A Gentle Torment

The Final Say

AN: Holy fucksticks is this a longer chapter than the others for mobile readers. About the last half of it is all Mo Yuan and Bai Zhi, so if seeing the God of War barely manage to avoid Bai Zhi's wrath isn't your thing... well, no worries. 

Bai Qian's eyes finally flutter open when a persistent smoke assaults her eyes and lungs. Coughing fitfully, she looks around herself in complete confusion. The source of the smoke - a small dying fire a few meters away - finally blows in another direction, aimlessly drifting without cause or care to whom it might disturb.

Ignoring the sudden pain of a stomach that's been empty for too long, Bai Qian takes a few more moments to look around, hoping the lead-like weight that seems to wrap around her every muscle will soon lift.

The forest she's in, with the exception of a few birds, seems to be almost blissfully quiet. Light passing through the treetops manages to glisten and glimmer from afar yet the sudden sight of it leaves her eyes struggling to adjust. She wants very much to go back to sleep for a few weeks, but her stubborn stomach seems to be every bit as uncooperative as she should have expected.

"How do you feel?"

She isn't greeted with a 'you're up' or a 'took you long enough' like she would have received if she left with Zhe Yan, yet the soft voice is soothing to her every muscle. It's gentle and timid, leaving eyes she hadn't even realized closed slowly fluttering back open to look up at the woman.

She looks different in mortal garb. Not in a bad way, just... a little more at peace, if anything.

"What happened?" Her voice comes out as a croak and at once she regrets even opening her mouth with the worried look Yan Zhi gives her.

"You showed up at our usual spot in heat and..." Cheeks flushing as she pulls the stopper on a small flask of water, she carefully helps her drink the fresh spring water despite Bai Qian's pitiful insistence of being able to do it herself, "You were smelling of Celestials..."

It's the most polite way she can put it.

"I remember that..." Bai Qian tilts her head to the side as she watches her. Her eyes are finally able to distinguish Yan Zhi's features when she finally continues, "Where are we?"

"We're not far from my mother's home, maybe half a day on foot. We'll be safe there. I had to bind your immortal breath in order to bring you past the barrier, so you won't be able to access most of your cultivation... but the upside is that the only other people that ever show up on the mountain are highly-cultivated immortals undergoing mortal trials. Even my father can't enter the mountain."

"Are we in the Ghost realm?"

"No..." Yan Zhi's voice trails off and the sudden sorrow in her eyes as she stands leaves Bai Qian wanting to not only chase down every single person that's ever wronged her to throttle them senseless, but also to slap her own face over the fact that it's too sunny to even be in the Ghost realm, "No... but it's not far from here. The Forgotten City is to the West and about a week's walk away."

"The Forgotten City..." Bai Qian murmurs slowly as if she's trying to take stock of her groundings (not that it would be of any use -- her navigation skills are dreadful at best).

o~O~o~O~o

Walking was far more of a challenge than her poor friend had expected. Yet, with a few extra incense worth of time added in, they had finally managed to make it to the boundary of her mother's home. 

She let Bai Qian use her arm occasionally for balance, but when they finally reach the trail leading to the hut, that same arm quickly shoots out to hold her back. Breath halting, she ignores the second it takes for Bai Qian to recognize what has stopped them.