Wangxian Prompt/Self-fill Dump

Alternate AU Pt 1

Minus one man.

Lan Zhan arrived in the village of Yiling, that has become a bustling little city over the last 13 years. For some strange reason, he felt a strange sense of nostalgia but for the life of him he could not recall ever coming here or why this place would bring just a deep resonance of loss, But still he checked into the local inn and asked around about the Burial Mounds.

"Nothing has happened in 13 years, but we do not risk it, kind sir! We leave a few jars of our best wines and a tray of our best dishes and spices to appease the spirits as a safety precaution. Just because it suddenly went silent, 13 years ago, doesn't mean it won't suddenly start acting up again... If you are going there, would you mind taking the offerings to the Cave of the Eternal Sorrow? Lay them at the Alter just inside of the mouth."

"Mn..." He nods and accepts the carefully packed box and leaves for the Mounds. The walk is quiet minus the faint call of song birds in the distance. Even though the Resentment that has saturated the place for generations was gone, the Burial Mounds were as silent as any grave, very few trees bloomed with life, the tall trees slowly bleeding into a Bamboo forest where the tall stalks were as black as pitch. He paused to touch one and for a moment a zing shot through him, a disembodied sound not unlike a flute, sang through his heart and he ached. "Strange..."

Keeping on his track he noticed a cleared area before the path to the cave, the skeletal remains of a tiny village surround him, a small field yielding radishes and turnips lay well overgrown and full of to bursting with life. He stoops to pluck a few, figuring a bit of raw bounty will help appease the spirits more and he hears a young child's giggle next and he almost falls over at the sudden force of utter anguish that rips through him. He gasps a name, but no sound comes and he cannot figure out the shape of the word he said. He can hear an echo of pure anguish through him, a voice that sounds like it was screaming from the bottom of the ocean, too far and distant to make what was said or who it belonged to. When he comes back to himself, he's managed to crawl all the way to the entrance of the Cave of Sorrow. Leaning on the alter, he catches his breath before he carefully lays out the offerings, lights the sticks of incense and blinks as one of them, cinnamon and lotus, makes him breath in the heady scent, A phantom touch, a muted voice playfully saying his name. He yearns for the touch, for the voice and almost trips over the alter in his blind moment of following whatever was toying with him. Getting a bit frustrated, he finishes setting the alter, offering a prayer for continued peace for the village before he grabs Bichen and heads into the Cave, because that is what had to be messing with him.

Lan Zhan enters the cave and frowns at the clearly hewned and smoothed walls, natural shelves and a basin for bathing with a fire pit in the center, a few paths leading to a study, a medical room and an herb garden, a sleeping area and then he comes out of a long tunnel into the very heart of the cave where a pool sat, as silver as moon light and kneeling by the pool was someone., He grips his sword tighter.

"The Huanguan-jun has finally come to us..." they say, their voice neither male or female, not one and yet not many. "We have waited a long time... We perfected the spell while waiting and send you hints..."

"The impressions, the voices..." He doesn't quite ask, his brows furrowing in confusion.

"Yes... something very precious was stolen from this world... This world is so... stagnant now, but We are glad... Master is no longer suffering....but Master has not been reborn yet... will never be reborn again... We do not like it... We hate it...We want Master back... and you want Master back too... you just do not realize it yet..." They say, carefully standing and turning.

Their face is completely missing, no features of any kind, minus the slights hints of a nose and cheek bones, the shame seems to be mimicking someone, their hair was left down and tied with a cute bow with a grayish brown ribbon, it might have been red once upon a time. the robes were grand and a mix of male and female, the design was faded too, but looked like flames in the same brownish gray of the ribbon while the red was now dingy and faded. For some reason this silhouette makes his heart ache, a name on his lips but it does not fall, cannot fall and he feels like he under the Lan Silencing spell.