Lan XiChen stared with both sorrow and confusion at his irate uncle, as Lan QiRen raved and swore. More rules broken...

Lan XiChen tried to control his wayward thoughts, unconsciously counting the offenses his uncle continued to commit against the very foundations of the Lan Clan. Uncomfortable and upset, he clung to his own self control like a lifeline as he watched the man who had raised him and taught him to respect Rules and Conduct above all else, wallow in the depths of self-indulgent emotions and irrational responses.

Questions arose in the privacy of his mind, did Uncle QiRen think he was above the Rules? Did he not honour the Rules by which he had sworn to live his life? What madness possessed him to abandon a lifetime of propriety? How could he be so ignited by the choices of another? Was he succumbing to madness after all? Was he... Lan XiChen stopped himself abruptly. Not even in the privacy of his thoughts could he call his uncle insane... or could he?

Eventually the unusual sound of a senior elder, and the Grandmaster at that, throwing a first class tantrum drew attention and disciples began to gather outside the door to his dwelling. Inside Lan XiChen worked to calm his uncle, speaking soothingly, offering tea, trying to initiate meditation, in short, trying everything he knew to cool a teapot that insisted on boiling.

Finally, in desperation, he opened the door slightly, aggrieved to see the crowd of young men, knowing they were witnessing the unheard of disintegration of an elder. Quickly he scanned their faces, finally finding the one he sought.

"SiZhui! Please, quickly find Healer Zhang and bring him here. Grandmaster is..." he stopped, lost for words. "Grandmaster is unwell and needs his help. Please hurry!" With that unprecedented request, he closed the doors again, knowing his nephew would fulfill his quest in the shortest time possible. Sure enough, within a short span there was a knock at the entry and Lan XiChen opened the doors only enough to admit the Healer, making eye contact with Lan SiZhui and nodding his appreciation before quickly closing the doors once more.

Lan XiChen froze a moment, thinking of the questioning faces gathered about the entrance outside. Taking a deep breath, he quickly reopened the doors.

"Please resume your activities. Grandmaster is unwell and will feel much better when you are about your business." This time the doors were shut with an air of finality and the crowd began to drift away, most of the disciples incapable of speech at this unheard of turn of events.

Healer Zhang was finding Lan QiRen quite the handful, as he struggled to have him sit still so his pulse could be read. He tried to inspect his eyes, but the man would not stop pacing as he raved. Finally, with an apologetic look at Lan XiChen, he raised his hands and caught Lan QiRen right in his Meridian acupoints as he passed. The effect was instantaneous, and the irate man curled towards the floor, quickly caught in the arms of Healer Zhang and Lan XiChen.

The two men moved Lan QiRen over to his bed, smoothly arranging him on his back in the habitual posture of rest adopted by the Lan Clan. The Healer sat beside the immobile man and ran his diagnostics, read his pulse, inspected his Qi and Meridians, the Core...Healer Zhang drew back with a gasp.

"What is it?" asked Lan XiChen. "What's wrong with Uncle? Can you tell what is happening? He has had a shock this morning, but his response is unbelievable. I know something is wrong, so please tell me so I can help him."

The Healer wore a strange expression on his face as he looked up at the younger man, hovering over his silent uncle. How to explain? This was rare, so rare he had only ever read about it once years ago, and even then only because unusual weather had trapped him indoors for such an extended time that even fading ancient health records became entertainment. And even within the rarity, there was an element that had never been so much as whispered within the Healing Hall.

He gestured to Lan XiChen to sit and indicated a need for him to collect his thoughts. The two men took places at the abandoned table and Lan XiChen began to make fresh tea, needing the simple actions to help centre his turbulent emotions and steady his shaking hands. The repeated movements, long ingrained to habit, did their work and created a small window of peace and routine and steadiness that allowed for recovery.

Drinking tea, the two men looked over at the fallen elder, one wishing he could have found gentler words to break the news, the other wondering how to tell the other of his uncle's condition, turning over all possibilities in his mind, hoping for something more positive or at least less disturbing. At last Healer Zhang stirred, making eye contact with the young leader.

"Do you know what is wrong with Uncle?" asked Lan XiChen quietly.

"Please, tell me about this morning" responded Healer Zhang. "I have no wish to intrude on your private conversations, but this... this is unusual and I want to be quite certain I make no mistake in my diagnosis. Errors may lead to complications and complications can be... well, they can be fatal."

Lan XiChen's battered composure cracked. Eyebrows went up, breath went in, and he stared at the Healer in shock.

"Fatal?"

Healer Zhang let out a heavy sigh.

"Please, I will do my best, but I need to know what happened."

Hesitantly, with pauses and stops as he sought words of explanation, Lan XiChen went over what had passed between his uncle and himself earlier that morning. He shared the news of his brother's revelation – no, ultimatum would be more accurate – and his research showing no legal nor moral obstacle to the marriage that he had presented to his uncle and the descent into madness that followed.

"I... I don't understand. It was a shock, naturally, and nothing we had ever entertained a thought of, but our training, our guidance, our ability to maintain self control in the face of even the most unwelcome news...it seemed that Uncle had none of this. One moment he was upset, then angry, then his restraint..." Lan XiChen thought hard how to describe what happened.

"Then, the anger grew, and the verbal attacks commenced and he... he... I have to say he lost all control. He was cursing and ranting, raving against Wei WuXian, condemning WangJi, calling down curses on, well, on everyone and everything. He was irrational and nearly unintelligible in his rage", he finished in a voice little more than a whisper. "I confess to being frightened and I could not help him, although I tried."

Healer Zhang looked sympathetically at the man before him. How should he tell him? What could be done? It was so long ago he had read of this, and did those records still exist? Would they even show a cure? He couldn't remember reading of one, although the case had caught his imagination and he was certain he would have looked to see everything recorded about it at the time.

"Grandmaster is suffering from a specific, rare and unusual Qi deviation."

The words fell like boulders, crushing Lan XiChen further. A Qi deviation? But those were fatal! No man could last long once his Qi unbalanced, and his spiritual power abandoned its ordained paths. A Qi deviation invariably resulted in death for the Cultivator. A Qi deviation would first erode the ability to maintain self control, then open the doorway to any manner of behavioural abnormalities, immoral conduct, base activities... destruction of reputation was an early casualty and Uncle QiRen had always been so very proud of his spotless conduct.

Lan XiChen's head spun, trying to focus, trying to realize what this diagnosis could mean for his uncle, for the Lan Clan itself. As Sect Leader, he knew any issue with the Grandmaster would be seen as an immediate reflection on the Clan itself, their values and conduct. Leadership was always the stick by which a Clan would be measured. Grief settled into his eyes and his face became drawn. All kinds of negatives flowed through his thoughts, driving all other considerations aside. He swallowed, hard, as he tried to compose his mind.

Healer Zhang saw his struggle and poured him a cup of tea, forcing the cup into his hand.

"Drink" he said. "It will help."

He guided the young man's cup to his mouth, gently encouraging him to drink. Slowly Lan XiChen's whirl of thoughts began to slow. He drank cup after cup of tea. After two the Healer was able to sit back and simply refill the tea cup as the unseeing eyes gradually came back into focus.

"Healer Zhang, my understanding is that Qi deviation is uncontrollable. Once in possession of a man, he literally cannot be stopped except by death, natural or otherwise. How were you able to bring down my uncle? Is this really a Qi deviation?"

Healer Zhang resettled himself. This was not going to be his best consultation. Too much information was going on old memories and too little on current knowledge.

"Quite a few years ago I amused myself by reading some ancient case histories. The Healing Hall has always maintained older records of unusual cases as reference in case of recurrences. At the time I was still in training and we younger men sometimes passed an evening telling tales and legends, sharing stories and myths."

Healer Zhang paused in the telling, a flash of those long ago days of companionship and pursuit of knowledge passing through his mind.

"Mention was made of Qi deviation in a legend of terrible retribution, and I was interested enough that with time on my hands I explored our records, looking to see what the earliest recorded case of Qi deviation could be. It's not a common malady and records were sparse. I continued to look until I reached some truly ancient records, barely legible and not in the form of language in common use today. It was difficult to translate accurately and feel I understood what was written. In the end, the oldest record I located spoke of a Qi deviation of a type I have never before nor since seen recorded."

Healer Zhang paused, again. He prayed he remembered things accurately enough, his diagnosis was correct and that there was some hope, any hope at all, to offer the man suffering in front of him, in fear for his uncle.

"Qi deviation occurs when yin and yang are unbalanced. If the balance goes uncorrected, over time an accumulation of negative energy will even affect the Core, until the sufferer succumbs to uncontrolled and uncontrollable power, running amok until inevitable death by suicide or murder."

Lan XiChen kept his hollow eyes focussed on the Healer, praying with all his heart.

"Usually an ordered life, careful attention to balance and meditation will restore the proper environment, long before deviation results. Usually."

Healer Zhang stopped again, waiting to be certain his point was understood.

"Usually?" questioned Lan XiChen, unsure what he was hearing.

"In very rare cases a Qi deviation can be precipitated. It is so vanishingly rare very few are even aware of the possibility, although we had our own brush with the edge of that reality not so very long ago, after all. I don't know what your understanding may be, but the Healing Hall has been investigating the Qi deviation of Nie MingJue. If what we know is accurate, his death should truly be called a murder, for the Qi deviation that resulted in his death was deliberately worsened by misuse of spiritual energy and music."

Lan XiChen nodded, remembering the terrible days around the time of Nie MingJue's demise.

"In short, music intended to soothe and calm his Qi was defiled by insertion of a clause at variance with that intent, worsening his instability and using spiritual energy to reinforce the imbalance in his energy. His Qi deviation may or may not have had a natural start, but as it was nurtured with evil intent, it grew exponentially and overwhelmed his ability to fight his way back to balance. His Qi deviation was manipulated, even encouraged and nurtured, by Jin GuangYao."

Silence. The sound of three men breathing filled the room. Lan XiChen writhed internally, all too painfully aware of his own unknowing role in setting the stage for Nie MingJue's Qi deviation. As he struggled to control his inner grief, the meaning behind the Healer's words began to sift down in Lan XiChen's mind, temporarily frozen at the mention of Jin GuangYao, and he began to look at the implications. Finally, he met the Healer's eyes again.

"You mean that Uncle is suffering a Qi deviation and that this deviation is not natural, but brought about by someone else?"

"Yes. Your uncle has an abundance of yin energy. He has always controlled himself well by abiding strictly by the Rules of the Clan. Somehow, in the past short while, his yin energy has shot up while his yang energy has become dormant. The ancient case spoke about a Qi deviation being forced upon an unwilling subject, rather than happening naturally to a man too inattentive to attend to his Cultivation properly. It did not arise from an error in attending to his Qi at all."

Healer Zhang shook his head.

"I don't yet know the means of delivery, but somehow resentful energy is clouding about his Core. It is strangling the Qi, suppressing the yang and feeding the yin while preventing him from achieving balance. It is not natural. It is not something he has done but something done to him."

Lan XiChen looked over to his uncle, lying in apparent peace on his bed.

"The shock of events – HanGuang-Jun's unusual defiance, his effective ultimatum - was merely the catalyst and probably took advantage of a momentary flaw in the Grandmaster's self-control. The acupressure was only effective in that short window of time as the Qi deviation was still establishing and would not have worked within a very few minutes."

Healer Zhang drew a breath, shaken by the thought of what he'd just seen in his examination and must now share with this young man.

"Despite being at a relatively early stage, Grandmaster's deviation seized the opportunity provided by this disruption to his usual self control. The dark energy has somehow managed to isolate and render his Core unable to either subdue or control the rampant yin energy. "

Healer Zhang looked carefully into Lan XiChen's eyes, knowing he needed to understand this without question, sorrowing that that he had to burden such a young man with such intolerable knowledge.

"The deviation is in full spate. And it is not within his control."