Wei Wuxian (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
acrookedpath) wrote2020-09-23 05:05 pm
acrookedpath) wrote2020-09-23 05:05 pm
[pfsb]
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.
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.
no subject
He is not alone. He is less alone now than he had ever believed possible, and every moment of that truth is more of a blessing than he could ever deserve.
"It is all right, Wei Ying."
no subject
(It isn't, really, and won't be until Lan Zhan's seclusion is done. But it will be as all right as possible, given the circumstances.)
He inclines his head toward the blank spot on the wall where he knows the door would be, if he could see it. "I should not keep you from your meditations any longer, then. I'll see you tonight, Lan Zhan."
no subject
He pulls the door open, revealing the stone walls of the tunnel that leads down into the cave, just inside the portal.
Lan Wangji gives him a faint, barely-there flicker of a smile, and leaves the inn, allowing the door to swing shut behind him as he walks deeper into the silence of the cave.
If there were anything to be heard, no sound carries back past the layers of ice that lie thick on the deeper walls, insulating the heart of the cave.
no subject
Well. Now he has the day to himself. Alone.
(And he will not spend it working, he tells himself sternly. At least part of it, he will spend figuring out how to tell Lan Zhan. Somehow. At some point.)
Realizing he still hasn't lowered his hand, he hastily drops it, clears his throat, and goes to see about getting another cup of tea.