Red Phoenix

time you want to talk to me, I am here.’
    ‘Thanks, Kwan Yin,’ Simone said, sounding much more mature than her five years. ‘But I’ll be okay with Emma.’
    I squeezed Simone around her waist. ‘We’ll be just fine together, waiting for your dad to come back for both of us.’
    ‘ And we’ll find a way for Leo to get better too,’ Simone said with confidence.
    ‘I don’t think we will, sweetheart,’ I said sadly to the top of her head. ‘I think we should enjoy being with Leo as much as we can now.’
    ‘I cannot say what the future holds,’ Kwan Yin said. ‘But I can tell you one thing, Ladies of the House of the North, and that is that the Black Lion is truly noble and well on the way to becoming a Worthy.’
    Simone put her arms on mine where I held her around her middle and we squeezed each other with delight.
    ‘How can we help him, Aunty Kwan?’ Simone said breathlessly, still clutching my arms.
    ‘You already are,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘Every minute you spend with him, you help him to approach the goal that he has no personal desire to reach.’
    ‘He doesn’t want to?’ I said.
    She shook her head sadly. ‘He is a true warrior.’ She shifted to silent speech so that Simone wouldn’t hear. He lives as if he is already dead. His life has no value to him, save as a means to serve. He has no desire to live once his Lord has departed. The Japanese have a word for such as he: Samurai.
    ‘I think you’re right,’ I said softly, my heart breaking. ‘If they found a cure for him tomorrow, he would be delighted, because then he could make the sacrifice of staying on to care for us.’
    ‘I am glad you understand,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘You have adapted to our ways remarkably well.’
    I had to smile at that. ‘Oh, I don’t know, Ms Kwan. I still won’t knock people over to get a seat on the MTR.’
    Simone giggled, and wriggled in my lap.
    ‘You’re okay now, Simone, aren’t you?’ I said to the top of her head.
    ‘Can we go back home now? I want to get ready for school tomorrow,’ Simone said. ‘I want to give my dad and Leo a big hug, and then I want to beat Michael at Monopoly again.’
    ‘You’ve been beating Michael at Monopoly?’
    ‘Yep.’ She nodded under my chin. ‘He complains all the time that I’m better than him. He’s really bad at it.’
    Ms Kwan smiled, nodded, and we were back in the living room. Simone leapt off my lap and raced down the hall to find her father. The training room door opened and Simone squealed with delight. I heard them talking together. I sighed.
    Leo came out of the kitchen, saw me and Ms Kwan sitting together in the living room, and smiled. He heard John and Simone talking happily together, and his smile softened. He went quietly back into the kitchen.
    Michael appeared in the hall. ‘Hello, Ms Kwan.’ Then, to me: ‘Is everything fixed now?’
    ‘All fixed,’ I said, and smiled. ‘Are you ready for school tomorrow? Got your stuff together?’
    Michael grinned. ‘Funny thing, but I’m actually happy about going.’
    He turned and went back down the hallway. ‘Hey, Simone, want to play?’ he called.
    ‘Nah, I’ll do some sword with Daddy,’ Simone said from down the hall.
    ‘You want to join us, Michael?’ John said. ‘We’ll pull some demons out and do some Inner Eye work as well.’
    ‘Wait for me!’ I called to them.
    ‘Okay, Emma, hurry up,’ Simone said.
    ‘This is an extraordinary household,’ Ms Kwan said. Her expression became wry and she gestured. Five gold coins appeared on the coffee table. ‘How many do you have now, Emma?’
    ‘I’m putting them together with red thread and making a lantern out of them,’ I said. ‘By mid-autumn festival next year, I’ll have a lantern made of gold.’ I suddenly remembered. ‘We still have some moon cakes left over from the festival this year—do you want to take some with you?’
    ‘Are they vegetarian?’ she said. ‘Many of them have a large amount of animal fat in them with the lotus paste.’
    ‘These ones are nice vegetarian Snowy ones with a soft white crust,’ I said. ‘Not too rich and heavy at all, and no salted duck-egg yolks in the middle. They’re quite good, but as usual John bought too many. We have a couple of spare tins in the fridge. Take one with you.’
    Kwan Yin rose and I stood with her. ‘Thank you, Emma, that would be lovely.’
    We went into the kitchen together. Leo was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee. He rose when we