Ch18

Hot!…...it was soo hot. The fire burned his clothes making its ways to his skin as he tried to get away. The small room hidden behind the rock designed to be his hiding place seemed to be getting smaller and smaller…..was it shrinking around him?. His screams of pain where useless, no one was coming to get him, no one wanted to get him. With each shout his throat felt like it was on fire but he couldn't stop yelling. And he couldn't stop those fire coated rock walls moving in.

As Wei Ying threw his body around trying to escape something that wasn't there, Lan Zhan grabbed his had in an effort to soothe him. It was obvious he was in the middle of a nightmare, probably the same one he had been having for the last few days. Lan Zhan ran a smooth thumb over the raised burns on the back of Wei Ying's hand and wrist, wincing in empathy at the pain that he must have suffered. He had waited for him, trusted him to get him out of that cave before a false death had become real. Wanji placed Wei Ying's hand back on the soft sheets and walked over to the other side of the room…..he had failed, he hadn't deserved that trust.

Lan Zhan had been waiting behind the mountain for the cave to explode, the signal that everyone thought Wei Ying had died and he could go in and pull him out from the safe room they had built, safe from the heat and rubble. What neither Wei Ying nor Lan Zhan had anticipated was the cultivators standing around watching the cave burn, making sure that Wei Ying could not escape. The hatred they had for a simple young cultivator who didn't follow the rules was astounding. None of them ever wanted him walking out of that mountain alive. Because of this intense hatred the group had remained watching for much longer than planned, which of course meant Lan Zhan couldn't make his move and Wei Ying had been forced to remain in his fire filled tomb.

Slamming his hand down in a fit of rage Lan Zhan split the table in two without giving it a second glance. All the neatly arranged items fell to the floor with a cacophony of bangs and clangs which didn't seem to reach his ears. All of a sudden a slight noise came from the doorway and Bichen unsheathed itself, spurred on my its Master's over protectiveness and fury, flying towards the intruder. The sound of metal upon metal finally managed to get Lan Zhan's attention, after all it wasn't a noise he expected to hear in his own home. As if snapping out of a trance his looked towards the door only to see his brother using his own, still scabbarded sword to fend of the wilding attacking Bichen.

With a wave of his hand Bichen returned to its sheath and Lan XiChen stepped slowly into the room as if looking for any other inanimate objects that might come flying at him. The look on his face held serious concern for his younger brother and he approached and sat down at the small table reserved for entertaining guests.

'Wanji' He began in a soft but serious tone 'come sit and drink with me'

'No Thank you brother' Wanji replied blankly still staring at the door as if it would magically give him some answers.

'Wanji' Lan XiChen's tone had become more commanding now 'I have never seen you this discomposed before. You attacked without even knowing who was trying to enter, what if it had been Uncle? Or a junior disciple who was not able to fend of Bichen?'

'Uncle wouldn't come here and any junior disciple stupid enough to try right now doesn't deserve to be in the Sect!'

Lan Zhan had always been strict, and his emotions had always been hidden and strictly under control. Yet these words where in-necessarily harsh and normally even though Lan Zhan was a Master at hiding his emotions from others his brother could always see through the deception. At the moment though what began to worry Lan XiChen the most was the lack of feeling he could sense from his younger brother. It was almost as if he had cut himself off from feeling any emotion at all. Lan XiChen looked over at the still figure on the bed.

Wei Ying had been badly injured when Wanji had returned to Gusu with him a few days ago. Wei Ying was unconscious and barley breathing but Wanji had seemed detached when he ordered the healers to attend to him in his JingShi, he had even voluntarily gone to the cold spring to clean up and redress while the examination was taking place. It was if he hadn't bought back a critically ill friend but rather a unknown guest. At first he had assumed Wanji's lack of emotion was due to him bringing Wei Ying back to the Cloud Reccess instead of the back mountain as had been agreed with their uncle, but now…..

Lan XiChen sighed. Wanji had never been this cut off from his emotions, never been this cut off from HIM! What exactly had happened on that day in YiLing to get both young men into such a state. And how on earth was he going to fix it when he didn't even know what was wrong? Glancing back and forth between the two he pinched his nose with his fingers, trying to ward off the headache that was threatening to tear his head in two. One man was unconscious and badly burned, he was obviously physically harmed but the healer had said that with medication he would fully heal, physically at least. No one knew the extent of Wei Ying's mental trauma yet. The other on the other hand, seemed to be suffering some kind of emotional trauma and had disconnected himself from any feeling. He refused to see a healer, his uncle or even step out of this room!

He couldn't do anything for the unconscious Wei Ying right now but he could try AGAIN to snap his brother out of his emotional fugue.

'WANJI!' he snapped, possibly harder than he had ever spoken to his little brother before. 'That is unkind'

As expected Lan Zhan responded to the jab but his response exceeded even what he was prepared for.

'Then its about time they learned the world is not fair' Lan Zhan responded, his voice a scary calm but filled with boiling emotions underneath. Lan Zhan pointed to the bed that held the still body of Wei Ying. 'Was that fair? Has anything that has ever happened to him fair? Has he ever deserved to be treated like that?…..and you are talking about kicking out a junior disciple who cant follow the rules'

Lan Zhan's voice was still low but it was showing signs of cracking with the emotion that had been held in for days. Lan XiChen knew that prodding that particular wound would lance the pain his brother was feeling but the risk would be that he didn't know in what way it would present itself. Taking a deep breath he chose to step onto a battlefield that was unknown to both of them...…..an emotional one.

'Being discourteous is against the clan rules' Lan XiChen replied in an almost bored tone as if repeating the phrase by rote.

'And we always need to follow the clan rules without exception don't we?' Lan Zhan almost shouted 'Without thinking for ourselves….…..' as if all the fury had suddenly disappeared Lan Zhan stopped yelling and begun whispering almost to himself..…..Lan XiChen listened carefully trying to follow the train of thought. 'He trusted me….' Lan Zhan muttered to himself with his head dropping to face the floor 'He trusted me to get him out of there, to not let him die..…...I made a promise that I would protect him and he trusted me so much he stepped into that fire without a second thought. Even when everyone else betrayed him he still trusted me and I betrayed him to….I was to busy following orders and thinking about rules. I betrayed him!'

Lan XiChen's heart began to ache at seeing his strong brother so defeated. So this was the cause of Wanji's odd behaviour the last few days. He blamed himself for the injuries Wei Ying had, he blamed himself for obeying orders instead of helping a friend, and he blamed himself for being just another person who let Wei Ying down when he needed them. XiChen glanced once again at the bed and the unmoving boy in it. So young and yet already he had been betrayed by so many. It wasn't surprising Wanji was having such a strong reaction to such a situation.

XiChen rose from the table and pressed a hand on Lan Zhan's shoulder.

'When young Master Wei regains consciousness I am sure he wont blame you for anything. In fact from what I know of his personality he will probably find you blaming yourself amusing'

This got a little smile from Lan Zhan, but it was gone as quickly as it came once he turned and walked back to the bed to resume his vidual.

Unseen XiChen walked out of the JingShi, silently pleased that his brothers room was so far away from any others and no one had heard their conversation. He wasn't however looking forward to the one he needed to have with his Uncle. Today's insights had just reinforced what he already suspected about his brothers feelings towards the young, undisciplined cultivator who always had a smile and never gave up. If he was right, Wei Ying could not go to the back mountains with the rest of the Wen survivors. He had to find some way of keeping him here.