Chaos incarnate 

3

Two days later within the witching hours of 3am one of Xie Lian's protection wards snapped.

The boy who was resting peacefully, suddenly felt his body seize up before his mind frayed at the edge, his eyes snapped open with a start and he found himself sat upright in the old four poster bed of his room.

Just like rope that's pulled to tightly Xie Lian felt as if he himself had been pulled in two. And his separated mind tried desperately to re connect in his sleepy state.

Even so the witch pushed hard to fight it looking around the room in panic.

Shi Qingxuan was nowhere to be found at first but Xie Lian soon calmed once he saw the feline snoozing in their tiger form. At least they weren't awoken by the huge wave of terror a ward breaking sends to the caster.

So quickly and as quietly as possible, the witch made his way down towards the broken ward to replace it.

This would have never happened centuries ago. Back when he was free from injuries. When he had unlimited power. When he was a god among men.

Now creating a ward brings his body physical pain. His reserves far too low and the fact it was broken...

Xie Lian doesn't even need to know why. Weather it was something or someone... or the sadder fact of maybe he just couldn't maintain it.

Sighing at himself he places the best temporary barrier up that he can muster. Arms outstretched panting he chants lowly. A thin ward weaves itself into the array and Xie Lian collapses.

He has so little magic left. He coughs from the floor grimacing as blood tinged his mouth and hand. A witch is nothing without their life source. Xie Lian although immortal, was running out of life force. Steadily himself he stands. Take a few test steps and opens up the front door. He goes outside to check the surroundings.

Amber eyes droop and the crescent moon above him offers very little support. Other than the sense of something powerful being nearby he could see nothing wrong with the house or grounds that it sits on. And when he focused on the sent he could find nothing harmful or murderous about it.

Xie Lian ever paranoid did three laps of the house before deeming it safe and stopping.

He sits on the front decking and mourns the loss of his warm bed. But with such a flimsy repair job Xie Lian can't find it to go to sleep even if he's desperate too. He doesn't want to pull from Shi Qingxuan either as he knows the familiar would stay up instead or even offer some life force to boost Xie Lian's power. Both destructive. One far more so than the other, yet something tells the witch that white tiger would happily choose that one first.

Xie Lian was very tired. And clearly his mind was wandering around trying to find something to grasp onto. Old memories he can't make out. The latest poison he created. It was incredibly affective. The two found out when it was accidentally spilt over a flower and said item wilted and crumbled within seconds.

So when his mind wanders to the sweet poison of his neighbour, San Lang was happily occupying half of his mind already why not make it a full house? He didn't find it strange. A soft gently sent washed over him. Familiar yet far off like a dream or a hazy memory from afar. He wanted to reach out and grab it. Trap it and stay by it forever.

The boy grumbles happily leaning into the smell. "Be careful." He warned himself. "Not safe yet."

This meaning to tell his brain not to lull him to sleep with sweet words and memories as the house was barely protected. He had to stay awake. He couldn't sleep yet. He couldn't sleep at all really. Not when the ward broke so suddenly. Not when the potential for evil was out there.