Chapter Text

CHAPTER I | An Incident In Qionqqi Path

He should have been dead.

For all his skill and power, Wei Ying knew that his last stand should have been enough for him to have died of blood loss. 

The sword in his shoulder should have been testament to that.

As well as the blood still pouring from him. 

Whether it was from his bleeding out or from summoning it with his magic was yet to be determined.

Instead, he found himself standing around a dirt valley with arrows flying overhead, some heading towards him.

In that instance, Wei Ying felt his body react before his mind could properly analyse what was happening before him. With a quick flick of his wrist, he felt his bleeding shoulder release more blood, using it as fuel to create a protective field that surrounded him.

Light-headedness was the price he began paying shortly after the barrier was erected.

“G-Gongzi?” A familiar voice reached the blood mage’s ears and he felt his heart still.

He turned.

“A-Ning.” Wei Ying whispered out, his eyes widening.

It was the brother of his heart...and yet it was not. Where rosy-tinted cheeks once was, grey and dead flesh now filled, eyes that shone in laughter and dimmed in grief was now dulled by death, hair that had been carefully braided back by Qing-jiejie’s hands was now loose and unkempt and no longer was his A-Ning wearing the Gallows mages’ robes but instead, he was wearing tattered rags that was crusted with dirt, mud and blood .

Blood that should never have stained A-Ning in his past life and in this one.

He didn’t know if this fate was better or worse than what A-Ning had gone through.

Was this a mockery of his brother’s fate back in the Gallows?

“Gongzi?” Clawed hands reached out for him, resting on his uninjured shoulder, “What happened to you?”

Wei Ying was not blind, he saw how this version of A-Ning tried to frown but his body failed to cooperate and instead remained blank.

What he will say will upset this A-Ning no doubt.

“I should have died.” He was not saying it out of a sense of worthlessness, but what he said was the purest and simplest of facts, “The Right of Annulment, my last stand, all this should have killed me.”

As if to prove his point, he glanced at the sword still in his body.

If he pulled it out now, he would bleed more.

Dangerous for his current state.

Useful for their current predicament with the arrows still unceasing.

The world outside the barrier was nothing more than muted chaos to the blood mage. They were safe as long as he was conscious, focused and as long as he had blood to fuel the barrier.

“Wei Ying, this is a destructive path you walk-”

Lan Zhan’s words echoed in his head and he shook his head, immediately regretting his action as his lightheadedness made itself known once more.

He would have collapsed had A-Ning not caught him.

“Gongzi, your shoulder…”

“The templars caught me and Lan Zhan leading some mages away from the Gallows.” He explained, his voice quiet.

“What-”

“I will explain later.” If he was still alive for a later, he thought to himself, noting the violent tremble in his hands now as he used more of his blood to strengthen the barrier, “For now, we need to get back to safety.”

Wherever that safety is.

“We need to get back to A-jie.” A-Ning replied, his tone becoming sure and less frightened. “A-jie always knows what to do.”

But as A-Ning moved, he paused as he reached the border of the blood barrier, hesitantly reaching out and touching it. Wei Ying could only guess what his brother was thinking.

“Gongzi, you could drop the barrier now.” A-Ning told him.

Wei Ying shook his head. A-Ning may be dead - but still somehow walking and talking and thinking and still A-Ning - but there were always people who would find new ways to hurt those that should no longer be hurt.

“If I drop this, the archers will strike true, I will die and you will be taken.” He explained, his voice trembling as he continued repowering the barrier.

“You would die of blood loss before the archers would get to you!” A-Ning protested. “Please, Wei-gongzi, let me protect you!”

“I’m not risking you and turning you into a shield, A-Ning!” Wei Ying snapped.

Yet a deeper part of him, the part that sounded so painfully like Lan Zhan, reminded him how long he would have left with the amount of blood he had already lost.

It would not be long.

His willpower was just strong enough that he was remaining awake through sheer stubbornness.

From the look A-Ning was giving him, his heart’s brother knew that as well.

“Gongzi,” A-Ning tried again, “ please .”

Wei Ying faltered and his barrier flickered.

An arrow whizzed past.

The blood mage cursed and repowered the barrier before looking at A-Ning.

“I-I can’t.” He stuttered. “Not until I think of a way out.”

“We should go back to A-jie,” A-Ning reminded him, “she’s at Yiling, remember?”

Yiling? It was unfamiliar to him. No area in the Free Marches - or even Thedas, for that matter - was called Yiling.

“How far is it?” He asked quietly.

“I can run fast enough to make it there in a third of a shichen to half of a shichen.” A-Ning replied.

Wei Ying didn’t understand what A-Ning meant but he was willing to place his faith in A-Ning that his heart’s brother had just told him a promising amount of time rather than a length of time that would put his already perilous physical state in further danger.

“Watch out for me, alright, A-Ning?” Wei Ying said with a small smile.

A-Ning nodded, determination flickering in death-dulled eyes.

With that response, Wei Ying nodded and began bringing his barrier down while also summoning all the mana he could - or at least a non-lethal amount that would only cause him to pass out - in preparation for his attack to distract the archers.

“When my signal comes, you need to run as fast as you can, A-Ning.” Wei Ying told his brother, his tone brooking no arguments.

With A-Ning positioning himself behind Wei Ying, the blood mage fully brought down the blood barrier while bringing up his other hand and releasing the spell he had been building up. Gusts of winter winds, clouds heavy with hail and snow, a freezing, biting cold; Wei Ying watched as a blizzard swept through the valley, the cold cutting into his flesh and slowing his bleeding to some effect and making the archers previously attacking him and A-Ning back off. Still, that was not enough for him and he summoned a second layer of a stronger blizzard with the threat of an oncoming lightning storm if the archers remained a moment longer.

Moving on unsteady legs, he turned to face A-Ning who was watching him with that same blank expression. Wei Ying had the vague notion that his brother was surprised by what he had done.

“Gongzi…” A-Ning said, reaching out to hold him.

Wei Ying welcomed A-Ning’s touch, feeling something warm come out from his nose and mouth.

“Wei Ying, surely you know that overuse of your mana can be lethal?”

Lan Zhan’s voice rang out through Wei Ying’s mind and he felt a bittersweet smile twist his lips. The templar would be disappointed and severely upset with him had he seen how Wei Ying acted. Even when helping smuggle mages out of the Gallows, Lan Zhan had taken to monitoring Wei Ying in case he pushed himself and now? There was no Lan Zhan to keep him from pushing himself past the limit of safety.

Wei Ying didn’t know whether to laugh or cry because of that.

“A-Ning,” Wei Ying whispered to his brother who was now carrying him in stiffened, cold, dead limbs, “I think I will pass out now.”

“Gongzi, wait-”

“Good night, didi .”

Distantly, he swore he heard voices calling for someone he suspected was him.

“Wei Ying!”

“Wei Wuxian!”

“Catch the Yiling Laozu!”

But in this moment, the blood mage finally let go and allowed the darkness to embrace him, plunging him into a world of nothingness and oblivion.