[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

[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."

[acrookedpath]

"And so that would always be active around yourself?" he guesses. "So your elderly did not become sick? That does sound much like how a traditional suppression array would work."

[we_bring_hell]

"Yes, on days when I had contact with a large number of parishioners," she says. Which was... most days. "It was sewn into many of my garments."

"The same spell is part of many blood rituals as well, to sterilize the athame or other instruments."

[acrookedpath]

He nods, examining the spiral more closely. "I wonder if it would be possible to do something similar with my own work," he says, half to himself. "Burn the energy as a coal rather than a bright spark. If there were a way to dam the energy as it entered the talisman, maybe..."

Sustained effects with talismans that are not simply warding, luring, or suppressing work! This could be very fun.

[we_bring_hell]

"That is why we use blood," she says, nodding. "It is potent with thalergy that converts slowly as the cells die. The cycle decays naturally over time."

[acrookedpath]

"Ah! I had wondered." He grins. "I assumed this whole time it worked much as our use of blood does -- life attracts the dead, so it can be a more potent way to lure ghosts or resentful energy."

...And now he's thinking of Lan Zhan again.

Damn it.

[we_bring_hell]

"Blood is useful for that as well," she says, nodding. "The slow decay leaves a trail into the hereafter that draws spirits who desire the rest of the thalergy."

"But for your purposes--how quickly does power propagate through the talisman? Could you divert it down delaying channels?"

[acrookedpath]

"That's what I was thinking," he says, nodding. "It flashes through the talisman very quickly, most of the time -- they are meant to complement other fast-moving forms of cultivation, so there cannot be any delay in their effects. But if the energy passed through several long loops of instruction that only told it to keep going, or if those instructions told it to move at a slower pace..."

His whole face has lit up with the delight of a new project to tackle.

"I think it may work."

[we_bring_hell]

"Long loops were what I was thinking, but if it was too fast it wouldn't work. But of course, if it follows directions you could just tell it to go slower."

"I'm afraid thanergy is much more particular--it requires either very simple instructions, or complex emulations. But I suppose it makes sense. Getting the energy of death and decay to do anything productive is like persuading water to flow uphill."

[acrookedpath]

"And resentful energy is often all too eager to take action." Wry, but still smiling. "If it were not, it would be at peace, and there would be no energy to rouse at all."

He contemplates the spiral a moment longer. The red ink of the pen already makes it appear similar to blood; it does not take too much to imagine how it would look if drawn with a sliced fingertip.

"You said blood can call to the dead with its thalergy," he says at last, slower, still focused on Harrow's drawing. "How does that manifest, exactly?"

[we_bring_hell]

"The cells of the blood die slowly, and produce a slow drip of thanergy. The spirits need thanergy to function, so they are drawn to it--although they must convert it into a sort of pseudo-lifeforce to make use of it."

"Revenant spirits harness large amounts of it using violent emotions, but even ordinary ghosts capture small amounts. We call this revenant or poltergeist energy. The Second House have a method for transferring it to living creatures, but it is a secret of their House."

[acrookedpath]

The rest of what she says -- about revenant spirits and poltergeist energy -- is certainly interesting. Her description of it comes far closer to Wei Wuxian's own resentful energy than anything else she has explained to date; it makes him think there is not as large a difference in their work as he once thought.

But it's the first part that makes his stomach drop an inch.

"So it is not the thalergy they are truly attracted to, but the thanergy," he says. "You're certain? Ah, no, of course you would be, I do not mean to imply you're not -- "

[we_bring_hell]

"I am not sure what ghosts are thinking," she admits. "But mystically speaking, they must make use of death energy, not life energy. But of course it's the same energy, going through transformations."

"Why?"

[acrookedpath]

"It's nothing," he says quickly. Far too quickly. "I have finished the energy-revealing array and I tested it last night, that's all."

A beat.

"On Lan Zhan. It worked fine!" he goes on, even more swiftly. "That is the problem, it worked fine, he is very much alive and if I am dead then it would have made sense, but if you are saying the dead are drawn to thanergy then I don't know what -- "

He trips over the last few words, floundering.

[we_bring_hell]

"You don't know what?" She cocks her head.

"Did you feel drawn to consume Lan Wangji?" At this point Gideon would have an aneurysm.

[acrookedpath]

"No!" he yelps. "No, it's nothing like that, I'm not -- "

He can feel his cheeks flushing.

"I'm not a danger to him, I know I am not behaving like a ghost would in our world, the inn's -- counteracting that but I don't know if it's counteracting enough. I think it is? I think -- "

Wei Wuxian buries his face in his hands.





Very, very muffled: "I think I might be in love with Lan Zhan?"

[we_bring_hell]

"Yes?" she says, waiting for the shocking part.

[acrookedpath]

She is taking this so much better than Wei Wuxian himself, he thinks dimly.

"That stupid array," he groans, with a drama that would make even Nie Huaisang raise his eyebrows a bit. "It would have made sense if it was only because he is pure thalergy. I can't describe it, Harrow. I have been thinking about it all day."

[we_bring_hell]

"Wei Wuxian," she says as kindly as she can, which isn't very good to be honest. "I told you I thought of you as a necromancer and cavalier pair. It is a rather... intense emotional relationship. Not necessarily passionate--indeed, there are some who frown on that sort of coupling--but I have never been especially concerned with matters of the flesh."

"Of course you love each other. It has been clear to me for some time."

[acrookedpath]

He raises his head, baffled. "You -- ?"

To be fair, Wei Wuxian has had... rather a lot on his mind since he arrived at the inn. And before that. And before that. But if his face weren't aflame before, it is now with the realization that Harrow has seen him so plainly, long before even Wei Wuxian himself could see it.

"But we had drifted apart before... everything." He rubs at his face again. "I didn't think -- of course I was happy to see him here, but..."

He trails into another frustrated groan.