Red Phoenix

opened them but I couldn’t see very much. Then two figures swam into view. John on my left, holding my hand. That proved it: definitely dead, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to touch me. Ms Kwan on my right, holding my other hand, with the most anguished expression I had ever seen on her face.
    John helped me to sit up, and I had a moment of dizziness. I expected the sword to twist inside me again, but it seemed to be gone. Thank heaven for smallmercies. John’s hand came around the back of my head to lift me. They both watched me, concerned.
    ‘Simone,’ I said. ‘Simone.’ I tried to get more words out. My throat was too dry to speak properly. ‘Is okay? Alive?’
    ‘Simone is fine, my love,’ John said. ‘We all are. Mercy just showed you how wrong you are. Look at you. Even now. You think we are all dead, and your first thought goes to Simone.’ His voice thickened. ‘You truly love her as if she were your own.’
    I didn’t really hear him. ‘Where’s Simone? Is she all right?’ I jerked my hands free. ‘Oh my God! Leo! No. No! Leo. Michael. John.’ I peered up at him. ‘John?’
    Kwan Yin put her hand on my forehead. ‘I am so sorry, little one, but it needed to be done. Sleep.’
    ‘Contact the Hall of Records,’ Ms Kwan was saying. ‘There may be a lost Shen, and it may be her. The stone is right: there is something there.’ Her voice softened. ‘But it was wrong of the stone to frighten her so. She does not deserve that sort of treatment. You will be dealt with appropriately when the time comes, I can assure you, stone.’
    ‘Do you think I should take the stone back and give her something slightly less troublesome?’ John said.
    ‘I vow to cause you less trouble, my Lord,’ the stone said. ‘I apologise. I told only the truth. I beg you, do not take me back. I am profoundly honoured by my role. Please leave me here. I promise to behave.’
    ‘See what Emma has to say about it,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘She may still want to flush it down the toilet.’
    ‘I do.’ I opened my eyes. There they were.
    ‘Please tell me Simone’s okay.’ My voice sounded really strange, hardly anything at all, just a hoarse whisper.
    John dropped his head and shook it with wonder. He looked back up and gazed into my eyes with anexpression of such adoration that my throat tightened. ‘Everybody is absolutely fine,’ he said.
    ‘Can you sit up, Emma?’ Ms Kwan said.
    ‘I can try,’ I said, but it came out a whisper.
    Both of them pulled me up and I managed to stay there. I looked around. I was on the couch in the study of Ms Kwan’s imaginary house. I had no recollection of arriving there. The last thing I remembered was coming home after taking Simone to the Obelisk, then slipping out to buy a few things at a pharmacy down the street.
    ‘How come you can touch me?’ I said.
    He raised his other hand, which was holding Ms Kwan’s. I understood; she shielded me.
    ‘Did you do that to me?’ I whispered. ‘Ms Kwan? You made me live through that?’
    ‘I’m sorry, Emma, but it had to be done,’ she said. ‘Do you understand now?’
    A great many unpleasant words hit the back of my throat. I swallowed them all.
    I thought back. I did that. I threw myself onto Wong’s sword to save Simone. There was nothing inside me he could control. I was just being paranoid. Of course I would never hurt Simone. John was right: I did love her as if she was my own. Nothing else mattered; not John, not Leo, not me. As long as Simone was okay, everything else was just detail.
    ‘Lady Kwan Yin,’ I whispered, ‘thank you so very much.’
    Both of them sighed with relief. They probably thought I was about to leap up and chop their heads off.
    ‘Did you say I could be a lost Shen, Ms Kwan?’ I said.
    ‘I think that is a remote possibility,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘But I think it is more likely that you are just a very talented human being who is in love with her DarkLord and is learning from him in many more ways than one. You have shared your minds and your bodies. Of course you are becoming more alike all the time.’
    ‘That actually makes sense,’ I said. ‘That’s the most sensible thing anyone’s said to me in quite a while.’
    ‘Do you understand now that you could never hurt any of us?’ John said.
    ‘Of course I could never hurt anybody. I can’t believe I thought that.’ I should have looked into my heart straightaway and seen the truth, instead of letting the stone make me so