(no subject)

[we_bring_hell]

The Bar has not relented in her attempts to get Harrow to eat something with slightly more calories than air. After many false starts, she seems to have struck gold with potatoes, a vegetable Harrow has never had before.

Mashed was a success; soup went well, too. But chips--ahhh, chips. Hot, salty, taste like almost nothing at all. Harrow may never eat anything else again. After several false starts in the dipping sauce area she has made peace with a light sprinkling of vinegar. The only problem is they make her gloves and her papers greasy.

Therefore, find Harrowhark Nonagesimus at a table with her journal and a skeletal hand, drawing spirals and... God help us... eating chips with a fork. It could be worse. The hand could be feeding them to her.

Comments

[we_bring_hell]

"Does he not have obligations to his sect that might call him away?" she asks. "I suppose I know little enough about where he comes from."

[acrookedpath]

"Not right now."

The cold weight in his belly sinks further. Lan Zhan is meticulous; Lan Zhan is careful. Surely --

"He is in seclusion," he says, lower. "Imprisoned."

[we_bring_hell]

"Ah," she says. "I did not realize."

She doesn't ask why; why is obvious enough.

"What are the terms of his penance?"

It happens that she has sentenced people to seclusion before.

[acrookedpath]

"Three years in Cold Pond Cave. Which is as accurate a name as you think," he adds, wry. "He has three weeks remaining, and it sounded as if the strictest parts of his seclusion have relaxed slightly -- his brother can visit sometimes, to bring news and offer company. But otherwise he is left alone to meditate on his crimes."

[we_bring_hell]

She frowns. "If he has visitors, even rarely--is it possible his absence was discovered by accident? Or by an inspection?"

"Scrutiny often intensifies towards the end of such terms."

[acrookedpath]

"His brother visits at a set time." Unconsciously, Wei Wuxian's hand tightens in his hair. "He has always been careful to leave the cave late in the evening and return early in the morning. Always."

How often has Wei Wuxian said, too concerned to be truly lighthearted, that Lan Zhan should take care not to get caught? Every time Lan Zhan reassured him he would be fine, he believed it. In recent nights, the worry had hardly even crossed his mind: of course he would take care. Of course he would be safe.

He cannot have been caught.

[we_bring_hell]

"If I were his confessor, I would choose just such times to look in on him," she says quietly; apologetically.

"How would they punish him in such circumstances?"

[acrookedpath]

"I don't know."

He's staring fixedly at a small crumb on the tabletop, not quite seeing it.

"I know how they punished me when I broke their rules at lectures. But I do not know what they might do to him. He is the Second Jade of Lan; they could as easily offer leniency as they could make an example of him."

(He does not want to admit how much the former is a foolish hope.)

[we_bring_hell]

"I see," she says.

"Punishment is not the only possibility," she says. "If his only entrance is within the cave, if he were called away he would not be able to return without causing suspicion. If, for instance, his brother was injured? Or if some other crisis required the Second Jade of Lan, and they waived the remaining weeks."

[acrookedpath]

He exhales the smallest laugh, without much humor. "That is my hope," he says. "I also know time may pass differently here than outside. Perhaps this is the inversion of what happened to him -- now I will wait three years, and he will only live a month."

Which is a miserable idea in its own right, but at least Lan Zhan will be unhurt.

"Or he may simply have trouble finding a door, even if he is still in Cold Pond Cave. It could be anything."

[we_bring_hell]

"Indeed," she says. "But at the moment, it has been a few days. If I were in your place--"

"--if I were in your place, I would be feral," she admits. "If I having made up my mind to return and face Gideon, I found myself trapped here."

"But in my privileged position as an observer, I would recommend waiting a little longer before turning to emergency measures."

[acrookedpath]

He quirks another halfhearted smile, finally raising his head from his hand.

"I'm not even sure what emergency measures I could take," he confesses. "I cannot see the front door, let alone pass through it. Ingress, maybe -- Ingress is an Opener. But it's likely I'd succeed in making nothing but a ghost of myself."

And if he did, who knows if he would be able to return to the inn?

[we_bring_hell]

"If you think you do not have friends who would pass through that door for you," she says, "you have let fear rob you of your senses."

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian blinks, as startled as if he'd never considered this before, then breaks into a laugh that's far more fully-formed than the last.

"I may have," he says. "Thank you, Harrow. And forgive me -- I am still growing used to having allies and friends to call upon."

[we_bring_hell]

"If too much more time passes," she assures him, "we will find Ingress and investigate."

"You can send one of your paper dolls."

[acrookedpath]

He nods. "I am not sure if it would work as it did sending one to Canaan House," he says, "but it would certainly be worth trying. And far less conspicuous than sending a stranger to Cloud Recesses."

He can only imagine how Lan Qiren -- how anyone of Gusu Lan -- would react if Harrow strode from Cold Pond Cave in all her necromancer glory.

[we_bring_hell]

Can't have a negative reaction if your bones are ripped out.

"Moraine Sedai has weaves of invisibility and disguise," she adds. "I know you are not friends, but I am not ashamed to ask her."

Thus are the benefits of allies.

[acrookedpath]

His expression tightens at that, but he tips his head, acknowledging.

"I do not wish her to go to Cloud Recesses," he says, quieter. "If her weaves can prevent you from being detected... I would like to speak to her first, but." He makes a helpless gesture with one hand. "I would consider it."

So long as he is able to ask Moiraine, bluntly, if her work will deliberately sabotage any effort to find Lan Zhan.

[we_bring_hell]

She inclines her head in acquiescence. "Of such things are allowances made. And now you have a plan, and a plan is a comforting thing, I have always believed."

"You are not alone. Neither is Lan Wangji."

As someone who has always been alone, she knows the value.

[acrookedpath]

For an instant, he fears his already-shredded composure might crack altogether. His hands tremble; he forces them to stillness, makes himself breathe deep.

"I do," he says. "And it is."

And if they are lucky, Ingress will open the door on a very startled Lan Zhan who believes he has been gone from the inn for no more than a few minutes. (If they are even luckier, Lan Zhan will return, unharmed, without the need to enact any plan at all.)

"But I have burdened you enough with my worries. For several days in a row now!" He forces a smile, and gestures to the skeletal hand. "Tell me what you are working on today."

[we_bring_hell]

"I was inspired by your paper dolls, in fact," she says.

"My goal is to create a construct I can leave here but control even after I leave. I thought to equip it to copy written messages."

[acrookedpath]

"Oh?" He brightens -- it is far easier to smile now, his cheer no longer feigned -- and peers closer at the hand. He wiggles his fingers as if waving hello to it. "What theorems have you shaped so far? I could show you the talisman structure I use for the dolls, if it would be helpful."

[we_bring_hell]

"Certainly, if you wish. My constructs are merely puppets, not inhabited in the way yours are; I certainly cannot see without ocular tissue."

"The first goal is that it must be able to collect thanergy from it's environment to function, to minimize what I must pass through. Fortunately, this environment is rich in it."

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian nods. Drawing out the portfolio she gave him, he slides the pen free and flips to the pad of paper dolls in the back. "The Observation Window, yes?" he says, jabbing upward with the pen to indicate. "I still hope I may learn how to access that energy someday. It would make my afterlife so much easier!"

He begins to scribble a line of characters down the front of one of the dolls.

"What is the next goal?"

[we_bring_hell]

"To cause it to echo my movements. Commanding it is a simple enough matter, but I wish for something more integral; for it to move in resonance with me when activated, without deliberate command. Spooky action at a distance."