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“Bring him in,” said the healer as the quartet of people brought Jiaoqiu in to the Alchemy Commission. Feixiao had joined the group only recently after seeing that the trio had been struggling to traverse over to the commission, Stelle and Caelus especially, as they had been judging how they’d been huffing and puffing. Moze had been fairing better, than the other two, but he’d also seemed to be struggling after dragging Jiaoqiu for however long it’d been exactly. So she’d joined them. Together the four of them had brought the unconscious Foxian to the care of Lingsha, and the healer was now observing him. “How was he when you found him?” She asked quietly, eying the large gashes raking across Jiaoqiu’s stomach, turning his shirt scarlet.
“He was phasing in and out of consciousness,” Moze reported, wiping sweat from his brow and putting down his hood, glancing over at where Stelle and Caelus were sitting down to catch their breaths. Feixiao wanted to know the status of Jiaoqiu’s condition as well, seeing as she’d been in recovery for most of the time he’d been missing herself. She was mostly fine, just having a few wounds resulting from destroying Hoolay once and for all. Stelle, Caelus and Moze had only found him recently. “For a while we thought he actually had died, until his ears twitched and he looked in the direction of us.” Lingsha nodded quietly, and turned to Feixiao
“Sit him up, there’s a strange energy coming off of him, and I want to see how bad it is,” she murmured, holding some sort of medication in her hand. Feixiao wasn’t quite sure what she meant by ‘strange energy’ but, she sat the unconscious Foxian upright and then Lingsha administered the medication. Soon, a red stream flowed out of Jiaoqiu’s mouth, and Lingsha blinked. “Poison. He’s been poisoned.” She walked off over to a shelf and looked around in it. Feixiao’s ears pricked. Poison? Had Hoolay poisoned him, in addition to raking his claws across his stomach? It was no wonder then why he was phasing in and out of consciousness. The gashes and poison combined didn’t exactly help either. Lingsha returned from the shelf and administered yet another medication to Jiaoqiu. “That should help with the poison, now, was there anything else you discovered when you found him?”
“He appeared to be relying most on his hearing, he even startled when we approached, but I’m not sure if that was due to him phasing in and out of consciousness or something else. He was… pretty far gone when we found him. His body could’ve been in flight or fight mode.” Lingsha hummed to herself and busied herself with working on Jiaoqiu’s actual injuries. The most serious ones being the gashes on his stomach region, and she placed some sort of poultice on them before continuing to work on them.
“I suppose he’s lucky you found him when you did,” Lingsha commented, “judging by how bad these injuries are, and factoring in the poison as well, any number of things could’ve happened. Judging on what poison it is, it could have grave consequences. Though, judging from what you’ve already said, it may have already had grave consequences.” Feixiao noticed Moze’s expression flicker from indifference to concern for about half a second, and, despite the situation, she chuckled.
“Why are you laughing? This is a serious situation! Someone I know is probably worried sick. Well, I suppose he is, I think. I don’t think I made him up.” Feixiao’s ears twitched curiously. At this, Moze went a little red as he grew more flustered. He put his hood up and pulled it down, earning an amused hum from Lingsha.
“You can afford to be worried, Moze. I know that you two are close,” Feixiao commented, and Moze simply looked at her.
“I’m not talking about myself. There’s… someone else, who I suspect exists. Though I’m not all too sure, but there was a point in time that Jiaoqiu had been acting really strange.” He shrugged. “Sometimes, I can never tell. But Jiaoqiu had been disappearing a lot. But that’s besides the point.” He turned towards Lingsha. “What do you mean already had grave consequences? Don’t leave us in the dark like that! Is he dying? Do I need to contact next of kin? Stop being cryptic and tell us what grave consequences could have happened already.” Lingsha blinked and turned back to the unconscious Foxian.
“Not only would this warrant a long recovery, him possibly being bedridden for multiple weeks, depending on the severity of his injuries, it is very likely that his sight has been affected as well.”
The silence in the room after Lingsha said that was palpable.
Everyone had gone quiet, even Feixiao.
And it was at that moment, Jiaoqiu decided to regain consciousness.
It started with a small groan, causing all heads to turn toward the bed. Jiaoqiu shifted in his bed, eyes still not yet open, but as a sign of life that had everyone in the room sighing with relief. Next, his ears twitched a little and he seemed to be stretching, a movement Lingsha clocked into and rushed over to prevent it from being too strenuous. She gently helped guide Jiaoqiu’s arm back onto the the bed. Next was the wriggling, Jiaoqiu started wriggling as if he was in distress or as if the bed wasn’t as comfortable as they had previously thought. Jiaoqiu had been fine on the trip here, so these movements were merely chalked up to be because of an uncomfortable bed.
Then, Jiaoqiu’s eyes flew open.
“Where am I?!” He yelled out shrilly, and he looked around frantically, but he didn’t seem to be registering anything in the room. Even when his frantic eyes passed by Feixiao and Moze, he didn’t seem to recognize them. This caused the two to share a concerned look, especially since Jiaoqiu looked terrified. Feixiao decided to treat him gently. She reached out her hand but before putting it on his, she explained it.
“I’m putting my hand on yours, it’s me, Feixiao.” Jiaoqiu blinked and swiveled his ears in the direction of her voice, turning his head when she actually put her hand down on his. “You’re in the Alchemy Commission, specifically in the care of Lingsha. She’s treating your wounds. You were brought here by Moze, Stelle and Caelus.” Jiaoqiu seemed to calm down after that, and looked at where her hand was. He then winced as Feixiao figured he’d finally remembered where his wounds were.
“So, Moze is here too?” Jiaoqiu commented with a smirk, his clearly sightless eyes looking around the room for any sign or sound that Moze was there. Moze alerted him to his presence by flapping his hood, causing Jiaoqiu’s ears to swivel in that direction, his head following suit. “I must’ve been pretty bad when you found me, huh? Even though I asked you to find me, and I guess you eventually did. Sorry to have caused you such a scare.” Jiaoqiu’s voice had a teasing tone to it. Moze, however, wasn’t buying it.
“What happened before we found you, Jiaoqiu? How did you get poisoned, why do you have gashes across your stomach?” Feixiao noticed Jiaoqiu’s mood immediately darken, his smile grew more forced and his laugh more broken. His eyes glanced away from Moze, though his eyes couldn’t see anyways.
“Simple, Hoolay,” his voice shook, and Moze didn’t seem to be buying it. However, Feixiao shared a look with Lingsha, and together they ushered Moze and Feixiao herself out of the room. Moze was clearly irked by this and Feixiao had decided to get him out before he could cause Jiaoqiu harm. She looked over at him.
“I know you want to know what happened, I’m the same, but it’s still a fresh wound, and I’m not sure how willing Jiaoqiu is to talk about it. But, it seems like he’s fully awake now, so at the very least he wouldn’t be asleep when you do want to ask something.” She sighed. “Hey, let’s go and check out the Wardance stage, I haven’t seen it since we defeated Hoolay.” Moze merely looked at his pocket, and Feixiao saw a distinct red glint in it. Her ears twitched. “Is that Jiaoqiu’s phone? Why do you have that?” Moze looked up at her and revealed the phone.
“I found it on the floor beside him, I assume it fell out of his pocket when they did whatever they did to him. His last received message was from someone called ‘Nari’, talking about finding out a way to grow these specific ancient lotuses on the Zhuming, but that Nari was coming to the Luofu to be a back up healer for the Wardance. The message cut off after that. Seems like this Nari can get particularly talkative when discussing plants, though I’ve only seen one message.” He shrugged, before gazing at Feixiao. “That makes me curious now. Shouldn’t we contact Jiaoqiu’s contacts to tell them what happened? Do you happen to know his password?” Feixiao twitched her ear.
“Do you?” She asked interrogatively. “This feels like a breach of privacy. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t like breaching someone’s privacy.” She thought about it. “Though, seeing as he can’t really see anymore, he probably needs someone to help him with his phone.” Moze looked at her.
“We could always ask him. I mean, he is awake now, so it’s probably best if we ask him about it. Though… maybe leave the contacts thing out if it.” Feixiao gave him a look. She really didn’t like hiding their plan to contact his contacts, but she remained quiet as they made their way back to the room.
Jiaoqiu was eating some sort of soup and Lingsha was guiding him with her own hands. “I don’t doubt you feel like a pup right now Jiaoqiu, but I’ll leave you alone once you’ve done it once.” She turned her head once she heard them come in and Jiaoqiu’s ears pricked as well. “Oh you’re back. All calmed down now?” Feixiao and Moze sat down beside Jiaoqiu’s bedside. “I really advise not trying to talk to someone about their trauma directly after waking up, Moze,” Lingsha lectured as she wrapped up a small wound on Jiaoqiu’s arm.
“Jiaoqiu, what’s your phone password?” Moze asked causing Jiaoqiu to jump in surprise.
“Hey. Be careful, I’m dressing an open wound here,” Lingsha reminded.
“We’re just wanting to know so we can help you sort your phone things now that… you’re visually impaired. Nothing more than that,” Feixiao lied, inwardly wincing. Jiaoqiu’s ears twitched and he turned to Lingsha.
“Could you leave for a second?” Lingsha blinked but left the room, leaving just the trio in the room. Jiaoqiu turned towards Feixiao’s cough, a sign she’d done intentionally to get him looking at them seeing as he hadn’t seemed to have associated them with a specific sound just yet, and he smiled. “You know those ancient white flowers I used to grow? Qingxin? Draw the character for that on the screen,” he hummed. Moze blinked.
“That’s it?” Jiaoqiu simply hummed to himself, and Feixiao wasn’t exactly surprised. Jiaoqiu had always loved Qingxins, and it was kind of sad that he’d never see his garden or little project likely ever again. Moze then opened his mouth again. “Well, thank you, Jiaoqiu.” He glanced over at Feixiao who smiled in return. “Feixiao and I have somewhere to be now, so we’ll be gone for a little bit.” The two of them then left the room just as Lingsha reappeared at his bedside.
Feixiao and Moze waited until they were a while away from the Alchemy Commission before unlocking Jiaoqiu’s phone, or well, trying to. “Your hands are daintier than mine, you try,” Moze said after attempting to unlock the phone a few times. Feixiao took the phone and seemingly effortlessly unlocked it, letting them into the depths of Jiaoqiu’s phone.
One thing that was immediately obvious, was that the screensaver appeared to be a picture of a black-furred Foxian-adjacent creature made out of food. The creation was smiling at the viewer, and Feixiao could almost imagine Jiaoqiu smiling down at the image when he had been able to see. If he had had his phone when he was with Hoolay, then this image of this Foxian made out of food must’ve been a little piece of Heaven for him. She shook her head, she was getting distracted. Feixiao navigated into the contacts page.
There was the usual suspects, herself, Moze, the Trailblazers, though an interesting thing about Jiaoqiu’s contacts list was the emergency contact listed at the top.
‘Nari’.
There were two versions of the emergency contact. The actual emergency contact, and then a separate not emergency contact version. Moze looked over her shoulder. “He has Nari as his emergency contact as well? He has his contact favourited as well. Hm, who is Nari, then? It doesn’t exactly sound like a name from around here, or anywhere in the Xianzhou, yet he says he’s from Zhuming.” Feixiao’s ear twitched.
“There’s always the possibility he moved there,” she shrugged. “Though, that also probably means he’s a shortlife species. Nothing wrong with that though. Though, we should probably stop dawdling.” Feixiao pressed on the emergency contact and the phone began ringing. It didn’t ring very long before the owner picked up.
“Hello?” Beside her, Moze noticeably froze. He whipped out his own phone and started frantically texting someone something. “Is anyone there?”
“Hello, I’m Feixiao,” Feixiao answered to the person on the other line. “Who am I speaking to?” The person went quiet for a bit.
“Fei… Fei…zow?” Feixiao let out a small chuckle at the mispronunciation. “Why are you calling?” The person’s tone on the other end, was conversational, but guarded. “I’m Tighnari, and you’re calling me on Jiaoqiu’s phone. On the emergency number…” he trailed off, Feixiao picking up instantly at the barely concealed worried tone in Tighnari’s voice. Also the contact name made sense now, ‘Nari’ was a shortening of the name Tighnari. A nickname if you will. Feixiao would’ve asked Tighnari about it, but there was more important things at hand here.
“Call me Fei, if you want.” She sighed. “And yes, I’m calling you from Jiaoqiu’s phone. Something… happened. And Jiaoqiu got hurt, and its… bad. I’m surprised all he-“ the other half of the line went dead and Feixiao blinked. Her surprise was noticed by Moze and he looked up from where he’d frantically been texting someone he’d only saved as a dog emoji. “He just hung up. He didn’t even respond,” she commented. “It was so sudden too.” Moze frowned.
“Seeing as it was as fast and as sudden as it was, he’s probably headed back to Jiaoqiu’s room, even if he doesn’t even know where it is.” He quickly looked at Feixiao. “We need to go back, his other contacts can wait. I don’t want Jiaoqiu to have a fucking heart attack if he just suddenly arrives, and he doesn’t know we used his phone at all. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. We need to go back, now.” Feixiao nodded in agreement and together they raced back towards Jiaoqiu’s room. If they got there before this Tighnari did, then maybe they could explain the situation that they created themselves. Feixiao had never felt this guilty before either, and she felt that if they didn’t make it, it would only intensify.
“Oh, you’re back,” Jiaoqiu commented, ear twitching from where he was lying in the recovery bed, Lingsha nowhere in sight, probably in a back room somewhere. “I can tell by your breathing.” He looked up from the empty soup bowl and looked at where Feixiao thought he thought they were, which he was correct about. “Is whatever you were doing over? It really wasn’t that long, I honestly thought it’d be longer. If you just wanted to get away from me, I’d understand, I do assume I look kind of pathetic just sitting here, doing nothing. It’s not much more than I was doing under Hoolay’s watchful eye,” his voice came out sarcastic, but Feixiao felt a prick of pity at the obvious despondence in his voice.
Maybe they should’ve never tried to move the prisoner back to the Yaoqing.
It would’ve prevented the entire thing from happening. Though, nothing they could do about it now.
“Jiaoqiu, Feixiao and I have a confession to make,” Moze started, sounding guilty himself. “We didn’t only want your password for simply your text messages-“
“Shush!” Moze blinked and shared a look with Feixiao. Jiaoqiu’s ears started swiveling around vigorously, as if trying to find a particularly distant, or hard to hear sound. He even leaned forward slightly as if that would help him identify the sound. His ears swiveled around a bit more, and Moze tried again.
“Jiaoqiu-“
“Shut up!” He snapped, focusing his attention back on whatever he was hearing. Feixiao blinked herself, and simply watched in mild curiosity as Jiaoqiu tried to pinpoint the sound. Slowly, he seemed to begin to hear it better, and Feixiao noticed Jiaoqiu’s tail start to wag like an excited puppy. His ears swiveled around a bit more and then his gaze beelined for the door as if he’d suddenly regained the ability to see. His eyes lit up for the first time since he’d woken up and a single name dropped from his mouth.
“Nari.”
As if on cue, a black-furred Foxian burst forth from the door and rushed over to Jiaoqiu in the bed. Horrified eyes scanned the gashes on Jiaoqiu’s stomach, his fingers brushing along the outline of the still bleeding wound. “Jiaoqiu what in the Aeons’ name happened to you?!” He practically yelled, and Feixiao’s ears twitched in recognition.
That Foxian had the same voice as Tighnari, and by extension must be Tighnari.
It’d certainly explain the line suddenly going dead at least, as Tighnari was basically panting though he was checking Jiaoqiu over. Moze’s eyes had gone exceptionally wide. Feixiao lowered an ear in confusion, but Moze just shook his head. “I knew it,” he murmured, watching the scene before them. Tighnari was continuously fussing over Jiaoqiu and Jiaoqiu was letting him, the clearest indication being his wagging tail. Tighnari then glanced at Jiaoqiu.
“You disappeared for five days,” he whispered, and Feixiao could hear it shaking. Jiaoqiu on the other hand seemed to be trying to reach for Tighnari’s face and obviously failing. It was at this moment that she realized that Tighnari’s appearance matched that of the food Foxian that had been Jiaoqiu’s screensaver. “I didn’t know where you’d gone. You hadn’t answered me since I sent that message about the Nilotpala Lotuses, and that I was coming here to the Luofu-“ Jiaoqiu chuckled.
“It’s pronounced Luofu,” he teased, and Tighnari glared at him. Jiaoqiu smiled softly at him, in a way that was setting off a few red flags in Feixiao’s mind, leading her to watch the conversation with interest. Tighnari glared at him.
“Stop deflecting. This is serious Jiaoqiu! You disappeared for five days. Five days. Where were you for five days?! If it weren’t for Fei calling me through your emergency contact, I would’ve never found out. You disappeared for five days and now I find you like this? What happened?” Jiaoqiu’s ear twitched and his hands eventually found Tighnari’s face, causing the latter to go quiet. Though, Feixiao thought that she could hear Tighnari start sniffling, and though Jiaoqiu couldn’t see it, she could tell he heard it and Jiaoqiu brought Tighnari into a hug. “I was worried sick,” Tighnari murmured. Jiaoqiu’s tail was still wagging slightly.
“A mission went awry and I was the collateral,” Jiaoqiu murmured quietly, probably meant for only Tighnari’s ears, but the room was so quiet otherwise, that everyone heard it. “Hm, I guess you could say I was fox-napped,” he attempted to lighten the situation, but Tighnari just glared at him.
“Don’t joke about this. You could’ve died , Jiaoqiu. Died. Everyone heard about Hoolay’s prison escape. You could’ve died,” Tighnari mumbled. “I’d never see you again.” Jiaoqiu looked away slightly.
“Well, a consequence of being the collateral, is that I’ll never see you again…” Feixiao could only really make out the content of the message purely from Jiaoqiu’s reaction afterwards, a broken sob. Tighnari looked at him. “I’ll miss seeing your face, Nari. It was always my favourite thing to see when I opened my phone. I’ll miss your brown-and-teal eyes,” he murmured. Feixiao suddenly felt like she was third-wheeling or intruding on something, and Moze had simply busied himself with talking to ‘dog emoji’. Jiaoqiu cupped his hands around Tighnari’s face. “Tell me, how were my Qingxins looking?”
“Good, last time I checked. They were healthy and bright. Though, I guess… you won’t be able to really see that any more.” He looked away. “How are you dealing with it? And how did you do it anyways?” Jiaoqiu sat up and his sightless yellow eyes looked into Tighnari’s brown-and-teal ones.
“I’ve always been known for my poisons, have I not?” Feixiao noticed the way his voice cracked, and how Tighnari’s expression turned horrified. Feixiao even thought he looked a little paler.
“You didn’t,” he blurted out. “Jiaoqiu you know the consequences of using poisons! Especially when you don’t have an antidote! You could’ve died by your own hand! What even possessed you to use a poison?!” Jiaoqiu looked at him directly and Tighnari held his gaze.
“Hoolay was always going to use my blood,” his voice sounded like he had a dry throat, despite having soup earlier. “He wasn’t going to back down on that front. So, I pretended to submit. I took Tumbledust, not enough to kill… me… but enough that it would hinder his plan. But I guess a consequence of that was losing my eyesight.” He looked back in the direction of Tighnari’s tears. “Hey, I’d never intentionally try to make myself unable to see my boyfriend, Nari. If I could choose to either die to the poison, or… affect my sight, I’d choose death.” They’d seemingly forgotten about the gathered crowd in the room, as Moze, Feixiao and Lingsha, who’d arrived silently during the whole ordeal, froze. Feixiao and Moze shared a look.
Neither of them had known about any of this. Sure, Jiaoqiu could be flighty at times, even mysterious at times, but having a whole secret boyfriend hadn’t been something they’d been expecting. Jiaoqiu even having a secret boyfriend seemed honestly uncharacteristic of him, but maybe he’d been planning to tell them before the whole ordeal had happened. Being fox-napped certainly would have thrown a wrench in things. Plus, Feixiao wasn’t exactly sure what Jiaoqiu had exactly gone through while with Hoolay, but it couldn’t have been good. Moze eventually cleared his throat and Jiaoqiu and Tighnari’s spell was broken. “Um, sorry… but boyfriend ?”
“You didn’t tell them?” Tighnari asked, with a blank expression. Jiaoqiu let out an embarrassed chuckle and Tighnari deadpanned. “For all they knew I could be some random acting all affectionate with someone who is gravely injured. They could’ve thought I was being inappro-“ he turned towards Feixiao and Moze. “Did you think I was being inappropriate? I didn’t mean to, I just was so worried after he disappeared for five days-“
“We kind of got the idea after he cupped your face,” Feixiao interrupted. “That, and when his tail started wagging. It was a little weird at first, but we get it now.” Tighnari let out a sigh, and Jiaoqiu chuckled.
“Though we would like a proper introduction, now that we know your status. I’ll start, I’m Moze, that’s Feixiao.” Feixiao gave him a wave and Tighnari nodded and smiled.
“Oh, you’re Moze? Cyno’s told me a lot about you,” Tighnari commented, causing Moze to jump in surprise, face immediately going red. He pulled his hood down and then backed into a corner, earning a laugh from the black-furred fox. “He was coming to the Wardance as well,” he commented. Tighnari then looked at the rest of them, wrapping an arm around Jiaoqiu, who leaned into the touch, tail wagging. This movement however, made their height difference all the more noticeable. “I’m Tighnari, from Zhuming. Though, I originate from a different planet, I just live on the Zhuming.” Feixiao smiled at him.
“Nice to finally meet you, Tighnari.”