Thread by @humanformdragon

'Some of it can't,' WWX says earnestly, leaning forwards as though he's especially in need of reassuring JC. 'Some thing have changed too much already.'

Link to the top, as it's been a while:

JC leans in, too, as though WWX and he are having a conversation between just the two of them.

'But only some of it, though,' he hisses. 'Meaning some of it still could. That's not good enough, Wei Wuxian!'

Neither JC nor WWX show any sign the use of this name is surprising.

'The war can't!' WWX shoots back. 'I made sure of that. And Lotus Pier is safe. You won't lose your home. You won't lose you c-'

He cuts himself off, grimacing.

'Core,' JC finishes for him grimly. 'I won't lose my core, because the Core Melting Hand is dead, right? You killed him already?'

JLY makes a small, wounded sound. JC and WWX's heads snap in her direction. Both look horrified.

'A-Jie, it's okay,' JC rushes to say, turning to take JYL's hands between his.

'Yes, Shijie,' WWX adds, getting up so he can go to kneel right beside her. 'I made sure of it.'

But the momentary shock of realising JYL is hearing this is indeed highly momentary.

JC looks over JYL's head at WWX even as he rubs JYL's fingers soothingly.

'But you're still cultivating resentful energy. You're still feared by practically everyone.'

WWX opens his mouth with what looks like a certain amount of indignation, but whatever he intended to say is lost as Jiang and Jin cultivators spill into the room.

Given it's #WarprizeJiSeason, let's see if I can add any to this:

YZY strides in through the middle of the intruders, Zidian crackling on her wrist. Her blaze almost as much.

'What is the meaning of this, Zewu-Jun?' she demands.

Anger snaps in every word as she asks why LXC has felt free to summon the demon that abducted her daughter to her own home?

Does LXC intend to buy more favours from this evil creature with JYL as currency? Can he not content himself with selling his own brother back?

LXC, his skin still faintly prickling from where WWX's resentful energy touched him, expects the immortal to glower or scoff or threaten.

Instead, WWX looks at YZY with widened eyes and speaks in a hushed, trembling voice.

'Madam Yu.'

LWJ steps up beside WWX and takes hold of his upper arm as though expecting to have to hold him back. Or to support him.

JC and JYL take up places in front of WWX, both clearly uncomfortable to be facing off against their mother, but both equally determined to shield WWX.

YZY orders her children to come away from WWX, and only becomes more incensed when they remain planted right where they are.

JC even has his arms partway out as though uncertain whether he'll need to physically block an attack.

'You would defend that demon against your own mother?' she asks.

She sounds disgusted and furious, but LXC, long used to parsing the emotion underlying LQR's lectures, hears hurt underneath it. He hears fear.

'There is no need for this,' LXC says, as soothingly as he thinks he can get away with. 'Nobody here wishes harm to you or to your children, Madam Yu.'

'Hah!' YZY shoots a scorching glare at LXC. 'If that demon doesn't take her, you brother will.'

Whatever anyone has in mind as a response to that is snuffed out by a new voice from behind YZY, a voice that sounds far more panicked than any of them remember hearing it before.

'No, they can't!'

JZX pushes past the last Jin who flanks YZY, looking strained and unhappy. His eyes dart to JYL and away, back again, over to LWJ, to WWX, and once again to his betrothed.

He seems more anxious than anyone else, though in a jittery, poised-to-flee sort of way.

It seems almost as though JZX has clamped his lips together so firmly after his outburst that any more words are stuck.

LXC almost wants to reach over and pry the younger man's lips apart, just to relieve the tension on his face.

'Peacock,' WWX breathes. 'You... You're...'

WWX very noticeably looks down at JZX's chest and back up to his face, incredulous hope on his face.

JZX's brow furrows. His confusion apparently loosens his lips.

'Yiling Patriarch?' he asks, sounding disbelieving.

LXC doesn't blame him. The young-looking man standing partially hunched behind JYL and JC, held up by LWJ, is hardly the picture of power.

'Shijie,' WWX rasps. 'Shijie, take him away. He can't be near me. He can't.'

Wisps of dark smoke lifts from WWX's hair, from his robes, from his skin, and LXC thinks the immortal is preparing to disappear.

Someone else assumes worse.

With a cry, one of the Jin cultivators sends their sword plunging at WWX, which means it carves a path towards the two Jiangs in front of him.

YZY turns on that Jin with viper-striking speed, lashing him with Zidian and leaving him grimacing on the floor.

At the same time, she shouts her son's name.

JC has already moved, pulling his sister aside and spinning to shield her with his own body.

LWJ knocks the sword aside with Bichen a hairsbreadth from WWX's throat.

Still, WWX doesn't react the way LXC expects.

He looks broken open. Haunted. He makes no attempt to leave or to fight back.

But a floodgate has opened.

Now an attack has been made, another follows.

YZY orders her disciples to protect JYL, which by extension means they get between JC and the fighting.

YZY herself seems unsure whether to fight the Jins or WWX.

The Jins are torn between those attacking WWX and those listening to JZX, who calls for them to stand down.

LXC is caught on the outside of it all, frozen in place for long enough he sees one Jin pull a dagger from their belt.

The man's expression is one of acceptance, of someone about to carry out a task even at the expense of their own life.

LXC sees the man lunge at WWX.

He sees LWJ is turned away, deflecting two blades, and that WWX is panting, eyes wide and unfocused.

LXC sees his brother glance back and spot the new danger, sees LWJ realise he hasn't time to turn and block with Bichen.

He sees LWJ begin to move to block it with his body.

With a speed born of terror and the memory of loss, LXC gets there first.

The blade goes through LXC's sternum, punching through his qi in a way that shouldn't be possible.

He feels his body shut down, all at once, despite his consciousness remaining alert for long enough to hear LWJ make a sound as though it's his flesh that's been pierced.

It's not a sound he ever wanted to hear from his little brother.

As he starts to fall, a downward plummet over which he has no control, LXC comforts himself with the thought this is better than LWJ being hurt.

He will never let anyone take his brother from him again.

JYL screams for everyone to stop, just stop, as she watches LXC go stiff and still, then fold downwards like his soul has been yanked from his body and left it empty.

JC is holding her back from rushing to LXC's side, though she isn't sure she could make it there, anyway.

Too many people are between the Lan sect leader and her, and almost all of them have their weapons drawn.

But someone needs to check whether LXC is still alive.

He's formed a crumpled pile of stillness on the floor, his eyes closed and a line of blood leaking from his lips.

And LWJ can't be expected to check, because WWX has snapped from wide-eyed and barely reacting to wrapping and arm around LWJ's middle and hauling him backwards.

LWJ says something. She thinks he's calling to his brother, but it's lost in the yelling that crowds the room.

The resentful energy is halfway to hiding LWJ and WWX from her view, in any case, but she can see LWJ trying to pry WWX's arm away and she can see his desperation.

As for WWX, his face is already partially obscured, but she thinks he looks her way just before the cloud of smoke closes in fully.

When it clears, both young men are gone, and LXC is still unmoving.

What comes next is a very particular kind of nightmare.

It's the kind of nightmare that feels doubly unreal, because how can people capable of being intelligent, competent adults mange to make such a mess between them?

LXC is rushed to the healers, though no solid word is given as to his state.

JGS finally arrives and immediately claims this is proof the YLLZ must be dealt with.

YZY is furious with everyone and comes close to throwing JGS out of Lotus Pier.

In turn, JGS insists the Lan Sect are to blame.

LXC summoned the YLLZ and LWJ defended him, he argues.

JC, showing his anger more openly than he usually dares to in front of his parents, and certainly being more forceful than he has been, demands to know why the Jin Sect attacked WWX.

'He was doing nothing threatening,' JC insists, glaring at JGS. 'This is not his fault.'

JGS claims both innocence in this and that it's understandable his people would react to such a danger as the YLLZ.

'After all, hasn't he abducted both Maiden Jiang and Second Young Master Lan before?' he asks, handily forgetting WWX has also returned them both.

As for the man who wounded LXC, he can't be questioned, because he's mysteriously vanished.

'Perhaps working with the Yiling Patriarch,' JGS announces. 'We cannot be too careful, if even our own are being corrupted by his evil influence.'

'Why would Wei Wuxian want to hurt Zewu-Jun?' JC asks.

JC and JYL find themselves sent away from the discussion.

Meanwhile, WWX returns to his own bedroom back in his mansion with an armful of struggling LWJ.

He hears a hitch in LWJ's breathing and feels the urge to hold him even tighter, to offer comfort or protection or just to make sure LWJ doesn't leave him.

But he makes himself loosen his hold.