The Bird and the Wyrm-Chapter 131

All heads turned and I was shocked to see Aunt Yeung striding over casually to the circle of thrones and beings. She wore no shoes though looked just as she always did with her long plait trailing over one shoulder and hands in her pockets.

"Aunt Yeung! How are you here...?" I said as I rushed up to her.

The woman chuckled and pinched me on the cheek. "Don’t be so surprised. All loong worth their salt either know of The Between and can come here in meditation, or have been here physically. I was planning on bringing you here later myself as a matter of fact..." Her eyes left mine and took in the rest of the group, latching onto one person in particular.

"Malcolm," she spat, advancing on Morgan, or Malcolm as Aunt Yeung knew him.

"Ah."

No one stood in the woman’s way as she grabbed Morgan by the collar and yanked him down to her height. "What right do you have to be here?" she snarled.

"So you’re here for me..." Morgan murmured as he tried to get away.

"I meditate for two years to recover and the first thing I learn on reawakening is that you still have not been dealt with! Answer the question!"

Morgan floundered. "I’m helping!" he said helplessly. "I’m on your side!"

"Oh?"

"Really! Look!" Morgan twisted and somehow managed to pull out his phone. He unlocked it, tapped a few times, then held it out to Aunt Yeung. I couldn’t see the screen from where I stood, but judging from Aunt Yeung’s change in expression and the fact that she let Morgan go, whatever he showed her was pretty significant.

"When did you receive this?" she asked and Morgan pointed.

"There’s the timestamp. About a minute or two before getting called into the meeting."

I recalled Morgan had been on his phone in the snowy forest before Choco turned up. Had something happened then?

Aunt Yeung turned to me. "Did you know Bran asked him for help?"

"What?!"

"So ’no’."

"Bran did what?" I stepped forward and tried to see the phone.

The turtle set her teacup down and the sound of the porcelain hitting porcelain rang out, silencing the space.

"Distractions," they said. "Young one. As a representative of Earth, what say you to receiving help from the Board?" Their eyes were small and dark but I sensed a test in those words and I forced myself to find my centre again. The stakes were high. I couldn’t drop the ball now.

"I’m just one person, so I can’t speak for everyone," I said. "But if you ask me my opinion if I want any of you to help with Earth... Then my answer is ’no’."

"Misha!" Choco looked to me in shock. Morgan smiled.

I shook my head. "I say ’no’ because I don’t know what the cost is. If you help me, then that means I owe you a favour. Even if you don’t call in the debt, I’ll have to be the one to deal with the consequences. Say you interfere and help get rid of Arthur Penn and get the meta-flow going again, what happens the next time some megalomanic gets it in his head to rule the world? Will you step in again then? What about when some other civilisation wants to destroy us? At what point does the Earth stop being it’s own sovereign entity and just becomes the pet to the whims of the Board?"

"Food for thought..." said the turtle. They turned to the others on their thrones. "This will have to be debated."

There were nods all around the circle and I got the sense that that debate was looking to happen right now and I was probably not invited...

I looked to Choco for direction but she was deep in thought.

"Aunt Yeung," I heard Morgan say quietly, drawing my attention. "You saw the message. I have to go. Can you..."

"Who you calling ’aunt’?" Aunt Yeung asked with a scowl, her eyes slipping over to me. I still hadn’t seen that text message. "Fine. I will open the way, but you must take Misha with you."

"Of course." Morgan didn’t even hesitate. Aunt Yeung raised an eyebrow.

"Just how much of this did you plan out?" she asked.

Morgan gave an ambiguous smile. "Enough."

"Misha, I will remain here to witness the debate with the Board," said Choco. "If I need to argue, I will do so according to what you said earlier. You don’t need to worry."

"About you staying in the array..." I ventured.

Choco patted me on both shoulders. "Don’t you worry about that. Being the holder of Maloneer’s Dominion means my fate is tied to the Earth’s. Even if you got me out, I’d still stay in some capacity."

"But you’re a prisoner."

"Not entirely." She stepped back and spun around, her dress flying out in a circle around her and her hair floating like she was underwater. "I can project my spirit as well as anyone. I hardly call this imprisonment."

I paused and nodded. If she was alright with it, then that was that.

"Thank you," I said.

Choco pinched my cheeks. "You’re very welcome."

My long awaited reunion with my mother, or the woman I’d thought was my mother for the longest time, had been more than a disappointment, but I didn’t feel bad about it and I realised it was because Choco had quietly filled that role of older sister or even mother.

I wasn’t yet sure what I thought about that (and I knew it would be best to discuss it with you to get my head around it) so I didn’t say any more, gave her a smile, then instead went over to Aunt Yeung and Morgan to see what was going on.

"Where are we going?" I asked as Aunt Yeung traced a teleportation sigil in the air. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like trying to teleport from The Between was both easier and more complicated than in the normal world - the glowing markings in the air were definitely more elaborate.

"I’ll let Morgan explain it to you on the way," replied Aunt Yeung. "We’re cutting things a bit tight as it is."

I closed my mouth and instead waited for her sigil writing to finish.

When it had, a golden line in front of her split apart into a circle, giving a view to another place.

"Alright, get going."

"Thank you," said Morgan, as he grabbed the back of my shirt and pushed me in through first then followed.

The mouth of the portal quickly winked out of existence, leaving the pair of us in an eerily nondescript, white place. Fortunately, Morgan seemed to know the way and immediately set out at a quick pace, with me now following.

We walked a few minutes and as we did, I started to see colourful circles appear, grow, then shrink around us, the inside of them even more colourful. If I had to guess, these were also portals, perhaps naturally occurring ones. I walked a little faster to keep up with Morgan.

"Listen, Misha, right now it’s just us two," said Morgan. "No one else. I know this is a lot to ask, but I’m going to ask." His voice was a little muffled, perhaps because this really was a place where no one could hear.

"Ask what?"

"You to trust me."

"About what?" I didn’t really know the man, not really. We’d met a few times, been at odds with each other, but apart from today, we’d never really talked much so there wasn’t much to offset what I did know about him.

"I don’t mean Bran any harm," said Morgan. "I like him."

"You-!"

"Not like that!" he said quickly. "I mean, as a person. I’ve lived a long time and the number of people I find tolerable is... not high - those that I like are even fewer. I don’t want to see that number go down."

I eyed him cautiously. "And?"

"Well, when we get where we’re going, you’re probably going to hear some things, so just..." I saw the indecision in Morgan’s eyes and, for the first time since I’d saw him, doubt.

"You don’t want to hurt Bran," I repeated. "But you will anyway?"

"No," was his immediate reply.

I nodded thoughtfully. "Then that’s alright. You said it’s just us two here, right? No one else can hear us?"

"No one."

"Then what I said earlier about wanting to make the world a better place and all that, that’s a lie. I just want Bran to be okay. You help me with that, and I’ll do anything."

An odd look passed Morgan’s face, then he smiled. "I don’t believe you," he said.

"You..."

"I know Bran is your priority, but you do want to make the world a better place as well," he said. "As long as he’s in it."

I thought what he said over. "Okay."

Morgan smiled. "Okay."