Blood on the Altar (HuaLian TGCF)

Chapter 5

'Who to kill? Upon seeing that face do you still not know who to kill?'

'So in other words, even if we kill him, he wouldn't die?'

'Hel—'

'Don't let him scream...'

'Line up one by one...'

'Just aim for the heart, the throat, or the abdomen.'

'If you're not sure if you stabbed in a fatal area, just do it again!'

Again, Again, Again, Again, Again, Again

Help me...

Someone, anyone, Help me!

Xie Lian wakes with a start, the nightmare clouding everything until he thinks he can still feel the cool hard press of the alter beneath him, the binds tight around him, the gag choaking him, the blade... That blade...

"Help me..." He's shaking, sobbing, caught half way between dream and waking, unable to make sense of the world around him. He reaches out blindly for something, anything to hold onto, any scrap of comfort. He knows there won't be any, knows he's alone, knows that no one will come for him, no one has ever...

Arms close around him, wrapping him in a tight embrace and Xie Lian is too lost in the darkness of his mind and memory to really understand them as anything beyond the impossible, comfort, and so, shaking with tears and remembered pain, he collapses into them.

"Your highness, you're safe now. I promise. I have you. You're safe."

Something deep within Xie Lian responds to the words, something aching and lonely and so desperate for any scrap of human kindness, any touch that doesn't hurt, that he can't help it. He crumbles into those arms, his fingers gripping desperately to the robes of whoever is holding him, and sobs.

He's not sure how long it takes for the tears to pass and his mind to begin to separate past and present, but when he does Xie Lian looks up, tears in his eyes, and sees crimson robes, a devilishly hansom face, and a single black eye.

Xie Lian stiffens instantly, his own eyes widening as the whole world abruptly snaps into focus, the richly furnished room, the immaculate bed, and his own fingers buried in the robes of the supreme. The ghost king must have felt Xie Lian stiffen in his arms because they instantly fall away, leaving the god feeling completely unmoored without anything to support him.

It's a strange feeling, one he doesn't quite know how to understand, not when the one comforting him is his captor, the reason for the nightmares, the reason he was back on that altar, not when he never has anything to support him, not when he's always alone.

"What are you doing?" His voice comes out shaky and hoarse from his tears and there's a slight soreness when he speaks which he's coming to associate with the new scarring in his throat.

"Forgive me if I overstepped." The ghost king looks away, the dark fall of his hair concealing his expression.

"I..." Xie Lian begins then falters, unsure what to say. Should he ask why the ghost king was watching him sleep? Explain that he was having a nightmare? Apologize for his breakdown?

Belatedly Xie Lian notices that his fingers are still tangled in Lord Crimson Rain's robes. Quickly he lets go and sits back.

"It's alright. I..." Again his voice trails away. What can he say? The ghost king can do anything he wants with him, and yet all he's done so far is give Xie Lian a bed and food and held him when he cried. Is he toying with him like White No Face once did? Trying to earn his trust? Or is it... Is any of this real?

Xie Lian's eyes fall to the crimson blanket covering his lap. What is he thinking? Is his mind still muddled by his dreams, dreams of a time when he was a prince and the world valued him? What use could he be now to a ghost king, besides the uses of his divine blood or of his body? Yet if that's all the demon wants than why not take them and be done with it? It makes no sense, none of it does, and his thoughts are too twisted up with old pain and all the anger and hurt and distrust that went with it. He can't think properly.

Quietly Xie Lian asks, "Is there something you want from me?"

"Actually, I want to give you something."

Xie Lian looks up in surprise to find the ghost king extending a hand to him, palm up, and on that palm is a silver chain and a ring made from what appears to be crystal.

"What is it?"

"Nothing much." The ghost king looks away as he speaks. "Just a talisman I thought might help you feel safer."

"What?" Xie Lian stares at him blankly, the words so add odds with the feel of the blade in his throat and the memories clinging to his every thought that he's not sure what to do with them.

"When you woke earlier your highness said that I could do anything I wanted to you because of my power, so I thought for your peace of mind you might prefer to have the power to protect yourself from me."

"I can't use magical weapons." The words leave his lips automatically as though his mouth has come up with them to fill the void left by the confusion of his mind.

...What? The demon is giving him something that will protect Xie Lian from him? What?? Why??

"That doesn't matter. This isn't something you need spiritual power to use."

Xie Lian stares at the ring on the ghost king's palm then back up at him.

"What's the price?"

"There is no price."

"I..." Xie Lian hesitates again but the ghost king still has too much power over him to have anything to gain by lying so in the end he reaches out with shaking fingers and takes the offered talisman.

The chain barely feels like anything around his neck but the ring is cool against his skin. Xie Lian wraps a hand around it, fingers tracing its plains as he tries to understand it. The ghost king stares at it in its new place for a moment then quickly looks away.

"Thank you." Xie Lian says it quietly, and maybe he's foolish to thank his captor but what else can he say?

"It's nothing." The ghost makes a fluttering motion with his fingers as though to dismiss the whole thing. "Would your highness like to eat now?"

Unsure why he's being treated like a guest rather than a captive Xie Lian only nods.

"I'll have some food brought." The ghost king's eye loses focus for a moment, clearly transmitting the order and then his attention returns to Xie Lian. "In the meantime, would your highness let me take a look at your scratches from earlier?"

He reaches for the front of Xie Lian's robes. It's only a half gesture, an indication of his intentions, rather than any attempt to actually remove the robes without Xie Lian's permission, and at another time it wouldn't have caused him any real distress, but Xie Lian's mind is still clouded by nightmare and by the memories that have been drowning his every thought since those men forced him onto Crimson Rain's altar, and at the sight of the hand reaching for him Xie Lian's vision blurs, and he sees other hands reaching for him, reaching out to hold him down, hold him still for...

"No! Stop!" Xie Lian jerks back, his body tensing and breath coming in quick pants.

After a few moments without any hands actually touching him Xie Lian's breathing begins to calm and his eyes begin to clear. That's when he takes in the ghost king sitting beside him, eye wide, arm half extended toward him, his whole body completely frozen.

Only then does Xie Lian register that he's still clutching the ghost's ring.