[Text; UN: Lianfang-Zun]

[malicing]

Forgive me for being absent. I had a bit of a shock and it has taken me some time to recover. [Death will have that effect!] Where are extra hands needed? I am a terrific listener too should that be more useful.

[No, he will not be discussing his death or how he was revived. Though that magic had interested him. Golden cores are capable of so many things in his world. Could the spell be...copied?]

Comments

audio | un: chengmei

[thesuspense]

...more of a talker, really.

[He is just saying.]

audio

[malicing]

Perhaps there is more that I feel you should hear. [Shush.]

[thesuspense]

Does that make me a good listener then?

[malicing]

I wouldn't have bothered if I felt otherwise.

[thesuspense]

How flattering.

What are you doing where? I'm bored.

[malicing]

I don't have any hobbies for you, Chengmei. [Hobbies meaning jobs.] But I would not say no to your company.

[thesuspense]

I can be company, if you tell me where you are.

Do you have anything to eat?

[malicing]

I was in the library, but that is no place for you. I am moving to the gardens.

I have some fruit? Are you hungry?

[thesuspense]

No, but I want to eat.

[That is the last thing he uses the communicator for, because then he tucks it away and goes looking for Jin Guangyao. He's good at finding people and he knows how his friend moves, so it does not take him long. He lands near him, nodding his head slightly, which is close enough to a bow.]

Does anyone want you to listen yet?

[malicing]

[He lets out a sigh, shaking his head faintly, amused. Guangyao has chosen a bench in said garden and he has a basket of fruit resting beside him. He idly picks at the grapes, popping them into his mouth. When Xue Yang appears, he smirks.]

There is always one who listens.

un: absterge

[downswing]

Even Jin Guangyao can be shocked.

[malicing]

Yes, I am human.

[downswing]

Of strained definition.

[malicing]

Humanity is horrible, Hanguang-Jun. You have been sheltered.

[downswing]

What event?

[malicing]

Death and a dragon.

[downswing]

Your own.

[malicing]

Indeed.

[downswing]

How do you yet live?

[malicing]

I was revived.

[downswing]

Once, you hunted a Patriarch for necromancy.

[malicing]

I think we both know I follow a crooked path.

[downswing]

No road sets before you.

[malicing]

Where can I find one?

[downswing]

Ask your victims.

[malicing]

I do not speak to the dead. That is your talent.

[downswing]

Name your talent.

un: yiling patriarch

[weifinder]

Ah, so you're up and around again! Missed the reprisal of the dragon's antics, more's the pity.

[malicing]

I have had enough of dragons.

You have my gratitude.

[weifinder]

May they have had enough of you, for the time being. No watery adventures may help with as much.

Noted. How goes Macaluso's favour?

[malicing]

Boats have lost their charm.

He and I could be closer than ever. I owe him too - a precious gift given without hesitation.

[weifinder]

Certainly, and with attached cost, as everything has. Do tell me when he makes plain what that is.

[malicing]

I am alive to pay the cost. I will see it done somehow.

Pride will not stand in my way.

[weifinder]

That would be a first. Or not, really. Power, that's always mattered more.

[malicing]

Pride is an obstacle. Power can be wielded in a thousand ways. Would you rather own a fence or a sword?

[weifinder]

A road.

[malicing]

Have you yet to find a home?

[weifinder]

I find what I find. You, here, what do you hope to find?

[malicing]

I found you, did I not? I understand, knowing what you know, you could have cast me aside.

[weifinder]

( oh, he coughs and laughs over on this side, nothing transmitted. )

There is no affection between us. There's no affection between myself and Xue Yang. Yet I would not surrender either one of you fools to become weapons in this world's hands, and you hardly can tell me you don't understand why.

[malicing]

[He is being watched by a pair of powerful cultivators. Guangyao knows this. Yet he is a glutton for attention and the only friendship he has is with Xue Yang.]

To keep the death count low and the chaos at a minimum.

[weifinder]

The chaos will be what it is, but yes, I will do what I can to not feed into the hands of those who summoned us. Which has not, up to this point, been for any good ends.

[malicing]

Have faith, Gongzi, there might be good yet. We have only yet to find it.

[weifinder]

Not in the hands of those who called us here.