[July 18] [Original] Sliding

[lilacfield.livejournal.com]

Title: Sliding
Day/Theme: July 18/when you leave, it will be hard again
Series: Elegy of the Willow Sword (original)
Characters: Huan Qiangwei, Ling Xiao
Rating: G


The four men surrounded her house at midnight, and their total lack of secrecy indicated that they were expecting the job to be easy. Huan Qiangwei very much feared this was the case - she was outnumbered, there was someone else she had to watch out for, and the men would have come very well prepared, since they had failed before. She stood near the door, waiting for them to call her out, curious if they had been ordered to kill her so as to leave no witnesses.

On the bench by the wall, Ling Xiao shifted, a solid ghost in the dark. "It's me they've come for," he croaked. "I'm going to go out now. You don't have to be a part of this."

The anguish that bore down on her was jarringly fresh: seven years ago, on a night like this, she had let her son be taken away from her. Now here she was, about to do it all over again; that the son in question was not hers made no difference. "They will harm you."

"No. They are here because they need something they think I have, not because they have a grudge against me."

"Mrs. Wen!" a rough voice shouted. Huan Qiangwei tried to measure how much internal energy the voice owner might have, and decided that the amount of it, multiplied by four, would definitely be a problem. "You know why we're here. Don't waste any more of our time, or yours. Let him come out right this moment or we will enter."

There was a clink, and Ling Xiao rose to his feet. "I'm leaving my sword here. If my brother should ever come looking for me, give it to him. Will you promise?"

Huan Qiangwei raised her arm. "You can't go." Panic fluttered against the lining of her throat, tried to creep up to her nose. "If you can't tell them what they want to know - "

"I don't have any other choice. Please, or you might get hurt too."

Since he had to make an effort just to be able to speak clearly, she felt awful for arguing with him. "Whatever it is they have in store for you, it's not going to be good."

"Mrs. Wen!" A second, louder voice. She understood that these men were not just intimidating her; they were ready to storm into the house and drag Ling Xiao out. "Mrs. Wen, we're counting to three! One. Two!"

Ling Xiao reached for the door and Huan Qiangwei stumbled aside, her shoulder bumping against the wall. She steadied her breathing, then ran out as Ling Xiao hobbled toward the front yard. Four silhouettes gathered around him in an instant. She halted, blood rushing to her ears.

"I'm here," Ling Xiao said. "Leave Mrs. Wen out of this."

One of the men stepped in front of Ling Xiao. He was holding a palm-sized box, which he now held up and opened. Before Huan Qiangwei could react, the man reached inside the box and threw some of its contents at Ling Xiao's face.

Ling Xiao's hands flew to his nose, and with a choked cry he crumpled down to the ground. In reflex, Huan Qiangwei's feet propelled her forward, but the man had already flicked his wrist at her. Something powdery and searing hit her on the face; a sickly, pungent smell clogged her airway. Huan Qiangwei had the time to register that both she and Ling Xiao were being poisoned before her gorge rose and she was half-blinded by the most terrible headache she had ever known. The world turned upside down, the world grew distant, there was thick liquid spilling down her chin - was it water or blood, was it from a wound or from her mouth? She could not think: she existed in a cacophony of pain and blade-sharp longing.

The ineffective mothers of the world, she mourned, and said world vanished altogether.