Chapter Text
“I found him,” Ye Zun’s voice said, carried on the smoke. “There are some complications.”
Shen Wei felt the brush he was holding snap in half, and he carefully set the pieces aside before they could stain everything on his desk. “I don't care,” he said.
The smoke drifting through the window brought Ye Zun’s amusement with it. “Yes, I know,” he said. “But we'll need to make plans.”
“Where is he?” Shen Wei demanded.
“He's on the other side of the city,” Ye Zun replied. “He said he was connected to the point of impact, and it looks like he was right. The Guardian Lantern must be nearby.”
“Where,” Shen Wei repeated pointedly. “Is he.”
“Working for the Special Investigations Department on Bright Street,” Ye Zun told him. “He goes by Zhao Yunlan now. He's a Sentinel, and he has a Guide. She’s devastatingly beautiful. Reports are mixed on whether he has a daemon or not.”
Shen Wei took a deep breath, wondering if that could possibly be it. “And?”
“He's not married?” Ye Zun offered. “He's very friendly with the Yashou. And his family hates Dixing.”
Shen Wei’s fists clenched, and he was glad there was no one in his office to see him right now. “He obviously doesn't,” he said, as calmly as he could. Ye Zun had said “his family” on purpose, not him, because their lineage had always been public knowledge. Kunlun had known who he loved.
“He didn't when we knew him,” Ye Zun corrected. “Maybe he needs a reminder now. Maybe not. Either way we can handle this.”
They had to. Shen Wei would accept no one less than Kunlun at his side.
“I’m going to see him,” he said abruptly.
“Fine,” Ye Zun said. “If you want to look like a commoner knocking on the door of the police station, I won’t stop you. But if you want him to come to you, there’s the Yashou annual market next month. The ruler of Dixing can request a SID escort.”
“Next month,” Shen Wei repeated. He didn’t intend for it to sound despairing, but he felt fire tear through his awareness as his daemon woke. She was typically more nocturnal than he was. She made exceptions for need or strong emotion, and she wasn’t quiet about it.
She must have chided Ye Zun too because he said, “I know, I know! Say you want to meet beforehand to go over protocol or something. Say it has to be immediately. He’s curious; he won’t turn you down.”
“I want to see him now,” Shen Wei insisted. The sure knowledge that Kunlun was in the city, that he was right there, was more overwhelming than he’d expected. It had been so long.
“So tell him that,” Ye Zun said. “Royalty is capricious; you can demand an audience.”
“Not here,” Shen Wei said. He wouldn’t lie and say he wasn’t disappointed, but Kunlun had always been more amused than approving of their authoritative whims. “Not in Haixing.”
“Anywhere,” Ye Zun insisted. “I’ll do it for you. Come on, Junan wants us to.”
“I should just go to him,” Shen Wei said. “He never liked games.”
He could feel Ye Zun laugh before he heard it. “He lives for games,” Ye Zun said. “You're the one who doesn't like them.” There was a pause before he added, “Go if you want to, but he said he might not remember. You should make a good impression.”
“He'll remember,” Shen Wei said fiercely. “He has to.”
“He said he wouldn't.” Ye Zun sounded serious all of a sudden, and Junan felt worried. “It's been a long time.”
The idea that Kunlun might have forgotten them--forgotten him --was bewildering on several levels. His daemon crept out from under the desk, tail curling tight around his ankle as she pressed up against his knee. Shen Wei dropped his hand to her head, instinctively seeking comfort in her smooth scales and glittering wings.
“Ask him to come,” he heard himself say. “You’re more convincing than I would be.”
There was a knock on his office door before Ye Zun could answer, and Shen Wei waved the smoke away without a thought. Junan stretched her neck long to peer over the top of his desk, so clearly she was planning to stay. He pulled his hand away with an effort, putting a polite smile on his face as he called, “Come in.”
He felt his smile vanish like the smoke when the door opened and Kunlun sauntered into his office.
“Hello!” he exclaimed, that familiar disarming grin written all over his face. “I have some questions! May I have an audience, Your Highness?”
“Kunlun,” Shen Wei whispered. His daemon threw her head forward, illusory flames rolling across his desk, washing paper and wood alike without leaving a single mark.
“Wow,” Kunlun said, strolling up to the far side of the desk and staring down at her with open admiration. “That's some nice spell work.” Lifting his gaze to Shen Wei he added, “I'm not that easy to get rid of, but I could come back if this is a bad time?”
Shen Wei was on his feet before he knew he was going to move. Later he would appreciate that he hadn't knocked over his chair in his haste. “No,” he said. “No, now is--I've been waiting for you.”
Kunlun raised his eyebrows, reaching out to pick up the crystal sphere on the edge of his desk. “Have you,” he said, tossing the spell anchor from one hand to the other. “You’re following the investigation, then?”
Shen Wei blinked. “The… what?”
Kunlun pulled out a business card and brandished it at Shen Wei like an insult. “Chief Zhao Yunlan,” he said. “Special Investigations Department. I’m here on campus investigating a series of suspicious assaults against multiple students who have one thing in common: they all take classes with you.”
Shen Wei looked at his extended hand with a complete lack of comprehension. “What does any of that have to do with the throne?”
He looked up in time to see Kunlun smile. It wasn’t a friendly smile, and Shen Wei didn’t understand the game he was playing. Perhaps he and Ye Zun had conspired secretly to surprise him.
“I respect your position, Your Highness,” Kunlun said. He leaned forward to place the card precisely in the middle of Shen Wei’s desk, and when he looked up his expression wasn’t respectful at all. “I’m sure you can understand mine as well. Every human in this city is under my protection. When they come to harm, it’s my duty and my right to follow up on any unexplained connections between them.”
His hair was very short, Shen Wei thought absently. Maybe that was what made his eyes look brighter, or maybe it was only that a memory could never compare to his living presence. He’d put the crystal anchor down when he leaned forward, but his fingers still curled around it like it belonged to him.
It did, of course it did. Anything Shen Wei owned or could possess was his. He’d left the door open when he came in, so Shen Wei closed it for him with a careless gesture. Kunlun didn’t twitch.
“I’m very glad to see you,” Shen Wei told him. “If you’re asking me for something, of course it’s yours. When would you like to see the Hallows?”
Kunlun stared at him, motionless for the first time since he'd walked in. “What?” he said.
Junan took advantage of the stillness to flow onto and across the desk, a breath of air and a flash of scales as she slid under Kunlun’s arm and pressed her face up against his chest. Shen Wei caught his breath at the echo of sensation, then smiled fondly at her thought: You're welcome.
“Ah.” Kunlun was staring at her in shock, and his gaze was actually guilty when it found Shen Wei again. “Sorry? Sometimes daemons can sense the protector thing? They’re not usually this… enthusiastic about it.”
“She recognizes you,” Shen Wei said simply. “Of course she wants to touch.” Of course he wanted to touch; she was doing what he couldn’t, here on Haixing soil where the crown was nothing but a title.
“She recognizes me,” Kunlun repeated, still holding his hands awkwardly in the air while Junan’s tail curled over his hip and she rubbed her eye ridges against his shoulder. “She acts like she knows me. Ah… really well?”
Shen Wei wanted to say, she acts like you’re mine, which was true but not appropriate to Kunlun’s current status. He saw no point in saying, she does, since that was irrefutable. He settled on, “How’s Daqing?”
Kunlun stopped trying to block Junan’s wings without touching them and turned wide eyes on Shen Wei. “How do you know Daqing?”
Junan took advantage of his distraction to wrap her wings around him and tuck her head under his chin. Shen Wei closed his eyes. It was as close to a hug as they would be allowed here on the surface, and he appreciated her cleverness. The only thing that could be better was for Kunlun to stop being so polite and wrap his arms around her in return.
“Hello, look,” Kunlun was saying. “I know I’m not supposed to talk to you, but you’re really causing some problems for our friend here. He doesn’t look like the sort of person who’s used to having his daemon throw themselves at someone. Even someone as beautiful and charming as me.”
“Junan,” Shen Wei said with a sigh. He hated to call her off, but Kunlun was difficult to keep focused at the best of times. If he wanted answers, let alone plans, their reunion would have to wait. “That’s enough,” he added. It wasn’t; it was ridiculous to even say it. “Thank you.”
From a distance, he could feel the resonance of another dragon and the curiosity of his twin. I found him, Shen Wei thought, pressing success and that mixed sense of completion and yearning through the bond to Junying. Ye Zun's daemon would know what it meant.
She's worried, Junan remarked, flowing over the far side of the desk to the floor. Her tail caressed Kunlun's leg all the way down, and Shen Wei was careful not to smile. She was terribly improper for a daemon. He enjoyed her tremendously.
“Great,” Kunlun said, holding his hands out to the sides again. “So about your students. Li Qian works in your lab, doesn’t she?”
“You have questions,” Shen Wei said, watching Junan prowl innocently toward the sunny patch in front of the window. “I also have questions, so I propose a trade: one of mine for one of yours. Until we’re both satisfied.”
“Well,” Kunlun said. He looked as far from innocent as Junan actually was. “If we’re both satisfied, how can I refuse?”
“Li Qian runs my lab,” Shen Wei said. “A fact which I’m sure is no surprise to a professional investigator such as yourself. She took it over when my duties in Dixing became too great to support the amount of research required to publish. I have every intention of staying long enough to see her receive an office as well.”
“Yours?” Kunlun suggested without hesitation.
“I expect the university will be pleased to have me as a guest lecturer even after I assume the throne,” Shen Wei said. “Will you now accept the title of Queen, or do you still prefer Consort?”
Kunlun paused. “Excuse me?”
Shen Wei put a steadying hand on the corner of his desk and covered by stepping around it. If Kunlun truly didn’t remember him, then at least for now there was no danger in facing him. He was unlikely to reach out, and Shen Wei’s self-control would be adequate to this task.
“I’m disappointed,” he said, stopping just outside of arm’s reach with nothing in between them. The word was nothing to his dismay that Ye Zun’s warnings were correct: Kunlun was here, but he was not himself. “I would have thought, of all the arguments we had, that one was the most memorable.”
“Ah, I know I could never forget the prince of Dixing!” Kunlun’s words were cocky and self-assured, but his hands were in his pockets and he was clearly off-balance. “So why do you pretend we’ve met before?”
“It’s still my question,” Shen Wei told him. “Just because you don’t understand what I asked doesn’t mean it’s your turn.”
Kunlun rocked back on his heels, but he looked more amused than alarmed. He didn’t put more space between them, and he was sensible enough to look around for Junan. When he saw her lying peacefully on the floor in the sun with her eyes closed, his mouth quirked in a half-smile.
“All right,” he said, looking back at Shen Wei. “Ask a question I understand, then.”
“Do you have any memory of me before today,” Shen Wei said. The answer seemed to be no. That wasn’t any excuse for not asking outright.
“Ah,” Kunlun said, and Shen Wei tried very hard not to hope. “Well, the campus investigation isn’t new. And we’ve been meaning to talk to you for several days?” He frowned, scratching the back of his head as he watched Shen Wei swallow hard. “Everyone’s heard of the Dixing heroes, of course. I mean, your return was big news, even here. And I had to learn a lot about you when you… ah--”
Kunlun gestured around the office, but he didn’t take his eyes off of Shen Wei. “Moved in?” he finished at last. “All the protocols and so forth, since you’re probably the most important dignitary our city has ever hosted, although Zhu Hong would tell you otherwise. She has a lot of opinions about the--okay, can I tell you something?”
Shen Wei didn’t know whether to tell him to keep talking or beg him to stop. To hear Kunlun go on about whatever came to mind was a comfort sorely missed, but when every word made it more obvious he had no idea who he was talking to, it was discomfiting at best. If he let himself feel it, he was afraid it could be agony at worst.
“Enhanced sensory input gives me a pretty handy way to know what people are feeling,” Kunlun was saying now. “They tell me I’m not psychic, but what’s the difference, really. Especially when I know you’re miserable, and I think it’s because of me, and that’s actually not why I came here so--is there anything I can do?”
Shen Wei tried to return the unexpected courtesy by not answering. “Ask another question,” he said. “It's your turn.”
“Why do you act like we've met before,” Kunlun said immediately. “Come on, I can take it. Use small words so I understand.”
“Is this relevant to your investigation?” Shen Wei asked.
“Maybe,” Kunlun told him. “Maybe not. Hard to say yet.”
“Ten thousand years ago,” Shen Wei said, “in the wake of catastrophic environmental destruction, I delivered Dixing from militant forces that threatened to divide us. To ensure the survival of our society, you built tools from ancient technology and ruled by my side. Those tools ultimately took our lives. You said they would also reunite us, and at last they have.
“You told me to take you to them immediately,” Shen Wei added. “Which I’m prepared to do at your earliest convenience.”
“I see,” Kunlun said. No special insight was required to recognize his disbelief. “Well, that's a… very interesting story.”
“You asked,” Shen Wei reminded him. “So now I ask you: what would convince you?”
“Who cares?” Kunlun replied, and his lack of concern was familiar and offensive at the same time. “This isn’t supposed to absolve you of responsibility for your students, is it? So what does it matter whether I believe you or not?”
“It matters,” Shen Wei said, very precisely, “because the Hallows were lost. We’ve recovered three of them, and when we find the fourth, I will take the throne. At that time, I’ll need a queen. Or at the very least a consort.”
He held Kunlun’s gaze to make sure he understood when he added, “It will be you.”
Kunlun raised his eyebrows, looking very amused at that. “I’m flattered,” he said. “Tell me this. What do you get out of distracting me?”
Shen Wei stared at him. “Distracting you?” he repeated.
Kunlun waved around his office. “Distracting me. Holding me up. Keeping me from doing… what?”
“You think I’m engaging you here in an effort to keep you from doing something else?” Shen Wei said. It was, strictly speaking, true: he would prefer to keep Kunlun’s attention forever, such that he never left to do anything else, but that was less a specific goal than an overarching desire. “You must have a better idea what it is than I do.”
Kunlun looked at him for a long moment. Then all he said was, “It’s your question.”
Frustrated, all Shen Wei could ask was, “Why don’t you remember me?”
“Why do you remember me?” Kunlun countered.
“Because I know you,” Shen Wei snapped.
“Well, I don’t know you,” Kunlun told him. “You remember me being your consort in another lifetime? Don’t get me wrong,” he added with a half-smile, “the idea isn’t unappealing. But is that common in Dixing, that your… past lives are so close to the surface?”
“It isn’t a past life,” Shen Wei said. “It’s this life. Interrupted by the Hallows, with most of the time between then and now lost to us, but my awareness is the same. I don’t know why yours isn’t, except that you did warn us this might happen. You said taking you to the Hallows would fix it.”
Kunlun didn’t look convinced of the urgency. “And the Hallows are in Dixing,” he said.
“Three of them are,” Shen Wei said. “Is that enough?”
Kunlun raised his eyebrows, then held his hands out to the sides when Shen Wei only stared back at him. “How would I know that?” he asked. “Even if I’m the person you think I am, and I told you that I might forget--everything, I assume, which is very convenient--what does Dixing’s power have to do with any of it?”
“I don’t know,” Shen Wei said impatiently. “You’re the one who knows the Hallows. They respond to you when they only fight with me.”
“Then I repeat my question,” Kunlun said. “What do you get out of this? Taking me to the Hallows? I thought that was an honor; don’t pilgrims get visas for that? I assume you’re not planning to kidnap the chief of the SID, not that I wouldn’t enjoy seeing you try. First date? Is this your idea of asking someone out?”
“I get you,” Shen Wei said. “Obviously, I just told you, taking you to the Hallows fixes your memory. It’s an honor, but one you’re more than entitled to given your history and position. I have no interest in abducting you unless you refuse to go of your own will. Do you want to be courted?”
A new kind of smile bloomed on Kunlun’s face, honestly pleased and only a little curious. It made him look lazy and fond and achingly familiar. “Did you just answer every question I asked? In order?”
Shen Wei assumed this was rhetorical, given that the answer was self-evident. “I repeat my question,” he countered. “What do you require as proof? Name your price and I assure you, you will have any leverage or validation you want.”
“Come back to the station with me,” Kunlun said. “I want information. Everywhere you've been the last few days, who saw you and when, and your relationship to each of the students involved in the current investigation.”
Shen Wei waited, but Kunlun didn't continue. “Is that all?” he asked.
Kunlun laughed. “Do you want to give me more?” he said with a grin. “I expect to see the Hallows afterwards! And we’ll need to have an escort; my Guide will insist. My team probably won’t let the two of us go alone, either. We don’t have the best track record when it comes to staying out of trouble.”
“Bring anyone you want,” Shen Wei said. “Do you have your own transport, or shall I take us to the station now?”
“Now?” Kunlun was the one who asked for this, and still he looked surprised. “You can just leave?”
“I can do significantly more than that,” Shen Wei told him. “But this is all you’ve asked, so yes. I can just leave.”
“I see.” Kunlun said it in a way that made it clear he did not, but when he turned back toward Shen Wei’s desk he swung his arms wide. His hand came perilously close to Shen Wei’s elbow. Which was safe and unthreatening; as long as there was no skin contact they wouldn’t violate the treaty.
The abrupt proximity caused a buzz regardless, and Shen Wei swallowed hard.
“Can I borrow your spell anchor?” Kunlun was asking. “Send a message?”
“Of course,” Shen Wei said quickly. He took a step back when Junan hissed, though whether at him or Kunlun he couldn’t be sure. “Please use anything you like.”
Kunlun pointed at him with one finger, but when the crystal in his other hand lit up he lifted the finger in a “wait” gesture. He closed his eyes and Shen Wei watched him tie the words together with magic and send them on their way. He could read the entire message, of course. Kunlun certainly knew that using someone else’s anchor meant sharing magic.
Shen Wei was no doubt meant to overhear, Bringing the prince in for questioning. Will take his ride; make sure we get there.
When Kunlun opened his eyes he set the anchor down with more care than he’d picked it up, and he turned to Shen Wei. Instead of speaking, though, he paused. His finger pointed again.
“What happened?” he asked. “You heard me. That’s not why you stepped back. Your daemon’s angry. Is it me?”
“No,” Shen Wei said. “Are you ready?”
“Nope,” Kunlun said. “I don’t teleport with people who are pissed at me; that’s how you get killed or dropped in the middle of nowhere. Tell me what’s wrong first, and then we’ll talk about being ready.”
“You can’t touch me,” Shen Wei reminded him. Since he asked. “She’s only reacting to the way you waved your arm so close to mine.”
“I can’t touch you?” Kunlun repeated. Predictably, this made him take a step closer, and, when Shen Wei held his ground, another step after that. “Why not?”
This was more than forgetting. This was willful ignorance of treaty stipulations and what they meant for everyday interaction. Shen Wei approved. He would encourage every step Kunlun took if he didn’t know it was a test.
“Because,” Shen Wei said, as Kunlun’s final step brought him close enough that Shen Wei had to look up. “I’m an alpha of Dixing. You’re an undeclared citizen of Haixing. The terms of the treaty prohibit physical contact.”
There was no way a chief of the organization charged with treaty enforcement didn’t know that. He could hear Junan’s angry hiss, feel the pressure of her warning against his mind, and he didn’t care. Kunlun’s warmth made the space between them melt, and the only thing Shen Wei wanted was to be wrapped in his arms again.
“You’re an alpha?” The challenge in Kunlun’s gaze was everything he could have asked, and he clenched his fists to keep from reaching out. “Then the treaty’s meant to protect me, not you.”
He put a hand on Shen Wei’s shoulder and squeezed. The grip was hot and dangerous through Shen Wei’s thin shirt. He kept his breath as careful and even as he could, ignoring Junan’s sharp demand that their other halves attend, now.
“Yes,” he said aloud. Kunlun’s jacket hung open, so Shen Wei reached out and put a hand on his stomach. He felt the muscles there jump as Kunlun sucked in a silent gasp. Shen Wei smiled, sliding his fingers over the shirt and under the jacket to press against his side. “It’s meant to protect you.”
The warning hum in his own ears was jagged and harsh, electricity just beneath his hand, ready to strike at the slightest slip. All Kunlun had to do was twitch his hand to the side, stroking a gentle finger against his neck. Or put a fist in his face.
“Do you feel safe?” Shen Wei wanted to know.
The lights went out and night rolled into the room. He felt time start to slow as a portal ripped open the air beside his desk. He was sure the only reason the hand on his shoulder slipped was that Kunlun felt it too.
Skin grazed his, the faintest whisper of a touch, and the protections of the treaty etched molten pain into his blood and breath and bone. It tore a scream out of him as the darkness turned solid and real, lightning in his eyes and under his skin. Bare fingers caught his hand and the agony of it brought him to his knees.
Time ground to its stopping point, ice suffocating the flames that consumed him from the inside as Ye Zun yanked him free. Twin dragons took up all the space in the shadows. Daqing roared, starlight shockingly bright in the darkness, and all Shen Wei could see was Kunlun: frozen but not bound, shouting for Daqing to wait while Ye Zun lifted a hand filled with power and fear.
“Don’t,” Shen Wei whispered.
He wanted to yell, to stop all of them where they stood. He couldn’t, but Ye Zun stayed his hand. Daqing crouched, vibrating, beside Kunlun, who dropped to the ground in front of them but didn’t advance. He stared: not at Ye Zun, and not at the blue and gold dragon eyes that burned above him.
“Touch him again and I’ll kill you,” Ye Zun snarled.
“What do you need,” Kunlun said quietly. Soothingly. His tone was measured and calm. “Does he need to go home? Do you just need me to leave?”
“Yes,” Ye Zun hissed.
“No,” Shen Wei gasped. “Please. I need him.”
“He fucking lit you on fire,” Ye Zun growled. “You can’t be trusted with him. You shouldn't be alone together until you’re underground or married.”
“Fine.” Shen Wei squeezed his eyes shut, trying to steady his lungs. His heart was a lost cause, but every cold breath reassured his body that he was still whole. “I… think I forgot how awful that is.”
“You’re stronger than you were,” Ye Zun bit out. “The treaty punishes you proportionate to your power.”
“Fuck,” Kunlun muttered. “Of course it does.”
“Stop reminding me you’re here,” Ye Zun told him. “You really don’t remember anything? What’s wrong with you?”
“Who the hell are you?” Kunlun retorted. “Do you all have magical body doubles, or is this some kind of cover? You sound identical.”
Shen Wei clasped the hand Ye Zun held over his heart, taking another breath as he opened his eyes. “We are identical,” he said. It was a struggle to keep his voice even, but it didn’t sound as much like a whimper as he’d feared it would. He should be able to stand again soon.
“We’re the same person,” Ye Zun said. “Except he loves you and I hate you.”
“Depends on where you are,” Shen Wei murmured, and he heard Ye Zun’s huff of laughter.
“What are you, twins?” Kunlun demanded. “Dixing daemons?”
“We have daemons,” Shen Wei said.
“Yeah, about that.” Kunlun lifted his head for the first time, but Daqing’s gaze didn’t release them. The cat wasn’t scared of dragons, at least. “Do they change size? Are they the same, like you? Ah, except for the eyes? Unless your eyes are different too; they don’t glow, so I can’t tell.”
“Can you stand?” Ye Zun asked, ignoring him. “You should go home. I’ll take your afternoon class.”
“I promised to go to Bright Street,” Shen Wei muttered. “Kunlun has some questions.”
“Does he.” Ye Zun sounded as dangerous as he did unimpressed, and Shen Wei knew him. He could only imagine what Kunlun heard in the words. “What a coincidence,” Ye Zun added. “So do I. Maybe we should play a game.”
Shen Wei almost smiled. “We tried that,” he said. “He agreed to see the Hallows after I tell him everything I know about the campus investigation.”
“That’s a stupid condition,” Ye Zun said. “You don’t even know if the Hallows we have will deliver whatever message he left himself. If they don’t, he gets what he wants and you get nothing.”
“I get to help him,” Shen Wei said. He patted Ye Zun’s hand to warn him before he tried to sit on his own, and it was more successful than he’d expected. “That’s not nothing.”
“You’re unfortunately altruistic.” Ye Zun kept one hand on his shoulder while Shen Wei braced his own on his knee. “It’s a good thing you have me.”
“Yes,” Shen Wei agreed, getting his feet underneath him. “The second part is true.”
Once he was up, he tried to pull Ye Zun after him. It only worked because Ye Zun didn’t let him, but at least he’d learned his lesson about flirting with Kunlun. Surely he could keep his hands to himself for as long as it took to discharge their duty to the SID.
Probably.
He felt Junan’s irritation at that, her general dissatisfaction with his impulse control and her threat to tell Junying.
It’s only until we see the Hallows, he reminded her. He could bear it for the rest of the day. The rules would be different underground.
Or until he smiles, she shot back. You’re weak for him. Do as Ye Zun says.
“Kunlun,” he said with a sigh. “I expect there will be other people at your station on Bright Street? You and I won’t be alone when I’m answering questions, will we?”
“I’ll make sure we’re not,” Kunlun said. “And for the record, I’m sorry.”
“For the record,” Ye Zun replied, “I don’t care. Stay away from him.”
The darkness disappeared like it had never been, compressing to a single pinpoint before winking out. In the light that was left behind there was only Shen Wei and Kunlun, a small but angry Junan, and somewhere, presumably, an invisible Daqing. Shen Wei's watch started to tick again.
“I’m sorry,” Shen Wei said.
To his surprise, Kunlun said it at the same time: “I’m sorry.”
Shen Wei blinked at him. “You’ve already apologized. I shouldn’t have let you get so close; the fault was mine.”
“You didn’t let me cause you pain,” Kunlun says. “I did that. Not meaning to is no excuse. You could have me arrested.”
Shen Wei considered that. “I could,” he said at last. “But I’d have to ask you to do it, and that would be fairly awkward, don’t you think?”
It made Kunlun smile, and that was worth any pain. “I still want to ask you some questions,” he said. “But tell me something: off the record, okay?”
“Of course,” Shen Wei said.
“Do you have anything to do with the student assaults I'm investigating?”
“It seems likely,” Shen Wei said. “If you're correct that they're all my students, the single unifying factor must be deliberate.”
Kunlun’s smile was gone, but his neutral gaze didn’t stray from Shen Wei’s face. “And why would that be?”
“Someone saw you coming,” Shen Wei said. “Anyone familiar with Dixing history knows who I am, the terms of my ascension, and whom I require at my side. Anything that causes mistrust or suspicion between us slows our progress toward the throne.”
There was a long moment before Kunlun said, “Of course it does.”
Shen Wei sighed. “I hope you don’t mind me saying I’ll be very glad when you remember who you are.”
“Which will only happen when I see the Hallows,” Kunlun said. It sounded too much like a question to be in any way reassuring. Still, it was what he had to hold onto.
“Yes,” Shen Wei said. “So you told me.”
“So I told you,” Kunlun repeated. “All right. Well! I look forward to knowing myself better. Shall we go?”
Shen Wei took this as a statement of readiness. The portal that bloomed before them was bright and welcoming in this land of light. If Junan grumbled a little about the lack of shadows, well. At least she could be seen without them.
At least she was known without them, he thought enviously. Kunlun had always turned his face to the sun, even his daemon glowing in the dark. The light had never blinded him before.
Why couldn't he remember now?