[pfsb] happy halloween!

[acrookedpath]

It's that time of year again.

The inn is bustling. All manner of strange outfits have been donned (some more willingly than others). Lanterns flicker ominously in the corners, pumpkins stand sentry at either end of the bar, and every order comes complete with a handful of wrapped candies.

And -- if you're Wei Wuxian -- Madam Bar has also gifted you with an enormous array of tiny cakes, each one with a little candle stuck in its center. His second birthday at the inn has arrived, and he could not be more pleased.

(He's also wearing a red T-shirt that reads, simply, I'M THE CHAOS. Just like last year, he has set his mild confusion aside in favor of delight at the bounty Madam Bar has given him.)

Comments

[acrookedpath]

If possible, his smile brightens even more. He nods enthusiastically, wiggling his fingers as if to beckon both cold air and warm air into his hands.

"It's amazing, isn't it?"

[lightamidchaos]

"It is," she declares. "Is it always like this?"

"Mn," Lan Wangji confirms.

[acrookedpath]

"I would have planted the lotuses here were it not for the salt water, since it is always so warm."

He takes his shijie's hands, coaxing her to step into the full warmth of the inlet.

"Sometimes, when I went to visit the rabbits last winter, I would stop here for a moment to warm up before continuing on my way."

[lotus_sister]

"Who wouldn't?" She squeezes his fingers and follows him across the odd border, walking down toward the water as Lan Wangji trails along after them. "It's lovely."

[acrookedpath]

When they are close to the water's edge -- but not so close to be splashed by an errant wave -- Wei Wuxian flops into the sand, contented, and leans back onto his palms to admire the view.

"Someday I will figure out how it came to be," he says. "Whether it is another door to somewhere outside the inn, or a piece that was brought here, as the inn brings so many people. I have talked to some that have seen a ship floating on the water not far from shore."

He points to a patch of water in the distance.

[lightamidchaos]

“A black ship,” he agrees. “I have heard the same.”

Lan Wangji moves to the side and settles on one of the large rocks to watch them.

[acrookedpath]

"Maybe we will be lucky enough to see it tonight."

He tilts his head toward the moon. Gradually, his smile turns more thoughtful; dims, slightly, as he looks Jiang Yanli's way.

A little hesitant: "Shijie, do you... remember any of the very first time you arrived here?"

[lotus_sister]

“The very first time?” she asks, frowning a little as she studies him. “Do you not - you don’t mean in the room upstairs?”

It’s a question, but not entirely.

[acrookedpath]

He shakes his head.

Quieter, "When Harrow performed her consecration ritual. Here, in the salt water."

[lotus_sister]

She starts to shake her head, then stops, frowning in concentration.

“There was a voice,” she says, after long moments of silence. Her glance goes to A-Xian and holds, thoughtful. “Your voice?”

[acrookedpath]

"Yes." He smiles, small and crooked, as a flicker of worry lights in his eyes. "I acted as Harrow's voice throughout the ritual. And..."

He trails off. She does not seem to remember. It would be a kindness to leave it that way, surely, given the horrors he saw: his shijie standing waist-deep in the inlet's waters, gored by a lotus blossom, her white robes stained red by the blood dripping down her chest.

[lotus_sister]

She shakes her head. “It was like I was dreaming. I could hear something, from a long way away, but I couldn’t make it out, not really.”

She looks at Lan Wangji, silently listening. “You played? There was music. Faint. I don’t remember anything else… just floating closer, like on the river.”

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian breathes out, his shoulders sagging with the movement.

"It was such a strange collision of power," he murmurs. "Far beyond what any of us anticipated. I saw things, as I spoke with Harrow's voice..." He laughs, a little, but there is no humor to it. "I am glad they weren't real after all."

He studies Jiang Yanli.

"You encouraged me to keep going, though, when I faltered."

[lightamidchaos]

“I did? Of course I would,” she echoes, and Lan Wangji feels a pang in his heart. He remembers seeing another shape that had tried to form there that night, before Jiang Yanli had appeared.

It is better this way. It is. Wei Ying has missed his sister so much, and she him.

[acrookedpath]

"My shijie has always looked out for me," he says: quiet, still, but warmer now.

He looks back to the expanse of ocean in front of them. After a moment, he exhales another soft sigh.

"I hope that Harrow is all right. She has been gone a long time, by the inn's reckoning, but perhaps it is like how time passed differently for Lan Zhan and I."

[lotus_sister]

“She’s another friend,” Jiang Yanli murmurs. It’s obvious.

“I don’t pretend to understand how that works here, but I’d think it’s certainly possible.”

[acrookedpath]

He nods. "I have heard of some leaving the inn for years, and when they return, they have barely lived for a day on the other side of the door. I hope that's all it is."

He stirs a fingertip through the sand.

"She is a necromancer. The first one I met when I arrived here. Ah, it was such a marvel not to be the only one anymore; to hear of an entire world of necromancers, where that path is no more remarked upon than the color of the grass."

[lotus_sister]

Jiang Yanli instinctively glances at Lan Wangji for his reaction, and finds nothing untoward or concerning. He is sitting on the rock where he'd originally settled, evidently untroubled, listening to A-Xian talk.

"I hope I can meet her someday," she says.

[acrookedpath]

"I hope so, too."

His smile grows.

"She was the one who first made contact with you, when we spoke through Inquiry."

[lotus_sister]

She looks at Lan Wangji again, studying him as she tries to remember. He nods to her, very slightly, confirming her suspicions.

"In your room. Yes. The one who was speaking while Lan Wangji played."

[acrookedpath]

"Yes." He laughs, a little. "She is prickly, and strange at times, but she is brilliant in ways even I cannot touch. I've learned quite a lot from her."

[lightamidchaos]

“Wei Ying has many friends here,” he murmurs, in the hope it will both please and reassure Jiang Yanli.

[acrookedpath]

"Well, with so many interesting people to talk to, how can I not?"

He sprawls backward onto the sand, tucking his hands behind his head to admire the stars.

"Lan Zhan, you have made plenty of friends yourself!"

[lotus_sister]

He shakes his head. "Not as many as Wei Ying."

"Maybe it's that the ones you make, you keep close," Jiang Yanli observes. "A-Xuan always spoke so highly of you."

"Mn." The faintest hint of pink tinges the upper curve of his ears.

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian's smile loses a measure of brightness at the mention of his shijie's husband. He thinks, I saw him during the ritual, too; does not even consider saying it aloud.

What good would it do, when they've just proven Wei Wuxian was hallucinating the people he saw in the inlet's waters?

(But if a wisp of Jiang Yanli was all it took to see her that day, would a wisp of Jin Zixuan have done the same?)