Wen Reian

2005 years after The Long Night

The Howling Cave

"Xie Yi-jun!!"

Struggling to pull the King off the other man, Reian's heart was racing as he listened to their overlapping screams-

"I'll kill you! You bastard!!"

"A'Jun?!"

Using all of his strength, Wen Reian wrapped his arms around Yi-jun's waist, yanking him back and nearly falling over as the King thrashed and flailed. Su Lan was crouched on the floor, having taken a heavy blow to the face and he was staring at the King with a curious mixture of shock and relief.

"Stop!" Reian cried, holding Yi-jun who was still struggling, gritting his teeth.

"You don't know what he did! Wen Reian! Let go of me-"

Suddenly the man kneeling at the center of the room laughed. He laughed so loudly, and so emotionlessly that Reian felt the heat from Xie Yi-jun's anger seeping out from his skin and burning him...

Su Lan's expression was alarming to say the least. One one hand he was grinning, a twisted grief shadowing his glowing yellow eyes, yet at the same time, Reian saw the tension in his forehead and neck. The tears slowly falling from his eyes as he stared, unblinking at the furious King.

When the snake demon nodded with a giddy laugh, Reian realised that perhaps the man was not quite all there anymore. Even for an immortal being, seven hundred years is a long time to spend conscience.

"Do it!" He said at once, a kind of desperation in his voice that was made scarier by his bloody smile...

"A'Jun, please-"

When Su Lan closed his eyes and tilted his head back, Reian felt Yi-jun finally stop struggling, though his anger still burned brighter than the candles scattered about the ground.

"Do you even know the hell I've been through?!" The King shouted, voice breaking horribly.

Reian was about to reach out to him again when Yi-jun suddenly fell to the ground, making his way to Su Lan in seconds before Reian could stop him and grabbing the man's neck in both hands.

"Yi-jun!" Reian screamed the same time the King did-

"Your promise was the last thing I saw! The last thing I heard! Even after everything you did to me, how you betrayed me, I still believed you! I trusted you when you told me Jin Songcai would wake me up! Do you know how long I slept, Su Lan?! Do you even know? How long I waited for him?! If you really wanted to repay your debts you would have killed me then and there! You should have just ended it! How could you force me to live in a world without him?! How could you-"

Blinking his eyes as hot tears spilled from them, Reian held his shaking hand over his mouth as he watched.

Xie Yi-jun had stopped strangling Su Lan instead, his hands fell limply to his sides as the King hung his head, his whole body shaking with silent sobs. And watching him come apart so suddenly because of what Su Lan did, Wen Rei was certain that nothing could have prepared him for what the snake demon did next...

Moving carefully, Su Lan raised his hands to Yi-jun's shoulders. Reian was about to step forward and stop him when the yellow-eyed man spoke. What came out of his mouth was so startling that even Xie Yi-jun stopped crying and raised his head.

"A'Jun... Su Lan is sorry. Su Lan was tricked! Deceived... no, trapped! Su Lan never wanted you to get hurt, but Su Lan had no choice! Su Lan had to protect them, no matter what!"

After several moments of strange silence, Reian came up behind Yi-jun and whispered;

"Is he...?"

Wen Rei watched and felt nearly all of the King's anger melt away, replaced by a mere annoyance that Su Lan was touching him, as he nodded and pushed the man's hands away.

"He's lost his mind-"

Xie Yi-jun's words were punctuated by the snake demon's chittering laughter, a bone-chilling sound that caused a shiver to run down Reian's spine.

The man's strangely colored eyes were flicking across Yi-jun's face. Su Lan seemed to be muttering to himself, repeating over and over something that Reian could barely hear.

"What exactly happened to him?"

The King's soft response was so defeated and heartbroken, Reian's soul ached for the man

"I don't know..."

Wen Rei imagined what it would feel like to be in Yi-jun's place. What if Xie De, his older brother and most trusted friend, suddenly for no apparent reason turned his back on him? What if he betrayed Reian right when he needed him most? Stabbed him in the back and in doing so, caused Reian to be plunged into a world where Xie Yi-jun was no longer alive.

The situation was too painful to even imagine, let alone to be witnessing right now...

Placing his hand on the King's shoulder, Reian offered what little hope he might have for Yi-jun's old friend.

"I could try to heal him."

The King shook his head at first, but Reian persisted.

"No really," he said. "Even just enough so that he can speak to us sensically... let me at least try?"

"Reian, I don't think-"

"What's the worst that could happen?"

Silence filled the cave for a moment as Reian's words hung heavy in the air. It was clear to him that Xie Yi-jun was thinking; the worst pretty much had already happened. The life looked just about drained from the man, and Wen Reian couldn't stand to see it.

Turning to Su Lan, he swallowed nervously, aware on some level that he was trifling with things far beyond him, but he still had to try.

I'm not doing this for Yi-jun's friend. I'm doing this for Xie-jun. So that he might be able to be released from some of this pain that's been haunting him...

Going to place his hand above the top of Su Lan's head, Reian closed his eyes as the first waves of the man's soul struck him, as visceral and chaotic as he imagined.

He sighed... I have little hope in clearing his soul of this mess, the years have eaten away at it. But I could try something else-

Recalling what Jin Songcai had told him once about Reian's innate ability to recover and relive people's memories, he began to focus on the part of Su Lan's mind that hid them. It would never work unless Reian first constructed a barrier between the man's conscious mind and his unconscious. In order for Su Lan to recount what had happened, he would need to be almost asleep...

"Wen Rei," Yi-jun hissed. "What are you-"

"Hold on, it's working..."

And it was! Inside, he could feel that Su Lan was remembering. His mind sealed off from his soul so as not to damage it with the pain these thoughts caused. Now, Reian just needed him to speak.

Coaxing the man's daydream-soul into talking was causing Reian some confusion, so he opened his eyes, deciding instead to treat this as if Su Lan was sleep-walking. Or in this case, sleep-speaking.

"Su Lan?" He said, "Can you hear me now?"

The man nodded slowly and Reian smiled, immediately turning to Xie Yi-jun and telling him to ask whatever he wanted to know.

Reian was connected to Su Lan now. He felt the typical ebb and flow of spirit energy, not at all disturbed by his mind's recalling-

This could work...

Yi-jun was frowning hard, but he stepped closer anyway and finally said with a sigh;

"Where did you go, back then? I looked for you everywhere. And why did you turn against me?! I thought... I thought we were... like brothers-"

Reian placed a hand on Yi-jun's shoulder, as he could feel the man's anger and confusion rising to the point that he was almost shaking again.

"Calmly," Reian instructed. "He is remembering it all... ask him what he sees."

The King held his breath, and Reian could feel that he was almost dreading the answer. Finally, Yi-jun said; "Su Lan? Where are you?"

The man, his green eyes wide and unblinking, drew in a deep breath and then began...

"It's been two and a half days since the avalanche blocked our path into Xuêshan. We are on our way back to Hêi'àn City, when we're caught in an earthquake near the cliffs at Yan Tan. In the middle of the night I wake up to the sound of screaming, and then realise it's because I've been crushed under the boulders that fell in the landslide... I wait to die. But then, I don't..."

Already, Reian could feel Xie Yi-jun's energy beside him changing. The man hardly breathing as he listened to his friend's tale-

"I wake up in a cave, and a creature is tending to my wounds. I know that she's a Naga; a snake demon, but I am too weak to try and escape. Her eyes glow, she has scales on her face and never speaks, and despite being from two different worlds, she takes care of me for several months inside that place. She saves me... and like that we start to trust each other. I finally learn her name; Yaeon. I wake up every morning and test how it feels to walk. I promise myself that as soon as I am well enough, I will make my way back to Hêi'àn City. But I don't go back, I stay. I fall for her, and somehow she falls for me. More months pass, and the idea of returning home becomes my greatest fear and greatest wish. Because I know that if I brought Yaeon to the city she would be villainized, or worse... Eventually, knowing it is my only choice if I want to be with her, I decide to stay for good. I ask her in the heat of the moment to give me a precious gift. I ask her to make me just like her, so we can be together forever...

"In the midst of this naive fantasy as she shows me all the secrets of her world, it isn't long before she is with child. I am blinded by love, blinded by learning what I am, what I can do. I open my heart to our children, who grow inside her for only a month before being born. Five of them, but only three survive... they look like human babies, but too small. So small... after several weeks they grow scales, sharp teeth like the ones I have now. When they cry, it sounds like soft hisses echoing. Before I know it, I have my hands full of constantly shedding toddlers, learning how to shift and change their forms before they even learn to walk-

"Two boys and a girl, and Yaeon names them; Zuìdi, Lǜ Yī and Mèizi. We are a... family. One night something happens. The cave is discovered by Meng Bai's patrol. There is a fight, and we are outnumbered despite our powers. Just before we are killed, Meng Bai recognises me. He smiles... I don't know where Yaeon and my children are taken, and Meng Bai places a bind on my powers. He says only he can lift it, and if I do not do exactly as he says he will slaughter my whole family. All thoughts of Hêi'àn City, Xie Yi-jun, my parents, it all fades away as I listen to Yaeon's screams. All I can do is what Meng Bai says, and pray somewhere my family is safe. After spending so long under his thumb, I beg him to give me proof that my children are alive. He cuts off my daughter's hand and brings it to me...

"I want to kill him, but there is nothing I can do. When Meng Bai suddenly orders me to prepare a curse that can imprison Xie Yi-jun forever, I refuse at first, but I'm reminded why I can't when he sends Yaeon to see me. She is horribly sick and injured, she's been tortured and she begs me to kill her! As if I will do it because I love her! I make Meng Bai promise to release her and our children if I do this last awful thing for him. He agrees, but on the day I curse my oldest friend I learn two things... that Meng Bai has secretly succeeded in his plan of destroying Hêi'àn City, and that the words of a madman are not to be trusted. Instead of being reunited with my family, I am taken to The Roaran Stronghold as his prisoner, and tortured endlessly for months. My last sliver of hope is crushed one day when I hear the guards outside my cell, laughing together about the snake witch and her spawn... how they all laid together somewhere in the desert, when Meng Bai lit their bodies on fire-

"Spirling deeper into my grief and pain, I am blessed with long stretches of insanity, and cursed by occasionally remembering where and who I am. Meng Bai uses me as a sort of twisted hobby, just to see how far I can be tortured while remaining alive. My immortality and magic made never before imagined suffering, my only reality. The years pass me by as I remain unaging. Meng Bai dies and the torturer is replaced by his cruel son. After so long, never seeing an end, something inside of me breaks... I end up killing several guards, fleeing and finding my way out of their fortress and back into the world. I black out somewhere in the middle of The Dust Maze and wait for a sandstorm to come bury me. I don't know how, but my body keeps on going. I make it as far North as I can, and then my powers show me how to grow smaller. So small, my mind and body condenses until I exist as the tiniest creature, upon the walls of these caves. I stay like that for several centuries, squeezing my grief as small as it can be, drowning in it whenever I come up for air...

"All this time, I know that the curse that I placed on Xie Yi-jun has only one hope of being broken. And that is if Jin Songcai or his soul suddenly returns. When I feel the curse has been suddenly lifted, I stir to life after so long asleep. A small glimmer of hope, perhaps some of my evil could be undone. As I am, I have no mind to go out and see for myself what became of A'Jun or his lover. I go only so far as the nearest town and wait for whispers of where he is. No whispers ever come. I resign myself to the coming eternity alone. Then one day, I sense someone inside the cave. My old friend has returned, but the only gift I can greet him with is the one I've been so longing to give myself. My own death, hopefully making peace with the lives and loves I've ruined."