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It wasn’t every day that Yanqing took on a job like this one, poking around a long out-of-use section of the docks, moving empty crates to make new pathways in a search for some random ‘lost’ IPC worker who was probably definitely ‘lost’ on purpose, considering that his last signal came from this sealed-off space that no one was supposed to be in. No, Yanqing usually had way more important stuff to deal with than this—as a lieutenant of the Cloud Knights and General Jing Yuan’s retainer, he often was close to the General’s side, to assist him, act as his guard, and also train with him, if he wasn’t instead doing important things out on his own or with the other Cloud Knights in the Luofu like managing events, fighting the renewed surge of abominations in the wake of the Ambrosial Arbor crisis, or acting as an authority representative of the Luofu in dealings with foreign agents. Today’s task was kind of like the latter thing, really. As unwelcome as the IPC’s business around here often was for a lot of people, especially after the Aurum Alley debacle, it was still very important that they maintain good relations, so when they got all upset and demanded the Cloud Knights do something after the mysterious disappearance of their representative who was supposedly on his way to some trade deal meeting before going radio silent three days ago, someone had to step in and do something about it, and so, naturally, Yanqing volunteered.
In part because he had a feeling that this IPC worker was definitely up to no good. The knights traced his messages about how he was ‘on his way,’ but he was on nearly the other side of the ship from where he was supposed to be, so unless he just had a really bad sense of direction, there was definitely something suspicious going on. He didn’t know what, exactly, but whatever it was, he could handle it. So, he assured the other knights that they didn’t have to bother themselves—he could investigate on his own and let them know if there was trouble, but otherwise, he was going to go ahead and go check this out alone.
Or, well…mostly alone.
“...seriously, what is it with all of these tricks and puzzles and levers, just to walk from one side of the dock to the other!? If the IPC was in charge of this place, it would be much more efficient, and there’d be a whole lot less dust and empty containers, too!”
Yanqing made his most valiant attempt at restraining a heavy sigh and whatever biting remarks he would love to make to go with it. Of all the IPC representatives that could have come with him for this today, it really just had to be this guy. Yanqing hasn’t had a lot of personal run-ins with Lyndon Skott in the past, but he did have a bit of a reputation around the Luofu, especially after the Aurum Alley incident, and now, Yanqing could see why. He had wondered if Sushang was exaggerating when she so dramatically griped about how slimy and annoying Skott was, but now, he could confirm—he was definitely very much annoying. Or…outspoken about his complaints, to put it more lightly.
“Well, the reason why there’s dust is because this area has been out of use for a few decades,” Yanqing explained with a tight hold over his tone, neglecting to mention that the reason for its abandonment was the untimely deaths of the Goldstream Guild officials and merchants who used to run it, who were caught in the attack on the Fanghu during the Third Abundance War. The other members of the guild moved operations to Cloudford, after that, as part of the Sky-Faring Commissions’ aim to condense operations so that the Cloud Knights would not be spread too thin guarding shipyards, since so many of them were dispatched for the war and there was still a lot of fear that an attack would be made on the Luofu, as well. Gratefully, the Luofu attack never happened, thanks to the bravery of the Knights and the help from Lan THEMSELF in the form of the Lux Arrow, which Yanqing had heard a lot about despite all of this happening well before he was born—one day, he would love to learn more about what happened from Jing Yuan himself, since the General never really talked much about how it went, but that was beside the point. The point was, even after everything went back to normal, this particular shipyard never got revitalized, but Yanqing wasn’t about to tell Skott any of that, since he figured he might just use it as another excuse to call the Luofu inefficient or weak or something worse, which couldn’t be further from the truth. “And the reason for all the ‘tricks and levers’ is because we use these belts to move cargo around. Just ask any dock worker—they’re masters at making this system work, but I guess for someone like you, it’s just a little too complicated, right?” he probed with a teasing smirk, taking way too much enjoyment from the way Skott scowled in response.
“What that’s supposed to mean!? No, it’s not too complicated for me!” Skott insisted with a stamp of his foot. “I’ll have you know that I am an expert pilot of IPC mechs, and those are extremely high tech! Not just anyone can pick up on those controls—there’s so many knobs and levers and buttons, someone inexperienced could put the whole thing in self-destruct if you aren’t careful! Oh, yeah, and also, I can navigate the shipping yard at Pier Point expertly too, and there’s so many passcodes and biometric keys and puzzle locks to remember—and traps, too! Argh, like this one time that my idiot employee got us lost and I passed out from thirst in the heat pit, but we made it out, thanks to my brilliance!”
At that, Yanqing didn’t even try to restrain himself from snorting out a laugh. “What? Puzzle locks and traps? Here I thought the IPC was more efficient than the Luofu.”
“It is!” Skott barked back in loud insistence, before just as quickly deflating with huff. “Just…ah, forget it. Let’s just focus on finding my dear coworker, and then, we can move on, and I don’t have to come back to this creepy place ever again!”
“It’s not… oh, never mind,” Yanqing relented with a roll of his eyes, also wanting to avoid keeping up this conversation that was bound to do nothing but distract him from what he—or they, technically—was supposed to be doing. Yanqing really should have insisted on coming alone, but the IPC wanted one of their representatives to join the search, and the missing guy was from the same department as Skott, who was his senior and had been stationed on the Xianzhou Luofu for a few years now, making him the ‘expert’ on Luofu relations, supposedly. Yanqing just hoped that he wasn’t in on whatever scheme his coworker was up to and only came along to sabotage him somehow, but that was probably unlikely, and even if that was the case, it’s not like that would be a problem. Yanqing was sure he could take both of them down without breaking a sweat, even if they had a whole army of IPC mechs with them. In fact, he would love to see them try.
Yanqing opened up another path, searching again for any signs of life, or even any signs of destruction that wasn’t just another wandering marastruck lingering around after the Ambrosial Arbor Crisis. Soon, he finally came upon something promising—an area with clearly disturbed dust and tracks from where someone half-shoved a crate to the side, and he was sure that this time, he really was on the right track.
“How does it take three whole days to get you Luofu people to search for someone missing, anyways?” Skott asked, his obnoxiously loud voice abruptly cutting in through the doomed-to-be-brief silence and distracting Yanqing as soon as he had his trail. “From what I heard, no one even batted an eye to him being gone during that meeting, and then, the Cloud Knights we asked got all suspicious of us for this, but if he got lost because he fell in one of your shipyard traps, then that would be your fault for—”
“Mr. Skott, can we talk about this later?” Yanqing stressed, although he really hoped that ‘later’ would mean ‘never.’ “I think I found his trail—come on, this way.”
Yanqing led the way, following the subtle signs of someone else traveling through this area, until finally, he found something interesting—the entrance to an old dock house, with the door swung open. He went aside, not seeing much at first aside from some old empty desks that no one bothered to remove, but then…
There was another open door, one that was built into the ground—probably a basement storage area, which might even lead to some old underground service tunnels for the maintenance of the giant ship which was the Luofu itself, and given the busted locks and bent metal, it was obviously pried open by force. Gotcha. Yanqing eyed the opening with some reflexive anger at this guy’s audacity but also a grin of satisfaction at knowing that he was on the right track and was definitely right about this person being up to no good, whatever he was doing. Did he use an IPC mech to do the break-in? Well, they could figure out the details later—for now, Yanqing just jumped down into the hole and started looking, his eyes quickly landing on some bag in the middle of the floor with its contents strewn about. He squinted in the darkness and turned on a flashlight, so focused on the bag that he barely paid attention to the sound of scuffling behind him…
“AHHHHH!”
THUMP!
“Huh!?” Yanqing spun around, almost startled by the intruder but then realizing that no, it was just Skott, faceplanting on the floor after following him through the hole and apparently failing to drop down gracefully.
“You couldn’t have waited up or at least helped me!?” Skott demanded to know from the ground.
“You should have just waited up on ground level,” Yanqing replied with an unapologetic shrug. “I can take it from here, and I don’t need you getting in my way.”
“Yeah!? Well you could have told me that before I came down here!”
Yanqing scowled. He was liking the idea of Skott shadowing him less and less, with the risk of some IPC plot being involved, but it was a little late to just send him away, especially if there was danger… “Just wait there, then,” he instructed. “Don’t move and let me know if you see anything suspicious, okay?”
Yanqing then started looking through that bag. It seemed liked someone dropped it, and before long, he got the confirmation he was expecting—an employee ID with the name and face of exactly the guy they were looking for. The bag also had some notes in it, along with a flash drive. It immediately struck him as odd, seeing an IPC guy use paper instead of a digital medium, but then he started reading, and in addition to the random diary-like entries, he found some medicinal formulas…
Oh. Yanqing’s eyes widened when he realized what this was, before they instead narrowed into a scowl. So that’s what this was about. Yanqing was no Alchemy Commission member—he didn’t know much about all this stuff, but he was pretty he had seen a formula like this not long ago, among the papers confiscated by none other than the Sanctus Medicus. If his hunch was right, then, that might be where he got all of this from. The employee could have been a secret Elixir Seeker, or maybe he was just trying to sell the formula for money. Either way, Yanqing was definitely going to arrest him, as soon as he found him. But for him to drop his bag like this…did something happen to him? Was he still down here?
“AHH! WHAT IS THAT!?”
“What!?” Yanqing nearly jumped out of his skin a second time, turning around to see Skott, who did not just wait where he was and not move, anxiously pointing at some spot by the corner of another hallway. He walked over there tiredly, not liking the distraction but figuring he might as well…
But then he saw it. A dried, bloody handprint, smeared across the wall, clearly not fresh but probably not that old, either, given how distinct it still was. Yanqing’s instincts immediately went on alert—he didn’t know whose handprint this was, but he had to find out. He stepped into the narrow hallway, navigating through the exposed pipes of the ship’s interior, and he motioned for Skott to follow. “Stay close,” he instructed, although now, turning around to see a frowning, trembling Skott, eyes clearly plastered wide behind his round glasses, he clearly might not be so inclined anymore.
“U-Uh, that’s okay! I wouldn’t want to interfere with your investigation, or…”
“But I have to keep an eye on you to keep you safe,” Yanqing pointed out, as much as he hated to admit it. The hint of danger just meant that he couldn’t neglect to ensure the safety of the one civilian he was supposed to protect. “Just be careful.”
Yanqing kept moving, following the trail of blood through the narrow passageway that echoed with the hollow sounds of the ship’s interior. Blood dripped periodically on the floor and was marked by fingerprints on the wall…a chest wound, probably, that the victim (the employee? Or someone else?) clenched with their hands before using those same hands for support as they stumbled along. Yanqing followed the trail down one tunnel and then doubled back when it ended…it seemed like the injured person got their injury in the tunnel, walked to the main area, but then doubled back… Yanqing found another hallway and kept following the trail, keeping a careful pace as he listened for danger and tried not to be distracted by Skott’s clinging. There was some damage, in this area. Broken pieces of the walls and the unused pipes lay littered on the ground, but he kept moving ahead, until he got hit with an overwhelming stench of stale, metallic blood and decay, making him quickly realize…
There he was. Yanqing got hit with a cold realization and disgust in the pit of his stomach the moment his flashlight illuminated the missing IPC employee, lying there on the ground, and Yanqing didn’t need to do a check to know that the man collapsed face-down in a pool of his own blood, a giant hole gored into his chest and a jagged gash in his side, was dead. Looks like he wasn’t going to be making that arrest after all… The corridor around them yawned and creaked, and Yanqing crouched down with a grim expression. He…had a feeling something was wrong, but he still hadn’t prepared for this. He was already dead? But in that case, who…?
“H-H-H-HE’S—!?”
“Quiet!” Yanqing hissed, although he was almost sympathetic, at this point, to the clearly freaked-out Skott who was now plastered against the wall and trembling.
“Lieutenant, we’ve got to get out of here! NOW!” Skott yelped in return. “We can’t—”
“I said quiet! I think I hear something,” Yanqing warned, his sword already drawn. Skott was right; they needed to leave, but they also needed to be careful. Yanqing heard another creak, and he tried to look for it in the shadows, but…maybe it was nothing? It could just be the ship itself making noises…
“B-B-BEHIND YOU!”
Yanqing, afterwards, would have liked to think that he definitely would have noticed it on his own, without Skott’s help, but now wasn’t the time to think about that. He turned just in time to meet the gangly marastruck’s knight’s blade, blocking it and throwing it back. His flashlight clattered to the ground, but that was fine—there was just enough light coming in through the cracks above that he could handle this. Yanqing acted swiftly, striking the marastruck to throw it off balance and coming in with a stab, but then…
“T-THERE’S ANOTHER MONSTER! WAIT DON’T TOUCH ME I’LL—”
Yanqing sent an icy blade backwards, skewering the marastruck’s neck before it could reach Skott, and it quickly became clear that this was not going to be as easy as just taking out one loner…there were multiple marastruck coming for them, just like they did in the Ambrosial Arbor crisis when so many people got forcefully turned and so many Sanctus Medicus came out of the shadows to fight, and Yanqing wondered with a hitch if this was that, all over again. But he couldn’t dwell on that now—he just had to take them down. He summoned multiple swords, blocking their blows and cutting down the abominations crowded into the narrow hallway, although of course, one hit was never enough. He watched the first warrior regenerate and rise back up like one possessed, and so, Yanqing stabbed it in the heart again. To the second, he froze and then shattered it, and to the third, he successfully threw it to the ground and severed the head. He regretted, severely, that he couldn’t have picked a better battle ground. It was so cramped in here, and there was a whole dead body in the way, at that! It was overwhelming, but…not anything he couldn’t handle. He’s fought the abominations before—whole armies of them, in fact—so he could take a few marastruck, even in a place like this.
But it wasn’t great. Yanqing winced from a cut in arm he achieved after stumbling back—not from the marastruck, but from the broken and jagged metal of the wall. Two flanked him on either side—just where were they all coming from!? Were that many hiding down here, or was this something else? He probably should have considered that ‘something else,’ but he didn’t. he just had to kill them all, grab Skott, and then get out of here. He blocked a blade with contorted branches growing from it, the cursed creature wielding it erupting with a howl when Yanqing snapped its arms back. He struck it down with one blade and its companion with the other, and it regenerated just as another three ran in from the other side, and Yanqing got them and then swept through again with a second killing blow, and—
“Stop right there, and don’t move.”
Yanqing’s blood ran cold at the voice. Someone else was here, who wasn’t Skott, and he failed to notice them until their icy tone cut through the almost silence. The still-living marastruck stopped moving and stopped attacking, and Yanqing turned around…
“H-HELP!”
“Silence!” an older man in green Xianzhou clothing warned, holding a knife to Skott’s throat and holding his arm behind his back, before turning to threaten Yanqing, instead. “Alright now, drop the weapons, and no one gets hurt, if you would be so kind?”
Yanqing saw a group of people gather in the shadows behind Skott and his captor, at the same time he felt the presence of a few people silently walking up behind himself. This was bad. He grit his teeth, not making any sudden movement, and trying really quickly to figure out what was going on. Who were these people, and where did they all come from!? Were they using this area as a secret base of some kind? They were clearly up to no good, whoever they were, but looking around at all the marastruck monsters seemingly stopping their actions at the leader’s command…yeah, he had a hunch.
“Who are you? And what do you want?” Yanqing demanded, taking the gamble and winning it, when it became clear that this man leading this group of people and marastruck had no interest in maintaining secrecy in favor of his own pride.
“We are but mere disciples of the Merciful Sanctus Medicus,” he replied with a taunting smile. “And all we want is for you to come along with us, under our…protection, you could say. Unlike you, we have no interest in bloodshed, and I’m sure that whatever other knights you have in your command would agree, Cloud Knight Lieutenant. They would not wish anything to happen to you, so rest assured, you will be safe with us. But if you choose to be difficult, then sadly, I will have no choice but to dispatch with this…unfortunate representative of the IPC.”
“Hey HEY let’s not be hasty now—URK!” Skott choked in pain, evidently being gripped even tighter behind his back.
So that’s how this was. Yanqing grimaced tightly, making no sudden movements but not letting go of his sword either, as he realized all too clearly exactly what they wanted, behind all that flowery language. They knew exactly who Yanqing was, and they probably thought, with him here, that there were more Cloud Knights investigating nearby, and they intended to use Yanqing as a hostage against them, just like how they were right now using Skott as a hostage against him. But…surely there was something he could do to get out of this, right? He was surrounded, but he was sure he could take them down, if he had the chance. Or maybe he should just…make a distraction, take Skott, and run? But that was risky…they might actually kill Skott like they threatened to, before Yanqing could move fast enough. Skott wouldn’t be worth as much to them, and on top of all of that, Yanqing could barely even see down here, to begin with. It was too dark for him to make out everything in front of or behind him. He could get caught off guard again, which meant…
Yanqing fought back the urge to groan out loud. He hated this. He hated it so, so much. Out of all the people it could be, why did it have to be Skott? It was Yanqing’s duty to protect civilians, foreign guests included, and besides that, he made a promise to keep Skott safe, and he took that seriously, and even disregarding the duty of his position altogether, Yanqing would never let any innocent person die in front of him like that just to save himself—well, okay, maybe calling Skott innocent was a stretch, but Yanqing couldn’t let him die. He just couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right.
With a deep breath, Yanqing dropped the sword he held and the ones that floated beside him, letting them all clatter to the ground as he raised his hands in reluctant surrender, knowing he just couldn’t delay this any longer. Behind him, two Sanctus Medicus members emerged from the shadows and grabbed him on either side, pulling his arms behind his back for a third to come and tightly bind his wrists with rope, and Yanqing let them. He kept on high alert, obviously, ready to make a move if they did try to stab him in the back instead, but they didn’t.
“Good kid!” the leader replied to his actions mockingly. “I knew you would do the right thing. Come now, let’s bring our guests back and get them comfortable, shall we?”
Yeah, laugh all you want. This wasn’t over, not yet. In fact, this could be an opportunity in disguise, once Yanqing thought about it. He could pay attention and learn about everything this Sanctus Medicus sect was up to and where they were hiding, so that when he escaped, he could tell Jing Yuan and the other knights all about it. Although…as it turned out, the information-gathering part might be a little easier said than done.
They blindfolded him, too, using some kind of tape that they wrapped in multiple layers over his eyes and around his head. Feeling the uncomfortable way it pinched his skin and pulled on his hair, Yanqing got a bad feeling about how hard it was going to be to take this off. Why couldn’t they have just wrapped a strip of cloth over his eyes, like normal people!? But this was fine; he could still find a way out of this. He just…needed to hold out for a little longer.
“Hey, hold on, where are you taking us!? What is the meaning of this!?” Skott started questioning indignantly, finding his voice after the knife was probably removed, as they pushed Yanqing past the fallen corpses and started leading them both somewhere further into the tunnels. “I’ll have you know, I am a very high-ranking member of the IPC! If you do anything to me, then…then someone will definitely come and do something about it!”
“Oh?” The leader sounded almost amused. “How interesting. Perhaps we should test that theory, then. I could leave your body with your unfortunate coworker, over there, and see how long it takes before someone else like yourself comes to investigate?”
“T-That won’t be necessary!” Skott blurted out with the cadence of a strangled squawk. “Hey, actually! Just so you know, I am a huge admirer of the Sanctus Medicus!” Skott started babbling, his tone immediately changing to obviously-fake effusive praise. “Your reputation really precedes you!”
“Really now?” the leader asked with a chuckle. “And what have you heard, child?”
“Uhh…lots of things! Why, I’ve heard your, uh, your know-how in alchemy is second to none! You must have really been blessed by the Abundance to have such a way with the tree…people. Is that right? B-But what I mean is…!”
Skott kept talking, but Yanqing tried to not be distracted by him so that he could instead pay attention to where they were going…not that he had much to go on, exactly. Yanqing didn’t even know that the passages down here went so deep, unless maybe, they were just going in circles? Since he couldn’t see, he tried to pay extra close attention to sounds, smells, and the way the air felt, but there wasn’t exactly a lot of variation. Yanqing wished that Skott would be quiet for a moment so he could hear better, but then again, it could also be helpful that he was being a distraction…
“Wait, did you hear that?” someone beside him whispered, catching Yanqing’s attention although he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, himself.
“Hear what?” his companion questioned.
“A creak above—could it be the Cloud Knights?”
“You’re imagining things,” she dismissed, although she did grip Yanqing’s arm a little tighter when she said that. “But it’s not like we can’t handle them even if they do find us—we got him.”
“But what if having a hostage only makes things worse!? The General himself might get involved!”
“Oh, please, he’s not that—”
“Is there a problem?” the leader’s voice cut through to them, lighthearted but dangerous as he interrupted his rambling spiel to Skott explaining how mara worked (according to their definition, anyways).
“Oh, no, not at all!” the man assured quickly.
“Good. There is no place for doubt, my children. Here—we have nearly arrived.”
Yanqing’s attention piqued again, as they went into what felt like a bigger space, still somewhere underground. He got shoved down into a sitting position by the wall, with Skott seated with a yelp beside him, and then, someone came to tie his ankles together, too. Yanqing fought to keep a straight face, to not show any signs of emotion so they wouldn’t think he was afraid of them, but…he really hated this. It wasn’t like this was really a problem for him. It was just rope, not the chains of the Shackling Prison—he could break out whenever he wanted to, but it was still panic-inducing, being immobilized and blinded. He was too helpless in front of way too many people—what kind of lieutenant or retainer was he to let himself get caught like this? He wanted to get out as soon as he could, but should he wait? He still barely had any information…
“Comfortable, Cloud Knight lieutenant?” the leader taunted, walking up close to him with fake kindness in his voice. “I hope you will forgive us for being so rash with you, but surely, you understand. Now, I must ask…where are the other Cloud Knights? Surely they did not leave you behind?”
So, they were trying to ask him about that now. There wasn’t anyone else out there—not yet, anyways—but of course, Yanqing wouldn’t tell them that, so he just put on an act with a loud scoff. “Yeah, nice try. I’m not telling you anything about where the others are. Why don’t you just look for yourself?”
“Oh, we are, thank you very much. However, I do have to advise you not to be so foolhardy, given your position. You Cloud Knights might have dealt a devastating blow to our numbers, during the time of the Ambrosial Arbor’s awakening, but if you were a true follower of the Hunt, you should know that a wounded animal is the one you should fear the most. You have persecuted us, branded us as criminals, and driven us underground, but you will never catch all of us, so you will never extinguish our light.”
“What!?” Yanqing blurted out, his intent to stay composed completely tossed out the window the moment he started talking like that, as if the Cloud Knights were the villains all of a sudden. “Branded as criminals? What are you talking about!? What about all those innocent Cloud Knights you injected mara into!? You killed them!”
“We set them free,” the leader replied coolly. “The Merciful One’s blessing is not for you to brand as a curse. But sadly, I do not expect to convince you otherwise. You do not need to see our way of things. But you will cooperate. I want to know what the Knights are planning next, Lieutenant. I need to know why you are here. And…I would love to ‘chat’, you could say, about the General, while we are together. I am sure that you know him very well.”
“Not a chance!” Yanqing bit back, reflexively straining against the bonds on his wrists. “I’m not telling you anything!”
“Ah. How unfortunate.”
Yanqing felt it coming, but he had no way to react. Somebody on the leader’s left made a swift movement and drove the butt of their spear into Yanqing’s chest with painful force, and then, they did it a second time, as if the first was not enough. Yanqing doubled over, fighting back a wince, and he heard Skott give a scared, strangled yelp beside him.
“We have our ways of making you communicate,” the leader followed with a touch of smugness in his voice. “I always keep my promises, so as our hostage, you will be kept safe, but it would be dreadfully boring for you if you just spent all this time sitting there silently, don’t you agree? Now, I don’t suppose you also have something to add, IPC employee?”
“No, nope!” Skott yelped. “I mean, yes, if you want! L-Like I said, I admire the Sanctus Medicus greatly, so I will do whatever you say, of course!”
“Ah, how wonderful to hear! Perhaps…you would even consider joining us?”
“J-Joining!? What!? Oh, uh, I mean…of course! Yes! What is there a…a membership form, or…?”
“Not at all. Only an oath and a special…’medicine’ for you to take.”
“Huh!? I mean, yes! Yes, I do love medicine, not a problem! No problems at all!” he fumbled, and although he couldn’t say it, Yanqing imagined he could hear the plea for ‘help me’ loud and clear in the nervous energy he radiated in waves.
But he was distracting them again. As Skott kept talking, Yanqing’s heart seized with the realization he needed to act now. He wanted to get more information, but he also wasn’t even considering the possibility of him getting interrogated! Yanqing was confident that he could hold up under pressure, but…he didn’t want to take any chances, and he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the possibility of being tortured for this, either.
He didn’t have time to keep thinking about this any longer. In an instant, Yanqing summoned ice out of the air, forming blades in lieu of the ones that either got left behind in that other tunnel or stolen by the Sanctus Medicus on their way out—he didn’t know which, but it didn’t matter. He strengthened and sharpened the ice blades to cut through the ropes on his wrists and ankles, unfortunately cutting into the skin on his arm too in his haste, but that was fine. He jumped upright before they could react, and he was ready.
“HEY! HE ESCAPED—”
Yanqing moved in front of Skott and blasted a wave of ice all around him, throwing them back with a cacophony of surprised yelps and indignant howls. The next thing he did was move his free hands to his face, trying to pull off the blindfold…
“How did you get—no, that doesn’t matter! Just free me next!” Skott begged.
“Hold on! I have to—”
“Little brat!” someone yelled as they darted at him, and Yanqing had to scramble to dodge and attack with ice again, as he got struck with a terrible, sinking realization…
He couldn’t get the blindfold off. He was trying, but it was stuck on tight, and he didn’t have time to pull on it and fight at the same time. Should he try to cut through it with his ice instead? But that was almost sure to cut himself in the process, and even then it might still stay stuck.
And he couldn’t afford to spend mental energy thinking about this either. Everyone was coming at him, all at once, and he was struggling to dodge and throw them off. He even got hit from behind without realizing it, and then…
“On your right!” Skott yelled. “And behind you! Wait, in front of you too!”
Looks like they didn’t bother blindfolding Skott, then. That would probably be helpful, if it was anyone else, but Yanqing could barely keep up with the frenzied instructions. What was he supposed to do!? He couldn’t fight if he couldn’t see—he was trying to hold them off with wide area attacks that hopefully wouldn’t hit Skott too, but there was no way he could fight effectively and get out of here without…
No. It wasn’t…impossible, necessarily. In the midst of fighting, Yanqing couldn’t help but think about her, the lone swordswoman who he mistakenly assumed was blind when he met her by chance for the first time not long ago, because she wore a blindfold around her eyes, black with the symbol of a crescent moon. At the time, the name ‘Jingliu’ meant nothing to him—he didn’t know that she was actually the former Sword Champion, a member of the High Cloud Quintet, who then became a wanted criminal… He was suspicious of her then, correctly guessing that she wasn’t blind at all, but he still had it all wrong. The blindfold was real—she just used it on purpose, to keep the mara at bay or as a symbol of her commitment to ‘move forward and never look back’ or whatever it was she said. She still knew how to use sound and feeling alone to fight, because…she outclassed him. She still did. Yanqing wanted to become the next Sword Champion. That was his dream, but before that, he wanted to spar with Jingliu again. He had to get stronger, so he could face her head-on…and so he could be everything he needed to be in the here and now.
Yanqing didn’t have the luxury of even a few seconds to prepare, but still, he calmed himself. He breathed in, training his ears on every piece of his surroundings, and as his attackers came, he forged another sword. The blade in his hand matched the weight of the one he knew well, and soon it was joined by many more hanging in the air around him.
“Stop this at once!” the leader commanded. “You are outnumbered, Cloud Knight! Surrender now and you may be shown mercy!”
At that, with blades swirling around him, Yanqing indulged in a little smirk. “Yeah? Then come and take me—I’d love to see you try!”
He unleashed his blades, hearing both the sounds of shattering ice and cries of pain when they met their mark. He didn’t pay attention to the blindfold—trying to take that off was just a distraction, and besides, if he really was going to beat her in a spar one day, wouldn’t now be a great time to practice fighting blind? He would be fine—he already fought off all those marastruck in the dark, so this was nothing!
Well…okay, maybe not nothing.
“I said look out behind you—didn’t you hear me!?” Skott yelled before screaming again as some marastruck struck out towards them. Yanqing didn’t given an answer except to wince in pain from the blade wound in his side that he didn’t see coming…yeah, they needed to get out of here now.
Yanqing grabbed Skott by the arm and moved, ignoring the man’s surprised and strangled scream in favor of trying to hone in on every other sound, every presence he felt when he became in sync with the space around him…and he hit every single one of them indiscriminately with flung shards of ice before clearing a path so they could run away.
“Skott, where’s the door!?”
“U-Uh, that way! It’s that way! HURRY!”
Yanqing ran, dragging Skott’s still-tied-up body behind him, and their still-standing attackers ran after them…but that was their mistake. The cramped hallway was about to be Yanqing’s boon, not his bane. He froze the ground behind him, hearing their startled yells as they slipped and fell, and then he attacked with his blades, so they would stay down. That didn’t get all of them—though he couldn’t see them, he imagined the marastruck Sanctus Medicus warriors who kept the ability to fly when he felt the presence of more figures floating after them, but he was ready for them, too. This time, he tossed Skott behind him so that he could use both hands to blast ice ahead of him at full force, skewering them through and locking them in place in one fell swoop, and then, he grabbed Skott and ran again. There were more marastruck attackers ahead of them, guarding the tunnels, but Yanqing cut down each and every one of them, responding to all of Skott’s warnings with quick action.
He let Skott be the guide, too. He feared this was a mistake, because there was no way he knew where they were going even if he could see the path through the maze, but maybe all that experience getting lost in the Pier Point cargo yards really did do something for him, because although they probably did get turned around a few times, it still wasn’t long at all before they were out in an open space again, which must have been…
“Are we where we started?” Yanqing asked, taking a second to catch his breath.
“Yes!” Skott affirmed in a yell followed by exhausted heavy breathing of his own. “I think we lost them, so… could you please untie me already!?”
“Oh! Yeah, sure.” Yanqing honestly forgot. He was so caught up in the moment that he almost didn’t pay any attention to the fact that he had been dragging and carrying Skott around like a bag of rice for all this time, but now that he didn’t hear anyone coming, he let Skott give him his wrists and ankles, and he used his ice again to cut through the ropes as carefully as he could.
After Skott was freed, Yanqing turned his attention to the blindfold again. Using both hands this time, he felt like he had a better hold of it, but it still took a lot of work to cut through the tape and painfully rip it off. Yanqing succeeded, though, his eyes finally blinking open amidst the sharp stinging sensation, and then, he finally saw him—Skott, looking absolutely frazzled and pitiful with his broken glasses, messy hair, and extremely tired frown, which turned into a shaky, delirious smile once they made eye contact.
“Ah, you got it off? That’s good. Now let’s get out of here!!” he ended with a yell, and Yanqing didn’t have to be told twice. He wanted to go back for his swords, but that could wait a little while longer. He needed to get Skott to safety and find the Cloud Knights first, and…well, he was a tiny bit injured, too, evidenced a bit too clearly by a look down at the giant bloodstain soaking his shirt from the cut in his side, so…he should probably deal with that too.
“Come on,” Yanqing instructed, taking Skott’s hand and flying up through the doorway in the roof, and soon, they were back outside, out of the dock house and back into the cargo yard.
“Are we…out? Are we actually out?” Skott whimpered, before accepting their victory with a delirious laugh. “YES! Haha, finally, oh outdoors how I have missed you!”
Yanqing couldn’t help but smile too, then. “We shouldn’t stick around, but I think we’re safe for now. Are you alright?”
“Ah, haha, of course!” Skott laughed, his hands on his hips now. “You know, ‘Lieutenant Yanqing,’ you actually were really amazing back there! Seeing you in action, well—I think I finally understand what Xianzhou swordplay is really all about!”
“Wow, didn’t expect to hear that from you, Skott,” Yanqing noted with a little laugh of his own. “You really mean that?”
“NO!” Skott yelled in his ear, his foot stomping furiously as his expression changed from giddy to angry in a flash. Of course. Yanqing should have known that was too good to last. “ARE YOU CRAZY!? I COULD HAVE DIED! THAT WAS THE MOST TERRIFYING DAY OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!”
“Yeah, yeah, well don’t blame me for that,” Yanqing scoffed with a roll of his eyes. “You’re the one who insisted on coming along for the search. Hey, speaking of, did you…call for help at all, after we found the bloody handprint? You know, on your phone?” he asked, masking the feeling that he too forgot something…
“What? Uh…” Skott trailed off, the fire immediately gone as quick as it came. “No, why would I do that!?”
“Well, something had obviously gone very wrong, so I thought you might have called someone. I wanted to know if someone was out there looking for us, that’s all,” Yanqing explained with a shrug.
“Well then, why didn’t you call someone!?” Skott shot back, as if this was his responsibility now.
“Hey, I didn’t think I needed to!” Yanqing defended himself, although it did occur to him that, maybe, letting someone know would have been the thing to do, once it was clear this wasn’t just a normal missing person case. “I knew I could handle this on my own, and I did, didn’t I?”
“You call that handling it!?” Skott shot back angrily, before unexpectedly turning to a smug smile, instead. “Ah, but I get it. You’re a lone wolf, just like me! Guys like us can handle everything on our own, can’t we?”
“WHAT!?” Yanqing questioned, the comparison hitting him like a brick to the head. “I’m nothing like you!”
“Mm-hmm, yep, sure you are. A-Ah, but anyways, you’re still kind of…bleeding everywhere? So, you should, uh, fix that,” Skott pointed out, frowning in what was probably the closest thing his face could get to sympathy as he gestured to Yanqing’s (admittedly very painful) wounds.
“Y-Yeah…let’s just get out of here.”
And so, they traveled back the way they came, until they found some Cloud Knights and told them everything. Yanqing was sent straight to the Alchemy Commission, then…he had a feeling that Jing Yuan would find him there, and he would probably be all worried about him (and maybe give him a lecture about the whole calling-for-backup thing too), but…
Yanqing was still satisfied, that despite everything, he did the best he could do. He just had to keep working, and keep training, so that he could get stronger…and so that, even more importantly, he could protect everyone, no matter what fate had in store for them next.