roamingjaguar replied to your post “33 from the prompt list for Xicheng?”
Jfc lemme know when you find that happy ending ��
Something--someone--was missing. Had been, for awhile. Lan Xichen could feel it within himself, as if part of his soul had left him, had been taken away. He certainly wouldn’t have given it away freely.
He had tried to figure it out on his own, with what little clues he could find. There were toys for an infant hidden away in a box in his quarters, but he didn’t know of any infants. There were rings, too small for him, and an ear cuff, not his style, hidden in his jewelry box. A wooden comb featuring a lotus in bloom found among the items in his bathing chamber. There was a name whispered among his fellow Sidhe throughout the Cloud Recesses. Jiang Cheng. He didn’t know it, but he heard it, often, in passing.
The Jiangs were wizards, he had found in his studies. Had ruled over Lotus Pier, a land now destroyed. No descendants left. Two brothers missing. A mystery of its own, but when Xichen inquired, he was told to leave it alone. That whatever happened there was not of the Winter Court’s concern.
But Xichen felt something there must have been of his concern at one time. Why else did his breath catch whenever he saw a lotus blossom? Why else did long dark hair adorned with purple ribbons always turn his head, make him search the crowds of the market, desperate to find someone he couldn’t recall.
He felt like he was going mad, and peace could not be found in the tranquility of the Winter Court.
“I would like to seek Wangji,” he told his Uncle. It was not a request, for Xichen held the power of their clan, but it was as polite a demand as he could make.
“You would go through the Veil?” Uncle asked. “You know that land is too polluted for Sidhe of our standing.”
“Wangji has survived it.”
“Wangji is stubborn,” Uncle said.
“And so am I,” Xichen replied.
Uncle sat back, a hand stroked his beard. “The Veil will drop on the Equinox. If you can make it to Ville, I know they have trusted Real-Jumpers there who can guide you to a Wayfarer tavern. The Nie pack is established there. The wolves should honor our treaty and take you in.”
He would have to leave immediately to make it to Ville on time.
“Do you really think you can find him?” Uncle asked.
Xichen startled forward. “Him?” he asked.
Uncle nodded. He pulled a folio out of his desk drawer and handed it to Xichen.
“I was asked to destroy this by Jiang Cheng. I don’t know why I held on to it. I understand his actions, I even aided him in the ‘cause, but you are stubborn, Huan, and like most Lans, your soul mate cannot be completely cut from you, no matter how powerful their magic.”
He flipped the folio open. Portraits. Hand-drawn, his art, pages of a gorgeous man with purple robes. A lotus pond in bloom. A more formal portrait of a family, mother, father, daughter, two sons. One son in purple, the other in black and red.
“You do not have the time for such questions,” Uncle said. “You must go to seek your answers.
