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The day has arrived. Zhuo Yichen agreed to it; he'll have to go through with it.
Li Lun glares at him darkly from where he looms in the shadows of the cavern, the draping roots and sprays of fresh green growth swaying in the nonexistent breeze as if they move with his breath. Beautiful; deadly. Threatening.
Zhuo Yichen takes one step forward.
It has been a very long time since anything was powerful enough to threaten Zhuo Yichen. Many ages have passed since he was mortal- long enough that he remembers those days as if in a dream- and even Li Lun, now freshly recultivated to human form and still burning with hatred for what Zhuo Yichen stands for, is no match for him.
But the body remembers. Zhuo Yichen's breath catches as he approaches; but he takes a second step, and a third. Li Lun is waiting.
"I thought you too cowardly to go through with it," Li Lun murmurs, low and deadly. The hair on the back of Zhuo Yichen's neck threatens to stand up; he soothes it back down with a wash of his power, cool icy qi a balm.
"I never wanted to keep it," Zhuo Yichen replies. The parchment in his front lapel- carried over his heart for this long centuries- throbs with a calming warmth. He still hasn't succeeded in bringing back Zhao Yuanzhou; but this pagoda yao has recultivated himself a form.
Perhaps, given enough time, Zhao Yuanzhou will be able to too.
"You'll remember our deal?" Zhuo Yichen asks, studying Li Lun. He's only a few paces away, now.
"Power, for information," Li Lun responds, silky and overbearing. His eyes stare, wide and dangerous; his forehead branches with dark yao marks. "Mine, for mine."
"Anything I want to know, you'll answer?" Zhuo Yichen asks.
Li Lun's eyes slowly narrow; his jaw tightens. He studies Zhuo Yichen for a few long moments in silence.
"You test my patience," he says at last, low and deep. His voice makes the hair on Zhuo Yichen's arms stand on end. "Yes, Zhuo Yichen. I will answer your question."
Only one- but one is enough. Zhuo Yichen nods and extends his hand; Li Lun's robes move, a long drag as he takes a slow, stalking step towards Zhuo Yichen. Another; another. He draws close enough that Zhuo Yichen might touch him.
Zhuo Yichen closes his eyes, body buzzing with the awareness of Li Lun's smothering, shadowy presence. He won't kill Zhuo Yichen- not before he's gotten his power back. It wouldn't serve him. But Zhuo Yichen's eyelids threaten to dart open; his breathing won't calm. Defenseless and unguarded, in front of his enemy. Sweat threatens to build beneath his layers of robes; the cool of his yao qi washes it away.
"Will you return it or not?" Li Lun growls, and Zhuo Yichen reaches deep within himself into that well of power.
Circling within him: freezing, icy whirls of sharp blue-white. Deep, voracious crimson, morphing from blood-like viscosity to eerie fog and back. And snaking between the two: a sinister, dark indigo, gold shining from within it in seductive flashes as it winds around and through the others.
Zhuo Yichen carefully begins to separate them; gathers the dark blue from the cold and the blood-red, winnowing it out. It doesn't want to go- clings to the other qi as if drawn to their power. But eventually, he's done it. Isolated it. He carefully draws the ominous, seething energy to his palm where he projects it into the air, a pulsing sphere of deep blue yao qi. He opens his eyes, brow tickling with sweat, to see Li Lun watching his hand, expression hungry. He raises his own in turn, the long fingers approaching Zhuo Yichen's. In an elegant drape, he's covered the whirling ball with his own palm- smothering it. He presses slowly down, the power pressed so tightly between the two of them that there's nowhere to go; and minutely, bit by bit, it begins to dissolve back into Li Lun's body. His hand lowers, further and further, until the tips of his fingers- the flats of them- the breadth of his palm- brush against Zhuo Yichen's, sending tingling awareness ricocheting through his body. When he finally absorbs the totality of the energy, his palm presses firmly to Zhuo Yichen's- no space between them. Li Lun's expression flickers; his mouth opens in a silent gasp.
His energy pulses, one tidal movement away from his body- then back in. Yao qi so strong that it could sweep away a lesser yao; grind away their body wherever it pressed against it. But Zhuo Yichen withstands the press. Doesn't retreat. He remains where he is, Li Lun's hand pressed firmly against his.
After a few moments, Li Lun has recovered himself. His gaze clears; he snatches his hand back from Zhuo Yichen's. He takes one stalking step away; then pauses. Slow and careful, he raises one hand to his head.
"Li Lun?" Zhuo Yichen tries, cautious- he's waiting for the first strike. For Li Lun to aim for his life, now that he's once again capable of taking it. Zhuo Yichen has no illusions about Li Lun's commitment to promises: he plays games, follows rules as long as he likes to. This was Zhuo Yichen's only choice, and he had to take the risk. But he won't be foolish. Won't give up his life without a fight.
He waits for the attack; but instead of answering, Li Lun… staggers. His tall frame tilts to the side; his weight shifts, unsteady. Zhuo Yichen is surprised enough that he fails to muster any sort of martial response. Li Lun shakes his head; breathes in sharply through his teeth.
"What did you do to-" he starts; his voice catches. His yao qi is flickering around him, the indigo and gold shot through with ripples of white-blue and red. The indigo pulses, heavy and smothering; withdraws into him; pulses out again. And yet- despite its strength- the crimson yao qi climbs around it, slowly overwhelming and subsuming it.
Li Lun falls to one knee.
"Li Lun?!" Zhuo Yichen cries, startled. He loses his defensive stance; darts to Li Lun's side. Power whirls around him in deep, dangerous currents, buffeting Zhuo Yichen away; but he navigates through them, a ship in choppy waters, until he can place a hand on Li Lun's back. Feel the chaos of his yao qi direct through the black fabric, the heave of hard muscle.
Li Lun's ominous energy is flailing, clawing and dragging against the encroaching strength of some lingering spell of Zhao Yuanzhou's. Zhuo Yichen never saw a hint of it, when he carried both their power in him- never knew this lurked within. If he'd known, he could have been more careful transferring the power: made sure that it only contained Li Lun's. That even the slight traces of Zhao Yuanzhou's energy have built into this-
He never could have predicted it. Li Lun lets out a humiliated cry of loss, and Zhuo Yichen feels the moment that he fails- the moment that his power, still not integrated into his body, gives way to the clawing of Zhao Yuanzhou's spell.
The spell takes hold. Li Lun's body shudders. From his back, on either side of Zhuo Yichen's hands, burst massive, inky, feathery wings.
Zhuo Yichen almost tears himself away in shock; the wings flare and buffet the air, huge gusts knocking Li Lun back into Zhuo Yichen's knees. Li Lun gasps in distress, but Zhuo Yichen can feel through the hand still on his back that Zhao Yuanzhou's spell is dissipating; has done what it was intended to do. It sizzles out and leaves Li Lun heaving air in shock, massive wings trembling to either side of Zhuo Yichen, festooned in the rags of his robes.
"What-" Li Lun gasps, voice thick with hate. "What did he do to me?"
"It wasn't intended for you," Zhuo Yichen says, dazed. His words seem to remind Li Lun of his presence; he flinches away from Zhuo Yichen's touch, whirling to regard him with an expression of deep mistrust. His wings stretch and flare ceaselessly to either side of him, restless and unsettled, the ruins of his robes clinging fragilely to his heaving chest. "It was… for me."
"And you thought you'd transfer your curse to me?" Li Lun demands, low and deadly. Zhuo Yichen's brow furrows; he shakes his head, slow and sad.
"It's one of the last things he left me," he says, throat working. "I wouldn't have given it away. I didn't realize…"
"Get these things off me!" Li Lun snaps, recoiling from the movement of feathers by him. The wings are slowly manteling around him, feathers rising stiffly like a threat display. He's breathing fast; faster than Zhuo Yichen has ever seen from him. The swaying plants around them are still rocking from the gusts of wind generated by the wings; the cavern feels much closer than it did before, with the bulk of the wings taking up space. Li Lun doesn't speak for a few moments more, face flashing through various expressions; and then he bursts past Zhuo Yichen in a torrent of wind, slamming into his shoulder on his way and casting him to the floor. He disappears into the bright sunlight of the outdoors.
Zhuo Yichen, left sprawled on the floor, stares after him in dismay. Zhao Yuanzhou's spell- it had only worked on Zhuo Yichen because he carried Li Lun's power. Was it waiting, this whole time, to act again?
He can't keep lying here- he has to go after Li Lun. The last remnant of Zhao Yuanzhou's magic is in him; perhaps, with this, he'll finally have a clue where to look for his soul. Have an idea of how to bring him back. And Li Lun…
He still owes Zhuo Yichen an answer.
Mouth tight, he leaps to his feet, holding the yunguang sword firm at his hip, and strides out of the cavern in pursuit.