[PALACE GAME - LAN WANGJI RUN]

[laughitoff]

Everything is red. You are dying, somewhere far beyond pain, the very essence of yourself going to pieces. You’re shattering so badly you don’t know if you’ll ever find all of yourself again, if you’ll ever put yourself back together. There are teeth on you, ripping, tearing, devouring. There are teeth inside you, carving their way out, and those are worse.

This is a memory, happening at a remove. It is not yours. This is not happening now.

Everything is grey. You wake up in a prison cell, eyes wide, the ceiling flat and blank and unfamiliar above you. For a moment you simply think, no. You think, Please, wasn’t it over? Wasn’t it enough? You consider closing your eyes again and refusing to get up, until oblivion reclaims you. Even if you’re no longer dying, everything hurts.

This is a memory, happening at a remove. It is not yours. This is not happening now.

What is happening, then?

You–

–sit up.

Comments

[laughitoff]

[This memory is distant and hazy.

You are very small, and you and your family are at a wayside inn on your way to somewhere or other. You are sitting on your father's lap to be able to have your whole head above the level of the table; he is feeding you from his bowl of meat and rice. One bite for him, one bite for you. It's good.

He and your mother are talking. There was some incident the previous day between your mother and some other cultivators on the road, where they'd hailed her in a friendly familiar way and called her a strange title, and she'd returned the friendliness, but with the particular bright smile that meant she had no idea why they were doing this. It had gotten you a free stay here and this free meal, whatever it was.

"Why, I still don't know!" she laughs now over her own bowl. She tries to tempt you with a bite, but you shake your head -- she likes her food much less spicy than you and your father do. "They're from one of the local sects. I think I recognized the balding one in the grey robes--what was his name?"

Your father reminds her.

"--yes, him. It must have been on my way through to Yunmeng, but really, dear! I was young and testing my sword on everything in sight then; I was on hunts for more than twenty nights every moon, with all sorts of other cultivators tagging along! If I tried to keep them all straight my head would come off my shoulders with the weight!"

Your father acknowledges this. "It's a good thing your mother's such a charmer, eh, A-Ying?" he remarks over your head. "She forgets almost everyone and offends almost no one. Papa was lucky his pretty face was one of the ones that stuck in her head, like a little stone."

The thought of your father as a pebble makes you giggle. It is lucky your mouth is not full. Your mother rolls her eyes and twirls a lock of her hair around her finger, married half a decade now and still sometimes coquettish. "I also owed you," she says, "so don't flatter your face too much!"

Your father droops. You reach up with one hand to push his chin up and away from your head, because his head is heavy. He must be making a funny face where you can't see, though, because your mother laughs again.

"It's what my teacher taught me," she says, and this gets your attention, because your mother very rarely talks about her life on the immortal Baoshan Sanren's fabled mountain, though she makes little enough secret of having descended from there. Her voice falls into the cadence of memorized text. "Remember the things that are done for you, not the things you do for others. Keep a light heart, and it will set you free."]

[strikingchords]

[...this one makes him swallow a few times...]

[laughitoff]

[In the wake of the memory, the pagoda has filled with a faint, unseasonal mist.

The pale figures of Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren stand handsclasped at the railing, sun shining through their forms...they are indistinct, ghostly and unmoving. Parts of their bodies and limbs seem to have been eaten away, though the details of the damage are vague.]

[strikingchords]

[...he'll heal them, too...

when he uses Orthodoxy this time he distinctly doesn't want to make them fierce corpses. they can stay memories.]

[laughitoff]

[They remain ghosts, but whole, now.]

[strikingchords]

[FTR HE WOULD HAVE ALSO TRIED TO GIVE THEM THE ABILITY TO SPEAK AND NOT BE FROZEN IN TIME, THOUGH, SINCE THAT'S THE ONLY CHANGE THAT HAS BEEN HELPFUL SO FAR,]

[laughitoff]

[OKAY WELL I GUESS THEY TURN AND NOD TO HIM THEN]

Hello, young man.

[strikingchords]

[...bows to them, oddly shy after all these heavy-ass memories...]

Greetings.

[laughitoff]

You're one of those strapping young lads from Gusu, aren't you? Do you need help with something?

[strikingchords]

[strapping is a terrible word to hear from the love of your life's parents,,,,,,,]

Courtesy name Lan Wangji.

...

I am searching for a sword.

[laughitoff]

Ah! Would it be something like this?

[Cangse Sanren digs in her ghostly sleeve a bit, and comes up with Suibian's swordhilt.]

[strikingchords]

[nods, still averting his eyes slightly in embarrassment]

[laughitoff]

Here, here, take it. I hope you're going to fix it up, hm? Shame for a fine spiritual blade to stay broken.

[strikingchords]

[takes it, with a nod of thanks]

Do you know where other pieces will be found?

[laughitoff]

[Wei Changze nods politely and gestures at the banners.]

Look for more of these. They're all around town. There's at least one in the Jiang sect's complex, too.

[strikingchords]

My thanks.

...

[looks between them...]

Is anything needed, for you here?

[laughitoff]

[Cangse Sanren waves him off, smiling.

Oh, no, dear. Don't mind us. We're just comfortable old memories.

[strikingchords]

[nods]

Your son grew well.

Would also thank you for his life.

[laughitoff]

That's very sweet. Though in the end, we just got him started, you know?

[strikingchords]

I know.

Nonetheless.

[...he'll bow to them and take his leave politely after that, heading to the Jiang compound if he can find it next]

[laughitoff]

[The town's built around its walls, so it's hard to miss. The compound gates are unlocked; if he enters, he immediately sees one banner (THE WHIPPING BOY) hanging over the door of the main hall, and the barest fluttering corner of a second banner from the nearby training grounds.]

[strikingchords]

[...

he doesn't love that.

he feels the urgency, though; heads for the first banner, and goes to touch whatever memory object is near it once he identifies it...]

[laughitoff]

[Inside the hall, it looks something like this, though with more purple silk along the walls, and a raised dais in place of the giant wooden lotus chair. A silver ring gleams upon the dais.

On touching the ring--

There's a woman -- Wang Lingjiao -- standing in your sect's main hall, dressed in a rich but tawdry way. She's smirking at your aunt, who gazes back at her with a cold, unrevealing expression. "Today," she says, "I'm representing the Wen Sect and young master Wen. I'm here to punish someone."

You feel your heart skip a beat as she points at you.

“On Dusk-Creek Mountain," she declares, "this brat made rude remarks while Young Master Wen fought the Tortoise of Slaughter, causing many disturbances. He made the master tired, so he lost his sword and nearly lost against the beast!"

Your brother laughs, hard and furious (as well he might! You and Lan Zhan fought the beast; what is this bullshit?) You're thinking fast, though. The Wen sect waited for a day Jiang Fengmian was away from the town. They timed this audacious display on purpose.

Wang Lingjiao's still spinning her tall tale. “How lucky! The Heavens blessed Young Master Wen. Even though he lost his sword, he was able to safely take down the Tortoise of Slaughter. Still, we really can’t tolerate this brat's behavior any longer! Madam Yu, please punish him harshly and make him an example for the rest of your sect!"

Jiang Cheng tries to intervene, even as you're steeling himself. "Mom..."

“Shut your mouth!” cries Madam Yu.

Wang Lingjiao's pleased by her reaction. “Wei Ying, if I remember correctly, is a servant of the Jiang Sect, isn’t he? Without Sect Leader Jiang present, I’m sure his wife would know what's best to do here. Otherwise, if the Jiang Sect insists on defending him, it’d really make people suspect...if certain rumors are true. Haha!"

Madam Yu's face darkens. Jiang Cheng rallies. “What rumors?!”

Wang Lingjiao continues to giggle. “You ask what rumors? Of course they have to do with Sect Leader Jiang's old romantic ties, no?”

Your fists clench. She can make up stories about you, but not about your family! “You…”

Pain explodes in your back, and the air wheezes out of your lungs as your knees buckle. Madam Yu winds a coil of her lightning-laced whip around her hands, mouth hard and set.

“Mom!” Jiang Cheng cries again.

“Jiang Cheng, move out of the way, or you’ll be kneeling too!”

You've got to stop this. “Jiang Cheng," you gasp, "move over! Don’t worry about me!”

Madam Yu lashes you again, gritting her words out between each crack of the whip. “I’ve said--since long ago, that you--you unruly thing! I said you would bring trouble to the Jiang Sect, sooner or later!”

You push Jiang Cheng out of the way as the blows rain down. You can't bear this, but you've got to. If the punishment doesn't satisfy Wang Lingjiao and those behind her, this threat won't go away...!


The memory blurs, something like static sizzling in your head, and then resumes on a different scene.


You're sitting in a boat by one of the docks, your back still mortally burning from the whip wounds. The edges of Lotus Pier have been set ablaze in the distance, the fire creeping in towards the Jiang compound. Madam Yu removes a silver ring--her spiritual weapon--from her finger, and slides it onto your brother's.

His face is soot-streaked, wild with alarm. “Mom, why are you giving me Zidian?”

"It's yours from now on," she says. "Zidian has already recognized you as its master.”

"What? Won’t you be leaving with us?"


Another brief, static blur.


Your aunt pushes your brother into the boat after you. He tries to leap out again after her, but lightning sparks from the ring on his hand, coalescing into a rope that binds the two of you together. You close your eyes in pain.

“Mom, what are you doing?!”

“Don’t make such a fuss. It’ll loosen up when you’re somewhere safe. If anyone attacks you on the journey, it’ll protect you as well. Don’t come back. Go to Meishan straight away and find your sister!”]

[strikingchords]

[he already knows that Wei Wuxian did Not do this

this resonates much more strongly than he expects with his own experience when Cloud Recesses burned; his eyes burn, too. puts his hand over them, for a moment, before letting it fall again.]

[laughitoff]

[When he drops his hand, Madam Yu's tall, imposing figure stands on the dais. She's an unmoving ghost of the woman he saw in the memory. A vast wound has been gouged into her stomach.]