eastbound | audio | un: wei laozu

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audio | un: wei laozu

Master Zenobius was recovered from where he'd collapsed in a dry well. We have him resting and sleeping safely now, to those who may be concerned.

Ah, and for those of a mind for it, several... memories of his were shared in not entirely useful ways with me. I'll run through them for those wishing to hear about them, if there are any of you. After answering initial questions, ah?

( ooc: first comment will be wei wuxian's sharing of what he learned via Empathy, please go "..." and yell at him, Jiang Cheng or Lan Sizhui, or Wen Qing on principle. )

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[ He frowns at the phrasing of his question, but it could be relevant enough that he doesn't brush it off entirely. He did bring it up for a reason. ]

It was broken. When the pieces were put back together, it showed him. [ He furrows his brow as he tries to decide which parts of the story he can leave out. ] ...I thought it must have been his ghost. I don't know if it had been trapped there until it was assembled, but I wondered if what happened to him was related.

Broken how?

( Still watching him, but it's an evenly asked question, and: )

The handheld one, that is. Though this is valuable, about this one taken into study here. I only wonder... when did it activate? When did it take in this essence? When did it's... curse like properties begin, or were they always latent, waiting for activation?

[ There's a lengthy silence that follows when it becomes clear which mirror he was referring to. That didn't take long to get around. He works his jaw for a moment before answering. ]

I was trying to find out more about them. Even the libraries in Taravast didn't say much, and it doesn't sound like you picked up anything useful. [ — when he saw Zenobius' memories using an ability Five didn't know he had. It's all he can do to keep them on the topic he came to discuss. ]

You can conjure the dead, can't you? Why not ask them when it happened?

The freshly murdered? Or the spirit trapped in mirror? Or some shard from the small one you and Miss Winnie had kept between yourselves after the bank robbery? Because fortunately and unfortunately, most the dead we run into that's running around doesn't have much of a mind left, so there's nothing to ask after. The resentful energies I run into barely recall the reason of their resentfulness of death, so again, not useful for this. If you want someone who can get answers out of the dead, without a body in attendance, you want Lan Zhan.

( when you get to point out most the undead they meet are simply... grunts. not possessing memories, certainly not their own. )

[ He's sure he knows where this is coming from, given the timing, but he didn't tell anyone that he kept the shards from that mirror. There's an implication he's making by bringing it up again, and he thinks he already knows exactly what he's trying to get him to admit to.

It's hard for him to gauge the truth of everything else he says, given what he's seen. If Klaus were here... well, he'd probably would still have to turn to the other necromancers he's aware of, but he'd at least have a second opinion. ]

You think he'd do that if I asked? [ It was pulling teeth trying to talk Lan Wangji into conjuring the spirit of someone who actively tried to poison him to death, and then he still pointed him to Wei Wuxian.

Sigh.

He has an urge to teleport away before he gives him any more hints that he might be able to feel guilty for what he did, but he's been tormented by mirrors for months. He can't afford to miss any clues into how they work. ]

Have you learned anything else about them?

I think you asking shows a regard that may incline him to accept. Lan Zhan wants answers as much as we do.

( we branching over so many of them, and here, yes, he watches what five doesn't say. what it does, in fact, end up verifying for him, between silences and statements. )

You are aware the dead we tend to encounter, other than the spirit soldiers of the Stair of Sighs, the bodied dead... most are not in possession of their original spirit. Or soul. Hatisse is... an indication of a resurrection, so she is factually in her own body, and is factually alive again.

( a pause: )

Spirits are stronger here, but the spirits within a bodied dead have largely not been their own. So far. Exceptions may be tied in to how those Lords of death operate, and how Anurr is, with his retention of of memory and choice to playact for years as one of his more recent volunteered devotees.

[ Five would argue about that likelihood, but he isn't actually sure. Time has shown that he never knows what to expect from the man. The fact that he knows exactly what Wei Wuxian has been asking around, and obviously hasn't told him, makes him even more confused about their relationship. Maybe it's just that he's got enough sense not to make an enemy out of him.

Sidestepping that, the observation about spirits is interesting. He's seen all the various states of undead, but he's never given much thought to how much of themselves they retain. It makes him think of Winnie again. She did say they recognized her as one of their own because she lacks a soul. ]

Does that mean they're all extensions of the warlords themselves? [ That would mean they'd be tracked wherever they run across the undead. Never mind that he's been carrying a literal piece of Anurr around with him, for lack of a safer place to store it.

More importantly... ] ...The mirrors can be used as a weapon against them. I knew that before. I thought that was their only purpose, but it seems to have gotten out of hand. Could they have taken the souls of the people who studied them?

I don't know that it means that, though it could. There's... or there was, a shared... something. Coldness? In Anurr's people. Different from what the Unhalad second living felt like.

( he hasn't truly met legions of any of the rest, because he doesn't really assign the dead in Taravast to being part of any particular warlord, not until the invasion and the whole... )

Whatever unbound second living were in Taravast ceased to be after you harmed the mirror and Anurr rose to... that. Which was less than pleasant to any of us with death-ties.

( he says this... neutrally. with a flat look, because that is the least of it; Anurr was a leading edge to what followed, and mirror, mirror, what have you all done. )

We don't know the extent of what they do. Can they trap spirits? Souls here aren't the same thing, it's semantics, but important ones. Spirits are what you think of as being you - the soul is a matter of energy, a binding one between body and spirit - so spirits? Yes. Souls? I think there are endless things here which absorb that energy of the soul. They're not mutually exclusive, nor are they guaranteed to be the same.

[ He keeps on scowling while he listens. That distinction between souls and spirits isn't something he would have thought of. The mirror in the hall had the spirit of someone trapped in it, but the one inside him... he'd rather not find out he's been absorbing souls all this time. ]

Can the energy take any form? [ He's thinking of the anguish he pulls in. But because he doesn't want to be obvious: ] They've taken memories, and who knows what else.

[ And as much as he's trying his hardest not to react to the flat out assumption that he was the one who 'harmed the mirror', he needs more of an explanation. ]

What do you mean ceased to be? What happened to them?

Mm? Yes, energy isn't limited to one presentation or emotion. It can be individual aspects, or something most strong, or something called, I imagine.

( More and more, he's simply studying Five. )

Each and every one left with one of the Undead Lords. Previously, they were of limited, but individual minds in some cases, such as the witches I put to final rest. After, they were followers. Unlike those alive who are steeped in death, there was no recovery for the dead.

( Every single undead in the area was claimed, consumed in some form, some literal forms and other figurative ones, by the undead lords. Anurr, the Beastmaster, and the Lady of Sorrows and Pestilence and Horror on her steed and steady in her endless tears. )

[ It's probably not as simple as he puts it, much like Five is used to dumbing down concepts of teleportation or time travel to be understood, he's trying to feed him the basic concept of souls. Getting hung up over a word isn't useful, or maybe even accurate, but it makes him uncomfortably aware of what he's continued to absorb even after he used the shards to extract most of it.

When he notices how he's looking at him, he crosses his arms and gives him a dark look as he forces himself to pay attention to the more relevant information. It wasn't just Anurr adding to his army of undead, so not everything could be blamed on regaining his power. But it also makes him wonder what their strategy was, and why they were satisfied with only picking up a few extra soldiers.

And yes, he can read between the lines. It's partially his fault that they nearly lost a powerful ally in Wei Wuxian to the warlords, but he can't change that now. (Even if he theoretically could.) ]

You mean that you would have left with them, but you recovered. [ He could have gathered that much from the way Lan Wangji reacted at the time, this just confirms his assumption. ] Do you remember anything about it? Anything else you learned about them?

Not only I.

( so little he gives in return for his tells this conversation, but that happens when he's tried, when he's masked so thoroughly all he is becomes the calm found in the middle of a storm. dark eyes track five's actions, each small twitch, and he blinks before he snorts, shaking his head. oh, if only, if only. )

Of the undead lords? They hunger, to no surprise, but I couldn't say I learned enough of them when compelled, nor was I the only one. That we resist has more to do with the pulse in our veins than anything else I suspect, but it was hardly like they cared about us personally. Not even Anurr.

[ Five is trying his best not to get derailed by the attempt to play at his conscience. Which he can only assume is what he's doing, however subtly.

He is relieved that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. It was still a steep price to pay for some relief from the mirror, and he wouldn't have done it if he'd known at the time. He's just not the greatest at expressing these things. ]

In that case, why didn't they kill you?

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