Second Time Around

2. Phoenix Mountain

A young woman, staggering out from a hut, pulling the rags she wore as clothes around her. Even from this distance, her eyes were the dull sheen of one who has given up hope. Pulling another bundle of rags from the ground and disregarding the jeers of the guards, she sat, opened her robe, and began to feed her child.

An older man, silver haired and missing an arm, legs hobbled together like a recalcitrant horse, walked back and forth holding a lure flag. Wei WuXian felt vomit rise into his throat. Did they do this to Wen Ning, too, before they stabbed him with it and left him to die?

A group of older women all yoked together picking up rocks and stacking them into a cart.

All along the Path, men and women being herded, being beaten if they didn't move fast enough, forced to work. And the overseers and guards, in the colors of several clans, laughing and joking.

"Who are these people?" Lan Zhan sounded furious. Wei Ying followed his gaze to one of the Lan cultivators casually tripping one of the rock hauling women and causing the whole group to fall.

"They're people, Lan Zhan. Just people. Not cultivators, not soldiers. Nobody special."

"But who are they?"

"Wens."

Lan Zhan twisted to look at Wei Ying. "These work camps hold Wen cultivators."

"Is that what you were told?" Wei WuXian didn't even bother hiding the disgust he felt. "You can see for yourself! You can feel for yourself! The only cultivators are holding the swords and whips."

"Why did you bring me here?"

Wei Ying sighed and rested his head on the ground. "I needed to tell someone. You were the first person I thought of. I thought about just going in by myself and killing them all and setting the Wen free." That's what I did the last time, and look how that turned out. "If there are more of these civilian camps, though? I need someone steadier to plan this." You were nice to the Wen that night I stole them. You were nice to A'Yuan. And my family in the Burial Mounds. I also don't remember seeing you at the Siege. Am I wrong to hope that you can help me come up with a way to stop this?

Lan Zhan shook his head, violently, as if shaking could remove the images he had just seen. "We need to show this to XiongZhang. He must know... there must be an explanation. I'm not involved in Sect politics."

"All right then. Show this to your brother. But don't let him make it an official visit. It needs to be like this: a surprise. All right? I don't know what the Jin would do if they knew Lan XiChen was going to come here."

"Mmm."

The flight back to the Hunt at Phoenix Mountain was quiet. As were their meanderings throughout the grounds, occasionally bagging prey that accidentally fell into their path. Wei WuXian was silently thankful that this Hunt was apparently going to end very differently than his last time here.

But like the last time, he and Lan WangJi eventually encountered Jiang YanLi and Jin ZiXuan. He looked like he had seen a ghost. She was all shy smiles and stars in her eyes.

"Are you all right, ShiJie?" Wei WuXian asked. He'd given her some advice earlier that morning. 'Make him tell you who invited you here, and no, it wasn't Madame Jin.'

Jiang YanLi blushed prettily and smiled broadly. "Yes, A'Xian. Everything is perfectly fine."

"I've asked your martial sister to marry me," Jin ZiXuan blurted out. "She has accepted my suit as long as her didis agree." He bowed, jerking into position rather than a smooth glide. "Please allow this one to marry your ShiJie."