"No."

"I'm not leaving you here, not after what I just saw--even if I kill Wen Chao--"

It is unacceptable and terrible that Wei Ying saw that and it is even worse if Wei Ying is thinking things about it. Lan Zhan's head hurts. (Everything hurts). 

"No. Go away." She's shaking, which is bad, she doesn't want Wei Ying to see that either. She wants Wei Ying to leave and never think about her ever again and she wants the remnants of her sect to not be exterminated.

"Listen, Lan Zhan, you can get away, they took Bichen but we have Wen Chao's sword now, you could go to Qinghe, it's not that far, and they're already fortifying against the Wens, and if you didn't get spotted going in that direction they probably wouldn't figure out where you had gone, at least not right away, I can mug another guard for his uniform and we can sneak out, it'll work!" 

"They will slaughter the survivors of my sect," she whispers. "I cannot leave. Go away, Wei Ying."

"You think they'd hold off on that just because they said they would? They've proven time and time again they have no honor! But--if they don't know where you are--and Wen Chao's body never turns up--and they assume you have him as a hostage--"

"I could stuff his body in a qiankun pouch--or we could actually leave him alive and you could take him to Qinghe as a prisoner, I guess, he might know something useful--I really wanna kill him, though."

Lan Zhan is very tired. She feels violently cold, even with her dress wrapped back around her, and every moment that Wei Ying spends looking at her is more painful than the last. 

She doesn't know what else to say. She doesn't know if escaping will condemn her sect to death, or if they have already been murdered behind her back. Maybe Wei Ying is right, she doesn't know, she's so tired.

Lan Zhan turns her face away and lifts one shackled wrist, indicating the obstacle of her heavy black chains.

She nods, rifles through Wen Chao's sleeves, and produces a key that looks like it would fit her manacles. 

"Mm."

She unlocks Lan Zhan's wrists, gives Wen Chao a considering look, then hands Lan Zhan his sword. 

"I'll let you decide if he should live or die and, if the latter, how slowly. Just make sure to use blunt force trauma, if you decide to kill him or he wakes up and you have to knock him out again; if we leave behind bloodstains there's less chance they'll believe you have him as a hostage. I'm going to go get another guard uniform for you. I'll be right back, I promise." 

She wants Wei Ying to stay, which is ridiculous when she had just been demanding that Wei Ying leave. Lan Zhan's knuckles turn white around Wen Chao's sword.

"Mm."

She kicks Wen Chao on the way out. 

She returns a few minutes later, holding a bundle of garments. "Here," she says. "--Um, I'll just turn around and watch Wen Chao to make sure he doesn't wake up or anything." 

Okay.

Lan Zhan lays the guard uniform out on the floor, and starts undressing. She does a bad job of it; when she exposes her skin to cold air the trembling worsens and her arms tense so badly that they are painful and difficult to maneuver.

She manages. The guard clothes fit her imperfectly, but well enough. She makes a noise to indicate that Wei Ying can turn around now.

Wei Ying turns around and nods. "It'll do. If we're not killing him we'll need some way of transporting him unobtrusively...I wonder if he has any alcohol in here," she muses, going through his sleeves again. She successfully locates a small jar. "Aha!" 

Confusion.

She pours it all over Wen Chao's head. He starts to revive, sputtering, so she grabs his hair and cracks his skull briskly against the floor. 

The she rearranges his collar so the bruises from the sword sheath don't show and stands up, hauling him up with her. 

"We can be totally legitimate guards carrying Wen-er-gongxi back to his rooms after he got super drunk--or, no, I can carry him and you can accompany me, I don't want to make you touch him more than necessary." 

"Mn."

She falls back against the dungeon wall the first time she tries to get to her feet - even her intact leg does a poor job supporting her at the moment. Lan Zhan grits her teeth and tries again.

"Lan Zhan! Are you--" no, of course she's not okay, don't be stupid. "Is there anything I can do to help? ...I can help you get your balance at least, if--if you don't mind me touching you." 

She wants Wei Ying to touch her (hold her) too badly, which is exactly why she shouldn't ask for it. 

She nods fractionally.

Wei Ying's arms around her are careful and gentle and steady. 

On impulse, she presses a brief, chaste kiss to the top of Lan Zhan's head. 

Lan Zhan tears up despite her best efforts. She sways forward, still trembling, and allows herself one second tucked against Wei Ying's chest, face nested in her shoulder.

Two seconds.

It's so comfortable like this - comfortable and warm, Lan Zhan hasn't felt warm since the Cloud Recesses burned - that she could fall asleep standing up, if she let herself stay here.

She doesn't. She draws her frayed composure back around herself as tightly as she can and leans on Wei Ying only a little as they exit the cell.

Wei Ying successfully navigates them to a point sufficiently unobserved for Lan Zhan to take off from. She takes off her own guard's outfit and tears it into strips with which she rigs a harness so that Lan Zhan can carry Wen Chao without having to actually touch him. 

"Do you think you can balance well enough to fly now?"

"You are not coming?"