Work Text:
Wen Qing is a great doctor.
In another life, she knows, she performed a golden core transfer successfully.
The knowledge has given her confidence since she learned it; confidence enough to take on the project of finding a way to try and heal spiritual damage, even though she had been taught, when she was learning, that such a thing is impossible.
She married into the Jiang sect. Attempting the impossible is what they do.
It takes a great deal of work; she finds the seeds of an idea over the course of most of a year spent in the prodigious library of the Cloud Recesses, and from there she studies, and thinks, and plans, and finds a path as yet untrodden.
Her work is not physically strenuous, so she continues it even after she becomes pregnant, because it is important, and because pregnancy is irritating and it helps to keep herself occupied. It takes so long, and is so awkward; not worrying, not when she is as skilled as she is, can send gentle tendrils of spiritual energy to brush against the life - lives, she finds - within her and know that all is well, but awkward.
On days when she is tired and bothered, A-Huan plays soothing music for her, and one evening it gives her an idea for an obstacle in her work.
She has found that healing of the spirit, of the soul, should be possible, for all that the texts insist it isn't, but the mechanism of delivery is difficult.
The Wen do not cultivate with music. She has never learned to use it to direct healing, but she does not see why it should not be possible. (There is no feedback from the patient, but this should not require the delicate, complex precision that is necessary for things like repairing ruptured organs or reconnecting bones; that, she would not attempt in this way.)
"A-Huan," she says. "Can you teach me to play?"
She will never be as skilled as he is, but she cannot begin to work on this technique unless she understands how it works.
---
Learning the xiao takes time. A-Huan offered the guqin, but she declined; she has done research, has discussed musical cultivation with A-Huan, who uses both, and with Wangji, who uses only his guqin, and Wuxian, who uses a dizi.
The guqin, she is given to understand, has more power; the flutes have more flexibility, more subtle and precise control.
Wen Qing is fairly sure that is what she needs. She has seen what Wuxian can do with a flute in the evocation of illusions; a skilled practitioner can definitely bring adequate power for her needs.
There is more to her project than helping Wuxian, though that is how it started. Her husbands are concerned about their friend and sworn brother, Nie Mingjue; she knew vaguely of the curse that troubles the Nie, but at A-Huan's insistence Nie Mingjue reluctantly permits her to examine him directly, and she is troubled by what she finds.
Nie Mingjue is closer than she'd like to fatal qi deviation. A-Huan visits him to play Cleansing from time to time, but far more often - nearly constantly, to Nie Mingjue's chagrin - the junior disciples and newly graduated young cultivators of the Lan Sect travel to the Unclean Realm to play it for him too. (Apparently this was in part Wuxian's idea; he argued that it would be good practice at musical cultivation outside the classroom, and that students who could not maintain their calm simply because Nie Mingjue was glaring at them would be at risk if they attempted to use their skills while night-hunting. Wen Qing is unsure about the last part - Nie Mingjue's glare is quite unsettling.)
She examines him before and after A-Huan plays, to be sure she is testing when it has been played correctly and well, and establishes that while the existing techniques of the Lan Sect can slow the progression of the Nie corruption significantly and do much to steady the temper (itself a helpful contribution to his survival), they cannot stop it entirely, and do nothing to repair the existing damage.
It's a starting point, at least.
---
She speaks to Wuxian again. She finds him with a-Huan; he's there to visit the twins and make teasing jokes about the inferiority of the xiao to the dizi as both instrument and spiritual tool. (Among Wen Qing's reservations about marriage had been that her mother's potential had withered with marriage and motherhood; her own is not, will not. A-Huan has few responsibilities when they are in Lotus Pier, and his days are dedicated to the children as hers are to her work. She enjoys her time with them all the more for the hours she spends away from them.)
"I need to ask," she says, "about what you know of Nie Mingjue, the other time," and Wuxian's eyes widen, and he looks sharply at A-Huan, whose smile has fallen away.
"Lan Huan, if you're going to drop the baby, give him to Wen Qing, and if holding him is a comfort, keep doing that, but make your decision before I take your wife away to answer her question," Wuxian says, and oh; apparently, it was not good, whatever it was. She goes to A-Huan, leans against him in the way she knows he finds comforting, murmurs an apology into his hair, and his smile has returned when he looks up.
"I am all right," he says. A-Fa is sleeping in his arms; A-Huan sets him down to take A-Kuo, wide-awake and more likely to protest being unheld (and wake his brother, who will be unhappy to be woken again) from Wuxian. "Go on."
Back in her offices, Wuxian looks at her expectantly. "What do you need to know?"
"How long do I have before it's too late? When did he die?" she asks, and he winces.
"It didn't progress normally," he says. "I don't know how long, exactly, but he was murdered with it. That book Lan Huan has hidden, the one he hates - the Book of Turmoil. There's music in there that makes it worse, that increases the disruption of the temperament. It is the inverse of their Cleansing music. Someone was playing it for him, deliberately."
Well. That is unhelpful.
"I have the beginnings of something," she says, "but I can't risk testing if it works. He's already in great danger. If it goes wrong, it could be just as bad as the Book of Turmoil. It's cultivation intended to affect the spirit, after all." She narrows her eyes. "And don't suggest I try it on you, either. The damage you have suffered is quite similar. You have a better temperament for withstanding it, you're not so irritable and you don't incur damage with normal cultivation like he seems to, but your golden core is much stronger than his. If something goes wrong for you, I may not be able to stop it at all."
Wuxian smiles wryly. "The cultivation of the Nie sect is very like demonic cultivation. It doesn't use the energy of humans, only evil spirits and beasts, but I imagine that is nearly as corrosive, even so. But I think I know someone who will volunteer, and not be at risk of immediate complications. He is a Nie, but he avoids cultivating at all as much as he possibly can, so his damage should be present, but not at dangerous levels. And he loves Nie Mingjue very, very much."
Wen Qing is the mother of two infants; Nie Huaisang comes to Lotus Pier.
---
"Nie-xiong!" Wuxian greets their guest with enthusiasm and rough affection. A-Cheng is more careful, but that is probably only because he is holding a baby.
Wen Qing has been proven correct; he is a wonderful father, loving and joyous, and she found herself thinking that pregnancy hadn't really been so bad. The twins' first birthday is past, and Wen Qing is pregnant again. (It does not yet show, and she has not told anyone but her husbands; Wuxian will, no doubt, be outraged and offended. She has decided she finds his overprotectiveness endearing. Pregnancy carries risk, and he wants her to be safe.)
Wuxian was also correct. Nie Huaisang listens to her explanation with careful attention, and then nods slowly.
"My golden core is not strong," he says, "and I don't know how much use I will really be, but if it might help save my brother, I will do anything you ask."
She does not have the skill that A-Huan does to direct the effect to a single person among a group, so she takes him to her library alone and examines him carefully. He has, indeed, experienced some damage, but it is quite minor.
"I need you to tell me everything you feel," she says.
"I am nervous," he tells her, "but hopeful. Your reputation is impressive, and Wei-xiong thinks highly of you. He likes everyone, but admires almost no-one. I am grateful for your efforts, and I believe that you might save my brother's life."
She smiles, flattered. "Thank you," she says. She meant while I play, but does not say so.
And then she begins to play.
Nie Huaisang frowns, and shivers, and says, "That feels... strange."
She concentrates, plays carefully, wonders if she can find a way to do this such that she can direct the effect herself and still touch her patient to read their energies (she is not yet ready to hand the score to A-Huan), then stops, and examines him again.
He seems neither better than worse; she writes that down, and plays the second variation she has prepared.
Or begins to; Nie Huaisang makes a choking sound and says that hurts and she stops immediately. Examination reveals that that version was corrosive, and she apologises.
"Is that helpful information?" he asks, and she admits that it is, and he smiles. "Then I do not regret it," he says. "Continue."
She discards the third and fourth variations in favour of the fifth; they were along similar lines. (When she is done, she will destroy all her notes on them utterly; such things are far, far too dangerous.)
By the end of the session, she has acquired comprehensive notes on what showed positive signs, and what was negative; in a way, she is glad that her musical cultivation is relatively weak, because where she has caused harm, it is limited.
She spends several days analysing the data while A-Cheng and Wuxian enjoy the visit of their friend. It is frustratingly imprecise, but she has the sense of something; she tries again, and is closer to what she seeks.
After weeks of this pattern, Nie Huaisang looks slightly strained, tight around the eyes, but he insists on continuing. (She does not argue very much; she suspects he has seen the signs of his brother's decline. Nie Mingjue could live another ten years, if he is very fortunate, but if something upsets him enough, he could die any day.)
It takes months of painstaking work. She persuades Lan Huan to show her the Book of Turmoil, analyses the difference between her failed, corrosive pieces and the destructive music it contains. Nie Huaisang travels frequently between Lotus Pier and the Unclean Realm, because he has obligations of his own, but he is determined to be available for her experiments.
Finally, she has a breakthrough; she plays through her latest composition, and he smiles faintly throughout. When it is done, he says, "That felt... nice. Really nice." He's slurring slightly, as if he were half-asleep or drugged, but when she examines him again, examines his spiritual cognition and his core and the essence of his qi, she finds that there is a real, definite improvement.
---
The hazy effect Nie Huaisang experienced wears off quite quickly.
Wen Qing writes down the precise notation of the composition she has reached; she suspects it's not perfect, and she would like to refine it when her musical cultivation improves further, but it's a start, and it should be effective to push Nie Mingjue further away from the brink of his destruction.
A-Huan learns the piece and plays it for Nie Huaisang, whose qi shows stronger benefit, but the damage he had suffered was already minimal; she can monitor him throughout, now, but on such small differences, she's uncertain of the effects. Still, it's valuable, enough to be going on with, given the quiet urgency of Nie Mingjue's situation.
There is another test before she will risk it on one whose condition is as precarious as Chifeng-Zun's. It is with trepidation that she allows Wuxian to try it.
She has, at least, spent a great deal of time already monitoring his spiritual cognition and his qi in the past. She knows the shape and feel of it, doesn't even need to close her eyes to find it; it occurs to her then that there are ways in which she has come to know Wei Wuxian better than anyone else alive. She has never touched him for reasons other than medical necessity, and yet she knows the contours of him, body and soul.
As a consequence, it's easy to track the effects of A-Huan's music - she can follow the threads of her husband's spiritual energy, the way they slide and coil through Wuxian's, feel the ragged edges he carries become smoother. She can identify the source of the strange, drugged effect Nie Huaisang displayed; there is a tension in Wuxian where he unconsciously braces himself, taut and constant, in defense against the sharp edges of his own soul, and a dizzying relief to it as that tension relaxes.
When the process is complete, she realises he has fallen asleep.
She lets him sleep, because he never gets enough rest at the best of times, and beckons to A-Huan to come out of the room with her.
Nie Huaisang, A-Cheng and Wangji are with the children. Wangji looks up at her entrance, hope and fear in his eyes.
"How did it go?" A-Cheng asks, slightly too quickly, and it is clear that he has worried. She smiles, in part because it is sweet, to her, sweet and familiar, how very much he loves his brother, but mostly because she is so very pleased. She can see Wangji untense.
"Well," she says. "Very well. A-Cheng, I think you should invite Chifeng-Zun to visit."
A-Cheng looks at Nie Huaisang, who smiles. "Da-ge will be delighted," he says. "Or else."
---
It is not particularly strange for Nie Mingjue to be invited to Lotus Pier. He is a sect leader, and it is the home of the Chief Cultivator; it is also the primary residence of two of his sworn brothers.
Wen Qing would never, ever acknowledge it out loud, because she knows better than to reveal the gaps in another's armour, but she has come to realise that Nie Mingjue, beneath his dedication to his duty and the rough edges of his temper (made worse, she is sure, by the damage his spiritual cognition has suffered), is a man who loves very much, and is protective of those he cares about.
That is a group which includes A-Ning, and that would have been enough for Wen Qing to devote every effort to this project, even if her husbands didn't also love their eldest sworn brother so dearly.
These connections mean they are able to bring Nie Mingjue to Lotus Pier without giving a reason, which is helpful, because he has not been particularly approving of this project, or of the efforts of the Lan; he seems convinced it is pointless, a waste of everyone's time and energy. Generations of Nie have died this way. Generations of Nie sought healers who could prevent it, and were told it was impossible.
Even if he has submitted to it and tried very hard to be co-operative, meditating attentively every time he is subjected to Cleansing, it is clear that this is only because his little brother will be sad if he doesn't.
Wen Qing is very sympathetic to the intolerable burden of unhappy little brothers, and will nonetheless take shameless advantage of it.
---
Nie Mingjue scowls, but submits, because Nie Huaisang is present and looking sincere and imploring, eyes huge and solemn, and has summoned A-Ning for reinforcement, who is just as bad. Wen Qing could almost feel sorry for Nie Mingjue; between them Nie Huaisang and A-Ning are an unbearable vision, tragic to the point of utter tyranny.
A-Huan plays, careful and intent. Wen Qing feels it as Nie Mingjue's unpleasantly ragged, turbulent energies begin to calm, and a smile comes unbidden to her lips.
It's working. He's healing.
Wen Qing has achieved the impossible.
Nie Mingjue will live.