Gleam - Chapter 160 (Patreon)

Oh yeah. We're back, baby. The new breaks on the weekends give me time to do a little burnout-avoidance writing (because not writing at all would kill me on the spot). So... enjoy the return of Gleam!

A brief summary of what happened before, since it's been ages: Chance & the gang took a job about a dude with a creepy evil marble that had hella bad Karma. They tracked him down, fought, found out shit was really bad, and then Chance found out his fate was tied to some super evil powerful thing. They went to hunt said thing down, had to take out a whole house full of Essence Eaters (the creepy monsters that trap people's essence inside of them), and then met up with Wren, who helped them clear the monsters.
They then found the monster that Chance's karma was tied to, an enormous centipede creature called a Lifereaver. It nearly kills everyone, but Chance manages to flip the universe off and call down tribulation lightning, permanently infusing himself with its power and killing the creepy-crawly in the process. They then had a chat with Wren's mentor before heading out to find Jade to get some more backup. (Also, Chance is 1 meditation away from reaching Baron Rank, or Rank 4).

Enjoy!

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“This is it,” Yeo said.

Chance and Bella craned their necks back. They stood in front of a brick, one-story house. The windows had been boarded over and the small garden at its front was overrun with multicolored weeds.

After leaving Zeguma’s house, they’d walked through the Old City aimlessly with Chance at the lead for a few hours until it had deposited them a few streets down. Yeo had — for some reason — immediately recognized the area and taken the front of the group, leading them all over to the house before them.

“This?” Bella asked doubtfully. She squinted at the door and the small pathway of cracked gray stone leading up to it through the garden. “Are you sure? I’m not so sure anyone’s lived here in quite some time.”

“Perhaps Jade simply enjoys nature,” Wren suggested diplomatically. “It is very… wild. Refreshing.”

Chance approached the door, stepping from stone to stone. The faint smell of pollen mixed with dust and old wood as he drew up to it. He had to agree with Bella. The house looked completely empty. It was a minor miracle it hadn’t collapsed. The top hinge on the door had rusted away and it hung at an angle, just a small blow away from crashing down.  

“Nah, this is it,” Yeo said as he reached past Chance to push the door open without so much as knocking. It creaked loudly, and its bottom made a loud screeching noise as it scraped along the wooden floor. They all stared at Yeo. He looked back at them. “What? It’s a built-in bell, just without all the bell.”

The house was pitch black on the inside, but compared to the darkness of the house where the Lifereaver had resided, it might as well have been lit up like a Christmas tree. Sunlight filtered in through cracks in the boarded windows and spilled across the ground from the open doorway to reveal the room beyond.

It was small, with a single round dining table in its center. A plate with some dried meats and some utensils sat on its top. Behind it was a tiny kitchen area with a pan and a rag resting on its handle — both looked to have been used recently.

“Well, someone’s living here. That stuff isn’t old. But Jade didn’t strike me as a… I don’t know what this would be called.”

“Minimalist?” Wren offered.

“You’re good at this,” Bella muttered. She raised her voice slightly. “Jade? Are you here?”

“Oh, she’s underground,” Yeo said as he headed inside without waiting for a response. He stepped around the table and walked over to a ratty rug on the ground, then turned back and waved for them to follow. “What are you waiting for? A written invitation?”

“Any sort of invitation would probably be great,” Chance hedged. He sent a trickle of power to his Third Eye and briefly scanned the room. There wasn’t a single thread of karma present immediately around them. “The top of the house is empty, though.”

“Of course it is,” Yeo agreed. He kicked the rug out of the way and his foot caught on a raised metal ring. He stumbled, nearly tripping and landing flat on his face, before he managed to free himself and hurriedly correct his stance. Yeo cleared his throat. “See? Passage.”

“I don’t think any of us ever mentioned being confused about the presence of a passage,” Bella said dryly. “I think it’s the breaking and entering bit that’s causing a bit more concern.”

“Can it really be breaking and entering if the door was left open?” Yeo countered. “It was unlocked. That’s practically an invitation.”

Chance looked back at the old door. Then his gaze drifted downward. The lock had rusted off and laid on the ground about a foot away from the door in the shadows. Some spider had used it as a connection point for its web.

“Can a door be unlocked if the lock fell off?”

“I am not about to start discussing the philosophy or ethics of locked doors.” Yeo grabbed the metal handle with both hands and widened his stance. He gave it a tug. A dull thud echoed through the house and specks of dust rained down all around him. Yeo sneezed.

“Nice,” Bella said.

“It wasn’t this heavy last time,” Yeo protested. He released the ring and wiped his hands off on his shirt before leveling a glare at them. “Are you just going to stand around there? Or are you going to help me? I’m trying to break in here. It’s not easy.”

“I thought you just said this wasn’t breaking in,” Chance pointed out. “Maybe we should just wait to see if Jade heard Bella. I don’t want to come uninvited.”

“Are you insinuating that she wouldn’t want to see us?” Yeo asked, looking genuinely hurt. “Bah. Fine. Stand there, then. I’ll open this myself. I wasn’t actually using all my strength last time.”

Wren exchanged an amused glance with Chance as Yeo crouched down and grabbed the trapdoor handle again. Yeo set his feet and the muscles in his arms tightened. His lips pulled back to reveal his teeth in a grimace as he pulled with all his might — and the door flew open as if kicked down by a horse.

Yeo fell back with a slew of curses. He hit the ground in a roll and shot smoothly to his feet as a hand rose out of the darkness beyond the trapdoor and grabbed onto the ground. Jade heaved herself up with a grunt, squinting at them through the dim light.

“I — Chance? Bella? What are you doing here?”

“Oh, hey,” Yeo said. “There she is.”

“Why are you inside my house?” Jade asked.

“We were breaking and entering,” Wren said.

“We were not breaking and entering,” Yeo corrected. “Your lock fell off, so at most this was just entering. There was no breaking involved.”

“Ah, right. That,” Wren said.

Jade stared at them. She blinked, then rubbed her eyes. Her skin was paler than Chance recalled, and her clothes were matted with grime. It didn’t look like she’d left the house in recent times — but she certainly matched its décor.

“Sorry for… all this. Yeo was a little insistent, and the house did kind of look abandoned. Are you okay?” Chance asked hesitantly. “Did something happen?”

“Okay? Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Jade blinked, then glanced down at her clothes. Her cheeks reddened and she winced. “Oh gods. That’s embarrassing. I’m sorry. I’ve been in cultivation. Closed door. I was not expecting any company.”

“You’re welcome,” Yeo said. “Closed door cultivation is boring as all hell. Aren’t you thrilled your best friends are here? Do we need a reason to drop by?”

“Yes,” Jade said flatly. “Especially you.”

“Me?” Yeo clutched his chest. “Why me?”

“You tried to kill me.”

“You tried to kill me!”

“Yeah, well, you kind of had it coming,” Jade said. She ran a hand through her hair and blew out a sigh, but Chance didn’t miss the corner of her lip pulling up slightly in a small smile. “Seriously. Why are you here? I heard the job on you lot was dropped, but I wasn’t so sure you’d ever come back to Gleam.”

“After all the damn work I went through to get into this city, there’s no way I’m letting myself give up that easily.” Yeo crossed his arms in front of his chest and tapped a foot on the floor. “But that does kind of bring us to the purpose of our visit.”

“Trouble with the Shikari again?” A note of worry entered Jade’s tone and her eyes sharpened. “I’ll get you guys out of the city, don’t worry. I know a way. You better get out of plain view. Did anyone see you coming?”

“Nobody is after us,” Chance said. “It’s fine, Jade. Thank you for the offer, though. IT means a lot to know you’re that concerned.”

Jade blinked. “Oh. Really?”

“Is it that much of a surprise that nobody is trying to kill you?” Wren asked, tilting his head to the side. “How frequently does that happen to you all?”

“Someone is trying to kill us,” Bella corrected. “Remember?”

“Ah. Right.”

“This is Wren, by the way,” Chance said, nodding to the dark-haired boy. “He’s a good friend and a very talented cultivator.”

“Pleasure,” Jade said curtly. “Could we get back to the part where someone was trying to kill you?”

“Greasy bloke called Acen,” Yeo said, holding a hand up to indicate the man’s height. “He’s this tall. Has a black marble, and can summon the most terrifying fucking monsters I’ve ever seen in my entire life. We fought this thing called a Lifereaver. I pulled off some pretty slick moves, but it would have killed all of us if Chance didn’t blast it with lightning from the literal heavens. You should have been there. It was a great time.”

Jade stared at Yeo. Then she blinked heavily. “I… think I might still be shaking off some residual effects of the cultivation. Lifereaver? What are you talking about?”

“Ignore Yeo,” Bella said as she rolled her eyes. She looked from Yeo to Jade, and the corner of her mouth quirked up. “He seems a little eager to see you again. The story wasn’t wrong, but he skipped a few things. To summarize, the entirety of Gleam might be in danger and we need backup from someone we can trust.”

“Eager? I’ve never been eager in my life,” Yeo protested.

“You trust me?” Jade asked.

“Why wouldn’t we?” Chance asked. “You trusted us back when everyone would have told you we were monsters. I trust you more than the majority of the Shikari. You do what’s right… and we could really use the help.”

“Right.” Jade studied them for a few moments. Then she blew out a breath. “You better fill me in. This sounds serious.”

“It is,” Chance said with a nod. “Let’s head back to the Whiteheart House. We can speak over some food… and maybe after a shower?”

Jade glanced down at herself again, then cleared her throat. “Yeah. That would be great. Lead the way.”