Ice shattered across the landscape, zapping humidity from the spring air and exploding in a pale cold light.

Lanterns that had begun to float into the air reflected in a blue tone rather than the warm orange that they should have. The boar howled, charging a second time after being effortlessly tossed across the clearing by a force much stronger than itself.

"Da-ge!" Xue Huayu's body slumped against Qing Xaishu's back in utter relief, sobs ripping through her as she slowly crumbled to the ground. Xue Feiyi looked over his shoulder to his siblings and gave them both a faint reassuring smile.

"You did well." He told them, before his focus snapped back to the issue at hand. Throwing a single hand forward. Frost cascaded across the ground, causing the boar to attempt to rear away from the encroaching element.

There was no escape.

Encased in ice, the boar was frozen in all her height, desperate to climb away from her doom but inevitably caught in the end.

"Xue Shixiong, you truly have impeccable timing..." Qing Xiashu wheezed softly, slowly settling himself down beside Xue Huayu, all the adrenaline flooding from his body and leaving him in a dazed state of numbness.

"Qing Shidi, why did you send off Hefeng instead of coming to me yourself? You should have waited and found me instead of continuing on your own. This was foolish." The king scolded as he stooped beside Xue Huayu, supporting her back and gently rubbing her shoulder to calm her.

"If the lanterns flew before we handled her she would have charged the town." Qing Xiashu argued meekly, swaying slightly until he was forced to lean forward on his hands in a continued unfocused stupor.

"Even so. You should have set a border talisman and come and found me anyway." The king murmured, carefully checking over the bruises that covered Qing Xiashu's cheeks and Xue Huayu's hands.

Both the head disciple and princess melted against the safe form of their older brother.

Wait...

This wasn't supposed to happen.

Flame was supposed to save them...

Not ice.

Qing Xiashu's eyes hesitantly turned to the odd one out.

Yin Liming was stiff where he stood, shaking with an expression somewhere between rage, grief, and fear.

What was happening?

"You. It was you!" Yin Liming finally snapped, Qing Xiashu could feel Xue Feiyi slowly tense then similarly deflate.

Xue Huayu wiped her nose with one of her dirty sleeves and sniffled. "What are you yelling about, Liming Yingxiong?"

Was it his fault?

The hero began stalking closer to them, voice raising with the lanterns that back-lit him.

Was it because he sent out Hefeng?

"It was you! Xue Feiyi, it was you! You killed them all, you froze Ying Citadel! You wiped out everyone!"

"What are you talking about?" Xue Huayu snapped back, clenching her fists into her brothers' robes.

Xue Feiyi's frosty cold hands patted Qing Xiashu's and Xue Huayu's shoulders as he stood. "This is not the time." He said simply.

"There is no time! You killed my family, took away my entire life, and it 'is not the time'!? When is it then!?"

"Stop it! Why would you even say something like that?" Xue Huayu scolded.

"I was there!" Yin Liming roared, more outraged now than Qing Xiashu had personally ever seen. The man picked Jiao Jin from the leaves and swung it forward in a wide motion. "I'll kill you!"

Qing Xiashu found himself at the blade's point.

He hadn't thought before he stood up between the two. But flinched when the flash of gold stopped a breath short of his throat.

The prince's face changed, making the one at his sword's end hope for just a second that maybe this would stall or sedate the rage. But instead his gaze shifted without cooling in the slightest.

But instead his gaze shifted without cooling in the slightest [https://img.wattpad.com/c3470599452584528c55108beedb29b12eaeec71/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f616778536a7551303050394939513d3d2d313439373031353732342e313830393437336431326135323138393639303536363537373137352e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"And you." His voice had dropped to a wrathful snarl. "You knew all along."

"A-Ming--"

"Don't call me that!"

"Liming Yingxiong I didn't-" The head disciple tried to say anything.

"Hong. Chunji. Is my name. Since I'm sure you knew that too. You always knew too much." Yin Liming, Hong Chunji, made an aggravated snarl, flicking Jiao Jin threateningly. "You knew and you didn't tell me. You piece of- I thought we were at least friends if not--"

Instead of finishing his sentence the man just let off a furious scoff.

Qing Xiashu was stunned into a throat binding silence, as though someone had a tourniquet wrapped tightly around his neck.

That complicated things.

Slowly the prince took a deep breath and lowered Jiao Jin, ignoring the way the one before him failed to produce any words. Fiery eyes shut for a moment before he began speaking again, taking another slow breath. "If I have to look at your disgusting face again you'll burn. Do you hear me? I'll obliterate you over the next word you breathe."

That order cut an impassable chasm between them.

So much so that he hardly registered the small box that Hong Chunji pulled from one of his Kongjian bags until the prince held the lantern box up before him.

And set it ablaze.

Igniting the built in fire talisman that should have been used to light the lantern and send it off.

Not burn it to ash.

The small fire was dropped at Qing Xiashu's feet before Hong Chunji turned away, leaving a trail unfollowable.

"Screw off then!" Xue Huayu screamed after him, finally scrambling upright, huffing and puffing.

Slowly, Qing Xiashu turned to his brother, upset surely visible on his face. "Where's Hefeng?" He asked softly. His eyes were entirely unable to rise from where they had fixed on the fluttering shadows of the fire that burned in solitude.

His lungs quietly joined it.

"I told her to rest and then return to your inn, she should arrive in another few hours." The king answered mildly.

The three of them walked back to the inn in complete uninterrupted silence. Qing Xiashu squeezed Touming's hilt on and off like a lifeline. Xue Huayu was fuming. And Xue Feiyi seemed as though he were trying very hard to appear perfectly calm.

The slightly jagged slow strides gave him away though.

"A-Shu." Xue Feiyi finally said when they arrived at the inn, pulling the head disciple aside just outside the door but shooing Xue Huayu on. "Was he right? Did you know? Did you read something?"

Qing Xiashu momentarily panicked.

He shouldn't be listening to his dreams against Xue Feiyi's instruction. More importantly he shouldn't be making decisions or assessments based on them.

"Shixiong... you picked me up that night and were very... upset and in pain... I assumed that maybe..." He didn't know how to finish that sentence but he thankfully didn't have to.

Xue Feiyi let out a heavy sigh of relief. "Thank the gods... A-Shu, in the library there are manuscripts under a charm that keeps them hidden until I am either dead or in desperate need of them. If I'm gone, you will be able to find answers there, do you understand?"

Qing Xiashu could only slowly nod. Xue Feiyi wouldn't die, at least not before Qing Xiashu himself, he would have no need for those manuscripts. "Does Xue Xiaojie know...?"

"No. No, no one else can, do you understand? Things aren't black and white in those manuscripts. I doubt you want the information inside them getting out either, believe me. They contain events we'd both rather stay private." The king seemed uncharacteristically frazzled as he said all this, repeating himself in a way he never would have before.

Qing Xiashu had rarely seen him so disturbed.

Actually the last time was also the first night they had met, the head disciple had blocked out much of those days, but Xue Feiyi he could still see in crystal clarity.

"Um... gege...?" Qing Xiashu asked softly, making the other freeze even as he was about to open the door.

"What, A-Shu."

"...Did... you really do it?"

Xue Feiyi visibly stalled his answer, looking back towards the door, before finally humming.

"Mn."

"But... Why?"

To this the king only shook his head and entered the inn.

•••

Returning to the palace only succeeded in making Qing Xiashu even more uncomfortable.

After spending some time pampering Hei Xianying with sweets as an apology for leaving her in the care of her shijies for so long, he retracted to his room. The lantern Yin Liming had painted was painstakingly extracted from his bags and hesitantly built it into the shape it would've taken to fly.

He didn't have the heart to send it off now.

Instead he hung it by his window, where it could have a taste of the wind on occasion. After the effort of that, he simply flopped face down onto his bed.

It wasn't exactly soft or plush, being wooden and all with only a thin mat between his body and the surface below. But at least it was his, and his blankets were warm and offered some padding.

"Er-ge..." Xue Huayu said cautiously at his door. "A-Ying wants to come sit with you, can I let her in?"

"Mm..."

He'd always be happy to have Hei Xianying around, even if he'd really rather be moping in a quieter environment than her presence allotted.

On cue, Hei Xianying slipped through a crack in the door holding a box. She brought it to his desk and set it gently down before turning to him with a stubborn expression on her little face. "Shu-gege has to come sit here."

Qing Xiashu smiled, but sighed dramatically as he sat himself up and moved over to the spot beside her at the table with a chuckle. "Alright, A-Ying, I'm here."

"Why is Shu-gege sad?" She demanded, setting out a tea set that she picked from the box.

"I had a falling out with a friend, nothing too serious, I promise."

Discreetly, Hei Xianying's warm eyes flicked to the lantern that was softly swaying in the cold spring wind. "Did you like them?"

The head disciple snorted faintly as he helped the girl heat the water with a talisman. "Yes, of course, if I didn't they wouldn't be my friend."

"Not like that, Shu-gege. I mean like. You're more sad than just liking them." She emphasized a bit more dramatically.

Uncomfortably, Qing Xiashu shifted in his seat. "Well, A-Ying." He began with a soft sigh. "That's hard to say, you'll get when you're older that it really isn't so black and white, sometimes even when you really like someone you have to be cautious, because circumstance is very important and something could easily go wrong."

"So you did?"

Again, he sighed and shrugged. "I may have."

"Shu-gege isn't very clear or concise." The girl grumbled, carefully filtering and pouring tea before handing him his cup.

At this, Qing Xiashu chuckled. "A-Ying, promise me this, someday, when your turn comes, you will do your best to step outside the cycles."

"Cycles?"

"If someone hurts you, don't hurt them back, even if someone hurts someone else."

"Will Shu-gege do his best too?"

"I will do my best, just as we all should."

"Then so will A-Ying." The girl said resolutely with a smile.

•●•