041. despite the circumstances

Tian Xiaoxu was the first to dismount when they came upon the two leaders of Luanshi’s hallowed halls. Immediately, he was on his knees before Jiling, hands held before him in deep respect, begging the Lady of the Mountain’s favor and aid in their deep trouble scenario. 

“Lady Jiling of the nascent swarm, Master Xueyu of the blood blessed blade—we are sorry to arrive unannounced but we seek help only the masters of Yunji can provide.”

Hua Jin watched the Crown Prince prostrate himself before the pair of watchers on the mountain, tightening his grasp around Ren Li’s waist, one hand holding tight the reigns of the courtier’s horse. The compound was strange and he didn’t know what to think of it. Parts of it seemed like a normal mountain village but the second gate made him nervous. The wind bore the echoing sighs of the past dead and the soon dying upon its back from within Luanshi’s walls and it made the inlayer uncomfortable, even if there was no actual sound to be heard at all. 

Li laid a comforting hand atop the artist’s arm, thumb stroking the limb that held him, all those nerves clutched around his abdomen. Despite not being intimately familiar with the mountain sect and their strange records of history tucked into the recesses of cavern walls, he’d visited enough times to at least be strangely soothed by the area’s eerie aura. Finality’s breath may have been heavier in the lungs of Yunji but it was natural all the same.

Xueyu, meanwhile, remained quiet at his priestess’ side, plain-faced gaze moving from each of their visitors in turn: the heir to the Tian throne and his interminable graciousness, the injured Ren Li who appeared to be stable and the unfamiliar artist at his back, and finally the younger prince as he quickly joined his kneeling brother.

Unafraid to scuff the knees of his breeches, Yuhui’s posture was a mirror of his more practiced sibling. His intentions were noble—he wasn’t trying to stack the deck in their favor, Yu just didn’t want Xiaoxu to suffer the indignity of begging alone.

“Tian Xiaoxu, sweet boy, at Yunji we only kneel when we pray,” the tiny woman chided as she bid both princes rise. Her hands brought Xiaoxu to standing first, then Yuhui, though she lingered on Yuhui’s hands a moment longer than necessary, smudging away a stray spot of warding ink visible past the cuff of his sleeve. She looked up at him, the faintest ghost of amusement lingering on features that already deduced the what and the how. Yuhui met her eyes then looked back down, smile flustered as his lips were gathered between his teeth, cheeks brushed with a passing bout of color.

“Thank you, my Lady,” Xiaoxu said smoothly, though he still bowed his head, humble before the masters of the mountain. “To save Ren Li’s reputation, I made an audacious wager: I must win the Millipede this week to restore our honour and the pride of both our houses. If I fail, I must abdicate my claim to my father’s throne and renounce my name. Li and I will both be banished to Yunji to serve Luanshi. Please, Master Xueyu, Lady Jiling. Our only hope is to train a team here with you and to beg your skills to aid in the relaying of enchanted tracers, laid by the hand of Hua Jin.”

Jin was already dismounted from his shared horse and helping Li to the ground when he heard his name, looking back to see Jiling’s abyssal blue eyes trained on him in curious study, a small note of surprise registering on features that rarely showed any response to a blindside. 

“Ah,” she replied, watching the artist wrap his arms once more about the wounded Ren boy when he touched ground. “That is quite a rare talent to command.”

“His skill is beyond comparison, Lady Jiling,” Ren Li said of the man so ready to take his weight, confident despite his own work half-finished.

Xueyu looked over his shoulder to the growing sea of faces belonging to his curious pupils milling at their backs and motioned for a gaggle of them to come collect the horses and the party’s belongings.

“I can make space for my princes and their guests in the cultivator dormitories but it is not going to be a lot of space. We have a large room that you all may share.” The swordmaster approached the noble and the artifact artist, scooping up Li in his arms to save him the trouble of walking. The eldest Ren was abashed but offered no complaint—he figured Jin would like a break from the kindness of his constant vigil anyway. “Likewise, I will be training Luanshi’s challenging team all week in preparation for the Millipede. You all are welcome to participate in the program. Is your team only four strong?”

“Ren Fei will be arriving tomorrow,” Yuhui spoke up, shifting at his brother’s side. “He is delayed at the palace currently.”

Jiling raised a hand just past the line of her sash to halt Xueyu, casting her gaze aside to address his shadow instead of his face. “Master Xueyu, it is imperative that Tian Xiaoxu remain as the Crown Prince. I leave this to your judgement: whether it is better to send Yunji’s challenge team in to fight alongside and forfeit the Millipede to the Tian clan or if it is better to dissolve our involvement entirely this week to focus training upon our guests.” Looking forward to Hua Jin, she continued. “The Princes may rest tonight but take Ren Li and Hua Jin to the Pai’ou Tracer Pavilion. Ren Li is in desperate need of repair.” The tiny woman dropped her hand and straightened, chin up and neck long. “I will be along shortly to aid the process. In the morning, we will see if any Luanshi artifacts sing your songs.”

Xiao’s eyes widened at the priestess’ directives. While he anticipated Luanshi’s cooperation, the generous offer was far beyond any expectation. 

“My Lady is too kind in response to a young Prince’s foolishness.” The Prince was humble, grateful, head bowed to show his respect and conceal his surprise. “The Tian clan will forever be indebted to Yunji for this kindness and every kindness granted us. Thank you, Lady Jiling.”

“We will remove Luanshi’s team from the list of challengers,” the swordmaster announced, “as it sounds like forfeiting the artifact will not be good enough to satisfy the Crown Prince’s wager. The Tian team may have Laike to train with until your fifth member arrives. My disciples keep long days that start early, he will be able to help acclimate you to our schedule.” Xueyu was already turning to head to the pavilion, motioning for Jin to follow as he saw the blonde and black hair of Jiling’s and his lead disciples bobbing through the collected body of students.

“Laike,” he called out to the shadow-crossed youth, “Show the Princes Tian to the corner room at the end of your hall.”

Yuhui, wide-eyed and with a stomach full of butterflies eager to see his midnight friend again, watched the group of disciples split down the middle.

Rather than move through the slow to part crowd, that shadowstep boy blitzed both himself and the blonde holding his hand into the Tian Princes’ coalesced shadow, placing the pair of disciples much too close to the pair of royals waiting upon their arrival.

“Whoa—” Xiao uttered, personal space suddenly invaded by a blonde stranger.

“—whoops,” Laike offered sheepishly, suddenly nose to nose with Yuhui. He quickly stepped back out of the younger Prince’s shadow to keep from arousing his Master’s ire, scratching nervously at the back of his head. “Sorry, Young Masters—it was, uh, smaller than I thought it’d be…”

“It’s okay,” Yuhui assured the pair, perfectly content to speak for his brother. His stance was idle beneath his active stare. When Yuhui looked at Laike with his eyes as dark as the shadows of their late night communion, his intensity betrayed a longing that could have been made of years rather than the mere hours they’d been apart. He was shaped by affection and filled with warmth.

Tiao, however, was less brave than any of them, especially before the strikingly handsome heir to Fanxing’s crown. As she backed up cautiously, her large eyes were trained on the ground, head bowing over and over again. Her cheeks flushed a bright red; her voice was a whisper so soft that it may have been the wind finding the courage to speak for her.

“I’m so sorry,” she mouthed.

“Please don’t apologise to me,” Xiaoxu replied as he caught the girl’s hands, sincere and humble in the blonde’s presence. If Laike was the heir to Master Xueyu’s teachings and the pair arrived together, wouldn’t that make the woman before him Jiling’s heir? “I am at the mercy of Yunji therefore I’m at your mercy, too. Please don’t treat me as a royal here. You can call me by my name.” He glanced up, extending his invitation of familiarity to both disciples. “Just call me Xiaoxu. No young master, no my prince. Okay?”

Laike barely registered the greeting, more focused on Tiao’s cherry blossom cheeks, the hand holding, the promise of his own impending torture and death likely running through her head. He glanced between Tiao, so much like an elder sister, and Yuhui, who he was ecstatic to see, then turned to Xueyu, bowing his head—like seeing to his task would save him from Tiao’s inevitable revenge.

“I will take the Tians to the dormitories, shifu,” he stated, mechanical and obedient. “Tiao will accompany me to help our guests settle in.”

“Make sure that they are fed dinner too,” Xueyu added, back turned to the group as he took Li and Jin away.

In a way, Laike was not wrong in his assumption. If he made any moment alone with him impossible, then Tiao would be unable to wrap her fingers ’round his neck, or surprise suffocate him with his pillow while he was asleep. Given the opportunity, she would have contemplated all the ways that she could put a miserable end to that shadowstalker’s existence were it not for the fact that she was utterly and completely charmed by Xiaoxu’s humility, nearly weak in the knees with her hands in his own.

Tiao mutely nodded to the prince’s request—it would have been wrong to refuse him anyway—and Yuhui looked at his older brother with treachery in his eyes, an expression that saw exactly what his sibling was doing.

“… I will help you carry your things.” When she spoke up, Tiao was soft like a winter hare, a spring blossom late to bloom, a morning birdsong made gentle by distance.

“What’s your name?” Xiao asked as he slung both his and Ren Li’s bags over his shoulder, holding only a small, lacquered box out for the blonde girl to take from him. He glanced back at his brother before he grew confused by the strange look on the boy’s impish face. “What are you staring at, Yu’er, get your stuff. Laike can take Hua Jin’s bag.”

Laike’s coy gaze slid amused toward Yuhui’s black-eyed observation of the events before them. Once Xueyu and Jiling were gone, the shadowstalker was more relaxed, bumping his shoulder against Yuhui’s with his lip between his teeth, playfully avoidant as he moved to retrieve the artist’s things.

Yuhui hoisted his own bag up, clutching the strap in his fingers. His brother’s comment made his eyes roll quickly, flippantly in their sockets, but he settled into the bend of a wide smile when he bounced back from Laike’s jostling, prepared to follow where their guide would lead them, eager to just spend any time he could with that boy.

“I’m Tiao of the Perpetual Void.” The blonde disciple managed after a moment, clutching the box in her hands like it was the most precious thing in the world. This was a simple duty and she took it to heart. She would not let herself fail no matter how little the burden. “You can just call me Tiao, Xiaoxu.”

Laike laughed under his breath as he snagged Yu by the elbow and pulled him ahead of the older pair getting to know one another. 

“This was unexpected,” the younger boy confided softly when they were cloaked in the quiet forest overgrowth between buildings, surrounded by the stillness of Yunji’s tree-lined river stone pathways and cultivated gardens. “I can’t describe how happy I am to see you. I feel a little guilty being joyful, considering the circumstances.”

“Don’t feel guilty.” Yuhui’s response was light, shared on the air gently sifting between them. “I’m happy to see you too. I thought about you all day, couldn’t wait to see your face again, hear your voice… mm, to just be near you. It brings me such joy.” He tilted his head, giving the shadow-born boy a bump back, shoulder to shoulder, fair play returned. “Sorry that I couldn’t send a bird to let you know beforehand. I had too many things to take care of back at the palace. I’m excited to see where you live, how your days go.”

“Master Xueyu will be very upset if he catches you in my room,” Laike stated, all facts a surface game when he wore that rule breaker smirk so well. In a matter of days, Yuhui had managed to twist that shadow assassin’s priorities to his own liking, drug that callow hearted boy headlong into the abyss of their tandem desire. 

“Well, then good thing for the both of us that I wasn’t asking to stay,” Yuhui hummed with a glimmer of the dying day reflecting pastel ardor in the deviant cast of his side-shifted eyes. “I’m sure there are lots of places you can show me when we’re not training. I want to see all of these things you like, you know. I want to get to know you.”

“You didn’t ask to stay but I invited you to visit,” that audacious thing replied, a demon ravenous for affection masquerading in the skin of a boy who used to be so pure. “I’ll take you so many places, I’ll take you everywhere; I want to show you everything.”

Yuhui bit his lower lip, watching that boy he adored with eyes that swore they could make a bedroom out of any old forest floor, would offer to lie in his own grave if he was promised a lullaby of their skin on skin contact, their breaths a strangled and ragged rhyme. He looked briefly back to Tiao and Xiaoxu a few steps delayed, then ahead, down the path he was being taken. The prince smiled. “I can’t wait.”