Dragon Mirror- Ties Between the Veil
30: Wu Wei, Cousins, and an Old Photo

Mrs. Wong was decidedly the most terrifying woman Tito had ever encountered. Watching the woman's son deflate in front of her eyes was like an out of body experience. The dogs stood stiffly behind them after Moon hushed them, Gidget letting out a muted snarl.

“I would like to know why you are camped on my property.” Zhao opened his mouth to respond and she held up a hand. “Silence.”

His face looked as if he’d sucked a lemon, and Tito felt queasy. Bear cast a bewildered look her way as Moon turned fully to regard the diminutive woman.

“I assume you wouldn’t accept ‘reclamation’ for the indigenous peoples as an answer?” For a split second, when her eyebrows went up, Tito seriously thought the woman was about to crack a smile.

“This boy came to my front door asking for his uncle, and after a few questions, I realized he assumed this uncle knew my son.” Her eyes turned to regard Zhao. “My son who has not been home regularly for the past few days.”

“Hatito, very astute of you, ma’am.” Moon looked at Tito and quirked his eyebrows. Lesson for the padawan?

Tito blinked in surprise at Moon's voice in her head.

“I apologize for this intrusion- we will keep to ourselves and you should go home and forget we ever bothered you.” Tito felt a weird humming in her body as Kiishthwa spoke to Mrs. Wong, and she realized he was imposing his Will on the woman.

But strangely, there was no visible change besides a dark scowl that fell across her face. Moon’s surprise was palpable, his entire body language became tense.

“I think you need to explain to me who you are to attempt to use Wu Wei on me.”

Kiishthwa was visibly shaken and Bear kept alternating with staring wide eyed at his idol and the threatening woman in front of him.

“How…” Moon swallowed, holding out a calming hand as one of the Boys let out an anxious bark.

“I would ask the same of you.”

Tito was completely lost, and couldn’t shake the rising tension building between Mrs. Wong and Moon. Gidget snapped her muzzle softly, and Bear squatted down to scratch behind the agitated dog's ears.

Mrs. Wong cut her eyes towards her son, then locked her eyes on Tito. “Miss Tanya Vasquez. I grow weary of your family.”

Before she could work up the courage to retort, the older woman turned away.

“Meet me at my home so we may discuss your trespass and your continued involvement with my son.”

She walked off and disappeared around behind the RV. Moon squatted down next to Bear abruptly, his hand shaking as it covered his mouth.

Zhao tried to speak, swallowed loudly and then asked, “What the fuck just happend?”

Tito inadvertently giggled at hearing him swear. Her nerves were hopped up with adrenaline. Moon shook his head, choosing to cover his face in lieu of speaking.

Bear reached out hesitantly, still holding Gidget by the ruff of her neck as she strained to go follow Mrs. Wong. The Boys stood tensley by Moon and their mistress.

Moon finally sighed, and looked up at Zhao.

“I’m not entirely sure, but I think we might be related, hey?”

The asian man's eyes went round in alarm and Tito sucked in a gasp and blurted. “How the fuck you figure that?”

Kiishthwa cast a wry look up at her, still squatting. “As far as I know, only descendants of my mother can manipulate the Will, and withstand another imposing their Will on them.” His hand covered his mouth and he rested his face in his palm.

“That woman could be my sister.”

“Oh dude, you almost fucked your cousin!”

She regretted her words as soon as she saw the look on Zhao’s face. His skin had lost all color and the distress wrung her heart.

“I didn’t-”

He turned away and disappeared behind the RV, likely following the path back to his parents house. He completely abandoned his car. Tito scowled after him, folding her arms.

“I’m missing something, obviously.” Bear tried to say lightly.

“No shit, Sherlock. Fuck my life.”

His mother was nowhere to be found when he got back to the house. His entire chest felt tight and his head was buzzing. He looked around the expansive foyer, the modern outfitted living room, feeling lost and out of place.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think we might be related, hey?

Zhao made a beeline for the bathroom, not caring if the others arrived at the house soon. The housekeeper was somewhere around, she could handle it.

After splashing his face with cold water, he stared into the mirror, trying to pick out any indication of being related to Raina.

Oh dude, you almost fucked your cousin!

“No! No no No NO!” He slammed his fist into the counter repeatedly, punctuating each No until his hand began to throb.

He stopped abruptly when he noticed his mother standing at the bathroom door, watching him curiously. He spun to face her, assuming a defensive posture, as if she would attack him.

“What is going on?” She asked quietly.

“I don’t even know anymore, do you know?!”

His accusatory tone took her aback, and her eyes took on a hint of concern.

“My son, I discover you have invited strangers to set up on my property, and yet again replace you consorting with the sister of the woman you love who disappeared while in your presence.” She shifted to look out into the living room, and Zhao glared down at his aching hand.

“They will be here soon, I dismissed Amanda for the day.” She walked away towards her office.

“Mother, what happened back-” She held up a hand in a dismissive gesture, and kept walking to disappear into her office. Zhao bitterly wondered if she had treated Amanda in the same manner.

The doorbell rang, causing him to jump. With a frustrated groan, he went to let the rest of his group into the house.

Acting as a good host should, he seated everyone in the living room, asked if anyone wanted a drink. Bear and Moon declined, with the younger man looking completely lost and mystified by his surroundings.

Tito cheekily asked for a rum and coke, causing him to roll his eyes and toss her a can of cherry coke from the fridge. His mother still had not made an appearance, and his anxiety was through the roof.

When he perched on the edge of one of the stools at the high table near the open kitchen, Tito popped up from her seat and approached him.

Before she said anything, he held up a hand as his mother had before. “Don’t.”

“But I…” She twisted her lips as she evaluated his face. “Ok.” She went back to her previous seat and cracked open the cherry coke, quickly sucking away the foam.

Moon was withdrawn, his black eyes staring vacantly at the sand art table in front of the couch. No one spoke until Zhao’s mother emerged from her office holding a large red dyed leather photo album.

“I have been assuming the mundane in the disappearance of Raina Larona Vasquez. But now I suspect something more… unique.” Tito slurped her drink loudly, drawing a cursory glance from Mrs. Wong.

“I am not sure what this has to do with her disappearance. But.” Her sharp gaze locked with Kiishthwa’s and held. She slowly held out the photo album.

When Moon hesitated to take the book, she stepped forward and deposited it in his lap. “Page five.”

Moon held her gaze for another second, then opened the album and grunted as if struck. Tito immediately got up to look over his shoulder. She whispered, “Holy shit.”

Bear was perplexed but Zhao stared at the album like it was a poisonous viper. He couldn’t see the photo, but could guess from Moon and Tito’s reactions.

Tito looked over at Zhao. “It’s a black and white photo of my G’ma Pani in a Chinese wedding dress next to some dude.”

The bottom dropped out from under him, and his chest grew tight. Until he noticed his mother shaking her head.

“This is Pei Zhi Zhao and her husband. This is my maternal great grandmother.” The look of shock on Moon’s face was only slightly less than Zhao’s. He had seen the photos in this album as a child, but had never made the connection.

“How did she even manage that?” Tito wondered aloud.

Again Mrs. Wong shook her head. “Your grandmother and Pei Zhi were not the same. Pei Zhi died more than forty years ago in Wuhan, China.”

Moon’s mouth popped open in surprise and he stood up, still cradling the book. He paced away to stand in front of Zhao, tilting the book to show him.

“My mother died last year. Yet here is a picture of her, that supposedly died forty years ago. What does this mean to you? Because I’m out of my depth.”

Zhao stared down at the aged photo of an unsmiling woman that looked exactly like Panillia Holliday in middle age. How had he not remembered this?

He looked over to his mother, reeling. He felt relief that he was not directly related to Raina, but the implications of what Moon had said about the use of Will was not lost on him.

“Pei Zhi had seven sons and three daughters. I am descended from her second daughter, who had three sons and one daughter. That daughter had two children.” She looked away.

Zhao kept his peace because he knew his mother had had two other siblings after her birth, both girls. His uncle Bai had been the first born and worked at the corporation his father owned.

To fight overpopulation, China had proposed a strict one child policy a few years after his mothers birth, so the subsequent children had disappeared. He knew the loss of her siblings had impacted her and her mother greatly.

“My great grandmother taught me the ways of Wu Wei before she passed away. My mother also knows the use of the Will. I assumed it skipped my grandmother.”

“Why didn’t you ever try and teach me?” Zhao blurted.

His mother stared at him for a moment before slowly smiling and looking over at Moon. “I guess I had assumed it was a matrilineal gift. But this man has shown me otherwise.”

Zhao had a momentary sensation of uneasiness and foreboding as his mother’s gaze turned back on him with an incredibly predatory glint.