[OOM] - Door Within Stone
Oct. 31st, 2020 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thesecondjadeWord reached the Lan eventually. It was chaos and confusion, accounts of the death of Jin Zixuan and the ambush by Jin Zixun. It was unclear what had occured, though reports of the attack by the Jin cousin and the death of both Jin Zixuan and Jin Zixun at the hands of the Ghost General were quickly verified.
Lan Zhan felt the leash around his throat tighten. Suddenly, Lan Qiren needed him everywhere, keeping him from doing anything foolish. Every minute was accounted for, every hour laden with work. It was only when a messenger arrived and whispered that all of the remaining Wen had been slaughtered like beasts, with Wen Ning and Wen Qing put to the torch that Lan Zhan broke away, rules be damned.
There was no stopping him them. Lan Zhan was on his sword, and he did not step off it until he was before the mouth of the Demon Subdue Cave. The wards were still in place -- but he could feel them creaking under the resentful energy that battered the tiny, now empty, village.
"Wei Ying! Wei Ying!" Lan Zhan's calls echoed against unyielding stone, and there was no one to answer them.
Then there was the softest sob. It wasn't from Lan Zhan's lungs, though he felt like screaming. It came from a place turned by the blood pool, and when he walked around the lip of it he found the child who had made it.
A-Yuan was curled into a limp ball, sheened with sweat and unconscious. Lan Zhan knelt down, gathering him up. Surely, the Wen must've left him intentionally-- refusing to doom a child, as they knew their surrender would end in their deaths. Perhaps as an anchor for Wei Ying. But-- Wei Ying wasn't there. Was he so far gone that he would abandon a child to death?
Lan Zhan refused to believe it. Wei Ying must be tormented beyond belief, to somehow not know A-Yuan was hidden here. He would never, ever leave an innocent like this -- even at the height of his rage, he would prioritize a child.
(Unless you are wrong, his inner voice spoke, sounding like Lan Xichen. You said yourself, something was wrong with his Cultivation.)
It did not matter. He needed help, and fast. The child was too delicate to take by sword to Cloud Recesses, and Wei Ying couldn't have been gone long. He was needed at two places at once, and neither could be reached fast enough to matter in his current state, or safe enough to travel to with a child in arms.
Settling the boy down on the stone bed where Wei Ying had laid his head to rest, Lan Zhan went to one wall and began to take things from his sleeves; a tin of cookies, a bar napkin, the single photo of Wei Wuxian he carried with him. Treasures from another time and place.
He set them all before the wall as he built his array. With the right items, you could ask for a door. You could beg for a door. Things of that waystop-world, that tied him to a place beyond places. Milliways would answer. Milliways was a place of help, the restful hearth after a long journey.
There was an array for a door. An array for travel. Even the array for teleportation, all flung at the wall, hoping beyond hope it would give him a door. Nothing came.
"Please!" he finally gave in and shouted. If magic would not do it, when he was not too proud to beg. Hands to the wall, he pressed himself to it, brow to the cold stone. Then, he asked once more, voice soft: "Please. If not for me, than for the boy. Please."
There was a click and a grinding of stone. Lan Zhan stepped back as the door, etching itself into the black rock, began to take shape. He rushed back to grab A-Yuan, sweeping his things into his sleeve as he passed them, plunging into the warmth of the bar.
This restful hearth was here for him, once more.
Lan Zhan felt the leash around his throat tighten. Suddenly, Lan Qiren needed him everywhere, keeping him from doing anything foolish. Every minute was accounted for, every hour laden with work. It was only when a messenger arrived and whispered that all of the remaining Wen had been slaughtered like beasts, with Wen Ning and Wen Qing put to the torch that Lan Zhan broke away, rules be damned.
There was no stopping him them. Lan Zhan was on his sword, and he did not step off it until he was before the mouth of the Demon Subdue Cave. The wards were still in place -- but he could feel them creaking under the resentful energy that battered the tiny, now empty, village.
"Wei Ying! Wei Ying!" Lan Zhan's calls echoed against unyielding stone, and there was no one to answer them.
Then there was the softest sob. It wasn't from Lan Zhan's lungs, though he felt like screaming. It came from a place turned by the blood pool, and when he walked around the lip of it he found the child who had made it.
A-Yuan was curled into a limp ball, sheened with sweat and unconscious. Lan Zhan knelt down, gathering him up. Surely, the Wen must've left him intentionally-- refusing to doom a child, as they knew their surrender would end in their deaths. Perhaps as an anchor for Wei Ying. But-- Wei Ying wasn't there. Was he so far gone that he would abandon a child to death?
Lan Zhan refused to believe it. Wei Ying must be tormented beyond belief, to somehow not know A-Yuan was hidden here. He would never, ever leave an innocent like this -- even at the height of his rage, he would prioritize a child.
(Unless you are wrong, his inner voice spoke, sounding like Lan Xichen. You said yourself, something was wrong with his Cultivation.)
It did not matter. He needed help, and fast. The child was too delicate to take by sword to Cloud Recesses, and Wei Ying couldn't have been gone long. He was needed at two places at once, and neither could be reached fast enough to matter in his current state, or safe enough to travel to with a child in arms.
Settling the boy down on the stone bed where Wei Ying had laid his head to rest, Lan Zhan went to one wall and began to take things from his sleeves; a tin of cookies, a bar napkin, the single photo of Wei Wuxian he carried with him. Treasures from another time and place.
He set them all before the wall as he built his array. With the right items, you could ask for a door. You could beg for a door. Things of that waystop-world, that tied him to a place beyond places. Milliways would answer. Milliways was a place of help, the restful hearth after a long journey.
There was an array for a door. An array for travel. Even the array for teleportation, all flung at the wall, hoping beyond hope it would give him a door. Nothing came.
"Please!" he finally gave in and shouted. If magic would not do it, when he was not too proud to beg. Hands to the wall, he pressed himself to it, brow to the cold stone. Then, he asked once more, voice soft: "Please. If not for me, than for the boy. Please."
There was a click and a grinding of stone. Lan Zhan stepped back as the door, etching itself into the black rock, began to take shape. He rushed back to grab A-Yuan, sweeping his things into his sleeve as he passed them, plunging into the warmth of the bar.
This restful hearth was here for him, once more.
