A week after the wedding, this side of the palace walls she lived in quieted down. Yun almost thought that Xiao had taken his mind off her as he was unreachable at all within the past few days. Using the earrings as an excuse, she had tried to search for him high and low. But no one knew where he was, nor if he entered the palace within the past few days.
Apparently, she need not have worried too much as another letter was tucked into her dresser once again, bearing a very familiar handwriting she looked forward to and dreaded to receive.
She did as it told though with a grim determination, coming to another corner of the palace where there was hustle and bustle, and perfumes and songs in the night.
"Now you look more like a noblewoman."
Yun turned; her hands clenched in her robes as she saw Xiao walking up to her. Rather than the change of clothes that he had requested her to do, he only donned another cloak over his black and red.
Yun donned the light purple robes that she wore when she met Jin, as it was the only outfit that she felt would be suited for what Xiao wanted, and she thought that now was not the time to turn against him.
Yet.
"We are still early though." He commented lightly again. "Would you like me to show you something else before we enter the hall?"
"Pardon?"
"More techniques." He waved a hand nonchalantly.
Yun's eyebrows raised, and she blinked a few times.
"You would want to know, wouldn't you?"
Drawling, he reached for her hands again, and Yun had to visibly frown from the effort that it was needed to keep her powers from immediately surging out.
"That is actually good. Having a stronger reaction means having more power at your disposal."
"It also means that you have not used your powers as a weapon before... Or at least, you have not for a very long time."
Yun's hands curled up into a ball, the nails digging into her flesh.
Images of how she raised the fire back home flashed within her mind, and it was a while before she could completely push them away.
Xiao's figure became clearer, as she blinked, forcing herself to completely be in the present.
"The next thing you will learn, is how to draw on your powers to attack."
"I don't want that." She blurted out.
"Too bad you won't get to refuse."
In that instant, she felt scorching heat on her palms, and she attempted to jerk them backwards. It was still tightly held by Xiao however, and that was the breaking point for her in holding her powers back.
Waves flowed out, illuminating her palms, and Xiao finally released the iron grip around her hands.
"Now, pull the power out."
Yun breathed, trying to control it as what Lord Xu taught her. She found out soon enough how straining it was without having a destination for her to send a power into, and her hands started to tremble.
The light coalesced into a ball into the air, levitating a few inches away from her palm. It cast fluid shadows at the hallway, dancing around. And her breath caught as within the dancing light and dark, she saw a figure darting around the hallway as she caught side of the edge of his robes.
She stole a glance at Xiao, and it was only then she realized that he was attempting to angle his body away from her, seemingly disturbed by the ball of light.
"You have control over air, right?" He turned back to him, his eyebrows pinched slightly.
She nodded, turning her eyes back on the ball of light. She hoped that with his discomfort and with her not giving away anything, the person that rounded the corner can escape.
"Use your air powers to sever the connection between the light within your body and the ball of light."
"You should find that it will come to you easily the more you try it."
Yun took another deep breath, controlling her breathing.
The air followed her will, severing through the normally hard-to-break ties of light.
Another breath.
And she boosted it outwards using the air around her, pushing it towards Xiao as the light sailed guided through the air.
Xiao's eyes narrowed, and he spun out of the way. The ball of light hit one of the potted plants in the corridor, the leaves set alight as black smoke rose from it.
"Not bad, but I didn't teach you all of those techniques just for you to use them against me." He said in a dangerously low voice, as she turned around to face him. "Really, I'm only being this polite because there's so little of your kind."
His eyes darted to the side, and Yun followed, watching with horror as someone's robes fluttered around the corner.
Why was he here? Yun wanted to scream at his foolishness.
With the blink of an eye though, he moved with a speed so fast that Yun found herself rounding the corner too late as she reacted. A man was already in his clutch as Xiao lifted him by the neck. His feet were kicking off the ground, desperately trying to fight for air as he choked.
"Xiao, please. Don't hurt him."
"Well, I won't kill him since you asked." He said after a few moments of tense silence. "But I won't exactly be able to let him go either."
Yun ran up to him as he let the dancer fall onto the ground, crumpled onto a heap. But instead of walking away from him, he knelt down on the ground, and placed two fingers on one side of his temple.
The pain on the male dancer's face seared into her vision as he soundlessly writhed, his teeth bared and grinded while his brows furrowed. His head lolled to the side when Xiao withdrew his hand, a burnt mark showing itself.
"What did you do?" She breathed in horror. Her knees went weak and they thudded against the ground next to the limp body.
"I burnt away his memories." Xiao in a nonchalant voice that made her shudder. "He won't remember much. But unless you want him to completely lose everything up in his head, you'd better hurry."
A clay bottle rolled next to his feet, and Yun pounced on it. She quickly shuffled herself next to the dancer's head and tilted his head upwards. The pale yellow liquid she emptied quickly into his throat, and with both hands, she made sure that she swallowed it, watching as his throat bobbed.
She placed her hands on his hand, and called the light to wash upon his hands. With no other tools and herbs on her, the only thing she can use was the first method of healing that Lord Xu taught her. "Heal, please."
Waves of exhaustion swept over her as she finally removed her hands. She had done the best that she could, but she was spent, slumping sideways to the floor. She had a feeling that it was too late however.
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Her eyes closed as a gust of wind blew past, and she had to blink the sand out of her eyes to see clearly.
Ying was kneeling over him, a look of concern on her face. Lord Xu had also arrived, his eyes glowing a bright amber in the dark.
Yun locked eyes with Ying, whom immediately ran over close to her prop her up. "Are you fine? You don't look fine."
"I need the sun, or sleep." Yun mumbled. Her head was already starting to spin, and she had to put two hands to steady herself even though she knew that the ground wasn't moving.
A sudden searing pain on her left shoulder caused her to hiss, and she pulled away from it with a jerk. But after it, she felt reenergized, like she had not expanded any energy throughout the day at all.
She lifted her head to see Lord Xu's hand hovering over her shoulder, and she instantly caught on.
"The night's not over yet. You still have to go back inside to walk the path that you have chosen all the way." He said lowly, the gold in his eyes receding.
"But what about him?"
"I take care of my students Yun. He will be watched after until he recovers completely. Now go."