[pfsb]

[acrookedpath]

The latest idea that struck Wei Wuxian mid-lunch: if he combined one of the theoretical energy talismans with a paper doll, would that allow him to search the grounds for resentful energy without having to blanket the whole inn with talismans?

It seems like a sound idea! It won't replace the planned night hunt with Lan Zhan -- nor would he want it to -- but if he succeeds, it will be a fun experiment.

First, though: combining a paper doll with a simpler talisman. Which brings us to Wei Wuxian at a table underneath the Observation Window, not an inch left uncovered by his notes, scribbling onto a tiny cutout with a ballpoint pen Bar gave him. (What an invention!) He completes the last character with a flourish and waves his hand over the doll; it springs to its "feet," and, grinning, he directs it toward the empty cup perched precariously on a corner of the table.

Comments

[blue_ajah]

The waitrat is holding a tray with a teapot -- already brewed, as it happens, and heated to the correct temperature. (The weave that maintains it as such is inverted and thus invisible.)

Also on the tray are two cups, the standard Milliways serving bowls of sugar, cream, and lemon peel for those who might want them... and a handwritten note. (The Bar's translation field has been of some assistance here.)

Master Wei--

With my compliments.

--Moiraine Sedai

The woman in blue responsible for this delivery is seated on the far side of the room, near the fireplace, writing in her journal with an occasional pause to check something in one of a few books lying scattered on the table where she is working. She appears to be paying no attention whatsoever to any of this.

[lightamidchaos]

Is the service here so efficient? Surprised, Lan Wangji reaches down to accept the tray from the rat. He sets it on the table as the rat scurries away, and looks down at the note.



"This is for you."

His voice is flat. He pushes the entire thing toward Wei Ying.

[acrookedpath]

"Huh?"

With good-natured puzzlement, he reaches for the note. "Who sent it? Did Madam Bar hear you..."

He trails off as he reaches the note's signature. All the mirth leaches from his face like a stormcloud covering the sun; he crumples the note with a single clench of his fist, drops it in the middle of the sugar bowl, and tells the waitrat, "Send it back to her. I don't want it."

[lightamidchaos]

The rat stops mid-flight -- evidently it hadn't moved quickly enough to get out of range. (Just as evidently, it had been trying to.)

It slinks back to the table and looks up at Wei Wuxian with an apologetic chitter. Is he sure? Is he really sure? Can the rat talk him out of this?



The initial surge of jealousy that had threatened to drown him with vinegar has retreated at the sight of Wei Ying's reaction, only to be replaced with immediate, intense concern.

"Who is she?"

[acrookedpath]

"She is no one, Lan Zhan."

He reels in his anger at the waitrat's apologetic posture, though his tone remains brusque. "I apologize you have been drawn into this," he tells it. "But no. I do not want it. Thank you."

[lightamidchaos]

"Wei Ying. You are upset."

The waitrat heaves a sigh and takes the tray back, starting across the room toward Moiraine as slowly as it can get away with.

Lan Wangji ignores it, all his attention on Wei Ying.

"Tell me."

[acrookedpath]

"It's nothing."

His resistance is already fading as he says this. Wei Wuxian leans his cheek against his fist with a tired sigh.

"She is another cultivator. We shared tea some days ago; when the pot was half-empty, she said she could -- " his voice turns bitterly sarcastic, "'sense the taint of the Shadow' on me, as if I were ignorant of it, and asked if I wished to be healed."

[lightamidchaos]

The look he directs across the room at her is sharp and searing.

"Did she."

He knows, at least in part, that this may be unfair. Perhaps she only wished to aid in some way. Resentful energy does harm the body, and the temperament. It is why he himself had begged Wei Ying to let him help, that night on the rooftop in the Unclean Realm.

But he cannot forget the memory of all the times people had looked askance at Wei Ying, spoken insults to his face and behind his back, the whispers and rumors about the Yiling Patriarch, or the sects at Nightless City, screaming and calling for Wei Ying's blood.

Wei Ying knows the risks. He has made his choices. And Lan Wangji will not fail to stand beside him again.

"I will tell her. To leave you be."

[acrookedpath]

His eyes widen as he lifts his chin off his hand.

"Don't, Lan Zhan," he says. "I will avoid her. It's fine -- "

[lightamidchaos]

"It is not fine."

He shoves back his chair and rises to his feet.

[acrookedpath]

He didn't expect this level of vehemence over so small a slight.

"Lan Zhan -- " Half-rising from his chair, he catches Lan Zhan by the arm in an effort to halt his path.

[lightamidchaos]

The hand on his arm stops him. He turns to look at Wei Ying.

"She has no right," he says, biting off each word, short and sharp.

[acrookedpath]

"She has not attacked me."

Quieter.

"She has not denounced me for all to hear, or prevented me from moving freely. All she has done is made assumptions I have heard a thousand times before. She was unkind, Lan Zhan, but that is all."

[lightamidchaos]

He closes his eyes, hoping it will hide his thoughts.

A thousand times before. Including his own, once.

Wei Ying is not wrong. He knows it. And still--

"You deserve better."

He opens his eyes again and looks at the other man.

"If you truly wish, then I will not act now. But if she persists, you will tell me. Promise me, Wei Ying."

[acrookedpath]

His mouth quirks up into a tiny smile. "I promise, Lan Zhan," he says, no louder.

She has no right. The fierceness to his words, as if raising a sword against an army, all for this? All for him?

He loosens his grip on Lan Zhan's arm, and tries to firm up his smile. "Now, let us get our own tea. I'm sure whatever she sent over was horrid."

[lightamidchaos]

He nods.

"One moment."

With one last flat glance in Moiraine's direction, he turns away and crosses the room to make a request of Bar-guniang.

He returns very soon afterward, carrying a tray with tea for them both, a bowl of rice to share, and dishes of mapo tofu and shuizhu. As with breakfast, a bottle of chili oil is present.

[acrookedpath]

The strength of the shuizhu's spice tickles his nose from half a meter away, and all at once, Wei Wuxian is ravenous. Eagerly, he clears a bigger space on the table for their food and seizes upon both the dish and the chili oil.

Midway through opening the bottle, a realization strikes him.

"Lan Zhan! You are older than me now!" Hastily, he shoves one of the cups across the table and picks up the teapot. "I have forgotten myself."

[lightamidchaos]

He had been setting out the rest of the contents of the tray, planning to pour their tea next, quietly content in being able to care for Wei Ying in these small ways.

The cheerful observation freezes him in place.

He is older than Wei Ying, now. Three years older. And more years will come, in which he will move alone through the world that had once been theirs, keeping their vow for both of them while Wei Ying -- does what? Explores the limits of a strange inn? How long will it be before that is no longer enough, before he comes to regard this place as a prison?

Lan Wangji does not know, but he fears the answer.

"Mn," he manages. It's literally all he can say.

[acrookedpath]

"Does that mean I'm forgiven?" he laughs as he finishes pouring Lan Zhan's tea. Moving on to his own cup, "You have seen me be much ruder, I suppose. It will be fine."

Instead of drinking his tea straight away, he goes back to attacking the chili oil bottle, with all intent to smother his dinner just as he did his breakfast.

[lightamidchaos]

"There is nothing to forgive."

He leaves the tea where it is for the moment and instead turns his attention to putting rice in a bowl, which he sets in front of Wei Ying before preparing his own.

[acrookedpath]

You know what goes well with rice, Lan Zhan? More chili oil.

Pretty soon, the sinus-clearing sting of Wei Wuxian's dinner can probably be smelled from three tables away. He shovels the food into his mouth without decorum, slowing down only when he realizes he's threatening to spatter oil on his papers by accident. Next time, he tells himself, he'll remember to ask for lunch before he gets too absorbed in his work.

(Knowing Wei Wuxian, he'll forget this thought in the next five minutes.)

[lightamidchaos]

It will forever be a mystery to him how Wei Ying can eat as he does without searing the ability to taste anything away forever.

He shakes his head very slightly at the thought and begins his own meal - in silence, as the precepts require.

[acrookedpath]

Maybe he has! Maybe that's why he can keep eating the equivalent of a raging bonfire so cheerily.

"I have another talisman to show you, Lan Zhan," he eventually says once he's polished off half his food. Leaning over, he starts to dig through one of the more haphazard piles of paper.

[lightamidchaos]

He makes an encouraging noise, even as he reaches out to make sure that another stack of papers doesn't get knocked over in the process.

[acrookedpath]

After a few tries (and thanks to Lan Zhan holding the stack in place), he wiggles out a slip of paper printed with a dense array of characters.

"Here," he says, slapping it flat between them and gesturing to it with his chopsticks. "It's more complete than the others, but it's still so limited! Spiritual energy only, and in no more than a one-meter radius. I suppose if this is to be a stepping stone to the energy talisman, the radius doesn't matter, but -- " A small noise of frustration. "Do you have any ideas?"