Jiang Yanli is so happy when they get Jiang Cheng back that it takes her a few moments to realize how wrong he looks and feels. He’s pale and when he finally wakes up, once they have him settled in a bed in the Yiling supervisory office, his eyes are vacant, not burning with the anger and grief she knows they all feel and she doesn’t know how to help him.

She’s not in the room when Wen Qing examines him, busy preparing pork rib and lotus root soup in an effort to tempt him out of bed, so she doesn’t know exactly what Wen Qing finds. But she knows something is very wrong.

“A-Cheng,” Jiang Yanli says as she reenters the rooms they’ve set aside for Jiang Cheng. “I’ve brought soup.” He doesn’t stir at her words or as she sets up the soup at the low table a few steps from his sickbed.

She checks on him in bed and finds him lying there staring up at the ceiling unmoving, unspeaking, and barely blinking. “Won’t you try to eat something, didi? Just a little, please?” she asks, sitting on the side of the bed with soup in hand. He doesn’t move, doesn’t respond and Jiang Yanli can feel her worry increasing with every moment.

Wei Wuxian comes in after her fifth failed attempt to get Jiang Cheng to eat and she knows by the look on his face that they’re no closer to being safe.

“A-Xian,” she says, gently grabbing Wei Wuxian’s arm as they switch places and he sits at Jiang Cheng’s bedside. “Come have some soup, you need to eat too.”

He nods and joins her at the table, eating his portion but quieter than she’s seen him in years. It makes worry set up shop in her stomach, swirly along with the underlying fear of discovery.

“Did Lady Wen tell you what’s wrong with him?” Jiang Yanli asks as she ladles out some soup for Wei Wuxian. “I’m very worried.”

He doesn’t look at her, focused on the bowl in front of him as he starts to speak. “He has three broken ribs and he was whipped,” he says, to his bowl, still not looking up.

Jiang Yanli takes that in and normally she’d believe that was everything and focus on helping Jiang Cheng heal but she knows Wei Wuxian is not telling her everything, she feels it. “Is that everything?” she asks, gently. Jiang Yanli reaches out and grabs his hand, forcing him to look at her. “It’s just us now, don’t keep things from me. Please.”

“Shijie,” he starts locking eyes with her and then looking back down at his bowl. ‘’It might be better if you didn’t know.”

Jiang Yanli gives him a flat look; she has never been disappointed in Wei Wuxian but she thinks she might be if he starts keeping things from her. “It might be better if our sect wasn’t destroyed. I can make decisions for myself, A-Xian, you’re both my juniors and I need to know.”

Wei Wuxian nods at her and swallows. “Wen Zhuliu destroyed his golden core.”

She gasps. Jiang Yanli wishes she didn’t as soon as the sound has forced itself out of her mouth, but a million different horrible consequences flash in her mind at that knowledge. “How?” she asks and then shakes her head at the stupidity of the question. They all know how, they’ve all heard the tales of horror at the core melting hand. “What can we do to help him?”

“I don’t know yet, I’m working on it,” Wei Wuxian says. He sounds determined and Jiang Yanli doesn’t doubt him.

She nods. “Don’t shut me out when you figure something out, XianXian,” Jiang Yanli says, reaching over to pat his hand. “It’s just us now, we have to stick together.”

He looks at her for a long moment before nodding. Jiang Yanli pats his head and smiles and lets him get back to eating. She isn’t sure if there is a solution or if they’ll need to find a way to hide the fact that the last son of the Yunmeng Jiang sect has lost his golden core but she has faith that if there’s anything to be done Wei Wuxian will find a way. And that gives her a little comfort.

*
Jiang Yanli barely sees Wei Wuxian over the next five days, he disappears with a pile of scrolls and books from the small collection Wen Qing has brought with her. She worries and tries to get Jiang Cheng to eat and worries more.

“Lady Wen,” she calls, as she’s leaving the small kitchen after dropping off yet another meal that’s gone cold and uneaten. Wen Qing stops and turns to meet her, face unreadable as ever.

“I was hoping you’d have time to speak with me,” Jiang Yanli asks, with a gentle smile. She hopes she’s projecting a calm she does not feel, anything to put Wen Qing at ease.

Wen Qing nods and follows Jiang Yanli into the building that’s served as her home while they’ve been in hiding in Yiling and directs Wen Qing to the low table to sit. Jiang Yanli takes a deep breath and holds it as she pours the tea and releases it as she sets down the teapot.

“Is there any way to help my brother?” Jiang Yanli finally asks, after they’ve taken their sips and sat in silence for a few minutes. “You’ve been talking to Wei Wuxian and you understand medical treatment better than I could ever hope.”

Wen Qing sighs. “You should speak with Wei Wuxian,” she says, finally fixing Jiang Yanli with a look she can’t decipher. “He’s been researching.”

“Yes, I know,” Jiang Yanli replies, with a sad smile. She is well aware of his work even if he hasn’t told her what exactly he’s looking for. “But he hasn’t spoken to me of it yet and I’d like to be well-armed before I seek him out.”

Wen Qing doesn’t speak for several long moments and Jiang Yanli feels her hopes of answers dim so she adds, “I want to protect my little brothers in any way I can, I thought maybe you could understand that.”

Wen Qing sighs. “There is no way that I know to restore a golden core, there is no way to reform a golden core once it has been lost,” she says, pausing for a moment. “Wei Wuxian thinks he has found a solution but it’s an abomination with no guarantee of working.”

“What is it?” Jiang Yanli pleads. She is under no illusions about her ability to help but she needs to know from someone who won’t keep things from her under a need to protect her. “You have seen what he’s like, if it’s as terrible as you say he won’t tell me.”

“He’s found a way to transfer a golden core from one person to another,” Wen Qing says voice flat. “The possibility for success is only fifty percent.”

Jiang Yanli looks down into her teacup as a thousand thoughts flit through her mind. “Would we need the golden core to be equal to the one that was destroyed?” Jiang Yanli asks, offhand as she thinks, weighing her life against the survival of her sect, against the survival of her brothers. It’s not difficult to weigh things more heavily toward her family.

Wen Qing takes a harsh breath and looks at her sharply. “You cannot consider doing this, there is no guarantee you’d survive.”

Jiang Yanli smiles at her. “Would you do any less for your brother?” she asks, head tilted. “We both know Wei Wuxian would happily throw his life away to save Jiang Cheng. He’d happily sacrifice his own future for our family.”

“You’re suggesting the same,” Wen Qing points out with a frown.

“Not really,” Jiang Yanli says. “My cultivation is very low, I’ve never sought out immortality or power and I never wanted to be as fierce as my mother. If I lost my golden core, who would notice?”

Wen Qing sighs. “You could die.”

“My brother could live,” Jiang Yanli replies with the slightest uptick of her lips. It’s not quite a smile, she doesn’t want to die but she can’t watch her baby brother waste away. “Our sect motto is attempt the impossible, it’s high time I tried to live it.”

Wen Qing looks at her for several long moments that feel like hours before she nods and seems to settle into a decision. “I will help you,” she says with a sigh. “I still think this is a dumb idea but I can’t fault you for trying, I couldn’t do less for my brother.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet, you need to convince Wei Wuxian. And you should cultivate more to prepare.”

Jiang Yanli nods and smiles. “I will,” she says, and then to herself, “I will,” happy to finally have something to do to save her family.

*
Jiang Yanli doesn’t wait long to talk to Wei Wuxian. She has the element of surprise on her side and she intends to use it.

“XianXian,” she calls when she finds him by Jiang Cheng’s bedside. Jiang Cheng is sleeping, with the help of Wen Qing’s needles. “Please come and sit with me.”

He comes and sits across from her at the low table in the center of the room, smiling shakily as she takes his hand. “Shijie, how are you feeling?” he asks as she pats his hand.

“Much better,” Jiang Yanli says smiling at him. She feels more at peace now, knowing what she can do to help their family. “I’ve been meditating when I can.”

“A-Xian,” she starts, then pauses unsure how to proceed. Jiang Yanli takes a deep breath and charges ahead, secure in her belief that this is the right choice. “I’ve spoken to Wen Qing, she’ll do the transfer.”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened in surprise. “What transfer?” he starts and then falters as Jiang Yanli pins him with a look. “Do you understand what this means? For me?” he asks, eyes flicking back and forth as he searches her face. “And you approve?”

She smiles as she reaches out and cups his chin. “Our XianXian is very brave,” Jiang Yanli says, not quite answering his question yet. “I knew you would find a way to save him but you cannot make this sacrifice.”

He shakes his head. “There’s no one else,” Wei Wuxian says, tears already forming in his eyes. “I promised I’d look after him.”

“You cannot look after him if you don’t have a core,” Jiang Yanli says, gently. “But I’m not doing much with mine.”

Wei Wuxian looks at her sharply and grips her hand tightly. “What? I don’t understand.”

“I think you do,” she says, with another smile. “Wen Qing will help us, if I give Jiang Cheng my core.”

“You can’t do that,” Wei Wuxian says, words nearly jumbled together in his rush. “There’s only a fifty percent chance of survival, shijie please!”

Jiang Yanli huffs. “But it’s fine for you to risk your life for our family?” she asks, with as close to a glare as she can manage. “A-Xian, our motto is attempt the impossible. I’ve never had a chance to try and what better time than now when the future of our sect is at stake?”

“That’s not what I mean,” he says, voice going up in his panic. “You can attempt the impossible some other way, you don’t need to do this, I’m willing and ready.”

She smiles at him. “And I love you for that. I would never doubt how much you’d sacrifice to protect us,” she says. Jiang Yanli pats his hand. “But you aren’t the only one who gets to make sacrifices for our family, I’m your senior and you don’t get to take this from me.”

Wei Wuxian swallows and nods, a quick sharp jerk of his head.

“Good,” Jiang Yanli says, sighing with relief. “I’ll give Jiang Cheng my golden core and you’ll keep us both safe.”

“He’ll be angry,” Wei Wuxian says, blinking away tears. “And he won’t agree to it if we tell him.”

Jiang Yanli nods sadly. “I know; I don’t like to lie but if it means Jiang Cheng recovers I’m willing to try.”

“Okay,” Wei Wuxian says with a sigh. “I already have an idea in mind.”

“Good,” Jiang Yanli says. “Tell me.”

*
Jiang Yanli doesn’t hate the idea but it seems unnecessarily complicated.

“Why can’t we just tell him Wen Qing has found a procedure to return it? Wouldn’t that be easier?”

Wei Wuxian sighs. “He’d never believe it, shijie. It has to be something extraordinary.”

“I suppose,” she says, taking a moment to reflect on Jiang Cheng’s character. He would ask too many questions, too soon, if it was just a procedure and if it’s something extraordinary they wouldn’t be at as much risk of being asked to repeat it for someone else.

She nods. “Yes, you’re right. But we will need to tell him at some point and you’ll have to help me build up my core.”

“There’s nothing wrong with your core.”

Jiang Yanli rolls her eyes, an act she’d been taught was unladylike but it feels appropriate. “A-Xian you’re very sweet but my cultivation is not very high and my core is weak. I’m the only one in our family who still has their sword and you wouldn’t even think to ask me to use it.”

“Not because I think you’re weak, shijie,” he says, so sincerely she thinks he means it. “It’s because you’re my shijie, I’d never ask you to go into battle.”

Jiang Yanli smiles. “I’d be useless anyway,” she says with a laugh. “And I’m not looking for a chance to go into battle, I just want to give A-Cheng a better core to work with.”

Wei Wuxian sighs and says, “It won’t be pleasant.”

“I know, XianXian. I’ll endure it if it means we can help Jiang Cheng,” she says clearly. She’s lost her cough and no longer feels like she’s stood for days every time she cooks, it’s well past time.

He nods and says, “Okay,” and they get to work.

Jiang Yanli has had the same fundamental education as her brothers. She cultivated a golden core, trained with a sword when she was young to strengthen it but it never quite fit. She has always understood the quest for more spiritual power but she has never wanted it for herself, Jiang Yanli doesn’t desire immortality; she has always sought balance with nature in her own way, outside of the bounds of sword cultivation.

But now, Jiang Yanli sits across from her brother and focuses her chi on meditation. She feels like she has stepped outside of herself as they breathe together, feeling but not feeling the grain of the wood floor beneath them and the slight chill in the air and the slight buzzing of flies outside the window. It’s overwhelming but she’s glad to experience it, to feel her core growing just a little as they breathe with the rhythm of the world.

When they’re done their meditation for the day Wei Wuxian looks across at her and smiles. “Now it’s time for the fun stuff,” he says, rising to his feet. “Bring your sword.”

The sword practice is nothing Jiang Yanli would call fun. It’s hard, it’s painful and it sits so unnaturally on her that she wonders again at her mother’s restraint from criticizing her for it.

This becomes her routine, meditation for several hours every morning - which feels good and sword practice every afternoon - that feels bad. She gets better, more competent but it is clear she’d have never been a great swordswoman, could have never been a warrior like her mother but her core grows stronger.

They wake Jiang Cheng every day hoping for a change but he remains either detached or enraged so they force him to eat and then let him sleep while Jiang Yanli builds her core and Wen Qing develops the plan for surgery.

It’s been nearly a month of this when Wen Qing stops her as she spars with Wen Ning and calls Wei Wuxian over from the spot he’s been sitting in as he calls out instructions.

“It’s time,” Wen Qing says as they all huddle in the center of the courtyard. “We either do the transfer now or we don’t do it at all.”

Jiang Yanli frowns. Her core is much stronger, she’s much stronger but there is no reason to rush things now. With a little more time she knows she can provide Jiang Cheng with a better core. “Why the rush now? I haven’t changed my mind but I think a few more weeks wouldn’t hurt.”

“Wen Chao is being allowed to leave Nightless City again,” she says, looking at each of them. “His father hasn’t let him kill me or A-Ning, but he won’t hesitate to kill you; we have to move now.”

Wei Wuxian nods. “We understand,” he says, then looks at Jiang Yanli. “Shijie, do you still want to do this? It’s not too late, I can-”

“No,” Jiang Yanli says, cutting him off. “It has to be me and I’m ready.”

He swallows but nods again. “Okay. I’ll get Jiang Cheng ready. We’ll be ready to meet you on the mountain in a day.”

“Good,” Wen Qing says with a sharp nod. “Your sister will leave with me tonight, A-Ning will travel with you and your brother and bring you to us.”

The Wens leave them to go prepare and Jiang Yanli has a moment alone with Wei Wuxian before she has to prepare to leave.

“Shijie,” Wei Wuxian starts and then stops as she smiles at him.

“It’s okay,” she says, reaching out for his hands. “I know what I’m doing.”

“You don’t have to do this,” he says, squeezing her hand. “We’ve spent all this time developing your core and you’re much stronger now.”

She smiles again. “I know. I’ve never felt stronger so I know this is the right choice. I’ll give Jiang Cheng my core and then I’ll have both of my brothers to protect me.”

“We will,” Wei Wuxian says; his voice is firm but his eyes are watery. “We’ll keep you safe.”

“Good,” she says with a nod and one last quick squeeze of his hands. “Now go take care of Jiang Cheng, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He nods and then he lets go of her hands and walks away. Jiang Yanli nods once to herself, takes a deep cleansing breath and goes to get ready to leave the life of cultivation behind.

*

The wait on the mountain feels endless as they watch Jiang Cheng make his way, stumbling and blindfolded. Jiang Yanli is hidden, face covered watching her baby brother fumble his way toward them and for the first time she feels a sense of unease. She is secure in the choice to give up her core but the method seems wrong. He should be walking into this clear eyed and in full agreement, not like this.

But it’s too late to change things now. She’ll tell him when they’re through this, when Wen Ruohan has been defeated and their family is safe. Jiang Cheng finally crests the hill and then Wen Qing gets into position and it begins.

Everything happens quickly, Jiang Cheng answers the questions they’d all established, Wen Qing drugs Jiang Cheng and then Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning are there arranging the makeshift beds as Wen Qing gets ready to operate.

When it starts Jiang Yanli thinks she is ready for the pain but she is wrong. It’s agony, unlike anything she’s felt before and it’s only a few minutes before it becomes clear that she will have no relief during the surgery. Wen Ning gives her a sturdy branch to clench between her teeth and Wei Wuxian lets her grasp his hand and while those things are grounding she still feels every moment of the removal of her core. For two nights and one day Wen Qing cuts her open and takes a part of her soul. She sobs until there are no tears, screams until there is no voice and still it goes on until finally she sees her golden core in Wen Qing’s hands and shifts her head to watch as it is gifted to her brother.

Once it is finally, safely in Jiang Cheng she lets the pain and exhaustion pull her under and doesn’t think about it anymore.

When she wakes up they’re already at the foot of the mountain. The plan is for her to return to the Yiling supervisory office to recover while Wei Wuxian meets up with Jiang Cheng but they don’t get far before one of Wen Qing’s people finds them and warns them that Wen Chao is waiting there.

“We have to change plans,” Wen Qing says, calm and cool in the face of such a threat. “He will kill you,” she adds.

“We’ll have to wait for Jiang Cheng at the inn, shijie can recover there and once we have Jiang Cheng we’ll send her on to Lanling,” Wei Wuxian says, and then looks to her for agreement.

Jiang Yanli nods, too tired and sore to complain. She has no interest in relying on the hospitality of the Jin sect when she is at her lowest but - they are desperate and alone so she’ll endure it. “I’ll go.”

“Good,” Wen Qing says. She looks at her brother and adds, “Didi, you’ll need to go too, Wen Chao won’t let drugging him go unpunished.”

Wen Ning frowns. “I don’t have to run from him, jiejie,” he says, nervously fidgeting with his hands. “I could stay with you.”

“No,” She says, voice firm. “He’ll kill you, he won’t kill me. I’ll find you after I get rid of him.”

He starts to argue but she cuts him off. “I mean it, didi, you know what he’s like. He’s been held back from hurting you too many times, he won’t hesitate.”

“Please don’t further endanger yourself for us,” Jiang Yanli says, reaching out to grasp his hand. “Your sister just wants to protect you, please let her.”

He looks at her for a long moment and then nods.

“Good,” Wei Wuxian says. He looks at Wen Ning thoughtfully for a moment and says, “You should head back to the foot of the mountain and meet Jiang Cheng. Tell him I asked you to stay there as a lookout because we were warned about Wen Chao.”

Wen Ning nods and hugs his sister. “Be careful,” Wen Qing says before she lets him go and Wen Ning makes his way back to the mountain. “You two need to keep a low profile, stay together and don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’d never do anything stupid,” Wei Wuxian says, confidently. Wen Qing and Jiang Yanli both give him a look and then look at each other and laugh.

“Thank you for that, A-Xian, we needed it,” Jiang Yanli says, reaching out to pat his hand. “We’ll be careful,” she says turning to Wen Qing. “We can never repay you for what you’ve done.”

“Stay alive,” Wen Qing says, voice serious. “That will be payment enough,” she adds and then dons her hood and heads off in the direction of the supervisory office.

They watch her disappear down the path and then they are alone. Wei Wuxian holds out his arm for Jiang Yanli and after she takes it they make their way into the village to find the inn. Jiang Yanli is worried but at least for now they’re together.

*
They’re at the inn for three days before Wei Wuxian starts getting anxious. Jiang Yanli is still in pain from the surgery and from the absence of her core but she watches him. It’s another four days before he begins to pace their shared room, radiating worry.

“Please be calm, A-Xian,” she says when she catches him looking out the window again. They’ve spotted Wen soldiers making their way through the village a few times but it does them no good to constantly lurk around the windows looking for them. “I’m sure A-Cheng is fine, we just need to be patient.”

Wei Wuxian sighs and walks over to the bed and plops down on the floor beside it. “He’s late, shijie, he shouldn’t be late,” he says, anxiousness bleeding into his voice.

“Wen Ning was meeting him,” she says, patting his head. “He’s got a warning about Wen Chao, so maybe he’s being cautious until things are clear.”

“Maybe,” Wei Wuxian says, with a sigh. “I still don’t like it. I would have thought they’d all be gone by now.”

Jiang Yanli frowns looking toward the window. “I think maybe Wen Chao didn’t believe Wen Qing and they think we’re still here instead of halfway to Lanling.”

“And they’re right,” Wei Wuxian says, looking up at her from his spot on the floor. “I should go out and see if I can intercept Jiang Cheng. Before he walks into this village or the innkeeper thinks we fit whatever description those soldiers are giving out.”

“We,” Jiang Yanli says, standing up. She’s still in pain but she won’t be split from another member of her family, not now.

“What?” Wei Wuxian says, scrambling up to join her.

“We’ll go together,” she says, patting his hand. “I’m sure they’re not looking for you to be traveling with a woman and we’re not being split up, not now.”

“Shijie,” he says, pleading but Jiang Yanli will not back down.

She looks at him, unflinching and says, “Either we go together or we don’t go at all. I won’t let you go risk yourself alone.”

He sighs and nods and then they put on their cloaks, hoods up and head out.

It’s raining heavily when they leave the inn and the streets are quiet but there are no Wen soldiers lurking about for the first time in days. They make it halfway up the path out of the village without seeing a single person and for a moment Jiang Yanli thinks, ‘what luck we have’, but then she notices the tension in Wei Wuxian’s arm and the way he is warily watching the road and she realizes, even in this rain the village would not be so quiet.

“We should turn back,” Jiang Yanli says, looking around warily. “I don’t like this.”

Wei Wuxian doesn’t say anything but he turns them away from the path, and starts them on an indirect trip back to their inn. “If anything happens, you run and hide,” he says voice low as they make their way.

She wants to argue but things are so tense and it feels like there’s a hint of danger in the air. Jiang Yanli hopes it’s nothing, that they’re both overreacting and the people have just sought shelter from the rain even if it all feels slightly off.

They approach the inn from behind, turning up a narrow path along the side to get to the entrance. Every step they take leaves Jiang Yanli anxious, ready to be back in the safety and security of their room. The rain lets up as they approach the stairs leading up to the entrance and she hopes it’s a good sign.

She sighs in relief when they climb the steps and thinks we’re safe and then the doors open and all of her relief is ripped away as they come face to face with a room full of Wens. Wei Wuxian tries to quickly turn and push her out of the inn but they’re both thrown backwards and onto the floor.

Jiang Yanli doesn’t cry out as the breath is knocked out of her when she falls and she doesn’t have the energy to struggle when the Wen soldiers grab her and Wei Wuxian by their arms and hold them in place for Wen Chao and a woman she doesn’t know but assumes must be Wang Lingjiao.

Pain blooms along her back and along her stomach and she wonders if her stitches have broken as a soldier hits Wei Wuxian and forces him back down to the floor.

“Weren’t you that arrogant brat back in the Xuanwu Slaughter cave?” Wen Chao asks, as his men hold Wei Wuxian down on the floor. He steps on Wei Wuxian’s hand and Jiang Yanli flinches away from the sound of his bones grinding together.

She takes several deep, quiet breaths and casts her mind back to one of her mother's harshest lessons. Her mother had always been disappointed in Jiang Yanli’s cultivation level, hoping for her daughter to be as fierce as the women of the Meishan Yu sect. But when it became clear that Jiang Yanli would never have a high cultivation level her mother had changed her lessons.

“Your cultivation is low so you must conserve your spiritual energy and you are a woman so you’ll be bound to a man for all of your life,” Yu Ziyuan had said while Jinzhu and Yinzhu stood guard at the door.

“Jin Zixuan is the only son of my sworn sister and she has tried to raise him to be the type of man I’d be happy to see you marry,” she’d said with a near sneer. “But his father is a disgrace to his sect and you must prepare yourself for disappointment. Sometimes, as women, it’s necessary to disconnect yourself as protection.”

Jiang Yanli can’t remember much more of what her mother said but she leans on that in the moment, casting her mind away as Wen Chao tortures her brother. Wei Wuxian gives him nothing, even when Wen Chao fixes his eye on Jiang Yanli and threatens to make her his second mistress.

*
Jiang Yanli wakes up to howling winds and grit under her fingers. She feels pain, everywhere and as she sits up it seems to radiate down from her head to her ankles; and she feels utterly alone.

A-Li she hears on the wind. It sounds like her mother and she turns quickly trying to follow the sound, trying to seek some comfort in the familiar. She hears it again A-Li and it sounds like her father and Jiang Yanli wonders if she has truly sat up, if she is not instead lying broken on the death infused grounds of the burial mounds, waiting to take her last breath.

The ground beneath her feels real enough as she shifts onto her hands and knees and starts crawling toward the sound of her parents’ voices. Jiang Yanli doesn’t have high hopes, she assumes, resignedly, that she is crawling toward her own death but Jiang Cheng has a golden core, he has a chance and that is all that matters.

She crawls for a few minutes, her mother's voice whispering in her ear when she hears, “Shijie! Shijie, where are you?”

Jiang Yanli looks up and thinks about not responding, it’s probably as false a voice as her mother’s but it sounds so much like Wei Wuxian and in a rush she remembers that he was pushed first. “XianXian?” she says, voice barely above a whisper and then “A-Xian! A-Xian!”

She can’t stand up, there is too much pain, too much wind but she keeps yelling crawling toward his voice yelling back until she bumps into something and warm familiar hands close around her arms.

“Shijie!” He yells, helping her up into a crouch. “I was so scared, I woke up and I couldn’t find you and I thought, I hoped I’d imagined them pushing you in after me.”

Jiang Yanli shakes her head. “That woman pushed me in,” she says, leaning against the very solid, very real form of her brother. “I could hear Wen Chao yelling at her over my screams.”

His hand tightens on her arm for a moment and he says, “She’ll pay for that, they’ll all pay.”

She reaches up and grabs his hand on her shoulder. “They will,” she says, voice firm. “We have to find a way out of here and then they will know what it means to cross Yunmeng Jiang.”

He helps her stand and it’s agony but she pushes the pain down.

“We have to find shelter,” Wei Wuxian says as they make their way slowly along a craggy, rocky path. The voices continue as they walk; she hears her mother, her father, Jiang Cheng, all of them calling out to her and demanding vengeance.

“Do you hear them?” Jiang Yanli asks as they stop to rest. She hurts so much, every step feels like agony and she wonders, vaguely if she’s broken her leg. “I think we’re going the right way.”

Wei Wuxian looks at her, eyes wary. “It’s not real, shijie,” he says, grimacing as he sinks into lotus position. “We have to ignore it.”

“So you hear it too?”

He nods. “It’s different, from the last time I heard it,” he says, looking out at the dark dark land around them. “Before it was only the voices of the dead, of people I didn’t know, now?” he shakes his head.

“What is it?” Jiang Yanli asks, reaching out and grasping his hand. “I can hear my mother, my father, even Jiang Cheng. He’s not dead, he can’t be dead,” she says, voice desperate. They’ve sacrificed too much for it to be in vain.

Wei Wuxian shakes his head. “He’s not dead, he’s too strong,” he says, squeezing her hand. “This is how resentful energy works, it makes you hear things that aren’t there. I can hear your parents and Lan Zhan, and I know he’s not dead,” he says, with a smile that’s there and gone in a moment. “But I can also hear strangers, voices I don’t know beckoning me forward.”

“You’ve heard this before,” she says. It’s not a question, she can tell by the way he speaks of it; this isn’t something he’s studied, this is something he’s experienced before.

Wei Wuxian sighs. “When we were trapped in the Xuanwu cave there was a sword,” he says, briefly squeezing her hand. “It was inside the tortoise of slaughter,” Wei Wuxian says looking at her. “So many people died in there, and the sword remembered all of them, all of their screams and rage.”

He frowns. “This feels so much like that,” he says, turning to look down the path. “I think if we keep going we’ll find something that can help us. Too many people have died angry here, they want help to get their revenge.”

Jiang Yanli watches him as he seems to drift off to some far off place and nods, deciding then and there that he cannot be allowed too close to whatever is calling them forward. He nearly died in the Xuanwu cave and she refuses to save one brother only to let another destroy himself. “Then we should continue on,” she says, rising shakily to her feet. “We cannot linger here, the sooner we have help the sooner we can start figuring our way out of here.”

*
It feels like hours before they find what’s been drawing them forward; it’s a sword, standing upright where it’s been shoved into the soft ground of the burial mounds. There’s dark smoke and wind tearing at their hair and robes but Jiang Yanli still hears Wei Wuxian’s sharp inhale as they lay eyes on the sword.

“What is it?” Jiang Yanli asks, fingers tightening on Wei Wuxian’s arm. Holding onto him isn’t the only thing keeping her upright but it’s close.

He frowns. “I know that sword,” Wei Wuxian says, taking a step forward seemingly involuntarily. “It’s the same one from the Xuanwu cave. I should..” he says trailing off.

“This is where the voices have led us,” Jiang Yanli says, keeping her tight hold on Wei Wuxian’s arm. She can hear her mother urging her to walk forward, to take the sword and now with a little bit of movement and something to hold onto she’s not sure if she should listen. “I don’t think you should touch it.”

“Why?” Wei Wuxian asks, taking another small, labored step forward. Jiang Yanli doesn’t let go of his arm so she’s pulled along with him. “I’ve handled it before, shijie, it’s fine, I know how to handle it.”

A-Li, you have to avenge us, she hears in her mother's voice and shivers. She sounds like she did when Jiang Yanli was little, firm but kind. It’s a tone she hasn’t heard in years and it makes her feel clearer than she’s felt since they removed her core.

“When you came back from the Xuanwu cave you were feverish and unconscious for days,” Jiang Yanli says, grip tight on Wei Wuxian’s arm. “If that happens here, who could protect you? Who could protect me?” she adds. “I have no core and I could barely use my sword before, how could I keep us safe if you fall ill?”

He looks at her, his face drawn taut and asks, “What do you want to do?” There’s dread dripping from each of his words but she ignores it.

“I’ll go,” she says, holding his gaze. “If I can’t dislodge it or if it affects me too much I’ll stop and let you try.”

“I promised I’d keep you safe,” Wei Wuxian says, with a hint of pleading in his voice. “How does this do that? Please don’t make me break my promise.”

Jiang Yanli reaches out and palms his cheek. “XianXian, I promised to take care of you too,” she says, with a shaky smile. “Maybe once we have it we can keep each other safe and when we finally escape this place we’ll take care of Jiang Cheng too. All three of us, together forever.”

Wei Wuxian nods, eyes watery. “Tell me immediately if it hurts you,” he says, covering her hand on his face with his own. “We have to stick together.”

“I will and we will,” she says and then she lets go of his arm and takes her first shaky step toward the sword. Her mother's voice follows her, encouraging her onward. It feels like hours before she is in front of the sword, dark winds swirling around her.

She looks back toward Wei Wuxian and sees the worry plainly written across his face and reaches out and grabs the sword. In one moment with one action, her whole world turns upside down.

All of the noise of the wind drops away and Jiang Yanli feels nothing but stillness. She can feel a faint hint of the wind still whipping at her hair, can see Wei Wuxian standing not too far away looking very worried but it all feels far away, outside of her.

“A-Li,” her mother says, materializing out of the fog. “You’re doing so well.”

“Niang,” Jiang Yanli says, tears welling up in her eyes. “You can’t be here, you’re dead.”

Yu Ziyuan scoffs. “Death could not keep me from my children, I will have my satisfaction and then I can move on.”

Jiang Yanli’s eyes go wide. “But we gave you a proper burial, A-Xian got your bodies back from the Wens.”

“He did,” she says, voice thoughtful. “That Wei Wuxian is more useful than he looks. But it takes more to satisfy the Meishan Yu sect than a burial, A-Yi, you should know your history.”

Jiang Yanli nods at the scolding. She’d heard stories from her grandmother when she was a child, about failed soul cleansings and restless dead relatives who returned and demanded satisfaction. But she never thought it would be her mother and like this.

“What do I do?” Jiang Yanli asks. Although she feels like she knows, she can feel the power in the sword, can feel how much it wants to consume her if she welcomes it in but she doesn’t. It’s not quite fear; the worst things that could ever happen have already happened but she must make sure Wei Wuxian gets out of this place and she must see that Jiang Cheng is alive so it cannot have her.

Yu Ziyuan smiles. It’s so different from the smile she had in her life, twisted and angry in a way that surpasses the anger she had all of Jiang Yanli’s life. Her brothers didn’t tell her how their parents died but that smile tells her it wasn’t quick or easy and Jiang Yanli feels another wave of sadness. “Take the sword, A-Li. Take it and we’ll see if that shidi of yours can be useful again.”

She picks up the sword.

Wei Wuxian is wary of her mother’s ghost at first, giving her a wide berth but they reach a sort of peace in the weeks they spend in the burial mounds. In death, she has learned things that have settled her and refocused her anger, and it becomes clear as she keeps watch while Wei Wuxian reforges the sword into something that stands out less - two pieces so they can share the burden - that she doesn’t hate him anymore. She doesn’t like him, but she didn’t like many people in her life and Jiang Yanli is happy to see that at least she considers Wei Wuxian theirs.

“It’s done,” Wei Wuxian says, when they’ve been there a month and they’ve had to get more creative to find enough to eat. She’s been singing to herself as she tries to turn the skinny hare and mealy vegetables they’ve been able to forage into something hearty and filling for their one meal of the day. “You should be able to use this to control the resentful energy.”

“How?” Jiang Yanli asks as she banks the fire under the stew. Her mother’s spirit lingers on the edge of their camp, watching the pot hungrily and reminding Jiang Yanli that she’s a xīqìguǐ and will devour all of their meagre food if they let her. “They come to me so easily already,” she adds.

She doesn’t say what’s been lurking in her mind, that they come to Wei Wuxian just as easily as if they can all sense the anger, the despair, the overwhelming need for vengeance that seems to permeate the very air around them. Jiang Yanli had needed to touch the yin iron sword to bring it forward, to understand what was keeping her moving but it’s all much closer to the surface with him.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Wei Wuxian says, twirling his dizi. He’d started carving it out of the blackened wood trees that crowd the paths of the burial mounds and has taken to carrying it around with him in place of the sword that was taken by the Wens. “You sing,” he says, looking thoughtful. “If you sing with intent, if you call them to you they will come and this,” Wei Wuxian says, holding out something that looks similar to the Jiang sect bells they wear on their belts but gives off nothing of the calming aura, “will help you control them.”

Jiang Yanli takes it with a frown. “Why does it look so similar to our bells?” she asks as she adds it to her belt. “It should be something different.”

“We’re going to leave this place soon,” he says, plopping down next to her as she ladles stew into one of the rough-hewn bowls they’ve managed to make. “Madam Yu suggested that I forge something that won’t draw attention to either of us,” he says with a frown. “My first idea was an amulet, something substantial in size.”

“Something that would get you both killed,” Yu Ziyuan says, drifting over toward them. “All of these sect leaders are greedy cowards, never forget that,” she says as she eyes their bowls greedily.

Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian nod at her. Wei Wuxian doesn’t see anything wrong with the kind of cultivation they’re doing, it’s all interesting and innovative to him but Jiang Yanli is very aware of the ways and whims of the sects. Anything is acceptable if it helps them but if they can’t use it, it’s evil and must be destroyed and there’s no turning them back when they band together. It’s something she can’t forget, how all of the sects allowed the Wens to take and take and take, out of fear, how even Wen Qing, brave and defiant as she is, is afraid of the wrath of her own sect and must hide the good she’s done.

“We will not forget, mother, but we must also not forget our allies,” Jiang Yanli says, looking pointedly at Wei Wuxian. “If Wen Chao learned that Wen Qing and Wen Ning helped us they would be in as much danger as we are.”

Her mother scoffs. “Wens helped you? Unbelievable.”

“They helped us get Jiang Cheng back from Wen Chao and along with your bodies,” Wei Wuxian says, looking at her mother without fear. “We wouldn’t have survived this long without them.”

“Fine,” her mother says with scorn. “We shall mark these Wens as the few who won’t feed my hunger when we leave this place.”

Wei Wuxian nods and the fragile peace between them resettles. They finish their meal in mostly silence, with Wei Wuxian making a comment about them eating like Lans and then getting sad. They eat all of the pot, leaving nothing to chance since their meals have been sparse for days.

When they finish, Jiang Yanli looks toward her mother. “How long will it take us to make our way out of this place?” she asks, looking around at the makeshift camp they’ve called home for the last month.

“Time has no meaning to me,” Yu Ziyuan says with a shrug of her barely opaque shoulders. “It could be an hour, it could be 10 days, I can’t tell. I think it will take at least a week in your time, the terrain is rough for those with bodies and you’ll need to find food and rest.”

Jiang Yanli nods and looks at Wei Wuxian. “What do you think?”

“I think we take two more weeks, we can practice and you can heal.”

“I’m fine, A-Xian, just a little sore.”

“Shijie,” Wei Wuxian says, in that familiar whine.

Jiang Yanli sighs but gives in. “One week, and then we set out.”

“Okay,” Wei Wuxian says with a smile. “I only wanted a week anyway but I knew you’d be stubborn about it.”

She hears her mother snort from the edge of the camp and Jiang Yanli smiles, all they’re missing is Jiang Cheng and her father and it would be like they’re back at home.

At the end of that week, they begin their walk, practicing calling forth the dead as they go to clear debris and scare out game and make their trip as easy as a trip down a mountain littered with the resentful dead could be. Still, it takes them a month to reach the foot of the mountain, but by that time she has a firm grasp on how to call the dead and get them to do what she wants and together she’s sure the three of them are a Wen’s nightmare come to life.

She’s excited to see Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao again.

*
They emerge out of the burial mounds tired and filthy on a cold clear night. They have nothing of true value to trade for food and lodging and there’s no guarantee that Yiling is any safer than it was when they were thrown in. Instead, they stick to the shadows and Jiang Yanli doesn’t protest when Wei Wuxian steals food for them before they make their way out of the village.

“We need to find food and clothes before we try to find Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian says around a bite of a steamed bun. It’s the best food they’ve had in months but Jiang Yanli can only nibble at it as they walk. “Maybe I can try to get work on one of the mediocre people’s farms.”

“It would take a long time to save enough to get back on the road, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli says as they walk on. “It’s better to keep moving forward for now, especially when we have no way to know where anyone is.”

That’s not fully true even if they’re not quite ready to discuss it. They have her mother and they have the restless, angry dead dogging each of their steps. It would take little more than a song, a few words in her voice or a few notes on Wei Wuxian’s dizi to ask the dead to find Jiang Cheng, to find Wen Chao but they don’t speak it.

They’ve been walking for two nights, walking in the darkness and sleeping in trees during the day when her mother appears before them again.

“Good,” Yu Ziyuan says, startling them as she appears out of the mists of the night in front of them. “You’re on the right path already.”

“The right path to where?” Wei Wuxian asks, with an eyebrow raise.

“To Meishan, they’re sending a small party to collect you,” she says with a wave of her transparent hand.

Jiang Yanli startles at that news. She hasn’t seen her mother’s family in years, she was supposed to be sent to them to be out of harm’s way in the conflict before their whole lives fell apart. “How would they know to find us?” Jiang Yanli asks, warily. If they knew how to find them they should have come earlier: when Lotus Pier was under attack or when they were in hiding from the Wen sect, when they were near starving in the burial mounds. Any time earlier than now when they have the power to destroy their enemies and restore their families honor at their fingertips.

“I told them,” Yu Ziyuan says, carelessly. “I’m not bound to any one place or person, I hunger for vengeance and it will be mine. But you need allies and there is only one sect, one person who would not immediately banish me.”

“Grandmother,” Jiang Yanli says, voice nothing above a whisper. “Did she know? About Lotus Pier?”

Yu Ziyuan nods but it’s a strange thing. Too slow and too sharp for a human and the air around her seems to simmer with resentment. “The cultivation world has gone to war against the Wen sect. Your brother is with them wielding zidian.”

“He’s alive! Shijie, he’s alive and the core transfer worked!” Wei Wuxian says, face lighting up.

Jiang Yanli clasps her hands together in front of her face and cries. This at least is good news. Her sacrifice was not a mistake. Her baby brother is alive and leading whatever is left of their sect in war. It only takes her a moment to snap back to reality. “Does he think we’re dead?” Jiang Yanli asks, dread pooling in her stomach. She watches the smile fall off Wei Wuxian’s face and feels a moment of sadness that she had to ask this question.

“No,” Yu Ziyuan says and then smiles with sharper teeth than she ever had in life. “He has been searching for any sign or word of you for months,” she says with a laugh that sounds nothing like happiness. “My precious boy has been raining down terror on anyone who might know what happened to you; him and that Lan Wangji. They even have a Wen with them, defected from his own sect.”

Wei Wuxian looks up sharply at her, confusion writ large across his face. “Why is Lan Zhan working with Jiang Cheng? They never said two words to each other the entire time we were in the cloud recesses.”

“Aren’t you friends, A-Xian? He has to be as worried about you as you were about him when the cloud recesses were attacked,” Jiang Yanli says, reaching for Wei Wuxian’s hand.

He nods, a small smile breaking out on his face even as they ignore the shade of her mother scoffing at them.

“You need to keep moving,” Yu Ziyuan says. “The faster you move, the sooner you will find my mother’s men and then you can moon over that boy where I can’t see.”

“I’m not mooning!” Wei Wuxian says, and Jiang Yanli tunes him out as he argues with her mother.

They have people searching for them and her mother’s family will see to it that they are clean and fed and ready to hunt down Wen Chao, and if she thinks about that she can ignore the stone that has dropped into her stomach at who isn’t helping look for them. Jin Zixuan is probably happy she’s no longer around to bother him. She pushes that down and focuses on the path ahead of them, soon they will be clean and full and safe and then their enemies will know what a mistake it was to cross Yunmeng Jiang.

*
Her grandmother keeps them in Meishan for two weeks.

“A-Li,” Yu Xiu Ying says, on their last day in Meishan. “There’s no need to rush to join your brother. You could even send Wei Wuxian on ahead of you and wait out the war here, in safety.”

“We can’t hide here while Jiang Cheng is out there alone, popo,” Jiang Yanli says patting her grandmother’s hand. “I know I can’t be of much use but I have to try to do what I can to help.”

Yu Xie Ying narrows her eyes at her. “We both know you can do much more than you let on.” She pats Jiang Yanli’s cheek and frowns. “I don’t fully approve of what you’ve done but I respect what you’ve given up for your family. Don’t belittle it.”

“I would never,” Jiang Yanli says, voice firm. “My skills with a sword were limited even with my golden core, and my cultivation was low. But I can cook and I can help the healers if there is space for me.”

“And you can control the dead,” Yu Xiu Ying says with a sigh. “Your mother has already told you to be careful so I will say the same, none of the sects are to be trusted with that information.”

Jiang Yanli nods. “I know, popo,” Jiang Yanli says. She has had it drilled into her head every moment of the walk to Meishan, from her mother and now her grandmother. She has spent countless hours doing the same to Wei Wuxian. They must be careful and secretive to keep themselves and their sect safe. “Nothing I do will endanger myself or our family.”

“Good girl,” Yu Xiu Ying says, palming her cheek. “We may make it out of this whole. And I will keep my promise, I’ve sent several of my disciples to search for this Wen Qing girl for you, they will ensure she and her people are safe.”

“Thank you,” Jiang Yanli says, truly grateful. They cannot track down Wen Chao and ensure Wen Qing is not caught in the middle of the battles at the same time. They owe a debt and Yunmeng Jiang will see it paid.

Yu Xiu Ying laughs, shaking her head. “Think nothing of it,” she says. “Her brother, that Wen Ning, refuses to leave your brother’s side until he is reunited with you and Wei Wuxian and we would owe them for retrieving your mother's body and ensuring she had a proper burial, what she did for the Jiang sect is worthy of our help.”

Jiang Yanli nods again, not trusting herself to speak. They have had so few allies since their sect was destroyed and it's good to know that some people, at least, are still on their sides.

Yu Xiu Ying finally gives them permission to leave late that morning and they set out with two Meishan Yu disciples, Yu Min and Yu Hui, to aid in their search for Wen Chao. It’s a quiet trip, traveling on horseback since Wei Wuxian doesn’t have his sword but they have a purpose and it’s not unpleasant.

They’re back on the outskirts of Yiling, waiting as Yu Min and Yu Hui scout ahead when Yu Ziyuan appears again.

“They’re here,” Yu Ziyuan says, as she appears beside Jiang Yanli. “What are we waiting for?”

“Patience, a-niang,” Jiang Yanli says, reaching out for her mother's hand and pausing with her hand halfway there as she remembers that this is just a shade of her mother. “We don’t want to go in under informed.”

Wei Wuxian nods. “We have scouts, we can use them and that will help me keep shijie out of danger.”

Yu Ziyuan looks at them with her too sharp teeth, it’s a shadow of the kinds of glares they saw when she was alive but there’s no mistaking her displeasure. “I will wait but when we attack I will feast.”

“No prisoners,” Jiang Yanli says, thinking briefly of the people who helped them and what Wen Chao could have done to them. “I won’t have innocents harmed in this pursuit of revenge.”

Yu Ziyuan hisses but doesn’t argue and Jiang Yanli is relieved. She doesn’t know how much she can really control her mother’s ghost and she doesn’t want to find out in the middle of their approach.

It’s not much longer that Yu Min and Yu Hui return.

“What did you find?” Wei Wuxian asks when they’re all gathered.

Yu Min and Yu Hui exchange a glance before Yu Hui speaks. “There are at least two dozen Wen soldiers, maybe more in the supervisory office. No sign of any civilians that we could find, Wen Chao and his party are also there.”

“Is there a woman with them?” Yu Ziyuan asks, teeth near glinting.

Yu Min nods. “There was,” she says. “She’s usually housed with Wen Chao but he was called away while we were watching them.”

“Then we can take her even if it takes time to get to Wen Chao,” Wei Wuxian says, stroking his chin in thought.

Jiang Yanli is supportive of any plan that makes Wang Lingjiao pay for what she did to their family, for what she did to Jiang Yanli but the odds are against them. Wei Wuxian has no sword and Jiang Yanli has no spiritual power so they are at a great disadvantage even with the help of the dead.

“We should be cautious, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli says with a hand on his arm. “We only have two swords with us, we cannot go in against two dozen Wen soldiers.”

“Do not be timid, A-Li,” Yu Ziyuan says, voice grating. “You have power, use it and help me feast on our enemies. They deserve to suffer for what they’ve done.”

Jiang Yanli looks to Wei Wuxian for help but he shakes his head. “She’s right, shijie, you have power. We don’t have to actually go into the supervisory office to get our revenge.” He looks to Yu Min and Yu Hui again and asks, “Is there any place we can see into the supervisory office without having to enter or be seen.”

They look at each other and nod. “Follow us,” Yu Min says. “Stay low, stay quiet,” Yu Hui adds and then starts walking.

*

It’s not far, only a few li walking into the forest before they stop at a tree.

“Here,” Yu Hui says, pointing at the tree. “From the branches halfway up we can see into the compound.”

Yu Min pulls Jiang Yanli onto her sword and flies her up among the branches and when Jiang Yanli looks back down it’s to see Wei Wuxian declining Yu Hui’s offer and jumping up to land on another branch nearby.

“The woman is in that building,” Yu Min says, pointing to the building that previously housed Wen Qing and her brother, it makes sense that Wen Chao would take it over but she still feels a little stab of sadness. There’s no guarantee that Wen Qing or any of her people have been punished for interfering with the Wen sect plans but Jiang Yanli has a bad feeling and it won’t dissipate until she knows they're safe.

The door to the building opens and they see Wen Chao exit followed by several Wen soldiers and Jiang Yanli’s heart starts racing. She knows they can’t have seen them, that they have two of her grandmother’s best cultivators and her mother and yet she still feels a spike of fear and disgust.

She doesn’t look as Yu Min jumps to another tree and Wei Wuxian joins her but she squeezes when he takes her hand in his and lets that warm pressure anchor her back to reality. They are not powerless and their family will have their revenge.

Jiang Yanli looks at Wei Wuxian and he looks back at her and asks, “What do you want to do?”

“She should suffer,” Jiang Yanli says, heart hardening. Wang Lingjiao is the reason so many of their sect are dead, she’s the reason Jiang Yanli can feel the rage of the unavenged dead surging through her. She reaches for the resentment of the women, those who were powerless to protect their families, their friends, those who watched as women like Wang Lingjiao welded borrowed power to terrorize people like them. “She’ll know what it is to be afraid.”

Wei Wuxian nods. He pulls out a sheet of talisman paper and frowns at it then bites his finger and sketches out a talisman and sends it flying to attach to the building. “If you sing, I’ll play and that talisman should attract all of the spirits we summon,” he says, lifting his dizi to his lips.

Jiang Yanli starts to sing, voice high and sweet as the resentful energy swirls around her. As Wei Wuxian joins in she remembers a poem she read years ago and starts to sing it, calling forth the sisters and mother and powerless women to go forth and seek their revenge.

She closes her eyes and focuses out, letting the sound of her own voice and Wei Wuxian’s playing drop away until all she can hear is the wind and the trees, and Wang Lingjiao screaming. Jiang Yanli smiles, and sends her thanks to the restless dead.

They watch as Wang Lingjiao runs out of the building, following the path Wen Chao took moments earlier only to come back again a few minutes later.

“I think it’s time to end this,” Jiang Yanli says, thinking again of the poem. “A-niang?” she asks the wind, with a smile that feels unfamiliar on her face as she waits for her mother to appear. Yu Ziyuan materializes in front of them but Wei Wuxian doesn’t stop playing his dizi, drawing more resentful energy to him and sending it swirling over the Yiling supervisory office.

“It’s time,” Jiang Yanli says. “But only Wang Lingjiao and the Wen soldiers, Wen Chao will suffer.”

Yu Ziyuan nods, ghosty eyes bright and disappears as Jiang Yanli starts to sing.

When the Spring worms die, the silk shall never come again,
When the candle wax becomes ash, tears shall stop.

Wang Lingjiao’s screams rise in pitch and then fall and Jiang Yanli throws her head back in joy at one of their enemies destroyed. She sings her thanks and listens as the screams start up again, deeper, as the men who served the Wen clan and destroyed her family get what they have earned.

Jiang Yanli sings through the men’s screams, feeling a surge of energy as the sounds go fainter and fainter until they’ve stopped and her mother appears in front of them nearly glowing with energy.

Her mother is nearly lost in a haze of red and it’s not until she looks to Wei Wuxian that Jiang Yanli realizes it’s her who is different, a red haze swirling around her eyes as she reaches for Wei Wuxian’s hand and lets him feed her spiritual energy until she can really see again.

“So many of our enemies are dead,” Yu Ziyuan says, with a smile that looks full of knives. “I need more.”

“Did you kill Wen Chao?” Wei Wuxian asks.

Yu Ziyuan looks at him and it’s the first time Jiang Yanli has seen her look at him without disdain. “No,” she says, voice sharp. “He escaped with his bodyguard before I had a chance to finish him.”

“We’ll need to chase them down,” Wei Wuxian says, taping his dizi on his chin. “Can you find them?” he asks, looking at Yu Ziyuan.

She gives him a hard look, like she can’t believe he would even ask her such a question. “Of course I can find them, you insolent boy,” Yu Ziyuan says, becoming more opaque. “They will never escape my hunger.”

“Thank you, a-niang,” Jiang Yanli says, trying to keep the peace. “If you track them, we will follow but I think we should stay at an inn for the night.” Her mother shimmers for a moment then nods and disappears.

Jiang Yanli looks to Yu Min and Yu Hui who have stayed nearby silently watching as they’ve unleashed hell. “Did my grandmother give us enough for an inn tonight?”

Yu Min frowns. “Of course she did Lady Jiang,” she says and then pauses. “Should we check for survivors?”

Jiang Yanli looks at Wei Wuxian and he frowns at her. “If they managed to survive that they deserve to live for however long they can. Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu are the reason our sect has been wiped out.”

“We understand,” Yu Hui says with a nod. She offers Jiang Yanli a hand and helps her jump down from the tree.

*

Her mother appears in her room before the sun rises, lurking at the end of Jiang Yanli’s bed watching her in silence. Jiang Yanli doesn’t startle when she sees her, a night filled with nightmares of her family dying, watching Wei Wuxian fall into the burial mounds and Wen Chao’s threats dancing in front of her eyes.

She wonders if she’ll ever really sleep through the night again, if these visions will follow her the rest of her days but she doesn’t linger on it.

“Good Morning A-Niang,” she says, greeting her mother as she gets up and goes to the basin in the corner of the room to splash water on her face. “Any news?”

“They’re on the move, heading toward an inn a few towns away,” Yu Ziyuan says, watching as Jiang Yanli gets dressed. “It will be the work of a few hours to find them,” she adds. “Why are you in this room alone?”

Jiang Yanli smiles. “Yu Hui and Yu Min have been taking turns keeping watch and Wei Wuxian is in the next room. I’m safe.”

Yu Ziyuan snorts. “Safe, you haven’t even put up any talismans to keep me out of your rooms. Do not mistake me for what I was when I was alive.”

“I have never underestimated you, mother,” Jiang Yanli replies, letting a hint of the steel she does not often display into her voice. “I know what you are, I will never forget it. But I told Wei Wuxian to not put any of those talismans in this room while we were waiting for you.”

“You need to learn how to create the talismans for yourself, don’t rely on that boy.”

Jiang Yanli sighs and sits back on the bed. “You’re dead, surely you have some clarity about things now. Wei Wuxian is not our enemy, he is our family. What do you think would have happened if he had gone through with his plan to give Jiang Cheng his golden core? What would have happened to me? He could have died and I could have been a prisoner of the Wens. Don’t assume that any of the other sects would have helped me without Wei Wuxian or Jiang Cheng at my side, they haven’t tried yet.”

“The only thing I have left tying me to this life is anger, A-Li, I can’t just unfeel it,” Yu ZIyuan says, with as much of a sigh as she’s able to produce.

Jiang Yanli gives her a hard look. “You have plenty of things to be angry about that are not Wei Wuxian. Wen Chao, Wen Zhuliu, Wen Ruohan, all of them deserve your rage and we will have our revenge. But if you don’t want me to work on sending you to your rest you will stop this with Wei Wuxian.”

“This is a threat,” Yu Ziyuan says, watching Jiang Yanli with narrowed eyes.

“A promise A-Niang,” Jiang Yanli says with a sigh. “There is too much at stake, I won’t let your anger at father distract us.”

Yu Ziyuan looks at her for a long moment and then smiles, with those razor teeth. “You make me proud, A-Li. You will help Jiang Cheng bring Yunmeng Jiang back to glory and I will redirect my feelings about Wei Wuxian to Wen Ruohan, he must die.”

“He will, A-Niang. He will,” Jiang Yanli says, voice firm. “Yu Min and Yu Hui will be back for their rounds soon, you should go keep an eye on Wen Chao, we’ll catch up to you.”

Yu Ziyuan nods and then disappears and Jiang Yanli sighs, exhausted. She could feel the resentful energy trying to build as she got angry with her mother and Jiang Yanli wonders if it will get harder to control the more she uses it. Hopefully not until their enemies are destroyed.

Jiang Yanli takes the time to settle herself, disturbed at her own behavior even if it was necessary. She waits until after she’s had a quiet breakfast to gather their little group together and tell them what she knows from her mother.

“Should we be letting her into inns filled with people she doesn’t know who aren’t connected to her former sect?” Wei Wuxian asks after they settle the bill. “I know she’s not a danger to you but we don’t want any accidents.”

Jiang Yanli shakes her head. “It's fine A-Xian, I’ve spoken with her; she knows the consequences for deviating from the plan to hurt anyone but our enemies.”

“Hungry ghosts from the Meishan Yu sect have remarkable self control, Wei gong zhi,” Yu Hui says, with a nod. “If she says she will control herself she will control herself.”

Wei Wuxian frowns. “How are they able to do that? What does your sect do instead of the soul cleansing to avoid them being out of control?”

“We are taught from a young age to fear and respect those who cannot rest easily and our disciples learn early how to retain our own identity even in the confusion of death,” Yu Min answers, face placid. “We do not fear death because we know if we are wronged in life we have a chance to return and defeat our enemies.”

“Huh,” Wei Wuxian says, flicking his nose. “Are you allowed to share how you retain your identity? It might help us with the resentful spirits.”

Jiang Yanli smiles. “A-Xian, it has to be learned before you die. We can’t convince the resentful dead to remember anything more than their rage and to obey us.”

“That’s not completely true,” Yu Hui says with a frown. “We cannot make them truly remember all that they are but they can be reminded of pieces of it.”

“Pieces,” Jiang Yanli repeats, questioningly. “What do you mean by pieces?”

Yu Hui frowns and looks at Yu Min who nods at her. “Let us walk as we discuss this,” she says, starting in the direction Jiang Yanli told them her mother followed Wen Chao. “The dead, those who cannot find rest, are tethered to this life by injustice or regret,” Yu Hui says as they enter the forest path. “We all know this from having to cleanse a spirit, but vengeful spirits are only driven by rage and revenge.”

“Yes,” Wei Wuxian says, from his spot behind them. Jiang Yanli has just noticed that Yu Min has taken up a spot in front of her with Yu Hui at her side and Wei Wuxian beside, all protecting her from each front. “That’s why you can call them forward, they want to enact revenge, any revenge on anyone.”

Yu Hui nods. “Correct, they are so consumed with revenge that they remember little else. It’s why their energy is so damaging to the qi and the mind.”

“We’re trying to counteract that by not using it so much,” Wei Wuxian says as Jiang Yanli sighs. She knows how dangerous this is even if Wei Wuxian is choosing to ignore it and her expectations of survival through the war are low.

“You’ll need to do more,” Yu Min says, up ahead. “Lady Jiang especially doesn’t have a golden core as added protection, so we need more than just limited use and spiritual tools to keep her alive.”

Jiang Yanli feels her hands start to shake at the confirmation of what she’s been feeling. Her health has never been great but the loss of her core, the time starving in the burial mounds and the resentful energy always lurking in her body makes her feel like a hollowed-out shell. She nearly startles as Wei Wuxian slides his hand into hers but it helps anchor her back into reality.

“What do I need to do?” Jiang Yanli asks, squeezing Wei Wuxian’s hand and nodding at him before he retakes his spot guarding their rear.

“Rest,” Yu Hui says, with the briefest of smiles. “Eat well, avoiding sweets,” she adds and then her face grows more serious. “When calling forth the dead remind them of why you have called them back, to help the living.”

Jiang Yanli frowns in confusion. “I don’t understand. The resentful spirits we call know that we are alive and they are not.”

“Yes and no,” Yu Min says. “They know that you both want vengeance and that your call will help them get it, we have often seen that spirits do not quite understand that they are interacting with the living world, just those they think are their enemies.”

“Will this make them less effective?” Wei Wuxian asks, tapping his dizi against his chin. “If it’s too dangerous I can do it alone, there’s no need for you to risk yourself, shijie.”

Jiang Yanli gives him a sharp look. “You will not,” she says, voice firm. “You’re reckless and you don’t think of your own safety, and we made a promise to do this together.”

He looks at her and Jiang Yanli holds his gaze until he nods. “Okay, then what do we do?”

“They might be less deadly,” Yu Min says, with a pause. “If they know they’re interacting with the living world and there are still people they care about here, or they might be more deadly. You won’t know until you call them again.”

Wei Wuxian frowns. “But if they’re less deadly we’ll need a backup plan. This is war and we can’t go in without being fully armed.”

“If they’re less deadly I’ll call my mother,” Jiang Yanli says, as her mind shows her the path forward. “She knows what she is and what we are and she won’t stop until she’s had every bit of her revenge.”

*

It’s early evening two days later when they walk into the village on the edge of Yunmeng where her mother has directed them. She appears out of the fog in silence and points toward the inn. Yu Ziyuan is nearly glowing in her rage but she stays silent until Jiang Yanli speaks.

“We’ll need to be careful with them,” Jiang Yanli says as they stand and watch the inn. She looks from Wei Wuxian to Yu Min and Yu Hui. “Do not let Wen Zhuliu get close enough to touch you.”

Wei Wuxian smiles. “Don’t worry, shijie,” he says lifting his dizi to his lips. “He won’t ever get that close to anyone again.”

He starts to play, drawing in a different collection of the resentful dead. Jiang Yanli looks to Yu Min and Yu Hui. “Stay behind us,” she says with a gentle smile. “This will be far more up close and more unpleasant.”

Yu Min nods. “Do not worry Lady Jiang, we are prepared.”

Jiang Yanli nods and adds her voice to the music Wei Wuxian is playing, drawing forth a poem that reminds her of Lotus Pier before their world changed.

Before my bed, there is bright moonlight
So that it seems, like frost on the ground:
Lifting my head, I watch the bright moon,
Lowering my head, I dream that I'm home.

With every verse she pushes another feeling forward, her rage at the loss of her home, her sadness at the loss of her parents and shidis and her drive to protect what’s left of her family. She calls forth the dead who have left people behind and asks them to help her, to take her revenge as theirs and protect the parts of their families that have survived.

Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian take the stairs together, Jiang Yanli’s hand tucked into the crook of his arm, as she sings each line over and over again, as resentful energy swirls around them and the muffled sounds of whimpers drift down to the stairs toward them. The energy feels different, it’s not nearly choking her or overwhelming her ability to form a thought; Jiang Yanli feels calm, clear in her purpose and as strong as she ever was when she had a golden core.

Wen Zhuliu awaits them at the top of the stairs, trying to shield Wen Chao from view. Jiang Yanli smiles at him, though it’s nothing like her real, happy smile and she knows Wei Wuxian sports worse. She looks over at the cowering mess that is Wen Chao and says, “Don’t you think you’re a little old to be calling for your protector?” Jiang Yanli shakes her head at him, disgusted at what he’s become; the spirits of so many of those lost to Wen swords may have tormented him but he should at least still have some pride and show it for his sect.

Wen Zhuliu steps toward them and Wei Wuxian smiles at him, amused. Yu Min and Yu Hui are just outside of the room but even if they weren’t Jiang Yanli would feel no fear. There is power surrounding her and Wen Zhuliu is a tiny man who hasn’t learned that he’s already dead.

Wei Wuxian snorts. “Wen Zhuliu, do you really believe that you can save his cheap life from us?”

“I will try with my life,” Wen Zhuliu says, not showing fear. It would be commendable if Jiang Yanli was not seized with the memory of her brother, beaten and comatose after Wen Zhuliu crushed his golden core.

“It’s a life you will lose,” Jiang Yanli says with a sigh. “And for what?”

“I have to repay his excellency for the favor of promotion.”

Wei Wuxian laughs as Jiang Yanli looks at Wen Zhuliu in pity. “What a joke!” Wei Wuxian says, glaring at Wen Zhuliu. “Why should other people pay for your gratitude to Wen Ruohan?”

“My brother is right,” Jiang Yanli says, as Wei Wuxian raises his dizi to his lips. “We’re done paying for your gratitude.”

Wei Wuxian starts to play and Jiang Yanli lends her voice to the music casting out for one of the resentful dead to join them, to help them get revenge and protect the living. She feels the answering call from a woman who died young at the hands of the Wen sect, in the wrong part of Yunmeng at the wrong time and urges her on to take the vengeance that was denied her in life.

Jiang Yanli sings as the woman materializes in the room, wearing the red wedding robes she never got the chance to wear in her life. Jiang Yanli watches her move toward Wen Chao with a detached air, she feels outside of herself as the ghost fights Wen Zhuliu. Jiang Yanli won’t let this spirit be harmed, not after all that she suffered in life so she sings a note telling her to leave if she’s in danger and watches with amusement as Wen Zhuliu turns his attention back toward her and Wei Wuxian.

Everything happens in a rush; Wen Zhuliu turns toward them, core melting hand outstretched, the ceiling explodes in a burst of wood and billowing robes and Yu Min and Yu Hui rush into the room, swords in hand.

Jiang Yanli feels a rush of affection as she spots Zidian wrapping around Wen Zhuliu’s throat and sees Jiang Cheng wielding her. She feels nothing but amusement as Lan Wangji puts himself between Wei Wuxian and Wen Zhuliu, happy that her grandmother's information was correct.

Jiang Cheng pulls on Zidian and Wen Zhuliu is lifted into the air, feet dangling as he struggles to breathe. Jiang Yanli feels nothing watching him die, he stole her brother's golden core, he murdered so much of her family and for what? To die here, powerless as he tries to save a man not worth saving.

When he stops struggling Jiang Cheng lets him fall, wrapping Zidian back around his wrist and Jiang Yanli exhales a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She looks to Wei Wuxian and says, “A-Xian, let it dissipate.” And he does without an argument as she turns back to her baby brother.

“ChengCheng,” Jiang Yanli says with a smile, happy to see him whole and healthy and using her core with more strength than she ever had.

He looks at her and his face crumbles, all pretensions at being too strong for it all melting away as he murmurs, “jiejie,” and crosses the room in two steps to hug her, lifting her off her feet to spin her around.

Jiang Yanli laughs, for what feels like the first time in years, as her eyes well up with tears. “I’m so glad you’re safe, A-Cheng, we were so worried.”

“Shijie was worried, I knew you were fine,” Wei Wuxian says, trying for flippant and missing it by several miles.

Jiang Cheng throws him his sword and Wei Wuxian looks at it like it’s a friend he thought had left his side for good. “Thanks,” he says, running his finger along the hilt.

“Where the hell have you been for the last three months?” Jiang Cheng asks, stepping away from Jiang Yanli to wrap Wei Wuxian in a tight hug.

Jiang Yanli joins them, rubbing a hand down Jiang Cheng’s back and looks at Wei Wuxian and tilts her head. She hasn’t forgotten that they aren’t alone but she’ll share if he’s willing. He nods, a tiny tilt of his head and Jiang Yanli sighs.

“We were thrown into the burial mounds,” Jiang Yanli says, watching the flash of horror in Lan Wangji’s eyes. “They only intended to throw in A-Xian but that woman pushed me in at the last moment,” Jiang Yanli says, flashing back to falling and watching as the ground seemed to reach out to pull her down faster. “It took us months to find our way out.”

“How?” Lan Wangji asks. It’s the first thing he’s said since he and Jiang Cheng crashed through the ceiling.

Wei Wuxian sighs as Jiang Cheng lets him out of the hug. “We had help.”

*
Wei Wuxian doesn’t elaborate, engaged in some sort of staring match with Lan Wangji that leaves Jiang Yanli exhausted just to look at it.

“You are a trusted ally of our family, Lan gong zhi, but there are things that have happened that cannot leave this room,” Jiang Yanli says, eyes cutting over to the quivering mess that is Wen Chao. “Do we have your word that you will not speak of it?”

Lan Wangji nods and says, “Yes,” eyes never leaving Wei Wuxian.

“A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli says, looking at her brother. “Shut the doors.” He does with a wave of his hand and Jiang Yanli walks, stepping over Wen Zhuliu’s body, to Wen Chao. “Many things happened before we were thrown into the burial mounds; we parted from our ChengCheng, I watched my brother being tortured, I lost my golden core,” she says, ignoring the horrified gasps of the men. Yu Min and Yu Hui already know about her lost core and she’s not interested in Jiang Cheng or Lan Wangji’s horror, even if it is useful.

She turns back to them with a smile. “Don’t worry,” Jiang Yanli says, trying to project calm. “I sacrificed myself to ensure that we would survive; my brothers have their cores and so I am safe, and when Wang Lingjiao pushed me into the Burial Mounds I found a temporary replacement.”

“This type of cultivation is dangerous,” Lan Wangji says, tearing his eyes away from Wei Wuxian. “It damages the mind, body and temperament.”

Jiang Yanli smiles at him. “I’m aware, that’s why I use it infrequently and purge it when I’m done. And of course my A-Xian is taking on part of the burden, he wouldn't let me walk this path alone.”

“Don’t worry, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian says, finally. “We have no plans to use this long term, we’ll get the revenge we’re owed for our sect and then we’re done.”

“Maybe sooner,” Jiang Yanli says with a sigh. “Wen Chao is a pathetic creature and you have your sword back, A-Xian, you don’t need to use resentful energy anymore.”

Wei Wuxian looks stricken for a moment and says, “Shijie, I’m not going to let you do this alone.”

“I’m never alone,” Jiang Yanli says with a smile. “And I won’t be riding into battle with you so don't worry. But that’s not all we should discuss before we deal with this trash.”

She looks at Jiang Cheng. “A-Cheng,” Jiang Yanli starts then stops, unsure how to begin. “Do you remember how things are done differently in Meishan?”

“Yes,” Jiang Cheng says, confusion plain across his face.

“They don’t perform soul cleansing ceremonies for their children,” Jiang Yanli says, speaking slowly. “Popo told me stories of one of our Yu ancestors who was killed in a conflict with a smaller sect. He returned as a hungry ghost when she was a little girl and joined the sect as they got revenge.”

Jiang Cheng frowns at her. “I don’t understand.”

“When we were in the burial mounds a hungry ghost came for me and led us out, much sooner than we would have ever been able to find our way alone,” Jiang Yanli says. She reaches out for Jiang Cheng’s hand and squeezes it when he grasps back. “You need to prepare yourself ChengCheng, she is very different.”

Jiang Cheng’s eyes go wide as he realizes who she’s talking about, what she’s talking about and Jiang Yanli watches as her baby brother quietly falls apart and puts himself back together. He nods and she catches a glimpse of Lan Wangji going tense out of the corner of her eye, but she trusts Wei Wuxian to handle him.

Jiang Yanli lilts her voice up as if she’s about to sing and calls, “A-Niang,” into the wind and waits. It’s only a few minutes before the air in the room changes and her mother materializes in front of her.

“A-Li,” Yu Ziyuan says, as she appears in a swirl of roiling resentment and rage. “Is it finally my time?” she asks, drifting toward Wen Chao. “It’s been agony holding myself back.”

“Mom,” Jiang Cheng chokes out, eyes wide as he watches the last bit of their mother that’s left in the world.

Yu Zixuan turns toward his voice, moving faster than any living person could and much of the rage and resentment holding together bleeds out. The room feels lighter and now that Jiang Yanli can feel the absence she realizes just how much resentful energy was clinging to all of them.

“A-Cheng,” Yu Ziyuan says as she hovers in front of him, standing and not standing in that way Jiang Yanli has come to expect from the dead. “My A-Cheng,” Yu Ziyuan says, reaching out to touch Jiang Cheng’s cheek before pulling back. She’s smiling, the first real smile Jiang Yanli’s seen on her face since before everything about their lives crumbled. “Look at you, making us all proud. Leading our sect and destroying our enemies.”

Jiang Yanli watches as Jiang Cheng tries and fails to blink away his tears. “Mom,” Jiang Cheng says, nearly choking on his words. “How?”

“Didn’t A-Li tell you, this is always a possibility for the Yu sect. I died by my own hand,” Yu Ziyuan says, and Jiang Yanli isn’t sure if the sharp intake of breath is from herself or either of her brothers. They’d assumed that Wen Zhuliu had taken her core and killed her, somehow this is worse.

“I wouldn’t let them have the satisfaction of killing the Violet Spider after they’d killed your father,” Yu Ziyuan says as the air in the room becomes heavy and the resentful energy around her grows. “A violent death, unresolved issues with our enemies, any of these things can help us come back,” she says, spinning gracefully to glare down at Wen Chao. Jiang Yanli can feel the waves of rage wafting off of her, can almost taste it as it presses down on them all.

“Now, the three remaining children of our sect, our future have brought me a step closer to peace,” Yu Ziyuan says as she hovers ever closer to Wen Chao. “Is it time, A-Li? I can smell his fear and I hunger.”

Jiang Yanli looks to her brothers and waits for a nod from Wei Wuxian, standing just outside the doorway with an iron grip on Lan Wangji’s wrist - holding him back or holding on, she doesn’t know - and then to Jiang Cheng who nods, zidian sparking on his wrist.

Jiang Yanli stands, joining Jiang Cheng and waits until Wei Wuxian joins them on her other side. “It’s time, mother,” Jiang Yanli says, looking down at what’s left of Wen Chao. “He’s lived long enough.”

Yu Ziyuan looks back at them and smiles with too many rows of too sharp teeth. They don’t look away as she pulls back Wen Chao’s hood, as he screams and begs for his life before she slices a long sharp nail across his throat and lets him bleed out on the floor for only a moment before his very essence is consumed. It’s the worst thing Jiang Yanli has ever seen, worse than the mangled corpses that littered the burial mounds but it’s what he deserves. Even as their mother's unquenchable thirst for vengeance is briefly sated, Jiang Yanli can still feel Wen Chao’s victims crying out for more. She closes her eyes and reaches out with her soul to theirs and wills them to be at peace, he’s dead, his essence destroyed and he can never harm them or their families again.

When she opens her eyes the air in the room is no longer heavy, is no longer choked with rage and she finds her mother standing in front of them, once again looking nearly like herself.

“Call on me when you need me again,” Yu Ziyuan says, looking at each of them. “When we have killed Wen Ruohan you will ensure I am at peace and rid yourselves of this,” she says and then fades away until there is nothing.

They travel to Qinghe in an odd little band, the small collection of surviving Jiang sect cultivators, a dozen Gusu Lan disciples and Jiang Yanli with her two Meishan Yu shadows ever present. It’s not a short journey but they have horses and the funds to stay at inns along the way so it’s not completely unbearable but every day Jiang Yanli is glad to be free of her mare.

They’re three days away from Qinghe when Wei Wuxian stops short and looks at Jiang Cheng, face clouded with alarm. “What happened to Wen Ning?” he asks, voice tight.

Jiang Cheng snorts. “He’s in Meishan with his sister and a handful of other Wen survivors from the Yiling supervisory office,” Jiang Cheng says with a roll of his eyes. “They were all in the dungeons there, they even put a baby in the dungeons, what the hell is wrong with them?”

“I’m glad they’re all safe,” Jiang Yanli says from her perch on the mare. “Without them we wouldn’t have been able to retrieve our parents’ bodies and we would not have survived.”

Jiang Cheng looks at her. “We would have found a way, jiejie,” he says, with a slight smile.

Jiang Yanli smiles back. “I have no illusions of my ability to stay on the run from the Wen sect A-Cheng, I would not have survived without them,” she says, voice firm. “We owe them a debt and we must repay it.” She holds his gaze until he nods and smiles.

“When all of this is over we’ll go home and rebuild Lotus Pier,” she says, smiling gently. “No one will be able to tell what they did to us, but we won’t forget and we won’t let it happen again.”

After that they walk on to the next village to find an inn. Jiang Yanli is glad to be off the road and secure in the safety of an inn. She knows it’s an illusion, they’re not safe as long as Wen Ruohan lives but it’s nice to pretend for a little while.

Yu Min and Yu Hui still flank her wherever she goes, even with both of her brothers and one of the Twin Jades with them but she doesn’t mind. It makes her feel like she’s back home, like so many of her sect is not dead. She’s starting to feel resentful energy rise in her when there’s a knock at the door and Yu Min pokes her head inside.

“Lan gongzi is here to see you, Lady Jiang. Will you see him?” Yu Min asks, voice as even and neutral as ever.

Jiang Yanli smiles at her. “Yes, please let him in.” She stands and they exchange bows and she gestures toward the low table. “Please sit.”

She pours the tea, waits for him to drink first and then smiles. “How are you finding this journey?” Jiang Yanli asks, for want of some way to open the conversation.

“It has been fine,” Lan Wangji says, setting his cup back on the table. “I’m anxious to rejoin my brother now that you and Wei Ying have been returned to your family.”

“Yes,” Jiang Yanli says after taking a sip of tea. “I’m very glad that my family is back together but that’s not why you came to see me, is it?”

Lan Wangji looks up at her and shakes his head.

Jiang Yanli smiles again. “I thought you seemed worried, please ask your questions,” she says with a nod. “You have always been important to A-Xian so I will happily ease your worries if I can.”

“You are both using resentful energy to control spirits,” Lan Wangji says, speaking slowly. “But you don’t seem ill or significantly different, how is this possible?”

“Do you remember what I said about my mother's sect?” Jiang Yanli asks, waiting for his nod to proceed. “They have clear guidance for interacting with the dead. We aren’t nearly the first people to harness the power of the dead and we’ve been given instructions to minimize the damage to our minds and bodies.”

Lan Wangji nods and then asks, “And are you following those instructions? This type of cultivation can change your temperament and you might not notice.”

“I’ve noticed,” Jiang Yanli says with a sharp smile. “I don’t think I will ever be the person I was before but I’ve made Wei Wuxian promise to follow my lead; we purge ourselves of the resentful energy when we have finished using it, we adhere to the diet we’ve been given and we don’t just command the dead. We speak to them, ask them to help defend the living, not just avenge the dead.”

“And this has worked?”

Jiang Yanli tilts her head to the side and back. “Yes and no,” she says with a sigh. “It has worked for A-Xian because of the state of his golden core. It protects him so he has an easier time shaking off the tendrils of resentment,” Jiang Yanli says. “He doesn’t seem different, does he?”

“He does not,” Lan Wangji says, swallowing and looking away. “He seems very happy to be reunited with his sword.”

Jiang Yanli laughs. “Yes, I suppose he would be. It was always so precious to him.” She sighs. “As you know I lost my golden core, so that protection is gone for me.”

“I remember,” Lan Wangji says with a nod. “How,” he starts then stops, embarrassed.

Jiang Yanli smiles at him. “It’s okay if you’re curious about how this happened.”

“Wen Zhuliu crushed your golden core?” Lan Wangji asks, horror infusing his voice. “Forgive me, but I don’t understand why he would take yours and leave Wei Ying’s.”

“He didn’t take mine,” she says with a sad smile. “I gave mine up, willingly to save my brother and my sect,” Jiang Yanli says ignoring Lan Wangji’s sharp intake of breath. She’s glad to be unburdened of this, even this small amount. The Yu’s know the truth of it and Wei Wuxian knows and now the person Wei Wuxian trusts the most has entered their circle. It feels good to free herself of that and Lan Wangji has been a trusted friend to her brothers, maybe he can be the same to her. She could use a few friends.

“I haven’t told Jiang Cheng the truth of it yet. But soon, after we kill Wen Ruohan, he’ll know. As for A-Xian, he still has his core, we,” she pauses for a moment, remembering the way Wen Chao tortured him. Jiang Yanli smiles, a shaky thing to force back tears or calling forth the dead. “When we were captured we did everything we could to distract them so that they never thought to try.”

Lan Wangji nods slowly, then raises his hands and bows to her and says, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Jiang Yanli asks, confused. There are many people to blame for their suffering but Lan Wangji has never been one of them.

“You have all suffered greatly,” he says, not breaking his gaze. “Your allies should have been by your side to help lighten the burden.”

Jiang Yanli smiles at him and says, voice gentle, “Thank you for your kind words but could we really count any sect as our allies at the start of all of this?” She sighs. “Your sect was burned, the Yao and Nie sects were attacked and my betrothal to the Jin sect was ended. Unless you and A-Xian were engaged without any of us knowing, no sect owed it to us to come to our aid.”

Jiang Yanli thinks Lan Wangji looks flustered, or as flustered as he’s willing to show and she once again thinks that she can see why Wei Wuxian thinks so highly of him. She doubts any of the other sects would even consider what they could have done to prevent the deaths at Lotus Pier.

“We are not engaged,” Lan Wangji says, voice choked. “But I think it is the responsibility of all sects to render aid when they can.”

“As do I,” Jiang Yanli says, remembering again how they had nowhere to go after the attack on Lotus Pier. They could have gone to her grandmother but the risk was too great and they had no expectation of aid from any of the other sects, even if pride would have let them try. “But as I said, few sects were in a position to do so and we must not hold it against them, especially when we are at war.”

Lan Wangji nods and says, “As you say,” letting her win the day.

“Excellent,” Jiang Yanli says, clapping her hands. “Now let us enjoy our tea and speak of more pleasant topics, like your intentions toward our XianXian.”

*
They arrive in the Unclean Realm to a flurry of activity, disciples hurrying back and forth as their small party crosses into the fortress. They’re greeted by someone from the sect and then shown to rooms to freshen up before they join the assembled sects.

Jiang Yanli hopes, briefly, that she’ll be excluded from the gathering but she’s been missing for months along with Wei Wuxian and resigns herself to whatever nonsense comes from the leaders of the great sects. When it’s time to fully rejoin the cultivation world via attending this council, Jiang Yanli dresses carefully, donning the hanfu she was gifted by her grandmother, in a red that’s too dark for wedding robes, too close to the color of blood with sleeves in the purple of Yunmeng Jiang.

As she pulls on her final layer she calls out to Yu Min. “Can you please go make sure Wei Wuxian wears the robes my grandmother gave him? We should be a unified front when we arrive.”

“Of course,” Yu Min says and heads for the door, pausing before she leaves. “Should Yu Hui and I also wear Jiang colors? Or those of guest disciples?”

Jiang Yanli frowns. She hadn’t thought of it but looking at the robes Yu Min wears, not quite the shade of purple of the Yunmeng Jiang but not so far off as to stand out, she smiles. “I think your normal robes will be fine. These men,” Jiang Yanli says with a delicate roll of her eyes. “They would not know that you’re wearing Meishan Yu colors instead of Yunmeng Jiang. Let them assume what they will.”

Yu Min nods and heads out to redirect Wei Wuxian’s wardrobe.

By the time they gather they are a united front of Yunmeng Jiang purple. When they enter the hall a hush falls over the room as several pairs of eyes rake over Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian. She wonders if any of them take notice of Yu Min and Yu Hui, but it seems just as likely that they have been glanced at and dismissed.

They make their bows to Nie zongzhu and take their seats and wait for the inevitable onslaught of rude questions. Even during a war Jiang Yanli has no doubt to the cultivation sect's ability to indulge their worst instincts.

“We are all glad to see that you have been returned to your family, Lady Jiang,” Nie zongzhu says, kicking off what Jiang Yanli is sure will be a flood of comments. “And congratulations on your destruction of Wen Chao,” he adds, directing his comment at Wei Wuxian. They haven’t revealed that she was present, that she participated in the deaths but she doubts they can keep such a thing secret for long. Everyone may not have been present to see how they killed him but all of the Jiang and Lan disciples present know she was in the room.

Jiang Yanli inclines her head at Nie Mingjue. “I thank you Nie zongzhu, I am very happy to be back where I belong, with my family.”

“Yes, and how exactly were you returned to your family? Where have you been?” Jin Guangshan asks, gesturing to the room at large. “Disappearing for months!” he says with a laugh. “We nearly thought you had run off to marry that Wei Wuxian.”

Jiang Yanli cuts him a sharp look and feels Yu Min and Yu Hui tense behind her as tendrils of resentful energy silently reach for her. She smiles, pushing all down and lays a hand on Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian’s arms to calm them. “Jin zongzhu, how funny you are,” Jiang Yanli says with a smile that could cut glass. “We in Yunmeng Jiang do not marry our brothers but I thank you for your concerns.”

Jin Guangshan smiles back at her but it’s a greasy, unpleasant smile. “Of course,” he says, nodding and stroking his beard. “But please clear up the confusion, where have you been all these months?”

Wei Wuxian starts to answer but Jiang Yanli looks at him and shakes her head and is gratified when he listens.

“I would not detail such a horrible time in our lives but I see that we will be given no peace until you are satisfied,” Jiang Yanli says, ignoring the indignant squawk from Jin Guangshan. “We were briefly separated from Jiang zongzhu when we were captured by Wen soldiers. Wen Chao tortured my brother, threatened me with acts a lady would never repeat and then threw my brother into the burial mounds,” Jiang Yanli says, pinning Jin Guangshan with a look that dares him to speak again.

“That woman that accompanied him accidentally pushed me in after him. And then we found each other and clawed our way out,” Jiang Yanli says and then she smiles at the men assembled around the room. “Is that a sufficient explanation or will we be required to submit to more painful memories of one of the worst periods in our lives?”

The atmosphere in the room is heavy, weighted down with embarrassment but Jiang Yanli doubts there is much shame. All her tale has done is make the men respect Wei Wuxian and pity her, while regretting asking a question while a woman was present. But she is comfortable in their discomfort, and will happily inflict more if it encourages some of them to embrace silence.

“Will you,” Jin Zixuan starts and then clears his throat. “I assume this means you will be returning to Lotus Pier for the duration of the campaign? For your safety.”

Jiang Cheng narrows his eyes at him. “Are you implying I cannot insure the safety of my own sister here?”

“Surely, you can’t expect her to stay here while the campaign is ongoing?”

“Where else would I go Jin gongzi?” Jiang Yanli asks, turning her iciest smile toward him. It’s strange, she still feels that same fluttering feeling for him but it does not distract from her anger. She has been separated from her family enough, and she will not leave them unprotected as they face Wen Ruohan. “Almost all of the family I have left to me sits at this table and until we return Lotus Pier still bears the scars of Wen Chao.”

Jin Zixuan flounders for a moment and Jiang Yanli takes pity on him, ruled by her feelings for him for a moment. “I thank you again for your concerns for my safety,” she says, smiling, a near genuine smile at him. “But I trust my brothers and I’m sure there is space for another person to help with the wounded.”

“The sight of a lovely maiden will cheer the men, I’m sure,” Nie zongzhu says, effectively ending the questioning. Jin Guangshan spends the rest of the afternoon pointedly ignoring the Jiang sect as much as he is able but Jiang Yanli prefers that to his attention. One of the many benefits of speaking with the resentful dead instead of just sending onward to do their bidding is that they talk back and they have told her the truth of Jin Guangshan’s character.

She has no expectation that her betrothal to Jin Zixuan will ever be renewed, in the deepest, darkest parts of her mind Jiang Yanli wonders if she’ll ever marry at all or be deemed unworthy when the truth of her lack of golden core is widely known. But she can’t find it in herself to care, they have a task to complete and then a home to rebuild and everything else can wait. She might not live long enough to have regrets and Jiang Yanli takes a measure of comfort from that, though she’ll never voice it.

But those are thoughts for another day, as the conversation in the room turns to war and resources, so Jiang Yanli pastes on a gentle smile and sits back to listen so she can ensure her family’s survival.

*

The next few days pass in a flurry of activity, with war councils taking up most of her brother's days but Jiang Yanli is not surprised to be left behind. They’ve kept the circle that knows of their abilities with resentful energy to only those who were present for the death of Wen Chao and let the gathered sects assume what they will about a woman with a known low cultivation level.

But there is no hiding the ways that she has changed. As Jiang Yanli makes her way through the camp she is always flanked by Yu Min and Yu Hui, quiet and radiating danger as they walk, she smiles to herself to think about the various ways that people treat her have changed. It’s nothing she can point to and claim offense but she notices.

Jiang Yanli makes her way to the area set aside to feed the growing army of cultivators and presents herself to the matron in charge. It’s good to busy her hands doing something useful while her brothers are in war councils but it is also a great source of information.

Normally, Jiang Yanli would frown and discourage the gossip passed around in these kinds of spaces but now she lightly encourages it, slowly nudging the other women to give up the information the men try to hold so dear. When one of the ladies starts complaining about Jin Guangshan and then cuts a quick, nervous glance at Jiang Yanli she smiles.

“Do not trouble yourself auntie, we are among friends here,” Jiang Yanli says, projecting an air of meek shyness.

The auntie pats her cheek and says, “Good girl,” and then “I have to send girls to the Jin tents in groups, there’s no telling what that man will try if he’s been in his wine,” before she moves on.

Jiang Yanli has heard vague rumors about Jin zongzhu before, but nothing in detail; she’s been so often shielded from the worst parts of the men of the cultivation sects but now many things make more sense. The conversation around her shifts to a bit of intrigue among their hosts, the Nie sect and Jiang Yanli focuses on the vegetables she’s cutting, staying quiet to hear what she can.

“...well I heard Meng Yao was thrown out of the sect, he didn’t just leave,” one of the girls further along the line of women preparing food says.

“You don’t know that, you horrible gossip! Maybe he left, you know all those rumors about him being a Jin bastard.”

The girl at the end of the line snorts. “So what? If he was accepted by the Jin sect he’d be here with the rest of them,” she says, then drops her voice. “Besides I heard something better, there’s a rumor there’s a spy in the Wen sect, what if it’s him?”

“Now you have truly lost your mind, what next? Nie zongzhu taking a wife from among the kitchen girls, be serious.”

After that the conversation drifts back to various flirtations some of the younger girls are entertaining and other things and Jiang Yanli excuses herself to go assist with efforts to make bandages. As she walks with Yu Min and Yu Hui she asks, “How likely is it that a Jin bastard could talk his way into being a Wen disciple?”

“If they truly demonstrated their hatred of their former sects?” Yu Min says, it’s not really a question but her voice lilts up as if it is. “Easily, with some proof of loyalty. Wen zongzhu has always enjoyed bitter defectors.”

“Hmm,” Jiang Yanli says in reply. She closes her eyes when they reach the area set up to prep medical supplies and reaches out for a spirit. Jiang Yanli opens her eyes in surprise at the sheer number of vengeful spirits surrounding the Unclean Realm. There should not be so many if the Nie sect was practicing soul cleansing as all cultivation sects should. She thinks of her mother, of her grandmother and decides to find a vengeful spy among the Nie spirits later as she wonders what other secrets are lurking around them.

They’re nearly at the healers when she spots Jin Zixuan walking with a retinue of Jin cultivators and she feels a headache coming on. She remembers a time when she wouldn’t have avoided a run in with him but Jiang Yanli can feel the resentful spirits of the Unclean Realm around her, now that she’s opened her mind to them and she will not be kind.

“I think I’m not feeling well,” Jiang Yanli says, when they’ve nearly joined the healers. She catches Yu Hui’s eye and subtly jerks her head in Jin Zixuan’s direction.

“Oh yes,” Yu Hui says with a frown. “I think we should return you to your quarters, Lady Jiang,” she says and then Jiang Yanli is quickly flanked and steered back to her rooms in the fortress. She apologizes for the lie and then settles on her bed and opens her mind to the spirits of the Qinghe Nie.

It’s overwhelming how many come to her begging for vengeance or release, too many to focus so instead she casts out and asks, do any of you know Meng Yao? and she’s so surprised by the aggression she gets in answer that she has to sit back, eyes snapping open. In front of her she finds a man, dressed in Nie robes that have been drenched in blood.

He takes a step forward and Jiang Yanli sings, “stop,” on instinct before she can think about what to do. “You will control yourself or I will call forward something much worse to destroy you before you ever know vengeance or peace.”

He stops, taking control of himself and bows to Jiang Yanli. “I apologize,” he says, voice sounding like his throat is filled with water. But as Jiang Yanli looks closer she realizes it’s probably the blood he choked on before he died. “We usually,” he starts blinking rapidly at Jiang Yanli without seeing her. “My saber,” he says, drifting off.

Jiang Yanli has not seen a spirit so confused and yet filled with rage so she asks, voice gentle. “What is your name?”

He looks confused as he says, “I can’t remember, it’s all,” he gestures at his head. “A blur, my saber,” he says patting at the empty spot at his hip. “Where is Gui?”

“Is that the name of your saber?” Jiang Yanli asks, keeping her voice lilting and gentle. She’s never encountered a spirit so full of confusion. It bleeds off of him and is trying to cloud her mind but Jiang Yanli knows what she wants so she maintains her focus.

“Yes,” he says, trying to blink away his confusion. “Gui should be with me.”

Jiang Yanli flashes him a gentle smile. “Your sword would not stay with you in death,” she says, voice as gentle as she can make it. “Do you understand that you died?”

“Yes,” he says, shaking his head. Blood flies out of his mouth, hitting the rug covered floor and dissolving into nothingness. “I was cruel and then I was murdered.”

“And you want revenge or maybe justice?”

He looks at her, finally seeing her instead of whatever part of his life or death has been replaying in front of his eyes. “Yes,” he says, voice firm around the blood slowly trickly from between his lips. “He must pay for what he did, the sect is not safe.”

Jiang Yanli nods. “I can help you, but you must help me. I need to confirm some information, can you find Meng Yao and tell me what he is doing?”

The temperature in the room drops and the spirit solidifies more than he has since he appeared and he seems to have more focus, more clarity as he locks eyes with Jiang Yanli. “What reason do you have to seek him out?”

“There are rumors that he’s joined the Wens, there are rumors that he’s a spy. I would know the truth before I let my brothers risk their lives.”

He nods, slowly. “I will do this for you and if he is not a spy, you will let me kill him.”

Jiang Yanli frowns. “Why?”

“He took my life, if he is not doing something to repay my sect for his crimes, I’ll take his.”

Jiang Yanli’s eyes go wide but she nods. “And when you feel you’ve gotten your justice or vengeance I’ll help your soul move on, are we agreed?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” Jiang Yanli says with a smile. “Now go, find him and don’t show yourself.”

He nods and then disappears and Jiang Yanli exhales, feeling the tension she’s held in talking to him.

*
Jiang Yanli doesn’t see him again for days. She spends that time nursing the sick, helping prepare meals and drilling Wei Wuxian to ensure he doesn’t raise the dead where anyone could see. It is difficult to avoid the urge to bring forth more help as they face Wen Ruohan’s puppets but Jiang Yanli has heard the rumors passed around by the women about Jin Guangshan and his attempts at starting a whisper campaign about how they survived in the burial mounds. It hasn’t gained traction yet, but she can see how it could if they let him or any of the other sects see anything of what they can truly do.

It’s the evening before another big push into Qishan and Jiang Yanli has made her pork and lotus root soup to corral her brothers into joining her for dinner when she feels the tell tale chill that means her mother is near.

She sighs. “A-Niang, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian will be here shortly,” she says, not lifting her head from where she’s stirring the soup.

“You haven’t called me in days, A-Li,” Yu Ziyuan says, drifting in front of Jiang Yanli. “And I hunger. Do not make me go out and satisfy my hunger without your direction.”

“They haven’t made a decision to go after Wen Ruohan yet,” Jiang Yanli says, looking up at her mother. “And Jin Guangshan is trying to start trouble for us, I won’t draw negative attention to our sect.”

Yu Ziyuan snorts. “What a joke. As if that man wouldn’t be surrounded by the spirits of all the women he wronged if Lanling wasn’t so well protected.”

“I’m sure he would be,” Jiang Yanli says with a small frown. “I’ve spent time with the women doing the cooking and making the bandages, the stories they tell of him are awful.”

“Yes, he’s a disgusting man. You must never be alone with him, I will not restrain myself if he touches you.”

Jiang Yanli smiles, warmed in spite of all of her training and manners at the aura of violence emanating from her mother. “Do not worry yourself, I would not risk it and he would not survive if he touched me.”

“Good girl,” Yu Ziyuan says with a smile that’s sharper than most knives. “But I still hunger. And being here with all of these Nie spirits makes it all the more difficult.”

Jiang Yanli nods. She had not thought of how proximity to so many spirits, so much resentment might impact her mother. But now she can see it, how Yu Ziyuan has fed off the anger, the unavenged dead lurking and waiting for justice. “I will speak to Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, we will find a solution.”

“Good,” she says then looks away. “They’re here, you know how to call me,” she adds and then she disappears.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian enter in a flurry of noise, bickering back and forth as they normally would and Jiang Yanli feels a rush of affection for them both.

“Enough of that,” Jiang Yanli says as they start shoving each other. “Sit before the soup gets cold.”

They eat as a family, small though they may be now, and Jiang Yanli feels warmed through to feed her brothers and see them safe for a few more hours.

“Is there any news?” Jiang Yanli asks as they finish their soup and she clears the tray. “The women have been talking of a possible move against the Wens happening soon.”

She watches as Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian exchange a look and resists the temptation to roll her eyes. “Don’t keep things from me, it will not do any of us any good.”

“There’s talk of us launching multiple offensives against Wen positions,” Jiang Cheng says with a sigh. “But the last time we attacked them they had these very strange puppets, they infected many of the other men. We’re trying to figure out a way around them.”

She looks at Wei Wuxian as he looks down at the table. “You want to use the dead?”

“It would be better than throwing our own people at them and hoping they don't all get infected with whatever this poisoning is,” Wei Wuxian says with a frown. “I didn’t make the suggestion in front of the other sects, shijie, don’t worry.”

“Good,” Jiang Yanli says nodding. “We can’t trust them with that and I won’t have us walking blindly into danger.”

She pauses for a moment. “I think we may have a solution that could solve two problems,” Jiang Yanli says, tapping on the table. “Mother was here, we haven’t been calling her enough and she is hungry.”

“Isn’t that worse?” Wei Wuxian asks, with a frown. “I don’t think we want any of these sects seeing Madame Yu’s hungry ghost as we face down Wen puppets.”

“He’s right, jiejie,” Jiang Cheng adds. “How do we explain that we didn’t have a soul cleansing for our mother and that we haven’t put her spirit to rest? It’s our filial responsibility.”

Jiang Yanli sighs. “Our responsibility is to avenge our sect by any means necessary,” Jiang Yanli says, letting a hint of steel enter her voice. She looks out toward the door seeing without really seeing and has a brief moment of clarity. “I think I have an idea for how we can use mother without any of the sects questioning us.”

“How?” Wei Wuxian asks, leaning forward over the table.

She looks from Wei Wuxian to Jiang Cheng. “All of the sects know that zidian was our mother's weapon, we can use that, make them think that somehow her spirit has become connected.”

Jiang Cheng shakes his head. “That’s not going to work, many of them have seen me use it before.”

“In battle?” Jiang Yanli asks. “How many have truly seen what you can do with zidian?”

Jiang Cheng sits back in his chair and Wei Wuxian frowns at her. “It could work, if you call her prior to the battle and tell her she can’t attack until you use zidian,” Wei Wuxian says, flicking his nose. “We’d have to be careful, make sure she doesn’t show herself before the battle and obviously we’d be too stunned to do anything.”

“Can she feed off of puppets?” Jiang Cheng asks, finally breaking his brief silence.

“I believe so, she feeds off the resentful energy of other spirits, even when she doesn’t want to,” Jiang Yanli says. She’s about to mention the overwhelming number of spirits in the Unclean Realm when the temperature in the room drops. “We’re about to have company,” she says, a moment before the Nie sect cultivator appears in the center of the room, ghostly breath rasping as blood drips from his mouth.

*
Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian are up with their swords out before Jiang Yanli can utter a word and Yu Hui and Yu Min are through the door not long after.

“Everyone please be calm,” Jiang Yanli says, into the chaos, watching the Nie spirit closely. He hasn’t moved to attack her brothers or her guards so she thinks he’s mostly under control but there’s no need to lose her cautiousness. “This is one of the Nie sect spirits, I called him a few days ago.”

“Nie Jianjun,” he rasps, blood slowly spilling across his lips.

Jiang Yanli frowns at him. “I’m sorry,” she says, subtly directing her family to step back. “I don’t recognize that name.”

“It’s mine,” he says, looking up at her. “I’m Nie Jianjun. I was murdered.”

Jiang Yanli smiles at him and says, voice gentle, “Yes, I remember. It is good to officially meet you, Nie Jianjun. Do you have the information I asked about?”

“Yes,” he says, heaving.

Jiang Yanli looks at her brothers, who are watching the exchange with open curiosity. “Please let’s all sit. I asked Nie gongzi to look into a rumor about a possible spy.”

“Jiejie!”

Jiang Yanli just raises an eyebrow at Jiang Cheng. “You’ve been withholding information, A-Cheng, and the women who do so much of the work here, they hear things, see things; I won’t have you going out to lead attacks without knowing the source of the information.”

She turns back to Nie Jianjun. “What have you learned?”

Nie Jianjun takes in a labored breath. It is fascinating to watch him, how he is stuck in the moments around his death in a way that is so unlike any of the other spirits Jiang Yanli has called forth. But it’s also sad, seeing how even in death he’s still suffering.

“Meng Yao is in the Nightless City,” he says, heaving. “He does the same work he did for Nie zongzhu only now he answers to Wen Ruohan.”

Jiang Yanli ignores the signs of shock emanating from her brothers; they don't have time to wonder at Meng Yao’s change in circumstances. She’s never officially met him, but she knows of him and knows of the shameful way he’s been treated by his father's sect.

“Is he a spy or has he truly, fully embraced the ways of Wen Ruohan?”

Nie Jianjun doesn’t say anything for several minutes, just standing in the center of the room breathing heavily as incorporeal blood drips from his mouth. Jiang Yanli tilts her head at him, surprised by his resistance.

“We made a deal, Nie gongzi, but perhaps you need reminding?” Jiang Yanli asks, before she casts her mind back and thinks about which poem would help him cooperate and settles on one with a smile.

For ten long years, a sword I whetted,
Its frosty blade, as yet, untried.
Today, I hold it unsheathed before you;
Of you, to whom was justice denied?

She lets her voice drift off into silence as she watches the tension drift out of Nie Jianjun and aims her gentlest smile at him once again. “Tell me the rest of what you saw, Nie Jianjun, we cannot help you if we don’t know.”

“He is there,” Nie Jianjun starts, words slow and labored. “The one who did this to me, he serves at the right hand of Wen Ruohan.”

Jiang Yanli ignores the exclamation from her brothers and focuses on Nie Jianjun. “Is he loyal?”

Nie Jianjun laughs, it’s a horrible shocking thing. Jiang Yanli doesn’t know how to show him that he is dead and does not need to try to breath around his injuries but she wishes she did, for his comfort and hers. “Meng Yao is only loyal to himself.”

“Is he the one feeding us information, Nie Jianjun? Is he the spy?”

Nie Jianjun nods, head moving up and down slowly. “He sends what information he thinks will deliver victories while not angering Wen Ruohan.”

“So he’s useful at least,” Wei Wuxian says with a frown. “Do we think Lan zongzhu knows he killed a Nie sect cultivator?”

Jiang Cheng snorts. “Would a Lan trust the word of a murderer? He can’t possibly know.”

“There must be a reason Nie zongzhu hasn’t told him, if this was enough to get him expelled from the sect,” Jiang Yanli says, looking back at Nie Jianjun. “Do you know why?”

Nie Jianjun nods again. “He saved Nie Mingjue’s life, if he hadn’t he would have met his end on Baxia’s blade.”

“So he killed a Nie cultivator but saved the sect leader?” Wei Wuxian asks, confusion plain on his face. “Why?”

Nie Jianjun says nothing so Jiang Yanli prompts him to speak up. “You are the only one who can answer this, Nie Jianjun, why did Meng Yao kill you?” she asks, a lilt in her voice.

“I was cruel to him, from the moment he entered our sect,” Nie Jianjun says, and for once the rasp is out of his voice. “He accepted it all with a smile and then used the Wen attack as cover to murder me, that is the person you have as a spy.”

Jiang Cheng scoffs in disgust. “So the perfect person to act as a spy then; sneaky, petty and free of morals.”

“We’ll have to be careful about trusting his information,” Jiang Yanli says, looking at her brothers in turn. “If this is his character he’ll surely be trying to play both sides and won’t truly pick a side until he’s sure of the winner.”

“Should we warn the other sects?” Wei Wuxian asks, with a frown. “We know more about this than they do.”

Jiang Yanli frowns. “How would we tell them we know all of this? None of us were present for these events, to tell them is to risk exposure. I won’t let that happen.”

“Jiejie,” Jiang Cheng starts, then stops at Jiang Yanli’s look.

“I know these sects are our allies, but how many of them came to our aid when the Wens attacked Lotus Pier? How do you think they’d react if they knew we could summon the dead?”

Yu Min steps forward. “Lady Jiang is right, young masters. The major sects have never been fond of alternative methods of cultivation, it’s taken them centuries to accept the saber cultivation of the Nie sect.”

“So what can we do?” Jiang Cheng asks, looking from Yu Min to Jiang Yanli. “We can’t do nothing, what if he decides to feed us bad intel?”

Jiang Yanli takes a long look at Nie Jianjun and doesn’t blink when he stares back. “Are you ready to be at rest, Nie gongzi?”

“No.”

“Hmm,” Jiang Yanli says. “I think I may have an idea. You could shadow your sect leader, protect him, if you can - intervene without showing yourself. Can you do that?”

“Yes,” Nie Jianjun says. “If I am able to do this and protect my sect leader I will consider our agreement fulfilled and pass onward.”

Jiang Yanli nods. “Good, that’s good. We might be able to manage this.” She’s about to send him on to Nie Mingjue when she pauses and asks, “Did you see anything else we should know when you were in Nightless City?”

Nie Jianjun nods again. “There are many dead at Nightless City, from all sects. They are trapped as puppets and their spirits cannot move on, they must obey Wen Ruohan.”

“We’ll need to deal with that if we ever move against Nightless City,” Wei Wuxian says, looking at Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng shrugs. “At least we’ll be prepared if we see some of our own men.”

Jiang Yanli ignores them and continues on. “Is there anything else?”

Nie Jianjun slowly moves his head from side to side.

“Good, then you can go. Please protect Nie zongzhu well,” Jiang Yanli says, smiling as Nie Jianjun disappears.

“Is that it then?” Jiang Cheng asks, after Nie Jianjun has gone. “Do we just hope for the best on everything and assume no one will notice the spirit haunting Nie Mingjue?”

“None of the Nie sect will notice,” Wei Wuxian says, thoughtfully. “This place is crawling with the spirits of the dead, they’re just not malevolent. As long as he means Nie zongzhu no harm, they will ignore it.”

Jiang Yanli nods, happy that she isn’t alone in sensing so many of the dead wandering the halls of the Unclean Realm. She wonders for a moment if something similar is happening at Lotus Pier and then shoves that away.

“A-Xian is right, the dead are clearly a part of normal life here. And I think it makes it easier to solve our problem with our mother,” Jiang Yanli says, smiling as the rest of the solution slots into place in her head.

*
Things move quickly in the coming days as sects prepare to move out for their next battle but Jiang Yanli remains calm. She spends her days with the other women preparing food or bandages and her evenings speaking to the restless dead of the Qinghe Nie. She doesn’t intend to summon more spirits but once Jiang Yanli opened herself up to their presence it’s impossible to ignore.

There’s a shocking variety to the dead of the Unclean Realm; some are clearly resentful and restlessly waiting for someone to hurt and others are just lost. On the nights when Wei Wuxian is free to join her, when he’s not planning strategy with Jiang Cheng or wandering with Lan Wangji, they make music together and cleanse the souls they can.

“Shijie, we can’t cleanse all of these Nie sect spirits, they don’t want it yet,” Wei Wuxian says two nights before he is due to ride out with the Jiang host. “They have too much resentment built up.”

Jiang Yanli sighs. She feels it too, they’re clamouring for the chance to avenge themselves and their sect, against the Wens, the Jins, anyone who has wronged them. “We can’t have you openly summoning the dead, A-Xian, the sects might be okay with it now but what happens after the war?”

Wei Wuxian taps his chenqing against his chin and says, “I think I might have an idea for that.”

Jiang Yanli raises an eyebrow but stays quiet, urging him on.

“We’re already laying the groundwork in rumors around the camp about Madame Yu and zidian right?”

“Yes,” Jiang Yanli says with a frown. She’s had the Yu’s discuss seeing a shade of the Violet Spider when they’ve seen Jiang Cheng wield zidian, and they’ve managed to spread through the camp that a side effect of Yu spiritual tools is a lingering connection to the previous master that fades with time. It’s ridiculous but the other sect disciples have eaten up the gossip and once she shows herself in battle to protect Jiang Cheng it’ll be all but confirmed.

“Well,” Wei Wuxian starts, still tap, tap, tapping away. “What if we start a similar rumor about us?”

Jiang Yanli crinkles her nose. “I don’t understand.”

“I think we use the rumor mill and some of the dead, have them appear to be following us, protecting us,” Wei Wuxian says, with a frown. “If we start a rumor that some of the dead have followed us from the burial mounds it could explain away their presence.”

Jiang Yanli frowns. “That doesn’t really get us past the sects turning on us,” she says, voice gentle. “We need to find a way to make it about more than us and our experience. Less negative attention, XianXian, not more.”

Wei Wuxian frowns, flicking his nose. He’s quiet for a few minutes before he brightens, sitting up from his slouch. “I have an idea.”

Jiang Yanli raises an elegantly curved eyebrow at him. “I’m listening,” she says, with a smile. “As long as it keeps attention off us, I’m open to anything.”

“What if we start a rumor that we’ve seen more than just puppets?” Wei Wuxian says, he’s not really asking a question but Jiang Yanli plays along.

“What do you mean?”

Wei Wuxian smiles. “Most people would agree that what Wen Ruohan is doing is disturbing the dead, but what if we started a rumor that it’s doing more than that? That it’s causing our ancestors who protect us to show themselves.”

“But we don’t have the spirits of multiple ancestors here,” Jiang Yanli says, thinking through the logistics of such an action. “The only dead I’ve encountered in this fort are of the Nie sect.”

Wei Wuxian laughs and says, “That’s a good thing! We wouldn’t expect to see Jin ancestors in the Unclean Realm but if we start seeing Nie ancestors haunting the halls, protecting the sect then it wouldn’t be as much of a shock to see other sect’s spirits when we go into battle.” He pauses and adds, “Plus it would make Madame Yu’s presence less remarkable.”

Jiang Yanli starts to reply then stops herself and frowns. It’s a great idea; it pulls on several threads she knows have started to worry the assembled sect leaders but there is a large problem Wei Wuxian hasn’t addressed. He doesn’t talk to the dead, he commands, he maneuvers but convincing them to do something and then dissipate of their own remaining free will? It’s not his strength.

“There’s a problem here,” Jiang Yanli says, fingers clenched tight in her lap. She knows what she has to do to make this work but she has no illusions of the reaction she’ll get from her brothers.

Wei Wuxian quirked an eyebrow at her. “I don’t think so, this fixes so many things.”

“A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli says, reaching out to grasp his hand in hers. “When have you actually convinced a resentful spirit to do something other than kill one of our enemies?”

Wei Wuxian opens his mouth to speak and stops, frowning. “I,” he starts and stops again. “Huh.”

“It’s not a bad thing,” Jiang Yanli adds, with a sigh. “Our enemies have deserved the horrors we’ve rained down on them but if we’re to pull this off we’ll need a softer touch.”

Wei Wuxian looks at her and narrows his eyes. “You want to do it, don’t you?”

“I need to do it A-Xian, you know I’m better at talking to them about things other than death.”

“We’ll be in battle, shijie, you’ve never been a fighter and you can’t even wield your sword now,” Wei Wuxian says, not unkindly.

Jiang Yanli sighs. She’s well aware of her deficiencies, even before she gave up her golden core there was nothing fierce about her, her mother had given up on her long before Jiang Cheng was born. “I’m not thinking of riding into battle with you, not really.”

“Then what?” Wei Wuxian asks with a frown. “We’ll be too far away for you to effectively summon any resentful spirits to be useful for us.”

Jiang Yanli smiles then, knowing she’s convinced him even if he doesn’t realize it yet. “The medics travel behind the main host,” Jiang Yanli says with a smile. “If I travel with them and sing to comfort the worried people left behind? No one would ever suspect.”

“Hmm,” Wei Wuxian says, tapping chenqing against his chin. “That could work,” he says, a frown tugging his lips down. “You’d have to have the Yu’s with you in case things went wrong so they could get you out of there as soon as possible.”

“Of course,” Jiang Yanli says, seriously. “They would not let me go anywhere near a battle without them.”

Wei Wuxian sighs and nods, defeated. “Okay but you have to convince Jiang Cheng, I’m not getting into that.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” Jiang Yanli says with a smile. Now they might have a chance to win and come out of this with their family reputation unscathed.

*
It’s surprisingly easy to convince Jiang Cheng, with Yu Hui and Yu Min standing at her back and a promise to stay as far from the fighting as possible Jiang Yanli secures her role in the coming battle. She calls forth her mother and lets her know of the plan and then gets to work preparing to depart at the back of the host.

Jiang Yanli is in the tent that’s been set aside for medical supplies, busy collecting bandages and trying to determine how many satchels of healing herbs she’ll need when Yu Min pokes her head in the tent.

“Lady Jiang?” Yu Min asks, voice lilting up in a question.

Jiang Yanli looks up with a smile and asks, “Yes?” The Yu’s have mostly left her to her own devices as she preps materials but she’s happy for a distraction.

“Jin gongzi is out here, he wanted to speak with you,” Yu Min says, face placid in a way Jiang Yanli has taken to mean that she’s annoyed but refusing to show it.

Jiang Yanli sighs but flashes Yu Min a quick smile. “It’s okay, you can let him in. He might be injured.”

Yu Min rolls her eyes but ducks back out and a moment later the tent flap flips up and Jin Zixuan enters.

Jiang Yanli bows to Jin Zixuan before welcoming him into the medical tent. “Please, come in,” she says, gesturing to the room. “Was there something specific you needed, Jin gongzi?”

“There’s a rumor that a group of medics and nurses will be following our fighting force to battle, do you know of this?” Jin Zixuan asks, hands clasped behind his back.

Jiang Yanli frowns. “Yes, of course.”

“And you approve of this?”

“I suggested it,” Jiang Yanli says, resisting the urge to raise a brow at him. “As we learned with the last battle time is of the essence for our injured cultivators, it makes no sense to wait here for them when we can be near the battle.”

Jin Zixuan snorts. “It’s nice that you are so concerned but a battlefield is no place for a woman.”

“Women usually have no choice when the battle comes to them,” Jiang Yanli replies, thinking of all the spirits she’s encountered of women killed in battles they could not fight by men who didn’t care that they were bystanders. “The only way I can help my sect and my brothers is by offering my services as a nurse and I’m of more use closer to the battles than behind the walls of the Unclean Realm.”

Jin Zixuan looks at her like she’s insane. “Surely you cannot think this is a good idea, it’s inappropriate for you to be that close to men fighting and dying, you’ll be better off here where it is safe,” Jin Zixuan says, nodding as if because he’s said it everything has been decided.

Jiang Yanli smiles at him and she knows it’s not a pleasant smile, as she fights to keep the resentful energy from building around her. “I thank you for your concerns but my presence at or away from the battlefield is the responsibility of the Yunmeng Jiang sect not the Jin sect,” she says, voice gone sharp. “And my brother, my sect leader has already made his decision.”

“How can you be so unconcerned about your reputation?” Jin Zixuan asks, his face a portrait of incredulity. “You have already spent months alone with Wei Wuxian, you must understand that this will only further damage your marriage prospects.”

Jiang Yanli narrows her eyes at him. She can nearly feel her mother clawing at her back, demanding to reveal herself and to remove Jin Zixuan from existence but she holds her and the others back, refusing to surrender to the pull.

“Marriage prospects are the least of my worries, Jin gongzi,” Jiang Yanli says, trying to think calming, happy thoughts to keep the resentful spirits at bay. “My sect was nearly destroyed, my parents murdered and all I truly have left to me are my two brothers, because Wei Wuxian is my brother, if not in blood then in my heart,” she says, breathing slowly to control her newly discovered temper.

“I don’t understand why you of all people would care about the state of my marriage prospects, you have happily rid yourself of any obligations to me and my reputation will not damage your standing.”

Jin Zixuan stands before her for a moment floundering. “I wasn’t trying to suggest, that is to say, I didn’t,” he stops, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. “I meant no disrespect, Lady Jiang,” Jin Zixuan finally says, bowing deeply. “I was concerned for your safety and didn’t express myself well.”

“My cultivation may be low,” Jiang Yanli says, feeling the sting of the lie in her very soul. “But I can take care of myself, and my grandmother sent the Yu’s along to ensure my safety.”

“I’m sure they are very fierce in battle,” Jin Zixuan says, voice serious. “Again I apologize, I spoke without thinking.”

Jiang Yanli nods and flashes him a brief, nearly genuine smile. “I accept your apology, I’m sure emotions are running high as you all prepare.”

“They are but that is no excuse for my behavior,” Jin Zixuan says.

“No, but we can overlook it anyway,” Jiang Yanli says, letting them both move past this conversation. “Was there something else you needed? I’m nearly done packing supplies but I’m happy to help find what you need.”

Jin Zixuan shakes his head. “No, I should be returning to my men, but thank you.”

He walks toward the entrance of the tent and then turns back to her before he lifts the flap. “I wasn’t happy,” Jin Zixuan says, facing the opening of the tent.

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Jiang Yanli says, confused. She feels like she has momentarily lost the thread of their conversation.

“To be rid of you,” he blurts out, looking over his shoulder for a second before turning back to the tent opening. “I wasn’t happy about it, I thought you should know,” he adds and then he ducks out of the tent and is gone, leaving Jiang Yanli to stand stock still in the center of the tent, shocked.

Jiang Yanli doesn’t have time to poke at her feelings once the surprise has abated. They ride out at dawn, their wagon following along behind the host of cultivators traveling on horseback and on foot. It’s too risky to waste spiritual energy flying when they have no idea what they’ll face.

They’re so far behind the main force that when Yu Hui finally brings the wagon to a stop Jiang Yanli can already hear the sounds of swords clashing up ahead. There are only two other wagons traveling along with them, with healers from the Lan and Nie sects and based on their close proximity Jiang Yanli decides against calling forth the spirits of the resentful dead. Instead she closes her eyes, centers herself and calls out, “Muqin, we need you,” and waits.

It’s not a long wait, her mother appears before her in the wagon, looking so close to the way she did when she lived that Jiang Yanli is briefly thrown back to a better, happier time.

“Is it time A-Li?” Yu Ziyuan asks, lips quirked up in a hint of a smile. “I can feel a battle nearby.”

Jiang Yanli nods. “Yes, mother. You must remember what we discussed or I will not be able to summon you again.”

“I remember,” Yu Ziyuan says, with a snort. “I will gladly avenge our sect in this way, and you will stay safe here.”

“I will.”

“Good,” Yu Ziyuan says and then she disappears, off to appear at Jiang Cheng’s side as he uses zidian and be the final piece in the rumor they’ve let run rampant among the sects. It amazes Jiang Yanli how quickly the rumor spread, how they got information to every sect, every sect leader that Yu Ziyuan sometimes appeared when Jiang Cheng used zidian as if her spirit had lingered near her former spiritual weapon. And now they’re using it to their advantage setting her loose on the Wens and hopefully ensuring their success.

In the first minutes after her mother leaves they see a steady stream of injured cultivators. They speak in whispers of the horrors the Wen sect have unleashed. Jiang Yanli listens closely and worries, at her brothers facing fierce corpses that seem unstoppable, at what evil can so easily turn living men into such things.

As the battle wears on Jiang Yanli doesn’t hear the screams or the clang of swords crossing but the flow of injured cultivators slows to a trickle and soon all of the healers and nurses are left sitting and waiting for word of the outcome of the battle. It feels like hours or days but soon a line of Lan cultivators begin to walk and ride back followed by the purple of Yunmeng Jiang.

Jiang Yanli doesn’t stop holding her breath until she sees her brothers, at the rear of the line of survivors. It’s only then that she notices Yu Min trying to catch her eye and starts to listen to the chatter of the survivors.

”It’s because their whole sect was murdered after they welcomed those Wens in, that’s why that ghost was there,” one of the Lan men says, hurrying past.

“...if anyone was going to defy a soul cleansing to become a hungry ghost to avenge her sect it would be Madame Yu,” another says.

Although Jiang Yanli can’t see his face she assumes he’s a Jiang cultivator, they were all subject to her mother’s training regimen. She doesn’t smile but she feels a sense of peace settle in her gut. Her mother has done what they’ve needed and maybe made things just a little bit easier on them all.

Jiang Cheng finds her a few minutes later, standing tall and proud as he walks through his men.

“A-Cheng, are you well?” Jiang Yanli asks, taking the arm he offers her to walk among the wounded. Before they left they’d talked about how to present the sect reaction to a hungry ghost helping them and the best way to manage it, politically, was to control what type of rumors spread, so they walk out among the men who are resting and gossiping as men do when bored.

There are less of them than she expected, less than they’ve had from any of the other battles throughout this campaign and they’re all less severely injured. For that she sends a silent thanks to their mother, sure that her presence helped stem the tide of death and destruction among their men.

“I’m well, jiejie,” Jiang Cheng says, as they walk. “Wei Wuxian is well too, we both managed to avoid any injuries.”

Jiang Yanli smiles. “That’s a relief,” she says and means it. This walk, this public conversation may be focused on spreading information but she is still glad to see her brothers exit a battle unscathed. “Even as the injured came I worried.”

“I’m sorry we worried you, jiejie,” Jiang Cheng says, voice serious, then he looks around at the men and drops his voice, low but not so low that those trying to listen in won’t hear. “There is something I must tell you before you hear rumors.”

Jiang Yanli looks over at him, holding her face in what she hopes is a perfect portrait of curiosity and asks, “What rumors?”

“In the heat of the battle,” Jiang Cheng starts, voice grave. “Something strange happened with zidian.”

Jiang Yanli will applaud him later for his performance, if they hadn’t practiced this very conversation she’d think it was real. “What do you mean something strange? It didn’t cause any problems did it? Mother was always able to weld it.”

“She was,” Jiang Cheng says, slowly. “But I think she was too attached to it,” he adds before pausing and looking around them, a little too pointedly. She gives him a look and he settles back into storytelling.

“Jiejie, when I used zidian we saw mother.”

Jiang Yanli crinkles her nose, quickly darting a look to see that many of the injured men are listening while trying to appear as if they aren’t listening. “I don’t understand, how could you have seen her?”

“I think she was a hungry ghost or somehow connected to zidian,” Jiang Cheng says, looking down at where zidian is curled around his wrist. “She didn’t try to harm us, only the Wens, and when we were done she vanished.”

“That’s not possible, A-Cheng, she was from a prominent sect, she had a soul cleansing.”

Jiang Cheng shakes his head. “I know, but there must be some reason. It was mother,” Jiang Cheng says. “I would recognize her anywhere, she was not just a demon using our mothers face.”

Jiang Yanli gasps, hand pressed against her chest and then wonders if maybe that is too much but the men around them seem riveted so she continues on, nodding bravely and lifting her head to meet her brother’s eyes. Jiang Cheng looks on the verge of laughing so she reaches out to grasp his arm, which to anyone around them would look like she’s reaching for support when in reality she pinches him and gives him a look to control himself.

“Do we know how this is possible?” Jiang Yanli asks, grip firmly on her brother's arm. “Does this mean we’ll need to suppress her spirit?” she asks, rapid fire. It’s hard to keep up this farce of panic but she pushes on, secure in the knowledge that there’s not much left to do.

Jiang Cheng nods. “We will need to suppress her and ensure that she is sent on in peace,” he says with a sad sigh. “I’ve sent a fire message to our Yu grandmother to see if she knows anything but while we wait for a reply we’ll have to be more careful.”

“Does she,” Jiang Yanli starts and then stops, they’ve got a good enough audience now that they can push this home and turn the tide. “Did she harm any of our cultivators? Is she dangerous?”

“She’s a spirit, jiejie; they’re always dangerous,” Jiang Cheng says then he sighs, sounding incredibly put upon and just a little too fake so Jiang Yanli widens her eyes at him and tries to convey that he should tone it down. “But she didn’t harm any of our people, and I think we could wait to suppress her.”

Jiang Yanli frowns, eyes darting quickly to the men trying to listen in around them. They’re nodding as Jiang Cheng speaks and she tamps down a smile; they’ve got them. “She was absolutely focused on our enemies and I don’t know if we would have won the day with so few casualties if she didn’t appear.”

“You want to continue using her in battles?”

Jiang Cheng nods. “Only when things are dire,” Jiang Cheng says and then he gets a far away look in his eyes. “Some of the things Wen Ruohan is doing to his men, they aren’t even puppets, they’re something worse. We need something worse if we’re to survive and win.”

*
The trip back to the Unclean Realm is a lively affair, with the men laughing and joking as they march. Wei Wuxian takes up a spot next to Jiang Yanli’s cart talking to her about everything and nothing as they make their way back. His eyes keep scanning the land around them like he’s poised for an attack and Jiang Yanli wants to ask but she holds her tongue, content to wait until they’re back in safety to know what their brother has kept from her.

When they arrive to the Unclean Realm everything is a flurry of activity and Jiang Yanli can see immediately that the other sects did not fare nearly as well as the Yunmeng Jiang in their battles. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian are immediately drawn off into a conference and Jiang Yanli is left alone with Yu Min and Yu Hui.

“We should make ourselves useful,” Jiang Yanli says, turning to Yu Min and Yu Hui. “All of the other sects have suffered casualties much more severe than ours, let us try to ease some of this suffering.”

They both nod and then they all get to work. It’s gruesome, bloody work tending to the injured and there are many that they are forced to just try to make comfortable before they pass on. Jiang Yanli is sad to think that those, the ones who are dying and will see an end to their suffering, are the lucky ones, the others are barely aware of their own suffering.

Jiang Yanli avoids touching the cultivators who have been infected, even without her own weak golden core she can feel the damage to their qi, the resentful energy bleeding off of them in waves. It takes all of her energy to not get caught in the tide of it and let the resentful energy infect her more than it already has. She tends to the injured and eases the way for the dying and then when she sees her brothers emerge from the chamber they’ve been in for the last few hours she nods to Yu Min and Yu Hui and they return to their guest quarters.

She prepares the tea and waits for her brothers to return to her. It’s not long before their door is opening and Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian are filing in and immediately Jiang Yanli knows something is wrong.

“What is it?” Jiang Yanli asks, rising from her seat.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian look at each other before they look back at her and Jiang Yanli can smell the lie before it crosses their lips.

“Do not attempt to lie to me,” she says, sinking back down and resting her hands on her knee. “I will ask the spirits that inhabit this place and you will regret keeping things from me.”

They both grimace and Wei Wuxian drops down into his spot across from her first. “Shijie, it’s not that we want to keep things from you,” he starts. “It’s just that things have taken an unexpected turn and we don’t want you to worry.”

Jiang Yanli pins him with a glare. “Do not condescend to me. Tell me, I can’t help if I don’t know.”

Wei Wuxian bows his head cowed, as Jiang Cheng drops into his spot beside him.

“Sect leader Nie has been taken prisoner by the Wens,” Jiang Cheng says with a sigh. “The information we got was incomplete, his fighting force was decimated and he was captured. We think he’s been taken to Nightless City.”

Jiang Yanli looks between her brothers, horrified. If Nie zongzhu has been taken there’s no guarantee that he’s still alive and she wonders if this was the goal of the Wens all along, to wipe out a generation of experienced sect leaders to further their own goals.

“Do we know anything else?” Jiang Yanli asks, mind already jumping to what they’ll need to do to win this once and for all and hopefully reach Nie zongzhu before Wen Ruohan kills him.

Wei Wuxian shakes his head. “No, we head out for the assault on Nightless City tomorrow. To hopefully end this once and for all.”

“And we’re still trusting the word of this spy?” Jiang Yanli asks, fingers reaching down to grasp the piece of yin iron hanging alongside her Yunmeng Jiang bell. “Even after such a failure?”

Jiang Cheng huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “Lan Xichen has complete trust in him,” Jiang Cheng says with a frown. “And you know how hard it is to go against a Lan’s trust, especially when we can’t reveal how we know who the spy is.”

“This is ridiculous and a waste of time if we’re to ride out tomorrow,” Jiang Yanli says, ignoring both of her brothers faces of surprise at the idea that she would travel with them again. She holds her yin iron and says, “Nie Jianjun, your presence is required,” in a singsong voice and waits for him to appear.

It’s not long before Nie Jianjun appears breathing heavily and looking angry.

“Why have you called me here?” he asks, voice labored.

Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng both are on their feet before he has taken a step near Jiang Yanli, with Wei Wuxian’s chenqing already at his lips.

“It’s alright, he won’t harm me,” Jiang Yanli says, standing and stepping around the table. “Tell us how Nie zongzhu fairs.”

Nie Jianjun gives her a sharp look but relents, settling position to deliver his report. “He is in a dungeon in Nightless City along with four other Nie cultivators. They have been severely beaten.”

“But not killed?” Jiang Yanli prompts and at Nie Jianjun’s slow nod she smiles. “Then we may have time to attempt to save their lives.”

Nie Jianjun wheezes. “Wen Ruohan can control the dead as well as you, better with the kinds of puppets he employs.”

“We can definitely control them more, we choose not to,” Wei Wuxian says, twirling chenqing between his fingers.

Jiang Yanli shakes her head. “I have no interest in who can control what better, the dead are not our servants, they need to be avenged and put to rest.”

“I cannot rest,” Nie Jianjun rasps. “I cannot act.”

Jiang Yanli looks at him; looks closely and sees the tremble in his hands, the tension around his eyes, all of it more than the remnants from the moment of his death. “What do you need?”

“You said I could not show myself,” he says, voice trembling. “I cannot protect my sect leader.”

Jiang Yanli narrows her eyes confused for a moment before she realizes what has happened. Nie Jianjun was shadowing Nie Mingjue and could not show himself to prevent his capture. All of it, the tension, the anger, the resentment clearly building and rolling off of Nie Jianjun makes more sense now.

“I see,” Jiang Yanli says, nodding. “If the lives of Nie zongzhu or any of the Nie prisoners in the Nightless City are directly in danger you can show yourself and interfere.”

“Wait,” Wei Wuxian says, tapping his dizi against his chin. “We need more than that.”

Jiang Cheng pushes him on the shoulder. “No we don’t, a Nie ghost interfering is more than enough.”

“He just said Wen Ruohan can control the dead, we need a fail safe in case he’s able to subjugate Nie Jianjun’s will.”

Jiang Yanli’s eyes go wide in understanding. “He’s right, ChengCheng, we need to protect Nie Jianjun and the prisoners.”

“Nie Jianjun,” Jiang Yanli sings. “Protect your sect leader and your shidis, show yourself if you must but if you feel your will slipping you must return to me or my brother.”

Nie Jianjun looks at her and nods. “Can I kill?”

“If it saves the life of one of the Nie cultivators?” Jiang Yanli asks and shrugs. “Do what you must.”

Nie Jianjun nods again and smiles, blackened blood dripping from his teeth. “Thank you, Lady Jiang, this is what I needed,” and then he disappears.

*
They march out at dawn the next day, all of their fighting force pointed at the Nightless City to try to end the Sunshot campaign once and for all. Jiang Yanli is surprised to not see any Lanling Jin cultivators in their numbers for as much as Jin Guangshan has tried to direct every moment of the conflict, but the remaining Nie cultivators march with the Jiang and Lan sects with a host of healers at their backs.

There was no argument about the inclusion of healers on this second march, they are all well aware of the stakes and the risks of injury or death. It’s a quiet march, everyone on edge as the sun rises and they get deeper into Qishan Wen territory. It’s strange how unafraid Jiang Yanli finds herself, even as it becomes clearer and clearer just how many people have died horribly in Qishan, how many are resentful spirits demanding satisfaction. She sings to herself in the carriage, soothing spirits as they go, sure that there will be plenty more to draw on once they reach the city.

Jiang Yanli is lost in the rhythm of the carriage as it slowly moves along and in the song she’s singing to soothe some of the restless dead of Qishan on their way to rest so she doesn’t notice when the carriage stops. She doesn’t hear the screams or the clash of swords or anything out of the ordinary until the carriage door is wrenched open and Yu Hui grabs her arm.

“Lady Jiang, you must hurry,” Yu Hui says, as Jiang Yanli slowly opens her eyes and looks past her to pure carnage. Of the carriages and carts Jiang Yanli can see, they are mostly overturned and bodies crowd the ground. The group of healers have mostly scattered and those left are fighting off a group of Wen soldiers, Yu Min holding off several as Yu Hui helps Jiang Yanli out of the carriage.

They move quickly but Jiang Yanli thinks fast, adopting Wei Wuxian’s habit of whistling and calling forth the Qishan dead who haven’t been put to rest to attack the Wen soldiers. It’s not much, not enough power to win the battle but it gives all of the remaining Lan and Nie healers time to run and take flight to safety so it’s something.

Yu Hui and Yu Min don’t risk flying, with Wen soldiers behind them fighting the restless dead and ahead of them trying to box in their coalition of cultivators, so they stay low and hustle Jiang Yanli along until they’re just behind the main battle. From the looks of it, it seems that they’ve won and the Wen cultivators behind them are nothing but the last dregs of Wen Ruohan’s host but Jiang Yanli can feel resentment building and knows in her gut that the Qishan Wen will not fall so easily.

It’s nearly silent, the Wen soldiers dead and littering the ground while the Nie, Lan and Jiang cultivators stand, backs to each other as they wait for whatever comes next.

They don’t have to wait long as the silence is broken by the sound of something whistling through the air and then the sound of gates, rising. Jiang Yanli can’t see the source of the whistling but she can see the gates and what she sees beyond them fill her with despair and disgust in equal measure, as wave after wave of the dead pour out. They’re of all ages, young, old, and some so deformed by Wen Ruohan’s cultivation that Jiang Yanli isn’t sure if they would still be considered human.

“Lady Jiang, we need to move,” Yu Min says as they watch the puppets pour out of the gates. “If we stay here we’ll be overrun.”

Jiang Yanli shakes her head. “I have to do something, our men are outnumbered.”

“Then please do it fast, we don’t have much time,” Yu Hui says, unsheathing her sword as she and Yu Min move to flank Jiang Yanli.

Jiang Yanli nods to their backs and then calls out, “A-niang?”

“I’m here,” Yu Ziyuan says, appearing in front of them. “The air tastes like death. What do you need, A-Li?”

“Will you join my brothers?” Jiang Yanli asks, already running through the poems she knows in her mind and trying to find one that will appeal to the dead of Qishan.

Yu Ziyuan nods. “I will join them. Wen Ruohan is close, if I see a chance to kill him I will take it.”

“I expect nothing less, mother,” Jiang Yanli says, as she finally settles on something to call forth reinforcements. “Go, hurry, they need you.”

Yu Ziyuan fades away and for a moment Jiang Yanli feels relieved but then the first puppet reaches them and Yu Min and Yu Hui start to battle.

Jiang Yanli watches as Yu Hui cuts down a puppet that was little more than a child and starts to sing.

Rats in government granaries are fat like cats, I say;
Even if one opens the door, they just won’t go away.
Soldiers’ supplies depleted, folks famished, why! O by
Whose grace you feed and fete each every single day?

She imbues the words with what she feels and more importantly what they need; reminding the dead that they all died at the hands of a tyrant, that they have the chance to protect the people fighting to take him down, that they can know peace if they just focus their resentment, their rage on the mindless, soulless bodies of their fellow victims.

Jiang Yanli doesn’t notice moving with the fight as she sings, raising her voice to call forth as many of the restless dead as she can, begging them to help protect the living and destroy the rule of Wen Ruohan. When she opens her eyes she sees that they are on the edge of the battlefield and Wei Wuxian has joined her song with his dizi. They’re stronger together, their family always has been; with Jiang Cheng fighting alongside the spirit of their mother as Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli joined together in song, Wen Ruohan’s time among the living is limited.

She doesn’t care that the Lan and Nie sect cultivators can see her, can hear her sweet voice singing so many horrors down upon their enemies. It’s good that they see and know that the Yunmeng Jiang sect will not be held back, even by the destruction wrought by the Wens.

It seems like the tide is finally turning in their favor, when the doors to the Palace of Sun and Flames slam open and Wen Ruohan steps out, hair down and blowing wildly in the wind. Jiang Yanli doesn’t stop singing even as Wen Ruohan’s gaze sweeps the battlefield before landing on Wei Wuxian.

“It’s you,” Wen Ruohan says, glaring at Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian lowers his dizi and says, “Wen zongzhu, glad to meet you,” while Jiang Yanli continues singing, not losing sight of the puppets still surrounding their fighting force.

Wen Ruohan looks away from him scanning the battlefield again until he locks eyes with Jiang Yanli and nearly growls. “I see you do not wield this power alone. Where did you get your yin iron?”

Wei Wuxian laughs. “We died so we brought it from hell,” he says, as Jiang Yanli changes songs as more of the puppets fall under the onslaught from the spirits of the resentful dead. She starts singing them all on to peace so that they may reincarnate and weaves a plea for her mother to stay sharp.

She sees Wen Ruohan’s face twist with rage and then he reaches out a hand toward Wei Wuxian and he’s flying toward him and Jiang Yanli watches in horror as Wen Ruohan’s fingers wrap around Wei Wuxian’s neck. She doesn’t have time to call for help as Wen Ruohan looks back at her and reaches out and Jiang Yanli feels herself dragged off her feet and pulled across the battlefield, heedless of the battle currently unfolding.

Jiang Yanli does something she hasn’t done in years, she screams for her mother. “A-Niang!!” she screams as she throws up her hands to futilely block any sword blows that might get too near and she hears Yu Ziyuan roar, an inhuman sound in a voice so familiar. She looks up in time to see Yu Ziyuan disappear and reappear standing behind Wen Ruohan, between him and Meng Yao who has emerged through the open doors with a sword in hand. Jiang Yanli watches as her mother’s hand shoots out toward Wen Ruohan’s back and she can’t immediately see what happens, Wei Wuxian is blocking the view but she knows when she falls that it is done.

She looks up in time to see Lan Wangji catch Wei Wuxian as he falls and her mother holding the still sluggishly beating heart of Wen Ruohan in her hand as Wen Ruohan falls face forward, dead. Yu Ziyuan raises the heart to her mouth as her face transforms, mouth opening wider and wider as blood drips down her hand before she swallows the heart whole.

Jiang Yanli is still watching her, horror plain on her face at such a clear reminder that their mother is dead, that this thing that she is now is an abomination, no matter how much she’s made this fight easier. Jiang Yanli is still watching her as Jiang Cheng reaches her, helping her to her feet before he hugs her tight when she sees her mother disappear.

Yu Ziyuan reappears directly in front of them and smiles, her lips red with the blood of their enemy. “You three have avenged our sect and Wen Ruohan is dead. Now I can go seek peace,” Yu Ziyuan says, as Lan Wangji helps Wei Wuxian make his way to them.

She looks at each of them, from Jiang Cheng to Wei Wuxian to Jiang Yanli and says, “Make the sect proud, stand together as a family,” and then she looks at Jiang Yanli, “Send me on, A-Li, it’s time.”

Jiang Yanli nods, tears falling freely and starts to sing.

*
The LanLing Jin sect arrive in the Nightless City the next day, and the assorted sects gather for yet another conference to discuss what is to be done next. They’ve found the Wen dungeons full of not just other sect cultivators but mediocre people, guest disciples of the Wen sect and various other cultivators and non cultivators alike in addition to the people employed in the Palace of Sun and Flames.

Something must be done with all of them and Jiang Yanli demands to be present at the conference, a feeling taking root in her belly telling her she cannot leave this to the men alone. They’ll already be without Nie Mingjue, recovering as he is from his injuries, less severe due to the intervention of Nie Jianjin but still enough to prevent him from attending the conference.

They’re the first to arrive; something Jiang Yanli insisted was necessary to Jiang Cheng over and over again in the hours after it was decided that a conference was needed. And her nagging is proven correct when the Jin delegation arrives hot on their heels. They make their bows and Jiang Yanli tucks her hand in her brother's arm and gently directs him to the dias and seat at the head of the room when there’s a cough from behind them.

“Was there something you needed, Jin zongzhu?” Jiang Cheng asks, as he takes his seat, Jiang Yanli sits at his side and for a moment she wishes Wei Wuxian was with them but they’d agreed the Jiang sect needed someone outside to ensure no sect started taking action prior to the decision of the sect leaders. Yu Min takes her place standing behind Jiang Yanli, always on guard even here amongst those who would call themselves their allies, while Yu Hui remains outside with Wei Wuxian.

Jin Guangshan smiles, the oily smile that Jiang Yanli may have once thought held some kindness but that she now knows holds nothing but cunning and cowardice. “I’m just surprised to see a Young Master take such a seat,” Jin Guangshan says with a brief laugh. “How bold!”

Jiang Yanli smiles at him adjusting her skirts. “In what way, Jin zongzhu? My sect leader was one of the leaders of the sunshot campaign and our family struck the killing blow against Wen Ruohan,” Jiang Yanli says, voice placid. As she speaks the Lan delegation enters along with those who will be representing the Nies.

“Do not be too harsh with them, jiejie, they were late arrivals so I’m sure they have to take more time catching up,” Jiang Cheng says, directing a sharp look at Jin Guangshan.

Jin Guangshan snorts. “Yes, well, we all are aware of that thing that killed Wen Ruohan but can you really claim a hungry ghost as of your sect?”

Jiang Cheng pins him with a look. “Maybe if your sect suffered the losses we Yunmeng Jiang suffered at the hands of Wen Ruohan and his spawn you’d have found yourself with a similar situation.”

“But our dear friends were very lucky indeed,” Jiang Yanli says, pouring her brother tea. “They suffered no losses at all when the rest of us have suffered so dearly. I hope to one day toast your good fortune,” Jiang Yanli says, suppressing a smile at the grumbling of the other sects present. They’ve all sustained losses while the Jin sect abdicated responsibility and subtly pointing it out does the Jin sect no favors.

Jin Guangshan says nothing, glaring and it's then that Jiang Yanli notices he’s accompanied by more than just Jin Zixuan, Meng Yao is also at his side dressed in Lanling Jin colors with a vermillion mark clear on his forehead. Jiang Yanli looks at him and wonders if being a spy and murdering a Nie was worth sitting at the left hand of such a man as Jin Guangshan.

Jiang Cheng calls the conference to order and the discussion begins.

The sect leaders argue over what is to be done with the prisoners, both those they found already populating the dungeons and those captured after Wen Ruohan fell and it is fascinating how little they all say. They hem and haw, as Jiang Cheng sits silently watching over them and Jiang Yanli wonders how long it will take for someone to suggest an action.

In the end it’s Jin Guangshan who makes a suggestion, horrifying though it may be, after Lan Xichen has suggested they think carefully about it all.

“It seems obvious to me,” Jin Guangshan says with an oily smile. “If no other sect is willing to take responsibility for dealing with these Wens then the Lanling Jin sect will humbly take on this burden.”

Jiang Yanli cuts a look at Jiang Cheng. “And what exactly do you suggest you do with them, Jin zongzhu?” Jiang Cheng asks, voice flat. “I haven’t heard any sect indicate they aren’t willing, but none of them have suggested a course of action.”

“Well obviously we’ll execute the cultivators,” Jin Guanshan says, to some nods from some of the smaller sects. “Possibly we can establish some work camps for the mediocre people.”

Jiang Cheng leans back in his chair and strokes his chin. “So you propose we summarily execute all of the cultivators then?” Jiang Cheng asks and at Jin Guangshan’s nod he raises an eyebrow. “Even those we found in the dungeons who had clearly crossed Wen Ruohan?”

Jin Guangshan scoffs. “Surely you don’t think those who would turn against their own sect leader deserve to live?”

“So you think that all the Wens should have stood next to Wen Ruohan as he was killing our people?” Lan Xichen asks, sounding horrified. “Respectfully, Jin zongzhu, I think you are not thinking clearly on this issue.”

Jiang Cheng nods. “I agree, Lan zongzhu. The Yunmeng Jiang sect will not stand idly by as those who turned against Wen Ruohan are punished. They did what was morally right in the face of unspeakable pressure.”

“And Wen Ruohan was clearly killing his own people!” Sect Leader Ouoyang chimes in. “There were many, many puppets in Wen robes on that battlefield.”

“Yes, there were. Many of them children,” Lan Xichen adds into the din.

Jiang Cheng quiets the room and says, “Gentleman,” ignoring the sharp look Jiang Yanli throws at him. “I think we must give Jin zongzhu some space, he would not have known of these things as the Jin sect was not with us on the battlefield.”

Jin Guangshan glares but says nothing, as the other sect leaders turn their attention back to him and his sect that has suffered no losses in this long, bloody conflict.

After that the decisions come easily, any Wen cultivator who stood with Wen Ruohan will be executed, those who stood against him will be spared and left to join whatever sects may have them or to become rogue cultivators. Those who did nothing, neither joined the fight nor stood against would have their swords taken. The issue of the mediocre people took longer to decide until finally a compromise was reached, those who actively fought for the Wen sect would be sentenced to three years labor to be split among the sects that suffered at Wen Ruohan’s hands while the rest would be allowed to go on and settle where they may, never to return to the Nightless City.

Jiang Yanli thinks it’s a fair compromise, with a minimal loss of life and she’s happy to see that Wen Qing and Wen Ning will remain safe, whether they choose to stay in Meishan or elsewhere but she can see how angry this has made Jin Guangshan and she thinks, to herself, that something will need to be done there.

“What about the weapon?” Jin Guangshan asks, into the quiet that has just settled over the room. “Surely we should discuss the weapon Wei Wuxian wielded in battle, one man cannot be allowed something with such power.”

Jiang Yanli looks up and sees what he is trying to do and laughs. She doesn’t intend for it to be out loud, but she cannot help the sound that springs forth.

“Jiejie!” Jiang Cheng says, looking over at her.

Jiang Yanli takes a moment to compose herself and then stands and bows to her brother. “I apologize for that outburst, Jiang zongzhu, I just could not help but find it silly to see someone refer to a dizi in such a manner.”

“You did not see what he has done with that dizi, as you are a woman and have not been on a battlefield, but it is too much power. Something must be done,” Jin Guangshan says, emboldened by the nods of sect leaders Yao and Ouyang.

Jiang Yanli lets the smile drop off her face. “I was on this battlefield, Jin zongzhu, I followed behind to tend the injured. And I spent three months in the burial mounds with only the songs my brother and I would sing to soothe the dead to keep us alive,” Jiang Yanli says, voice firm. “Believe me I am well aware of what he can do, just as I am aware of what I can do, even with my low cultivation.”

Jin Guangshan laughs, while Meng Yao looks at her, eyes sharp. “Surely you don't expect me to believe a lady can do such horrors,” Jin Guangshan says, slapping his knee. None of the cultivators who were on the battlefield join him in his laughter and he slowly stops, horror dawning across his face.

Jiang Yanli smiles. “I’m a lady and of course know very little of the true horrors of war, but I think you’ll find that anyone forced to survive in the burial mounds with no hope of rescue will adapt. I sing and the spirits of the dead are calmed and the calm resentful dead do not try to rip your throat out while you sleep.”

“So there is no weapon, Lady Jiang?” Jin Zixuan asks, finally speaking up from his father’s other side.

“The weapon is music and your intention, if that is a weapon too dangerous to be allowed to in the Yunmeng Jiang sect, I look forward to the Jin sect also demanding the Gusu Lan sect stop cultivating with music.”

Meng Yao smiles into the tense silence that envelops them all at that proclamation. “Maybe you and Wei Wuxian could teach others this new form of musical cultivation?” he says, into the silence. “It seems like it would be a great asset during night hunts.”

“I’m sure Wei Wuxian can be convinced to share his skill with the Cloud Recesses, the only time I can truly summon the power to fend anything off is when I feel I am in imminent danger and I’d prefer to never feel that way again.”

Jiang Cheng snorts. “I’d also prefer it and will make sure it is so,” Jiang Cheng says. “I think we’ve had enough discussion for today, we’ve agreed on decisions,” he adds as he closes the conference and stands to escort Jiang Yanli out of the room.

*
The sects begin to leave the Nightless City the next day, after an evening banquet filled with toasts to one another's bravery and an endless parade of snide remarks toward the Lanling Jin sect passed from one sect to another, from disciple to disciple.

Jiang Yanli is not happy to see the Jin sect’s fall from grace, but it feels like a little bit of justice for them abandoning their allies to face the Wens alone. But it was fascinating to watch the newly named Jin Guangyao navigate his family's newly lowered social status and to watch and wonder at what has transpired between him and Nie zongzhu.

Still, Jiang Yanli is glad to be free of conferences and banquets for a while, she will be happy to be back in Lotus Pier, purging their home of the resentful dead and then trying to rid herself of resentful energy.

Soon enough the Nightless City is free of all of the sects except the Gusu Lan and Yunmeng Jiang and it is time to cleanse this place once and for all. She has not said much to Jiang Cheng, but the sheer volume of the dead, of those who have suffered within the city walls is overwhelming and every day they spend within Jiang Yanli feels more of herself slip away.

Wei Wuxian finds her, alone in her quarters meditating and trying to keep the resentment that permeates nearly every corner of the Nightless City at bay.

“You don’t usually meditate much,” Wei Wuxian says, joining her on the floor. “How bad is it?”

Jiang Yanli exhales through her mouth. “Too many people have died here,” Jiang Yanli says, keeping her focus on her breathing. “Can’t you feel it?”

“Only when I reach out for it,” Wei Wuxian says with a shrug. “And for once I’ve listened and so I’ve only reached for it when it’s absolutely necessary.”

Jiang Yanli nods. “Good, that’s good,” she says, a small smile settling on her face as she pushes the resentful energy away. “The less you use it, the better.”

“Besides,” Jiang Yanli says, smiling at him. “We won’t be able to arrange a marriage for you if you’re swirling with resentful energy.”

Wei Wuxian sputters a bit before he says, “There’s no need to be thinking about that for me right now!”

“Well, we can’t look for me, can we?” Jiang Yanli says with a frown. “Our sect has been weakened, and as it stands we don’t have an heir. Jiang Cheng will need to marry and you will need to marry.”

Wei Wuxian leans forward with his head in his hands and groans. “Jiang Cheng I get, he’s the sect leader, but why me?”

“We need alliances, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli says, sighing. “Even if I was still betrothed to Jin Zixuan, his father can’t be trusted. And I doubt anyone else will start beating down the doors for my hand in marriage.”

Wei Wuxian snorts. “That’s because they’re all fools,” he says, as the door opens and Jiang Cheng steps in joining them.

“Who’s a fool?” Jiang Cheng asks, as he plops down next to Wei Wuxian. “Is it you? I’m glad you’ve finally admitted it to yourself.”

Wei Wuxian pushes him and Jiang Cheng pushes back and Jiang Yanli smiles at them before she says, “Boys,” putting an end to their shoving match before things get out of hand. “He was talking about the parade of cultivators currently not vying for my hand in marriage,” Jiang Yanli says with a sigh.

“Oh,” Jiang Cheng says, frowning. “Well then he’s right. They’re all fools.”

Jiang Yanli smiles at him. “Thank you, ChengCheng but that doesn’t change things for now. We need to start thinking about marriages and alliances, for both of you.”

“We don’t need to think about that right now jiejie,” Jiang Cheng says wrinkling his nose. “Lotus Pier needs to be rebuilt first.”

Jiang Yanli rolls her eyes. She knows it’s not the thing for a lady to do but sometimes her brothers are absolute children. “We can do many things at once. Rebuild Lotus Pier and find you a wife, or husband! I’m not so naive that I don’t recall some sects have men who can give you an heir.”

“Can we please talk about something else?” Jiang Cheng pleads. “Anything else but this.”

Wei Wuxian laughs, dodging Jiang Cheng’s fist. “I do have an idea, shijie. For making it safer here, in case any mediocre people wander in.”

“Okay,” Jiang Yanli says, frowning at the shift in the conversation. She doesn’t want Jiang Cheng to know how badly the resentful energy in the Nightless City is affecting her but there’s no way to signal that to Wei Wuxian with Jiang Cheng in the room. “Is it safe?”

“It should be,” Wei Wuxian says, nodding. “We’d be cleansing the resentful spirits immediately instead of asking them to help us first. It should make this place a little less dangerous.”

Jiang Yanli thinks about it for a moment, wondering if she has the ability to summon the amount of power necessary to cleanse that many spirits. “Are the Gusu Lan sect still here? I think we’ll need more help.”

“Do you think they’ll really want to help with this?” Jiang Cheng asks, frowning. “They haven’t been openly judgemental about things,” he says making a face. “But you know how they are.”

“It does us no harm to ask,” Jiang Yanli says and leaves it at that.

Several hours later they’re all standing in the plaza at the base of the stairs to the Palace of Sun and Flames, Jiang Yanli and her two Yu shadows and Wei Wuxian with Lan Wangji at his side as Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen stand with lines of Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan cultivators behind them. Jiang Yanli doesn’t know what exactly Wei Wuxian said to get Lan Wangji to help them but she is glad that they wouldn’t be facing the onslaught of resentful spirits alone.

Even without attempting to summon them Jiang Yanli can feel them clamoring for attention, for vengeance. “Do you both know what to do?” Jiang Yanli asks, as she recalls a poem that has always made her think of the bittersweet feeling of wanting to rush home without knowing what awaits you, a feeling she is sure so many of those who met their end in the Nightless City wondered.

“Yes,” Lan Wangji says with a nod. “Wei Ying and I will play rest as you sing to draw the spirits out and help them on their way.”

Jiang Yanli smiles at him. “Yes, it’s exactly that,” she says, looking up at the Palace and its history of such unending suffering. She turns to look behind them and startles as she spots Jin Zixuan talking to Jiang Cheng. Jiang Yanli doesn’t know why he’s here, why he hasn’t left with the rest of his sect, but she can’t deal with that yet. If he wants to see her do this so be it. Jiang Yanli is sure that this will sever what little hope there was of reestablishing their betrothal but it is a price she’s willing to pay to see these spirits at peace. “And your brother is here in case we need an additional voice.”

Lan Wangji nods, a short sharp movement and then sits on the ground and summons his guqin. “If you are ready, Lady Jiang?” Lan Wangji asks and at Jiang Yanli’s nod he begins to play.

A few moments later Wei Wuxian joins in on his dizi. Jiang Yanli listens as their music blends together beautifully, blanketing the plaza in an aura of calm and then she clasps her hands in front of her and joins them in song.

Away beyond the ranges, no word from home e’er heard:
Cut off from winter to winter, cut off for a further spring.
O now as home I’m nearing, the more anxious I grow, and
Dare not ask of the comers, for fear they ill news may bring.

Jiang Yanli pours her feelings into her song, asking the resentful dead of Qishan to rise and allow themselves to be cleansed of their burdens. Their enemy is dead, their families have been avenged and the Wen sect is no more - its remnants scattered amongst the great sects as they destroy the yin iron. Jiang Yanli infuses every word with emotion, with gratitude for the sacrifices made and lets tears fall as she feels the resentful dead find peace and release themselves from this prison of rage one after another.

She doesn’t know how long they stay like that, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji playing in harmony while her voice joins them in song; but she sees the sun start to dip along the horizon. Jiang Yanli feels the last of the Qishan Wen resentful dead pass on, their screams giving way to thank you’s and peace and as she sings away beyond the ranges again she feels her legs give out and is thankful again that Yu Min and Yu Hui are always with her before she thinks no more.

*
Jiang Yanli wakes up to her brothers hovering around her nervously as a Lan healer tries to feed her spiritual energy. She is sluggish and slow to react but she sees the exact moment the healer realizes what is wrong with her qi, drawing his hand back as his face goes white.

“When did this happen?” he asks, voice grave. Then he turns to Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng and nearly yells, “You both must leave immediately, I must speak with Lady Jiang alone.”

Jiang Cheng scoffs. “I’m not leaving my sister alone with you,” Jiang Cheng says. “Anything you need to discuss you can include me,” he adds then looks at Jiang Yanli, unsure. “Right, jiejie?”

Jiang Yanli sighs. “Of course, ChengCheng,” she says, with a sad smile. This is not the time or the place where she wanted to have this conversation but it seems that time has run out. “This concerns my sect leader, healer Lan, so it’s best if he stays,” she says with a smile. “And I’d really rather not discuss this twice.”

“Do we need to call in Yu Min and Yu Hui?” Jiang Cheng asks, concern clear on his face.

Jiang Yanli shakes her head. “No,” she says with a sigh. “They know, at least they know enough to keep me safe, they don't know all of it.”

“A-Xian?” Jiang Yanli asks, sitting up. She hurts all over, probably a combination of exhaustion and expending too much energy without enough preparation. “Do you have a talisman we can use to make sure we aren’t overheard?”

Wei Wuxian nods. “Yes, shijie,” he says, before he sketches out the character for silence in the air and sends it flying at the door, then the windows of the room they’ve clearly commandeered for her.

“Thank you,” Jiang Yanli says. “Lan laoshi, what I’m about to say must not leave this room.”

He frowns at her and then says, “Of course, Lady Jiang, I’m a healer. My first priority is always the well being of my patients.”

“Good,” Jiang Yanli says, nodding. “That’s good.” She takes a deep breath and then looks up and meets Jiang Cheng’s eyes. “A-Cheng,” she says, smiling sadly at him. “You know I don’t have a golden core anymore.”

Jiang Cheng inhales sharply, and nods. “I remember, there’s been so much happening that I’d put the knowledge away like ignoring it could make it untrue,” he says, slowly kneeling by her bedside to take her hand. “You never told me how. Was it,” Jiang Cheng starts and then stops swallowing back his words. “Did the core-melting hand do this to you, jiejie? I wish we could kill him again.”

“No, A-Cheng,” Jiang Yanli says, reaching out to smooth back his hair. She looks at Wei Wuxian and smiles gently, trying to reassure him before she continues. “Although I think he was about to take Wei Wuxian’s before I distracted him when we were thrown into the burial mounds.”

Then it’s Wei Wuxian’s turn to inhale sharply. “You don’t know that, shijie.”

“You didn’t see him, A-Xian,” Jiang Yanli says. “You were being tortured, you didn’t see the way he looked at you.”

Jiang Yanli sighs. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, in through her nose and out through her mouth before she opens her eyes and looks at her baby brother. “After you lost your golden core, Wei Wuxian spent days searching for a solution,” Jiang Yanli says, quietly. “I knew when he found one. What it would mean. He stopped sleeping, he was arguing with Wen Qing so I confronted him. And stopped him.”

“No you didn’t jiejie,” Jiang Cheng says, confusion written across his face as he slowly realizes what she hasn’t said. “I went to see Baoshan Sanren and had my core restored.”

Jiang Yanli shakes her head smiling sadly. “No, A-Cheng, you didn’t. Wei Wuxian had planned to cut out his own core and give it to you,” Jiang Yanli starts, ignoring the horrified sound the Lan healer makes. “He knew you wouldn’t agree so he planned to tell you he’d remembered something from Baoshan Sanren, and he planned to have me delivered to the Lanling Jin sect for safety.”

“But that’s not what happened?” Jiang Cheng says, voice detached. Jiang Yanli takes his hand in hers and squeezes.

“No,” she says, shaking her head. “I can be very stubborn when I know something is wrong. I got Wen Qing to tell me and I made them change the plan.”

Jiang Cheng looks at her horrified. “Jiejie, how could-,” he says cutting himself off. “What did you do?”

Jiang Yanli squeezes his hand again and smiles. “What wouldn't I do for my family? We’re Jiangs. We must attempt the impossible; sometimes the impossible is strengthening your weak golden core to give to your brother. Sometimes it's convincing your other brother that you needed him to keep his core in case something went wrong and we needed protection.”

Jiang Cheng starts crying. “You had no right. You shouldn’t have done this.”

“I had every right. I’m the oldest,” Jiang Yanli says with a sigh. “My cultivation was low, my sword skills were mediocre and the future of my sect depended on it. And my baby brother was hurting in a way I couldn’t let stand.”

“I haven’t been able to take care of you in a long time,” Jiang Yanli says, smiling sadly. “But this? This I could do. My marriage prospects were already limited, and my core was neglected. To protect you, both of you?” Jiang Yanli says. “It was a small price to pay and I’d pay it again and again if it meant I got to see you thriving as our sect leader.”

Jiang Cheng shakes his head from his spot on the floor and Jiang Yanli beckons Wei Wuxian closer so they can deal with this as a family. “You shouldn’t have done this, jiejie. It’s too much.”

“Would you rather I let Wei Wuxian do it?” Jiang Yanli asks, voice gentle. “Because one of us was going to do it, you know neither of us can stand to see you hurting.”

“Neither of you should have given me your golden cores!” Jiang Cheng shouts, still crying. “You should have let me stay a mediocre person! This is too much.”

Jiang Yanli lets him cry on her, petting his hair as he lets loose his grief and regret and takes the hand Wei Wuxian holds out to her, anchoring herself to her brothers. Jiang Cheng will understand eventually, but for now she can take his sadness and the anger he doesn’t want her to see and hold onto it, because he’s alive and well, leading their sect which is what matters most.

She abruptly remembers that they are not alone and turns to see Lan laoshi standing, stunned just outside of the little circle of their family. “Do you understand now? And why this information must not leave this tent?”

“Yes, Lady Jiang,” he says, shaking off his shock. “You have my word as a Lan that this will go no further than me.”

Jiang Yanli smiles at him. “Good, thank you,” she says nodding at him. “Now could you give us a few minutes alone?”

He nods and makes his retreat, nearly running and Jiang Yanli goes back to focusing on her family.

*
Jiang Cheng is still prickly, still angry about his golden core even if he doesn’t want to direct that anger at Jiang Yanli but it’s nothing less than she expected. He’s never known how to be angry at her and she’s glad to be able to lean on that fact now with their biggest secret in the open. She doesn’t regret giving up her golden core, not really, but sometimes she feels a little wistful for what might have been as she thinks about the days she spent working to make it stronger for Jiang Cheng.

It’s in those moments that Jiang Yanli wonders what might have been if she’d had different teachers, if anyone but her mother had been in charge of her education might her cultivation have been higher? But it’s an idle thought and she doesn’t dwell. Instead Jiang Yanli gets back to the work of preparing to leave the Nightless City. She’s regained her strength and the dead of Qinshan no longer clamor for her attention so she is finally at peace and ready to leave this place.

All around her she can hear Jiang and Lan disciples readying themselves to travel back home, where they’ll all be rebuilding from the ashes the Wen sect left behind. It’s overwhelming but Jiang Yanli is glad to be soon free of this place. She’s just finished packing the last of the things that made the trek from the Unclean Realm to Nightless City when Yu Hui pops her head in the tent.

“Lady Jiang?” Yu Hui asks, as she steps into the tent.

Jiang Yanli turns and smiles at her, wondering briefly if her grandmother will ask the Yu’s to stay with her once they return to Lotus Pier or if this piece of her new life will also leave her as they return to Meishan. “Did you need something?” Jiang Yanli asks. “I should be done and ready to leave shortly.”

“Nothing like that, Young Master Jin is here to see you,” Yu Hui says then makes a face. “We’d be happy to send him on his way if you don’t wish to speak to him.

Jiang Yanli laughs, amused to see the Yu girls have taken so many of their cues from her brothers. “It’s fine,” Jiang Yanli says shaking her head. “You can send him in, i’m sure it won’t be a long visit.”

Yu Hui nods and leaves and a few moments later Jin Zixuan steps in.

“Lady Jiang,” he says, walking several steps into the tent before he stops to bow.

Jiang Yanli inclines her head. “Jin gongzi,” she says and then smiles. “I’m surprised by the visit, I was under the impression your father's party had already started making their way back to Lanling.”

“They have,” Jin Zixuan says, nodding. He stares at her then seems to notice and crosses his arms behind his back looking ahead. “I doubled back because I wanted to apologize.”

Jiang Yanli blinks at him. She can’t recall the last time he said something truly horrible to her. “For what?” she asks, confused.

Jin Zixuan clears his throat and then straights his back, standing even taller. “My father, what he tried to imply about you was unacceptable.”

“There’s no need for you to apologize for him,” Jiang Yanli says. She doubts Jin Guangshan would be happy if he knew his son was daring to offer an apology. He meant what he said, and Jiang Yanli is not so naive as to think it wasn’t calculated. “He has his opinion and most of it was directed at Wei Wuxian, not me.”

“Still,” Jin Zixuan says. “It was inappropriate to speak to a Lady like that, especially one from a major sect.”

Jiang Yanli stares at him and wonders what horrible things Jin Guangshan said of her after the conference to result in this. He was no worse than he was after her return to her family and so she is no more offended than she was before. Mostly Jiang Yanli just wants to sure up their allies so her family is safe.

“Well then thank you for your apology,” Jiang Yanli says, with a smile. “I hope this means that we can be friends.”

Jin Zixuan looks at her and then looks away and nods. “I would like that very much,” he says, hands clenched behind his back.

“Good,” Jiang Yanli says with a smile. “I could use more friends.”

“I could as well,” Jin Zixuan says, looking over at her briefly before looking back at the wall before he makes his bows and takes his leave.

Jiang Yanli spends the rest of the morning smiling to herself as she collects the rest of her things. It could be nothing, or something, but for the first time since she and Wei Wuxian walked along the streets of Yiling into a trap she feels a spark of hope ignite in her belly.

She looks around the tent one last time and finding nothing left behind, walks out into the early afternoon sun to find her brothers talking to Yu Min and Yu Hui.

“Jiejie,” Jiang Cheng says at the same time Wei Wuxian says, “Shijie.”

Jiang Yanli smiles, feeling free of the weight she’s been carrying around with her for months.
“What were you all out here talking about?”

“Fastest route back home,” Wei Wuxian says. “If we fly we can be back at Lotus Pier in a few days.”

Jiang Yanli frowns at him confused. “Okay,” she says, speaking slowly. “If that’s the best method what’s the problem?”

“You’ve never been a fan of flying, and you’d have to travel along with one of us now,” Jiang Cheng says. He still sounds a little sulky but Jiang Yanli thinks it’s starting to fade as he comes to terms with the necessity of her gift. She’ll never regret it, no matter how long he sulks about it.

“I’ve flown along with Yu Min and Yu Hui,” Jiang Yanli points out. Flying is not her favorite way to travel, especially after falling from such a height but she can endure it; she’s survived far worse. “I can be uncomfortable for a while if it gets us home sooner.”

Jiang Cheng looks at her, searching her face for any hesitation and Jiang Yanli reaches out for his hand, happy to see him not hesitate to reach back. “Are you sure?” he asks, voice uncertain.

Jiang Yanli smiles, reaching out to Wei Wuxian and exhaling in relief when he joins them on her other side. “I’m sure, ChengCheng,” she says looking from him to Wei Wuxian.

They’re a little bit broken and a lot hurt, but they’re alive and they’re together and that’s enough for her. “Let’s go home.”

And then, they do.

THE END