Chapter Text
A prologue before a thread is pulled...
WEI YING
The sun was almost gone from the sky. It would be dark soon.
Wei Ying waited for his mom’s voice calling him for dinner or for his dad to pick him up for the night. Today, like so many days before, his mom and dad didn’t come for him.
Wei Ying didn’t like this time of the day, it made his chest feel heavy… it made it harder for him to be happy.
He remembered his parents tucking him in at the inn on the other side of the street so many days and nights ago.
They would put him to bed and go out to fight the evil monsters, and they would be there when he woke up the next morning, like they always did.
Wei Ying was only four and that was the life he knew. He would travel with his parents, spend his days on the road, get to explore new places. At night they would camp under the stars or find a nice inn where he would sleep when his parents had to go out to night-hunt. His mom and dad were cultivators; their job was to keep Wei Ying and all the people in all the places they visited, safe.
“You want everyone to be happy, right A-Ying?” his mom would ask him when he didn’t want to let them go.
Wei Ying thought that everyone being happy was nice, he liked being happy so other people must like it too. He would nod and his mom would give him a big beautiful smile.
“You need to be brave and sleep little man and we will be back to wake you up in the morning”. His dad would tell him. “If you don’t sleep, you will be too tired to smile tomorrow, and if you don’t smile how can we be happy?” So Wei Ying would sleep.
When Wei Ying woke up in the inn on the other side of the street so many mornings ago, his mom and dad had not been there.
He waited and waited and then slept again but they did not come back.
He didn’t know how much time passed while he waited in the room but, at some point, the chambermaids had come in and found him there. They asked about his parents; he explained that they had gone to fight the monsters and they would be back to wake him up. The maids had looked sad and Wei Ying had smiled at them.
“You don’t have to worry, the monsters won’t be hurting this town anymore,” he explained. The maids patted him on the head but had still looked a bit sad to him.
They helped him collect the belongings in the room, led him downstairs and gave him food. They told him that the owners needed the room for other guests but he could wait for his parents in the inn’s restaurant.
Wei Ying waited, but by the time the restaurant was closing, his parents had yet to come back.
The waiters led the last patrons outside and Wei Ying found himself alone in a dark street.
That night he fell asleep on the steps of the building in front of the inn.
He was roughly awoken at sunrise by someone yelling that he couldn’t sleep on the steps of their shop.
His parents still were not back.
Those first days, Wei Ying discovered that most people didn’t like him sleeping in front of their places. Sometimes he would be moved out of the way while he slept in his blanket. That was always disorienting, whether he woke up while being moved or only afterwards. Other times he would start awake because someone was yelling at him to go away. He liked that even less. It always made his heart beat very fast and his hands shake.
He slept in the shelter of most of the doors near the inn before he discovered an old cart in a nearby alley. The cart had a broken wheel and nobody ever moved it, it provided better cover than the doorways, especially when it rained. People didn’t bother him there in the morning and, if he huddled under the cart, he could still see the street in front of the inn. He had been sleeping there every night since.
It had been many nights since then.
He had become hungry many times.
The first times it made him cry. That hadn’t helped without his mom to fix it. One time a nice lady led him to a market a couple of streets away from the inn, and bought him meat buns. It had made him miss his mom very much, but he made sure to smile at the nice lady and thank her.
Once he learned the way to the market, Wei Ying discovered that most days there was discarded food left behind after the vendors retired for the day.
He wasn’t always lucky. Sometimes other people got there before him. Other times there were the dogs.
Wei Ying really didn’t like the dogs.
Even when he got to the food first, the dogs wouldn’t share. They would attack him instead and their bites hurt a lot.
One time they hurt so much that it took him almost the whole night to get back to the alley where the cart was. That had been a very bad night, worse than when the cold came, because he had been really worried that he wouldn’t reach the inn before morning.
He didn’t remember some of the days after that night. His leg had hurt a lot and then everything had hurt for a while. He thought that there had been food under the cart those days.
After that Wei Ying became more careful of the dogs. He didn’t always manage to avoid them, and sometimes he had to fight them for the food, but he started carrying a stick so he could make them let go when he wasn’t fast enough.
Since the bad night he had managed to be close to the inn every morning.
He had to be there so his parents could wake him up when they came back.
Wei Ying couldn’t recall their voices but, every time the sun went down, he listened carefully, in case someone called him for dinner, because he knew that would be his mom.
When the people in the town retired for the night, he made sure to be in the middle of the street, easy to find, in case someone was there to pick him up, because that would be his dad.
Everyday, when the sun went down, it was a little harder to smile... he couldn’t remember his mom and dad very well anymore…
NIE MINGJUE
Nie Mingjue and his retinue arrived at Yiling in the evening.
In a normal night hunt he would have proceeded straight to checking out the area of the disturbance. In this case, however, he didn’t have enough information to do that.
He had jumped on a rumor without sending anyone on reconnaissance. Now he was going to have to deal with the investigation’s leg work first.
He was itching for a fight but he couldn’t afford to be more rash than he already had been.
It was barely half a year since Nie Mingjue had taken his place as leader of the Qinghe Nie Sect after his father’s passing. He couldn’t afford to seem hot headed. He also, however, couldn’t help the frustration of months spent trying to stabilize his position with the other big cultivation Sects while still grieving.
The cherry on top was the knowledge that the leader of one of those Sects was the cause of his father’s demise, and no one would move a finger against the man, because the Wen Sects was way too powerful to go up against.
One day half a year ago, when he thought he still had years to enjoy night hunts without a worry, Nie Mingjue had suddenly found himself with a sect and a clan to lead, an enemy too powerful to even acknowledge, and a little brother at home he was supposed to raise.
And swinging his sabre at any of it wouldn’t fix anything.
He had spent months doing nothing but negotiating with Sects leaders, most of whom acted more like greedy politicians than the just and righteous cultivators he expected them to be.
He needed to swing Baxia at something or he was going to qi-deviate before he turned twenty.
That morning, after wrapping up his visit to Lotus Pier and the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, he told his men to keep an ear out for news of night hunts on their way back to Qinghe.
He was hoping they’d find something he could kill before they got home.
When they stopped for water, a member of his retinue overheard a group of travellers discussing disturbances plaguing the area north of Yiling.
While Yiling was not exactly on their route back to Qinghe, it wasn’t too far off course either, so he had ordered a detour, and marched straight to the town.
“Nie Zonghui, find us an inn for the night” he charged his second as soon as they landed.
Nie Zonghui bowed and sped ahead while the rest of the group made their way into the town at a more sedate pace.
They would start asking questions about the disturbances in the morning.
For now Nie Mingjue had to get his cultivators a place for the night. Then he would have a few drinks and leave the rest of the group free to roam.
A few minutes later Nie Zonghui was back and guiding the group towards the centre of the town.
They passed a large street where the last stalls of what was probably a lively market were being packed up for the night. It would be a good place to ask questions in the morning.
While they were crossing the market area, one of the few street vendors still around finished packing his wares and started pushing his cart away.
Every few steps, something rolled down from a basket that was hanging half on and half off the cart.
Nie Mingjue was about to speed up to alert the man, when a child dressed in mismatched clothing came out of a side alley.
The little urchin didn’t seem to notice their group and, after a backward glance towards the alley, went after the lost items.
He collected them one by one in the folded front of his too big shirt.
Once he had all of them, Nie Mingjue expected the child to turn around and flee with his trove.
That was not, however, what happened.
After gathering the dropped items, the child didn’t leave, speeding up towards the vendor instead.
“Sir! Master Vendor! Stop! Sir!”
The cart stopped and the vendor turned to the boy who was standing a few paces away holding the recovered items up to him.
At the sight of his wares, the man stalked up to the tiny figure, grabbed the items and pushed the boy away, none too kindly.
The child lost his balance and landed on the floor.
Nie Mingjue was about to intervene when the boy surprised him again.
After a brief pause, in which the vendor had resumed pushing the cart away, the child shook his head, pulled himself up and chased after the man, again.
What was the child after? Judging from what he had just witnessed, Nie Mingjue didn’t think that the vendor was the kind to reward good deeds. The child was risking more than disappointment if the shove had been any indication. Nie Mingjue wouldn’t stand for that but the child was being reckless.
The boy caught up to the cart, reached out for the basket that was hanging half off losing content, and pushed it back in.
Then he turned around keeping some distance from the vendor - not completely reckless then - and smiled at the man.
Nie Mingjue was baffled.
He could not see the vendor’s face but the man had clearly been about to start shouting before suddenly realising the situation.
The image of the man sputtering at the smiling boy, with an arm frozen halfway up in the air, was ridiculous; and Nie Mingjue found himself snorting down half a laugh.
The child kept smiling for a few more seconds, then shrugged, bowed and left, disappearing around a corner.
Nie Mingjue stepped forward... not entirely sure what for at this point.
He didn’t know what to make of the child’s actions but was feeling somewhat irritated towards the vendor. He had enough pent up frustration without having to witness random acts of unkindness towards children.
The boy couldn’t have been older than his little brother.
By the time Nie Mingjue reached the street vendor, the man was a short distance away from the alley the child had disappeared into.
Nie Mingjue spared a look in that direction but there was no trace of the boy, the only thing moving in the narrow street was a dog sniffing the air.
He called out to the vendor and the man stopped, his eyes widening at the sight of Nie Mingjue.
The Qinghe Nie Sect was the most martial and military oriented of the cultivation sects and Nie Mingjue possessed not only the training, but also the build to inspire the kind of respect appropriate for a Sect Leader, no matter his relatively young age.
After a moment of bewilderment the vendor was bowing halfway to the floor.
“What can this humble one do for you, esteemed cultivator? Unfortunately I don’t have much left at the end of the day... but if the good sir is in town tomor-”
“What were the items on the floor?” Nie Mingjue interrupted.
The vendor seemed confused for a second before grasping what Nie Mingjue was asking.
“Oh, you shouldn’t trouble yourself with that, good sir. Those were just rice cakes’ remnants, not good anymore. I will have fresh batches tomorrow… do you wish to reserve some maybe?”
The man had acquired an unfortunate simpering smile that reminded Nie Mingjue of way too many recent meetings, which didn’t help Nie Mingjue’s irritation.
“What do you do with those leftovers?”
The man, again, seemed confused. “They are dumped in the mix of the pigs’ feed?” he answered in what sounded more like a question.
“Who was the child that was here a moment ago?” Nie Mingjue continued.
“The child?”
“Yes. The little boy that ran that way.”
“Oh. Nothing to worry about good sir. Just a homeless rascal.”
“Not worthy of charity?”
“Uh?” the man clearly wasn’t following but Nie Mingjue wasn’t interested in explaining.
He had just wanted to find out if the vendor had a reason for the uncompassionate display, not have a discussion with the man about virtues.
“Is your business good?” Nie Mingjue continued.
“Oh yes! Very good! My wife and sons have their own carts in other markets. Our cakes are the most popular!”
“I see.” said Nie Mingjue, turning around and dismissing the man. What he saw was that this conversation was pointless. He didn’t know what he had thought he would achieve talking to the man but this hadn’t helped his temper.
Nie Mingjue took a breath relaxing his stance.
Being uncharitable wasn’t a felony and the world was full of uncharitable individuals. The vendor just happened to remind him that such was true between common people as much as in the cultivation world.
Where his frustration was concerned, maybe Nie Mingjue would have been better served talking to the child, his action had been peculiar if nothing else.
He needed a drink.
The inn that Nie Zonghui had found was not too far from the market. The place was clean and the food was tasty in the style of Yunmeng.
Nie Mingjue ordered a couple of jars of the local wine and retired for the night, leaving orders to his group to see if any of the patrons had heard of the disturbances before going to bed. They would continue the investigation in the morning.
Drinking alone wasn’t a pastime he usually indulged in. There wasn’t much satisfaction without friends or family to share the pleasure with.
But most of his friends were now his subordinates.
Not that they hadn’t been when he was just the sect heir, but the distinction seemed heavier now. He wasn’t sure if he was the one burdened by that weight, or they were.
As for family, his mother had been gone for years and his father had been the last of his line and was now gone too. He really didn't have much of a family left.
As soon as the thought crossed his mind he felt incredibly guilty.
He had a little brother at home who had been extremely upset at being left behind.
Huaisang wasn’t old enough to drink with him, but he would be in a few years.
Nie Mingjue still had a family, if a very small one.
The bittersweet thought came with the unfortunate helping of one of the worries he was trying to drink away: he had no clue about how to be there for Huaisang now that all roles were his. Brother, parent, Sect leader, protector, friend? ...
The loss of their father had hit both of them hard and Nie Mingjue didn’t know how to be there for the kid, nor how to find the time to be there.
The room suddenly felt stifling. He moved to the window, opening the shutters on the cool night, trying to empty his mind. He sat on the sill with his eyes closed, breathing in the night air. He would have been meditating if he hadn’t been busy emptying the last of the wine.
When he opened his eyes to put down the jar, movement at the street level caught his attention.
Almost right in front of his window, there was a dead-end alley that connected to the main street. An old cart was leaning askew against the end wall and he thought he saw something disappearing underneath it. When he turned to look, the only thing moving was a small bun rolling on the floor away from the cart.
A moment later a dog sped into the alley from the main street stopping in front of the item. It sniffed at it, closed its jaws around the food and walked away in the direction it had appeared from.
Nie Mingjue remained at the window a while longer, observing the alley, trying to relax. By the time he went to bed nothing else had moved.
When he went down for breakfast the next morning, most of his subordinates had already left to gather information about the disturbance and Nie Mingjue joined Nie Zonghui at the table.
“I think we will have enough information by lunchtime to go check the area this afternoon” Nie Zonghui informed him.
“Good. As much as I want a hunt we cannot afford to be away from Qinghe much longer.”
Nie Zonghui nodded and continued: “I questioned the innkeeper. He said that things have gotten worse in the last couple of years.”
Nie Mingjue started on his breakfast and motioned for Nie Zonghui to go on.
“With Yiling being so close to the Burial Mounds, the people here know that there are areas they should not approach...”
Damn. It hadn’t even occurred to Nie Mingjue yesterday to consider what lay next to Yiling.
He really hoped they hadn’t made the trip just to discover that the disturbances were coming from the Burial Mounds. There was nothing even an army of cultivators could do for that forsaken place. Sects had tried and lost entire branches in the attempts.
“The innkeeper says that the disturbances affect the woods that are on the side of town opposite to the Mounds” Nie Zonghui said, probably correctly interpreting Nie Mingjue’s scowl. “He claims that the area north of the town had always been safe before.”
Well, that was good then.
“Two years is a long time. I guess that the proximity of the Burial Mounds explains why no cultivators have shown up so far. Even if the town approached any Sects about this, as likely as not they would have assumed that the disturbances were coming from the Mounds and dismissed the request” mused Nie Mingjue.
Nie Zonghui nodded but wasn’t done. “About that. One of the maids I talked to said that a pair of cultivators did show up a little over a year ago. It seems that they went to investigate the area and never came back.”
Nie Mingjue frowned. “Do we know which sect they belonged to?”
“No, the maid said they weren’t wearing any distinctive colour or ornaments.”
That didn’t confirm much of anything. Common people were rarely familiar enough with the cultivation world to be able to pinpoint most sects.
“I see. So either she didn’t recognise the uniforms, or they were rogue cultivators.” Nie Mingjue concluded.
“It would explain why no sect came to check what happened to them, if they really disappeared.” now it was Nie Zonghui who was frowning.
Missing cultivators were a rare enough occurrence and the idea of the bodies of cultivators abandoned in the field without a proper burial was upsetting.
Any sect would raise the alarm if their members went missing during a night hunt.
Nie Mingjue did not discard the possibility that the cultivators had simply left, but if that wasn’t the case, then the option of them being rogue cultivators was more likely.
“Anything about what we might be dealing with?” Nie Mingjue asked.
“Nothing certain. Apparently most people who ventured into the north woods in the last two years were never seen again. The few who escaped recount of wailing screams and sudden whipping drafts in otherwise calm air.”
“Vengeful spirit then.”
“Seems likely.”
“Alright. Let’s go see if the others found out anything else and move this along.”
---
The spirits had been vicious.
Even now that they had been dealt with, Nie Mingjue could not tell exactly how many there had been.
It was a good thing they had gotten there before sundown. As soon as the sky had started to darken, it had felt like there was a sudden influx of dark energy fuelling the spirits and enraging them further, giving them more power.
If he hadn't had such a large group of skilled cultivators with him, he wasn’t sure they could have kept up with the surge of resentful energy without losing anyone.
A full group of juniors might not have made it out at all and likely a couple of cultivators by themselves definitely wouldn't have had enough man power to handle the mess
Now that the spirits had been dealt with, the whole area was going to need cleansing. Especially since they hadn’t been able to retrieve the remains of any of the missing people.
He was going to have to contact the Yunmeng Jiang Sect as they were the closest.
Leaving an area affected by resentful energy this close to the Burial Mounds was asking for trouble but he didn’t have the resources with him for such an endeavor.
The only thing Nie Mingjue knew about the Burial Mounds was that stepping inside meant death for cultivators and commoners alike.
Hell, it meant death for spirits too, as nothing would ever leave that gods accursed place.
He didn’t know if the Burial Mounds expanded - or could expand - but if it did, a tainted area on the other side of Yiling could turn into a noose ready to choke the town.
He would send someone to help the Yunmeng Jiang if they didn’t want to handle the situation alone.
The night hunt had been intense and exactly what he had been looking for.
He finally felt like he had done something. Baxia was still humming on his back.
Once they got back to the inn, he told the others that they would depart early the next morning and head straight for Qinghe this time. They could make it home in thirteen or fourteen hours if they sped on their blades, and it would be good endurance training.
Nie Mingjue retired to his room with a jar of the same wine he had the night before and sat on the sill again. Window open to let in the night air.
The stress that had been plaguing him until the previous day had quieted down and he wanted to enjoy the feeling for a while longer before going to sleep.
He was looking at the alley with the cart when a draft of wind made the shadows move under the wagon.
It wasn’t the same movement he had caught the night before but it looked like there was something shifting under that cart.
Curiosity piqued, Nie Mingjue figured it would only take a moment to check it out and then he would go to bed.
He didn’t really feel like going through the common room and explaining to his men what he was doing so he checked the street on both sides and, when he was sure there was no one about, jumped off the window right to the alley.
He landed a few steps away from the cart and peaked underneath.
There was a bundle lying there.
One of the corners of an old blanket flapped around whenever a draft of wind hit the alley. Very likely what had attracted his attention.
Nie Mingjue stepped closer to get a better view.
The bundle was a child.
Or rather, a child was inside the bundle.
And the child inside the bundle was the child from the market the night before.
Nie Mingjue thought he was about to regret indulging his bout of curiosity.
What now?
Was he supposed to do something?
The little boy was lying on his side, hugging a worn travel sack, and half wrapped in the blanket. There was an arm-long stick lying on the sack next to the child’s hand.
He seemed smaller up close.
Nie Mingjue looked around under the cart. An empty bowl, a spoon, a small pile of rocks, a couple of wood boards were scattered on the paving.
If he had to guess, Nie Mingjue would have said this was where the child lived.
He was definitely regretting his curiosity.
There wasn’t really anything for him to do - which didn’t help with the feeling of unease that was setting over him.
This town should take better care of its poor, especially if there were children living in the streets. Nie Mingjue was well aware that this was none of his business -this wasn’t Qinghe; nonetheless it didn’t sit right with him.
He could mention it to the Jiang when he wrote to them about the woods’ cleansing. Yiling was close enough to Yunmeng that they would have some authority here. They might be able to do something.
Yes, that sounded good.
With one more look at the child and feeling like he had found an answer, Nie Mingjue flew back to his room, penned a letter to Jiang Fengmian and went to bed.
The next morning, Nie Zonghui woke him up at five thirty as per his request.
Request that he was regretting at the moment. He was not an early riser and tended to be more irritable the earlier he woke up; but he kept his grumblings internal, since an early departure was the only way to sleep in his bed that night.
Nie Mingjue joined the rest of his retinue in the common room where the innkeeper had arranged an early breakfast for them.
There were no other patrons milling around yet and the town outside was still mostly asleep.
The innkeeper was serving them himself and the only waitress that seemed to be about was a young girl who was currently sneaking out through the front door.
From his seat near the window Nie Mingjue could see the girl moving outside and heading to the alley with the cart.
Nie Mingjue groaned internally and, knowing that he was going to be wondering about it the whole day if he didn’t check it out, excused himself and headed to the alley.
Once he got there he found the girl kneeling next to the cart and fumbling with something underneath.
“What are you doing?”
The girl startled and stumbled backwards choking down a yelp. She looked at him, then looked under the cart, then at him again.
“I-I was just…” she raised a small jar of something like it was an explanation and inclined her head towards the cart.
Nie Mingjue wasn’t sure what that was supposed to explain. He stepped closer and bent down, so he could see whatever was in the jar and the child he knew he would find under the cart.
Initially he had thought that the girl brought food but the jar seemed to contain some kind of ointment instead.
This didn’t clear anything up until he turned to look at the child.
The girl had moved away part of the blanket to uncover the boy’s legs and Nie Mingjue could see that the tiny calves were covered in scrapes and bite marks.
He winced internally. Some of those marks were old but a couple were red and angry, with fluid and specks of blood still oozing out of the wounds.
Nie Mingjue frowned and looked at the girl. He didn’t know what he wanted to ask but somehow wanted the girl to explain.
She seemed to understand his silent request: “I saw him limping yesterday when I left. He lives here I think, or at least he’s usually here in the evenings. I bring him food sometimes when I manage to sneak out some leftovers at the end of my shift.” she said softly.
She looked at Nie Mingjue and then at the pot she had been showing him and he nodded.
She moved closer to the cart and started applying the ointment over the bite marks. The child tensed and frowned in his sleep but didn’t wake up. He was still in the same position Nie Mingjue had seen him last night. The only difference was that the stick that had been lying on the sack was now held tightly by a tiny hand.
The girl finished her task, pulled the blanket back over the kid’s legs and stood up to leave.
Nie Mingjue followed her back to the inn and rejoined his men, shaking his head at Nie Zonghui’s raised eyebrow. He would probably tell his second when he asked but didn’t feel like it right then.
A few minutes later they were ready to leave and Nie Mingjue sought the waitress out.
He left her a few silver pieces: “Maybe he can have something more than leftovers for a while” he said, knowing she’d understand and hoping that that would be what she used the money for.
She looked at him with a serious expression and nodded.
He left without another word, climbed on Baxia and made his way home.