Chapter 23 #2
I watched kind of incredulously as he pulled one string after another out, undoing part of the knot, until it was no longer attached to the sword. He made it look so easy, but I could tell from the beads of sweat on his forehead, this took serious effort on his part.
“One more little thread,” he crooned, “and we’re...free! Whoot! Zhen, take sword.”
Zhen took the weapon, leaving the knotted curse in Jo Jo’s hands. He hadn’t completely unraveled it, just did enough to take it off the sword.
“This is where things get really flashy.” Jo Jo edged closer to the center of the sigil and the warded bag that sat there.
“This warded bag is meant for disposal of curses, assuming you can whittle it down in size enough to fit inside the bag. We treat minor curses like you would a wasp’s nest. You want to seal it in a bag with be-gone-goop and let it sit overnight.
Then burn the rest in the morning until it’s nothing but ashes.
Sounds simple, but sometimes these curses are tenacious and you have to sacrifice multiple bags and bottles of goop before you can weaken it enough to burn the corpse. ”
Charlotte asked, “What’s in the goop?”
“Sorry, trade secret.” Jo Jo cast her a flirtatious wink. “But for you, I might make an exception.”
Charlotte giggled.
Why were these two being so cute?
Jo Jo poured the goop into the bag. Goop was actually the perfect word. It was this thick, slimy stuff that almost looked radioactive. Pretty sure they’d used something similar on set when filming the Ghostbuster movies.
The second the goop hit, combustion occurred. A sizzling hiss like a pissed-off demon awakening from its slumber rattled through the room, and unholy black and red fire shot out the opening a good foot into the air. My nose wrinkled from the acrid stench.
“If it looks like this and smells like someone pissing on brimstone, you’ve done your job right.
” Jo Jo stepped away from the bag, letting it continue to burn in the middle of the sigil.
“The not-fun part about this is I now get to sit and watch this thing until it’s burned down to embers.
Didn’t do that once. Have the scars to prove it.
Don’t trust this thing until it’s absolutely done.
I will now take a question from my lovely assistant. ”
I hadn’t realized Charlotte had her hand raised.
“If the goop is setting it on fire, why do you need to burn it again?”
“Goop’s fire is more a reactive fire. It’s not truly destroying it, it’s breaking things down. Think, like, a kitchen knife can cut up a melon into very fine pieces if you give it enough time, right? But is the melon truly gone? Not until you’ve burned it to ashes. Same thing here.”
I was glad she’d asked because that hadn’t made sense to me either.
“Jo Jo, anything else before I cut the video?”
“Nope, that was all! And remember, don’t try this at home. We’re what you call experts.”
I laughed at the MythBusters line and stopped the recording. “And we’re done.”
Jasha looked hopefully at the sword still in Zhen’s hand. “Does that mean I can have it?”
“Let me pour some holy water on it,” Jo Jo cautioned. “Make sure it’s good and clear. And then we’ll need to attune it to you.”
“Attune?” Jasha repeated the word, confused. “Please tell me it doesn’t involve essential oils.”
“Lavendar,” I deadpanned. “’Cause you have to sleep next to it.”
Zhen busted up laughing. Gramps chuckled too and accused him, “You are clearly rubbing off on her.”
That was very much Zhen’s deadpan humor. I guess he was at that.
Jasha pouted. “I’m serious.”
“No essential oils, I promise,” Zhen assured him. “Takes meditation—guided meditation, at that. Gramps and I will walk you through it.”
“Oh, I can help him!” Kelly promised, enthusiasm obvious.
Jasha gave her a somewhat shy smile. “I’d like that.”
“There you go, you have an expert’s full attention.” Zhen winked. “As for your...uh...where did your familiar go?”
I looked down to discover I was sans huodou and ocelot. Um. “Hey, anyone here?”
Guo’s head popped out of a shadow under the table. “I am.”
“Where’s Mirage?”
“Oh, she is very young. We will teach her how to protect her human.” He gave me a reassuring nod and then poof! Gone.
I stared at the spot and muttered, “That sounded a lot like ‘we found a new playmate you can have her back later’ to me.”
Zhen snorted. “Yeah, sounded that way to me, too. Well, I was about to suggest something else, but if Mirage learns from the huodou how to protect Jasha, that’s a great use of her time. Anyway, into the house we go. Going to be hard to meditate in here with all the stinky stuff.”
It did stink so I was with Zhen on this one.
Gramps put a hand on Jasha’s shoulder as he urged him out of the workshop. “You and I will have a very interesting talk about your lineage before you meditate.”
“Sir? What do you mean?”
Jasha shot me a confused look and I shrugged in return. But based on Zhen’s expression, big news was incoming.
I’d been planning to edit some footage tonight—and by some I meant a lot of footage—but it seemed my best friend might need moral support soon.
Good thing I had nothing else on my schedule this evening.