𝒜 𝒲𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇'𝓈 𝒫𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓈𝑒

Chapter 2- Celebration

          My eyes flicker as I wake up this morning and I catch glimpses of dark hair draped over my forehead, impairing my vision. The hair is my own, though as I search next to me for the warmth of my husband's skin, which has now left, I am wishing it was his. I roll over to my side and let my arms fall to the ground, following that my body and blanket as well. Shocked by the force, I suddenly feel awake enough to fix myself a bath and get dressed. I don my usual black and red robes that contrast so nicely with Lan Wangji's white and blue ones, and with that I am ready for the day. As I leave the inn, I notice there is nobody in sight. The birds are silent, hibernating for the winter, and there do not appear to be any Jiang cultivators in this area.

          Weird, what time is it?

          From looking at the sun in the sky, its position tells me it is probably still early, around nine in the morning. Without thinking much of it, I keep moving. Walking along the stone path and crossing the small wooden bridges of Lotus Pier, I can't help but feel sorrow knowing that these are some of the few parts of my hometown that did not burn down by the Wen clan's hands. I note the freshness of the wood and paper windows of the nearby buildings, as well as the newness of blooming lotuses, barring the cold weather and maintaining their soft pink petals.

          How perfect that the lotus is the themed flower of the YunmengJiang sect's people...through hell and back they have survived, and continue to flourish under Jiang Cheng.

          I smile at the thought of my brother and lifelong friend. Although we have had our weapons to each other's necks for decades, I wouldn't trade him for anyone else. He has hated me, sent for my death, and even encouraged the entire cultivational world to siege me, but yet I forgive his anger because I know it is justified. He has the right to hate me for what I have done, even if I did it all for what I feel is righteous. The rest of the world didn't agree. Not even Jiang Cheng. Though, Lan Zhan remained the entire time...

          Reminded of him, I feel anxious at the silence. Lotus Pier is normally filled with laughter, the sounds of clashing swords, children playing, and the everyday sounds of a proper cultivational sect—so why is it empty today? Where is everyone? Would Lan Zhan really have left me here alone? No, he would never do that to me...

          I feel my heart dance violently as I realize that something could have happened to him. My legs move on their own, carrying me from door to door as slam my fists against the wooden planks of each building, bruising my pale skin lightly. No one seems to be home. I move along to another area of the YunmengJiang sect, one with lots of trees and which is typically used for the juniors to train for night-hunts. Still, no one and nothing is here. The emptiness is expanded by the jarringly icy air that nips at the exposed patches of skin around my ankles and neck. The breeze picks up and blows the struggling leaves on the near-bare trees, and I watch as they cling for dear life. My head suddenly falls to my knees, along with my body to the ground, overwhelmed by the throbbing pain coming from within my skull. I can feel my chest clamp together like being squished between two closing walls, compressing my organs and preventing me from taking a breath. My eyes blur with haze as I struggle to figure out what is happening to my body. I lose feeling in my fingers and toes and stay motionless, paralyzed in fear.

          I have never feared death. I have been tortured and traumatized more times in life and in death than I could imagine humanly possible to bear, and yet, right now I am scared that I am being ripped apart by some invisible organ-eating demon? Really? Is this who I have become?

          The more my thoughts focus on negative feelings, the worse the pain becomes. I try to redirect my thoughts to Lan Zhan and A-Yuan, but the monster in my body that rips and eats away at my insides refuses to let up. I am convinced that there is something possessing me. I have never experienced such a strange sensation, and I begin to wonder if somehow I have accidentally used Empathy to connect myself to a spirit.