The workshop smelled of sandalwood and freshly planed pine. Wei Xuan gestured to the shelves stocked with jade compass blanks and solar crystal arrays. "Your kingdom, gege."
Wei Wuxian's fingers brushed a half-carved spirit lure flag. His throat tightened remembering Jiang Fengmian's tentative kindness – borrowed robes, shared quarters, conditional belonging. This was different. The qiankun pouches of gold ingots lining the walls carried no debt.
"Ah-Xuan..."
She stiffened when he embraced her, then melted like winter's first snow. "No more swallowing bitterness," she whispered into his shoulder. "We're fire and blood now."
Dinner steamed with Xunzhou's signature dishes – braised pork glazed in honey, lotus roots stuffed with glutinous rice. Wei Xuan piled his bowl until the porcelain threatened mutiny. "Triple-boiled bone broth," she urged, "Third Elder's prescription."
"Enough!" Wei Wuxian laughed, depositing a mushroom cap on her plate. "I'll drown before the night hunt."
The revelation came over dessert.
"Shiyu Pavilion?" Wei Wuxian nearly choked on osmanthus cake. "The curio den with the thousand-year ice jade display?"
"Our curio den." Wei Xuan's smile cut sharper than the jade hairpin at her crown.
The shopkeeper's bow scraped floorboards. "Young Master! This humble one—"
"Relax, Qian." Wei Xuan flicked her sleeve toward the second-floor gallery. "We're here to play."
Amidst glowing spirit stones and mechanized talisman printers, Wei Wuxian caught his reflection in a frost-patterned mirror. The man staring back wore GusuLan restraint with YilingLaozu eyes.
"Does he fear you?" Wei Wuxian nodded at the retreating shopkeeper.
Wei Xuan traced a dagger forged from meteorite iron. "Fear ensures honest accounting."
As twilight dyed the pavilion's quartz windows crimson, Wei Wuxian pocketed a sunbird-shaped ignition switch. Its carved wings fit perfectly against his palm – twin to the phoenix pendant at Wei Xuan's throat.
That night, Cloud Recesses' nightwatch spotted twin comets arcing toward the Burial Mounds. When they investigated at dawn, they found only frost blooming in perfect lotus patterns across the cursed soil.