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All these years side by side, learning and perfecting their skills, and Mo still recoiled any time he appeared from the darkness.
All you shadeworkers, it’s like you taste so bad the void just spits you out , he would complain.
The reality was, that while he was a shadeworker, Mo was a lightbringer. You couldn’t expect day and night to happen at the same time, or occupy the same space.
A white hot core burned with an intensity equal to any star at the center of Mo Guan Shan. He was the light that ate away at the darkness, be it that of the physical world, or the taint that manifested in the hearts of men. Nothing could escape his incandescence. A magic that pierced through even the corruption of pitch blackness that rested at the soul of a shadeworker, even managed to shine a light on a royally screwed up one like He Tian.
Mo had burned out an infection that sat at his heart like a tumor, until there was a soft glow of a full moon's light cutting through what was once the deepest darkness of a starless sky.
So in reality, it turned out you could expect day and night to coexist. As long as you could handle the occasional threat of crushed balls or getting blasted in the head.
It was still unlikely, bordering on laughable, that Mo would ever truly get used to him walking in shadow. Probably it had something to do with the way he’d spent their entire first year at the academy popping out of nowhere and slinging an unwanted arm about Mo’s shoulder just for the pleasure of watching him flip out.
Wisps of darkness still clung to the edges of him as he stepped from the shadows. Always so unwilling to disperse entirely, like a mother's embrace; reluctant to let him go. Mo honed in on his presence the moment the light was able to touch him.
The redhead jerked around and they found themselves face-to-face. Close enough that Mo stumbled back at the sudden proximity. He Tian had braced himself for a blast of light. Expected Mo to just use Ignite to blast him clear down the hall. It'd been common place in the begining, and even now he occasionally blasted He Tian if he caught him in a fit of frayed nerves or was too far into his own head. Tonight would've been a case of the former.
Mo must be deep in his Clarity, because he kept any Igniting down to a threatening glow around his fisted hands.
"What the hell are you doing here He Tian?" The hissed demand would've been a yell under normal circumstances, but tonight was far from normal.
"We have to go,” was all the reply he bothered to give, peeking around the corner to make sure they were alone in the passage. Ever paranoid, he grabbed at a few shadows to pull in around them to dampen their presence.
"Go?! We're supposed to be keeping watch!” Only Guan Shan could manage to whisper and shout simultaneously. “We don't know when, or why, or how these fuckers are gonna try and get in, and you want to go?!"
"They're already here."
Mo cursed, quickly checked his comm, and frowned. "I didn’t get no alarm."
"I didn't send one."
Mo whacked him with the comm receiver. "What the fuck!" Fury raised his voice a little too much and He Tian pressed a finger to his lips. Mo batted the hand away, but continued at a more reasonable volume. "Why the hell not?"
"They've got a source on the inside. A student."
Lip curled, Mo cured under his breath; something vulgar enough to earn him a month of detention. "Who?"
"She Li."
Mo spat his disgust onto the linoleum floor and muttered, "Figures."
"Looks clear, so let's go. We need to get Jian Yi out of here,” he said. “The sooner, the better.”
"Jian Yi? Why would–”
He cut Mo off, "That's who they're here for."
He watched Mo’s face turn pinched in a mixture of furious incredulity, scowling confusion, and blatant disbelief. "That makes no sense. All that guy’s good for is sigil work, so what do they want him for.”
He Tian shook his head. "Not now. It'll take too long to explain." He tilted his head back the direction he'd come from. "I'll tell you the full story once we get him somewhere safe. Well, safer at least. Let’s go.” He headed off down the hall knowing Mo would be a half step behind.
“Where is he?”
"We stashed him in the library,” he replied, gathering more of the darkness around them as they moved.
Mo snorted. "Smart. No one would ever think to look for that guy in there." That had He Tian grinning, not that the other boy would be able to see it.
More seriously this time, Mo said "You better not have left that idiot alone."
"Like I could pry Zhan Xi away even if I wanted to," he scoffed
They made their way on swift and silent feet down the twisting school halls, past the dorms, cloaked in the shadows He Tian wove tight around them to ensure they would pass unnoticed by anyone not actively trying to spot concealment magics. They didn’t walk together in shadow much. Picky little lightbringer that he was, Mo complained that it made his skin feel slimy. As for himself, he had to expend more energy in order to get the shadow to stick to Mo correctly.
The shadework turned out to be an unnecessary precaution. They arrived without having encountered a single person on the way.
He approached and knocked on the door of the library– three slow raps, a pause, two fast, a pause, and one more. There was some shuffling and scraping, a few snatches of indistinct noises that might’ve been speech and might’ve not. After a minute's wait that had Mo fidgeting, one of the double doors cracked open far enough for Zhan Xi to peer out.
"You weren't followed?" Zhan Xi pressed, even as obvious relief swept across him at the sight of friendly faces.
He Tian looked to Mo and raised a brow. Understanding, the redhead relaxed his stance, bright eyes defocusing. His head tipped back incrementally and released the essence that burned everbright within. A light spectrum outside visible or magical perception of any other than that of a lightbringer. A power that lit all that truth laid before him. In the brilliance of Clarity, the world could hide nothing from the sight of Mo Guan Shan.
His eyes gained focus again and he gave a shake of the head. "Nothing, we're clear."
Zhan Xi opened the door wide enough for them to slip in, shut and locked it behind them.
He Tian had to push Mo all the way inside so he could get in too, because the redhead had stopped to stare incredulously at the pile up of desks and heavy books against the door that had gone unopened, then flicked to the ones littering the opposite side, pushed away in order to let them pass. “You barricaded the door?”
Engrossed in drawing warding sigils the wood door with a finger, chanting sing-song nonsense words too quiet to catch, Zhan Xi couldn't hear him. It was Jian Yi who answered.
“Xixi was very insistent about it,” he said as he crawled out from where he’d been hiding among the desks, doing a very good job of sounding exasperated instead of scared. Zhan Xi was probably scared enough for the both of them.
The unexpected appearance made Mo startle, and even he himself had been caught a little off guard. He would’ve for sure thought Zhan Xi would tuck their friend away among the maze of bookshelves and study nooks to hide.
“I think it’s silly,” Jian Yi continued, standing and dusting himself off. “Someone could easily just blast a hole through the door, and he’s covered that thing in enough protective wards and emp-compulsion to convince even a Master that there’s nothing amiss in here.”
“I didn’t affect us,” Mo pointed out.
“He Tian already knew we were here, and I also marked it to exclude you two,” Zhan Xi explained, having finished his enchantments and started on the work of physically re-blocking the door. Then to Jian Yi; “And I told you idiot, these people are dangerous and well prepared. They’ll know I’m an empath. They’ll know He Tian’s a shadeworker and Mo’s a lightbringer. Now get your ass over here and help me move this crap back in place.” Jian Yi whined about it of course, but did as asked. No emp-compulsion needed there, just a lifetime of growing up in each other's pockets.
“I’m going to explain the plan to Momo,” he told the two.
“I still think the plan’s insane,” said Jian Yi with a grunt, trying to move a desk that was much too heavy for a skinny twig boy to manage alone.
“Point taken,” He Tian told him as he wrapped an arm around Mo’s shoulders. “Point also ignored.”
He led Mo off to somewhere a little farther, the other boy obviously suspicious.
Mo finally shook the arm off and rounded on him with a scowl. “Seriously He Tian, what the ever loving fuck is going on here? Why are these assholes after Jian Yi?”
“I told you, it’s a long story.”
Mo’s face took on a cast that promised unmoving obstinance. He was intimately familiar with that expression. “Give me the abridged version then.”
He snorted. As if it would be that easy. He still hadn’t gotten a full grasp the enormity of the situation they were in, and now Mo was demanding the SparkNotes version. He thought about how to go about compiling everything he’d learned in the last twenty fours hours into a simplified form. Considered what information was the most pressing, how to properly express the implications, and gave up.
“He’s an amplifier.”
Mo said nothing at first, then; “You can’t be serious.” He Tian said nothing, just held his gaze. “You’re serious.” It wasn't a question, but he nodded. Mo employed his whisper-shouting skill again, “But amplifiers are a myth! Like fairies and unicorns and sex after marriage!”
“Evidently not.”
He gave Mo a few moments to mutter to himself as he worked through his disbelief, to reach at least a minimum level of acceptance. It’d taken He Tian the best part of twelve hours and it still hadn’t fully sunk in.
It took Mo two and a half minutes, and he immediately went straight for the kill. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to get us out of here,” He said simply, which didn’t impress Mo at all.
“How the actually fuck are you gonna pull that off? Were four fucking teenage Adepts, and the last report I received said there’s at least one Grand Master with a full cohort of Experts out there who, according to you, are apparently intent on tracking us down. We can’t get past these people with a little shadow weaving and some light emp-compulsion, no matter how much of a prodigy you are.”
He Tian rolled his eyes. “Obviously not. It’s not as though shadow weaving is all a shadeworker’s good for, Momo.”
“I have a bad feeling about where this is going,” Mo grumbled to nobody in particular, and which He Tian ignored. "They wouldn’t be able to track us if we shadow travel.”
“I hate this plan already,” Mo groused. “That shit always makes me wanna hurl every time.”
“Suck it up, buttercup.”
He got a one-two of a nasty glare and a punch in the arm for that one, but Mo switched back to the topic at hand just as quickly. “So what’s the issue then? Jian Yi said the plan was insane.”
"I don't think I can shadow travel the distance we need in a single jump, even without the extra exertion of bringing other people with me. Not by myself at least."
Mo narrowed his eyes. "Where?"
"My brother's place," He Tian admitted, feeling as close as he ever got to sheepish. "It's got a bunker and everything, because Mafia life is fucked like that."
Predictably, this did not go over well. "Hong Kong? Are you fucking demented ?!"
Zhan Xi shushed the redhead, even laced with a layer of suggestion. Despite the pulse of magic, Mo still struggled for a moment to get his temper under some semblance of control.
Once successful, he continued more quietly, though with no less fury. "That's almost halfway around the world, you stupid fuck!" he hissed. “Why can’t we just make a jump to Hawaii, then Japan, then Hong Kong so we don’t all get sucked into the void or twilight zone or whatever you call it.”
"That's the whole point Momo– to get as far as possible, as quick as possible. It’d have to rest after each jump, and you can bet She Li got his dirty fingers on my file and informed on my distance limit. It’ll be pretty obvious what path we’d take.” Mo made a face, not liking it, but seeming to accept the logic.
“So, what then? What’s your big plan to get us across the fucking Pacific ocean?”
"Welllllll… I was thinking…”
Mo watched him, beady eyed. “Spit it out.”
“Even our teachers aren't aware of just how far a jump I can manage if I've got a tether." 'If I have you,' he didn't need to say.
Mo blushed and looked away. “This is a terrible plan. I hate this plan.”
“I know.”
“The farthest you've ever managed was from one coast to the other. Once. And that was just the two of us.”
“I know.”
“This is insane. You’re insane.”
“I know.”
Mo scowled. “Are you capable of any other sentence?”
He Tian sighed. Taking hold of one of the strings of Mo’s jacket, he leaned against a desk, reeling Mo in until he was standing between his legs, close enough to rest his hands on He Tian’s knees. Closer than he usually permitted outside the privacy of closed doors.
“I wouldn't do this if I didn't think there was a possibility it could work. I wouldn't do that to you guys. The person in the most danger will be me, and I explained every possible thing that could go wrong to Jian and Zhan. This is the best shot we have, and I’m willing to take that risk, but it’ll only work if I have a tether to keep me from falling into shadow. A strong tether.”
"I don't know if it'll be enough." Mo said softly. He scowled down at the ground and then, almost too quiet to catch, "I don't know if I'll be enough."
Mo was his friend. His partner. And something more they'd never gotten around to labeling. Mo had promised never to abandon him. That kind of bond combined with Mo's innate connection to the light meant He Tian could tap farther into his powers without the potential of the darkness swallowing him. It lessened the chance of him reaching so deep into the shadows as to lose his own identity and become inseparable from the shade his power drew from. Lost, never to return.
Reach too far into the darkness and something will reach back. That’s what his brother always lectured him on when he tried out some new experiment that backfired.
Never much of one for self preservation, he'd had a number of experiences with pieces of himself phasing into shadow. More often than was probably healthy, but never potentially fatal. In the aftermath an arm or a leg would struggle to re-anchor itself to the rest of his body. Transparent and ghost like. Connected and moveable, but unfeeling and unusable.
This had been different. This time he'd pushed himself too far out of nothing more than sheer stubborn spite, goaded by She Li. He'd started to phase out, unraveling from a world that could no longer bind him. What kind of desperation drove Mo to grab his face in both hands, he didn’t know. The other boy had commanded him to stay in a voice that resonated in the marrow of his bones, boiled in his blood. A glow started to radiate under his skin, gaining intensity until he burned with the ferocity that suffused every atom of his being, a mesmerizing brilliance that he tried to siphon into He Tian. To fill with light that which the darkness had sunk it's claws into.
The sense of contact, the feeling of Mo’s hands, disappeared, the cold ache in his bones deadened to nothing. He knew the shadows were drawing him in. He'd reached too far, and something was reaching back.
Those same glowing hands moved to press against his chest in a futile attempt. Passed through to hit nothing but the carpeted floor of the dorm room.
Mo had always been able to do that, reaching through He Tian's chest, straight into his heart and taking hold, not realizing what that did to him. How no one had gotten through before, let alone so easily.
"If you leave me I'll never forgive you." Mo had snarled it even as his eyes teared up, always so quick to cry when frustration overcame him. "I will march into Tartarus itself, haul your ass out, and make sure you spend the rest of your miserable life regretting it."
He Tian had chucked, a distant echoing sound dwindling away, and he’d reached out. He'd wanted to touch Mo one last time. Knowing he couldn't, but seeking out the illusion of touch nonetheless.
To both their shock, his hand made contact with Mo's cheek. He’d been swamped by disbelief, but Mo was always quicker to adapt to the impossible.
He'd clasped He Tian's hand to his cheek like that single point of contact was everything. Like if He Tian let that hand fall away he'd be lost to him. "Don't you dare go where I can't follow, you bastard." The tears had overflowed then, but Mo hadn't even bothered to hide it.
They'd stayed like that for how long he couldn't even guess, Mo cursing him for an idiot the entire time. Abruptly, he’d felt something on his face. Tears, he realized. Mo’s tears. It was incomprehensible, but he knew it to be true.
He Tian's voice came out as a croak, but lacked the distant echoing quality, "Don't cry sweetheart." He'd wiped the tear tracks from Mo's face with the hand that Mo wasn't desperately clutching. Also solid. Also real. "I'm here. You saved me."
With the glorious power of hindsight, they'd realized they'd accidentally stumbled on the foundation of forming a tether with another person. Usually something only taught in Expert level courses, sometimes not even then.
That night had been the first time Mo had kissed him too. A short press of a hard mouth to his own, fast, almost angry. Maybe the terror of such a close call had pushed him through whatever had held him back. A night of impossible deeds, but that had shaken He Tian the most. He'd been plotting to make a move of his own soon, had spent years coaxing Mo slowly. It figured Mo would smash through his meticulous planning on a spur of the moment impulse.
He’d probably used up a lifetime worth of luck that night. Still, Mo continued to save him. He’d had a couple chances to return the favor too, never enough, but a few nonetheless. And here he was again, asking the impossible. All he could do was hope that Mo would save him again. Just one more time. But more than hope, he believed that they could do this. That together they could take all comers.
He reached out and took Mo's face in his hands, tilted it back up to him, let his eyes roam shamelessly over that lovely, familiar face.
He brushed his lips over those pinched brows, smoothing away deep furrows. “You've always been enough.”
He pressed a kiss to Mo’s cheek. “More than enough."
The briefest press of their lips. “You will always be enough.”
"Whatever," Mo mumbled after a stolen moment to press their foreheads together. He took a step back. Not to escape He Tian and the discomfort of sentimentality, but needing distance to regain proper perspective again for the task at hand.
"This is still a dumb plan," Mo reiterated.
“I don’t see what other choice we have,” he said frankly. "Are you in, little Mo?"
“This isn’t like another one of your stupid experiments. You could seriously die Tian. Worse, you could fall into shadow. We all might if something goes really wrong.
“I know. You’re not saying anything I don’t already know.”
Mo chewed his lip, and He Tian wished this boy could see himself through He Tian’s eyes, know how amazing he was, how special, how capable. That was okay though. He knew how to remind Mo of those things.
He proffered his hand. "Are you afraid?" He said. Half taunting, half serious; though his real meaning would be clear as day. No light bringing required.
Trust me.
Mo clasped his hand. No hesitation. "I'm never afraid."
I'll always trust you .