Solstice Souls

The Story of Soulmates Past

Wei Ying POV

Wei Ying stood there, unmoving.

A curse? What kind of....?

"Lan Zhan." he murmured in a monotone voice.

His mind was racing like a gazelle being chased by a tiger. One plus one didn't always equal two, did it? It couldn't be. Wei Ying kept trying to find another answer to his question but he kept coming back to the same one.

"Wei Ying."

Lan Zhan's voice was distant. Wei Ying was too focused on what the cave drawings were telling them. It was like watching pieces of an elaborate puzzle slowly moving, shifting, searching for where they fit together. Memories of his childhood, stories told to him by his mother and grandmother, everything he and Lan Zhan had discovered about themselves, they were all pieces.

"Wei Ying!"

The younger man blinked his eyes rapidly, pulled out of his reverie by his handsome jade who was holding him close.

"Lan Zhan....this....this is the curse. This is the one that set our clans against each other five hundred years ago."

Wei Ying pulled away from Lan Zhan who reached out for him but fell short in his grasp. His thoughts were like fall leaves swept away by a cold wind, caught up in a whirlwind they could not escape.

"My mother knew the story because....because grandmother was there. She was the immortal the cultivators spoke to. But why...why didn't she tell us? Why didn't either of them tell me?"

His breaths became staggered. His mind was a chaotic storm.

"Did grandmother do something to the artifact? If she knew that our clans were at war because of some damn curse, that they were both looking for this....this artifact, which we told her about, why didn't she tell us that she knew about it?"

Wei Ying looked up at Lan Zhan with unshed tears teetering on the edges of his silver orbs. The unwanted moisture made his eyes luminescent under Bichen's mystic glow. He tried to blink them into oblivion but instead they fell like cold raindrops from his hurt-filled eyes.

Lan Zhan reached into his sleeve and pulled out one of his handkerchiefs. The way he tenderly dabbed the stinging moisture off of Wei Ying's cheeks filled the younger boy with love. Right now, Wei Ying knew that Lan Zhan was the only one he could trust, the only one who had never lied to him.

"Wei Ying must calm down." Lan Zhan pointed out. "Using up the air."

Wei Ying immediately took some deep breaths and settled his emotions. Lan Zhan was right as usual. He looked at the drawings again.

"Lan Zhan. What if this picture means that they split the artifact into two parts? See there? It looks like it's no longer one sphere but two halves. And if they went to see grandmother....."

Wei Ying's words drifted off as did his gaze. Lan Zhan's warm hand rested against his left cheek and he leaned into that comforting touch, nuzzling against it like a cat. He needed this. This closeness, this simple gesture that told him more than any words could, made his body hum. He fell into Lan Zhan's embrace and breathed deeply of the unique sandalwood scent he had come to crave.

"Wei Ying suspects Baoshen Sanren helped cultivators split artifact."

It wasn't even a question. It was so obvious even a child could figure it out after seeing the drawings. Which is why Wei Ying felt betrayed, lied to, treated like a child himself.

"Why didn't she tell us?" he asked his jade, his face buried against the broad chest that held the beating heart of his soulmate.

"Must be good reason. She is smart. She loves Wei Ying. Would not hurt you."