The crossbow fit snugly in Wei Wuxian's palm, its polished walnut stock gleaming like a serpent's spine. "Smaller, deadlier," Wei Xuan murmured, adjusting the tension spring.
Wei Wuxian spun the weapon, moonlight catching on its hidden compartment. "Twelve poison needles per load," his sister added, sliding a jade bracelet-style dart launcher onto his wrist. "For when subtlety demands beauty."
Their shadows stretched across Shiyu Pavilion's treasure-laden floor. Wei Xuan watched her brother dismantle a Kongming puzzle forged from meteorite iron. His laughter echoed through the chamber as interlocking pieces clattered onto a qiankun pouch already bulging with solar-powered contraptions and trap-laden building blocks.
"Rogue cultivator," Wei Wuxian repeated later over tea, the words tasting of liberation. "Like Father and Mother."
Wei Xuan's jade pendant chilled against her collarbone. "The Jiangs never deserved you."
The carriage ride back to Cloud Recesses smelled of medicinal herbs and unspoken truths. Wei Xuan studied her brother's perfectly coiled hair – GusuLan austerity softened by a single lotus-patterned pin. "Lan Wangji's handiwork?"
"He's surprisingly deft!" Wei Wuxian grinned, oblivious to the frost creeping across the carriage floor.
Wei Xuan's nails bit into her palms. Oblivious as a stone. "What if your destined companion isn't… conventional?"
Wei Wuxian nearly spilled his chrysanthemum tea. "Men? Hard as rocks, stink of sweat! What's to like?"
The stars laughed through lacquered windows. Wei Xuan's sigh fogged the glass, etching temporary constellations. "Hypothetically, if I fancied women—"
"I'd bankrupt Shiyu Pavilion for your dowry!"
As Cloud Recesses' gates loomed, Wei Xuan pressed a frost-kissed dagger into his palm. "For when you stop being an idiot."
Wei Wuxian's laughter echoed down the mountain path, unaware the blade's hilt bore twin lotus engravings – one blooming, one sheathed in ice.
That night, Lan Wangji's guqin strings snapped mid-meditation. The broken threads coiled like mating serpents around Wei Wuxian's forgotten hairpin.