Second Time Around

8. Pay Attention

After XuanWu's Cave

Lan WangJi thanked the Jiangs for rescuing him from XuanWu’s cave and left for Cloud Recesses. Heavy in heart and heavy in mind, he gathered up the few sect brothers and sisters he could find in and around his home while avoiding Wen hunting parties. His brother was missing. His father was dead. His uncle was severely wounded and ill. Walking on a broken leg was inadvisable. Walking on a broken leg that was also punctured by that imitation XuanWu’s teeth and after starving for several days was even more inadvisable. 

Weeks later, Lan WangJi knelt, ignoring the pains in his leg, to close yet another girl’s eyes. And a girl she was: a junior disciple, perhaps thirteen or fourteen. How she was separated from the rest of her family he didn’t know. She, or her missing companions, had apparently taken down a few of the Wen; he left their eyes open to the skies. He’d burn their bodies later.

But this girl should have some rites for her death. It would help if he knew something about her. He sat and played the opening notes to Inquiry. {Who are you?}

The notes that answered back were jumbled and made no sense. {I am} was clear enough. The name was not. {I know your friend Wei WuXian} came through loud and clear. 

{How did you die? Who are your family?} His guqin played notes back, but they once again made no sense. He understood ‘drunk’, ‘driver’ and ‘crash’. What any of those words had to do with this junior cultivator, he had no idea.

{I’m not the spirit you called. She moved on to reincarnation as soon as she arrived here. } And that made more sense. But his Inquiry was good enough that he should have called the junior cultivator’s spirit not just any wandering soul. {People tend to think of time as water flowing in a deep and wide river,} the spirit continued in a non-sequitur. {Flowing from past to future. But what happens if you throw a pebble into the river? The water will flow upstream for a while before resuming its course. If you throw a large enough rock, the water will jump in all directions quite a distance. 

{Over the next five or six years of your time, Wei WuXian may make a series of rather selfless mistakes that ultimately will lead to his death. For us, this has already happened. Wei WuXian wll commit suicide and set off an explosion that sends his soul forward over a thousand years through time to meet me. That same explosion allowed his soul to travel back in time to today.}

Lan WangJi’s finger stilled over the strings. Wei WuXian will commit suicide? Why? What mistakes? He forced his fingers to ask that question. {What will happen? Why will he choose to die?}

{I won’t tell you that. I will tell you that without more people standing by his side, he will make similar mistakes this time around. If you don’t want him to die young again, I suggest you pay more attention.}

{Pay attention to what?} But the strings didn’t answer. 

Lan WangJi buried the disciple, deciding to not think about Wei WuXian as he dug out the grave. That boy was a menace to everyone around him. Irreverent and undisciplined. And so smart. And a mouth that never seemed to shut up. Even half drowned and feverish, Wei Ying insisted upon talking nonsense. 

Even half drowned and feverish, Wei Ying insisted upon using his herbs to try to heal Lan Zhan’s leg instead of healing his own burn and bruises. He really was a selfless idiot at times. 

Lan WangJi knew of several ways to shut Wei Ying up. There was the traditional wad of cloth and a tie. Wei Ying’s hair ribbon would do nicely for that. The Lan silencing spell also worked quite well, even though there was a limit as to how long it lasted…. Reapplying the spell was easy, though. 

Then there were… other ways to shut the loudmouth up. He’d dreamed of them so many times. 

The first few dreams had been overwhelmingly embarrassing. Wei Ying being his normal outrageous self and Lan Zhan grabbing him, kissing him until he woke up sweaty and in a state that refused to go away without… doing that. But then Lan WangJi had come across guest disciples sharing porn, and had sent them to his uncle for discipline. And then read the books before burning them.