acrookedpath | [pfsb]

[pfsb]

Lan Zhan, he writes, I'm swimming in the lake! I love you -- Wei Ying. After a moment's thought, Wei Wuxian adds a smiley face to the bottom like Madam Bar so often does with her napkin notes.

It's unseasonably warm today, more early summer than late fall. The trees have dropped enough of their leaves that Wei Wuxian knows such days will depart for good soon enough. And frankly, if he stares at his latest iteration of the energy-revealing array much longer, his eyes will cross and stick that way. He needs to clear his head.

After leaving one copy of the note in their room and another with Madam Bar, he requests some swimming attire; she provides a black short-sleeved shirt much like the one he wore to London Above, the fabric smooth as silk but much stretchier, and loose red trousers that end just above his knees. A little revealing for a lake shared by many, perhaps, but they'll do.

He changes in the public washroom and walks to the shoreline. Stepping onto one of the larger rocks, he eyes the water with a smile.

Then he backs up, sprints forward to spring off the rock, and cannonballs into the lake with a loud whoop.

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She shakes her head against his correction, lifting a hand in a gesture that says no need. "You sound like my grandmother," she says, somewhat wistfully. "She raged against destiny and fought it at every turn."

Sitting back again, she loops her arms loosely around her knees and looks up at the warm autumn sky. "Destiny has hounded my every footfall since I was a child. I believed in it once, but..." She shrugs, both at her own thoughts and at Wei Wuxian's last statement.

"You would not be the first if you did. Believe me, I'd understand."

Edited 2020-11-15 02:47 (UTC)

One corner of his mouth crooks, wryly. "Which is all the more reason I should not," he says.

He turns the folded paper between his hands.

"But you must understand: Lan Zhan does not scare easily. If I were to count on one hand how many times I have seen him this afraid, I would have several fingers left to spare. I make my own destiny, Ciri. I walk paths others have not foreseen. And I will not leave him again."

She hears Harrowhark Nonagesimus' voice in her ears again: I walk without fear because I have Gideon the Ninth beside me. And you have frightened her terribly.

And she thinks about Geralt, who once said forever, Ciri and who she hasn't seen in five years. About Queen Calanthe, desperately trying to trick a destiny already set in motion. Her father, manipulating destiny to his own means. About these two men, one living, one dead, both swearing they will not be separated again.

"I hope you are right," is all she says, just as it was all she could say to Lan Zhan. She plucks a blade of grass, fiddles with it between her fingers while considering what she can, or should, tell this determined young ghost.

"Most of my life has been dictated by others," she says, finally. "I always hated it, too. I've never had the freedom to make my own choices. But perhaps here...I can."

His lopsided smile doesn't grow, but it does straighten out, turning a bit more genuine.

"The inn is a marvel," he says. "I would not have thought I'd find a place where I have such freedom -- where I am not despised, or hunted, where I am welcomed on my path rather than shunned. If there is any place where you may finally be able to make your own choices... it is here."

"You seem altogether too pleasant to be shunned or despised," she says, a small smile of her own touching her lips. "This place seems designed for us misfits."

Wei Wuxian chuckles in wry agreement. "It does, doesn't it?" he says. "A gathering of outcasts, set apart from all else at the end of the world. I can think of far worse places to spend my days."

"I might have preferred not instantly alienating almost everyone I've met, but aside from that small hiccup it is really very pleasant," she agrees.

"I almost don't even mind being Bound here, if it means being able to get back on my feet...and good company to help pass the time."

He wrinkles his nose, apologetic. "I know Lan Zhan does not blame you," he says. "For whatever that might be worth. And I hope to be better company now that we have spoken about this."

He wiggles the folded paper.

"I've also found I can visit other worlds even though I cannot return to mine, so if the inn ever grows boring -- " He flashes a brief grin. "You do not have to be as Bound as it seems."

"You're right," she says, smiling faintly. "He does not. I found slightly less understanding from Gideon the Ninth and her mistress, however, and I can't blame them."

But it is too lovely a day to dwell on Harrowhark Nonagesimus and her baldly stating that she would cheerfully kill Ciri if that would solve her problem. She tilts her head at Wei Wuxian, curious.

"Have you been to other worlds, then?" she asks. "How did you manage that?"

Well... that is no surprise to Wei Wuxian. And he cannot say he blames them, either; Gideon, fiercely protective, and Harrow, fiercely determined, are formidable in combination. To be told Harrow may face death and leave Gideon to bury her --

Well.

"Far easier than I would have thought, considering I cannot even see the front door," he says. "My friend, Ingress, has a talent for opening the way to other places and worlds -- so does her father, Tom-gongzi. I have spent time in both London Below and London Above because of them. I may yet journey to a third world soon as well."

Though considering Ciri's prophecy, he suspects he will have to spend a few extra nights coaxing Lan Zhan into journeying to Moiraine's world now.

"Ingress!" she says, delighted, happy to have found firmer footing. "I've met Ingress, she's lovely. I must ask her about how she opens to other worlds – I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to create a stable portal," she confesses.

"Every time I manage one, it drops me right back here."

"That's right," he realizes. "Lan Zhan mentioned that was another of your gifts! I have no idea how Ingress's power works, but if she can help, I know she will -- she is indeed lovely, and very kindhearted. Is that how you arrived? Through one of your portals?"

She shakes her head.

"That one was created by Avallac'h. My companion. My mentor, really; he's been teaching me to better control my powers. He was supposed to follow me through, but...We'd been attacked. Something must have happened to him."

He winces.

"I hope not." A little quieter. "I hope he is well, and the only reason he is not here is because the inn can be..." Wei Wuxian waves a hand, absently. "Capricious."

She nods, frowning a little. "I hope so, too. I saw a flash of light...but he and I were traveling through separate portals. My hope is that he managed to escape through his own and is now at our arranged meeting place in Velen, waiting for me."

Wei Wuxian nods.

"If he is -- I know time stops for some while they are here," he says. "And I have never heard of someone being Bound forever, unless they are dead. So he will not have to wait long, even if you stay here a while."

"That was what Doctor Ford told me, too," she agrees. "As little as I like the idea of being bound to one place without any say in the matter, that is convenient. And if it turns out to be longer than I originally thought to find him, I expect I'll be grateful for this time to heal and ready myself."

"It's a good respite." He puts the heels of his bare feet to the stone, hooking his arms around his knees. "A very strange one. But a good one. Even aside from the freedom it might bring, the rooms are as fine as the most expensive inn -- and so is the wine," he adds with a conspiratorial flash of a grin.

Ciri sighs in nostalgic longing. "Wine! I have not had a decent cup of wine since – well, since far too long."

Not since the great feasts held in Queen Calanthe's court, where even a girl of twelve might coax a glass or two of jewel-red or honey-gold wine from an indulgent server. "I shall have to put your advice to the test."

"Ask her for Emperor's Smile if you have the chance," he says. "I have recommended that to many -- it's long been my favorite."

Well, aside from Atlantean, but if a single shotglass of that left Wei Wuxian hardly able to walk, he will not recommend it so boldly to everyone he meets.

"I shall, thank you."

She studies him as they lounge there in the sun, curious: he certainly looks and acts alive. He gets cold and enjoys warmth and wine.

None of it is anything like what she'd expected from an afterlife. "How long have you been here, Wei Wuxian? Does it begin to feel..."

She lifts a hand, uncertain of how to articulate her question. "Do you feel free here? Or is it confining, at times?"

"I have been here -- " He taps a foot against the stone, considering. "Several months now, I think? It was the middle of summer when I arrived. It is..."

Wei Wuxian trails off, watching the lake ripple in a warm breeze.

"Yes," he admits. "Confining at times. That I cannot walk to the next village to see what they might offer, or travel farther on horseback -- I was accustomed to journeys that, and now I cannot without asking someone like Ingress to Open a way for me. But I am freer in spirit than I was in my world. The way others viewed me, and my own talents and tricks, confined me more than any walls could. So if I feel trapped, it is only fleeting."

His smile softens.

"And besides, I have Lan Zhan."

Ah, she thinks, seeing that soft smile, how it warms his eyes.

"Lan Wangji and I spoke of the role of cultivators in your world," she says, shifting tacks slightly. "Traveling to lend assistance where it is most needed. Are you a cultivator also, as he is?"

"I was trained as one," he says with a small shrug. "But my path was very different from Lan Zhan's by the end. It still is. Yet -- I am committed to the vows I spoke. We will always walk the same path there."

"The Path is not always easy," she agrees, "but I always thought it was worth it to help those whose need was great."

She is not a witcher, but that didn't stop her from idolizing the ones who raised her.

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