Xichen's mind is fluttering like strings of lanterns, ribbons dancing in the periphery of his vision as the memory closes in around him. Guanyin looms above him, their face so like and unlike Jin Guangyao's...
Meng Shi, writ in gold, ever merciful, watching over her son's last moments as he was dragged to disgrace, dismemberment, and death. Xichen tastes the copper taste of blood and betrayal and grief and the churning turmoil of things he does not know how to reconcile.
There are Lan Sect elders on either side of him, a coffin before him and reality is setting in.
Jin Guangyao is dead. Jin Guangyao betrayed his trust. Jin Guangyao committed horrible atrocities.
It should be easy to hate him, to never forgive, and simply harden his heart as would be expected. Do not associate with evil men, and all. (Does even a single evil deed constitute an evil man? If not, when does one cross the point of no return?)
It should be simple; black is not white.
...And yet, the world without his friend seems so much worse than even these revelations, and now he will be sealed for a hundred years and it is only because of Lan Xichen's ignorance that three people he loved are now lost to him.
He can never condone his father's choices, but now he can, at last, understand them.
Tears fall from his cheeks, his gaze focused on something that is not there, fingers dug into Jin Guangyao's shoulders, frost condensing around them as an array for sealing something begins to form in his outstretched hand.
The Tower is weakening and soon shall fall.
He's not sure if it's Jin Guangyao's voice or the words themselves that cut through the vision, the memory receding as the familiar 9and oddly comforting) scenery of Trench floods his senses.
The array dissipates, and Xichen stares down at Jin Guangyao in confusion.
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Meng Shi, writ in gold, ever merciful, watching over her son's last moments as he was dragged to disgrace, dismemberment, and death. Xichen tastes the copper taste of blood and betrayal and grief and the churning turmoil of things he does not know how to reconcile.
There are Lan Sect elders on either side of him, a coffin before him and reality is setting in.
Jin Guangyao is dead. Jin Guangyao betrayed his trust. Jin Guangyao committed horrible atrocities.
It should be easy to hate him, to never forgive, and simply harden his heart as would be expected. Do not associate with evil men, and all. (Does even a single evil deed constitute an evil man? If not, when does one cross the point of no return?)
It should be simple; black is not white.
...And yet, the world without his friend seems so much worse than even these revelations, and now he will be sealed for a hundred years and it is only because of Lan Xichen's ignorance that three people he loved are now lost to him.
He can never condone his father's choices, but now he can, at last, understand them.
Tears fall from his cheeks, his gaze focused on something that is not there, fingers dug into Jin Guangyao's shoulders, frost condensing around them as an array for sealing something begins to form in his outstretched hand.
He's not sure if it's Jin Guangyao's voice or the words themselves that cut through the vision, the memory receding as the familiar 9and oddly comforting) scenery of Trench floods his senses.
The array dissipates, and Xichen stares down at Jin Guangyao in confusion.
"...What...?"