un: absterge | video

[downswing]

( Dark and damp and Lan Wangji's pallor strained under moonlight. Behind him, flickers of broad, long temple columns — and the smoke smears of... ghosts, gathered. He seems short of breath, the silvered sheen of his sword half drawn from her scabbard, a spate of parchment papers littering the walls: active talismans. )

They have crowded their halls of the dead, to excess.

Here, the key withholds itself. Who hunts the other locations?

( And a pause, hesitant — whether to find his words or, absently, slap another talisman on the spirit that looms with a gaping maw behind him. ) Ke-Waihu stands safe?

( ooc: forwarded dated to the group's incursions in Ke-Waicai. Feel free to run into him in person, if you're also chasing the haunted temple key! )

Comments

[downswing]

( There is an edge to his hesitation, a learning. As if a man's pride, properly perceived, need not be crushed underfoot like scattered motes of burned dust.

He holds himself back. )

We dally among the dead.

( In case... the wisps of smoke and ghostly silhouette failed to give Kanesada his notice. Time and trial have taught Lan Wangji the ample benefits of sooner assuming his companions are struck by blindness, malady or Jin foolishness than otherwise. )

You know to distract them?