The Orb of the Sun

He turned and stared at the Parisienne Hotel where he had dropped Jasmine off. He knew exactly which room she stayed at.

The shades were still drawn and there was no movement. It was still early so she was most likely still asleep.

Anh Hai was glad that Blake had accompanied her into the hotel. It meant she was not grieving for her aunt all alone.

Hopefully, she didn't get night terrors in her sleep and Blake had taken good care of her during the night.

His eyes softened. She was just as beautiful now as she was when he first set eyes on her, seven-hundred years ago.

If it hadn't been for one of his younger brothers, General Sha Kai's insistence on becoming betrothed to her, Anh Hai would have most likely taken her as a consort.

As it was, Jasmine had died an unmarried virgin and then had been entombed as a married Queen, changing her fate forever and binding her to him with a long red soul thread that was so strong it could not be broken.

He and Jasmine had been so inextricably tied together throughout the ages that he had been unable to stop searching for her, even as he searched for the man who had sent him to an early grave seven-hundred years ago.

He still could not believe, even at this moment that the woman who had been buried alongside him throughout the ages was not his wife in life, although of course, at the time of his death, she had been customarily and spiritually bound to him.

For all intents and purposes, she was his wife.

It blew his mind that Jasmine had been his wife for far longer than her sister had been his wife. The Queen had only married him for a year. Jasmine had been married to him for over seven-hundred years.

The biggest kicker was that even after he had disturbed his own grave, she was the one who had reburied him, intermingling their bones together in the same grave.

Whoever said, 'Till death do us part' had no idea what the fuck they were talking about.

The debts of karma kept bringing the same people back together, over and over again until whatever lesson needed to be learned had been learned.

He took another puff of his cigarette as he sat and waited for Jasmine to awaken.

He hoped she was able to talk Blake into doing a past life regression so that Blake could see what had happened to those pieces that he needed to find.

Anh Hai grimaced.

He had never regressed a ghoul before, but how bad could it get?

=========

It was almost nine when Jasmine finally awakened. Another hour went by before she was showered and dressed and ready to leave the hotel.

A quick check by Blake showed that neither the old nun Dai Tu Liem nor her brother, Dai Tien Hoang had returned to their rooms. There was no way to tell where they had gone or even if they were still alive.

"Do you want to go find them?" Blake asked.

"I don't know where to go. If they're in trouble, I want to help, but what could I possibly do?"

"I could send some of my men out to look for them, but it's a long shot and most of them have never seen the old nun or the old man."

Jasmine shook her head. "It's best just to wait for their return. Great Uncle has sent me to this place for some reason and he's always had legitimate reasons why he does what he does. I'm just going to wait and see what he wants me to do."

"Do you have plans for today?"

Jasmine nodded. She was supposed to meet up with Anh Hai to discuss the items that he had drawn up but she knew that telling this to Blake would irritate him to no end.

"Well?" Blake gave her a sidelong glance.

"Promise me you won't get mad."

"No promises." Blake pursed his lips. "If you tell me your plan today is going out on a date with another man, I'm going to be mad."

Jasmine laughed. How cute was that? Blake was jealous.

"Nothing like that. I just need to meet up with Anh Hai and discuss with him about the drawings."

"Drawings?"

"Yes. There are some things he was hoping I could figure out and help him recover."

Blake narrowed his gaze. If he didn't know the situation with Jasmine and Anh Hai, he truly would have been jealous, but it was abundantly clear to him that Jasmine had no feelings for the man.

If she did, she would have sought Anh Hai out the night before. Instead, she had returned to their hotel room and had made love with Blake himself.

"Do you have the drawings?"

"Yes." She pulled the piece of paper that Anh Hai had drawn for her from her bag.

Blake took the paper and stared at the drawings. He had to grudgingly admit that the man was an accomplished artist. The drawings were perfectly drawn and shaded so as to look almost like a photo.

These items had existed before cameras had been available. These drawings would most likely be the only 2D representations of them in existence.

There was a gold ball that was hollow, with lattices criss-crossing it. At the points were the lattices intersected, brilliant-cut white diamonds had been embedded. Perched atop the latticed ball was a ruby the size of a kitchen cabinet door knob.

The second drawing was a scepter looking piece with a half-moon attached to one end of what looked to be a hollow rod. The half-moon was latticed in the same manner as the sun, with the same diamonds embedded at the lattice intersections.

There was also a wing-shaped V with lithograph-looking etchings on both sides. It looked almost like a boomerang to Blake, but made from solid gold, he wasn't sure it could return at all, if thrown.

The final drawing was a simple flat disk the size of his palm. It was too large to be a coin and too small to be a plate, and it had bumps and lumps on its surface.

Suddenly, the system began blinking a small green dot at him. He opened up the dot and the Assignment reappeared.

«Assignment: Recover the Orb of the Sun.»

It was flashing over the drawing of the hollow gold ball.