Chapter Text
Every destined couple was supposedly connected together by a string that can’t be seen by the naked eye. The only moment one catches a glimpse of it is when you send your thoughts to your destined partner, and the brief light that is the message travels along the tether.
Once one reaches a certain level of maturity, normally as a young adult, they have the ability to send messages. When this happens, you’ll feel a sting, like a burn, which will fade after a day or so. One can only send three messages to a person in a lifetime, leaving three engravings behind.
Though not unusual, nowadays it is much less common and usually only occurs between two people with strong cores.
Wei Wuxian shut the book with a huff and draped himself over the table.
“Jiang Cheng, this is boring… Why study now when we have to do so much of that later? We’re gonna be doing that for a whole year? Let’s go outside and steal lotus roots one more time before we have to get chummy with those stuffy Lans!”
Irritated, Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. “You should at least try a little, we have to show some face for our sect. Besides, what if your destined partner is a Lan? They’re not going to like you if you always act like this.”
“They say opposites attract you know! Well, it’s sooo unlikely that’s happening anyways. Can’t you read? It says right here, that usually you can only do this soulmates thing if your cultivation is strong enough. You’re going to have to wait forever to find a partner willing to tolerate your hard ass—whoa!” Wei Wuxian dodged the book tossed at him. “I’m joking! C’mon, let’s spend that energy doing something fun~”
Wei Wuxian didn’t have much intention to fall in love, intending to be best friends with his brother for the rest of his life. The thought of a destined person was indeed kind of romantic, but he didn’t want his love to just be based on fate. Jiang Cheng always scolded him and said that destiny was just another way of saying that it was the person who suited him best and that he would eventually choose anyways, but he thought of the many times fate had destroyed people that seemed like they were meant to be.
Faint visions of his parents and himself, riding on a donkey in the glow of the sunset passed through his mind, but he shook it off. It was obvious how that ended.
He ran out the door, dumped his robes on the dock, and cannonballed into the nearest lake. The crash of cold cleared his head of any further thoughts about destiny, the string, or the message tattoos.
Extreme boredom. What a stick-in-the-mud.
Wei Wuxian pranced around the library, electing to abandon his brush and ink. This was his second time copying the same set of rules, and it’s not like they made him any less rowdy. He wondered if Lan Qiren would notice if he just copied other things from books. There were so many rules, Wei Wuxian didn’t think it would matter much, except that Lan Wangji was right there and could tattle.
The other boy seemed to have given up making Wei Wuxian do much of anything after he had cast a silencing spell that hadn’t done much to control his bounciness.
Wei Wuxian pulled random books off of shelves, trying to find something interesting to pass the time, or at least give him a change of pace before going back to the dreadful rules. This one had yet another passage about destined partners. It was strange how romantic the Lan textbooks seemed to be even though all the cultivators he’d met seemed so boring.
Although that's exactly what made Lan Wangji so fun to mess around with. He wondered if he’d ever make Lan Wangji toe the line or even plunge off it at some point.
The other glared at him from across the room, as if he could sense Wei Wuxian’s laughter even without hearing his voice. Or maybe it was just because Wei Wuxian was displacing all the library books that had been meticulously organized.
Wei Wuxian was about to dismiss the tome he was holding as another dreary textbook, when he spotted an unfinished yet intricate array. The textbook claimed that it was the most scholars had restored of the long-lost destiny array.
Legend says that this mysterious spiritual phenomenon was first an array of long past, meant for everlasting promises between marriage partners. It’s now only a relic of a ceremony for something that occurs naturally.
Out of curiosity he memorized the array, and skimmed through the rest of the book. It seemed to be a log of past spells and such. Quite interesting. Maybe he could use it to coax more Emperor’s Smile out of Jiang Cheng. His brother seemed obsessed with the idea of a perfect destined partner. Wei Wuxian wasn’t surprised, considering the relationship between Jiang Fengmian and Madame Yu... Despite being powerful cultivators, they refused to speak of the destined messages and always brushed off Shijie when she asked if she and Jin Zixuan had a connection.
He hoped that if he ever fell in love with someone, that it would be the same person he was tethered to. He was a little afraid of what would happen if the one he loved was not the person he was destined to be with.
When he sat back down, he began scribbling possible ways to finish it. His mind was focused and he was quiet, though the silencing spell had worn off long ago.
Lan Wangji seemed peaceful, believing him to be concentrating on his assignment. When he peeked over and saw the mess of ink and wasted paper, he fumed and tore all the work apart.
“Oh c’mon, ripping up my stuff again? I was studying properly! I was just doing some research off of interesting information I learned here. Don’t you support cultivators doing some private self-study?” He rescued one leaf that had escaped Lan Wangji’s fingers and tucked it into his robe.
“You’re supposed to be copying the Book of Rules.” Lan Wangji gathered the scraps, then set out a fresh piece of paper and grinded more ink for Wei Wuxian. “Start over.”
“Geez, fine. I was just trying to research that soulmates array. Although really, this destined partner stuff is interesting, don’t you think? You must think so since it’s in like, every one of your textbooks. It’s kind of weird that there are no rules about on the rock wall.” Wei Wuxian rested his chin on his hands and looked at Lan Wangji. “You’re one of the head disciples here. Have you gotten any messages from your partner yet?”
Lan Wangji froze his hand working the ink stick against the grinding stone. “Quiet. That’s irrelevant to your task.”
Wei Wuxian sighed, picking himself and his brush up again. “Still no fun. You should loosen up, what if your destined partner isn’t a Lan? They’re not going to like you if you act like this.”
“…” Lan Wangji’s expression actually changed from quiet stubbornness to worry. Wei Wuxian was prepared to tease him, but for some reason he felt a bit guilty. Angry reactions he was used to. Those was funny! But he’d never seen the other boy look genuinely nervous.
“I’m kidding! If you’re really destined, your partner will surely like you as you are. You really can’t take a joke, can you?”
The worry dissolved. Lan Wangji glared at him. “Saying things you don’t mean is forbidden. Copy the book once more.”
Wei Wuxian groaned and tried to keep his chatter to a minimum while finally working on his real assignment.
The boys had dared him to sneak more Emperor’s Smile into Cloud Recesses, and he wasn’t one to ever let a dare go. Alcohol wasn’t the only reason Wei Wuxian had wanted to go to town either. He had tried to filch some cinnabar ink sticks from the adult cultivators, but couldn’t catch a good chance. He just had to buy it himself. Luckily there had been shops open late that day.
He figured that now would also be a good time to secretly test out the destined partner array he’d been working on, so he’d also brought paper and ink. Of course he’d try it on himself first, in case something went wrong, or it just didn’t work. He didn’t want to get his brother’s hopes up, and what Jiang Cheng doesn’t know wouldn’t kill him.
Rain began to pour on his way back to Cloud Recesses. He’d hoped that there would be moonlight out, like the night he had first met Lan Zhan while sneaking in past curfew. The memory made him grin. One of his favorite moments at the disciple study exchange, besides the fun shenanigans Nie Huaisang, Jiang Cheng, and he got up too (despite the loss of a whole jar of wine). Moonlight seemed like a perfectly romantic mood for something like a destined bond spell, and might just do the trick. It was too bad.
Suddenly he felt a bit impatient to try out the array. He wasn’t really expecting much from this, since it was just a product of his boredom, but in the case it did work, he could probably impress his peers and maybe even earn Madame Yu’s approval. Bonus if he could activate his Shijie’s destined bond and it turned out to be some more decent fellow than that asshole Jin Zixuan.
Hurrying under cover of a tree dense with leaves, he took out his materials and drew the array on a paper slip. Finally, he activated it with a bit of spiritual energy.
The talisman burned up and he felt a sting on his pinky. He was a little shocked. He hadn’t actually thought this far.
Normally he knew exactly what girls would love to hear, but this time he was a bit stumped. He needed to stay something nice, but not too flirty like when he spoke to Mianmian at the inn, as this was his supposed destined partner here. When he was just thinking about messages, he always thought he would send a joke to see how they’d react. Now that this was actually happening, he realized that a joke would be seared into the other person’s skin forever.
Girls like compliments, right? Maybe something poetic?
He tried to think of the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life, and word it to send to his potential destined person. In his mind he remembered the moonlight the night his Shijie had carried him on her back while Jiang Cheng sniffled next to them, and about the white shine that seemed to come from billowing robes on the roof when he first came to Cloud Recesses.
“You’re beautiful, like a lotus in the moonlight.”
A small light, similar to the glow of passing spiritual energy left his finger and faded as it traveled away, off in the direction of Cloud Recesses. He vaguely wondered if that meant his destined person was a Lan, or if they just lived in that direction.
Wei Wuxian flushed with excitement and embarrassment. This seemed like a sure sign that it was working, but he wished he had thought more carefully about what he was going to say beforehand! He had studied literature more than others tended to assume of him, but didn’t show off any of that to his partner just now.
He waited for a reply, but none came. No book had mentioned how quickly the messages would arrive. He shrugged, collecting the jars he had set on the ground during his experiment before returning. If nothing happened then it was no skin off his back, and it was good that nothing went wrong.
Something certainly went wrong.
He was a bit late in returning and got caught by Lan Wangji, who was holding an umbrella and holding his wrist out in the rain. For some reason the young man seemed distracted, making it easy to topple him from the wall. He had gotten Lan Wangji to break the rules with him and instead of keeping a secret, the square had turned them both in for punishment!
He winced at the lash marks on his back and clung harder to Jiang Cheng’s back. That guy, it was his fault he was running around in the rain to get alcohol and write silly love notes to thin air! Jiang Cheng was none the wiser and grumbled about dumping him on the ground if Wei Wuxian wouldn’t stop squirming around.
Jiang Cheng took him most of the way back from the punishment hall before depositing him at the trail head leading up to the Cold Spring. And now at Lan Xichen’s suggestion, he was standing in the freezing waters with Lan Wangji.
When he had arrived, Lan Wangji almost didn’t notice him because he was scrubbing at something on his arm until Wei Wuxian had shouted a friendly greeting and noisily threw off his outer robes. Lan Wangji hardly made a sound in the water as he turned, covered his body, and reached for his clothes.
“Aww Lan Zhan, you don’t have do that! Don’t you want to show off your beautiful looks to me? Everyone calls you fine Jade, purer than the moon. Fine, fine I’ll just keep the rest of my clothes on okay? Aghh geez, it’s cold here. Aghh.” He waded through the water, trying to get used to the temperature. He looked at Lan Wangji, who had disappointingly put on his outer robes, though he sunk down into the water, looking at his arm again.
Wei Wuxian frowned and made his way over to Lan Wangji. “Is your arm sore? Did a strike accidentally graze it? Let me see it, the extremities are more delicate in ways than the back.”
“There’s no problem. Stop moving around.” Lan Wangji's look was icier than the frigid water. He shifted to the other side of the pool. The tips of his ears reddened when he noticed Wei Wuxian following him with his eyes instead. “Don’t look at me.”
Wei Wuxian held up his hands. “Alright, haha. We’ll just sit here then.”
He laughed at how shy Lan Wangji was. He wondered what kind of poetry Lan Zhan would send his destined partner, or if he’d automatically answer them with a damned Gusu Lan rule like ‘no sending messages until we are married’. He laughed even harder, imagining if Lan Wangji accidentally sent something like ‘shameless’ to his destined partner and then him having to backpedal when he finally met them in person.
But if the array somehow actually worked, then Wei Wuxian sincerely wanted Lan Wangji’s opinion on what would be a good message to send over. He wasn’t sure if the person receiving them would truly be someone he’d want to spend the rest of his life with, but he still wanted to be courteous to them, in case they were actually someone prim and proper like the Lans.
Lan Wangji would know for sure what compliments a virtuous and respectable person would like to hear, since he probably gets them all the time for his good looks. Now if only I could convince the stuffy guy to open up to casual conversation...
Lying down on the cold floor of Muxi Mountain Cave, Wei Wuxian had the fleeting thought to tell his destined partner where he was. That he was buried in a cave with his fuddy-duddy friend who refused to speak to him right now, the corpse of a giant turtle god, and that he wasn’t sure if he’d make it out alive if his brother didn’t come back in time.
He sincerely hoped that his partner wasn’t a member of the Wen sect, but he didn’t worry about it too much. Many months, more than a year, had passed since the time he had sent out that corny message to his destined partner, and Wei Wuxian hadn’t received even an inkblot. He shrugged his shoulders, figuring that it had been a faulty array after all, but winced when it moved the flesh scorched by the Wen’s iron brand and his injuries from fighting the Xuanwu of Slaughter.
He knew how it felt to have something horrible seared into your skin forever, so he quickly waved away his thoughts on the off-chance the string really existed and would send such depressing words to a person who couldn’t do anything to help. How romantic would it be if every time and his future whoever… made love… they would be reminded of that one time he almost died while all snuggled up to the Second Jade of Lan? He suspected his partner would just start imagining how handsome Lan Wangji looked while dealing the final blow to the monster, and how beat up Wei Wuxian was, and then the mood would be entirely ruined.
That damn tortoise. Wei Wuxian was exhausted, and everything ached.
Nearby, Lan Wangji was clutching his wrist with his bloodied fingers, torn ragged from using Chord Assassination for hours. He was silent, also tired and conserving energy after the big fight.
“Hey Lan Zhan, let me use your lap as a pillow? Have some pity for me, would you? I had to fight that thing head on, and I’m so uncomfortable here. Pet me just for a little bit, I’m feeling a little down because my destined partner won’t talk to me.”
Just as he expected, Lan Wangji refused. “No. Indecent.” He kicked Wei Wuxian, keeping his lap and bloodied hands and wrist away from him.
“Aiya, I’m just joking. Ow. Don’t kick me. I’ll just go sit over there, okay?” Wei Wuxian shuffled a bit away, and found a rock that looked like it could be a little comfortable. He laid down, pretending it was actually the lap of his destined person willing to cuddle with him, and that the warmth of the fire was the warmth of their love.
He sighed again, forgetting about all that.
The dire situation is making me as sappy as one of Lan Wangji’s ancestors. I wonder if that kind of love runs in the family. With such dedication, they’d hardly have any need for things like soulmate messages or promises.
Only the sound of the small fire crackling kept Wei Wuxian distracted from the pain of his wounds. He desperately needed more stimulation than this. Lan Wangji it is then.
“Hey Lan Zhan, be nice. I’m really feeling bad over here okay? Sorry. Just put up with me for a while longer, I need to talk to someone.” He breathed slowly, trying to control the energy flow to his wounds. “So I know you haven’t gotten any messages from your destined person yet, but what would you tell them if we couldn’t make it out of here? Or just in general. Don’t pretend you haven’t thought of it, I know you all are soft deep down. Except your Uncle, he obviously hasn’t met anyone yet if he’s still such a stickler for the rules. You don’t have to answer, I can talk enough for the both of us.”
He was surprised when he actually got a reply from Lan Wangji.
“Nothing. Important things should be said in-person. Marks should be made in-person. Anything else is unacceptable.” He poked the fire with one of the spare bows they had scavenged from before the battle with the Xuanwu and the renewed light flickered hotly over their faces.
“I shouldn’t have been surprised that you are quite romantic, since I know you have an attitude under that sheet of ice, but I somehow am.” He tried to turn his head over his little rock cushion. “You must have read Huaisang-xiong’s books after all, since you’re sooo insistent on making ‘marks in person’. I know you’re talking about hickeys haha.”
“… Shameless. Be silent.”
“That didn’t sound like a denial though?! Haha… Lan Wangji… Lan-er-gege…! So you’re a little nibbler, are you? Just like those rabbits I saw on the hill outside Cloud Re- ah…” His laughing switched to coughing awkwardly and he stifled a moan from the pain it caused. He didn’t mean to bring up fresh wounds about the burning of Cloud Recesses so quickly. He bit his lip and decided to switch the topic back.
“You know, you’re so quiet? That’s making this stay here in the cave a little boring. I wish Jiang Cheng were here, he’s more entertaining. Seriously, if you don’t talk, or if you never find your string, or if you never use it, your destined person might misunderstand you. It's a good chance to send your honest thoughts. You know it’ll be too late if it gets to the point you’re desperate and it’s the last shot you have before you lose them? Destiny can only do the work to a certain point."
Wei Wuxian sighed looking at his milky white wrist, where the only blemishes were not words, but bloody dirt and bruises. No praise or otherwise. "But don’t worry, I’ll definitely help you talk it out with them... Learn from your senior in love affairs. Haha. Sorry. Again, I’m just teasing, you really don’t have to talk. I’m just talking nonsense to fill the space.”
He heard fabric rustling a little as Lan Wangji shifted his position.
“Stop talking. Sleep now.”
“Yeah yeah, you’re right… We might be here for a few days after all.” Wei Wuxian closed his eyes. “I’m sorry for your fingers, but could you play that song from before? Just until I fall asleep. It was really nice. Tell me the name of it when I wake up.”
Lan Wangji wiped the blood off his hand using a relatively clean part of the robes he was wearing, picked up the thread he had slung around a stalagmite and began to pluck it. The familiar melody echoed through the space.
Wei Wuxian gradually fell asleep to a lovely dream where he was pampered by the gentle touch of someone’s hands, and a soft voice comforting him.
Wen Ning laid the unconscious Jiang Cheng over a cloth that protected his back from the dirt and gravel of the mountaintop, carefully arranging his arms to lay at his side. He scurried around, checking medical instruments and basins of clean water one last time.
His sister, Wen Qing, quietly knelt by Jiang Cheng and removed his outer robes. After folding them neatly and setting them aside, she pressed a finger against Jiang Cheng's wrist.
“Are you hoping for something in particular, Lady Wen?” asked Wei Wuxian with a grin that didn't reach his eyes. “He's always been taken by the idea of the tether and after getting to know you in Cloud Recesses. You know, he really hoped that his would be connected to Lady Wen.”
“I am checking his pulse and gauging his acceptance of spiritual energy,” she replied clinically. “And I'm sure that what has transpired over the past few days would have made him horribly displeased. I am not blind to how we are viewed.”
“You know he… he doesn't blame you. He's emotional right now but he… he would shelter you right away if…”
He trailed off, knowing she would not abandon her name. The Wen name. She had already returned the comb he had given to her with his feelings.
“It is indeed possible to be connected to him, Wei Wuxian. In theory, the tether is said to form between people who are destined, to make promises. It might not be romance. Regardless of whether we develop the cultivation needed to see it, it exists. Perhaps it is you who is connected to him. Or perhaps I was destined to do this for Jiang Wanyin. Or for something else.”
“Well, I can tell you for sure it’s not me. Isn’t that nice then, brother? You still have a chance.”
Jiang Cheng's wrists were bare. If the talisman had worked properly, then clearly he was connected to Wei Wuxian. Thank goodness. Imagine calling someone like Jiang Cheng a lotus in the moonlight! Another thing he'd never forgive me for, including this…
“I saw in a Lan textbook that it was for marriage promises. I wonder of Lan Wangji has gotten yet. Its been a few years. I'd guess that his cultivation is strong enough by now,” wondered Wei Wuxuan.
Flicking her eyes away, Wen Qing tucked Jiang Cheng's arm back into his side and turned to Wei Wuxian with a towel. She indicated with her finger that she needed Wei Wuxian to strip his robes.
Her expression was a mix of things. Anticipation as a doctor testing her lifelong work. Frustration at Wei Wuxian's attitude. Some kind of longing. He was even touched to see that she was worried for him, the line of her lips grim.
“In theory, I said! And I wish Second Young Master Lan was here to re-educate you about math. Don’t you understand what 50/50 means for you? In either case, you will lose your core and won't be able to detect your tether.” She quieted, scowling for being so talkative. That was Wei Wuxian's job. “You are insane for doing this for someone who's not even your destined person. As a doctor, I cannot recommend you go through with this.”
She furiously scrubbed the area around his central dantian point with a towel and slapped it back in a bucket, splashing some of the water.
Wei Wuxian barked his laughter, somewhere between anxious hysteria and his normal flippancy. “Little brothers can sure be a handful can't they? Besides like you said. It exists whether we feel it or not.”
He wasn't one for believing in fate, but he hoped that it would make her more confident. Despite her pride, he knew she was kind when he saw her protect her family.
Wen Ning's shoulders quivered. Wen Qing said nothing, pressing her fingers to check Wei Wuxian's meridians and flow of spiritual energy. She rolled up her sleeves.
Thinking about what she had said, about promises, he peered at her wrist.
Wen Qing sighed, “I do not need a tattoo to remember that I promised to help you. If you don’t survive and make A-Ning cry, I'll resuscitate you and kill you again myself. You fool. You absolute fool. You-”
“Haha. Me,” he said nervously.
Unlike Lan Wangji, she didn’t react in a funny way, relieving his tension. Instead she brushed Wei Wuxian's loose hair away from his eyes and peered into his soul, asking him if he was sure.
He stared back, swearing he could see his golden core in her eyes. When she had gotten her answer, Wen Qing's fingers hovered over a paralyzing pressure point, one that would prevent his instincts from thrusting her and Wen Ning away at a bad moment, at least to some degree.
“We couldn't administer anesthesia, so you know there will be insurmountable pain. You must retain your senses through the whole procedure. If you're lucky, it will take one day and one night. If my skills are good enough, we will finish in two.”
Wen Ning stammered, “Then… then three is…” He swallowed his words when Wen Qing shot him a what have I taught you about not alarming the patients unnecessarily glare, though surely she knew something like that wouldn't scare him at this point. If he died on the third day at least he died trying.
She continued, “A-Ning will transfer you energy through the process and try keep you conscious with chatter. You may wish to empty your mind, you may chat with him, you may scream as much as you want with your mouth. But whatever you do, you must keep your eyes open and absolutely do not think a single though to your destined person, even if you don’t have one right now. We don’t know how this procedure and how sensitive anything to do with spiritual energy will be with that.”
Don't lose control. Don't send anything weird on the off-chance they exist.
What would they do if they did exist anyways, send silence in support?
This is for Jiang Cheng, not them. Nobody has anything to do with you, Wei Wuxian. Not when a hot mess follows.
“Right,” he croaked.
Losing his first kiss was a little embarrassing and a bit sad, but he let the anonymous maiden do as she pleased. From what he deduced about her, if he shook her off and removed his blindfold, her pride would be shattered. He let her pin his hands against the rough bark and relaxed against her advances.
If she didn’t know about his destined pair, then she would be doubly ashamed... But some part of him thought that maybe it was his destined person shyly kissing him. For what reason she would do that, he did not know, but it was a cute thought.
Though when he considered it more, maybe the entire reason she only approached him like this now was that she suspected a strong cultivator like him had already had his partner revealed. The maiden couldn’t be more wrong in that regard, on both counts. Or perhaps she had her bond revealed, and wanted to release her lingering feelings before going to him.
He quietly apologized in his heart for kissing someone other than his destined pair, until he remembered that he wasn’t going to let something as formless as fate decide his future for him. If destiny was real, then it seemed like he was cursed.
At the same time, this unknown person on the other end of the tether was possibly the only person who might accept him for what he’s become. He began to wonder if that person knew about about the Yiling Patriach and whether she might be scared or disgusted, but his thoughts were washed out by the valiant effort of the maiden’s tongue.
Such a daring lady!
The kiss enveloped him in warmth he had never felt before and their lips only separated to breathe in quick gasps of air before they joined together again. Something inside of him burned. It was spreading through his whole body, making his knees weakly dangle from the tree branch
Just when he could feel his lips swelling, the maiden kissed a line down his chin and began to bite along his neck. He gasped, not knowing what to do if she left a mark there and someone saw it. He had a reputation, but now really wasn’t the time he wanted to show off a hickey!
If anything, he was saving that for his somebody, whether it was the destined person or not. He could imagine Lan Wangji’s disapproval of letting someone who he wasn’t promised to making ‘marks’...
The maiden seemed to sense his thoughts and stiffened, before she released his hands and her presence vanished.
He finally tore off his blindfold, breathless, with the feeling of the kisses still pin-prickling his skin.
Perched above the courtyard of Nightless City, he couldn’t help but smirk at the crowd. Spineless, honor-less cultivators. He had only intended to return for Wen Qing and Wen Ning’s ashes, he had been able to witness this scene.
Pathetic.
It was all very funny in the most humorless way, until he heard his sister’s gentle voice fighting the roar of the crowd, calling for him. He left Lan Wangji to
She was injured, with her breath ragged, but since she had a core it would be a simple matter for a healer to transfer spiritual energy and heal her. He propped her up and she gave him a strained smile.
“Before anything… A-Xian… can you… stop this?”
“Thank you A-Xian.” She gave him another grief-stricken, but loving smile. It broke his heart. “I- I wanted to show you this.” She showed him a tattoo on her wrist. “It’s… it’s not a real one. My cultivation wasn’t high enough… but we still wrote some vows to each other. It was a bit controversial to do a ‘fake’, but family learns from each other, right? Besides in our hearts, we know we’re destined.” She giggled weakly.
“Shijie, don’t speak. Save your energy. You’ll be okay. Jiang Cheng will get you away from here.” Wei Wuxian reached for her hand, to show his support. It was cold, like marble. He heard his brother shouting for them, no longer blocked by a crowd of corpses.
Her eyes widened. “Watch out!”
She thrust him out of the way of the sword of a vengeful cultivator, the blood staining her pale yellow mourning garb.
“Oh A-Xian, you ran away so fast. I… wanted to… I need to tell you--” Her hand, cold as marble cradled against his face. The message words she and Jin Zixuan had tattooed were the least of Wei Wuxian’s concern, and his vision started becoming blurry through a well of tears.
Her body slumped.
Jiang Cheng knelt by her, before he violently shook Wei Wuxian by his collar. “I thought you said you could control it!”
But he couldn’t control anything anymore. He stood dizzily, feeling the world spin around him. He could vaguely tell that people all around him were dying, which is what he wanted. But she wasn’t meant to be here.
Jiang Cheng turned back to carry away their sister’s corpse from the battlefield. Wei Wuxian stared blankly at the mad flurry of cultivators and fierce corpses. At the rate he was going with Jiang Cheng’s family, even if unintentional, he found it entirely possible that he killed Jiang Cheng’s destined bond. Maybe even right here, in Nightless City.
He’d taken Shijie’s too, if they really were fated. And maybe it was, since in a way their deaths were inexplicably tied together.
Wei Wuxian wouldn’t have been surprised if he had ended up killing his destined bond at some point too. Maybe he’d catch sight of a fierce corpse with the childish stanza he’d send them across their pale, black-veined arms.
I’m just as pathetic as the rest of them. I can still think about such a silly thing as having a destined bond. They’re better off never knowing who I am, or what I did here.
In a haze he could still vaguely tell that he was being targeted by any cultivator skilled enough to shake off the mob of Wen fierce corpses and refocus their attention on the source of this all. Lan Wangji was among them, jumping in his direction. A string on his zither snapped and flailed in the wind, his robes were not immaculate, and he held Bichen unsheathed.
He went catatonic, the last strand of his reason gone. He’d been as good as dead the moment Jiang Yanli had perished. He felt close to qi deviating and destroying anything in his vicinity, in addition to the rampaging corpses.
With everything in his being, he wanted everyone to leave him alone—especially that Lan Wangji. And he meant, everyone.
“Why can’t anyone just…”
Get lost and let me die…
Wei Wuxian felt dizzy, as if he had just woken up from a nightmare. But he hadn’t been sleeping when those horrific events happened, and this wasn’t a dream. His eyes opened to his cave in Burial Mounds and he unsteadily stood to his feet. He had no idea how he’d gotten here from Nightless City, but it didn’t matter at all to him.
He still felt the sensation of his sister’s touch as her hand fell from his face, but everything else felt numb, save for a dull stinging his wrist. The Stygian Tiger Amulet, that abominable thing, weighed heavy in his hand. The resentful energy swirled around it stronger than ever before. This power that was able to kill Wen dogs, it didn’t matter anymore.
He emerged from where he found himself, disturbing the protective arrays around him. It could not and would not protect what he loved. And true to his belief, he stepped outside and saw more pointless bloodshed. Nobody had noticed him yet in the chaos of the killing, too focused on slaughtering the weak villagers, and the Wens he had protected pretended not to see him when he sluggishly pulled himself from the cave and left the fray. Those arrays didn’t matter either.
He finally stared down at an abyss from a cliff he had warned the Wen remnants to never approach. It was a long fall into the darkness, and even longer suffering when you’re drowning in the resentful energy. Or maybe it would be shorter if the corpses got him and he didn’t do anything.
The Stygian Tiger Seal thrummed in his hand. Aware of the repercussions, he gathered energy in his hand and crumbled it between his fingers. The backlash hit him, and he couldn’t help but laugh uncontrollably while he felt his insides curl up on himself, yet still only a numb ache. Blood dribbled from his mouth and over his chapped lips, and the low moans of fierce corpses and spirits bellowed from the depths.
Despite everything, the sharpest thing he felt was the burn on his wrist where the yin iron was turning to dust. He peeled down his sleeve, half expecting to find his own claw marks there.
And for the first time since he’d watched his sister draw her last breath, he cried.
That array, from days gone past, had worked after all. The words forced sharp daggers into his heart.
“My love is as constant as the bright moon waxes and wanes.”
“I adore your unrestrained heart.”
“Come back, let us share this melody together.”
He wiped his eyes and felt horrible for the person on the other side, the only person in the world who still loved him in the end. A love he had dismissed since he had first learned about this from a textbook, and only really used as a joke.
He didn’t deserve those short, caring phrases. He wondered if they had maybe somehow felt his anguish through the string and felt pity for him. There wasn’t any record of that phenomena in any textbook he’d ever read… but it was too late to look for love, and there had been no time to do so ever since the Wen indoctrination camp. Everything was going to end soon.
In fact, he saw Jiang Cheng stalking his way right now.
He thought quietly, hoping that his destined person felt him on the other side. He apologized for the burn they’d feel in their wrist.
“Thank you, and goodbye.”
A small light left his pinky and floated away from the abyss.
“Jiang Cheng…” Wei Wuxian’s voice broke. He never did share his discovery, but he knew that Jiang Cheng had the power to find his destiny on his own.
“Wei Wuxian!” screamed Jiang Cheng.
He poised Sandu to strike, his eyes staring into Wei Wuxian’s own. They were tight, trembling with many conflicting emotions. When he finally shut them, he thrust his sword forward.
“Go to hell!”
For whatever reason, he didn’t strike Wei Wuxian directly, and his sword lodged right into the cliffrock, which began to crack underneath his feet.
Wei Wuxian thought for a moment to reach out and grab the scraggly roots jutting from the rocks, but he remembered how many people he’d let down in the past year. Shijie. Jin Zixuan. Wen Qing and Wen Ning. Jiang Cheng, who was staring at him in shock. Lan Wangji, a force of good and righteousness. His destined person.
He let himself fall.
Oh. ‘Thank you, and goodbye’ is the last thing Wen Qing said to me before she and Wen Ning...
…That’s probably a cruel thing to leave my soulmate with. I should probably make it something nice, like a poem or something. At least so it might be pleasant to wear.
He thought hastily, for he was plummeting.
" You’re beautiful, like a lotus in the moonlight."
" Thank you, and goodbye."
"Peony flowers in spring, one feels as though they bloom anew."
Perplexingly, no light left his pinky. He frowned, wondering why nothing happened. The only reason he could think of was that he had already used up his three allotted messages somehow. He had no idea what he had sent, but he hardly had time to finish the thought when his body crashed into the hands of the awaiting corpses, which swarmed around him and shredded him into nothingness.