audio | un: yiling patriarch | early on during the summit

[weifinder]

I've been whistling while I work, and I have yet to find any response whatsoever. Which is to say, ( he continues, almost at a laconic drawl: ) to any and all of my fellow ragtag members of the eastward bound Merchant's caravan with a gift for detecting life, death, or anything of the spirit: have you felt anything?

( he freely admits to how unnerving it is to him to have no reaction, no response whatsoever, when he reaches out to find the resentful energies that have been throughout all of this world they've wandered since his arrival, well over a year before. )

Because I, for one, can't find a damn thing.

Comments

[downswing]

No ripple. No echo. No voice.

[weifinder]

( holds onto his pendant, waiting breathless with antici... )

[weifinder]

( ... )

[weifinder]

( ... pation. )

Exactly! Which... wait, can you feel your own qi? What about energies around you?

( the guy who can literally only gather resentful energies to use if he wants to suffuse himself cannot really say if this too is impacted here. )

[downswing]

Present.

[weifinder]

Good, good, so it's external, not internal... then what in the world is causing this divide here, by eliminating any sense of one? Lan Zhan, this is deeply disturbing.

( to him, at least, Ave he knows it's partly irrational, but how does he defend against death when he can't feel it's touch? )

[downswing]

The cycle disrupted.

( Lend him another moment. )

What weapons left to you?

[weifinder]

Everything trained, you know that. And while I could play to force a point and see what if anything happens, I don't judge it wise on our first day here.

[downswing]

You mean to speak you have made attempt and found resistance.

[weifinder]

Meaning I made attempt and did not force a response, which is not the usual state of things. Resentful energies are not by their nature quiet, you know that.

[downswing]

Wei Ying has been known to stir them to conversation.

[weifinder]

To ends and for needs, hardly out of boredom or loneliness.

[downswing]

Yet caution.

private

[weifinder]

Heart of my heart, speak directly on what's worrying you. We're heard by each other's ears alone right now.

private | 1/???

[downswing]

( Heart... of... his... )

[downswing]

[downswing]

[downswing]

( ...why. )

done

[downswing]

In Cloud Recesses, exorcism is birthright.

Even our elders cannot cleanse a land of all spirits.

[weifinder]

Even Yiling Laozu couldn't render peace to all the burial mounds at once. It takes incredible work and time, I agree. Whatever this is, we should approach with caution.

Speak true and full, Lan Zhan. As you've been learning to see me clearly, as I've been learning to see you, do you truly believe right now, I'd choose to be incautious first?

[downswing]

( Lend him a moment. )

You have a son.

[weifinder]

Yes. A son, a husband, and those I consider as siblings and children.

[downswing]

( Enough, then, to lose. )

Not incautious.

[weifinder]

No.

Even if you were to all to go through the gates ahead of me, I wouldn't be incautious. For the same reason.

( the one neither of them say. )

[downswing]

Apologies. Jiang Cheng. Myself. We spoke unwisely.