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Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian’s day started as it always did: to the floor vibrating as Yu Ziyuan hit the ceiling of the room below him with the end of a broom, shouting, “Get up, you lazy ingrate! Out of bed, now!”

Before she was finished with the first sentence, he was already rolling out of bed and into his clothes. He had already been awake, but had learned through years of experience that if he got up before she called for him, she would yell at him for being in the way. He swept his hair back and out of his face, securing it with a quick knot, and then opened the trap door and climbed down the ladder into the rest of the house. Yu Ziyuan was already back on the first floor, and she didn’t look at him as he started the kitchen fire and put water on to boil.

Once he had done that, he vacated the kitchen. Yu Ziyuan would have been happy to make him cook for everyone, but she also found the food he made utterly unpalatable. Wei Wuxian didn’t see why - he thought it was fine - but apparently his tastes were different from ‘regular’ people. Yu Ziyuan never let him forget all the ways he was unlike the others, and refused to feed anything he cooked to her children.

Instead, he went out to the stables behind the house and began his morning chores of caring for their horse, chicken coop, and pen of goats. The animals liked him and always had. The chickens clucked at him affectionately while he gathered their eggs and brought them inside.

The tea was ready, along with Jiang Yanli’s morning medicine. Without needing to be told, Wei Wuxian picked up the tray and went back to the second floor, knocking gently on her door. She was still in bed, although she was sitting up, reading a book, and she smiled as he came in. “Good morning, A-Xian.”

“Good morning,” he replied, setting down the tray and stifling another yawn.

Jiang Yanli saw it anyway, and laughed gently. “Did you stay up too late watching the stars again, A-Xian?”

Wei Wuxian sat down next to her and handed her the cup of medicine, which she swallowed without complaint. “Do you think they’re the same ones that people see across the Wall?”

“I don’t know,” Jiang Yanli said. “You know, a great philosopher once asked, ‘do we gaze at the stars because we are human, or are we human because we gaze at the stars?’”

Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure if he was human at all, but that was something he knew that Jiang Yanli wouldn’t agree with. “Do the stars gaze back, now there’s a question . . .”

Jiang Yanli laughed gently and accepted the tea to wash down the bitter taste of the medicine. 

“Wei Wuxian!” Yu Ziyuan shouted from downstairs.

“Coming!” Wei Wuxian called back.

Jiang Yanli reached out and squeezed his wrist. “Father will be back this evening,” she said, the words a gentle reassurance.

Wei Wuxian just nodded and smiled, because Yu Ziyuan didn’t treat him better when Jiang Fengmian was around, she just treated him differently. Her behavior became more subtly antagonistic instead of overtly. Truthfully, Jiang Fengmian could do little to curb her. If anything, his attempts to protect Wei Wuxian only made Yu Ziyuan more hurtful. But Wei Wuxian did his best to hide this as much as possible, because he didn’t want his adopted siblings to worry about him.

He nearly bumped into Jiang Cheng coming out of his own room, and let him go downstairs first to get his breakfast. Yu Ziyuan would take Jiang Yanli’s up to her while the boys ate.

They were nearly done when she reemerged. “Wei Wuxian, I need you to go to the market today, and stop by Wen-guniang’s for A-Li’s medicine.”

“I’ll go!” Jiang Cheng eagerly volunteered, always ready for an excuse to see Wen Qing, the beautiful young doctor who kept Jiang Yanli in moderately good health.

“Did I ask you to go?” Yu Ziyuan snapped. “You’re supposed to be looking for a job.”

“But Mom - ”

“Don’t ‘but Mom’ me!” Yu Ziyuan retorted. “Do you care about this family? Do you want to contribute? Or do you just want to be a lazy freeloader like this one?” she added, gesturing to Wei Wuxian. He looked down and burned in silence. No matter what he did, it was never enough. He did all the hard labor around the house, fixed anything that needed fixing, took care of the animals, did all the cleaning. Yet because he didn’t bring in money, Yu Ziyuan always said this sort of thing about him. Of course, she was the entire reason he couldn’t get a job - she had everyone in the town frightened of him, due to her talk about how unnatural he was. Every day, she reminded him that she was doing him a favor by not turning him out to starve to death.

He thought sometimes about leaving. There were larger towns, even cities, not too far away. Places where they didn’t know him, places where he might be able to get by on his own. But then he thought, what if she was right? What if he was unnatural in ways that everyone would notice? What if even strangers would fear and shun him, the way the people in their town did?

And then there was the wall.

He had been four years old when he had come through the gap, and he remembered almost nothing about his life before that. Nobody in the town knew what lay beyond the wall. They only knew that their town had been built there to make sure nobody went beyond it. It was said to be a land of monsters, and that anyone who went past the stone boundary never returned.

When Wei Wuxian had come through, he had looked like any average four year old child. Jiang Fengmian had taken him in out of the goodness of his heart, and his wife never let Wei Wuxian forget that. She was convinced, and convinced all the others, that Wei Wuxian could not truly be a human child. The land beyond the wall was full of monsters; he must be one in disguise, to trick them into complacency. She had made him sleep in the stable with the goats for almost three years before begrudgingly giving him the room in the attic.

Every time Wei Wuxian thought about leaving, he thought about going back through the gap in the wall and finding out what lay on the other side. Yu Ziyuan encouraged this, telling him frequently to go back to where he had come from. But he knew that if he ever did that, there would be no coming back. As long as his brother and sister were still here, he would stay.

Yu Ziyuan went about her business, leaving Jiang Cheng scowling at his plate. Wei Wuxian didn’t blame him. As much as Yu Ziyuan’s treatment of him was hurtful, she was worse in some ways towards her own son. She expected so much of him, and constantly told him that he was letting her down. It was silly to be forcing him to get a job. They didn’t need the money; Jiang Fengmian was a traveling salesman who earned plenty. Jiang Cheng had only just turned seventeen. While plenty of people his age did have jobs, plenty of others did not, especially the ones from wealthier families.

“She just wants me out of the house,” Jiang Cheng said gloomily. “I guess she really hates having me around.”

“I’m sure it’s not like that at all!” Wei Wuxian said. “It’s just that you’re older now, you’re going to want to move out and get your own house soon! Hey,” he added, seeing that Jiang Cheng was going to argue this point, “you don’t think Wen Qing will want some nobody who only knows goat herding and how to sell fancy things to rich people like Uncle Jiang does, do you? No, she’s going to want a man with a good job, an important one!”

“I guess that’s true,” Jiang Cheng said, although they were both sure this had nothing to do with why Yu Ziyuan was pushing him.

“Right!” Wei Wuxian said. “So come down to the market with me.”

“Mom told me to look for a job!”

“And you will! People in the market are always hiring. You can ask around while I pick up the groceries, and then you can come with me to Wen-guniang’s.”

Jiang Cheng brightened. “Okay. That sounds good.”

~ ~ ~ ~

On the other side of the Wall, hundreds of miles away, the king lay on his deathbed at the top of his tower.

His remaining sons had gathered around him, and he addressed them in a hoarse, weak voice.

“Of my seven children, there are four of you yet living,” Jin Guangshan said. “This is quite a break with tradition. I myself had eleven siblings - ”

“And you killed them all for your throne before your father even felt poorly,” Jin Guangyao said patiently. “We know, Father. You are strong and courageous.”

Jin Guangshan was dying somewhat younger than average, for a King of Stormhold. Rumors had spread that he had contracted some disease from one of the many women he took to his bed, but rumors had also spread that one or more of his children were poisoning him. Either way, nobody was going to mourn his passing.

The door opened and Wan Tong swept inside. The second of Jin Guangshan’s sons, although not one of the ones who had been born to his actual wife, he paraded in as if he had already been crowned. “Father, I came as quickly as I could,” he said, and both of the other attending sons rolled their eyes.

Jin Guangshan nodded. “Look out the window and tell me what you see.”

Obligingly, Wan Tong walked over to the balcony. “I see all of Stormhold, Father. The whole kingdom!”

“What else?” Jin Guangshan added, and gave Jin Guangyao a significant look.

“My kingdom?” Wan Tong said hopefully.

Jin Guangyao came up behind him and gave him a solid push. He fell from the balcony, screaming.

Jin Guangshan laughed uproariously as he fell.

// “What? What just happened?” Wan Tong appeared in the room, one side of his face flattened, several of his bones protruding from his body at gruesome angles. He looked around and saw his siblings. “A-Yu! A-Su, Mianmian - you’re alive!”

“Nope,” Luo Qingyang said.

“Oh,” Wan Tong said. “I’m . . .”

“Stuck like this until the new king is crowned,” Qin Su told him.

“Guangyao-ge killed you,” Mo Xuanyu said, unperturbed. He was lounging in one of the room’s ornate chairs, his feet propped up on a stool. His body was badly burned, but he was still recognizable to his older brother. “Oh, and may I just say, great deal of good it did you killing me, since now you’re King of all Stormhold! Oh, wait, no you’re not. You’re dead.”

Qin Su laughed. Blood had soaked the front of her fancy dress, but she was otherwise intact. “It happens to the best of us,” she said. “Ugh, but I really don’t want Guangyao-ge to win!”

“You’re just mad because he made your death look like a suicide,” Luo Qingyang said tartly, arms folded over her chest. 

“It was rude,” Qin Su retorted. “At least I didn’t get killed by Jin Zixun - ”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Luo Qingyang groaned. “I can’t believe Guangyao-ge has let him live this long, honestly - ” //

“A-Xuan?” Jin Guangshan said suddenly, looking around the room. 

“No, Father,” Jin Guangyao said gently. “It’s me. Guangyao.”

“Where is my eldest?”

Jin Zixun gave an annoyed sigh. “He disappeared years ago. If the disease hadn’t eaten your brain, you would remember that. He’s long dead by now.”

// “No, he isn’t!” Mo Xuanyu protested. “If he was dead, he’d be with the rest of us. Ugh, Zixun-ge is so stupid.”

“They can’t see or hear us?” Wan Tong asked.

“Does it look like they can see or hear us?” Luo Qingyang asked. “We’re stuck in limbo until it’s all over and one of them is crowned. And by ‘one of them’ I mean ‘Guangyao-ge’ and I really wish he had gotten it over with years ago.” //

“We don’t know that,” Jin Guangyao said, smiling. “You’re only saying that because as the only other legitimate child, you think Father will declare you heir if he thinks Zixuan-ge is dead. But you know it doesn’t work like that, Zixun-ge.”

Jin Zixun made a rude gesture in his direction.

After a moment, Jin Guangshan said, “Since we do not know that, we must consider that I leave behind three possible successors. Therefore we shall resolve the situation in a non-traditional manner.” He unfastened a jade talisman from his belt. It began to hover in the air, and the pure white slowly tarnished until it was a dull gray. “Only one of royal blood can restore the jade,” he said. “Whichsoever of you does this shall be the new King of Stormhold.”

He let the jade go and sagged back against the bed, his last breath escaping him.

Jin Guangyao and Jin Zixun silently regarded each other for the barest of seconds before they each lunged for it. But the jade moved as quickly and agilely as a hummingbird, evading both of their grasps and zipping out the window and into the sky. Up, up, up it flew, until there was an explosion in the Heavens.

A star fell.

~ ~ ~ ~

About the same time that Jin Guangshan’s children received the word that their father lay on his deathbed and had urgently summoned all his children to his side, Wei Wuxian was sitting on the roof, watching the stars.

It had not surprised him that Yu Ziyuan had been annoyed that Jiang Cheng had gone to the market with him, but it was terribly unfair of her. Wei Wuxian had been right – several people in the market were hiring. The farrier needed a new assistant because his last one had gotten badly kicked and now feared horses. The apothecary needed repairs done on his shop and was looking for men to help with construction. The magistrate was looking for a clerk because the previous one had moved to a larger city for a job that paid more. Jiang Cheng, who could both read and write and was good with numbers thanks to helping out with his father’s business, was a prime candidate for the last. The magistrate had told him to come back the next day when he had more free time to discuss the offer.

It was a good job, even, one that would lead to him learning about governance and politics, which could then be parlayed into a better career. But because Wei Wuxian was the one who had suggested they look around at the market, and that was where they had bumped into the magistrate, now Yu Ziyuan was furious about it.

Wei Wuxian had escaped her haranguing and gone up to the roof, which was where he liked to be whenever he could. He could climb out the window of the attic and sit there, looking out over the town, seeing where the wall separated them from the other world, the fields and mountains that lay beyond.

“A-Xian?” Jiang Yanli asked gently, peering out the window. “A-Xian, are you up there?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Ah, don’t come up, shijie – you might fall and hurt yourself.” He scooted over to the edge of the roof so he could dangle his legs over the edge, and she could lean out the window and almost be next to him.

“A-Cheng is excited about his new job,” Jiang Yanli said. “He told me that the magistrate said he would learn about all the different laws and how the city is run. He could be mayor someday, he said.”

“That’s great,” Wei Wuxian said, because he couldn’t say what he was thinking. He wasn’t sure if Jiang Cheng had any interest in politics, or if he just wanted to be mayor because he thought he would finally make his mother proud. “Is Madam Yu going to let him take the job, then? Isn’t she still angry?”

“She’s furious about it, but I’ll talk to Father when he gets home, and he’ll convince her. He should be back any minute.”

“Mm hm,” Wei Wuxian said, but her reassuring words did help. He was afraid he had ruined Jiang Cheng’s future for him just like he had ruined everything else, just by suggesting he go to the market. But Jiang Yanli was right; the job was too good for Jiang Cheng to pass up. Jiang Fengmian would either talk her into it, or just tell Jiang Cheng to take the job anyway and wait for her temper to settle down.

“Ah, look, A-Xian – a falling star!” Jiang Yanli pointed up.

Wei Wuxian looked where she was pointing and saw it, the gleaming star as it fell to Earth. Something teased at his memory. “Falling stars are supposed to be really valuable, did you know that?” he asked. “It’s said that they can heal people and even reverse aging!”

“Where did you hear that?” Jiang Yanli asked.

“I don’t know,” Wei Wuxian said, watching as the trail of the star faded away. “I guess it’s something I learned . . . over there. When I was young.” He turned around and said, “I’m coming in.”

Jiang Yanli turned away so he could come back in through the window. “It’s a nice idea.”

“Maybe . . . maybe I could go get it for you,” Wei Wuxian said. “I’ll go get it and bring it back, and then you’ll be healthy.”

“Don’t be silly, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli said. “You don’t need to do that. It must be hundreds of miles away. Besides, nobody is allowed to cross the wall.”

“They’d let me across,” Wei Wuxian said, with certainty. “Nobody wants me here anyway. They all want me to go back where I came from, so they wouldn’t stop me. It’s getting back that would be the bigger problem. But I could do it. Then maybe . . . maybe . . .”

He couldn’t finish his sentence, couldn’t say what he was thinking. That if he found a cure for Jiang Yanli’s terrible illness, the one that kept her locked away in her room so much of the time, too weak to move, plagued by terrible headaches and difficulty breathing, then he would finally find acceptance here. If he found a cure for Jiang Yanli, then Yu Ziyuan would have to accept him. She would have to love him then.

“A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli said gently. “You don’t have to do that. I don’t want you to put yourself in danger for me.”

Wei Wuxian was barely listening. He was thinking of family dinners with him at the table instead of listening at the window while he ate the scraps in the goat pen. He was thinking of Yu Ziyuan smiling and thanking him for helping Jiang Cheng find a job. He was thinking of the villagers whispering as he walked by, not about what a monster he was, but about how brave and strong he was to have gone beyond the wall to find a cure for his adopted sister.

“I want to,” he finally said. “I want you to be happy and healthy, shijie. Why wouldn’t I want that?”

Jiang Yanli was looking at him sadly, and he felt like she could see what he was thinking, and that she thought he was being too optimistic. But it didn’t matter to him. His heart was instantly set on this plan.

“Get down here!” Yu Ziyuan shouted from the first floor. “Your father is home!”

Wei Wuxian sprang to his feet and helped Jiang Yanli up, and then down the ladder into the rest of the house. They went down the stairs to find Jiang Fengmian already arguing with his wife about Jiang Cheng’s new job. But he smiled when he saw them, embraced Jiang Yanli, and nodded to Wei Wuxian’s bow. “How was your trip, Father?” Jiang Yanli asked.

“Boring as usual,” Jiang Fengmian said, then gestured to the table, which had several boxes on it. “I brought back some things for you.”

He always did this, brought little trinkets home whenever he made a trip to one of the larger cities. When Wei Wuxian had been young, he had loved receiving them. Now he felt awkward and unhappy about it. The ones he got were practical but thoughtful – a pair of thick woolen socks because the attic could get so cold, a new lantern so he could read at night – and Jiang Yanli always got something pretty like jewelry or something for her hair. Jiang Cheng, on the other hand, got books he never wanted, about business or history or geography. It made Wei Wuxian cringe now to see how little Jiang Fengmian knew, or cared to know, his own son. And at night, he sometimes heard the arguments that Jiang Fengmian had with Yu Ziyuan about the gifts that he brought Wei Wuxian.

On this occasion, Jiang Cheng got a new pen set, even though he hated calligraphy, which Jiang Fengmian immediately pointed out would be a help at his new job. Jiang Yanli got a bracelet, and Wei Wuxian received a flute. He had watched some musicians in town a few months ago and mentioned wanting to learn to play.

“What a useless waste of money,” Yu Ziyuan said. “How much did that cost?”

“I earn the money for the household, and I’ll spend it how I like,” Jiang Fengmian said.

Wei Wuxian snuck out of the room, tucking the flute into his belt, and began to pack.

~ ~ ~ ~

As the star plummeted to the ground, Xue Yang yanked open the shutters in the room his brothers shared, letting in a blast of cold air. “Wen Chao! Wen Zhuliu! Get up!”

“The fuck,” Wen Chao mumbled. “What do you want?”

“A star has fallen!”

His brothers stared blankly at him for a few seconds before both threw back their blankets and climbed out of bed. Xue Yang raced ahead of both of them to tug open a cabinet in the store room. It was dusty and empty. “Where are the Babylon candles? Did one of you assholes move them again?”

“You used the last one,” Wen Zhuliu said. “Two hundred years ago.”

Xue Yang blew out an aggravated sigh.

“Maybe we can get a new one,” Wen Chao suggested.

“Are you an idiot?” Xue Yang asked him. “It’s not like they sell them on the street corners. You’d have us running around looking for a Babylon candle while some other witch finds our star!” His gaze darted over at the cages of animals that Wen Zhuliu kept. “Wen Zhuliu, we need information.”

Wen Zhuliu nodded and headed for a cage. A moment later, they were reading the star’s course in the entrails.

“Looks like about a hundred miles east,” Xue Yang said. “That’s not so far.”

“Which of us will go to seek it?” Wen Zhuliu asked.

They looked down at the dead animal, and all suspended a hand over it. They each reached down to pick an organ out of the mess. Xue Yang cracked one eye open while the other two steadfastly kept their eyes shut.

“I’ve his liver,” Wen Zhuliu said.

“I’ve his kidney,” Wen Chao said.

“And I’ve got his heart!” Xue Yang said. Wen Chao gave an annoyed sigh, and Wen Zhuliu gave Xue Yang the sort of look which suggested he knew damned well that Xue Yang had cheated but didn’t care enough to argue with him.

Instead, he just said, “You’ll be needing what’s left of the last star.”

Xue Yang nodded, taking a dusty box off the shelf. A dim light glittered within. He opened it and grabbed the tiny fragment of star that was left. “Not much left,” he observed.

“Soon there will be more than enough for the three of us,” Wen Zhuliu said.

Xue Yang tipped his head back and swallowed the tiny fragment down. He felt it warm him from the inside out, the light flowing through his body, rejuvenating him, restoring old flesh and healing old hurts. He watched himself in the mirror as his youth was restored, and couldn’t help but smirk. “Damn, I’m hot when I’m young.”

Wen Chao rolled his eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Xue Yang said, looking at a wall that held knives made of obsidian glass. “I will not fail.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter Text

It didn’t go as planned, which didn’t particularly surprise Wei Wuxian, because very few things in his life went as planned.

He was halfway through the field that bordered the wall when Jiang Cheng called out after him. “Are you actually leaving?”

“Not forever!” Wei Wuxian protested.

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. “A-jie told me you had this dumb idea to go past the wall and find a fallen star to cure her and I told her even you couldn’t be that stupid. Come on,” he added, grabbing Wei Wuxian’s arm. “Let’s go home.”

“Jiang Cheng, I can do it!” Wei Wuxian said. “I have to try, at least!”

“How do you even know that a star would help?” Jiang Cheng asked impatiently.

“I’m not sure,” Wei Wuxian admitted. “I think . . . my mother told me, when I was really young.”

“So you don’t even know that it would work! And that’s assuming you could get to it and get home, and somehow get back through the wall, when you know whoever’s guarding it won’t want to let you back in. Listen, I know what you’re doing, okay?” he added. “You think if you can help a-jie, then Mom will finally welcome you into the family. But Mom’s not like that. You know that, Wei Wuxian.”

Wei Wuxian looked away. “You don’t know she won’t,” he said, wincing as he heard the words come out of his mouth, how lame and useless they sounded.

Jiang Cheng didn’t dignify them with a response. He just started dragging Wei Wuxian back towards the house. Wei Wuxian let him. He could just wait until Jiang Cheng was in bed, and then sneak out again. Jiang Cheng scolded him the whole way home, but at least he was smart enough to shut up and let them in through the back so Yu Ziyuan wouldn’t hear them come in. Wei Wuxian skulked back up to the attic and set down his rucksack with a sigh. He would try again in a couple hours. Maybe he should just climb down from the roof, and then nobody would see him on the lower floors or hear the door open and shut.

He was still thinking about this when the trap door opened and Jiang Fengmian poked his head in. “Can I come in?”

“Sure,” Wei Wuxian said, sitting up in bed. He thought it was a bit of a silly question. The attic didn’t really belong to him. It wasn’t actually a bedroom. Yu Ziyuan certainly never asked permission before coming in.

Jiang Fengmian closed the trap door and then sat down next to Wei Wuxian’s bed, folding his legs underneath himself. “A-Li told me you tried to sneak over the wall tonight.”

“Ugh, why,” Wei Wuxian whined. He had known that Jiang Cheng would have immediately told their sister that Wei Wuxian had indeed followed through on his plan, but he had hoped that neither of them would mention it to their parents.

“She’s worried about you, A-Xian,” Jiang Fengmian said. “She said you had some foolish idea about going to retrieve a fallen star.”

Wei Wuxian nodded. “It’s not foolish! My mom told me that falling stars could help people who were sick or dying.”

Jiang Fengmian frowned slightly. “You’ve never said anything about remembering things from back then.”

“I just remembered a bit when I saw the star,” Wei Wuxian said, then admitted, “but I never really wanted to talk about what I did remember. Madam Yu always got mad whenever I would talk about things from before.”

“That’s true. Yu Ziyuan was angry at me, and she took it out on you.”

Wei Wuxian pulled his knees up to his chest. “Why was she so angry that you took me in? I know she thought I was a monster, but . . .”

“I don’t know that she ever truly believed that,” Jiang Fengmian said. “All right, A-Xian. I’m going to tell you a story. Maybe I should have told you a long time ago, but I was always worried that you might leave when you found out. I don’t know why providence sent you to me, but I’ve always felt it must have been for a reason.”

He stood up and walked over to a box in the furthest corner of the attic. It was coated in dust, among many other boxes, and Wei Wuxian had never looked in any of them. Yu Ziyuan had forbidden him from the start from touching anything in the attic, and he had never disobeyed.

“When I was around your age, I went through the wall,” Jiang Fengmian said, and Wei Wuxian nearly choked. It was difficult to picture his stodgy, boring adopted father ever being so adventurous. “I walked a few miles and found a bazaar, and I met a woman there, named Cangse Sanren. She was at a flower stand, and I bought her this.” He took an item out of the box, a small white flower made out of glass.

“It’s beautiful,” Wei Wuxian said, accepting it from his hand.

“Just like she was.” Jiang Fengmian smiled. “She took me out on the town, so to speak. Showed me around. In the morning, I went back to my cozy, boring little life here in Wall. But I never forgot her. A few years later, I married Yu Ziyuan – something our parents arranged. A-Li was born, and she was so frail, so weak and sick. For years, we tried everything we could to help her, but she remained ill. When Yu Ziyuan became pregnant again, I was afraid A-Cheng would be born the same way. For the second time, I went beyond the wall. They had magic there, and I thought I might be able to find something to help her, and A-Cheng if need be.”

“So the people there – are they monsters?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“Oh, there are definitely monsters there,” Jiang Fengmian said. “Witches with hearts darker than you can imagine, dragons who can breathe fire, and a cruel tyrant of a king. But there are also good people there, just normal people living their lives – although their lives are quite different from ours.”

Wei Wuxian folded his arms over his stomach, thinking all this over. “Did you find anything for shijie?”

“As I was traveling, I met Cangse Sanren again.” He smiled slightly. “She had married, and had a little boy, just a baby. We talked for a while. She gave me a charm for A-Li to wear, saying it might help. That was the only other time we met. The charm did help a little – not enough to make her healthy, but enough to make her condition controllable by our medicine, keep it from killing her. And then A-Cheng was born healthy.”

“Thank goodness,” Wei Wuxian said.

Jiang Fengmian nodded. “A few years later, you came through the gap in the wall. This,” he said, gently touching the white flower, “was tucked into your front pocket. And I knew you were the baby that Cangse Sanren had had with her husband.”

“You knew my mother?” Wei Wuxian’s breath caught in his throat.

“Yes,” Jiang Fengmian said. “I’m sorry I never told you, A-Xian. But Yu Ziyuan . . . she was half-convinced that I had had an affair with Cangse Sanren, the second time I went beyond the wall, and that you were my son. No matter how many times I swore to her that this hadn’t happened, she never entirely believed it. To tell you about your mother . . . I knew she would only hate you more if you knew about her.”

Wei Wuxian had a lot of thoughts and feelings about that, all whirling in his mind and crammed into his chest. He wasn’t sure what to say. He’d had a right to know these things. If Jiang Fengmian had been so concerned about how Yu Ziyuan was treating him, why hadn’t he ever stopped her? Why had he kept raising Wei Wuxian instead of sending him somewhere else?

Jiang Fengmian reached into the box and pulled out a leather satchel. “This was on your back when you crossed the wall. There were a few things inside.” He opened it and drew out a burlap-wrapped object, which Wei Wuxian unwrapped to find a black candle, about six inches long. “And this.”

It was a letter, in a firm, unfamiliar hand. ‘My beloved son,’ it read, ‘your father has been captured and is being held captive by the most wicked of witches. I am going to try to rescue him. If I am not back in three days, I have asked an acquaintance to bring you to the wall, so that you may go live in the mundane world, where you will be safe from evil. Please forgive me for not being there for you. I have met a man from the other side of the wall and I know there are good people there, and that someone will find you and take care of you. All my heart goes with you. Once you are old enough, if you would like to, you can come back. The fastest way to travel is by candlelight. To use it, think of me and only me. If I am still alive, the candle will take you to me.’

Wei Wuxian read it twice and wiped his eyes. “Did you read this?”

“I did,” Jiang Fengmian admitted. “I wanted to make sure it did not contain any instructions for your care.”

Wei Wuxian folded it and tucked it away. “Do you think she’s dead?”

“I think she would have come to find you if she wasn’t,” Jiang Fengmian said quietly.

A few more tears escaped. “What does that mean, the fastest way to travel is by candlelight?”

“I don’t know,” Jiang Fengmian said, but he handed Wei Wuxian the black candle. “But I’d be interested to see what happens if you light this.” He handed over Wei Wuxian’s rucksack. “I get the feeling you’re going to need it.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Lan Wangji was not having a good night.

Most of the stars in the sky had been riveted by the drama playing out down in the Kingdom of Stormhold. Stars didn’t have much else to do beyond their normal twinkling and shining, so they entertained themselves by watching Earth. They had been wagering on who would be the next King of Stormhold ever since Jin Guangshan had taken ill. (Odds were seven to one on Jin Guangyao, but the stars, unlike the brothers, knew that Jin Zixuan yet lived. He was a dark horse favorite. The only thing everyone agreed on was that they hoped it wasn’t Jin Zixun, and the death of Wan Tong had sent ripples of dismay through those who had bet on him.)

Lan Wangji found the whole thing rather distasteful and unseemly, and preferred to watch more pleasant things, when he watched at all. So he had been taken off guard when the piece of jade came hurtling skyward, smacked him in the face, and knocked him clean out of the sky.

Now he was sitting in a crater in the middle of the forest, wondering how in the hell he was supposed to get home. He had been sitting there for several hours, actually, too frustrated and upset to think clearly on what to do next. His brothers and sisters offered reassuring murmurs from above, but they could not do much to assist. He picked up the piece of jade and turned it around and around in his hands, finally fastening it to his belt. It was ugly, a dull gray color, but for some reason felt compelling to him.

Then, just as he was finally standing up and thinking he would have to find a more comfortable place to sleep if nothing else, someone zoomed towards him in a flash of orange light, and knocked him back to the ground. He let out a grunt of pain despite himself.

“Mother?” an excited voice asked.

“Do I look like your mother?” Lan Wangji retorted.

The man blinked. Lan Wangji tried not to stare at him, young and fit and with a gorgeous smile. “Oh. No, haha.” He sat up and looked around, as if trying to get his bearings, before getting to his feet. Then he looked at Lan Wangji, still sprawled out, his white robes askew, hair everywhere. Lan Wangji felt like he must look a complete mess. “Are you all right? Do you want some help?”

“You can help me by leaving me alone,” Lan Wangji said, pushing himself up into a sitting position. His ankle ached.

“Oh,” he said, looking taken aback and a little bit hurt. “Okay.” He walked a few paces away and continued to look around. Lan Wangji could hear him murmuring to himself. “Light the candle and think of me . . . and I did, I was thinking about my mother . . . did it bring me somewhere else because she’s dead? Or did I . . . at the last second, shijie jumped into my head, and the star . . .” He began to look around frantically, taking in the crater. Then he said, “Oh, uh, sorry, but have you – this sounds silly, but have you seen a fallen star?”

“Ridiculous,” Lan Wangji snorted.

“No, I mean, we’re in a crater! This must be where it fell!”

“Yes,” Lan Wangji said. “Yes, this is where it fell. Or more specifically, up there,” he pointed to the sky, “is where it was minding its own business until this ugly trinket came out of nowhere and knocked it out of the heavens. And over there is where it landed. And right here is where it is now sitting, being prattled at by an idiot.”

The man blinked. “You’re the star! You’re the star?”

Lan Wangji only gestured to the crater.

“Oh. Oh wow. I really wasn’t expecting you to be a . . .” He gestured. “Oh! I’m sorry. My name’s Wei Wuxian. What’s yours? I mean, I assume you have one . . .”

Lan Wangji stared at him.

“Um . . . I guess you don’t?” Wei Wuxian tapped the side of his nose. It was cute. Why was it cute? “Well, listen, I really wasn’t expecting you to be a person, but I guess it’s not a big deal. See, I came to find you because my sister is sick, and someone told me that a fallen star can heal the sick and – ”

Unable to help it, Lan Wangji was already scrambling backwards, trying to get back to his feet on his wounded ankle. “Do not touch me!”

“Whoa, whoa!” Wei Wuxian waved his hands in front of himself. “I’m not going to hurt you. Why do you look so scared?”

Lan Wangji wanted to insist that he wasn’t scared, but he was. He was absolutely aching with fear. They all knew what some witches would do to a fallen star, in order to retain youth and immortality. They had watched helplessly as their last sister had had her heart cut out and consumed. “I will not let you take my heart!” he insisted, even knowing that he couldn’t do much to stop him.

“Your heart?” Wei Wuxian looked genuinely confused. “Look, I don’t need your heart, okay?”

Skeptically, suspiciously, Lan Wangji said, “You said you wanted me to heal your sister. Does that not mean you intend to cut out my heart and feed it to her?”

“What?!” Wei Wuxian blurted out. “What? No! Holy shit, you thought I could – no, I just thought you could, like, shine starlight at her and it would – I mean honestly I figured I was going to find a lump of melted rock and I would bring it home and put it in a room with her and she would magically get better, which, now that I’m saying that out loud I can’t get over how absolutely stupid that sounds – ”

Lan Wangji managed to relax, taking a few deep breaths to steady himself. “My name is Lan Wangji.”

“Oh?” Wei Wuxian smiled that beautiful smile again. “It’s nice to meet you, Lan Wangji. Sorry that some rock knocked you out of the sky.”

Nodding, Lan Wangji said, “I do not know if shining upon your sister would cure her illness, but I don’t know that it would not.”

Wei Wuxian perked up, looking hopeful. “Then – you’ll come with me?” he asked, and Lan Wangji nodded. “Okay, great! Maybe after that, I can put you back in the sky? I’m not sure how that would work, but, uh, I guess the fastest way to travel is by candlelight – ”

Lan Wangji’s eyes went wide as Wei Wuxian held out the candle. “You’ve got a Babylon candle.”

“Yeah, uh, I’ve got a bubbling candle,” Wei Wuxian agreed.

“A Babylon candle,” Lan Wangji corrected, and frowned. “That doesn’t look like it has many uses left in it.”

“I really wouldn’t know,” Wei Wuxian said. “My mother left it to me. It was supposed to take me to her. It didn’t, though, so I guess . . . she really must be dead.” He shook himself. “Can you tell how many?”

Lan Wangji shook his head. “No more than two, but I’m afraid there might only be one.”

“Ugh.” Wei Wuxian grimaced. “I guess we’ll have to make our way back to Wall on foot, then. I don’t want to use it to get back to my sister and then not be able to put you back in the sky afterwards. That would be kinda rude, you know? Here, let me help you up.”

Reluctantly, Lan Wangji let Wei Wuxian help him to his feet. He took a step and then stumbled slightly, wincing as he rested his weight on his wounded ankle.

“Oh, are you hurt?” Wei Wuxian asked. “I could carry you . . .”

“You may not,” Lan Wangji said.

Looking hurt, Wei Wuxian said, “I’m stronger than I look. I do a lot of work back at home. And I don’t want to take forever getting home. I don’t even know how far away I am. It could be hundreds of miles. The star fell due east of Wall – you did, I guess – so we need to head west. But until the sun starts to rise, I don’t even know what way that is. We might as well sleep for a bit.”

“Sleep? At night?” Lan Wangji could not help but ask.

“Yeah? I guess you must be nocturnal, huh? But we really can’t go anywhere until dawn, so you may as well at least try. Here, lie down – let’s put something under your ankle to elevate it. That’ll help keep the swelling down.”

Disconcerted but unsure of how to argue, Lan Wangji lay back down. Wei Wuxian put his rucksack underneath Lan Wangji’s ankle, then said, “Here,” and took off his coat, spreading it over Lan Wangji. “There, that’s better, huh?”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said. Wei Wuxian gave him another sunny smile before sprawling out on the crater floor, and Lan Wangji wondered what the hell he had gotten himself into.

~ ~ ~ ~

Jin Guangyao watched from his window, amused, as Jin Zixun directed the packing of his carriage with shouts and threats to the workers. Out of all his brothers, he hated Jin Zixun the most. He was an absolutely insufferable person in general, and had gone out of his way from day one to make Jin Guangyao as miserable as possible.

Their father had had seven children, five sons and two daughters. Only two of the children had been born to his actual wife. The others were scattered amongst a handful of mistresses and concubines. Jin Zixuan was both the oldest and one of the legitimate children, but that sort of thing didn’t matter in Stormhold. The only thing that mattered was surviving long enough to take the crown.

But Jin Zixun, the other child of Jin Guangshan’s wife, didn’t entirely agree with that. He had always said that he and Jin Zixuan were more entitled to the throne than their half-siblings. When Jin Zixuan had disappeared six years previous, he had become even more insufferable about it.

Jin Guangyao had tried to kill him half a dozen times, but Jin Zixun was, unfortunately, not as stupid as he looked. Despite his opinions on the rights legitimacy gave him, he was well aware that not everyone shared those opinions, and that his siblings would be trying to kill him. 

Meanwhile, Jin Guangyao held a special status of his own - the only child born to someone other than Jin Guangshan’s wife to have received the Jin name. He had performed impressive services during a war, and his father had given him the name as a reward. It meant absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things, but for some reason, Jin Zixun was pissed off about it, as if he felt it was a threat to him. Jin Guangyao had pointed out acerbically that he had already tried to kill Jin Zixun twice at that point, so the threat was well-established. Jin Zixun shot him with an arrow.

They didn’t get along.

As Jin Guangyao was mulling all this over, Jin Zixun looked up and saw him in the window. He scowled. Jin Guangyao smiled and toasted him with the cup he was holding.

Jin Zixun walked over and said, “Shouldn’t you be going somewhere?”

“I don’t need eight hours to select my entourage and pack four carriages with all the luxuries I can’t live without,” Jin Guangyao replied. “I could leave any time. But I thought I would wait and see what direction you headed first, so I could follow you and kill you.”

Jin Zixun didn’t dignify that. “Should have known it would eventually come down to the two of us.”

“And Zixuan-ge,” Jin Guangyao said.

“Will you cut that out?” Jin Zixun asked, annoyed. “Everyone knows you killed him. You’ve already admitted killing Qin Su, and you killed Wan Tong right in front of me. Why do you continue to insist you didn’t kill Zixuan-ge?”

“Because I didn’t,” Jin Guangyao said peaceably. “If I had, I would admit it. Crow about it, even. I tried several times, but he’s slippery.”

// “Where is Zixuan-ge, anyway?” Wan Tong asked, looking around at his siblings.

“Oh, you wanna see?” Mo Xuanyu asked. “It’s pretty funny.” //

Miles away from where Jin Guangyao and Jin Zixun were currently arguing, a yellow caravan trundled down the road. It was driven by an unattractive man with an asymmetrical face, and there was a peacock perched next to him on the seat. It was a somewhat worn and sad looking peacock, and it looked up and chirped as if it could sense someone else’s presence.

“Shut up, you ugly thing!” the driver snapped, smacking the peacock’s body. “One of these days I’m going to roast you and eat you.”

// “Is that - Zixuan-ge?” Wan Tong asked, gaping.

Mo Xuanyu kicked back and laughed. “Yeah, he got caught by that witch and cursed. Sucks to be him!”

“It’s not funny, A-Yu!” Luo Qingyang protested. “Zixuan-ge was the only one of us who actually would have made a good king. He was genuinely a good person - he never even tried to kill any of us!”

“He tried to kill me,” Wan Tong said, frowning.

“Any of us that matter,” Luo Qingyang replied without missing a beat.

“To be honest, it’s probably a good thing,” Qin Su said. “I mean, not that I think life as a peacock and a witch’s slave is fun for him . . . but if he hadn’t gotten caught, Guangyao-ge would have definitely killed him.”

“That’s true, I suppose,” Luo Qingyang said with a sigh. // 

“If you want my honest opinion,” Jin Guangyao said, and Jin Zixun rolled his eyes, “Zixuan-ge decided he’d rather live than rule, so he took off to parts unknown where we’ll never find him. Which is fine by me. All I have to do now is find the jade. I don’t even have to kill you - although I’m going to, of course.”

// “Who are we rooting for here?” Mo Xuanyu asked thoughtfully. “I mean, Guangyao-ge killed Qin-jie, but he also killed Tong-ge . . . and Zixun-ge killed Luo-jie . . .”

“I’m not rooting for either of them,” Qin Su said firmly. “I just want one of them to be crowned and get it over with.”

“I have to root for Guangyao-ge,” Luo Qingyang said, somewhat apologetically. “I’m sorry, A-Su.”

“No, I understand, Zixun-ge did kill you, after all.”

“I’m rooting for Zixun,” Wan Tong said loudly.

“Nobody asked you,” Mo Xuanyu retorted. //

Jin Zixun just scoffed at Jin Guangyao’s words. “Nobody here is loyal to you. I’ve got entire squadrons of men who will comb all of Stormhold for the jade. You’re going to be on your own. You should just give up now, and leave the quest for the stone to me.”

“Ah, but I have something you don’t,” Jin Guangyao said, still not getting up from where he was sitting.

“Which is?” Jin Zixun sneered.

“You’ve never had to do a day of hard work in your life. You don’t even know how. Everything you’ve ever wanted has been handed to you on a silver platter. You’re going to get frustrated before three days have gone by. But I can be patient, Zixun-ge. While you’re shouting at your squadrons and blaming them for the fact that you’re not king yet, I’ll be working. So I guess we’ll see, won’t we?” Jin Guangyao raised his glass. “May the worst man win.”

// “I’m rooting for Zixuan-ge,” Mo Xuanyu decided. “A peacock would make a better king than either of them.”

“Agreed,” his siblings chorused. //

~ ~ ~ ~

Even small amounts of magic would diminish the starlight’s effect on his new, hot body, so Xue Yang resolved to use it as little as possible. He would need to use the runes to follow the star’s course, but other than that, he would travel by mundane means.

That got him about as far as ten miles before he remembered that being mundane absolutely sucked. He happened upon a small cottage, and saw a man outside with a cart that he had obviously just taken to the market, pulled by a goat. “Hey,” he called out. “How much for that goat and cart?”

The man gave him a questioning look, but answered politely. “She’s not for sale.”

“Yeah, sure, fine, whatever,” Xue Yang said. One goat wouldn’t be able to pull the cart with his weight in it anyway. He reached out one hand, his fingers wreathed in green flame, and pressed them against the man’s forehead.

He made a pretty goat, Xue Yang thought, although he’d made a prettier man. Age spots immediately appeared on Xue Yang’s hand, and he groaned. “Come on, it was only one goat! Give me a break.”

“Xingchen?” a voice called out, and another man came out of the house. Not as handsome, Xue Yang thought. But he made a nice goat. The more goats to pull the cart, the better, he thought. But then he couldn’t figure out how to hook up three goats at once. Besides, the two men who were now goats made a very handsome contrasting pair: one pure white and the other jet black. It appealed to Xue Yang’s sense of aesthetics.

“Don’t be such a baby,” he said as one of them bleated to the other. “There are worse things than being changed into a goat. Maybe I’ll even change you back later, if you pull me fast enough.”

Or maybe he’d eat them, he thought. The night was young.

~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter Text

Despite knowing that he really should sleep, Wei Wuxian tossed and turned in the crater. It wasn’t the physical discomfort that bothered him - he could sleep just about anywhere - but his mind was awash with all sorts of different thoughts. His mother was probably dead. Jiang Fengmian had known her and never told him. Yu Ziyuan had hated him because she thought her husband had cheated on her. Stars were people (extremely attractive people). Sometimes evil witches ate their hearts. 

When dawn’s first light shined, he immediately jumped to his feet. Lan Wangji, who clearly also had not slept, looked up. “You awake?” Wei Wuxian asked, unnecessarily. “Guess we might as well get going. East is that way, so . . .” He pointed at the sun. “I just wish I knew how far we had to go. Hey, how’s your ankle feeling?”

“Better,” Lan Wangji murmured, testing it gingerly. 

“Are you hungry? Do you eat? It’s so weird that you’re like, a person . . .” Wei Wuxian shook his head. 

Lan Wangji looked somewhat nonplussed. “How is it weird?”

“I mean . . .” Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure how to explain. “All we can see is a tiny twinkling in the sky.”

“Because of how far away we are. If you gazed upon a person over a vast field, would they not similarly appear to be a speck?”

“I guess so!” Wei Wuxian said. “Huh. Okay. So, food?”

“I have never partaken before,” Lan Wangji said. “But now that I am here, and unable to receive any other form of sustenance, I suppose I must.”

“Don’t spend all your enthusiasm at once,” Wei Wuxian said, opening his rucksack. He brought out some bread wrapped in paper, and then some cheese made from their goat’s milk. Lan Wangji nibbled at it uncertainly while Wei Wuxian watched in admitted fascination. “How is it?”

“It is not as offensive as I thought it might be,” Lan Wangji said, and Wei Wuxian laughed.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing I made,” he said. “Nobody back at home could tolerate my cooking. I wouldn’t force you to eat it.”

Lan Wangji frowned slightly but continued to eat. Wei Wuxian did the same, as the pre-dawn light got brighter. He watched the sun rise, enjoying the beauty of it. After about half an hour, they were on their feet and moving. 

“So what did you call this place again? Stormhold?” he asked as they walked, and Lan Wangji nodded. “It’s really beautiful. I mean, not that Wall isn’t a nice place, but these mountains, this forest, it’s gorgeous. It feels . . . weirdly familiar. I wonder if I’ve been here before.”

With another frown, Lan Wangji said, “How could that be?”

“Oh, I guess I didn’t explain,” Wei Wuxian said. “I think I’m still processing a lot of it. So, when I was four, I came from Stormhold through the wall, and a family there adopted me. I only just found out that my mother left me this candle. She sent me through the wall because my father had gotten captured by an evil witch, and she was going to go try to rescue him. She told a friend that if she didn’t come back, to send me through the wall so I could live safely.”

Lan Wangji nodded. “I’ve heard of you.”

Wei Wuxian tripped over his own feet and nearly went sprawling. “You’ve what?”

“It is very rare for anyone to cross the wall,” Lan Wangji said. “It was the subject of much discussion at the time.”

“Discussion? Amongst who?” Wei Wuxian demanded.

“The stars,” Lan Wangji said, looking puzzled.

“But - how did they know about it?”

“We saw it happen, of course.”

Wei Wuxian felt like he had been hit in the head with a board. “Are you saying that the stars actually watch us on Earth? That every twinkle in the sky is actually a voyeur who can see everything happening down here? That’s - okay, I’m going to be honest with you, I feel kind of violated. I’m thinking of every time I’ve been humiliated over the course of my life. You’re telling me I had an audience?”

“It is considered common courtesy not to watch certain things,” Lan Wangji told him.

“Wow, that really does not help at all,” Wei Wuxian said.

Lan Wangji was silent for a few moments while Wei Wuxian boggled over this, then said, “To be honest, I agree with you. I find it distasteful to spectate the lives of people who don’t know that I am watching. I tend to occupy myself with the wonders of nature, or the more simplistic lives of animals, who would not care to know I was watching.”

“I guess that helps a little,” Wei Wuxian grumbled. “But you’ve still heard of me!”

“Major events or unusual ones will get discussed,” Lan Wangji said stiffly.

Wei Wuxian shook his head. “Stars. A bunch of gossips. Who would have thought.” He pushed aside his uneasiness. “Well, do you know what happened to my mother, then? To my father?”

“No,” Lan Wangji said, and Wei Wuxian sighed. “As I said, I generally do not participate. One of my brothers did mention to me that a child had gone through the wall, but I knew nothing about the circumstances.”

Feeling annoyed, Wei Wuxian walked in silence for a few minutes. He might have been able to accept the stars spying on them if it had actually gotten him information, but as it was, he was just left with a lingering feeling of unease. “I just wish I knew more about them,” he finally said.

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, whatever that meant.

They began climbing rockier terrain, heading uphill, and Wei Wuxian decided to save his breath for now. It was only several hours later that they spoke again, as Lan Wangji had started to flag badly. “Are you tired?” Wei Wuxian asked, eyeing him critically, then feeling bad about it. 

“I’m never up this late,” Lan Wangji said.

Wei Wuxian sighed. “I didn’t sleep very well either. I mean, I guess there’s no real rush, besides the fact that the longer I’m gone, the less everyone will believe I’m coming back. But we have to travel during the day or I won’t be sure I’m heading west.”

Lan Wangji shook his head. “You can navigate by the stars.”

“I mean, I know it’s possible,” Wei Wuxian said. “But I don’t actually know how to do it.”

“I do,” Lan Wangji said. “I will always be able to find my brother in the sky. He will point the way.”

“Oh, okay. I guess. That’s so weird.” Wei Wuxian shook his head. “But if it means I can lie down and sleep for a while, I’m all for it. Let’s get some rest.”

~ ~ ~ ~

The problem with killing and eating one of the goats, Xue Yang thought, was just that it would be so much work. He disliked work as a general rule. It wasn’t that he minded getting his hands dirty. Actually, he liked getting his hands dirty. He’d kill a goat for fun, sure, but to kill one and then butcher it and cook it just so he could eat it? It was a hard no.

He was thinking about that when he rounded a corner and saw a yellow carriage, one with a domed top that looked like the kind used not just for traveling, but for living on the road. There was a man sitting outside of it by a fire, and something cooking over it that smelled delicious. Xue Yang stopped his cart and climbed off.

“Who goes there?” a querulous voice asked, as the man sitting by the fire looked up warily.

“Ugh,” Xue Yang said. “Drop the act. I can tell what you are.” He saw the suspicious look intensify and supposed he should be at least marginally polite if he wanted some of whatever was cooking. “And I swear by the ordinances of the brotherhood to which we both belong that I mean you no harm this day.”

“Ah,” the man said, his voice now a normal, deep baritone. “Can’t be too careful, you know.”

Xue Yang didn’t agree on general principle, but didn’t bother arguing. “What’s cooking? Can I have some?”

“Sure. I’ll grab you a seat.” The man snapped his fingers, and the peacock that had been sitting on top of the carriage changed to a man with a puff of smoke. He jumped down from the top, picked up a stool, and carried it over to the fire.

“Anything else?” he asked, looking at the ground.

“Nope!” Another snap of the fingers, and the man dissolved back into the peacock. Xue Yang took the offered seat, trying not to roll his eyes. He couldn’t blame a man for showing off - he was the same way - but it was a simple, petty enchantment to be able to turn someone to an animal and back. Why be so proud of it? And the silver chain attached to the peacock’s ankle was inelegant at best. Xue Yang preferred compulsion spells that didn’t leave such physical evidence, like the one keeping his new goats grazing by the cart instead of running off.

But there was no point in antagonizing the man who was currently feeding him and introducing himself as Su She, a witch from the prairie. Xue Yang had never heard of him, but then again he didn’t really care to keep track of other witches. He cared very little for the exploits of other people.

And the food was passable, some sort of rabbit stew, generous with the meat although there was also some sort of stringy grass in it that he didn’t care for. 

“So where are you headed?” Su She asked.

“I’m looking for a fallen star,” Xue Yang said. “It fell about fifty miles from where we are now.”

“Oh, a fallen star?” Su She sounded excited. “That’s the best news I’ve had in a while. I could do with losing a few years, frankly . . .”

Xue Yang gave a snort. “I don’t see how it would help,” he said, and Su She’s mouth pursed in a scowl, which Xue Yang found very funny. “Listen, some of us have natural beauty, okay? Maybe try getting a spell to fix your face before you worry about eternal youth.”

Su She ignored this, poking at the fire and saying, “Any idea where it is now?”

“My runes say it headed west, so it’s coming this way,” Xue Yang said, and now he frowned. It wasn’t as if he was afraid of losing his star to some nobody, but why was he saying any of this? Sure, he could be chatty, but he could also keep a secret. There was no reason to invite trouble by telling some other witch about his star. He looked down at the bowl he was eating from and fished out a piece of the grass. “Limbus grass?” he asked incredulously. “You dare steal truth from my lips by feeding me limbus grass?”

Su She shrugged, clearly unremorseful. “Like I said, can’t be too careful.”

Xue Yang kicked the pot of stew, sending it splattering all over the small clearing. “Do you have any idea what a big mistake you just made?” he asked, and Su She looked unimpressed. “Do you even know who I am?”

“No,” Su She said, without concern.

“Look again,” Xue Yang said. “Look closer.”

He hated letting his terrible, disgusting old face show, but it was what Su She would recognize. And he did, immediately going to his knees and prostrating himself. “I shall not seek the star, your dark eminence.”

“Seek all you want,” Xue Yang said, his hand wreathed in green flame. He held it out, and the flames encircled Su She’s head. “You shall not see the star, hear it, touch it, or smell it. You will not perceive it even if it stands before you.” He dropped his hand, and the flames dissipated. “Pray you never meet me again, Su She.”

He turned and went back to his cart. Behind him, he heard Su She demand, “What are you looking at,” presumably of his cursed slave. 

“What a tool,” Xue Yang said. His goats bleated in agreement.

~ ~ ~ ~

Jin Guangyao studied the ocean somewhat sourly.

He should have known better, he thought. He had been, perhaps, a little bit stung by Jin Zixun’s assertion that nobody in the palace was actually loyal to him. Of course, rather than an entourage of three dozen people, he had a carefully hand-picked seven. One of them had recommended the soothsayer who could use his magic to tell them what direction to go in. He had taken the man at his word, and now he was facing an enormous body of water.

“South, you said,” he said to the soothsayer, who was silently wringing his hands. “South we went. Still no jade. Do you propose we now start swimming?”

The soothsayer bowed low. “Sire, I can only relay to you what the runes tell me.”

Jin Guangyao turned with a charming smile that showed dimples. “Well, perhaps you can educate me on the subject so that I might understand. Take out these bones that you throw to predict our course. Consult them again.”

With a nod, the soothsayer withdrew the handful of pieces of bone and shook them in one hand.

“Wait,” Jin Guangyao said. “Before we seek the jade, let me ask something else. Am I the fourth son of Jin Guangshan?”

Looking a little uncertain, the soothsayer tossed the bones onto the large stone that was standing between them. They landed showing a variety of markings. “Yes.”

“Mm hm. I see. Is my favorite color gold?”

Moving from ‘uncertain’ to ‘apprehensive’, the soothsayer tossed the bones again, and received the same result. “Yes.”

Smiling more aggressively, Jin Guangyao asked, “Has excessive begging or pleading ever convinced me to spare the life of a traitor?”

Wincing, the soothsayer threw them again. They landed with all the runes facing down, displaying only blank bone.

“And what does that mean?” Jin Guangyao asked.

“It means no,” the soothsayer mumbled.

“Excellent. So we know that they’re working. One more question. Throw them again. This time, throw them high, and I’ll ask while they fall.”

With the blank expression of a man who knew he was doomed, the soothsayer picked up the bones and threw them into the air.

Jin Guangyao asked, “Do you work for my brother?”

The bones landed with a clatter. Jin Guangyao’s sword was already out as they hit the stone, and the instant he read them, he had it buried in the man’s chest. The soothsayer sagged to the ground. Jin Guangyao cleaned his blade, tucked it away, and swept up the bones.

“So,” he said, not at all bothered by the silence of his men. “Should we head west?” he asked, and threw the bones into the air.

If you want something done right, he thought, do it yourself.

~ ~ ~ ~

Lan Wangji was surprised to find that he truly did not mind traveling with Wei Wuxian. He talked far more than necessary, but the sound was not at all unpleasant somehow, like having the sound of a river in the background. He talked a lot about his siblings and his life back in Wall, casually dropping facts that Lan Wangji, even in his limited experience, knew were not at all typical.

Every night, as the sun set, he would look to the sky and see his brother. He gave off such a strong light, always due north. As long as Lan Xichen shined on his right shoulder, they were heading west.

“That is so weird,” Wei Wuxian said, every time. “I mean, he’s a whole person up there! What’s he like?”

“Xiongzhang?” Lan Wangji asked, somehow surprised by this question. “He is a gentle, thoughtful person.”

He could see Wei Wuxian’s brain working furiously, trying to process this knowledge. Wei Wuxian had already asked him dozens of questions about how this whole ‘people in the sky’ thing worked. Did they have houses that they went to during the day? Lan Wangji said he slept while the sun was out. Did he have a bed? Did he think of coming out in the sky to shine at night in the same way that the villagers of wall thought of their occupations? He had said his ‘normal’ method of sustenance was unavailable now that he was on earth. What did he normally eat? Was he actually human-shaped while he was up in the sky, or only after he had fallen?

Lan Wangji put up with these questions with all the patience he could muster, occasionally answering one but mostly letting them bounce off of him.

The dense forest and steep hills gradually gave way to plains and prairies, and they started to make better time. Lan Wangji was a little surprised to find that Wei Wuxian quickly adapted to being up and moving at night and then sleeping during the day. “I actually kind of like it!” he said on the third day of their journey. “I’m usually pretty cold at night, up in the attic, and it can be hard to fall asleep. But during the day I can sprawl out in the warmth of the sun and it makes it much easier.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said.

Although he had in no way asked, Wei Wuxian kept talking about the subject. “I’m not like a lot of other people, I guess, or at least I’m not like the people where I’m from. So it doesn’t really surprise me that I can be up all night and sleep during the day. Uncle Jiang said that the people over here lead very different lives from the ones in Wall. Though I guess you’d know that. Man, watching Wall must be awfully boring; I bet none of the stars bother.”

“It is true,” Lan Wangji agreed. “Stormhold is a much more exciting place.”

“Tell me about it,” Wei Wuxian said, and Lan Wangji frowned, unsure of what he wanted to know. “I mean, Uncle Jiang said there are dragons. Is that true?”

“Mn. Very few, though, and they mainly keep to themselves in the mountains.”

“And witches, huh? Are they all evil, like the ones who want to eat you?”

“All witches are evil,” Lan Wangji said, “but not all magic-users are witches.” He thought this over, then said, “Most people in Stormhold can do at least a little magic.”

“I wonder if I can, then,” Wei Wuxian said thoughtfully. “Though I guess I’ve never learned. Okay, what about the king? Uncle Jiang said he’s a tyrant.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji agreed. “He is indeed. The kings of Stormhold pit their children against each other in a competition for the throne - whoever survives wins. The current king was the fifth son out of twelve children, but he killed all his siblings before his father even took ill, in order to win the throne.”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes were wide. “That’s horrific!” he said, and Lan Wangji nodded. “I can’t imagine ever hurting either of my siblings, and they aren’t even really my siblings. And he’s making his own kids do this, too?”

Lan Wangji nodded and continued, unaware his information was out of date, “He had seven children, and as of now, only four still live.”

Wei Wuxian shuddered. “That’s insane.”

“Mn. It is, but . . .” Lan Wangji was frowning, thinking about the things Wei Wuxian had told him about. “People in Wall can be cruel to their children as well. Like the woman who raised you. Obviously it is a less extreme case, but . . .”

“What?” Wei Wuxian actually laughed. “That’s totally different. I’m not really her son; of course she didn’t need to care about me.”

“Just because you were not her flesh and blood did not give her an excuse to treat you as she did. Making you sleep outside in a goat pen when you were only a small child? Telling the townspeople that you were a monster in disguise? Making you do all the chores around the house but still calling you useless and lazy? These things are unconscionable.”

Wei Wuxian shifted uncomfortably. “She was just mad because she thought Uncle Jiang had been unfaithful to her.”

“So she penalizes the child who could have been a result of that infidelity? Would it have been your fault for who you were born to?”

“Um,” Wei Wuxian said, seeming very uncertain.

“She did not have to love you. She did not even have to like you. But there is a minimum of kindness and support that should be shown any child, regardless of their relationship to the person in question, and she fell short of that by several measures.”

“Sure, okay,” Wei Wuxian said, in the tone of voice of someone who wanted to stop having the conversation immediately. “Hey, looks like it’s gonna rain, huh? Maybe we should try to find a place to stay tonight. I guess I don’t have any money, though. I assume they still use money in Stormhold.”

“They do,” Lan Wangji said. “Perhaps I can exchange this piece of jewelry.”

Wei Wuxian glanced at the piece of jade that Lan Wangji had hung from his belt. “It’s kind of ugly, to be honest,” he said. “All tarnished and bleh. That’s what knocked you out of the sky, huh? Wonder how it got launched up so high.”

Lan Wangji didn’t know, so he said nothing.

Wei Wuxian continued on, undeterred. “I didn’t really bring anything valuable from home. I mean, I don’t really have anything valuable at home. And the food we have is running out, too . . . we’re going to have to think of something. I guess maybe I could do some work? I can chop wood and I know how to take care of most farm animals.”

Lan Wangji wasn’t sure why his mind immediately conjured dueling pictures, one of Wei Wuxian shirtless to the waist, chopping wood and displaying gleaming skin (why would he need to be shirtless to chop wood? Lan Wangji’s sensible side asked), and the other of him caring for an armful of rabbits, gently stroking their ears and making sure they were well-kept (Lan Wangji liked rabbits a great deal and had often watched them from his place in the sky). He couldn’t decide which picture he liked better, and resolved not to think about either of them in the future.

“Well, one thing at a time, I guess,” Wei Wuxian said, unaware of Lan Wangji’s mental ogling. “Let’s find a place to stay tonight and see if there’s anything we can trade and then go from there.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Xue Yang threw the bones for the third time, examined the result, and groaned. “Give me a break,” he muttered to himself, before doing something he absolutely hated to do: called his brothers for help.

“You’ve been using too much magic,” Wen Chao immediately told him. “I can see it in your face.”

“A couple of goats and a small enchantment,” Xue Yang said. “For me, that’s downright austere. Give me a break.”

“Even contacting us will take its toll,” Wen Zhuliu said. 

“Do you think I’d be doing it if I didn’t have to?” Xue Yang asked, exasperated. “Listen, I’ve been following the runes and I was making good progress. I went where they told me, but no star. And now they’re just feeding me gibberish.”

Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu looked at each other and rolled their eyes, which Xue Yang resented deeply. Then Wen Zhuliu went in the direction of his animal cages. A few seconds later, Xue Yang heard the shrieking of a dying animal. 

“You have to stay where you are,” Wen Chao told him, after examining the divinations. “The star is coming to you.”

“Stay where I am. Right.” Xue Yang looked around at the open plain, the crossroads, the ominous storm clouds. 

“The star is not alone,” Wen Zhuliu said. “It has a traveling companion.”

“Not another witch,” Xue Yang said, positive that any other witch would have cut the star’s heart out immediately.

“No.” Wen Zhuliu was silent for a moment. Xue Yang could hear Wen Chao muttering to himself. “I’ve never seen anything like this in the divinations. I don’t know who the star is with, but he could be dangerous. I would advise setting a trap for the star - see if you can separate it from its companion.”

“Dangerous,” Xue Yang said, rolling his eyes. “Sure, whatever. I’ll need a roof over my head if I’m going to wait anyway.”

He was close to the star, so he figured if he was going to set a trap, he might as well use enough magic to make it stick. He snapped his fingers. Green fire raced along the ground, summoning something from nothing. Before long, he had a small, serviceable looking tavern and inn, just as the sky opened and began to pour down rain. That should attract weary travelers. He frowned at his two goats and snapped his fingers again, transforming them back into the men they had been. Both of them fumbled as if they were trying to draw swords that weren’t there.

“Hey! None of that, now,” Xue Yang said, slapping at one of their wrists. “Come on, I’ve been nice to you, haven’t I? I didn’t butcher and eat you.”

“That’s what you consider nice?” the black goat asked, somewhat acerbically.

Xue Yang ignored him and spoke to the prettier one. “You, do you know anything about how to cook?”

“I am not ‘you’,” the man said, with admirable patience for a man who had been a goat for the last several days. “My name is Xiao Xingcheng. This is my friend, Song Lan. And yes, I do know how to cook.”

Xue Yang was annoyed, because it wasn’t like he had asked, but then again the man was very pretty. “Sure. Nice to meet you and all that. Maybe at the end of this we can still be friends, right, Xiao-gege? Let’s check out our new digs.”

“You’re too old to call someone ‘gege’,” Song Lan murmured.

“Keep in mind that I can do far worse than turn you back into a goat, mmkay?” Xue Yang said, heading into the inn. The two men followed him, dragged along by his compulsion spells on them. He looked around, pleased with himself even though he could practically feel the crow’s feet forming. “All right, this should do as a trap,” he said, mostly to himself. “They’ll come in and get separate rooms and then I can nab the star without anyone noticing.”

“Won’t they think it’s odd that the tavern is empty?” Xiao Xingcheng asked politely. 

“It’s not empty, is it? We’re here,” Xue Yang said. “You can be behind the bar and this guy,” he gestured to Song Lan, “can pretend to be a guest or something. Whatever. I don’t care. As soon as they get here I’ll just put compulsion spells on them anyway.”

“Will that work on a star?” Song Lan asked.

“For fuck’s sake, you two ask a lot of questions. Shut up for a while, will you? You’re gonna give me a headache with all this thinking ahead. You’re worse than my brothers.”

Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan exchanged a look, which Xue Yang easily interpreted as ‘well, we don’t actually want his plan to work so we should probably stop trying to help’. Xiao Xingcheng went behind the bar, and Song Lan went to sit by the fire. 

The silence lasted all of three minutes before Xiao Xingcheng asked, “Is this food actually real?”

Xue Yang hopped onto a barstool and thought about keeping this one. He was cute. “Sure it is.”

“I mean, you made it from magic,” Xiao Xingchen said. “I don’t doubt that it feels real, that it would taste real. But would it actually provide nourishment? If we ate it, would we still be hungry afterwards?”

“It’s not an illusion,” Xue Yang said. “It’s as real as anything else.”

Xiao Xingchen looked like he was thinking about asking more questions, but fortunately, there was a banging at the door and then it swung open. “Ugh, finally,” Xue Yang said, as if he had been waiting hours and not fewer than five minutes.

He was instantly dismayed to find an entire entourage of people outside his door, filing in from the pouring rain, getting mud everywhere with their boots. One of them, a man with a red dot on his forehead and an attitude that Xue Yang wanted to shove down his throat, saw him and snapped his fingers. “You there! We have horses that need stabling. Hot food and mulled wine for my men.”

“You there?” Xue Yang asked incredulously, but the man had already turned around and was shedding his drenched outer garments. Xue Yang groaned. “Hey, uh, what was your name again, goat guy - ”

“Song Lan,” Xiao Xingchen murmured.

“Song Lan, go take care of their horses, okay?” Xue Yang said, mostly because he figured his trap wouldn’t work if he murdered all these people and the star came up the road to find a massacre. Song Lan silently rose and left to do as he was told, partly because of the compulsion spell, but also partly because he looked fine with getting away from Xue Yang for a while. “You said you could cook, Xiao-gege, so you better get on it.”

Xiao Xingchen nodded, and a slight smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “At least you won’t have to worry about it seeming odd that the inn is empty.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter Text

“Okay, so I’ve been thinking,” Wei Wuxian said, and Lan Wangji could not help but sigh. “Can you see us when we’re inside? Like, how does that work? Can you see through our roofs? And the second floor and everything? And how can you hear us? I mean, you yourself pointed out that you’re pretty far away. So do you have really amazing hearing? But then, wouldn’t you be able to hear everything? How do you only hear the people you’re trying to listen to?”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said.

“That doesn’t explain anything!” Wei Wuxian retorted.

As they walked, it began to drizzle, and then became a hard rain. Lan Wangji found he did not like this at all. He was not really susceptible to cold, or at least he did not notice if he was, but he intensely disliked this feeling of being bedraggled and soaked. As they came over a rise and into a large field, he saw light on the horizon.

Wei Wuxian saw it too, and said, “Okay, whatever they want to let us stay under their roof, we’re gonna find a way to provide it. We’re both gonna drown out here.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji agreed.

It turned out to be an inn, and it was teeming with people, all of whom looked like soldiers of some sort. There was a handsome carriage outside, and a man dressed in black who was tending their horses and didn’t notice when they arrived. Lan Wangji practically had to wring himself out when they went inside. Something smelled wonderful, even to his relatively undeveloped sense.

Half a dozen men had gathered by the fire, and one of them was bragging about what an amazing warrior he was. Despite Lan Wangji’s reluctance to involve himself in human matters, he recognized immediately that he was one of the king’s sons. They were the only ones in the kingdom entitled to wear the crimson mark on their foreheads. He didn’t know which one, and frankly he didn’t care.

“Good evening, travelers,” a man behind the bar said, with a friendly smile. “Can I get you something?”

“Uh, maybe,” Wei Wuxian said. “We don’t really have any money, but whatever you’re cooking smells great.”

“It’s on the house,” he said, and when Wei Wuxian blinked, he added, “the prince has thrown enough money at us tonight to cover our expenses for the year. Surely we can handle a few meals for weary travelers.”

“Maybe some towels, too?” Wei Wuxian asked hopefully.

“Of course.” The man glanced behind his shoulder as if looking for someone. He frowned faintly. Lan Wangji got the impression that there was something he wanted to say, but for some reason he was holding back. “Let me go and fetch those. Here, have some mulled wine while you wait.”

Wei Wuxian accepted the glass gratefully. Lan Wangji smelled it and grimaced. “I do not care for this smell,” he said. “You may have mine if you wish.”

“Oh? If you’re sure. When he comes back, we can get you some tea or something,” Wei Wuxian said, and took a drink. “It’s really good. Are you sure?”

“I have seen what alcohol does to people,” Lan Wangji said. “No thank you.”

That made Wei Wuxian laugh. There was a loud noise from the area by the fire. He glanced over at where the prince was, apparently, reenacting some fierce battle. “So he’s one of the princes, huh? Do you know which one?”

Lan Wangji shook his head.

“I guess it doesn’t matter. Still, it’s not fair that they’re hogging the fire.”

That was something Lan Wangji wholly agreed with. He looked up as the barkeeper came back. He handed them a stack of towels and two bowls of stew. Wei Wuxian asked if they could have some tea with their meal, and he apologized and said they didn’t have any, but brought them two tankards of water instead. “No tea, huh?” Wei Wuxian said, surprised, clearly wondering if tea wasn’t a thing they had in Stormhold.

“Our proprietor has singular tastes,” the man said, with an odd expression on his face.

Lan Wangji had no idea what that meant, but the stew tasted good. He ate in silence as the crowd by the fire grew more noisy. 

“How much have they drunk?” Wei Wuxian asked under his breath.

The barkeeper heard them and said, “I think every single man has had at least four tankards of ale. But at least they brought their own alcohol with them. Apparently one of those carriages was just filled with barrels. Something about only drinking his own stock until he was king.”

“Must be nice to be a prince,” Wei Wuxian said, then added, “although I guess less so to be one of these princes. If I knew my brothers were all trying to kill me, I’d probably drink too.” He finished his stew and then said, “Come on, we need to go dry out and warm up.”

“Must we?” Lan Wangji asked, eyeing the conglomeration by the fire with an uneasy expression.

“Look, prince or no prince, he can’t have the fire all to himself. Even though we’ve wrung our clothes out, we’re still wet as hell. Although, I guess, we could get a room - ”

“No,” the man behind the bar said, as if forcing the word out. He added, “I’m sorry.”

“They took them all already, huh?” Wei Wuxian asked, and sighed. “Can we stay in the stables, at least, so there’s a roof over our head?”

The barkeeper nodded and said nothing.

“Come on, let’s go warm up and dry out a little, then,” Wei Wuxian said, taking Lan Wangji’s wrist and dragging him over to the fire. Lan Wangji had to admit that, despite the noise and the crowd, it was nice to feel the warmth of it on his chilled hands.

“Who’re you?” the prince immediately demanded, drawing a sword, and both of them jumped. “Did Guangyao send you?”

“Who the hell is Guangyao?” Wei Wuxian asked, and saw the prince narrow his eyes. He lifted his hands. “Hey, look, we’re just travelers, okay? We don’t know any Guangyao and we don’t want any trouble.”

// “Hey - hey! Hey, come look at this!” Mo Xuanyu said, waving his arms to gain the attention of his scattered siblings, who had long ago grown bored with watching Jin Zixun drink and brag. Luo Qingyang had departed to watch Jin Guangyao instead, even though he was doing nothing more exciting than riding his horse down a lonely road. But she popped back into the inn when she heard her younger brother’s voice.

“Is that - ” she said, her eyes wide.

Qin Su, crouched by Lan Wangji and examining the stone hanging from his belt, said, “It is!” //

Jin Zixun glowered at them for a few moments before he sheathed his sword and grunted. “Can’t be too careful.”

“Sure,” Wei Wuxian said. Despite Lan Wangji’s silence warning him, he continued, “Oh, Guangyao must be one of your brothers, right? The barkeeper told us you’re a prince, so I guess you probably have to keep an eye out for him.”

“Hah! Keep an eye out. As if that weasel could ever manage to actually hurt me,” Jin Zixun said. “I could have killed him years ago if I’d really wanted to.”

// “Oh my God, you absolute moron,” Wan Tong shouted. “It’s right here! The jade! It’s right here!”

“Stop bragging and open your eyes!” Qin Su yelled. “Some of us want to not be stuck here anymore!” // 

“Oh, yeah?” Wei Wuxian sounded impressed, but Lan Wangji had a feeling that this was the same tone he would use if a small child was speaking. “So you’re gonna be the next king, then?”

“Absolutely!” Jin Zixun sneered. “All I have to do is find the jade my father set us as a quest!”

// “The piece of jade that is LITERALLY RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU?!” Luo Qingyang shouted. “How! How did you kill me? I’ll never forgive myself - ”

Her siblings had, by this point, devolved into nonsensical yelling. //

“Okay, well, you better get cracking on that,” Wei Wuxian said. “You probably don’t even want to stop here tonight, huh? You should probably all get going - ”

Lan Wangji was amused at Wei Wuxian’s transparent attempts to get them a room for the night, but then he saw Jin Zixun staring hard at him, which made him uncomfortable. “Can I help you?” he asked icily.

“That stone,” Jin Zixun said. “The one on your belt - it can’t be - ”

// “Fucking FINALLY - ” Mo Xuanyu screamed. // 

“Do not touch me!” Lan Wangji said, backing up rapidly as Jin Zixun lurched forward.

“Give it to me!” Jin Zixun yelled.

“Whoa, hey!” Wei Wuxian said, pushing between them as Lan Wangji rapidly ducked behind the nearest chair. “Get your hands off him, you can’t just go grabbing people like - ”

Lan Wangji wasn’t sure what happened next. One second Wei Wuxian was being tossed aside, leaving only a flimsy chair between him and a prince who for some reason was trying to grab him, and the next there was blood absolutely everywhere. Jin Zixun was wearing a wholly shocked expression, as if he himself had no idea where the gaping wound on his neck had come from. Then his body collapsed to reveal someone standing behind him, holding a glistening knife made of obsidian.

“You can’t go treating my guests like that,” the man said, and he looked young but wasn’t somehow. Lan Wangji couldn’t say how he knew that but he did. He felt all the hair on the back of his neck standing up, and was suddenly sure that, despite the death of his previous attacker, things had just gotten much, much worse.

// “Nice going, Zixun-ge,” Mo Xuanyu said dryly.

“What the fuck just happened?” Jin Zixun sputtered. //

Lan Wangji took a few steps backwards as Wei Wuxian scrambled to his feet. Suddenly the fire began to roar around them, escaping the fireplace and engulfing the whole of the tavern. The men who had been with Jin Zixun, who had been advancing to attack the man who had killed him, suddenly began to scream and run for their lives. But Lan Wangji couldn’t move. He felt frozen in place by a noxious, creeping sense of dread.

“Man, you led me on a pretty merry chase,” the witch, who somehow Lan Wangji knew was a witch, said. Blood dripped from the tip of his knife. “Hey, all’s fair in love and war, though, right? You know, there are some witches who try to make the star happy before they cut out its heart. Say it’s more potent that way. Bullshit, I say. How happy can a star be when I’m sawing into its chest?”

Wei Wuxian managed to get back up and pushed between them. Lan Wangji felt a strange impulse to tell him to run, to save himself. It was hopeless. There was no way they could fight against a witch this powerful. If he was going to die, he didn’t want Wei Wuxian to die with him.

But Wei Wuxian was not frozen. Wei Wuxian was fumbling for something in his pocket, and Wei Wuxian suddenly whispered, “Hold onto me tight and think of home,” and then thrust the hand holding the Babylon candle into the fire.

It caught just as the witch lunged forward with the knife, and they were gone.

~ ~ ~ ~

Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure where the hell they were, but he was sure of one thing: he did not like it. It was very loud and very wet, and there were flashes of light going off around him and wind whipping at his clothes and - 

“Holy shit!” he shouted over the sound of the thunder. “Are we in the sky?”

Lan Wangji looked around, his hair already soaked again. Wei Wuxian tried to ignore the way his robes were clinging to his body, because it was just way too attractive to be fair. “We are on top of a cloud.”

Wei Wuxian pushed his sopping hair out of his face, not that it helped. He could barely see through the rain lashing at his eyes. He shook his hand out, as if that would stop the pain of having been burned in the fire. “How did that happen? I thought of home . . .”

“You thought of your home, and I thought of my home,” Lan Wangji said, his words altogether too calm for someone currently standing on top of a cloud, in the middle of a thunderstorm, shouting to be heard. “So the candle brought us halfway between. Why did you give such an instruction?”

“It was the first thing that popped into my head!” Wei Wuxian protested. “I mean, I thought of saying ‘think of Wall’ but you’ve never been to Wall so I didn’t know if that would work, and, just, ugh! It was kind of a stressful situation, you know? I mean, what the hell just happened?”

“It was a witch,” Lan Wangji said, and he turned to face Wei Wuxian suddenly, his face intense and thoughtful. “You saved my life.”

“What?” Wei Wuxian laughed. “No, haha, I was just getting us both out of there, that’s all.”

“Your hand is burned,” Lan Wangji said, taking Wei Wuxian’s hand in both of his own.

“It sure is,” Wei Wuxian said, having completely forgotten what they were talking about.

“Does it hurt?” Lan Wangji asked.

“Does what hurt?”

Lan Wangji looked exasperated, but a few seconds later, a net dropped down on both of them from above, and Wei Wuxian let out a yelp. He struggled to get free, tangled himself further, and fell over, taking Lan Wangji with him. When he managed to look up, half a dozen men wearing goggles and leather raincoats were standing over them.

“What’ve we got?” somebody shouted.

“A couple of lightning marshals!” someone replied.

“Get ‘em on board!”

Wei Wuxian tried to protest, but then again, he wasn’t actually about to argue being brought onto the large airship that was looming next to the cloud. It wasn’t like he had any better ideas on how to get down. Whoever was in charge, he would talk them into dropping them off at wherever airships dropped people off at.

He was a little less optimistic once they were stuck in some sort of storage closet, tied together, back to back. “Okay, so, this isn’t ideal,” he said, still wriggling. After a few minutes, he was forced to admit defeat, slumping backwards, letting the back of his head rest against Lan Wangji’s shoulder. “I mean, I guess it’s still a step up from where we were.”

Lan Wangji shook his head. He was quiet for a long moment, before saying, “My brother used to tell me about the sort of adventures that humans had. I thought it must be interesting, to live such grand, exciting lives. But it was never something that I desired for myself.”

Wei Wuxian laughed quietly. “I don’t think I could have even imagined an adventure like this existed. I really thought I’d just find a rock in the forest and then spend a few days walking home.” 

“And you got me,” Lan Wangji said, and he too laughed, just a soft chuckle that made Wei Wuxian’s stomach flutter.

“I don’t regret it, you know,” he said. “It was worth it, in order to meet you.”

“Ridiculous,” Lan Wangji murmured.

Wei Wuxian didn’t argue. “And, you know, it feels strangely right somehow? Like this is the sort of life I’m supposed to be living. I never belonged in Wall. Every hour of every day just seemed determined to prove to me that I was different. I don’t know what’s going to happen next here, but . . . for the first time, I really feel alive. Is that strange?”

“I do not think it is so strange,” Lan Wangji said, then added, “although as events have proven, I know very little about people.”

“That’s fine by me,” Wei Wuxian said. “I can teach you.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said.

It sounded like a good ‘mn’, although to be fair Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure. And it brought to mind something else. “The Babylon candle burned out, though . . . there’s nothing of it left. I told you I’d get you home and now I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”

Lan Wangji was quiet for a minute that felt far too long, before he said, “Perhaps once we have gotten through this, and I have done what I can for your sister, that can be our next adventure.”

Wei Wuxian laughed. “You think so? Yeah, that’s right. We’re sure to come across one sooner or later, right? And it’s fun to travel with you, Lan Wangji. These last few days have been some of the best of my life, witches and pirates and all.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, then even more quietly, “Mine too.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Jin Guangyao regarded Jin Zixun’s body with mild surprise. The clearing was empty except for the bodies of him and his men, and some scorch marks on the grass. “Huh,” he finally said. “Well, that was easier than I expected. I’ll have to remember to send a nice thank-you letter if I ever find out who was responsible.”

// “You’re still not king,” Jin Zixun snapped at him.

“Will you shut up?” Luo Qingyang retorted. “If you talked less and paid attention more, you’d still be alive.” //

Frowning, Jin Guangyao looked around. “I still need the jade, though. Father’s last instructions were very clear.”

“Your brother doesn’t have it?” one of the men asked.

“Search him and find out,” Jin Guangyao instructed. “Thoroughly.”

// “Get your hands off me!” Jin Zixun said, lunging at Jin Guangyao’s attendant and going right through him.

Mo Xuanyu shook his head. “Man, he is really not getting this.” //

Jin Guangyao was watching the search when movement on one side of the clearing caught his eye. There was a cart, and two men huddled by it, around a small fire. He walked over to them, and one of them stood, holding a piece of firewood out in front of himself.

“Where is my jade?” Jin Guangyao asked pleasantly, holding his hands up to show that, although he was armed, he wasn’t actively wielding a weapon at the moment.

“I don’t . . .” the man with the piece of wood said, frowning.

“Wait,” the other said, also standing. “That man, your brother, is he? He mentioned a piece of jade. There was a stranger who carried it. Dressed all in white robes. Very beautiful. But he got away. This, all of this,” he said, gesturing to the field, “was a trap for him. But your brother, he walked right into it.”

“A trap?” Jin Guangyao asked. “Set by who?”

“Someone you should pray you’ll never meet,” the man said. “He’s gone now. He took your brother’s carriage.”

“And he wanted the jade?” Jin Guangyao asked. Could it have been Jin Zixuan? Had he really been sitting back, biding his time, all these years? But how would Jin Zixuan even know about the jade? He hadn’t been there when their father had died. Had he heard about it somehow and come to seek it?

“No,” the first man said, in hushed tones. “No, he wanted the heart of that stranger. He said the stranger was a star, and he was going to cut his heart out and . . . and . . .”

Jin Guangyao’s breath caught in his throat. “Eat it,” he whispered. “Everlasting life. I could be king . . . forever.”

// “Oh, son of a bitch,” Qin Su said.

“You know what, I don’t even care anymore,” Wan Tong said wearily. “I guess at least then he won’t have to make his own kids kill each other.”

“Like Guangyao-ge will ever find anyone who would put up with him long enough to have his children,” Mo Xuanyu said, rolling his eyes. //

“It’s not here, sire!” the soldier shouted, standing back up.

// “At least put a blanket over me . . . give me some dignity,” Jin Zixun moaned.

“You didn’t have any when you were alive,” Luo Qingyang said. “Why do you care now that you’re dead?” //

“Which way did he go?” Jin Guangyao asked.

“I don’t know,” both men said in unison. The first added, “They disappeared. He had a companion with him, and that man had a Babylon candle. When the trap was sprung, they used it to escape. He said something to the star right beforehand, but I couldn’t hear it over the noise of the fire.”

“Well, that’s not very helpful, is it?” Jin Guangyao asked, smiling at him. “Sit down with me. Tell me everything.”

~ ~ ~ ~

“Ask them again!” Xue Yang snapped, huffing at the wrinkles he saw in his reflection in the carriage window, the way one of his entire cheekbones felt like it was sagging off his face. It was safe to say that he was not in a good temper. Not only had the star gotten away, but he had smashed the obsidian knife on the stone wall behind him, unable to stop his downswing in time as they vanished. Obsidian was the only thing that would get through a star’s flesh, and it was the only such knife he had brought with him, although there were others back at their home.

He had been so enraged with the star’s escape that he had flung himself into the prince’s carriage and left the scene, using magic to power it along instead of bothering with horses or goats that might ask too many questions. It wasn’t until he was over an hour away that he had remembered that, before leaving the main room of the inn (which he had done in order to keep from murdering Jin Zixun and every one of his men), he had instructed the prettier of his two captives to call him immediately if anyone else arrived. What had his name been, Xiao something? He had to be at least something of a magic user, because it appeared he had fought off the compulsion long enough to not do as he was told. Xue Yang had only come back in because he had heard the yelling and thought it might be interesting if there was a fight.

There was a part of Xue Yang that wanted to immediately go turn around, find his pretty goat and his less pretty friend, and make them both pay for messing with his plans. But revenge was a dish best served cold, he decided. Let them think they had gotten away with it. He would find them later, when they least expected it.

“We have asked again!” Wen Chao retorted. “They keep saying the same thing – the star is airborne!”

“Well, he can’t stay there forever,” Xue Yang said. “Keep an eye on him and let me know as soon as he touches down. Immediately! Got it?”

“Watch your tone,” Wen Zhuliu said flatly. “It’s you, and not we, who have lost him. What’s more, you broke the knife. Even if you apprehend him, what will you do with him then?”

“Perhaps you should return now and one of us can set out in your place,” Wen Chao said.

“Don’t be an ass,” Xue Yang said. “I’ll bring him home and deal with him there. Just make sure everything’s ready for our arrival.”

“One more thing,” Wen Chao said, not responding to this directive. “You’re no longer the only one seeking the star.”

“Oh yeah? Who else is on the trail?” Xue Yang asked. “Another witch?”

“A prince,” Wen Zhuliu said, “and he’s catching you up.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter Text

The interior of the storage closet was quiet. Wei Wuxian thought that Lan Wangji had perhaps fallen asleep. It was daylight now; he could see it trickling in through the ship’s small windows. He had tried to keep Lan Wangji’s spirits up by telling him about how nice it would be to get home and see his family again. Lan Wangji had acerbically replied that between having his heart torn out and meeting Yu Ziyuan, he was not sure which was preferable. Wei Wuxian hadn’t been able to think of much to say after that.

“Spies? Prisoners?” a voice asked, and Lan Wangji startled awake. Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but grab his hand and squeeze it, only to remember that his own hand was injured and this was therefore a terrible idea. The voice outside the door asked, “What on earth did you think I’d want them for?”

“We thought you’d want to question them,” another voice, this one somewhat lower in pitch, said.

“Ugh, what are they going to tell me that would be worth all the effort? Maybe I’ll just throw them over the side - ”

Wei Wuxian whispered, “I don’t suppose stars can fly, can they?”

“No,” Lan Wangji replied in a murmur.

Before Wei Wuxian could say anything else, the door banged open and a man came in. Despite the words he had been speaking, he looked relatively unthreatening. He was only a few years older than Wei Wuxian, on the short side, and had something of a baby face to boot. But the saber he was carrying looked quite threatening, as he kicked the door shut after himself.

“Ugggghhhhhh,” he greeted them, rolling his head a little, as if to stretch his neck muscles. “Nobody appreciates how much work being a pirate captain is.”

“It sounds like a lot of work,” Wei Wuxian said immediately, hoping he could get on the man’s good side.

“Oh, be quiet,” the captain said. “Actually, don’t be quiet, tell me what the hell you were doing in my clouds.”

Wei Wuxian doubted that the clouds belonged to him, but then again, what did he know about pirates with airships? Maybe he did own the clouds. Maybe he had a deed to them and everything. “Um, my name is Wei Wuxian, this is my friend, Lan Wangji. We were traveling - ”

“I didn’t ask for your life story,” the captain said. “Skip ahead! It’s nearly tea time.”

“Babylon candle mishap,” Wei Wuxian blurted out. “We thought of different things and it dumped us out on the cloud. We were just trying to get back to the village where I’m from. You probably haven’t heard of it, it’s called Wall - ”

“You’re from Wall?” The captain’s eyes went wide. “I’ve heard of Wall. Guardians of the mundane world from the gap, right? Oh, I’m Nie Huaisang, by the way - come on, come have tea with me, you can tell me what happened.”

Relaxing slightly, Wei Wuxian held still as Nie Huaisang used his saber to cut the ropes. “Won’t your men think that’s weird?”

“Oh, whatever. They know which side of their bread is buttered.” Nie Huaisang got them free and gestured for them to follow, which they did. It was somewhat entertaining, Wei Wuxian thought, to see this man moving among a dozen enormous, tough-looking crew members. “I need tea while I interrogate,” he said, and one of them gave a snort and shook his head but didn’t object.

The captain’s cabin of the airship was gorgeous, all warm wood and enormous windows that gave them a spectacular view of the world rolling by beneath them. Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but stare. “This ship is amazing!”

“Thank you!” Nie Huaisang said, beaming. “It’s called the Headshaker. My brother named it that because I always shook my head when he asked if I wanted it, haha. His is the Red Blade, which is much cooler, I have to say.”

“If you didn’t want a ship, why do you have one?” Wei Wuxian asked curiously.

“Oh, well, family tradition,” Nie Huaisang said. “My father was a pirate captain, and his father before him, et cetera, et cetera.” He was opening a cabinet and getting out a set of dishes while they spoke. “I served on my brother’s crew for a few years but he said I should strike out on my own, so he bought this for me. So we became lightning-collectors because that way we wouldn’t be direct competition.”

He put a pot of water on over the fire, then turned and beamed at them. “Your clothes still look soaked - let me get some towels.”

For the first time in what felt like months, Wei Wuxian was able to properly dry himself out. Nie Huaisang flung a closet door open and started looking through racks of clothing. “No offense, really, but what are you wearing? You look like a small town errand boy. Here, try this on. I like it but it’s a little too big for me, so it should fit you pretty well. As for you . . . you look like you’re heading to a funeral in those white robes. You’d look good in blue, I think . . .”

Lan Wangji looked somewhat nonplussed, which amused Wei Wuxian, but accepted the pile of fabric that Nie Huaisang thrust at him. He looked somewhat appalled that he was expected to change in a room with them (and Wei Wuxian was definitely not wondering if stars were, to put it tactfully, made the same as humans), but Nie Huaisang solved that by drawing a curtain across part of the room.

By the time the tea was made, both of them were mostly dry except for their damp hair, which they had gotten the chance to at least comb out and in Wei Wuxian’s case, braid. He felt a little awkward in his new robes, black with red edging, that were the style he had seen everyone in Stormhold wearing but so unlike what he had worn in Wall. Lan Wangji looked gorgeous in the pale blue though, and he looked speculatively at the piece of jade that the prince had wanted for some reason, before hanging it from his belt again. Wei Wuxian wondered, not for the first time, what was up with that. But he knew Lan Wangji didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure he trusted Nie Huaisang yet, so he said nothing about it.

“It’s not that I don’t like being a pirate,” Nie Huaisang said, “although really I’m more of a smuggler. You know, the king taxes the hell out of everything - may he rot in hell - so people have to get around it somehow. And he also banned the lightning trade because he doesn’t want his enemies to have access to it. He’ll still send his own men out to collect it! Which is why we have to be so careful, and why my men thought you might be spies.”

“Is the king dead, then?” Wei Wuxian asked.

Nie Huaisang looked at him in astonishment. “Where have you been? Oh - Wall, I suppose. But yes, he died about a week ago. His remaining sons are all on some quest to find something he said will make them the next king, since they couldn’t manage to finish killing each other before he died. Which frankly is his own fault, since he died so young.”

“It’s his fault for dying young?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“Oh, everyone knows he caught some horrible disease because he couldn’t go twenty minutes without sticking his dick in someone,” Nie Huaisang said. “That or some woman he wronged cursed him - couldn’t blame her, to be honest. Although in theory the king and all the princes have defenses against that sort of thing.”

“Who do you think will be the next king?” Lan Wangji asked, sounding somewhat curious. Wei Wuxian knew that the stars had talked about this extensively, and even Lan Wangji hadn’t been immune to it, even as he found it distasteful.

“Jin Guangyao, definitely,” Nie Huaisang said. “He’s a brutal little bastard, no question. He killed Wan Tong already - you probably didn’t know that, it happened the same day the king died - so it’s just him and Jin Zixun now.”

“And Jin Zixuan,” Lan Wangji said.

“I mean, theoretically?” Nie Huaisang sounded dubious. “But most people think Jin Guangyao killed him years ago. Anyway, that’s enough of that. Tell me about Wall.”

“It’s nowhere near as exciting as you’re thinking,” Wei Wuxian said. “I mean, ‘guardians of the gap’? More like, there’s a gap in the stone wall and it borders an empty field on both sides, and someone sits by the gap and makes sure nobody goes through, which nobody ever tries to do.”

“How did you end up here, then?” Nie Huaisang asked.

Since he seemed good-natured and Wei Wuxian absolutely didn’t want to make him angry, Wei Wuxian started telling the story of how Jiang Fengmian had gone into Stormhold and met his parents, and how he had later crossed the wall as a child. He knew that he shouldn’t tell anyone else who Lan Wangji was, though, so he hedged on that subject. “So when I used the Babylon candle to try to meet my mother, it didn’t work,” he said. “It just brought me to this random place in Stormhold. I had seen the falling star and I guess it must have popped into my head at the last second, and since my mother is gone . . .” He let out a breath. “Anyway, I started traveling home and met Lan Wangji and we’ve been traveling together.”

“And what about you?” Nie Huaisang asked Lan Wangji cheerfully.

Fortunately, Lan Wangji knew just enough about the human world to list a town and say he was from there, and then not give another ounce of information. Nie Huaisang looked curious, but didn’t push the issue or ask why they were traveling.

“Well, Headshaker is a lot faster than traveling on foot would be, so I can drop you off at the port closest to the wall - although it’ll still be a few days of travel from there. There aren’t a lot of ports we can dock at. Should take about a week or so.”

“That’d be great,” Wei Wuxian said. “We really appreciate it.”

Nie Huaisang beamed and stood. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”

~ ~ ~ ~

They were only halfway through their tour when Lan Wangji noticed that Wei Wuxian was still cradling his hand against his stomach, trying not to use it. At one point he reached out automatically to grab a railing, then winced. “Captain Nie,” Lan Wangji said, as Nie Huaisang was showing them the lightning nets, “I apologize to interrupt, but Wei Wuxian is injured.”

“What? Why didn’t you say something?” Nie Huaisang blinked at them.

“It’s not that bad!” Wei Wuxian protested immediately. “My hand just got a little burned while I was lighting the candle, that’s all.”

Without waiting for him to further prevaricate, Lan Wangji grabbed his wrist and held it out so his hand was on display, complete with the reddened skin. “It is not a ‘little burned’.”

“Yeah, ouch,” Nie Huaisang said. “But we get burned all the time working the lightning nets, I have some stuff that’ll help. Here, follow me below the deck.”

Wei Wuxian huffed out a sigh but did as instructed. He winced a little as Nie Huaisang applied a salve to the burn and then bandaged it. “I’ve really taken worse,” he said, when Nie Huaisang said he was going to try to find some of the plant they kept which would help with the pain.

“That is not comforting,” Lan Wangji told him.

“How did you even do this, though?” Nie Huaisang asked curiously. “It’s one hell of a burn to get just lighting a candle.”

“Oh, well, the whole place was kind of on fire,” Wei Wuxian admitted. “I mean, we were at an inn, basically mind our own business, but there was this witch there that got in a fight with some people and – long story short I ended up shoving my whole hand in the fire in order to get the candle to catch. It got us out of there so, you know, no regrets.”

“I did not say it was a foolish decision,” Lan Wangji said. “Only that the injury needed to be treated.”

Nie Huaisang rolled his eyes a little, presumably, Lan Wangji thought, because he agreed that Wei Wuxian was an idiot. “Anyway, like I was saying, I have to make a quick stop or two in order to fence what we’ve picked up over the past few weeks. I can’t carry this much lightning over land – if we got searched, I’d be arrested. Though nobody would dare, haha!”

Lan Wangji found that extremely dubious. From the look on Wei Wuxian’s face, he agreed.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Nie Huaisang said. “I’ve got quite the reputation, you know.”

“I’m sure you do,” Lan Wangji murmured, and Nie Huaisang laughed.

From the deck, somebody shouted, “Port ahoy! Ready the lightning barrels!”

“Oh, sounds like we’re almost there,” Nie Huaisang said. “You two want to come ashore? Yao Fukua’s shop is pretty neat. You might find some things you like there.”

Wei Wuxian nodded eagerly, and Lan Wangji wasn’t about to let him go wandering into a stranger’s shop on his own, so he agreed as well. A few minutes later, they were following Nie Huaisang and half a dozen of his men, each pair of whom was carrying an enormous metal barrel that held the lightning they had harvested.

Wei Wuxian was immediately whirled in a hundred directions as he explored all the strange things that the shop had to offer. Lan Wangji let him roam, hoping he didn’t draw too much attention to himself, and watched the negotiations. The owner of the shop was a portly man with an obsequious manner that Nie Huaisang greeted as Yao Fukua.

“Ten thousand volts?” he asked.

“Ten thousand volts of the finest quality, Grade A lightning,” Nie Huaisang said confidently. “What’s your best price?”

The two men began to haggle back and forth, although Lan Wangji did not think it was the sort of haggling most people did. Nie Huaisang set a price and then Yao’s counter offers kept getting closer, while Nie Huaisang steadfastly refused to change his offer. Finally, Yao Fukua conceded, and the men carried the lightning into the back of the shop.

Once they were gone and Yao Fukua was counting out the money, he asked, “Have you heard any of these rumors going around about a fallen star? You get your hands on one of them, we can shut up shop. Retire!”

“Fallen star?” Nie Huaisang said, and Yao Fukua nodded. Nie Huaisang glanced over his shoulder in a way that made Lan Wangji suddenly very nervous. But then he just shook his head.

“Nothing? Not even a little whisper? It’s all they can talk about at the market.”

“Which market, the one down by the wall?” Nie Huaisang shrugged. “They’re always on about something. You’re wasting your time listening to gossip from the pond scum trading down there. Oh, my word!” he added, waving a fan dramatically, as he saw another man standing at the back of the shop. “Speak of the devil and he appears.”

“Hilarious,” Su She said, rolling his eyes.

“You know me; I’m a comedian,” Nie Huaisang said, beaming. “The world wouldn’t be the same without you, Su She. Anyway, you have business to attend to, so I won’t bother you any further.”

He bowed to the two men and then grinned at Lan Wangji before going to see what Wei Wuxian was looking at. Lan Wangji was going to follow, but he heard Su She say, “I don’t know why you let him set the price and talk down to you like that. What’s he going to do? Sell his lightning to somebody else?”

“Listen,” Yao Fukua said, “there are only a few rules of the trade, and one of them is that you don’t piss off the Nie brothers. You know that as well as I do.”

“Nie Mingjue, sure,” Su She said, and Lan Wangji assumed that was Nie Huaisang’s older brother. “I wouldn’t even look at him sideways. But Nie Huaisang? He’s a creampuff!”

“You know he only lets everyone think that because then they’ll underestimate him, right?” Yao Fukua said. “Everyone who’s ever crossed him has ended up completely ruined. You think anyone else would still dare harvest lightning after the king forbid it? I heard that the lightning marshals were called off by Jin Guangyao, because he didn’t want to end up in a feud with Nie Huaisang. You want to fuck with someone that Jin Guangyao respects? I don’t think so, my friend.”

“It’s all his brother,” Su She said, rolling his eyes.

“Think what you want. It’s your funeral.”

The two men separated, and Lan Wangji was immediately distracted by the sight of Wei Wuxian with a sword. “Put that down before you hurt yourself.”

Wei Wuxian laughed. “No way! Captain Nie said he’d buy it for me.”

“You don’t know how to use it.”

With a shrug, Wei Wuxian said, “You can teach me, right, Captain Nie?”

Nie Huaisang laughed. “Heavens, no! I don’t do that sort of thing. But my first mate will teach you; he’s a master.”

“Great!” Wei Wuxian said, with an inappropriate amount of cheer.

~ ~ ~ ~

Lan Wangji looked exquisite in blue, and it was kind of a problem.

They had been on Nie Huaisang’s vessel for two days, and Nie Huaisang kept throwing more clothes at them to wear. Wei Wuxian had a feeling that Nie Huaisang had a secret yearning to be a fashion designer and just didn’t have any dolls to play with, but he didn’t care enough to argue with him. After all, Nie Huaisang had gone far above and beyond what they might have expected from a random stranger. Not only had he given them the new clothes to begin with and agreed to transport them to the port closest to Wall for no charge, he had bought Wei Wuxian a very shiny sword and was having his first mate teach him how to use it. If all Wei Wuxian had to do to pay him back was try on a few outfits, he would do it with a smile on his face.

Lan Wangji, for his part, was less accommodating to all the clothes. He insisted that he would only wear white, blue, or gray. Nie Huaisang sulked about this a little, especially because he found the all white clothing depressing. Gray was too drab, he said, so he proceeded to give Lan Wangji lots of blue clothing to wear. This led to Lan Wangji looking extremely handsome all the time (not that he hadn’t looked good in white), and Wei Wuxian kept getting distracted in the middle of sword lessons, which was overall not a great time to be distracted.

He kept thinking about what the future would bring. Sure, he would bring Lan Wangji back to Wall. Hopefully, he would be able to heal Jiang Yanli. But then what?

The longer Wei Wuxian was in Stormhold, the less he wanted to leave it. He loved his adopted family, but he couldn’t imagine going back to them, going back to that life. He wondered if they might want to come live in Stormhold. Yu Ziyuan certainly wouldn’t, he thought, but the others might. Or if not, well, he could still visit. He would find a way to go back and forth if he had to.

He had promised that he would help Lan Wangji get home, which would likely mean a long journey looking for a Babylon candle. (A few pointed questions to Nie Huaisang revealed that Headshaker could not take them anywhere near high enough, and that Babylon candles were extremely rare and hard to come by.) Wei Wuxian absolutely had no problem with the idea of a long journey with Lan Wangji, looking for a candle. The only problem he had was with the fact that the candle would take Lan Wangji home at the end. Home, in the sky, a place where Wei Wuxian couldn’t go. Even after so little time, the idea of separating from Lan Wangji, of knowing that the separation would be permanent, was incredibly painful.

But he didn’t say anything about any of that, because what could he say? Lan Wangji had every right to want to go home. Lan Wangji would never want to stay in Stormhold, nibbling at unfamiliar foods, dressed in strange clothes, just so he could stay with Wei Wuxian.

As the days went by, Wei Wuxian started to notice something strange about Lan Wangji. He actually had a bit of a glow to him. The first time Wei Wuxian saw it, he thought it was a trick of the light. He had been learning swordsmanship from Nie Zonghui (who said he was a natural, making him preen) and looked over to see Lan Wangji with a bit of a shine to him as he watched the lesson. But it was quite sunny, and they were in the sky, so he figured it might just be a reflection.

But the next night, when they were gathered on deck for a bit of music, it happened again. Wei Wuxian had been learning to play the flute that Jiang Fengmian had gotten him (he was a natural at that too, apparently), and Nie Huaisang had produced some sort of stringed instrument that Lan Wangji could learn. He took to that as much as Wei Wuxian took to his flute. Nie Huaisang said that they played music frequently, that it was a nice way to pass the time while they sailed through the clouds. Wei Wuxian looked up at one point, saw Lan Wangji watching him, and smiled at him. Lan Wangji immediately looked away, but he was definitely radiating light. It was much more obvious at night, when there were only dim lanterns on the deck of the ship.

Well, he was a star, Wei Wuxian thought. He remembered what the witch had said about how happy stars were stronger. Was Lan Wangji glowing because he was happier now? Wei Wuxian supposed it had been a rough week for him, and now things were going much more smoothly. He liked the idea that Lan Wangji was growing more content with his new life.

So Wei Wuxian put his thoughts about what might happen next out of his head. He would enjoy Lan Wangji’s company as long as he had it.

After listening to one of the stories that Nie Huaisang told, about a bygone war from his grandfather’s era, something occurred to him. “Hey, you seem to know a lot about what goes on in Stormhold,” he said.

“Of course I do!” Nie Huaisang said proudly. “I travel everywhere and talk to everyone.”

“It would have been before your time, I guess, but . . .” Wei Wuxian took a deep breath. “Do you know anything about a woman named Cangse Sanren?”

He didn’t really expect this line of questioning to go anywhere, so he was more surprised than he should have been when Nie Huaisang immediately nodded and said, “Sure, everyone’s heard of Cangse Sanren.”

“What . . . what do you know about her?” Wei Wuxian managed.

“Well, she was a powerful sorceress,” Nie Huaisang said. “She trained under Baoshan Sanren, who’s a famous guru who lives in the mountains. Then she became a wandering monster hunter, an extremely accomplished one. Why do you – oh! Is that who your mother was?”

Wei Wuxian nodded, his throat so tight he could barely speak. “Was?”

Nie Huaisang’s expression changed, becoming a little sad. “She died maybe . . . fifteen years ago, was it? Her husband – your father, I suppose – his name was Wei Changze. I should have made the connection! Ah, but never mind – he was kidnapped by a witch. Cangse Sanren had killed the witch’s sister, so she kidnapped Wei Changze for revenge. Cangse Sanren went to save her husband, but the witch had already killed him. She was powerful – Cangse Sanren defeated her, but gave her own life to do it. I’m really sorry, Wei Wuxian.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Wei Wuxian said, his hands curling into fists. He glanced up as Lan Wangji sat down beside him, as if he had sensed Wei Wuxian’s distress and come to check on him. He tried to smile, although he couldn’t really manage it. “I’m glad that I know. They must have been amazing people.”

“They were,” Nie Huaisang said. “I never met her – I was too young – but my brother did. He’s ten years older than me, you know. You should come meet him, after you’ve seen to your sister. He might be able to tell you some stories.”

“Thanks,” Wei Wuxian said. “I just wish I understood why she sent me beyond the wall. I feel like I belong here, and trust me, I never felt like that in the other world. She said it was to keep me safe from evil, but . . .”

“She was probably worried that if she didn’t manage to kill the witch, it would target you next,” Nie Huaisang said. “Witches are viciously vengeful.”

Wei Wuxian nodded again. “Thanks.”

“What about this Baoshan Sanren?” Lan Wangji asked. “She still lives, does she not?”

“Oh, yeah,” Nie Huaisang said. “She’s practically immortal from what anyone can tell. I don’t know where to find her, but she would definitely be the person to see if you wanted to know more about your parents.”

“Maybe I’ll do that after I get you home,” Wei Wuxian said, smiling at Lan Wangji.

“Or before,” Lan Wangji murmured. “I will go with you, if you would like.”

Wei Wuxian felt like he was glowing. “That would be really nice.”

Nie Huaisang looked between the two of them and rolled his eyes.

~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter Text

“And you’re sure they said they were headed west?” Xue Yang asked.

“Of course,” Yao Fukua said. “Towards the market at the wall. Which is a little odd since I know Captain Nie doesn’t like to trade there.”

“You had better not be lying to me, you two-faced dog,” Xue Yang said.

“I can get you one of those,” Yao Fukua said proudly. “I can get pretty much anything you want.”

Xue Yang rolled his eyes, then paused. “What are the odds you could get your hands on a Babylon candle?”

“That one’s slim,” Yao Fukua admitted.

“Well, what good are you, then?” Xue Yang asked, rolling his eyes. “Why were they heading west? Did he say? You said he doesn’t normally trade there.”

“He doesn’t,” Yao Fukua said. “I think he’s trying to chase down these rumors of a fallen star. I told him that everyone was talking about it down at the market. He said he wasn’t interested, but who wouldn’t be? He probably won’t even give me my cut after I’m the one who told him about it!”

“Who else have you told about it?” Xue Yang asked, eyes narrowed.

“Ah, well, nobody I don’t trust,” Yao Fukua said. “But look at me, I can’t go chasing after it myself. I’m just a fence! So I might have told a few of the pirates and salvage teams I know – ”

“You talk too much,” Xue Yang said, and a zip of green fire left his fingers, going into Yao Fukua’s open mouth. The word he was in the middle of turned into the cluck of a chicken. Xue Yang chuckled despite himself. “Good luck fencing goods like that,” he said, before he headed back to his carriage.

~ ~ ~ ~

One week into the journey, and Lan Wangji found that he was enjoying life in Stormhold far more than he would have expected. At night, he could occasionally hear his brother murmuring to him, amused but happy that Lan Wangji was doing well. He enjoyed traveling in the airship – it made him feel a little closer to home. And Wei Wuxian, well, everything about Wei Wuxian continued to delight him, as much as he tried not to show it. He had to stop watching his swordsmanship lessons out of sheer self-defense.

“Want to make a lantern?” Wei Wuxian asked him, and he blinked, drawn out of his reverie. “Captain Nie says it’s some sort of lantern-lighting ceremony tonight. A Stormhold thing. Light a lantern, make a wish, et cetera.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji agreed. The men had gathered on deck with stacks of thin rice paper and wooden frames, pots of paint. As usual, it was amusing to see Nie Huaisang standing among the crowd of enormous, burly men, urging them to put more artistry into their creations. He thought back to what Yao Fukua had said in the shop, and wondered how much of it was true.

Nie Huaisang showed them how to stretch the paper over the frame and then left them to do their painting. Lan Wangji stared at the blank canvas for a while, unlike Wei Wuxian, who immediately began to splash paint on his own. What should he paint to represent his wish?

The picture ended up being simple – a field of black with two white stars, so close to each other that they would look like one from earth. Someday, he thought, although he did not know how, Wei Wuxian would join him in the sky.

“Ah, here, I’m done!” Wei Wuxian said, displaying his lantern. It was a picture of a rabbit. “You said you liked rabbits, didn’t you?”

Lan Wangji could feel the bright glow he was giving off, as much as he could see it. “Mn,” he said, and held his own lantern out so Wei Wuxian could see.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Wei Wuxian said, although his voice sounded strangely tight and strained. “Is that you and your brother? You must really want to get home, huh – ” he added, and before Lan Wangji could even think about correcting him, he had sprung to his feet to go inspect the lanterns the others had made.

Lan Wangji’s gaze fell on Nie Huaisang, and the pirate captain looked wholly exasperated. He felt the same, although he was unsure of why Nie Huaisang would feel that way. After a few moments, Nie Huaisang gestured him over. Lan Wangji set down his lantern and walked over to where he was leaning against the railing.

“Listen, I know what you are,” Nie Huaisang said, and a ripple of fear went through Lan Wangji’s gut. “Don’t worry. No one on my ship will hurt you. But there are plenty of people who would.”

“How did you know?” Lan Wangji asked.

“Your emotions give you away. You have to learn to control them. You’ve been shining more brightly every day.”

“Of course I’m shining,” Lan Wangji said stiffly. “That’s what stars do.”

“When they’re in the sky, sure,” Nie Huaisang said. “But down here? Most of them are too miserable to even gleam. You’re positively radiant, and you’re going to draw a lot of attention. Just think about it, okay?” he added, then shouted, “Okay, let’s light these lanterns!”

Lan Wangji shook his head slightly before walking over to the others. He lit his lantern and could not help but watch Wei Wuxian’s as it floated into the sky. Maybe it would reach his brothers and sisters, he thought. That would be nice.

A few days later, they made port. “It’ll be about three days’ journey to get to the market at the wall from here,” Nie Huaisang told them. “Just follow this road due west. I’ve packed some supplies for you – oh, and here, take this,” he added, taking out one of the hollow tubes they stored lightning in. “Just in case.”

“Thanks for everything,” Wei Wuxian told him.

“Good luck with your sister, and with your journey!” Nie Huaisang said cheerfully. “I hope I’ll see you again someday!”

~ ~ ~ ~

It wasn’t often that Jin Guangyao was nonplussed, but being greeted by a storekeeper who could only cluck like a chicken was something new even for him.

“Are you mocking me?” he asked curiously, and Yao Fukua shook his head desperately. “Cursed, then?” he added, and Yao Fukua nodded. “There’s a witch after the same thing I am. Hard to say what he would look like by now – his captives described him as a handsome youth, but he’s used a lot of magic since then, so he might be on the decrepit side.”

Yao Fukua gestured for Jin Guangyao to wait for a second. He put on a cloak and then drew it so it was covering most of his face.

“So you didn’t really see him,” Jin Guangyao said, and Yao Fukua nodded. “Well, it was probably him, then. Xiao Xingchen said he seemed quite vain. If he’s aging, he’d hide it. What was he asking about?”

After a moment, Yao Fukua got a piece of parchment and began to hastily scribble. Jin Guangyao read it and frowned. “Nie Huaisang,” he murmured. “That might be a problem.”

Yao Fukua nodded in eager agreement.

“Well, I suppose it can’t hurt to ask.” Jin Guangyao set down the piece of parchment. “Good luck with that curse. If I find the witch, I’ll kill him. Maybe that will release you.”

With a low bow, Yao Fukua nodded again, and Jin Guangyao swept out of the store. The witch was ahead of him . . . but not by much.

~ ~ ~ ~

As they headed down the road, Lan Wangji felt mellow and content, pushing away thoughts of the theoretical future in favor of enjoying the present. As the sun set, Wei Wuxian said, “You know, you kind of glitter sometimes.”

Lan Wangji resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Let’s see if you can work this out yourself. What do stars do?”

“Attract trouble?” Wei Wuxian asked, with a grin that made Lan Wangji’s heart skip a beat.

Pretending that hadn’t happened, he snorted and said, “Ridiculous.”

“No, wait, I know,” Wei Wuxian said, still grinning. “Is it ‘behave in an altogether upright and proper manner at all times’? Or is that less of a star thing and just a Lan Wangji thing?”

“No more guessing,” Lan Wangji told him, and he laughed. Lan Wangji regarded him for a moment before he asked, “Aren’t you at all tempted?”

Wei Wuxian blinked. “Tempted? By what?”

“Immortality.” Lan Wangji looked away. “What if wasn’t me? Just some star you didn’t know. Wouldn’t you be tempted?”

“You seriously think I could cut out someone’s heart and eat it?” Wei Wuxian asked, laughing. But then he shook his head. “You know . . . for me, I couldn’t. But if it was for shijie . . . if she was sicker than she was, if she didn’t have the medicine and she was actually dying . . . I would be tempted. She’s always been so sweet and kind to me. I would do anything to save her life . . . or at least almost anything. Even then, I don’t know if I could.”

“But not for you?” Lan Wangji asked.

With a shrug, Wei Wuxian said, “I don’t know if I really like the idea of immortality. I feel like it would be pretty lonely. Maybe if I had someone to share it with.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, because he had absolutely no idea what to say.

They traveled overnight as usual, and the next day, they saw a yellow carriage with a domed top trundling down the road. Although at first they left the road, not wanting to be seen, Lan Wangji then recognized the man driving it. “That man was at Yao Fukua’s shop,” he said. “He seemed to be acquaintances with the captain. He trades at the market near Wall. Perhaps he could give us a lift, and we could get back to your sister sooner.”

“You’re sure?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“He did not seem to particularly like Captain Nie,” Lan Wangji said, “or seem very bright. But they were on decent enough terms, it seemed.”

“All right, great,” Wei Wuxian said. He stepped out onto the road, holding up a hand. “Hey there!” he said in a friendly tone. “We’re from – ”

“What’s that flower you’ve got in your belt?” Su She asked, immediately zeroing in on the white glass flower that Wei Wuxian had gotten from his mother. “That’s one of mine – I sold it years ago, but not to you. How did you come by it?”

“It was a gift, not that it’s any of your business,” Wei Wuxian said, frowning.

On the seat of the carriage, a peacock looked up and gave a little chirp.

“But if it bothers you that I have it, maybe I could trade it to you,” Wei Wuxian said, albeit somewhat reluctantly. “Do you have a Babylon candle?”

“Oh, no, no,” Su She said, with a fake laugh. “I don’t deal in dark magic.”

“Oh. Okay. Can you give us a lift, then? To the market at the wall?”

Su She’s mood quickly changed. “Of course! That’s not a problem at all.”

“You shouldn’t have to trade the flower your mother gave you for a ride,” Lan Wangji said. “We can walk. There’s no hurry.”

Wei Wuxian nodded a little and said, “You made this flower? Do you remember who you sold it to? It was Cangse Sanren, wasn’t it? And she gave it to me – I’m her son.”

“Are you?” Su She’s eyes went wide. “Oh, well, to help the son of Cangse Sanren would be an honor! We all thought you had gone to live beyond the wall! May I see it? I can refresh the charm on it while we’re traveling.”

“Sure,” Wei Wuxian said, holding it out to him. “So, um, you’ll transport us to the wall? Safe passage, no charge?”

Su She held up one hand and said, “I swear that you will arrive at the market by the wall in the exact same condition you’re in now.”

“Great,” Wei Wuxian said. “Thanks.”

Su She’s hand closed over the flower. “Do you have any idea what manner of thing you had?”

“Some kind of lucky charm?” Wei Wuxian guessed, and Lan Wangji snorted. If that flower guaranteed good luck, then Su She was not a talented craftsman.

“A protection charm,” Su She said. “For example, it would have prevented me from doing this.” He quickly jabbed one finger out, and an explosion of gray dust came out of. It enveloped Wei Wuxian, and Lan Wangji watched in horror as his body shrank, leaving a small black mouse where he had stood.

“Wei Wuxian!” he cried out, then demanded of Su She, “What did you do?”

“That’s better,” Su She said, ignoring him. He leaned over and picked up Wei Wuxian in his hands, as he squeaked in a terrified manner. Lan Wangji tried to grab the mouse back, but found himself strangely repelled by Su She, unable to close the distance between them to less than a few inches. “Though I’ll keep my word. You won’t be harmed, and when we get to the market, I’ll change you back.”

Lan Wangji kept trying to reach him, fighting the strange repulsion, as Su She went into the carriage and opened a small cage, depositing Wei Wuxian inside.

“Food and lodging, even,” Su She said, laughing as he placed a few seeds in the cage with him. “I’m a generous soul.”

“What are you doing?” Lan Wangji demanded, but Su She again ignored him. He frowned. “Am I correct in thinking that you can neither see nor hear me?” he asked, and received no response. “Then I’d like to inform you that you smell terrible. You look like the wrong end of a dog. And I swear, if I do not get my Wei Wuxian back as he was, I will become your own personal poltergeist!”

Su She still did not respond, leaving the interior of the caravan and shooing the peacock inside before closing the door behind him. A minute later, the caravan began to roll down the road again.

“Wei Wuxian!” Lan Wangji crouched down in front of the cage. “If you can understand me, look at me now.”

Wei Wuxian trembled in the back of the cage. After a few moments, his gaze was fixed on an object to Lan Wangji’s left. He turned and saw a wheel of cheese, and sighed. He got a few bits of it and pushed it between the bars of the cage. Wei Wuxian accepted it and nibbled in a way that had no right to be so adorable.

They sat in silence for a long minute.

“The two stars on the lantern were not my brother and I,” Lan Wangji finally said. “They were the two of us. I dreamed of a world where someday I could take you up into the sky and show you my home. I know you want to get back to your sister. You want to heal her and so I want that as well. But I don’t know what will happen afterwards. We could travel together, meet this Baoshan Sanren, find a Babylon candle. But there will always be a ‘what next’. And I do want to go home. Someday. But I also do not want to leave you. When I’m with you . . . my heart feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I’d wish for nothing in exchange. No gifts, no goods, no demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing that you loved me, too.”

Wei Wuxian continued to tremble, his tiny mouse body shaking.

Lan Wangji sighed. “I’m speaking to a mouse,” he murmured. “Ridiculous.”

The peacock chirped and hopped down from its perch, and he startled, because he had quite forgotten it was there. Then it began pecking at the top of a chest that was tucked away in a corner. Curious, Lan Wangji lifted the top. He half-expected to find a jar of seeds or leaves or whatever peacocks ate, but it was just heaps of fabric. Disappointed, he sat back. The peacock, however, began pulling the fabric out. Then he pecked at the bottom.

“What are you doing?” Lan Wangji asked, annoyed. This day was obnoxious enough and this peacock wouldn’t leave him alone. But then he looked closer and realized the bottom of the chest wasn’t level with the floor. “A false bottom?” he asked, interested, and began to press the interior panels of the chest.

It took a few tries, but he found the catch. The false bottom lifted up to reveal a variety of spell materials. Lan Wangji didn’t know what most of it was, but he recognized one thing – a black candle. Completely whole, never used.

He immediately seized it and tucked it away in his sleeve. “That liar,” he muttered, casting a dark look at the front of the caravan. “Ah, thank you,” he added to the peacock, beginning to fold the clothes and put them back so Su She would not realize his belongings had been disturbed. “We did indeed need this. I am grateful.”

For no particular reason – boredom, he supposed, and loneliness, he began to explain to the peacock that he was going to Wall to help Wei Wuxian’s sister, and needed the candle to take him home afterwards. The peacock listened in interest, but when he mentioned going to Wall, he began to flap his wings as if alarmed.

“What is it?” Lan Wangji asked. What a clever bird this was, he thought. It was almost as if it understood him.

The peacock hopped over to a bookshelf. He grabbed a book in his beak and knocked it onto the floor. Lan Wangji obligingly picked it and set it down on the bed where Su She presumably slept. The peacock pecked at it, so he opened it. There was a table of contents inside, and the peacock pecked at the page where it read, ‘Beyond the Wall’.

“Oh, thank you,” Lan Wangji said. The peacock did understand him. How curious. Perhaps it thought he might like to know more about his destination. He began to read the chapter. It made Wall seem dreadfully boring, to be honest, describing it as a dreary world devoid of magic, with people slogging through each day. Lan Wangji did not really feel this was true. He did not watch earth often, but he had seen enough of it to know that the world beyond Stormhold had its shares of drama and adventure.

But the chapter was short, so he read the whole thing, and it turned out to be a good thing he did, because the end of the chapter had a cautionary note.

‘While most citizens of Stormhold can come and go from beyond the wall without difficulty, creatures of pure magic must not venture beyond Stormhold’s boundaries. If done, the magic of Stormhold will no longer be able to sustain them, and they will either transmogrify to non-sentient, mundane creatures (in the case of unicorns, for example, who will change to regular horses) or be completely destroyed (in cases including but not limited to fire sprites, wood nymphs, sphinxes, and fallen stars).”

Lan Wangji looked up at the peacock, his eyes wide. “Did you know?” he asked, which seemed like a foolish question. Obviously the peacock had known; that was why it had wanted him to read it. Lan Wangji took a moment to collect himself and then bowed. “You have saved my life. I am in your debt.”

The peacock chirped sadly and then picked up the silver chain that secured it to its post in his beak.

“Of course,” Lan Wangji said. He looked through the things in the cabin and easily found a blade. It cut through the silver chain easily, but no sooner had he done so than the two ends reconnected. The peacock huffed out a sigh, as if he had expected this. “I am sorry,” Lan Wangji told him. “I cannot free you right now, but I pledge to you that I will find a way, no matter how long it takes.”

The peacock tilted his head to one side, then hopped back up to his roost and settled down, letting his head rest on the platform in front of him.

Lan Wangji sighed and fed Wei Wuxian a little more cheese. It was going to be a long day.

~ ~ ~ ~

Jin Guangyao studied the airship in front of him, formulating a plan. Finally, he pointed to two of his men and said, “You two, come with me. The rest of you, stay out here. Don’t make any trouble.”

The men bowed, and he walked up to the ramp, calling out, “Permission to come aboard?”

There was a long pause, and one of his men murmured that they shouldn’t have to wait for permission. Jin Guangyao was a prince. He was nearly king. He should be able to do what he liked. Jin Guangyao gave him a look that he hoped was sufficient warning to keep his opinions to himself.

“Permission granted!” someone shouted.

Jin Guangyao walked across the board and onto the deck of the ship. There were half a dozen of Nie Huaisang’s men there, all absorbed in their chores of tending to the ship. Nie Huaisang came out of the inner cabin, waving his fan, smiling and bowing. “Prince Guangyao, what an unexpected honor,” he said.

Behind him, Jin Guangyao could practically hear his two men thinking ‘This? This is the great Nie Huaisang?’ He ignored them. “Captain Nie, can we talk business?”

“Surely, surely. Come in. I’ll make tea.” Nie Huaisang waved them inside. Jin Guangyao sat down at the chair across from Nie Huaisang’s desk. “I suppose you don’t want any, though, do you?”

“I’ll drink your tea,” Jin Guangyao said, smiling. “My brothers are dead, except perhaps Jin Zixuan, who is long gone. Besides, didn’t we make a deal? I called off the lightning marshals, and you promised never to try to kill me unless I gave you due cause?”

Nie Huaisang laughed. “Did I add that qualifier? I must have been feeling quite suspicious that day. I have some particularly good jasmine.”

Jin Guangyao watched him as he bustled about the cabin, feeling the disbelief of his men sink in more strongly. But he would not be convinced he was wrong. He had seen more than one person ruined by Nie Huaisang, and not just any people, but powerful people. Pirates, witches, warlords. A lot of people thought it had been his brother behind it, but on one of those occasions, his brother had been on the other side of Stormhold. No, Nie Huaisang was dangerous. Few people believed it, and that was just how Nie Huaisang liked it.

Once the tea was served, Nie Huaisang said, “What brings you here, Prince Guangyao?”

“I’m looking for two travelers,” Jin Guangyao said. “I believe you might have seen them.”

“I might have,” Nie Huaisang agreed. “What do you want with them?”

“One of them is carrying something that belongs to me. A piece of jade. Gray, a rather ugly thing.”

Nie Huaisang sipped his tea. “And that’s the only reason you’re looking for them?”

“It’s not your business why the prince is looking for them,” the man behind Jin Guangyao sneered.

Jin Guangyao turned and snapped, “Be silent or I will cut out your tongue.” He turned back to Nie Huaisang and put his smile back on his face. “My apologies. It’s hard to find good help these days.”

“That it is,” Nie Huaisang said comfortably. “Let’s say that I do know about this piece of jade. What’s in it for me?”

“That piece of jade will make me the king,” Jin Guangyao said. “Before my father died, he said whichever of us recovered it would take the throne. And once I’m on it, well, I imagine there are some changes I could make to things that would make your life much easier.”

“Hm, well, I wouldn’t argue with the king owing me a favor,” Nie Huaisang said thoughtfully. “But still, if all your brothers are dead, do you truly need it? Couldn’t you just declare yourself king and get on with it?”

“It was my father’s last instruction.”

Without missing a beat, Nie Huaisang said, “Your father was a pompous, hypocritical, arrogant piece of trash.”

Jin Guangyao smiled as his men bristled. “As true as that may be, I cannot be king without that piece of jade.”

“If you insist,” Nie Huaisang said, then added, “Best of luck in your search.”

“So you haven’t seen it? Or the man carrying it? He was quite handsome, dressed all in white.”

Nie Huaisang tapped the tip of his fan against his mouth, then shook his head. “No, I’m quite certain I would recall someone like that.”

Jin Guangyao debated his options. He knew damned well that Nie Huaisang was lying. The question was whether or not it mattered. He had taken them this far, due west, and docked at this port, where the road west led to Wall. There was really only one place that the star could be going from here. It would have been nice to get confirmation, and perhaps a little information on this companion of his, who was still a total unknown. But was it wholly necessary?

“Let me ask you,” Nie Huaisang said, “is it truly only the pendant you want? Nothing else?”

“Nothing else,” Jin Guangyao said.

“If this man was carrying something else precious, you couldn’t feel at all compelled to harm him? Might, in fact, even find it in your heart to protect him?”

Jin Guangyao was mildly amused. “So you know about the witch.”

“Of course I know about the witch. When will you learn I know everything, Prince Guangyao?” Nie Huaisang asked, and laughed. “But truly. You’re not at all tempted to capture our handsome stranger for any other reason?”

“Not at all,” Jin Guangyao said. “I swear it on my father’s grave.”

Nie Huaisang laughed. “Swear it on your mother’s grave.”

Jin Guangyao said nothing.

“You’re such a liar,” Nie Huaisang said, amused.

“It takes one to know one,” Jin Guangyao said.

“Yes, yes it does.” The smile disappeared. “Get off my ship, Prince Guangyao.”

Jin Guangyao stood. “I won’t forget this once I’m king. You know that.”

“Won’t you be too busy having children who can murder each other to care about little old me?” Nie Huaisang asked, waving his fan. “I was always rooting for you, you know.”

Jin Guangyao didn’t respond. When he turned and headed towards the door, one of his men – the same one who had spoken out of turn earlier – said, “That’s it? You’re going to let him – ”

One of Jin Guangyao’s hands jerked out to the side. A garrote left his sleeve and wrapped around the man’s neck. It severed his throat, sending blood gushing everywhere.

Nie Huaisang made a dismayed noise. “You couldn’t wait until you were outside to kill him? I’m going to have to have this professionally cleaned!”

“Bill me,” Jin Guangyao said, and walked out, leaving the body behind.

~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter Text

When they reached the market by the wall, Su She was at least good for his word. He took Wei Wuxian out of the cage and set him on the ground, and changed him back in another puff of gray smoke. Wei Wuxian drew his sword but immediately keeled over.

“You’ll be weak for a few hours,” Su She told him, smirking, and Wei Wuxian made a rude gesture in his direction.

“Gimme my flower,” he mumbled, trying not to throw up.

Su She took the flower and twirled it in his hand. “I did say I’d give this back to you, didn’t I? I suppose I had better. Cangse Sanren might have been dead for fifteen years but I don’t trust her not to haunt my ass if she finds out I took it from you.” He leaned down and tucked it into Wei Wuxian’s belt. “See you around.”

Wei Wuxian said something profane and tried to sit up. Lan Wangji sighed and got an arm underneath him. “It looks like there’s an inn over there on the corner,” he said. “We can rest there tonight and then see your sister tomorrow. I learned something important in the caravan.”

“Mm?” Wei Wuxian asked, listing to one side and nearly knocking them both over.

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, but he waited until they had checked in at the inn and gotten up to a room. Nie Huaisang had given them a little bit of money, so he was able to order them a meal and hot water so they could each have a bath. They smelled like the inside of Su She’s caravan and that was unacceptable to both of them.

He let Lan Wangji bathe first, because he seemed much more bothered by the smell, and wondered if Nie Huaisang would be mad if they just burned these clothes. His own didn’t smell as bad – maybe because he’d been a mouse? All his stuff had transformed and then transformed back. He had no idea how that worked.

While he cleaned up, Lan Wangji told him about the book that he had read and the fact that he could not go beyond the Wall. Wei Wuxian chewed on his lower lip. He felt like he had a lot of things to think over. Now that his mind had cleared up somewhat, there was a lot that had happened in the caravan.

He interrupted Lan Wangji midsentence, unthinking. “Hey, did you mean what you said in the caravan?”

“What?” Lan Wangji asked from behind the screen.

“You know, about wanting to stay with me and everything.”

There was a splash of water and Lan Wangji came around the screen, with a towel wrapped around his waist, looking mortified. “You – you heard that?”

“I mean, I was right there,” Wei Wuxian said. “You literally said it to my face.”

“But – you were a mouse! You wanted cheese!” Lan Wangji’s face was flushing an attractive pink. “I asked you to give me a sign if you could hear me and you just stared at the cheese wheel!”

“I was hungry!” Wei Wuxian said defensively, and then laughed. “Look, um. I want you to stay with me. I really do. I just didn’t know how to ask you. I couldn’t ask you. You’re literally a star and I’m just some kid from a farm. I slept in a goat pen for three years. The idea of you wanting to stay by my side doesn’t even make sense to me. But I’m still really glad that you want it.”

Lan Wangji’s face was still flushed, but he was starting to give off that radiant glow again. He murmured, “You are so much more than the way people treated you.”

Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but briefly look down, wondering if that was true. But he could not deny the light that poured off Lan Wangji, the physical proof that Lan Wangji was happy to be with him. If he could make someone as beautiful and amazing as Lan Wangji so happy, maybe he really was more than that. He couldn’t resist the urge to lean in and press his lips against Lan Wangji’s.

Lan Wangji took in a startled breath, and Wei Wuxian pulled back slightly, concerned. Lan Wangji reached up and touched his own lips, rather experimentally. Then he said, “That felt good. Do it again.”

“Yes, sir,” Wei Wuxian said, amused, but he leaned in and kissed him a second time. Light started to radiate from Lan Wangji again, as Wei Wuxian reached up to tangle his hand in Lan Wangji’s hair and pull him closer.

After another moment, Lan Wangji pulled away and said, “You need to bathe.”

That made Wei Wuxian laugh. “Yeah, okay. That’s fair. Don’t go anywhere.”

“I will not,” Lan Wangji agreed.

Wei Wuxian went behind the screen and stripped out of his smelly clothes before plunging into the bathtub. Although normally he might have felt the desire to indulge in a long soak, in this case he scrubbed as quickly as possible before drying off and pulling on a loose bathrobe that the inn had provided. When he came back into the bedroom, Lan Wangji was wearing one of those robes as well. His glow intensified the moment he saw Wei Wuxian return.

“I’m not gonna be able to sleep with you glowing so brightly,” Wei Wuxian said, laughing as he drew the curtains closed.

“It is nighttime,” Lan Wangji said. “I did not think we would be sleeping.”

“Well, I’m sure we can find some better things to do,” Wei Wuxian agreed with a grin. But then he sobered quickly. “Listen, I love seeing you shine. Knowing you’re happy. But isn’t it dangerous? That witch who tried to kill you is still out there. There are probably others, too. We can’t just announce you’re a star to everyone we meet.”

“Mn. Captain Nie mentioned this as well. That I must learn to control it.” Lan Wangji shook his head. “I do not really know how.”

“Then we’ll figure it out together,” Wei Wuxian said. “And for tonight, you can shine as much as you want.”

~ ~ ~ ~

“You’re very close,” Wen Zhuliu said. “He’s in the market town. One mile from the gap in the wall.”

“You say that like it’s good news!” Xue Yang snapped. “Do I need to remind you that Wall isn’t part of our universe? If he crosses that boundary, then our star becomes nothing more than a pitted lump of metallic rock!”

Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu exchanged a look, before Wen Chao retorted, “Then I suggest you hurry up!”

~ ~ ~ ~

// “It’s so unfair,” Qin Su said with a sigh, watching as Su She scattered a handful of seeds on the ground for Jin Zixuan to eat. “By morning, Guangyao-ge will be here. He’ll get the jade and the star, and then be king . . . forever.”

“At least we’ll be free,” Mo Xuanyu said. “I mean, I didn’t mind hanging out with you two so much, but now that Tong-ge and Zixun-ge are here? Ugh, get me out of limbo already.”

“You know we can hear you, right?” Wan Tong asked, and Mo Xuanyu made a rude gesture in his direction.

“Poor Zixuan-ge,” Luo Qingyang moaned, watching him as he pecked dismally at the ground. “He’s going to be stuck like this forever.”

“Maybe not!” Qin Su comforted her. “Remember, the star said he would free him.”

“The star won’t be freeing anyone after Guangyao-ge cuts his heart out and eats it,” Luo Qingyang said. “I’m sorry, Zixuan-ge . . . I wish we could help you.” //

Jin Zixuan looked up, as if he heard them, and then sighed, his tail feathers drooping back to the ground.

~ ~ ~ ~

Wei Wuxian had meant to get an early start the next day. His sleep schedule was a mess anyway. While traveling with Lan Wangji, they had slept during the day, but that hadn’t really worked on Nie Huaisang’s ship. Lan Wangji had slowly started to adapt to being up during the day, but it wasn’t his preference. That, along with the new activities they had to enjoy together, kept them both up quite late. It was nearly dawn by the time Wei Wuxian fell asleep, and accordingly, nearly lunch by the time he got up.

“So how many uses does a Babylon candle typically have?” he asked, turning the one that Lan Wangji had gotten around in his hands. He added, “I still can’t believe you just outright stole this.”

“He deserved it,” Lan Wangji said, “and I do not know. Do you wish to use it to get back to your sister?”

Wei Wuxian nodded. “I’m really not sure the guard at the gate will let me back through. And I could probably get through anyway, but I really don’t want to fight anyone over it.”

“Then use it once, and we will see how much of it burns off,” Lan Wangji said. “Then we will now how many times it may be used, if only approximately.”

“Okay. Wait for me here, all right? It’s dangerous to wander around.”

Lan Wangji agreed. “I will wait.”

Wei Wuxian gave him a quick kiss, and then lit the candle.

He landed in the goat pen of the Jiang house with a thump. The goats did not appreciate that at all, but quickly recognized him, and began licking him affectionately. He laughed and pushed them off, getting to his feet. “Can’t believe getting back was so easy,” he said, and examined the candle. It looked like about an inch of it had burned off. That wasn’t so bad at all, he thought. It had ten, maybe even twelve uses in it. He tucked it away in his sleeve and went in through the back. “Shijie? Jiang Cheng! Anybody home?”

“A-Xian?” a voice upstairs said, and another one said his full name, sharp and angry.

“What are you doing back here?” Yu Ziyuan demanded.

Wei Wuxian had expected this reception, and had vowed that he wouldn’t let it bother him. “As I’m sure shijie told you, I went beyond the wall to find the fallen star, to bring it back so it could cure her illness.”

“Oh, did you?” Yu Ziyuan sneered. “Are you sure you haven’t just been fooling around and wasting time and money in some city? Where is the star, if you went to get it?”

Jiang Yanli had come down the stairs, with Jiang Cheng behind her, and even Jiang Fengmian was there. It must be Sunday, Wei Wuxian thought. He had completely lost track of time during his journeys, but everyone would be home at midday on Sunday. He ignored Yu Ziyuan completely, turning to Jiang Yanli, and smiled at her. She smiled back. “Welcome home, A-Xian. If you didn’t get the star, it’s fine. I’m just glad you’re safe.”

“I found the star,” Wei Wuxian told her. “But I also learned that the magical properties will be lost if he crosses the wall. Will you come with me, shijie? You’ll be safe with me, I promise.”

Jiang Yanli’s smile was bright and beautiful. “Of course, A-Xian.”

“You absolutely will not!” Yu Ziyuan snapped.

“Do you want to come too, Jiang Cheng?” Wei Wuxian asked. “I can show you around the bazaar. I think you’ll really like it.”

“Well . . .” Jiang Cheng looked uncertainly at his father, who smiled and nodded.

“Both of you go to your rooms!” Yu Ziyuan said. “We’ll talk about this later. You – ”

“Madam Yu,” Wei Wuxian said, interrupting her for the first time in his entire life. “My father was Wei Changze. My mother was Cangse Sanren, and she loved my father so much that she died trying to save his life. So you can stop thinking I am the son of Jiang Fengmian. To do so is an insult to both my parents, and I don’t appreciate it.”

Yu Ziyuan bristled. “So you’re a monster who is the son of monsters. Is that supposed to impress me?”

“I’ve met monsters you could never even have nightmares of in the past few weeks,” Wei Wuxian said. “But I’ve also met amazing, wonderful people. People who helped me out of the goodness of their hearts, with no expectation of anything in return. People who taught me that I didn’t deserve the way that you treated me. So I would like to cordially invite you to grow up and get over yourself.”

Yu Ziyuan’s jaw sagged open. The other three all looked completely stunned, especially Jiang Cheng.

Wei Wuxian turned to Jiang Yanli and smiled. “It’s a few miles to walk, shijie. Will you be okay?”

“I’ll be fine, A-Xian,” she said, and accepted his arm.

“I – I’m going too!” Jiang Cheng blurted out. “You can’t go without me – ”

“Don’t you dare!” Yu Ziyuan said, but the three of them ignored her, leaving the house to the sound of her rant.

“So tell us about your adventures, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli urged, as they began walking through town.

Wei Wuxian grinned. “Okay. Well, to start with, let me tell you about Lan Wangji . . .”

They talked until they got to the gate, a journey of about a mile and a half. The guard at the gap of the wall was startled that people were actually trying to cross. Nobody had tried, according to him, in almost twenty years. “What is it with you Jiangs thinking you can just waltz across the gap any time you like?”

“It’s a character flaw,” Wei Wuxian agreed, then pointed to one side and said, “Wow, what’s that?” and when the guard turned to look, he grabbed his siblings by their wrists and ran through with them. All three of them laughed as they jogged across the field.

“I can’t believe we just did that!” Jiang Cheng said, his cheeks flushed with excitement.

Once they reached the market at the bazaar, Wei Wuxian continuously had to corral his siblings, who were fascinated by all the goods being sold and the people they were being sold by. “Come on, Lan Wangji’s waiting at the inn,” he said several times. He scowled as they came around a corner and he saw the yellow domed roof of Su She’s caravan. “Ugh, this guy.”

“Oh, what a beautiful bird!” Jiang Yanli said, stepping over to the peacock and kneeling beside it, caressing his neck. He seemed to enjoy this, nuzzling closer and resting his head against her shoulder. “How pretty and gentle you are,” she added, smoothing down his feathers.

Su She climbed out of the caravan and smirked when he saw Wei Wuxian. “Something else you need?”

“Uh, yeah, actually,” Wei Wuxian said, as Jiang Yanli continued to pet the peacock. “I want to buy that bird from you. My sister likes him.”

“Hah! I don’t think so,” Su She said. “This is no ordinary bird, after all.”

“Yeah, I get that he’s pretty smart and all, but – ”

Su She snapped his fingers. There was a puff of gray dust and the peacock transformed into a man in a cream-colored robe, his long hair bound back in a braid, the silver chain still wrapped around his ankle, face still pressed into Jiang Yanli’s shoulder. He yelped. Jiang Yanli yelped.

“Wow, um, okay,” Wei Wuxian said, unable to think of anything else.

“Oh my goodness, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize,” Jiang Yanli said, her cheeks flushing dark pink as she thought of how she had been petting his feathers a moment previous.

“No, no, it was my fault,” the man said, just as pink. “I’m so sorry, it’s just, I had been in that form for a long time and sometimes I forget – ”

“Oh, no, it’s fine,” Jiang Yanli said, and Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but roll his eyes slightly as they fluttered ineffectually at each other.

“He’s my assistant,” Su She said, as Wei Wuxian continued to blink and Jiang Cheng just gaped, almost unable to take the situation in.

“Um, he’s your slave,” Wei Wuxian retorted. “It was bad enough when I thought you had a pet bird you didn’t treat well, but that, that’s a whole man there. And I don’t really want to support the slave trade but I also don’t want to leave him with you, so, come on. How much?”

“He’s not for sale,” Su She said, “for any price. It’s a magical pact he cannot be released from.”

Wei Wuxian sighed. “Okay, we’re not done with this, but I’ve got things to do today, so, we’ll continue this later.”

The peacock man was helping Jiang Yanli to her feet, both of them blushing at each other. “I’m really very sorry,” he said again.

“No, it’s fine,” she said again. “Ah, my name is Jiang Yanli. What’s yours?”

His face was blank for a long moment before he ducked his head and said, “I don’t remember.”

Jiang Yanli looked heartbroken. “That’s awful!”

“Look, shijie, we’ll work it out, okay?” Wei Wuxian said, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. “Come on, we’ve got places to be. Maybe we can come visit later.” He nodded to the nameless peacock man, and pulled her away, towards the inn.

Much to his relief, Lan Wangji was still there, waiting. He began to glow instantly when Wei Wuxian came in, which made Wei Wuxian flush pink. He introduced them, and Jiang Yanli shyly thanked Lan Wangji for being willing to try to help her. “Please keep in mind that we do not know if this will work,” Lan Wangji said.

“Wet blanket,” Wei Wuxian teased, and Lan Wangji gave him a somewhat sour look. Wei Wuxian laughed. “I’m just joking. Here, can I help you shine brighter?” he added, leaning in to wrap his arms around Lan Wangji’s waist.

“He really is shining brighter,” Jiang Cheng said, sounding a little surprised.

“’Cause I make him so happy,” Wei Wuxian said, feeling smug. He watched as the beams of starlight fell on his sister, illuminating her skin. “Ah, does it feel nice, shijie?”

“It does,” she said. “It’s not a warm light, but it feels like . . . hm, like a cool cloth applied to my skin when I’m feverish. Cooling and healing.”

“That’s great!” Wei Wuxian said. “So where was I in the story?”

“The airship,” Jiang Cheng told him. “I want to hear more about these pirates. They really catch lightning?”

“They do! In fact – ” Wei Wuxian took out the metal tube, wrapped in leather, that Nie Huaisang had given him, and tapped it against the table. “I’ve got lightning in here right now. Hm, I wonder if that caravan guy would trade the peacock for it? Oh, Lan Wangji – the peacock is actually a man. Like, a whole man.”

Lan Wangji nodded. “I figured. He was much too clever to be a mere bird. I tried to cut the chain but it reconnected. But we owe him a debt and it must be repaid, so we will have to find a way. I doubt Su She would accept the lightning for him, though.”

“Yeah, me too. Guy’s a real prick. Anyway . . .”

They talked until it grew late in the day, and Wei Wuxian took Jiang Cheng out to show him around the market and buy them some dinner, which they brought back to the inn to eat. Afterwards, he asked Jiang Yanli how she was feeling, and she said she felt much better.

“But we really don’t know how long it will last . . .” Wei Wuxian chewed on his lower lip thoughtfully. “I’d say you two could stay with us, but it’s dangerous here. We were going to go up into the mountains to meet somebody who knew my mother. I think I should probably take you home, but . . . Lan Wangji, is it okay if I give my sister the Babylon candle? It looks like it has at least nine or ten uses in it.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said with a nod.

Wei Wuxian leaned over and pressed a kiss against his temple. Then he handed the candle to Jiang Yanli. “Okay. When you start to feel sick again, just light this candle and think of me. It’ll bring you right to me. And I guess if I don’t hear from you in six months or so, I’ll come visit you to check on you.”

“So you’re really going to stay here?” Jiang Cheng asked unhappily.

“I belong here, Jiang Cheng. But I’ll come see you sometimes, I promise. You’ll always be my brother.”

Jiang Cheng scowled, but nodded.

“Come on, I’ll walk the two of you back to the wall. I’ll be back in a bit, okay, Lan Wangji? And then we can head up to the mountains, I guess.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said.

~ ~ ~ ~

The wall was only about a mile from the market, so Lan Wangji thought that Wei Wuxian probably would not be gone long. He supposed that he might take some time to say farewell to his siblings, given that he would not see them again for quite some time. But he had told Lan Wangji that he did not intend to cross the wall again, only to walk them to the edge of Stormhold. So Lan Wangji waited, sitting at the window to watch for his approach and thinking of the next journey they would take.

A familiar voice shouting down below caught his attention. “ - useless, lazy - what did you do with it? How did you - ”

He looked down to see the yellow caravan, and Su She, as unpleasant as ever, haranguing his slave. Still in human form, he was kneeling and shaking his head, but Lan Wangji could not make out what he was saying. Frowning, he descended the steps of the inn and went outside to see if he could provide any assistance.

“One of these days, I really will roast you and eat you!” Su She was snapping as Lan Wangji approached.

The slave shook his head and said, just loud enough for Lan Wangji to hear, “I know you can’t.”

Su She backhanded him hard enough to send him sprawling. Lan Wangji tried to grab his wrist and stop him, but the strange force field that kept him from touching Su She seemed to still be in effect. “If I don’t find that candle back where it goes within the next hour, we’ll see about that!” he said, and went back into the caravan, slamming the door behind him. 

Lan Wangji reached out a hand and helped the man to his feet. He murmured thanks, and Lan Wangji said, “There is no need. I am in your debt.” He looked at the closed caravan door. “How is it that he cannot see or hear me? I cannot touch him, either . . .”

“He was cursed,” the slave said. “There’s another witch looking for you - I assume you know that. Su She tricked him into giving that away, and in a fury, he cursed him to not be able to perceive you in any way.”

“Ah,” Lan Wangji said. Although he was not talkative by nature, he found himself curious about this stranger. “I am Lan Wangji.”

“It’s nice to meet you properly,” the man replied, not offering a name in return.

Lan Wangji remembered that Jiang Yanli had said he did not remember his own name. “How long have you been like this?”

“It’s hard to say. I experience time differently when I’m locked into the bird form. Several years, at least.”

“He mentioned that it was a magical pact you cannot be released from. Is that true?”

The slave nodded. “Although Su She owns and controls me, he is also responsible for my general well-being. He’s not supposed to harm me in any way - he’ll pay for hitting me just now, his magic won’t work at all for a few days.”

Lan Wangji frowned, thinking this over. “If you don’t mind my asking, how did such an arrangement occur?”

“I’m not sure, to be honest. I can only make guesses from the little Su She told me. I don’t remember it at all - one night I was sleeping in my bed and the next I woke up as a peacock with a chain around my ankle. Somebody abducted me and sold me to him.”

“But forbid him from harming you?” Lan Wangji still didn’t understand.

The man gave a wan smile. “I was safe with him.”

Lan Wangji’s breath caught in his throat as he made the connection. “You’re Jin Zixuan,” he murmured, careful to keep his voice pitched low.

Jin Zixuan looked surprised, then looked away. “I’ve told you more than I should have. But I suppose it’s safe to trust you, since you owe me your life.” He nodded, then added, “I don’t know for sure which of my siblings did this to me, but I think I can make a pretty good guess. It happened about three weeks after one of the others came very close to ending my life. I don’t enjoy life with Su She, but I’ve outlived most of my siblings this way.”

// “Wait a minute,” Mo Xuanyu said suspiciously. “Waaaaiiiiiit a minute. We all thought Guangyao-ge had done this to him to get him out of the way, but Guangyao-ge wouldn’t have cared enough to forbid Su She from hurting him.”

“I kept telling you it wasn’t Guangyao-ge,” Qin Su said. “Guangyao-ge would have just killed him. Anyway, don’t look at me. I was already dead by the time he got caught.”

“I really thought Guangyao had killed him,” Wan Tong said thoughtfully.

“So did I,” Jin Zixun agreed.

“If Guangyao-ge had actually killed him, it would have been all you’d have heard about for the next year,” Mo Xuanyu said, and shook his head. “Dumb as rocks, both of you.”

“Still killed you,” Wan Tong said.

“Yeah, congratulations. You killed a fifteen-year-old kid while your more dangerous brothers were still alive and kicking. Go apply for whatever medal that gets you and leave me out of it.”

“You’re awfully quiet over there, Luo-jie,” Qin Su said, her eyes narrowed.

Luo Qingyang’s mouth tightened. “It wasn’t supposed to be this long . . .”

“So it was you!” Wan Tong stared at her, jaw agape. “You sold him to a witch!”

Luo Qingyang lifted her chin defiantly. “So what if I did? You had tried to kill him three times already, and Zixun-ge and Guangyao-ge were trying, too! His luck was going to run out and I kept begging him to let me help him kill you two and Guangyao-ge but he wouldn’t! He said he would handle it on his own, that you didn’t see me as a threat so I didn’t need to worry as long as he was still alive. I figured I could tuck him out of the way until Guangyao-ge had killed both of you, then I could kill Guangyao-ge and go get him back! But Zixun-ge killed me three months later and fucked that plan all to hell! What did you even do that for, Zixun-ge?”

“I saw the way you looked at me!” Jin Zixun retorted. “I knew that you were planning something! I thought you thought I had killed Zixuan-ge and you were going to come after me! It was self-defense!”

Miserable silence sat in the clearing.

“You ever wonder if our family is like, really messed up?” Mo Xuanyu asked pensively. //

“I do not know if you are aware,” Lan Wangji said, “but you only have one sibling still surviving, Jin Guangyao.”

Jin Zixuan smiled slightly, shaking his head. “It doesn’t surprise me that it’s him.”

“Perhaps once he takes the throne, you will be safe,” Lan Wangji said.

“Nobody will be safe while Guangyao is king,” Jin Zixuan said, then added, “Su She told me that the pact would only be released if my sister released it, or all my remaining siblings were dead.”

“It certainly seems you would be better-suited for the throne,” Lan Wangji said thoughtfully. “Perhaps I will discuss this with - ”

“Who are you talking to out there?” Su She flung the door of the caravan open. 

“He’s talking to my star!” another voice said, and both Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji jumped. Lan Wangji twisted around to see someone standing a few feet behind him, in the middle of the road. He was hooded and cloaked, and not much of his face was visible. He could only see a few limp, straggling white hairs. But somehow he knew, he knew, it was the same witch from the inn, the one who had already come so close to catching him.

“What? What star?” Su She’s eyes narrowed. “I think I’d know it if - ”

“Shut up,” Xue Yang said, waving a hand. “You know, I think I let you off much too easily for the whole limbus grass thing. I’m really in a pretty foul temper. This has not been a fun few weeks for me, running all over hell and creation looking for my damn star.” He gestured to Lan Wangji, who had been quietly backing up, as if he might be able to get away. Suddenly, the air around him was as thick as molasses. He couldn’t move, could barely breathe.

“What are you even talking - ” Su She said, but then Xue Yang lifted one hand and sent a bolt of green fire at him. Su She automatically lifted his hands to use a protection spell, but nothing happened. Lan Wangji saw the brief moment of confusion, then horrified realization, as he recalled hitting Jin Zixuan and the detrimental effect it had on his magic. Then there was only fire, and screaming. Not just from him, but from the surrounding townspeople, who was scattering like mice.

A bare moment later, there was only a smoking crater where Su She had been standing. Jin Zixuan looked down, and the silver chain around his ankle snapped. He took in a deep breath, his entire body going limp with relief.

The moment was premature. Xue Yang made a quick beckoning gesture and the silver chain flew into his hand. He tossed it forward and it snaked around Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan’s wrists, binding them together. Both of them immediately began tugging and pulling in an attempt to get free, but the silver chain was just as unbreakable as Xue Yang’s as it had been as Su She’s.

“Fucking finally,” Xue Yang said. “No, I’ve gotta be fair,” he added. “Respect for giving me a run for my money. But damn, I’m glad that’s over. Get in the carriage, let’s go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Lan Wangji said, pulling at the chains harder, his entire stomach going icy with fear.

Xue Yang sighed. “You can get in the carriage or you can be dragged behind it. Your choice. Hey, you,” he added, gesturing to Jin Zixuan. “Do you know how to make goat stew? Because man have I got a craving. That’s the first thing I’m doing after I’ve finished up with my star. I’ve got just the goats in mind for it, too.”

He didn’t wait for an answer, just giving the chain a sharp yank that pulled them both towards the carriage. They exchanged a look, and then climbed inside.

~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian took a few minutes to bid his brother and sister farewell at the wall, and promised he would see them soon. He hoped that Lan Wangji’s starlight helped Jiang Yanli enough that only occasional treatments would be needed, but there was really no way to know. She had already said that if she had to come live in Stormhold, she was willing to do it. But Wei Wuxian didn’t want to take any chances yet, given everything else that was going on.

He got back to the market to find it in chaos. Su She’s caravan was abandoned, and there was a black spot roughly the shape of a human being on the ground in front of it. Wei Wuxian’s heart leapt into his mouth and he ran to the inn, taking the steps two at a time. But the room he had shared with Lan Wangji was empty. 

He ran back outside and grabbed the first person he saw, demanding, “What happened?”

“A horrible witch,” the woman gasped out, and managed to tell a garbled story that had Wei Wuxian’s chest turn to ice and his stomach sink into his shoes.

He grabbed the reins of the horse that Su She used to pull his caravan and jumped onto its back. The witch was in a carriage. He could still catch up. “Please, please,” he whispered, his fingers tightening on the glass flower in his belt. “It can’t end like this.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Jin Guangyao rode into the market town twenty minutes after Wei Wuxian left, thirty minutes after Xue Yang did. He looked at the crater that Su She had left and demanded answers.

So the witch had the star. Even if he made it after the star was dead, he could still get the jade. But he wanted that star. He wanted its heart. He wanted to be king forever, to never need children who could fight over his throne.

“I need a fresh horse,” he said, at the largest stable he could find. He had been riding all night. He would never catch up as it is. “The fastest you have.”

“Our horses aren’t for sale, we only rent them - ”

Jin Guangyao’s wrist snapped to one side and a wire wrapped around the man’s neck. “Then pray I bring it back when I’m done.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Xue Yang was feeling triumphant, all his past grievances forgotten. Sure, his brothers had been a little bitchy. Sure, it had taken a lot of work. His complexion had gone all to hell. Most of his hair had fallen out and what was left was a stringy, ugly gray. He had some goats he needed to kill and eat. But all that was in the past. What mattered now was that he had their star, and a bonus slave on top of it.

“It’ll be nice to have someone to mop up after we’ve done our work,” Wen Chao agreed, taking Jin Zixuan’s elbow and fixing one end of the silver chain to the bars of one of their animal cages. Lan Wangji looked a little stricken as they were separated, and Wen Zhuliu began dragging him to the far end of the hall, up the marble steps to the stone slab they had laid out there for this purpose.

As soon as the chain was off of him, Lan Wangji began to struggle. It took both Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu to get him up the steps and onto the table.

“I told you that he was a feisty little fucker,” Xue Yang said. “You two didn’t believe me.”

“Feisty is good,” Wen Zhuliu said. “It means his heart is strong.”

Lan Wangji bit his hand so hard he drew blood.

Xue Yang laughed. “Don’t worry, beautiful,” he said. “It’ll all be over soon.”

~ ~ ~ ~

The horse came to a stop in a shower of gravel, and Wei Wuxian had to stop to catch his breath. At least the horse hadn’t had any problems with making a headlong gallop the entire way, but the journey still felt like it had taken forever. The witch’s home was an enormous stone building in a canyon, and Wei Wuxian could practically feel the stone walls closing in on him. But when he peered through one of the windows at the front, he could see Lan Wangji being dragged up a set of stairs. He nearly sobbed in relief. He wasn’t too late.

Bare seconds later, he felt a knife pressed against his throat, and a soft voice asked, “Who are you?”

His gaze darted to the side to see the knife held by a slight man with long dark hair, in cream-colored robes adorned with gold. There was a red marking on his forehead. “You must be Jin Guangyao,” he said.

“Answer my question. Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“My name is Wei Wuxian,” he replied. “I’m here for my star.”

Jin Guangyao peered over his shoulder, through the window. “You’re going to have one hell of a time getting it back.”

Wei Wuxian nodded. “You want the jade, right? That’s what will make you king.”

Jin Guangyao gave another glance, then nodded and lowered his knife. “There’s three . . . no, four of them. If we work together, we can take them.”

“How do I know I can trust you?” Wei Wuxian asked.

With a smile, Jin Guangyao said, “You don’t.”

Wei Wuxian didn’t like that answer at all, but he figured, worse came to worse, he could hope that Jin Guangyao provided enough of a distraction for him to get to Lan Wangji. He certainly didn’t know anything about how to fight a witch, but Jin Guangyao seemed relatively confident, so he could take the lead. “Okay, but there’s only three of them. That guy in the pale robe is a slave. Su She owned him; that other witch must have taken him after killing Su She.”

“Even better. Three on two and he can stay out of our way.” Jin Guangyao glanced around. “I don’t like the idea of going in through the front but I don’t see any other doors, so . . .”

He kicked open the door, and took two steps inside. Su She’s slave whipped around when he heard the noise, and Jin Guangyao stopped so abruptly that Wei Wuxian nearly ran into him. “Zixuan-ge?”

“Guangyao?” Jin Zixuan was clearly just as surprised.

“Wei Wuxian!” Lan Wangji shouted from the platform across the hall, and suddenly began to give off a light so bright that all the witches shied away.

“Get them!” Xue Yang shouted.

“Looks like you’ll have to deal with me later, Guangyao,” Jin Zixuan said, tugging at one wrist to rattle at the silver chain that held him to the bars of a cage. Jin Guangyao nodded and half turned as Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu charged down the steps on either side of the platform.

“Lan Wangji, I’m coming!” Wei Wuxian called out.

Before he could make it another two steps, Wen Chao thrust both hands out, sending waves of fire at them. Despite himself, Wei Wuxian yelped and ducked behind one of the cages. Jin Guangyao, however, was not perturbed. He drew a symbol in the air, and it momentarily glittered gold before the fire parted around him and guttered out. This didn’t deter Wen Chao, who let loose another blast. Jin Guangyao ducked to one side and then his hand flashed out. The knife tumbled end over end and then lodged in Wen Chao’s neck. Wen Chao laughed defiantly, then suddenly collapsed.

// “Oh, nicely done,” Luo Qingyang said, despite her instinctive dislike of Jin Guangyao.

Mo Xuanyu clapped. //

“Look out!” Wei Wuxian shouted, as Jin Guangyao turned from Wen Chao to Wen Zhuliu, who was wielding a sword that was wreathed in the same green flames that Xue Yang used. Jin Guangyao blocked, but was knocked to the ground by the force Wen Zhuliu wielded. He rolled to one side as the sword came down, cutting off a part of his sleeve.

Next to Wei Wuxian, there was a high-pitched noise, almost a scream, from one of the cages. He glanced inside and saw that all the cages were filled with animals, all of them hissing and spitting at Wen Zhuliu’s proximity. As Jin Guangyao rolled again, Wei Wuxian brought his sword down on the lock on the closest door.

The cage door burst open and a dozen weasels raced out. Wen Zhuliu took a step back as they swarmed him, crawling up his body and biting at his face. Wei Wuxian took a bare second to look at the other cages and find one that had five coyotes inside. He smashed the lock of that one, too. Wen Zhuliu was taken to the ground, even as he tried desperately to wield his sword and the green fire.

// “Damn, this guy’s clever,” Wan Tong said begrudgingly.

“Too bad Guangyao-ge will probably kill him once they’ve won,” Qin Su said glumly.

“Why do you always think the worst in everybody?” Luo Qingyang asked.

Qin Su gestured to the blood that soaked her dress.

“Fair,” Luo Qingyang said. //

Xue Yang’s opinion was a far more succinct, “Holy shit!”

Jin Guangyao leaned over Wen Zhuliu’s body and picked up the obsidian knife that had been tucked into his belt. “Aren’t you going to need this?”

Xue Yang snarled despite himself. They had more than one, but the others were on the other side of the hall. He thrust one hand out, and green fire zig-zagged across the room. But without Wei Wuxian even needing to do anything, it stopped at the last second. It didn’t change direction or bounce off a shield. It just stopped existing.

“Huh,” Wei Wuxian said, his fingers caressing the white petals of the glass flower. “I guess Su She really did do quality work.”

“Son of a bitch,” Xue Yang said. “Guess I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.”

Wei Wuxian braced himself for whatever that was, and was immediately knocked on his ass when Xue Yang threw an enormous vase at him. It smashed into his back into a shower of porcelain, and he ended up on the floor, dazed.

“Wei Wuxian!” Lan Wangji cried out.

Just as Wei Wuxian managed to scramble to his feet, there was a huge crash, and the mirrors on each side of the hall shattered. Wei Wuxian held up his arms to protect himself, but still felt the sting as shards of glass pierced his arms and legs. Xue Yang couldn’t use magic on him, he realized, but he could still use magic on everything around him.

“And I’ll be having that back, thank you very much,” Xue Yang said, and the obsidian knife flew out of Jin Guangyao’s hand despite his obvious attempt to hold onto it. Wei Wuxian saw blood splash from his palm as the razor sharp edges sliced through his skin as it went. But Jin Guangyao, to his credit, didn’t miss a beat. He flicked his other hand out, and a gold wire left his sleeve, wrapping around the knife. The wire must have been incredibly tough, Wei Wuxian thought, because he was sure the knife would cut right through it. But it didn’t. Jin Guangyao pulled it back, Xue Yang tried to free it, and it went flying and smashed on the floor.

“Oh, come on!” Xue Yang said. “That’s the second one of those I’ve lost now! Do you think those things are easy to make?” He slammed one foot into the ground, and it shook underneath their feet. Green light was starting to gather around Xue Yang, flickers of flame that reached into every corner of the room. “You come into my house, kill my brothers, and they weren’t good for much but they were mine, and it doesn’t even matter that you broke my knife because I’ve got others, and once I’ve killed both of you I’m going to go get it, and then I’m going to have my heart and it’ll be all mine!”

“Wait!” Jin Guangyao said, and grabbed Wei Wuxian by the arm. He felt something sharp at his throat, and realized it was one of Jin Guangyao’s wires, drawn tightly across his neck. “Don’t move.”

Xue Yang calmed slightly, and looked somewhat amused at this development. “I think you’re confused, prince. I don’t care if you kill him. I’d be happy if you kill him.”

“I’m telling him not to move, not you,” Jin Guangyao said. “Listen, all I want is the jade. I’d have been happy to get the star’s heart but it’s not what I’m after. Throw me the jade and I’ll kill him for you.”

“No!” Lan Wangji shouted.

// “Guangyao-ge, you suck!” Mo Xuanyu cried out, slumping against Qin Su. “You’re the worst! You were doing so well, too!”

“Told you,” Qin Su said. //

“Okay, it’s an interesting proposition,” Xue Yang said, “but why do I care? Kill him right now if you’re so eager.”

“And lose my shield? I don’t think so,” Jin Guangyao said. “And you care because we just killed your two brothers. You know what the princes of Stormhold can do. We have our own power or we would never survive infancy. But this doesn’t have to get bloodier than it already has. Give me the jade; I’ll kill him and go.”

Wei Wuxian was holding perfectly still, afraid to move. But he felt movement, nonetheless. Something behind him moving. Jin Guangyao was holding the garrotte tight at his throat with one hand, but the other was inching the tube that Wei Wuxian held the lightning in up his back. In a second, Wei Wuxian would be able to grab it. But should he? He didn’t know what Jin Guangyao intended. He might cut his throat, accidentally or on purpose. 

But he couldn’t keep standing there. He had seen the way Xue Yang could move objects around. Any moment he might decide he was sick of negotiating, grab a new knife, and plunge it into Lan Wangji’s chest. He had to risk it.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” Xue Yang said, yanked the jade off of Lan Wangji’s belt, and threw it towards them, although in an arc that would take it far over their heads.

Wei Wuxian grabbed the top of the tube just as it came over his shoulder, popped the cap off, and let the lightning go.

It struck Xue Yang directly in the chest, throwing him backwards and against the stone wall.

The recoil of it sent both Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao sprawling. They crashed through several of the cages before Wei Wuxian landed directly on top of him. He managed to scramble to his feet with a cough and ran up the stairs, leaving Jin Guangyao behind.

// “Is he dead?” Jin Zixun asked hopefully.

Mo Xuanyu was crouched over their brother. “Nope, but he’s out cold, I think.”

“Where’s the jade?” Wan Tong asked.

“It landed over here!” Qin Su called out. Jin Zixun tried to grab it, and she looked at him in exasperation. “Are you deficient?” //

“Lan Wangji, Lan Wangji,” Wei Wuxian said, so relieved that he nearly couldn’t work the buckles of the straps that had Lan Wangji tied down. Lan Wangji looked just as relieved, suddenly shining a bright silver. “Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you?”

“I - behind you!” 

Wei Wuxian flung himself on top of Lan Wangji and rolled them both over the far side of the stone slab just in time to avoid Xue Yang’s knife. It was pure steel rather than obsidian; he had clearly grabbed the closest weapon he could find. Wei Wuxian got back up and parried desperately with the sword Nie Huaisang had given him, but a week’s worth of lessons were nothing against the lifetimes that Xue Yang had had to perfect his craft. It took him only moments to send Wei Wuxian’s sword flying and leave him defenseless.

“Finally, fucking hell,” Xue Yang said, catching his breath. “I’m too old for this shit. Where’s that fucking knife - ”

“I won’t let you touch him,” Wei Wuxian said, his voice trembling despite his best efforts.

Xue Yang ignored this, for which Wei Wuxian could not particularly blame him, given how impotent it was. Lan Wangji slid his arms around Wei Wuxian’s waist from behind, hugging him close. “You came for me,” he murmured.

“Of course I did,” Wei Wuxian said, feeling tears sting at his eyes.

Lan Wangji gently turned him around, and Wei Wuxian had no idea how he could be shining so brightly when he was about to die. “Hold onto me and close your eyes,” he said, and didn’t give Wei Wuxian a chance to ask questions. He held him tightly, and the glow intensified, becoming too bright to look at. Wei Wuxian obeyed, closing his eyes and pressing his face into Lan Wangji’s shoulder.

“Hey, what are you - ” Xue Yang turned back, and had to shield his eyes as the glow intensified. “Cut that shit out!”

The light continued to get brighter, and Wei Wuxian held onto Lan Wangji more tightly, He could hear Xue Yang screaming, and then an explosion, and the light began to dim. When he carefully looked up, he saw only cinders where Xue Yang had been standing, gently floating towards the ground. “Holy shit, did you just straight up incinerate him?” he blurted out. “No offense, but why couldn’t you have done that a little sooner?”

“I could not have done that without you,” Lan Wangji murmured. Then he added, “I did not realize it would work. But earlier, when you arrived, I began to shine again, and I saw them flinch away from the light. I saw that it hurt them, so once you were in my arms, I let myself shine as brightly as I could.”

Wei Wuxian let out a breath and nodded. He was sore and exhausted and bleeding in multiple places, but Lan Wangji was safe and in his arms and that was enough. “You’re not hurt?”

Lan Wangji glanced down at himself. “Some bruises, perhaps,” he said, and Wei Wuxian saw raw, reddened skin on his wrists from where he had clearly struggled against his restraints. The two of them helped each other down the stairs. Jin Zixuan, freed from the chain when Xue Yang had died, was kneeling next to Jin Guangyao. Lan Wangji picked up the piece of jade from the mess of shattered glass on the floor and handed it to Jin Zixuan. “This belongs to you.”

Jin Zixuan nodded and took it. The gray began to fade out of the jade, returning it to a beautiful translucent white. He tucked it away into his sleeve.

// “Yes!” Overcome with joy, Luo Qingyang grabbed Qin Su in one arm and Mo Xuanyu in the other, hugging them both tightly. They hugged her back, their cheers muffled in her shoulders.

Jin Zixun sighed. “Better than Guangyao, I guess,” he muttered, and Wan Tong nodded. //

Jin Guangyao was sitting up as they spoke, pressing one heel of his hand against his temple. Jin Zixuan offered him a hand up. He looked at it, sighed, and took it. “Better you than Zixun-ge,” he said, unconsciously echoing his brother. “I’m too tired to fight. Just get it over with.”

Jin Zixuan shook his head. “I know I’ll never be able to trust you,” he said, “but I also know that we were all the children our father made us to be.”

“So, what, then?” Jin Guangyao asked.

Jin Zixuan held out a hand, and his fingers were giving off a gentle golden light. “You are forthwith banished from the land of Stormhold,” he said, and the glow enveloped Jin Guangyao. “Living beyond the Wall, you’ll be stripped of your magic, and the reason for your ambitions. Your life there will be whatever you make of it.”

The light swirled around Jin Guangyao, and when it faded, he was gone.

Jin Zixuan looked at nobody, as far as Wei Wuxian could tell, and said, quietly, “May the rest of you be at peace.”

Wei Wuxian didn’t know who he was talking to, but he saw more golden lights flicker. He counted five of them before they rose into the sky and disappeared.

“Thank you,” Jin Zixuan said to Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. 

Lan Wangji shook his head. “There is no need for thanks. My debt to you is repaid.”

Jin Zixuan smiled. “If you don’t have anywhere in particular to go right now, we can take the carriage to the closest town and I can call on some people to start arranging for me to get back to the palace. You’re welcome to come with me. Perhaps . . .” A faint pink flush spread across his cheeks. “Wei Wuxian, perhaps your sister might like to come for the coronation?”

Biting back a grin, Wei Wuxian said, “My sister is already back in Wall, sorry. But I’m sure she’d love to visit the next time she comes to Stormhold.”

“Oh. Well. That’s all right, I suppose.” Jin Zixuan cleared his throat, seemed to want to say something else, but then fell silent.

Wei Wuxian had to turn away before he could laugh. He focused on the cages of animals, now silent and wary. “Aw, poor things,” he said, walking over to the first cage, which held two cats. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you all to good homes, okay?”

“Some of them are wild,” Lan Wangji said, gesturing to a cage which held an eagle.

“Yeah, I see that. Okay, let’s sort them out.”

The cages of wild animals were opened so they could be released, and the domesticated animals were loaded onto the carriage. “Look, Lan Wangji, rabbits!” Wei Wuxian said with a broad grin, holding up a cage which held half a dozen of them, all pure white except one, who was black. “We should find a nice place for them to live so you can visit them all the time.”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji agreed.

Once all the animals were gone, they did a quick search of the premises, but found nothing else worth keeping. Jin Zixuan, far more well-versed in Stormhold magic than either of the others, said the artifacts and books were all regarding dangerous, black magic, the kind which required blood sacrifices or caused harm. It was better for them to be destroyed, he said, so they set a fire. Before long, the building was consumed by it.

Lan Wangji slid his hand into Wei Wuxian’s, and the two of them went over to the carriage. A few minutes later, they had left the witch’s lair far behind.

~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter Text

Coronations were, unsurprisingly, a big deal in Stormhold. Wei Wuxian had absolutely no interest in helping out with one, but the palace was absolutely gorgeous. He felt like he could spend his entire lifetime in the library, reading about Stormhold’s history and the magic that was used there. Although he wanted to go exploring and meet Baoshan Sanren and hear stories about his mother, he was also enjoying the ability to stay in one place for a while and feel safe there. Jin Zixuan, who was already performing all the duties of king while the coronation was planned, told them that they were welcome to stay as long as they would like.

In the end, it was a good thing that they stayed, because it meant they were still there when Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng arrived in a whirl of orange firelight. Wei Wuxian embraced both his siblings, overjoyed to see them again, but then sobered slightly. “It really didn’t help that much? I had hoped the effect would last at least a few months . . .”

Jiang Yanli smiled and squeezed his hand. “It’s not that. I feel much better, truly. In fact, I’ve never felt so good in all my life,” she added with a laugh. “It’s just that we missed you so much. We talked it over and decided to come back to Stormhold to live here.”

“That job at the magistrate’s was hellishly boring,” Jiang Cheng added. 

That made Wei Wuxian laugh. “Well, you’re more than welcome. In fact, shijie, I have to re-introduce you to someone . . .”

He quickly explained the situation with Jin Zixuan, and Jiang Yanli was left mortified. “I was petting the king?” she asked. “I just picked up the king and pet him on the head without asking?”

“Well, no, technically you were petting a prince,” Wei Wuxian teased, and she moaned. Wei Wuxian laughed. “He doesn’t mind. He was already asking about you the next day. Come on, I’ll take you to meet him and maybe he can show you around.”

Although Jin Zixuan flushed a deep pink when Wei Wuxian walked in with Jiang Yanli, he was more than eager to give her a tour. It wasn’t until after they were gone that Wei Wuxian turned to Jiang Cheng and said, “She’s really all right?”

“Physically, she really is a lot better,” Jiang Cheng said, then added, “amazingly better. She was able to get up in the mornings and help with the chores, and she wanted to learn about feeding the animals and taking care of them. She came to visit me at my job the other day - on her own, not at all worried that she might collapse or be too tired to get home afterwards.”

“That’s great!” Wei Wuxian said, smiling at Lan Wangji in appreciation.

“Yeah. But . . .” Jiang Cheng sighed. “She got in a big fight with Mom about it. Mom was so mad at both of us for going to Stormhold after she told us not to. A-jie put up with it for a few days, hoping she would get used to it, but Mom wouldn’t let it go . . . a-jie asked her if she’d rather have a daughter who was sick than well, if it meant accepting help from you, and Mom said she would.”

Wei Wuxian cringed. “I’m sorry.”

Jiang Cheng punched him in the arm. “What the hell for?”

“I don’t know,” Wei Wuxian admitted.

With a roll of his eyes, Jiang Cheng continued, “So a-jie said if that was the way she was going to be about it, then she couldn’t change her, but she didn’t have to live with it, either. The two of us talked about it and decided we would be better off here. I mean, really, she decided that, and I wasn’t about to let her go without me.”

“You’ll both do great here,” Wei Wuxian promised. “I mean, Jin Zixuan clearly likes her, so she might even be queen someday! And we’ll find a place for you. I know you have absolutely zero interest in magistrate stuff,” he added with a laugh. “Have you ever considered piracy?”

“Mom would have skinned me alive,” Jiang Cheng said, grinning.

~ ~ ~ ~

Jin Guangyao woke with a start to the clink of porcelain. He looked around to find himself in a fairly plain room, with wooden walls and floor, with no adornments except for some cream-colored curtains. He cast his mind back to remember what had happened, but came up blank.

“Are you awake, then?” a tart voice asked, and he looked over to see a slight woman setting down a cup of tea. “Good, drink this.”

Jin Guangyao accepted the cup and drank thirstily. “Where am I?” he whispered.

“You’re in Wall,” the woman said. “My name is Wen Qing. You’ve been very sick.”

Again, he tried to remember, then shook his head. “What happened? How did I get here?”

Wen Qing refilled his cup of tea. “A week ago, the guard at the wall woke up and found you trying to get through, but you couldn’t. Some sort of force field stopped you from going through. You were bleeding from several wounds and you had a knock on the head and a high fever.”

“For a human, maybe,” Jin Guangyao said. Princes of Stormhold always ran a few degrees higher than average, for their own protection.

“I beg your pardon?” Wen Qing asked, with the politely suspicious tone of a doctor wondering if their patient was delusional.

Jin Guangyao blinked. “I . . . I don’t know why I said that,” he murmured. He felt so confused. There were things he knew - his name, his age, that he was the fourth child out of seven, that all his siblings except one were dead. But so much else was blurry, or felt like something from a bad dream. He couldn’t recall where he was from or how he had spent much of his life, although there were snatches here and there. He couldn’t remember how his siblings had died or how he had gotten to Wall.

“You were unconscious for nearly a week, but your fever broke last night, so you probably feel a lot better now,” Wen Qing said. “Don’t worry if you don’t remember how you hurt yourself. That’s fairly common with head injuries. It may come back, or it may not. Is there anyone I can notify, who can come fetch you?”

“No,” Jin Guangyao said, because he knew that as surely as he knew his own name. He sat up so he could bow. “Thank you for caring for me. I will pay you as soon as I’m able.”

“I don’t do this for money,” Wen Qing said, then added, “but if you don’t have anywhere particular to go, I heard the magistrate needs a new clerk.”

Jin Guangyao nodded. That would be a good job, he thought. He could learn the ins and outs of the local governance, advance politically, perhaps make a career out of it. The idea appealed to him. 

Maybe he could even be mayor someday.

~ ~ ~ ~

“Prince Zixuan!” Nie Huaisang said cheerfully, eeling through a crowd of people so he could bow properly. “It’s good to see you alive! I was rooting for you, you know.”

“Of course you were,” Jin Zixuan said, amused. “Before or after you made a deal with my brother that you could break the law with impunity if you promised not to kill him?”

Nie Huaisang waved his fan and continued to smile. “Both before and after, Your Highness.”

Jin Zixuan just shook his head, and before he could respond, another man walked up behind Nie Huaisang and bowed as well. “Your Highness.”

“Captain Nie,” Jin Zixuan said.

Wei Wuxian burst out into laughter despite his best efforts. Nie Mingjue looked exactly as he would have pictured him. The complete opposite of Nie Huaisang - tall and broad-shouldered and well-muscled, with an impressive mustache and an even more impressive sword. No wonder everybody thought Nie Huaisang was only skating by on his brother’s reputation. If he’d had a brother who looked like that, Wei Wuxian thought, he would do that too.

“I presume that after your coronation, you’ll be putting new laws into effect over certain things that might impact my livelihood,” Nie Mingjue said.

“It’s quite possible,” Jin Zixuan agreed. “But then again, you’ve never worried much about what is and isn’t legal, have you?”

“Not particularly,” Nie Mingjue said, and thumped his brother on the shoulder. “What about you, Huaisang?”

Nie Huaisang just waved his fan. “I’ll give you twenty percent of all the lightning we collect at no charge if you tell the marshals not to bother me.”

“Forty,” Jin Zixuan said.

“Twenty-five.”

“Thirty-five.”

“Thirty.”

“Thirty-two.”

Nie Huaisang laughed. “Thirty-two it is!” Beaming, he turned to where Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were standing. “And how are the two of you? I heard you killed Xue Yang and his brothers. Nicely done!”

“It was all Lan Wangji,” Wei Wuxian said, wrapping an arm around his waist. He saw Lan Wangji’s mouth tighten, and his smile widened, because he had learned to recognize that expression. It meant that Lan Wangji was concentrating very hard on not outwardly shining. He loved the face, which almost looked like a pout, as much as he loved watching Lan Wangji glow with happiness.

“Well, come tell me all about it,” Nie Huaisang said.

“Okay, but let me grab my brother,” Wei Wuxian said, grinning. “I think he’s got a great future in lightning.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian had barely set foot on the front path of the small cottage when someone shouted, “Who’s there?” and the next thing they knew, a man had a sword drawn on them. 

Both of them raised their hands in surrender, and Wei Wuxian said, “We’re not bad guys, I swear!”

“Zichen, who is it?” another voice called out, and a beautiful man dressed all in white emerged from the cottage. He saw them and smiled. “Oh - it’s you! I’m glad to see you’re all right. Zichen, it’s fine - these are the men that the witch was chasing. The star and his friend.”

“Oh.” Song Lan lowered his sword and said, “My apologies.”

“No worries,” Wei Wuxian said. “I’d be pretty tense after what happened, too.”

“Please, come in,” Xiao Xingchen said, and ushered them inside. “I’ll serve tea.”

Lan Wangji nodded. “I’m glad to see you are well. I had worried that the witch would hurt you after we escaped. Fortunately, one of Prince Guangyao’s men remembered your names and told us you had survived.”

Xiao Xingchen set down the pot of tea. “Yes, he left in a fury after you escaped. I think he forgot about us entirely, although . . . as you can see, we have been concerned he might return.”

“You need not worry,” Lan Wangji said. “He is dead.”

A great deal of tension left Song Lan’s shoulders. “You’re sure?”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said.

“Lan Wangji killed him,” Wei Wuxian said proudly. “He shined so brightly that it made this sort of white fire that basically incinerated him. It was pretty awesome.”

Xiao Xingchen smiled slightly, and Lan Wangji added, “This is part of the reason we came to see you. We wanted you to know that he was gone, and that you were safe.”

“We appreciate it very much,” Song Lan said.

“And also to thank you,” Wei Wuxian said. “It didn’t really occur to us at the time, because so much happened so quickly. But we realized he must have left you as a lookout, and you were supposed to get him when we arrived, but you didn’t.”

“I have some small magical talent,” Xiao Xingchen said. “It allowed me to fight off some of the compulsion he placed on me.”

“He’s being modest,” Song Lan said, smiling at Xiao Xingchen. “He’s an amazing sorcerer - if the witch hadn’t taken us so off guard, he never would have been able to do what he did. Xingchen learned from the best - his teacher was Baoshan Sanren.”

“Was she?” Wei Wuxian’s eyes went wide. “Ah, what a coincidence - so was my mother’s!”

Now Xiao Xingchen looked surprised. “Are you Cangse Sanren’s child?” he asked, and Wei Wuxian nodded. “I never met her, but Baoshan Sanren talked about her frequently. She was very proud of her, even though she had died years before.”

“Do you know where we can find her? Baoshan Sanren, I mean,” Wei Wuxian said. “I really wanted to talk to her - hear about my mother. I really don’t remember her and I thought . . .”

“Of course,” Xiao Xingchen said. “It can be difficult to get to her home, but I will draw you a map.”

An hour later, they left the cottage with a map and full stomachs.

It took over two weeks of travel to reach the mountain where Baoshan Sanren lived, but both Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji enjoyed it. Lan Wangji in particular enjoyed going to new places, seeing the things up close that he had watched from a distance before. Wei Wuxian was always eager to explore and meet new people, although Lan Wangji preferred not to do the latter.

Baoshan Sanren was not what either of them had expected. She still looked fairly young, perhaps in her mid thirties, and she viewed them with suspicion even after Wei Wuxian had introduced himself. Wei Wuxian showed her the glass flower but she remained unconvinced, saying, “Let’s see if you really are who you say you are,” and then pressing the tip of her index finger against his chest. When she withdrew, she sighed. “I told Cangse Sanren that marrying Wei Changze would only bring her trouble.”

Looking insulted, Wei Wuxian said, “She loved him. Why wouldn’t she want to marry him?”

“A sorceress as powerful as Cangse Sanren made enemies everywhere she went,” Baoshan Sanren said. “She risked both their lives by loving him, and paid for it with both.”

“I am sure she would have said it was worth it,” Lan Wangji said, affronted on Wei Wuxian’s behalf. 

“Oh, I’m sure she would have,” Baoshan Sanren agreed. “But didn’t you wonder why she sent you across the wall, instead of leaving you with friends here? She had plenty of them.”

Uncertainly, Wei Wuxian said, “I just figured she was afraid the witch would come after me for revenge, if my mother wasn’t able to kill her.”

“She was afraid every witch would come after you,” Baoshan Sanren said. “Just as they went after your father, and just as they went after - and will still come after - your friend Lan Wangji here.”

Wei Wuxian’s hand went to his chest automatically, where Baoshan Sanren had touched him. “My father . . . was a star?”

Baoshan Sanren nodded. 

“But then . . . the witch who killed him . . .” Wei Wuxian suddenly felt sick, looking away. Lan Wangji reached over and squeezed his hand. He took a deep breath and said, “What about me? Would my heart . . . have the same . . . properties?”

“Not anymore,” Baoshan Sanren said. “The minute you crossed the wall, that part of you was lost. Your human side protected you from being destroyed, but that’s all you are now - human. Although,” she added, “I’m sure you have your mother’s talent for magic. That would be dormant outside Stormhold, but it would have awoken as soon as you came back.”

Wei Wuxian let out a breath that sounded like a combination of relief and disappointment. Lan Wangji was just relieved. He did not like the idea that Wei Wuxian’s heart might have the same rejuvenating properties as his own. “Well, I guess my mother chose to do that for my own good, so I can’t really argue,” he finally said. “Will you teach me how to use the magic, then?”

“It’s an arduous field of study,” Baoshan Sanren said. “You would need to work hard and follow strict rules.”

Wei Wuxian shrugged, clearly thinking that they couldn’t be more strict than Yu Ziyuan’s had been. “I need to be able to protect Lan Wangji,” he said. 

Baoshan Sanren nodded. “Very well,” she said. “Let’s begin.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Jin Zixuan ruled as king for forty years beside his wife, Jiang Yanli, before abdicating the throne. It was taken by his second son, as his first had a taste for adventure and had become a monster-hunting sorcerer like his uncle, with no interest in ruling. This was discussed in detail and deemed agreeable by all parties. All five of Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli’s children lived long, healthy lives.

Jiang Yanli invited both of her parents to attend the wedding. Only Jiang Fengmian came, and after arriving in Stormhold, he never went back. He became one of the king’s chief financial advisers and doted on his grandchildren.

Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan continued to live in the cottage and raise goats. None of them were ever made into stew.

Jiang Cheng served on Headshaker for five years before getting his own ship, which he named ‘Three Poisons’. He continued to collect lightning under the same terms as Nie Huaisang had, and gained a reputation as fearsome as Nie Mingjue’s. He went back to Wall only once, to find Wen Qing and ask for her hand in marriage. She accepted, and became the ship’s doctor. Her brother came with them, and although he did not think much of lightning collecting, he made a name for himself documenting their adventures.

Nie Huaisang got bored with collecting lightning the same year, let his first mate Nie Zonghui take the captaincy, and became the spymaster for the king. Nobody ever believed he could do half of what he could, and that was just how he liked it.

Jin Guangyao never recovered his memories, but he did well in the town of Wall, earning money as a clerk and then a magistrate. He eventually married and had three children, all of whom got along well and lived to old age. He was Wall’s mayor for eighteen years, and although he sometimes thought about further advancing his career by moving to a bigger city, he never found himself quite ambitious enough to do it. His life in Wall was quiet and simple, but he enjoyed it more than he would have expected.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji continued to wander and hunt monsters for some time, before eventually settling down not far from the palace where they could raise the orphans they had collected along the way and a variety of rabbits. 

No one could live forever, of course - unless they possessed the heart of a star. And Lan Wangji had given his to Wei Wuxian completely. When their children and their grandchildren were grown, they lit the Babylon candle, and it took them up into the sky to Lan Wangji’s home. They shined so brightly, and so close together, that from earth they looked like one single star.

And they still live, happily ever after.

~fin~