sharp and glorious thorn (chapter vi) (complete)

characters: shen jiu/yue qingyuan

word count: 49,861

rating: teen

summary: Shen Jiu’s spirit survives the fever. His memory doesn’t.

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But even thinking of Yue QingYuan’s name sends his thoughts spiraling, his memories pouring over him like a whirlpool collapsing inwards on itself.

— This— Yue Qi— I failed. I became a disciple of these peaks, but I wasn’t fast enough. I thought if I claimed my sword, I could go back and free you sooner. But I ignored my master. I injured myself, nearly beyond repair. And by the time I could go search for you, you were gone.

If there is any sword more powerful than Xiu Ya, it is Xuan Su. Shen QingQiu can picture it perfectly in his mind— longer and broader than Xiu Ya, with a deep black sheath that glimmers like dark opals, cut through with veins of gold. The hilt is gold, the tassel silver and gold braided together. And constantly, a strong hand the color of soft earth, clenched just under the hilt as the sword hangs at the sect leader’s waist.

The image is immutable. He’s seen Yue QingYuan grip his sword thousands of times, in every given situation. He’s seen the sect leader take out demons with his sword still sheathed; he’s seen him quiet a crowd by just laying a hand against his sword.

But he’s never seen Xuan Su drawn, has never seen the blade of the most famous and powerful sword of Cang Qiong.

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sharp and glorious thorn (chapter v)

characters: shen jiu/yue qingyuan

word count: 7,785

rating: teen

summary: Shen Jiu’s spirit survives the fever. His memory doesn’t.

–

“That’s not the point!” Shen QingQiu hisses. “If there was something, someone, you had to protect, wouldn’t you do anything to do so? What’s the point of your strength, otherwise?”

Liu QingGe slowly shakes his head.

“I’m not wrong,” Shen QingQiu insists.

“Quiet,” Liu QingGe orders. “I’m thinking.”

“Did you just tell me to shut up,” Shen QingQiu spits, incredulous. He barely knows why he’s harping on the point. But if what Yue QingYuan had told him was true— and why would he lie?— then Shen QingQiu had killed for him. For Qi-Ge. And Shen QingQiu has to know, is that a weakness, or a strength?

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sharp and glorious thorn (chapter iv)

characters: shen jiu/yue qingyuan

word count: 9.689

rating: teen

summary: Shen Jiu’s spirit survives the fever. His memory doesn’t.

–

Yue QingYuan bows his head more deeply. Another sigh rattles through him, like wind jostling a chime. “That is why this master cannot stay.”

Shen QingQiu glowers, confused. “What?”

“QingQiu-Shidi, were he complete in his memories, would never allow this.” Yue QingYuan’s voice is sad, defeated. He’s not trying to hide his emotions. “He would not want this master to lie beside him, to be there when he awoke. He would find it an unforgivable transgression.”

What? But isn’t this the man who found him as a baby, who named him, who’s known him for so long?

“Why,” Shen QingQiu almost stutters, doesn’t trust himself to say anything more.

Yue QingYuan looks up with a smile, tender and brittle as new frost over premature blooms. “However this master tries to explain will not be enough. He cannot tell QingQiu-Shidi his own mind. But to act against his wishes— I will not do something that QingQiu-Shidi would never forgive.”

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sharp and glorious thorn (chapter iii)

characters: shen jiu/yue qingyuan

word count: 7,423

rating: teen

summary: Shen Jiu’s spirit survives the fever. His memory doesn’t.

–

Long gone is the calm, measured breathing that facilitates cultivation. Instead, he can’t draw enough air, breath escaping him in short, frantic bursts. The sound of it echoes around the room. All Shen QingQiu can hear is his own gasping, multiplied by the echo and reverberating back to him.

He sucks in a breath, holds it. The sound of harsh breathing continues. Shen QingQiu realizes that he isn’t alone.

He pushes himself up on his hands, lifts his head to look back at the entrance of the cave.

A white-clothed figure looms in the cave mouth, a silver longsword extended in front of him. Only the white of his eyes are visible, the soft clouds of his breath evaporating into the air as his chest heaves.

Is this one of the ghosts of his past, come to claim its revenge?

He drawls, “What? Are you here to kill me?” just before a blast of Qi hits him in the chest and sends him sprawling.

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sharp and glorious thorn (chapter ii)

characters: shen jiu/yue qingyuan

word count: 8,045

rating: teen

summary: Shen Jiu’s spirit survives the fever. His memory doesn’t.

–

In a semi-circle around them, the other disciples are still as stone statutes. Luo BingHe is on the ground, still curled up protectively. But his eyes, at once dark and luminous, peak out from behind his hands. He is watching everything.

They’re all watching him, waiting for what will happen next.

Shen QingQiu is in control of this situation. If he tells them to keep beating Luo BingHe, they will. If he tells them to turn their ire towards Ming Fan, they will. He could inflict such pain, such powerlessness, on either or both of them, without even lifting a finger.

For a moment, the power runs through his veins, heady and intoxicating. Then it curls up in his stomach, roiling like boiling water, and Shen QingQiu is sure he’s about to vomit.

( read here )

sharp and glorious thorn (chapter i)

characters: shen jiu/yue qingyuan

word count: 7,416

rating: teen

summary: Shen Jiu’s spirit survives the fever. His memory doesn’t.

--

“Xiao Jiu, it’s me. Yue Qi. Qi-Ge.” He says the words softly, like he’s telling a secret.

More names? He’s barely gotten used to Shen QingQiu. He winces, but Yue QingYuan seems to take that as encouragement.

“It’s better that I did not ask in front of Mu-Shidi, is it not? But Xiao Jiu, if you remember anything, surely you remember that. Surely you remember Qi-Ge.”

( read here )