Chapter 141: The Morning After the Furnace
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I woke up human.
At some point in the night I must have rolled over and whacked the Omnitrix on something, because the watch had timed out and dumped me back to default.
The dial was green and calm on my wrist like it hadn't just been welded to a nine-foot alien tank the entire night.
There were cushions under me and they smelled like jasmine. Jasmine, mixed with sweat to be more accurate. My whole body ached in the good way, the way you get after you go too hard at the gym and then remember you didn't stretch enough. Even breathing felt like work, and somehow that still felt like a win.
The four attendants were still there.
I kinda figured somebody would've come and collected them when we were done and moved them to some mystical recovery spa.
Instead they were all around me on the cushions, knocked out.
Ming had curled up against my left side with her face buried against my ribs. Xiu had claimed my ankle as a pillow. Zhen was on her back with her mouth hanging open. Fen had ended up sideways across everyone, one arm flopped over my chest.
They looked peaceful. Also like they weren't moving any time soon.
But there's someone missing…
I noticed the blanket. Someone had pulled a thin blue silk thing over me and actually tucked it around my shoulders like this was a sleepover and not… whatever last night counted as. It smelled faintly like that same jasmine tea.
I followed the smell. My eyes fell on the last person.
The Crane Lady sat at a low table by the far wall with her mask off, drinking from a porcelain cup.
The room was bright with that pale blue spirit-light leaking in through the window screens, and it made everything look a little unreal. She wore a simple robe instead of the layered ceremonial armor from before, and her silver-black hair was down around her shoulders instead of yanked into that tight knot.
Without all the costume, she looked different. Not "young," but less like a spooky statue and more like a really intense woman somewhere around thirty who just happened to have gray skin and scary powers.
She saw me move and poured a second cup without saying anything.
Getting out of the attendant pile took some careful detangling. I eased Ming's arm off my stomach, slid my ankle out from under Xiu's head, and rescued my other leg from Fen. Nobody woke up. My legs felt fine when I stood. Better than fine, actually. There was a solid warmth sitting low in my gut that hadn't been there yesterday. It was heavy almost as if it had a gravity of its own. It felt like a coal that had been glowing all night.
I walked over and sat across from her and gently took the cup.
"Ooh, not bad," I took a sip, feeling a lot more refreshed suddenly. The tea was rich, almost like broth, with a smoky aftertaste that made me think of campfires.
"I'm glad you liked it. I used furnace-vent leaves for this," she said, before I could ask. "They grow in the exhaust channels of the Dragon Furnace. It will help your meridians settle."
"Ayy, thanks."
She watched me drink. "Slowly. If you rush it, your stomach will reject it and I will not clean the floor."
"Yeah, okay. Slow it is."
The tea spread through my chest and settled somewhere around my stomach. Dantian? Can't believe that term would become common for me.
That coal of heat in my core pulsed once, then sank deeper. My fingertips started to buzz. And there was this new edge to my awareness, like I could tell where the air was moving in the room without having to look at the curtains.
"How does your body feel?" she asked.
Her tone wasn't really the worry type, it was like a doctor checking her patient. Simply business.
"Warm," I said. "Something's sitting in my gut that wasn't there before. Heavier than before, but good. My hands are err buzzing, and I can kinda… feel the air? Like I know where all the drafts are without turning around."
She gave a small nod, like I'd just passed a test. "Good. Your lower dantian has been pushed wide open. You had already begun unlocking your Chi pathways just recently, true, but those were surface channels. What I gave you last night forced the deeper reservoir to expand." She set her cup down. "Think of it as the difference between a creek and a river. The water was always there. Now the banks are wider."
She said a bunch of crazy Chi stuff. No, focus, use the right words.
"Makes sense. How long until I can actually use it?" I asked.
"Months of dedicated practice to stabilize. Years to master." She tilted her head. "But with your strong alien body, you should be able to be a little reckless and use it without suffering too much."
"Well what's too much in your definition?"
She ignored me and continued, "I hope you're happy, you now have a foundation that martial artists typically spend decades building through meditation and discipline. Although whether you waste it or not is your concern."
"I don't waste things," I said.
"We shall see."
I drank more tea and watched her over the rim. She watched right back.
After last night's events, where she'd let me drag her to the bedroom and claim her body, her expression was different.
Less judgy and more gentle. Curious too, maybe. Like she'd picked up a fun puzzle cube rather than just a useful tool, and was annoyed she liked it.
"You feel a little different this morning," I decided to mess with her a little.
Her eyes narrowed a little. "Elaborate."
"You're talking like a person instead of a ruling spirit of doom." I explained. "It's pretty nice. Makes you more likeable. Uh, also kinda weird too."
She didn't react. She took another drink, slow and deliberate, like she was buying herself a few seconds before answering. "You earned a degree of candor last night. Do not mistake it for softness."
Look at that. "Wouldn't dare, my lady."
"Good." Her gaze stayed locked on mine. "Because you are still my champion, and the tournament ahead will be harder than anything you faced in my arena. You'll be fighting fellow Champions. And those six who represent the other cities are not sect disciples or talented children. They are weapons that have been forged over lifetimes."
"Yeah, I figured this was the easy mode."
"Did you." She didn't sound impressed. She set her cup down. "The Champion of K'un-Lun will not try to overpower you. He will try to make you defeat yourself. The Spider Champion sets traps before the fight begins, and by the time you notice them, you are already caught. And the Tiger Island's champion is far stronger than the girl you broke. His anger will be colder than hers, and yes, he will be angry."
I filed all that under stuff to worry about later.
"What about the others?" I asked.
"The Dog Brother is straightforward. You will handle him." She paused. "The Under City is unpredictable, but they lack raw power." Another pause, heavier. "The Prince of Orphans… be a little serious against him."
If she was telling me to be serious after all she'd seen me do, then it wasn't just a blank space on the bracket, it was a landmine nobody could see.
"Okay," I said. "So he's extra dangerous."
"...."
We let the quiet sit for a bit.
The blue glow outside shifted as the sun moved, and I noticed the hairline cracks in the walls and floor, all filled with faint gold from last night's Chi blast.
The room looked like somebody had tried to electrocute it but midway had decided the new look was fine.
"Can I ask something personal?" I said.
Her mouth went tight. "...You may ask. I may not answer."
"How long has it been since someone just sat here and talked to you? Not because they wanted something. Just a simple talk."
She went still.
I started to wonder if she was just going to stare at me until I changed my mind.
Her fingers traced the rim of her cup once, slowly.
"Well. The last person who sat where you are sitting… and spoke to me as you are speaking," she said finally, "was the Iron Fist before Daniel Rand." She looked past me, like the wall was a window. "Orson Randall. He was also very loud."
I blinked. Orson Randall? The Iron Fist from World War I times, who peaced out on K'un-Lun and made everyone mad?
"He had a terrible death," she added.
Plain words, but there was something under it. She'd cared about the guy. I didn't know how, and I wasn't going to ask.
"Sounds like he had good taste in company," I said.
Her eyes cut back to me, sharp. Whatever she saw made her exhale through her nose. It wasn't exactly a laugh, but it was in the neighborhood.
"Get your priorities straight rather than trying to get to know me better. You will get… endless chances in the future. But the tournament is now. It truly will operate on a different scale than what you have experienced so far," she said, shifting gears again. "The arena favors no one. The other champions will have blessings of their own, some older and deeper than what I have given you. Do not assume that your alien form makes you invincible. It makes you versatile, which is better, but only if you are smart enough to know your limits."
"Well so far, Four Arms has been more than enough. I'll say I've been doing okay with my picks."
"You have been adequate."
I grinned. "Is that your version of calling me amazing, Crane Mo-?"
She shot me a glare when my tone shifted and I burst out laughing. "It is the highest praise I offer to someone I have known for two days." She didn't blink. "Earn a better one, boy."
We finished the tea in a silence that was starting to feel comfortable.
The attendants kept sleeping in a heap on the cushions. At one point Ming mumbled something and tried to steal more of the blanket, which wasn't even on her.
I stood and stretched. That new warmth in my core moved with me, like a second heartbeat that settled on my abdomen.
"I should head back," I said. "My team's probably guessing if I got sacrificed or seduced. Or both."
"An unreasonable assumption, when it's the opposite that happened." She didn't stand, but when I turned, her hand closed around my wrist. Her fingers were cool.
I looked down.
"You are my champion," she said slowly. Her voice was lower now. "Just so we are clear, that is not ownership."
"Yeah, I know." I said, deciding to poke her one last time. "If you suddenly tried the 'I own you' thing, I think Quetzalcoatl might crash through the ceiling to argue about it."
I lied.
She stared like she was trying to decide if I was trolling her.
Then the corner of her mouth twitched, and she let out a short laugh. "Sure she will."
"No, I'm serious," I said, trying to keep a straight face. It was fun to lie.
Her small smile disappeared. "Wait. You were not joking when you said you and Quetzalcoatl had a…"
"Had a what?" I asked.
"Do not play coy with me, Benjamin Tennyson."
"I'm not playing anything. She's a lovely goddess. Very feathery. Great sense of humor. And she was lovely in bed."
Even though I didn't know it was her when we got into it.
The Crane Lady kept searching my face for the lie and clearly wasn't finding one, which killed me because I was halfway bullshitting. We did have history, we did sleep together, but it wasn't anymore more than that.
"You are… very strange," she said.
"So I've been hearing."
She let go of my wrist and picked up her tea again. Her whole vibe snapped back into place so fast it almost gave me whiplash.
"You are an investment, Tennyson boy. I do not waste my investments." Her voice dropped a little. "So be certain to win."
I watched her for a second. Her face, the sharp cheekbones, the thin mouth, all the gray that should have looked weird but somehow suited her.
I leaned down and kissed her forehead.
She went stiff like I'd zapped her.
"I'll come back," I said. "I'll bring you something cool from one of the other cities."
Her hand jerked toward her cup and missed. The second grab landed, and she lifted it with that very precise motion people use when they're pretending nothing is weird.
The tops of her ears had gone a darker shade, and the color was creeping down her neck.
"Leave," she said, "before I change my mind about the blessing."
I didn't argue.
****
Getting back to Illyana's guest house took maybe fifteen minutes.
I cut through two moving bridges, one courtyard with floating lanterns, and a side passage that I was pretty sure didn't exist yesterday. The more I walked this city, the more it started to make sense. It felt like some kind of mystical sky maze.
I pushed open the main door and stepped into the common room.
Charmcaster was spread across one of the couches with a book on her stomach, her white hair everywhere like a shampoo commercial.
The cover said something in Chinese I couldn't read, only for a moment, as the Omnitrix translated it to "Dark Chi 101."
Psylocke stood by the window in loose training clothes, arms folded while she looked down at the arena district. And Illyana sat in a high-backed chair near the hearth with her legs crossed, Soulsword across her knees, running a cloth along the blade.
Three heads turned when I came in.
"And he lives," Charmcaster said, still half behind her book. "You smell like jasmine and…" she frowned. "A fun night… I guess."
"Don't be jealous now."
Psylocke's reaction was less chill. Her eyes went a bit wide and her arms came uncrossed as I walked closer. She was staring somewhere around my chest like she had x-ray vision.
"Your Chi flow… impressive," she said. "It's completely different."
"Yeah, the Crane Lady blessing turned everything up." I dropped into the nearest chair and stretched my legs. "Pushed the lower dantian wide open, fixed the base channels, anddd a dozen more Chinese terms, I don't know."
Psylocke stepped closer. I could feel that weird soft brush of her mind and her Chi senses skimming over me at the same time, like two kinds of scanning overlapping.
"Calling it 'opened up' is selling it too cheap," she said. "Your meridian capacity has increased by… a lot. The density of your core is high." She frowned slightly. "I spent some weeks teaching you breathing exercises you could barely maintain for ten seconds. And now you have a foundation high mid-level cultivators would envy."
"Hey, I worked hard for it. Won a Xianxia tournament and everything. Don't be so worried, Psy, I'll still rely on you for training. I only have raw output now, I need control."
Her mouth twitched, then flattened again. I decided to add, "See, this is also why I gave you the Dragon's Breath Pill. Ben Tennyson has endless opportunities, he doesn't need a twenty-year shortcut!"
"Yeah…" Her jaw clenched, then she let out a breath through her nose. "That is the most infuriating thing anyone has ever said to me."
Which was impressive if true since she, worse than Coleen, grew up in the Hand.
"You're welcome."
Illyana still hadn't said anything. She was in her chair, Soulsword across her knees, cloth stilled for a second while she watched me with those ice-blue eyes.
When I'd walked past her, she'd taken one slow breath through her nose.
She could feel the Crane Lady on me. Or at least the energy. But I didn't know why she'd feel mad. When she made me represent her in this tournament, she must have known what'd happen after I win.
Her face didn't move, but the way her hand went back to the blade, the way she started rubbing it harder, yeah…
"Fun night, alien boy?" she asked. Her voice sounded bored, which meant it really wasn't.
"It was educational," I said.
"Mhm."
Charmcaster snorted and lowered her book just enough to give me a look. Thankfully, she didn't fall into another jealousy frenzy.
I was about to say something when Psylocke spoke up again.
"Ben. Do you want to spar? No alien."
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