Loyal, Brave & True

Chapter 36

Jia had excused herself after that, returning to her room. She was not someone who liked to lose a battle or let the other one escape, especially one who perhaps knew more than they wanted to.

In addition, she had a lot of thinking to do. From Wen Ning and suppressed memories of her mother telling her stories, to her drunk uncle suddenly being a human being and not a perfect emotionless puppet.

She sat on her bed and lay there, glaring at the rooftop as her mind was suddenly deep in thoughts. She placed her loyal sword by her side and let out a sigh, deciding to remain in her room and allow the two men and friends to catch up and spend some time together.

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She never realised when her eyes closed but the dream that came was far from peaceful. The dream was distorted and nothing was clear. The faces of people were blurry, their shadows disfigured into forms of creatures and the sound was muffled.

She could hear a faint whisper in the muffled voices as the shadows seem to move now on their own accord, moving towards her. Her surroundings were blurry but she could swear she was standing in a prayer room, the names of the deceased placed among dozens of candles.

The whispers continued and the flames of the candles started to flicker, weakening as the presence of the shadows became stronger. In the room, she could feel a cold and menacing wind coming from behind her and yet as she turned, all she could see was the distorted green scenery of Gusu and the blurry view of people dressed in white.

Her breathing started to pick up as her heart rate increased, something within her warning her to move but her body did not listen. With the tip of her eye, she saw the shadows having come closer as the whispers continued.

She turned sharply to face the shrine, now finding it destroyed on the ground. The flames of the candles ate away the wooden floors and making their way to the walls, the strong wind helping spread them faster.

She rubbed her eyes, trying to focus and suddenly she saw someone kneeling in front of the fallen shrine. She would recognise that hair ornament and those robes everywhere.

"Mother?" she questioned, suddenly feeling like a little child and not the teenager she was.

Strong hands suddenly grabbed her from behind, pulling her away. She started to panic and tried to fight them back, muttering and shouting as she was being pulled further and further away from the woman, all while the flames kept eating away the wooden shrine and the room around it.

"Mother!" she shouted again, trying to fight even harder now against her captors.

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Wuxian was the first to wake up and had spent his morning watching a few kids playing as they mimicked powerful cultivators like Wangji, Cheng and even Red Blade Master. Then, Wangji woke up but not Jia, which he found it odd.

"She hasn't woken up yet?" Wangji asked, finding it weird for the girl was trained to wake up early like all the Lan Disciples.

Wuxian shook his head when he suddenly felt a chill going down his spine and he placed his hand on the side of his head. "Wei Ying, what is it?" Wangji asked him, getting worried.

"Something...something feels odd..." he tried to explain, not sure how to do so.

Something seem to make sense to the Lan Cultivator for he quickly moved with big strides back to the in. Wuxian followed suit, seeing him entering Jia's room. He did too and quickly closed the doors behind him, staring at the scene with wide eyes.

The pouch with the ghost sword inside was placed on the wooden table but it was glowing, the spirit fighting more than ever and seemed to be leaning towards the bed Jia was laying. The girl was curled up in a fetal position, muttering things while sweating faintly.

The more the pouch glowed, the more Jia seemed to shake and react. Suddenly, the whole scene felt all too familiar to him only that instead of Jia, it was Zhouan that was laying on a bed but she was not suffering as much as the kid did.

Wangji had already sat down and summoned his powerful Guqin, playing a familiar tune to Wuxian. A tune that he had played for him in the past to calm down the darkness eating his core from the Stygian Tiger Amulet. He remained quiet and watched as faint blue spiritual energy resonated across the room.

He took a few steps closer, looking carefully at Jia and seeing very faintly that there was a second energy surrounding her. His eyes widened with realization and he looked from the pouch to the girl, as Wangji's music seem to slowly calm her down.

Eventually, after what felt like hours but was mere minutes, the girl calmed down. Her breathing returned to normal, and she stopped squeezing her hands, yet she did not move from the fetal position.

The ghost sword seemed to have calmed down as well, although still uneasy but not like before.

Wuxian looked at Wangji, who let out a sigh and kept looking at his sleeping niece. There was something more going on, he was certain of it.

"Lan Zhan, you have some explaining to do," Wuxian said, folding his hands in front of his chest and looking at him.

His soulmate did not take his eyes off Jia but gave a nod.

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Standing in front of the Inn, the two men stood side by side. Wuxian waited as Wangji took his time, before finally speaking up.

"What do you think?" he asked him.

Wuxian frowned his eyebrows but decided to play along. He thought for a moment, spinning his flute in his hand. "She got affected by the residual energy coming from the ghost sword. Or the ghost sword reacted to her presence and acted the way it did"

He glanced at his soulmate, expecting him to agree but to his surprise...he didn't. "No," he said, making him stop spinning his flute and look at him. "They react to one another" he explained, something that suddenly made sense if you think he never let Jia close to the pouch. She must have taken it off him while he was drunk last night. "Jia is special...she has a sensitivity for wicked energy and spirits" he explained.

Wuxian thought back to the Bunker, the voices of the spirits that she could hear without being affected or that distant look she had from time to time. There were occasions she seemed to know things before he did.

"How? One cannot have sensitivity to it. It will harm and kill whatever it approaches, especially one with a golden core" he explained, yet something inside him was not believing his words.

"I don't know," Wangji said, admitting it. "She doesn't control it. At sleep, she is most vulnerable and needs the tranquillity song"

His soulmate thought for a moment before he started to connect the dots. "People say that you two have been travelling together for a long. Is this why you have taken her with you? To calm her down when she sleeps?" he asked but before he could reply, he continued. "This is why you did not want her to join us in this mission. You are afraid of how she will be affected..." more and more things made sense and his gaze dropped to the ground. "You are afraid that people will find out...and she will be targeted...like I was"