More time had passed than Wei Wuxian realized. He supposed that made sense. He couldn't account for time when he was unconscious, something that had happened three times early into his imprisonment thanks to the mirror that had gotten him into this mess in the first place.

Those mirrors were a problem. Wei Wuxian knew now that the mirror he had been working on was part of a pair. The mirrors would each cast an array formed of light and shadow around a target. The targets would temporarily swap bodies with the person in the other array. Wei Wuxian wasn't completely sure how long it lasted for.

The first time Wei Wuxian was pretty certain they had rendered the other person unconscious first. So Wei Wuxian had no awareness when he moved to the other body. From Wei Wuxian's perspective he passed out and then woke up some unknown amount of time later in a cell. He hadn't even deduced that he had been in another body for any of that time until later. When a familiar flash of light and translucent array blinded him. It couldn't have been more than a few seconds before he was blinking the spots out of his vision, suddenly groggy and disoriented.

Wei Wuxian was only able to learn what was happening because they hadn't rendered Wei Wuxian's temporary body unconscious. They had given them something. Something that left Wei Wuxian feeling weirdly buzzy, floaty and disconnected. Although maybe it was normal to feel disconnected when you weren't in your own body. Wei Wuxian didn't have a sober experience being in the wrong body to compare it with.

Wei Wuxian had wondered at first what they were doing with his body. Was someone else in it? His thoughts chased each other in useless circles for some time. Whatever they had given him made it difficult to hold onto a thought for more than a few seconds. Sometimes he would get half way through a thought and forget what the first half even was.

He didn't have to wait very long before finding out. Xue Yang was happy to gloat about what he did when he was in Wei Wuxian's body, and Jin Guangyao was not shy about using it as a threat. If Wei Wuxian wouldn't cooperate by providing them with the kind of information they wanted, then they may as well use his face to conduct their own experiments.

Since Wei Wuxian was trying to make this as difficult for them as possible, it didn't take long before they were using the mirrors again. Xue Yang was clearly taking whatever this drug was before they used the mirrors. Wei Wuxian would wake up with it in full effect. Weird sensations, thoughts so slippery that they'd slip through his fingers as soon as he grabbed hold of them.

Wei Wuxian fought to focus. If he wasn't unconscious then he needed to do something. Ideally Wei Wuxian would like to reverse the array. That was a thought he had latched onto while in his own body. Unfortunately the most aggravating part about those mirrors was that the array was hidden unless they were reflecting light to cast the array. Wei Wuxian didn't have bright red cinnabar to examine at leisure. He had only a few seconds in which to get a look at any of the characters.

The drug made remembering the characters difficult, but Wei Wuxian pressed on. Xue Yang's body always had its core sealed and access to resentful energy restricted. But Xue Yang immersed himself in resentful energy constantly. Even if Wei Wuxian was limited to what was in Xue Yang's body, it was a lot more to work with than what he had access to in his own. If Wei Wuxian could reverse the array he could return to his body. Most importantly, he could return to his body when it wasn't freshly cleansed and locked up in a tightly warded cell.

Wei Wuxian got close the last time. There had been an uncomfortable tugging sensation, a bit like diving down fast on your sword while also being tugged under water by the undertow. It was an uncomfortable combination accompanied by a few confusing seconds where he saw blurry images of a small village littered with bodies. Then he was back in Xue Yang's body feeling like everything around him was spinning.

Wei Wuxian had hoped to get free and then rescue Nuan-er. He didn't wish to have her try to leave on her own, but his daughter was mostly healthy at this point. Pretty soon Jin Guangyao would begin threatening to hurt her instead of withholding medical care. Wei Wuxian had actually expected that Jin Guangyao would have started doing that already, but Jin Guangyao had been absent more than usual.

Wei Wuxian had been able to coax Nuan-er into passing him her stuffed tiger. He thanked the fact that Nuan-er always clung to it so hard. No one thought anything of a child holding onto a stuffed animal. Which in most cases would be the correct response, but Nuan-er wasn't just any kid. She was Wei Wuxian's kid and she had walked across a battlefield overrun with corpses and ghosts to ask a man with glowing red eyes to help her save her didi.

Nuan-er had a lot of anxieties founded in horrific real world experiences. It was important to Wei Wuxian that she feel secure. He taught her how to use talismans and he made talismans that would help her feel safe. Then he turned her stuffed tiger into a small qiankun pouch so she would be able to keep them with her. It wasn't really intended to be all that stealthy, but if you didn't know what you were looking for it wasn't very likely you would find it.

Wei Wuxian looked through the talisman's that Nuan-er had. There were fewer than he expected, but he supposed Nuan-er had been sick. She wouldn't have been using her talismans. Now that he thought about it he was pretty sure she had even asked if he might be making more talismans soon, not long before she fell ill. Wei Wuxian had probably been distracted and forgotten to check what talismans she needed. Nuan-er still had trouble asking for things sometimes, so she probably didn't remind him.

It was fine. Nuan-er had the most important ones. If Jin Guangyao continued to be busy Wei Wuxian could probably repurpose the sleep monitoring talisman and binding talisman. There were talisman's that could help ensure she escaped that he normally wouldn't hand to his five year old daughter, but if she burned down Koi Tower Wei Wuxian wasn't going to complain.

Ultimately, the biggest obstacle was that Wei Wuxian didn't want to send Nuan-er out alone. There was so much that could go wrong. He wanted to go with her. Not only because he wanted to get out, but because he wanted to watch over her.

Wei Wuxian had been willing to waste only one talisman trying to break open his cell door. It failed. They had clearly taken every possible precaution when imprisoning Wei Wuxian. He doubted any of his talismans would even be able to open the outermost cell door. But Nuan-er was small. One concealing talisman would hide her well enough that she could slip out of the cell when someone else was entering or leaving. Re-purposing the few spare talismans she had would allow Wei Wuxian to give her unlocking talismans strong enough to get through most doors. It was neither cheap nor convenient to have too many doors as carefully warded as the one on Wei Wuxian's cell.

Sneaking behind someone could get Nuan-er through any door, but there was every chance she would reach a door she needed to get through that no one else was using. The concealment talisman was good, but it didn't last forever. It wasn't safe for Nuan-er to have to wait for every door to open when Wei Wuxian had no idea how many doors there were between them and getting free.

Wei Wuxian held Nuan-er as best as he could through the bars of his cell. He had delayed as long as he could. She was healthy enough now that Jin Guangyao would probably begin to hurt her the next time he was displeased with Wei Wuxian's cooperation. As is, Wei Wuxian had told them much more about using resentful energy than he ever wanted to. Some of it wasn't true. He obfuscated the practice under false theoretical explanations and additional steps that were completely unnecessary. He was almost certain that Jin Guangyao was on to him about that.

Wei Wuxian knew he couldn't afford to delay it. So he carefully explained to Nuan-er as best he could what she would need to do. He had to repeat himself a lot. He couldn't afford to speak loudly and it seemed to take a lot more effort for Nuan-er to understand what he was saying than it used to. Her face would scrunch up slightly, and Wei Wuxian had begun to realize that it was how she responded when she didn't know what word he had said.

Fortunately they had the time. Jin Guangyao continued to be scarce. A guard would enter once in a while to shove a pot of hot water and a tray of food under the door into Nuan-er's section of the cell. Nuan-er would bring it to Wei Wuxian, who would taste everything first. Anything that tasted off he would eat himself, giving Nuan-er only the food he was certain was safe.

The next time they brought in the mirror, Nuan-er would use the concealment talisman. All the focus would be on Wei Wuxian while the array took effect. Then Xue Yang in Wei Wuxian's body, something that still made Wei Wuxian feel violated, would be taken out to do whatever it was they were doing. For sure all of the doors would be opened and multiple people would be moving through them.

If they were very lucky, they might not even notice Nuan-er was missing. She hadn't tried to escape after all. Additionally, she no longer approached Xue Yang. Wei Wuxian had explained to her what she had already been suspicious of. The way she so readily accepted the distinction of someone else being in his body was a little strange to Wei Wuxian, but Nuan-er had always been very observant.

Nuan-er usually stayed in the far corner while Xue Yang was escorted out. Before Wei Wuxian had clarified what was happening she told him that he was 'wrong' and it made her uncomfortable. Once Wei Wuxian was able to explain what was going on she stayed far in the corner and did not speak or look at Xue Yang while he was in Wei Wuxian's body. This was good since there was every chance they wouldn't even bother looking at Nuan-er since she always stayed in the corner.

Wei Wuxian still coached Nuan-er on to muss up her bedding to make it look like she was sleeping under it. If Wei Wuxian ever needed to ground her in the future he was making that task infinitely more difficult. He was coaching her on how to sneak out of a dangerous place, let alone a home. At least that would be a future where they both lived long enough for him to need to worry about that.

Wei Wuxian's hope was that the next time they put him in Xue Yang's body, he would be able to force a swap back. He was certain he was close. He just needed another look at the array. Xue Yang had enough resentful energy inside of him for Wei Wuxian to reverse an array. He didn't think it should require a lot of energy.

The mirrors swapped their souls into each other's bodies, but they had never used the mirror to swap them back. The return of the souls to their original bodies seemed to be the natural progression that was being held back by the array. He only needed enough power to remove whatever mechanism was holding him in Xue Yang's body.

Once he was in his own body he could look for Nuan-er while she was trying to escape. She had the talisman that was designed to help Wei Wuxian find her if she was in danger. Wei Wuxian hadn't repurposed it even if he wasn't certain if it would end up being helpful. It needed a corresponding talisman to react to it. Which Wei Wuxian knew how to make, but did not have. Wei Wuxian had no idea if any of their family would have a copy of the talisman either. Xue Yang had done a thorough job of grabbing everything of Wei Wuxian's that looked remotely interesting.

Wei Wuxian had never taught the talisman to anyone else or given anyone copies of it. He decided that this had been a terrible idea. Lan Wangji at least probably should have been given one. Wei Wuxian hoped he would have the opportunity to correct that mistake in the future.

With luck Wei Wuxian might return to his body and find Xue Yang equipped with talisman paper. Then he would be able to quickly find Nuan-er. If it took him longer... Well, Nuan-er was a smart girl. Wei Wuxian had given her everything he could think of to give her her best chance. All Wei Wuxian could do now was try his best to be able to help her, and hope it would be enough to let his daughter return home.