Wen Ning led the way through the dark and twisted forest as if this were an ordinary journey. Perhaps for the dead man it was but Lan Qiren couldn't stop clenching his sword's grip. As Lan Teegan's hand jerked towards her weapon, he took note of the tension in her shoulders. When she'd petitioned to cleanse the Burial Mounds, Lan Qiren had assumed she was in full agreement with the idea. Perhaps he'd been mistaken. Some wives went along with the follies of their husbands to present a united front to the world. Perhaps it wouldn't be difficult to change her mind.
They stopped in a clearing. Wen Ning turned to them and said, "This is where we lived."
Lan Qiren held himself very still, afraid even the smallest movement would reveal his shock. Resentful energy, so thick he could practically smell it, shimmered in dark streaks at the edges of his vision. No plants grew in the dry ground. Only a few desiccated husks remained to say that people had once settled in this bleak place. Lan Qiren had been here before, trapped with the other Sect leaders, but they'd been fighting for their lives. He'd never stopped to think what it must have been like to live here.
Wen Ning pointed to a circle of rock surrounding fetid mud. "This is where Wei Ying grew lotus flowers."
Lan Qiren saw dried-out husks of what could have been lotuses. They'd long ago fallen to the mucky ground. What once could have been a pond was now little more than a dried-out puddle.
"We planted turnips here." They'd grown their food inside the Burial Mounds? It must have been tainted with resentful energy. Perhaps the Jin coming for them had been a blessing. Lan Qiren found himself shuddering at his uncharitable though. He couldn't think like that. Those people had been victims. And he'd done nothing to help them.
"Master," Lan Teegan said. "Are you alright? Perhaps we should leave this for another day?"
He'd like nothing better than to leave but perhaps this was his punishment. He could have helped the Wens but hadn't. Enduring a few hours in the Burial Mounds before returning to his comfortable room was nothing. "I'm fine," he snapped. "Continue."
Wen Ning led them to a plaque near the cave. He looked back nervously and Lan Teegan glared at Lan Qiren as if warning him against raising a fuss before lighting incense and kneeling next to her husband,. They both startled as Lan Qiren joined them, kneeling before the altar that commemorated the Wen dead.
When they rose, Wen Ning bowed to Lan Qiren. "Than you, master."
"Hmph. There is no need for thanks when one does what is right."
Wen Ning looked as if he was about to argue but Lan Teegan laid a hand on his arm.
"Perhaps we could continue."
He followed the other two as they toured the Burial Mounds, barely paying attention to their discussion on how to best clear away the resentful energy. At one point, Wen Ning looked at him as if expecting a response, but Lan Qiren had nothing to say. He'd always thought of himself as a just man but he'd turned his eyes from the injustice done to the last of the Wens.
They returned to town sooner than he'd expected. Lan Qiren felt certain that it was due to him, that they'd seen his discomfort and attributed it to his surroundings. He couldn't deny that the Burial Mounds were upsetting. Resentful energy seemed to cling to his robes as they made their way back on the small path. He felt tainted, as if a thousand baths wouldn't be enough to clear the poison away, but he wasn't sure if this negativity had come from the Burial Mounds or from himself.