Wen Reian

2019 years after The Long Night

Huichâng Province

“It is my honor, Wen Reian… the stories really do not do you justice.”

Woken from sleep by the sound of that voice, Reian held his breath as he very nearly gasped aloud, upon realizing he was in one of the biggest rooms he’d ever seen-

And tied to a chair?!

After struggling uselessly for a few moments, the healer finally raised his head and met eyes with the man who was sitting on the throne, elaborately dressed in long, dark robes and fully appearing as if he was a black hole at the center of the universe.

For some reason Reian paused, his immediate panic and fear settling for a brief moment, as he thought he saw something familiar in the stranger’s expression. Then the man smiled, and Reian realized what it was.

“The healer who could cure whole cities,” Xie Xingyue mused. “Undoing all the effort of my great ancestor, Meng Bai-” he clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“After hearing of your reputation for so long, I never expected such a great master to be so… weak.”

Wen Reian hated himself at that moment. He hated that he wasn’t brave enough to keep his shiver of alarm from being visible. He hated more that he saw aspects of Yi-jun in this mad King. They were blood relatives, it made sense he supposed. Xie Xingyue’s ancestor was Xie Meng Bai ,Yi-jun’s cousin. But… it was wrong-

Xie Xingyue smiled with Yi-jun’s sweet, taunting grin, but it held promises of pain where Yi-jun’s always resulted in laughter. Forcing his voice to be even, Reian spoke slowly.

“Whatever it is you want, take it from me. Let the Princess go...”

Xie Xingyue’s black eyes sparkled as he laughed-

“Only she possesses what I need,” then his gaze narrowed. “What would a great healer like yourself know of that which I seek? A rare gift bestowed upon your Princess, something which has eluded every one of my predecessors.”

Reian frowned, beginning to shake his head, but then Xie Xingyue leaned forward and raised a dark eyebrow-

“A mark, given to those who rule… your Jin Songcai was foolish enough to give his away- to a child of all people!”

Wen Reian swallowed, finally understanding.

“The King’s Mark?” He said, watching as Xie Xingyue bristled.

“And what do you claim to know of it- healer?!” The man hissed, “Unless you are aware of a way to remove the Princess’s, then I am afraid I will just have to keep… experimenting, until something works.”

Reian felt his stomach roll. What horrors had this man already made A’Jun suffer?! Was that why she wouldn’t wake up??

Drawing in a deep breath, it was with every last scrap of bravery and reluctance to let his niece die that Wen Reian sat forward, struggling against the binds as he said-

“The mark cannot be taken, that would kill the bearer and destroy the seal. It has to be given willingly, there is no other way.”

Xie Xingyue’s dark eyes narrowed again, but before he could speak Reian continued, desperately trying not to sound as terrified as he felt.

“Jin Songcai gifted his mark to the Princess, but what of Xie Yi-jun’s?!”

The healer held his breath suddenly, as Xie Xingyue stood, robes trailing behind him as he walked and making him seem like a shadow approaching Reian, ready to swallow him whole. Then those horribly dark eyes were looming down, poised as if he was a snake ready to strike…

“What of Xie Yi-jun’s?” The man hissed.

Reian held his breath and replied, unblinking. “My left wrist-”

Stifling his cry of pain, Reian bit the inside of his cheek as Xie Xingyue wasted no time, drawing his blade and slicing at one of the ropes that held the healer’s arms bound.

Wen Reian felt warm trails of blood dripping from his wrist to the floor, as the mad King held his arm in a vice-like grip and peered down.

Suppressing a shiver as Xie Xingyue grinned, Reian also couldn’t help but look. Upon his wrist, glowing faintly as it always did, with every beat of his heart, was the golden seal that once upon a time the King of Hêi’àn City had kissed into his skin. A promise of protection, and a statement of his love.

A loud, rumbling laugh escaped Xie Xingyue when he saw it, his pointed fingernails digging into Reian’s skin and drawing more blood.

“How fortuitous… is every rumor about the great Xie Yi-jun true, after all?”

Wen Reian blinked, “Wh-”

Xie Xingyue sneered and made venomous eye-contact with Reian as he said; “He really did stick his dick in something other than that gutter trash from Wúmeng.”

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Without thinking, Reian spit at him, sharp fury getting the better of him listening to someone speak ill of his family. Then Reian’s throat was being ensnared in those talons, Xie Xingyue’s eyes dripping with malice as he hissed and cut away the rest of the ties holding Wen Reian to the chair.

“You’ll pay for that, healer! I have no qualms with killing you-”

Xie Xingyue practically dragged Reian across the floor by his hair, until he collapsed just before the throne. Wen Reian still felt the mad King’s hand squeezing down on his windpipe, face turning red as he gasped and struggled to pry him off.

“The Princess on the other hand?” The man chuckled, “A delicate thing, even more than you… I’ll have to take my time with her, slowly, until she gives me what I want, yes?!”

The moment Xie Xingyue released his neck, Reian was shouting through painful gasps;

“I will do it! I will give you my King’s Mark! Willingly, just let her go-”

He watched as the creature before him thought it over. Clearly he was intrigued but hesitant. Finally, taking a seat upon his throne again with Reian still coughing at his feet, the dark King smiled.

“With your abilities my dear, how do I know you wouldn’t simply attempt to kill me?”

Reian shook his head, “You still have Song-jun. I couldn’t do anything to you, not while she’s your prisoner-”

Xie Xingyue nodded; “How very true… shall we bring the girl down here now? An added bit of incentive for you not to continue misbehaving?”

Reian caught sight of the glow of something in the man’s hand for only a few seconds, and he figured it must be some kind of listening device, because not a moment later, two guards were entering the throne room, with A’Jun in their grasp-

“Uncle Wen!”

Reian nearly leapt to his feet upon realizing she was awake, but Xie Xingyue just made a quick gesture with his sword and Wen Rei watched in horror as the soldiers holding the Princess raised their blades to her throat.

She stared at Reian in a panic, clearly still groggy from whatever had been done to her, and it was at that moment, looking at her fearful eyes and remembering all the moments throughout her life that he’d watched her strength grow, and the times she amazed him so much, that Reian really and truly accepted what he must do.

To give away Yi-jun’s King’s Mark will break my heart, but if it gives A’Jun any chance of getting out of here, I will do it happily…

“Don’t think of trying anything,” Xie Xingyue hissed. “A single wrong move and I’ll kill her right here.”

Then the man pursed his lips and seemed to smile.

“Alright, healer. Offer yourself to me now, and I promise to make it hurt…”

Wen Reian heard A’Jun frantically scrambling to get away, to get to him, he pushed that to the back of his mind and extended his left hand. It was shaking.

When Xie Xingyue grabbed his wrist again, still dripping with blood, Reian immediately felt the greedy emptiness of the one before him. Perhaps an inherited trait from his ancestors, who knows… Xie Xingyue was twisted. Convinced that the universe had blessed others unfairly, and that he was only fighting to take what was rightfully his. It was amazing to Reian, in a sickening way, that someone whose soul was so corroded by what he believed was discrimination, could still be so horribly unaware of his own cruelty toward others.

Forcing himself to calm down and breathe, Wen Reian began shifting his energies, unsealing the King’s Mark on his soul and body of his own free will. As he felt the warm, comforting magic of it unspooling slowly, trickling down his hand and into Xie Xingyue’s, Reian began to feel the strangest sensation…

What is that, it’s so familiar-

It was a feeling he’d had once, perhaps in a dream? The more the mark faded from him, the more Reian grew certain, but the realization that he was feeling the lingering effects of The Soul Shatter Spell did nothing to deter him, even as he began to loosely wrap his head around the consequences.

Yi-jun told me about The King’s Mark… how it is a renewer of energy, a second skin, and a protection against all evil forces, external and within-

Reian had reasoned already that the spell he’d cast, so long ago in his youth in order to restore Hêi’àn City and Xie Yi-jun to life, was indeed a curse. It had stolen years of his life, his memories, in return allowing him to use a brief burst of spiritual power, but in exchange for his life-long friends and home.

Could it be that after all this time, the spell has remained inside me somehow? With Yi-jun’s King’s Mark repressing it… and allowing me to live?

Jin Songcai himself had said over and over again, just how lucky Reian was. How improbable it was that he’d survived such a thing. They’d chalked it all up to Reian’s natural abilities, but perhaps that wasn’t entirely the case.

Yi-jun gifted me the mark before I’d cast the spell… if he hadn’t, what might have become of me? Would I really have shattered into nothingness, as I fear I am doing now? Has the mark really sealed that curse away inside my bones until this very moment?

Then, the worst possible thought occurred to Reian, as he felt more of the magic draw away… what if I forget Yi-jun and Songcai? A’Jun… and Lan Kai-Le?! What if I forget even more of myself-

Song-jun was screaming now, Reian could hear her. Something about killing everyone in the room, but Wen Reian could barely hear her words over the pounding of blood rushing through his ears. Everything was sharp and painful, just as he remembered it being fifteen years ago, alone in a dream, where he sacrificed everything.

With every draw of the seal away from his body as the spells weakened and loosened their hold on him, pieces of his mind began splitting and falling apart. He practically watched them go, like embers abandoning a dying flame.

“WEN REIAN?!”

Oh no-

Frantic golden eyes were scanning the room suddenly, as Xie Xingyue barked orders to restrain the man who had somehow escaped wherever they’d been keeping him.

Wen Reian felt tears blurring his vision as he watched out of the corner of his eye. Several soldiers converged on Lan Kai-Le and he practically exploded in a fit of rage. Reian's tears weren’t just from the pain he was in, but also the wounds on the hunter’s skin; what he could see of it.

The man was limping, blood gushing down his leg and dripping to the floor. He had a cut on the bridge of his nose too, and more that Reian could only feel, not see…

To be tortured like this by his only enemy, the only person he wants to kill?

Reian silently sent out a little prayer for Lan Kai-Le, as he watched the man nearly tear the heads off of two guards before another five brought him to his knees-

I’m so sorry, Kai-Le… Reian thought; after everything you did for me, and I only brought you here.

The pain was starting to dim. Wen Reian realized that was because he was beginning to fade, all thoughts of remaining awake blurring together into a dark haze that felt more and more like dying as every second passed.

There was no assurance Xie Xingyue would actually release A’Jun. But, the thought of her going through anything like this? It was abhorrent to Reian. He would gladly suffer, gladly die to protect her from this sort of torment. If only he could end up knowing whether or not she and Lan Kai-Le survived. It would be a small comfort for him whenever he reached the other side.