Work Text:
In the dream, Zhou Zishu is weightless. She is winged, because that is how Jin Wang made her, and he is young
“The cards are mine, Zhou Zishu,” he says, voice deep and commanding. “We created them to change the world. Their power must return to me.”
“Times change,” Zhou Zishu replies, and Jin Wang says nothing for a long time. Chains appear in his hands, and when he tugs, Zhou Zishu’s heart splits in two.
“Then the contract is void,’’ Jin Wang says. His voice is full of sadness. “I shall have your life back.”
The sun has begun to set by the time Wen Kexing arrives; the once cool white of the room’s walls is now emblazoned in a searing amber glow, and Zhou Zishu’s pale face looks all the more gaunt for it. When Wen Kexing enters she can’t help but flinch at the sight, hurrying over to where Chengling watches her guardian sleep, worrying at her lower lip. The panes of the windows carve Zhou Zishu’s features into light and shadow, and she looks transparent where the rays reach her - as if she might fade away when the sun does, disappearing with the specks of dust that have been illuminated for the brief, hazy period of golden hour above the armchair she is slumped in.
“How long has she been sleeping?” Wen Kexing asks. Chengling speaks bravely, his fists wrapped tightly around the hem of his shorts, and does not cry.
“Hours,” he tells her. and then waits. He inhales once, twice, and then again. “Is she - will she…what’s happening, Wen-jie?”
“Silly boy,” Wen Kexing says, running her hand through his hair. It has gotten long now - long enough that he can tie it into a small pony tail at the base. If Zhou Zishu had more energy, she would nag him to cut it. Soon, she’ll probably scold Wen Kexing for not doing it in her stead. “Everything will be fine. Run along, now. Go and find Gu Xiang, and see if she needs help with dinner.”
“I’ll probably be more of a burden..” Chengling says, and then perks up. “Are we eating together?”
“Yes, we are,” Wen Kexing tells him. “All of us. And since I’m not there to make it, I’ll be there to judge instead. So do your best and make something delicious for when your Ayi wakes up.”
Chengling stands, invigorated, and runs towards the door. He only stops once, pausing with his grip on the handle, and looks back as Wen Kexing had guessed he would. She keeps her expression bland and smiling, the worry hidden deep behind her irises.
“Is it because I’m collecting the cards..?” Chengling asks. Wen Kexing knows that the deck is kept in his breast pocket, as close to his heart as he can manage. “If it would help, I would give them to her.”
“I know you would,” Wen Kexing tells him, “and she’d beat you within an inch of your life for it, so it’s lucky we don’t need you to do that, or I’d have to send you somewhere she couldn’t find you,” she winks, baring her teeth in a grin until she sees Chengling’s shoulders relax. “Scram, before you see something you don’t want to see.”
The pinked back of Chengling’s neck disappears behind the door, and it closes with a click that travels through the floorboards. Zhou Zishu jolts, eyes sharpening into an alertness for a brief moment before even that exhausts her, and by the time her gaze lands on Wen Kexing she is hazy and almost-gone again.
“I won’t let him have you,” Wen Kexing tells her. She has never met Jin Wang, but feels the pull of his contract on Zhou Zishu’s spirit every day, resenting her decision to support Chengling. If Zhou Zishu won’t bring the cards to him, then he would rather her soul bound to purgatory. Zhou Zishu doesn’t hear her, though, squinting in the dying light and raising a hand over her brow.
“What?” Zhou Zishu asks, her voice low and dull, as if she might easily be lulled back to sleep. Wen Kexing takes both of her hands and pulls her to her feet, summoning her own determination in the action.
“I know it all,” she says. “That you’re Jin Wang’s familiar; that he sent you to bring the cards to him, and you’re letting Chengling have them because it’s right, even though it’s going to kill you. I know you’ve been losing your powers.”
Wen Kexing has always marvelled at the amount of expression that can be revealed in the smallest of movements of Zhou Zishu’s face. Her brow sinks; her jaw clenches, and her eyes widen. She goes to speak, and Wen Kexing presses a finger to her lips.
“More importantly,” she finishes, delighting in the flash of annoyance that crosses Zhou Zishu’s face at being cut off, “I know how to fix it.”
“How could you -?” Zhou Zishu begins, but she has always been clever, and she works it out before she can even finish asking. There is no such thing as life gained for free; only one thing of equal value can be exchanged for another. “No, Lao Wen. I won’t accept it.”
“What good is my own life, if you won’t be in it? A-Xu, you have protected a young boy with nothing to him but potential. It’s a noble cause, as beautiful as your form. What I won’t accept is the cost.”
“I’ve made my peace with the consequences,” Zhou Zishu says, sighing. She walks over to the window, just a sliver of orange remaining, a halo over her hair that Zhou Zishu rejects with a toss of her head, plunging herself into dimness. “I’ve done many things with noble ambitions, and none so innocent as this. I’m tired, Lao Wen.”
Wen Kexing watches Zhou Zishu’s shoulders tighten and sink as she speaks, and for a long, horrifying breath she feels as if Zhou Zishu is slipping through her fingers - that she might fall through the window and never return. Desperate, she surges forward, catching her from behind in her arms and holding her back, though Zhou Zishu sinks into her without resistance.
“Your lifeforce…doesn’t belong to me. It shouldn’t belong to me.”
“It’s too late for that,” Wen Kexing says. For all her cleverness, her A-Xu can be such a fool.
“You need to protect Chengling when I’m gone - your sister…”
“I don’t need my powers to protect the brat - soon enough they won’t need either of us. After it took so long to find one another, can’t we have a little more time, just to live?”
“Tell me this, Wen Kexing. You are offering your lifeforce to me: do you want to live?”
“As long as you will not leave me.”
Art - by Criss
