Chapter Text
A gentle breeze brushed past Wei Wuxian's hair. He grinned, his eyes tightly shut behind the blindfold. He notched an arrow to his bow and took aim, using the air around him as a guide for hitting his target. There was a small movement to his left and he turned, releasing the string with a twang. He quickly grabbed another arrow as a muffled sound of surprise reached his ears and fired again.
"Senior Wei!" The voice was pained. "I'm already on the ground. What kind of man are you, shooting someone who's already down?"
"The kind of hunter that doesn't let his prey escape," Wei Wuxian smirked, readying another arrow. He cocked his head to the side as he heard light footsteps, nearly inaudible even to his qi-enhanced hearing. "Speaking of..."
He fired, listening to the footsteps deftly dart out of the way. Not as light, this time. He fired again, setting up a string of arrows. Each one missed their mark, and then suddenly Wei Wuxian was grasping at air.
"Huh?" Wei Wuxian tore the blindfold off of his eyes and frowned. Was he out of arrows already?
At the edge of the treeline, Lan Sizhui emerged with eight arrows clutched in his hand. The end of each shaft held a pad filled with red dye, so that each hit would make a mark without damaging the victim. Lan Jingyi emerged from the other side of the treeline with the two arrows that had hit him.
"Not a mark on you, Sizhui!" Wei Wuxian exclaimed. "You're improving!"
"The first few arrows were places I had been, but then you switched to predicting my next move," Lan Sizhui explained. "Knowing your pattern helps. It's ironic that I'm actually worse against Jin Ling than I am against you."
"Ah, so that means you've moved to the next level," Wei Wuxian nodded sagely. "Next, you must try to evade more than one person shooting at you."
"Aren't you just trying to make things harder for us?" Lan Jingyi exclaimed as he tried to smudge the red ink from his face.
"Always!" Wei Wuxian cried jovially. "That's enough for today. You'll be late for your lesson with Lan Qiran if you wait any longer."
"Thank you, Senior Wei," Lan Sizhui said, smiling. "Then we'll leave you to clean up."
"Wait, what?" Wei Wuxian didn't have time to full express his psuedo-outrage over being stuck with finding the last two arrows in the woods and taking the inked arrows back to the training room before both of the juniors had dropped their arrows on the ground and were quickly walking back towards the front of the mountain.
Wei Wuxian bent down to grab the arrows on the ground, tilting his head as the trees rustled unexpected. He looked up just in time to see a white flash emerging from the tree line to bear down on him. "Ah!"
He twisted away just in time to avoid the bright sword that swung his way. Lan Jingyi and Lan Sizhui had already disappeared, leaving Wei Wuxian to fend for himself with less than a dozen not-real arrows. Subian was...back in the Jingshi, honestly, because Wei Wuxian hadn't thought to bring his sword. Again.
"Wait!" Wei Wuxian scrambled back, evaluating his options. His assailant was unknown, as was his sword. But Wei Wuxian could not mistake the ferocity of the attack. There were still a great many cultivators out in the world that held a grudge against the Yiling Patriarch, so being attacked by someone he didn't know wasn't so much as surprise. The location of the attack, however...how could this person have broken through the wards of the Lan clan to find Wei Wuxian on the back of the mountain like this?
To his surprise, the assailant actually did cease his attack. He stood back and faced Wei Wuxian, sword in hand and glaring at him with the most piercing gray eyes Wei Wuxian had ever seen.
Wei Wuxian clutched his flute in his hand, his only defense at the moment. He swallowed, trying to remember if he had met anyone such as the one standing in front of him before. His assailant's blond hair floated in the gentle breeze, too fine to fight against even that small brush. His sword was long and straight, and his body was shrouded in metal armor.
"I am Glorfindel, Lord of the House of the Golden Flower," his assailant said, staunchly. "And you, Wei Wuxian, have made a very dear friend of mine live a cursed, tortured existence. I will make sure you never have a chance to turn another person into such a cursed thing. Arm yourself, if you must, and let us end this."
Wei Wuxian could not help but hear the crashing of someone through the woods in the direction that Glorfindel had arrived from. He watched Glorfindel's eyes dart in that direction, as well, a troubled look coming over his face. Wei Wuxian took a step back, raising his flute to his lips. Even as he considered how unwise it would be to attempt demonic cultivation here in the Cloud Recesses, he felt the wave of demonic energy emitting from the woods. Summoning might have been out of the question, but he could certainly control whatever beast Glorfindel had brought with him.
"Glorfindel, stop!" The words had more of an effect on Wei Wuxian than they did on his assailant.
Wen Ning burst forth from the tree line, heading for Glorfindel. Wei Wuxian gaped as Glorfindel lowered his sword, looking more than a little upset at Wen Ning's interference.
"You should have come," he told Wen Ning as the fierce corpse positioned himself directly in between Glorfindel and Wei Wuxian. Wen Ning looked beside himself in dismay.
"Don't kill him!" Wen Ning pleaded.
"Wen Ning, you said so yourself that he cultivates demonic energy and used such to turn you into what you are today. How is a cultivator of demonic forces not evil?" Glorfindel demanded.
"Master Wei isn't!" Wen Ning insisted. He glanced back at Wei Wuxian and made a shooing motion.
Get away while I distract him! The motion seemed to say.
Wei Wuxian pictured himself using the flute at his lips to control Wen Ning, forcing Wen Ning to rip out his assailant's throat. Quickly, mercilessly. He quickly lowered the flute from his lips and banished the thought. It was beginning to dawn on him that the 'dear friend' Glorfindel might have been talking about was none other than Wen Ning, who was trying very hard to let Wei Wuxian escape the righteous wrath of what appeared to be Wen Ning's other friend.
"Hey, if you're going to go around taking vengeance for everyone who's ever wronged Wen Ning, then why not start with the people who kept him a prisoner and tortured him for over a decade instead of the one who pulled those nails from his head?" Wei Wuxian cried out, annoyance creeping to the surface.
If Glorfindel had been angry on Wen Ning's behalf, then surely he should have started with righteously killing Jin Guangshan, Jin Guangyao, Su She, and Xue Yang. But those people had all died now, leaving Wei Wuxian as the sole person alive who had done wrong to Wen Ning, by bringing him back as a fierce corpse. And did being a fierce corpse really count as a 'cursed existence' when Wen Ning's life had been cut so short? By bringing his consciousness back, Wei Wuxian had done him a favor!
"Nails?" Confusion crossed Glorfindel's face, followed swiftly by concern. Wei Wuxian's lips twisted into a small smile. Wen Ning hadn't even mentioned his treatment at the hands of the Lanling Jin clan, had he? Indeed, he probably wouldn't have even mentioned Wei Wuxian at all if he hadn't had to explain his fierce corpse condition. "Wen Ning, why--"
"I didn't want you to know!" Wen Ning exclaimed, taking a moment to drop his shooing motion and send a stern glance in Wei Wuxian's direction. "They're gone now, so it doesn't matter...and neither does this! Please, Glorfindel, let's just leave. You have no fight with Master Wei."
"You have no fight with him," Glorfindel lowered his sword fully, finally sheathing it. His voice was strained, still full of righteous anger. "Because he is your friend, and you value your friendship more than your own suffering. It's a good trait to have. But that does not fully redeem him from his crime."
"The crime being saving Wen Ning's life by turning him into a fierce corpse," Wei Wuxian cut in from where he was standing. He crossed his arms, leaning back as he looked between Wen Ning and Glorfindel. It wasn't that he wasn't afraid of Glorfindel, who with one swipe of his sword had nearly ended Wei Wuxian. He was honestly still very, very wary of the other warrior trying to kill him. On the other hand, having Wen Ning between them made him feel much safer, safe enough to put out a few prods himself.
"Yes," Glorfindel lifted his eyes to his, and Wei Wuxian was once again struck by how old Glorfindel seemed. Even the oldest people Wei Wuxian knew didn't have eyes like that, eyes that had seen so much.
His cultivation level is far above mine, even when I was a handsome youth at the height of my power. Wei Wuxian frowned at the thought. Who exactly was Wen Ning's friend?
"There were extenuating circumstances," Wei Wuxian replied, his voice clipped. Those days of pain and struggle, a dark chapter of his life, seemed cursed to come back and haunt him. "I did what I could."
Glorfindel looked about to argue--probably some line about how demonic cultivation was not the righteous path and should not be taken no matter the circumstances, a line Wei Wuxian had heard a million times before--when Wen Ning spoke up.
"There were a lot of circumstances," Wen Ning reached out to grasp Glorfindel's shoulder. "I didn't explain fully because it's in the past and I don't want to relive it. But I really wouldn't be here today without Master Wei, and I harbor no ill will towards him for my transformation. Glorfindel, please. There's no reason to be here."
Wei Wuxian watched Glorfindel as he clearly struggled, not wanting to let it go so easily. Even with Wen Ning's cajoling, it was obvious that Glorfindel had a protective streak...or perhaps was just truly intolerant of demonic cultivation, and like so many others, was unwilling to let someone he considered 'evil' walk the paths of the world.
"No reason to be here?" Wei Wuxian echoed in surprise. "Wen Ning, if you've come all this way, the least you can do is share a jar of wine with me. You and your friend both! What about that place in Caiyi Town we always go to?"
That way I can bring Lan Zhan to back me up if this turns violent...Wen Ning, who exactly is your friend?
Glorfindel looked between Wen Ning's pleading face and Wei Wuxian before releasing a sigh and nodding. He reached up, covering Wen Ning's hand on his arm before sliding their hands off as one. He didn't let go.
Wen Ning turned to Wei Wuxian, his expression hopeful. "Then...we'll meet you there. I'm sorry Glorfindel tried to kill you. I didn't...explain things well."
Glorfindel looked as though he remained unconvinced that it was Wen Ning's lack of explanation that led to this 'misunderstanding'. Wei Wuxian nodded and reached down to pick up the arrows he had dropped earlier.
"I run into that all the time," Wei Wuxian made an attempt to play off the attempt to murder him. "It just doesn't usually happen when I'm in the Cloud Recesses."
Wen Ning had the good graces to look embarrassed, answering the most important question Wei Wuxian had. He must have told Glorfindel how to enter the wards at some point.
Wen Ning, you skimp on important details like how you were tortured for years, but tell your friend trivial secrets like how to get into the Cloud Recesses! Will you please just grow a brain already? Wei Wuxian thought.
"The wards here are well-made, for humans," Glorfindel acknowledged. "We will see you in town."
He turned and left, his hand sliding off of Wen Ning's. Wen Ning lingered behind, casting a glance in Glorfindel's direction before looking back at Wei Wuxian.
"I really am sorry, Master Wei, I..."
"You need to stop apologizing, Wen Ning," Wei Wuxian reminded him. "Go on, I'll clean up and meet you in town."
As Wen Ning nodded and turned away, disappearing into the trees, something caught in Wei Wuxian's chest. Whether he had realized it or not, he had always been worried about Wen Ning walking the world as a fierce corpse, worried that he would spend a life alone, no one accepting him for what he truly was.
Now, he had a friend, someone who he had met and befriended on his own. Wen Ning was walking his own path, and Wei Wuxian was so very proud of him.