acrookedpath | [pfsb]

Wei Wuxian's eyes widen, and he breaks into a delighted grin at the display.

"Of course!" he says. "As combining elements in a talisman might do the same thing."

He sketches a line of glowing red characters in the air: water, fire, elements to disperse the water to a fine mist and condense the fire into hard flat spikes of lightning. A second cloud joins the first, a bolt of lightning arcing to its compatriot.

He still does not entirely trust this woman, but he cannot repress the swell of fondness that rushes through him at Wei Ying's bright joy in having found something new to explore. If he must tolerate the Aes Sedai for that, well, it is not the hardest thing he has ever done.

"Precisely so," Moiraine says. "And the effect can be retained so long as one holds the weave ... or for a time longer, if it is tied and set. Like so."

She allows her miniature storm to dissipate, then weaves another training exercise into a hand-sized scrap of gleaming multicolored threads. Moiraine ties off the edges of the 'cloth' and holds it out to Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

Wei Wuxian accepts it. His eyes expect it to weigh as much as silk, at most; to his fingers' surprise, it hardly has a form at all, though it thrums with the energy Moiraine poured into it. He holds it up to eye level to examine it closer, the light of its threads reflected in his eyes.

"Lan Zhan," he whispers, still delighted, and offers it to him. "Look!"

He takes the ethereal thing in his fingers and turns it over with care, studying it closely.

"How much longer?" he asks, looking up at Moiraine.

"It depends on the weave and how the tie is made," she says, calm and unruffled. Lan Wangji thinks that her cadence is not unlike that of a teacher explaining a technique. "For this, some few minutes, perhaps a quarter of an hour. For a gateway, it may persist some longer, but eventually the weave will dissipate due to the strength required to hold the portal open."

Wei Wuxian makes a small, intrigued noise, continuing to eye the weave. "And when a weave is acting against a force as strong as a portal to Diyu, I suppose it wouldn't last long at all."

She inclines her head. "A tied weave can also be broken more easily than when one is held."

"Can it be held by something else, then?"

He cocks his head.

"Another source of power?"

"By the channeler," Moiraine clarifies. "That is what is usual. There are some few ter'angreal that serve as set portals, and there are some Portal Stones, but those are ... far from safe."

Her voice is very, very carefully controlled.

"For this - to open a gateway, it is necessary for the channeler to know the place where they are. From there, it takes strength and time to open the passage in the first place, and the duration of the opening depends on the strength of the one holding it. Are you ready to see one?"

Moiraine is hard to read, even at the best of times, but the level of control she exerts now -- well. It is not unlike the ruthless control he's seen his husband maintain over his emotions.

Quietly, he makes a note in the back of his mind, but he does not pry.

"I believe so," he says, glancing to Lan Zhan to see if he agrees.

"Mn," assents the man who Moiraine cannot help but think of as Wei Wuxian's warder. She nods to them both and stands in a graceful swirl of her skirts.

"Do not touch the sides of the portal, when it is open. They are sharper than any blade," she cautions. Moiraine flicks her fingers as the aura around her brightens, and a shining silver line of light appears in the middle of the room. It brightens, then splits to either side, not unlike opening a scroll, to reveal a cove at the side of the lake.

"You may pass through, if you wish."

Rising from the couch, Wei Wuxian tucks his hands behind his back and peers into the portal. "So that is Twin Peaks?" he asks.

At this point, it seems unlikely Moiraine plans to send them to an unknown world and slam the portal shut behind them... but if Wei Wuxian is thinking it, Lan Zhan almost certainly is. Best to ask for both their sakes!

"No," she says, mildly. "We will enter Twin Peaks from the front door. This is a cove on the other side of the lake outside this very building, near one of the riding paths."

Lan Wangji eyes her carefully, but cannot detect any deception in her manner.

A soft ah of understanding. And, well, if Moiraine is bound to speak the truth --

He glances to Lan Zhan, flashes him another brilliant grin, and jumps through the portal.

Lan Wangji lets out a startled breath as Wei Ying dashes through the gateway, and is on his heels without even a moment's thought.

True to the Aes Sedai's word, they are standing on the far side of the lake, as simply as if they had stepped through a window from one to the other.

Moiraine crosses through behind them, but keeps the portal open and waits for their reaction.

Wei Wuxian turns in a circle, taking in the view as if he were seeing it for the first time. There is the lake, glittering and serene; there, a path dipping deep into the forest that he hasn't explored yet. Over Lan Zhan's shoulder he can see the distant shape of the inn.

"Impressive!" he says. "And very useful indeed."

"It can be, yes," the Aes Sedai murmurs. "And from this place, it is possible to cross worlds with it, as well as to move between the Mirrors of the Wheel."

She tilts her head toward the gateway, inviting them to return through it.

"The Mirrors of the Wheel?"

He vaults lightly back through the portal, boots landing on the floor of Moiraine's quarters.

"What are those?"

"'From Stone to Stone run the lines of If, connecting all the worlds that might be,'" the Aes Sedai quotes. She waits for Lan Wangji to follow Wei Wuxian back into her study, then steps through herself and releases the weave. As the gateway winks out, she continues,

"Think of each Mirror as a parallel world, some lying as close to each other as the pages of a book. Some are separated by only the smallest of choices, others are far more distant. In the world where I was born, it is possible to use Portal Stones to traverse between them, although it is extremely dangerous to do so. However, there are other ways, for some."

Wei Wuxian has tried his whole life -- and now his afterlife -- to live without regrets, as he swore beneath those lanterns so many years ago. But it is a task easier said than done.

How can his heart not clench as he thinks of those thin separations between worlds? Just beyond reach, there might be a place where his shijie still lives; where Lotus Pier was not destroyed; where he never met the Jins on Qiongqi Path and sent everything spiraling toward its end.

His easygoing smile dims, and for a moment he cannot answer Moiraine.

He moves closer to Wei Ying's side on the instant, and gives the Aes Sedai a sharp look, warning her not to say a single word. She arches an eyebrow, but remains a quiet observer.

"Wei Ying," he murmurs, for his husband's ears alone. He is sure that he knows what the other man is thinking - how can he not, seeing how his own thoughts have run? Worlds so close as that, there must be one where he had gone with him, stood by his side, where Wei Ying had not died, where they had not lost everything. "Do not."

He exhales a brief, wobbly breath; it might have been his attempt at a laugh. "I am trying," he says, no louder.

Lan Wangji places his hand at the small of Wei Ying's back, trying to steady and support him.

"The Pattern's weaving is complex," Moiraine murmurs, after a moment. "The more so, when it comes to those who are touched by ta'maral'ailen."

He frowns when the inn's magic does not translate her last words, and looks Moiraine's way.

"By what?"

"It is a web," Moiraine tells him, ignoring the sharp look from Lan Wangji. "Sometimes the Wheel's weaving bends a thread such that all other threads nearby are forced to swirl with it, whether they wish to or not. That swirl, that shift, that is ta'maral'ailen."

Wei Wuxian looses another soft breath at that. An unwilling, unfelt smile tugs at his lips; he drops his gaze.

"Well," he says, his lightness just as forced, "this pattern, in this world, has already been woven, with all its runs and crooked strings, eh? Undoing one bad thread would still make everything fall apart."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject