Long shadows dipped and swayed as the willow trees sighed softly in the evening breeze, unaware of the commotion happening as students and masters alike rushed to and fro, the entire sect in an uproar from the sudden shocking news that two of their brightest had succumbed to an unknown attacker. Feng Jianyu had landed without warning right in the middle of the sect, usually a seriously taboo as it interrupted the daily flow of the place, sending students scattering and the books and scrolls of several Masters flying off into the distance. But one look at the grim expression of the dark-robed figure and his white-clad burden’s blood-covered state, was enough to silence any annoyed protests or deserved words of rebuke, and instead three of the sect’s healers, including the inner clan’s foremost expert on healing techniques, pills and potions had come running.

Zhou Jinhai had been swiftly laid out on clean bedding in his residence, Feng Jianyu left to pace stiffly up and down the covered walkway outside the main door while the three healers argued inside. Several days had passed since Feng Jianyu had arrived with the mostly dead Zhou Jinhai in his arms. And for the past few days and nights, the healers and various other Masters had been in the room, working on stabilising the man’s state. But after purging his system of the insipid poison and healing his physical wounds, there had been little they could do to make Zhou Jinhai wake up. But they had continued to bicker and argue over the comatose cultivator’s condition, until finally Feng Jianyu exploded, unable to take it any more. He slammed the door open, making the entire building shake, and stormed inside, rapidly chasing the three squabbling medics out into the courtyard before quickly sliding the door shut hard behind them.

Taking several deep breaths to calm himself down, he slid the lock shut on the door and turned to the still figure laid out on the bed, his skin as white as the sheet that covered him. Finally the room was silent, besides the painfully slow, weak breathing of the bedridden man. Feng Jianyu finally approached the bed, settling on the very edge where he could reach over and set his fingers under Zhou Jinhai’s nose, reassuring himself the man yet lived.

“Liu Li-Tai has been put to rest.” He said, voice low yet firm after drawing his hand back and crossing his arms. Awkward now that he had achieved his objective of ridding the room of the noisy, useless healers. “What did this to you?” He demanded in a hard tone, though at least remembered to keep his volume restricted. Unwilling to draw yet more busybodies here to disturb his peer. Feng Jianyu wouldn’t have called himself friends with anyone, but if he was forced to pick a handful of people in the clan to whom he was the closest, it would have been the small, competitive group of Liu Li-Tai, Zhou Jinhai, Li Xiao-Yu and Liu Yuxuan. They were all about the same age, had been in the same classes and had grown up within the Liu sect together. Liu Li-Tai and Liu Yuxuan had been distant cousins, Li-Tai was from a smaller branch of the Liu family line, while Yuxuan was a lower ranked member of the main family. Zhou Jinhai and himself had joined around the same time, quickly followed by Li Xiao-Yu. All of them had been around 4 years old when they had started their first basic cultivation lessons, and had been a handful of sticky buns throughout their boyhoods and teen years. Even as they became full Liu cultivators, part of the inner sect and mostly going their own ways, they had retained the close bonds of their childhood. Closer than friends or brothers, orphans and Liu relatives alike had considered each other as family. A relationship that had stuck even as two of their number had paired off.

Now one of those sticky buns was smashed and smeared in the dirt. Gone forever from a group that had considered themselves still children in the world of ancient immortals and gods. Feng Jianyu had no idea how Zhou Jinhai would react when he finally woke up. And felt the distinct urge to be anywhere but here when that happened. He was no good with emotions, either expressing them or handling those of another. But the one who had filled that roll in their group was the one now missing from it. Scowling he debated on calling for Liu Yuxuan, the only other one of them currently at Willow Retreat, but finally decided against it. He had only left a handful of incense past and had been in desperate need of rest and food. As cultivators well into the Core Formation stage, their need for food and sleep was far diminished compared to a mortal, but they were each still human, and the comfort of such things was often more mental than physical.

At a loss for what to do with himself in this uneasy situation, one he was not at all equipped to deal with, he moved to the outer room. Still in full view of the bed but at least it felt a little less intimate that being in the same room as the comatose Zhou Jinhai. There Feng Jianyu settled down in the familiar lotus pose on the floor and started to meditate. Not the deep meditation of one working actively on their cultivation, but just letting his system passively work as he cleared his mind and sank into a semi-aware state.

Days passed in such a fashion, with the hard edged presence of Feng Jianyu on watch at all times, guarding the unconscious form of Zhou Jinhai while healing cultivators, Masters and friends came and went. Each day Liu Yuxuan would force the battle fanatic to help him bathe and change their friend’s still form. Checking the slowly healing physical wounds and monitoring the damage to his meridians and cultivation. As the injuries slowly healed, leaving a variety of fine white scars the like few cultivators could acquire after reaching the Core Formation stage, Zhou Jinhai’s persistent sleep started causing concerns among his carers. As there was no physical explanation for it. Eventually the clan leader was called upon to assess the downed Zhou Jinhai. Liu Huizhong had been kept updated on the man’s condition and readily agreed, attending to the injured cultivator’s bedside that same day. Everyone but Feng Jianyu left out of politeness, but the scowling swordsman remained steadfastly in the corner, keeping guard.

Ignoring the prickly aura of the watchdog, Liu Huizhong settled on the side of the bed, checking his old student’s vitals and cultivation with two fingers pressed to a thin wrist and a subtle probing of his aura. As previously explained to him, there was no reason for the continued coma. No physical reason at the very least. Sighing softly, Liu Huizhong sat back, folding his hands into his sleeves as he regarded the prone form. “You know, you are causing a lot of others worry with this behavior. You weren’t the only one who lost him that day.” He scolded in a firm but not unsympathetic tone. “While we all tread the path to immortality, none of us are as of yet free of the mortal realm. Even gods can be slain by their peers, it is a fact of life. If you can’t accept that, then maybe you are not suited to the path you are walking.”

The prone figure on the bed didn’t respond but the milky eyes finally opened, gazing blankly upwards without the ability to focus. Huizhong smiled gently, the expression at odds with the almost harsh words. “Hello, Zhou Jinhai.” He greeted as the pale figure in the bed turned his head just slightly towards the clan leader’s voice. Then made as if to try and get up and out of bed to bow as was proper. But Liu Lingzhu barely had to press his fingertips to the younger cultivator’s shoulder to halt all movement. “Stay there. You are lucky to be alive. And now that you are awake, I expect you to stay that way. Liu Li-Tai would not be pleased with you if you wasted away by being foolish.”

Having said his piece and raising from the edge of the bed platform, Liu Huizhong regarded his lost lamb with an expression full of sorrow and understanding. “Eat, rest and recover. Then get your revenge.” He suggested, knowing that a soul so badly wounded had to have a purpose to live for, at least in the short term. Hopefully his words would stir Zhou Jinhai’s passions enough for him to do exactly that. Glancing at where Feng Jianyu had been standing, the clan leader sighed in amused exasperation. There was no sign of the man just when Liu Lingzhu finally had a task for him. Smiling to himself he exited the residence, pausing on the walkway outside to catch a hovering Liu Yuxuan and informing him of Zhou Jinhai’s waking and need for food and drink. Then the clan leader left, white and green robes swirling behind him as he returned to his own rooms and the mountain of paperwork awaiting him.

After a quick hunt for the missing Feng Jianyu, Liu Yuxuan hurried into the room where his friend was still laying like a mummified corpse. But the open, if blank, eyes struck him with a deep sense of relief. He had been ignoring the fear that he would lose two of his best friends, rather than just one. Settling on the edge of the bed, having sent a passing student off to find food and herbal tea for the patient, he fussed with the sheet covering Zhou Jinhai. “I’m glad you are awake at last. You have been unconscious for far too long, I was starting to think you were avoiding us.” He teased jovially, though his heart wasn’t in the traditional banter. A low rough sound from the bed made him look at his friend properly for the first time since he had returned as a bloodied mess in Feng Jianyu’s arms, his gaze focusing on the other man rather than on separate parts of him as before, when he had been afraid to see the whole and discover just how reduced the most talented of them had become.

“… I…. was….” The rough, dry voice rasped weakly, and it took a moment before Liu Yuxuan realised the halting words were an answer to his joke. Snickering he shook his head. “Don’t be an ass. You know A-Yu would have beaten you black and blue for moping about like this.” The reply was a slow breath, but Liu Yuxuan heard the pain in that single sound. Swallowing his own heavy sigh he reached out and patted his friend’s shoulder. “You know I speak the truth. He’d be furious with you right now. Anyway, food is coming, so I’ll stay and help you eat and then I must let Feng Jianyu know. He’s not left your side this whole time, but runs at the first sign of you waking.” Shaking his head at their friend’s automatic avoidance of anything to do with subjects like ‘emotions’, he smiled at Zhou Jinhai. “Welcome back, Xiulan-er.”

Zhou Jinhai heard his old friend leave rather than saw the action itself. The rustle of robes as he turned and walked away, the almost whisper-like brush of socked feet over smooth wood, and the rush of air as the wooden door was slid aside to allow his exit. Finally the quick clunk as the door was slid shut once more, leaving the room suddenly quiet and painfully empty. Jinhai could only assume he was laying in his room in their small home. His small home.. now that Liu Li-Tai was gone. The world was an ocean of dull grey, darker splotches seemed to waiver in the space before him, but when he raised a hand, the grey nothingness didn’t react. So his first question of just how blind he was had been answered… ‘completely’. Realising his hand had already dropped to rest haphazardly against his chest, Xuilan frowned at himself.

“Are you going to be a burden or are you going to do something about it?” He snapped at himself angrily, all of a sudden suffering from a truly foul temper. Jerking upright in bed he grabbed for the blanket covering him and tried to toss it aside, but his foot got tangled in the folds and he spent a good few breaths cussing as he pulled on the stuck fabric, then almost toppled backwards as his cultivator’s strength ripped the blanket almost in two, freeing his foot but unbalancing his sightless self. Now both furious and embarrassed, he snarled as he hurled the torn blanket away from the bed, uncaring when it landed with a distinctly fragile crashing sound.

A deep, low voice came from the side and Xuilan’s head whipped round so fast his balance went awry. “I take it that pot had offended you somehow?” The lazy remark said in such a flat manner could only belong to one man. “Feng Jianyu.” Xuilan said in a far more level but still tense tone as he forced himself to save what was left of his face by not acting like a scolded toddler in front of his sworn brother. Heavy boots trod with a-typical thuds across the room to stop just to one side of the half sprawled figure on the bed. Xuilan knew his friend typically moved with total silence, as all trained cultivators did by habit, but was deliberately making sounds so Jinhai could get a sense of where the man was standing. After all, it was a bad idea to sneak up on a swordsman at the best of times, never mind one that was newly blinded and on edge. “Why are you here? Last I heard you were working on the Chungnan issue.“ 

Feng Jianyu nodded, despite knowing Xuilan couldn’t see the gesture, but he also made a noise of agreement, catching the visual habit mid-motion. “I was, but do you really think I’d not come find you when I realised you were missing?” He asked somewhat harshly, tone affronted. “Or did you already forget the Sui’s demand and attempted kidnapping?” The rustle of robes prompted Zhou Jinhai to shift rapidly up the bed and a moment later he felt the wood compress as his friend sat on the other end. “I didn’t forget.. And Nanyu paid the price for my arrogance.” His reply was directed at the floor, head bowed heavy even as his knuckles turned white where his fingers crushed the cloth of his under-robe in a death grip. His voice was low and controlled, but held the tremors of an underground earthquake. Something deep within the cultivator was shifting, a rage so white hot it appeared frozen. “What happened..? That was no normal fierce corpse incident. That was a fully trained cultivator. He killed Nanyu! I don’t believe it was an accident that we ran into him. It had to have been a set up.” Getting more and more worked up, the injured Zhou Jinhai turned towards his sword brother, hand reaching out blindly. Upon contact with Feng Jianyu’s rough cloth sleeve, long slender fingers latched on with a fierce grip. “We were led into that black fog trap, and deliberately split up!”

Turning to face his distressed friend, Feng Jianyu reached out, grasping Xuilan’s shoulder and shaking it lightly, just enough to jolt the man out of his spiraling thoughts. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up so you can explain what happened. I have several ideas, but I need all the details. If I’m right, we know who the culprit is, at least, who gave the order to kill A-Yu”