Even the light from the torch could not cut through the thick darkness. Cold air, musty from being trapped under the stone hit them, and Lan Zhan could smell dust notes, the oil used to keep the mechanism well oiled and still working, and something else...just a twinge of vanilla.

Wei Ying shivered behind him.

"We should go down there," he says, carefully keeping his tone neutral.

"Mn." Lan Zhan squeezes their joint hands. He looks up at Da Tuzi. "If we have not returned in one hour, call for help. My brother." He clarifies.

Da Tuzi nods once in acknowledgement, and then Wei Ying and he take their first steps descending into the darkness.

Wei Ying counts the steps as they go down. He's still holding the spear in his other hand, while Lan Zhan is holding his other one, and his left hand has the torch, guiding their steps.

The torch only illuminates a few steps as they go, until they reach the bottom.

They descend slowly, mostly because Lan Zhan doesn't want either of them to trip and hurt themselves on the unforgiving stone, the chiselled steps with their sharp edges already looking so threatening.

"Twenty." Wei Ying says, at the end. He looks up at the now tiny window of daylight, that many steps away, from where they climbed down.

They are surrounded by the smell of damp and cold stone, and their breaths steam in puffs of hot air released inside this cooler space. There's a blank stone wall right in front of them.

And nowhere else to go.

"I can't believe it's a dead end." Wei Ying grumbles.

"It's not." Lan Zhan shines the torch on a single hole in front of them.

There's a sharp point next to it.

"Doesn't that hole look-" Wei Ying is suddenly hit with the sharpest sense of deja vu. "Lan Zhan! I don't trust that! Here, bite my finger." He holds his digit at Lan Zhan's mouth.

Lan Zhan doesn't need to be told twice, and in that instance, he's also understood what Wei Ying is about to do.

Wei Ying feels the sharp prick of Lan Zhan's razor teeth, and as Lan Zhan shines the torch on the locket, Wei Ying lets one drop fall on the coat of arms. Then he slots the heart into the hole made specifically for that shape.

The locket is a key, in more ways than one.

It clicks into place and there's a sudden whirring noise. Wei Ying is pushed behind Lan Zhan as he licks his wound closed.

The stone door eases aside on some kind of wheel mechanism, a feather touch as if it didn't weigh tons.

Electric lights spark into life illuminating a circular room with two coats of armour in glass cases on either side. A wooden bench hugs the stone wall upon which there are a vast array of weapons. And then Wei Ying sees a book.

He leans the staff carefully against the glass case, so his hand is free to touch the book.

The cover is dusty so he blows on it, and the writing is revealed.

WEI YING

For a second, Wei Ying doesn't know what to do.

His hand flutters uselessly over the book, his mind incapable of processing that this is something for him.

Only for him, only for Wei Ying, from his parents.

The kiss at his temple provides a warmth that spreads all over his body, and finally, his hand stops shaking.

He turns the first page.

My Dearest A-Ying,

If you are reading this now, then I'm so proud of you. I have nothing but hope and some vague images, dreams which have yet to come true, and I must trust in the Universe that you will find this.

I don't know how or when, but it looks like we will be parting ways, and this thought makes me incredibly sad. I wish, more than anything, that I could see you grow up. I wish your father could see how wonderful I am sure you will be.

I love you so much, my child. When I think about this, it breaks my heart into tiny pieces, to think we will not be together. I hope you don't forget us, your parents, and how much we love you.

That is the main reason I have started writing in this book, and I beg your forgiveness. I wish things would be different...but the dreams share too many commonalities for this to not come true.

Yours,

Mama.

Wei Ying can't see properly; too many tears are making his sight hazy. Lan Zhan pulls him into a strong hug, needing to soothe his tumultuous emotions.

"They...t-they did l-love me..." he whispers.

"Mn. Wei Ying was loved then, and is loved now." Lan Zhan reinforces the truth.

It's painful for him too, to think that Wei Ying ever doubted it from his parents, and still doubts it generally.

"Do you think we can take it with us? The book?" Wei Ying asks Lan Zhan, finally pulling away.

Lan Zhan only lets go when he sees that Wei Ying is looking a little better.

"Mn. Let's see if there is anything else here for Wei Ying."

They start looking around properly now.

The weapons on the walls are different to normal ones, and have strange shapes as well as the usual types of swords and knives.

"I'm beginning to think both Grandmother and my mother had a thing for weapons, and it's definitely out of control." Wei Ying jokes, looking up at the assorted bows and arrows. "Do you think they were proficient in using these? All of them?" He wonders aloud.

"Mn. They wrote you an instruction manual." Lan Zhan has found another book.

Wei Ying watches as his fingers turn the pages slowly while he reads bits here and there, whatever catches his eye.

He looks past Lan Zhan, his gaze landing on the glass cases now. The armour inside seems to be made from a lightweight but super durable metal, the chains so tightly woven together that it shimmers like sunlight upon ocean waves.

Time has aged the metal and yet there is a beauty to the crafting of this clothing.

"I wonder where they got these from. Again, it's not like you can buy them off the rack. They'd have to be custom made, right?"

"Mn."

"What on earth was she expecting to happen?" Wei Ying sighs, his breath frosting on the cold glass.

"She mentioned dreams. Do you think your mother had the gift of foresight?" Lan Zhan comes over to where he's standing.

"I honestly don't know. My own memories of my time with them feels like a dream, too. If it wasn't for the locket, I don't think I would have remembered their faces, even." Wei Ying feels terribly sad about that.

"What's this?" Lan Zhan picks up a box from under the bench.

It looks like an ordinary cardboard box, but when Lan Zhan opens it, his hands are full of photographs. Some of them are grainy, others clear, and one person is featured in all of them.

"There's writing on the back!" Wei Ying says, pointing out the black ink.

"Xue Yang meeting Jin GuanShan, Downtown Denver, and the date. That's twenty years ago!" Lan Zhan reads it out.

Wei Ying does the same until they have laid out at least a dozen different postcards and photos all with Xue Yang and someone else, mostly the notorious Jin GuanShan.

"I think they were collecting information and evidence against Xue Yang. Didn't Grandma say my parents went to meet that man?" Wei Ying taps on the portrait of a man who had definitely seen better days.

He has a comb over, and he might have been handsome once, but he's definitely lost his looks in the pictures. His jowled face is sagging and his eyes are too close together, a sliminess that seems to come out of the pictures like a physical thing.

"Mn." Lan Zhan finds another leather bound ledger under all the loose photographs, one that documented Xue Yang's movements.

"Then let's leave that box here, until we figure out what to do with it. We can't just give it to anyone...especially within the current climate. If we're correct in our assessment of Wen Rouhan controlling the legal system, then he can make all this disappear...and then, all of my parents' hard work would have been for nothing." Wei Ying says, pushing away from the bench.

Lan Zhan thinks he's right, and closes the lid, putting the box back where they had found it.

Wei Ying is just turning around when there's an incredibly loud bang, startling them both.

The noise echoes all around the circular room, the sound waves reverberating against the dark stone walls, making the ground shake.

Thankfully, it's just the spear, the one that Wei Ying had balanced precariously against the other glass case, which slid across the ground onto the floor. When Wei Ying picks it up, there's a strange noise, and it seems to be coming from inside the staff.

Now, as Wei Ying weighs the spear in his hands, he thinks it's a little bit odd that it feels lighter than something which is supposed to be solid metal. In fact, as he moves the spear, he can definitely feel something sliding around on the inside of it.

His silver eyes meet Lan Zhan's golden ones, and they both realise at the same time that this spear is holding a secret all of its own.