Chapter Text
Jiang Cheng was seven when he made his first sacrifice. The rabbit had been drugged, a concession to his youth and the fact that this was his first kill. Torches cast ominous shadows in the firelit grove making the half dozen other initiates appear more frightening than frightened. For weeks, older disciples had told tales of hands slipping or ghosts of past sacrifices rising up. As Jiang Cheng stared down at the rabbit, reluctant to draw the knife across its throat, the flickering shadows showed him three puppies – Princess, Jasmine, and Little Love – squirming on the altar, whining and desperate. He didn’t realize he’d dropped the knife until he heard it clatter on the altar.
“Oh, come on, A-Cheng. It can’t be that hard.” Grinning, Wei Wuxian picked up the knife and held it at the ready, but when he looked at the rabbit, he gulped. His tanned face paled in the flickering light.
“You can do it, A-Xian,” Jiang Fengmian encouraged. Even though he was Sect Leader, he’d never made a sacrifice. He’d been raised to practice light cultivation. Only after Madam Yu had arrived, were all initiates, even those likely to choose light cultivation, required to perform sacrifices.
Wei Wuxian turned his wide eyes back to the rabbit. Jiang Cheng knew he wouldn’t back down now, not after fuqin had encouraged him. Wei Wuxian closed his eyes so tightly that Jiang Cheng wondered that he could see at all. His strike was more of a stab than a slash. The rabbit squealed. Jiang Cheng turned away. It seemed to take forever before Yu Ziyuan spoke. “That was a mess,” she said discouragingly. “I can see you’ll chose to cultivate light.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Jiang Fengmian said cheerily.
“Jiang Cheng,” she snapped. “Try not to mess this up.”
Scowling to hide any upset from her discouraging words, Jiang Cheng turned back to see her tossing the rabbit into a basket. Per tradition, each initiate would be served rabbit at dinner. They were each supposed to eat the one they’d killed, but Jiang Cheng knew they would be offered any one of the rabbits, not necessarily their own sacrifice.
“Well,” she barked. A new rabbit had been placed at the ready, but blood from Wei Wuxian’s rabbit pooled across the altar and dripped down one side. Couldn’t they have cleaned the altar first? As he stared at the blood, he could almost hear his puppies whining and wondered, for the first time, if his father had actually given them away. Maybe his mother had used them as sacrifices. He put a hand to his stomach to try and soothe his roiling gut.
“We don’t have all day.”
Jiejie hadn’t made the sacrifice. She’d announced, in a firm voice quite unlike her usual quiet tone, that she would be taking up light cultivation. Maybe, maybe … “I don’t have to do this. I don’t need to prepare for a dark path. I’m going to cultivate light.”
“You will not.” Yu Ziyuan’s voice held not an inch of mercy. “Light cultivators are weak. I did not bring you into this world for you to take the easy path. You’re going to lead this Sect. Only a dark cultivator is strong enough to be Sect Leader.”
She wasn’t wrong. Jiang Fengmian bowed to her will in everything except Wei Wuxian’s presence. She’d wanted the boy tossed back out into the street, but fuqin had insisted he stay and had him raised alongside their children. If asked, he would have helped Wei Wuxian get out of making a sacrifice, but Jiang Cheng knew fuqin wouldn’t offer him the same leniency. Jiang Cheng picked up the knife. The rabbit would be sacrificed no matter what he did. He might as well make it as painless as possible. He slashed the knife across the rabbit’s throat.
Yu Ziyuan looked down on it. “Not bad. You cut deeper than you had to, but that’s better than too shallow a cut.” She sneered at Wei Wuxian. “Or stabbing at it a half-dozen times.”
When it was discussed later, no one mentioned how Jiang Cheng had, at first, turned away. They said he’d performed the sacrifice perfectly on his first try. They said he was destined to cultivate darkness.