un: blushing beads of heft and beauty | audio | After Sizhui and Eleven question the miners

[paperbutterflies]

[ Sizhui hasn't spoken much over the network, but for those who know him, he sounds extremely subdued, though his words are clear and his voice calm. The execution has not happened yet, so. ]

This is Lan Sizhui. For those who might be curious, Eleven and I talked with the two miners that... were taken.

In short, their story started when they were snowed in - and iced in - for far too long inside the mine. They had not expected that, so there were no provisions. First one, then another of their number died of hunger, and then the two dead bodies reanimated and ... asked what they would give for the hunger to stop.

What they are becoming, they chose, under duress.

The two who had died first already became among Unhalad's soldiers. I do not know why the remaining six were asked to choose it, rather than waited out to be just taken. I don't think they know, either.

And if they remember what exactly was done to them after they agreed, they are not telling us.

I think this is more or less the information we found from them. Thank you for your attention.

Comments

un: dappled pearl of the parted seas [voice]

[beitangmoran]

So they did not know how the first two came back to life? Or did they choose not to tell?

... How does this work? It doesn't make any sense. It's as if some of these people have absorbed something beforehand that might turn them.

un: deft hand of little deaths [Voice]

[scrapgege]

I don't understand why they were so scared of me. And...

When I saw them, I felt like something inside of me wanted me to kill them.

[paperbutterflies]

I am sorry, Senior. When I asked, all I was told were reassurances that they really were dead. However, they did not die at the same time, but rose simultaneously. The two here were surprised by that.

[paperbutterflies]

It... you were among those who drank from Anurr's drink, or am I mistaken? If what the angry lady from a couple of days ago said matters...

These two have given themselves to Unhalad, and you have, in a way and temporarily, given yourself to Anurr. Perhaps that is why? Or... part of why.

[scrapgege]

Hm, that makes sense.

I'l definitely not drinking any of that again. That was... It's not a good feeling.

[paperbutterflies]

That... would probably be for the better. We are already taken to this place; to be taken over more completely will probably not be a great thing.

[scrapgege]

[It's not great, and a bit too reminiscent of some things Xie Lian would not like to be reminded of, to be honest.]

Where are they now? I probably shouldn't come too close to them.

un: heart-fluttering hummingbird | audio

[downswing]

( His son, his only son. Battered and reshaped by horror. The nature of their craft. )


...cleanse. Free your mind of their restlessness.

[paperbutterflies]

Yes, Hanguang-jun.

Although...

How much such... restlessness has been ignored, since this all began?

[downswing]

( He hesitates. Then: )

Yours, or their own?

[beitangmoran]

This is completely illogical. If they were alone when it happened, then who did it. Or was it done to them in advance, knowing that such a tragedy might befall them and preparing for it? Why would two of them wake early and then turn the others...

[Sorry, Sizhui, he's basically thinking out loud.]

Unhalad has something to hold these people, beyond his undead soldiers. In the way he makes them undead. It seems like it might strike anyone.

[paperbutterflies]

[ ... blink. Blink blink. ]

... why would mine matter? I am not the one pushed to choose in such a way, nor hurt. I was just wondering how many people have been trapped so, and chosen so, and had to change.

[paperbutterflies]

In a room in the northern part of the building. And perhaps that should be better.

[downswing]

You are the one who bears their story now.

( It takes from a man. Lessens him. )

[paperbutterflies]

I... am sorry. Other than the miners, who must have worked there for a long time, not expecting the cold or the probability to being trapped by the ice - they indicated nothing that I could think of to have been different about this trip to the mines in the first place.

[ He wishes he could answer, but... ]

[paperbutterflies]

[ Sizhui is quiet for a long moment. Then. ]

It is to be just a story, then?

[beitangmoran]

It seems we are ending up with some answers, and even more questions.

But then, not much makes logical sense in this world.

[scrapgege]

For them and for me, yes.

Is it... are they still going to turn into undead people?

[paperbutterflies]

[ After a small pause, very quietly, ] we don't know how to stop it.

[paperbutterflies]

[ And is saying that enough?

He wants to ask but at the same time, he knows that the people who are taken to this world are unlikely to have the answers. ]

Or we don't know the logic yet. Or how people let it get this bad...

[downswing]

Sizhui. ( Listen, fond. ) All men are is stories.

[scrapgege]

... Maybe we shouldn't have brought them back here.

[But did they, or did the men follow them here? He was busy with the array so he didn't quite see what was happening at the time.]

[beitangmoran]

... It doesn't seem fair to blame them for the situation when we don't quite understand it ourselves, young master. Besides, these types of things don't happen overnight. A gradual slide into it is more likely.

to action

[weifinder]

( There's information, of course, and Wei Wuxian's familiarity with the quartz at this point is such he doesn't fail in listening, in recognising voices even if he doesn't respond. Hearing his son's voice, the breakdown of what a polite questioning was, versus what a painful extraction would be, is information that arms them, is information that bears a cost in the horrors of this place slowly sinking below the skin.

He doesn't want it to settle in Sizhui's bones, not the way that the Burial Mounds had for Wei Wuxian, when he'd been closer to his age than he is now. Two died, and were found by something, to be raised together; extending out a hand to force agreement, take the rest of the living, and he wonders if that leaves more strength, if there's something else in a willing death that carries over to the form found later. Or if it was simply expediency, not wanting to wait for people to starve, when water at least could melt from snow and slowly, slowly kill them with the cold...

... or if the cold could leave a window for the Anurr, if deaths granted or rescue provided was yet another factor, weighed in.

He finds Sizhui, rather than speak on crystal, before he looks for the ones questioned. There is no question in his mind anymore that their deaths are certain, and the mercy of their true deaths earned; he'll reach out to Archeval next, but his son comes first.

(There will be no next. Lan Wangji and Alina wil move, motivated by guilt and righteousness, before he can.) )

Hey, you. ( He smiles, a sedate expression, eyes old and knowing, limbs loose as he approaches. Humming a note on a familiar key, he comes closer, then pauses... opening his arms and lifting his brows as he fumbles into a: ) Would you like a... you know.

( A hug. From a man unpractised in them, but used to reassuring and reaffirming touch, and who still remembers Sizhui best as the child who clung tight, and was small enough to lift up to his hip and hold him there. There are echoes of that young boy even in the adult, but the adult is the one he's hugged, had stood there wooden and slow to respond, and the one he thinks might... might benefit from it, now.

He'd appreciated hugs, once. Back before he'd 'died.' )

also same day early evening

[weifinder]

( Finding his son, he greets him with a smile and squint of his eyes that makes them look more pleased than he might be: though he is pleased, each time he sees Sizhui. It's just in passing this time, so he waves to him and hands over a small wrapped bundle. Inside, a carved mahogany comb, fully clean, and a note which Sizhui's free to read.

Side by side, facing everything. Learning together, walking together. )

Sizhui! Would you make sure this gets back into your father's hands?