The Sorcerer Wakes Up

Trigger warning: Some mild torture, and some minor bloodshed, not explicit

.....

Ice cold water splashed over XueYa without warning. As the freezing rigidity seeped through his robes, down to his bare skin, creeping into his bones, the sorcerer stirred. Under the harsh, blazing flames around him, his wet hair gave no comfort or cover for his eye. He squinted, hissing in pain.

He couldn't feel his arms. The ropes had been tied loose enough for blood to circulate, but he had been hung around for days on end now, and he couldn't feel anything below his shoulders or knees.

"Wake up." Zhang YaYun's voice rang sharp, piercing through XueYa's ears as it echoed against the otherwise empty stone walls around them. It was the first sound the sorcerer had heard in weeks, and it stabbed at his eardrums without mercy.

"I'm awake, just... just don't talk for a moment," XueYa muttered. His voice was hoarse even to his own ears, and he grimaced, hating that he was awakened from his slumber. At least when unconscious, he didn't feel physical pain. Now, he could feel nothing but numbing pain, and the cold water didn't help it one bit.

It took all the energy he could muster for him to tilt his head up from where it had been drooping all this time. His remaining eye stared at the Emperor, and XueYa managed to crack a toothy smile.

"How long has it been? Already missing your big brother?"

Something black and shiny slashed through the air and before the pain radiated across his chest and shoulder, XueYa already knew what it was. A whip.

Warm wetness spread over his arm, and the coppery scent of blood filled the air. The whip had cracked his frigid skin open, and blood was now making its way down his abdomen. XueYa gritted his teeth but made no sounds of suffering.

"I'll take that as a no."

"I woke you up not to have a small talk with you, XueYa," YaYun said, his tone cold, emotionless. "I need you to answer some questions."

"Good, I hate family reunions, anyway." XueYa chuckled. "What does baby YaYun want from me?"

The whip slashed once more, this time across his abdomen, leaving bruising skin behind. It hurt more than the first whip but didn't break any skin.

"I don't think I deserved that, but whatever." XueYa managed to smile through the pain.

"Tell me, how can I break the zodiac contract." YaYun took a seat at the chair that was pulled out for him. His hardened, hateful eyes never left XueYa.

XueYa looked at the three men standing behind YaYun and flashed them a sneer.

Xie JingYi's jolly smile was frozen on his lips, but his eyes looked pained as he watched XueYa's hanging figure. Yu Zhong was as stoic as ever, but he had averted his eyes to not look at him. Wei KaiJun was deadly serious.

"Hm." XueYa coughed, tasting the tangy blood in his mouth. "Why would you want to do that?"

"YaYun is forced to marry soon and to have children. We want to break it so he would be free to leave his post as the Emperor." JingYi said as he shifted behind YaYun, throwing a careful side glance at the man seated before them.

A burst of strained laughter echoed around them as XueYa swayed against his constraints, laughing but not really enjoying it. "Well, I can't see the problem, though."

"What are you talking about?" YaYun snapped, his fingers itching to use the whip resting under his palm.

XueYa's body shivered as he bit back a laugh. "It doesn't matter if you break the contract or have children. Neither of the options makes a difference."

XueYa's body stilled as he glared at YaYun. "You are just a degenerate. Tell me, YaYun, since when have you been able to shift into your dragon form?"

"XueYa-" Wei KaiJun warned as YaYun's face flashed red, his body tensed, while the grip over his whip tightened to almost painful.

XueYa smirked at the sight, adding fuel to the already blazing fire within YaYun, mocking him.

"You have neither of the bloodlines running properly through you. You are a disgrace to the Zhang name, a disgrace to the sorcerers, and just a failure as a Dragon God. Even if you had children, it wouldn't guarantee that they are Dragon Gods. No one even knows or thinks Dragon Gods exist anymore when only a degenerate like you remains."

XueYa didn't flinch or cower in fear. He had expected his words to push YaYun over the edge. He closed his eye and let the whips rain over him, battering his already pained body further. Little bursts of fire seemed to erupt over the areas YaYun's whip made contact with his skin.

But this was nothing he couldn't endure.

A cold sweat broke all over his body, but he stayed motionless, letting YaYun release his pent up anger on him. He could endure it.

As abruptly as the assault had started, it suddenly ended. XueYa cracked his eye open, still having enough energy left in him to say, "That's all you've got? Pathetic."

YaYun's breathing had become laboured as he tossed the long, thin whip aside. His cruel smile was identical to XueYa's, and the sorcerer marvelled at the sight.

"Bring it over."

"But YaYun-"

"Yu Zhong, just do as I say."

The ox shot a wary glanced between the two brothers, then moved out of the sorcerer's line of sight. When he returned, he was carrying with him a burning bowl with a branding iron nestled within the fire.

Zhang XueYa hadn't expected his twin to reach this level of cruelty or held this much hatred towards him, but he held his lips in a tight line, voicing no complaints. He watched as YaYun rolled up his long flowy sleeves and took hold of the angry-red iron.

"Strip his robes and turn his back to me. I will make sure every sorcerer in the world knows he is part of the Zhang lineage," YaYun ordered, a gleam of satisfaction shining in his eyes. "We will see how the sorcerers would react to the Zhang insignia over his skin."

XueYa flinched for the first time through his entire trial.

"Not the back!" He snapped, losing control of his voice for a split second. He quickly pulled on a smirk to hide his slip up, but YaYun had caught it.

"Why not? What are you hiding, XueYa?" YaYun was starting to enjoy their brief family reunion.

"A gentleman never stabs another in the back," XueYa offered. His eye shot between the three men that stood around him, throwing him pitiful looks, which he hadn't asked for.

YaYun twirled the branding iron in his hand, his smile widening to a new height of cruelty. "Show me his back."

"No!"

To XueYa's surprise, it was not him who had shouted it out first. All eyes fell on the prison cell behind them.

Zhang WeiJie had now crawled across the hay covered floor of his stingy cell and was clinging to the wooden bars for support.

"Please, YaYun, stop!" Uncle WeiJie's voice was weak, and the greyish tint showing through his usually bright skin and the dark rings under his eyes told of his deteriorating health.

"Even to this moment, you choose his side instead of mine?" YaYun was shaking from anger now as he pointed the branding iron at XueYa.

"Even after everything he and his rotten father have done to me, to you. You are protecting him?"

"Poor uncle WeiJie," XueYa drawled, his voice laced with feigned pity. "Looks like neither of your nephews cares for you anymore, after everything you have sacrificed for both of us. Look at you, old, weak, dying slowly in your little hole. How the former Emperor has fallen. Too bad, your skills as the zodiac charmer would have been irreplaceable."

"XueYa, you-" Uncle WeiJie heaved, then coughed, his emaciated body convulsing painfully.

"You shouldn't have left YaYun back in the day, and just maybe, your end wouldn't be such a pitiful sight to witness." XueYa smiled at the old man, shaking his head.

YaYun felt a tinge of guilt in his heart as he watched over the man who had raised him after his mother - after he had no one left. Zhang WeiJie had suffered as much as YaYun and was merely the victim of his own kind heart.

"Get him out and order him to be checked over by the imperial physician," YaYun hissed to Wei KaiJun, and the ape snapped into action.

He dug out the key by his sash and hurried to retrieve the old man. KaiJun helped uncle WeiJie out and towards the door. As they walked past XueYa, uncle WeiJie whispered, "XueYa..."

"Be glad that from the two of us, at least YaYun still cares about you. You should have never left him for me. So far, you have just been a deadweight dragging along." XueYa sneered as the man disappeared out of his sight.

YaYun's attention was back on XueYa, and his hold on the iron rod tightened as he motioned at JingYi and Yu Zhong to strip the sorcerer.

"Are you sure you don't want to aim for the chest?" XueYa said as he tried to wriggle out of the men's reach, but the ropes held him in place.

"The more you fight it, the more I want to put it in your back," YaYun purred, his eyes squinting as he thought of the pleasure of him searing XueYa's skin off.

Before the ox and the rooster pulled the robes over his shoulder, frantic footsteps echoed from upstairs, and soon, Zhi ChangNing burst through the door.

"YaYun, they have arrived!"

"What?" YaYun was fuming as he threw the iron rod against the wall, the sound of metal scraping against the stone echoing around them. With a last scorching glare at his twin, YaYun hurried after ChangNing, leaving Yu Zhong and JingYi to watch over the sorcerer.

"Who could make our YaYun so jumpy?" XueYa asked playfully as his heart settled from the little scare from earlier. For a moment there, he thought his back would come into full view.

"The fox spirit from Jin," JingYi said tightly as he fell back, watching over XueYa's sweat and blood-soaked figure.

XueYa's playful grin disappeared as he snapped his head up.

"Fox spirit?"

"Yes," Yu Zhong whispered. "XueYa wanted to marry the white snake, but the officials have accepted the marriage offer from the emperor of Jin without his approval."

XueYa had to fight his own body with all of his might for it not tense up. White snake? They didn't mean...

"Why the white snake?" XueYa asked, forcing his tone of voice to be uncaring as the ache across his body crept over his spine, muddying up his mind.

"YaYun enjoys his scent. He says it is calming and helps him fall asleep," JingYi said.

XueYa let his head drop back down against his chest.

So that was how it was then. YaYun had actually found that person.

"Please help us break the zodiac contract, XueYa. After everything that has happened, help your brother this once." Yu Zhong pleaded, his voice rumbling deep in his chest.

"Even if I wanted to help, there is no way to break the contract," XueYa slurred, his mind suddenly growing out of focus. He had to force himself to stay conscious.

"He would need a sacrifice from each of the original contract creators, or from their direct off-springs. But the Phoenix Gods have gone extinct. The Rooster Gods aren't their direct descendants, not after so many generations of mixing. The contract is now unbreakable."

"But-" Yu Zhong started.

"Oh, believe me, the contract is the least of your problems at the moment," XueYa mumbled as his mind blacked out from exhaustion, and he fell back into his deep slumber.