[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

[riddleofthebelow]

The dense black clouds swirling around Wei Wuxian makes Tom think of Dementors flapping above him (and hopelessness and numbing cold and knowing deep in his marrow that there could be no escape). He can’t suppress the shudder that goes through him.

But he can’t feel this resentful energy, even as it manifests in increasing density. It doesn’t endanger him just by existing. He does wonder what would happen if he were to cast a Patronus. He’ll have to ask if Wei Wuxian would like to experiment later.

He’s also had thoughts about Knightsbridge and what could happen if that malignant and deadly darkness could be controlled.

There’s a rock that’s good for sitting - most of the ones near the lake are - so Tom decides to dust it off with a wave of his wand and settle upon it.

He’s curious as to what Wei Wuxian will do with the energy he’s summoned.

[acrookedpath]

There are no enemies to attack. No fierce corpses to animate. The answer, then: he doesn't appear to do much.

It is a test now, to see how much he can hold onto, and for how long. He has spent over a month barely utilizing his tricks, and there is a slight ache at the back of his head, as one's arms would ache at lifting an unaccustomed weight. But Wei Wuxian adjusts easily -- as he always has -- and begins another slow count in his head as the smoke grows thicker and thicker around him.

At thirty, he pauses long enough to catch his breath. A few wisps of smoke try to eel away, but swiftly, he grabs hold with a different song: one meant to push the ghosts back into the forest, once more outside the bubble of suppression that surrounds the inn. The cloud sinks to his feet and shivers back across the water.

Only when the smoke is completely gone does he exhale, turn to Tom, and smile brightly. "Hello, Tom-gongzi!"

[riddleofthebelow]

“Hello,” he responds with a grin (because how can you not respond so to Wei Wuxian?)

“Are you attempting something specific today?”

[acrookedpath]

"A few things!" He sweeps the talismans together in a lopsided pile and hops off the rock, joining Tom. "Seeing what I can summon, see how much I can summon, and how long I can hold onto it. I think I could have gone much longer but I do not want to lose control of the energy this close to the inn."

[riddleofthebelow]

“What would happen, if you did? Not that I think you would - I’m simply curious.”

[acrookedpath]

"Ah -- "

His smile flickers, briefly. (He does not see the lake, for an instant, but the pavilions of Nightless City; he smells blood instead of clean water, feels heat instead of a cool breeze.)

"Nothing good," he says simply, glancing away, waving the talismans about as if to chase the thoughts from his mind.

[riddleofthebelow]

“I see,” he says, and he decides to bring his thoughts up now rather than later.

“As I was approaching, I was reminded of dark entities in the Wizarding world. They are wraiths shrouded in black that drain the will, the hope, the very soul, out of those they encounter. To banish them, we cast a Patronus, a spell of light and pure energy. I was wondering how my Patronus might interact with your resentful energy. Perhaps it could be an experiment for us to try at some point.”

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian stills, the smile fading completely.

Of course, at this moment, his first thought would be of Lan Zhan. Of course. He chases it away as quickly as he chased away the memory of Nightless City, drawing a careful breath.

"I am not sure I wish to be a part of that." Quietly. "I am sorry. Resentful energy is not the same as these creatures of the dark you describe."

[riddleofthebelow]

“I only wondered,” he demurs. “You’d be the expert on the subject. I hope I haven’t caused offense.”

[acrookedpath]

He shakes his head, swiftly, and forms a rueful smile. "I am a little bruised by discussions of light and dark, good and evil," he says. "That is all. Your Patronus sounds too similar to what others often wished to do to me. Cleanse me; shine a light on what they perceived to be the dark."

[riddleofthebelow]

"Ah. Yes. I recall that bruised feeling well."

His lips quirk into a small smile.

"I was being terribly selfish anyway."

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian chuckles, a little. "There is no terrible harm done," he assures him. "And these entities you describe -- they do sound similar to the demons all cultivators work to eliminate. I would not turn away a Patronus if such a demon were after me!"

[riddleofthebelow]

"And I wouldn't turn down a chance to cast it."

He was never able to conjure a Patronus before Milliways. Through his years school, he'd had to manipulate the minds of his professors and classmates to make them think they saw him have success casting one. But perhaps that is a conversation for a time when there are fewer bruises.

"Oh, Ingress mentioned she met you."

[acrookedpath]

"Did she?" He brightens. "She is a delightful woman, Tom-gongzi. It is thanks to her I now know what a milkshake tastes like. And I have met the squids in the lake at last! Before her I had only seen their shadows."

[riddleofthebelow]

His eyes almost narrow when he hears another grown person of an attractive persuasion call his Ingress a delightful woman, but he remembers that Ingress does not and will never appreciate that kind of protectiveness.

"She's rather fixated on those squids. Always has been. Mr. Julia was kidnapped from the lake once, and she did not let me or anyone else rest until she brought him home."

[acrookedpath]

He laughs, startled. "How was someone able to kidnap a squid that large?"

[riddleofthebelow]

"I don't remember. Apparently the culprit made a habit of stealing large monuments and the like. Magic? Must have been magic. Sometimes it doesn't help to question things here. Accepting that they happen and then dealing with is usually the easiest way to proceed."

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian snorts in loud amusement. "That, Tom-gongzi, I am well on my way to doing," he says. "I have accepted so much strangeness since I arrived! All the worlds so unlike my own, the fact that I am even here, a sky that explodes as regularly as the dawn yet harms nothing -- soon I am sure I will also shrug and go about my day if I awoke to find the lake had been replaced with a pool of lava, or the forest transformed into desert."

[riddleofthebelow]

"It's a remarkable place. Truly. There was a time when there could be too much excitement, but things have calmed considerably. There hasn't been an apocalypse of any kind in, oh, it must be years by now."

Well. That he knows about, anyway.

[acrookedpath]

"Were they truly that common?"

He sounds more curious than genuinely surprised. Wei Wuxian thinks of apocalypse as a devastation; a moment when the world feels as if it is ending, even if it stubbornly continues to exist.

[riddleofthebelow]

“I exaggerate slightly. But there were many times when we had to band together to resist powerful entities intent on wreaking havoc or taking over. The House of Arch has been an emergency refuge on more than one occasion, and once, our defenses were breached, and I didn’t know, for awhile, if we’d ever be all right again.”

[acrookedpath]

"Ah." He sobers, slightly. "I am sorry to hear that, Tom-gongzi. I am very glad you seem to have found your way back from such a calamity."

[riddleofthebelow]

“As am I. While I could have done without experiencing the events, I’ve learned much and gained allies I’d never have otherwise.”

[acrookedpath]

He nods.

"I have had others come into my life in a similar way," he says. "Through terrible events. But as awful as they were, I am glad, at least, they allowed our paths to cross."

How else would he have grown to care so much for Wen Qing and Wen Ning? Or A-Yuan and Granny? His grief has never taken the shape of wishing he had never met them at all -- for if that were so, they all would have died so much sooner.

(Except for A-Yuan, who miraculously yet lives, six years old now and -- he hopes -- growing strong and happy.)

He did not do enough for them. That, he will forever regret.

[riddleofthebelow]

He regards the younger man seriously for a moment. He's so very young; he can't be much older than Ingress. When Tom was that age, what was he doing? Terrible things with regard for no one, especially himself, as he churned with anger and hatred, miserably bitter in his machinations and lying to himself completely.

He's still baffled by how something as relatively benign as controlling the energy of restless spirits painted Wei Wuxian with such a malignant brush. There may be more to the story, of course, and Tom hopes it's something Wei Wuxian can confide in him at some point, as he once shifted some of the weight of his past onto others' shoulders. If there's any weight that even needs shifting.

"You're wise beyond your years, I think, Wei Wuxian."