darker yllz gets lan wangji, protected lan zhan edition (notfic)
Inspired by an older idea I was rereading:
One of those verses where lan wangji is promised in some deal to a darker yllz. It’s also one of those verses where lwj is of some verse-contained category that in the verse culture is supposed to be kept sheltered and protected - he’s a submissive in that kind of d/s au, or an omega in that kind of omegaverse (or an alpha in that kind of omegaverse), etc.
So lwj isn’t there when he’s promised away. And, in this one, the Lans have no intentions of going through with their end of the deal. (Of course lying is forbidden and one must keep promises and act honorably, but things are different when dealing with someone like the Yiling Patriarch. He is outside the bounds of decency, and so decency does not apply to a negotiation with him. And just look at what he asked, that only shows how true this is. And they have no intention of letting their pure Second Young Master Lan anywhere near him).
They also don’t tell lwj about any of this. Things like this are not his affair. (Xichen has mixed feelings about that. One the one hand, it seems not right to leave his brother so completely unknowing about something so relevant and importantly so to him. On the other hand, it’s his younger brother, of course he wants his little brother to be safe and happy, not getting distressed (and pointlessly distressed, of course they’re going to protect him) with such terrible world-complicated matters.) The Lans do impose some extra restriction on him, and some extra guards. They don’t tell him why. It is made obvious to him, when he notices and tries to ask, that it’s not his place to ask or be told.
So Lan Wangji is in his rooms, alone but for guards just outside, when the Yiling Patriarch comes to the Cloud Recesses to take what he was promised.
He’s come prepared. He has talismans and arrays ready to take down wards. His own sort of forces (and perhaps a few tricks here and there) to handle the more human kind of resistance. (He isn’t actually planning to kill anyone, this time. The non-lethal version should suffice for a demonstration and to get him what he wants, and it’ll be better for his early days with his new... acquisition, and it’s a threat to hold for any next time or more serious transgression. (He’ll probably lose more of his corpses, this way, and need more, to keep everyone down, but he doesn’t care about that, and it’s not a problem for him.))
Lan Zhan doesn’t know what’s happening. It’s very apparent that something is happening. He heard more disciples coming, and conversation he couldn’t make out, and now there’s guards actually in the room with him. (Or maybe, depending on timing, he’s even very quickly escorted to yet another building, more hidden and secure?) The disciples still don’t answer his questions. Before too much longer, he can overhear screaming, shouts, sounds of fighting. He’s incredibly alarmed, incredibly worried, he wants to know what’s happening. The guard disciples tell him in no uncertain terms to stay where he is. They will enforce this, if they have to.
But the sounds of fighting only get closer. Until finally they’re obviously just outside the room, and he can hear the guard disciples as they engage - someone. And he can hear bodies hitting the floor. (The disciples are fine, are on the floor in the alive and held down sense, but he doesn’t know this, one way or another). Then suddenly it’s quiet. The door opens.
The Yiling Patriarch comes in alone. Saunters in, really, black robes and red in his hair and dark power dense and choking around him. He has his flute in his hand but not at his mouth right then. The guard disciples left in the room run at him; he swats them aside with barely a wave and resentful energy holds them down. He catches sight of Lan Wangji. He smiles.
Lan Zhan isn’t sure if he should - try to get away somehow, at least try to retreat further into the room (that doesn’t seem like it’s going to help at all. And also - he can’t help but notice the way this man is looking at him - if this man is here for him he doesn’t want to be the cause or prolonging what’s happening), or try to charge at the man himself (that doesn’t seem likely to help either). He ends up just standing there. But - no, he can do better than that, he decides. Whatever is going to happen he can - at least control himself. For - however long he might have left. If that’s what’s happening.
He composes himself. Bows in greeting. He wasn’t expecting visitors, he says, and doesn’t have tea ready, but if his guest wants to sit down, he can begin to make it and have it ready shortly.
The Yiling Patriarch laughs. (Oh, he chose well, he thinks). Ah, he says, your sect did instruct you well, at least, when they decided to go back on their word and keep you from me.
Lan Wangji is not someone who is generally very expressive in his face, and he is actively trying to be composed. But his reaction at that is enough for the Yiling Patriarch to notice it. What, he says, did they not consult you? Did you have a different strategy in mind? ...It becomes apparent, after a few such statements, that Lan Wangji has no idea what he’s talking about. Oh, the Yiling Patriarch says. Oh they didn’t tell you at all, did they. Oh, they shut you in this room and surrounded you with guards and put up their wards and drew swords at me, and they didn’t even tell you anything at all.
Lan Zhan wants to know what is going on. What this man who invaded his home, who - (drew their swords, he just says, and Lan Zhan tries not to think about disciples he knows, about his Uncle, his brother, drawing swords and being cut down). What he is so obviously not saying. And asking his disciple guards had never worked, but this man is someone else. And is not like he will lose anything, really, by asking. So he bows again, and continues his tea service. And asks.
And the Yiling Patriarch tells him. Tells him who he is. Tells him about the agreement his clan and his family made. Tells him what they promised. Tells him how they went back on this agreement.
Lan Zhan listens. At first he - doesn’t believe it, can’t believe it. Something like that would violate he isn’t even sure how many precepts of the Lan Sect. The Lan elders would never agree. His brother would never agree.
The man does not sound like he is lying (but would Lan Wangji be able to tell, with a man like this one appears to be). And there is no reason for him to lie - if he wanted to come in here for no reason and take Lan Wangji captive, carry him away, it is very clear at this point that he could do just that. (It’s been minutes now, longer, and no one else has come. Lan Zhan tries not to think about why that might be.)
But the final piece comes from the disciple guards who'd been in the room. They’re still in the room, held down but not unconscious. And he can see them, when the Yiling Patriarch describes the sequence of events he claims brought them here. He can see the way they react. It is not the way someone would react to hearing an outrageous lie. (It is the way someone might react hearing a truth that they are, perhaps to some extent, uncomfortable with. Ashamed of.)
Lan Zhan swallows. Looks at his ‘guest’. ‘What did you do to them’, he asks. (Perhaps it’s an injudicious question. But he doesn’t think the man will kill him for something he says, not after all the effort to - obtain him. And he’ll bear whatever other punishment, to know.)
Oh, don’t worry, Yiling Laozu tells him, looking over at the disciples still on the floor. Anyone who was alive before he came should still be alive now. And he has no plans to change that. There’ll be some punishments in order, but they’ll survive them.
He doesn’t know if that’s true either. But the disciples here are alive, even after they directly attacked the Patriarch. And again, there’s no reason to lie to him, not really. And if it even might be true - he knows what he needs to do.
Lan Wangji goes to his knees in front of the Patriarch. Bows as low as he can, forehead to the ground. He apologizes deeply and intensely, he says, for what has happened. He wants to give indemnity for what his clan has done. He will go with the Yiling Patriarch, however the Patriarch demands. He begs that the Patriarch might have mercy on his family and sect.
(He can hear some sounds and expressions of objection, fury, from the fallen disciples. He ignores it. The Yiling Patriarch has come to take him, and there is nothing he or any of them can do about it, and he is not going to gain anything by being dragged kicking and screaming, and all he can do is try to help his family in the last moments he has here, and this is what he can do. And it is not as though the Patriarch could not achieve the same aim by taking basically anyone here hostage for it. Let alone Lan Zhan’s own family. Who - if he told the truth - are still here. And who the Patriarch must be especially angry with.)
The Yiling Patriarch looks at him. Smiles, maybe a different smile. (Oh, he thinks, yes he has chosen very well.) Good, he says. He is glad to see that at least one Lan has honor. And perhaps sense as well. Get up, he says. And come with me.
Lan Wangji stands up. Straightens his robes, makes sure his headpiece is in its place. Tries to restrain himself from taking a final look around the room, or at least from lingering too much in it. And he goes where he’s told.
Walking through the Cloud Recesses is - very unpleasant. Not only because it is full of corpses, the traces of fighting, full of disciples, some with torn robes or injures, struggling against them and being forced down. But also because of how people look at him, as he walks, with the Patriarch, going where he instructs. But at least it shows that the Patriarch told the truth. All of the Lans and disciples he sees are alive, and he doesn’t see any bodies (not any that weren’t obviously already dead), or the large, awful bloodstains where bodies may have been, and none of the corpses look like anyone he knows, none of them wear Lan robes or ribbons.
He continues walking where he’s told.
