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Lan Wangji had not seen Wei Wuxian for years.
To have her now seated across the table from her was… It was unexpected… but not unwelcome. Truthfully, it felt like her heart was going to leap from her chest and into Wei Wuxian’s arms if she dared to open her mouth. It had already fluttered out of her chest and lodged in her throat at just the first sight of her.
Wei Wuxian, brilliant and talented as she was, was oblivious to Lan Wangji’s predicament. Instead, she went on talking about her adventures. She described each daring encounter and wonderful sight with her whole body, mimicking facial expressions and out lining shapes with her hands.
Lan Wangji had heard all about them long before today when Wei Wuxian had passed by and pressed her face to the cafes window. Except for a brief period of time after her expulsion from their boarding school, Wei Wuxian had always been talked about in societies highest circles and not often in a positive manner. In fact, the news that she would be competing in the Olympics in Europe was probably the only news that anyone had taken with good cheer and even then there were detractors decrying the propriety, or lack thereof, of it all.
But in the end, Wei Wuxian was an accomplished archer and Madam Yu was willing to let her compete. Even though everyone knew that Wei Wuxian was really being sent across the world in search of a suitable husband who didn’t know of her reputation. She had started building it so early that their teachers had even made procedures on how to deal with her before she had even stepped foot on campus. Not that they had any hope of containing her. Nor the utterly scandalous books she introduced to her classmates to or any of the other hellacious antics she got up to.
Wei Wuxian hadn’t lost any of her fire over the years and soon she was traveling across the continent and then further creating scandals. The gossips eagerly turned and seized upon the tale of Madam Yu’s increasingly desperate attempts to get her ward and son to return to Lotus Pier. They had hardly sparred a word to describe Wei Wuxian’s victory before they turned to speculating if the two had eloped.
Their journey was talked about so often and so shamelessly that not even the Lan family’s strict rules on gossiping had not kept it from reaching her ears. ‘Fine young ladies’ at her family’s school would completely forget their manners and abandon their studies to run and hear news of where Wei Wuxian had resurfaced.
One of the only reliable ways of tracking Wei Wuxian and Jiang Wanyin were the packages they sent to Jiang Yanli. Each one was more odd and luxurious then the last. As if she was a king of old and they were honor bound to pay tribute to with only the most outrageous things the two of them could find. They began their parade of gifts with French perfume and escalated to carefully packaged plant cuttings and then to large crates containing antique statues. Nie Huaisang, particularly, had been fascinated by the birds they sent.
“Jiang Wanyin was against the whole thing,” Wei Wuxian cheerfully added to her story. “But I was determined. I mean, just when would we ever have the chance again? And there we were, America to the west and all of Europe to the east, not to mention Africa. And all of it at our fingertips. So, I spoke to the hotels front desk that night and by the morning I was boarding a ship. By the time Jiang Wanyin woke up he was running so late that he would have never made it if I hadn’t already booked him a ticket.” She paused to steal a bite from Lan Wangji’s plate. Shameless. She winked. “Really the best adventures are the ones you happen to find yourself on.”
That sounded exactly like the Wei Wuxian Lan Wangji had met in school.
She had shone when they had met. She was so beautiful and wild that Lan Wangji had spent many days watching her from high windows. She was simply unlike anything she had ever seen before. As lovely as a nymph and as fierce as the righteous furies. She was a siren call Lan Wangji had no choice but to hear. Lan Wangji had tethered herself to her family’s restrictions by weighing down her lap with thick volumes and filling her hands with musical notes.
Wei Wuxian had never let anything hold her down.
She was always on the lookout for an adventure and when unable to find a suitable one, she made her own. She had snuck her own fishing rod onto campus and had never hesitated to wade straight into the waters without taking off a single ribbon. She had claimed it had been to conserve her modesty, but Lan Wangji suspicioned that it had more to do with the look on their teachers face as she trailed muddy water through the hallways and stained every rug she came across.
Lan Wangji had watched it all from her dormitory window and then from behind the banister, utterly enraptured.
Across the table Wei Wuxian’s cup trembled as her hand smacked the table as she recounted each destination with gusto. She took special care to recite every panicked letter Madam Yu had sent and every attempt by family friends and business associates to track her down. “Old man Yao got the closest, I’ll admit that. But only because he happened to be at the telegraph office. It was pure chance. Never the less, we were already on the train by the time he got there. He caused such a commotion on the platform that the guards dragged him off. They thought he was trying to blow it up or something. Jiang Wanyin didn’t even look at him.” She laughed joyously at the memory.
“I did loose a ribbon in all of it though.”Wei Wuxian didn’t seem bothered by that. She had an identical red ribbon in her hair today, just as she had always worn. Although that was the only thing close to their old uniforms she wore. No one could say that she was anything near appropriate now. She dressed more like a man than a lady of high society.
It suited her.
“Oh, Lan Wangji you would have loved it. The building itself was an architectural wonder, obviously. But the way their voices rang out… The acoustics were… I can’t even describe it. You had to be there.” Wei Wuxian sighed as her eyes went far away. The movements of her hands slowed. Her fingers trailed over the tablecloth and then tapped softly up and down.
It was a pattern Lan Wangji had seen before, the calm before the storm. Each small movement showed that she was thinking of something bigger. The tapping would become pounding footfalls on city streets, the soft humming would be bawdy show tunes screamed out of windows at midnight; all of it compounding into an adventure that would be recited over and over at parties and chance encounters with friendly acquaintances.
That was all Lan Wangji could claim to be. An acquaintance, perhaps one of hundreds.
Wei Wuxian wouldn’t be able to stay still for much longer. All too soon she would be causing another scandal somewhere in the world. Madam Yu would be enraged, the gossips would be delighted, and Lan Wangji would be reciting this afternoon to herself. She would repeat the memory over and over like the epic poems of old that were so foundational to their tellers.
She unfolded the napkin in her lap and set it delicately on the table. “My uncle would never allow me to travel so far.”
Wei Wuxian’s smile twisted into something sardonic. She sighed and slumped onto the table her face cradled in her hands. “And it’s a tragedy.”
Is it? Lan Wangji’s heart fluttered. The things Wei Wuxian had described: the Parisian ballet, the streets of Venice, the aromas of an Indian market, were they truly a tragedy to miss? Lan Wangji had read countless travel journals and had contented herself with them. She had never longed to see them. She had never felt her limbs and heart grow heavy with longing.
There was only one thing Lan Wangji had loved so.
She closed her eyes and took a slow sip of her tea. She lowered her cup up back down letting her fingers caress the delicate china. Then only when she heard the cup click against the table, did she open her eyes. “Without a guide.”
“What?” Wei Wuxian blinked at her as she was jolted out of her daydream.
Lan Wangji’s heart pounded. She could feel its restless desperation in her feet and along her teeth. This was surely her last chance to force it down, to quiet it. Instead she spoke evenly, deliberately. “My uncle would never let me travel without a guide. Preferably an experienced one.”
Wie Wuxian sat up. For the first time her eyes were clear of memories and totally focused on Lan Wangji. She hadn’t had Wei Wuxian’s full attention in so long she had forgotten the weight of it. “Oh? You want to travel.”
“Hm.”
“I’ve never used a guide before. But I have learned a thing or two. I can put you in touch with someone.”
“Preferable a female one.” Lan Wangji didn’t know how she kept her voice so steady.
“That might be a bit difficult even for me.”
“We should already be acquainted with one another.” She was either going to die under Wei Wuxian’s gaze or faint. Her ears felt so hot they were bound to be cinders any moment.
“Oh, I thought…” Wei Wuxian hesitated. “I’m sure whoever your family knows will do nicely. After all you-“
“My family does not know anyone.” She couldn’t look at Wei Wuxian anymore. She had used all of her reserves of courage and now found herself trembling under her gaze. It was going to kill her.
“But didn’t you say-”
“I know you.”
“Me?”
“You’ve already traveled extensively.” She reached blindly across the table and clutched Wei Wuxian’s hand. It was far rougher than a ladies had any right to be. But the touch was so soft and gentle. When had she gotten so close? Did Wei Wuxian take her hand or had she institutionally found it? What did it mean if it was one or the other? Perhaps it meant nothing either way and for once in her life, Lan Wangji’s fate had been torn away from wisened teachers and their volumes and thrown to Wei Wuxian’s lovely hands.
She dragged her eyes back to Wei Wuxian.
Oh, she was radiant. No divine. She shined like Chung’e, untouched by the worries of mortal man but for the desire to be with her love. She had the grin of victorious Artemis with her bow drawn. She was the beauty of a hundred goddesses reincarnate.
“You want to travel with me?”
It was nearly the truth. Lan Wangji could spend her life content with time worn volumes and musical scores. She could not live with knowing what Wei Wuxian was doing only through stolen gossip. She couldn’t bring herself to say it, she could barely breath the feelings in her chest.
“Oh, Lan Zhan! Why didn’t you just say so. I never thought you would be the type. When do you want to travel? Where did you want to go? I suppose the where will affect the when, with the currents and the winds…that is if you plan to go overseas.”
If her uncle didn’t kill her, he would surely disinherit her. She wouldn’t say one word against him for it. She made her choice. She would trade every bit of respectability, every last carefully penned book in the library, for the one adventure with Wei Wuxian. “I was hoping to leave as soon as possible.”
Wei Wuxian laughed. Would Lan Wangji come to compare her laugh to jungle birds, cathedral bells, or something else she hadn’t yet even dreamed of seeing? “Very well, but to where?”
“You said the seas would determine the destination.”
“No. I said that the seas determine when it’s best to travel to a given destination. Lan Zhan, did you mean that you want to leave right now?”
She would never get to travel if her uncle found out what she planned. And so, “Yes.”
Wei Wuxian blinked at her in a daze. Lan Wangji’s heart trembled. Then, all at once, Wei Wuxian was laughing and pulling Lan Wangji from her seat. She only had time to snatch her hat off the table as she was herded out the door. “Don’t you have luggage? Lan Zhan, be reasonable.”
She was being perfectly reasonable. Wei Wuxian would not stay, so Lan Wangji had to go. No one would let her go, so she had to leave now. What choice did she have? She would die inside without her.