of course. Forgive my impatient curiosity. Let us go to the inn,\" Lady Portia said.\n\n===\n\nA short while later, Sarina, Ashley and Portia were at a table close to the fireplace, and Sarina and Portia were sharing a bottle of very good wine, which Sarina insisted on paying for. Ashley did not take a glass of wine, and sat staring into the fire, ostensibly acting as a servant girl waiting for the whims of her Mistress, but actually using the flames to see through other fires around the area, and get a sense of what was going on in the city.\n\n\"So, where have you been, and what adventures took you to such places?\" Lady Portia asked. The canine mage was dressed much as she had been the last time Sarina had met her, with one main difference. She now wore a knee-length surcoat of white, with a scarlet cross on it. \n\n\"I was literally on the other side of the world, is where. In Shanghai China. And before that, I spent some time in Hong Kong, in the new Crown Colony there. And before that, I was briefly in India, and even in Egypt. Due to misfortunes beyond my control, I had a need to return here rapidly from the orient. But I had never tried making a portal to cover such a great distance, and I realized as I prepared to make the portal that I didn't have enough waypoints memorized along the route that I had taken by normal means to get there, for me to safely return,\" Sarina said. \"With time running short, I summoned my... servant, Ashley... to serve me again, and she suggested a shortcut through the place that you caught us coming out of. It did get us here, though some complications in the process almost killed me.\"\n\n\"I see. There are formulae for making such long distance portals safely. I would be glad to teach them to you, if you have a week or so to spare? Perhaps less, given what a quick learner you've always been. Portals are a specialty of mine, after all. But what misfortune necessitated your return? The last I heard, you had headed off to the Orient with an adopted father or some such?\" Portia asked.\n\n\"Just so,\" Sarina replied. \"Lord Edward Randall was a widower who had lost his family to a plague. He adopted me, and for a short while I lived with him. But later he asked his brother in law, Lord Thomas Pennington, to take me in, because I reminded him too much of his dead wife and daughter. For several years I lived with the Penningtons, here in this city, and they treated me as if I was their own niece. Lord Randall, meanwhile, went to India and to Hong Kong, seeking his fortunes in the tea and opium trade. When he came back for my twentieth birthday, I asked him to take me with him, so I could see the orient. He did, and we lived for a while in Hong Kong. But then...\"\n\nLady Portia placed a hand on Sarina's arm, and said, \"You poor dear. You speak of him only in the past tense. Was he taken from you?\"\n\n\"Yes. He died there, of a fever that had no cure. I tried to find a way to save him with my magic, but I fear I have always been pathetic with healing spells. I could not find a solution fast enough to save him. He had been very kind to me, and he even named me his sole heiress in his will. I had his remains cremated, and sent his ashes here with a loyal family servant, while I settled our affairs in the Orient. That servant should be arriving here in the next few weeks, if no misfortune befell him. And that necessitated my own haste. I wanted to be here before he arrived, to break the news to the Penningtons. I knew, you see, that Lord Randall would want to be interred here, with the remains of his beloved wife and daughter, in the family crypt. It was my solemn duty, as his adopted heiress, to make that happen,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"How very noble of you! To travel half the world to repay his kindness to you!\" Lady Portia said. \"So you are here then, to tell the Penningtons, and to see to the funeral arrangements?\"\n\n\"Yes. Do you know how they are faring, Lady Portia? I wrote to them on occasion, but I have heard little back from them. The mails to the Far East are not very reliable, even in a Crown Colony,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"As a matter of fact, I have kept in touch with them,\" Lady Portia said. \"Lady Pennington and I share a rather unfortunate bond, after that incident with their daughter and the vampires. We see each other once a week, at Chapel. They both still live, but they are no longer together. Lady Meghan Pennington is now Sister Meghan, of Our Lady of Perpetual Forgiveness, a nunnery some thirty miles outside of the city. She divorced her husband to become a nun, and to pray each day for the soul of their daughter, and for her own soul. Lord Pennington took his wife going to the Church well enough. He still lives in the family mansion, but I believe he is quite lonely there, with no family and only three or four servants. He would welcome a visit from you, even with the sad news that you must give him.\"\n\n\"Lady Pennington was already leaning to piety and a religious life when I left, so that does not surprise me. But you say you see her every week at chapel, even though she is at a distant nunnery? How can that be? Surely you have not become a nun?\" Sarina asked. \n\n\"Not a nun, no. I am needed too much in the world, where my magic can serve the people,\" Lady Portia said. \"But I have taken holy vows of another sort. I am now a Paladin in service to the Church, charged with protecting this city against the forces of evil that on occasion beset us here. In truth, it is little different than my former life. I still hunt werewolves, vampires, and other foul creatures. But I no longer work the docks, nor do I collect a bounty or material rewards for my own enrichment. Any rewards collected for my efforts I donate to the Church, and the Church in turn sees to my equipment and supplies, and provides me with a simple yet comfortable place to live, and an allowance for my food and other necessities. Once each week I attend chapel with the nuns at Our Lady of Perpetual Forgiveness. There I pray for my own soul, and for the souls of those poor creatures who I must dispatch to Hell.\"\n\n\"Indeed? Well, I hope that we may never have cause to fight one another, old friend. Given any choice in the matter, I will not seek to cause any trouble here. Myself, however, I just don't think I could ever serve the Church. But I do respect your choice, and I wish you well with it. Say a few prayers for my soul, if you would be so kind. I could probably use such intercession far more than you or Sister Meghan would have need of it.\" Sarina said.\n\n\"That I will, and gladly, for the one who saved the souls of Sister Meghan and me,\" Lady Portia said solemnly. \"But on another topic, can you tell me how you hid your soul? Never have I seen that done so effectively. I could sense your life with my spells, but nothing could I detect of your soul. It was actually rather frightening, to see a living creature with no apparent soul. I can see, however, that ... where you were ... there would be advantages in being able to hide your soul's presence. How is it done?\"\n\n Sarina looked around, and said, \"I will tell you, but I fear it is something I am incapable of teaching to you. The hour grows late. Let me get a room for my servant and I, and we can finish our conversation there, in private.\"\n\nSarina paid for one of the best rooms in the inn, which got a warm smile from Meridith and a few of the other tavern girls who went both ways for the night trade. Meridith in particular looked curiously at Sarina as she left, trying to recall where she knew the vixen from. But it had been years since the wolf wench had seen Sarina, and she could not remember her.\n\n===\n\nOnce they were in the room, Ashley discarded any pretense of being normal, and the black fire elemental melted into the flames of the fireplace. Lady Portia warded the room against eavesdroppers and scrying spells, and the two mages refilled their wine and talked.\n\n\"You asked how I could hide my soul, my friend. The answer has to do with who, or more precisely what, my mother was. Have you ever heard the term 'Kitsune'?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"The word is not familiar to me, no,\" Lady Portia admitted. \"Some creature of magic that can breed with normal folk, I take it? Or is it a religious or magical order?\"\n\n\"You were closer on the first guess, from what I have been able to determine. It is because of my mother that I was interested in the Far East. Half a world away from here, there is an island nation known as Japan. I have been able to find out very little about them, so far, other than that they kill foreigners who come to their island, and they are fierce warriors. It appears that their island is home to a species of fox-like magical creatures, called Kitsune. These fox-spirits can change their appearance, and seem to be a normal fox woman, such as myself, or a Human woman, or any other sort of normal people. They apparently travel in disguise as a normal person, and on rare occasions, they fall in love with a normal person, and mate with them. My mother was a Kitsune, who did so with my father. I was too young when she died for her to explain much more of what she was than that she was of a people called the Kitsune, and came from the Far East.\"\n\n\"One day, she showed me that she could produce a glowing ball, which contained 'her spirit'. She placed great importance on that 'Star Ball', and told me that once, an evil man had tricked her and stolen it, and was able to command her to serve him while he possessed it. She passed through the hands of several cruel masters, until my father discovered what she was and how she was bound, and freed her,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"I later found out that I could also do this trick, and that it was my soul and part of my life force that formed the Star Ball. I used that ability to defeat Lady Pennington, when her daughter turned both of you into vampires. I held my soul to one side and thrust a dagger into my own heart, and then used a spell to inflict that wound instead on Lady Pennington, staking her through the heart. You saw, and I explained it to you while you recovered, but you lost some memories as you recovered, and so you won't remember it now.\" Sarina said. \"There are things that happened that night that we are all better off not remembering. But by combining the spell to place my soul in a Kitsune Star Ball, and then concealing the Star Ball with another spell, my soul seemed to vanish.\"\n\n \"I see. Well, if you have time while you are here, seek me, and I will teach you an improvement on that portal spell, that can cover any distance. Ask of me at any Church in the area. They will know how to contact me,\" Lady Portia said. Then she stood and released the warding spells, saying, \"I will let you get your rest now. Good luck with Lord Pennington.\"\n\nSarina saw the mage to the door, and said, \"I will seek him tomorrow. Thank you. I will look for you after the funeral.\"\n\n===\n\nThe next morning, Sarina purchased formal mourning attire - a black dress and a black hat with a black veil, and once she was suitably dressed, she hired a carriage to take her and her 'serving girl' to the Pennington Mansion.\n\nLord Pennington received them formally in his parlor. He was of course dismayed at the news of Lord Randall's passing, but seemed more concerned for Sarina's welfare. \n\n\"It is a terrible thing, to be certain. But honestly my dear, ever since my sister Mary died, he seemed to almost have a death wish. He knew that the tea and opium trade was unpopular with the Chinese, and yet he pursued it for the profit that it could bring. And for what? An early grave. He tried several times to get me to invest in that trade with him, but I declined. But what will you do now, Sarina dear? Where will you go?\"\n\n\"I have inherited the remainder of Lord Randall's estate, so I am comfortable financially. I will remain in the city for his funeral, and then I must return to the Orient. Not to continue his trading, but for magical matters that I cannot well explain to you,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"Please, say that you will stay here?\" Lord Pennington asked. \"This will always be your home, you know that. We have told you, have we not, that you are our heiress as well?\"\n\n\"I would like that. Thank you,\" Sarina said. And then she looked at Lord Pennngton, and stated, \"There is one more thing that you should know, sir. Lord Randall took on several lovers while he was in India and the Far East. But no matter how often he mated, he never conceived any other children. I think it is quite safe to say that he was sterile.\"\n\n\"But that would mean...\" Lord Pennington began.\n\n\"Yes sir. We need not trouble Sister Meghan with the facts of the matter, nor will it be necessary to change your will, since I am already your declared heiress. But it seems clear that Lord Edward Randall did not impregnate my mother. And that, sir, means that you are my biological father.\" Sarina said.\n\n\"Oh my...\" Lord Pennington said.\n\n\"This changes nothing between us, Father. My maid is absolutely loyal to me, and will speak to no one of what we do or how we address each other. And my bedroom door will always be unlocked for you, while I stay here,\" Sarina said with a wicked grin, as she set aside her mourning hat and veil. \n\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 34, Written February 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 34 - Servants and Familiars\n\nLord Pennington was rather stunned. Sarina had just clearly stated, in front of her servant girl, not only that he was her real father, but that she would welcome her into her bedroom! He looked nervously at the dark-furred vixen that Sarina had so far introduced only as 'my maid', and said, \"Ahhh, Sarina. Do you think it wise to say such things in front of a servant? No matter how much you feel you can trust her, there are some things that...\"\n\nSarina held up her hand, and said, \"Perhaps I should explain Ashley's relationship to me, father. I introduced her as my maid, simply because that is how she will act, for the most part, while we are here. But she is no common servant. How old would you say she is?\"\n\n\"I... well, she looks no older than you were when you came to us, Sarina. Perhaps fourteen? Surely no more than sixteen?\" he replied.\n\n\"Ashley, tell my father how old you really are, to the best of your ability,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"I have lived for well over seven hundred of your years, Lord Pennington,\" Ashley replied calmly.\n\n\"What? Impossible! No one lives that long! Wait... you're... you're not a vampire, are you? Undead?\" Lord Pennington asked, now rather afraid.\n\n\"Me? A vampire? Certainly not! May I show him, Mistress? I doubt he would believe me if I just told him,\" Ashley said.\n\n\"By all means. But try not to damage anything, please,\" Sarina replied.\n\nAshley stood, and went over to the fireplace, where a cheerful coal fire burned in the hearth basket. She reached her bare hand into the fire, and withdrew a large chunk of burning coal, holding it without it even singing her fur. Then she looked at Lord Pennington and said, \"I am not a creature of your world, at all. I am a fire elemental. The hottest fires of this world are harmless to my kind.\"\n\nShe held the piece of red-hot burning coal cupped in her hands, like a child playing with a snowball, and said, \"My own fires are not of this world, and cannot be extinguished by conventional means. My fire can consume almost any material of this realm, as easily as I do this...\" Her eyes glowed a brilliant green for a moment, and black fire engulfed the burning coal, reducing it to ash and burning to nothing in the blink of an eye. \n\n\"That is truly amazing!\" Lord Pennington said. \"I confess I know nothing to speak of when it comes to magical creatures. I am aware of vampires and werewolves and the like, but I have never heard of an 'elemental'. You look so normal, that I never would have guessed you were anything but a young vixen.\"\n\nAshley nodded and said, \"This, My Lord, is my natural form.\" She released the illusion of her vixen maid appearance, and stood there as a creature made entirely of black fire, that seemed to suck all the light from the room, as she calmly regarded him with glowing green eyes that looked like burning pits of copper.\n\nLord Pennington gasped in shock and stared with wide eyes, as he held up one hand in a useless attempt at defending himself. \"Augh! A demon!\" he cried.\n\n\"That will be sufficient, Ashley. You are frightening him. Father? You know that I am a mage. Ashley is not a demon, though she is a creature from the place we call Hell. She is very much under my control, and bound in service to me as my familiar,\" Sarina said. \"For ten years, she must obey my every command, to the best of her abilities, and she may not in any way betray me. Ashley? What would happen to you, if you failed in your duties to me?\"\n\nAshley resumed her fourteen year old vixen maid form, and said, \"I would be consigned to Hell for one hundred years, Mistress, unable to leave that realm.\"\n\n\"And even though you are from the realm we call Hell, this would be disagreeable to you?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"Yes. It is much more entertaining and interesting to live in your world,\" Ashley replied. \"If I was to be stuck in Hell, I would be unable to grow in capability or status. I would waste a hundred years of my existence in absolute boredom, stuck doing menial activities for other denizens of my realm. I would also forfeit everything I have gained by agreeing to serve you. In terms that compare to the experiences of your kind, it would be like you serving many long years in solitary confinement, while being required to do the most disgusting tasks imaginable, and while bankrupting you at the same time. Betraying your interests would harm me far more than it could harm you.\"\n\n\"Ashley, this is a direct order,\" Sarina said. \"You are not to do anything that would harm Lord Pennington, or his home, or his servants, unless you must to so to protect and serve me. Provided that doing so does not conflict with your service to me, I want you to protect him from harm, including harm to his reputation, and therefore you will speak to no one else of any 'delicate subjects' that you may overhear us speaking of. Is that clear?\"\n\n\"Very clear, Mistress,\" Ashley replied. \"I already would keep any of your personal business private, of course. I have no reason to speak to anyone except by your command. I understand that as long as Lord Pennington and his household are not a threat to you, that I must protect them and their secrets. From anyone but you, of course, Mistress. I must always serve your needs first and foremost.\"\n\nLord Pennington still seemed very nervous about having a creature of Hell in his home, but was reassured to know that Sarina had the elemental under her control. \"I see. Well, ah, this is all quite beyond my understanding, but I will accept that we may trust her to not betray you, or me, I should hope. We will of course not tell Sister Meghan or my servants of her nature! I am quite uneasy with the idea of making deals with creatures from Hell, but I guess that it is something a mage must do, on occasion. I am not so enamored of the church as to trust them more than I trust my own flesh and blood. I will trust your judgment when it comes to magic, Sarina. I fear that I cannot say that I have so high a degree of control or trust for my own three servants. My maid, cook and laundress are good people, and serve me well, but I have no such hold on them as you have over your maid. If we speak freely in front of them about such delicate matters, they might well tell my former wife, or others who could harm me.\"\n\n\"Very well. They do still go to their own homes at night?\" Sarina asked. \"When it is only you, and I, and Ashley in the mansion, we may do as we wish?\"\n\n\"Yes, they go home shortly after dinner, as they did when you lived here. With only my own needs, it makes no sense to have night help. Still... Sarina, much as I do want to accept your offer, I would not feel right about, well, enjoying your favors, while the matter of Lord Randall's funeral is still unfinished. When are you expecting his remains to arrive?\" Lord Pennington asked.\n\n\"As you wish, father. His ashes should arrive within the next two weeks, escorted by a servant who was quite loyal to Lord Randall and me while we lived in Hong Kong. Exactly when he will arrive is difficult to say,\" Sarina replied. \"When I left here to go to Hong Kong, Lord Randall had several business arrangements to make along the way, and it took us four months or more. But I instructed my servant to travel as rapidly as possible, and to seek the aid of the Trading Company that Lord Randall dealt with. He should be returning on the Tea Clippers that bring tea here from the Orient. I also gave him a letter of introduction, explaining in several languages what he was charged to do, and asking those who receive him to give him what aid they can to speed him on his way.\"\n\n\"And yet clearly you were able to get here much more rapidly yourself. More magic, I presume? Why did you not just bring this servant and Lord Randall's remains with you?\" Lord Pennington inquired.\n\n\"After Lord Randall's death, I had many duties to perform, to settle his estate. I also had personal business that I wanted to conclude while in the Orient. I was not at all certain how long I would be delayed, and I did not wish to delay his funeral, or informing you of his fate any longer than necessary. Also, there was some element of risk in my own travels. I did not want to risk his remains being lost, and his fate being unknown, if my own path led to trouble,\" Sarina explained. \n\n\"That was quite considerate of you, my dear. This... family servant you mentioned, who is escorting his ashes here? Is he also a magical creature?\" Lord Pennington asked.\n\n\"No. Lu Chen is a half-Chinese, half-American wolf, and in his early twenties in age. He was disowned by the families of both his parents because of his mixed blood. I gather that his mother has died, and his father abandoned him, and returned to America without the boy. He is a decent cook, and served us as cook and house boy. He was so loyal to us that even the threat that he might himself die of the Fever that Lord Randall died of did not cause him to leave our service. When our other two servants abandoned us, Lu Chen remained, loyal to his Lord's last breath, and attending to Lord Randal's final needs as diligently as I did, at great risk to his own life.\"\n\n\"You don't say? He sounds like a most commendable fellow. I should like to thank him for that loyal service to my brother in law, and to you,\" Lord Pennington said.\n\n\"I thought that you might, Father. And I would ask one small favor of you,\" Sarina said. \"When Lu Chen arrives, I would like you to offer him employment in your household. He has been quite loyal, as I said, and his loyalty deserves reward. There is nothing for him in Hong Kong, and he could have a much better life here. I cannot continue to employ him myself, for where I go after I leave this place, only a servant like Ashley may follow me.\" \n\n\"Well, I shall have to meet him and see what he is capable of, but I am sure something can be arranged, my dear. What you have said of him thus far speaks volumes for his worth,\" Lord Pennington said.\n\n\"Very good, then. I would like to introduce Ashley to your servants, as my personal maid. And then I have business to attend to in town, and we will be out until dinner time,\" Sarina said.\n\n===\n\nThe maid, cook and laundress were all very sympathetic when they welcomed Miss Sarina back into the household, and heard of the unfortunate demise of her father, Lord Randall. They remembered Sarina fondly, and accepted that the young Mistress would of course not travel without a lady to attend to her needs. As they met Ashley, Sarina subtly altered the servant's minds in one regard, in that she implanted a strong suggestion in their minds to pay no attention to any reflections of Ashley that they might see, or expect to see, and to be at ease in her presence. \n\nSarina went to her old rooms, and found them clean and orderly, with a replacement for the bed and dresser that she had taken with her to Hong Kong. She unpacked only her clothes, leaving her invaluable spell books and her other possessions on her necklace. Ashley quietly followed her. While she was unpacking, the maid brought fresh linens for the bed, made the bed, and left a fresh scupper of coal for the sitting room fireplace.\n\nSarina and Ashley next went out in search of Lady Portia, and to tell the innkeeper that they had no further use of the room that had rented at the inn. As it happened, the canine mage was at the inn, having her lunch. They ordered a meal for Sarina, and joined the mage for lunch, filling her in on how the visit went so far.\n\n\"Well, I'm relieved to hear he took it so well,\" Lady Portia said. \"He's a nice old gentleman, and I am sure he will appreciate the visit from you. Will you be staying for long after the funeral?\"\n\n\"Well, I hadn't planned to,\" Sarina admitted. \"But I suppose that my business in the Orient can wait for a little while. When could I start learning more about portals from you? I will probably have a week or two before Lord Randal's ashes arrive, and I may as well use the time constructively.\"\n\n\"We could begin this afternoon, if it suits you. I have no pressing investigations at the moment. What i particular did you wish to learn more on? I recall you mentioning very long range portals?\" Lady Portia asked, as she finished off a tasty meat pie, and washed it down with some ale.\n\n\"Yes. How to make very long range portals, where each end is known, is one topic. The other was, if you have a fairly accurate map, and if you know where you are, is it possible to make a portal to a place on the map that you haven't been to yet, and cannot see? Say, to someplace five hundred to a thousand nautical miles from where you start?\"\n\n\"Yes, I can teach you that,\" Lady Portia replied. \"In fact, the two requests are related. The calculations for eliminating most of the error in a very long portal jump are much easier if you have an accurate map of the area, and know where both places are on that map, and their relationship to each other. And in either case, setting the destination end over a long distance, or to a destination that you are uncertain of, requires a trick where you make the far end movable, and make it possible to look through the portal. That way, you see, you can look through the portal before you cross, and can adjust its position so you don't come out in a wall, or in solid rock, or several leagues away from a boat that you hoped to travel to.\"\n\n\"Oh? That sounds fascinating!\" Sarina said, with quite an honest and enthusiastic response. \"And could that method then also allow you to see a great distance away, and perhaps to cast spells through that portal? Can the far end be seen, before you pass anything through it?\"\n\n\"Oh, I think I will enjoy teaching you these things!\" Portia replied. \"You already have a fine grasp of the possibilities!\" \n\nThey soon finished their meal and took a carriage back to Lord Pennington's mansion, stopping once on the way to secure the rental of a mage's workshop not far from the one that Sarina used to use, and close to her temporary home.\n\n\"I shall see you at your new workshop in the morning!\" Lady Portia said, as they parted company.\n\n\"That went quite well,\" Sarina said to Ashley, as they walked into the mansion. \"I can see now that I did the right thing in returning here, for many reasons.\" \n\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 35, Written February 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 35 - There is a hole in your world...\n\nFor the next week and a half, Sarina and Ashley spent every day at the rented workshop, working with Lady Portia on variations of the spells for making Portals. Ashley would resume her elemental form, and curl up comfortably in the workshop's forge, observing and occasionally making a constructive comment or a suggestion about a different way to do a spell. Sarina studied various texts, copying many different spells into a blank book as she learned them, so she could keep a copy of the rarer and more esoteric texts that Lady Portia, as a specialist in portals and teleportation, had collected. Although for appearance sake Sarina still wore all-black mourning clothes while on the street, once in the workshop she set aside her hat and veil, and concentrated on the tasks at hand.\n\nWhat Lady Portia had assumed would be the hardest part of the more advanced spells was something that seemed to come naturally for Sarina - complex mathematical formulae and geometric calculations to determine the exact distance between two points, as well as the differences in longitude, latitude and altitude between them. But Sarina proved to have a gift at such three-dimensional calculations, and rarely did she even need to work them out on paper. She would just look at the figures and formulae, and give the answer, to a surprising degree of accuracy.\n\n\"How do you manage that?\" Lady Portia asked one day. \"How can you just look at an angle and tell me the measurement of it, to half a degree or better?\"\n\n\"I don't really know,\" Sarina replied. \"I didn't study anything beyond very simple mathematics until I was fourteen, and yet when I did, as soon as my tutor showed me the textbooks, it all just seemed to make sense. It's the same with most spells, for me. If I read it once, or watch it done once, I can usually repeat it exactly. In six years of being tutored here, I completed more than twelve years worth of mathematical sciences, and at the same time I learned all my other lessons at a similar rate. The only areas I can't seem to grasp are biology and medicine. Science or magic that deal with living things seem to somehow be blocked for me.\"\n\n\"Well, your ability with spatial calculations is certainly remarkable,\" Lady Portia said. \"You'll be as good as I am, with another year or two's practice, and I've been doing this for more than twenty years. Now, do you feel up for a challenge today?\"\n\n\"Always. What spell do you want me to demonstrate?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"First, I want you to create a viewing portal, just to the far side of the alley door. Make it undetectable, and then pivot the portal's facing direction, to look to the left and right in the alley, while I watch over your shoulder,\" the canine mage requested.\n\nSarina cast the spell, and a shimmering oval of light appeared in front of her, similar in size to a doorway. Through it she could see a brick wall. The perspective turned to the left, looking at where the alley met the street. Then it turned to the right, and Sarina saw something she didn't expect. In that direction, the alley should have ended in a weathered grey board fence, and several dustbins. But what she saw was the same view that she had seen in the other direction - a street entrance that she knew should be to the left of the alley door. She could even see the storefront across the street!\n\n\"You've cast a spell out there, haven't you? An illusion?\" Sarina asked. \n\n\"Not an illusion, no. It's an application of a portal spell that I haven't taught you yet. Go out there and investigate it,\" Portia instructed.\n\nSarina stepped through the portal that she had made, leaving it open but concealed behind her. She looked in the direction that the street was supposed to be, and could see a lady in a red dress looking at something in the storefront window.\n\nShe turned the other direction, and was facing herself! Not five feet away was a second Sarina standing in the alley. Beyond the second Sarina she could still see the lady in the red dress across the street, and the storefront that she knew was behind her. \n\n\"A mirror spell?\" she asked.\n\n\"Yes, but, not quite,\" said the disembodied voice of Lady Portia, through Sarina's portal. \"Look carefully. What is it that makes this not an ordinary mirror?\"\n\n\"Well, I can't see an edge to it at all. Not even where it touches the ground. And the walls seem to have a seamless flow of brick. I can't see where the reflective surface is, though I imagine it has to be halfway between where I am and my apparent doppelganger over there. There's no glare off the surface of glass, and no distortion. Wait! I can still read the sign on the store front that is behind me! It isn't reversed!\" Sarina said. She held up her right hand, and the mirror Sarina also did so, but with the hand on the opposite side of her body! \"It is a non-reversing mirror? Like I am viewing the scene behind me from the position I seem to be at down the alley?\"\n\n\"Pick up a stone, and throw it at the Sarina that you see over there,\" Portia said. \"Try to break the mirror. What do you think will happen?\"\n\nSarina bent and picked up a stone, seeing her copy do the same thing down the alley. \"If it's a variation of a portal spell, then there is no surface to break,\" she said. She threw the stone, and at the same moment saw the 'other Sarina' throw her stone. The two rocks passed in mid flight, in each case passing Sarina on her left side. Sarina looked down, and said, \"That is the same rock that I threw. If I had thrown it intending to hit the 'imposter', it would have hit me, wouldn't it?\"\n\nThe mirror effect vanished, and Lady Portia now stood at the blind end of the alley, in front of the dustbins. \"Very good! Quick! You have me trapped! Cast a spell at me!\"\n\nSarina raised her hand, and paused, saying, \"I still detect magic somewhere between us. Faint, but there. That spell, or a variation of it, is still there, isn't it?\"\n\n\"Toss the rock instead, and see,\" Lady Portia said with a grin.\n\nSarina picked up the rock, and threw it at the canine mage. It got to about the place where the two stones had passed before, and instantly reversed course, coming back at her as if thrown from the position the second Sarina had been seen at, moments earlier. \"Fascinating! And it works for spells as well?\" she said, as she cast a weak fire bolt at an angle down the alley, and watched it reflect off an unseen surface and return to strike the alley wall to her left, burning off some dirt but leaving the wall undamaged.\n\n\"Just so,\" Lady Portia said, as she walked forward. \"And now, find me!\" There was a moment of distortion in the air, and the mage vanished! Sarina could still see the fenced-off end of the alley, and the dustbins. But the mage was gone!\n\nSarina picked up another rock. She threw it down the alley, and it hit a dustbin by the end fence. \"What sort of trick is this now? She just dropped the spell and teleported away? I suppose I could try to trace her teleportation spell, and see where she went,\" she said to herself. She walked to the far end of the alley and back, trying to detect the spell used, and sense where the teleport spell had sent the mage. But she got no indication that any portal or teleport spell had been used to leave the area. Just a faint aura of magic, consistent with more powerful spells having been used there recently. \n\nSuddenly Sarina felt a small stone strike her back. She turned and saw a pebble skittering to a halt on the alley floor, apparently after bouncing off her lower back. \"Are you still here, Lady Portia?\" she asked cautiously. \"I didn't detect a spell taking you away from here, but I don't detect invisibility or illusion, either.\"\n\n\"Nor would you be likely to detect I was here, until it was far too late,\" came Lady Portia's voice from less than a foot away. The canine mage's disembodied hand appeared out of nowhere, followed by her arm, and tapped Sarina on the shoulder, before retreating back into nothing. \"There is a hole in your world.\" The mage's amused voice said.\n\n\"You're right there in front of me, yet I can't see or sense you, without trying to read your thoughts. No, not even then! Amazing... You can affect me, yet I can walk right through where you apparently are? How?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"Turn around, and face the alley's street entrance. Then back up, slowly, while looking carefully at the street. Tell me what seems wrong,\" said Lady Portia's voice.\n\nSarina did as she was told, and at a certain point, it seemed the position of the street entrance of the alley jumped about two feet farther from her. She stepped closer to the street, and saw the jump-effect again. Then she looked down, carefully, and examined the ground. She smiled, and said, \"A hole, indeed! About two feet across, I would guess. I can see a slight line here on the ground, where the surface of the ground doesn't quite match. I would never have seen it if I wasn't looking right in that spot. This wouldn't be as convincing on rough, open ground, or in an open area, and not enclosed by evenly-textured walls, would it? You have a portal on either side of you, about two feet apart!\"\n\n\"Excellent observations! Perfect marks, so far!\" Lady Portia said. \"So based on what you have observed, what are the weaknesses of this as a defense? How could you still attack me?\"\n\n\"From the side, or above, or below? Portals are flat, right? At least the ones you have taught me to use so far are. So I could fly over your suspected position, and look down to see you between the two portals?\"\n\n\"Just so. But there are other weaknesses to this as a defense. How could you affect me from where you stand, without out-flanking my position? Think, and it will come to you,\" said the voice of the mage.\n\nSarina thought a moment, and then said, \"I can think of three ways, actually. A large area-affect cloud of gas, flames or other harmful conjured matter, cast above or to the side of your suspected position, would likely spill over the top or sides of the portals and into the unprotected area. But you could conceivably cast similar bypass portals on all sides, so what comes from above would go into the ground below you, and what comes from the side would also bypass you.\"\n\n\"Excellent! And quite correct. I just did that, and I am now in a box of similarly crafted sides. No spell or object cast at me from any direction can reach me. What are the other two ways to attack me?\n\n\"But you can apparently see me, and hear me, correct? So I could still attack you with sound, or with light!\" Sarina raised a hand, and a blinding flare of light burst from her hand.\n\nLady Portia reappeared, covering her eyes. \"Ow! That was very well done! Stung like crazy, too. Thank you for doing that instead of a sound-based attack, however. I'd rather see colored spots floating in the air for several minutes instead of being deafened, or having my ears ringing for hours. And well done also on choosing a way to demonstrate that you could attack me, in a way which harmed no innocent bystanders!\"\n\nYou will show me how to do these spells?\" Sarina asked hopefully.\n\n\"Not directly, no. I want you to figure them out for yourself. That will be your 'extra credit' assignment, due tomorrow,\" Lady Portia said. \"I have taught you all the pieces that you need to know. You just need to determine how to put them together, to do what I demonstrated. I am certain you'll be up to the task. Show me you can do that, and then I will show you one final trick for making a portal to the far side of the world, or to a place you have never been before, and are uncertain of the exact location of.\"\n\n===\n\nSarina stayed up all night, pausing only long enough for dinner. She was still awake and at the workshop when Lady Portia arrived the next morning.\n\n\"Can you do the spells?\" Lady Portia asked, as soon as the door was closed.\n\n\"Yes, and more,\" Sarina replied, as she vanished from sight there in the workshop.\n\n\"Very good! I don't see any distortion of distance to the far wall at all. The room looks almost exactly as it did before you cast the spell, except you don't appear to be in it,\" Lady Portia said. \"Only one fault. The direction of the floor planks changed by ninety degrees in the place where you were standing. You put one portal between those two pillars that form an arch between us. But the second portal isn't behind you. It's to your right side, showing me the side wall, and the floor past that pair of pillars, which is quite similar to the space you apparently vanished from. Well done!\"\n\nSarina reappeared, and said, \"Forgot about the floor. Took me a while to make the two walls match, to the last brick's shading. I can do the others, too. The non reversing mirror is a portal facing me going out, and another accepting what comes through it just in front of that, but concealed, as you had me do to look in the alley. So from one side, you see a non-reversed reflection of what is on that side. From the other side, you see nothing. The bypass portals are also see-through from within the pair or box of portals. You can cast spells out, but not be hit by incoming spells. But to see to attack, and to hear your victims, you have to allow light and sound not to be affected.\"\n\n\"Excellent. And what more did you discover?\" Lady Portia asked.\n\n\"You don't have to be vulnerable to sound, if you are willing not to hear your opponent except by what passes around the sides of the portals,\" Sarina said proudly. \"And if you are willing to not see them, and to use other means to target your attacks, you can keep light-based attacks from you as well. The spell might even be modifiable to pass only certain levels of light or sound, so above a certain brightness or loudness, it is muted.\"\n\n\"The student has become the teacher! I hadn't thought of modulating the level of light or sound that comes through the portal, but you are right, it could be done. Well done indeed. Sit down, and I will teach you your final lesson,\" Lady Portia said, smiling with pride at her pupil's accomplishments. \n\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 36, Written February 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 36 - Increased understanding\n\nLady Portia and Sarina sat in the workshop, looking at a map of Europe.\n\n\"The difficult things with a long-range portal, or a portal to someplace you haven't been before, is placing the far end accurately,\" the canine mage said. \"If you know both places well, you already have a feel for what is in both locations. The more you know about what you expect on the far end, the easier it is to lock in on that spatial configuration, even over a great distance. Distance also adds other variables, such as differences in altitude, and there are calculations that must be done accurately to counteract those differences. I have taught you those calculations, and you're doing them quite well.\"\n\n\"Thank you, my Lady,\" Sarina said. \"But what is missing then?\"\n\nLady Portia pointed to a spot on the map in France, and said, \"Let us say we want to go to a place on that mountain. If the map is accurate, we can get a fairly close value for the differences in latitude and longitude. But what of altitude? And what if there are errors in the map? How then do we open a safe portal to that distant mountain top?\"\n\n\"Could we complete the formulae by finding out the missing information some other way? A traveler's journal might reference the height of the mountain that we seek to visit,\" Sarina offered.\n\n\"Perhaps so. But even if we had such a useful journal, the information might be inaccurate. We need a way to lock in the far end, without foreknowledge of all the details,\" Lady Portia said. \"Once we have as much information as we can gather, we need to make the far portal able to form, and then home in on a spot that resembles what we seek. As an example, I know that on that peak there is a small monastery. I also know that it has an octagonal central keep, and that there is a river to the East of it, about a mile distant. I would like to appear on the roof of the keep, since it is an open area unlikely to have people or wagons or vehicles passing through it. If I add that information into the spell, by envisioning those particulars as I cast it, the far portal becomes a 'seeker', and will move of its own accord to the nearest place that matches those particulars. Even if I know nothing at all about the destination, I can at least specify 'an open, unobstructed space, with stable ground to walk upon', or something similar. Once the portal has sought the likely position, you can look through it and fine-tune the position, or move the portal to somewhere nearby.\"\n\nShe got out a small spell book and showed Sarina the variations in the spell that made it able to seek specific features at the far end. Then they put it to the test, and Sarina opened a portal to the roof of that monastery keep. It worked on the first try, with very little movement of the portal once it formed.\n\n\"Very nice!\" Sarina said, as she turned the portal to look at the roof area. \"I want to try a greater distance next.\"\n\n\"As you wish. Where, on this map?\" Lady Portia asked.\n\n\"Way over on the edge. Right here. That would be Hong Kong Island, to the South of this great river estuary. There is a mountain on the island called Victoria Peak, above the harbor. It was not far from my home there, and I have a very good mental image of how high above the sea it was, and where it was in relation to the coastlines,\" Sarina said. \"While I don't know the precise details, and this map has some inaccuracies regarding the Asian coastline and islands, I think it may be close enough that the seeker portion of the spell could lock on from my rough distance and location fix, and seek the open place on the mountain top where I liked to relax and watch the sea and the harbor.\"\n\n\"A good choice, and a good challenge, as well. Nearly halfway around the globe. Proceed,\" Lady Portia said.\n\nSarina took some measurements on the map, took the time to actually write out the compensation calculations, and then she cast the spell. As the portal formed, she at first saw nothing but water and a night sky through the portal. But then it turned on its own, and the viewpoint raced along the surface of the sea, past several Chinese boats, to a shoreline that could only barely be seen, and up the terrain to a mountain peak. When it stopped moving, she turned the portal slightly, and said with satisfaction, \"Without the seeker portion of that spell, the far end would have formed far out to sea - a failure. But what you see now through that portal is definitely Hong Kong Harbor. Interesting that it is night there, while it is mid-day here.\"\n\n\"Proof that the world is round, and not flat like that map. The formulae in that advanced spell also compensate for the inaccuracies caused by forcing a map onto a flat surface, and not a globe. If your map reference was a spherical globe, you use these calculations instead,\" Lady Portia said.\n\nSarina copied the spell variations diligently into her own spell book, and then asked, \"You mentioned opening a portal to a ship. Wouldn't the motion of the waves make it harder to get the far end, or your end, if you were on a ship, to be stable?\"\n\n\"It would indeed! And for that reason most mages never would try to make a ship to ship portal. The variables change too fast. But if you apply the seeker spell to both ends, you can lock the frame of reference to the deck of the ship, so the portal appears to be stable relative to those on the ship's deck, who are moving with it,\" Lady Portia said. \"Try that with one of the ships at sea, near the island. Locate a ship, get the portal relatively close to the deck, and then make the rolling deck be the stable ground, and not the steady horizon. I'll warn you though, the view through a moving portal like that can make one a bit nauseous.\"\n\nSarina tried that, and did manage to make the far end of the portal lock relative to the deck of a Chinese Junk at sea. The horizon rolled in very odd ways, while the ship seemed to be calm and stable, as if it was tied up at the dock. \"That definitely does look strange, to see the horizon move so,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"Stepping through it is disorienting as well. I wouldn't recommend it, unless the need was great. You would be better off using some sort of flight spell, making the portal in the air near the ship, and then flying through the portal and down to the ship's deck,\" Lady Portia said. \"And I believe that covers all the lessons you asked of me. Is there anything else?\"\n\n\"Just one thing,\" Sarina said, as she produced a fat little pouch, and handed it to Lady Portia. \"Please take these silver coins, as payment for your invaluable service to me. They are Chinese silver, and of a very high purity.\"\n\n\"You know I'll just donate this to the church?\" Lady Portia asked. \"I know you're not on the best of terms with the church, though you do not openly act against them. It doesn't bother you that they benefit from this?\"\n\n\"The coins are yours. If you choose to give them to the church, I do not care. You are right. I have little love for the church. But at the same time, I will not oppose them, so long as they do not oppose me. Both you and Sister Meghan have found a place within the Church's folds. If that brings you peace and contentment, I will not speak against your choices. Do as you will with my gift to you,\" Sarina replied.\n\n===\n\nTwo days later, a coach arrived at the Pennington Mansion. A bulldog in the uniform of a police officer got out, and knocked on the door. Sarina and Lord Pennington met the officer in the parlor.\n\n\"Begging your pardon, My Lord. We have a bit of a quandary on our hands. Were you expecting a visitor? A Chinaman?\" the officer asked nervously.\n\n\"Is his name Lu Chen? A grey-furred wolf with a black braided queue for his hair, and in his 20's? We were indeed expecting him! Where is he?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"And who would you be, Miss?\" The officer asked politely. \"Afraid I don't know his name, as he speaks hardly a word that we understand. But that does describe him fairly well. He showed us a letter with the Lord Pennington's name and address on the envelope, and seemed to want to seek his Lordship.\"\n\n\"He is a courier from Hong Kong that we were expecting,\" replied Lord Pennington. \"And this is my niece, Lady Sarina Randall. Did you read the letter this Chinaman had with him?\"\n\n\"Ah, no, My Lord. You see, the boy wouldn't let go of it. Just jabbered in some heathen tongue and pointed at the address on the envelope. Got into a bit of a scuffle with two of our dock patrolmen, and as he had no identity papers that we could tell, we locked him up to cool off while we checked out this lead,\" the officer said.\n\n\"There is only one Chinaman that would have a letter in his possession with this address and my uncle's name on it. I must insist that you release him to me, at once, along with his baggage and possessions. Lu Chen is my servant. If you insist, I can show you the contract that I hired him under, written in English and Cantonese, because he entered my employ in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong,\" Sarina said as she stood. \n\n\"Very well, Miss Randall. If you an' his Lordship will come with me?\" the officer said.\n\n===\n\nSoon they had the matter settled, and Lu Chen and his baggage were at the Pennington Mansion.\n\n\"I am sorry for the difficulties, Mistress.\" Lu Chen said, as they brought his bags inside.\n\n\"No, I should be the one to apologize, Lu Chen. It never occurred to me that you spoke so little English!\" Sarina replied.\n\n\"Mistress always spoke to me in such good Chinese, that I never needed to mention it. But I speak very little of any other language,\" Lu Chen replied. \"For most of the journey, I was in the company of men from the East Asia Trading Company, and at least some of them could translate for me. But we got separated when we arrived here. Those uniformed men detained me, and all I could understand of what they said was that they wanted me to give them my paper. I showed them every piece of paper I had, but I did not dare let them take the letter that you said I had to give to your uncle.\"\n\n\"What the devil is he saying?\" Lord Pennigton asked. \"You act as if you understand him, and he understands you, but I can't make out a word he is saying, though you're talking to him in plain enough language. How can a man understand our language and yet not speak it?\"\n\n\"This was my error, Uncle. Lu Chen speaks Cantonese Chinese, and apparently speaks very little English. Lord Randall also spoke that language, though only well enough to make basic requests of the servants, order food, and do simple business with the natives,\" Sarina replied. \"Lu Chen understands me because to his ears, I am speaking fluent Cantonese. You hear the same words in your own language, English. It is a magical gift that I have had since I was a very young child. When I was little, I had to concentrate to speak another language. Now, I give it no thought at all. Whoever I want to have understand me simply does, and I understand them. If there were a hundred people in this room, and they all spoke different languages, they could all understand me, and I them. Or I could choose to only speak the language of any one of them.\"\n\n\"You never cease to amaze me, Sarina,\" Lord Pennington said. \"Ask him about Lord Randall's remains, please.\"\n\n\"Lu Chen? I trust that you were able to bring my father's remains here safely?\" she asked.\n\n\"Yes Mistress. I trusted no one with them. His reliquary box is in my baggage, but his ashes are here,\" the young wolf replied. Then he opened his loose jacket, and brought forth a silk pouch on a silken cord, which had been settled in the small of his back, with the cord around his neck and shoulder. He had to remove the jacket to take the pouch off, and when he had done so, he reverently placed the pouch in her hands, saying, \"May the remains of your ancestor rest serenely with the remains of his ancestors, for a thousand times a thousand years, Mistress.\"\n\nThen he opened one of his portmanteau cases, and from a place deep in the luggage he produced a small silver box, just large enough for the ashes, and presented that to her.\n\nSarina turned to Lord Pennington and said, \"My father, Lord Edward Randall, has come home. Here are his ashes, and a fine silver box to rest them in, for eternity. May he rest in peace. Please make the arrangements for the funeral, Uncle. I wish to talk to Lu Chen, alone. His inability to speak your language may change my plans for his future.\" \n\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 37, Written February 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 37 - Endings and new beginnings\n\nWhile Lord Pennington contacted the church to make the arrangements for his brother in law's funeral and interment in the family crypt, Sarina led Lu Chen up to her sitting room. \n\nThe Chinese wolf boy was amazed at the opulence and size of the mansion. \"Mistress is a princess? This is a palace!\"\n\n\"I am not a princess, no, Lu Chen. This mansion belongs to my uncle, Lord Pennington. He is rather wealthy, however, and his family is of the nobility in this country, as am I. He is not even close to being so high as a prince, but the family is well-respected,\" Sarina said. \"They have even been welcomed in the courts of the Queen of this country.\"\n\n\"Ah! They are what in my land would be called Imperial courtiers, then? Those high enough to have access to the Court of the ruler of the land are still very important people. It is still almost beyond my imagining, Mistress! So much more fine than even the Governor must have had in Hong Kong!\" Lu Chen said.\n\nSarina opened the door to her sitting room, and said, \"Please have a seat by the fire, Lu Chen. I wish to talk with you privately.\"\n\n\"As you wish, Mistress,\" Lu Chen replied.\n\nSarina sat in a comfortable chair beside the fire, while silently signaling to Asha to keep herself hidden. Then she spoke to Lu Chen, and said, \"You have served my family very well, Lu Chen. I am grateful for your loyalty to me, and to my father.\"\n\n\"Mistress has always been kind to me. You always spoke to me in such perfect Chinese, and could read and write it as well. Your father spoke some of my language, but was never as fluent as you are. I always found it hard to believe that you were not born in our country. Very few foreigners have been able to master the Chinese language. It is a rarity for a disrespected half-breed such as me to serve such a well-educated and noble Lady. It is even more unusual that such a noble lady would treat her servants as well as you do.\"\n\n\"My ability with languages is a magical talent, Lu Chen. But it has caused me a difficulty. You see, I had taken it for granted that you could talk easily to me, and that therefore there should be no difficulty with you talking to my uncle, Lord Pennington. But you can hardly understand a word that he says, can you? I know he can't understand you at all.\" Sarina said.\n\n\"I understand a few of his words, Mistress. But you are right that most of the people here I cannot communicate with. I had only learned a few of the terms that your father used in requesting things of me, when he tired of trying to use the right Chinese words for something he wanted. But I did manage to make it here in spite of that,\" Lu Chen said, with a small measure of pride in his voice.\n\n\"That you did, and I appreciate that. But I had hoped to reward your service to me by asking my uncle to employ you here, where you would be safe from the deadly Fever that claimed my father's life, as well as from the intolerance of your own people to your half-breed status. Here, you would be a foreigner, but no one would care you were only half Chinese. But I cannot leave you here if you cannot communicate with my uncle, or his other servants,\" Sarina began.\n\n\"L-leave me here? Mistress does not want me to continue serving her? Have I failed you in some way, Mistress?\" Lu Chen asked, visibly distraught now.\n\n\"You have not failed me, Lu Chen. But where I must travel soon, I fear I cannot ask you to accompany me. Have you heard of the Japans?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\" I know only that their island is forbidden territory, Mistress,\" Lu Chen replied. \"No one goes there or comes from there anymore. They are said to be deadly warriors, and enemies to my people.\"\n\n\"Well, I must go there, forbidden or not. You see, I believe my mother came from that land, before they closed their borders to travel. She is dead now, but there are things I must know about her people, so I may better understand myself. I believe that my magic can keep me safe, but I could not keep you safe there,\" she explained. \"So I have some options for you to choose from.\"\n\n\"The first option is that I could do as I originally planned, and leave you here, serving my uncle as best you can. If you choose that path, I will ask him to provide a tutor to teach you his language. It may be difficult for you to learn, but you seem intelligent, and I think you could do it. You would be safe, and have a good job here, and a nice room to live in, here, or in an apartment of your own nearby. In time, I may come back here, and if I do, I may be able to take you back into my service then. But it is by no means certain that I will return, even if I am successful.\"\n\n\"The second option is that I can return you to China - to Hong Kong, or to Canton, or to Shanghai - where you would be among people you understand, and who understand you. But you would be on your own there, with no employer or other benefits, save for a final payment from me in thanks for your service to me. As with the first option, I may in time be able to return to where I left you, and seek you to work for me again. Or I may never come back into your life. I cannot say which is more likely.\"\n\n\"The third option is that I could send you somewhere else, to a place of your choosing. Perhaps you may wish to go to America, to seek your father? What would you choose, for your future?\"\n\n\"But travelling with you now, and continuing to serve you now, is not an option?\" Lu Chen asked. \"It is not a difficult choice then, Mistress. I would never seek my father. He disowned me once, and would not be pleased to see me in his homeland, seeking him. To serve your uncle in this splendid mansion would be much nicer than any employment I could gain in Hong Kong, or anywhere else in my homeland. But I do not see how I could serve him well without knowing his language. There is little for me in Hong Kong, or elsewhere in China. But at least there I belong to the people of that country, and I can communicate. I can find a new employer there, I am sure. I would ask to travel back to Hong Kong then, Mistress, and hope that someday I may serve you again. It is a long journey, but I suppose I must undertake it.\"\n\n\"It will be a very short journey when the time comes, Lu Chen, for I will use my magic to take you there. I have recently studied under an expert in... well, call it travel magic... and I can now return you to Hong Kong faster than you may believe possible. But for a few more weeks or months you may serve me here. I must remain here until the funeral, and that will take at least two weeks to arrange.\" Sarina said.\n\n===\n\nSarina arranged for a room that Lu Chen could stay in at the mansion, though he complained that it was much too nice for one of his lowly station. As she went on various errands around the town over the next few weeks, she allowed him to attend her, and carry her parcels, or merely escort her, so she was not seen to be going about her business alone, while in mourning. Many of the trips were not particularly necessary, but gave Lu Chen a good chance to see the city and its people. She rather hoped he would change his mind, and decide to stay here, in spite of the language difficulties. He did not.\n\nThough she had no emotional need to mate, she briefly considered allowing Lu Chen to serve her also at night, in her bed. But she decided that wouldn't be fair to the boy. If she used him as a lover, it would be difficult for them to retain a Mistress and Servant relationship.  He was happy in his role, and blurring the lines would only needlessly confuse him. If she wanted physical relief before her uncle was willing to come to her bed again, she could always go back to the inn for a few evenings as Heather, and work as a whore, or hire Meridith or some other whore to please her for an evening. Or she could seek physical comfort from Asha, who had indicated her willingness to provide erotic service to her Mistress. But she hesitated there - primarily because she truly did not know what might happen if the sexual intimacy worked with the elemental as it had with Sarina's other lovers, and opened Asha's mind fully to Sarina. Could Sarina handle receiving all of the memories of an unnatural creature that had lived for over 700 years? Or would that drive her insane? She wasn't sure she wanted to risk that.\n\nWhen she wasn't running errands, she would leave Lu Chen at the mansion and go with Asha to the rented magical workshop, to study further the books that she had taken from the Chinese mage, Jiang Wu, and to finally remove all the traps and wards on the mage's strongbox. The chest contained a handsome quantity of precious gems, silver and gold, as well as five unique magical artifacts. She sifted through Jiang Wu's memories, but could find only a vague idea of what three of the magical items actually did, and nothing at all about two others, save for how the mage had obtained them. Apparently Jiang Wu himself had obtained them by various means, and yet had been unaware of their full power or true purpose, so he had set them aside to study. Sarina decided that was a wise course, and left them in that strongbox, after transferring the gold, silver and gems to her main strongbox. She locked the mage's strongbox, resetting the traps on it, and returned both chests to her necklace.\n\n===\n\nThe day of Lord Edward Randall's funeral arrived, and Sarina put on a suitable show of grief at the old fox's passing, drawing from the expected responses that she could sense in the minds of other mourners, and the very real grief of several of them. To Sarina herself it was a strangely numb experience. She had grown fond of Edward as a lover, and yet losing him meant very little to her emotionally. \n\nWhen the time came in the ceremony, at her own insistence, Sarina herself placed the small silver reliquary containing Lord Edward Randall's ashes into the marble niche with the ashes of Lady Mary Randall, and hidden behind that, the ashes of the real miss Sarina Randall. The vault was sealed again, and the ceremony proceeded with no one the wiser about the extra set of remains in the family crypt.\n\nAfter the funeral, Sarina went with Lord Pennington back to the mansion. For a full week she continued to wear mourning clothes and a black veil.\n\nOnce her period of mourning was over with, Lord Pennington took Sarina to meet the family barrister, the lawyer that saw to the Pennington Estate's legal needs. She was shown the will that Sister Meghan and Lord Pennington had drawn up, naming Sarina as sole heiress to the Pennington family estates. Now that Sarina had reached the age of twenty one, she was legally able to manage her own affairs, while she remained single. It chafed on her when the lawyer suggested that her funds from the Randall estate should be placed in a trust account, to be managed by her uncle, until such time as she found a suitable husband, who would then take her fortune and add it to his own, managing her financial affairs. The lawyer was of the opinion that women were incapable of managing their own finances. Sarina countered that since she would be leaving the country shortly, that would not be acceptable, and used just enough of her magic on the lawyer and her uncle to make them accept her argument. In the end, it was agreed that when Lord Pennington met his maker, Sarina should present herself to claim her inheritance, preferably in the company of her husband, or a suitable male guardian. If she did not appear to make the claim, the barrister's firm would safeguard the funds until she could be located and allowed to claim the inheritance.\n\n===\n\nTwo days after the visit to the barrister, Lord Pennington at last appeared at Sarina's bedroom door, after Lu Chen had retired to his room, and the other servants had gone home for the night. The Lord was already in his nightshirt and wearing a dressing gown over that. He knocked timidly.\n\nSarina answered the door, wearing nothing but a smile. \"Good evening, father,\" she said.\n\n\"Ahhh, good evening, Sarina dear,\" he said when she opened the door. \"Er, may I come in?\"\n\n\"Of course you may, father. I have been expecting you,\" Sarina said, closing the door again once he had entered, and leading him through the sitting room and into her bed chamber.\n\n\"Um, what of your servant, Ashley? Is she here?\" he asked hesitantly, looking around as if expecting an embarrassing intrusion at any moment.\n\n\"She will not appear unless I ask her to, father. Perhaps you would like to enjoy both of us at once? She can assume any mortal female form. She could take the form of your daughter Amara, and you could fornicate with both of your daughters at once. Would you like that, father?\" Sarina teased.\n\n\"B-both? I don't know that my old heart could stand it, my dear. Look at me... I am trembling as if it was my wedding night. For all that we shared before, this is different, now that we are certain you really are my daughter. And you look so much now like my sister, Mary, as well. You are so beautiful. I can't believe that you're willing to mate with your old father. Is this a dream?\" he asked.\n\n\"A pleasant dream, if it is, I should hope. Come to bed with me, father, and take your daughter in your strong arms, and mate lustily with me. Mate with me as if you wanted to plant a baby in your own child's belly, my darling father! \" Sarina said, as she took off his robe, unfastened the front of his nightshirt, and held him tightly to her.\n\n\"Oh Sarina!\" he exclaimed, as the last of his resistance melted. He no longer cared if it was wrong or perverse to want to mate with his own daughter. He just knew that she wanted him, and that he had to have her, and to mate with her, with a burning passion. \n\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 38, Written February 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 38 - The power of fantasy - and a special Valentine\n\nSarina awoke with the sun, as dawn's first light filtered through her window curtains. She was snuggled close to Lord Pennington, who was still soundly sleeping, and the two of them were covered by a warm down-filled comforter, and what had at least started the night as clean linen sheets, though there were now several cold, wet spots on the mattress, as testimony to the night's activities. She smiled as she remembered their passionate lovemaking last night. The old fox may be in his mid fifties, and was certainly getting grey in the muzzle, but he was still quite capable as a lover. He had actually filled her belly with his seed four times last night. The fact that he now fully believed that Sarina was his own daughter, born from an illicit mating with his own sister, Mary, had intensely added fuel to the flames of his desire. \n\nSarina mused about how common a fantasy incest seemed to be, and how much the thought of such 'forbidden liaisons' could stir the emotions of a man, and impair their judgment. It made them so wonderfully easy to manipulate. She had used that fantasy to great effect on both Lord Edward Randall and Lord Thomas Pennington, making both of them believe that she was their daughter, and yet eager to welcome them to her bed. And she had reaped handsome rewards for her performance in the role of Sarina, being gifted by them with the full value of Lord Randall's estate, and being named in the will to receive the full value of Lord Pennington's estate as well. Since Lord Pennington's wife had become a nun, the estate would be Sarina's when the Lord passed on, even if Sister Meghan still survived.\n\nShe wondered how the real Miss Sarina Randall would have felt about sleeping with her father, or her uncle, as she would have been raised to think of Lord Pennington. Would she have accepted the idea? Probably not. More likely the girl would have been repelled by the thought of an older relative having carnal desires for her - and especially so if that male was someone she believed was her own father.\n\nThe false Sarina, on the other hand, was perfectly happy to allow the old fox to mate with her. He was a reasonably good lover, and the sex was enjoyable, just as it had been with Lord Randall. And she knew that giving Lord Pennington her body bound him to her in ways no spell could have achieved. In many ways, she felt she was doing him a positive service, by entertaining him and making his life less lonely. He certainly did enjoy rutting with her.\n\nSarina slipped out of bed and washed herself quickly using the pitcher of cold water and wash basin on the commode in her bedroom, and drying herself carefully before putting on a fresh nightgown. She almost hated to awaken her aging lover, but she knew the servants would be arriving soon to prepare breakfast and make the beds, and it simply would not do for them to find their Master in his niece's bed!\n\nShe considered for a moment if she should try to arrange things here for a while as she had with Lord Randall - if she could assume the role of Lord Pennington's second wife, or at least his Mistress, and remain with him for a while. But there were too many complications there. It would be difficult enough to stay for any more than a few more weeks, without the maid at least becoming suspicious that her Master was not sleeping in his own bed, and that the sheets in Sarina's bed were soiled from sex. She made a mental note to suggest that from this point forward, they should mate in his room and not hers.\n\n\"Good morning, father,\" she said softly, touching him gently on one shoulder.\n\nLord Pennington opened his eyes, smiled a guilty smile, and then his eyes slowly widened, as he realized the compromising position he would be in if the maid found him in this particular bed! \"Sarina! What time is it? Are the servants here yet?\"\n\n\"The sun has just risen, and the servants have not arrived as yet, my lover. But they will come soon. Best for you to go roll around in your own bed for a bit, so it is suitably rumpled when the maid tidies up your room,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"Yes, yes, of course! Damn it all, I shouldn't have slept the night through here,\" he said.\n\n\"True, but it was a delightful way to end the evening, snuggled cozy and warm with my daddy, my lover,\" Sarina said as she kissed him. \"Now be a good daddy and go to your room. We can play some more tonight!\"\n\n===\n\nSarina remained in Lord Randall's home for another month and a half, which was longer than she had intended. Every time that she started to prepare to head East, Lord Pennington begged her to stay a while longer, at least to wait for better weather for traveling. And each time she indulged his request, and continued their nightly mating liaisons. \n\nOn most days she would study more magic, occasionally going to the rented workshop to practice a particularly hazardous spell. On other days she would go to the libraries in the town, seeking the few books that they had which were traveler's journals from Asia. But as with her inquiries in Shanghai, these trips to the library most often produced very little of value about the people or nation of Japan, and produced virtually nothing about Kitsune. She grew increasingly curious about her mother's people, and wanted to resume her investigation of Japan. Pleasant though her dalliances here were, she could not stay here for that much longer.\n\nEvery evening, without fail, Sarina would join Lord Pennington in his bed, so that if he fell asleep after they made love, Sarina could easily return to her own bed, leaving him where he belonged. They learned to place a folded spare blanket beneath them as they mated, to soak up spilled fluids, so his bedding would show no trace of sexual activity when the maid changed the sheets. He on several occasions asked her to assume the appearance of Sarina at twelve to fourteen years of age, and sometimes even had her pretend to still be a virgin, so he could 'take her virginity'. Sarina could even control her shape shifting well enough to become a virgin for him, and bleed when he deflowered her. Occasionally he would ask her to appear to be his daughter Amara, in a similar youthful state. But most often he preferred Sarina's twenty-one year old form, which looked to him like both his daughter and like his sister, Mary. \n\n===\n\nOn Valentine's Day, Sarina made a new and unique offer to Lord Pennington.\n\n\"My love? I have a special gift in mind for you this Valentine's Day. Have you ever wondered what it would have been like, if you had impregnated Mary the first time you mated with her, when she was only fifteen, and if you somehow managed to remain her frequent lover as she raised that child? I have an idea that I think will stimulate you more than anything we have yet enjoyed together,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"More stimulating than when we re-created my deflowering Mary when she was fifteen, or the knowledge that nightly I am spilling my seed into my daughter's fertile womb, and risking impregnating you?\" Lord Pennington asked. \"I can't imagine how Mary and I could have concealed her becoming pregnant back then, or laid the blame for her child on any other young suitor, but I am open to any of your scandalous and pleasurable ideas, my beloved daughter.\"\n\nSarina altered her appearance slightly to that of Mary Pennington when she was twenty five years old, and still unmarried. \"Brother dear? Our daughter Sarina is ten years old. She still believes you are just her uncle, and does not suspect you are really her daddy. Given how much you love making love to your sister, would you like to include your daughter in our lovemaking? Would you like to tell little Sarina you are her daddy, and then take our little Sarina's virginity as her Valentine's gift, while I watch and encourage you to do so?\"\n\nLord Pennington gasped, and stammered, \"At... ten? S-so young? And with your blessing, sister? But how can we do such a thing? I mean, with, well, both of you present?\"\n\n\"Ashley can take this appearance as well, as I become the young Sarina. I can instruct my maid in what to say, and how to act. You could mate with Ashley or not as you choose, but the focus of this night's pastime would be your deflowering Sarina, with the child knowing you are her father, and while your sister, her mother, watches and encourages you. Would that perverted pleasure interest you, my love?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"M-make it happen. Yes. Yes I... would enjoy that... much more than any man with a lick of moral sense should,\" he confessed.\n\n===\n\nTen minutes later, 'Mary' and 'Sarina' came into the sitting room outside Lord Pennington's bedchamber. They were both dressed in an innocent-looking floor length chemise, with long sleeves and high necklines. The gowns were quite modest - suitable for a young girl and her mother, when about to retire for the evening. Lord Pennington was also in his nightshirt, with a robe over that. \n\n\"Good evening, uncle,\" little Sarina said, clinging shyly to her mother's hand, and looking a little embarrassed to be in her night clothes in front of her uncle. \"Thank you again for the flowers you gave me today. They were very pretty.\"\n\n\"Brother dear, I believe it is time we had a special chat with my daughter, your niece,\" said Mary. \"I think it is time she got to know who her father is.\"\n\nSarina looked confused, and asked her mommy, \"Does Uncle Thomas know who my daddy is?\"\n\n\"Yes dear, he does. And now that you're a big girl, he can tell you. But you must promise not to tell anyone else, okay sweetheart?\" Mary asked.\n\n\"A secret? Okay mommy. I can keep a secret if you say I hafta,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"Well, brother? Tell Sarina who her father is,\" Mary said.\n\nLord Pennington cleared his throat, and said, \"Well, ah, I am your father, Sarina. Your mother and I love each other very much, but we couldn't admit I was your daddy, because she is my sister.\"\n\nSarina cocked her head and asked, \"You had sex with your sister, Uncle? Er, I mean daddy? Is that a bad thing?\" \n\n\"Well, some people would say it is. That is why this has to be our secret. But your mother and I both believe that if two people love each other very much, that it doesn't matter if they are close relatives,\" Lord Pennington said uncomfortably.\n\n\"Do you love me that much, daddy?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"More than he can say, sweetheart,\" Mary said. \"In fact, I think daddy should show you tonight that he loves you just as much as he loves mommy. Would you like that?\"\n\n\"I guess, yeah,\" Sarina said hesitantly.\n\n\"Daddy loves you very much, sweetheart,\" Lord Pennigton said, getting into the scene more fully now. \"And I would like to show you, by doing with you the things your mother loves to do with me.\"\n\n\"You mean you wanna have sex with me, daddy? Ummm, mommy, is that okay?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"Yes sweetheart. You're a big girl now, and mommy wants daddy to make you happy, the way he makes me happy. Take off your nightgown, dear, and show daddy what a pretty vixen you've grown up to be,\" Mary replied.\n\nThe child slipped out of her nightgown, and followed her uncle into his bedroom, with her mother close behind them. Lord Pennington took off his own clothes, and said, \"This is what a man looks like when he wants to please a vixen. See how stiff and hard my cock is? That is because I think you are very beautiful, Sarina.\" He got on the bed, and patted the place beside him. The scene of deflowering his daughter was familiar to him, but doing it while she was so very young, and while her mother watched, added a lot more to his excitement. His heart was racing as the child climbed naked onto the bed beside him.\n\n\"That's your cock? It looks pretty, daddy. All shiny an' red. What do I do, now?\" Sarina asked.\n\nMary guided the child to straddle her father's face, and said, \"Let daddy lick your woosies, to get you nice and wet. It will make it easier when he pops your cherry.\"\n\n\"Okay, mommy. Hee hee! That tickles, daddy! Lick me again!\" Sarina said, laughing and enjoying herself.\n\nThe old fox lapped at his virginal daughter, his probing tongue able to feel the fragile crescent of her hymen as he licked her. \"Mummm, daddy loves you, Sarina!\" He was panting heavily now, and almost painfully erect.\n\n\"Now, Sarina sweetie, slide down and squat over daddy's cock. Mommy will guide it into you. It will hurt for a little bit, because you've never had anything put inside you before. But mommy promises you'll love how it feels later,\" Mary said, as she again positioned the innocent vixen.\n\n\"Like this, Mommy?\" Sarina asked, as she faced her father and squatted over him, with the tip of his cock just penetrating her virginal folds.\n\nLord Pennington arranged his pillow so his head was comfortably propped up to watch this spectacle. He was unbelievably stimulated as he watched his sister guiding their child to her first incestuous mating. \"G-good girl,\" he gasped, as he felt his tip beginning to enter the innocent vixen. \"Make daddy h-happy.\"\n\nMary guided the tip of Lord Pennington's cock into Sarina's virginal cunny, and said, \"That's it, darling! There's my big girl! Now, as soon as I say go, I want you to sit down, hard, and then smile at your daddy and tell him you love him. GO!\"\n\n\"All right mommy, Unghhh! OW! Ohhh, it hurts! I... l-love you... daddy! S-see? It's all the way in me? I'm a big girl now, right?\" Sarina said, through a veil of tears. Her hips were against his, and a trickle of blood was at their union, as she started moving up and down slowly.\n\n\"Ughhhhh! So tight!\" Lord Pennington groaned and came almost at once, flooding Sarina's cunny with his seed. Then he lay quietly, without humping or otherwise continuing to enjoy the mating.\n\n\"Did you like this, daddy?\" Sarina asked, as she bounced up and down on his cock happily. \"Daddy?\"\n\nLord Pennington made no reply. He just stared at his cock penetrating the ten year old vixen, and her blood and his cum leaking from her tight little cunny. He lay there without blinking, and with a big smile on his face.\n\nMary looked at him, then back at Sarina. She waved a hand in front of Lord Pennington's eyes, and got no response at all. Then she changed back to Ashley, and asked, \"We didn't just kill him, did we? He looks like he's had a heart attack.\"\n\nSarina examined Lord Pennington without getting off his shaft, and said shakily, \"No... no, he's merely unconscious. He's still breathing, and I can faintly sense his mind. I think he passed out from the pleasure.\" She got off him and said, \"Let's get him cleaned up, and then go to our own beds. Any more intense sexual excitement might indeed be too much for his heart. We didn't kill him this time, but if we're not careful, we very well could next time. I think the time has come for us to leave.\" \n\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 39, Written February 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 39 - The distant shore\n\nThe morning after Valentine's Day, Lord Pennington seemed fully recovered. He was rather chagrined at having passed out, however. He sat in his study with Sarina, as she explained what had happened, and why that meant she must leave.\n\n\"So you see, father, as much as last night was enjoyable for all of us, it would be most unwise for us to continue. I do not wish to be the cause of your death,\" Sarina said. \"The time has come for me to continue my journey through my own life, and leave you to yours.\"\n\n\"Deuce it all, Sarina!\" he replied sullenly, \"That would have been a very sad Valentines gift for my little girl, wouldn't it?\" He sighed deeply, and then continued, \"It isn't an easy thing for a man to admit that he's getting to an age where he should start tapering off his love life, but I suppose you are right. You gave me some incredibly special experiences, and I don't want that to end. But every father must eventually face their child leaving the nest, and so must I. If ever you come this way again, please say you'll stop to visit? Even if we share no intimacy, I would appreciate your company, and seeing your pretty face around the place again. I love you, my child - as a lover does, and not just as a father should.\"\n\n\"I cannot promise that I will return, father. My travels are likely to take me to the far side of the world, and perhaps out of this world entirely. But if fate does lead me back here, I will seek you, never fear,\" Sarina said, holding the old fox's hand. And though she knew it was a lie, she said the words she knew he hoped to hear, \"I love you too, daddy! And I always will love you.\"\n\n\"What of that Chinaman you brought me? What am I to do with him?\" Lord Pennington asked.\n\n\"He will not be your responsibility, father. He understands that his inability to speak anything but Chinese is a hindrance to him here, and he has chosen to return to Hong Kong. I will take him there, on my way. I had hoped he would be able to serve you, but the language barrier was something that hadn't occurred to me,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"When will you go?\" he asked.\n\n\"In three days time, after I have settled some other business, and purchased a few special supplies. We will leave from the magical workshop that I rented on this visit. The rent there is paid for through the end of March, just in case I need a safe place to return to, on short notice. I will inform the landlord today that I won't be renewing the lease beyond that,\" Sarina said.\n\n\"May... may I ask you to come to me on these last few nights? Even if it is just to cuddle with me until I fall asleep?\" Lord Pennington asked hopefully.\n\nSarina smiled, and said, \"Of course, father. I think we can manage that much, and perhaps a little more, as long as you don't over exert yourself.\"\n\n===\n\nThree days later, in the late evening, a carriage was hired to take Ashley, Lu Chen, Lord Pennington and Sarina to the magical workshop.\n\n\"Mistress has no luggage?\" Lu Chen asked, as he struggled with his two large portmanteau cases that contained his own clothing and travel necessities.\n\n\"Mistress has magical means for making her luggage so small as not to be noticed. Rest assured, I carry far more luggage than you do, Lu Chen,\" Sarina replied, careful to actually reply in Cantonese, and not to allow the carriage driver to overhear her comments via her language gift.\n\nWhen they arrived at the workshop, the carriage driver was asked to wait and take Lord Pennington home again. Then Sarina unlocked the door, and gave the keys to Lord Pennington. \"Lock up after us, and return the keys to the landlord, please, Uncle Thomas. Do come in though, and see us off.\"\n\nOnce inside, Sarina double-checked some notations and calculations that she had worked out in advance, before casting the portal spell. The portal itself hardly moved at all at the far end, since Sarina had been able to apply the necessary corrections to the calculations, based on her earlier attempts. As the portal opened, daylight streamed into the room, and they could see a partially cloudy blue sky and some rocky terrain through the portal. \n\n\"Daylight?\" Lord Pennington asked in confusion, as it was quite dark outside, with the street lit only by gas street lamps. \"Amazing! Where does that lead to?\"\n\n\"Hong Kong island, in China, nearly half-way around the world. That is why we are leaving while it is night here,\" Sarina said. \"You first, Lu Chen. Just walk through that oval of light as if it was a doorway, and drag your cases with you.\"\n\n\"I am frightened, Mistress! My feet will not obey me! I knew you did magic, but never have I witnessed such a powerful supernatural event!\" Lu Chen said apologetically.\n\n\"Silly boy! There's nothing to it! Follow me then, and let a girl lead the way!\" Ashley said in Cantonese, as she took the handle of one of Lu Chen's cases and dragged it behind her, through the portal. \"Come on! It doesn't even tingle! Come here, boy!\" as she stood on the other side, with wind ruffling her hair and the fur of her tail.\n\nHearing Ashley speak his language shocked Lu Chen into action. \"Y-you speak Chinese!\" he said, as he dragged his case and headed through the portal.\n\n\"Yes, I do. It has been a long time since I visited China, but I did learn the language while I was there,\" Ashley replied with a grin.\n\nIn the workshop, Sarina kissed Lord Pennington on the cheek, and said, \"Keep safe, father. May your life be long and pleasant.\"\n\n\"Take care of yourself, Sarina,\" he replied, with a tear in his eye. \"Farewell.\"\n\n===\n\nSarina stepped through the portal, and it closed behind her.\n\nThey were atop Victoria Peak, and Lu Chen was standing there, gazing down in wonder at the harbor. \"Such a miricle! To travel so far in just a step! But I must believe what I see. That can be no place but Hong Kong below us. I never went to the top of this peak before. There are no easy paths or roads that lead up its steep sides. Ahhh... How will I get down from here, Mistress?\"\n\n\"The same way we got up here. Magic. Where down there would you like us to go?\" Sarina asked. \"The cricket fields? The street in front of the bungalow my father and I lived in when we were here? The harbor road?\"\n\n\"The harbor road, Mistress. There I may seek employment on a ship, or with the many merchants that work there, and I can find a room to rent. And thank you, Mistress!\" Lu Chen replied.\n\n\"It is I who should thank you, Lu Chen. You have served me well. I want you to accept two gifts from me, in parting,\" Sarina said, as she handed the wolf a cord necklace with a small silver fox's head pendant on it, and a small leather pouch. \"Keep that necklace with you, and I can use it to find you, if I return this way again. The pouch contains a monetary gift, to get you started in a new life here.\"\n\nLu Chen put the necklace on at once, and said, \"I shall never part with it, Mistress!\"\n\nSarina opened another portal, to the harbor road near one of the more popular piers for merchant ships. Lu Chen walked through it, dragging his two cases behind him, and she closed the portal as soon as he was through it.\n\n\"Was there really any magic on that necklace, Mistress?\" Ashley asked.\n\n\"Yes, but it was only a very simple protective charm that my real father taught me,\" Sarina replied. \"It doesn't do much, but should at least repel insects like fleas and other fur parasites from him. It may allow me to locate him, though, since I can seek that charm spell, which should be rare here.\"\n\nSarina cast another new portal spell, and opened a portal to Shanghai, maneuvering it to open in an alley behind Richards' Hotel and Restaurant, in the British Concession area. They went through the portal, and went around the corner and into the hotel, to obtain a room.\n\n\"I am Lady Sarina Randall. I require a room for myself and my maidservant,\" Sarina told the clerk at the desk, being careful to only be heard in English, for the moment, to get practice in controlling just how she was heard by others. \"I will pay in advance for two weeks. A room with one bed, a fireplace and a cot in the room for my maid will suffice.\"\n\n\"Yes, My Lady,\" the clerk replied in English, though oddly accented with Chinese. He told her the price, in British pounds, and Sarina paid in Chinese silver coins, getting the exchange rate correct without any assistance. \"Ah? My Lady is at least somewhat familiar with China? Or will you require a guide or escort?\" the clerk asked.\n\nSarina switched effortlessly to speaking in Cantonese Chinese, and replied, \"I have come here from the Hong Kong colony, and this is not my first visit to Shanghai. I know my way around, thank you, and will require no escort other than my maid.\"\n\nThe clerk smiled brightly, and said, \"Of course, My Lady. Here are your keys, and I will send a servant up with the cot and bedding shortly. Just up those stairs, to the third floor, and it will be the last door on the right. Thank you for staying with us!\"\n\n===\n\nOnce they were in their room, Sarina produced one of her smaller chests, and took from it the maps that she had purchased on her previous visit, in the guise of 'Feng Wu'. She studied the largest map, which gave her a good idea of the direction and distance to Nagasaki Harbor, but which was frustratingly vague in any details about the island of Japan itself. \n\n\"I didn't know you spoke Chinese, Ashley,\" Sarina said, as she compared that map to another, smaller one.\n\n\"You never asked. I speak quite a few languages. I served a Chinese sorcerer about 120 years ago, in a city not far from this one. Over here,\" she said, as she pointed at a large sea port, north of Shanghai.\n\n\"I suppose it would be too much to hope for that perhaps you also speak the language of the people in the Japans? Or that you may have served one of their mages at one time? Do you have any knowledge of that island or its people?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"No Mistress. When I was last in China, serving that mage, that island had long since closed itself to foreigners and foreign trade. They were as much an enigma 120 years ago as they are today. Isolated, and forbidden. The mage I served had little interest in that nation. I do not know of any sorcerers from that land who sought the aid of creatures from my realm, either,\" Ashley stated. \"I suppose I could go back to Hell for you, and ask the entities that I know if that have any information. But I have no direct knowledge of that land.\"\n\n\"That will not be necessary. Can you learn a new language quickly? Or would you be as unable to understand and speak to the people of that land as poor Lu Chen was in England?\" Sarina asked.\n\n\"When I am bound to serve a sorcerer, knowledge of their native language and the languages that they cast spells with comes with that binding. So I can read, understand and speak any language that you have actually learned,\" Ashley replied. \"But your special gift with languages is beyond that, and all I can do with that skill is to 'go along for the ride', and listen to your surface thoughts, to hear what you hear, as you hear it. So as long as I am with you, I will be able to understand what you can hear and understand. Also, if you think of a suitable reply that you wish me to make in that language, I can say those words, like a trained parrot, reading the needed information from your surface thoughts. I did something similar when we were with Lord Pennington together that one night, so I could sound to him like his sister.\"\n\nSarina rolled up the maps and put them away, hiding the chest on her necklace once more. \"That will have to do, I guess,\" she said. How long do you think it would take you to actually learn their language?\"\n\n\"Several years, probably,\" Ashley said. \"It would take me just as long as it would take most people of your realm so much time to learn a new language. I have no special way to do that any faster.\"\n\n\"Rest in the fire for a while, and refresh yourself. I am going to get myself a meal in the restaurant, and then I plan to nap on and off for most of a day, to get used to the time difference here,\" Sarina instructed. \"Then we will see how we shall proceed.\" \n\n\n\n\n\nTo Dream of Darkness\nA story by DoggyStyle57\nChapter 40, Written February 2012\n\n===\n\nChapter 40 - Entering the forbidden realm\n\nSeveral days passed, as Sarina evaluated her options for getting to Japan. Unlike England, there was nowhere in Shanghai that a mage could simply rent a magical workshop. Mages here were more secretive, and preferred an isolated place to do their magical efforts.\n\nSarina spent several frustrating days ensconced in her hotel room, repeatedly attempting to send a portal in the direction of the Japans. She had hoped to look through a portal, with the far end hidden, as a way to spy on the isolated country, learn more about their language, people and clothing, and to find a safe place to step through and enter that land. Her efforts were blocked, however. She could only barely manage to get the far end of the portal to within viewing distance of the shore - just close enough to see a fishing village, with its people as tiny moving dots, and seeing the villager's boats, for example - but no closer! If she pushed it any closer, the portal was dispelled. Some powerful magical barrier was preventing any sort of portal or teleportation from the mainland to the island. The Japanese fishing boats stayed fairly close to shore, well within the magical barrier.\n\n\"Do you want to try going through Hell again, Mistress?\" Ashley offered, after Sarina explained the difficulty she was encountering. \"I still have four souls that I could use to pay the fee, and this time I could take my time, and pick a place in Hell that would be more comfortable for you, as we pass through. Surely they have not placed a barrier entirely between their land and my realm?\"\n\n\"I will use that only as a last resort, Ashley. But thank you for the offer. I do understand that offering to pay that fee again would be costly for you,\" Sarina replied. \"No, I think the best bet will be to go there on a boat. Perhaps we could make use of a Chinese or foreign fishing boat, or maybe even a whaler. I think I could conceal us upon such a vessel, or we could join the crew disguised as males, and once at sea, I could try to control the mind of its captain, and force him to take his ship close to those shores. Perhaps I could even force him to run his ship aground there. I would seek a smuggler's ship for the purpose, but as far as I can tell, not even smugglers contact that island! They probably did in the past, but no one does now.\"\n\n===\n\nTwo days later, Sarina and Ashley, disguised as a mixed breed canine male in his early 40's, who gave his name as Peter Jameson, and a quiet mixed-breed canine boy about fourteen years old, who Peter introduced as 'Ash', signed on with an British merchant clipper ship called 'The Falcon', which was trading in silk and spices along the China coast, and down to India. It was due to head North from Shanghai to a port named Peking, to buy silk, and sell opium and spices. It had a crew of thirty seven, counting Peter and Ash, and the ship was a fast one, able to make 250 nautical miles a day in good weather. Peter was to work as a deck crewman, and Ash as a cabin boy, and if the need came to fight, as a 'powder monkey'. It greatly amused the fire elemental that 'his' duties might include having access to the ship's powder magazine, where the slightest spark or flame could blow up the ship.\n\nBy the time the ship was half a day out of Shanghai, Sarina had managed to place the captain and the entire crew under her control. In the captain's cabin, Sarina briefly assumed her vixen form, and effectively raped the captain, mating with him and taking all his memories and knowledge for her own. \n\nThe Captain ordered Peter to take over the duties as helmsman, and Peter steered the ship on a course that led them around the end of the Korean peninsula, and between the Mainland and China.  The crew believed that they were between the Chinese mainland and Korea, still heading for Peking.\n\nAfter three days, Peter had determined that the magical barrier was less than half a league east of the ship. They were well north of Nagasaki now, though less than one quarter of the way to where the island nation's capital city, Edo, was supposed to be. With the captain's spyglass, Peter spotted an unoccupied stretch of beach, with what appeared to be several large caves facing the sea. He also saw a band of Japanese people that seemed to be patrolling the top of the cliff that walled off that stretch of coastline. Peter gave a signal to the Captain. The ship dropped anchor, and the crew furled the sails.\n\nEight strong crewmen armed themselves with muzzle-loaded, flintlock Baker rifles and two foot long sword bayonets, and lowered two boats into the water. Peter and Ash joined them, on what was supposedly an excursion ashore to get fresh water.\n\nPeter was relieved to see that neither he nor Ash suffered any ill effects as they passed through the magical barrier. The shape shifting that altered their appearance remained in effect. The barrier did seem to cancel the control spells on the crewmen, however. They faltered in their rowing for a moment, until Peter barked out a command for them to continue on to shore. \n\n\"Why are we going ashore for water so soon?\" One otter crewman asked, as they pulled the two boats up onto the sandy beach. \"Shouldn't we still have plenty of water?\"\n\n\"We were cheated when we resupplied,\" Peter lied. \"Most of the barrels of 'water' that we loaded were foul and tainted - hardly better than sewage. Likely it was some competitor's trick to make us ill, or force a delay in our run. Captain seems to think there may be water in those caves, or a way through the caves and up onto that headland to where we can find water. Let's just get this over with.\"\n\n\"Oh? All right then. Though I'd like to get my paws on the scoundrel that cheated us!\" the crewman replied.\n\nThey walked into the sea caves, and found one that had obviously been used before as a refuge or storage place. Several ledges had been flattened and squared off, and there were a few low walls inside the cave that had obviously been built there, and were not natural formations. A water channel large enough for several ship's longboats let to a ledge the right height to use as a dock. \"Smuggler cave,\" Peter observed. \"Hasn't been used for quite some time, though. I see no fresh water source here. Look for a way to the cliff top deeper in the caves. If smugglers brought goods in here, they must have had a way to get those goods onto the top of the cliff.\"\n\nMinutes later, one of the crewman screamed, as a very long arrow pierced his throat. Several more arrows buzzed through the air, coming from the back of the cave, followed in short order by over a dozen swordsmen in long brown silk robes. 'Peter' and 'Ash' were the only ones who understood the attacker's cry of, \"There are the foreigners! Kill them! Kill them all!\" They immediately vanished from sight, and retreated to one side of the cave, as the seven surviving crewmen fired their rifles once, drew their sword bayonets, and advanced to meet their foes.\n\nIt was a very one-sided battle. The samurai warriors were deadly and efficient, and seemed to care nothing for their own survival. They also outnumbered the sailors by two to one. The sailors had no time to reload their guns, and the sailor's sword bayonets were no match for katanas in the hands of expert swordsmen.\n\nAs the samurai slaughtered the sailors, Sarina took Ashley's hand and teleported both of them to the far end of the cave, behind two samurai archers that stood on a ledge. Before they realized she was there, she touched them both, mind-raping them and stealing their memories and skills. They fell without a sound, mindless and drooling. Then she and Ashley assumed the appearance of the two archers, and took their clothes and gear. Ashley dragged their bodies further back inside the cave, where she burned them to ash with her black fire.\n\nNow with the identities of 'Ichitama' and 'Kuro', Sarina and Ashley joined the rest of the samurai on the bloody floor of the cave. Using the telepathy that she shared with her familiar, Sarina quickly filled in Asha on the names and roles of the other Samurai in the group.\n\nThe leader of the patrol poked at a dead sailor with his foot. \"Foreigners! Faugh! When will they learn? We are fortunate that our patrol saw their ship sending boats ashore. Ichitama! Aki! Go to the beach, and make sure there are no survivors there! I thought I saw more of them when we first encountered these mongrels.\"\n\nThe one called Aki was a grey wolf, as were all the other samurai in this group. He asked, \"What of the foreign ship?\"\n\n\"We will watch, until they go away. If they stay near our coast, we will follow and slay any who attempt to land. Those are the daimyo's orders.\" The lead samurai said. He then ordered the remaining samurai to collect any guns or ammunition that the foreigners had, and anything else of value.\n\nWhen 'Ichitama' got to the shore, he tried to release the compulsion spell that enthralled the captain and the remaining crew. Apparently the effort was successful. The ship raised anchor and turned South almost at once, returning to more friendly waters.\n\n\"They run. Good,\" Aki said. \"Let us get back to our shore patrol.\"\n\nIchitama walked back through the cavern, aware of the blood and gore splattering the area. There was much blood, and several of the British sailors had either been decapitated or disemboweled. The otter that had questioned the landing earlier had been cut clean in half, from his collar bone to his crotch. The samurai left the foreigner's bodies where they fell, cleaned their swords and carried away the bodies of the four samurai that had died in the attack.\n\n===\n\nLater that day, the patrol entered a small fishing village, and ordered the headman to produce a feast for the samurai, and to find a low-caste peasant to prepare the bodies of the dead samurai. The villagers scurried about, eager to obey the samurai. Most of the peasants in the village were mice, rabbits or ferrets. Ichitama saw no wolves or foxes among them, and few canines.\n\nIchitama scanned the surface thoughts of the villagers. The peasant fishermen's thoughts were quite boring. They were terrified of the samurai, that much was clear. Foremost in their minds was that it was certain death to disobey a samurai in the slightest degree. Just a few weeks earlier a passing samurai had killed a villager merely to test the edge of his new sword.\n\nIchitama also peered into the surface thoughts of the other samurai. They were a coastal patrol unit that reported to a daimyo that lived in a fortified town near this section of the shoreline. Similar patrols guarded every place along the coast that any foreign ship might try to land. He was surprised to learn, however, that recent edicts from 'the Shogun', who was apparently the top military overlord, had indicated that foreign ships that were 'storm-damaged or shipwrecked, and which had come seeking food, fuel, or water' would be permitted to land in Japanese ports, to make repairs and to obtain sufficient supplies to return to their own waters. They were still prohibited from engaging in trade, and for a Japanese native to leave the country and return still carried a death sentence. But apparently in the last two years both the Dutch and The Americans had sent warships to Nagasaki, asking the Shogun to open trade again.  The Shogun had refused, but the foreigners were becoming more insistent.\n\nThat night, the Samurai dined on grilled fish and steamed rice, and drank a surprisingly potent rice wine, called 'sake'. Ichitama noted that none of the peasants from the village joined in the meal, and he sensed that when they returned to their homes, the peasants would eat nothing better than a coarse millet gruel.\n\nHalfway through the meal, they were interrupted by the village headman, who said that there were three other Samurai in the village, and that their leader wished to speak to the leader of the coastal patrol. The patrol leader gave his permission for that.\n\nThe fellow who came in was a red fox, still in his late teens or early twenties. He seemed uncomfortable with his swords, and bowed excessively low on meeting the patrol leader, \"I would ask a great favor of you, Captain,\" he said. \"I am Hattori Saburo. I am charged with escorting a samurai lady and her maid to Edo, to become the wife of Murakami Jiro, a hatamoto in the Daimyo's court there. But a band of ronin attacked our party along the way, and killed all the other warriors in our escort. I cannot get the Lady Hamada Kira safely to Edo on my own. Could you possibly spare just two of your men to assist us? The roads between here and Edo are less dangerous than the mountain passes where we were ambushed. Two good men should suffice for the remainder of our journey. The Daimyo that I serve would be most grateful for the service, as the Lady Kira-sama is promised to a young man that my Daimyo highly favors.\"\n\nIchitama touched the surface thoughts of the young man, and learned some very interesting facts. The woman Jiro was escorting was in love with this young man, and he was in love with her. But she had been promised by their daimyo to become the wife of a man that had never seen her, as a reward for the young man's bravery in service to his daimyo, and to cement a further alliance between the two daimyos. Though it was heartbreaking for the boy to take the girl he wanted to marry to be the wife of another man, his honor required him to do as his daimyo ordered.\n\nIchitama smiled, and addressed his captain, \"Please. Allow Kuro and myself to assist them. We both have family in Edo, and we are near the end of our patrol assignment. It would reflect well upon our own Lord that we undertake a task that makes two daimyo's happy, would it not?\"\n\n\"It would, at that,\" the patrol's captain stated. \"Very well. You two will be given this assignment. Saburo-san? I trust this meets your needs?\"\n\n\"Yes, my Lord,\" the boy said sullenly, not realizing that fate had given him a gift beyond measure.","writing_bbcode_parsed":"<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>To Dream of Darkness - Part 2<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 21-40, Written January - February 2012<br /><br />===<br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 21, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 21 - Death in the dark<br /><br />Lady Portia finally managed to remove the wards protecting the area near the rear cellar door. She double-checked to make sure the wards were gone, and then used a portal to pass through the hole she had created in the mansion&#039;s outer defenses, and into the locked cellar below the townhouse. <br /><br />The darkened room was filled with a sickening stench. It was absolutely dark in the cellar, with not the faintest glimmer of light showing anywhere. The canine mage touched her left wrist, causing one of her swords to appear in her right hand, and she enflamed its blade, to give her light, as well as a ready defense.<br /><br />She was in a small room, whose windows were painted over on the inside with what looked like lead paint. From the outside, the windows had merely looked darkly reflective, as one would expect for an unused room with no lights lit. At one end of the room was a coal bin, well-filled, but heavily coated in grey dust. No one had taken coal from that bin in months. There were two other doors. One was ajar, and she could see that beyond it was a narrow flight of &#039;servant&#039;s stairs&#039;, that most likely led up to the rearmost rooms of the main floor of the townhouse, where she might expect the kitchen to be. The other door was closed, and its lock was sealed with a warding spell. But the door and wall itself had no protective magic. She opened another portal, and passed through the wall into the next room.<br /><br />The stench here was worse, and she could immediately see why. On a pair of trestles near the door stood an open coffin, and within that coffin was the decaying, headless corpse of a black furred male in a navy officer&#039;s dress uniform. The three day old corpse of Sir Reginald was bloating, and stank like an open grave. Portia could detect no sense of presence from it, and when she poured a bit of holy water on the fur on the back of one of the corpse&#039;s hands, the water hissed and bubbled like acid, but the corpse remained inanimate. The mage looked at the severed neck, and satisfied herself that the cauterized wound showed no signs of regeneration. Just to be safe, she rested the flaming sword across the foot of the coffin, reached behind herself and took a mallet and a heavy wooden stake from a sheath on the back of her belt, and pinned the corpse into the coffin with a stake through the heart. The stink of escaping gas as his chest was penetrated was nauseating in the extreme. &quot;You got that one, My Lady. But what else have we here?&quot; she said, as she put the mallet back, and took up her sword again.<br /><br />In the flickering light of her flaming blade, she could see three more coffins set on trestles, all open.<br /><br />&quot;Three more?&quot; she said quietly. &quot;But who is the fourth one for?&quot;<br /><br />She heard the faintest scrape of a foot on the dirt floor, and turned, to find her answer...<br /><br />===<br /><br />Upstairs in the foyer, Amara and Sarina faced off against each other, the vampire with eyes glowing red, and Sarina with her own eyes glowing acid green.<br /><br />&quot;Is this the &#039;welcome&#039; that you said I spurned, cousin? Not your parents welcoming me into their home, but you and your minions intending to turn me into one of you?&quot; Sarina asked. She was interrupted by a loud crash from the cellars, like some large wooden furniture being shattered.<br /><br />In the moment of her adversary&#039;s distraction, Amara grabbed a heavy metal coat tree with one hand, and threw it forcefully at Sarina.<br /><br />Sarina spun around and held up her left hand, and halted the flying object in mid air with telekinesis. She then sent it whistling back at Amara, barely missing the vampire&#039;s head, and smashing into the railing of the foyer stairs that led to the second floor of the townhouse.<br /><br />Amara hissed and grinned, saying, &quot;You missed me, cousin! I am ever so much faster than before!&quot;<br /><br />Sarina&#039;s eyes glowed brightly, as she replied, &quot;I hit what I was aiming at.&quot;<br /><br />Amara turned her head to look, in time to see half a dozen shattered wooden spindles from the destroyed stair railing levitating from the wrecked staircase, and hurtling point first at her, like flying wooden stakes. She screamed and writhed to avoid them. Three struck her, but none pierced her heart. She yanked them out of her arm, thigh and abdomen with distain, as she glowered at Sarina, saying, &quot;Nice try. But I still move too fast for you to get me that way, cousin. Can you move with equal speed?&quot; She grabbed a broken section of the railing itself and hurled it at Sarina, the thick bar of wood flying sidewise across the short gap between them.<br /><br />Sarina teleported out of harms way, and reappeared briefly behind Amara. Swiftly she touched her own hidden necklace, and then touched the steel chain of Amara&#039;s protective medallion, before teleporting back to where she had been now that the railing had smashed past that position and gone clattering down the hall. With one finger she touched her necklace again, saying, &quot;Your &#039;protection&#039; against me shall be your downfall. I will take that necklace now.&quot;<br /><br />Amara&#039;s eyes bulged and she screamed briefly, as the steel chain around her neck rapidly began to shrink! She clawed with both hands at the cut developing in her neck, but it was too late. The steel chain inexorably constricted, losing none of its strength as its size diminished, until it was no larger in diameter than a ring for the smallest finger, whereupon her spine snapped, and her head and headless body fell to the ground, the head still staring with hatred at Sarina. The necklace and medallion became a silver charm on Sarina&#039;s necklace, which only she could see or touch.<br /><br />Sarina incinerated Amara&#039;s head with a firebolt spell, and using her dagger she cut the heart from the body, incinerating that as well, to be certain Amara would not resurrect. &quot;The rest can wait for the police, as proof of the bounty,&quot; she said to herself.<br /><br />&quot;You have killed her, I see,&quot; said Lady Portia from behind Sarina. Her shirt was ripped, and she seemed very tired. She held one flaming sword as a torch, for light. &quot;I found Sir Reginald&#039;s corpse, which definitely was a vampire&#039;s remains. And there was another vampire in the basement, shielded from mind detection. It snuck up on me, and gave me quite a fight. It even threw a coffin at me.&nbsp;&nbsp;But look who I found, down there in the cellar.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Sarina? Oh my child! We were so wrong about you!&quot; wailed Lady Pennington. &quot;My poor, poor Amara! She sent for me, and asked me to come here to pray for Sir Reginald&#039;s soul with her this evening. But when I arrived, she locked me in a horrible, dark and stinking room with his corpse, saying she was going to turn you into a vampire, and then force you to do it to me and then force me to kill my dear Thomas, and turn him into a vampire as well! She told me that their house girl was bitten by a vampire over a month ago, and then the girl then infected Sir Reginald, and Sir Reginald infected Amara. Oh, my child, she wanted our entire family to become vampires, with her as our queen!&quot;<br /><br />The gentlewoman sobbed and reached out to Sarina as if wanting to hug her, saying, &quot;But it is over now, my child. Now we can put this behind us, and be a family once more.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina stepped back a pace, asking, &quot;Lady Pennington? Why can I not read your surface thoughts? I would expect Lady Portia&#039;s mental defenses to keep me out, but you are no mage, my Lady.&quot;<br /><br />Lady Pennington paused, and then said, &quot;Why? That would be because I borrowed my husband&#039;s protective medallion before I came here - the one that you made for him. After all, we believed still that you were a vampire, and he was safely under police protection. Why do you recoil from me, my beloved niece? All is forgiven, and I apologize for ever doubting you.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina looked relieved, and accepted the hug, saying, &quot;How will we tell your husband, my lady? He will be heartbroken that his only child is dead.&quot;<br /><br />Lady Pennington nuzzled Sarina, and said, &quot;There there. We will tell him together.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina was about to speak again, when Lady Pennington suddenly bit her neck, and held Sarina&#039;s arms pinned to her sides to prevent her from gesturing to cast a spell. Sarina&#039;s vision swam as the sudden loss of blood made her woozy, and she fell to her knees. She could see Lady Portia and Lady Pennington standing over her, with their eyes glowing red. <br /><br />Lady Portia stepped between Sarina and Lady Meghan, created a glowing barrier between them, and said, &quot;The Turning doesn&#039;t take long, My Lady. You see, Lady Meghan was the vampire I found in the basement, and she bested me. Amara had already turned her, and now she has turned me. Soon you, too, will be one of us, and we will follow our Queen, Lady Meghan Pennington, and you or I shall induct her husband into the clan, as well. Do not fight it. Nothing can move through the wall of force between us. If you try to get past it to attack either of us, I will create more such barriers, and will defend with magic as strong as your own. You have no time to defeat us.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Time enough, for this,&quot; Sarina replied. Kneeling, she drew her dagger and swiftly reversed it in her hand, before plunging it into her own heart, screaming as she did so.<br /><br />&quot;What?&quot; Lady Portia cried, as she dropped her barrier, and reached for the dagger to pluck it out.<br /><br />But the instant the barrier dropped, the dagger was not there, nor was there a wound in Sarina&#039;s chest, though a hole clearly pierced her blouse. A small blue sphere was visible in Sarina&#039;s left hand for a moment, before vanishing into her chest.<br /><br />There was a thump behind Lady Portia, as Lady Pennington fell to the ground, with Sarina&#039;s dagger precisely piercing the vampire queen&#039;s chest.<br /><br />As the canine mage turned to see what had happened to Lady Pennington, Sarina rose, no longer injured, and clapped both hands on the temples of Lady Portia&#039;s head, invoking an intense sleep spell.<br /><br />===<br /><br />The next thing that Lady Portia knew, she was choking on the most vile-tasting concoction that she could imagine. She spat it onto the bed beside her, and stained the sheets red with blood.<br /><br />&quot;Welcome back, Lady Portia,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;What... what happened? How did you fight off the turning? Where am I? Why am I alive, and unbound?&quot; Lady Portia asked.<br /><br />&quot;You are alive because that cure you taught me does work. I used it to cure you. Lady Pennington is still cursed, but the cure may also work for her, if we get that really skilled healer mage that fixed your arm to her bedside in two more days, to cure a pierced heart when the cure takes effect,&quot; Sarina stated. She gestured to where Lady Pennington hung in mid air, suspended in a magical bubble of energy, while still pierced through the heart with the slender dagger, and its embedded wooden stake. &quot;She has to wait, because she fed on you.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;But you... I saw you stab yourself in the heart. How did that dagger get into her heart instead, and how did you survive?&quot; Lady Portia asked.<br /><br />&quot;I took a very large risk, there,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;I staked everything on a hope that a direct wound to the heart isn&#039;t necessarily instantly fatal, for me. My mother was a Kitsune. Just before I stabbed myself, I tried for the first time to concentrate my life energy into a Kitsune ball. I wasn&#039;t at all sure it would work, but it did, and with my life energy out of my body, that gave me a few precious seconds between my heart being pierced, and death. It was enough time for me to be able to cast a dark combat spell, which inflicts an injury affecting my body onto someone else, while curing me. The dagger, and the wound, transferred to Lady Pennington, paralyzing her. Then I restored my life energy, reabsorbing my Kitsune ball. When that little miracle distracted you, I forced my way past your mental defenses, and made you sleep, until I could cure you.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;That still doesn&#039;t tell me how you resisted becoming a vampire yourself, or how you managed to create the cure potion,&quot; Lady Portia said.<br /><br />&quot;I knew I would be immune to a vampire&#039;s bite before she bit me,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;You see, my soul is already damned. Before I came to this plane of existence, I murdered many people, in revenge for them killing my parents. I have also contracted with hell, to gain more magical power. But you won&#039;t remember that, I&#039;m afraid, or think to ask it again. Sleep, and forget,&quot; she said, as she touched the canine mage&#039;s forehead, and sent her back to sleep, while erasing her memories of Sarina&#039;s confession.<br /><br />===<br /><br />At midnight, the police found the two sleeping officers, and cautiously investigated the townhouse. Sarina met them at the door, with proof readily at hand that Amara and Sir Reginald had been vampires, and that she was not. She asked them to keep quiet on the discovery for two days, while she attempted to cure Lady Pennington and Lady Portia, whose only sin was to have been Amara&#039;s victims.<br /><br />Two days later, a rather frantic Lord Pennington was reunited with his missing wife, who still needed to have bed rest for several days thereafter, while the healer mage continued to work on her. Lord Pennington was told the sad news that his daughter and son in law had been vampires, and were slain, after trying to turn Lady Pennington into a vampire as well. Once Lady Pennington was well enough, a small private funeral was held, and the remains of Amara and Sir Reginald were carefully buried on consecrated ground, staked through where their hearts belonged, and with a silver crucifix buried just above their coffins, to insure they could never again rise to harm anyone.<br /><br />Sarina and Lady Portia collected the bounty on four vampires, as the police gave them credit not only for slaying Sir Reginald and Amara, but also for curing Lady Portia and Lady Pennington of vampirism. They could find no trace at all of the vampire girl that the elemental had incinerated. Not even a single flake of ash had remained of her.<br /><br />Sarina&#039;s name was cleared, and she re-opened her shop. Word soon got out that there was another powerful mage in the city - one that was capable of slaying vampires, and also of curing them. Her business was brisk.<br /><br />For a while, Sarina&#039;s life was peaceful, interrupted only by an occasional hunt for a vampire or werewolf. She lived with the Penningtons, and took the place of their departed daughter in their hearts. But her peace was not to last...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 22, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 22 - Sins of the father<br /><br />Two months after the tragic incident with Amara being found to be a vampire, and her slaying, life in the Pennington household had settled into a precarious but at least predictable new routine. As much as they mourned the death of their only daughter, the Lord and Lady Pennington could not blame Sarina for slaying their vampire-cursed child. Not when Sarina had also cured the Lady Meghan Pennington and Lady Portia, saving them from the same grisly, soul-damning fate. Sarina moved back into her room in the family manor, and rapidly the Penningtons began to look on their niece with the same affection they had reserved for their own daughter. They even had a new will drawn up, clearly designating Sarina as their sole heiress.<br /><br />But having been a vampire, for however briefly, was having a very unsettling effect on the Lady Pennington. Sarina had to use her magic to prevent her aunt from having recurring nightmares about attacking Lady Portia and turning her into a vampire. That had worked, but Lady Pennington had refused to allow Sarina to give her the oblivion of not remembering the events of that night at all, or the reason for her daughter&#039;s tragic death. So the memory that her daughter had damned herself and killed others as a vampire, and that Lady Meghan herself had come so close to damning not only her own soul, but that of another, continued to weigh very heavily on the good Lady&#039;s conscience. Even though she was cured of having been a vampire, she was still frightened that her own soul was damned, for what she had done that night. <br /><br />Lady Meghan had never been a particularly religious person, and formerly she and her husband had attended Church only on the major holiday celebrations, and for special services like weddings and funerals. But now, she went every Sunday at sunrise to the nearby church, attended both the morning and evening services, and spent most of the day between the two services in the chapel, praying fervently for the damned soul of her deceased vampire daughter, and for her own soul&#039;s salvation and forgiveness as well. When she was not at the church, she spent much of her remaining free time reading scriptures at home, or praying at a small devotional altar that she had set up in the sitting room, next to her bedroom. She also made sure that every room in their home had a mirror and a crucifix in it.<br /><br />Lord Pennington accepted his wife&#039;s new-found devotion, and tried to be supportive. He joined his wife each Sunday morning, attending the service and praying during the sermon for their daughter&#039;s soul. But he still had to tend to his correspondence and business interests, and spending all day in church grated on him. As a result, most of each Sunday found him at the mansion, with only Sarina and the household staff for company. And the staff went to the evening church service, leaving the two of them alone.<br /><br />Early on one Sunday afternoon, after they had their mid-day meal, and the servants had gone about their chores, Lord Pennington looked particularly uncomfortable. They sat together in his study, he with the paper, and she with a book on magic. He had been polite to Sarina all day, but he seemed unwilling to look at her directly.<br /><br />Finally, Sarina asked him, &quot;Uncle? What is it that troubles you so? I see you glancing at me, but then you look away, and say nothing. Why does it bother you so to look at me? Is it because I was unable to save Amara&#039;s soul as well?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;No, I understand and accept that Amara was already too far gone into vampirism, and too violent, to take a risk of trying to save her. Especially when you didn&#039;t know what other threats might lurk in her lair. What is bothering me is not a problem that you are to blame for,&quot; he said. He took a deep breath, and then hesitantly continued, saying, &quot;Sarina, you have grown into such a lovely young vixen. I was struck today by how much you look like your mother. A bit too much for my comfort, I fear.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I see. If my resemblance to your sister, my mother, is worrisome, I can change it, you know. I could make my fur dark brown, perhaps? Or my hair jet black?&quot; Sarina offered. &quot;My magic will even allow me to change my facial features, or my height and figure, though I should need new clothes, if I change my body very much.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;No! Please, do not change yourself. Not for that reason, Sarina,&quot; Lord Pennington said. &quot;We are alone, so I can admit to you what we both know, that I loved my sister Mary, your mother, far beyond the bounds that society allows. Please forgive me, but... when I look at you, I have... impure thoughts of her. But at least I have those pleasant memories, and I thank you for that.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;There is nothing to forgive, uncle. You also have your wife to consider, who you almost lost to the vampire&#039;s curse, and you don&#039;t want to be seen as unfaithful to her, do you? But then, I&#039;ve never seen you flirt with the ladies, since I came to live with you. Never have I known you to go out alone, and come back smelling of a woman. Yes, I do know you cheated on my aunt before I was born, by sleeping with your sister. But you haven&#039;t been unfaithful recently, have you?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;No. I have been completely faithful to my wife, ever since the time when my sister became pregnant with you. It frightened Mary and I, when she became pregnant. We didn&#039;t know if your father had impregnated her, or if I had. We both feared what might happen if the child favored my appearance, and not my sister or her husband. Since that day, I have mated with no one but my wife. I still do love my wife, and find her beautiful. But lately... well, my wife and I are both over fifty now, and there are... changes that come on a woman as she ages and can no longer bear children. Between that, and her newfound religious fervor... it has been over two years now since we shared a bed, for any reason other than sleep. She admits that she no longer feels the need for sex. I am... not so fortunate.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;It does seem unfair, I suppose. A male strives for so many years to be faithful to his mate, but when she ceases going into heat, and he still wishes to mate, what is he to do?&quot; Sarina said. &quot;I suppose it wouldn&#039;t do for you to be seen in a brothel, or for fallen women to come calling when your wife was away. Surely that would cause a scandal. Nor, I dare say, could you take your pleasures with the maid or the cook, though both are comely girls. Not that other gentlemen of your standing don&#039;t often dally with the girls that work in their homes. But I would guess that you fear your lady wife would learn of it, in time, and you are much too kind to break her heart like that. And now I make you uncomfortable, because when you look at me, and recall your beloved sister, you are tempted to ask your own niece, or perhaps one who might even be your own daughter, to fornicate with you, is that it?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Yes. It shames me to the core to confess it, but dash it all, yes! I am so glad you understand, and please do not abhor me for my weakness and moral corruption,&quot; Lord Pennington said. &quot;I will persevere. I must perforce continue to be celibate. It makes me uncomfortable, but I have no other choice.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;But you would like to fornicate with me, wouldn&#039;t you, uncle? Well, it would certainly not be without precedent, even in the most acceptable of social circles. It seems to me that if our honorable Queen Victoria can marry her own first cousin, Albert, and bear his children, that there is little reason why a gentleman might not enjoy a dalliance with his niece, or even with his daughter, if she was willing, and he and she were discrete.&quot; Sarina said with a smile. &quot;Your lady wife will not be home for many hours, and the servants have gone by now to attend the evening church service, and will not return until it is time to make the evening meal. No one need know, if you come to my room.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;You&#039;re... serious?&quot; he asked. &quot;You actually are inviting me to do such a thing?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I am quite serious,&quot; Sarina stated. &quot;Lord Pennington, I do not care that you are my uncle, or that you might even be my father. You are still a virile and handsome fox, for all that you have some grey in your fur, and yes, I would mate with you, if it pleases you to have me. I am not a virgin, though if it pleases you I could use magic to make myself seem to be one, and could even bleed on the bedding. I could make myself appear to be your sister Mary at the age she was on the day you first mated with her, or as she would appear today, if she yet lived; or I could look just like Aunt Meghan, but years younger, revitalized and eager to welcome you to her bed; or I could even make myself appear to be your dear departed daughter, Amara, innocent of her later crimes and seeking the comfort of her daddy&#039;s arms. You have but to tell me what you wish of me, and I can accommodate that desire. No one will know, and I will not judge you for having such incestuous impulses. I assure you that such thoughts are quite common among men, and there are many women who also harbor such feelings. The choice is yours, Uncle. I will be in my room.&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />Ten minutes later, Lord Pennington came to Sarina&#039;s room, with his fur and hair carefully brushed. He timidly knocked on the door, and asked &quot;Mary? May I come in?&quot; <br /><br />&quot;Come in, dear,&quot; said a sultry voice as the door swung open. Sarina stood inside, one hand resting on the door. She was unclothed, and looked precisely like Lord Pennington&#039;s deceased sister, Lady Mary Randall, but vibrantly healthy and of the right age to match her brother. &quot;I&#039;ve been waiting for you, my beloved brother,&quot; she murred.<br /><br />&quot;Ohhh, Mary. How I have missed you,&quot; Lord Pennington said, as he closed the door and took his niece in his arms, seeing only his sister.<br /><br />===<br /><br />At dinner that night, Lord Pennington looked much more relaxed. His wife even commented that it was good to see him smile again, and that she took it as a sign that he was overcoming his own grief at the loss of their daughter.<br /><br />&quot;Sarina? Your twentieth birthday is almost upon us,&quot; Lady Pennington said, as they finished their meal. &quot;Have you given any consideration to accepting the attentions of a suitable young gentleman, and starting a family of your own?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;My studies in magic keep me quite busy, Auntie,&quot; Sarina replied demurely. &quot;There are a few nice young men who I know, that would probably be eager to have me as their bride. They tend to come calling at my shop, rather than here at our home, as none are yet so serious as to seek to ask the two of you for my hand. But I am not so enamored of any of them that I want to rush to my bridal bed. When I do seek a mate, I would rather that he be a gentleman who I already know well, and who I can respect as a friend. That takes time, and I am content with the life that I have.&quot;<br /><br />Lord Pennington looked at his niece adoringly, and said to his wife, &quot;Now now, my dear. I am sure our Sarina is in no danger of becoming an old maid. You and I knew each other very well as friends and neighbors, before I asked you to marry you, and that turned out quite well for us. The girl has a good head on her shoulders. She will know when the right man for her comes along.&quot;<br /><br />Her aunt nodded and replied, &quot;I suppose so. Yet I was still only nineteen when we wed. I only want to see Sarina being happy. But how would you like to celebrate your birthday, Sarina? We could hold a nice ball, in your honor, perhaps?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I would be honored, and I am sure that the gentlemen who already come calling, as well as other hopeful suitors, will find that a quite welcome event. Make what arrangements you will, My Lady. I am certain it will be splendid,&quot; Sarina replied.<br />&nbsp;<br />===<br /><br />Over the next two weeks, Lady Pennington immersed herself in the preparations for Sarina&#039;s birthday party. She seemed happy to have something to dwell upon other than her lost daughter, and the questionable status of her own soul.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Sarina and Lord Randall became increasingly bolder in their trysts. It was not enough for Lord Randall to only have Sarina&#039;s favors once a week, when the Lady Pennington was in church. He also arranged for Sarina to cast a spell upon his wife each night, so Lady Pennington would dream peacefully and not awaken, while her husband and niece rutted lustily each evening in Sarina&#039;s room. In spite of being thirty two years older that Sarina, Lord Randall was still a quite capable and experienced lover. At Sarina&#039;s request, he did not wear the talisman that protected his mind, when they mated.<br /><br />Sarina took a number of forms while mating with her uncle. Of course, she knew she had no relation to him at all, but it intrigued her how maintaining various fantasies for him increased his stimulation. Their mating was always enjoyable for her, but still she formed no emotional attachment with him. It was merely a pleasurable pastime that she knew made the old fox happier, and which helped increase her personal security as he became more enamored of her. Though she lacked the emotional responses herself, she could feel in his mind the types of responses he desired from her, and could mimic those responses quite believably. His most common request was for her to appear to be his sister, Mary. But she also mated with him as Sarina in her early teens, calling him daddy, and on rare occasions, in the appearance of his daughter Amara at a similarly young age, and he got to experience what it would have been like to be the first lover for both Sarina and Amara. <br /><br />The one thing he forbade her to do was to take the appearance of his wife, Lady Meghan Randall. &quot;While my wife lives, I ask that you do not imitate her form, my dear girl. I would never wish to make the error of speaking to her as if I was speaking to you in her form, and your ability to take someone else&#039;s form is so uncanny, that I am certain I could not tell you apart if you took her form,&quot; he said one night, as he mated with what appeared to be Amara at the age of twelve.<br /><br />&quot;As you wish, Daddy,&quot; the false Amara said to him, as she lewdly bounced up and down atop him. &quot;I only desire to make you happy! Mummmm, you&#039;re sure making me happy now! I love you, Daddy!&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />On the morning of Sarina&#039;s twentieth birthday, the maid came into the Solar. She was fairly new to the household, a sixteen year old mixed breed canine girl that they had hired two years earlier. She told Sarina and the Lord and Lady Pennington, &quot;Begging your pardon, Sir and Ladies. But there is a gentleman at the door, who has baggage with him! He would not give me a name, Sir and Ladies, but said to summon you at once!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Were you expecting any visitors, my dear?&quot; Lady Pennington asked her husband, looking concerned, as the house was not ready for guests.<br /><br />&quot;I most certainly was not! What impertinence is this?&quot; Lord Pennington said. &quot;Sarina? Can you tell who it is with your magic, and what they intend?&quot;<br /><br />Sarina&#039;s eyes glowed, but then she replied, &quot;I fear that I cannot, uncle, without it being perceived as a violent attack. His mind is protected very well. I sense several extremely potent warding charms on his person, protecting against mental intrusion, but also against many forms of magical attack. The carriage driver does not know his name or his business here. Only that he picked the gentleman and his luggage up at the docks, and was given this exact address to take that gentleman to.&quot;<br /><br />They went to the window, and looked out at the hired carriage, and at the canine driver that was offloading the last of three large and well-worn portmanteau chests and several smaller bags. A fox in a long winter coat had his back to the window, as he paid the driver and sent him on his way. Sarina and the Lord and Lady Pennington all gasped in surprise as he turned to face the mansion. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 23, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 23 - Secrets of the Orient<br /><br />Sarina blinked as she looked out the window, and then ran to the door, knowing only one reaction could be expected of her. She threw open the door and charged at a full run at the gentleman outside, clasping him in a hug and squealing, &quot;Daddy!&quot; like a young schoolgirl.<br /><br />Lord Edward Randall returned her hug, while tightly holding a small satchel in one hand. &quot;Ah, Sarina, how I have missed you!&quot; he said, with tears coming from his eyes.<br /><br />Lord and Lady Pennington came out behind her at a more sedate walk, smiling at the reunion.<br /><br />&quot;Edward! Good Lord, man! I thought you had fallen off the far edge of the Earth! Where have you been these last few years?&quot; Lord Pennington asked.<br /><br />Lord Edward Randall detached himself from Sarina&#039;s grasp as he replied, &quot;You are not far from it, Thomas. I have been in India, and in China. Mail service is dreadful there, and the war the last three years hasn&#039;t helped a bit. You know about our scuffle with the Chinese?&quot; he asked.<br /><br />&quot;Something about them confiscating English goods, and our demanding restitution and free trade, wasn&#039;t it?&quot; Lord Pennington replied. &quot;Saw the recruiting posters, seeking young men to take up arms in the cause, and gentlemen to serve as officers.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Yes, just that. I&#039;m too old to take a commission again in the military, but I was still in the thick of it, trying to keep my investments afloat. I tell you, Thomas, there&#039;s great money to be made in trade between England, India and the Orient. Makes trade with most of Europe pale by comparison. I sunk my money in a trading venture based out of India, buying tea from China, for sale here. The Chinese would only take silver in payment, but we can get all the silver we need by buying opium in India and selling that to the Chinese, who can&#039;t get enough of it, even though their government disapproves of its use. But not long after I arrived in India, the Chinese impounded all the opium from the ships in their ports, and destroyed it! Could have bankrupted us all. With the Crown backing us, we&#039;ve fought them these last three years for restitution, and to re-open trade with China on our terms. And we have won, Thomas! The Chinese even ceded an island off the coast to us, for use as a trading port. The British Flag now flies proudly over Hong Kong Island!&quot; he said enthusiastically. &quot;But that is the least part of why I am here. Have I made it in time, Sarina dear, for your birthday? You&#039;ll be twenty this very day, unless my mind has become completely befuddled by long travels, strange foods and the fumes of the opium dens.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Today is my birthday, yes, father. And I am so pleased to see you! We are having a ball this evening, in celebration.&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;Do say you will stay, and attend my party!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Come inside, Edward. You&#039;ll stay with us, of course? I&#039;ll have our servants take your things to a guest room,&quot; Lord Pennington said.<br /><br />Lord Randall picked up one bag protectively, and said, &quot;I&#039;d not miss your party for the entire world, my child. And I thank you for the hospitality, Thomas, though I shall not stay long. I&#039;ll keep this one bag with me,&quot; as he followed them inside.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Once they were settled in the Solar, Lord Randall asked Sarina, &quot;You&#039;ve not yet married, have you? I did get a few letters from you or your uncle, which caught up with me here and there. I recall you were making quite a name for yourself as a mage. But no mention of a husband, as yet, or any promising suitor you hope to marry?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;There is no gentleman of that sort in my life yet, father,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;I am in no hurry to marry.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;No? Well, all the better, for I have something more to add to your dowry,&quot; he said. He opened his small satchel and withdrew a silver box with intricate Chinese decorations. &quot;The box itself and what&#039;s in the bottom of it is worth more than many a girl&#039;s entire dowry. But what is on top within it is far more precious. Open it, my dear, and happy birthday!&quot;<br /><br />Sarina took the box, which was rather heavy for its size, and opened the lid. Within the box, resting on a tightly packed layer of rectangular gold coins, and nestled in a scarlet silk cloth, was a carved figurine, done in an oriental style quite unfamiliar to Sarina. It was only an inch or so across, and was in the shape of a fox head, with wide open eyes that had a slant to them. It was made of ivory, darkened as if by much handling and use, and as she turned it over in her open hand, she saw it was pierced through from side to side, just behind the ears, and threaded on a red silk cord, with about a foot of cord on each side of the knot that secured the ivory head at the center of the cord, and a pretty tassel at the ends of the cord. An odd spiral figure with nine sinuous arms, each like a slender fox tail, was carved on the back of the object. &quot;It is lovely, father! And magical too, is it not? I sense a great power from that little carving,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;I knew my girl would appreciate that one thing even more than the gold and chest,&quot; Lord Randall said with a smile. &quot;You are quite right. The little Human fellow from China that sold that to me wanted quite a lot of silver for it, but I just had to have it for you. He claimed he gave me a good price, because I was a fox myself, but it was still very expensive. He told me it came from an island nation eastward even of China - a place that has been closed to foreigners for decades. Even the Chinese can&#039;t sail into that tiny island nation&#039;s ports. That carving came from a place called Japan, and that one bears a potent magical protective charm. It was once worn by a priestess from one of their most sacred shrines. He said that one protects the owner from many forms of magic, and that it should have other unique properties as well. He had a strange word for what the Japanese called it. What was it? Ah, yes, that&#039;s it. He said it was a Kitsune netsuke. A netsuke is a carving that is placed at the end of a cord attached to a small pouch or box, so it can be carried hung from their waist sash, since their robes have no pockets. A Kitsune is some sort of magical fox. So I just had to get it for my magical vixen daughter.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina tied the cord in a loop, and placed it on her left wrist, like a bracelet. &quot;I think it is lovely, father, and that your money was quite well spent. I can tell you one thing that it does already. While you had this on your person, I could not read your thoughts at all. But I can, now. You want me to return to this &#039;Hong Kong&#039; island with you, don&#039;t you, father?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I would like you to consider it, yes,&quot; he replied. &quot;The Orientals have a different magic from ours. I saw them using it in the war, and saw what our mages did as well. You could learn a great deal from them, I think, if you went there yourself. They have ways they never speak of to outsiders, but I&#039;ll wager you can still learn from them. I confess that I also would like to know there&#039;s a mage beside me who I can trust. We have them subdued, for now, but they may rise up again. And if what little I have heard of your skill is true, I could use you by my side.&quot;<br /><br />Lord Randall had other gifts for them as well. He produced three splendid silk dresses for Lady Pennington, and four equally elegant dresses for Sarina, all in the English style, but made of splendid Chinese silk brocades, with intricate embroidered details. For Lord Pennington he brought two silk lounging jackets, and half a dozen small, intricate ivory carvings. <br /><br />The ladies excused themselves to try on their new finery. Sarina had to use a little magic to make the dresses fit. Lady Pennington&#039;s dresses were only a bit small, as she had put on a little weight since her brother in law had last seen her, but Sarina&#039;s were considerably too small - suited more to the child she had been when her father had left England. But when they wore them to show to Lord Randall and Lord Pennington, they fit perfectly, and Lord Randall was none the wiser.<br /><br />===<br /><br />The ball was quite the social occasion, with over 100 guests in attendance. Sarina wore one of her new Chinese dresses, and introduced her father to the guests. She insisted on giving him the first dance, and then dancing with her uncle. No less than a dozen young men, of several species, asked Sarina to dance, congratulated her on the occasion of her birthday, and tried to gain her interest in a quiet conversation, or a private kiss. Two declared their undying love for her, and asked her permission to speak their hearts to her father and her aunt and uncle. She was cordial to them, but declined to do more than dance, or to accept any more personal attentions.<br /><br />As the ball neared its conclusion, Sarina announced that she had come to a very important turning point in her life. She thanked those guests who had been kind to her, or who had been customers of her magical services. Then she thanked her aunt and uncle for their love and support for the last six years. Finally she announced that she intended to travel, in the company of her father, and see the Orient. She would be leaving in one month&#039;s time, once the necessary travel arrangements could be made.<br /><br />===<br /><br />After the ball, when Sarina&#039;s father had retired for the evening, Sarina had crept into her aunt and uncle&#039;s bedroom and placed a sleep spell on her aunt. <br /><br />Her uncle spoke with her a while, before they mated. &quot;I will miss you, my child,&quot; Lord Randall said. &quot;You have been so much to me. My niece. My daughter, even my lover. But each child must find their own way in life. I will respect your decision. Before you go, I will return to you the dowry chest your father left, when first he asked that you live with us. Most of the funds he set aside for you are still in it, and you are enough of an adult to keep it safe yourself. Do not forget us, my dear Sarina. And if you should return before the march of years takes the capability from me, I would welcome any visit from you, in my home, and in my bed. You will be the only one, other than my wife, that I shall ever take as my lover.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Do not regret, Uncle. We have one more month that we will be together. Love me tonight, and we will make memories to last the rest of your life,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />===<br /><br />The time seemed to fly by, as Sarina said goodbye to the few friends that she had, such as the tavern girls, including Molly and Meridith; the innkeeper, Master Duncan; and the mage, Lady Portia. She concluded her business affairs, and closed her shop. When it came time to pack, she concealed almost all of her father&#039;s luggage and her own on her necklace, much to his amazement. When they departed, they boarded a ship bound for the Eastern Mediterranean, with only one small bag each, their coats, and their umbrellas.<br /><br />They sailed the length of the Mediterranean, until they reached Cairo. While waiting for transportation out of Cairo, it occurred to Lord Randall to ask Sarina if her magic could get them there faster.<br /><br />&quot;Unfortunately, father, it is increasingly difficult with distance to open a portal or teleport to a place that I have never been. Once I have been to this island of Hong Kong, then yes, I could create a portal for us to travel rapidly back to my uncle&#039;s home in England. But if I were to attempt to make a portal to a place I have never seen, I could easily get the wrong island entirely, or some place on the Chinese Mainland, or even on that forbidden island of Japan! We are safer to travel without magic, until I can mark the destinations for later use.&quot; Sarina insisted. <br /><br />While they waited in Cairo, she amused herself with searching for Egyptian magical texts and artifacts, and with reading the hieroglyphics on the ancient tombs and monuments. Her facility with languages and her ability to read the surface thoughts of others gave her an amazing advantage in the marketplaces and the stalls of the street merchants. Once they knew she could speak their language fluently, the merchants showed her wares that they seldom offered to foreigners, and were willing to introduce her to several of the local mages.<br /><br />Someone did try to kidnap Sarina once, while she walked alone through the streets of Cairo. A muscular fellow of some mixed feline breed tossed a large cloth sack over her head, tossed her over his shoulder, and tried to carry her off. Sarina set the sack on fire, which could not harm her, but which burned his hands, clothes, fur and back. Then she set his clothes on fire. She left the fellow suspended in mid air, upside down, with much of his fur burned off, and wearing only his loin cloth, with his head about three feet above a basket full of live cobras, and then paid the owner of the cobras not to move the basket until nightfall. The snake charmer happily agreed, and the sight of the floating would-be kidnapper earned the snake charmer many coins that day. The cat remained in the air until sunrise, when the magic dispelled as the sunlight touched him, and dropped him on his head.<br /><br />Once further arrangements were made, they travelled with a merchant caravan across the Middle East, and to the ports on the Indian Ocean. From there, they took a ship to Bombay, where they stayed briefly while Lord Randall met with his business contacts, and made arrangements for their arrival in Hong Kong. As she had done in Cairo, Sarina explored Bombay, and searched for magical lore and artifacts unique to India.<br /><br />More than four months after leaving England, they steamed into the harbor at Victoria City, as the English had named the small town that was the capital of Hong Kong Island. There were less than three thousand people living on the island, more than half of those Chinese natives who had agreed to work for the English, but who lived in their own settlements on the island.<br /><br />In the English held areas, Western-style homes had been built, and there was even a Cricket pitch and polo fields.<br /><br />&quot;All the comforts of home,&quot; Sarina observed, as she looked at the simple bed and lumpy mattress in her room. The first thing she did was to replace the bed with the elegant four-posted bed with its feather mattress and down comforter, which she had kept from the Pennington Manor. Her wardrobe and dresser soon followed.<br /><br />&quot;I should have asked you to pack some furniture for me,&quot; her father mused, as he watched Sarina unpacking. &quot;I had no idea your magic could do such things for us.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Allow me to rest, father, and I can probably make a portal from here back to England, and go back to fetch a comfy bed for you, as well. But for now, I need some sleep,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />Lord Randall sighed and returned to his own room, where he spent a restless night on a lumpy, cloth-stuffed mattress on a rope frame bed, not realizing his daughter would have welcomed him to join her in her bed, if he had but shown the interest in doing so. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 24, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 24 - So much to learn<br /><br />In the morning Sarina arose with the sun. It was pleasantly cool, but windy outside. Without even thinking about it, she thickened her fox fur into a winter pelt that made the cool weather much more comfortable. <br /><br />The bungalow that her father had apparently purchased for their use was situated about half a mile from the harbor road, on the lower slopes of Victoria Peak. From their second floor balcony she could look out to the North and East, over the immense harbor of Hong Kong. But she couldn&#039;t see it very well, because of the rows of buildings closer to the harbor, and downhill from their bungalow.<br /><br />She went outside, and looked behind the house, at the steep-sided peak above Victoria City. Her eyes glowed as she teleported to its summit, where she could get a better look at her new home. <br /><br />The wind was fierce on the top of the peak, but the air was cooler, and smelled much fresher. She turned slowly in place, taking it all in, and then looked down at the harbor, now two miles or so distant. She had never seen such a large harbor in her life. It had to be at least four miles long, and almost two miles deep, with entrances on the East and West ends, and the coastline of the mainland forming a fourth side. A wide road went the length of the harbor, and was lined with buildings of as much as four stories in height. More boats than she could count were arrayed along the shore, in some areas she saw many boats were oddly tied to one another in long lines, side to side, so thirty or more lashed together boats formed their own peninsulas jutting out into the water.&nbsp;&nbsp;Apart from those clusters of native boats, she saw European-style docks, with British and Indian ships offloading cargo and passengers, and a few British warships floating in the harbor. There was even an American ship there. <br /><br />Victoria City clung to the harbor&#039;s edge like a coat of moss on a tree trunk, taking advantage of what little flat land the island offered. Most of the rest of what she could see was inhospitable ranges of steep, rocky slopes, and cliffs that plunged into the sea. Sarina wondered for a moment why the English would prefer the lower areas, when it seemed so much nicer up here on the summit. Then she laughed at herself as she realized that anyone who could not teleport would have a hard time indeed getting up and down the mountain&#039;s steep sides. <br /><br />Mages like Sarina were really not all that common. In the land where she was born, she and her parents had been the only real mages she had known of, though her parents had insisted that others with the magical talent did exist, in seclusion. In the town in England where she had lived as Sarina, there had been fewer that thirty five mages of any real power that she had been able to find the names of. Most of them had been like Lady Portia, skilled in some areas, and specializing in what they knew how to do best. They were more like skilled tradesmen than powerful and influential individuals. They might use portals to help offload ships, as Portia had done; or shape stone for sculptures or building supplies; or used their skills to locate magical creatures and potential troublemakers. To Sarina, it seemed such a waste of potential. There was so much that a mage could learn, and so much that they could do. She could never be satisfied with just shaping materials into useful forms. Sarina wanted more. She wanted power, and the ability to ensure that no one could ever again take from her what she claimed as hers.<br /><br />Smiling, she teleported back to her room in the bungalow. She would learn the ways of these Chinese mages, and perhaps even the secrets of that forbidden island of Japan, which sounded like the place her real mother had come from. Here they also referred to certain kinds of fox folk as Kitsune. She was determined to find out more about what Kitsune were, and therefore more about herself, and her own abilities.<br /><br />Lord Randall found her an hour later, gazing out from the balcony, staring at the clusters of boats at one end of the harbor. &quot;Good morning Sarina. Did you sleep well?&quot; he asked. <br /><br />&quot;Yes, though I am getting hungry now, father. There is no food in the kitchen, and no servants to prepare it. I suppose we shall hire some natives to be our servants?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;Yes, that will be the first order of business, after we eat. Come along dear. Have you ever eaten congee?&quot; Lord Randall asked.<br /><br />&quot;No. What is that, father?&quot; Sarina replied, though she could see in his surface thoughts a steaming bowl of something white, with pieces of fish on top. She also got a fleeting image in his mind of herself and Lord Randall mating, when she was fourteen, on the night before they met with Lord and Lady Pennington. He believed it had only been a dream, but he had not forgotten it for the last six years. She knew then that he still lusted for his own daughter&#039;s flesh, though he wasn&#039;t allowing himself to act on his impulses.<br /><br />&quot;It&#039;s a rice porridge that they eat here for breakfast. Top it with fish or other tasty bits, and it&#039;s not half bad. There are at least a dozen shops between here and the harbor that sell it. We&#039;ll get a bowl and some tea, and then see about hiring some servants. After that, we need to meet with some of my trading partners,&quot; he said, while looking guiltily to one side, as his recurring sexual fantasy came up yet again. On the trip here from England, the erotic dreams had begun again, and he had been rather glad that Sarina had a separate room on the steamships, and separate rooms in their other accommodations. He set the thought aside, and got his coat and hat.<br /><br />Before they left the bungalow, Sarina stopped Lord Randall in the parlor, and asked, &quot;Father? Have you told anyone here about me yet? About who I am?&quot; <br /><br />&quot;Not yet, no. As I said, I hoped to take you around and introduce you later today. Why?&quot; Lord Randall asked.<br /><br />Sarina&#039;s eyes glowed briefly as she used her magic to make Lord Randall more open to suggestion, and then she said, &quot;I think you should introduce me as your wife, and not your daughter. No one here would know the difference, and it would give me a higher standing in their society, would it not?&quot;<br /><br />Lord Randall stopped in mid stride, and stared at Sarina. &quot;I... You can&#039;t be serious.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Oh, but I am. It would not be so remarkable that a prosperous merchant would return to his home country, and then bring back to the Colony a young and attractive wife, is it? It will make you look better, and it will ensure that no one tries to court me for their own. And I do remind you of mother, don&#039;t I?&quot; Sarina said, giving just a little more of a mental push to her suggestion. &quot;Besides, living with you here, would I not be serving almost all the functions of a wife anyway? The servants would respect me more, if they thought me your wife.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I... Sarina, really. Think what you are asking. Would a man like me bring back a young wife, and then have separate bedrooms? We would have to... well, at least appear to...&quot; he stammered.<br /><br />&quot;Share a bedroom? Be affectionate with each other? I wouldn&#039;t mind. And if you are honest with yourself, you know you wouldn&#039;t mind either. I can read your surface thoughts, my beloved Edward. I can see that you longed to have me in your bed, even as you left me with Uncle Thomas and Aunt Meghan when I was fourteen. When we are alone, I can be any woman you could ever desire. Even how I looked to you when I was fourteen, like in your fantasies,&quot; Sarina said, eyes glowing as she stepped closer. She embraced him and pushed just a bit harder with her magic, adding an illusion that caused him to believe she was in heat, and saying, &quot;Take me, Edward Randall! Claim me as your wife!&quot;<br /><br />Lord Randall couldn&#039;t speak. His hat tumbled to the floor as his daughter unexpectedly embraced him like a lover. He didn&#039;t even notice it had fallen from his head. Part of him wanted to decline, but that part was losing the battle rapidly. He sighed, took her hand in hers, and led her back to her bed, saying, &quot;We... never did have a proper honeymoon, did we, my beloved?&quot;<br /><br />==<br /><br />Sarina mated passionately with Lord Randall, and as his mind opened to hers with the intimate contact, she devoured every bit of knowledge that he had about Asia, India, and the trade markets for tea and opium. She removed his inhibitions about incest, and even enhanced his desire to rut with his own daughter. She used their union to bind her to him, solely to increase her knowledge and to make him more dependent on her. By the time they were done, Lord Randall was hopelessly in love with Sarina, and more than willing to tell everyone that this girl was his wife, and that they had married while back in England.<br /><br />Sarina used her magic to alter their travel documents, so their papers read that they were a husband and wife, and not father and daughter. Until they returned to England, where the Penningtons and others would know the truth, no one need be the wiser.<br /><br />She was actually rather disappointed with Lord Randall&#039;s knowledge of Hong Kong and China. He had spent far more time in India, and had only visited Hong Kong on three occasions, all early in the year, and then returning to India before the monsoon rains of spring, and the typhoon storms of late summer and early fall. He had never lived here a full year, and had only been to the mainland once, to a city called Canton. His sole reason for moving here was the prospect of great wealth to be earned in the opium trade, and in buying tea to sell back in England.<br /><br />She was glad however for what she had learned from Lord Randall this way, since it had saved her from a grave error in her original plans. Before it occurred to her to pose as his wife, Sarina had considered taking the place of a local brothel girl, and working her way up through the better brothels and their customers, until she could raid the minds of a number of highly placed Chinese officials. But here, the whores that served the English and other foreigners were of an indigenous people called the Tanka, who were outcasts that were not even permitted to live on the land. Those clustered of side by side boats in the harbor were their homes, and their brothels. Lord Randall had availed himself of them many times, and he knew there was no &#039;upward mobility&#039; from their ranks. The Chinese natives would not ever hire a Tanka &quot;salt water girl&quot;. There were no whores in Hong Kong that the Chinese officials would deign to get close to. She would have to get to the mainland if she wanted to try that approach. If she wanted to get into the minds of high ranking native Chinese by using the openness of mind that she experienced with sex, she would need to have access to their families, so she could try to impersonate their wives and concubines. But they never brought their wives or concubines to Hong Kong.<br /><br />Her only other choice would be a more brutal assault on the minds of Chinese natives, which could quite possibly leave her victims insane or dead. She would use whatever tactics worked, but really didn&#039;t want to stir up a hue and cry by leaving a series of dead or insane victims strewn across the land.<br /><br />They had breakfast, hired some local workers to cook, do laundry, and clean the house, and then met with Lord Randall&#039;s &quot;Merchant Contacts&quot;.<br /><br />The first group was other English merchants, the captain of the largest British warship in the harbor, and the colonial Governor, a rather short bulldog who seemed very pleased to see a merchant actually bringing their family to the island. &quot;We need more English families here,&quot; he insisted, &quot;Good for the colony, and good for land values. Glad to have you both.&quot; As had been the case back in England, the British subjects in Hong Kong tended to be an assortment of humans, dogs, foxes and wolves, with a few other species also present, like ferrets.<br /><br />Sarina found the mayor&#039;s surface thoughts intriguing. He really did want to make Hong Kong into a major port, and the pride of the English colonies. He had backed a number of &#039;social improvements&#039;, including a theatre, a polo grounds, and a cricket pitch. He was also planning a &quot;Gentleman&#039;s Club&quot; where the merchants and governments officials could socialize with their peers. The male merchants and government officials, that is. The club would be for males only, and elsewhere in Hong Kong colonial society a woman had little function, except as a wife, or a mistress.<br /><br />When she met with several of the Chinese officials, they were no better, when it came to their opinions of women. They had their place in Chinese society, but always below the men. Sarina realized that if she wanted in depth access to the knowledge of the Chinese mages, she would have to pose as a male. She could certainly do that, with her shape shifting abilities, but she had never attempted to live as a male for any length of time. They would be very unlikely to teach a female any magic. But this also gave her an advantage, in that they did not expect a female to ever be a mage. Among the Chinese natives, there were Humans, but the other Chinese people tended to foxes, ferrets, minks, and felines, with only the occasional dog and wolf among them.<br /><br />When their last meeting of the day concluded, Sarina went back to the bungalow with her father, and told him some of what she had learned from the surface thoughts of the merchants. She also removed the bed from his bedroom, leaving them with just her bed, and using his bedroom as an office and study for Lord Randall.<br /><br />As they mated that night, Sarina wondered if she should tell Lord Randall one other disturbing thing that she had found in the thoughts of the Merchants, the Governor, and the Chinese officials. While the harbor was indeed superb, the Chinese did not think it was healthy to remain on the island, and they would only visit for brief periods, and then leave. Only the lowest caste individuals in their society were willing to live and work here. But on the mainland, foreigners were only allowed in certain port cities, and even then in only certain sectors of those cities. So if Sarina wanted to learn the secrets of the Orient, she would need to do it in the form of a Chinese native, and most likely while appearing to be male. She decided to wait a while and see if an opportunity arose for her to visit the mainland with Lord Randall, rather than speaking to him of the possibility that his &#039;new wife&#039; would need to change genders for a while. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 25, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 25 - Piercing the wall of secrecy<br /><br />After breakfast the next day, Sarina prepared to explore Victoria City. She watched the street from the balcony of their home, observing several of the native Chinese who worked in the area, and in particular the males, while lightly probing their surface thoughts. An hour or so later, she went inside, to her &#039;husband&#039;, Lord Randall.<br /><br />&quot;I shall be out for most of the day, my dear,&quot; she told him. &quot;I will be exploring Victoria City, and preparing for a short journey to this Chinese city of &#039;Canton&#039;, where the actual trading takes place. There is much to learn in this area, if I am to be of assistance to you in your trading negotiations, my husband.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Well, if you insist, I would be glad to escort you around the city, my beloved child,&quot; Lord Randall said, reaching for his coat and hat. &quot;I would like to see more of it myself! But I&#039;m afraid that visiting Canton would be out of the question, for you. They allow very few foreign merchants to go there, and even I have to stop at the English Factory, outside the walls and on the river&#039;s edge, to do my business. Virtually no one goes within the city walls but their own Chinese people, and certainly no women. I am afraid they would never allow a foreign woman to even ride on the ship to the Factories outside Canton. They would insist you remain here, or in Macau.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I will not need an escort, and honestly, you would be better off not being with me today, darling,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;They won&#039;t see me as a foreigner, or a woman. Have you forgotten so soon, how easily I can change my appearance, after mating with a fourteen year old version of me all night last night, and again this morning?&quot; Her eyes glowed, and she shifted form, to become a male mink of Chinese ethnicity, with his hair in a tight braided queue, and wearing the clothing typical of the local Chinese people.<br /><br />Lord Randall took a step back, saying, &quot;My Word! I would not have imagined you could change so much! I have seen you become younger and smaller, and make yourself more closely resemble your mother. But you can even change your gender and species? Remarkable! Although if I may say, it is also a little unnerving to see you as someone so very different. Very well. But please, do not stay away for long. I shall worry for your safety.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Worry not for me, beloved, but for any who might oppose me. If for some reason I will be out past nightfall, I shall send word to you. But you should expect me to return in time for the evening meal,&quot; Sarina said, as she turned and walked out of the bungalow.<br /><br />===<br /><br />She went first to the dock areas, where she posed as a sailor from one of the Chinese ships, waiting for permission to load their cargo. She sat and drank tea, while gleaning information from the real Chinese sailor&#039;s surface thoughts. It did not take long for her to find what she sought. A young Chinese male, also a mink like her current appearance, was drinking tea and daydreaming about returning to Canton very soon, and to the arms of his wife. His name was Hui Ding, and it seemed he had very few friends, being a new member of the crew, and from a rural village before he signed on with the captain of the trading ship that he served on now. His body was strong, but his mind was weak. He would do nicely.<br /><br />When Hui Ding got up to leave, Sarina followed him, cast an invisibility spell on herself, and then watched from the shadows of nearby buildings as he worked with others to offload crates of tea from one of the ships, and then to load cloth-wrapped bales that were filled with opium. As Hui Ding and his crewmates worked, she read their surface thoughts, until she knew each of them by name, and the names of the other crewmembers and their captain, and a few other details of daily life on the ship that came to mind for them. She determined that the ship would not leave port until the next morning, and went back to her bungalow, to enjoy dinner with Lord Randall.<br /><br />===<br /><br />&quot;I have found a ship that can take me to Canton,&quot; she told Lord Randall at dinner, back in her normal vixen form again. &quot;It leaves in the morning, but I must go now if I am to go with them. I plan to be gone no longer than two weeks. If anyone asks, tell them that I have gone to Macau to visit a cousin who lives there, and tell her of our marriage.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Must you do this?&quot; Lord Randall asked. &quot;We can take our time, and learn their ways here. My negotiations have been going quite well already. And... I do not want to be without you, my love.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;We do what we must, my dear,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;I will mate with you once more before we go, but I will do this. I promise not to get into too much trouble, darling. I will return to you before you know it.&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />Two hours later, Lord Randall lay exhausted in their bed, as Sarina resumed her generic male Chinese appearance, and left to seek Hiu Ding in the harbor area. She found her victim in a tea house, drinking wine. Her eyes glowed as she implanted a suggestion in his mind, and then left the tea house. Hui Ding stood, paid his bill, and went outside, thinking he needed to relieve his bladder. <br /><br />Hui Ding turned the corner into a narrow alley, and found himself face to face with what could have been his twin brother! But before he could react, the false Hui Ding&#039;s eyes glowed a brilliant green, and he fell into a waking dream. Compelled by Sarina&#039;s magic, he walked down the alley and into a back room of the tea house. There, in his dream, he thought he had returned home, to his wife, and was sharing her bed. Eyes blind to what was actually around him, he mated with a semblance of his wife, while Sarina invaded his mind through the sexual contact, and stole every memory that the poor fellow had.<br /><br />Later that night, it appeared that two drunken Chinese sailors wandered down the docks, in the direction of the &quot;flower boats&quot; of the outcast boat people. The real Hui Ding went out onto the boats, hired three Tanka prostitutes, and ordered more wine. After watching from a distance and allowing the sailor to debauch himself for an hour, Sarina cast a sleep spell on them all, so that they would not awaken until mid morning, and would all appear to be passed out drunk until then. When Hui Ding did awaken, he could not recall his own name, or where he was from, or anything that had happened to him in the last day. He also had been infected with Gonorrhea, by one of the &#039;salt water girls&#039; he slept with.<br /><br />While the real Hui Ding slept with the outcast whores,&nbsp;&nbsp;Hui Ding appeared to return to the Chinese merchant ship, slightly drunk. Sarina had taken his place.<br /><br />===<br /><br />The next day, Hui Ding worked diligently with his shipmates, getting the ship out of port and steaming&nbsp;&nbsp;up the river to Canton. No one noticed anything different about him, other than perhaps that he worked harder than usual. But they attributed that to his desire to get home to his wife.<br /><br />After offloading cargo at the English Factory in Canton, Hui Ding went home, to the small house that he had outside the walls of Canton, with many other sailors and their families. He greeted his wife warmly, and that night they mated, and again Sarina used the sexual contact to invade the mind of Hui Ding&#039;s wife, and stealing all her memories.<br /><br />In the morning, Hui Ding left his home, leaving behind a wife who could not recall her husband returning last night, and who was wondering when her husband would return, and if his ship was delayed.<br /><br />In the next two hours, Sarina changed her appearance five times, as she took the identities and surface memories of higher ranking Chinese males. Each of her next four victims thought he was encountering his lover or wife, and mating with them, though afterward they had no memory of the delay in their activities. Those four remained unharmed, and did not even know their minds had been tampered with, or that a second copy of their body was briefly in the city. By the time Sarina reached the gates of the walled city of Canton, she was in the uniform of an unmarried Chinese military officer of moderate rank. That last victim she had mentally assaulted and forcibly taken his memories, leaving him dead in an alley, as she stripped him, took everything he had, and then incinerated his body completely with her magic. At the city gates, she presented the pass that the military officer had carried, and entered the walled city of Canton. <br /><br />Using the memories of the people who she had victimized, she sought the part of the city where she might find a scholar.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Once she found a promising lead on a scholar, Sarina changed her appearance again, becoming a male mink again, and wearing clothing similar to what the scholar inside the building was wearing. She knocked on the door, and asked to see the scholar.<br /><br />The young Ferret boy that answered the door asked, &quot;Who may I say is calling?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I am Feng Wu. I have heard of your Master, and wish to exchange ideas with him,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />The boy led &#039;Feng Wu&#039; inside, and then went back to the door. Sarina immediately made the boy forget he had seen anyone at the door today.<br /><br />The elderly Chinese scholar was a wolf. He looked fearfully at his guest and said, &quot;I have little for you to take, huli jing! Yes, I can see what you are, fox spirit, and sense your power! I am old, and my heart is likely to be tough and inedible, even for you. You do not want to prey upon me. Begone.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I will not harm you, elder. I have come to you seeking knowledge, and not your life, or your flesh. I suppose you could say that I am a &#039;fox spirit&#039;, but I am not from these lands. What you know of the &#039;huli jing&#039; may not apply to me. That is what you call a fox spirit in these lands? A &#039;huli jing&#039;?&quot; Sarina asked. &quot;Tell me of these creatures, and why you fear I would eat your heart.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;That is how the huli jing gain power. Every 100 years, they must feast upon the hearts of ten people, so they can grow another tail. They live for as much as 1000 years, and after they gain their ninth tail, they can become a Celestial Fox, and become one with divinity. While they live, they can walk among us in the guise of a beautiful young woman, or in the form of other people, and if they mate with a normal person, they can drain the very life from them. They are said to prey upon scholars. So that is why I fear you, huli jing!&quot; he replied.<br /><br />&quot;I told you, I am not at all interested in eating you, old one. Or in mating with you, either,&quot; Sarina insisted. &quot;Tell me more of the huli jing. Humor me, and you will live.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I do not wish to anger you, fox spirit. I know how vengeful your kind can be. Very well. Some huli jing can breathe fire, or make fire appear at will. They can possess the body of a person, and make them do evil things, or can drive them mad. It is true though that not all huli jing are evil. Sometimes it is said a huli jing will fall in love with a mortal, and be a good and faithful wife to him, unless her true nature becomes known. It is said that the children of a huli jing and a mortal will have very powerful magical powers, though they might not be huli jing themselves,&quot; the scholar said. &quot;Please, I know very little more of your kind. Do not kill me.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;It was sufficient. How is it that you could see what I am, elder?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />The scholar pointed at a mirror with an elegant frame, which was positioned so he could glance at it and see whoever was in the doorway. &quot;That mirror is enchanted, to show the true form of spirits and demons, and other false appearances made by magic. Never has it shown me an unnatural creature as powerful as you are. I doubted that it worked at all, until I saw your fox form reflected in it.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina looked in the mirror, and saw that it did reflect her vixen form as Sarina Randall, which she had worn so much over the last six years that she considered it more her &#039;true appearance&#039; than the human form she was born with. &quot;Are such devices common here?&quot; she asked.<br /><br />&quot;They are not, no. That was a gift from a mage who sometimes visits me,&quot; the scholar replied.<br /><br />Sarina placed a large gold coin on the table in front of the scholar, and said, &quot;Thank you, elder. Your life is spared. I would like to meet that mage you mentioned. I will not harm him, if he will not try to harm me. I am a mage myself, and I want to talk to one of my peers from this country. That is all I ask of you now, though I may wish to talk to you again.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;And when you are gone, will that gold turn into sticks and leaves, or a dirty stone? The one I speak of may be willing to talk to you. I cannot say what he will do when you meet. Do not blame me if meeting him does not go well for you,&quot; the scholar said.<br /><br />&quot;The gold is real, as is my thanks for your information. You have dealt honestly with me, and I will deal honestly with you. Send your boy to see if I may meet with this mage,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;I will wait here with you, for his answer.&quot; <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 26, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 26 - Oriental scholarship<br /><br />The old wolf scholar called for his boy, who blinked in amazement to see that his master had a guest, since Sarina had made the young ferret forget he had admitted anyone.<br /><br />&quot;Y-yes Master? Ah, should I fetch some wine for your guest?&quot; the boy asked.<br /><br />&quot;Yes, and bring two glasses. When you return, I have an errand for you,&quot; the scholar said.<br /><br />Once the boy had brought the wine, the scholar told him, &quot;Go to Jiang Wu. Tell him that I have a most unusual visitor, who wants to speak with him. A huli jing, who says they are from a very distant land.&quot;<br /><br />On hearing the mysterious visitor referred to as a huli jing, the boy became quite afraid, and backed away, seeking the door.<br /><br />&quot;Please, stop acting as if you expect me to devour you, boy. I have no intention of eating you. Please also do tell this Jiang Wu that my request is to meet at his convenience, when we may have several hours to talk. If today is not convenient, tomorrow or the next day will do,&quot; Sarina said politely &quot;You may tell him that I am a Western oneromancer, and I wish to discuss Chinese methods of oneromancy and divination, if he knows of these arts, which I believe he does? If he asks my name, tell him that &#039;Feng Wu&#039; is how he may address me. Thank you, boy. Now go.&quot;<br /><br />The boy glanced quickly at the enchanted mirror, meeped when he saw a female fox reflected in it, and not the male mink that his eyes perceived, and ran from the room.<br /><br />&quot;Please forgive him. The boy is a student of mine, and has never met an unnatural creature before. You are like a legend to him, a feared creature he has only read of in ancient stories. Would you like some wine, while we wait for Jiang Wu&#039;s reply?&quot; the scholar asked. &quot;I will drink some myself. I think I could use a glass of wine right now.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;You hope to trick me, and get me drunk, so you can force me to leave?&quot; Sarina asked. &quot;Yes, your thoughts are that open to me. Do not try to trap me or deceive me, ancient one. I will go when I have what I want, and you and your boy will remain unharmed, as long as you have treated me well. But try to cross me, and I swear that this place will burn to the ground with both of you in it, and they will have trouble finding your ashes!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;N-no, oh great fox spirit! The thought did occur to me that some of your kind may be banished if they get drunk, but I meant no harm! Y-your kind do like wine, do they not?&quot; the scholar said, his hands shaking as he poured a measure of wine for himself and took a large gulp of it.<br /><br />&quot;Drink your wine, if it calms you. I do not care to drink any myself. Amuse me, while we wait. Tell me the history of this land. Some of its tales and legends,&quot; Sarina requested.<br /><br />&quot;You toy with me, mighty one,&quot; the scholar said. &quot;I will do as you ask, but... may I first make one request? May I see your fox-woman form, with its many tails? If you are openly asked, and choose to comply, it cannot be used against you. And if I am to play host to such a wonder as yourself, I would appreciate seeing your magnificence with my own eyes.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina smiled, seeing in his mind an image of a beautiful humanoid female fox, with red-gold fur that seemed almost aflame, and seven tails swirling and swaying sinuously behind her. And in his mind, that beautiful huli jing was nude. The old scholar may fear death from mating with a huli jing, but he was enough of a letch to want to see one unclothed. &quot;As you wish, old wolf. You do not fear the temptation of what you seek?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Mighty huli jing, I fear that no matter what I do, I will not survive the day, given your capricious nature,&quot; he replied. &quot;If I am to expire, I would at least like to see such a wonder with my own eyes, before I perish. That is the honest truth. And if I am to die, better it be in the arms of a beautiful vixen, however unnatural and deadly, than to be burned alive by your wrath.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina stood and smiled, her eyes glowing as she made her stolen male garments vanish, and changed her shape to Sarina&#039;s form, but with seven tails at once. She enveloped herself in a shimmering aura of fire, whose heat could be felt, but which burned nothing. Standing there in the nude, with her eyes glowing green like burning copper, she asked, &quot;Does this satisfy you, old scholar? Is it all that you expected, and hoped for?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;More than I could have dreamed of, mighty huli jing. The enchanted mirror&#039;s magic does not do justice to the radiant beauty before me,&quot; the scholar said, gazing at her with a mixture of lust, and abject terror.<br /><br />Sarina looked carefully at the old wolf. She guessed he was in his late sixties, but he might be young enough to still be sexually capable. Really, he wasn&#039;t that much older than her lecherous &#039;uncle&#039;, Lord Pennington. &quot;Are you still capable of lying with a woman, old scholar? Unless your heart fails you, mating with me need not be harmful. I give you my word that I will not intentionally harm you, if you truly wish the experience. Or if you can resist the temptation, you have but to ask, and I shall become Feng Wu again. It matters little to me.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;My fur may be sprinkled with grey and white, but I am still capable as a male, o mighty one. Sometimes, women who seek my advice do pay for it with their favors. I have a bed in the next room, for that purpose.&nbsp;&nbsp;Never has it been graced by one more beautiful than yourself,&quot; he replied.<br /><br />===<br /><br />The old scholar was capable, but lasted only half an hour. In that time Sarina drained his memories, making them hers, and learning copious volumes of information on Chinese culture and society. She also learned that the mage she had asked to see, Jiang Wu, was a specialist in divination and dream interpretation, but also was quite capable as a summoner of demons and other unnatural creatures. He had summoned creatures far more powerful than mere elementals, and bound them to do his bidding, for short periods of time. Sarina would need to be cautious with that fellow.<br /><br />She left the scholar sleeping peacefully on his bed, smiling happily with the memories of pleasures far exceeding what he actually experienced with Sarina. When he awoke, he would remember having had a stamina matching the best years of his youth, and would suffer no other ill effects, but one - any female companion after this would pale in comparison.<br /><br />===<br /><br />When the ferret boy returned, he found &#039; Feng Wu&#039; seated in the scholar&#039;s room, examining old maps and journals of traveler&#039;s tales from various sailors who had once visited the island of Japan, before they closed their ports to foreigners.<br /><br />&quot;W-where is my master? What have you done with him?&quot; the boy asked fearfully.<br /><br />&quot;He is unharmed. In his fear of me, he drank a little too much wine. He is in the next room, sleeping it off,&quot; Sarina replied diplomatically. &quot;What news have you of the mage, Jiang Wu? Will he see me? And when?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;H-he said, he will meet with you at the hour of the Dragon, tomorrow, at his home. He says that is the most auspicious time for your meeting,&quot; the boy replied, referring to a time a few hours after sunrise. He looked in the door to the back room, and seemed relieved to see that his master was still breathing, and looked unharmed. Then he carefully explained to the strange guest how to get to where the mage lived.<br /><br />Sarina examined the boy&#039;s surface thoughts, and found no indications that he was lying. She nodded, gave the boy a handful of silver coins, and then said, &quot;Then I will take my leave of you, and thank you. I am taking two maps and three journals. That sum should pay for their replacement. Your Master already knows where he can obtain new copies of these items. I made a list of them so he can easily do so.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Y-you aren&#039;t going to harm us, then?&quot; the boy asked.<br /><br />&quot;It does not benefit me to harm you. Your master dealt fairly with me. You will remain unharmed,&quot; she replied, as she left.<br /><br />===<br /><br />The rest of that day, &#039;Feng Wu&#039; seemed to run errands through the town of Canton, making small purchases, buying meals and tea, and keeping a low profile. No one knew him. He was just another face in the crowd, unremarkable.<br /><br />Sarina refrained from peering into other people&#039;s thoughts, after seeing a group of Chinese soldiers searching the area near the city gates for an officer that had failed to report for his duties.&nbsp;&nbsp;She made note not to assume that officer&#039;s identity again, and quietly incinerated his uniform and belongings in an alley behind a tea shop, where the smoke would be lost in the fumes from the kitchens.<br /><br />As night fell, she sought the home of the mage she was to meet the next day. She teleported to the roof of a nearby building, where she watched as the mage carefully inscribed a large diagram on the wooden floor of an open courtyard within his home. She smiled, fairly certain that she knew what the diagram was for, and how the mage intended to use it.<br /><br />She walked to a house about a quarter of a mile from where the mage lived, cast a spell on the residents to cause them to sleep soundly, and calmly spent the night in their best bed, while the owner of the home and his wife lay in their spellbound sleep on the floor.<br /><br />===<br /><br />In the morning, Feng Wu left the house that he had slept in, releasing the inhabitants from their sleep spell. The owner of the home and his wife believed that they had both rolled out of bed as they awakened, and tumbled to the floor. They laughed at how silly it was that they both did that at the same time, and went on about their day.<br /><br />Feng Wu purchased a bowl of congee with roasted fish, and a small pot of tea, and ate that for breakfast, while he waited for the appointed time for the meeting with the mage. The skies were getting cloudy, and it looked like it might rain by nightfall. But for now, it was merely windy and cool.<br /><br />From what Sarina could recall of the memories of the sailor, Hui Ding, his ship was not scheduled to load cargo and return to Hong Kong for two more days. That left plenty of time for Sarina to conclude her business with the mage, and return to Hong Kong in the guise of Hui Ding. <br /><br />===<br /><br />Meanwhile, outside the city walls, the wife of the real Hui Ding was becoming concerned. She had confirmed that the ship her husband served on had returned to port two nights earlier. She had located several of his crewmates, and they all agreed that he had been on the ship when they offloaded their cargo, and that the last they had seen of him, it appeared that he was headed for his home. But he had never arrived at home, as far as his wife could remember. It was unlike him. He was not given to gambling, drinking or whoring, and never missed a chance to enjoy her cooking and her company in bed.&nbsp;&nbsp;One of the wolf sailors suggested that perhaps he had met a lovely concubine who was just too beautiful to refuse. That earned him a withering glance and a severe tongue lashing from Hui Ding&#039;s wife.<br /><br />She feared, however, that they may be right. Her mother had warned her about the ways of sailors, and their bad habits. Even if her husband was not the type to do such things, that did not mean he could not have fallen in with bad companions, who tempted him beyond his limits. Perhaps her husband had gone off on a drinking binge with other sailors? Or worse yet, what if he had gone to an opium den? She had heard of such vile places, and how men could lose themselves for days or even weeks, smoking the drug until their money ran out, and the owner of the den threw them out on the street.<br /><br />She refused to contemplate the thought that her husband might be dead, or might have been attacked and even now be lying in a gutter somewhere, severely wounded. Surely if something that bad had happened to him, the city guard would have found him by now?<br /><br />===<br /><br />In Hong Kong, the real Hui Ding was unconscious. He was dead drunk, and in the arms of a Tanka prostitute. Since he awakened with no memory and no identifying papers on the day his ship was to have sailed, the whores had assumed he was a Chinese sailor who had abandoned his ship. If he was willing to spend money on them and whore with them they were perfectly happy to hide him on the &#039;flower boats&#039;, where most native Chinese would refuse to set foot. They plied him with wine and took him to bed, taking money each time, but only what he owed for the wine or the girl. They hid his sailor clothes, and dressed him in a Tanka loincloth and pants. <br /><br />For his own part, Hui Ding had decided that until his memory returned, he was safer among the Tanka whores. Sarina had adjusted his memories enough that consorting with the hated &#039;salt water girls&#039; did not revolt him. Yet he dimly recalled that most Chinese had a very low opinion of the Tanka people. If he was a Chinese sailor hiding among the Tanka, as the whores said, then he must have done something very bad. Until he could remember what he had done, it was safer to remain where he was. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 27, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 27 - West meets East<br /><br />At the hour of the Dragon (eight in the morning, according to a western clock), &#039;Feng Wu&#039; arrived at the gate in the wall that surrounded the home of the magician, Jiang Wu, and tapped on the door.<br /><br />The door opened at once, and a feline boy with fluffy grey fur looked fearfully out at the visitor. &quot;Y-yes?&quot; the boy said.<br /><br />&quot;This is the home of Jiang Wu, is it not?&quot; the visitor said politely. &quot;I am expected. My name is Feng Wu.&quot;<br /><br />The boy looked slightly disappointed at the calm and harmless appearance of the visitor, who appeared to be only a young male mink, dressed like a Chinese scholar. He bobbed his head and opened the gate wider, saying, &quot;Master Jiang Wu is expecting you, yes, honorable Feng Wu. This way, please.&quot;<br /><br />Feng Wu followed the boy inside, and waited patiently while the servant closed the gate and latched it from within. Then the two of them crossed a small red bridge that arched over a koi pond which dominated the small inner yard, and went up three steps and through two large, elaborately carved doors, into a large, high-ceilinged room that was clearly intended as a formal audience chamber. There was a raised dais on the far side, on which was a wooden chair decorated on the arms, legs and back with many kinds of stylized animals. But there was no other furniture for the guest to sit on.<br /><br />&quot;Wait here, please, and I will tell my Master that you are...&quot; the boy started to say.<br /><br />&quot;I already know,&quot; a voice said from behind a curtain on the far side of the room. The person the voice belonged to was a well-muscled tiger, dressed in elaborately decorated robes of crimson silk, hemmed with blue silk, and embroidered in gold and silver. &quot;I felt his presence. You may go, Li Pang. Why don&#039;t you see if the wine merchant has any good wines available today? Take your time.&quot;<br /><br />The boy wasted no time in scampering out of the room, running so fast that his circular cap flew from his head, to lie discarded on the floor.<br /><br />Feng Wu and Jiang Wu regarded each other in silence for a moment, as they subtly tested the mental defenses of each other, and each found no easy entry. Then Feng Wu bowed, just to the degree that was proper between peers, and said, &quot;I thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Jiang Wu.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I thank you for coming, Feng Wu, though surely that is not your true name. It is an amusing choice, however. The name means &#039;wind sorcery&#039; in our language. Did you know that? Well, no matter. It is not often that I get such an... unusual visitor. The boy will remain at the wine merchant for quite some time. The others in my household staff have also been sent away for the morning. We may have our chat without interruptions.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;That also ensures that you will not have to be concerned for their welfare, if your guest should prove dangerous?&quot; Feng Wu replied with a smile. &quot;I assure you, I am only as dangerous to you as you attempt to be to me. Deal honestly with me, and I will repay you well, and leave you quite unharmed. And before you ask, the old scholar is quite well, and was well paid in honest coin for his advice and services to me. I did not harm him, nor did I cheat him.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I know. I sent my boy to make sure of that, late last night,&quot; the tiger replied. &quot;Li Pang returned and told me what the scholar says he saw in his mirror. May I look at your reflection in my own mirror, to verify what he said of you?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;You may, if you wish,&quot; Feng Wu replied calmly, with his green eyes softly glowing.<br /><br />The tiger took a palm-sized metal disc from a pouch attached to his sash, and looked at Feng Wu&#039;s reflection in it. &quot;Very interesting,&quot; he said. &quot;Your image in my mirror is blurred. It should clearly show me your resting form - how you truly look, when you are not trying to assume a false appearance. Yet I see both a male mink and a female spirit fox, and I cannot count the fox form&#039;s tails. How ancient are you, huli jing? Your mind is closed to me.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Your mind is also guarded against me, I see. Does my exact age matter? I honestly cannot tell you. The seasons of your world have changed enough times since the year of my birth that the exact number of years may be meaningless. If I had to guess, I would say perhaps 500 years or more, as you count them? You are said to know divination. I would like to see how that is done here.&quot; Feng Wu replied evasively. What Feng Wu stated was quite true, however, since coming to this realm via a portal had apparently moved Sarina and Asha far ahead in the river of time from the era in which she had been born.<br /><br />&quot;Most Chinese methods of divination require that you know the exact date and hour of a person&#039;s birth. I would at the very least need to know the correct month and year to cast your horoscope, which is done by checking the alignments of the stars and planets at this time, as well as what they are recorded to have been when you were born. But there is one form of divination I could perform for you, without knowing your exact age. Come with me,&quot; he said. The tiger led Feng Wu into a smaller side room, and handed his guest a small bundle of 50 small sticks, made from some sort of dried reed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />&quot;What am I to do with these?&quot; Feng Wu asked, as they each took a seat on opposite sides of a small table. The tiger had an ink dish, calligraphy brush, and several pieces of paper ready on his side of the table.<br /><br />&quot;Think of a question you wish answered. As you do so, sort through the yarrow stalks in this manner,&quot; The tiger said, as he led Feng Wu through a method of dividing the sticks into piles, counting off four at a time from each pile, and placing the left-over sticks in small piles. Each time three piles of left-over sticks were completed, the tiger examined the number of sticks in each pile, and then drew either a straight line or a broken line in two columns. This was repeated until after about twenty minutes, he had two sets of six lines drawn, some of them broken lines, some straight. &quot;There. Now, what was the question?&quot; the tiger asked.<br /><br />&quot;Hummm. My question was &#039;how can my journey further east be successful?&#039; I can see how this exercise with the sticks can focus the mind on a certain subject, and perhaps bring old memories into the person&#039;s surface thoughts. Yet that would not avail you, as my mind is protected. How then are the lines interpreted, to make the divination work?&quot; Feng Wu asked.<br /><br />&quot;We now consult the I Ching, or &#039;book of changes&#039;. Each line in the hexagram pattern has a meaning, and the transition for each line between the pattern on the left and the one on the right also has meaning. These writings are said to be thousands of years old, passed down from one of the first Emperors of China.&quot; He took a thick book that was written on laced together strips of bamboo, and spent almost an hour consulting the diagrams, writing notes, and checking what the book said.<br /><br />At last he set aside the ink brush and looked over his notes. &quot;I see you waiting at a distant border. To achieve your desire, you must be consistent in your purpose. Then you are waiting on sand, by a mountain stream. Some may speak against you, but it will not deter you. Then you stand on mud, inviting injury.&quot; He paused, looking a bit shaken, before continuing. &quot;You stand next in a cavern where there is much blood, yet you walk out unharmed. There is a feast, and you have good fortune. Three unexpected guests arrive, but if you receive them respectfully, there will be good fortune in the end.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Well, that certainly fits with my plans, but it seems not to be much of a prophecy,&quot; Feng Wu said. &quot;Anyone could predict that if I go East, a traveler may encounter such experiences.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;But you have only heard half of it. That was indicated by the second hexagram, which speaks of your future course, and which spoke most directly to your question,&quot; Jiang Wu said. &quot;The first hexagram speaks of your past, and what I see there is very troubling. What I see is much success for you at first. But your success led to blame, and an attack upon you in the night. I see a solitary flight from your attackers. Then... Much death, and no remorse. There is a great darkness, and much change. You stand alone in adversity, and there are very few who would stand at your side, or offer you aid.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;In that there is much truth, I will admit. That was very interesting. I have told no one here of my past. That you can divine so much that is true speaks well of your skill. I am impressed! My family was indeed attacked when I was young, and I was the sole survivor. I took my revenge upon those who killed my family, and it is true that I do not regret doing so. If someone killed your family, would you not also feel justified in seeking vengeance?&quot; Feng Wu said.<br /><br />&quot;I would, I must admit. I mentioned to you that our astrology requires precise knowledge of the stars and planets and their positions. Come, and allow me to show you a wonder.&quot; The tiger said.<br /><br />They went into the central courtyard. In the middle of an elaborate diagram on the raised wooden floor was a disc at least three feet across. It stood on three legs, which were capable of being adjusted to make the disc level. Its upper surface was a deep, velvety black.<br /><br />Feng Wu examined the diagram, while pretending to keep his attention on the odd disc in the center of the raised floor. He could tell that part of the diagram was in fact a summoner&#039;s circle, very similar to the one that Sarina used to summon Asha. But there were subtle differences as well, and this circle had no identifying name for the creature to be summoned. Intertwined with that was a much more elaborate diagram whose purpose was not immediately obvious, but which had references to compass directions, and a repeating theme of the dominance of night over day.<br /><br />&quot;And what is this, may I ask?&quot; Feng Wu inquired.<br /><br />&quot;This is where I observe the heavens,&quot; Jiang Wu replied. He pointed to several elaborate brass instruments on stands just outside the circle, and said, &quot;At night, I can use those instruments to determine the exact positions of stars and planets. But during the day, the enchanted mirror in the center allows me to observe the stars even at mid day, for its perfectly polished surface excludes the lights cast by the sun. The diagram around it enables the mystic mirror to perform that miracle. Go, and gaze into the mirror, and tell me what you see.&quot;<br /><br />Feng Wu examined the diagram once more, and in the light of that explanation much of the greater diagram did make sense. He rested his hand on a small lump under his sash, and went to the mirror, gazing down into it. &quot;Remarkable! I do see the stars, as if it was night! But I warn you, it would be most unwise of you to attempt to trick me.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Too late for that, huli jing! Already you are in my trap, and bound in place! No demon can cross the bounds of that summoning circle once it has been activated! I control you now, oh mighty demon!&quot; Jiang Wu said triumphantly, as the part of the intricate design that was the actual summoning circle glowed with a scarlet light. From behind a pillar he withdrew an odd sword, made entirely of laced together Chinese coins. He pointed the blade at Feng Wu and shouted. &quot;I command you now, Demon! Show yourself to me, huli jing! Discard that false appearance, and reveal your fox spirit form. You cannot deny me!&quot;<br /><br />Feng Wu&#039;s appearance immediately dissolved, and re-formed into a seven-tailed fox woman, wreathed in an aura of fire, as Sarina had chosen to appear to the old scholar. She was completely unclothed and stood there defiantly, with her fists tightly clenched. &quot;You dare! Foolish mortal! You dare to attempt to enslave a huli jing?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Rant all you want, fox demon, for you are my slave now!&quot; Jiang Wu exclaimed. He jumped around with maniacal excitement, taunting Sarina from outside the protective circle. &quot;You will use your sorcery for my benefit, to bring down my foes, and elevate me above them! We will start with those hated foreigners from the West, and their mind-killing opium merchants. I command you to set their ships ablaze with your celestial fire! Rain destruction upon them, my slave!&quot;<br /><br />Sarina&#039;s eyes glowed like the very pit of hell, a sickly acid green that tinted the entire area around her. The golden flames around her body swirled like a tornado, and were joined by a great gout of flames from her upraised muzzle, as they merged into a pillar of fire that shot straight up into the sky. Where the fiery column struck the gathering clouds, they boiled and blackened, thickening in moments to form the heart of a tremendous thunderstorm, with massive bolts of lightning leaping from cloud to cloud.<br /><br />&quot;Yes! Yes! Fire and lightning! Bring your wrath to bear on them, my slave!&quot; Jiang Wu shouted above the roar of the increasing winds, and holding the coin sword above his head.<br /><br />The column of fire ceased, and the creature in the circle looked at the Chinese mage with those hellish eyes, as the dark clouds came lower and lower, blotting out the sun itself. In the courtyard, it became dark as night, as the wind swirled and blew over one of the brass observation instruments outside the circle.<br /><br />&quot;Fire and lightning, as you command, oh wizard!&quot; Sarina said, in a voice that reverberated from the nearby buildings and shook the walls of the mage&#039;s home. And in that moment, a bolt of lightning lanced down from the clouds, to strike Jiang Wu&#039;s sword!<br /><br />The mage fell to his knees, screaming in pain as he discarded the half-melted sword. Stunned and barely able to raise his head, he looked up, to see the huli jing effortlessly crossing the summoning circle, and advancing to bend over him. &quot;Impossible! No demon... could defy... that spell!&quot; Jiang Wu gasped.<br /><br />Sarina reached out and lifted up three amulets on cords that had been around Jiang Wu&#039;s neck, snapped the cords and tossed the amulets aside. She smiled viciously as she touched a hand to one side of Jiang Wu&#039;s head, forcing him to look deep into her eyes, while with her other hand showing him the ivory fox head that she had concealed in her sash. Its eyes were also glowing green.<br /><br />&quot;I am not a demon, fool, and this charm protects me against compulsion or binding spells!&quot; she said, as she savagely tore into his mind, ripping past his remaining defenses.<br /><br />As pure terror overwhelmed his conscious mind, Jiang Wu&#039;s last coherent thought was the sight of those inhuman green eyes. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 28, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 28 - Hell storm<br /><br />The neighbors of the magician Jiang Wu could not help but know that he was a mage. Those who could afford his services often went to him for divinations or horoscopes. Fewer sought him for more difficult types of magic, such as a general of the army seeking to have him summon a fire elemental to attack an enemy position, or another mage seeking his aid in crafting an enchanted mirror. Those who could not afford his magic watched the comings and goings of those strange visitors that could.<br /><br />The one thing all his neighbors agreed on was that it was a mixed blessing, having the seventh most powerful mage in Canton for their neighbor. Even if you couldn&#039;t afford his services, few troublemakers would be so foolish as to cause trouble very close to a mage&#039;s home, and therefore attacks in the street and invasions of homes for burglary were uncommon. The risk was too great that the powerful mage might see the misdeed, and use his magic against the criminal. Yet at the same time, mages attracted powerful sorts of trouble that would never come to an ordinary neighborhood. And when a mage sought to reach too high, and took on a task that was beyond them, the results could be disaster.<br /><br />When a golden pillar of fire ascended without warning from the mage&#039;s courtyard, his neighbors fled in terror. They watched from what they hoped was a safe distance, as the gathering clouds erupted with unnatural swiftness into a dark and forbidding thunderstorm. The sky grew dark as night, and then one thunderbolt after another smashed earthward from the lowering clouds, every one striking the mage&#039;s courtyard! Yet there was no rain, and nowhere else did this hellish and unnatural storm deign to unleash its fury, although fierce winds made everyone stay out of the open streets, and seek shelter by the walls of buildings, or indoors. This assault continued for a full hour.<br /><br />Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the hell storm ceased, the clouds evaporated, and the sun came back out. Those who watched the mage&#039;s home saw it remained shrouded in a sickly-looking black smoke or fog, which did not rise naturally, as one would expect if the lightning had set the mage&#039;s home ablaze. Indeed, the home did not appear to be burning, although some parts of the roof had collapsed. Instead, the black smoke or mist or fog boiled and writhed like a living thing, and hid most of the home within its night-black mass. For another hour, no one dared enter the home, though the city guard, three high ranking mages, and several military officers and their soldiers came to see the source of this disturbance.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Within the mage&#039;s home, wreathed in nightmare-inducing black fog, Sarina, back in her single-tailed vixen form, rummaged through the mage&#039;s belongings, taking what she wished, while the mage Jiang Wu, on his hands and knees in the courtyard, tore at his clothes and screamed in terror at apparitions only he could see. On occasion, as Jiang Wu tried to crawl into his home, another bolt of lightning would blaze into the courtyard, nearly missing the mage and causing him to scurry back to the center of the open area.<br /><br />Sarina had forcibly ripped all the memories from the mage&#039;s mind, leaving him quite insane and unlikely to live for very long. She had taken from the mage his small magic mirror, and the three amulets that he had been wearing. She took his undamaged astronomical instruments, and added pieces of the broken one to piles of metal trash that she gathered from the home, and which she fused into unrecognizable lumps with further lightning blasts, as if the lightning had struck the stolen instruments and melted them. For a while she considered taking the night mirror, but she could re-create it easily now, and so she caused another lightning bolt to melt it into slag as well.<br /><br />Inside the mage&#039;s home, she took his best books and scrolls on divination, astrology and summoning - the ones he had most treasured, and put them in a chest, with the other items she had gathered so far. This she shrunk and placed on her necklace, along with the mage&#039;s still-locked strongbox, and his keys. The strong box, she knew, had several traps and wards protecting it. But Sarina also had the mage&#039;s knowledge of how to remove or deactivate those protections. And within that chest, said the mage&#039;s memories, lay a large sum in gold, jewelry and silver. She would open that at her leisure.<br /><br />When she was certain she had taken all she desired of the magical lore and tools and the wealth that the mage had owned, she re-arranged things to make it seem that nothing was missing, and made an apparent duplicate of the strong box, filled only with scrap metal and heavy stones, and locked in such a way that it might take years to force open. This she left concealed where the real strong box had been, so it would not appear that robbery had been a motive in the mage&#039;s demise.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br />When she was ready to depart, she went back to the courtyard. Sarina looked over the summoning circle, and carefully altered three characters in its inscription. Jiang Wu was still there, and still alive, but clearly would not last long. He was screaming now about being swarmed by biting insects and spiders and ants, which he thought were eating him alive. In a moment of pity upon the foolish mage, she went back into the house, and came back with one of the tiger mage&#039;s own daggers, which she tossed on the ground within Jiang Wu&#039;s reach. Then she opened a portal back to Victoria Peak, in Hong Kong, taking her leave of Canton.<br /><br />===<br /><br />When the storm ceased and the unnatural clouds cleared, Jiang Wu&#039;s servant boy, Li Pang, fearfully went back to his master&#039;s home. There he found a crowd gathered, and the home still shrouded in an unnatural black mist. The screaming and wailing voice of Jiang Wu could be heard from within the mist. <br /><br />One soldier tried to enter, at the orders of his superior officer. The moment his body touched the black fog, he screamed in terror and retreated, and nothing anyone could say would encourage him to try again. Two mages tried to dispel the terror fog, but it resisted their spells, and they did not know what exactly it was.<br /><br />The remaining mage in the crowd, a grey cat, noted the servant boy, and called out, &quot;Li Pang? Come here, boy. What was your Master, Jiang Wu, doing today? Did he have any unusual visitors, or special plans?&quot;<br /><br />The cat boy swallowed fearfully, and said, &quot;There... was only a scholar, who gave his name as Feng Wu. He had an appointment, and came at the hour of the Dragon. He... just looked like a young mink. Nothing special. But Master Jiang Wu, and the old scholar who lives by the well, both believed Feng Wu to be a huli jing in disguise! The scholar has an enchanted mirror, and swears he saw a seven tailed fox woman in it, instead of Feng Wu&#039;s reflection, and that the creature appeared to him in that form when he asked it to. My master...&quot; the boy swallowed hard, and continued, &quot;... said late last night that he hoped to trap the huli jing, and make it do his bidding. He sent the rest of the household staff away early this morning, before the appointed meeting. He sent me away just after the guest arrived. I have been hiding at the wine merchant&#039;s shop. I was to wait there until sunset, but when that strange storm happened... I had to come and see if my master was in danger!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I see. A huli jing with seven tails is nothing to trifle with,&quot; the other mage said. Just then, a gasp went up from the crowd, as the black mist suddenly dissipated on its own, as if it had never existed. The screaming from inside the home continued.<br /><br />The city guard and the three mages cautiously entered the home, following the screaming and wailing voice of Jiang Wu. They found him in the courtyard, scratching and clawing at his chest, while slumped over forward on his knees.<br /><br />&quot;They are devouring me! Get them off, get them off! The ants! They are eating my eyes!&quot; he wailed.<br /><br />&quot;Jiang Wu! Can you hear us?&quot; the feline mage called out.<br /><br />The tiger crawled and turned to face the voice. His eyes had been clawed from his face, probably by his own hands, and his blood-soaked face and chest were shredded with the marks of his own claws. &quot;I am blind! They eat my eyes!&quot; he wailed pitifully.<br /><br />Just then, his hand landed on the dagger that Sarina had left him. He snatched it up, screaming, &quot;AHH! A weapon at last! A spider is devouring my heart! I must kill it!&quot; He plunged the dagger into his own chest, and fell forward, dead before his head hit the floor.<br /><br />The guard and the mages examined the home. It was the conclusion of the mages that Jiang Wu had indeed attempted to enslave a huli jing, but had been sloppy in making his protective diagram in the courtyard. As it was constructed, there were errors, and it would not contain a demon. The death of the mage was ruled to be suicide, since the demon creature he had failed to enslave had caused no harm to the old wolf scholar, who when interviewed insisted that Feng Wu had been honest when treated with honestly, and had paid him well for his own services. He showed them the gold and silver coins that he had been paid with. The money was genuine, but was from the forbidden island of Japan.<br /><br />A search was made of Canton, but in truth no one expected to find the elusive magical creature. The city guard had no way to fight such a monster, and the mages did not wish to enrage it further. They prayed that it would leave the city in peace.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Sarina appeared on the summit of Victoria Peak. She was unclothed, but didn&#039;t particularly care. The clothes she had worn had been burned away by the firestorm that she invoked. She stood for a moment in the wind, letting it blow through her fur. She looked at the Kitsune netsuke charm that had helped to protect her against the Chinese mage. Its eyes no longer glowed. &quot;I wonder. Were you made by a Kitsune? Or were you made to protect one?&quot; she said to herself, as she gazed at it thoughtfully.<br /><br />Her eyes glowed and she teleported the short distance to her bedroom, in the bungalow she lived in with her father. She got dressed quickly, and then searched the building, to see if she could find him.<br /><br />Lord Randall was at home, in the parlor. He smiled warmly as he saw her, and rose to embrace her. &quot;Sarina! You have returned at last. Where have you been? I have been worried sick.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;You need not worry about me, beloved,&quot; she said, kissing him warmly. &quot;It is enough to say that I have been to Canton, and the trip was profitable. I learned much about the Chinese people. It will be very useful to you, in your negotiations, I think.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Nothing is more valuable to me than having you back in my arms, my beloved child,&quot; Lord Randall said to the young woman who he believed to be his daughter, and his wife. &quot;My bed has seemed so cold and lonely since you left me.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Well, I suppose we have time to remedy your abstinence before dinner, my husband,&quot; Sarina said, taking his arm and leading him back to their bed. In truth, she would prefer to read the books she had stolen, or simply take a nap. But she knew that fulfilling Lord Randall&#039;s incestuous fantasies was in her best interests, so she played along, and gave the old fox what he most desired from her. They mated.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Soon after that day, the monsoon rains of summer came to Hong Kong. For three months, they hardly had a single day without rain, and on most days, the rain was a torrential downpour, turning the streets to a quagmire of mud and upset cobblestones, and making it difficult to do anything other than remain indoors.<br /><br />Sarina sat quietly in the parlor, reading a treatise on the summoning and control of Chinese demons. It explained the making and use of the unusual coin sword that Jiang Wu had expected would protect him against demons, and enable him to force them to obey his will. She briefly considered summoning Asha, and asking a creature of Hell if there was any truth to the belief that such a sword was effective against demons. Surely the fire elemental knew several demons that she could ask. But for now, it was not important enough to pay the cost that the elemental might demand.<br /><br />Sarina also read the traveler&#039;s journals and examined the maps that she had taken from the scholar, learning as much as she could about Japan, and Kitsune, and how one might go to the island without being slain for being a foreigner. She began to formulate a plan, but it could wait for now, until the weather was better for travel.<br /><br />She mated quite frequently with Lord Randall, who began to wonder when she would tell him that she was bearing his child. He even admitted to Sarina that he now hoped to impregnate her, even though she was his daughter. He loved her so much that he wanted her to bear his child. But no matter how often they mated, she never got pregnant.<br /><br />===<br /><br />After three months of rain, Hong Kong in August became a steaming, humid place. Sarina often left the bungalow to stand in the cooling breezes on the summit of Victoria Peak, and even considered building a small tower there to study in. But she did not want to draw attention to the fact that she was a mage. The local officials and the friends and neighbors of Lord Randall all took her for merely being his loyal and loving wife. She was known to be a woman of remarkable intelligence, and one who refused to be obstructed when she set her mind to a task, but that was all.<br /><br />Then, in September, a sickness the locals referred to only as &quot;Hong Kong Fever&quot; swept through the island. The crews of the ships in port all stayed on their ships, in the harbor, as it seemed the fresher air at sea was less unhealthy. Most of the trading ships stayed away, and would not enter the harbor, even to bring supplies to the barren island. The victims seldom lived more than three to five days, complaining of terrible headaches, pain in the eyes from light, weakness, being unable to stand erect, and a burning fever. Those who survived, mostly through constant nursing and mopping their bodies with cool wet cloths, were often weakened and debilitated, their health ruined.<br /><br />Sarina had seen knowledge of this disease in the minds of several Chinese natives, and even in most British citizens in Hong Kong, who had lived there for more than a year. The scholar she had met in Canton had known of it, as had the mage, Jiang Wu. But no one knew of a cure. It was one of the main reasons the native Chinese thought the island was unhealthy. But there was no sense arguing over such matters with the British who chose to live in Hong Kong. Most of them knew of the risk, and still they stayed, seeking the immense profits to be gained here.<br /><br />On September 17th, Lord Randall became ill with Hong Kong Fever... <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 29, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 29 - Mortality<br /><br />Many of the native Chinese who worked for the non-Chinese families on the island fled for the mainland as soon as people started showing Hong Kong Fever symptoms. In Sarina and Lord Randall&#039;s home, the only one of their three servants who remained was their cook, a wolf who was half Chinese and Half American. His name was Lu Chen, and he was the bastard son of a Chinese woman and an American sailor, disowned by both sides, and had no family he could go to.<br /><br />Several of Lord Randall&#039;s trading partners had come down with the dreaded Hong Kong Fever. Trade had come to a standstill, as most of the ships from the mainland refused to come into port, and those ships that considered Hong Kong their home port took all their crews on board, and remained out in the harbor. Most families stayed in their homes, sweltering in the heat, and fearing contagion. It did no good. Somehow, the disease continued to spread, even though people had no contact with one another. The Chinese said there was &#039;bad air&#039; on the island.<br /><br />One morning Lord Randall awoke with a severe headache. By late afternoon, he was so weak that it was clear that he had Hong Kong Fever. Sarina sent Lu Chen to get a physician. The Chinese mink that came back with him told Sarina what she already knew - that there was little they could do but try to keep Lord Randall cool and comfortable, wash his body with cool wet cloths, make him rest, and hope he might be one of the lucky few who could survive. He left them with some herbal remedies that should ease the pain, but with little hope.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Three days later, Lord Edward Randall was near death, wracked with pain, and burning with fever. Sarina and Lu Chen had tended to him day and night for three days, as he lay on a small bed that they had set up in the coolest and darkest room of the bungalow, away from the windows.<br /><br />&quot;Edward?&quot; Sarina said, as she held a cool, wet rag to his forehead. &quot;My magic can do many things, but I cannot heal you. I have never had any luck or skill with healing magic, or even with using mundane medicine and herbs for healing. If... if it gets too painful to bear, I can give you sleep, so you will not feel the pain, and can rest. But that is the only relief I can offer you.&quot;<br /><br />Lord Randall lay there, sweating and weak, and said, &quot;That&#039;s all right, Sarina. I can bear it. I know you would aid me if you could. Forgive me, my child. I never should have brought you here. You should use your magic and leave this place, before it claims your life as well.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;There is nothing to forgive. It was my idea to join you here. I wanted to see these foreign lands. You only came back into my life to give me a splendid gift, for my birthday. You never asked me to join you here,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;I will stay here, and I will remain with you, while you live. If you die, then I promise I will leave this island, and not return. Do not worry for my health. The disease cannot harm me. I have... ways...&nbsp;&nbsp;to ensure that. But I can only do that for myself. It is a limitation of the magic I would have to use.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Still, I don&#039;t know what possessed me to agree to bring you here,&quot; he replied. &quot;No... No, I do know. It was my own base urges, my illicit carnal desires for you. When you said you wanted to be with me again, I could not resist the temptation. That is what possessed me.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I encouraged you to mate with me, so do not blame yourself there, either,&quot; Sarina replied. Then she paused, saying almost to herself, &quot;What possessed you? Possession?&quot; She shook her head, and said, &quot;Edward, listen to me. It is a very slim chance, but perhaps there is a way I could help you. There is something that I have never tried to do before, but that perhaps I can do. I must leave you to see if I can learn how to do this thing. Lu Chen will have to care for you.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina went to Lord Randall&#039;s study, and locked the door. Then she closed her eyes, and carefully sifted through all the stolen memories of the scholar and the Chinese mage, as well as her other victims, seeking anything they knew about huli jing or Kitsune. Sarina&#039;s mother had been a Kitsune, and Sarina knew she could manifest her own soul as a star ball, as her mother had been able to do. When the Chinese mage had commanded her to use her huli jing &#039;celestial fire&#039; to destroy his enemies, Sarina had instinctively breathed a torrent of fire - a Kitsune-type attack she herself had not known she was capable of! Perhaps she had other abilities attributed to a Kitsune as well? She recalled that a Kitsune, or a huli jing, could actually possess the physical body of someone else. If she could do that, then perhaps, while in possession of their body, she might be able to use the combat healing spell to cast an injury or illness from them to someone else?<br /><br />As she searched the memories, she found one possible flaw in the idea. It was also said that when a fox spirit possessed a mortal&#039;s body, it caused them to go insane. But was this true? Or was it a myth to explain insanity, blaming the strange behavior on the victim being possessed? There was only one way to find out. She needed to find a victim to test this ability on - someone who would not be missed if it went wrong, and who was in some way diseased.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Sarina went down to the harbor, to search for someone of little worth, possibly among the Tanka people. The area seemed strangely deserted. She thought to change to a native form, and recalled the sailor she had impersonated before, Hui Ding. What had happened to him? She had left him with the Tanka whores, and without his memories. If he was still there, he would be as good subject for her experiment, at least to see if she could posses his body. And after five months among whores, it was likely that the boy had contracted at least one social disease.<br /><br />She walked to the end of the harbor where the Tanka people lived on their boats, using the form of Feng Wu as her disguise. Standing on the shore, she reached out with her mind. She was amazed at the dense concentration of people on the boats. There were hundreds of them, and most whose minds she touched had lived their whole lives on those boats, never once setting foot on the shore. She found seven &#039;nursery&#039; barges, where children were being reared specifically to be sold later as concubines, mistresses or whores. Some were the children of the Tanka prostitutes, while many others were Chinese and foreign girls, purchased or kidnapped for the purpose. Sarina didn&#039;t care about the vices and morals of these people, or that they sold children as slaves. She kept searching.<br /><br />Eventually she found Hui Ding. He was standing on the side of one of the farthest boats, dressed as a Tanka native, in just a loincloth, and swearing in Cantonese as he painfully tried to piss. His surface thoughts showed that he had started fishing with the Tanka males to make a living, and to pay for the whores that he lived with. Sarina cast a compulsion spell on him, and he leaped into the harbor, and started swimming to shore.<br /><br />Feng Wu helped Hui Ding out of the water when he got to shore, and led the entranced young man to a shadowy alley, between two warehouses. The sailor stared blindly at Feng Wu, hardly acknowledging that he was there. Feng Wu stared back, uncertain as to how to proceed. The Chinese legends spoke of huli jing entering their victim&#039;s bodied through their chests. Perhaps it was similar to how a Kitsune summons their star ball? Feng Wu placed his palms on the chest of Hui Ding, and concentrated on entering the sailor&#039;s body, to take it over.<br /><br />There was a disorienting sensation, as Sarina&#039;s point of view shifted from facing Hui Ding, to staring at a wooden wall of the alley. Feng Wu had vanished, and Sarina was in Hui Ding, controlling his body and his mind. She seemed to be in full control. Hui Ding wasn&#039;t acting strangely. <br /><br />She walked back out onto the harbor&#039;s edge, and took his cock out of his loincloth. Hui Ding had a thick discharge coming from his cock, and it was painful. He had the symptoms of Gonorrhea. Sarina touched his cock and stared across the water at a Tanka prostitute on the flower boats, who had come out seeking Hui Ding. She invoked the combat healing spell, and felt relief from the pain in Hui Ding&#039;s groin. On the boats, the prostitute winced and went back into the building on the barge.<br /><br />Sarina smiled. The spell had worked. But it remained to be seen if she could leave this body again, and if Hui Ding would be sane after she left him. She fastened his loincloth back in place, and walked back into the alley.<br /><br />She thought to herself, &#039;I want to be myself again&#039;, but nothing happened. <br /><br />She concentrated on seeing Feng Wu in front of her, as Hui Ding had seen just before he was possessed. She tried to remember just what his body felt like, and how it felt to be herself in that form.<br /><br />This time, it worked. The disorienting shift happened, and Feng Wu was staring into the eyes of Hui Ding, with his hands on Hui Ding&#039;s chest.<br /><br />&quot;W-what has happened? Where am I? Who are you!&quot; Hui ding asked, with growing alarm. &quot;Why is my fur wet, and why am I on the shore?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Calm down, my excitable friend,&quot; Sarina said, as Feng Wu&#039;s eyes glowed, and she re-established her control spell on Hui Ding. &quot;You have been lost, and very ill. I found you outside an opium den, and threw you in the harbor to wake you up, and wash the stench of opium from your fur. You remember that, don&#039;t you?&quot; She altered his memories so he could remember his name and his past life as a sailor, but also so he thought he had last been in Canton, and gone to an opium den with friends. She erased his memories of his time among the Tanka people.<br /><br />&quot;Opium... I don&#039;t use... Well, not much. This... this is not Canton? Where am I?&#039; Hui Ding asked.<br /><br />&quot;Why, you are in Hong Kong! I don&#039;t know how you got here from Canton. You certainly swim well, though. Are you a sailor, or a fisherman, perhaps? Maybe you smoked too much opium in Canton, and came back to Hong Kong with your mind still befuddled by that drug? I cannot say. I only know that I found you here, reeking of opium in an alley. Do you have a name? A ship you can recall?&quot; Feng Wu asked.<br /><br />&quot;Name? My name is... Hui Ding. Yes, my name is Hui Ding! It is so hot and humid here! It should be cooler in April,&quot; he said.<br /><br />&quot;April? But it is mid September! You cannot remember the last five months?&quot; Feng Wu asked.<br /><br />&quot;I can remember nothing. Not since Canton. Oh no! I have a wife, in Canton! She must be thinking I abandoned her! Thank you, sir! But I must find a way to get home!&quot; Hui Ding shouted, as he ran from the alley.<br /><br />&quot;You do that,&quot; Sarina said quietly, as she changed back to herself. &quot;Good luck explaining your absence to your captain and your wife, but maybe you can. Whether you do or not is not my concern.&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />She could do it, she was certain. She had found a way to heal Lord Randall.<br /><br />Over the next few hours she located another Fever victim close to their home. The human man was close to death himself. It would be difficult, but if she could possess Lord Randall, and then immediately infect their cook first, and then possess the cook while his strength was not yet weakened, and then get within sight of the human so she could pass the disease from the wolf to the human fever victim, then she could save Lord Randall, while only hastening the death of a human who was already doomed by this disease. It would, of course, be easier to simply have Lord Randall&#039;s body go to infect the human, but she feared Lord Randal&#039;s body was too weak to walk that far.<br /><br />There was a very real risk to herself, however, and she was reluctant to take that risk. If she possessed Lord Randall&#039;s body, and if he died before she could remove the disease from his body and inflict it upon Lu Chen, Sarina did not know what would happen to her own spirit. Would she die, if the body she was in died? Or would her spirit re-form her body when the victim perished?&nbsp;&nbsp;Was she willing to risk her own life, to save the life of a man that she was merely using, and did not love? She paused in a tea house and sifted through the memories again and again, seeking any legends or lore that might enlighten her. It took her a while to find the answer.<br /><br />===<br /><br />The sun was setting as Sarina returned home. Lu Chen was sitting on the front steps, with his head in his hands. He looked up at her sadly, and said, &quot;He is gone, Lady Randall. Two hours after you left us, he suddenly got out of bed, claiming he felt much better. I tried to keep him quiet and resting, but he is... was...&nbsp;&nbsp;much bigger and stronger than I am. He insisted on seeking you, to tell you he had improved. He... got only as far as the street, before he collapsed. I have already told the authorities. His body is inside, properly laid out, and they will be by in the morning for his funeral arrangements.&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />In the morning, Lady Sarina Randall, dressed in black, signed the paperwork for the funeral arrangements for Lord Edward Randall. His remains were to be cremated, and Lu Chen was to personally take the ashes back to Lord Pennington, to be interred in the family crypt.<br /><br />&quot;Lady Randall?&quot; Lu Chen asked, confused. &quot;I will do as you ask, surely. But you are not coming with me, to see your husband placed in the family crypt?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I have other matters to attend to here, Lu Chen, and faster means of transportation for my own return to England. Please, do as I ask. And when you get there, give Lord Pennington this letter. I am asking him to offer you a job, in his household, in thanks for your loyal service to my family. You should leave Hong Kong. I will try to be there myself in time for the funeral,&quot; Sarina insisted. As Lu Chen left, Sarina altered his memories, so that once he left Hong King, he would recall serving not a man and his wife, but a father and daughter.<br /><br />Sarina sold the bungalow as soon as the cremation had been dealt with, and Lu Chen sent on his way. Then she gathered her belongings, including the funds in her late husband&#039;s bank account, and his strong box. The Governor and Lord Randall&#039;s other friends were told she was leaving Hong Kong on the next available ship for India, and from there back to England. Several people later remembered seeing her board that ship.<br /><br />However, Sarina did not remain on the ship, which was not the one she had booked passage on. She left Hong Kong as Feng Wu, on a boat headed for the port of Shanghai. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 30, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 30 - Trouble in Shanghai<br /><br />After two days on a British clipper ship, packed rather uncomfortably into a below-decks area with other ethnic Chinese passengers, Feng Wu arrived in the Eastern port city of Shanghai.<br /><br />When the British defeated China in the Opium Wars three years earlier, one of the terms the Chinese had been forced to agree to had been the opening of five Chinese ports to direct foreign trade. Shanghai was the port farthest to the east of these five treaty ports, and was situated at the mouth of a deep river that reached far inland into China. Soon after that, the French and Americans and several other nations also forced themselves upon the Chinese, and several areas of &#039;concession&#039; land on the edges of the city were set aside for British, French and Americans to settle and build in. Unlike Hong Kong, this land remained Chinese soil, but the foreigners living there had certain extraterritorial rights.<br /><br />Few people paid any attention to the young mink scholar, as he walked off the clipper ship carrying only a simple bag that had contained little more than some food and personal supplies for the voyage. If anyone thought it odd that he apparently had no other luggage, it was of little enough consequence and they forgot about him swiftly. He had to watch his step. It had rained the night before, and the road along the dock area was muddy.<br /><br />Feng Wu walked to the end of the docks, and down onto a sandy beach beside the wide river that the town of Shanghai nestled against. Feng Wu had studied maps of the area, and the scholar and the mage had known the geography of this area fairly well. He knew that the river went far into the mountains in the heart of China. Standing on the beach, looking out at a seemingly endless sea, Feng Wu was amused that the Chinese mage, Jiang Wu, had so little faith in his own prophecies. If he had believed in the casting of the I Ching that he had done for Feng Wu, surely he must have realized that he could not keep the suspected huli jing captive? If he had been successful in enslaving the &#039;demon&#039;, how then would Feng Wu now be standing on the farthest shore of China, looking to travel elsewhere?<br /><br />He left the beach and went back to the docks, and asked the same question among the seamen and dock workers. &quot;Can you tell me, if among the many merchants from foreign lands, any ships ever come to Shanghai from the island of Japan?&quot; <br /><br />Always the answer was the same. One Chinese ship&#039;s captain told him, &quot;No ship from Japan has come to our shores in at least the last 25 years. No ship from any other nation is permitted to land on that forbidden island, even in an emergency. Shipwreck victims and ships in dire need of supplies receive the same treatment - the crews are crucified or beheaded, if they dare to set foot on the island, and any foreign ship approaching their ports is fired on by fortified cannon defending the ports, and driven back into the sea. Any native of Japan who leaves the island can never go back, on pain of death. The island has sealed itself against all outside contact, and shows no sign of relenting. No, if you seek to go there, or if you hope to meet people from those lands, you hope in vain, young scholar.&quot;<br /><br />Feng Wu asked, &quot;Ah? But if it is true that they kill all foreigners who land there, and no one from Japan is permitted to leave, then how do we know the fate of those who go there?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;The ships that have been driven off have told of seeing the crucified bodies of foreigners on the beaches, left there as a warning,&quot; he replied. &quot;And the ruler of that land issued a solemn warning, when he closed the port of Nagasaki, which for hundreds of years had been the only port they allowed foreigners in at all, that anyone who returned to Japan would be killed at once. Then he forced the Dutch and the priests and anyone else who was not Japanese, and any Japanese who followed the Western Church, to leave, or be slain.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I see. Thank you for that information. Is it possible then that among the elder scholars, some may recall days gone by when there was contact with those people?&quot; Feng Wu asked.<br /><br />&quot;You seem very interested in seeking what is forbidden to you,&quot; the captain said, looking carefully at the young man. &quot;Why is that?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I am a scholar, sir, and I seek more knowledge. I have been collecting old legends about the magical creatures of our land, and of those on other lands that are similar to what we tell of. I had heard some stories, or bits and pieces of tales, which were said to be from that island, but which were very similar to our own. That is all. Just a scholar&#039;s curiosity,&quot; Feng Wu replied.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Feng Wu went to the British Concession area, where he changed his form to resemble a British merchant that Sarina had known in Hong Kong. Now in the form a mixed breed canine male in his early 40&#039;s, he gave his name as Peter Jameson. He checked into the Richards&#039; Hotel and Restaurant, a new establishment being run by an enterprising Scotsman. Once he had a place to stay in comfort, he left the hotel, resumed his appearance as Feng Wu, and went in search of older scholars. <br /><br />Using the hotel as his base of operations, and appearing as needed as either Peter Jameson or Feng Wu, depending on which ethnicity got him the best reception, Sarina lived as a male for the next two months, and gathered what information she could.&nbsp;&nbsp;Yet even though she had taken these two male forms, she found that she still thought of herself as a girl, and mentally still called herself Sarina. <br /><br />She discovered very little that was of use to her. A few scholars knew that huli jing and Kitsune were similar, but they knew little else of the Japanese Kitsune, or of Japan. It was getting to be frustrating.<br /><br />===<br /><br />As the time approached for when she expected that Lu Chen, with Lord Edward Randall&#039;s remains, should soon be arriving in England, Sarina pondered on how to proceed. Should she just close that chapter of her life, and forget about Sarina and those who knew her? Or should she keep her options open? Did it matter to her, really, if she went back there at all? She came to the conclusion that there was some advantage to maintaining the ruse that Miss Sarina Randall still lived. Lord Edward Randall had nothing of value left in England for Sarina to acquire. But he did still have relatives there, and so did the real Sarina. If she was to show up again as the bereaved daughter of Lord Pennington&#039;s brother in law, faithfully seeing to her last duties to her father as his daughter and sole surviving heiress, that would make a good impression on the Penningtons. Besides, Lord Pennington would be happy for another opportunity to give his niece, or possibly his daughter, a tumble in bed, the old letch. And if Sarina were to appear again in the lives of Lord and Lady Pennington, and they knew she was still alive and in contact with them, it might encourage the now childless old couple to keep her in their will.<br /><br />So just before sunset one evening, &#039;Peter Jameson&#039; gathered his things, concealed everything on his necklace other than the clothes and walking stick that &#039;Peter Jameson&#039; was known to wear and carry, and checked out of the hotel. He headed for the docks, thinking perhaps to find a secluded section of beach where he could quickly create a portal, resume Sarina&#039;s form, and depart. <br /><br />As she walked, she considered at first the possibility of attempting to open a portal directly from Shanghai to England. In theory, she could do it. She had a good idea of her own surroundings, and she still had a very clear mental image of Sarina&#039;s former bedroom at Lord Pennington&#039;s home, as well as several other locations in the city that should be safe to travel to magically. The safest location, in fact, would be to create a portal to the open, grassy field beside the inn where Darla/Heather used to live and work as a whore. But the distance was so vast that she doubted she could do it, without making some serious error. England was, quite literally on the other side of the world from Shanghai. She simply did not have enough experience yet in making portals to connect two places that were that far apart.<br /><br />Standing beside a warehouse on the docks, she decided that the sensible alternative would be to make several jumps, each to a place he knew sufficiently well. She had remained long enough in Hong Kong that she could quite easily go from her current location to Victoria Peak&#039;s summit, and be able to return from there back to Shanghai, now that she knew this area. From there, she had a fairly good recollection of the house they had stayed in while in India, before coming to Hong Kong. But going from India to Egypt might be a problem. Sarina had not stayed in Egypt for very long, nor had she concentrated very hard on the appearance of any one area there. The best location she could come up with was the market square where the snake charmer had performed, and where she had left that one would-be kidnapper dangling in mid air over the basket of cobras. That sight had remained well in her memories. If she could make it there, then a single jump from there to England for the last portal? But that would also be risky, as it was a busy place, packed with people day and night, and the merchant stalls and peddler&#039;s rugs were constantly being re-arranged. She might well step out of the portal and right into that snake charmer&#039;s basket full of cobras!<br /><br />Was there a better way, perhaps? A portal did not have to connect two places in the same world, or even at the same point in the river of time. She had travelled before from one world to another, and in the process she leaped 500 years or more into the future, at least in terms of how developed this world was, compared to the one she had been born in. She had made no attempt to control the time aspect, when she had come here. She had simply sought a world where she might be accepted for what she was. If she made a portal to another world, and then tried to make one from that world back to this one, could she be certain she would arrive at the desired time, and not hundreds of years off? Could she even be sure she would arrive in this particular world, and not one that was similar, but with subtle differences? The texts she had studied had hinted at such things, and the memories of Jiang Wu certainly contained thoughts of multiple planes of reality, each one similar, yet different. For example, a world might exist that might be just like this one, but with the exception that the real Sarina and her mother had never become ill. It was all so confusing!<br /><br />She needed advice, and she really didn&#039;t have anyone she could ask about this topic. Or did she? There was one individual who had aided her in the past, whose advice she could seek here. She could summon the fire elemental, Asha. The creature had been very useful in finding information and selecting possible solutions to Sarina&#039;s problems. True, her price for seven years service had been rather high. But would she require all that much in return for some simple advice? There was only one way to know.<br /><br />She looked around herself, and decided there were too many people on the docks and on nearby boats that could see her. It was one thing to open a portal and quickly leave the area. But standing in the open and summoning an unusual type of elemental might draw some very unfriendly attention. She retreated into an alley, hoping to find a more private place.<br /><br />But others also saw Peter Jameson turn and walk into that alley. The docks of Shanghai were not a very safe place at night, and particularly so for what appeared to be a well-dressed foreigner. Several dark-clad individuals stealthily followed Sarina into the alley. <br /><br />The squelching sound of a footstep in mud was the first indication Sarina had that she was being pursued. She had been paying attention to navigating the muddy alley in the pale moonlight, and wasn&#039;t being that alert for trouble. She turned, seeing six Chinese individuals, armed with wicked looking throwing hatchets, in the alley between her and the docks.<br /><br />The six attackers saw Peter Jameson turn to face them, armed apparently with nothing more than a walking stick. One of the dark-clad attackers threw a hatchet, which struck with a meaty &#039;thunk&#039; in the foreigner&#039;s left shoulder, causing him to drop his stick into the mud at his feet, and reach for the wound as he shouted in pain and anger. The thugs laughed and closed in for the kill.<br /><br />The next thing they knew, the closest of their own number to their victim screamed in agony, as a throwing hatchet materialized in his left shoulder. No one saw it thrown, but it could only be the hatchet that had struck the foreigner, somehow hurled back at them with supernatural speed and accuracy.<br /><br />Peter Jameson stood up, apparently uninjured. No blood soiled his clothing, and even the shoulder of his coat seemed undamaged. His eyes glowed a brilliant acid green - glowing with a light impossibly bright for a reflection - a light that tinted everything in the alley with its eerie green color. &quot;You dare!&quot; the foreigner said, in fluent Chinese. &quot;You dare to attack me? Flee now, and save your wretched lives, or attack, and pay the price!&quot;<br /><br />A wolf and a bear who were as yet uninjured raced forward, with hatchets in each hand, intending to close on this strange foreigner and slay him before he could do any other unnatural things. A weasel closest to the docks turned and ran. The three others stood their ground, hesitating.<br /><br />Peter Jameson raised one hand, and the two charging thugs turned into living torches, as their bodies caught fire. They fell to the ground, dead before they could take three steps in their victim&#039;s direction.<br /><br />The remaining three attackers next saw nothing at all. Before their eyes could readjust from the brilliant burst of flame that had incinerated their companions, a boiling black cloud erupted from nowhere and everywhere at once, blocking out all light. And from within that cloud came unspeakable horrors - creatures of nightmare that could not be touched by their weapons, but which tore their bodies to shreds.<br /><br />When the nightmare fog cleared, the only living thing in the alley was Peter Jameson. Five thugs lay dead, two of them burned to death, and the other three had been torn limb from limb. Out on the docks, the last of their number, the ferret who had run when warned, fled into the night as if a demon from the depths of hell was chasing him. Sarina allowed him to escape.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 31, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 31 - Obligations<br /><br />Sarina was angry. She was angry at herself for being so incautious, and angry at these thugs that had caused her pain. She waved her hand, and the corpses of her victims fell into five heaps in a rough circle in the alley. Blood flowed from their remains, and ran in rivulets that moved unnaturally across the mud, until trails of blood formed the invocation and control circle for summoning Asha. Sarina raised her hands, and all five corpses burned to ashes, as she invoked the summoning ritual.<br /><br />When Sarina completed the ritual, Asha stood in the circle, as a column of night-black fire that had the vague outlines of a female person. The elemental&#039;s fiery green eyes looked at the circle drawn in fresh blood, the smoldering, incinerated remains of five bodies, and finally at the one who had summoned her. And then she smiled, and her grin looked like a green crescent in the inky black flames of her face.<br /><br />&quot;So, you are the one who summoned me? You have changed. But I still know you. My kind can never fail to recognize the soul of those to whom we have once been bound. How should I address you, Mistress? Or is it Master, now?&quot; Asha asked. &quot;And what is it that you require of me?&quot; <br /><br />Sarina looked at the file elemental, Asha. The creature looked stronger, more powerful than when they had parted company. But she sensed no hostility toward herself. &quot;Mistress will suffice, for addressing me. Sarina, still, if you wish to use a name, though I am not sure how much longer that identity will last. This male form is but a convenience of the moment, who has been known here as Peter Jameson. What I require from you is information, and advice. What is your price for serving me again, for a period of several years?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;I would say you&#039;ve already paid a sufficient price for me to serve you again as your familiar, if that is what you want from me. You just sent five souls straight to hell, and used their bodies and the still-warm blood of your victims to summon me. That made them each a live sacrifice to power your sorcery, and bound their souls to me in Hell, to do with as I please. I still have little use for souls myself, but I can trade them to others in my realm for my own benefit,&quot; Asha replied. &quot;Your sacrifice of five lives has bought you ten years of my service, if it pleases you, Mistress Sarina.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Very well then. I accept your service as my familiar for ten more years, paid for with the blood and souls of those five unfortunate wretches,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />Asha resumed her black furred vixen form, and after a moment&#039;s hesitation, clothed herself in the Chinese fashion, for a girl of no particular rank. &quot;Done, then. I shall serve you as before, to the best of my ability, for ten years from this date. How may I advise you, Mistress?&quot; she asked as she crossed the now unnecessary summoning circle to stand by the side of the apparent canine male that had summoned her.<br /><br />&quot;We are in Shanghai, China. I want to travel half-a world away from here. It is my desire to swiftly and safely return to the Pennington&#039;s mansion, in England, to deal with certain obligations, and later return to this place. I don&#039;t think I have quite enough experience and power to make a portal from here to there in a single step. Nor do I know enough safe places along the way to make a staged journey with several portals. Is there another way? Is there a better way? Can a portal be made from this ream to another realm entirely, and back again to a very distant location in this one, without losing my place in the river of time, or coming out in a slightly different world than this one?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;That you thought that through shows you have learned a great deal, Mistress. Your caution is justified. I do indeed know a way that you can make that journey in two stages, and come out again in this exact world, at the exact same time as when you left,&quot; Asha replied.<br /><br />&quot;And will you tell me how this is done?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;You can go to Hell, Mistress,&quot; the elemental replied.<br /><br />&quot;What? How dare you speak to me in that manner, after agreeing to serve me!&quot; Sarina growled.<br /><br />&quot;What manner is that, Mistress? I told you how it could be done, quite precisely. You can do it by going to Hell, first. Make a portal, and use it to travel to hell. Once you are in hell, you could make a portal from there to anywhere in this world, and use it to come out at the precise instant that you left,&quot; Asha insisted.<br /><br />&quot;Just as simple as that, is it? My soul is damned many times over for the murders that I have committed, and the forbidden magic that I have used. If I end up in Hell, do you really think I could leave there?&quot; Sarina asked. &quot;And how can you be so certain that I could return precisely to the same time and realm?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I did not say it would be terribly easy, Mistress. I said I know how you can do it,&quot; Asha replied. &quot;Have you ever wondered why so many religions assert that damnation in Hell is for eternity? The region you call Hell has some very unique properties. It touches many possible realities at once, at virtually every place in the river of time. But when any individual crosses from a realm into Hell, if they ever make it back out again, they return to the precise moment in time and to the precise realm that they left when they entered Hell, no matter how much time has passed for them in Hell.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;So you&#039;re saying that if I do go to Hell, that it is inevitable that returning from Hell will put me back in this time, in this reality, though possibly at a different location?&quot; Sarina asked. &quot;Does the converse hold true, for those of your realm brought to other realms to serve a mage? Do you return to the time when you left?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Yes, it does,&quot; Asha replied. &quot;For example, when you summoned me from Hell to serve as your familiar, and I served you for seven years, I traveled with you between the realms to this world, hundreds of years further down the river of time. Yet when I returned to Hell, no time had passed there as far as any of my kind would have reckoned. You summoned me now, and what you contacted was an instance of me that has experienced 500 more years of existence than when we last met. I have served many Masters and Mistresses since our last parting, and my power has increased greatly.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I thought you seemed stronger. Are your kind immortal? 500 years is a long time, for my species.&quot; Sarina replied.<br /><br />&quot;We live much longer than those of other realms, but after tens of thousands of your years we still perish, and at any time we can be killed, if the necessary circumstances are met. I am still young among my kind,&quot; Asha replied.<br /><br />&quot;Tell, me, how could I ensure that I can enter Hell and leave again? How can I prevent my damned soul from being trapped there for eternity, once there?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;By making certain that your soul is not quite present in Hell as you pass through it, Mistress,&quot; Asha replied. &quot;One master that I served created a spell that allowed him to make a special magical gem. A soul could be placed in that gem - his own soul or someone else&#039;s. Placing another person&#039;s soul in the gem gave whoever possessed the gem control over that person. But placing your own soul in the gem protected your life force. As long as you kept the gem close, and the gem remained unharmed, your body was invulnerable to most forms of attack. He also found that having his soul in the gem allowed him to pass through Hell without being detected and trapped there. The spell did have disadvantages, of course. If someone else obtained the stone, they could control the mage, or destroy the stone, and in so doing destroy him! And if the stone was not kept on his person, he had to touch it once each moon, to restore the connection between body and soul. This also limited his control of others with such stones, as the controlled person&#039;s body must be touched by their soul gem once each moon, or perish.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina looked down the alley beyond Asha, and saw that someone was peering into the darkness in their direction. She doubted that they could be seen clearly, or heard from that distance, but someone had apparently noticed the screams as her attackers died. She cast a fear spell at the observer, and he ran away.&quot;I do not like the idea of placing my soul in an object that can easily be stolen or destroyed, and which might be used to control me,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;Is there no other way? Hasten, as we are beginning to draw unwelcome attention here.&quot; <br /><br />&quot;I was getting to that. You told me once that your mother was a Kitsune? Can you form a star ball, as they can, with all or part of your soul manifested in it?&quot; Asha asked.<br /><br />&quot;Yes, and my body does seem to be harder to kill if it has been manifested,&quot; Sarina replied.<br /><br />&quot;And I recall that wonderfully creative necklace that you had? Do you still have it? And what happens to living material placed in it?&quot; Asha asked.<br /><br />&quot;Plant material can be placed in the necklace, and can be restored normally, and is still fresh and usable. While in the necklace it gives no scent, and seems undetectable. But I have never put a person or a live animal in it. Why?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;Well, I believe that if you manifest your soul in a star ball, and then place that ball in a bag or chest and shrink it to attach to your necklace, it will still be close to you, but undetectable and impervious to harm. Try it. Or capture another victim from the docks, put them in a box or bag, and see if they survive being added to your necklace and restored.&quot; Asha suggested. <br /><br />&quot;I can see that might work. And how do we get to Hell?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;You have a gateway to hell right here. A summoning circle allows my kind to travel from hell to your world. It also allows your kind to travel into and out of Hell, if you remove the control elements from the diagram,&quot; Asha replied. She picked up the abandoned walking stick, and pointed to five symbols in the complex diagram. &quot;Remove those symbols, and my name, and if we both step into the circle, we will appear in Hell, and the circle with us, at the same point where I left Hell when you summoned me. That circle will vanish from this world. Once in Hell, we step out of the circle, redirect it, and step back in, to go where you wish in this realm. But we need to step into it quickly, once the symbols are removed. Until we do, anyone or anything can use the portal, from either side, without those controls.&quot;<br /><br />Angry voices at the far end of the alley drew Sarina&#039;s attention. She saw a few people furtively peeking around the corners of the building and into the alley. Then she saw one person boldly stand at the alley entrance, and invoke a sphere of light in his hand.<br /><br />Sarina countered with a light-absorbing cloud of darkness halfway between them, and said, &quot;We have no more time. A mage is investigating the disturbance here. We will risk it, while this portal still has power.&quot; She gestured and the name and symbols vanished from the diagram. The remaining lines and symbols ignited into thin lines of flame.<br /><br />&quot;That did it,&quot; Asha said. &quot;Prepare your star ball, Mistress.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina resumed her vixen form, and concentrated, holding her hands cupped at her breasts. A blue-white pearl-like sphere of light formed between her hands. She placed this on a pouch from her belt, paused just a moment, and invoked the spell to shrink the pouch and connect it to her necklace.<br /><br />Asha watched, and then said, &quot;You seem to have suffered no harm from that, but I can no longer sense your soul. Let us go then. I would recommend that we not leave your star ball in that state any longer than we have to.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Agreed. I feel - strange. But I think I am all right. Let us go then,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />Together, they stepped into the circle. The flames at the diagram&#039;s edge rose into a circular curtain of fire, and everything within that circle vanished.<br /><br />Several minutes later, the mage in the alley mouth dispelled the darkness cloud, and hesitantly investigated what was in the alley. He found only five mounds of ash, containing a few small fragments of burned bones. To his mage&#039;s senses, the area stank of dark sorcery. But he could tell no more of what had happened there. The type of spell Sarina had cast to summon Asha, and to go to Hell, was outside the mage&#039;s understanding.<br /><br />===<br /><br />The circular wall of flames fell, and the lines of blood in the portal diagram ceased burning. Sarina and Asha found themselves on a barren plain, under an inky black sky that showed not a single star, but which flared everywhere with sinuous trails of shimmering, multicolored light that cast a soft glow much like moonlight. The horizon seemed to curve unnaturally. In stark contrast to the sky, the ground was covered with a white crystalline powder that glittered slightly, like freshly fallen powder snow, without a trace of a footstep or any other mark disturbing its pristine glory. The blackened magical diagram surrounding them was the only trace of life to be seen.<br /><br />&quot;It&#039;s actually rather beautiful,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;Not at all what I expected.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Welcome to Hell, or at least the corner of it that I prefer to dwell in. I told you it isn&#039;t quite what the Church would have you believe. There are other areas that you might find quite unpleasant, with acid pools and noxious gasses, or seething with tiny creatures too numerous to count, that crawl all over you, and constantly try to get into the slightest opening or gaps. Not like this place at all. Now, we need to step out of the circle, so we can re-focus it on your desired destination. The portal can&#039;t be re-used while we stand in it, not even to go right back where we came from,&quot; Asha said, as she stepped outside the circle.<br /><br />Sarina stepped forward, saying, &quot;All right, show me what to... aughk!&quot; She clutched at her throat, gasping for breath, and fell back into the circle, panting and shivering. &quot;What? S-so c-c-cold! C-couldn&#039;t... b-breathe...&quot; she gasped.<br /><br />Asha looked at Sarina curiously, quite unaffected by the bitter cold that had numbed Sarina&#039;s skin. &quot;Oh, that&#039;s right. Your kind needs air to breathe, don&#039;t they? There isn&#039;t any, in this part of Hell, and it is also extremely cold here, by your standards. I honestly had quite forgotten about that,&quot; Asha said apologetically. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 32, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 32 - Stuck in a frozen hell<br /><br />Sarina glared incredulously at the fire elemental. &quot;How could you possibly &#039;forget&#039; that this part of Hell is an airless frozen void? You swore to serve me faithfully!&quot; she shouted.<br /><br />&quot;Calm down, Mistress. We will get you out of this... somehow... It wasn&#039;t intentional, I assure you,&quot; Asha insisted. &quot;This place is quite comfortable for me. I don&#039;t breathe air, like you do, nor does the very low temperature bother me. You rushed us unto this before I could consider where we would enter Hell. If we had more time to prepare, I could have gone to Hell on my own, first, and found a place more hospitable to your species, and then returned, so you would appear in Hell with me in that place instead. But when you summoned me, this is where I happened to be, enjoying some solitude. And this is where we must get you out of. Do you know any spells to protect yourself against a hostile environment?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I never bothered to learn any of those,&quot; Sarina said sullenly. &quot;But I do have my collection of spell books with me. I should be able to find something.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Start with the dark sorcery books that have combat spells in them, Mistress,&quot; Asha suggested. &quot;There should be something of that sort there. It is a common tactic in mage battles to make the environment hostile to the enemy. The mage needs to protect their own body before casting such spells as would remove all air, or invoke a blizzard, or create an inferno of flames. But work rapidly. I fear you do not have much air trapped within that circle with you. The flames that surrounded us only went about nine feet into the air. So in all probability, you only have as much air as a space the size of that circle and nine feet tall could hold,&quot; Asha stated. &quot;That wouldn&#039;t last you very long, would it?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Probably not, no,&quot; Sarina said, as she removed from her necklace the chest that contained the book Asha had suggested, located the first likely-looking book, and started leafing through it. &quot;Couldn&#039;t I just create a new circle outside this one, and leap into it as the portal back to my realm opens?&quot; Sarina asked, as she located a promising entry and began to read the requirements for casting the spell, and what exactly it did.<br /><br />&quot;No, Mistress. I am afraid you can&#039;t cast any spell beyond the edges of that circle,&quot; Asha said. &quot;Until you fully cross its edge, you really aren&#039;t quite all the way into Hell. Just as a summoned demon can not affect you while the circle controls them, you, from within it, can cast no spell outside the circle. Any spell you use must affect you within the circle, first. Then, if you move through the barrier, that magic will remain with you.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I see,&quot; Sarina said. She was quiet for a moment, and then cursed and went to another section, saying, &quot;Well, that was a fine one, but we are fresh out of goat livers and the other spell ingredients that it requires.&quot; She kept looking. After several more frustrating failures, she smiled, and said, &quot;Ah! This one I could do. I think it will work, and the only physical component it requires is an undamaged pearl or similar spherical gem, and I do have some pearls that are not pierced for a necklace. It says &#039;the Telekinetic Sphere encloses the mage and those near him with an impenetrable wall of force. Spells and environmental conditions originating outside the sphere can affect the sphere itself, but not those inside it. Spells cast within the sphere act normally within its limits, but cannot pass outward. Those within the sphere can breathe normally, even under water or in a poisonous atmosphere.&#039;&nbsp;&nbsp;It says also that those within the sphere weigh a fraction of their normal weight, and that the sphere can be moved by the thoughts of the caster. So if I cast that within this circle, move out of the circle, and cast a new portal spell within the confines of the sphere, we could use that portal to leave!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;It sounds worth a try. Prepare what you need, and I will step beside you just before you cast the spell,&quot; Asha said, as she hummed a very odd-sounding tune. A few pale lights, like will-o-the-wisps, danced around the elemental, like moths attracted to a flame, even though she was not in a flaming form at the moment. She snatched one of them out of the air with one hand, and the others vanished instantly.<br /><br />Sarina did not notice the dancing lights, or what her familiar was doing. She read through the spell twice more, and then put away the book in the chest, while getting out a single pearl from her money chest. When she was ready, she nodded to Asha, and began the spell.<br /><br />The elemental moved back into the circle, and stood close to her Mistress. She remained silent, to not disturb the casting of the spell.<br /><br />Sarina held the pearl, and spoke the incantation for the spell. The pearl expanded greatly in size, becoming intangible and hollow, like a ghostly soap bubble. It stopped expanding abruptly as its diameter matched that of the portal circle. Then Sarina and Asha began to feel incredibly light, almost as if floating in water.<br /><br />&quot;Can you make it larger now? Or make it move outward and down a bit, so it forms a dome?&quot; Asha asked.<br /><br />&quot;I think so. Well, here we go,&quot; Sarina said. She concentrated, and the shimmering bubble moved forward slowly. They walked with it. As she got to the edge of the circle, Sarina took a deep breath, and then stepped forward.<br /><br />She felt an odd twisting sensation as she passed the confined of the portal that had brought her to Hell. It seemed colder, but bearable. Looking behind them, the first portal circle was gone now, as if it had never existed.<br /><br />&quot;The ground feels very cold to my feet,&quot; Sarina mentioned. &quot;But I can still breathe, and the cold is not as bad as before. I&#039;ll try to make the bubble larger now.&quot;<br /><br />With a thought, the bubble grew to twice its size, while its center remained roughly at the height of Sarina&#039;s chest. A large circle of the frozen soil of this part of Hell was now within the circle. The white crystalline powder on the ground seemed to quickly melt, and then evaporate, leaving a bare, smooth rock surface.<br /><br />&quot;It would seem that the &#039;snow&#039; on the ground here was the very air itself, frozen by the cold!&quot; Sarina observed. She took a dagger from her belt and inscribed the portal circle on the bare stone, being careful to make it precisely as Asha had indicated before, while omitting the five control symbols and the name of the one to be summoned. &quot;Now, how do we get out of here with this?&quot; she asked.<br /><br />&quot;Concentrate on the place you want the portal to go to, while inscribing a name that you associate with the place where you would put the summoned creature&#039;s name. A place name, not a living creature&#039;s name,&quot; Asha said.<br /><br />Sarina concentrated, and then inscribed a few short words, before saying, &quot;It feels incomplete. Like it should be doing something, but something is missing.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;You are correct. It is incomplete. I have the last needed component ready for you, to make it work from within Hell. This will be the hard part, Mistress,&quot; Asha said. &quot;The spell for that hell gate portal cannot connect to your world while this barrier is in place. Take a deep breath, and then I will hand you something. Hold it tightly, and do not let it slip from your grasp until you are ready. Then drop the protective barrier, and throw what is in your hand at the center of the circle. The portal will open, and then we can step into it and leave.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina took a deep breath, and nodded. Asha placed something into Sarina&#039;s hand. It glowed faintly, and felt like an ice cold, squirming worm or slug, desperately trying to wriggle away. She tried not to think of how nauseating it felt to hold it in her bare hand, as she dropped the barrier, and threw it at the circle.<br /><br />The numbing cold hit Sarina like an axe. She saw the portal enflame as the thing she threw hit the circle and vanished with a bright burst of light. Sarina plunged forward into the circle, with Asha at her side.<br /><br />===<br /><br />An instant later, they tumbled to the ground in an open field, under a star-lit sky, as their momentum took them out of the circle again at their destination. It felt warm again, and a pleasant breeze blew over them, as the portal circle behind them vanished. There was no moon, and it was fairly dark. The nearest light was the windows of a familiar looking inn, several hundred yards away.<br /><br />When she got her breath back, Sarina asked, &quot;Augh! What was that disgusting thing you handed to me?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Our fee, for leaving Hell without being summoned from outside,&quot; Asha replied, as she stood and re-arranged her clothing&#039;s appearance to something more like that of a tavern wench. She could see the inn that Darla and she had stayed at not far from where they stood, across the open field. <br /><br />&quot;Our fee? You mentioned no fee,&quot; Sarina said. She also stood, and assumed the appearance of Heather, the tavern whore. &quot;What further burden has been placed on me now?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;None. I paid the fee for us both, to make up to you for my error in bringing you to a part of Hell that you couldn&#039;t breathe in,&quot; Asha said. &quot;Just as a mage must pay a price for the service of a resident of Hell when you summon them, if someone from my realm wants to leave on their own, they must also pay a price. It is a price that is high enough that few of us choose to pay it, or are able to do so. A soul. I paid with one of the five souls that you sacrificed to summon me. What you threw into the hell gate portal to open it was the soul of one of the five thieves that you killed.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;That was a soul? It felt... horrible. Very unclean,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;Are they all like that?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;A pure soul, I am told, feels warm and comfortable when held. I have never held a pure one, myself. That was a very tainted soul, and one that had no time to atone yet for what it had done in life. He died without any regrets for the many victims he had killed or tortured. He will now have quite a while to contemplate how he ended up in Hell. Sacrificing that soul as we did, to pay for that spell, sent him to one of the most unpleasant reaches of Hell,&quot; Asha said. &quot;On the other hand, it may cause him to spend less time in Hell in the long run. That soul will have a great deal of incentive to get to someplace better.<br /><br />&quot;Someplace better? A damned soul can do that?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;Oh, eventually, yes. Even &#039;eternal damnation&#039; doesn&#039;t last forever. After sufficient time is spent there, even the worst soul may be reincarnated, and given a chance to earn a better fate,&quot; Asha replied.<br /><br />&quot;Well, I&#039;m just glad to be out of Hell, even if it did cost a soul for us to get out,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />Before Sarina and Asha could talk further, they were briefly blinded as a ring of golden fire surrounded them, and bright lines of golden flames appeared at their feet, forming a complex constraint and control circle, with them trapped in the center. Beyond the thin wall of flames at the edge of the circle, a shadowy figure shouted at them, &quot;You will be back in Hell soon enough, hell spawn! I have you trapped, and you will not cause trouble here, while I can prevent it!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;WHAT? Wait! What do you mean? I am no creature of Hell!&quot; Sarina shouted in reply, as she tried to see their attacker through the bright wall of fire.<br /><br />&quot;Oh really? So speaks someone who has no soul, and who is accompanied by an elemental from Hell? So says one who I heard with my own ears talking of using souls to open a hell gate and come here from Hell? And yet you insist you&#039;re not from Hell?&quot; the person outside the circle said. &quot;How foolish do you think I am? I felt that hell gate open, hell spawn, and came at once to stop you. I will send you both back to hell for another hundred years, before you harm these people and their city!&quot; She began a low chant, drawing two swords with flaming blades and holding them aloft as she began the ritual for consigning a demon to Hell.<br /><br />&quot;Mistress! She can do it! If she finishes her incantation, we&#039;ll both be sent back to Hell, and we&#039;ll be stuck there for a hundred years! We&#039;re trapped in this confounded circle!&quot; Asha said.<br /><br />&quot;WAIT!&quot; Heather shouted. &quot;You accuse us wrongly! I DO have a soul, and I can prove it! We have done no harm here. Will you not give me a chance to prove my innocence?&quot;<br /><br />The mage hesitated. &quot;There is only one soul in that circle, soulless one, and that is the elemental beside you! Do not seek to trick me! Your spells can not cross that barrier. But I am not an unjust person. I will give you one chance to prove yourself. Make it good,&quot; said the mage outside the circle.<br /><br />Heather faced her accuser, and said, &quot;I came here from hell - that is true. But I was only in Hell because I passed through that realm to get here more rapidly. I am a mage, from this world, and this creature is my familiar. I hid my soul before I entered Hell, so I would not be trapped there. Lower your wall of flames, and I will restore my soul from its hiding place, and you will see I speak the truth!&quot; Heather said.<br /><br />The mage outside the circle lowered one of her swords, and the wall of fire became a fence only a few feet high, as she said, &quot;I will see this miracle. The barrier is still there, and your banishment all but complete. Cast a spell at me, and I swear I will send you to hell before you can scream.&quot; The flames on the sword blade that she had pointed at them made it hard to see the mage&#039;s face.<br /><br />Heather lowered her head, and cupped both hands near her necklace. She lowered her hands, and was holding her belt pouch, and from within the pouch she produced the Kitsune star ball that held her soul. She looked at the mage, holding the star ball up where it could be seen, and said, &quot;Here is my soul, mage. Can you sense it now? I will make it a part of me, so you can see it belongs to no other.&quot;<br /><br />The star ball floated above her hand, and drifted to her chest, where it entered her body. She took a deep breath, as it re-united with her, and then looked more carefully at the mage outside the circle. Then she smiled, as her appearance became that of Lady Sarina Randall, and she asked, &quot;Are you satisfied now? And by the way, this is a fine way to welcome a friend who once saved your own soul from damnation, Lady Portia!&quot; <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 33, Written January 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 33 - Obligations<br /><br />The canine mage lowered her swords. &quot;Sarina? By the stars, it is you! I didn&#039;t recognize you with your soul completely hidden like that,&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;How did you do that, anyway? And where have you been, that coming here through Hell was a sensible shortcut?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I&#039;d be happy to discuss that over a glass of wine, in the inn, but first, would you mind dispensing with the banishment circle? And since when do you bother with a visible diagram of that type?&quot; Sarina said, gesturing to the enflamed circle that still burned at their feet.<br /><br />&quot;Oh! Well, when dealing with an unknown soulless entity that has appeared out of Hell, it is best to take no chances in the casting of a spell to banish them. With the diagram visible, it is harder to make an error in its formation. You will please forgive me, but will you take one more test? Catch this, and have a sip,&quot; the mage said, tossing Sarina a silver flask.<br /><br />Sarina caught it, laughed, and took a drink from the flask, holding it a bit from her mouth so the mage could see the holy water flowing from the flask and into her open mouth, and then swallowed. Then she said, &quot;I am still no vampire, nor an evil creature that holy water can harm. Some may question my methods, or the spells I choose to use, but I assure you, I am not a creature of evil, and I do not intend any harm to your city or its inhabitants. You have my word of honor on that, sworn to with my hand upon the holy symbol on this flask.&quot;<br /><br />Lady Portia dismissed the circle, and took the flask back from Sarina. &quot;Sorry. But I had to be sure,&quot; she explained, &quot;because so few untainted things do come out of a hell gate. So why were you there? Where have you been?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Let&#039;s discuss this over wine, please, rather than standing in a field under the stars,&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;Oh! Of course. Forgive my impatient curiosity. Let us go to the inn,&quot; Lady Portia said.<br /><br />===<br /><br />A short while later, Sarina, Ashley and Portia were at a table close to the fireplace, and Sarina and Portia were sharing a bottle of very good wine, which Sarina insisted on paying for. Ashley did not take a glass of wine, and sat staring into the fire, ostensibly acting as a servant girl waiting for the whims of her Mistress, but actually using the flames to see through other fires around the area, and get a sense of what was going on in the city.<br /><br />&quot;So, where have you been, and what adventures took you to such places?&quot; Lady Portia asked. The canine mage was dressed much as she had been the last time Sarina had met her, with one main difference. She now wore a knee-length surcoat of white, with a scarlet cross on it. <br /><br />&quot;I was literally on the other side of the world, is where. In Shanghai China. And before that, I spent some time in Hong Kong, in the new Crown Colony there. And before that, I was briefly in India, and even in Egypt. Due to misfortunes beyond my control, I had a need to return here rapidly from the orient. But I had never tried making a portal to cover such a great distance, and I realized as I prepared to make the portal that I didn&#039;t have enough waypoints memorized along the route that I had taken by normal means to get there, for me to safely return,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;With time running short, I summoned my... servant, Ashley... to serve me again, and she suggested a shortcut through the place that you caught us coming out of. It did get us here, though some complications in the process almost killed me.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I see. There are formulae for making such long distance portals safely. I would be glad to teach them to you, if you have a week or so to spare? Perhaps less, given what a quick learner you&#039;ve always been. Portals are a specialty of mine, after all. But what misfortune necessitated your return? The last I heard, you had headed off to the Orient with an adopted father or some such?&quot; Portia asked.<br /><br />&quot;Just so,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;Lord Edward Randall was a widower who had lost his family to a plague. He adopted me, and for a short while I lived with him. But later he asked his brother in law, Lord Thomas Pennington, to take me in, because I reminded him too much of his dead wife and daughter. For several years I lived with the Penningtons, here in this city, and they treated me as if I was their own niece. Lord Randall, meanwhile, went to India and to Hong Kong, seeking his fortunes in the tea and opium trade. When he came back for my twentieth birthday, I asked him to take me with him, so I could see the orient. He did, and we lived for a while in Hong Kong. But then...&quot;<br /><br />Lady Portia placed a hand on Sarina&#039;s arm, and said, &quot;You poor dear. You speak of him only in the past tense. Was he taken from you?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Yes. He died there, of a fever that had no cure. I tried to find a way to save him with my magic, but I fear I have always been pathetic with healing spells. I could not find a solution fast enough to save him. He had been very kind to me, and he even named me his sole heiress in his will. I had his remains cremated, and sent his ashes here with a loyal family servant, while I settled our affairs in the Orient. That servant should be arriving here in the next few weeks, if no misfortune befell him. And that necessitated my own haste. I wanted to be here before he arrived, to break the news to the Penningtons. I knew, you see, that Lord Randall would want to be interred here, with the remains of his beloved wife and daughter, in the family crypt. It was my solemn duty, as his adopted heiress, to make that happen,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;How very noble of you! To travel half the world to repay his kindness to you!&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;So you are here then, to tell the Penningtons, and to see to the funeral arrangements?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Yes. Do you know how they are faring, Lady Portia? I wrote to them on occasion, but I have heard little back from them. The mails to the Far East are not very reliable, even in a Crown Colony,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;As a matter of fact, I have kept in touch with them,&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;Lady Pennington and I share a rather unfortunate bond, after that incident with their daughter and the vampires. We see each other once a week, at Chapel. They both still live, but they are no longer together. Lady Meghan Pennington is now Sister Meghan, of Our Lady of Perpetual Forgiveness, a nunnery some thirty miles outside of the city. She divorced her husband to become a nun, and to pray each day for the soul of their daughter, and for her own soul. Lord Pennington took his wife going to the Church well enough. He still lives in the family mansion, but I believe he is quite lonely there, with no family and only three or four servants. He would welcome a visit from you, even with the sad news that you must give him.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Lady Pennington was already leaning to piety and a religious life when I left, so that does not surprise me. But you say you see her every week at chapel, even though she is at a distant nunnery? How can that be? Surely you have not become a nun?&quot; Sarina asked. <br /><br />&quot;Not a nun, no. I am needed too much in the world, where my magic can serve the people,&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;But I have taken holy vows of another sort. I am now a Paladin in service to the Church, charged with protecting this city against the forces of evil that on occasion beset us here. In truth, it is little different than my former life. I still hunt werewolves, vampires, and other foul creatures. But I no longer work the docks, nor do I collect a bounty or material rewards for my own enrichment. Any rewards collected for my efforts I donate to the Church, and the Church in turn sees to my equipment and supplies, and provides me with a simple yet comfortable place to live, and an allowance for my food and other necessities. Once each week I attend chapel with the nuns at Our Lady of Perpetual Forgiveness. There I pray for my own soul, and for the souls of those poor creatures who I must dispatch to Hell.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Indeed? Well, I hope that we may never have cause to fight one another, old friend. Given any choice in the matter, I will not seek to cause any trouble here. Myself, however, I just don&#039;t think I could ever serve the Church. But I do respect your choice, and I wish you well with it. Say a few prayers for my soul, if you would be so kind. I could probably use such intercession far more than you or Sister Meghan would have need of it.&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;That I will, and gladly, for the one who saved the souls of Sister Meghan and me,&quot; Lady Portia said solemnly. &quot;But on another topic, can you tell me how you hid your soul? Never have I seen that done so effectively. I could sense your life with my spells, but nothing could I detect of your soul. It was actually rather frightening, to see a living creature with no apparent soul. I can see, however, that ... where you were ... there would be advantages in being able to hide your soul&#039;s presence. How is it done?&quot;<br /><br />&nbsp;Sarina looked around, and said, &quot;I will tell you, but I fear it is something I am incapable of teaching to you. The hour grows late. Let me get a room for my servant and I, and we can finish our conversation there, in private.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina paid for one of the best rooms in the inn, which got a warm smile from Meridith and a few of the other tavern girls who went both ways for the night trade. Meridith in particular looked curiously at Sarina as she left, trying to recall where she knew the vixen from. But it had been years since the wolf wench had seen Sarina, and she could not remember her.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Once they were in the room, Ashley discarded any pretense of being normal, and the black fire elemental melted into the flames of the fireplace. Lady Portia warded the room against eavesdroppers and scrying spells, and the two mages refilled their wine and talked.<br /><br />&quot;You asked how I could hide my soul, my friend. The answer has to do with who, or more precisely what, my mother was. Have you ever heard the term &#039;Kitsune&#039;?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;The word is not familiar to me, no,&quot; Lady Portia admitted. &quot;Some creature of magic that can breed with normal folk, I take it? Or is it a religious or magical order?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;You were closer on the first guess, from what I have been able to determine. It is because of my mother that I was interested in the Far East. Half a world away from here, there is an island nation known as Japan. I have been able to find out very little about them, so far, other than that they kill foreigners who come to their island, and they are fierce warriors. It appears that their island is home to a species of fox-like magical creatures, called Kitsune. These fox-spirits can change their appearance, and seem to be a normal fox woman, such as myself, or a Human woman, or any other sort of normal people. They apparently travel in disguise as a normal person, and on rare occasions, they fall in love with a normal person, and mate with them. My mother was a Kitsune, who did so with my father. I was too young when she died for her to explain much more of what she was than that she was of a people called the Kitsune, and came from the Far East.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;One day, she showed me that she could produce a glowing ball, which contained &#039;her spirit&#039;. She placed great importance on that &#039;Star Ball&#039;, and told me that once, an evil man had tricked her and stolen it, and was able to command her to serve him while he possessed it. She passed through the hands of several cruel masters, until my father discovered what she was and how she was bound, and freed her,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;I later found out that I could also do this trick, and that it was my soul and part of my life force that formed the Star Ball. I used that ability to defeat Lady Pennington, when her daughter turned both of you into vampires. I held my soul to one side and thrust a dagger into my own heart, and then used a spell to inflict that wound instead on Lady Pennington, staking her through the heart. You saw, and I explained it to you while you recovered, but you lost some memories as you recovered, and so you won&#039;t remember it now.&quot; Sarina said. &quot;There are things that happened that night that we are all better off not remembering. But by combining the spell to place my soul in a Kitsune Star Ball, and then concealing the Star Ball with another spell, my soul seemed to vanish.&quot;<br /><br />&nbsp;&quot;I see. Well, if you have time while you are here, seek me, and I will teach you an improvement on that portal spell, that can cover any distance. Ask of me at any Church in the area. They will know how to contact me,&quot; Lady Portia said. Then she stood and released the warding spells, saying, &quot;I will let you get your rest now. Good luck with Lord Pennington.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina saw the mage to the door, and said, &quot;I will seek him tomorrow. Thank you. I will look for you after the funeral.&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />The next morning, Sarina purchased formal mourning attire - a black dress and a black hat with a black veil, and once she was suitably dressed, she hired a carriage to take her and her &#039;serving girl&#039; to the Pennington Mansion.<br /><br />Lord Pennington received them formally in his parlor. He was of course dismayed at the news of Lord Randall&#039;s passing, but seemed more concerned for Sarina&#039;s welfare. <br /><br />&quot;It is a terrible thing, to be certain. But honestly my dear, ever since my sister Mary died, he seemed to almost have a death wish. He knew that the tea and opium trade was unpopular with the Chinese, and yet he pursued it for the profit that it could bring. And for what? An early grave. He tried several times to get me to invest in that trade with him, but I declined. But what will you do now, Sarina dear? Where will you go?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I have inherited the remainder of Lord Randall&#039;s estate, so I am comfortable financially. I will remain in the city for his funeral, and then I must return to the Orient. Not to continue his trading, but for magical matters that I cannot well explain to you,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;Please, say that you will stay here?&quot; Lord Pennington asked. &quot;This will always be your home, you know that. We have told you, have we not, that you are our heiress as well?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I would like that. Thank you,&quot; Sarina said. And then she looked at Lord Pennngton, and stated, &quot;There is one more thing that you should know, sir. Lord Randall took on several lovers while he was in India and the Far East. But no matter how often he mated, he never conceived any other children. I think it is quite safe to say that he was sterile.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;But that would mean...&quot; Lord Pennington began.<br /><br />&quot;Yes sir. We need not trouble Sister Meghan with the facts of the matter, nor will it be necessary to change your will, since I am already your declared heiress. But it seems clear that Lord Edward Randall did not impregnate my mother. And that, sir, means that you are my biological father.&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;Oh my...&quot; Lord Pennington said.<br /><br />&quot;This changes nothing between us, Father. My maid is absolutely loyal to me, and will speak to no one of what we do or how we address each other. And my bedroom door will always be unlocked for you, while I stay here,&quot; Sarina said with a wicked grin, as she set aside her mourning hat and veil. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 34, Written February 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 34 - Servants and Familiars<br /><br />Lord Pennington was rather stunned. Sarina had just clearly stated, in front of her servant girl, not only that he was her real father, but that she would welcome her into her bedroom! He looked nervously at the dark-furred vixen that Sarina had so far introduced only as &#039;my maid&#039;, and said, &quot;Ahhh, Sarina. Do you think it wise to say such things in front of a servant? No matter how much you feel you can trust her, there are some things that...&quot;<br /><br />Sarina held up her hand, and said, &quot;Perhaps I should explain Ashley&#039;s relationship to me, father. I introduced her as my maid, simply because that is how she will act, for the most part, while we are here. But she is no common servant. How old would you say she is?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I... well, she looks no older than you were when you came to us, Sarina. Perhaps fourteen? Surely no more than sixteen?&quot; he replied.<br /><br />&quot;Ashley, tell my father how old you really are, to the best of your ability,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;I have lived for well over seven hundred of your years, Lord Pennington,&quot; Ashley replied calmly.<br /><br />&quot;What? Impossible! No one lives that long! Wait... you&#039;re... you&#039;re not a vampire, are you? Undead?&quot; Lord Pennington asked, now rather afraid.<br /><br />&quot;Me? A vampire? Certainly not! May I show him, Mistress? I doubt he would believe me if I just told him,&quot; Ashley said.<br /><br />&quot;By all means. But try not to damage anything, please,&quot; Sarina replied.<br /><br />Ashley stood, and went over to the fireplace, where a cheerful coal fire burned in the hearth basket. She reached her bare hand into the fire, and withdrew a large chunk of burning coal, holding it without it even singing her fur. Then she looked at Lord Pennington and said, &quot;I am not a creature of your world, at all. I am a fire elemental. The hottest fires of this world are harmless to my kind.&quot;<br /><br />She held the piece of red-hot burning coal cupped in her hands, like a child playing with a snowball, and said, &quot;My own fires are not of this world, and cannot be extinguished by conventional means. My fire can consume almost any material of this realm, as easily as I do this...&quot; Her eyes glowed a brilliant green for a moment, and black fire engulfed the burning coal, reducing it to ash and burning to nothing in the blink of an eye. <br /><br />&quot;That is truly amazing!&quot; Lord Pennington said. &quot;I confess I know nothing to speak of when it comes to magical creatures. I am aware of vampires and werewolves and the like, but I have never heard of an &#039;elemental&#039;. You look so normal, that I never would have guessed you were anything but a young vixen.&quot;<br /><br />Ashley nodded and said, &quot;This, My Lord, is my natural form.&quot; She released the illusion of her vixen maid appearance, and stood there as a creature made entirely of black fire, that seemed to suck all the light from the room, as she calmly regarded him with glowing green eyes that looked like burning pits of copper.<br /><br />Lord Pennington gasped in shock and stared with wide eyes, as he held up one hand in a useless attempt at defending himself. &quot;Augh! A demon!&quot; he cried.<br /><br />&quot;That will be sufficient, Ashley. You are frightening him. Father? You know that I am a mage. Ashley is not a demon, though she is a creature from the place we call Hell. She is very much under my control, and bound in service to me as my familiar,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;For ten years, she must obey my every command, to the best of her abilities, and she may not in any way betray me. Ashley? What would happen to you, if you failed in your duties to me?&quot;<br /><br />Ashley resumed her fourteen year old vixen maid form, and said, &quot;I would be consigned to Hell for one hundred years, Mistress, unable to leave that realm.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;And even though you are from the realm we call Hell, this would be disagreeable to you?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;Yes. It is much more entertaining and interesting to live in your world,&quot; Ashley replied. &quot;If I was to be stuck in Hell, I would be unable to grow in capability or status. I would waste a hundred years of my existence in absolute boredom, stuck doing menial activities for other denizens of my realm. I would also forfeit everything I have gained by agreeing to serve you. In terms that compare to the experiences of your kind, it would be like you serving many long years in solitary confinement, while being required to do the most disgusting tasks imaginable, and while bankrupting you at the same time. Betraying your interests would harm me far more than it could harm you.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Ashley, this is a direct order,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;You are not to do anything that would harm Lord Pennington, or his home, or his servants, unless you must to so to protect and serve me. Provided that doing so does not conflict with your service to me, I want you to protect him from harm, including harm to his reputation, and therefore you will speak to no one else of any &#039;delicate subjects&#039; that you may overhear us speaking of. Is that clear?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Very clear, Mistress,&quot; Ashley replied. &quot;I already would keep any of your personal business private, of course. I have no reason to speak to anyone except by your command. I understand that as long as Lord Pennington and his household are not a threat to you, that I must protect them and their secrets. From anyone but you, of course, Mistress. I must always serve your needs first and foremost.&quot;<br /><br />Lord Pennington still seemed very nervous about having a creature of Hell in his home, but was reassured to know that Sarina had the elemental under her control. &quot;I see. Well, ah, this is all quite beyond my understanding, but I will accept that we may trust her to not betray you, or me, I should hope. We will of course not tell Sister Meghan or my servants of her nature! I am quite uneasy with the idea of making deals with creatures from Hell, but I guess that it is something a mage must do, on occasion. I am not so enamored of the church as to trust them more than I trust my own flesh and blood. I will trust your judgment when it comes to magic, Sarina. I fear that I cannot say that I have so high a degree of control or trust for my own three servants. My maid, cook and laundress are good people, and serve me well, but I have no such hold on them as you have over your maid. If we speak freely in front of them about such delicate matters, they might well tell my former wife, or others who could harm me.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Very well. They do still go to their own homes at night?&quot; Sarina asked. &quot;When it is only you, and I, and Ashley in the mansion, we may do as we wish?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Yes, they go home shortly after dinner, as they did when you lived here. With only my own needs, it makes no sense to have night help. Still... Sarina, much as I do want to accept your offer, I would not feel right about, well, enjoying your favors, while the matter of Lord Randall&#039;s funeral is still unfinished. When are you expecting his remains to arrive?&quot; Lord Pennington asked.<br /><br />&quot;As you wish, father. His ashes should arrive within the next two weeks, escorted by a servant who was quite loyal to Lord Randall and me while we lived in Hong Kong. Exactly when he will arrive is difficult to say,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;When I left here to go to Hong Kong, Lord Randall had several business arrangements to make along the way, and it took us four months or more. But I instructed my servant to travel as rapidly as possible, and to seek the aid of the Trading Company that Lord Randall dealt with. He should be returning on the Tea Clippers that bring tea here from the Orient. I also gave him a letter of introduction, explaining in several languages what he was charged to do, and asking those who receive him to give him what aid they can to speed him on his way.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;And yet clearly you were able to get here much more rapidly yourself. More magic, I presume? Why did you not just bring this servant and Lord Randall&#039;s remains with you?&quot; Lord Pennington inquired.<br /><br />&quot;After Lord Randall&#039;s death, I had many duties to perform, to settle his estate. I also had personal business that I wanted to conclude while in the Orient. I was not at all certain how long I would be delayed, and I did not wish to delay his funeral, or informing you of his fate any longer than necessary. Also, there was some element of risk in my own travels. I did not want to risk his remains being lost, and his fate being unknown, if my own path led to trouble,&quot; Sarina explained. <br /><br />&quot;That was quite considerate of you, my dear. This... family servant you mentioned, who is escorting his ashes here? Is he also a magical creature?&quot; Lord Pennington asked.<br /><br />&quot;No. Lu Chen is a half-Chinese, half-American wolf, and in his early twenties in age. He was disowned by the families of both his parents because of his mixed blood. I gather that his mother has died, and his father abandoned him, and returned to America without the boy. He is a decent cook, and served us as cook and house boy. He was so loyal to us that even the threat that he might himself die of the Fever that Lord Randall died of did not cause him to leave our service. When our other two servants abandoned us, Lu Chen remained, loyal to his Lord&#039;s last breath, and attending to Lord Randal&#039;s final needs as diligently as I did, at great risk to his own life.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;You don&#039;t say? He sounds like a most commendable fellow. I should like to thank him for that loyal service to my brother in law, and to you,&quot; Lord Pennington said.<br /><br />&quot;I thought that you might, Father. And I would ask one small favor of you,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;When Lu Chen arrives, I would like you to offer him employment in your household. He has been quite loyal, as I said, and his loyalty deserves reward. There is nothing for him in Hong Kong, and he could have a much better life here. I cannot continue to employ him myself, for where I go after I leave this place, only a servant like Ashley may follow me.&quot; <br /><br />&quot;Well, I shall have to meet him and see what he is capable of, but I am sure something can be arranged, my dear. What you have said of him thus far speaks volumes for his worth,&quot; Lord Pennington said.<br /><br />&quot;Very good, then. I would like to introduce Ashley to your servants, as my personal maid. And then I have business to attend to in town, and we will be out until dinner time,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />===<br /><br />The maid, cook and laundress were all very sympathetic when they welcomed Miss Sarina back into the household, and heard of the unfortunate demise of her father, Lord Randall. They remembered Sarina fondly, and accepted that the young Mistress would of course not travel without a lady to attend to her needs. As they met Ashley, Sarina subtly altered the servant&#039;s minds in one regard, in that she implanted a strong suggestion in their minds to pay no attention to any reflections of Ashley that they might see, or expect to see, and to be at ease in her presence. <br /><br />Sarina went to her old rooms, and found them clean and orderly, with a replacement for the bed and dresser that she had taken with her to Hong Kong. She unpacked only her clothes, leaving her invaluable spell books and her other possessions on her necklace. Ashley quietly followed her. While she was unpacking, the maid brought fresh linens for the bed, made the bed, and left a fresh scupper of coal for the sitting room fireplace.<br /><br />Sarina and Ashley next went out in search of Lady Portia, and to tell the innkeeper that they had no further use of the room that had rented at the inn. As it happened, the canine mage was at the inn, having her lunch. They ordered a meal for Sarina, and joined the mage for lunch, filling her in on how the visit went so far.<br /><br />&quot;Well, I&#039;m relieved to hear he took it so well,&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;He&#039;s a nice old gentleman, and I am sure he will appreciate the visit from you. Will you be staying for long after the funeral?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Well, I hadn&#039;t planned to,&quot; Sarina admitted. &quot;But I suppose that my business in the Orient can wait for a little while. When could I start learning more about portals from you? I will probably have a week or two before Lord Randal&#039;s ashes arrive, and I may as well use the time constructively.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;We could begin this afternoon, if it suits you. I have no pressing investigations at the moment. What i particular did you wish to learn more on? I recall you mentioning very long range portals?&quot; Lady Portia asked, as she finished off a tasty meat pie, and washed it down with some ale.<br /><br />&quot;Yes. How to make very long range portals, where each end is known, is one topic. The other was, if you have a fairly accurate map, and if you know where you are, is it possible to make a portal to a place on the map that you haven&#039;t been to yet, and cannot see? Say, to someplace five hundred to a thousand nautical miles from where you start?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Yes, I can teach you that,&quot; Lady Portia replied. &quot;In fact, the two requests are related. The calculations for eliminating most of the error in a very long portal jump are much easier if you have an accurate map of the area, and know where both places are on that map, and their relationship to each other. And in either case, setting the destination end over a long distance, or to a destination that you are uncertain of, requires a trick where you make the far end movable, and make it possible to look through the portal. That way, you see, you can look through the portal before you cross, and can adjust its position so you don&#039;t come out in a wall, or in solid rock, or several leagues away from a boat that you hoped to travel to.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Oh? That sounds fascinating!&quot; Sarina said, with quite an honest and enthusiastic response. &quot;And could that method then also allow you to see a great distance away, and perhaps to cast spells through that portal? Can the far end be seen, before you pass anything through it?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Oh, I think I will enjoy teaching you these things!&quot; Portia replied. &quot;You already have a fine grasp of the possibilities!&quot; <br /><br />They soon finished their meal and took a carriage back to Lord Pennington&#039;s mansion, stopping once on the way to secure the rental of a mage&#039;s workshop not far from the one that Sarina used to use, and close to her temporary home.<br /><br />&quot;I shall see you at your new workshop in the morning!&quot; Lady Portia said, as they parted company.<br /><br />&quot;That went quite well,&quot; Sarina said to Ashley, as they walked into the mansion. &quot;I can see now that I did the right thing in returning here, for many reasons.&quot; <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 35, Written February 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 35 - There is a hole in your world...<br /><br />For the next week and a half, Sarina and Ashley spent every day at the rented workshop, working with Lady Portia on variations of the spells for making Portals. Ashley would resume her elemental form, and curl up comfortably in the workshop&#039;s forge, observing and occasionally making a constructive comment or a suggestion about a different way to do a spell. Sarina studied various texts, copying many different spells into a blank book as she learned them, so she could keep a copy of the rarer and more esoteric texts that Lady Portia, as a specialist in portals and teleportation, had collected. Although for appearance sake Sarina still wore all-black mourning clothes while on the street, once in the workshop she set aside her hat and veil, and concentrated on the tasks at hand.<br /><br />What Lady Portia had assumed would be the hardest part of the more advanced spells was something that seemed to come naturally for Sarina - complex mathematical formulae and geometric calculations to determine the exact distance between two points, as well as the differences in longitude, latitude and altitude between them. But Sarina proved to have a gift at such three-dimensional calculations, and rarely did she even need to work them out on paper. She would just look at the figures and formulae, and give the answer, to a surprising degree of accuracy.<br /><br />&quot;How do you manage that?&quot; Lady Portia asked one day. &quot;How can you just look at an angle and tell me the measurement of it, to half a degree or better?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I don&#039;t really know,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;I didn&#039;t study anything beyond very simple mathematics until I was fourteen, and yet when I did, as soon as my tutor showed me the textbooks, it all just seemed to make sense. It&#039;s the same with most spells, for me. If I read it once, or watch it done once, I can usually repeat it exactly. In six years of being tutored here, I completed more than twelve years worth of mathematical sciences, and at the same time I learned all my other lessons at a similar rate. The only areas I can&#039;t seem to grasp are biology and medicine. Science or magic that deal with living things seem to somehow be blocked for me.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Well, your ability with spatial calculations is certainly remarkable,&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;You&#039;ll be as good as I am, with another year or two&#039;s practice, and I&#039;ve been doing this for more than twenty years. Now, do you feel up for a challenge today?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Always. What spell do you want me to demonstrate?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;First, I want you to create a viewing portal, just to the far side of the alley door. Make it undetectable, and then pivot the portal&#039;s facing direction, to look to the left and right in the alley, while I watch over your shoulder,&quot; the canine mage requested.<br /><br />Sarina cast the spell, and a shimmering oval of light appeared in front of her, similar in size to a doorway. Through it she could see a brick wall. The perspective turned to the left, looking at where the alley met the street. Then it turned to the right, and Sarina saw something she didn&#039;t expect. In that direction, the alley should have ended in a weathered grey board fence, and several dustbins. But what she saw was the same view that she had seen in the other direction - a street entrance that she knew should be to the left of the alley door. She could even see the storefront across the street!<br /><br />&quot;You&#039;ve cast a spell out there, haven&#039;t you? An illusion?&quot; Sarina asked. <br /><br />&quot;Not an illusion, no. It&#039;s an application of a portal spell that I haven&#039;t taught you yet. Go out there and investigate it,&quot; Portia instructed.<br /><br />Sarina stepped through the portal that she had made, leaving it open but concealed behind her. She looked in the direction that the street was supposed to be, and could see a lady in a red dress looking at something in the storefront window.<br /><br />She turned the other direction, and was facing herself! Not five feet away was a second Sarina standing in the alley. Beyond the second Sarina she could still see the lady in the red dress across the street, and the storefront that she knew was behind her. <br /><br />&quot;A mirror spell?&quot; she asked.<br /><br />&quot;Yes, but, not quite,&quot; said the disembodied voice of Lady Portia, through Sarina&#039;s portal. &quot;Look carefully. What is it that makes this not an ordinary mirror?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Well, I can&#039;t see an edge to it at all. Not even where it touches the ground. And the walls seem to have a seamless flow of brick. I can&#039;t see where the reflective surface is, though I imagine it has to be halfway between where I am and my apparent doppelganger over there. There&#039;s no glare off the surface of glass, and no distortion. Wait! I can still read the sign on the store front that is behind me! It isn&#039;t reversed!&quot; Sarina said. She held up her right hand, and the mirror Sarina also did so, but with the hand on the opposite side of her body! &quot;It is a non-reversing mirror? Like I am viewing the scene behind me from the position I seem to be at down the alley?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Pick up a stone, and throw it at the Sarina that you see over there,&quot; Portia said. &quot;Try to break the mirror. What do you think will happen?&quot;<br /><br />Sarina bent and picked up a stone, seeing her copy do the same thing down the alley. &quot;If it&#039;s a variation of a portal spell, then there is no surface to break,&quot; she said. She threw the stone, and at the same moment saw the &#039;other Sarina&#039; throw her stone. The two rocks passed in mid flight, in each case passing Sarina on her left side. Sarina looked down, and said, &quot;That is the same rock that I threw. If I had thrown it intending to hit the &#039;imposter&#039;, it would have hit me, wouldn&#039;t it?&quot;<br /><br />The mirror effect vanished, and Lady Portia now stood at the blind end of the alley, in front of the dustbins. &quot;Very good! Quick! You have me trapped! Cast a spell at me!&quot;<br /><br />Sarina raised her hand, and paused, saying, &quot;I still detect magic somewhere between us. Faint, but there. That spell, or a variation of it, is still there, isn&#039;t it?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Toss the rock instead, and see,&quot; Lady Portia said with a grin.<br /><br />Sarina picked up the rock, and threw it at the canine mage. It got to about the place where the two stones had passed before, and instantly reversed course, coming back at her as if thrown from the position the second Sarina had been seen at, moments earlier. &quot;Fascinating! And it works for spells as well?&quot; she said, as she cast a weak fire bolt at an angle down the alley, and watched it reflect off an unseen surface and return to strike the alley wall to her left, burning off some dirt but leaving the wall undamaged.<br /><br />&quot;Just so,&quot; Lady Portia said, as she walked forward. &quot;And now, find me!&quot; There was a moment of distortion in the air, and the mage vanished! Sarina could still see the fenced-off end of the alley, and the dustbins. But the mage was gone!<br /><br />Sarina picked up another rock. She threw it down the alley, and it hit a dustbin by the end fence. &quot;What sort of trick is this now? She just dropped the spell and teleported away? I suppose I could try to trace her teleportation spell, and see where she went,&quot; she said to herself. She walked to the far end of the alley and back, trying to detect the spell used, and sense where the teleport spell had sent the mage. But she got no indication that any portal or teleport spell had been used to leave the area. Just a faint aura of magic, consistent with more powerful spells having been used there recently. <br /><br />Suddenly Sarina felt a small stone strike her back. She turned and saw a pebble skittering to a halt on the alley floor, apparently after bouncing off her lower back. &quot;Are you still here, Lady Portia?&quot; she asked cautiously. &quot;I didn&#039;t detect a spell taking you away from here, but I don&#039;t detect invisibility or illusion, either.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Nor would you be likely to detect I was here, until it was far too late,&quot; came Lady Portia&#039;s voice from less than a foot away. The canine mage&#039;s disembodied hand appeared out of nowhere, followed by her arm, and tapped Sarina on the shoulder, before retreating back into nothing. &quot;There is a hole in your world.&quot; The mage&#039;s amused voice said.<br /><br />&quot;You&#039;re right there in front of me, yet I can&#039;t see or sense you, without trying to read your thoughts. No, not even then! Amazing... You can affect me, yet I can walk right through where you apparently are? How?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;Turn around, and face the alley&#039;s street entrance. Then back up, slowly, while looking carefully at the street. Tell me what seems wrong,&quot; said Lady Portia&#039;s voice.<br /><br />Sarina did as she was told, and at a certain point, it seemed the position of the street entrance of the alley jumped about two feet farther from her. She stepped closer to the street, and saw the jump-effect again. Then she looked down, carefully, and examined the ground. She smiled, and said, &quot;A hole, indeed! About two feet across, I would guess. I can see a slight line here on the ground, where the surface of the ground doesn&#039;t quite match. I would never have seen it if I wasn&#039;t looking right in that spot. This wouldn&#039;t be as convincing on rough, open ground, or in an open area, and not enclosed by evenly-textured walls, would it? You have a portal on either side of you, about two feet apart!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Excellent observations! Perfect marks, so far!&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;So based on what you have observed, what are the weaknesses of this as a defense? How could you still attack me?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;From the side, or above, or below? Portals are flat, right? At least the ones you have taught me to use so far are. So I could fly over your suspected position, and look down to see you between the two portals?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Just so. But there are other weaknesses to this as a defense. How could you affect me from where you stand, without out-flanking my position? Think, and it will come to you,&quot; said the voice of the mage.<br /><br />Sarina thought a moment, and then said, &quot;I can think of three ways, actually. A large area-affect cloud of gas, flames or other harmful conjured matter, cast above or to the side of your suspected position, would likely spill over the top or sides of the portals and into the unprotected area. But you could conceivably cast similar bypass portals on all sides, so what comes from above would go into the ground below you, and what comes from the side would also bypass you.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Excellent! And quite correct. I just did that, and I am now in a box of similarly crafted sides. No spell or object cast at me from any direction can reach me. What are the other two ways to attack me?<br /><br />&quot;But you can apparently see me, and hear me, correct? So I could still attack you with sound, or with light!&quot; Sarina raised a hand, and a blinding flare of light burst from her hand.<br /><br />Lady Portia reappeared, covering her eyes. &quot;Ow! That was very well done! Stung like crazy, too. Thank you for doing that instead of a sound-based attack, however. I&#039;d rather see colored spots floating in the air for several minutes instead of being deafened, or having my ears ringing for hours. And well done also on choosing a way to demonstrate that you could attack me, in a way which harmed no innocent bystanders!&quot;<br /><br />You will show me how to do these spells?&quot; Sarina asked hopefully.<br /><br />&quot;Not directly, no. I want you to figure them out for yourself. That will be your &#039;extra credit&#039; assignment, due tomorrow,&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;I have taught you all the pieces that you need to know. You just need to determine how to put them together, to do what I demonstrated. I am certain you&#039;ll be up to the task. Show me you can do that, and then I will show you one final trick for making a portal to the far side of the world, or to a place you have never been before, and are uncertain of the exact location of.&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />Sarina stayed up all night, pausing only long enough for dinner. She was still awake and at the workshop when Lady Portia arrived the next morning.<br /><br />&quot;Can you do the spells?&quot; Lady Portia asked, as soon as the door was closed.<br /><br />&quot;Yes, and more,&quot; Sarina replied, as she vanished from sight there in the workshop.<br /><br />&quot;Very good! I don&#039;t see any distortion of distance to the far wall at all. The room looks almost exactly as it did before you cast the spell, except you don&#039;t appear to be in it,&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;Only one fault. The direction of the floor planks changed by ninety degrees in the place where you were standing. You put one portal between those two pillars that form an arch between us. But the second portal isn&#039;t behind you. It&#039;s to your right side, showing me the side wall, and the floor past that pair of pillars, which is quite similar to the space you apparently vanished from. Well done!&quot;<br /><br />Sarina reappeared, and said, &quot;Forgot about the floor. Took me a while to make the two walls match, to the last brick&#039;s shading. I can do the others, too. The non reversing mirror is a portal facing me going out, and another accepting what comes through it just in front of that, but concealed, as you had me do to look in the alley. So from one side, you see a non-reversed reflection of what is on that side. From the other side, you see nothing. The bypass portals are also see-through from within the pair or box of portals. You can cast spells out, but not be hit by incoming spells. But to see to attack, and to hear your victims, you have to allow light and sound not to be affected.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Excellent. And what more did you discover?&quot; Lady Portia asked.<br /><br />&quot;You don&#039;t have to be vulnerable to sound, if you are willing not to hear your opponent except by what passes around the sides of the portals,&quot; Sarina said proudly. &quot;And if you are willing to not see them, and to use other means to target your attacks, you can keep light-based attacks from you as well. The spell might even be modifiable to pass only certain levels of light or sound, so above a certain brightness or loudness, it is muted.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;The student has become the teacher! I hadn&#039;t thought of modulating the level of light or sound that comes through the portal, but you are right, it could be done. Well done indeed. Sit down, and I will teach you your final lesson,&quot; Lady Portia said, smiling with pride at her pupil&#039;s accomplishments. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 36, Written February 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 36 - Increased understanding<br /><br />Lady Portia and Sarina sat in the workshop, looking at a map of Europe.<br /><br />&quot;The difficult things with a long-range portal, or a portal to someplace you haven&#039;t been before, is placing the far end accurately,&quot; the canine mage said. &quot;If you know both places well, you already have a feel for what is in both locations. The more you know about what you expect on the far end, the easier it is to lock in on that spatial configuration, even over a great distance. Distance also adds other variables, such as differences in altitude, and there are calculations that must be done accurately to counteract those differences. I have taught you those calculations, and you&#039;re doing them quite well.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Thank you, my Lady,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;But what is missing then?&quot;<br /><br />Lady Portia pointed to a spot on the map in France, and said, &quot;Let us say we want to go to a place on that mountain. If the map is accurate, we can get a fairly close value for the differences in latitude and longitude. But what of altitude? And what if there are errors in the map? How then do we open a safe portal to that distant mountain top?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Could we complete the formulae by finding out the missing information some other way? A traveler&#039;s journal might reference the height of the mountain that we seek to visit,&quot; Sarina offered.<br /><br />&quot;Perhaps so. But even if we had such a useful journal, the information might be inaccurate. We need a way to lock in the far end, without foreknowledge of all the details,&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;Once we have as much information as we can gather, we need to make the far portal able to form, and then home in on a spot that resembles what we seek. As an example, I know that on that peak there is a small monastery. I also know that it has an octagonal central keep, and that there is a river to the East of it, about a mile distant. I would like to appear on the roof of the keep, since it is an open area unlikely to have people or wagons or vehicles passing through it. If I add that information into the spell, by envisioning those particulars as I cast it, the far portal becomes a &#039;seeker&#039;, and will move of its own accord to the nearest place that matches those particulars. Even if I know nothing at all about the destination, I can at least specify &#039;an open, unobstructed space, with stable ground to walk upon&#039;, or something similar. Once the portal has sought the likely position, you can look through it and fine-tune the position, or move the portal to somewhere nearby.&quot;<br /><br />She got out a small spell book and showed Sarina the variations in the spell that made it able to seek specific features at the far end. Then they put it to the test, and Sarina opened a portal to the roof of that monastery keep. It worked on the first try, with very little movement of the portal once it formed.<br /><br />&quot;Very nice!&quot; Sarina said, as she turned the portal to look at the roof area. &quot;I want to try a greater distance next.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;As you wish. Where, on this map?&quot; Lady Portia asked.<br /><br />&quot;Way over on the edge. Right here. That would be Hong Kong Island, to the South of this great river estuary. There is a mountain on the island called Victoria Peak, above the harbor. It was not far from my home there, and I have a very good mental image of how high above the sea it was, and where it was in relation to the coastlines,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;While I don&#039;t know the precise details, and this map has some inaccuracies regarding the Asian coastline and islands, I think it may be close enough that the seeker portion of the spell could lock on from my rough distance and location fix, and seek the open place on the mountain top where I liked to relax and watch the sea and the harbor.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;A good choice, and a good challenge, as well. Nearly halfway around the globe. Proceed,&quot; Lady Portia said.<br /><br />Sarina took some measurements on the map, took the time to actually write out the compensation calculations, and then she cast the spell. As the portal formed, she at first saw nothing but water and a night sky through the portal. But then it turned on its own, and the viewpoint raced along the surface of the sea, past several Chinese boats, to a shoreline that could only barely be seen, and up the terrain to a mountain peak. When it stopped moving, she turned the portal slightly, and said with satisfaction, &quot;Without the seeker portion of that spell, the far end would have formed far out to sea - a failure. But what you see now through that portal is definitely Hong Kong Harbor. Interesting that it is night there, while it is mid-day here.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Proof that the world is round, and not flat like that map. The formulae in that advanced spell also compensate for the inaccuracies caused by forcing a map onto a flat surface, and not a globe. If your map reference was a spherical globe, you use these calculations instead,&quot; Lady Portia said.<br /><br />Sarina copied the spell variations diligently into her own spell book, and then asked, &quot;You mentioned opening a portal to a ship. Wouldn&#039;t the motion of the waves make it harder to get the far end, or your end, if you were on a ship, to be stable?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;It would indeed! And for that reason most mages never would try to make a ship to ship portal. The variables change too fast. But if you apply the seeker spell to both ends, you can lock the frame of reference to the deck of the ship, so the portal appears to be stable relative to those on the ship&#039;s deck, who are moving with it,&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;Try that with one of the ships at sea, near the island. Locate a ship, get the portal relatively close to the deck, and then make the rolling deck be the stable ground, and not the steady horizon. I&#039;ll warn you though, the view through a moving portal like that can make one a bit nauseous.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina tried that, and did manage to make the far end of the portal lock relative to the deck of a Chinese Junk at sea. The horizon rolled in very odd ways, while the ship seemed to be calm and stable, as if it was tied up at the dock. &quot;That definitely does look strange, to see the horizon move so,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;Stepping through it is disorienting as well. I wouldn&#039;t recommend it, unless the need was great. You would be better off using some sort of flight spell, making the portal in the air near the ship, and then flying through the portal and down to the ship&#039;s deck,&quot; Lady Portia said. &quot;And I believe that covers all the lessons you asked of me. Is there anything else?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Just one thing,&quot; Sarina said, as she produced a fat little pouch, and handed it to Lady Portia. &quot;Please take these silver coins, as payment for your invaluable service to me. They are Chinese silver, and of a very high purity.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;You know I&#039;ll just donate this to the church?&quot; Lady Portia asked. &quot;I know you&#039;re not on the best of terms with the church, though you do not openly act against them. It doesn&#039;t bother you that they benefit from this?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;The coins are yours. If you choose to give them to the church, I do not care. You are right. I have little love for the church. But at the same time, I will not oppose them, so long as they do not oppose me. Both you and Sister Meghan have found a place within the Church&#039;s folds. If that brings you peace and contentment, I will not speak against your choices. Do as you will with my gift to you,&quot; Sarina replied.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Two days later, a coach arrived at the Pennington Mansion. A bulldog in the uniform of a police officer got out, and knocked on the door. Sarina and Lord Pennington met the officer in the parlor.<br /><br />&quot;Begging your pardon, My Lord. We have a bit of a quandary on our hands. Were you expecting a visitor? A Chinaman?&quot; the officer asked nervously.<br /><br />&quot;Is his name Lu Chen? A grey-furred wolf with a black braided queue for his hair, and in his 20&#039;s? We were indeed expecting him! Where is he?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;And who would you be, Miss?&quot; The officer asked politely. &quot;Afraid I don&#039;t know his name, as he speaks hardly a word that we understand. But that does describe him fairly well. He showed us a letter with the Lord Pennington&#039;s name and address on the envelope, and seemed to want to seek his Lordship.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;He is a courier from Hong Kong that we were expecting,&quot; replied Lord Pennington. &quot;And this is my niece, Lady Sarina Randall. Did you read the letter this Chinaman had with him?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Ah, no, My Lord. You see, the boy wouldn&#039;t let go of it. Just jabbered in some heathen tongue and pointed at the address on the envelope. Got into a bit of a scuffle with two of our dock patrolmen, and as he had no identity papers that we could tell, we locked him up to cool off while we checked out this lead,&quot; the officer said.<br /><br />&quot;There is only one Chinaman that would have a letter in his possession with this address and my uncle&#039;s name on it. I must insist that you release him to me, at once, along with his baggage and possessions. Lu Chen is my servant. If you insist, I can show you the contract that I hired him under, written in English and Cantonese, because he entered my employ in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong,&quot; Sarina said as she stood. <br /><br />&quot;Very well, Miss Randall. If you an&#039; his Lordship will come with me?&quot; the officer said.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Soon they had the matter settled, and Lu Chen and his baggage were at the Pennington Mansion.<br /><br />&quot;I am sorry for the difficulties, Mistress.&quot; Lu Chen said, as they brought his bags inside.<br /><br />&quot;No, I should be the one to apologize, Lu Chen. It never occurred to me that you spoke so little English!&quot; Sarina replied.<br /><br />&quot;Mistress always spoke to me in such good Chinese, that I never needed to mention it. But I speak very little of any other language,&quot; Lu Chen replied. &quot;For most of the journey, I was in the company of men from the East Asia Trading Company, and at least some of them could translate for me. But we got separated when we arrived here. Those uniformed men detained me, and all I could understand of what they said was that they wanted me to give them my paper. I showed them every piece of paper I had, but I did not dare let them take the letter that you said I had to give to your uncle.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;What the devil is he saying?&quot; Lord Pennigton asked. &quot;You act as if you understand him, and he understands you, but I can&#039;t make out a word he is saying, though you&#039;re talking to him in plain enough language. How can a man understand our language and yet not speak it?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;This was my error, Uncle. Lu Chen speaks Cantonese Chinese, and apparently speaks very little English. Lord Randall also spoke that language, though only well enough to make basic requests of the servants, order food, and do simple business with the natives,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;Lu Chen understands me because to his ears, I am speaking fluent Cantonese. You hear the same words in your own language, English. It is a magical gift that I have had since I was a very young child. When I was little, I had to concentrate to speak another language. Now, I give it no thought at all. Whoever I want to have understand me simply does, and I understand them. If there were a hundred people in this room, and they all spoke different languages, they could all understand me, and I them. Or I could choose to only speak the language of any one of them.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;You never cease to amaze me, Sarina,&quot; Lord Pennington said. &quot;Ask him about Lord Randall&#039;s remains, please.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Lu Chen? I trust that you were able to bring my father&#039;s remains here safely?&quot; she asked.<br /><br />&quot;Yes Mistress. I trusted no one with them. His reliquary box is in my baggage, but his ashes are here,&quot; the young wolf replied. Then he opened his loose jacket, and brought forth a silk pouch on a silken cord, which had been settled in the small of his back, with the cord around his neck and shoulder. He had to remove the jacket to take the pouch off, and when he had done so, he reverently placed the pouch in her hands, saying, &quot;May the remains of your ancestor rest serenely with the remains of his ancestors, for a thousand times a thousand years, Mistress.&quot;<br /><br />Then he opened one of his portmanteau cases, and from a place deep in the luggage he produced a small silver box, just large enough for the ashes, and presented that to her.<br /><br />Sarina turned to Lord Pennington and said, &quot;My father, Lord Edward Randall, has come home. Here are his ashes, and a fine silver box to rest them in, for eternity. May he rest in peace. Please make the arrangements for the funeral, Uncle. I wish to talk to Lu Chen, alone. His inability to speak your language may change my plans for his future.&quot; <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 37, Written February 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 37 - Endings and new beginnings<br /><br />While Lord Pennington contacted the church to make the arrangements for his brother in law&#039;s funeral and interment in the family crypt, Sarina led Lu Chen up to her sitting room. <br /><br />The Chinese wolf boy was amazed at the opulence and size of the mansion. &quot;Mistress is a princess? This is a palace!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I am not a princess, no, Lu Chen. This mansion belongs to my uncle, Lord Pennington. He is rather wealthy, however, and his family is of the nobility in this country, as am I. He is not even close to being so high as a prince, but the family is well-respected,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;They have even been welcomed in the courts of the Queen of this country.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Ah! They are what in my land would be called Imperial courtiers, then? Those high enough to have access to the Court of the ruler of the land are still very important people. It is still almost beyond my imagining, Mistress! So much more fine than even the Governor must have had in Hong Kong!&quot; Lu Chen said.<br /><br />Sarina opened the door to her sitting room, and said, &quot;Please have a seat by the fire, Lu Chen. I wish to talk with you privately.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;As you wish, Mistress,&quot; Lu Chen replied.<br /><br />Sarina sat in a comfortable chair beside the fire, while silently signaling to Asha to keep herself hidden. Then she spoke to Lu Chen, and said, &quot;You have served my family very well, Lu Chen. I am grateful for your loyalty to me, and to my father.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Mistress has always been kind to me. You always spoke to me in such perfect Chinese, and could read and write it as well. Your father spoke some of my language, but was never as fluent as you are. I always found it hard to believe that you were not born in our country. Very few foreigners have been able to master the Chinese language. It is a rarity for a disrespected half-breed such as me to serve such a well-educated and noble Lady. It is even more unusual that such a noble lady would treat her servants as well as you do.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;My ability with languages is a magical talent, Lu Chen. But it has caused me a difficulty. You see, I had taken it for granted that you could talk easily to me, and that therefore there should be no difficulty with you talking to my uncle, Lord Pennington. But you can hardly understand a word that he says, can you? I know he can&#039;t understand you at all.&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;I understand a few of his words, Mistress. But you are right that most of the people here I cannot communicate with. I had only learned a few of the terms that your father used in requesting things of me, when he tired of trying to use the right Chinese words for something he wanted. But I did manage to make it here in spite of that,&quot; Lu Chen said, with a small measure of pride in his voice.<br /><br />&quot;That you did, and I appreciate that. But I had hoped to reward your service to me by asking my uncle to employ you here, where you would be safe from the deadly Fever that claimed my father&#039;s life, as well as from the intolerance of your own people to your half-breed status. Here, you would be a foreigner, but no one would care you were only half Chinese. But I cannot leave you here if you cannot communicate with my uncle, or his other servants,&quot; Sarina began.<br /><br />&quot;L-leave me here? Mistress does not want me to continue serving her? Have I failed you in some way, Mistress?&quot; Lu Chen asked, visibly distraught now.<br /><br />&quot;You have not failed me, Lu Chen. But where I must travel soon, I fear I cannot ask you to accompany me. Have you heard of the Japans?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot; I know only that their island is forbidden territory, Mistress,&quot; Lu Chen replied. &quot;No one goes there or comes from there anymore. They are said to be deadly warriors, and enemies to my people.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Well, I must go there, forbidden or not. You see, I believe my mother came from that land, before they closed their borders to travel. She is dead now, but there are things I must know about her people, so I may better understand myself. I believe that my magic can keep me safe, but I could not keep you safe there,&quot; she explained. &quot;So I have some options for you to choose from.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;The first option is that I could do as I originally planned, and leave you here, serving my uncle as best you can. If you choose that path, I will ask him to provide a tutor to teach you his language. It may be difficult for you to learn, but you seem intelligent, and I think you could do it. You would be safe, and have a good job here, and a nice room to live in, here, or in an apartment of your own nearby. In time, I may come back here, and if I do, I may be able to take you back into my service then. But it is by no means certain that I will return, even if I am successful.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;The second option is that I can return you to China - to Hong Kong, or to Canton, or to Shanghai - where you would be among people you understand, and who understand you. But you would be on your own there, with no employer or other benefits, save for a final payment from me in thanks for your service to me. As with the first option, I may in time be able to return to where I left you, and seek you to work for me again. Or I may never come back into your life. I cannot say which is more likely.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;The third option is that I could send you somewhere else, to a place of your choosing. Perhaps you may wish to go to America, to seek your father? What would you choose, for your future?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;But travelling with you now, and continuing to serve you now, is not an option?&quot; Lu Chen asked. &quot;It is not a difficult choice then, Mistress. I would never seek my father. He disowned me once, and would not be pleased to see me in his homeland, seeking him. To serve your uncle in this splendid mansion would be much nicer than any employment I could gain in Hong Kong, or anywhere else in my homeland. But I do not see how I could serve him well without knowing his language. There is little for me in Hong Kong, or elsewhere in China. But at least there I belong to the people of that country, and I can communicate. I can find a new employer there, I am sure. I would ask to travel back to Hong Kong then, Mistress, and hope that someday I may serve you again. It is a long journey, but I suppose I must undertake it.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;It will be a very short journey when the time comes, Lu Chen, for I will use my magic to take you there. I have recently studied under an expert in... well, call it travel magic... and I can now return you to Hong Kong faster than you may believe possible. But for a few more weeks or months you may serve me here. I must remain here until the funeral, and that will take at least two weeks to arrange.&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Sarina arranged for a room that Lu Chen could stay in at the mansion, though he complained that it was much too nice for one of his lowly station. As she went on various errands around the town over the next few weeks, she allowed him to attend her, and carry her parcels, or merely escort her, so she was not seen to be going about her business alone, while in mourning. Many of the trips were not particularly necessary, but gave Lu Chen a good chance to see the city and its people. She rather hoped he would change his mind, and decide to stay here, in spite of the language difficulties. He did not.<br /><br />Though she had no emotional need to mate, she briefly considered allowing Lu Chen to serve her also at night, in her bed. But she decided that wouldn&#039;t be fair to the boy. If she used him as a lover, it would be difficult for them to retain a Mistress and Servant relationship.&nbsp;&nbsp;He was happy in his role, and blurring the lines would only needlessly confuse him. If she wanted physical relief before her uncle was willing to come to her bed again, she could always go back to the inn for a few evenings as Heather, and work as a whore, or hire Meridith or some other whore to please her for an evening. Or she could seek physical comfort from Asha, who had indicated her willingness to provide erotic service to her Mistress. But she hesitated there - primarily because she truly did not know what might happen if the sexual intimacy worked with the elemental as it had with Sarina&#039;s other lovers, and opened Asha&#039;s mind fully to Sarina. Could Sarina handle receiving all of the memories of an unnatural creature that had lived for over 700 years? Or would that drive her insane? She wasn&#039;t sure she wanted to risk that.<br /><br />When she wasn&#039;t running errands, she would leave Lu Chen at the mansion and go with Asha to the rented magical workshop, to study further the books that she had taken from the Chinese mage, Jiang Wu, and to finally remove all the traps and wards on the mage&#039;s strongbox. The chest contained a handsome quantity of precious gems, silver and gold, as well as five unique magical artifacts. She sifted through Jiang Wu&#039;s memories, but could find only a vague idea of what three of the magical items actually did, and nothing at all about two others, save for how the mage had obtained them. Apparently Jiang Wu himself had obtained them by various means, and yet had been unaware of their full power or true purpose, so he had set them aside to study. Sarina decided that was a wise course, and left them in that strongbox, after transferring the gold, silver and gems to her main strongbox. She locked the mage&#039;s strongbox, resetting the traps on it, and returned both chests to her necklace.<br /><br />===<br /><br />The day of Lord Edward Randall&#039;s funeral arrived, and Sarina put on a suitable show of grief at the old fox&#039;s passing, drawing from the expected responses that she could sense in the minds of other mourners, and the very real grief of several of them. To Sarina herself it was a strangely numb experience. She had grown fond of Edward as a lover, and yet losing him meant very little to her emotionally. <br /><br />When the time came in the ceremony, at her own insistence, Sarina herself placed the small silver reliquary containing Lord Edward Randall&#039;s ashes into the marble niche with the ashes of Lady Mary Randall, and hidden behind that, the ashes of the real miss Sarina Randall. The vault was sealed again, and the ceremony proceeded with no one the wiser about the extra set of remains in the family crypt.<br /><br />After the funeral, Sarina went with Lord Pennington back to the mansion. For a full week she continued to wear mourning clothes and a black veil.<br /><br />Once her period of mourning was over with, Lord Pennington took Sarina to meet the family barrister, the lawyer that saw to the Pennington Estate&#039;s legal needs. She was shown the will that Sister Meghan and Lord Pennington had drawn up, naming Sarina as sole heiress to the Pennington family estates. Now that Sarina had reached the age of twenty one, she was legally able to manage her own affairs, while she remained single. It chafed on her when the lawyer suggested that her funds from the Randall estate should be placed in a trust account, to be managed by her uncle, until such time as she found a suitable husband, who would then take her fortune and add it to his own, managing her financial affairs. The lawyer was of the opinion that women were incapable of managing their own finances. Sarina countered that since she would be leaving the country shortly, that would not be acceptable, and used just enough of her magic on the lawyer and her uncle to make them accept her argument. In the end, it was agreed that when Lord Pennington met his maker, Sarina should present herself to claim her inheritance, preferably in the company of her husband, or a suitable male guardian. If she did not appear to make the claim, the barrister&#039;s firm would safeguard the funds until she could be located and allowed to claim the inheritance.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Two days after the visit to the barrister, Lord Pennington at last appeared at Sarina&#039;s bedroom door, after Lu Chen had retired to his room, and the other servants had gone home for the night. The Lord was already in his nightshirt and wearing a dressing gown over that. He knocked timidly.<br /><br />Sarina answered the door, wearing nothing but a smile. &quot;Good evening, father,&quot; she said.<br /><br />&quot;Ahhh, good evening, Sarina dear,&quot; he said when she opened the door. &quot;Er, may I come in?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Of course you may, father. I have been expecting you,&quot; Sarina said, closing the door again once he had entered, and leading him through the sitting room and into her bed chamber.<br /><br />&quot;Um, what of your servant, Ashley? Is she here?&quot; he asked hesitantly, looking around as if expecting an embarrassing intrusion at any moment.<br /><br />&quot;She will not appear unless I ask her to, father. Perhaps you would like to enjoy both of us at once? She can assume any mortal female form. She could take the form of your daughter Amara, and you could fornicate with both of your daughters at once. Would you like that, father?&quot; Sarina teased.<br /><br />&quot;B-both? I don&#039;t know that my old heart could stand it, my dear. Look at me... I am trembling as if it was my wedding night. For all that we shared before, this is different, now that we are certain you really are my daughter. And you look so much now like my sister, Mary, as well. You are so beautiful. I can&#039;t believe that you&#039;re willing to mate with your old father. Is this a dream?&quot; he asked.<br /><br />&quot;A pleasant dream, if it is, I should hope. Come to bed with me, father, and take your daughter in your strong arms, and mate lustily with me. Mate with me as if you wanted to plant a baby in your own child&#039;s belly, my darling father! &quot; Sarina said, as she took off his robe, unfastened the front of his nightshirt, and held him tightly to her.<br /><br />&quot;Oh Sarina!&quot; he exclaimed, as the last of his resistance melted. He no longer cared if it was wrong or perverse to want to mate with his own daughter. He just knew that she wanted him, and that he had to have her, and to mate with her, with a burning passion. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 38, Written February 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 38 - The power of fantasy - and a special Valentine<br /><br />Sarina awoke with the sun, as dawn&#039;s first light filtered through her window curtains. She was snuggled close to Lord Pennington, who was still soundly sleeping, and the two of them were covered by a warm down-filled comforter, and what had at least started the night as clean linen sheets, though there were now several cold, wet spots on the mattress, as testimony to the night&#039;s activities. She smiled as she remembered their passionate lovemaking last night. The old fox may be in his mid fifties, and was certainly getting grey in the muzzle, but he was still quite capable as a lover. He had actually filled her belly with his seed four times last night. The fact that he now fully believed that Sarina was his own daughter, born from an illicit mating with his own sister, Mary, had intensely added fuel to the flames of his desire. <br /><br />Sarina mused about how common a fantasy incest seemed to be, and how much the thought of such &#039;forbidden liaisons&#039; could stir the emotions of a man, and impair their judgment. It made them so wonderfully easy to manipulate. She had used that fantasy to great effect on both Lord Edward Randall and Lord Thomas Pennington, making both of them believe that she was their daughter, and yet eager to welcome them to her bed. And she had reaped handsome rewards for her performance in the role of Sarina, being gifted by them with the full value of Lord Randall&#039;s estate, and being named in the will to receive the full value of Lord Pennington&#039;s estate as well. Since Lord Pennington&#039;s wife had become a nun, the estate would be Sarina&#039;s when the Lord passed on, even if Sister Meghan still survived.<br /><br />She wondered how the real Miss Sarina Randall would have felt about sleeping with her father, or her uncle, as she would have been raised to think of Lord Pennington. Would she have accepted the idea? Probably not. More likely the girl would have been repelled by the thought of an older relative having carnal desires for her - and especially so if that male was someone she believed was her own father.<br /><br />The false Sarina, on the other hand, was perfectly happy to allow the old fox to mate with her. He was a reasonably good lover, and the sex was enjoyable, just as it had been with Lord Randall. And she knew that giving Lord Pennington her body bound him to her in ways no spell could have achieved. In many ways, she felt she was doing him a positive service, by entertaining him and making his life less lonely. He certainly did enjoy rutting with her.<br /><br />Sarina slipped out of bed and washed herself quickly using the pitcher of cold water and wash basin on the commode in her bedroom, and drying herself carefully before putting on a fresh nightgown. She almost hated to awaken her aging lover, but she knew the servants would be arriving soon to prepare breakfast and make the beds, and it simply would not do for them to find their Master in his niece&#039;s bed!<br /><br />She considered for a moment if she should try to arrange things here for a while as she had with Lord Randall - if she could assume the role of Lord Pennington&#039;s second wife, or at least his Mistress, and remain with him for a while. But there were too many complications there. It would be difficult enough to stay for any more than a few more weeks, without the maid at least becoming suspicious that her Master was not sleeping in his own bed, and that the sheets in Sarina&#039;s bed were soiled from sex. She made a mental note to suggest that from this point forward, they should mate in his room and not hers.<br /><br />&quot;Good morning, father,&quot; she said softly, touching him gently on one shoulder.<br /><br />Lord Pennington opened his eyes, smiled a guilty smile, and then his eyes slowly widened, as he realized the compromising position he would be in if the maid found him in this particular bed! &quot;Sarina! What time is it? Are the servants here yet?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;The sun has just risen, and the servants have not arrived as yet, my lover. But they will come soon. Best for you to go roll around in your own bed for a bit, so it is suitably rumpled when the maid tidies up your room,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;Yes, yes, of course! Damn it all, I shouldn&#039;t have slept the night through here,&quot; he said.<br /><br />&quot;True, but it was a delightful way to end the evening, snuggled cozy and warm with my daddy, my lover,&quot; Sarina said as she kissed him. &quot;Now be a good daddy and go to your room. We can play some more tonight!&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />Sarina remained in Lord Randall&#039;s home for another month and a half, which was longer than she had intended. Every time that she started to prepare to head East, Lord Pennington begged her to stay a while longer, at least to wait for better weather for traveling. And each time she indulged his request, and continued their nightly mating liaisons. <br /><br />On most days she would study more magic, occasionally going to the rented workshop to practice a particularly hazardous spell. On other days she would go to the libraries in the town, seeking the few books that they had which were traveler&#039;s journals from Asia. But as with her inquiries in Shanghai, these trips to the library most often produced very little of value about the people or nation of Japan, and produced virtually nothing about Kitsune. She grew increasingly curious about her mother&#039;s people, and wanted to resume her investigation of Japan. Pleasant though her dalliances here were, she could not stay here for that much longer.<br /><br />Every evening, without fail, Sarina would join Lord Pennington in his bed, so that if he fell asleep after they made love, Sarina could easily return to her own bed, leaving him where he belonged. They learned to place a folded spare blanket beneath them as they mated, to soak up spilled fluids, so his bedding would show no trace of sexual activity when the maid changed the sheets. He on several occasions asked her to assume the appearance of Sarina at twelve to fourteen years of age, and sometimes even had her pretend to still be a virgin, so he could &#039;take her virginity&#039;. Sarina could even control her shape shifting well enough to become a virgin for him, and bleed when he deflowered her. Occasionally he would ask her to appear to be his daughter Amara, in a similar youthful state. But most often he preferred Sarina&#039;s twenty-one year old form, which looked to him like both his daughter and like his sister, Mary. <br /><br />===<br /><br />On Valentine&#039;s Day, Sarina made a new and unique offer to Lord Pennington.<br /><br />&quot;My love? I have a special gift in mind for you this Valentine&#039;s Day. Have you ever wondered what it would have been like, if you had impregnated Mary the first time you mated with her, when she was only fifteen, and if you somehow managed to remain her frequent lover as she raised that child? I have an idea that I think will stimulate you more than anything we have yet enjoyed together,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;More stimulating than when we re-created my deflowering Mary when she was fifteen, or the knowledge that nightly I am spilling my seed into my daughter&#039;s fertile womb, and risking impregnating you?&quot; Lord Pennington asked. &quot;I can&#039;t imagine how Mary and I could have concealed her becoming pregnant back then, or laid the blame for her child on any other young suitor, but I am open to any of your scandalous and pleasurable ideas, my beloved daughter.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina altered her appearance slightly to that of Mary Pennington when she was twenty five years old, and still unmarried. &quot;Brother dear? Our daughter Sarina is ten years old. She still believes you are just her uncle, and does not suspect you are really her daddy. Given how much you love making love to your sister, would you like to include your daughter in our lovemaking? Would you like to tell little Sarina you are her daddy, and then take our little Sarina&#039;s virginity as her Valentine&#039;s gift, while I watch and encourage you to do so?&quot;<br /><br />Lord Pennington gasped, and stammered, &quot;At... ten? S-so young? And with your blessing, sister? But how can we do such a thing? I mean, with, well, both of you present?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Ashley can take this appearance as well, as I become the young Sarina. I can instruct my maid in what to say, and how to act. You could mate with Ashley or not as you choose, but the focus of this night&#039;s pastime would be your deflowering Sarina, with the child knowing you are her father, and while your sister, her mother, watches and encourages you. Would that perverted pleasure interest you, my love?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;M-make it happen. Yes. Yes I... would enjoy that... much more than any man with a lick of moral sense should,&quot; he confessed.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Ten minutes later, &#039;Mary&#039; and &#039;Sarina&#039; came into the sitting room outside Lord Pennington&#039;s bedchamber. They were both dressed in an innocent-looking floor length chemise, with long sleeves and high necklines. The gowns were quite modest - suitable for a young girl and her mother, when about to retire for the evening. Lord Pennington was also in his nightshirt, with a robe over that. <br /><br />&quot;Good evening, uncle,&quot; little Sarina said, clinging shyly to her mother&#039;s hand, and looking a little embarrassed to be in her night clothes in front of her uncle. &quot;Thank you again for the flowers you gave me today. They were very pretty.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Brother dear, I believe it is time we had a special chat with my daughter, your niece,&quot; said Mary. &quot;I think it is time she got to know who her father is.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina looked confused, and asked her mommy, &quot;Does Uncle Thomas know who my daddy is?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Yes dear, he does. And now that you&#039;re a big girl, he can tell you. But you must promise not to tell anyone else, okay sweetheart?&quot; Mary asked.<br /><br />&quot;A secret? Okay mommy. I can keep a secret if you say I hafta,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;Well, brother? Tell Sarina who her father is,&quot; Mary said.<br /><br />Lord Pennington cleared his throat, and said, &quot;Well, ah, I am your father, Sarina. Your mother and I love each other very much, but we couldn&#039;t admit I was your daddy, because she is my sister.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina cocked her head and asked, &quot;You had sex with your sister, Uncle? Er, I mean daddy? Is that a bad thing?&quot; <br /><br />&quot;Well, some people would say it is. That is why this has to be our secret. But your mother and I both believe that if two people love each other very much, that it doesn&#039;t matter if they are close relatives,&quot; Lord Pennington said uncomfortably.<br /><br />&quot;Do you love me that much, daddy?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;More than he can say, sweetheart,&quot; Mary said. &quot;In fact, I think daddy should show you tonight that he loves you just as much as he loves mommy. Would you like that?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I guess, yeah,&quot; Sarina said hesitantly.<br /><br />&quot;Daddy loves you very much, sweetheart,&quot; Lord Pennigton said, getting into the scene more fully now. &quot;And I would like to show you, by doing with you the things your mother loves to do with me.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;You mean you wanna have sex with me, daddy? Ummm, mommy, is that okay?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;Yes sweetheart. You&#039;re a big girl now, and mommy wants daddy to make you happy, the way he makes me happy. Take off your nightgown, dear, and show daddy what a pretty vixen you&#039;ve grown up to be,&quot; Mary replied.<br /><br />The child slipped out of her nightgown, and followed her uncle into his bedroom, with her mother close behind them. Lord Pennington took off his own clothes, and said, &quot;This is what a man looks like when he wants to please a vixen. See how stiff and hard my cock is? That is because I think you are very beautiful, Sarina.&quot; He got on the bed, and patted the place beside him. The scene of deflowering his daughter was familiar to him, but doing it while she was so very young, and while her mother watched, added a lot more to his excitement. His heart was racing as the child climbed naked onto the bed beside him.<br /><br />&quot;That&#039;s your cock? It looks pretty, daddy. All shiny an&#039; red. What do I do, now?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />Mary guided the child to straddle her father&#039;s face, and said, &quot;Let daddy lick your woosies, to get you nice and wet. It will make it easier when he pops your cherry.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Okay, mommy. Hee hee! That tickles, daddy! Lick me again!&quot; Sarina said, laughing and enjoying herself.<br /><br />The old fox lapped at his virginal daughter, his probing tongue able to feel the fragile crescent of her hymen as he licked her. &quot;Mummm, daddy loves you, Sarina!&quot; He was panting heavily now, and almost painfully erect.<br /><br />&quot;Now, Sarina sweetie, slide down and squat over daddy&#039;s cock. Mommy will guide it into you. It will hurt for a little bit, because you&#039;ve never had anything put inside you before. But mommy promises you&#039;ll love how it feels later,&quot; Mary said, as she again positioned the innocent vixen.<br /><br />&quot;Like this, Mommy?&quot; Sarina asked, as she faced her father and squatted over him, with the tip of his cock just penetrating her virginal folds.<br /><br />Lord Pennington arranged his pillow so his head was comfortably propped up to watch this spectacle. He was unbelievably stimulated as he watched his sister guiding their child to her first incestuous mating. &quot;G-good girl,&quot; he gasped, as he felt his tip beginning to enter the innocent vixen. &quot;Make daddy h-happy.&quot;<br /><br />Mary guided the tip of Lord Pennington&#039;s cock into Sarina&#039;s virginal cunny, and said, &quot;That&#039;s it, darling! There&#039;s my big girl! Now, as soon as I say go, I want you to sit down, hard, and then smile at your daddy and tell him you love him. GO!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;All right mommy, Unghhh! OW! Ohhh, it hurts! I... l-love you... daddy! S-see? It&#039;s all the way in me? I&#039;m a big girl now, right?&quot; Sarina said, through a veil of tears. Her hips were against his, and a trickle of blood was at their union, as she started moving up and down slowly.<br /><br />&quot;Ughhhhh! So tight!&quot; Lord Pennington groaned and came almost at once, flooding Sarina&#039;s cunny with his seed. Then he lay quietly, without humping or otherwise continuing to enjoy the mating.<br /><br />&quot;Did you like this, daddy?&quot; Sarina asked, as she bounced up and down on his cock happily. &quot;Daddy?&quot;<br /><br />Lord Pennington made no reply. He just stared at his cock penetrating the ten year old vixen, and her blood and his cum leaking from her tight little cunny. He lay there without blinking, and with a big smile on his face.<br /><br />Mary looked at him, then back at Sarina. She waved a hand in front of Lord Pennington&#039;s eyes, and got no response at all. Then she changed back to Ashley, and asked, &quot;We didn&#039;t just kill him, did we? He looks like he&#039;s had a heart attack.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina examined Lord Pennington without getting off his shaft, and said shakily, &quot;No... no, he&#039;s merely unconscious. He&#039;s still breathing, and I can faintly sense his mind. I think he passed out from the pleasure.&quot; She got off him and said, &quot;Let&#039;s get him cleaned up, and then go to our own beds. Any more intense sexual excitement might indeed be too much for his heart. We didn&#039;t kill him this time, but if we&#039;re not careful, we very well could next time. I think the time has come for us to leave.&quot; <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 39, Written February 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 39 - The distant shore<br /><br />The morning after Valentine&#039;s Day, Lord Pennington seemed fully recovered. He was rather chagrined at having passed out, however. He sat in his study with Sarina, as she explained what had happened, and why that meant she must leave.<br /><br />&quot;So you see, father, as much as last night was enjoyable for all of us, it would be most unwise for us to continue. I do not wish to be the cause of your death,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;The time has come for me to continue my journey through my own life, and leave you to yours.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Deuce it all, Sarina!&quot; he replied sullenly, &quot;That would have been a very sad Valentines gift for my little girl, wouldn&#039;t it?&quot; He sighed deeply, and then continued, &quot;It isn&#039;t an easy thing for a man to admit that he&#039;s getting to an age where he should start tapering off his love life, but I suppose you are right. You gave me some incredibly special experiences, and I don&#039;t want that to end. But every father must eventually face their child leaving the nest, and so must I. If ever you come this way again, please say you&#039;ll stop to visit? Even if we share no intimacy, I would appreciate your company, and seeing your pretty face around the place again. I love you, my child - as a lover does, and not just as a father should.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I cannot promise that I will return, father. My travels are likely to take me to the far side of the world, and perhaps out of this world entirely. But if fate does lead me back here, I will seek you, never fear,&quot; Sarina said, holding the old fox&#039;s hand. And though she knew it was a lie, she said the words she knew he hoped to hear, &quot;I love you too, daddy! And I always will love you.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;What of that Chinaman you brought me? What am I to do with him?&quot; Lord Pennington asked.<br /><br />&quot;He will not be your responsibility, father. He understands that his inability to speak anything but Chinese is a hindrance to him here, and he has chosen to return to Hong Kong. I will take him there, on my way. I had hoped he would be able to serve you, but the language barrier was something that hadn&#039;t occurred to me,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;When will you go?&quot; he asked.<br /><br />&quot;In three days time, after I have settled some other business, and purchased a few special supplies. We will leave from the magical workshop that I rented on this visit. The rent there is paid for through the end of March, just in case I need a safe place to return to, on short notice. I will inform the landlord today that I won&#039;t be renewing the lease beyond that,&quot; Sarina said.<br /><br />&quot;May... may I ask you to come to me on these last few nights? Even if it is just to cuddle with me until I fall asleep?&quot; Lord Pennington asked hopefully.<br /><br />Sarina smiled, and said, &quot;Of course, father. I think we can manage that much, and perhaps a little more, as long as you don&#039;t over exert yourself.&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />Three days later, in the late evening, a carriage was hired to take Ashley, Lu Chen, Lord Pennington and Sarina to the magical workshop.<br /><br />&quot;Mistress has no luggage?&quot; Lu Chen asked, as he struggled with his two large portmanteau cases that contained his own clothing and travel necessities.<br /><br />&quot;Mistress has magical means for making her luggage so small as not to be noticed. Rest assured, I carry far more luggage than you do, Lu Chen,&quot; Sarina replied, careful to actually reply in Cantonese, and not to allow the carriage driver to overhear her comments via her language gift.<br /><br />When they arrived at the workshop, the carriage driver was asked to wait and take Lord Pennington home again. Then Sarina unlocked the door, and gave the keys to Lord Pennington. &quot;Lock up after us, and return the keys to the landlord, please, Uncle Thomas. Do come in though, and see us off.&quot;<br /><br />Once inside, Sarina double-checked some notations and calculations that she had worked out in advance, before casting the portal spell. The portal itself hardly moved at all at the far end, since Sarina had been able to apply the necessary corrections to the calculations, based on her earlier attempts. As the portal opened, daylight streamed into the room, and they could see a partially cloudy blue sky and some rocky terrain through the portal. <br /><br />&quot;Daylight?&quot; Lord Pennington asked in confusion, as it was quite dark outside, with the street lit only by gas street lamps. &quot;Amazing! Where does that lead to?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Hong Kong island, in China, nearly half-way around the world. That is why we are leaving while it is night here,&quot; Sarina said. &quot;You first, Lu Chen. Just walk through that oval of light as if it was a doorway, and drag your cases with you.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I am frightened, Mistress! My feet will not obey me! I knew you did magic, but never have I witnessed such a powerful supernatural event!&quot; Lu Chen said apologetically.<br /><br />&quot;Silly boy! There&#039;s nothing to it! Follow me then, and let a girl lead the way!&quot; Ashley said in Cantonese, as she took the handle of one of Lu Chen&#039;s cases and dragged it behind her, through the portal. &quot;Come on! It doesn&#039;t even tingle! Come here, boy!&quot; as she stood on the other side, with wind ruffling her hair and the fur of her tail.<br /><br />Hearing Ashley speak his language shocked Lu Chen into action. &quot;Y-you speak Chinese!&quot; he said, as he dragged his case and headed through the portal.<br /><br />&quot;Yes, I do. It has been a long time since I visited China, but I did learn the language while I was there,&quot; Ashley replied with a grin.<br /><br />In the workshop, Sarina kissed Lord Pennington on the cheek, and said, &quot;Keep safe, father. May your life be long and pleasant.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Take care of yourself, Sarina,&quot; he replied, with a tear in his eye. &quot;Farewell.&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />Sarina stepped through the portal, and it closed behind her.<br /><br />They were atop Victoria Peak, and Lu Chen was standing there, gazing down in wonder at the harbor. &quot;Such a miricle! To travel so far in just a step! But I must believe what I see. That can be no place but Hong Kong below us. I never went to the top of this peak before. There are no easy paths or roads that lead up its steep sides. Ahhh... How will I get down from here, Mistress?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;The same way we got up here. Magic. Where down there would you like us to go?&quot; Sarina asked. &quot;The cricket fields? The street in front of the bungalow my father and I lived in when we were here? The harbor road?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;The harbor road, Mistress. There I may seek employment on a ship, or with the many merchants that work there, and I can find a room to rent. And thank you, Mistress!&quot; Lu Chen replied.<br /><br />&quot;It is I who should thank you, Lu Chen. You have served me well. I want you to accept two gifts from me, in parting,&quot; Sarina said, as she handed the wolf a cord necklace with a small silver fox&#039;s head pendant on it, and a small leather pouch. &quot;Keep that necklace with you, and I can use it to find you, if I return this way again. The pouch contains a monetary gift, to get you started in a new life here.&quot;<br /><br />Lu Chen put the necklace on at once, and said, &quot;I shall never part with it, Mistress!&quot;<br /><br />Sarina opened another portal, to the harbor road near one of the more popular piers for merchant ships. Lu Chen walked through it, dragging his two cases behind him, and she closed the portal as soon as he was through it.<br /><br />&quot;Was there really any magic on that necklace, Mistress?&quot; Ashley asked.<br /><br />&quot;Yes, but it was only a very simple protective charm that my real father taught me,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;It doesn&#039;t do much, but should at least repel insects like fleas and other fur parasites from him. It may allow me to locate him, though, since I can seek that charm spell, which should be rare here.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina cast another new portal spell, and opened a portal to Shanghai, maneuvering it to open in an alley behind Richards&#039; Hotel and Restaurant, in the British Concession area. They went through the portal, and went around the corner and into the hotel, to obtain a room.<br /><br />&quot;I am Lady Sarina Randall. I require a room for myself and my maidservant,&quot; Sarina told the clerk at the desk, being careful to only be heard in English, for the moment, to get practice in controlling just how she was heard by others. &quot;I will pay in advance for two weeks. A room with one bed, a fireplace and a cot in the room for my maid will suffice.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Yes, My Lady,&quot; the clerk replied in English, though oddly accented with Chinese. He told her the price, in British pounds, and Sarina paid in Chinese silver coins, getting the exchange rate correct without any assistance. &quot;Ah? My Lady is at least somewhat familiar with China? Or will you require a guide or escort?&quot; the clerk asked.<br /><br />Sarina switched effortlessly to speaking in Cantonese Chinese, and replied, &quot;I have come here from the Hong Kong colony, and this is not my first visit to Shanghai. I know my way around, thank you, and will require no escort other than my maid.&quot;<br /><br />The clerk smiled brightly, and said, &quot;Of course, My Lady. Here are your keys, and I will send a servant up with the cot and bedding shortly. Just up those stairs, to the third floor, and it will be the last door on the right. Thank you for staying with us!&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />Once they were in their room, Sarina produced one of her smaller chests, and took from it the maps that she had purchased on her previous visit, in the guise of &#039;Feng Wu&#039;. She studied the largest map, which gave her a good idea of the direction and distance to Nagasaki Harbor, but which was frustratingly vague in any details about the island of Japan itself. <br /><br />&quot;I didn&#039;t know you spoke Chinese, Ashley,&quot; Sarina said, as she compared that map to another, smaller one.<br /><br />&quot;You never asked. I speak quite a few languages. I served a Chinese sorcerer about 120 years ago, in a city not far from this one. Over here,&quot; she said, as she pointed at a large sea port, north of Shanghai.<br /><br />&quot;I suppose it would be too much to hope for that perhaps you also speak the language of the people in the Japans? Or that you may have served one of their mages at one time? Do you have any knowledge of that island or its people?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;No Mistress. When I was last in China, serving that mage, that island had long since closed itself to foreigners and foreign trade. They were as much an enigma 120 years ago as they are today. Isolated, and forbidden. The mage I served had little interest in that nation. I do not know of any sorcerers from that land who sought the aid of creatures from my realm, either,&quot; Ashley stated. &quot;I suppose I could go back to Hell for you, and ask the entities that I know if that have any information. But I have no direct knowledge of that land.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;That will not be necessary. Can you learn a new language quickly? Or would you be as unable to understand and speak to the people of that land as poor Lu Chen was in England?&quot; Sarina asked.<br /><br />&quot;When I am bound to serve a sorcerer, knowledge of their native language and the languages that they cast spells with comes with that binding. So I can read, understand and speak any language that you have actually learned,&quot; Ashley replied. &quot;But your special gift with languages is beyond that, and all I can do with that skill is to &#039;go along for the ride&#039;, and listen to your surface thoughts, to hear what you hear, as you hear it. So as long as I am with you, I will be able to understand what you can hear and understand. Also, if you think of a suitable reply that you wish me to make in that language, I can say those words, like a trained parrot, reading the needed information from your surface thoughts. I did something similar when we were with Lord Pennington together that one night, so I could sound to him like his sister.&quot;<br /><br />Sarina rolled up the maps and put them away, hiding the chest on her necklace once more. &quot;That will have to do, I guess,&quot; she said. How long do you think it would take you to actually learn their language?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Several years, probably,&quot; Ashley said. &quot;It would take me just as long as it would take most people of your realm so much time to learn a new language. I have no special way to do that any faster.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Rest in the fire for a while, and refresh yourself. I am going to get myself a meal in the restaurant, and then I plan to nap on and off for most of a day, to get used to the time difference here,&quot; Sarina instructed. &quot;Then we will see how we shall proceed.&quot; <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />To Dream of Darkness<br />A story by DoggyStyle57<br />Chapter 40, Written February 2012<br /><br />===<br /><br />Chapter 40 - Entering the forbidden realm<br /><br />Several days passed, as Sarina evaluated her options for getting to Japan. Unlike England, there was nowhere in Shanghai that a mage could simply rent a magical workshop. Mages here were more secretive, and preferred an isolated place to do their magical efforts.<br /><br />Sarina spent several frustrating days ensconced in her hotel room, repeatedly attempting to send a portal in the direction of the Japans. She had hoped to look through a portal, with the far end hidden, as a way to spy on the isolated country, learn more about their language, people and clothing, and to find a safe place to step through and enter that land. Her efforts were blocked, however. She could only barely manage to get the far end of the portal to within viewing distance of the shore - just close enough to see a fishing village, with its people as tiny moving dots, and seeing the villager&#039;s boats, for example - but no closer! If she pushed it any closer, the portal was dispelled. Some powerful magical barrier was preventing any sort of portal or teleportation from the mainland to the island. The Japanese fishing boats stayed fairly close to shore, well within the magical barrier.<br /><br />&quot;Do you want to try going through Hell again, Mistress?&quot; Ashley offered, after Sarina explained the difficulty she was encountering. &quot;I still have four souls that I could use to pay the fee, and this time I could take my time, and pick a place in Hell that would be more comfortable for you, as we pass through. Surely they have not placed a barrier entirely between their land and my realm?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;I will use that only as a last resort, Ashley. But thank you for the offer. I do understand that offering to pay that fee again would be costly for you,&quot; Sarina replied. &quot;No, I think the best bet will be to go there on a boat. Perhaps we could make use of a Chinese or foreign fishing boat, or maybe even a whaler. I think I could conceal us upon such a vessel, or we could join the crew disguised as males, and once at sea, I could try to control the mind of its captain, and force him to take his ship close to those shores. Perhaps I could even force him to run his ship aground there. I would seek a smuggler&#039;s ship for the purpose, but as far as I can tell, not even smugglers contact that island! They probably did in the past, but no one does now.&quot;<br /><br />===<br /><br />Two days later, Sarina and Ashley, disguised as a mixed breed canine male in his early 40&#039;s, who gave his name as Peter Jameson, and a quiet mixed-breed canine boy about fourteen years old, who Peter introduced as &#039;Ash&#039;, signed on with an British merchant clipper ship called &#039;The Falcon&#039;, which was trading in silk and spices along the China coast, and down to India. It was due to head North from Shanghai to a port named Peking, to buy silk, and sell opium and spices. It had a crew of thirty seven, counting Peter and Ash, and the ship was a fast one, able to make 250 nautical miles a day in good weather. Peter was to work as a deck crewman, and Ash as a cabin boy, and if the need came to fight, as a &#039;powder monkey&#039;. It greatly amused the fire elemental that &#039;his&#039; duties might include having access to the ship&#039;s powder magazine, where the slightest spark or flame could blow up the ship.<br /><br />By the time the ship was half a day out of Shanghai, Sarina had managed to place the captain and the entire crew under her control. In the captain&#039;s cabin, Sarina briefly assumed her vixen form, and effectively raped the captain, mating with him and taking all his memories and knowledge for her own. <br /><br />The Captain ordered Peter to take over the duties as helmsman, and Peter steered the ship on a course that led them around the end of the Korean peninsula, and between the Mainland and China.&nbsp;&nbsp;The crew believed that they were between the Chinese mainland and Korea, still heading for Peking.<br /><br />After three days, Peter had determined that the magical barrier was less than half a league east of the ship. They were well north of Nagasaki now, though less than one quarter of the way to where the island nation&#039;s capital city, Edo, was supposed to be. With the captain&#039;s spyglass, Peter spotted an unoccupied stretch of beach, with what appeared to be several large caves facing the sea. He also saw a band of Japanese people that seemed to be patrolling the top of the cliff that walled off that stretch of coastline. Peter gave a signal to the Captain. The ship dropped anchor, and the crew furled the sails.<br /><br />Eight strong crewmen armed themselves with muzzle-loaded, flintlock Baker rifles and two foot long sword bayonets, and lowered two boats into the water. Peter and Ash joined them, on what was supposedly an excursion ashore to get fresh water.<br /><br />Peter was relieved to see that neither he nor Ash suffered any ill effects as they passed through the magical barrier. The shape shifting that altered their appearance remained in effect. The barrier did seem to cancel the control spells on the crewmen, however. They faltered in their rowing for a moment, until Peter barked out a command for them to continue on to shore. <br /><br />&quot;Why are we going ashore for water so soon?&quot; One otter crewman asked, as they pulled the two boats up onto the sandy beach. &quot;Shouldn&#039;t we still have plenty of water?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;We were cheated when we resupplied,&quot; Peter lied. &quot;Most of the barrels of &#039;water&#039; that we loaded were foul and tainted - hardly better than sewage. Likely it was some competitor&#039;s trick to make us ill, or force a delay in our run. Captain seems to think there may be water in those caves, or a way through the caves and up onto that headland to where we can find water. Let&#039;s just get this over with.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Oh? All right then. Though I&#039;d like to get my paws on the scoundrel that cheated us!&quot; the crewman replied.<br /><br />They walked into the sea caves, and found one that had obviously been used before as a refuge or storage place. Several ledges had been flattened and squared off, and there were a few low walls inside the cave that had obviously been built there, and were not natural formations. A water channel large enough for several ship&#039;s longboats let to a ledge the right height to use as a dock. &quot;Smuggler cave,&quot; Peter observed. &quot;Hasn&#039;t been used for quite some time, though. I see no fresh water source here. Look for a way to the cliff top deeper in the caves. If smugglers brought goods in here, they must have had a way to get those goods onto the top of the cliff.&quot;<br /><br />Minutes later, one of the crewman screamed, as a very long arrow pierced his throat. Several more arrows buzzed through the air, coming from the back of the cave, followed in short order by over a dozen swordsmen in long brown silk robes. &#039;Peter&#039; and &#039;Ash&#039; were the only ones who understood the attacker&#039;s cry of, &quot;There are the foreigners! Kill them! Kill them all!&quot; They immediately vanished from sight, and retreated to one side of the cave, as the seven surviving crewmen fired their rifles once, drew their sword bayonets, and advanced to meet their foes.<br /><br />It was a very one-sided battle. The samurai warriors were deadly and efficient, and seemed to care nothing for their own survival. They also outnumbered the sailors by two to one. The sailors had no time to reload their guns, and the sailor&#039;s sword bayonets were no match for katanas in the hands of expert swordsmen.<br /><br />As the samurai slaughtered the sailors, Sarina took Ashley&#039;s hand and teleported both of them to the far end of the cave, behind two samurai archers that stood on a ledge. Before they realized she was there, she touched them both, mind-raping them and stealing their memories and skills. They fell without a sound, mindless and drooling. Then she and Ashley assumed the appearance of the two archers, and took their clothes and gear. Ashley dragged their bodies further back inside the cave, where she burned them to ash with her black fire.<br /><br />Now with the identities of &#039;Ichitama&#039; and &#039;Kuro&#039;, Sarina and Ashley joined the rest of the samurai on the bloody floor of the cave. Using the telepathy that she shared with her familiar, Sarina quickly filled in Asha on the names and roles of the other Samurai in the group.<br /><br />The leader of the patrol poked at a dead sailor with his foot. &quot;Foreigners! Faugh! When will they learn? We are fortunate that our patrol saw their ship sending boats ashore. Ichitama! Aki! Go to the beach, and make sure there are no survivors there! I thought I saw more of them when we first encountered these mongrels.&quot;<br /><br />The one called Aki was a grey wolf, as were all the other samurai in this group. He asked, &quot;What of the foreign ship?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;We will watch, until they go away. If they stay near our coast, we will follow and slay any who attempt to land. Those are the daimyo&#039;s orders.&quot; The lead samurai said. He then ordered the remaining samurai to collect any guns or ammunition that the foreigners had, and anything else of value.<br /><br />When &#039;Ichitama&#039; got to the shore, he tried to release the compulsion spell that enthralled the captain and the remaining crew. Apparently the effort was successful. The ship raised anchor and turned South almost at once, returning to more friendly waters.<br /><br />&quot;They run. Good,&quot; Aki said. &quot;Let us get back to our shore patrol.&quot;<br /><br />Ichitama walked back through the cavern, aware of the blood and gore splattering the area. There was much blood, and several of the British sailors had either been decapitated or disemboweled. The otter that had questioned the landing earlier had been cut clean in half, from his collar bone to his crotch. The samurai left the foreigner&#039;s bodies where they fell, cleaned their swords and carried away the bodies of the four samurai that had died in the attack.<br /><br />===<br /><br />Later that day, the patrol entered a small fishing village, and ordered the headman to produce a feast for the samurai, and to find a low-caste peasant to prepare the bodies of the dead samurai. The villagers scurried about, eager to obey the samurai. Most of the peasants in the village were mice, rabbits or ferrets. Ichitama saw no wolves or foxes among them, and few canines.<br /><br />Ichitama scanned the surface thoughts of the villagers. The peasant fishermen&#039;s thoughts were quite boring. They were terrified of the samurai, that much was clear. Foremost in their minds was that it was certain death to disobey a samurai in the slightest degree. Just a few weeks earlier a passing samurai had killed a villager merely to test the edge of his new sword.<br /><br />Ichitama also peered into the surface thoughts of the other samurai. They were a coastal patrol unit that reported to a daimyo that lived in a fortified town near this section of the shoreline. Similar patrols guarded every place along the coast that any foreign ship might try to land. He was surprised to learn, however, that recent edicts from &#039;the Shogun&#039;, who was apparently the top military overlord, had indicated that foreign ships that were &#039;storm-damaged or shipwrecked, and which had come seeking food, fuel, or water&#039; would be permitted to land in Japanese ports, to make repairs and to obtain sufficient supplies to return to their own waters. They were still prohibited from engaging in trade, and for a Japanese native to leave the country and return still carried a death sentence. But apparently in the last two years both the Dutch and The Americans had sent warships to Nagasaki, asking the Shogun to open trade again.&nbsp;&nbsp;The Shogun had refused, but the foreigners were becoming more insistent.<br /><br />That night, the Samurai dined on grilled fish and steamed rice, and drank a surprisingly potent rice wine, called &#039;sake&#039;. Ichitama noted that none of the peasants from the village joined in the meal, and he sensed that when they returned to their homes, the peasants would eat nothing better than a coarse millet gruel.<br /><br />Halfway through the meal, they were interrupted by the village headman, who said that there were three other Samurai in the village, and that their leader wished to speak to the leader of the coastal patrol. The patrol leader gave his permission for that.<br /><br />The fellow who came in was a red fox, still in his late teens or early twenties. He seemed uncomfortable with his swords, and bowed excessively low on meeting the patrol leader, &quot;I would ask a great favor of you, Captain,&quot; he said. &quot;I am Hattori Saburo. I am charged with escorting a samurai lady and her maid to Edo, to become the wife of Murakami Jiro, a hatamoto in the Daimyo&#039;s court there. But a band of ronin attacked our party along the way, and killed all the other warriors in our escort. I cannot get the Lady Hamada Kira safely to Edo on my own. Could you possibly spare just two of your men to assist us? The roads between here and Edo are less dangerous than the mountain passes where we were ambushed. Two good men should suffice for the remainder of our journey. The Daimyo that I serve would be most grateful for the service, as the Lady Kira-sama is promised to a young man that my Daimyo highly favors.&quot;<br /><br />Ichitama touched the surface thoughts of the young man, and learned some very interesting facts. The woman Jiro was escorting was in love with this young man, and he was in love with her. But she had been promised by their daimyo to become the wife of a man that had never seen her, as a reward for the young man&#039;s bravery in service to his daimyo, and to cement a further alliance between the two daimyos. Though it was heartbreaking for the boy to take the girl he wanted to marry to be the wife of another man, his honor required him to do as his daimyo ordered.<br /><br />Ichitama smiled, and addressed his captain, &quot;Please. Allow Kuro and myself to assist them. We both have family in Edo, and we are near the end of our patrol assignment. It would reflect well upon our own Lord that we undertake a task that makes two daimyo&#039;s happy, would it not?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;It would, at that,&quot; the patrol&#039;s captain stated. &quot;Very well. You two will be given this assignment. Saburo-san? I trust this meets your needs?&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Yes, my Lord,&quot; the boy said sullenly, not realizing that fate had given him a gift beyond measure.</span>","pools_count":1,"title":"To Dream of Darkness Part II - Ch 21-40","deleted":"f","public":"t","mimetype":"application/msword","pagecount":"1","rating_id":"2","rating_name":"Adult","ratings":[{"content_tag_id":"4","name":"Sexual Themes","description":"Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal","rating_id":"2"},{"content_tag_id":"5","name":"Strong Violence","description":"Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death","rating_id":"2"}],"submission_type_id":"12","type_name":"Writing - Document","guest_block":"t","friends_only":"f","comments_count":"1","views":"291","sales_description":null,"forsale":"f","digitalsales":"f","printsales":"f","digital_price":""}