Come Back to Gusu

33. I will not leave while you're purifying the Burial Mounds

"I'm going to purify the Burial Mounds before I destroy the rest of the Seal," Wei WuXian announced after a fourth round of testing their spell against a small piece of it successfully obliterated every bit of yin energy.

"Mmm."

"I need to convince Chang Wei to leave," he muttered. "He'll get caught up in the spell, even if you take him off the mountain. I promised I wouldn't send him without his consent."

"I will not leave while you're purifying the Burial Mounds," Lan WangJi sounded affronted.

"You the generic you, not you the specific you, then. How do I convince him to move on?" Wei WuXian had had months to come up with an idea and had exactly nothing. When I thought I was going to die, I just wanted Mama to be with me. To hold my hand and sing me to sleep. I can promise him prayers to be reborn into a nice family. What good are prayers? He needs reassurances that leaving will send him to a better place rather than a return to the hell he's always lived in.

"Chang Wei," he pleaded a few days later. "My little walking stomach.... It's time." The ghoul child pouted the most spectacular pout. Wei WuXian was honestly impressed at how a dead kid could get his entire body involved in that pout.

"Wei Laozu," a Jin disciple asked. He was probably introduced when he arrived; there were so many juniors coming and going that learning their names was pointless. "Why don't you just make it go?"

"You understand why there are ghosts and ghouls?" Wei WuXian didn't really feel like lecturing; he was depressed at having to send his friend away.

"Of course, Wei Laozu. When someone dies with an unfulfilled need, they sometimes have sufficient yin energy for the soul to separate from the body and they stay on the earthly plane instead of moving on with the reincarnation cycle. The first step in removing ghosts and ghouls is to determine if those needs can be met."

"The ghosts and ghouls on the Burial Mountain have been here for too long. There is no way we can fulfill their needs," Wei WuXian responded. "All we can offer is the knowledge that their murderers are long dead. And hope that is sufficient to send them on."

"That's what we juniors have been doing over the last few months. Sending those we can on," the Jin disciple seemed rather proud of his fellow juniors' successes.

"Yes. With Change Wei..."

The junior fidgeted a bit. "You can't offer him what he wants? Even though he's pretty sentient for a ghoul?"

Wei WuXian rested a hand on the ghoul's head and rubbed it. "He wants what every abandoned and orphaned child wants: someone to care for them. He has that here. There's no guarantee he'll reincarnate to a loving family." He sighed. "You need to go, Chang Wei. I have to finish cleaning up the Burial Mounds, and you can't stay. Either way, you can't stay."

The Jin junior sat on the ground, legs criss-crossed. "Chang Wei. I'll stay with you while Wei Laozu sends you on, okay? You won't be alone, I promise."

Wei WuXian started crying, without any sense that he should feel shamed for it, when the ghoul climbed into the Jin boy's lap and snuggled tight. It was hard to play Rest when he felt like his heart was breaking, when it was hard to breathe past the lump in his throat. He lowered his flute and wiped his face. "Thank you for that."

The Jin disciple shrugged. "I'm almost an orphan. My father has never acknowledged me. My mother sent me to Koi Tower to learn how to become a cultivator like him a couple of years ago. And then she died. We used to live with her sister. I don't want to go back there. They don't want me to come back, either. I have a half-brother in Koi Tower; he and his mother don't want me there. Everyone says I'm there hoping to become my father's spare heir. Except, my brother has a son already and my sister-in-law is pregnant with their second. Jin XiaoFuren is really nice, though. Nobody asked me if I want to be a sect leader! I don't."

"You're Jin ZiXuan's half-brother?" The kid didn't look much like Jin GuangShan or Jin ZiXuan; there was a hint about him that reminded Wei WuXian of Meng Yao. The kid looked down instead of answering. Which was answer enough. "What's your name?"

"Mo XuanYu." It appeared a dam had opened. "I'm not a good cultivator. Everyone says I'm horrible at it. I only began learning and practicing when I arrived, but my weapons' instructors say I have to spar against kids my age and then yell when I mess up because I don't know all the moves! The same thing happens in all my classes! I'm placed with the other seventeen year olds when I can only read about as good as the eight year olds! My aunt didn't want to spend money teaching me to read and do math and stuff, so everything I learned, either my mother taught me or I picked it up on my own. I can't ride a horse. I'm not strong enough to fly on a sword.

"I hate Koi Tower! I wish I could leave. But I don't have anywhere else to go." He slumped, suddenly exhausted.

Wei WuXian looked at the youngster thoughtfully. "I can find you a place if you really want to leave Koi Tower."

"Really?"

"Really. I'm the Head Disciple at Lotus Pier." Mo XuanYu's eyes opened wide. "I'm basically in charge of all the juniors there. I can talk to my shijie, Jin XiaoFuren, about having you stay in Yunmeng for a few years. I'm sure she can get Jin ZiXuan to agree.

"Also... YunmengJiang lost a lot of disciples during the Sunshot Campaign. Some of our new disciples come to us as little ones ready to learn. But some come as near adults, like you, who have a smattering of knowledge. Classes are set by ability, not by age, at the moment. I'm guessing that once we're settled into being a Great Sect again, we will be more formal in when we accept someone as a disciple."

"I can really go to YunmengJiang?" Wei WuXian nodded, smiling at the boy's whole body quivering with excitement. Then... Mo XuanYu slunk back down to be as small as possible. "You don't want me, Wei Laozu. I'm not... right."

"Isn't whether or not you're right for YunmengJiang up to me to decide?"

"I'm a cut sleeve," the boy whispered. "I like boys."

"Oh." Wei WuXian pretended to think. "That is a problem."

"I know."

"The problem is that all the girls in Yunmeng are going to think you're cute and want to kiss you. You're going to break too many hearts." Wei WuXian kept his voice as troubled as possible, but couldn't contain a grin.

Mo XuanYu looked up in shock. "Are you making fun of me?"

Wei WuXian reached out and tousled the boy's hair. "Who you like is who you like. My concern as Head Disciple is only that you can learn cultivation and how much of a troublemaker you want to be. If anyone bullies you for liking boys, you can send them to me and I'll make them swim laps until they're too tired to care about you."

Dear readers.

The view from my windows this morning was creepy. Like a scene from a horror movie level of creepy. The sun hadn't started thinking about getting out of bed yet, so the only lighting came from area lighting and out of windows. There were huge patches of heavy fog, so in one direction I could see 30 feet or so but in another only 15 feet. The perfect setting for a fertile imagination to create a mass murderer or boogeyman hiding in the trees.

I did not run up to my room to start working because running on the stairs is a very good way to fall back down them. I wanted to, though.

Sometimes having an active imagination sucks.

Thank you for reading and voting and commenting.
- Aitch.