Secret & Lies (the forsaken #1) [WangXian FF]

33

"Why do you need your brother's blood to open the vault?" 

They were inside the huge library with a very tall ceiling just like the ones in the medieval movies. The walls were full of books, and they looked old and well read. The library itself was so beautiful with polished cherry wood floors and there was a huge stained glass window up on the ceiling. 

Wei Wuxian looked around in amazement. Never before in his life had he seen so many books in one place. And when he took one of the books, it was even in foreign language that he had never even seen before.

"It's Aramaic, and I need to use my brother's blood because mine is tainted with the poison. The Forsaken will not open with impure blood." He dropped a few drops of blood in the middle of a strange array on the floor, and the blood seeped into the eye of the array. 

The array shone with a blinding white light and then a door appeared out of nowhere. It was a pure black door with what looked like a swirling black abyss, and Lan Wangji held his hand before they walked through the black abyss.

Wei Wuxian did not have time to breathe when they went through the door and he wheezed when they stepped foot on the hard floor. He looked down at the floor and saw a dark granite-like floor, peppered with what looked like stars. Then he looked up and saw that they were outside, and that it looked like a night full of stars.

"Oh…" he exclaimed and held Lan Wangji's hand tight. "This…"

"Welcome to The Forsaken." Lan Wangji squeezed Wei Wuxian's hand and guided him toward the brightest star that turned out to be an all white room. Inside the room were many artifacts that were kept on top of a high shelf, inside a glass cage.

"Oh my…" Wei Wuxian couldn't help but sighed at the beauty of the artifacts. "This was all so different with the vault that belonged to the Wens." He tried to touch the glass but Lan Wangji stopped him.

"Be careful. Humans are not compatible with the things here…" but he stopped his words when he saw that something jumped from the top of the shelf and fell on Wei Wuxian's shoulder.

"What the…" he was surprised when he saw a little animal perched on his shoulder and rubbed itself on Wei Wuxian's cheek and made a chirpy sound. 

"Kou, what are you doing here?" Lan Wangji's voice was calm as he opened the palm of his hand. The little creature, a mini griffin, flew into his hand and chirped a lot more happily then it went back to Wei Wuxian's shoulder.

"Hmm, it seems that our resident guardian loves you." Lan Wangji chuckled.

"Guardian? This sweet little thing?" Wei Wuxian tickled the little strange animal with the head of an eagle, including its wings and talons, but the back part of its body was like a lion, including the tails which now wagged happily like a dog.

"That sweet little thing is a griffin, and usually when she faces any intruder she will turn into a huge beast and eat them. Right, Kou?" Lan Wangji caressed its head and the griffin shrieked in agreement. "And this is the first time I see her turned into this… docile bird. You really have a talent for kids and animals don't you? Even our little Xiao Bai and Xiao Hei love you and they're not usually that friendly toward anyone outside the family."

"A… a griffin?" Wei Wuxian gulped as he retracted his finger in surprise. Of course he knew griffin. From a story book. And this cutie pie did not resemble any griffin he saw in the pictures. They were usually looking like they were about to tear something off or eat someone alive. But one thing that was right was that the griffin was a guardian of a treasure vault. Seeing one here, he assumed that it guarded this… vault. The real Forsaken.

"A griffin. Her name is Kou and she came with the vault." Lan Wangji turned around and started to walk to show Wei Wuxian the content of the vault. "Over here are the first artifacts that were already here ever since me and my brother inherited this vault from our ancestors… Wei Ying?" He turned around again to see that Wei Wuxian was being dragged by Kou to the opposite direction, the direction of where the most dangerous artifacts were being kept.

"No!" Lan Wangji gasped and he ran toward Wei Wuxian as quickly as possible but he saw that Kou had already pushed Wei Wuxian to the door. The door that protected the last inheritance of the Dark Phoenix King. No one was supposed to enter unless they were the King's direct descendant, and that would be Xiao Hei. But Xiao Hei was too frail to undergo the Dark Phoenix King's trial, so the Lans sealed the room with the strongest protection array that would obliterate anyone who tried to enter without permission. Just like what Wei Wuxian was about to do now.

But Lan Wangji's warning was too late and Wei Wuxian's hands were already opening the door…

… and yet nothing happened.

Lan Wangji paused for a second while he tried to digest what the hell was happening, when the amulet that Wei Wuxian wore suddenly emitting dark fire that engulfed Wei Wuxian's whole body. 

Lan Wangji tried to pull Wei Wuxian out of the fire when he felt his heart clenched hard all of the sudden and he felt excruciating pain all over his body as he started to lose his consciousness.

The last thing he saw before everything went dark was Wei Wuxian, completely enveloped inside the dark fire, and he thought that he was such a failure, to be someone that was unable to save the most important person in his life. 

Again.