Wen Reian

2019 years after The Long Night

Xibù Shataar

The man was not a habitual drinker. In fact, Wen Reian could probably count the number of times he’d gotten drunk on his fingers. Tonight, perhaps it was the company, or just his rampant worry and stress that caused him to drink probably much more than he should’ve.

Hiding his abrupt laugh with his hand, Reian felt warmth rising on his face as he stared at the crackling fire. It was far past midnight, but The Wanderers were still going strong. More power to them…

Reian had shivered once, despite the flames, a little while ago, prompting Lan Kai-Le to take off his own coat and placed it on the healer’s shoulders. The thing was far too big for him, so much so, that he felt as if he’d shrunk somehow and had a rug tossed on him. This was why he’d laughed.

That giggle turned into a hiccup as Reian brought the mug to his lips again, feeling the liquid burn his throat and make his face even redder. Around them, the sounds of the forest mingled with the voices, laughter, and songs of The Wanderers…

Looking out of the corner of his eye, Reian saw that Lan Kai-Le wore a similar blush. He’d not wanted to partake at first, frowning at what he’d been offered until he saw the enthusiasm with which Reian was drinking. Lan Kai-Le had then made it his mission to catch up, quickly proving that just because he was humongous and taller than an oak tree, that didn’t mean he had any alcohol tolerance. At all.

Reian was lost in a strange realization suddenly, that Lan Kai-Le was actually very innocent. That would explain why he sometimes speaks like a child-

Hiccuping loudly, Lan Kai-Le heard him and turned suddenly. Reian froze. The hunter was staring at Wen Reian with utmost interest, and it wasn’t a moment later that he voiced this curiosity.

“How? A’Qin, my hands… the girl?”

Reian was puzzled, his mind clouded by a thick fog. When he finally realized Lan Kai-Le meant healing, he smiled widely.

“I learned how! When I was barely twenty years old, ah… a lifetime ago. I learned how to fix things.”

Kai-Le frowned, clearly confused but still interested. “You weren’t born this way?”

Snickering and taking another long sip, Reian tried to sound as reasonable as possible.

“Is anyone born truly different? Don’t we all learn how to do things? You learned how to kill people, I learned how to heal them…”

Lan Kai-Le was quiet for a moment, but Reian was too distracted by the reflection of flames in the man’s eyes to notice.

Finally Kai-Le asked, “Who taught you?”

Reian grinned. “Songcai! Jin Songcai, have you heard of him?!”

He said it with much pride, as always, grateful and honored to think of the man as his friend and teacher. Grateful to know him at all.

Kai-Le nodded, “King of Hêi’àn City.”

Reian burst out laughing-

“Yes! That’s where I live! With Songcai and Yi-jun…”

The hunter tilted his head and it made Reian smile. He looks like a lost puppy!

“You live there?” Then Kai-Le frowned, “They make you heal?”

Reian laughed again, shaking his head and scooting forward to be closer to Kai-Le’s ear as he said, “I chose to live with them.”

For some reason, the volume of his own voice had begun to irritate him, so Reian closed his eyes and pressed his lips together. Suddenly he felt his heart flutter, in part due to the alcohol, but also because of what he was remembering, and… maybe also because of how close his lips were to Lan Kai-Le’s ear. Reian’s heart thumped in his chest as he realized he was close enough to feel the warmth of the man’s breath on his cheek. Suddenly, Wen Rei whispered-

“We used to be more than friends.”

Reian felt Lan Kai-Le inhale softly, and the sound made him recall some distant memory. Maybe of Yi-jun, or Songcai, or both?

“Xie Yi-jun was my first love, first lover…” Reian said slowly.

“First kiss, first touch. My first everything.” He paused as he realized that wasn’t actually true. He quickly added-

“But, Jin Songcai was the first and last person I ever made love to. He taught me how, a very long time ago…”

The memories were a bit faded, and Wen Reian had done nothing in the last ten years to act on them, or re-live them in any way. Truth be told, since his relationships with both men had changed, until they were his close companions instead of sexual partners, Reian had not felt desire. At all. For anyone, even alone.

That part of his life seemed like a dream these days. A strange, veiled dream. One that he almost couldn’t believe was real.

Reian noticed when Lan Kai-Le turned slightly to look at him, so he leaned back and their eyes met. He didn’t know why, but he felt as if he was looking back into his own eyes. Lan Kai-Le had no sense of outward soul for him to see, so it was as if the man was a mirror, reflecting Reian’s emotions. He swallowed, then Lan Kai-Le startled him by asking; “You love them?”

Reian paused, trying hard to think… he was getting drowsier by the second.

“Not because of that,” he finally managed to mumble. “I used to think we were soulmates, all three of us. And that might still be true, but soulmate can mean different things. For Yi-jun and Songcai it means they are happily married with a grown-up daughter. For me, it means I am happy to be by their side.”

Reian was about to stop talking, when he suddenly thought of something else. It was a thought that he hid. Hid with everything, every power and strength in his body had sealed it away, never to be uncovered again. Reian would not speak of this to Yi-jun, nor Songcai, nor himself. But, he spoke it now to Lan Kai-Le.

“I used to know two others that I thought of like that. My brothers…”

Lan Kai-Le was still listening for some reason.

”Used to know?”

Wen Reian closed his eyes suddenly, as bitter pain and harsh memories tightened his throat. Ah, I don’t want to think about them. Not now!

“Mmh…” he shook his head, almost wincing. “That past is hard to look at.”

Lan Kai-Le whispered softly, “I understand.”

When Reian opened his eyes, the hunter was still staring at him. About ready to sleep, too exhausted to even recall his own name, Wen Reian was kept awake by Kai-Le’s sudden questions, one after another. To which Reian’s intoxicated brain answered to the best of his ability without thinking about the consequences.

“The King wanted you both? And Jin Songcai was okay with this?”

“Mmh, yes.”

“Why do you stay, if you do not share their bed?”

“…I still love them, and A’Jun.”

“And healing?”

“Only sometimes-”

“Why?”

“Sometimes it’s difficult to feel other people’s pain, but not my own.”

“Where are you hurt?”

“Lan Kai-Le? I’m tired… I want to sleep.”

After several seconds, Wen Reian felt himself being turned carefully, and then his eyes flickered closed as Lan Kai-Le laid him back against a tree, pulling the coat tight around Reian’s face and then seeming to move away. Wen Reian didn’t know where Lan Kai-Le had gone, and for a brief moment in the darkness, that scared him.

“Kai-Le?!”

The man hummed, and that was when Reian realized that the hunter had curled up on the forest floor by his feet, head leaning gently on Reian’s legs.

The man was too far gone to process this information, only strangely glad that he was not left alone. Reian pondered what to ask the hunter, as he wanted to keep hearing him talk, and finally he settled on a question which had been bothering him for a while.

“Where are you from?”

Strangely, that didn’t seem to be an easy answer for Lan Kai-Le, who spent what felt like several minutes thinking, before he answered, “Here.”

Reian scoffed, mumbling something about how here was not a place, when at last the depths of sleep came to claim him...

As he drifted off, he could have sworn he heard Kai-Le speaking to him, in a deep, gentle tone. He was telling Reian a story, about a farm… and the last few pieces of silver, the jewelry in his mother’s bedroom, the day the bad men stole their land and their lives.

“-thought he killed me too. Went into the woods, until I couldn’t, because the others died too. Put the silvers in my hair. Couldn't give them away, but still had to eat. A man in town asked me to kill. The more I killed, the more I could eat. Can’t stop, can’t take silvers out until I pay back my parents. Pay back, the way I was taught here… have to rip out their throat before they put their teeth on yours.”