"Brawler Su, it's Huang Yeyan," she said when the young woman's eyes snapped open and she drew a deep shuddering breath. "I'm afraid we don't have much time, I need you to drink this elixir," she explained, holding a small porcelain bottle up to Su Xiang's parched lips.
When Su Xiang drank the sweet, grassy-tasting elixir, it felt like the desiccated tissues of her mouth and throat absorbed half the liquid before it even reached her stomach. Energy surged into her withered muscles like a river flooding in heavy rains. Yue's whiskers twitched in anticipation when Su Xiang sat up straighter in bed and the fog of exhaustion cleared from her eyes. Within a dozen breaths, while the young Brawler still looked pale and drawn, a cold flame burned deep within her sapphire eyes that possessed a will to fight.
"Alch, Alchemist Huang," Su Xiang tried to greet only for her rough voice to catch and fail when she spoke.
"Don't try speaking yet, your body has been pushed very hard. The elixir I gave you is called 'Last Stand', it doesn't truly treat any of the things ailing your body right now," the alchemist explained. "It will give you the strength to fight for a time and it will prevent you from feeling pain, but that's all it will do. We need to take you away from here so I can properly tend to you. Can you stand and dress yourself?"
Less than a hundred breaths later, Su Xiang emerged from her room carrying a content Yue and followed by Alchemist Huang and Qing Zhen.
Wu Ling looked up from his preparations only to have his heart tremble and his hands freeze at the sight of Su Xiang. Her poor complexion and haggard look were things he expected, it was the colors surrounding her that his Artist's eyes revealed which shook him to his core.
Ever since he'd begun to perceive color around people, Su Xiang held a special kind of purity about her feelings. When she was angry, the blood red of her fury covered her entirely. When she was content, listening to him play zither with Yao Meifeng while she snuggled Yue, a rich lavender suffused her entire being. Looking at her now, however, everything about her seemed to have changed.
A pale lavender still clung to her where she held Yue's fluffy softness and all the other colors of love for her family, respect, and gratitude for Alchemist Huang and everything else were still there. Yet, over all of the colors that should form the rich beauty of his sworn sister's heart, a dull gray seeped into everything she felt. Her colors had become muted and the brightest spots of color were a wounded yellow-green and a pained orange.
"Sister Xiang," Wu Ling said, standing to wrap his arms around her. "I'm sorry I couldn't come for you sooner," he whispered to her.
"You came when you could," Su Xiang said weakly. "Everyone did what they could. It's okay," she said. Despite her words, however, the tone of her voice was flat and hollow. She clutched Yue like a drowning woman clutching a rope but her eyes held neither mirth nor joy at it.
"Wu Ling," Huang Yeyan prompted. "The elixir I gave her doesn't provide much time. We need to hurry."
"Right," Wu Ling said, pulling back and taking a last look at the muted colors swirling around Su Xiang before pressing his concerns to the back of his mind. "Sister Xiang, sit down with me. I'm going to do your makeup," he explained. "Nothing fancy, but we want to walk out the front gates like nothing is wrong. If you look…" his voice broke before he could find a word to describe how horribly broken she appeared at the moment. "It's just a little makeup to fool the other disciples into thinking you're fine when we leave," he repeated, leading her to a seat and picking up a brush.
Wu Ling worked quickly while Su Xiang sat passively, allowing the young Artist to transform her appearance into a close facsimile of her usual self. While paints couldn't restore the brightness in her eyes or the spring in her step, she no longer looked like a fugitive fleeing the healer's tent. Throughout it all, her expression only changed at the end when Wu Ling had to recall Yue to his Inner World. The wince of pain that flashed across her features gnawed at his heart like the bite of a Red Mist Wolf but for the moment, there was nothing he could do about it.
"Father, Mother," Su Xiang said when they prepared to leave. "Your Xiang'er will be going now," she said, kneeling before them and pressing her head to the floor in deep apology. "Xiang'er is sorry for being willful. Mother and Father have always sheltered Xiang'er but now she's brought the anger of the Elders to our family. Your unworthy daughter promises to find a way to make it right," she said.
"Xiang'er," Su Jizhe said, reaching out and pulling his daughter to her feet. "You are young yet. You will find your way. As long as you find your way back to us, everything else is fine."
"My Little Xiang," Qing Zhen said, pulling her daughter into a tight embrace. "Come home to us soon. We're a family and we'll face this together," she added with an even tighter squeeze.
The walk across the grounds of the Shining Blade Hall felt to everyone like it took more than five times as long as it actually did. Every small greeting to passing disciples, instructors, and Wardens felt as dangerous as spotting a rampaging sun bear. Thankfully, at this early hour of the morning, most of the people moving about the sect were preparing for the activities of the day and had little time to spend on idle chatter or chance encounters. Only when they walked out of the gates and closed the doors of the carriage did Wu Ling and Huang Yeyan finally relax. Su Xiang, however, looked much as she did on the entire walk to the carriage, her eyes dull and flat while she gazed out the window at the shrinking sect.
A few minutes later, as Alchemist Huang's elixir wore off, Su Xiang's sapphire eyes fluttered closed. Gently, Wu Ling pulled her head to his lap and laid a blanket over her while Yue snuggled underneath the blanket to stay close to Su Xiang's beating heart.
"She'll be better after she's had some rest," Huang Yeyan said, reaching out to hold Wu Ling's hand. "We have a long carriage ride before we meet with the others. I promise I'll do my best to help her recover before we arrive."
"Thank you, Alchemist Huang," Wu Ling said, not looking up from Su Xiang's sleeping figure. He knew that the older woman would take excellent care of Su Xiang's body, just like she'd cared for him when the Burning Yang Sun Bear nearly crushed him beneath its bulk. Her physical state, however, no matter how concerning, wasn't what weighed on his heart as the carriage wove its way out of Silver Sword City.