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“Forget that. I’m sorry. Go on.”
“According to Taoism,” Rain said, “the Jade Emperor is supposed to be the assistant to one of the Three Pure Ones, who are the highest gods within the pantheon. And, perhaps, all pantheons.”
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Sophia murmured.
“Pure Ones…”
“The god the Jade Emperor served was called the Primeval Lord of Heaven, also known as the Jade Pure One. Believers say that this god resides in the Heaven of Jade Purity. He came into being at the beginning of the universe as a result of the merging of pure breaths. He then created Heaven and Earth.”
“I thought that the Jade Emperor was a god,” Ere murmured. “But he’s a mere ‘assistant’ himself?”
“Well, ‘assistant’ to one of the first gods who created the world as we know it must still be an all-powerful being,” Rain reminded him.
“Heisa god in his own right. Just as the Pure and Dark Goddesses were.”
“Continue,” Ere directed with an impatient wave of his hand. Every fiber of his being was focused on Rain’s words.
“Supposedly, if I recall the mythology correctly, he’s existed for over three hundred million years, after which he became the monarch of all the deities in heaven. To do so, he had to defeat a powerful, evil entity who had the ambition to conquer the immortals and gods in heaven and rule over the entire universe.”
“Sounds like a familiar refrain,” Sophia put in.
“The Jade Emperor ultimately won. The evil being was defeated, its army scattered across the universe. While the Jade Emperor was personally chosen to be the supreme creator god’s successor to rule the heavens, and he did rule them well—he is also prophesied to be succeeded himself by the Heavenly Master of the Jade Dawn and the Golden Door.”
Ere wondered whether the “Master” could possibly be the little old white-bearded man he antagonized on a regular basis in the Celestial Realm.
That would put a wrench in his own theories up to this point. He had thought that the Master and the Jade Emperor might be one and the same.
“It is not clear whether the Jade Emperor created dragons or whether someone else did,” Rain said. “But he had many of them at his disposal. He ruled them all, just as he ruled everything in the universe.”
“You keep switching between past and present tense when you speak of the JE,” Ere noticed.
“Why do you do that?”
Rain shook her head.
“I did not realize. I suppose I think of him as a mythical being who isn’t real, but at the same time, given our discussion now, I wonder…”
She turned to Ere, her face alight with amazement.
“Do you truly know the Jade Emperor, Ere? Have you been to the Celestial Realm?”
“Yes, to the latter,” Ere replied.
“But I’ve only ever heard the Jade Emperor’s summons in my mind. He operates through his lacky—a being who calls himself the Master or Shifu. The Master has demonstrated significant powers. The ability to appear and disappear at will. To take away my voice and give me another. Telekinesis, and I bet telepathy as well…I don’t know the full scope of what he can do. The entire Celestial Realm seems to be built on magic. Its very construct defies our wildest imaginations.”
“That’s saying something,” Eveline said. “Given how imaginative us Pure and Dark Ones can be, with everything we’ve seen and experienced.”
“So, what now?” Sophia asked.
“I shall return to the Cove to research our Kinds’ archives for curses and spells and the beings who can invoke them,” Eveline said.
“I will confer with Jade on the subject of the Jade Emperor,” Rain volunteered. “We can reach out to our network in China to see if we can find out more that might help.”
“And I’ll work with Seth, like I mentioned,” Sophia added.
She took Ere’s hand in both her own and squeezed comfortingly.
“We’ve been through a lot together, old friend,” she murmured. “We’ll get through this together too. I promise.”
