Blood on the Altar (HuaLian TGCF)

Chapter 13

Feng Xin and Mu Qing freeze at the sight of him, their eyes widening, their lips parting, their faces paling in matching expressions of shock. For his own part Xie Lian isn't much better off. It's been 800 years since he's seen either of them and now, to run into them like this... Maybe he should have realized that there was a chance, that fighting ghosts in the South was stepping into Martial God territory, but he didn't realized and so now he stands just as rooted by shock as his too former retainers.

"...Your highness?" It's Feng Xin who brakes the silence, voice suddenly gone hoarse and shaky. "...is it really you?"

"Of course it's him! Don't you have eyes?" Mu Qing snaps, but even he is staring at Xie Lian as though he's seeing a ghost ...And maybe he has.

Xie Lian's hair is neatly tied, his skin cleaned of stain of work or travel, his robes are fine white silk, his sword is ornate, its scabbard embossed, its hilt jeweled, even his body has started to lose the thinness of hunger and his eyes the circles of exhaustion.

He looks, in short, like the Crown Prince of Xianle.

Not exactly like. His robes, though fine, are simple, and he wears no ornaments except the silver chain that disappears beneath his collar. Even if he had those things he could never truly be that naive pampered boy again, not with the scars on his throat and the shadows in his eyes, but it's close, certainly far closer than he was last time he parted from them.

"What are you doing here!?" Mu Qing demands, his tone sharp with accusation as though Xie Lian should have known better.

"I was clearing out some man eating ghosts."

"...You still do things like that?" Feng Xin asks slowly, feeling out the words, but his eyes glint with something familiar, something akin to the way he looked at Xie Lian once long ago and at the sight of that look Xie Lian isn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

'What would he think if he saw me looking the way I did when San Lang first found me? Would he still look at me like this?'

"But that's god's work!" Mu Qing snaps and Feng Xin wheels on him.

"What the fuck is your problem! He's helping people! Do you have some problem with that!?"

Mu Qing folds his arms, turning from Xie Lian to glare at Feng Xin. "Don't you!? Or do you still need him to handle the dangerous things for you!?"

"It's alright" Xie Lian tries but neither of them seem to hear him. In truth Xie Lian isn't sure quite what to say. It's been hundreds of years and it all sounds so familiar and so unfamiliar at the same time that he's feeling a bit overwhelmed with the suddenness of it all.

"Please like you care what happens to him! Like you've ever fucking cared!"

"Oh so you know what I do and don't care about now!?"

"You fucking abandoned him!"

"Like you didn't! Couldn't deal with all the hard work! Looks like he's doing just fine now though! Seems he didn't need you after all!"

"What would you know about what he needed!? You're the one who walked out on him when he needed you most!"

Xie Lian's gut twists. The memories they're bringing back to him aren't exactly ...pleasant. Maybe at another time he could have handled it all with a smile but his mind has been all too raw with memory and nightmare lately and he finds that he really, truly, can't.

"Stop. Please." He steps between them, raising his hands to separate them just as the two martial gods lunge for each other. They skid to a halt staggering in their efforts not to strike him and end up coming to a stop right beside him.

"Your highness watch... What's that!?" Feng Xin changes direction mid-sentence, his eyes widening in horror as he gets his first good look at Xie Lian's neck.

"It looks like someone tried to slit his throat." Mu Qing's voice is tight with anger and Xie Lian realizes with surprise that it's anger on his behalf.

"Here, let me heal it." Feng Xin's hand moves toward him and Xie Lian instinctively stumbles backward, his hand rising protectively to his throat.

"No don't!"

"Where are you going!? We can pass you spiritual power to take care of it." Mu Qing takes a step forward, annoyance strong in his voice.

"I don't want it healed, I don't..." Xie Lian feels his back collide with something and then there's a hand on his shoulder steadying him. "San Lang." He lets out a breath of relief, his panic calming and mind clearing even as his too former retainers tense, their expressions hardening as they reach for their weapons.

"What are you doing?" Xie Lian looks blankly between Mu Qing's drawn sword and the arrow held taught on Feng Xin's bow.

"Your highness, get over here, now." Mu Qing's voice is suddenly deadly serious.

"Get your fucking hand off of him!" Feng Xin's voice is sharp and filled with sudden fury.

"Is there a problem here?" San Lang's voice, in contrast, is mild, calm even, but Xie Lian can sense an undertone to the calm, like a windless day right before the thunder strikes. "Your highness, have these two been upsetting you?"

"I told you not to touch him!" Feng Xin pulls the string of his bow back even farther, about to lose.

"Xie Lian, Move!" Mu Qing snaps, sword in one hand, a fire ball bursting to light in the other. He arcs his arm back, ready to throw.

And Xie Lian....

He looks over his shoulder at the supreme ghost king behind him, then back at his two oldest friends, and then he raises his arms to either side and steps fully in front of Wu Ming.