audio | un: xianxian of yunmeng jiang

[weifinder]

Bear!? Bear! There was a bear in the bath!

( So comes this startled and startling shout, as elsewhere in camp, Wei Wuxian is (unfortunately) streaking past in damp, confused glory, a bear of arctic composure lumbering after him, soap bar still in mouth. Come back! He was just handing the soap over, he wanted to help! )

Comments

[weifinder]

You know where the waters are.

( it's not personal, right now; he's tired, and he's not on his best, even when he rubs his face unseen with the bucket hanging from his crooked elbow. )

I'm sorry, Lan Zhan. And yes, there are in the tombs, I don't have a good read on his in particular, only that it refuses to move.

[downswing]

Apology unearned. ( And... moving on. ) The tombs hold bones. As do the winged creatures. Why?

[weifinder]

Why are they formed of the bones from the tombs? Or why create a reminder that pelts down on the dead as they had been when living?

( sounds of walking, sounds of camp passing by. )

[downswing]

Attention.

[weifinder]

Yes. A draw, to fight against, to... try to inform. She's speaking.

[downswing]

To... them?

[weifinder]

To all of them, once the letters dropped. Lily and I sent one soldier to rest, by his request. Only Arha remained obstinate. She's working hardest for him. Reminders. All of them reminders.

[downswing]

...of?


( But he knows. They both know, sickly and sticky on the tongue. )

[weifinder]

Does it need saying?

( sounds of water. splashing, raindrops hitting surfaces. at least the blood washes off come morning. )

[downswing]

This was ill done.

[weifinder]

It was. ( All parts. Theirs included. ) But action's required; what would you have me do?

[downswing]

I know you.

( Wei Ying's deception. His tender, threadbare manipulations. )

You wish it said now, so I many not begrudge after.

[weifinder]

Acknowledged so that when begrudging after, we both knew at the start.

[downswing]

Why torture yourself with thought of my disdain?

[weifinder]

Because you care enough, either way.

( that it's less torture, and more actually mattering, having one fixed point on a compass of just morality, shifting world understanding. )

1/3

[downswing]

( He takes a moment. Another. A hard swallow. )

Wei Ying. When a sword is released, it should not be sheathed unbloodied.

[downswing]

The master's blood, or another's.

Price of violence earned.

[downswing]

I release you.

[weifinder]

( a pause, and a smile in his voice even as the splashing of water, or the dripping of water into itself, silences. )

Lan Zhan...

( another shifting moment, and: )

Strike true.

( Thank you, and I'm sorry. But for what he's facing now, he's ready to take on the world, bared blade as Lan Zhan's rendered him to be, and blood (his, anothers, there is always blood, as Lan Zhan says) will flow.

... But not from the skies, that's just. A whole other issue entirely. )