Chapter Text
Sixteenth-century China.
The empire was vast, prosperous, and outwardly orderly.
Its cities were filled with silk banners, imperial guards, merchants, scholars, temples, music, and magnificent palaces. The roads connecting the provinces carried caravans of spices and medicine. The imperial court was filled with poetry, music, military strategy, and elaborate ceremonies.
But beneath that beauty existed a system that everyone had learned not to question.
Society was divided into three secondary classifications: Alpha, Beta, and Omega.
Alphas stood at the top.
They occupied the imperial court, commanded armies, inherited noble titles, governed provinces, and controlled the majority of political and military power.
Betas formed the largest part of the population. Farmers, merchants, craftsmen, scholars, physicians, soldiers, servants and countless ordinary citizens belonged to this class.
They had fewer privileges than Alphas, but they could own property, pursue education, choose their occupations and, in principle, determine their own lives.
Omegas had almost none of those freedoms.
An Omega born into a noble family could be educated, protected and treated with courtesy, but only because they were considered valuable political assets.
Their marriages could secure alliances.
Their children could strengthen bloodlines.
Their presence could settle disputes between noble families.
A noble Omega was not necessarily treated cruelly.
They were treated as property with manners.
And an Omega born into an ordinary household had an entirely different fate.
Many were sold.
Some were contracted into domestic service.
Some were taken from impoverished families under the justification of "imperial protection."
Children were separated from parents.
Their futures were decided before they were old enough to understand what the word future meant.
Most people accepted it.
That was perhaps the most frightening part.
Nobody needed to stand in the streets and declare that Omegas were inferior.
The system had existed for so long that people simply behaved as though it were natural.
A Beta mother might quietly tell her Omega daughter: "Don't make trouble. This is simply how the world works."
A noble Alpha might say:
"An Omega's greatest duty is to serve their family."
And an Omega child would grow up hearing those words until they began to sound like truth.
That was the world Wei Wuxian was born into.
* * *
Wei Wuxian was born into one of the empire's respected noble households.
His family possessed wealth, land, influence and a long history of serving the imperial court.
His birth was celebrated.
Not because he was simply a child.
Because he was an Omega.
His father immediately began receiving letters from other noble families.
Some congratulated him.
Others expressed interest in future alliances.
Nobody asked what Wei Wuxian wanted.
He was too young to have wants.
As a child, however, Wei Wuxian was treated considerably better than most Omegas.
He had private tutors.
He learned history, literature, mathematics and court etiquette.
He was taught calligraphy.
He studied philosophy.
And, unexpectedly, he became fascinated by music.
He could spend hours listening to musicians perform in the family residence.
Where other children became bored, Wei Wuxian became absorbed.
He wanted to know how instruments worked.
Why certain notes created happiness while others created sadness.
Why one melody could make an entire room fall silent.
His tutors quickly realized that he possessed an unusual talent.
By the time he was old enough to perform publicly, Wei Wuxian could play several instruments.
But one instrument eventually became his favorite.
A flute.
His father considered music a pleasant accomplishment.
Wei Wuxian considered it something much greater.
To him, music did something society couldn't.
It didn't care whether the person playing it was Alpha, Beta or
Omega.
A beautiful note remained beautiful regardless of who created it.
That thought stayed with him.
He didn't yet understand why.
* * *
Wei Wuxian was perhaps ten or eleven when he first saw the truth of the world.
He was traveling through a city with several family guards.
It was an ordinary day.
Markets were crowded.
Merchants shouted over one another.
Children ran through the streets.
Then Wei Wuxian heard crying.
He turned toward the sound.
Several Imperial guards were moving through the street.
Behind them were three Omega children.
They were young.
Too young.
One of them couldn't have been more than seven.
Their wrists were bound.
One child was crying for their mother.
Another kept looking backward.
A guard shouted at them to keep moving.
Wei Wuxian didn't understand. He looked at his own guards. "Where are they taking them?"
Nobody answered.
He asked again. "Why are they tied?"
Still nothing.
Finally, Wei Wuxian pointed toward the children.
"Stop them."
His own guard froze.
"Young Master..."
"Stop them."
The guard lowered his eyes.
"We cannot."
Wei Wuxian stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because they are Omegas."
That answer confused him more than anything else.
"So?"
The guard looked around before quietly saying: "They belong to the provincial household now."
Wei Wuxian's expression changed.
"Belong?"
The guard said nothing.
Wei Wuxian watched the children disappear down the street.
He could still hear one of them crying.
That night, he couldn't sleep.
He asked his tutor about it.
His tutor gave him an answer he would remember for the rest of his life.
"Young Master, there are many things in this world that children should not concern themselves with."
Wei Wuxian frowned.
"Why?"
"Because that is simply how society works."
Wei Wuxian stared at him.
Then asked:
"Who decided it?"
The tutor had no answer.
* * *
Wei Wuxian began asking questions.
He asked servants.
He asked guards.
He asked tutors.
He asked physicians.
He even questioned his father.
Why couldn't Omegas own certain properties?
Why were Omega children sometimes taken from poor families?
Why were noble Omegas expected to marry whoever their families selected?
Why could an Alpha refuse a marriage but an Omega could not?
Why were Beta families allowed to choose their professions while Omega children were assigned roles?
His father eventually became irritated.
"Wuxian."
Wei Wuxian looked up.
"These matters are complicated."
"Then explain them to me."
"You are still young."
"Then teach me."
His father sighed.
"Your questions are unnecessary."
That answer stayed with Wei Wuxian.
Because nobody could explain why.
They could only tell him that the system existed.
And that was when he began to understand something.
People weren't defending the system because they had proven it was right.
They defended it because they had never imagined another way of living.