#wuming

Xie Lian opened his eyes and found himself lying on the ground outside the temple. That was weird because he clearly remembered he fell asleep inside the temple Wu Ming found for them last night.

He got up while looking around for anything suspicious, then he noticed something even stranger, was he taller? He felt taller. His eye level was different than normal.

He took off the mask he was still wearing and with a loud gasp he realized it was Wu Ming’s smiling mask. He did a one eighty turn and headed straight into the temple to find out the inexplicable.

There, where he remembered he lay down last night was his body, sitting in the ground looking at his palms with eyes of terrified disbelief.

Then his body looked up and his eyes widened. “Dianxia?” Wu Ming asked in Xie Lian’s voice.

“Don’t call me that” Xie Lian chided in what was clearly Wu Ming’s voice.

A body swap then, who could have done this? Bai WuXian, who else? But to what end? Maniac.

Before he could voice his displeasure Ruoye peeked out from under Xie Lian’s sleeve, still wrapped in his original body.

The band did a movement Xie Lian could not comprehend but immediately unwrapped itself and flew towards Wu Ming’s body. It circled it a couple times, like a filial dog trying to recognize his owner. However, it didn’t wrap itself around him like he had expected, it was sort of looking at him? Then he would turn to Wu Ming in Xie Lian’s body, then back again, repeating the movement several times. It seemed like Ruoye was confused as to who his owner really was.

Irritated Xie Lian called out his name, the silk band turned to him, it looked like it understood, good. Although, unexpectedly, Wu Ming repeated the name. Both Xie Lian and Ruoye stared at him for several seconds before Ruoye reacted like an enthusiastic puppy who had just been offered treats.

Ruoye immediately flew towards Xie Lian’s body, gave him a “sniff” and rubbed against his cheeks before tuck itself back under Xie Lian’s robes like he had found home.

I wanted to post before Wuming Wednesday was over, but it’s very likely that won’t be the case for most timezones :p

The scream had been deafening. It had sounded distant and almost distorted at first before it gained force and volume and soon it could be heard from a great distance. Unfortunately, there was no living person around to hear it.

Bai Wuxian had left, his job done to perfection. He hadn’t anticipated the little ghost fire that fought so insistently to gain so much ghost qi, enough to light the whole temple on fire.

Everything burned to a crisp, bones turned to ash, everything else black soot painted on the walls and ground.

There were still flames that hadn’t burned down yet, it was enough to illuminate the temple inside.

He had to make sure he hadn’t, accidentally, burned… him.

He had not.

He looked down, seething uncontrollably to the point the ground was shaking. Wait, no. It was not the ground shaking but his own body. He had a body now.

He looked carefully, confused and amazed at his hands, propped on the ground holding him up. His knees rested on the ground as well. He ran his gaze throughout his whole body. It looked just like he remembered it, it disgusted him.

He willed his body to move, it was a new sensation, almost like when a baby learns to walk for the first time, but with a taller body, that would take longer to fall to the ground when he slipped.

He regained his balance, but still didn’t dare to look up. His gaze traveled everywhere in the temple except the altar. The longer he denied himself of the view the more it burned. Heat coming from within him, bubbling up and threatening to escape from any orifice.

Again.

Same day, same place, same time.

Xie Lian waited until all the dark miasma disappeared and the dust settled.

Right there on the ground rested the little bead. A bright red that stood out like a fire in a campsite. A small brilliant thing that reflected the light, lying in the ground unperturbed. Xie Lian picked it up.

He recognized it in the third cycle. It was that coral red pearl he used to own as a set of earrings, having lost one and given the other one away. Why it lay here was still a mystery.

He had seen it multiple times now, he had lost count at somewhere around thirty, but it didn’t stop. Same place, same time, same day.

Then, Xie Lian started wondering again. As Wu Ming had dispersed, taken by the vengeful spirits only two things had remained. One was a small white flower, the other, the pearl.

But why? Why was it in Wu Ming’s possession? Xie Lian knew who he gave the one pearl to, so how? For what reason? Xie Lian sighed tirelessly staring at that luminous red, he never really understood that ghost of his. Following him instead of looking for his beloved, sacrificing himself and for what? To leave Xie Lian with all these questions? All this grief?

Xie Lian took a deep breath and tried his best to stay calm, he still needed to figure out several things, getting worked up wasn’t going to help, he already found that out.

So why the pearl? Xie Lian thought as he rotated the small bead between his thumb and index finger. Could it be the one he lost? But how could he explain that?

Xie Lian was running out of mental power and was incredibly emotionally drained. It had been horrific to relive the moment a second time, his biggest regret, but by now, he felt numb, just tiredness seeping through his veins.

He wanted to know the significance of the pearl. Why was it the only item left with that flower? How did he miss it the first time? What sort of magic was this?

It had to be an illusion, a nightmare perhaps. What he knew was he couldn’t get out of this continuous loop. Time after time, the same image, the same scream, the same result. It wasn’t as if he could do anything, he was forced to only watch over and over again, reigniting those same feelings and the pain.

He had been alone for so long already, it didn’t make a difference, but the questions unanswered, the morbidity of this time, of this day, of this place. It was too much, Xie Lian wanted to get out, be saved for once.