v5c50: The Cracks Show

The dawn broke through the horizon.

The battles ended.

The raging emotions that had saturated Tianlan’s link to her Connected Ones faded, leaving a kind of numbness.

And at once, the exhaustion hit her like a hammer, as the dances fueling the formation slowed and began to stop, their duty complete.

Tianlan staggered, and a strong arm caught her. She looked up into Jin’s eyes, her Connected One full of concern.

Xiulan was right behind him, her face drawn with worry, and her eyes darting all over Tianlan’s body.

Tianlan quickly took stock of everyone. Injuries, pain…but no deaths of those who she considered her Connected Ones. She pushed the information to Jin and Meiling, and she felt both of them sag with relief. Tianlan took the opportunity to stand again, and took a good look at Jin.

Tianlan smiled at him, and rubbed her eye as it drooped, trying to stay awake.

“You look like hell,” she told her Jin.

He did. He looked like… well, her. Both of his arms looked like somebody had shattered a statue and inexpertly tried to stick the pieces back together. Massive rents and cracks ran through them, with pieces misaligned. The knuckles of his right hand were completely devoid of flesh, and the bottom of his left hand, from pinky to elbow was similarly destroyed. Channeling the power of the Path with her not there to help hadn’t been easy on her Connected One. His meridians were swollen and throbbing, and it was taking all he had to stay standing.

She could feel how much pain he was in, now that the adrenaline was wearing off. He didn’t try to hide any of it from her, like they had promised. She could feel each and every ache of his….

Just as he could feel hers.

“.. you look like hell yourself,” he replied, his voice quiet and concerned.

Tianlan acknowledged his worries. There was golden ichor leaking out of her good eye, the corner of her mouth, and along every seam where gold met flesh.

The sudden connection and channeling of all that Qi hadn’t been without consequences, the energy surge making how broken she still was abundantly clear.

Her Dragon Veins were wailing. Scabs had burst open. Patches had ripped. She had a blowout somewhere in the Grass Sea, bleeding her Qi into the air.

It hurt. It was agony.

Yet compared to how she had felt before? Compared to losing those she had cared about? It was nothing.

“Warn a girl before you shove something like that into her pipes, eh?” Tianlan asked, wagging her brows.

Her joke, unfortunately, fell a bit flat. Poor Xiulan looked like she was going to be sick. Guilt formed in her connection with Jin and her connection with Xiulan. Regret that they had hurt her.

Xiulan opened her mouth.

“Apologise and I’m headbutting you,” Tianlan’s blunt command was punctuated with her own feelings. She shoved them down her link with them, letting them see, and letting them know.

She would accept being broken again, before she accepted their apology. They had done what they had needed to, and she could only be grateful it had worked.

Xiulan hugged her. “Thank you, Tianlan. Thank you for everything,” the woman whispered.

Tianlan patted her on the back…and yawned. Her eye drooped again. The last dregs of fire were burning out, and the call of the cold was too much.

When it was Xiaoshi’s formation, she just felt awake. Now? She was even more tired than before. Tianlan could feel her Qi slowing again.

“I can’t stay up any longer. I, sorr—”

“Apologise and I’m headbutting you,” Xiulan cut her off, her voice warm, but firm, and she lifted Tianlan up. Xiulan’s hand stroked the back of Tianlan’s head, while her feet took her back to Tianlan’s cottage.

“We’ll have everything cleaned up by spring. I promise,” her Jin said.

Darkness encroached on Tianlan’s vision. The last thing she saw was a snowman, standing at attention.

He was young and weak. But he had done so much. Intercepting enemy communications, guiding her Connected One, and helping him unleash his techniques while Tianlan had been asleep. Without him…things would have been much, much worse.

Tianlan let her gratitude flow down the link to the subordinate Spirit. She elevated him as much as she could.

“The rest of the winter is yours,” Tianlan whispered.

The General That Commands The Winter saluted, ready to resume his vigil.

Tianlan was tucked into bed, and the darkness fell over her once more.

==============================

“May Heaven be kind to you, Lu Ri,” I said. The transmission stone stopped buzzing.

One thing taken care of. I heaved out a sigh.

I felt like shit.

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I wanted nothing more than to just climb into bed like Tianlan.

But I had work to do.

The first order of business was to take stock of everybody. Tianlan had let me feel that they were all… well, I would hesitate to say fine. They were alive.

What we had to do first was regroup. Xiulan was already here. The red markings had faded from her face. Her blades disintegrated into motes of green Qi and disappeared. She looked similarly exhausted, and was leaning against my shoulder to stay standing.

Washy descended from the sky, Yin sitting on his back. Washy himself was pretty beaten up, with strips of scales missing and half-healed scars that were still oozing blood. Yin’s neck was one solid mass of purple bruise and circular puncture wounds—like a bunch of lampreys had latched on and started drinking her blood… which probably wasn’t far from the truth.

Yin slid off him when he landed.

“Sorry for not following the plan, Boss,” the dragon said, looking embarrassed.

I reached out, grabbed his head, and hugged him.

“It’s fine,” I replied. “I’m proud of you.”

The dragon slumped more, and with a pop, I was holding a fish instead… who promptly started snoring. I chuckled, and transferred him to under my arm. He’d earned at least a moment of rest.