Light in Dark Places

Chapter Forty-Six

Joan's pretty sure Seung-ri is never going to let her be alone, ever again. And considering the apparition of Creosote was in her bedroom, Joan doesn't have a whole lot of room to protest this.

But leaving Jisu behind to babysit her does seem like a waste of a King's resources.

"Don't you have other things to do?" Joan asks.

"Luckily for me, a lot of what I do, can be done from home," Jisu says cheerfully. "Which is just grand; I rarely ever have to put on pants." He's in sweats now; reaffirming his distaste for being in uniform.

"He's probably not going to come again," Joan asks.

Jisu doesn't pretend ignorance. "But he might. You really should have told someone the first time he came, yeodaengsang."

Joan looks down, agreeing. "What is his Ash talent? No one ever told me. He's Prodigy-class, right?

Jisu puts down his papers and studies her. "Yes," he says, after awhile. "You have surely noticed that he doesn't look twenty-three?"

Joan nods and Jisu continues, "The thing about Creosote is that he must be at least twenty-three, but it is quite possible he's far older than that. Maybe even by hundreds of years."

"You mean—he's immortal?"

"Essentially," Jisu says, and he hesitates. "Joan, this is incredibly confidential. If word got out—"

"I'm not going to tell anyone," Joan rushes in. "But I need to know, OK? He acts like we're friends sometimes. And it's...weird." Especially considering he still meant to kill her.

Jisu only raises a brow, looking extraordinarily calm. "And that's why I'm telling you. But you can't tell anyone else, understood? Good.

"Creosote isn't his name, but it's really just what everyone remembers him by. His Ash talent is creosote the oldest life. And, as implied, he is essentially immortal. He heals at a phenomenal rate, making him rather hard to kill. But more to the point, his talent gives him the ability to clone himself."

"What?" Joan yelps.

"It's a bit hard to understand, if you haven't seen it. Creosote, the plant, has the ability to drop branches and live on that way. That's why it has the legend of being the oldest living organism— there are creosote plants that can be traced back for thousands of years. And that's what our friend Creosote does. If he dies, he sort of re-grows himself elsewhere, as long as he's left behind a body part to grow from. I'm given to understand he keeps jars of his own hands somewhere, so that if we kill him during an attack he just grows back in a safe place. It's my theory that this is why he is so unstable, but Seung-ri maintains he was probably always a creepy fuck."

"That is horrifying," Joan says.

"It is much more terrible when you see it happen, I assure you."

Joan tries to think of a response to that but she can't. All she can picture is an endless series of Creosote clones and jars of hands.

There is something she wants to know, though, something that has bothered her from the beginning.

"Was he your friend?"

Jisu looks older from having been asked the question. Tired, haunted, hurt by long ago things.

He taps his pen on the desk and then idly twirls it in his fingers with deft expertise. "The thing is, he is probably the smartest person I have ever met. The three of us—Creosote, Seung-ri, and myself—were representative of the three main branches of the military: Research, Armed Forces, and Intelligence. Susanna, who you met the other day, was in the Sniper division, and Heather was in the Medical ward.