[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

[acrookedpath]

Still hesitant: "And now?"

He cannot grow angry at others for dancing around a subject, he admits to himself, if he is unwilling to do the same. And so, lowering his voice:

"Lan Zhan told me there was another experiment. An avulsion field?"

[we_bring_hell]

The avulsion field already feels like a thousand years ago. She thinks of siphoning again to unblocked the keyhole--

(Saddle up, sunshine.)

"Things were better between us for a moment," she says, with a tight smile behind her veil. "But moments pass. Even... Even very nice ones."

"She is unhappy with me right now."

She is telling Palamedes Sextus about the severed head in Harrow's closet right now, actually, in the frozen eternal now beyond the door.

[acrookedpath]

His mouth twists in sympathy.

"I am sorry," he says. "We don't need to speak of it more. I was... ah, but I worry too much, sometimes. And when Lan Zhan mentioned she was injured by the field..."

He shakes his head.

[we_bring_hell]

"I was worried about her as well," she says. "But she recovered quickly. Gideon Nav... has always recovered quickly."

Steering around THAT.

"Things have gotten tense for all of us since then, though. I told you I was afraid what would happen when someone realized there truly are no rules, didn't I? Duels over keys have begun." She frowns. "Palamedes Sextus believe all of the keys have been claimed, and we can certainly account for seven of the eight."

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian winces.

"Is it just you and Sextus working together?" he asks. "I know you said it did not seem likely the Houses would join together."

[we_bring_hell]

"We are not exactly working together," she says. "Sharing information. He has promised to share his notes with me if I help him pick a lock..."

She accounts for the teams on her fingers.

"In the beginning there was little motivation to cooperate. Now the sides have congealed, but... the Fifth and the Fourth are dead," she says, with a wince, "and the Seventh adept has lost her cavalier and seems to be dying. If she is still playing, it is a deeper game than anyone understands."

"The Second continue to ignore the trials and try to claim their authority, but when they attempted to bully the Sixth, Camilla Hect won the duel handily. They underestimated her. So they have only driven things into anarchy faster."

"The Eight has three keys, one of his own and two stolen from Dulcinea Septimus, one of which we earned," she says, with a bit of a snarl. "And he loathes us, so no hope there."

"And the Third is... maneuvering. They have no keys, but they have two necromancers, a ranked duelist for a cavalier, and a great deal of political influence and treasure. Ianthe Tridentarius seems to be suddenly trying to enter the stakes at the last moment. I admit until then I thought she was just a pale shadow of her twin, but she seems to be the mastermind after all."

"No, I believe it is the Ninth and the Sixth versus the Eighth, with the Third as a dark horse. And a missing key."

[acrookedpath]

By the end of that recitation, Wei Wuxian's head is spinning a bit from trying to keep track of the alliances, betrayals, machinations, and bloodshed. Always prone to laughter, even at the worst of times, he laughs now: quick and nervous, shaking his head in disbelief.

"That is as bad as any fighting among the Great Sects," he says. (Somewhere, Gideon is probably snickering. Heh. Great sects. "Worse! Ninth, are you sure you don't want any wine? I know I would be into my third bottle of Emperor's Smile at a time like this."

[we_bring_hell]

She quirks an eyebrow. By coincidence Emperor's Smile is also the name of a wine cultivated on the Third. "I do not drink," she says. "It is one of the forbearance of the Locked Tomb."

Also, she's seventeen.

[acrookedpath]

To be fair, Wei Wuxian tried to smuggle two bottles of wine into Gusu Lan when he was fifteen! (And he would have succeeded, too, if Lan Zhan hadn't intercepted him.)

He cracks a smile. "Ah, that is something you can bond over with Lan Zhan when you speak to him next. His sect is very strict -- he does not drink, either."

[we_bring_hell]

She hesitates, then, and nods. "Yes, but they have the pleasures of music."

"I have begun to explore them myself."

[acrookedpath]

"Oh?" he asks. He keeps up the smile, and hopes the flare of uncertainty in his belly doesn't make it to his face. "Has he played for you?"

[we_bring_hell]

"More than once," she says. "It is beautiful and soothing." She looks a little askance, embarrassed he has found her in public in need of being soothed more than once.

"I had always thought of music as either background for religious ritual or--decadent, I suppose."

[acrookedpath]

More than once. And yet nothing has changed, as far as he can tell, in the quiet pulse of resentful energy that beats so strong at her heart; strong enough he can sense it even without his flute, like a chill breeze brushing his skin.

Lan Zhan did promise he wouldn't harm her, he thinks. And perhaps he also sensed that if he drew out the resentful energy that has bound so tightly to the Ninth, it would harm her.

Wei Wuxian can hope.

"He's very skilled," he agrees, quiet. "One of the best in all of our cultivation. Did he tell you... what did he play? Which songs?"

[we_bring_hell]

"We did not discuss the names," she says. "But he used a sort of long flat harp.. a guqin?"

"It has encouraged me to explore other music."

[acrookedpath]

"I see." His smile settles firmly back into place. "I am not surprised there would be other musicians here! Unless you are hoping to learn an instrument yourself? I do not know the guqin as well as Lan Zhan, but if you ever wished to learn the flute..."

[we_bring_hell]

She smirks, behind her veil. But she has a very smirk-friendly face. "Wei Wuxian, in the future, or indeed in other realities, which ever it is, there are methods of recording sound to be replayed later."

"I had been aware of this but had never used it for music playback until recently."

"That being said, I am of course interested in the music of the flute."

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian brightens. "Is that so? That -- hm. I wonder what could be done with that. I wonder if it would even work, if it could capture not only the music but the spiritual energy behind it -- "

He shakes himself out of that train of thought before it carries him too far, letting out a sheepish laugh. Grabbing the pen once more, he scrawls down the quickest of notes -- methods of recording sound, ask Madam Bar?

"My apologies, Ninth. I must find ways to occupy myself while I am here," he says, pressing the little button atop the pen that retracts the nib. "But one of those occupations could be playing for you, or teaching you to play for yourself. I would not even have to carve you a flute; I'm sure Madam Bar could provide one."

[we_bring_hell]

"I am not sure I have any particular gifts in that area," she says. "But I am enjoying my time as a consumer."

"You can use music as a vehicle for spellwork?"

[acrookedpath]

He pauses, surprised.

"Yes. Is that not what Lan Zhan -- ?"

Maybe he was mistaken, this whole time. Maybe Lan Zhan was simply playing for her. Which... should make him feel better, shouldn't it?

It should. Yes. Of course it should.

[we_bring_hell]

"If he was, he did not say," she says. Her voice sounds completely, tonelessly opaque.

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian does his very, very best not to cringe. Between the Ninth's tone and her veil, she is practically impossible to read at the moment.

"Then I may have made assumptions I shouldn't have made," he says, trying for an easy, careless smile. "Yes, Gusu Lan is very skilled at cultivating through their music, but they do play simply to play sometimes. And Lan Zhan always asked for permission if he wished to play Cleansing for me, or... something similar."

[we_bring_hell]

"And what is Cleansing?" she asks, in the same unreadable voice.

Behind Wei Wuxian she sees a woman moving towards the table and raises her head to look at her sharply.

(There isn't anyone behind him.)

[acrookedpath]

"It's -- "

His brow furrows, and he glances over his shoulder, abruptly worried Lan Zhan may have just walked into the inn. Seeing no one -- maybe the Ninth recognized someone across the room that Wei Wuxian has yet to meet? -- he returns his attention to her.

Carefully: "It is used to suppress hostile or resentful energy. If he had used it on you, Ninth, you would know. And I know he would not have used it without asking your permission. Even when..." He hesitates before going on, lower, "Even when he worried I would do grievous harm to myself with my work, he never forced Cleansing on me."

[we_bring_hell]

"I see," she says.

She knows it's the Body now, and that She isn't real. Or at least, that no one else can see Her. Okay. Okay.

She tries to stop her eyes from stealing to Her face, to the cupid's bow of her lips. "I see," she says again, and tries to figure out how she feels about that.

The Body puts an ice-water hand on her scalp and smooths Her thumb over her brows, right through the niqab, which is a good piece of evidence that she's hallucinating. She clutches it tightly.

[acrookedpath]

"Ninth?"

He leans forward, the creases of his forehead deepening.

"Are you well? I'm sorry, I will speak to Lan Zhan when I see him next -- "