Finding the Pieces

Chapter 1 : Shattered

Chapter 1 : Shattered

As the sun started to set over the smoking Burial Mounds, a young girl was looking back from the treeline with tears running down her face. A full cloth sack was resting on the ground next to her, the thing looking about three fourths her size, and in her right hand she held a doll made of white and red rags. Her name was Lan Xian, and she'd just lost everyone who had ever cared about her.

"Uncle Wei..." she whimpered softly, remembering watching as her adoptive Uncle had been practically torn apart by the backlash from his Tiger Seal, even as those he'd once called friends and family had turned on him. She'd had to leave everyone behind, but had taken with her as many of her Uncle Wei's things as she could... including the remaining half of the Seal. With nobody to turn to, and her young and broken heart filled with bitter anger and hatred towards those responsible, little ten-year-old Xian finally turned away and picked up the heavy sack as best she could before disappearing into the forest, leaving her shattered world behind.

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"Chifeng-Zun, what is troubling you?" Lan Xichen asked his sworn brother a few hours after the defeat of the Yiling Patriarch, and the taller man winced.

"I... encountered a little girl..." Nie Mingjue said, turning his head away. "She was... upset, to put it lightly. I feel awful... She didn't look much older than ten years old, yet she actually hates us all for doing all this..."

"Really?" Xichen asked, surprised. "Where is she?"

Mingjue shrugged. "I don't know... she ran off after screaming in my face that she hates us all." Xichen looked concerned, knowing that although it didn't seem so important at that moment given the age of the child... a broken and hateful soul like her could prove to be dangerous without intervention.

"I hope she turns up..." the Lan Leader said, completely genuine in his sentiment. "A child like her needs someone to raise her... and she could end up going down the wrong path."

When they rejoined the others, they didn't tell them about the little girl Mingjue had encountered, but they were both concerned about her. A child shouldn't be out there all alone. Nor should any child be capable of so much hatred towards anyone. Hopefully, nothing would happen to her... nor would she end up being the next Wei Wuxian.

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When Lan Xichen returned to the Cloud Recesses, he found that Lan Wangji had been gone as well, but shortly after he himself arrived, his brother came back with a child in his arms. The little boy didn't seem to be more than two or three years old, and he was obviously very sick.

"Lan Zhan, where did you find him?!" Xichen asked, worried for the little boy. His brother didn't say anything for a moment... before he looked his brother in the eyes.

"... Yiling," he said softly, "This is Wen Yuan..." Xichen was shocked, not having known that such a young child had been there, and he was immediately worried.

"You should get him to the doctor... But how will you keep him safe?"

"... New surname," Lan Wangji said, continuing, "Lan Yuan, courtesy name Sizhui. I am adopting him." Xichen smiled at this, hoping that little Yuan would help his younger brother get past his grief over Wei Wuxian's death. However, what he said next surprised him. "I looked for a little girl too... but I couldn't find her."

"A little girl?" Xichen asked, his eyes wide as he remembered the girl that Nie Mingjue had told him about, and he couldn't stop himself from saying, "Chifeng-Zun told me that he encountered a young girl at the Burial Mounds... she ran off before he could bring her to a new family, and we don't know where she is now." Wangji's expressive eyes alit with hope, but then it faded sadly.

"I need to find her..." Wangji said softly, "Wei Ying would want her and A-Yuan to be happy..."

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Little Lan Xian finally stopped running when she found a secluded valley where nobody else lived. The valley, she could sense, didn't have any living humans in it, and so she quickly found herself a hidden cave where she could spend her time in solitude to work towards becoming as close to being as strong as her Uncle Wei as she could. As she set down the cloth sack she'd carried with her all the way from the Burial Mounds, there was a sort of determination in her heart that caused a fire to ignite in her. She had to do this.

Ever since she'd secretly watched the leader of the Jin Clan scatter the ashes that were supposedly the burned remains of her Auntie Qing and Wen Ning... she'd had this strange feeling that he'd been lying halfway. She could sense the traces of her Auntie Qing's soul around those ashes... but not those of the Fierce Corpse that had been like a father to her. He was still out there somewhere. And she couldn't give up on him. She would do whatever she had to to get him back, even if that meant going against those people who had ended up causing the death of her adoptive family.

No matter how long it would take.