#hell htis is an alternate title for the whole canon book/show

[tanoraqui]

What Does Kill You Can Make You Stronger, Too

Chapter 15: The Young and the Restless Dead

a funerary pyre - dinner conversation with the juniors - *Aradia voice* C0RPSE PARTY! three fierce corpses on the road

Xiao Xingchen’s body burned easily. Xue Yang’s best arts—for surely this desperate preservation was the closest he’d come to doing good—had nonetheless left it far dryer than a natural corpse. The smoke was light, and aromatic from the herbs tucked into his robes; it blended smoothly into the lingering fog. (The resentful energy was dissipating with the absence of the Tiger Seal, but the river and cliffs remained, and thus so did the fog.)

It wasn’t entirely traditional, but everyone agreed he’d spent more than enough time in a coffin.

Song Lan stood at Xiao Xingchen’s head and recited a voiceless prayer. His left arm had been retrieved and sewn back on. The indomitable young A-Qing, whose story Jiang Yanli had heard mostly in overlapping chorus from the junior disciples, stood beside him with a bamboo cane clutched in white-knuckled hands, and an expression of savage and victorious relief. She did not weep.

Jin Ling and his friends ranged awkwardly around the bier, several crying sympathetically. Wen Ning lurked further back, still wary and shy. Jiang Yanli stood by her son, of course—but as the body burned, as the smoke drifted up, she sidled over to Xiao Xingchen's martial nephew and squeezed his hand until just before she snapped it.

Wei Wuxian laid his head on her shoulder and did his weak best to squeeze back (don’t let go). He was so much shorter, now.

[keep reading on AO3]

#mdzs #the untamed #jiang yanli #wei wuxian #jin ling #wen ning #song lan #a qing #hm should i tag more bit players #lan sizhui #lan jingyi #lan wangji #listen my actual favorite thing #this is my favorite chatpter title you guys. i could write an entire fic just with this title #hell htis is an alternate title for the whole canon book/show #my fic #fanfiction