Finding the Pieces

Chapter 2 : After Two Years

Chapter 2 : After Two Years

Two years after the fall of the Yiling Burial Mounds, things had seemed to settle down... but nobody would expect what happened on the second anniversary of that fateful day.

Nie Mingjue had been out on a Night-Hunt with the other Clans to celebrate the victory they'd had against the Patriarch, but when he'd ended up alone... there was suddenly a feeling in the air that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end and a feeling of dread to go through him. He didn't know what caused this... but then he noticed something darker that seemed to drift through the air around him in the dark forest.

'What the... what is this?' he wondered, holding Baxia in preparation to attack, but then he spotted it. A small figure that stood across the clearing from him, eyes glowing red in the darkness... and when a ray of moonlight shone through and onto the figure, his heart nearly stopped. It was a little girl, about twelve or thirteen years old, and her face... she had the same scar as the little girl he'd encountered in Yiling. 'It... it CAN'T be...' "Aren't you... that girl? What do you want? Why are you here?"

The little girl didn't respond at first, and then she shifted just enough to reveal that she was holding a pale green bamboo dizi flute in her right hand. Even as Mingjue's eyes widened in shock, the girl said, "I haven't forgotten... and I won't let you forget either."

The girl's voice was devoid of the cheerfulness that anyone would expect from a child her age. Instead, it was dark and had an underlying current of anger that sent unexpected chills up Mingjue's spine. He could face down Wen Ruohan without flinching, he could charge towards Wei Wuxian's army of undead without hesitation... but this girl... Something about her shook his confidence and unyielding demeanor like the other challenges in his life had never been able to do. Maybe it was because she was a child who was doing things no child should do. Maybe it was the fact that he knew he was one of the reasons why she'd lost the people she lived with. Whatever it was... he found himself backing up a step as he said, "I haven't forgotten... Why did you run away back then? I would've found you a new family-"

Suddenly, he was cut off when the black smoke-like energy in the clearing suddenly became agitated and rushed towards him until it stayed just a mere two feet from him. At the same time, the little girl said, "No family can replace the one you all took from me. And I won't forgive you unless you can somehow bring back the dead for real..." With that, she stepped backwards into the forest, the dark energy fading slightly even though she didn't completely vanish, and minutes later, Xichen and Lan Wangji arrived in the clearing with Jin Guangyao.

"Chifeng-Zun, are you alright? You look a little pale," Xichen said, noticing the look on his sworn brother's face. Then he saw the girl, and a little bit of color admittingly left his face; too much of what he witnessed reminded him of Wei Wuxian when the Demonic Patriarch had lost control. And then... he realized that she was intently studying their faces. "Is that..."

"... The girl from Yiling..." Nie Mingjue said, and everyone was shocked to hear a slight tremor in his voice. He hid it well, but the other three had spent quite a bit of time around him, so they picked it up immediately. Wangji was just staring at the girl, realizing that this was the little girl that his Wei Ying had taken in after Wen Ning found her... but he also realized that she was angry over what had happened.

Cautiously, he took a step towards her, reaching out a hand as he said, "You... were the one Wei Ying and Wen Ning took in..." Her red eyes immediately met his gaze, searching, and then they saw her scarred lips upturn slightly in the shadows as she seemed to realize who he was.

"You are the one Uncle Wei said to call Uncle Zhan," she stated, and the others looked at her in shock. However, before any of them could say anything, she said, "I am not angry with you. You wouldn't do anything against Uncle Wei." Turning her gaze towards Nie Mingjue and the others again, her gaze then hardened as she told them, "You will see me again..."