young fellow pupils had excelled at their training. But Clay
Byron desired a slightly different path. He announced that he was
leaving for training in Libania under the Marchessa. The others chose
to remain in Feng Qi for a bit longer. Clay embarked, and Kar-Fai
wished him well, and dubbed him “Sojourner” for his restless
spirit. Clay promised Clive and Gaunt that he'd meet them again one
day.

The one saddest about Clay
leaving was Kar-Fai's young son, Jun-Kim Liao (or June Kim, born
1967) who saw Clay and Clive as older brothers and Gaunt as an uncle.
Jun-Kim was the offspring of the marriage of Kar-Fai to Colleen Soh
(b. 1940), a half-Irish, half-Korean whose father Kim Park Soh (b.
1918) had lived at Feng Qi in the 1930s and 1940s and became an agent
of Bram Vallard via hisconnection to Feng Qi, where he had trained
in the 1920s. Kim Park's other daughter, Lerby Soh, married Vallard's
son Randolph Hoxworth (b.1947) and the couple settled in Hallmark and
had three daughters: Betsy, Lerby, and Jill, all of whom would one
day meet their cousin Jun-Kim, whose importance to this narrative
will grow as we move along.

III. Lucifer Revisited

Alec Duarte first
encountered Kicia Marie Blessing in 1971 when he came to Hallmark to
finish off his father Tony Duarte and Tony's partner and lover Marco
Allegretti. He set up his place of operation in a Hotel 6 and that
evening, after staking out Tony's mansion, dropped in at the Lucifer
Club for a few drinks and to see naked girls dance. He was sexually
frustrated due to his time with Mariposa Marisol. Celibacy was
getting old for him. Kicia