Divinity

16

Kaili knelt beside Xichen to get a good look at his face. As an ability, she had good night vision. She had a better look at him even though it was dark. As Kaili was there, she felt something off about Xichen. It was something she noticed multiple times, but now that she was up close to him again, that off feeling was much stronger. She couldn't figure out what. She decided to quietly investigate.

She looked at the robes that Xichen had set aside to be cleaned as he had worn them the day before. She knew there were special charms added to the robes to help protect them, but she sensed something else. So she checked further and saw a talisman sewn into the robes. This talisman was to alter a person's memory of somebody or something. Kaili realized these were specifically made for Xichen, and they were to alter his opinion about Kaili.

Kaili was now angry.

Who, how and why?

Kaili went back over to Xichen and placed two fingers on his temple. She sent some energy to keep him from waking and carefully maneuvered him to sit up. She had him lean on her to sit up right. She carefully removed the tunic Xichen had on him revealing his bare upper body. Kaili blushed as she laid him down and looked over the tunic. The tunic too, had the talisman. She quickly teleported to the Jingshi again to check Wangji's robes but his were not tampered with.

Kaili returned to the Hanshi and went through Xichen's entire wardrobe. She found that all of his robes had the talismans on them. Since she removed Xichen's tunic and the charm, he will be back to normal now that it was gone. Kaili couldn't be angry at Xichen anymore, but she had to be sure that he still wanted her around. She'd have to ask Xichen where he gets his robes from or who makes them.

Kaili used a lot of her energy just removing the talismans from all of his wardrobe, basically. His robes were back to normal and they were no longer able to alter his mind. So she got a clean tunic and put it on Xichen. She then removed the sleeping spell from him. She then decided to wake him and see if he still hated her.

She maintained her distance a bit by sitting at the foot of the bed. Xichen's eyes opened in confusion on who woke him up. He then looked around and saw Kaili sitting at the foot of his bed. He sat up quickly and waved his hand to light the candles in his room.

"Kaili?" He asked.

She had tears in her eyes, "are you still feeling hate towards me?" She asked.

Xichen's mind felt relaxed and remembered how angered he was at her for no reason. He didn't know what happened but he knows he hurt her and it was never his intention.

"I do not hate you," he said, "I feel calm. I feel better actually, what happened?"

Kaili handed him the talisman that was in his robes, "this was sewn into your robes. It's a mind altering talisman to change your opinion on something or someone...this one was made specifically for you and for you to dislike me. Especially to the point where you were angry that I protected you from being poisoned, where you were not phased by me breaking the bond between us, and the fact that you had no desire to care what I was doing or where I was. I was so hurt that I was going to leave completely and let you forget about me. Let you live and maybe in your next life you'd tolerate me again...if you still hate me—"

Xichen placed his hand over her mouth and shook his head. They both had tears in their eyes. Xichen, though his mind was tampered with, remembered it. He remembered trying to fight whatever was causing him to be so hurtful towards her.

Xichen pulled Kaili to his lap and hugged her close, "I remember that everything even though I was under this talisman. Now that I am clear headed again, I am so sorry that I hurt you Kaili, I love you very much and I never wanted to hurt you. You may be a goddess and you started as my spiritual companion but I grew feelings for you. It was like, after I was almost poisoned by Jin Guangyao my perspective of you began to change. I tried to fight it, but I couldn't. I hurt you and I am so sorry."

Kaili pulled out of his hug. "I need to know that it was the talisman. My heart hurts, Lan Huan. It hurts so much, and I never thought anything could ever hurt this much," she told him.

She was crying harder at the point and Xichen had put her to this breaking point, "I am hoping that you will come back to me, to give me a chance again, to let me prove to you my real heart's intentions to you. To let me love you to the fullest. I love you more than anything and I am so sorry."

Kaili placed her hand on his chest as if she was to try to place the bond again. Her crying made it hard. Xichen pulled her to his lap and hugged her close. He wanted to comfort her and do everything in his power to fix this. Even if it was just the work of a stupid talisman, it still hurt her.

"Will you please give me a chance? Let me love you, court you, and protect you. You are a spiritual snake who is supposed to do the protecting but let me love and protect you. Let me gain your love and trust back," he said calmly.

Kaili hugged him tightly in return, "I would love to be with you again, to give you real chance. This talisman is as meant to tear us apart. I am sorry it took me so long to find it. I will agree to court you but would it be okay for me to be your spiritual snake again? I missed you so much."

Lan Xichen nodded, "please?"

Kaili placed her hand on Xichen's chest again and placed there bond between each other back. That familiar connection and feeling again, it was soothing.

Kaili rested her head on his chest, "sorry to have woken you up in the middle of the night, but I just needed to be sure that that was all the talisman's doing and not what you actually felt," she said, "I needed to know that you did not actually hate me so suddenly."

"You are forgiven," he said, "but it looks like I need new robes."

"I used a lot of my energy to remove the talismans from all of your robes so you do not need to do that. Though, you do need to figure out who was doing that to your robes. The only people who know me are the Nie brother's, your uncle, your brother and A'Yuan, and Jin Guangyao. There are also San Lang and Xie Lian but they would not put me through such a situation," Kaili said.

"Since you used so much energy, you need to rest. We can figure the rest out afterwards," he said.

"Do you want me to stay here by you? And as a human or a snake?" She asked.

"Well, whatever you want," Xichen said happily, "I love both sides of you. Though you gain your energy back quicker in your snake from."

Kaili nodded, "I will be my snake form then, but I want to give you something first," she said. The ring that A'Yuan had that she made him forget, was now given to Xichen. The ring coiled around his right index finger, "when I left you, I connected with A'Yuan for a while. This ring was to allow him to call me whenever he needed me when I was not near him. It is the same concept to you...he won't remember as a made him forget so he won't get hurt. It sounds bad but I didn't want to hurt the boy."

"I understand," Xichen said, "so when you are not around I just use this ring to call you?"

"As you have spiritual energy, just a touch of energy will do," she said, "I can also merge within the ring so you can carry me that way. But knowing you, you'd rather have me walking with you or being wrapped around you as a snake. If that ends up being the case, I can make the ring into something else."

Xichen smiled, "I will hold onto this ring as it can be used for emergency situations," he said.

She nodded, "now, get back to sleep. We can talk more in the morning."

Xichen placed a kiss on her forehead before turning out the candles and laying back down on his side, to sleep. Kaili turned to her snake form and slipped under the blanket to keep warm. Her long body laid along Xichen's body and her head rested against his neck. Xichen smiled as he felt her close to him again. This was what he missed most and he promised to make it up to her for the pain he caused. He knows it wasn't him intentionally but he was still going to work twice as hard to fix his mistakes.