❃ 𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 ❃

🔹𝕾𝖎𝖝𝖙𝖞 𝕱𝖔𝖚𝖗🔹

Wen Chao's disgusting cackle still rang in his ears. The Wen guard dog's hand around his throat left an imprint. The bitch's gleeful expression as she branded his torn chest replaced the look of terror on her face as he fell.

The mountains, the trees, and the shadows rushed up to meet him.

Screeches, demands, and wails greeted him.

He didn't know how he hasn't died on impact yet, but perhaps the vengeful spirits inhabiting the mountain found him useful enough to want his aid in exacting their thirst for blood and vengeance. How he didn't know. He no longer knew anything. His eyes remained closed.

"Wei Wuxian!"

"Wei-gongzi... save us!"

"Avenge us!"

"Avenge your fallen kin!"

For a moment, everything – every voice, every screech, and wail – washed over him like Lotus Pier's waters that stilled in the early morning light. He remembered his childhood well, at least the pieces that made sense.

"Kill them all."

"Crush them!"

Wei Wuxian gasped, unknowing when he'd stopped breathing. His eyes threatened to close but he fought and fought. There was nothing except shadows and corpses upon corpses – skin and bones and the putrid scent of death. Still, he fought. He fought for his place in the world that didn't want him until the Burial Mounds vanished into nothingness and instead, he was lying boneless in a field of long grass he'd scuffled with.

Maybe this was the moment his life would flash by and this was only a fraction of a millisecond.

His chest still rose and fell as if he'd simply woken from a nightmare but the aches and throbs and burns he felt were very much real.

"Kill them all!"

His heart stopped.

"Lan Zhan..."

-

The battles were bloody and endless.

Lan Wangji was certain there were those who would say he was being stubborn, not picking up a non-spiritual sword to replace his own. But to do felt wrong. Felt like a capitulation. A sacrilege. And he would not do it.

Without Bichen, Lan Wangji depended upon his qin, quickly mastering the battle chords that had once only been theoretical, something to write of on an exam, practice in a classroom. Now he strummed power through the strings—blasting into earth as easily as through bone and flesh. Killed instead of liberating. A task that became simple and familiar far too quickly.

Gusu was slowly liberated, one installation of Wen soldiers dispatched at a time. For all the danger, the days have a sameness to them. Scouting and sleeping in tents and pushing forward and disappearing back into the trees. Conserving energy and manpower and supplies. Hiding in barns of local commoners.

There was still much waiting. For a new piece of intelligence. The return of a scout. Of resupplies. Waiting that leaves too much time to think. Too much time to count the lives of each of the fallen. Of each life taken.

Lan Wangji used this time to write letters to Wei Wuxian, his husband, whom he had last met before he fell into a deep slmubre that day on Qishan, that he had nowhere to be send. He wrote things he would never consider saying to anyone else. He imagined pressing them into Wei Wuxian's hands when next they meet. A whole stack of them. Of saying, I have kept my promise.

Because they would meet again. They would.

Every two weeks he also wrote a brief missive to Jiang Yanli to be sent back to Koi Tower, merely stating that he was still in good health, that he had not seen Wei Wuxian yet, but that he would not stop looking alongside Jiang Cheng.

The cultivation world had joined hands and had taken down the Wen Sect. Wen Ruohan and both of his sons had been killed. The world was at piece right now. But not for Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji was in a total chaos.

Right now, he was standing at the centre of the underground Wen dungeon, when he heard Jiang Cheng call behind him.

"Lan Wangji!"

Lan Wangji turned on his heel, tracking the voice to find Jiang Wanyin striding aggressively towards him across the compound. Lan Wangji's eyes eagerly searched the spot next to him, then behind, skimming across the disciples following him. Each face accompanying him not the one he longed to see.

"Is he here?" Jiang Cheng demanded, coming to a stop in front of Lan Wangji without pausing for so much as a nod of his head. "Where is he? I have no more patience! I swear that I would kill him for being so heroic to save you. Of course he, had to save you but not at the cost of his own life. Now, don't hide him from me. Wei Wuxian, come out!"

"Jiang Wanyin," Lan Wangji said slowly, feeling things begin to spin. "Wei Ying is not with you?"

Jiang Cheng scoffed. "Of course, he isn't. He's here, isn't he?" He looked past Lan Wangji, as if expecting to see his brother at any moment, a spot of black among white. Like Wei Ying would naturally never stray far from Lan Wangji's side.

"Wen Chao said that he was here."

If only that were true.

Jiang Cheng refocused on Lan Wangji. "Tell me he's here," he growled, like Lan Wangji was somehow hiding him somewhere.

Lan Wangji shook his head, trying to quell the panic threatening to rise in his chest.

"What?" Jiang Cheng snapped. "That's impossible. He's—"

"Jiang Wanyin," Lan Wangji said , only partially aware that he was leaning in towards Jiang Wanyin in his urgency, his hand tightening painfully into a fist. "Where is Wei Ying?"

Jiang Wanyin stared off into space, several varying emotions dancing across his face in dizzying succession. "I have to find him."

With that, he strode back off, leaving all of Lan Wangji's questions unanswered.

Left alone, Lan Wangji looked around the dungeon again.

"Wei Ying, where are you?"