Wen Reian

2019 years after The Long Night

Xibù Shataar

Sand. All Wen Rei knew was sand. It was in his hair, in his clothes, his mouth. It was in his dreams. And when he woke, it was all he could see-

“Argggh!!”

Pain shooting through the back of his head like needles, the healer managed to blink his eyes open in a startled trance as he heard someone growling nearby.

Trapped, I’m trapped-

Reian’s throat tightened in fear once when he saw where he was...

Buried waist-deep, crowded inside a barely ten by ten square foot room made of stone; warm, golden sand rushing in from all four corners. It was shortly after realizing where he was and what was happening, that Wen Reian also saw who he was with.

Feeling nothing anymore but white-hot rage, the healer scrambled through the still pouring sand, making his way clumsily to the man trying to push at the walls that obviously wouldn’t budge. Reian acted on impulse, throwing himself on top of Lan Kai-Le with a shriek and pushing him under the sand, face red with anger as he screamed;

“Die! Just die, you monster!!”

Arms flailing, it was quickly apparent that the bigger man was much stronger than him, and before he could even so much as get his bearings not to fall over, Lan Kai-Le was shoving Reian back into the wall like he weighed nothing, his shoulder hitting it hard.

“Didn’t know!”

Reian couldn’t breathe let alone hear, so when Lan Kai-Le turned back around to continue slamming his bloody fists against the walls, Reian’s only thought was that he had to somehow stop him...

From whatever horrible thing he’s going to do next!

It didn’t even occur to the man that perhaps Kai-Le was trapped here too, so without thinking, Reian pressed his palms against the man’s back, sending a surge of energy into his body that would incapacitate even the most powerful of warriors.

What did Kai-Le do?! He only pushed Reian away again, as if swatting a fly!

Coughing on sand, which had reached his chest by now and was still coming in through the cracks in every wall, Wen Reian shouted again in desperation.

“I cannot die! I have to save her-”

Lan Kai-Le growled harshly, “Be quiet!”

Wen Reian felt like a child having a tantrum suddenly, as he hissed out a fairly awful curse word and did the only thing he could in that instance; which was, throwing handfuls of sand at Lan Kai-Le.

“This is your fault! I knew we couldn’t trust you! Now A’Jun has been taken to god knows where, and you want me to be quiet?!”

The man suddenly whirled on Reian, grabbing his throat in one large hand, but not squeezing, his face a mixture of panic and rage. Reian struggled pointlessly as he watched the hunter’s blazing eyes glare down at him.

“Xie Xingyue must die… I must kill him.”

Well, at least we can agree on that! Reian coughed as Lan Kai-Le released him.

“Stop throwing sand!”

As the words reached Wen Rei’s ears, he felt a shiver work its way down his spine as he was reminded. Sand. The sand was only coming in faster, if they remained here they would surely be buried alive, and if that happened he would never be able to rescue A’Jun, which was not an option!

More than anything, the healer wished he could just strangle the life out of the man beside him, but there was no time, it would have to wait.

“Fine!”

Pausing momentarily to scan the room, Reian watched as Lan Kai-Le continued to beat frantically against the rough stone, tearing gashes into his palms and stamping the walls with bright red handprints…

Useless. What a useless endeavor-

“We are in a prison, or a torture chamber,” Reian was thinking out-loud.

“Clearly it wasn’t a random hole they found, it was built for this exact purpose; killing people, slowly.”

His words seemed to only aggravate Lan Kai-Le more, the man going so far as to shoot Reian a sharp look that was tipped with poison. Reian wondered if he could actually be physically injured from such a glare.

The healer just huffed; “I’m thinking! There must be a way out since whoever put us in here clearly plans on reusing this place...”

Breathing hard from the panic and stress of it all, Reian frowned, feeling around with his feet and moving them what little he could under all the sand. Hang on-

“Quick! Help me move this!!”

Reian dug. Scraping and carving out a deep hole in the middle of the room, pushing all the sand up the walls. When he realized Lan Kai-Le wasn’t listening to him, he reached out and grabbed onto the man’s arm, startled and irritated when he was shaken off.

“What?” The man’s gruff voice only fueled Reian’s annoyance...

Why is he so dense!!!

“They have to take out the sand somehow, so there must be a door underneath us!”

He went back to digging, not caring if Lan Kai-Le understood or not.

Hmmph! What do I care?! He can die in here, serves him right-

Only when Reian was just about to reach the bottom did he feel the other man beside him, clearing the rest of the sand up and away from the floor. Reian swiped at it, gasping through shaking breaths as he realized that the little hole they’d dug and were crouching in was all the space that was left in the room. It was now or never!

He ended up pushing the sand away from a corner, imagining that whatever mechanism they may have for eventually taking the sand and bodies out must be there.

God dammit, there has to be a way! There has to… yes!

Feeling all his relief and remaining fear exit his body in one frantic breath, Wen Reian wrapped his fingers around the hinge, pulling at the screws with all his strength, hoping to loosen it, but it wouldn’t budge.

Oh, saints say I didn’t find this just to have it be rusted shut! I don’t even deserve to become a vengeful ghost after my death if I’m that stupid-

Straining with effort, it was mere moments later that Reian realized Lan Kai-Le had seen what he was doing, and had already gone about unlatching the hinge from the adjacent corner- successfully!

“Hurry!”

Reian had to flatten himself against the sand to allow Lan Kai-Le enough room to reach his hand down through it all. He watched the man pull, and heard a faint high-pitched whining sound, like metal rubbing metal.

Reian’s heard did a little leap into his throat, and as the sand got so high Lan Kai-Le was suffocating on it just to keep his arm close enough to the hinge, Wen Reian screamed suddenly as the floor gave way beneath them.

He was falling, falling-

And then he couldn’t breathe. Reian only realized he was submerged in water when his lungs started to burn.

Struggling to the dark surface of whatever they’d landed in, he coughed and splashed around in sightless panic for a while, hearing echoes bouncing off every wall, before his shoulder was being grabbed roughly and he was dragged away.

“Let go!”

Wen Reian fought against Lan Kai-Le for several minutes, occasionally getting away long enough to try to foolishly swim off, but it was useless. The hunter was faster and stronger than him in every way and before Reian knew it, there was light at the end of the tunnel. Literally.

Obviously they’d ended up in some sort of underground river or water passage, for just ahead was a grated metal plate where the stream was rushing out of.

Reian watched, speechless and shaking in both fear and fury, as Lan Kai-Le kicked at the bars so hard that the grate flew off completely and the two of them tumbled head-first into the river, all flying limbs and chaotic splashing.

Wen Reian stood up, pulling the strands of his soaking wet hair from his eyes and glaring across at where Lan Kai-Le was rubbing the blood off his torn hands roughly, making even more flow into the water. He seemed as if he was angry at his hands!

The healer looked around. They appeared to be several miles from the main city. To the east, in the middle of The Gãnzào River. He would need to get back to the palace as soon as possible to begin making plans to search for A’Jun. Who knew how much time had passed!

First, he had to get all of this awful sand out of his clothes!!!

“Would you get lost already?!” Reian screamed at Lan Kai-Le, “You’re lucky I’m letting you continue to breathe! Who are you anyway?! Just someone hired to lure us into their trap? How can you call yourself a human being?!”

The man, who was also soaked and covered in sand from head to toe, stared back at Wen Rei out of golden eyes that were filled to the brim with a certain brand of anger. It was so familiar, Reian couldn’t claim anymore that the man was inhuman. His rage was so deep, so… sad.

The healer swallowed, about to tell him a little more gently to run off, when the man spoke, his voice deep and faint; “I don’t.”

Reian could only blink. Lan Kai-Le was still scrubbing brutally at his palms, and the healer simply couldn’t stomach the way he seemed to be taking his anger out on himself. It was more than he could handle, seeing a living breathing person, bleeding right in front of his eyes. Reian couldn’t let it go, if only for the sake of his own conscience.

Grabbing Kai-Le’s hand, he resisted his every urge to send a wave of suffering into his body instead. Thankfully, as he watched the blood continue to turn the water around them red, Wen Reian was able to detach his mind from his heart for just a moment, sending pure light to the wounds.

Normally, I’d never attempt to heal the physical injuries of someone with a suppressed aura, due to the instability, but right now I couldn’t care less...

Lan Kai-Le jerked back suddenly, hissing, but when he blinked down at his hands, his eyes widened in amazement. Reian was just about to turn away from him for good, when Lan Kai-Le muttered softly, a phrase that made him stop.

“Who are you?”

Wen Rei froze. Within those words was something strange and frightened, though he wasn’t sure how or why this man would be afraid of him. He decided to answer as honestly as possible. Why not, it’s not like we’ll ever meet after this.

“Wen Reian,” he said. “I am Xie Song-jun’s uncle and I am not going to stop until I get her back, and make those responsible for her abduction pay.”

What came out of Lan Kai-Le’s mouth next, as he stared at his hands, was decidedly not something Reian was expecting…

“Pay. With their lives.”