Abide With Me

Auras and Redemption

SaMi's words barely registered in Wei Ying's mind. He was rubbing his eyes. Blinked and looked around him. Then he rubbed his eyes again. No use, his vision was not normal. He tried wiping his eyes with a relatively clean corner of his sleeve but the trek into the Haili Ba had not been kind to his robes. He shuddered to think what Lan Zhan would say, rather, he imagined the look of pure disgust on Lan Zhan's face as he pulled the soiled robes off... Stop, Wei Ying! Wei Ying sighed and refrained from proceeding along that enticing line of thought. He hunted for one of Lan Zhan's white handkerchiefs.... Aha! He found one inside a Qiankun pouch inside his sleeve! He wiped his eyes carefully and inhaled deeply of the sandalwood fragrance on the kerchief before putting it away. He'd begun missing Lan Zhan and it was like a physical ache in his heart.

With a deep sigh, he turned to SaMi, who appeared to him as she usually did, except now her head, neck and shoulders were seemingly surrounded by purple light. "SaMimei!" he greeted her for the first time after emerging from the An-Nengliang.

"WeiGe, are you alright? What happened up there? Did you communicate with An- Nengliang? What did it say?"

"Whoa! SaMimei, stop! I am still reeling from my foray into the An-Nengliang cloud." SaMi gulped back her remaining questions and waited for Wei Ying to answer.

"As you saw, I was pulled into the An-Nengliang cloud." Wei Ying then told SaMi, "It was strange, I could hear what An-Nengliang wanted to convey, but it was my own voice that was speaking someone else's words."

"WeiGe!'" SaMi fairly screeched with exasperation. "Tell me everything, and start at the beginning."

"Well," Wei Ying began, "The inside of the An-Nengliang was a bit like floating in nothingness. There was no lightning or thunder, but there was a very powerful mind that scanned my every thought; there was no escaping or blocking it."

"I can imagine," said SaMi.

"The An-Nengliang was literally able to look into my head like a book and read my every thought and emotion, past and present."

"Scary!" said SaMi.

"Embarrassing!" said Wei Ying simultaneously. "Anyway, SaMimei," continued Wei Ying, "the An-Nengliang told me three important things:

1. We have a hidden asset and I will be able to identify them by looking at their head.
2. When the time comes, the means to defeat Linghun Qiezei will be found by us. An-Nengliang will help through HRH.
3. All of us here inside the Grotto have to work together to defeat Linghun Qiezei.

Which brings me back to this:
my vision is not normal since I got back."

"How so, what are you experiencing? Any pain? Did anything enter your eyes? Did you hit your head? Does your head hurt?" SaMi went into full interrogation mode.

"No pain, nothing went into my eyes and I did not hit my head, it does not hurt, Mother!"

SaMi grinned widely at his response and patted his hand soothingly.

"Okay then, what is bothering you?"

"I can see colours!" said Wei Ying, "Around me, around you, everywhere!" he said, suddenly somewhat inarticulately.

"So, I do too, isn't that normal?"

Wei Ying did a double take, "What?! You see colours too?"

"Of course I do, the sky is blue, the trees are green, your eyes are red, wait...why are you eyes red? Are you angry at An-Nengliang?"

"Not at all, SaMi, the colour I am seeing, how do I explain, it is not the colour of the sky or trees, I am seeing colour around your head!"

"Colour around my head? What do you mean?" SaMi pulled her plaits in front and peered at them, looking for anything unusual.