Chapter 1
Notes:
Chapter Warnings:
Violence
Altered Mental States (from Jin Guangyao's false Clarity)
Minor Medical Procedure
Chapter Text
The Nie sect was known for their berserker anger. Nie Huaisang could look at his lineage and point to almost every ancestor and tell a story about a time they lost their temper. This town was wiped of the map, this entire army was decimated, this monster was defeated, and now nothing was left of its lair but a smoking crater.
Even his brother had a volatile temper. His strength was only matched by his temper, and each seemed to grow by the year. It seemed like it simmered there sometimes, just waiting to erupt.
Nie Huaisang had never understood it. He couldn't think of a single time that he had been a fraction of as angry as Nie Mingjue was on any given day. He got frustrated sometimes, but that was usually directed more at himself than anything else. He couldn't comprehend acting out in anger, especially acting in violence.
But now he understood. When he had heard Jin Guangyao play that song, and seen Nie Mingjue's eyes and nose start to bleed, everything had filmed over with red. Nothing had seemed as important as hurting Jin Guangyao, as keeping him as far from his brother as possible, as making him pay.
When he came back to himself he was struggling against the hold of several Nie disciples. He had a momentary thought that he didn't understand where they had come from. This was Dage's room. But the momentary thought was brushed aside when he saw Jin Guangyao's unconscious body in front of him, collapsed and bleeding on the splintered remains of his guqin. He snarled, and yanked against the disciple's hands, hitting at least one in the process. Jin Guangyao was still breathing. He could still hurt his brother.
He distantly heard them call for a doctor. He wondered why. Jin Guangyao was still breathing, and he didn't deserve a doctor after hurting Nie Mingjue.
Nie Mingjue.
He looked over to his brother. He was still breathing too. There was blood on his face, and he was slumped over, but he would be fine. He had to be fine. Unlike Jin Guangyao. Once he got loose he was going to kill him, keep Jin Guangyao from ever hurting his brother again.
Nie Zonghui moved in front of him, blocking off his view of that poisonous snake. He said his name, and Nie Huaisang realized that he had been calling him for a while. He blinked and went limp. His head felt like it was full of fog. It was incredibly hard to focus, although now that he couldn't see Jin Guangyao it was a bit easier to think.
More people were gathering around, crowding around the doorway. The doctor arrived, pushed through the crowd and went straight to Nie Mingjue, his assistants on his heels. Good. Elder Qiaolian followed them, and took in the entire situation at a glance.
"Second Young Master. What happened here?" She asked, still looking at Jin Guangyao.
"I don't, I don't know," he managed. "Dage. Meng Yao, Jin Guangyao was hurting Dage."
She turned to him, and her eyes widened. "Second Young Master. Are you well?"
He shook his head, then nodded. "I'm, I'm fine. Is Dage alright?" A full sentence. Things were making more sense. Although had he really beaten Jin Guangyao over the head with his own guqin? How had he managed that?
"I believe the Sect Leader will be fine, eventually," the doctor said, not looking up from Nie Mingjue. He was feeding qi into his wrist, a steady and delicate flow. Nie Huaisang watched it. He wasn't a doctor, so he didn't know anything about healing. But if Dage was accepting spiritual energy, he must be fine, right? "Please make everyone leave. I need to concentrate."
The disciples holding his arms moved to obey, dragging him with them. He jerked in their grasp, before remembering that he should obey the doctor. No matter how little he wanted to let his brother out of his sight, if the doctor said he needed quiet, he would need to leave.
But he couldn't let Jin Guangyao stay, not when he could hurt Dage.
"Jin Guangyao. He will hurt Dage more."
"I really don't think he is in any condition to hurt anyone," Elder Qiaolian said dryly. "But he will not remain here. Secure him, and make sure that he is unable to escape. We will need to know what happened here."
"He was hurting Dage." He repeated again. Why didn't she understand? But the Nie disciples were dragging Jin Guangyao away, so she understood enough.
"Be that as it may, young master. But we must know how, and much more importantly why." She took his arm and started guiding him away from the room. He let himself be led out of the room, but stopped outside of the door.
She tried to pull him further, towards his own rooms down the hall, but he wouldn't budge. Instead, he turned around to watch the door to his brother's room. She sighed and let go.
Nie Huaisang leaned against the wall and leaned his head back, closing his eyes and resting his head on the wall. He felt awful. His head was pounding, and he felt almost like he could collapse at any moment. He was glad that Nie Qiaolian had stopped trying to ask him questions. He didn't think he could answer rationally.
They waited there for a while. Between the pounding in his head and the way his thoughts kept scattering whenever he tried to gather them, he wasn't sure how long. He barely registered when Nie Zonghui returned from dragging Jin Guangyao away.
Eventually, the doctor called them in. He practically bolted into the room, and went straight to his brother's side. Nie Mingjue had been moved to his bed, and lay there. Someone had cleaned the blood off of his face. Nie Huaisang had a moment's panic before he realized that he was still breathing, despite his stillness.
"Is Dage all right?" He asked.
"He'll be fine." The doctor gently pushed him down so that he was sitting. "Qi deviation, and a pretty bad one, but we stabilized it in time. I predict that it will take a couple months of careful management for his system to straighten out and for him to wake up, but he will." The doctor reached to turn Nie Huaisang's head towards him, but he batted his hands away and kept looking at Nie Mingjue.
"That's very good news," Nie Qiaolian said. "And the Second Young Master?"
"What?" He asked, still looking at his brother, who was going to be alright. The doctor was still bothering him, trying to grab his hands. It was annoying, and a distraction from making sure that his brother was really alright.
"Nie Huaisang. Clean your face off and let the doctor take a look at you." Nie Qiaolian snapped in the exact same tone that she had used hundreds of times when she told him to concentrate, or he would never have a saber spirit.
Although that wasn't an order he had heard from her before, he was used to pretending to obey. He scrubbed his face with his sleeves. They came away red, and he reached up to touch the drying blood on his cheeks. No wonder everyone was looking at him strangely. He shook his head to clear it. There was something wrong.
He let the doctor look into his eyes and check his qi. The doctor's spiritual energy flowed through his system, and the pounding in his head started to lessen. The fogginess started to clear, and he finally realized what he had done, what had to have happened.
He must have suffered a qi deviation, just like he had feared since he had learned what they were. So had his brother, which was even worse. Jin Guangyao had almost killed Dage through such an awful trick. He reached for his fan with his other hand, before remembering he wasn't holding it. He had lost it at some point. He curled his hand in his lap instead, trying to ignore the impulse to fiddle with a fan that wasn't there.
"You will be alright as well. You started out much more stable than your brother, so your episode wasn't as bad," the doctor said, stopping the flow of healing energy and releasing Nie Huaisang's wrist. "Expect to be quite confrontational and quick to anger and other strong negative emotions for a while. Try not to act on them. No spiritual manipulation for at least a couple of weeks. No saber practice for at least twice that long. Meditate instead, to balance out your spiritual pathways. That should help with the anger as well."
"Of course." He could almost laugh. The perfect excuse to stop practicing the saber, and there wasn't even a reason to use it. Not with Nie Mingjue lying there.
"Find a doctor if you start feeling angry with no noticeable cause, or truly excessive anger, though as I said you will probably be quicker to anger until your spiritual energy settles. Get help immediately if you experience a fever or start suffering from hallucinations. The last thing that you need is another episode."
"I will, but I don't think I need worry." He wasn't like his brother. He almost never got angry.
"Now that you are back with us, what happened here?" Nie Qiaolian asked, wasting no time. "Nie Mingjue certainly can't tell us anything. A qi deviation, at his age, without any sort of warning. And you. You don't even bother to practice the saber. You're the last person I would expect to snap like that. And to take it out on Jin Guangyao, of all people."
"It was his fault. The song he was playing, it caused it." He had heard that Jin Guangyao was visiting his brother, and had hurried to join them. He expected them to be mildly annoyed at his interruption, but that was easily forgiven. But when he had opened the door and heard the melody that Jin Guangyao was playing, everything had gone straight out of his mind.
It sounded impossible. It had made perfect sense while it was happening, but now that he said it aloud he realized how ridiculous it was. Nie Qiaolian's skeptical face showed what she thought of what he was saying. Nie Zonghui was more sympathetic, but he still looked like he was questioning his judgment.
"That would track with my observations." The doctor backed him up, surprisingly. "Neither qi deviation was natural. I would judge that their spiritual energy was violently unbalanced by an outside source. I'm not familiar with a song that would cause that, but music is always a versatile channel for spiritual energy. It wouldn't surprise me if such a thing existed."
Nie Zonghui and Nie Qiaolian exchanged glances.
"And Jin Guangyao was using it," Nie Qiaolian said.
"That has some implications." Nie Zonghui shook his head. "The Jin have to be involved."
"That's not surprising." Nie Huaisang said absently. His head still hurt, although less than before, and his racing thoughts weren't helping. "Sect Leader Jin has been trying to get us with underhanded means for a while."
They stared at him. "Since he became Chief Cultivator. He's been spreading rumors and needling Dage for months. He's been saying that Dage is only good at fighting to all of our allies, that he's not a good ruler, and other false things. And then there was the mess with the trade agreement. Truly unfair terms that Dage had to swallow. He's been baiting us because we are one of the biggest threats against him."
"The only thing surprising is that they came after us before they went after Wei Wuxian. I would have thought that he would be a bigger threat to them. And that Jin Guangyao was involved. I really thought he loved Dage too much to hurt him." He couldn't believe he had been so wrong. If he had thought that Jin Guangyao was capable of this, he never would have let him get close to Nie Mingjue.
"What?" They were still looking at him with identical expressions. Surprise? He wasn't sure. It was still so hard to make sense of things. His thoughts kept going back to Jin Guangyao and Jin Guangshan and Nie Mingjue, laying on the bed.
"I think," Nie Qiaolian said slowly, "we need to call a council meeting."
Of course they did. The Jin had tried to assassinate his brother. That wasn't a small thing, something that the they could let slide. Not only that, but the doctor had said that Nie Mingjue would be sleeping for months before he would be better. That wasn't good. Without his brother to lead, there was probably going to be chaos.
But that wasn't anything to do with him.
"I'm sure that you will guide us fairly," he said, getting up.
Nie Qiaolian shook her head, that strange look still on her face. "You will attend."
He swallowed a complaint. That was the last thing that he wanted to do. It wasn't like there was any point for him to be there. But when he thought about it, he supposed that they would need his testimony.
"If you insist."
Chapter 2
Summary:
There is a council meeting, and Qinghe is full of rumors.
Chapter Text
Nie Qiaolian allowed him time to go to his rooms and freshen up while she called the emergency council session. Nie Zonghui followed him to his rooms, and stood outside his door as he changed. It was strange. It wasn't like he needed a guard.
A quick wash and a change of clothes made him feel much more alert. And the new fan in his hands made him feel much more like himself even as he headed to the discussion hall. Nie Zonghui followed a step behind, still as silent as he had been earlier.
In the discussion hall, he stood around awkwardly for a moment before heading to his usual seat to the right of his brother. It was usually Nie Zonghui's seat, as his brother's general second in command, but every once in a while he took the place. Usually when they needed to greet outsiders and his brother ordered him to attend. He usually spent the time pretending to pay attention but really thinking about other things. He wasn't going to be able to do that this time. He wasn't going to be able to think about anything but his brother for a long time.
But Nie Qiaolian came over form where she was talking to some of the other elders before he could take a seat, an intent look on her face. "Good, you're finally here."
He took a step back completely automatically. He saw Nie Zonghui flash him a pitying look before sitting down in the seat to the right of the dais. Traitor. Leaving him alone, making him have to stand around until the council got tired of seeing him and he managed to escape back to his brother's bedside.
Although honestly, Nie Zonghui would have a bigger contribution than he did, so it made sense that he would sit in his regular seat instead of having the entire council shuffled around. But it would still be awkward.
"Concentrate," Nie Qiaolian hissed at him. "I would tell you to pay attention for once in your life, but apparently that's not your problem."
He blinked at her. Nie Qiaolian taught basic spiritual manipulation to the younger disciples as well as her duties on the council, so he was used to her being annoyed at him. But this was different somehow. She looked more exasperated than anything else, and even that had something else around the edges.
She sighed and pushed at his shoulders. He sat without thinking, and then finally realized where he was. At some point she had backed him up to his brother's throne. Which he was now sitting in. He scrambled to get up, but she just pushed him down again, over his protests.
"The Sect Leader is out of commission. It will be months before he will be able to lead us." He blinked up at her. He knew that. Which was why he should be back in Nie Mingjue's rooms, so that he could make sure that he was okay.
"You're the heir, Nie Huaisang. You're Acting Sect Leader," she said slowly, like he wasn't following basic logic.
"Yes? But that doesn't have to mean anything. I can stay with Dage, and I'm sure that the council will lead us well." He couldn't lead the sect. He would have thought it was obvious. It was ridiculous. He would have expected her to be relieved that he was volunteering to keep out of their way. If he sequestered himself in with his brother, then they wouldn't have to worry about pretending he was leading them while ignoring everything that he said.
"Rule by council is inherently unstable. Especially in complicated circumstances such as this, where decisive action is required." As you know, her tone implied. Well, he did know, but he wasn't sure that he wanted her to know that he knew.
He shook his head wildly, fan in hand and beating nervously. "I know I'm the Second Young Master, but surely Dage knows that I can't do that. I'm sure that he would prefer anyone else to be in charge. Nie Zonghui, or you, or one of the other elders. I'm sure that would be better." Anyone would be better. He darted a frantic look over at Nie Zonghui, who just looked quietly amused at his suffering.
She just shot him another exasperated look and went over to her own seat.
He sat there, fluttering his fan nervously as he watched the rest of the council taking their places. Many of them gave him sideways looks, like they weren't sure what he was doing here, much less sitting at the top of the hall. He wasn't sure what he was doing here either. He should have gotten up by now and ran out of the room. It would be embarrassing, but so much better than staying. This was something straight out of his worst nightmares.
The only thing that could make it worse would be if his brother was dead. But Nie Mingjue was still alive, despite Jin Guangyao's best efforts.
And Elder Qiaolian was right. He was the heir, and Nie Mingjue would expect him to take care of their sect. He would expect Nie Huaisang to do his duty. If he hadn't specified that he wanted someone else to take over if he was incapacitated, then it did fall to Nie Huaisang. It was an oversight that he would need to make his brother fix when he woke up.
But until then, Nie Huaisang would need to lead the sect. It was his responsibility. He barely bit down hysterical laughter at the thought. If he broke down in front of everyone here, his brother would be so disappointed when he woke up and heard.
When everyone was sitting, he realized that he would have to start the meeting. He didn't know what he was supposed to say. Well, if he just went straight to the point, it would be over quicker. "Thank you for coming on such short notice," he started. "There has been an assassination attempt on my brother from the Jin Sect."
The council didn't look surprised, which was to be expected. They weren't the Lan sect, with their rules against gossip. Something like this would be all over Qinghe by now. "We need to determine how we respond."
"Surely we must retaliate immediately," Captain Yizhen interrupted him before he could continue.
"Young idiot," Elder Ao argued. "No need to be hasty."
Nie Huaisang leaned back in relief as the council members quickly descended into arguing. None of them were looking at him or seemed to expect him to contribute to the discussion. They had already forgotten he was here, even Nie Qiaolian. The only exception was Nie Zonghui, who was watching him intently instead of joining in the conversation.
He switched his fan to his right hand and raised it to hide his face better from his brother's deputy. He wasn't sure why Nie Zonghui was paying that much attention to him right now, but it couldn't be good. And he didn't have the time to convince him that whatever he was thinking was wrong. Not and be the sort of responsible acting sect leader that his brother would expect him to be. Not and make the Jin sect pay for hurting his brother.
Fanning himself idly he considered the problem.
The Nie Sect could not allow this to go unanswered. A betrayal like this was an act of war. They would be perfectly justified in responding in kind, and not retaliating would make them look weak. Especially since the alliance with the Jin sect from the Sunshot Campaign was still active.
Fortunately, none of the council members seemed to be in favor of ignoring the problem. Even the most lenient voices were calling for action against the Jin Sect. The only question was what and to which degree. The most conservative was old Elder Ao, who was suggesting demanding tribute in exchange for letting the matter go. He was in the minority, and if he was any younger he would already have been challenged to a fight by some of the more strident voices. Nie Mingjue was well loved and respected, and the Nie sect was always comfortable with the idea of war.
He knew that he should argue. They were only a short time away from their last major war. Even the most militant Nie disciple had to know that they weren't in the best place to wage another. Especially one against as stable an enemy as the Jin sect, who had waited out the conflict until it had become clear who the winners would be. There were bound to be causalities.
But Nie Huaisang found that he didn't much care. He wanted blood for Jin Guangshan's actions. And there were always ways to tilt the board in their favor.
They would need allies. Nie disciples were the strongest individually of the four main sects, but they could not compare to the sheer numbers that the Jin sect could command. The fact that a given Nie disciple could take any three others on didn't matter if they were each fighting ten. So they would need to make up the numbers if they planned to wage a war.
Jin Guangshan had used the Jiang sect's current weakness in his political maneuvering, and Jiang Cheng was skilled enough to be very offended by some of his actions, even if he wasn't in a position where he was capable of responding in kind. He might be happy for the chance to get back at Jin Guangshan. But his sister was married to the Jin heir, and that was a close alliance that would not be easily set aside. He could go either way. Nie Huaisang would have to sound him out.
He doubted the Lan would get involved. The Lan tended towards neutrality at the best of times, thinking themselves above most mortal concerns. It took a lot of moral injustice for most of them to be bothered by politics. Their elders would probably view this as not being their problem. Lan Xichen might be more willing to join him since he was Nie Mingjue's sworn brother, but he was also sworn brother to Jin Guangyao. Even though Lan Xichen would deplore Jin Guangyao's immoral actions, that would make things complicated.
He deliberately didn't think of that song. He didn't think of the fact that the Lan clan were the experts when it came to musical cultivation. He didn't think of how close Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen were. If he thought about that, he would suffer another qi deviation. He could only trust that he wasn't as wrong when it came to Lan Xichen's character as he had been about Jin Guangyao.
That left the minor sects, and that was much more promising. Jin Guangshan was careful of his neighboring minor sects, but he ran roughshod over any that might disagree with him. For everyone that received gold from Lanling in return for their support, there were two that were sour at being snubbed. And sending Jin Guangyao after Nie Mingjue was a misstep that he could use, if he was careful. No one would be pleased to hear that the Chief Cultivator was sending assassins after his political opponents. Especially when the memory of Wen Ruohan was still fresh in every one's minds.
And the Nie sect had neighbors as well. Many of the nearby sects looked to them for protection against the many threats that could befall a smaller group of cultivators. They would follow the Nie if they were called upon. So that was a place to start.
He would have to call on them. He frowned at his brother's advisors, wishing for the first time in his life that he paid more attention to what they did. He didn't know if any of them would be useful to delegate that to. Although there were a few that he knew had close ties to some of the smaller sects. That might be useful.
While he was considering, the council had mostly decided, that yes, an assassination attempt on their Sect Leader was an act of war, and they had no honorable choice but to retaliate with force. At least they were in accord about that. They certainly weren't in accord about anything else. Those two were pushing for an all out attack on Lanling, while those thought it would be best to capture any Jin disciples in Qinghe territory. Many of them were suggesting a more careful attack on Lanling, but few could agree what that would look like. A few were even saying that they should wait until Nie Mingjue woke up to make a decision. They carefully didn't look over at Nie Huaisang as they mentioned Nie Mingjue's experience and strong leadership.
He sympathized with their opinion. He didn't want to be making this decision either. But however much he wanted to hole up in his brother's rooms and ignore everything about this entire situation, Elder Qiaolian was right. He was in charge, and this entire meeting proved her point about leadership being needed. And they couldn't afford to wait for his brother to resume command. It would be a disaster for them to delay however long that would take. That would give Jin Guangshan time to prepare his own people and fortify his position. If he was expecting them, it would be much harder to win against him.
So he was stuck in command. He could only hope that it didn't go too disastrously.
At least he was generally in agreement with the council. Although he had the technical authority to overrule them, he didn't want to see what would happen if he did. That would just be asking for trouble and he didn't want any more of that than he already had.
He really didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be dealing with all these people. He wanted Nie Mingjue to be better, so that he could deal with this. Even better, he wanted this not to have happened.
What he wanted was to find wherever Jin Guangyao was being kept and finish what he had started before. He had never killed anyone before, but remembering how Jin Guangyao had tried to murder his brother made him want to. Jin Guangyao had wanted Nie Mingjue to die in such a horrid way, it would be only fitting for him to die in an even worse way. Torture perhaps? Or maybe execution without any respect like an unruly dog that had bitten its master. He could feel his spiritual energy spike at the thought.
He shook the thought out of his head, trying to calm himself. The doctor had been right about the anger.
"We need to get ready," he said to himself.
"What was that, Second Young Master?" Nie Zonghui was usually so quiet, that Nie Huaisang rarely remembered that he was perfectly capable of making himself heard in the midst of a noisy battlefield. His voice cut through the chaos, and reminded people that Nie Huaisang was there, and nominally in command.
The room quieted, as they turned to Nie Huaisang. "You raise very good points," he began. "And I have no intention of letting this act of aggression against the Nie sect go unanswered." There were looks of surprise on some of the faces at that. They probably thought he was too soft to care that his brother had been hurt. "We will need to prepare for war."
He nodded to the captains. "I trust that you are familiar with the process to gather our forces? I will rely on your experience." He hesitated. "Send word to the outposts to see who they can spare."
They agreed, and he was glad that no one tried to argue. He turned to some of the advisors. "We need to gather any allies we can find. Send an official announcement to the other sects. We need to make it clear that Jin Guangshan has provoked us. No wait, let me write it." Was he missing anything? Well, he was sure someone would let him know if he did.
"Let me know about the state of our supplies." He remembered the chaos the supply train had caused during the Sunshot Campaign. "By tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon we'll meet again with a better idea of what we will need before we act."
Everyone rose and bowed to him before leaving. At least they were pretending to listen to him.
Rumors-Qinghe
Down in the city, everyone was aware of the tension at the fortress. Cultivators had dropped their regular patrol routes to rush back. It was clear that something was happening. Rumors swirled around the city, each one wilder than the last. Especially in the inn, where the alcohol and company inspired people to invent the tallest tales.
So when a pair of cultivators entered the establishment, they were the subject of much attention. And they were playing it up for all they were worth.
"I've been hearing strange things from the sect. A kid was here an hour ago swearing that Wen Ruohan's corpse had risen and killed the Sect Leader," someone said.
"No, it's more unbelievable than that." One said, angling for a drink which an obliging listener filled. "And the Sect Leader's not dead, although not for lack of trying."
"What could be more unbelievable than that?"
"The most unbelievable thing is that the second young master gave you a black eye." The second jostled the first good-naturally. He did have the beginnings of a black eye.
"Hey! He's got sharp elbows. I'd like to see you do better when he was acting like that. At least I'm not Jin Guangyao. Now he has some bruises."
"Jin Guangyao? The Second Young Master?"
"Oh, let me tell you. You remember Meng Yao right? Short guy, illegitimate kid of Sect Leader Jin, killed Wen Ruohan? Well it turns out..."
Chapter 3
Summary:
Nie Huaisang writes many letters, and has an intense talk with Jin Guangyao.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Nie Huaisang had planned to work through the night. There was so much that he needed to do, so much that needed to be done before they would be able to march on the Jin. Nie Zonghui barely managed to convince him to rest first. Even Nie Huaisang had to agree that he had been through a lot that day, and would probably think clearer after some sleep.
And he did, although he still insisted on waking very early to make up for lost time. His thoughts were much clearer, and after a quick visit to Nie Mingjue's bedside to reassure himself that his brother was still mostly alright, he set to work.
He felt like an intruder in Nie Mingjue's study. It was a place that he usually avoided at all costs. He was only occasionally dragged in to be lectured by his brother, and even that was a rare occurrence, as most similar lectures took place on the training grounds. The feeling grew worse when he sent a passing disciple to retrieve his calligraphy set from his rooms after he gave up on writing readable characters with his brother's brushes, which were all varying degrees of cracked and fraying. Between that and the reams of paper that he was piling on the desk's surface, it didn't look like a place that belonged to the warlike master of the Nie sect anymore.
Well, it could all be put to rights when his brother woke up.
And he needed the space. He knew that there was a lot of things that he would need to prepare before they made their move. But knowing that was one thing and seeing it was another.
He labored over the letters to the various sect leaders, trying to hit the right note between furious with the Jin and eager, but not too eager, for their help. He tried to compose himself as someone capable and strong, a proper Nie like his brother, while still remaining respectful to the other sect leaders. He set some of the disciples with better handwriting to copying it out.
Each time he signed one as Acting Sect Leader, he felt more like a fraud. He entertained an idle fantasy about his brother waking up now and storming his own study to throw Nie Huaisang out before he brought down disaster on the sect. But the doctor had predicted months, so he was on his own. Nie Mingjue wouldn't be able to save him if he made a misstep.
Some of the more important one he wrote out in full himself. The one to some of their closest neighbors, and the ones to the other great sects. His letter to the Jiang clan was little different than the ones he was sending to the minor sects, but given the status of the Jiang clan and their friendship, a more personal hand was called for. Besides, it was awkward enough to tell Jiang Cheng that he was declaring war on his in-laws, there was no need to make it worse by not being upfront about it.
He debated with himself before writing the next, clearly addressed to the Yiling Wei sect. Wei Wuxian's power was undeniable, but he wasn't currently well regarded by the sects. Although much of that was due to the rumors coming from the Jin. He might be the most eager of all the other powers to strike back at them. And treating Wei Wuxian and his band of Wen like any other sect would hopefully normalize them. It certainly couldn't hurt.
He agonized over the letter to Lan Xichen, scraping his drafts and restarting many times. Nothing that he wrote managed to soften the blow. No amount of formalities could disguise the bare facts that one of his sworn brothers had tried to murder the other. In the end, the note he sent was a short and blunt summary of events. If it hadn't been for the short line at the end begging him to come, it could have been written by his brother himself, it was so unlike his own usual wandering missives filled with tangents and metaphors.
On the other hand, the letter with his opening volley to the Jin Sect practically flew off his brush. His words were measured and biting as he accused Sect Leader Jin of grievous immorality, the breaking of treaties and alliance through betrayal, and meddling with dark powers. He was overtly threatening as he demanded recompense for the insult to the Nie Sect, or their would whet the fury of their sabers in Jin blood. It was mostly a formality. There was almost no chance that he would accept.
By the end of it he was practically shaking with fury. He set aside his brush carefully before he broke it, absently noting that maybe that was why his brother went through so many. He took a deep breath, and rose from his seat.
"Where is Jin Guangyao?" He asked one of the disciples standing guard at the door. His brother never had a guard except on the most formal of occasions, but Nie Zonghui had insisted. It was probably a good idea, since he was much more fragile than his brother.
"He was imprisoned in the cells with his cultivation bound, Sect Leader" she answered.
He winced at the title. "Acting. Acting Sect Leader. Can I see him?"
The two of them exchanged a glance.
"You are the Sect Leader, and he is your prisoner," the other said. "It is your command."
However awkwardly phrased, he did understand what the disciple meant. As Sect Leader (acting! acting Sect Leader), the didn't have the power to tell him no. Even if it might be a bad idea. It probably was a bad idea. There was nothing that he could get out of Jin Guangyao that was worth anything. But still...
He knew what had happened. He knew how and he even knew the politics that brought it about. But he didn't know how Jin Guangyao could have a hand in it. Did his vow of brotherhood and his old friendship with Dage mean nothing to him? He wanted to know how he could have so misjudged him.
A short time later, he was standing at the door of Jin Guangyao's cell, guards in tow.
Jin Guangyao had woken up, and was sitting as calmly as if he was the host of a great banquet, and not a bound prisoner in a cell. But even his poise couldn't hide the fact that he was in rough shape. He hadn't been given the chance to clean himself up, so his clothes and hair were still stained with blood. Two Nie disciples flanked him, keeping him from escaping or causing more problems.
He was fiercely satisfied to see Jin Guangyao imprisoned. His eyes swept over each and every bruise and he felt nothing but pride that in this at least, he wasn't a disappointment to his sect. Even as weak as he was, he was still capable of hurting their enemies.
Nie Huaisang approached, feeling incredibly calm. He wondered how this was going to go. Would Jin Guangyao beg? Would he try to justify himself? Would he reveal that he hated Nie Mingjue, and was just looking for the chance to murder him? He forced a confused look onto his face, and tapped his fan polity on the doorframe. A pointless gesture, Jin Guangyao knew he was there and was watching him as intently as he had ever watched anything.
"San-ge?" He started, making his tone hesitant. He wasn't sure if this would work after what had happened the other day, but it cost nothing to try. And even if it only brought his guard down for a moment, he could still get something from it. "San-ge, I don't understand."
Jin Guangyao still looked at him with barely hidden suspicion. So Nie Huaisang came a little closer, and made a show of looking him over, widening his eyes to mimic surprise, and to appear young and vulnerable. "Those bruises..." he said hesitantly. "Did I do that? I'm sorry, San-ge, I don't know what happened."
Jin Guangyao relaxed minutely. Nie Huaisang was blackly amused that a little acting was all he needed to forget what Nie Huaisang had done to him. He would be generous and attribute it to the head injury.
"What do you think happened, Huaisang?" Jin Guangyao said gently.
"You were doing something to Dage. Something that was hurting him, something that made him have a qi deviation. And me too. They said that the Jin Sect was responsible." He shook his head as if in denial.
"But you would never do something like that, San-ge. I know that you wouldn't hurt Dage. So it must be something else," he continued, doing his best to sound lost.
He could practically see Jin Guangyao's clever mind at work at that. "What are Dage's plans," he asked, obviously fishing for more information.
Nie Huaisang bit his cheek to keep from snarling at that. What right did Jin Guangyao, who had tried to kill his brother, have to that name? The taste of blood in his mouth centered him, and he managed to continue without giving himself away.
"Dage hasn't recovered. The council said that we have to go to war with the Jin." He added a bit of a whine to his voice. "They said I had to be acting sect leader, San-ge."
"The council?" Jin Guangyao prodded. Probably trying to figure out how much power Nie Huaisang had, and what was the best way forward.
"They talked all day yesterday, they gave me such a headache." Although not one as bad as I gave you. "And this morning I had to sign so many papers, San-ge. I almost broke my favorite brush."
He saw the two guards who had watched him all day exchange bewildered looks out of the corner of his eye. He hoped that Jin Guangyao hadn't caught that. He shouldn't have brought them. But he had wanted the security of having capable people watching his back. Even so, he should have made sure that they would play along. But it wasn't like he knew what he was planning before he got here.
He drew in a breath to continue to prattle on. He would give Jin Guangyao as long as he needed to think about what he would do next. But Jin Guangyao came to the obvious conclusion quickly, and interrupted before he could begin.
"I confess to having caused Sect Leader Nie's qi deviation." He said, and gave the deepest bow he could.
"What?" His hurt wasn't as feigned as he would have liked. But as little as he liked the reminder that he had trusted this snake, showing that vulnerability served his purposes.
"As Nie-er-gongzi may be aware, Sect Leader Nie has been troubled recently." Jin Guangyao kept his head bowed as he spoke. "I believed that I had found a way to ease his burdens, by playing the Song of Clarity. Sect Leader Nie was gracious enough to allow my fumblings, but I must have mistaken the score. I can only ask for mercy from the Nie Sect, that they understand that this was not an intentional act."
Nie Huaisang was pretty sure that even if he was as silly as he pretended to be, he still wouldn't have fallen for that. No one with eyes and a brain would fall for that. Yet here was Jin Guangyao, acting as if it was nothing but the truth.
"The Song of Clarity?" he asked slowly. Jin Guangyao had confessed to the first part, so how could he push him into admitting the rest? It didn't matter, really, he knew what he had done. But he still wanted to hear him say it.
"A musical score, that when used with spiritual energy, cleanses and quiets spiritual energy and troubled minds."
"But it didn't quiet anything. It made me so upset, and Dage-" he broke off, pretending to be choked up by emotion. "How could it have gone so wrong."
"You know my cultivation has never been as good as that of many others and I was never formally trained in musical cultivation. It was my failure that must have affected the song."
"But why would you try that, if you weren't sure of your skill." He added a bit of desperation to his tone. "Or why didn't you go to Er-ge? Lan Xichen is good at musical cultivation, he would be able to help."
"Lan Xichen is the leader of his sect. He is not as free to attend to other matters as I am."
"But even so, why wouldn't you get him to check, to make sure that you are doing everything right, and not doing to cause a qi deviation."
"Indeed I should have. But I was eager to help Dage, and was perhaps arrogant in my skills."
Jin Guangyao still maintained the illusion that it was an accident. As if it wasn't obvious that there was one person who would greatly benefit from Nie Mingjue's death, one person who Jin Guangyao served...
He had his fan clutched tightly in his hand, and deliberately relaxed his grip. He should have expected Jin Guangyao to be this stubborn. Even in these circumstances, he was too smart to slip up. Time to change tactics.
"Liar." He said coldly.
Jin Guangyao's eyes widened to surprise. A surprise that only grew as Nie Huaisang continued. It was echoed by the surprise on the four guards faces as well, but he ignored them as he continued on. They weren't important, and he needed all his focus on Jin Guangyao.
"The song did exactly what you meant it to, didn't it. No," he continued. "It worked too well. You would have wanted a better alibi, and Nie Mingjue dying of a qi deviation while having a private discussion with you would look much to suspicious for you. You would have wanted it to be slow, and lingering. Killed by enemies that he can't see, can't fight. The worst possible death for Dage, that's what you wanted."
Jin Guangyao was very still, and didn't answer. He had raised his head, and his eyes were locked on Nie Huaisang, as if he had greeted a friend only to find they were possessed by a demon. He didn't answer.
Nie Huaisang continued. "There probably is a song that does what you claim, but that isn't what you were playing. That's just the official story. It's what you would say at Nie Mingjue's funeral. How sad, so young, but I did everything I could to help." Even the thought of it infuriated him. At this thankfully averted funeral, would he have known enough to put the pieces together? Or would he have wept with Jin Guangyao and never known that the other had been the cause of his grief?
He could not bear to think of it. He stepped closer to Jin Guangyao. He was surprised to note that his hands were steady as he raised his fan to his face.
"And your father would be so happy without my brother around challenging him at every turn, insisting he behave with less corruption. Isn't that why? So that all he has to deal with are the Lans, who couldn't care less who holds power, and the Jiangs, who are the shadow of their old strength, and bound to him by marriage as well. So he told you to come here, and kill your own sworn brother-"
"Sect Leader Jin had no knowledge of my actions here." Jin Guangyao swallowed. "They were personally motivated, and should not be reflected back onto my sect."
So that's how he's going to play this. He knows he won't be able to pass it off as an accident, but he still wants to protect his sect. It was almost admirable, if the loyalty wasn't so terribly misaimed. "I don't believe you."
"Regardless, it is the truth."
Nie Huaisang wondered if he should let it go. Jin Guangyao was stubborn, and he was lucky he had gotten the confession he had from him. But there was nothing to stop him from pushing just a little harder.
"San-ge, I don't think you understand. It doesn't really matter." He stepped into arms length of Jin Guangyao. He wasn't his brother, who loomed as easily as breathing, but with Jin Guangyao bound like that he had to look up at him. He added in a glare over the top of his fan. He could only hope it was intimidating, despite coming from someone like him.
"There's no point to lying. I know that it was Jin Guangshan's order, and so do you. More importantly, so do all the other sects. You must know how it looks. No one would believe that it is not intentional, especially given the history here. I'm afraid that you have a bit of a reputation. Killing Wen Ruohan in such a way, no one will hesitate to believe that you are an assassin." He lowered his fan slowly, pointing it towards Jin Guangyao. "It wasn't the actions of a righteous man."
They were words that his brother had spoken many times when talking about Jin Guangyao. He had heard them so many times that it was easy to copy his brother's cold and angry tone. And Nie Mingjue's words finally broke through Jin Guangyao's composure.
"I wanted him dead!" Jin Guangyao yelled. "He's no better than I am! But he always looked down on me, so righteous, so unyielding. Sect Leader, righteous hero, as if anything made him better than I am! When father asked me to kill him, I was glad that he would never be able to look down on me again. I wanted him to suffer-"
Quicker than thought, Nie Huiasang struck him across the face with his closed fan. The disciples started, and one of them caught his hand before he could bring it back for another swing. He shook them off, but didn't raise it again. He wanted to hurt Jin Guangyao for what he had said, for what he had done, but it wouldn't be enough.
He could kill him. He could ask one of the guards to behead Jin Guangyao here and now. He was acting sect leader, and this man had tried to assassinate his brother. He would be perfectly justified in killing him. He could even do it himself. Surely one of the guards would lend him their saber.
He took a step back and shook his head. He wasn't thinking rationally. He was too angry, and he wasn't thinking straight. Not the mindset he would need to make that kind of decision.
Jin Guangyao continued more quietly. "My father said that Dage was a threat. He said I needed to take care of it, that this was all I was good for."
"And you did it?" Dispite trying to calm himself, he was still furious.
Jin Guangyao gave him a look, as if to say that his answer was obvious. "Of course I did. He's my father, and he's given me so much."
"What has he given you! A position? He uses you to do work that he refuses to dirty his hands with. Respect? He treats you worse than a dog. A name?"
Jin Guangyao flinched. Nie Huaisang saw it and pressed his advantage. "Jin Guangyao. I wonder how long he thought, to come up with that name. Do you think that he debated with himself? Do you think he tried to give you a name that embodies your strengths, or shows what he hopes for in his beloved son? Maybe he meant only good when he used his own guang character, instead of your generation's xi."
Jin Guangyao had grown white with fury. Nie Huaisang wondered if he would go for him. He found he didn't care even if he did. If he tried to attack, then it would only be right for them to retaliate. There were four strong Nie disciples here, surely one of them could bring an end to this treacherous enemy.
But Jin Guangyao wouldn't break as easy as that. He took a deep breath, and opened his hands in a deliberately mocking gesture. "I am a filial son. As I am told, I obey."
"Of course. You were always most loyal." And wasn't that the worst part of it? He had thought that Jin Guangyao was like himself, loyal to the ones he loved, no matter who he nominally served. But maybe he had been wrong this whole time, and Jin Guangyao had never cared for his brother to begin with.
He was suddenly tired. There were so many other matters he needed to attend to. This wasn't getting anywhere, and if he stayed much longer he would end up doing something he would regret.
"Keep him here. Dage will deal with him when he recovers." He ordered before leaving. He didn't trust his judgment at the moment. His brother would know how to deal with this.
Rumors- Qinghe Nie
The pair of guards remained at the door to the Sect Leader's office, watching him work. They stayed there until evening, when Nie Zonghui came to bully Nie Huaisang into resting and to relieve them.
"Well, today didn't go how I was expecting it to," one said to the other, once they were far enough away that she was sure he wouldn't be able to hear.
"No," said her partner shortly.
"I thought we were supposed to keep him distracted, so that the real work could be done by the captains. I thought that he would either ignore everything, or have a breakdown. When he called for his brushes, I thought we were going to need to drag him away from some painting or something into signing off on whatever was decided."
"He seemed to know what he was doing."
"Haw could you tell? I don't even know half of what he was doing."
"You haven't been trained to lead the sect," he pointed out.
"Neither has he! He ducks out of almost all of his lessons. When did he learn all this?"
He just shrugged. "Listening? You know he always knows things he shouldn't."
"Yes, but that's gossiping, not politics. It's an entirely different thing."
"Maybe."
"And that thing with Jin Guangyao..." She hesitated, not quite sure how to describe it.
"Yes."
"That was... That was something. And Jin Guangyao-" she broke off, shaking her head. "I never really liked Meng Yao. He tried way to hard, always much to proud to mingle with the rank and file, you know. But you have to admit he was capable."
Her partner nodded.
“I thought he was going to kill him for am moment there. Just go for his throat, the way he was snarling. I really thought it was a joke, yesterday. I mean, the second young master is the last person to be capable of something like that."
"Apparently not."
"But that's good, though. That he's not as much of a pushover as we've always thought."
"I don't think he's much of a pushover at all. He's never done what the sect leader wants him to, and that takes stubbornness."
"That's different! And you know what I mean."
"I think that, strange as it may be to say, we can trust that Nie Huaisang knows what he doing. Which is more than I can say for some of the commanders we've served under."
"You think it's going to go that far? That we will really go to war?"
He nodded. "I think we will need to. For the Sect Leader. If the Jin are bold enough to attempt assassination, and so boldly, they need to be reminded of our strength."
"Great. We just got back from the last war," she sighed. "Well at least he's not as much of an idiot as I've always thought. And apparently a much better liar."
Notes:
After all that, I feel like I should give you a guarantee. When I said there would be happy endings for everyone involved, that did mean Jin Guangyao too. He just has to suffer a bit first.
Chapter 4
Summary:
Nie Huaisang almost gets in a fight, and then needs to deal with politics.
Chapter Text
One good thing about the fact that the Nie sect was so aggressive, was that it meant that everyone was almost practiced about organizing for war. Nie Huaisang could gratefully allow the captains to deal with organizing their division and trust that they knew what they were doing. Which was a relief, because once the initial panic started to wear off, he was less sure that he did.
Oh, he knew what needed to be done, and he knew who would need to do it, and even how to put those two together. He had even organized some similar groupings behind the scenes during the Sunshot campaign. But each day that passed made him even more aware of the fact that he was in charge. There was no one who could take over for him, no one who could take responsibility if he made the wrong call.
And mustering for a conflict wasn't something that could be done overnight. Not without creating weakness in their supply chains and units. It was a lot of effort, and Nie Huaisang was up from dawn to past dusk dealing with matters. He barely managed to catch a few hours sleep on a mat in Nie Mingjue's room, where if he woke up gasping, convinced that his brother was dead he could just glance over and see that he was still alive, still breathing.
But for all the worries that came to him in the night, his days were far too busy to spend much time dwelling on them. Even with the captains' expertise, there was so much for him to attend to. He spent hours in his brother's office, and even more among their mustering allies and down in the city.
He was surprised to see Lan Wangji standing in a little circle of calm in the middle of the main courtyard one day when he returned from seeing their storehouses, trying to gather enough food to supply an army for a potentially lengthy conflict. Nie disciples were hurrying through the courtyard, but they parted in the face of second jade of Gusu.
Part of being acting sect leader was dealing with visiting dignitaries, so Nie Huaisang hurried over and greeted Lan Wangji. "Lan-er-gongzi, I wasn't expecting you. I hope that you haven't been waiting out here for long?" Really, he would have expected someone to have enough initiative to offer him hospitality.
Lan Wangji inclined his head instead of answering. Nie Huaisang knew he had no hope of interpretating the look on his face. He had spent months in Gusu trying to figure that out, but the only expression he could parse with any degree of reliability was pining and stunned adoration, and that was only because it happened every time that he looked at Wei Wuxian.
"I apologize for keeping you waiting," he continued. "I was down in the city talking with the warehouse masters. We just finished with a war, you would think that they would remember what we need. Although, to be fair part of it might be because the war was so recent, we haven't had enough time to restock a lot of the things we need."
"Such practicalities are necessary before any conflict."
"So you've heard. Are you here about my letters?"
Lan Wangji nodded.
"I'm surprised that Sect Leader Lan didn't come himself. It is a large matter, and one I would expect him to want to deal with himself." Lan Wangji was both trusted and respected by his brother, so it wasn't unheard of for him to act as his brother's representative. Nie Huaisang was sure that any agreement the two of them made would be honored by Lan Xichen, but it seemed like a few extra steps to take.
"My brother is here."
Nie Huaisang blinked and looked around. He hadn't seen Lan Xichen, and it would be strange for him to wander the halls.
"He went to see Sect Leader Nie," Lan Wangji added.
At those words, all the suspicions that he had set aside about Nie Mingjue's other sworn brother came rushing back to him. Ignoring all propriety and the surprised look on the face of his guest, he turned and picked up the skirts of his robe and ran to his brother's room, knocking past people in his sudden panic. How long had he been there? He had been in the city for hours, hours in which Lan Xichen could have been alone. And Nie Mingjue was so vulnerable, it wouldn't take more than a minute unguarded for Lan Xichen to finish the job, if he was working with Jin Guangyao.
He wanted to think that Lan Xichen couldn't. That he wouldn't do such a thing. That Lan Xichen was too good of a person for underhanded attacks. That he loved Nie Mingjue as well as his own brother, and wouldn't do anything to hurt him. That if nothing else he was too sensible to attack in the middle of the fortress, when everyone knew that he was there and what he was doing.
But he had thought all of that about Jin Guangyao too, and he had been wrong on all accounts.
He burst into his brother's room into a scene that was far too similar to what he had seen only days before for his comfort.. The early afternoon sun shone through the window on Lan Xichen who was playing the guqin by his brother's bedside.
Nie Huaisang's first instinct was to storm in snarling and wrench the instrument from Lan Xichen's hands and give him the same treatment that he had Jin Guangyao.
But even as he lunged, the music that was playing hit his ears and all the rage drained out of him. He stumbled, losing his balance along with his drive. He shook his head, trying to remember why it was so important to stop Lan Xichen.
"Huaisang?" Lan Xichen said, lifting his hands from the strings. He looked surprised to be interrupted.
With the music no longer playing, Nie Huaisang remembered the danger that his brother was in-could be in. But he didn't know what he had been thinking, acting like he could fight Lan Xichen outright. It wasn't like he was his brother and had any chance of winning.
"Sect Leader Lan," he said, instead of his more usual Erge. "Step away from the guqin." He stepped cautiously towards Lan Xichen. There was no chance that he could stand up to Lan Xichen in a fight, especially since he didn't have the element of surprise. But if he was fast, he could probably get the guqin away from him, and smash it or break the strings. That would end the immediate danger, and Nie disciples would doubtless be right behind him. They would see, they would be able to keep Lan Xichen from hurting his brother further. If he was hurting his brother. He might not be.
"You don't need to worry, Huaisang, I'm just playing the song of clarity. It will help Dage." Lan Xichen almost smiled, but his eyes remained worried.
Nie Huaisang thought that he could believe him. Lan Xichen wasn't that good of an actor, and what he had felt when he entered the room matched the supposed effects of the real song of clarity. And he wanted to trust him. But he couldn't be sure, and he couldn't afford to be wrong. If he was wrong, his brother would be the one to pay the price.
"That may be, but it was musical cultivation that hurt him. I'm sure that you can understand why I am wary of it at the moment." His voice sounded strange. Colder than he thought he could sound, which was odd, since he felt hot with rebuilding fury. Each moment that Lan Xichen spent with his hands hovering over the strings built his worry higher.
Lan Xichen actually looked surprised at that. He looked down at his guqin as if he had never thought of it as a weapon before, before standing and taking a measured step away. "Ah. Of course. Though I would never hurt Dage."
Nie Huaisang opened his fan to hide whatever expression he showed at that. He wanted to believe him, but he had thought that same of Jin Guangyao as little as a few days ago. Obviously he wasn't as good at reading others as he had thought he was. But he was out of arm's reach of the guqin, which would slow him down if nothing else. The three steps it would take for him to get to the instrument was three more steps he would have to react. He would need as much of an advantage as he could manage if he was wrong and it did come to a fight.
Bad enough that he didn't have his saber. He never carried it when he could manage it, and even if he had, he was no match for someone like Lan Xichen, who was a master swordsman. Baxia was in her stand next to the other side of his brother's bedside, but it was even odds if she would obey him if he tried to wield her. And it would be difficult to get his hands on her without alerting his opponent when she was so far away. The closest thing he had to a weapon on him was his fan. The guard was solid metal, so if nothing else it would hurt if he used it as a short club.
He was saved from needing to continue by the arrival of a pair of Nie disciples and Lan Wangji, who must have hurried after him. They all took a look at the scene in the room in a moment before reacting. The Nie disciples took up flanking positions to his side, sabers out in a flash in the same way that he had seen them stand to support his brother many times before. He wondered what they were thinking. It would be foolish for him to attack Lan Xichen now that he was no longer threatening his brother, so there was no reason for them to act like they were going to back him up.
Lan Wangji, usually so level headed, was caught up in the tension in the room as well. He was by his brother's side in a moment, his hand on his sword and his eyes on Nie Huaisang as if he was also anticipating an attack.
It was ridiculous. But it was also dangerous. The last thing that he needed was a war with the Lan as well as the Jin. At least if there didn't need to be. If Lan Xichen had been helping Jin Guangyao, then it would be necessary.
"Stop," he ordered, holding his arm out to hold the disciple on his right back. Nie Meilan had always been one of the more aggressive disciples of his generation, and he didn't trust her not to react badly if anything happened. He half-unfurled his fan as he did so, holding it level in front of her. It was too much to hope that she remembered the signals that he used to use when he had been forced to participate in mock war training back when they were kids, but if by any chance she did it would let him signal her without giving anything away to the Lans. He didn't look at her, but he could almost feel her energy subside minutely. Good.
"Wangji." Lan Xichen moved slowly, his hands still out in front of him and open. "This was a misunderstanding. I am in no danger."
Lan Wangji didn't take his eyes of of Nie Huaisang. "He was going to attack."
"He thought that I was threatening his brother. It was perfectly natural."
"Yes, and since you aren't hurting Dage, we don't need to cause any trouble, do we?" He took a measured half step back, to show that he was going to deescalate the situation. As he did, he lowered his fan slowly, and he heard Nie Meilan sheathe her saber. Good. She did remember then.
Nie Feng's saber remained out. Even when he turned to him and motioned for him to fall back, he remained stubbornly ready to attack. Lan Wangji's eyes had moved from Nie Huaisang to him, and it was obvious that neither of them were convinced that this wouldn't lead to blows.
He wavered for a moment. He couldn't let them stay, not if he wanted to have a sensible chance of talking to Lan Xichen. But if he sent them away, and Lan Xichen was an enemy, he would be leaving himself undefended.
But he had to trust that Lan Xichen wasn't an enemy. More importantly, that he wasn't an enemy of his brother. If he was wrong... If he was wrong, then he would just have to deal with the consequences.
"Nie Feng, please run for tea for Sect Leader Lan and I." He didn't have the authority to tell Lan Wangji to do anything, and wouldn't do so even if he did, but he could offer some empty courtesies. "Nie Meilan, Lan-er-gongzi is a great admirer of history. I'm sure that he would appreciate a tour of our hall of trophies."
For a moment, he thought it wouldn't work. But then Lan Xichen touched his younger brother's sleeve, and Lan Wangji stalked over to leave. He waved Nie Meilan off behind him. Nie Feng took the longest to obey, and he thought he might need to repeat himself, but he did finally leave.
Leaving him alone with Lan Xichen. That was something that would make him nervous under usual circumstances. Well, he was the host, and it wasn't like they didn't have a lot that they needed to talk about.
He motioned for Lan Xichen to take a seat at a low table in the sitting area of Nie Mingjue's rooms. It would work, and it would reassure him that his brother was still alright. And it would remind Lan Xichen of why he was so angry.
"Huaisang, I truly mean Nie Mingjue no harm. He is my sworn brother, and my oldest friend," Lan Xichen started.
"Jin Guangyao was my brother's sworn brother as well, and that didn't stop him from hurting Dage," he pointed out, before sighing. "I don't think that you bear any ill will towards my brother, and if I think about it logically, I know that there is no reason for you to be involved. But it's difficult to trust that, under the circumstances."
"I understand. And it is never a problem to be cautious." Lan Xichen waved away his actions, gracious as always. "Under the circumstances."
Nie Feng returned with tea, and after it was poured he settled in by the door. Nie Huaisang felt more comfortable to know he was there. Even though he knew that it really didn't make a difference.
Lan Xichen's eyes kept drifting to Nie Mingjue, who still lay quiet in the bed. Nie Huaisang couldn't blame him. He agreed that it was terrible to see Nie Mingjue looking so still. But at least he wasn't dead.
"Huaisang," he finally said. "What happened?"
"I thought that I said in my letter," Nie Huaisang said, noting that Lan Xichen was still using a familiar address. But was he doing so out of habit and affection, or because he was trying to manipulate Nie Huaisang? Although Lan Xichen was usually clear about his intentions, if not as straight-forward as Nie Mingjue was. "Jin Guangyao poisoned my brother with a version of the song of clarity tainted with chaos script. I caught him in time to prevent Dage's death, but the results-" he waved his fan towards his brother- "are as you see."
"Will Nie Mingjue be alright?"
Again this was information that he had sent in his letter, but if he had been Lan Xichen he would have asked for the reassurance as well. "The doctor has been in daily to work on stabilizing his qi. He predicts it will be a while until Dage can be woken without immediately breaking into another qi deviation, but that it will happen. Since it was an outside attack on his qi, he doesn't even think there will be any long term side effects. Although Dage will doubtless be upset at losing so much time to sickness and convalescence."
"That is good, at least."
Nie Huaisang nodded. That was better than so many of the other possible outcomes.
"And Jin Guangyao did such a thing?" Nie Huaisang judged Lan Xichen's tone as disbelieving, but the tight grip on his teapot read more as tension. So he wanted to believe that Jin Guangyao wouldn't do such a thing, but was afraid it was quite possible.
"I caught him playing myself." He didn't mention what happened after that. He didn't want to think about how easy it was for him to lose control. And besides, rumors about it were flying around Qinghe. Lan Xichen probably already knew.
"I'm sure it was a mistake. The song of clarity is a difficult piece, it would have been easy for him to make a terrible mistake."
"He admitted that he was ordered to kill Dage by Jin Guangshan."
"A-Yao wouldn't do such a thing."
"A-Yao," he said precisely. "Would do anything to earn the respect and admiration of his father. Hasn't he proven that before?"
Lan Xichen shook his head, but didn't continue to protest. That was probably the best he could hope for.
"How did Jin Guangyao learn such a secret technique? It is a secret art of the Lan sect, is it not?" He truly didn't think that Lan Xichen was involved, but it was possible that he had given Jin Guangyao the weapon.
"I do not know."
If Lan Xichen had been to one to teach it to Jin Guangyao, then he would not have hesitated to admit it. So unless Lan Xichen was incredibly better at lying that he thought he was, he hadn't been involved. And if Lan Xichen was that good of a liar, they were in a lot more trouble than just that.
"I suggest that you tighten the security of your library." If Lan Xichen hadn't taught the song to Jin Guangyao, he must have learned it from another source. It was probably impossible to figure out at this point. For all Nie Huaisang knew, Jin Guangyao had learned it from books when he and Lan Xichen were on the run with the Gusu library. It was obvious that they had spent that time together.
Lan Xichen actually bent his head in acknowledgment at his mild rebuke.
"Still, what music has harmed, music may mend. I will stay here to help Dage recover," he said.
"I can't let you play for my brother," he said flatly.
"The true song of clarity is not a danger. I understand that you are wary of music at the moment, but it will aid in Dage's recovery."
"It's not that I don't trust you," Nie Huaisang said. Although it was. He didn't think he was ever going to be comfortable letting anyone near his brother with an instrument again. It was a terrible way to feel, but at this moment he still couldn't be entirely certain that Lan Xichen wasn't involved. Not when he defended Jin Guangyao so ardently. "I simply don't feel comfortable with exposing my brother to musical cultivation at this point."
"It will help him. He will recover quicker."
"The doctor tells me that he will not suffer any long term consequences and will wake in due time. I would rather it take longer than take any chance." He wished Nie Mingjue would recover faster. He wished he would wake up now, so that he could be in charge. So that he knew his brother would be alright. But he didn't want it badly enough to take any chances.
"But-"
"No!" He snapped. "I am acting sect leader, and under the circumstances I am responsible for my brother, and I say that he will not be exposed to more musical cultivation."
Lan Xichen finally acquiesced, quicker than he would have expected.
Nie Huaisang continued on, bringing the conversation to the near future instead of the past.
"And what about my response to Jin Guangyao's treachery? Will the Lan sect be joining us in avenging this attack against my brother?"
"The Lan sect as a whole will not be joining you in your endeavor," Lan Xichen tone was almost apologetic, but it was still firm. "It was discussed, and agreed that conflict between the Nie and the Jin does not concern us. We will not break our alliance with the Jin at this time. But neither will we be coming to their aid. We will remain neutral in whatever comes from this."
"You realize that this gives me reasonable cause to break our own alliance?" He asked calmly. He wasn't going to, but he could. He knew that assistance in times of conflict was definitely one of the terms. But he had expected this. The Lan preferred not to get involved in such things. If they hadn't been attacked, they might have remained neutral in the Sunshot Campaign itself, and wouldn't that have been a disaster.
"That will be between myself and Nie Mingjue, when he recovers. And I said the sect as a whole." Lan Xichen smiled, a sudden brightness returning to his eyes.
"Oh? Do you have members going rogue, then? Is a Lan disobeying the elders? Aren't there rules against that?" Nie Huaisang teased in return.
"Wangji had quite a bit to say about virtue and allies. He fully intends to support you. Frankly," he continued almost conspiratorially. "I think he believes that young master Wei will get involved with this sooner or later."
Nie Huaisang had to laugh at that. "I certainly hope so! I sent him a letter letting him know, and he'd be a great help. So will Lan Wangji, if he hasn't changed his mind after the earlier drama."
"Lan Wangji will understand, and it takes more than that to make him change his intentions. He will still be joining you. As an individual cultivator, and not a representative of the Lan, of course."
"Of course."
After that, the conversation wound down. There wasn't much more that could be said. Lan Xichen returned to Nie Mingjue's bedside, and after a time there retrieved his guqin. Nie Huaisang was tense as a bowstring until he had wrapped it up. After that, their farewells went smoothly, and he directed Lan Xichen to quest quarters for the evening.
"You are a lot more like your brother than I thought." Lan Xichen said as he was leaving.
"You are the only one who has ever thought so," he responded. He wondered what had inspired that. He didn't think that he had lost his temper. Not in any way that Lan Xichen would have noticed, at least.
Rumors-Qinghe Nie
"Looking at this I have to wonder what happened," Nie Zonghui was patient as he received their reports. "I expected more of the pair of you. A certain level of professionalism. Nie Meilan, I realize that you are young, but your skill means that you will doubtlessly be entrusted with more responsibilities like this in the future. And you," he turned to the other. "If you want to be trusted with a command in the future, you will need to be observant of some of the possible consequences of your actions. We are lucky that Sect Leader Lan is a patient and forgiving man, and that the young master had a cooler head than the two of you and was able to deescalate the situation."
They looked down, chastised, although Nie Meilan's frown showed that she disagreed.
"I have to wonder what you were thinking." Nie Zonghui fixed his gaze on Nie Feng. He wasn't as bullheaded as Nie Meilan was, and was much more likely to realize the seriousness of his actions.
"Don't look at me," he shrugged. "Meimei was the one to rush to his side first. And what was I supposed to do, leave his left flank unguarded? He's right handed, and up against a stronger opponent."
"It was instinct, alright," she replied defensively. "He looked like he was going to attack. And don't call me that."
"With what? He didn't have his saber."
"I don't know! With his fan, maybe."
"Does Nie Huaisang even know what to do with that formation? He's not Nie Mingjue, he never practices with us."
Nie Zonghui waited out their bickering for a moment before interrupting. "I didn't mean that. I commend you for standing along the second young master. He at least obviously recognized the seriousness of his negotiations. But you took it into your heads to draw your sabers on an allied sect leader. Worse, you did so without the direct orders of our sect leader or waiting for him to attack first. That is a legitimate reason for war, and we are lucky that we are not looking at fighting the Lan as well as the Jin right now."
"Nie Huaisang was the one who-"
"He told me to hold! I wasn't going to attack!" Nie Meilan interrupted hotly.
Her partner looked at her in disbelief. "When? He didn't say anything to us."
Nie Zonghui knocked the wood of his desk loudly, quieting them. "Quiet! I realize that tensions are running high, but that is no excuse. Since there were no serious consequences and the second young master has declined to discipline you, I cannot take this further. However, in the future I expect the pair of you to give full thought to the wider meaning to your actions. Reckless attacks are dangerous enough on a minor night hunt, and have no place in battles of politics."
"Yes, commander."
The pair of them bowed and turned to leave his office. Nie Feng slung his arm over Nie Meilan's shoulder as they went out the door. "Meimei, you know him better than I do. Is the second young master secretly an expert wielder of a battle fan?"
Nie Meilan shoved him hard. "Don't joke."
"That's not an answer. Hey, hey, don't walk away. Meimei, I'm serious..." His voice faded away as he hurried after her.
Nie Zonghui shook his head. Kids.
Chapter 5
Summary:
Lan Xichen has a bad night. Jin Guangyao and Nie Huaisang aren't having a very good one either.
Chapter Text
Jin Guangyao sat in his cell and wondered a what point he had made a mistake. Although perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he had made many mistakes.
He had been so confident that his plan would work. The song that Su She had composed merging the song of clarity and the chaos script should have worked as intended, slowly poisoning Nie Mingjue's qi over a long period of time. His death would look natural, and no one would be able to lay it at Jin Guangyao's feet.
But he had lost control of the chaos script underpinning the song. It had raged, snapping the threads of calm that he had been using to hold it back. The surge of power had destabilized anyone who heard it, and done so quickly instead of mimicking a more natural progression. Nie Mingjue had collapsed immediately, even as he was reaching for Baxia to cut Jin Guangyao down.
He had barely had the attention to spare to to register his technical success. He had been frantic, hands shaking as he tried to wrest the song back under his control while Nie Mingjue had fallen across from him. He remembered having a panicked thought that he didn't know how he was going to explain the Nie Sect Leader dying suddenly while he was using an esoteric cultivation technique on him, that his father would be disappointed by his carelessness.
And then Nie Huaisang had arrived and proved that he had just a fierce a temper as his brother.
That was another mistake, not taking into account where the second young master of the sect was. Although how could he have known that Nie Huaisang would react like that? He had never seemed capable of something like that before. He always seemed the type to vanish when swords were drawn, not charge in raging.
He had never seemed capable of anything. But he had fooled Jin Guangyao. He had been so eager to see a way to smooth this incident over when Nie Huaisang had seem to still be open to his words. Convincing him that his assassination attempt was only an accident would have been the first step to his freedom. Although it would have only been a stay of execution, because what would he do when Nie Mingjue recovered up and reacted with his typical fury? Even before then, the entire cultivation world would think that he was incompetent, his father would be disappointed at his failure, Lan Xichen would think it was his own fault for even mentioning that song, and there would be so many rumors....but at least he would still be alive, would still have had a chance to maneuver himself into a better position.
But the hope that Nie Huaisang had offered him had been false. He had boxed Jin Guangyao in so calmly, so calculatingly. And Jin Guangyao, eager to believe the situation could be salvaged, had fallen for it so easily. He had been manipulated into losing his temper so easily. Looking back, he could see how Nie Huaisang had played up his helplessness, manipulated his feelings until he received the outcome that he desired. Jin Guangyao was a master at that game, but he had missed all the signs in the boy.
That was another mistake. Never looking closely enough at Nie Huaisang to notice the cold intelligence in his eyes. If he got another chance, then he would make sure that he remembered that. He might have underestimated Nie Huaisang once, but he would not be so foolish to do so again.
If he got that chance.
It was seeming more and more likely that Nie Huaisang had meant what he had said, about leaving him here until Nie Mingjue was able to sentence him. After he had recovered from his loss of control in their last meeting, he had spent time thinking about what tactics he would use at their next meeting. But the acting sect leader didn't return, not even when Jin Guangyao had asked. It left him wondering what it was that Nie Huaisang was doing instead.
The worst part of his imprisonment was that he knew nothing about what was happening outside of his cell. No matter how he cajoled the guards, they were deaf to his pleas for information. Although his first thought was that Nie Huaisang would be overwhelmed with his new responsibilities and quick to shirk his duties, a reminder of their conversation put that out of his head. No one who could manuver him in such a way would be cast adrift with daily sect matters. No one with his level of fury would allow their rage to be unanswered. No, Nie Huaisang would be working on retribution.
He was probably mustering his sect for war. War that the Jin Sect was not guaranteed to win, not against the Nie Sect (that was why his father had ordered him to assassinate Nie Mingjue, after all). Especially not if they could gain strong allies (and his father had alienated so many recently, people who didn't matter alone but might flock to the war banner of a stronger aggressor). His thoughts spiraled with possible consequences and events, and with nothing to distract them, they grew progressively worse.
And a small part of him, hidden behind the echoing thoughts of political consequences couldn't help but hope. A swift message could reach Lanling Jin and return by now. He knew that it was unlikely, but he couldn't help but hope that his father would send some word. He would offer to pay a ransom for him, or smooth over the problem in such a way that he would be safe. His father would realize that his level of skill deserved consideration, or insist that no honored son of his deserved to rot in chains.
Although the guards treated him well enough. They ignored him, yes, but they fed him and gave him water. They didn't beat him, not even the one who glared at him their entire shift. One liked to insult him, but the subject of his taunts was always his honor and his actions against Nie Mingjue, nothing more personal. He had been treated worse as Wen Ruohan's trusted aide. He had been treated worse in his own home as his father's aide. Telling himself that didn't help.
They had searched him, and disarmed him. Hensheng was gone, of course, but they had also found most of his hidden weapons and knives. The only defense he had remaining was a long length of sharp wire, which they must have assumed was simple jewelry as it was wrapped decoratively around a bangle on his wrist. He had considered how he could use it to escape, perhaps by taking one of the guards hostage, but there was never an opportunity to strike. The guards were cautious, even though any one of them were probably stronger cultivators than Jin Guangyao would ever be. They rarely entered his cell, and if they did, they were careful to let no one get close without another one to hold him tightly chained in place.
Nie Huaisang had given his judgment. He would stay here, and unless he was able to do something to change that fact, then he would remain here until Nie Mingjue recovered enough to pass judgement on him. And he could predict what judgment that would be. Nie Mingjue had spared him once before, but he was unlikely to do so again. Especially after he had harmed him younger brother, however inadvertably. He would spend his last days trapped here, his days maked only by the changes of his silent guard.
So he was surprised when one day, late evening by his estimation from the shift changes, something broke the pattern of his days. Even more so when he saw the person who had entered. Lan Xichen should never know that such places existed, much less walk through them.
It was foolish how his heart had both leapt and sunk when he saw Lan Xichen. Leapt, for here was a chance. Here was someone who might defend him, and if he spun the story right, someone who might believe him. Might even be able to save him. And even if not, he was certainly someone who wouldn't want to have a conversation through bars.
But for Lan Xichen to be here, he must have been told what Jin Guangyao had done to their sworn brother. And of course he would know, Nie Huaisang had probably told the entire cultivation world of by now. Beggars in front of the brothel in Yunping probably knew by now.
But Jin Guangyao couldn't bear the thought of Lan Xichen looking at him with disgust and disappointment. The way that Nie Mingjue had looked at him since he had killed his superior. Lan Xichen was the only one who looked at him like he was worthy, like he was more than a bastard son of a whore. He didn't think he could bear to see disgust in his eyes. And so far, he hadn't. After a brief instant of eye contact, Lan Xichen had adverted his eyes.
The guards rose to attention at their posts with his arrival. "No visitors, by order of the Acting Sect Leader."
"I'm certain that your sect leader won't mind if I take the time to talk to Jin Guangyao." That was almost funny enough for him to burst out laughing. Nie Mingjue had always scorned the way that Jin Guangyao would take up Lan Xichen's time. He had worried that Jin Guangyao would hurt the other sect leader, or maybe just that exposure to him would corrupt even someone as good as Lan Xichen. Even if the unclear phrasing referred to Nie Huaisang, who had given the order to imprison him, the situation would be the same.
"I apologize, Sect Leader Lan, but I cannot allow you to do that," said one of the guards. "The second young master has ordered us to keep Jin Guangyao secure. We cannot allow you to speak to him."
Lan Xichen only smiled at them. "I'm sure that Huaisang wouldn't have a problem with me discussing matters with my sworn brother."
The two guards exchanged a look. The woman shrugged, as if to say she couldn't care less. Jin Guangyao noted the action. She would be the weak link then. More lax with her orders and more likely to slip up and give him an opening.
Her partner frowned at her, thoughts probably going on a similar line to Jin Guangyao's. "We cannot allow you to speak with him in private."
"Then with your supervision? I promise that I will not interfere with your duties. I simply have some questions for him, about the events of the past few days."
The two guards finally reached a silent agreement. They took a step to the side, allowing Lan Xichen to see Jin Guangyao. The woman opened the barred door and gestured towards him. It seemed that they would allow some interaction, then.
Jin Guangyao had truly hoped that they would send him away. He didn't want to have this conversation. It would take all of his skill to convince Lan Xichen of his innocence, if he even could at this point. But Jin Guangyao was practical, so he shook the bangle down his wrist, ready if he was given a chance. But that would need to wait. There was always the chance that he could convince Lan Xichen of his innocence, convince him to save him. That would be better.
Now that he had passed by the guard, Lan Xichen seemed to be at a loss for what to actually say to him. Jin Guangyao was content to wait. He would need to know what Lan Xichen thought before he could respond. Otherwise, it would be too easy to say the wrong thing.
"They are saying such things, A-Yao. I know that they aren't true, but I need you to explain yourself. The song of clarity? That is a secret of my sect, and there is no reason for you to know of them."
He hadn't wanted Lan Xichen to know. If the song had worked as it was supposed to, then Lan Xichen never would have known. Lan Xichen would keep looking at him with respect, like he was any other young cultivator.
"I was not aware that it was a secret technique." A lie. He had known exactly what it was when Su Minshan had brought it to him as a possible solution to his problem. "It was an offering included in a petition from a rogue cultivator hoping to found a sect."
"Which rogue cultivator?" From anyone else the question would have been sharp, but Lan Xichen was too controlled for that. His gaze was still fixed on the wall behind Jin Guangyao's head.
"A Su Minshan, I believe. He has territory and followers, and sought to prove his usefulness to the cultivation world. He petitioned my father to acknowledge him as a minor sect." All true, and hopefully the question of how would be a distraction from the question of why.
"I believe I remember the man. A former outer disciple. It is possible that he might have stolen our technique, and even that he might be foolish enough to boast of it." Lan Xichen shook his head, and looked straight at Jin Guangyao for the first time. "Did you know that it was a Lan technique?
"No, Erge," he said. "Although I should have, everyone knows that musical cultivation is a foundation of the Gusu Lan style. I never thought that a stolen or dangerous technique would be offered so freely. And it seemed safe enough, useful only to calm a raging spirit."
"And you decided to use this technique on Nie Mingjue?" Lan Xichen stepped to the side, seeming to dodge Jin Guangyao's eyes.
"Yes. It seemed harmless enough, and Dage's temper..." He shrugged as best he could in chains. "I was not expecting what followed."
"I've spoken to Nie Mingjue's doctor. The song of clarity by itself would not have the effects that he reports."
"It must have been my fault. In my inexperience I must have made a grave mistake." He looked aside, aping shame and regret. It was easy enough, this excuse wore at his pride and he could already hear the rumors of his lack of skill, only to be expected in the son of a whore, after all. "I should have come to you, asked you to tutor me in musical cultivation before I chanced it. And now Dage is suffering from my ineptitude."
"You should have. But why did you decide to use it in the first place? Nie Mingjue has shown no signs of his family's instability." It was almost accusing, if it wasn't for Lan Xichen's gentle tone.
"Not instability," Jin Guangyao said, mixing lies and truth with abandon. "But he has been under much stress, especially since the end of the war. Whenever I come to speak on my father's behalf, we always argue. I simply thought that some calm would serve us well. I didn't intend anything like this. Nie Huaisang said that there was going to be war?"
"It seems likely. At least some skirmishes. The Jin sect hasn't been winning themselves many friends recently, even before this happened. But that will depend on Nie Huaisang and Jin Guangshan." He wavered, and Jin Guangyao held his breath waiting for his next word.
But the moment passed.
"Thank you for your time," Lan Xichen turned to leave. Jin Guangyao still couldn't tell if he believed him or not. And did it matter? There were so many others talking about his guilt. Their words could sway Lan Xichen against him so easily.
"Wait," he called. "Do you know what will happen to me?"
Lan Xichen turned back, and took a step closer. "I believe that Nie Mingjue will pass judgment on you, once he has recovered. I'm sure that everything will be clear."
"He will kill me, Erge," he pleaded. "You know he will." And if he didn't, then Nie Huaisang would.
Lan Xichen finally took another step closer, and Jin Guangyao struck. The wire was around his throat in an instant, and a quick turn pulled it taunt. Lan Xichen stilled.
The guards hadn't been paying much attention to their illicit conversation, but at this development, their sabers were out and facing him. But that was fine, Jin Guangyao had the upper hand now. He pulled the wire just a bit tighter, and Lan Xichen clawed at his throat. The sharp edges of the wire cut his finger tips where he tried to grasp it.
"Stop, Erge, you're just hurting yourself. It's alright." He whispered, turning so that he had better leverage and could speak to the guards, Lan Xichen held between them. "Drop your swords," he ordered.
They exchanged another glance, but they had made too many mistakes to fix now. The man put his saber down first, and nudged the woman when she didn't follow suit. "We can't allow Sect Leader Lan to die in our cells, not now."
Jin Guangyao was right. He did have more sense than she did. So he ordered him over to unlock his chains.
All the while, Lan Xichen remained very still. If it wasn't for the racing pulse Jin Guangyao could feel by Lan Xichen's throat, he would be concerned.
But that left the question of what to do with the pair of guards. It would be better if he killed them. It would be safer to kill them behind him so that they couldn't raise an alarm. But if he did that, then Lan Xichen would oppose him. His honor would force him to stand against him. It was amazing that he hadn't tried to strike back already. Jin Guangyao could think of several ways to attack him from Lan Xichen's position, and Lan Xichen had been cultivating for much longer than he had. Better not to risk breaking his state of shock.
So he ordered the two to chain each other up in his cell. If he was lucky, the soundproofing arrays in the walls would keep them from raising an alarm and no one would come until shift change, which would give him a few hours. And so he began his escape with his hostage.
He was still familiar with the halls of the fortress, and at this time of night it was easy enough to take them through a path far from areas in common use. All he needed was to get out into the streets of the city, and no one following would have a hope of finding him.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you," he reassured Lan Xichen. "As soon as we are down in the city I will let you go. Everything will be alright."
"Stop lying to me." The look on Lan Xichen's face was devastating. There was blood on his throat, under the wire. Jin Guangyao loosened it a bit. He didn't want to hurt Lan Xichen. It was bad enough that he was using him like this. "I thought that Nie Huaisang must have misunderstood. I thought that something like the story that you just told me must have been the truth. I would have told that to Nie Mingjue, I would have made him understand that it was an accident."
"Stop talking Erge. You will hurt yourself." Lan Xichen wasn't taking care. Speaking moved his throat against the wire, but he just continued speaking frantically as if it wasn't a blade against his throat.
"But Nie Huaisang was right. He was right about everything. But why? Was he right about that as well? That it was Jin Guangshan, for power's sake. Is he such an immoral man as to order you to murder your own sworn brother? And how could you have agreed?"
"I am his son, of course I agreed." It had taken so much effort, so many immoral acts, to be acknowledged as his son. What was one more, to keep that status? But Lan Xichen wouldn't understand that.
"Dage is your sworn brother! You vowed, right alongside me. Nothing should have made you raise your hand against him in such a way."
"Shut up." None of this was anything that he wanted to hear. He tightened the wire a hair in warning. Now that they were closer to the exit, there was a higher chance of them being heard. "Nie Mingjue has made no secret of how he detests me. It was only a matter of time before he turned on me himself. There is no shame in taking action first?"
"Is that what you told yourself? To convince yourself that it was deserved? You are wrong. Nie Mingjue is an honorable man. He told me that he wanted to guide you back to the path of righteousness. I thought it was unneeded, but he was right too. You have strayed from the righteous path!"
"Shut up!" He shook Lan Xichen, pulling the wire tight in his desperation to make him quiet. He had heard those words from Nie Mingjue, and even from Nie Huaisang. He didn't want to hear them from Lan Xichen as well.
He loosened the wire as soon as he felt Lan Xichen fall limp. He frantically felt for his pulse. His panic almost made him miss it, but it was there. He hadn't killed Lan Xichen in his carelessness. He was just unconscious, he would recover. He and Nie Mingjue would both recover.
But Jin Guangyao couldn't afford to wait for that. He needed to escape as soon as possible. And he couldn't continue with a hostage, not with Lan Xichen unconscious. Dragging him along would only slow him down.
So he propped Lan Xichen up by a wall, and continued on. It had been a while since he had lived in Qinghe, but the fortress didn't change much. It was easy enough to slip through the rest the halls and out into the city. Word of his escape would spread soon enough, and he wanted to be as hidden by then. Either the guards would raise the alarm or Lan Xichen would recover. It might have been easier if he had killed them. That would have given him the time until shift change before anyone would raise the alarm.
But he couldn't regret it. Lan Xichen was a fool, yes, but he was someone who Jin Guangyao couldn't hurt. It was bad enough that he knew the truth about him now, there was no need to make it worse.
So he turned his mind onto how he would return to Jin territory. Righteous cultivators never paid much attention to non-cultivators. And the poor were doubly invisible. It hurt his pride to return to the lowest of the low, but he would find a hiding place among the destitute. Not a whorehouse, Lan Xichen would know how convenient they could be, and Nie Huaisang would know his familiarity with such places, but that still left many options. Traders were always looking for hands, he could attach himself to some group or other heading south, in the slow manner those unable to fly a sword needed to resort to, until he was out of Qinghe Nie territory.
But first, he turned his eyes to where the Nie sect was mustering, counting tents in his passage. He knew the value of that sort of information, and it might soften the disappointment of his failure.
Nie Huaisang's sleep was uneasy that night. It was a disquieting thought, to know that in the morning he would be riding off to war. Nie Zonghui had warned him that it was natural for anticipation and dread to affect anyone the night before a campaign began. Any of the veterans in his sect would know the feeling, and no one would think it strange if he was nodding off in his saddle in the morning, especially with how hard he had worked to bring everything together so quickly.
Still, he wasn't prepared to be shaken out of his sleep by his brother's deputy. His first thought when he saw Nie Zonghui's serious face above him was that Nie Mingjue had taken a bad turn, but he was quickly reassured that his brother was still alright. But what had happened was almost as bad.
Learning that Jin Guangyao had escaped had brought back his rage yet again. He had wanted nothing more than to hunt him down himself, and when he found him he would tear him limb from limb. But the sheer ridiculousness of that thought brought him back to reality. He couldn't do such a thing. Especially when the sect was relying on him to lead them in an assault.
He ordered their best trackers on Jin Guangyao's trail. It was unlikely that they would catch him, but an effort needed to be made. Lan Wangji went after them, after he got a good look at his brother under the doctor's care. Nie Huaisang would have followed if he could, but he knew he would only slow them down.
Not to mention the doctor had cornered him as well, checking his meridians for instability as soon as he realized how angry Nie Huaisang was.
And he was very angry. He had been furious to learn that Jin Guangyao had escaped. The two guards that were supposed to keep him imprisoned had been lax in their duties. He couldn't believe their report when he heard it. Not only did they let Jin Guangyao speak with someone, they had allowed him to escape on top of that. Although once Lan Xichen was a hostage, there wasn't much else they could do without complicating an already delicate situation. But they never should have let the two of them talk.
Nie Zonghui would need to punish them, there was no way he could be fair when he was so angry with their carelessness.
He was furious with Lan Xichen too. What had he been thinking, to be so lax with the security that he had ordered on Jin Guangyao. Even if he hadn't believed Nie Huaisang, he still should have been more careful.
But a look at Lan Xichen cooled his anger. Bruises were already blooming on his throat, and his fingertips were wrapped in bandages. But that paled besides the look on his face. He looked devastated, his face pale and eyes lost. Lan Xichen had truly thought that Jin Guangyao was innocent, and now that he knew the truth, he wasn't sure how he could live with it.
So when he had finished up with everything and been freed from the attentions of the doctor, Nie Huaisang went over to him.
"I'm sure that there is much that needs your attention back in the Cloud Recess," he said. "But I'm sure that Dage would appreciate knowing that one of his brothers stayed with him, even if I can't." He hesitated, but if this hadn't proved that Lan Xichen had no part in trying to kill his brother, what would? Lan Xichen wasn't that good of an actor. "And if you wanted to play him the song of clarity, I'm sure that it would help."
"I won't be playing again for a while," Lan Xichen said. He raised his bandaged hands a bit to illustrate his point.
He hadn't thought of that. He hadn't thought it was that bad. "But you will be able to play again, right?"
"No playing until those fingers at healed," the doctor called from across the room. "And no flying for a while either. Unconsciousness from lack of air can be serious, even for cultivators at your level. I want you here until I'm sure there aren't any lasting effects."
"So you'll be able to keep Dage company then, and you can play for him when the doctor says its alright." Nie Huaisang tried to give a bright smile. He didn't think he succeeded. Now Jin Guangyao had hurt two people that he loved. And now he was free.
But Lan Xichen just nodded. "Yes, I would like that. Thank you."
After that, he didn't bother to go back to sleep. They had planned to move out in the morning, and the events of the night were no reason to delay. If anything, they were reason to hurry, to reach Jin territory before Jin Guangyao could return with whatever information he much have gained on his way out of the city.
"We will take the southern route, to begin with at least. Several of the minor sects wrote that they would join with us at the bottom of the mountain passes," he told Nie Zonghui unnecessarily. He had been right by his side for the many hours it at taken for them to work out the initial plan of attack. "Keep the scouts ahead, especially since Jin Guangyao escaped."
"Of course, Sect Leader." Nie Huaisang shot him a quick glance, to check if he was teasing him, but Nie Zonghui seemed perfectly serious. Well, it didn't matter what he was thinking, so long as he obeyed.
"And..." he glanced over at Lan Wangji. He had returned with the other trackers shortly after dawn, unsuccessful in catching Jin Guangyao. He was easy to pick out from the crowd in his pale blue robes. The council had shot down this idea without even taking time to consider it, but he still thought it would be a good idea. "Gather a small group of cultivators for a small mission. If we fly, it will only take us a day or so out of the way to travel to Yiling."
"You intend to visit the Yiling Patriarch, then?"
"Yes." Nie Huaisang said firmly. "He has proved in the past that his efforts can change the course of a war. And I think it might be a way to defuse the tensions that surround him, for people to remember him as an ally, not as the enemy that he has been painted. And he's been hurt by the Jin more then anyone."
Nie Zonghui nodded again. "In that case, I will find a likely group."
And with that, they started on the road to Lanling Jin.
Rumors- Minor Sects
The Mu sect was a minor one. They couldn't compare to any of the great sects in numbers or technique but they kept the territory that they claimed free of evil.
But they were a small sect, so occasionally they would encounter more trouble then they could handle, and when that happened they would turn to their neighbors, the Qinghe Nie Sect. The great sect's strength would easily crush whatever threat was looming, and allowed the Mu sect to continue to hold their valley and mountain.
In return, there was an understanding that they would support the Nie if they were ever called upon.
Which happened more often than the Mu sect leader wanted to admit. All of his life there had been trouble coming from the north, as the Wen's grew more and more rapacious, more and more arrogant and corrupt. When the Sunshot Campaign began, there had been no question what side they would be fighting on.
This was a bit unexpected though.
The Mu sect leader's eyebrows rose as he read the letter that had been delivered by Nie courier. When he finished, he called for his son and read it through again.
"What do you know of the second young master of the Nie?" He asked when his son arrived. "You were at Gusu at the same time, weren't you?"
His son nodded. "Yes, but I don't know much. He had a fast friendship with the Jiang sect heir and Wei Wuxian, and somehow managed to never get in trouble when they did."
"Friends with sect leader Jiang and the Yiling Patriarch, you say?"
"Yes. Forces of chaos, although less so then they would be now I suppose. Why?"
"Nie Huaisang is acting sect leader of the Nie."
"You're not serious. How? Why? And acting? What happened to Nie Mingjue?"
"Poisoned by the Jin, apparently."
His son winced, growing pale. "It'll be war then."
"It looks likely." The sect leader sighed. "We'll be going, of course. We owe the Nie too much not to. But I wish I knew the measure of the man I'm following. He didn't really make a name for himself in the war."
"No, because he's harmless. It would be a joke if he had."
"No one who is friends with the Yiling Patriarch or Sandu Shengshou could ever be harmless."
His son shook his head in disagreement. "Even if so, Nie Huaisang has never been one for fighting. He tended to vanish before anything got to that point."
"That really doesn't sound like a Nie, and it definitely doesn't sound like the writer of this letter."
His son took it from him and skimmed it. "You're right, it doesn't. Vicious phrasing here, but really, it does sound like him. Lots of metaphor. Just very violent metaphor instead of his usual."
"It doesn't matter, even if he's untried the Nie will not be letting this go without a fight. And they are skilled enough at fighting that an untried leader won't necessarily matter. And I doubt that any Nie would be as harmless as he is rumored to be, especially if he associates himself with the likes of the Yiling Patriarch."
"We'll have to get ready, then. I'll go speak to the disciples."
Notes:
Minor edits 8/15: I changed the name of the minor sect in the rumors section from Meng to Mu, so as not to imply any connection there with Meng Yao.
Chapter 6
Summary:
Everyone has an opinion about Wei Wuxian joining Nie Huaisang's campaign.
Chapter Text
Nie Zonghui was as efficient as ever, and there was a small group of disciples ready to accompany him on his side trip. Although he had to wonder about the inclusion of Nie Meilan and Nie Feng, neither of whom were very diplomatic at the best of times. But he supposed it made some sense. Since their confrontation with Lan Xichen, Nie Meilan had taken to following him around with her fiercest scowl, and Nie Feng followed her lead as always, giving him a set of self-appointed guards.
So it was unsurprising when Nie Meilan acted as the other disciple’s spokesperson. Nor that they waited until after Nie Zonghui had left to voice their reservations.
"Second young master," she began, tone just barely respectful enough to be polite. "What are we doing?"
"We're going to see Wei Wuxian, of course. Didn't I tell you?" He gave a lazy half wave of his fan at her and the rest of the disciples behind her.
"Yes, but why?" Her glare increased in strength at his nonchalance. "He is an enemy, and has sided with the remainder of the Wen. He has no honor to speak of, and neither do his people."
He was surprised she didn't include that he was dangerous in her list. Other than that, it was pitch perfect repeat of what the council had said about his idea of seeking an alliance with Wei Wuxian and his people.
"Wei Wuxian is a righteous cultivator and an honorable man," he said more seriously. She was lucky that Lan Wangji hadn't joined them quite yet, or he would have made her pay for that comment. "During the war he used his considerable power for the benefit of the entire cultivation world, and since then he has never acted against us."
"He's acted against the Jin." Nie Feng interjected. Nie Meilan stomped on his foot and he dropped back again, wincing.
"True. However, that was one single incident. If he was as evil as the rumors make him out to be, then he would have hunted them down like he had the Wen, not been content with some minor guards." And anyone with sense knew exactly where those rumors came from, which was an even better reason to disregard them. "Besides, in case you haven't noticed, we are also acting against the Jin. We are natural allies."
"Putting aside Wei Wuxian, his people are Wens. They are our enemy, and I'm sure that they would take the first chance they got to attack us."
"You were at Gusu with us, you know Wen Qing. Does she seem like the sort to stab someone in the back?" He said with an airy laugh.
"Yes," she said flatly.
"Really?" He blinked. The practical woman had always seemed the sort to keep her head down, if anything.
"She was there to spy on us, and she was very obvious about it. We spent so much time trying to figure out if she was poisoning someone. She's got all the makings of an underhanded assassin."
"And was she?" This was fascinating. It was amazing what he had missed while he was intent on his own friendships and the disaster that was Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. He obviously should have headed around to the woman's quarters more often if they had been involved in this sort of drama.
"Not that we could prove," muttered one of the other disciples in the back. Nie Meilan shot a glare over her shoulder.
"We don't trust them. Looking for allies, fine. But the Wen? Even if they help us against the Jin, they will just betray us."
"The Wen have more quarrel with the Jin than anyone. And if nothing else, they are in far too precarious a position to act against us. They have already lost their war, and would only lose even more quickly if they tried to restart it with whatever forces they have left. Wei Wuxian might have the power, but he doesn't have the inclination or he would have done it already instead of staying quiet in the Burial Mounds." He spoke a bit more sternly, trying to be forceful like his brother would be if someone disagreed with him. "We will meet with him, and we will discuss an alliance, because it is in the best interests of both our sects to do so."
"Yes, Sect Leader," came the response from the group. Good enough, even if it was a bit begrudging. He turned away, sure that they would agree with him for now, or at least not openly disagree.
"I still think Wen Qing was poisoning her, no matter what Jiang Yanli said." Someone muttered behind him. He ignored them.
It was a tiring flight to Yiling, although less so for Nie Huaisang than it was for everyone else. He was still under strict orders not to strain his qi, and a flight of such a length would definitely do so. So he was riding along with Nie Meilan, since other than Lan Wangji she was the strongest disciple on the trip. It wasn't a comfortable flight, and it was somewhat embarrassing to be carried as if he was a child unable to fly by himself. But it was fine, he wasn't too proud for that, and everyone here knew that he was barely passable with his saber anyway.
And besides, it would give a good impression. Well, not a good one, but a nonthreatening one, which would be important under the circumstances. No one of Wei Wuxian's power would be worried about someone like Nie Huaisang, who couldn't even fly his saber for a short trip. And it was better to remind him that he had more power here, even though Nie Huaisang was from a stronger sect.
They landed outside the bounds of the Burial Mounds in mid afternoon, and Nie Huaisang motioned for them to walk the rest of the way. It would be too easy to read it as a threat if they flew all the way into Wei Wuxian's territory. Better to approach civilly, as respectful equals.
The sight of the line of corpses challenged that. Fog lingered along the path despite the height of the sun that should have burned it off, so there was little warning when they turned a bend to discover a row of dead bodies, paced equally in a line along the hills. He couldn't be certain without looking at a map, but he was sure that the ring would extend all the way around the border of the Burial Mounds. They made no motion as the Nie disciples and Lan Wangji approached, but that could easily change if they made the wrong move.
"Well that's creepy," said Nie Feng. Nie Huaisang agreed with him, but he couldn't say that. He was technically the leader, and he knew that morale would be lowered if he acted scared or uncertain. And these weren't natural fierce corpses, who would usually attack indiscriminately. They were under the control of the Yiling Patriarch, and so long as that remained true, there weren't a real deadly threat.
So he stepped forward and bowed slightly to the corpses. "Acting Sect Leader Nie, here to see the Yiling Patriarch on the business of our sects," he said formally.
For a moment there was no response, but then the two closest to the path stepped back, clearing the way for them to pass. He nodded to them, and walked straight forward through the gap in their line. Nie Meilan made an abortive grab at his sleeve as if to pull him back, but he didn't pay her any attention. The other disciples followed soon enough, once they saw that he hadn't been harmed. Lan Wangji, as stoic as ever, followed last.
After that, there were no other obstacles except for the creepiness of their surroundings. The fog grew even thicker, and the afternoon light seemed dimmer, although it may have just been nerves. There were no bird calls or other animal noises that he could hear. Instead there was a quiet sussuration, like a whisper from a distant room. But no matter how hard he concentrated, he couldn't pick out any words.
All in all, the Burial Mounds lived up to their reputation as a foreboding land.
But Wei Wuxian was his friend. Not only that, he was an honorable person who always tried to protect the weak. He trusted Wei Wuxian not to allow him to be hurt in his territory. There was sure to be some kind of alert on the border, so it wasn't like he wouldn't know they were there.
And if nothing else they had Lan Wangji with them. The world would end before Wei Wuxian stood by while something threatened Lan Wangji.
Eventually the fog began to clear, and he caught a glimpse of what looked like buildings on the top of a hill. About the same time he caught sight of them, Lan Wangji stopped in front of Nie Huaisang on the path.
"What are your intentions?" He asked abruptly.
Really? He waited until now to bring this up? What did he think that Nie Huaisang was trying to do?
"I just want to catch up with an old friend, of course." He waved his fan lightly, doing his best to appear harmless. Which he was, of course. But in this case, it was just a distraction.
Lan Wangji didn't dignify that with a response, just kept staring. Nie Meilan started to stir behind him, and he had to motion for her to stand down, again. She was truly testing him.
"Wei Wuxian is a powerful force. His efforts were invaluable in the Sunshot Campaign." He explained. "His assistance was the difference between victory and defeat. I would be a fool to disregard the possibility of an alliance."
"If he is your friend, then you would not encourage him on the path that he walks." Lan Wangji's expression could have been carved from ice.
"Lan-er-gongzi, you overestimate my power if you think I can do anything to change his mind about the path he is on. And I don't really need that sort of help from him. Oh, it would make things easier, but I think our forces are strong enough to prevail even if the Yiling Patriarch stays out of the fight."
"If you don't need his power, then why do you insist on his help."
"I'm doing this for his sake as much as mine. The Jin sect have been the driving force behind his persecution. With them out of the way, he might not need to stay hidden up here. If the cultivation world remembers that he has only ever used his might against evil and corruption, then we can convince them to accept him." A simplification, it would require a lot more effort and a lot more key minds changed, but sound in principle.
"That will only be the case if you are the victors."
"If we fail, then we'll probably end up holed up here with him." He raised his hand to hide his face. "And I for one don't think I would enjoy staying here long term. Short visits only! So we will need to win."
Lan Wangji didn't respond to that, and Nie Huaisang took the chance and walked past him. He didn't voice another objection, and he heard him fall back in once the others had passed.
The village had known they were coming after all. A group of Wen were clustered at the end of the path, Wei Wuxian at their head.
Nie Huaisang's first thought when he saw Wei Wuxian was that he looked awful. Not that he had looked well since before the war started, but he looked worn even thinner than he had before. And for a cultivator of his level, who knew inedia and didn't need to eat, that spoke to even more stress than Nie Huaisang had guessed. Wei Wuxian seemed brittle, and not even Nie Huaisang's best conspiratorial smile gained a grin in return.
Lan Wangji did, at least, when he came closer. So Wei Wuxian wasn't in immediate danger of dying.
He bowed formally, his fan in his hands instead of the saber that remained on his belt. "Acting Sect Leader Nie greets Sect Leader Wei, and asks to speak with him to create an alliance."
"No need to be so formal. Its just us here, and I'm not a Sect Leader," Wei Wuxian said with a sketch of a formal bow in response, a shadow of his normal joviality in his tone. Nie Huaisang was more sure than ever that this was a good idea.
"I want you to know that I'm being serious," Nie Huaisang gave him an exaggerated pout as he rose. "There's another war, and I really do want your help."
"Let's talk, then. We'll see what we have to say, and go from there." He said.
"Perhaps somewhere else? The gate really isn't conducive to discussion." Not that there was a city gate here, just the place that the path ends. And he was sure that Wei Wuxian's people would want to hear what they discussed.
Wei Wuxian and the Wen siblings exchanged a look, but he was ushered over to an open area. It looked to be a gathering place, in the center of a group of ramshackle buildings. The people were gathering as well, peeking around doors and blatantly eavesdropping. The bolder ones gathered behind Wei Wuxian to match the disciples lined up behind Nie Huaisang.
He wasn't even surprised at the state of them, although he would guess that some of his followers were. He didn't see anyone other then the three who had greeted them at the gate that looked to be fighting fit. If any of the others ever had been, then it had been decades ago, and age had stolen their power. None looked to be cultivators either, despite their surname of Wen. They were all, from Wei Wuxian down, in rough and worn clothing, and looked to be at the end of their strength.
It was very informal, but he treated the situation with the seriousness it deserved, bowing to Wei Wuxian as an equal and sitting at the mostly flat rock that was serving as the treaty table as if it they were in the hall of his fortress and not in the center of a ramshackle field. His disciples were well trained, and bunched up several paces back still standing, while Nie Meilan and Nie Feng sat to his right and his left. They were acting like this was a ceasefire conversation with an enemy commander on the battlefield, if he remembered his etiquette correctly.
Wei Wuxian mirrored him, with Wen Qing and Wen Ning to his right and left. Although it was good that they were treating this as seriously as he was, he couldn't help but be concerned that there was still no sign of his usual cheer. He barely even seemed to have the energy to glance towards Lan Wangji, who had broken the pattern to sit on one of the sides of the table, directly in between the two of them.
If it had been anyone but Lan Wangji, Nie Huaisang would have said something about him being the mediator, but as it was, he held his tongue.
"The Nie sect is going to war," he said bluntly. "At his father's orders, Jin Guangyao attacked my brother and left him seriously injured. Jin Guangshan has broken the terms of our alliance and treaty, and so we march against him."
"Your letter explained," Wei Wuxian said. "And I'm sorry about your brother. But I'm not sure what you want. From us I mean."
"An alliance. Your assistance in the coming conflict."
Wei Wuxian shook his head. "We can't stand against the entire might of the cultivation world. I'm good, but not that good." Or I would have done it already remained unspoken, but Nie Huaisang was sure it was there.
"You would not be against the might of the entire cultivation world. Just the Jin, and whoever allies with them. None of the other major sects. If anything, the other sects would be your allies. The Jin sect has little of the strength that the Wen held."
Wei Wuxian just shook his head. But behind him, Wen Ning was captivated by his words. He was already half convinced.
"He's attacked you too. He's the one who has been spreading rumors about you, blackening your reputation. He's made it obvious that he wants the power of the Stygian Tiger Seal, and he won't rest until he gets it." It was a gamble to mention the seal. Wei Wuxian would doubtless be protective of it, and might worry that he wanted it as well.
"He wouldn't be able to get it." His tone bordered on violent, and the way that he carefully didn't look over at Lan Wangji spoke volumes.
There was a little more life in that response, and Nie Huaisang was glad of it.
"Maybe not. But he can make life unpleasant for you and your people. Hasn't he already?" Nie Huaisang glanced around the village, making several rapid guesses. "There hasn't been any outside trade passing through, no way for you to get supplies. What there is, is overpriced, and people often won't sell to you once they learn who you are. Rumors of your evils and depravity abound, and people who don't know you believe them, so you probably have righteous cultivators trying to challenge you. No one you can't defeat easily, but a worrying trend. I've seen some of your more recent inventions, that evil attracting flag is incredibly useful, and if it was a secret technique of your sect every other sect would be begging for your friendship, and paying their weight in gold for them. But you probably needed to sell it for necessities, and didn't get a fraction of what it would be worth. No one gives you the proper tithe to defeat evil in your territory, but because you are honorable you do it anyway, and you haven't insisted on the tax. You are barely getting by with the land here, and if anything changes, your precarious living will be over." He snapped his fan closed decisively and pointed it at Wei Wuxian. "Am I right?"
"Well, you aren't wrong." Wei Wuxian looked down in what Nie Huaisang would say was shame. As if any of that was his fault.
"If we humble the Jin and thwart their ambitions, then most of that goes away. You will be able to build a real home here, create some stability for your people." He said with a gentler tone. Now that got to Wen Qing. She had almost as good a blank face and Lan Wangji did, when she wanted, but he had caught the way her eyes had flicked to the ramshackle buildings. Time to offer them what they needed.
"In exchange for your help, Sect Leader Wei, we've brought some offerings." He waved to the qiankun pouches some of his disciples had brought. They were mostly things that were easy to spare. Nothing valuable, only things that he could squeeze out of the edges of their own supplies. He had gambled that anyone living rough in the Burial Mounds would appreciate practical things over the more traditional jade and silks. And seeing this place, he wished he had brought more. "Mostly dry rice and other food that's easy to store, some rough fabric, with some wood and paper as well."
"I'm not a sect leader, so you shouldn't call me that." But his eyes were on the qiankun pouches like someone on the edge of starvation being offered food.
"You should be. You have the territory, you have the people, you definitely have the unique cultivation techniques. And there is no question that you can hold your own against others. You need to insist on the status, or you will never have a say about how you are treated."
"You don't have the authority to offer that." Wen Qing responded.
"I don't. But we can write it in the treaty terms that the Nie Sect promises to sponsor you during the next convention. If its an agreement, then my brother will abide by it even if he disagrees. It will go to a vote, and without the Jin, it will be easy to get you formally approved. With at least the Nie and the Jiang on your side, the minor sects will follow suit." If anything, he would worry about Jiang Cheng being angry that he wasn't the one making his brother a sect leader.
Wei Wuxian and the Wen siblings exchanged a glance.
"We will need to discuss." Wen Qing drew Wei Wuxian away.
The three of them retreated to the other side of the field, and put their heads together for an intense discussion. Nie Huiasang strained his ears to hear.
"-Its a good offer-"
"They deserve it, for what they did."
"-food for months."
"-they killed me-"
"But Shijie-"
"Winter will be here soon-"
"A-Yuan needs new cloths-"
Wei Wuxian was the only one with strong reservations. Wen Ning was surprisingly bloodthirsty, or perhaps not so surprisingly seeing as who had killed him. Wen Qing was the practical one, and held the value of the supplies over any of Wei Wuxian's objections.
Wei Wuxian just didn't want to fight at all. Understandable, the war had been harder on him than almost anyone else. But he was opposed by the Wen siblings, and Nie Huaisang wasn't surprised when they returned with an agreement for the Yiling Wei sect to ally with Qinghe Nie. With some caveats, of course.
"I won't act against the Young Madam Jin. Jiang Yanli is my shijie, and I will do nothing that would hurt her. If I join you, I need you to promise that no harm will come to her, or her husband, no matter what happens."
"Of course not. Jiang Yanli has nothing to do with this, so we won't let her get involved. Although I'm sure we could find some way to make her a widow..." He tapped his closed fan on his chin, sending his friend a conspiratorial look. The joke was a bit dark, but Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng had said similar far too many times.
As he hoped, Wei Wuxian threw his head back and laughed. "No, we can't. For some reason she likes the peacock, it's awful."
"It will only be me and Wen Qing, though."
Nie Huaisang nodded. He wasn't surprised. The two of them and Wen Ning were probably the only ones here capable of fighting.
"I'm glad to have you with us then. Although, can you come with us safely?" He waved his fan back towards the entrance, where the line of corpse soldiers still waited miles from them. "Or would that leave this place defenseless?" With the people here being so weak, it would be a disaster for Wei Wuxian to leave only for them to be slaughtered.
Wei Wuxian shook his head. "No, not those. They will stay there without direction. No one will be able to pass without me, but no one will want to. Your gifts mean we won't need to go down to the city for a while. They will only act on their own if I die." He smiled thinly. "And if that happens, the people here will have other problems."
"You will not die." Lan Wangji said with all the weight of a proclamation.
"I wasn't planning on it, Lan Zhan. But you have to admit, war's dangerous, and I'm all that's been standing between them and an angry mob of cultivators. They would never survive. Although Wen Ning will be staying to protect them as well, and he might be able to keep them safe."
Wen Ning ducked his head shyly when his name was brought up, but Nie Huaisang thought Wei Wuxian might be right about that. As a fierce corpse, Wen Ning was a far cry from his former self. He wouldn't want to stand against him, even with an army.
"It's late," Wei Wuxian said. "We'll go in the morning, if that's alright with the sect leader?" He added a mocking bow to Nie Huaisang, who swatted him with his fan.
The meeting broke up, and they fell to either setting up camp or finding lodging before they lost the last of the evening sun. Nie Huisang turned to speak with some of his people.
Nie Meilan followed at his right shoulder. He turned to her and angled his fan to hide his mouth from everyone but her. "Still so worried about the Wen?"
She had a considering look on her face as she surveyed the meager town before shaking her head no. Good. And hopefully the others he had brought agreed with her.
Although he would have to make sure the rumors were that they were peaceful and poor, not that they were harmless and nonthreatening. That would just cause more problems.
Rumors- Burial Mounds
Wen Qing was a sensible woman, unlike the other leader of their community. Wei Wuxian had no understanding of practicalities of life. So she organized the visiting Nie disciples, housing them in whatever spare area she could find. She was grateful that many of them offered to camp. It made things easier. Once she got that out of the way she set several of her aunts to inventory the gifts and figure out what they now owed to young master Nie. She needed to pack, both for herself and for Wei Wuxian.
She spoke to her brother while she did so, listing emergencies that could happen while they were gone and how he should handle them. There were still so many threats against their community and in any other circumstances she wouldn't even think about leaving. But Wen Ning could take care of himself. He was a better fighter than she was now, and had grown into himself. He would be fine. But it was the right of an older sister to worry.
So she didn't speak to Wei Wuxian again until much later, after the sun had set and the moon had risen, a blood red circle shining over a grim land. Wei Wuxian, as was his habit, had climbed onto the highest rock he could find to admire the moon and drown his sorrows. Although at least he had lit a fire to ward of the chill of the night this time. He looked grief stricken, as he always did if she found him when he thought he was alone. But when he caught sight of her, he called up a shadow of his old grin.
"Share a drink with me, Wen Qing," he called.
"Where did you get alcohol?" She asked threateningly, climbing up to sit besides him.
"Don't worry, I didn't waste any money on it. Huaisang brought it, along with all his other gifts. I think he wanted us to get drunk together like old times, but that scowling guard of his whisked him away."
"His bribes, you mean."
"You're the one who wanted the supplies so badly. You're the one who was pushing for me to accept."
"I know. And we do need them. I just worry. There could be hidden strings, he could expect things from us that we wouldn't be willing to give. He seems to be upfront about what he wants, but who can tell."
"It's Nie Huaisang," he said. "He's not like that. Now if it were the Jin making this offer, then I would be concerned."
"You would know better than I do."
"Although I have to admit, this whole situation is a surprise." He made a lazy arc with his hand, describing the Nie disciples mustered outside his borders. "Not that he reacted badly to his brother being threatened, but that he's so organized about it."
"Did he handle some sort of logistics during the war? If he has some experience with the practical side of warfare, it makes more sense." Wen Qing offered.
"You know what? I don't know. I don't think we ever ran into each other." He left unspoken that in his fury he hadn't paid much attention to anything but the destruction of the Wen.
"He must have been doing something. I can't imagine Nie Mingjue letting anyone in his sect sit idle in a time of war."
He just hummed in agreement, but didn't offer another answer.
They sat in silence for a while, as the moon rose higher behind the clouds and the fire burned lower.
"Do you think that it'll really work?" Wei Wuxian said.
She sighed, "He's right, no one minded your cultivation when you were using it against their enemies. And it has been the Jin who have been making the most noise about us. If they are quieted and the Nie aren't going to make an issue about us, then we'll be in a much better position. And if we're an acknowledged sect with a strong alliance, two strong alliances if you can sort something out with your brother, that would solve most of our problems."
"I suppose my reputation can't get any worse." He swirled the alcohol that was left in the jug moodily. "Hey, did you see where Lan Zhan was sleeping?"
She gave him a judgmental look. "It's late. He's asleep by now."
"I just want to talk. Obviously things have been going oddly down in the rest of the world, and I need to catch up. So where is he."
"Well, we really don't have much room, and the Nie disciples are taking up most of what we have to spare." She smiled wickedly. "So I gave him your bed for the night."
"Wen Qing! I'll make you pay for that!" But he was already running towards his cave workshop.
That had almost been a real grin from him. She picked up the jar of alcohol that he had left behind in his panicked rush and finished off what little remained. It was almost like more peaceful days.
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Hypatia3 on Chapter 1 Sat 23 May 2020 11:53PM UTC
Last Edited Sun 24 May 2020 12:37AM UTC
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