Nie Mingjue ate the offered fruit and slowly sipped water in silence. Wen Qing wordlessly offered a bit more. This time Nie Mingjue didn't insist she prove it wasn't poisoned. At least he was becoming a bit more agreeable. Lack of food and water wreaked havoc on both body and mind. She couldn't exactly fault him for being temperamental and a bit nonsensical when he was suffering from a lack of both.
It was tempting to give him something more substantial, but Wen Qing resisted. It had been a while since Nie Mingjue ate. His body might need to be eased back into normal meals. Not to mention she was now certain that she was seeing the effects of dehydration. Dry or salty foods would only increase his body's need for water. Since he was already dehydrated, it was better to start with food that was already water rich.
"You said Zewu-jun asked you to break me out?" Nie Mingjue asked. Wen Qing considered ignoring the attempt at conversation. Silence was better, it couldn't be overheard. On the other hand, Nie Mingjue was actually speaking in a low voice and his tone wasn't even all that accusatory anymore. There also were not many chances to explain herself to a sect leader from one of the great sects.
"He asked me if it was possible. I'm pretty sure writing the words, 'Please break Chifeng-zun out of Nightless City,' is entirely too demanding for him to be able to write without convulsing." Wen Qing commented wryly. Nie Mingjue snorted a laugh and choked on his water. Wen Qing did not completely suppress an amused smile.
"No, I don't think Xichen could ever bring himself to say something like that." Nie Mingjue managed roughly after a few sips of water to soothe his throat. "I'm surprised he even inquired if it was possible." Nie Mingjue said quietly. Wen Qing sighed.
"You're his friend. I'm pretty sure you're his best friend actually. People go beyond their comfort zones for the people they care about." Wen Qing said quietly. Nie Mingjue narrowed his eyes at Wen Qing.
"Is that why you're breaking me out?" Nie Mingjue inquired.
"Yes." Wen Qing said without hesitation. Nie Mingjue squinted at her, skepticism clear on his face. Wen Qing considered leaving it there, but this was a chance to explain. She could not pass up the opportunity to explain her family's situation.
"You know I'm not actually Wen Rouhan's niece right?" Wen Qing asked. "We're like... twelfth cousins or some such number. I'm from a branch family in Dafan that has exclusively practiced healing arts for generations. We're nobodies, except that I am a very good healer. The best in the QishanWen sect, and that is not an exaggeration." Wen Qing glanced towards Nie Mingjue.
"So why are you in Nightless City?" Nie Mingjue asked roughly.
"You've met Wen Rouhan." Wen Qing stated flatly. "He's a vindictive bastard." Wen Qing said with feeling.
"That isn't new." Nie Mingjue snorted.
"It's not." Wen Qing agreed. "It isn't just other sects that he is cruel and controlling with. It's everyone. I'm forced to be in Nightless City, because if I refused he'd hurt my didi. Once the war started he sent cultivators to Dafan to make sure my family continued to provide medical supplies and to be able to threaten their safety if I was not cooperative." Wen Qing explained.
"That's where I am planning to get you to." Wen Qing said looking over at Nie Mingjue.
"You wish to break me out of Nightless City only to move me to another area controlled by Wen Rouhan?" Nie Mingjue questioned.
"You think I can sneak you past the front lines? I sure don't." Wen Qing replied, raising an eyebrow at the man next to her. Nie Mingjue frowned at her.
"You plan to have the allied sects take Dafan?" Nie Mingjue stated.
"I don't have any better ideas," Wen Qing replied.
"Trying to break me out is not an especially good idea for you to begin with." Nie Mingjue retorts. Wen Qing sighs.
"I'm almost positive that I'm already compromised. Might as well try and do at least one more useful thing before I'm chained in one of these rooms." Wen Qing said looking at the splatter of dried blood and trying to not show just how terrified she was of that outcome.
"What makes you think you're compromised?"
Wen Qing is not certain what she expected Nie Mingjue to be like one on one. He has always been loud, direct, a bit brash, with a strong sense of justice. He's a bit more inquisitive than Wen Qing expected. Wen Qing is almost certain he wants to turn her upside down and shake her until everything he could possibly want to know falls out. Impatient. Paranoid. Wen Qing thinks that makes about as much sense as anything else.
"I made a mistake." Wen Qing begins.
Then she hesitates for a second before she uses Meng Yao's name. There is the impulse to not put herself into a needless conflict. A conflict that she is likely to lose. It is an impulse that helped her a lot in Qishan when she had to judge when she could confront someone and when she had to sidestep a confrontation. On the other hand Wen Qing is pretty sure Nie Mingjue currently wants to kill Meng Yao.
"Meng Yao had asked to meet with me. I'm in charge of the infirmary in Nightless City. I oversee the medical cultivators. As the Principle Torturer, Meng Yao had asked for my input regarding the availability of medical cultivators for treating an expected influx of prisoners. Wen Rouhan highly favours the Flame Palace. He doesn't force anyone to be a torturer, but I can't refuse medical services to keep the Prisoners alive." Wen Qing explained, her gaze distant.
"You don't wish to treat them?" Nie Mingjue inquired. Wen Qing took a shaky breath.
"I've been forced to watch too many people be tortured. I have been forced to keep people alive and I see what that prolonged experience is. I'm not sure I am doing any favours by extending their lives." Wen Qing said quietly. A shiver shook Wen Qing's body as she remembered the smile on Meng Yao's face accompanied by inhumane screams. If Nie Mingjue noticed her fear he didn't comment on it.
"While I spoke about having enough healers available he mentioned the influx of prisoners would be coming from an attack on Langya. He even mentioned the day it was scheduled for. He's one of Wen Rouhan's closest advisors, and with the short time frame... I didn't think about double checking the information. I was too worried about getting it to Zewu-jun as quickly as possible. Then I found out a major attack was carried out on Jiangling on the date I had heard there would be an attack on Langya." Wen Qing continued.
Wen Qing waited for Nie Mingjue to ask if she thought it had been a mistake. She waited for him to point out that the plans might have changed. Nie Mingjue did not do either of those things. He only frowned thoughtfully.
"He has not turned you in for being a spy." Nie Mingjue pointed out quietly. Wen Qing nodded.
"Not yet in any case. I assume he is holding onto that information until it will benefit him more. It might gain him some favour with Wen Rouhan, but he already has that in spades. He might be planning to try and pass false information through me, but at this point it is only a matter of time before I'm chained up in one of these rooms." Wen Qing replied.
"Which is why you agreed to break me out." Nie Mingjue nodded in understanding.
"Not the only reason, but certainly a factor." Wen Qing replied.
"What do you hope to get out of all of this when the war is over?" Nie Mingjue inquires. Wen Qing sighs.
"I'm hoping my family might get to live." Wen Qing said quietly. "Much as I want the allied sects to win... I don't really expect the lot of you to look too favourably on my family. Wen Rouhan has turned our surname into a curse. I'm just hoping I can keep one small village of healers from being killed by it." Wen Qing said quietly.
Her voice was pained. She was holding back the urge to cry as she remembered the field of corpses in the Labour Camp. While she had searched for her didi she had seen so many faces that she had known. Men and Women who had never held a sword. People who had spent their lives cultivating crops and brewing medicine. The last remains of her family slowly dying in the Burial Mounds as they fought desperately to feed themselves.
The two of them lapsed into silence. The seconds ticked by slowly in the dark, quiet, room. Eventually Wen Qionglin found them and let them out. He presented Nie Mingjue with Baxia. Apparently her didi had stumbled into Meng Yao's office before he found them. Wen Qing was not thrilled about how recognizable the sabre was at a glance. She also was not stupid enough to try and tell Nie Mingjue not to take it with him.
One very recognizable sect leader, famous sabre and all, walked out the front door of the Flame Palace with Wen Qing and her didi. They walked past cultivators so inebriated that they were practically falling over themselves and for the first time in her life Wen Qing was happy that the infirmary was so close to the Flame Palace. They did not have to go far before she directed Nie Mingjue into the carriage.
The medical cultivators she had chosen to send out with this carriage were mostly young, just barely able to begin practising medical cultivation. They could have been considered lucky that they found there way to the infirmary instead of being forced onto the front lines, but they would still be slaughtered once the war arrived to Nightless City. Wen Qing considered this her chance to save a few of them.
The one experienced healer in the group was a middle aged woman that worked in the infirmary for years. She had been one of Wen Qing's teachers and she had lost her entire family to Wen Rouhan. Her youngest son had died just over a year ago, a victim in the war that Wen Rouhan had forced him to participate in. Wen Qing had no doubts the woman had spent long nights considering how feasible it would be to try and poison Wen Rouhan.
"I should be able to give you a good head start. Get to Dafan. If the allied sects aren't there when you arrive take the carriage to Popo's. She'll be able to hide Chifeng-zun and help you buy time in Dafan until they arrive." Wen Qing said quietly. She was speaking to the group, but most of her focus was on her didi.
"A-Jie..." Wen Qionglin said in a quiet urgent voice. "Be careful." Wen Qing pulled him into a hug. She held her youngest didi close and wished she thought going with them herself would be a good idea. Except she knew how long it took to move an army, and she knew the force that would be sent out to find Chifeng-zun. For the sake of her family she needed to give them the best odds she could.
"Be safe." She whispered into her didi's hair. Everyone settled into their places and Wen Qing watched the carriage leave towards the front gates. She followed discreetly and watched from the distance when the carriage safely made it past the guards and out of Nightless City. The hardest part was over. She would have to trust them to get to Dafan and trust Lan Xichen to get the allied sects to Dafan to meet them.
Everything she did from here was about keeping the forces of Nightless City from descending upon Dafan. Distracting and misdirecting them enough so that by the time they knew where Nie Mingjue had escaped to, it would be too late to muster the forces in order to stop the Allied sects from recovering him. She had hope, after that sombre discussion in the Flame Palace, that Nie Mingjue might look at her family in Dafan and see them as civilians. For once she felt real hope that when the war ended there would be enough support to keep her family alive.