"A-Jie. Xian-ge... is he okay?" Wen Qionglin had asked the question before Wen Qing had even fully entered the room. Wen Qing looked at her didi and gave him a sad smile.

"Not really A-Ning, but right now he is safe with Lan Wangji. Unfortunately that is the best we can do at the moment." Wen Qing said, her tone filled with exhaustion. She walked into the room the rest of the way with Lan Xichen entering behind her. Wen Qionglin was surprised but quickly bowed in greeting.

"Zewu-Jun, what brings you here so late?" Wen Qionglin asked politely. His voice shook slightly, but he didn't stumble over his words.

"I was woken by pain in my abdomen. It felt like I had been struck. When I was searching for who or what might have caused it I heard screams coming from the Jingshi." Lan Xichen recounted calmly. This reminded Wen Qing that Wei Wuxian was still suffering in the Jingshi right now. She would never give him this medicine again. She wanted to help him rest, not make him unable to awaken from a nightmare.

Wen Qing knew it wasn't really her fault. She was trying her best to treat a symptom that was causing Wei Wuxian a lot of distress. The other medicines hadn't made much of a difference at all. The next logical step was to try a stronger medicine. Only now was she realizing Wei Wuxian's nightmares were probably not entirely natural. She had always assumed they were the result of the horrors he had seen and experienced. However the medication she gave Wei Wuxian should not have resulted in trapping him in his nightmares. It should have calmed his sleep, allowing him to sleep through the entire night. It would make him more tired, that was the point, but if he had a terrible nightmare like this he should have still been able to wake up.

This left her with the hypothesis that the resentment in his body might have some impact on his nightmares. She couldn't say for sure if it strengthened the nightmares, or perhaps made him more likely to experience them? Wei Wuxian had never explained in depth the effects of demonic cultivation. She could only guess at the side effects from what she observed. Tonight gave her the idea that the severity and frequency of his nightmares might be one of those side effects.

"A-Jie?" Wen Qionglin noticed her zoning out. Wen Qing smiled, exhaustion clear on her face.

"Sorry. I was thinking about A-Ying. I wasn't expecting the medication to keep him asleep while he was having a violent nightmare." Wen Qing said quietly. Wen Qionglin's expression looked pained.

'So that's why A-Jie never ended up asking me to bring anything over. She wanted me to wait here so I could bring anything she might need, but hours later she never asked for anything.' Wen Qionglin commented silently.

"Anyway... A-Ying's restrained for now and Lan Wangji is with him. Either the nightmare will end or the medicine will wear off and A-Ying will wake up. Whoever happens first... I just hope it doesn't take too long." Wen Qing continued quietly. She turned to Lan Xichen, gathering her calm and confidence around her once more. "Let me examine the injury." Wen Qing commanded calmly. Lan Xichen suddenly felt very awkward.

"There wasn't any injury to the area when I checked," Lan Xichen explained. Wen Qing raised an eyebrow at him. She was completely unimpressed with this assertion.

"Are you a healer Zewu-Jun?" Wen Qing asked.

Lan Xichen felt ridiculous. In Cloud Recesses usually a healer of the same gender would do the examining. It wasn't a rule, but usually if you needed to examine any areas that were usually covered by clothing a same gender healer would treat you. Obviously in an emergency or visiting elsewhere Lan Xichen would never insist on such a thing. Yet right now he found himself very uncomfortable with the idea of exposing his upper body to Wen Qing. Wen Qing was an excellent healer, quite possibly one of the best healers in the entire cultivation world.

"Zewu-Jun... you are being weirdly quiet. I expect this from your didi, not you. What is the problem?" Wen Qing asked. Lan Xichen felt his face heating with embarrassment. This was stupid. Now no matter what he said he would feel like he was being ridiculous. Ridiculous for being embarrassed about exposing his upper body to a female healer. If he said nothing, he would feel ridiculous for being too ashamed to mention why he was uncomfortable.

"A-Jie?" Wen Qionglin interrupted tentatively. Wen Qing turned towards her didi. "Perhaps I could examine the injury? Afterwards you could do an assessment of Zewu-Jun's spiritual energy and essence? Zewu-Jun has been busy the last two days and we have not had the chance to assess how the healing has been going." Wen Qionglin's voice was quite timid but his words were steady. Lan Xichen saw the siblings exchanging looks. Lan Xichen had done similar things with Lan Wangji, although he was hoping these looks were not communicating what he thought they might be. A look of realization dawned on Wen Qing's face.

"My didi needs practice. Have him examine you. His skills are not up to par with mine yet, but I'm sure he is as competent as your resident healers." Wen Qing said in a calm, slightly dismissive tone. Wen Qionglin smiled at his sister and ushered Lan Xichen toward a privacy screen on the other side of the room. Right then Lan Xichen knew what had just happened.

Wen Qionglin had figured out why he was uncomfortable. He had then communicated with Wen Qing in a way so she would understand without embarrassing Lan Xichen. Wen Qing upon realizing then did not laugh, mock, or comment on it. She calmly adapted and said nothing else about it. By the time Lan Xichen was on the other side of the privacy screen he was certain his embarrassment had become a visible blush. He wasn't sure if he was humiliated because both of these people had picked up on his nonsensical embarrassment, or if he was feeling touched because of how considerate and professional they had both been about it.

Lan Xichen was suddenly feeling rather jealous of his didi. His didi's face never showed a blush. No matter how embarrassed Lan Wangji got. Only Lan Wangji's ears would turn pink with embarrassment, which was easy for people to overlook. Lan Xichen silently wished he had gotten the same trait. He didn't feel embarrassed often, but knowing your embarrassment was visible always seemed to multiply the feeling.

Once behind the privacy screen, Lan Xichen loosened his robes and peeled the layers back to expose his abdomen. Wen Qionglin asked him to show him where he had felt pain. Then wordlessly Wen Qionglin examined the area in question. The examination didn't take very long. Wen Qionglin asked permission to touch the area. He pushed a few times and asked Lan Xichen if there was any pain. There wasn't. After that Wen Qionglin told him he could dress again.

Wen Qionglin and Lan Xichen walked back out to the main area to find Wen Qing waiting with two bottles on the table that had not been there before. She looked up at Wen Qionglin expectantly. Waiting for his assessment of Lan Xichen's possible injury.

"There is no bruising or obvious damage. The tissue all appeared healthy. I didn't find anything wrong, and there is no continued pain." Wen Qionglin reported in a calm and professional tone that Lan Xichen had never heard him speak in. It was not quite as confident as how his sister spoke, but it was steady and certain.

Wen Qing began asking Wen Qionglin a series of questions that Lan Xichen only half understood. He knew they were all related to the assessment, but he did not understand everything that was being asked. For every question Wen Qing asked, Wen Qionglin answered without hesitation. After a while the two fell silent and Wen Qing was making a face that Lan Xichen had come to associate with intense thought.

"Alright then. Let me assess how you're healing from the empathy. At the same time I can see if there is anything in your spiritual energy that might account for what happened." Wen Qing ushered Lan Xichen over and he complied. Wen Qing lightly gripped his wrist and he saw her eyes go distant. All of her focus was on his pulse. He felt the very light warmth of spiritual energy. While Lan Xichen did not know anything about how spiritual energy was used in the assessments of healers, he was aware that it was considered an advanced technique. Something that only the more experienced healers in Cloud Recesses could do.

"The damage is healing well. You'll still need to take it easy for a while. Limit how much you use your spiritual energy. Exhausting it would be dangerous while your soul is still healing." Wen Qing spoke almost automatically while her gaze continued to be distant.

Most of this Wen Qing had already told him previously. This was actually much shorter than the lecture he received the morning after they did empathy. Lan Xichen was not certain if he had ever received such a lengthy lecture from a healer in his life. Wen Qing had repeated some of her instructions three times, as though she expected him to ignore her instructions if she did not repeat them.

Wen Qing's eyes narrowed slightly, and Lan Xichen suddenly felt nervous. Had she found something? She didn't look unhappy. Mostly she looked like she was suspicious of something or someone. Without a word she released Lan Xichen's wrist and stood up. She walked over to a shelf nearby and took down a book before returning.

"A-Ning, come here." Wen Qing ordered Wen Qionglin to come closer to the two of them. He had been hanging back since finishing answering Wen Qing's questions before. Wen Qing removed two loose papers from the book. She set both of them on the table and looked at Wen Qionglin. "You're going to get to practice a bit more today, A-Ning." Wen Qing's voice didn't sound excited or unhappy. Lan Xichen was not certain what she might be thinking or feeling.

Lan Xichen looked at the piece of paper that had been placed in front of him. The middle of the paper was blank while an intricate pattern of incantations had been drawn out all along the edges. Wen Qing waited patiently for Wen Qionglin as though she was expecting him to do or say something. Wen Qionglin took out a needle and glanced at Wen Qing slightly nervously. She nodded encouragingly towards him.

"Zewu-Jun. I'm going to prick your finger, and then I will need you to let a drop of blood land on the blank space of the paper." Wen Qionglin explained. Lan Xichen raised an eyebrow in question.

"What is this for?" Lan Xichen asked. Wen Qionglin glanced at Wen Qing again. She nodded, encouraging him to explain, not offering a word of her own.

"This is something A-Jie invented. It is used to help healers assess the flow of spiritual energy in someone's body more accurately. A-Jie is very good at it, but most healers can only make very limited assessments in comparison." Wen Qionglin explained. Lan Xichen wasn't certain if he was surprised to learn Wen Qing had invented this, or just impressed. He knew she was an accomplished healer, but he had not heard of her inventing tools for other healers to use.

"How does it work?" Lan Xichen asked. Wen Qing rubbed her forehead.

"How it is made is entirely too complicated for me to explain at this time of night. How we use it is simple. Drop of blood on the blank space. Then gently channel spiritual power onto the paper with your hand resting on the paper. After ten seconds of transferring, let your hand rest on the paper for five minutes. From there, you'll see." Wen Qing said. She sounded tired and slightly irritable. Not actually angry, but more like being so tired that everything just felt slightly frustrating.

Wen Qionglin pricked Lan Xichen's finger with a needle and directed him to let the accumulating drop of blood drip onto the paper. Once he supervised the transfer of spiritual energy was completed for the required amount of time he let Lan Xichen know to stop. Lan Xichen sat with his hand on the paper and watched Wen Qing proceed through the same steps. Lan Xichen was not entirely certain why she was going through these steps as well. Perhaps she was using herself as a baseline for comparison? Has she detected something off with his spiritual energy?

After a very long five minutes the paper under Lan Xichen's hand gave off a gentle aquamarine glow. Lan Xichen drew his hand back as Wen Qionglin instructed. After the initial glow he found the paper now had an odd sheen to it. He could no longer see the mark of the blood on the paper. Instead he saw a faintly glowing hand print. The hand print and incantations radiated aquamarine light, and the rest of the paper had a slightly dimmer sheen of the same energy. Not long after something similar happened with Wen Qing's paper, except the colour was different. A soft maroon colour radiated from hers.

Wen Qionglin took both of the papers and placed them next to each other on the floor. He bent down and activated them. Hovering above each page was a vague outline of a person glowing in the corresponding colour of energy. What was more impressive though was not the life sized figures, but the clearly defined and glowing spiritual pathways visibly running through them. Not only could you see the spiritual pathways but you could visibly watch the darkening and lightening of energy as it flowed through the pathways, all connecting back to the rotating golden cores. The closest thing to this that Lan Xichen had seen was diagrams in books. He was fascinated as he watched it closely.

"So is this showing how our spiritual energy is moving in our bodies right now?" Lan Xichen asked. Wen Qing was looking at them intensely.

"Not quite. It isn't like you could direct your energy and watch what it would look like inside your body. It's closer to a recording." Wen Qing replied calmly. She didn't even turn her head towards Lan Xichen. Lan Xichen remained silent seeing that Wen Qing looked as though she was searching for something in the floating images.

"There." Wen Qing pointed at a spot on the aquamarine image. She turned to Wen Qiongling expectantly. "A-Ning watch this area closely, and compare the two," Wen Qing instructed. After several minutes Wen Qionglin's eyes widened.

"A-Jie?" Wen Qionglin asked. Wen Qing walked back to the book on the table and flipped to somewhere in the back. She took out another paper that was glowing a faint maroon colour and activated it next to the existing maroon figure. Lan Xichen was closely watching the area that Wen Qing had pointed to. He stared at it for quite a long time. First the aquamarine figure, then the maroon one. He wasn't certain what he was supposed to be seeing, but nothing looked out of place to him.

Wen Qing was now carefully examining the second maroon figure she had summoned. He saw her focusing on several areas, but again he didn't see anything notable. Lan Xichen had never felt so aware of how much specific knowledge was involved in being a healer. Lan Xichen knew some basic first aid, and how to transfer spiritual energy. Most cultivators had to know these things. He could identify a few common medicinal herbs. He actually hadn't realized until now that he thought most of what a healer had to learn was the memorization of herbs and mixing of medicine.

Now he felt like there was an entire world of knowledge required for healers that he knew nothing about. He was looking at the same pictures as the two healers in front of him. There was no pulse or sensing of spiritual energy involved. A literal picture was being displayed in front of him, but Lan Xichen didn't see anything of significance. The two healers in front of him were looking so intently at the images. Clearly there was something they were seeing that his untrained eyes were ignorant to.

Wen Qing asked Wen Qionglin to look at a few more areas. Comparing the aquamarine and first maroon image. Then comparing the first and second maroon images. Wen Qionglin's expression was growing increasingly worried every time he nodded his head. Finally Wen Qing shook her head and walked back to the table. He leaned her forehead against her hand and began to rub her temples as though she had a headache.

"Did you find something?" Lan Xichen asked. Wen Qing sighed.

"Yes, but keep in mind that this is a hypothesis." Wen Qing said slowly. Lan Xichen was slightly concerned by her hesitance, but he nodded his head.

"I understand. Please continue." Lan Xichen replied calmly. Wen Qing sighed deeply again then forced herself to sit up properly.

"You're familiar with the circulation of spiritual energy in the body, correct? You know the basics of how it should work, and that there can be disruptions or fluctuations that can either cause problems or be symptoms of problems, yes?" Wen Qing inquired. This was all fairly generic so Lan Xichen nodded affirmatively. He didn't know a lot about said fluctuations and disruptions but he knew the basics.

"Are you aware that there is natural, completely healthy, variation in the flow of spiritual energy in a cultivator's body?" Wen Qing inquired. Lan Xichen thought about this. He couldn't actually recall if he had ever been told that, but it made sense.

"That makes sense that there could be such fluctuations," he replied at last.

"These fluctuations are generally minor and unless you are a healer doing particularly advanced interventions it isn't usually of much consequence." Wen Qing elaborated. Lan Xichen nodded his understanding as she watched him. "If you were to map these fluctuations, like how we just have." Wen Qing gestured to the still glowing images. "You would find that each cultivator has a unique... constellation of fluctuations. You could map out the points the fluctuations occur in, the frequency, even the shape the fluctuations take." Wen Qing explained.

"This is actually used in training healers to accurately assess the flow of spiritual energy in a patient. Training to find the fine detail fluctuations in a healthy person and distinguish them from the fluctuations of a different healthy person. It is much more difficult than assessing someone with an obvious illness or injury." Wen Qing was beginning to pick up the pace in her explanation. The longer she talked the faster her words came. She paused at this point looking expectantly at Lan Xichen.

"Is there something about these variations that have you concerned?" Lan Xichen inquired. Wen Qing nodded solemnly.

"For my own study purposes you could say I have analyzed my own fluctuations exhaustively." She stood up again and walked over to the aquamarine figure. "Here. Here. Here." She began pointing at various places repeating the word more than half a dozen times. "All of these are exact matches to how my spiritual energy fluctuates naturally." She waited and Lan Xichen frowned slightly.

"Is there something wrong with having that many in common?" Lan Xichen asked. Wen Qing hesitated slightly.

"Not wrong, but that many is highly unusual. It is the reason I chose to look into this more closely." Wen Qing replied. "Where I am concerned is now that I have both of ours mapped side by side... They are identical." Lan Xichen waited.

'Is there a problem with them being identical? Didn't she only list some as matching? Doesn't that imply that others did not match?' Lan Xichen's confusion was clear on his face and Wen Qing was again sighing deeply.

"This second image is another map of my spiritual energy that I did shortly after coming back. It is barely a week old, and should match the one I did tonight. However, it only has eight matching fluctuation points with the one I did tonight. The same eight that match with yours." Wen Qing turned to Lan Xichen. "This much of a change this quickly does not happen naturally. I suspect that if I had done a map of your spiritual energy a week ago it would have not points in common with mine."

"So your hypothesis is that this is related to the pain I felt before?" Lan Xichen asked.

"My hypothesis is that the accident with empathy resulted in more than damage to our souls that we are currently healing. A-Ying explained that our souls had partially merged during empathy, rather than staying stable and separate. I think the result is not only the minor damage to our soul, but the addition of foreign essence." Wen Qing explained. "I think rather than being destroyed the fragments of our essence that we each lost were absorbed by the other. I think this is what influenced the change in the flow of our spiritual energy, and I believe the pain you experienced was mine." Wen Qing watched Lan Xichen closely. He thought through that a few times.

"So you believe what I felt was when you were struck?" Lan Xichen inquired. Wen Qing nodded.

"The timing matches, and the description of what you felt." Wen Qing replied.

"So would that be I would feel everything you experience?" Lan Xichen asked.

"Do you have a headache right now?" Wen Qing inquired. Lan Xichen shook his head, slightly confused. "Then no because I've had one for most of this conversation." Lan Xichen frowned.

"So... what does this mean?" Lan Xichen asked. Wen Qing sat down and shook her head.

"Honestly this is new territory for me. I haven't read any accounts of this happening that I can recall. It is still just a hypothesis. It is possible I am wrong, but I recommend we both start keeping a journal with us. Record notable physical sensations or injuries and approximate times. As a precaution note any out of place emotions or thoughts as well. We can compare them later and see if there is any overlap." Wen Qing felt like her headache was steadily getting worse and she badly just wanted to collapse on her bed and pass out.

"Thoughts and emotions?" Lan Xichen was curious as to why she wanted to include that. Wen Qing gave him a tired smile.

"It's a precaution to rule things out. Out of place thoughts and feelings are easily ignored or dismissed. However, if my theory is correct there is no reason to expect the effect to only be a reflection of physical pain. It is quite possible we will do this for a couple weeks and find nothing out of the ordinary." Lan Xichen frowned but nodded. Wen Qionglin deactivated the three glowing papers. Lan Xichen wondered belatedly if Wen Qing had named this invention. Lan Xichen wasn't certain what to call it. It was not really a talisman, or at least not in the way he thought of talismans.

"Take these with you when you go." Wen Qing said as she handed the two bottles from the table to Lan Xichen. "Take two of those a day for the rest of the week. It will help accelerate the healing of your essence. It mobilizes your spiritual energy so I had to wait a bit before prescribing it. You're not supposed to be using your spiritual energy much anyways, but if you have to do not take this medicine on such a day. The smaller bottle should be taken before you use the Cold Spring the next time. It will boost the effectiveness." Wen Qing explained calmly. Lan Xichen nodded quietly.

"Thank you for your efforts, Wen Qing. I'll let you get some rest." Lan Xichen said politely before he left.

As soon as Lan Xichen was out the door Wen Qing immediately went to her bed and collapsed face first into her pillow dramatically. She didn't care that she was still dressed. She didn't care that she hadn't taken any medicine for her headache. She just wanted to sleep. Sleep and not think about the implications of what it would mean if she had bits of someone else's soul fused to hers.

'What if my theory is correct? If we have pieces of each other's soul permanently affixed to ourselves?' Wen Qing questioned.

'It might be temporary. It is possible that even if I am right our souls will eventually completely absorb the foreign essence.' she tried to soothe herself.

'What if it is permanent? What if it never completely absorbs? What if we start to pick up each other's thoughts? Or experience each other's emotions? Even if it was only occasionally that would be incredibly invasive.' Wen Qing groaned and forcefully buried her face in her pillow. There was a light tap on her shoulder and Wen Qing turned her head just enough to glare irritably at her didi.

"You didn't take anything for your headache." Wen Qionglin said with a gentle smile as he offered her the bowl of medicine. Wen Qing frowned but sat up enough to take the bowl and drain it completely. Wen Qionglin took the empty bowl back from her, and she immediately buried her face in the pillow again.

She really was not a fan of being woken up in the middle of the night. She loved her didi and she did not blame him at all for the interruption. Wei Wuxian had not chosen to have a horrible nightmare, and she would never forgive herself if she hadn't been there to at least try to help. However, that didn't erase the fact that she was still woken up in the middle of the night, and that inevitably made her crabby. A few minutes later she heard Wen Qionglin approach her once more. He didn't say anything. He just pulled off her boots and covered her with a blanket before moving back towards his side of the room.

'A-Ning. You're too sweet.' Wen Qing thought quietly as she allowed her fatigue to wash over her.