[pfsb]

[acrookedpath]

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.

Comments

[acrookedpath]

"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?"

[jaskoleczka]

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."

[acrookedpath]

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."

[jaskoleczka]

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."

[acrookedpath]

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."

[jaskoleczka]

"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."

[acrookedpath]

"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.

[jaskoleczka]

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."

[acrookedpath]

"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.

[jaskoleczka]

"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?"

[acrookedpath]

"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."

[jaskoleczka]

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?"

[acrookedpath]

"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."

[jaskoleczka]

"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.

[acrookedpath]

"Yes." He smiles, crookedly. "I believe so, too. My cultivation -- "

He turns over a hand.

"My necromancy. Among the great sects, few saw beyond what they believed were 'wicked tricks.' It did not matter if I pursued justice or protected the innocent. Because of how I cultivated, I was not just, and those I protected weren't innocent."

[jaskoleczka]

She crooks a wry smile at him. "Necromancy is forbidden in my world as well. I think the prevailing argument is that it is a morally bankrupt act...but I suspect it has more to do with the level of power and energy necessary to make it worth a mage's while. And because it would be inconvenient if one's enemies were suddenly to begin telling stories from beyond the grave."

[acrookedpath]

He huffs a rueful laugh. "Even cultivators who do not follow my path can speak with the dead easily enough."

For a moment, as he looks over the lake, his gaze turns abstracted, distant. (It is easy -- too easy -- to picture the water flowering with lotus blossoms, and to hear gentle laughter beside him.)

"But yes -- 'morally bankrupt.'" He shakes his head. "That is how the great sects would decribe it, too. I once tried to argue that energy is energy, whether it is spiritual or resentful, but that did not get me anywhere. In fact, it got a scroll thrown at my head."

He glances sidelong at Ciri.

Lighter: "It's all right. I dodged it. I'm very quick on my feet."

[jaskoleczka]

"A useful quality for a student of the dark magics, I expect."

She's not laughing, quite, but there's an undercurrent of amusement in her voice. "I had to dodge things as well, when I misbehaved."

The pendulums, usually; Vesemir's glove sometimes, Yennefer's scathing remarks often. "Did they believe this..." She waves a hand. "Resentful energy would be too difficult to use?"

[acrookedpath]

He nods. "That not only was it immoral to use resentful energy, rather than suppress or destroy it, but that it could not be controlled," he says. "And that it would leave marks on the body and temperament even if you could master it."

Wei Wuxian turns his attention back to the water.

Quieter: "They may have been right about the last. There is someone here who can see such marks on me. But I still don't regret what I did, to protect those I care about. I cannot."

[jaskoleczka]

She watches him as he watches the water. He hardly seems like a dark mage bent on evil. In fact, he reminds her much more of too many people she has known; people who, in their desperation, turned to whatever power they could find.

"Your motives were pure," she says, gently. "At least, they sound so to me. And I have known many who did much more for far worse a reason. I am sorry you were so demonized, simply for trying to find another way."

[acrookedpath]

He smiles, very small, and tips his head in acknowledgment.

"But you see now why I cannot blame you," he says. He looks back at her. "Simply because of the power you wield."

[jaskoleczka]

"And I thank you for your understanding," she says, with a slight nod of her head and a wry smile. "Here we sit, we two wielders of dreadful power. At least you chose your path; I was simply born into mine."

[acrookedpath]

"Which makes placing the blame on you an even greater injustice." He rubs a hand down his face. "I hope there is a way for you to step from your path, somehow. To be free of your power if you wish it, or at least not at its mercy."

It is an immense cruelty to be used by something so powerful, and with no say in the matter.

[jaskoleczka]

"I've been learning to better control it," she says, leaning back on her elbows and closing her eyes to the warm sun. "My mentor, Avallac'h – he's been teaching me. There's no getting rid of it, I'm afraid."

All her life, her options have taken only three forms: control the power, die at its hand, or run mad with the trying.

Her choice has always seemed obvious enough. "Were you born with a cultivator's ability, or is it something that can be taught, in your world?"

[acrookedpath]

"Ah, it is taught," he says. "Starting from a young age. Some may be born with a disposition that makes it easier to develop strong cultivation, but no one is born with the power itself."