[pfsb]

[acrookedpath]

The good news: the energy-revealing array works!

The bad news --

It's not bad news, he insists to himself. It just... is. It's a complication, a hole in the road, a little snare tripping him up. That's all. It doesn't have to be more. It might not even be in the first place, yes? He is dead, Lan Zhan is alive, of course seeing just how very alive would stir something in him. That's all it is.

Right?

Never mind that he's fairly certain if he placed the same array on Harrow, or Tom-gongzi, or Ingress, he would not have been struck the same way. That -- it's ridiculous, this is all ridiculous, and that's why he's out here by the lake, standing on a flat rock with another array of talismans fluttering in his hand.

The key is not just luring resentful energy from the forest, despite the suppression around the inn. It is how swiftly he can do it. During his coffee-fueled spree of work last night, he drew up some new lures that ought to work faster than a traditional set. Now he scatters them in a wide circle around his feet, gestures sharply, and sends a bolt of red energy into the yellow paper slips.

Silently, in his head, he begins to count. One... two... three...

At the count of thirteen, something boils at the forest's edge, dark and oily.

Wei Wuxian smiles and lifts his flute to meet it.

Comments

[we_bring_hell]

Harrow does not like to be outside. In fact, it's her penance for breaking silence to take these walks every day. She is not wearing her robe, which is too hot, but is in her habit of trousers and high-collared long-sleeved shirt.

She stops at a respectful distance to watch Wei Wuxian at work.

[acrookedpath]

The lures have coaxed the resentful spirits as far as they will go; he makes a note to strengthen the array next time, to see if that might overcome more of the inn's suppression and shave the count down to less than ten. (Less than five would be ideal, but that will likely take several iterations.) He sounds the first notes of his song to seize hold of the energy and drag it closer.

Harrow has seen him when his necromancy activates: the wisps of smoke that rise from him like a living creature, tendrils wrapping around his fingers and seething across his robes. This is different, though. He is not trying to utilize an unfamiliar source like Harrow's thanergy; this is his element, the thing he knows best, and the smoke is rich and dark as it winds around him like an embrace.

Long vines of resentful energy arc over the lake to join Wei Wuxian. The music takes on an unearthly hum as he gathers the source close.

[we_bring_hell]

She watches silently but with interest as the resentful energy draws closer. This is an excellent chance to see the difference between thanergy as she knows it and his preferred energy source; and a situation where she does not intend to distract him.

[acrookedpath]

This is a test to see not only how quickly he can summon resentful energy from the forest, but how much. It will not do if he can call it to him within five seconds, only to find there's so little in his hands that he can barely defend himself.

It turns out there is quite a lot to summon -- more than he realized. There have been deaths here; even murders, rare as they might have been. It is such a relief to call out and be answered so definitively. Why didn't he try this sooner?

Soon, Wei Wuxian teems with the swirling black smoke. He keeps a tight leash on it for a long count of ten, remembering how it feels to let it course through him; finding relief in that, as well.

Then, gradually, the music shifts. He would not be so careless as to overcome the inn's suppression, summon ghosts, and refuse to banish them once he's done. He plays a tune not unlike Rest, but firmer, an order rather than a gentle coaxing: go, sleep, leave me, and do not come back until I wake you again.

The smoke thins. The tendrils slip free of him, slinking back to the forest's edge.

Before long it is only him on the rock, lowering his flute with a satisfied sigh as he watches the spirits retreat into the woods.

[we_bring_hell]

When his work is done, she approaches. "Greetings, Wei Wuxian."

[acrookedpath]

He turns, swiftly brightening. "Harrow! Hello."

Shoving the flute back into his belt, he kneels to gather the scattered lures.

"How do you fare?"

[we_bring_hell]

"I am well," she says. "And you?"

"I see you have a... bountiful harvest?"

[acrookedpath]

"Well enough." He shoves the gathered lures into his robes and takes a proper seat on the rock, legs folded. "And so it would seem! I should have thought to try lures sooner -- it is such an obvious first step, but I wrongly assumed they would not call to anything. Though they have taken such care to suppress resentful energy around the inn that a traditional lure may not have worked anyway."

He hooks a thumb back toward the bar.

[we_bring_hell]

"Interesting," she says. "I would like to examine them sometime; I know little enough about ghost-traps, but I would be interested to see similarities."

"And now I have seen your resentful energy in action."

[acrookedpath]

"Ah! Well, if you would like to see -- "

Wei Wuxian pulls out the cluster of talismans again, spreading them before him in a line. They look much like the little paper doll he sent into Canaan House -- the same yellow paper, the same red ink -- but larger, more elaborate. (And obviously not shaped like a tiny person.)

"They can also be painted onto a flag, but I wanted something faster and more portable."

[we_bring_hell]

She nods and examines them. "And the writing is a form of spellcraft? I have been taking something of an interest in written mechanisms for recording and casting spells."

[acrookedpath]

"They are... directions," he decides at last. "Another way to focus and direct a cultivator's energy. When it strikes the talisman it is as if it reads what is written there, and acts accordingly. This one for instance -- "

He gestures to the leftmost talisman.

"It is only a trigger. It tells the energy to spread to any other talisman touching the same surface, and in what order to read them. The others -- " he sweeps his hand down the line -- "help strengthen the energy to overcome the inn's suppression, then call to any resentful spirits as a spirit-attraction flag would. Traditional flags do not need the same infusion of extra energy. They will work on their own."

[we_bring_hell]

She frowns. "And the energy comprehends the instructions? Or is it... a device for forming your will? Do you leave a spell-shape behind?"

"I would need to use blood to do something like that."

[acrookedpath]

"Mmm..." Another moment's consideration, as he scratches his nose. "A device for forming my will, I suppose. It is not as if the spirit itself comprehends the instructions. And what do you mean by spell-shape?"

A remnant of the energy, like a curse rebounded, perhaps?

[we_bring_hell]

"A portion of the spell activated by the energy, that interprets the words and carries out the rest," she says. "I would use an emulation of white-matter pathways from the temporal lobe."

[acrookedpath]

The second sentence -- it may as well be like the inn's translation field has failed. At least he can grasp the first sentence. More or less.

"I suppose," he says, slowly. "There are characters common across all talismans that may serve as such a spell-shape. At least the ones activated by energy -- there are others that do not require it."

[we_bring_hell]

"Hm," she says. "Is it all language-based, then?"

[acrookedpath]

"Yes. There are some marks that do not match spoken language -- " He taps one of the sigils at a corner of the trigger talisman, a spiral that does not match the sharp, neat brushstrokes of the primary characters. "But it all comes down to describing what you wish to do."

[we_bring_hell]

"Fascinating." The words blur under her vision; try to interpret themselves, then warp back to the characters painted so painstakingly. "As if you speak in a language the Universe itself understands. Or that you have taught it."

"I would need a spiral drawn in blood," she says. "Or perhaps a circle for something very easy."

[acrookedpath]

"What would it look like? You do not have to draw in blood," he adds hastily, and rummages through his robes again. Out comes one of the ballpoint pens Madam Bar gave him, plus a crumpled talisman with a line of characters already printed on one side. He smooths it out and flips it to the blank side to give Harrow a clean writing surface. "But if you would share it with me?"

[we_bring_hell]

She pats her sides for her journal, but of course her habit has no pockets big enough. "It is rather small," she says regretfully. "But in essence--" She freehands a spiral on the piece of paper; it is pretty close to perfectly circular, because she has practiced quite a lot.

"The spiral establishes a repeating flow of energy through different forms which I indicate with ganglia around the outer circumference," she says, tightly scribbling these in. "And these steps will repeat with each cycle. The spell will slowly fade as it consumes the thanargy--the spiral represents this--and I can insert extra actions at points along the spiral."

[acrookedpath]

"Interesting." He avidly watches her draw the spiral, eyes alight with curiosity. "So the spiral would be as if I were activating a talisman with my resentful energy, and the -- ganglia, you said? -- would be like the characters of the same talisman?"

[we_bring_hell]

"Similar, I think, but the spiral controls the timing and recurrence of the steps, and any out-of-sequence steps. How is that managed in your talismans?"

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian laughs a little. "I control the timing by being very good at activating the right talisman at the right time," he says. "I can include limited instructions -- I have a talisman on my door, for instance, that will only deactivate if I or Lan Zhan -- "

Oh no. Oh, no, he was doing so well at not thinking about Lan Zhan.

"...if either of us approach or if I grant permission for another to enter." He swallows. "Otherwise it will block the way. But, ah, unless they are talismans that do not need much watching over to begin with, as you would have with traditional suppression or lure arrays -- it is a matter of the cultivator's timing, not the talisman's."

[we_bring_hell]

"Ah--our spells work that way too, but I would not write it down at all in that case. But I can use a spiral to create a standing field; for instance, what I've drawn here is a spiral for a sanitation field I use to destroy harmful pathogens."

"Most of the Ninth is quite elderly, and I was the common vector in contact with the them all. It was dreadfully important not to transmit illnesses."