Wen Reian

An Unknown Number of Years After The Long Night

The Library in Jingshén

"What happens when you heal someone?"

"...what do you mean?"

The man's sky-blue eyes smiled at him, as the two stared at each other from opposite ends of the table.

"I mean," Jin Songcai said gently. "What do you feel?"

Wen Reian didn't know how to answer him. Because to him it seemed impossible to explain the sensation with words. He felt, if he tried, it wouldn't make sense as he hardly understood it himself. Jin Songcai seemed to recognise this, and spoke again very calmly...

"Try your best, Reian. There is no wrong answer."

The boy nodded and after closing his eyes, he began to attempt to recall what he'd experienced both times he'd healed someone so far. Unsure if he was to count the time with Yi-jun in Sanlín City, Reian instead remembered Jin Yu and his fall.

The memory was a painful one, but instead of focusing on the sadness he'd felt, Reian narrowed in on the actual minutes where his soul had touched the other boy's.

In those moments, it was as if Jin Yu's aura became a physical thing. Reian could reach out with his feelings, his senses, and touch it. Feel the pulsing of his pain, the rough jagged edges where Jin Yu's energy had been disrupted.

The first step had seemed so obvious to Reian. It was what he'd also done that night in Yi-jun's room in Wúmeng... make their soul comfortable enough with my own presence, and wait until they trust me-

After that, Reian had eased a portion of his own aura out of his body, something that had felt as familiar as breathing in that instance.

With his energy, he touched the sharp edges of Jin Yu, and Yi-jun's pain, feeling it in his body as well. His leg had ached feeling his friend's broken bone. His soul had hurt at the King's fear and loneliness...

But Reian had the sense that his pain was a reflection of theirs, something that was only to remind him how the other person was feeling. To remind him to be gentle-

He'd transferred a portion of his aura into A'Yu...

With it, Reian softened the edges of his pain. He strengthened the boy's physical and internal being with his own. Growing Jin Yu's broken bone, and torn flesh back together like a seedling growing up from the ground.

Reian's aura was the catalyst, and the crutch for Jin Yu and Xie Yi-jun as their bodies healed. When it was too fast Reian felt it, and slowed. When more support was needed in a certain place, he offered it.

Like that, pain and uncertainty had melted away, and when the other was stable enough to stand on their own, Reian took his energy back into his body, slowly. One breath at a time.

He'd healed them by transferring his own energy, re-building what was broken, leaving the strength that they needed, and returning to himself when the damage was undone.

It had been the closest Reian had ever felt to who he truly was... the closest he'd felt to knowing why he was alive-

I want to make it easier for others to exist. I want to soothe their pain, help them rebuild, stronger than before. I want to love them...

Opening his eyes with a gasp, Reian saw that Jin Songcai was watching him, a fondness and understanding brightening his already light eyes. Reian wasn't sure how, but Songcai seemed to know what he'd thought. How he felt-

"Excellent, Reian." He said, with clear traces of wonder in his voice.

Reian realised that perhaps how he felt when healing was just how Songcai felt. Maybe they were more alike than he'd first thought. The boy swallowed.

"You told me that I was meant for more, that I should heal more people..."

Songcai nodded. Reian felt his fingers twitch in his lap-

"How?"

He knew that asking like this meant that from now on, not only would Yi-jun be his teacher, but so would Jin Songcai. The man across the table seemed to know this too, and he closed his eyes with a smile.

"Reian," he said.

"Within you is the ability to do great things. I am not ashamed to say that if you continue on this path, you will one day surpass me in ways you cannot yet conceive. All you must do is practice. Continue healing those you love, with love. Understand the difference between mending something and fixing it. Come to know that as you heal, you are not only sharing your energy, but growing it. When you tend to someone's soul, they will tend to yours. True healing is not a sacrifice, but mutual growth, renewal."

Listening to the man's words, Reian felt more questions forming, even as some were answered...

"I'm curious-"

"About what?"

Reian frowned. "What is the extent of healing? I can fix broken bones and wounds, and even someone's aura, but where does it end? Can I heal only humans? What about plants? Animals, or-"

"If it has a soul you can connect to, you can heal it."

The boy blinked as his mind continued to whirl with ideas...

Jin Songcai smiled-

"Wen Reian, don't limit yourself by asking what can and cannot be healed."

Reian blinked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean..." Songcai said. "That you decide what can be fixed. You decide how far you are willing to go. It's all up to you-"