eastbound | audio & text | un: xianxian of yunmeng (the day before stone kidnappings)

Gather round for a story, ah? Xiao Xingchen, I'll come tell you in person, the rest will get to read along.

( A pause. )

The Stairs of Sighs are named after our ghost general Arha, for the sighs of pining between himself and his lover, Hatisse. The Stairs of Sighs opens on the day Arha arrived with his people, setting off to win his lover free. As may be apparent, it did not end well. Arha's campaign ended in death, and Hatisse survived her love, going on to become a high priestess of some influence.

Arha's army did not reach Taravast. In Mazyar's recounting, "The people spoke of great, uncontrollable fires that suggested the presence of the higher-numbered witches of Bessis defending the city. In the end, the flames grew so high that Taravast called down summon-rains to stop them. After this vast tragedy, all sorcery schools buried their previous animosity and agreed to stand together, allied for the greater good of Taravast. Hatisse made no comment or statement amid the destruction, but her presence was accepted as part of the truce, and she proceeded with a life of charity. It is said she paid to have the bones of each of the fallen of Arha's people found and buried from her own coffers."

I think even now, the Bessis and what is it, the Attareal? Are lines of magical learning in Taravast. Has anyone talked with anyone of the refugees or the ghosts to confirm or deny?

( A pause: )

I'm equally curious what else everyone's heard regarding our armed escort, or what may have truly happened all those years ago.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sizhui and I are not your brother.

( 'Your brother is your murderer.' )

But are we so insufficient?

( The whole righteous cultivation world was his murderer; Jiang Cheng didn't even land the final blow, just the reaffirmation that gone served everyone else better to a fractured, broken mind. That the only way for it to stop was to forcibly let go. )

I didn't say either of those things, I said if you were both unable because of what else you're doing, why wouldn't he be a choice? Empathy gone wrong needs someone there to call the mind back. A strong heart isn't necessarily enough.

If you wish him chosen, choose him.

I choose you. Chose you? Lan Zhan, what's bothering you here?

He is unsuitable.

Are you afraid trusting him would leave me lost?

( Again? )

( And yet, for all of it, he cannot say Jiang Cheng is so weak of a cultivator. )

Subtle work. He lacks patience.

( Jiang Cheng's credit. Much as he falls into believing none of it was his doing, a golden core does not act for a man. A man makes use of the tools he has. Wei Wuxian knows that in complicated ways. )

You're not wrong that he's not blessed with patience. Just give credit: Empathy is his clan's teaching, and he trained his nephew well enough that he could use a Jiang bell to pull me back.

May he assist you.

If needed. Either way, at the moment it's a moot point, I'm not yet trying to empathy a flying creature, let alone a non-present Hatisse.

Set her bait.

Arha?

And if she does not desire him?

That's the question, isn't it? What are your thoughts on what she might desire?

If this is her work, she bides her time.

If vengeance, why do they not suffer?

Her magics, Lan Zhan, I hadn't asked after them, but what were they? Likewise to the rest, what is within her capabilities to do? Or was at the time?

They're protected, to never know the outcome... but I have to presume never are allowed to reach their end goal, either. They don't know they died. This isn't righting that wrong, by completing what they couldn't do while living—at least not directly.

Indulgence?

To witness them.

Possible, yes. Protection of a kind offered too late to change the outcome, in another way. Could be unwillingness to part, not wanting to let go. I don't know that this world operates on similar principles to reincarnation as our own.