Webs of Woe
2nd of October 2006 A.D.
"I would keep them from harming innocents, be it by striking their heads from their bodies or by words to set them upon them path of repentance, what matters is to put an end to the fear and suffering to make these streets, this city safe once more for mortal man and immortal spirit again. In that I think we would find common cause and in that I ask for your aid," you speak with care, with pathos, though you tread carefully so that it does not seem you speak with pride.
Língguāng sets her cup down with a click as she looks you over carefully over the rim, her amber eyes seeming almost to recall the gaze of a hunting bird. "If you do not drive them out with fire they shall return, it is the nature of the akuma who twice clung to existence in the face of the cycle that would have seen their souls cast before the judgement of Heaven. Mercy is the province of might and you are not so mighty as to afford it in the face of the Will of Kakuri."
"We are not, but we act in the name of and by the grace of One who is infinitely mighty as he is merciful," your father... no, the Knight of the Cross and bearer of the Sword of Love says. "We can promise no more than that, we can do no less."
"Do you know why the Princes of the Slain despise us and would do us evil?" Lán Hè asks, looking from Lydia to you and back again. "It is because we are unbound by the dictates of the Celestial Bureaucracy and yet we are no damned as they are, we are not a blight of Yang, nor are we the killing breath of tainted Ying corpse still upon the world. Whatever other purpose the servants of the Yama Kings have in this place they would leave it a ruin and our dear ones lost and broken because it brings their lords comfort. These creatures kill and defile not because they profit thereby but because they are defilement."
"Bullshit," Bùshì Tùzǐ snorts, her hair puffing up like a cat's arched back. "Killing is the reason and the deed, but that does not mean they kill
reflexively because they hate us from back in the old country or some shit. They did not kill J first because of some imbalance of chi, they did it because J was smart and he was one of the first to realize what was going on."
"He who lays in a grave shall drink the water of the dead," Língguāng proclaims with the sort of cold certainty that is practically guaranteed to... raise spirits if one might make a pun of the matter.
Just as the younger spirit is about to make like an angry leopard and go for the throat Leaping Jack cuts in for the first time. "Honored elder I think there may be some truth to what she says, yes the Akuma have fed upon those of unbalanced chi, but not simply as a plague may feast upon those with weaker immune systems, I have noticed a pattern in who is being hunted. Male then female, old then young, deep rooted shaman, then one with their eyes still closed. I think they are attempting to poison the chi of the Dragon Lines to make it their own, the better to prepare for fighting..." he motions in your direction, hand forming a kind of spiral starting from the tip of your head to the soles of your feet.
"The akuma, Lady Eiko of the Blood-Stained Chrysanthemum, offered me a meeting," you say, the implications dawning on you. Why offer you a meeting in such a hostile manner? Because they wanted you to show up, but not to talk, because it's a trap and all of Chinatown is the web.
"So then do you still think it is wise to offer her mercy?" Jack asks with a crooked smile that would not have looked out of place on the cover of GQ.
"This trap, if trap it be, it isn't done is it?" you ask, as much to yourself as the the others in the room. "I wonder if we could catch them up as they are building it?"
"The only lure they might take are our dear ones which none here will risk," Jack proclaims, firmly... a little too firmly. His eyes do not shift, his face does not twitch, but then he is not a creature of flesh. There is a shiver in the air , a flicker in the neon lights above as his attention falls like swirling steam onto Lán Hè, he expects the elder shen to make the offer now that the akuma's plot has been revealed. The manipulation leaves a bad taste in your mouth...
[] But you let it stand, allow the moment to pass and Lán Hè to make the offer of his shaman in order to draw Lady Eiko into the open
[] So you speak up, you do not need that kind of risk taken, now that you know the Akuma are messing with the local dragon lines you can call your own expert in the matter in the from of Porter
[] Write in
OOC: Spirit politics ahoy. 
