blue_ajah: (Default)
Moiraine ([personal profile] blue_ajah) wrote2020-10-05 11:09 pm

[pfsb] investigations and explorations

Two days after Moiraine brought Wei Wuxian's talismans back to Twin Peaks, after she has taken the time necessary to review all of her notes as well as the histories she has been collecting, she calls Dale Cooper, who is still in Olympia, now, rather than Seattle.

All things considered, the conversation could have gone much, much worse.

She is well aware that they are going to have a much longer discussion after he returns in a few weeks, but he had agreed not to ask her to wait. She, in turn, had agreed, as before, not to go to Glastonbury Grove alone, or at night. She also agrees not to approach the pool closer than necessary to place the talismans, or to test it with her own weaving - not at present, anyway.

Hawk had been her next call.

A few days later, after he has had time to consider and to consult with the Bookhouse Boys, Hawk knocks on her apartment door and agrees to her request.

* * * * * * *

When Moiraine returns to Milliways, she leaves a sealed note with Bar, addressed to Wei Wuxian.

Master Wei--

I made the trial of your talismans according to your instructions. When I activated the one at the northernmost point, glowing red energy swept inward from the circle in a wave focused on the pool at its center.

The pool absorbed it all. It vanished into the depths without a ripple, and without a trace.

Nothing else has happened. Yet.

--Moiraine Sedai


That task completed, she settles at her preferred table with tea and begins sketching something in a notebook.
we_bring_hell: (Paint: Zygomatic)

[personal profile] we_bring_hell 2020-10-09 11:27 am (UTC)(link)
"But how can one be wise without the truth?" she says in a low voice.

She looks away, and without looking back at Moiraine, says more clearly: "You are a collector of histories. There is--a secret history of the Ninth House. I would share it with you, that you may judge wisely who to trust."

"My pride will brook nothing else."
acrookedpath: (a different cultivation)

[personal profile] acrookedpath 2020-10-09 03:09 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm not sure," he admits, still studying the middle distance as he thinks it over. "Any warding would make it harder for the anomaly to move, but I think you may be right -- a ward built to keep out would be a weaker form of suppression, over time."

Like putting a lock on the inside of a prison cell and expecting the imprisoned would never try to pick it open. Foolish. He should know better; Lan Zhan's absence is wrecking his concentration worse than he thought.

"Ideally you would be able to ward in both directions, out and in, but..." He sighs an explosive breath. "That is difficult. Especially if one form of suppression is prone to failing sooner than the other."

His gaze finally lands back on Moiraine.

"This is a foolish question I should have asked sooner: has anyone tried to destroy it entirely yet?"
we_bring_hell: (Graphic: Taking Notes)

[personal profile] we_bring_hell 2020-10-09 04:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"My mother," she says wretchedly, "told me that if such things must be spoken, it should be done in salt water."

"Or I can put it in writing. Only it must be destroyed after you read it."
acrookedpath: (unimpressed)

[personal profile] acrookedpath 2020-10-09 04:21 pm (UTC)(link)
"Any ward can," he says. He makes no move to accept the tea; in fact, he folds his arms, as if to ensure he will not even reach for it by mistake. "It is only a matter of how quickly, whether moments or centuries."

Wei Wuxian gnaws the inside of his cheek a moment.

"The most I would be able to do is turn the energy inward so it devours himself. And I do not even know if that would work. This is a problem that needs more than one cultivator."

What he does not want to admit -- and will not, unless no other choice is available -- is that it is also a problem that cannot be solved by giving Moiraine more talismans and sending her on her way. So often he works by feel and sight, adapting to changes in energy as swiftly as a tree bending in a gale. Unless he can see the portal himself, he will be of no help.

(He should have waited until Lan Zhan was here.)
acrookedpath: (glare)

[personal profile] acrookedpath 2020-10-09 04:32 pm (UTC)(link)
His expression hardens.

"That is not something I'll share with you."
acrookedpath: (glare)

[personal profile] acrookedpath 2020-10-09 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Bluntly: "Because I don't trust you, Moiraine. Have I not made that clear? Because I do not know how to make it clearer without repeating myself again. You are a cultivator who stands against 'the Shadow' -- " Here, bitterness taints his words. " -- and I have no reason to believe you will not take whatever tools I give you and turn them against me if I become troublesome. So no. I will not tell you how to practice my necromancy. I will not give you more than you need to take care of this problem. Is that clear enough now?"
acrookedpath: (glare)

[personal profile] acrookedpath 2020-10-09 05:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Which does not mean he will not become her enemy. Nowhere in her pretty speech was there any reassurance that he would not come to harm by her hand, if she believed the situation required it.

"What you see as a grudge," he says, tight with anger, "I see as survival." He shoves his chair back and rises from the table. "Be grateful your entire world did not turn against you and murder you because you dared to walk a different path. I will speak with my friend whenever I see him next -- we will come to you if there's more we can offer. Goodbye."

He turns to walk away.
we_bring_hell: (Face: Anterior)

[personal profile] we_bring_hell 2020-10-09 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
She exhales. "A ward of water - that should satisfy tradition. I don't know that it has any intrinsic power otherwise, anyway."

She takes a seat, pressing her hands together so she doesn't fidget.
we_bring_hell: (Default)

[personal profile] we_bring_hell 2020-10-09 06:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Harrow sips the tea, her throat suddenly dry.

"More than ten thousand years ago,"she begins. "Before Resurrection. On the third planet of the star now called Dominicus. The human race grew and prospered. This was the age of the ten billion, when humanity outgrew it's ancestral home and spread outward. Their home world became the first of nine Houses, across the planets of the system."

"And then they grew further, to the myraid stars, to colony worlds. But Dominicus remained the seat of Empire."
acrookedpath: (unimpressed)

[personal profile] acrookedpath 2020-10-09 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
He stops. Unseen by Moiraine, he shuts his eyes, clenches his jaw hard enough to make his molars ache.

(He and his brother were not related by blood, but if anyone in the common room ever saw Jiang Cheng, they would see the resemblance.)

"A promise that you won't harm me or my friends," he says as he turns around. "Ever. For any reason. That you will let me live my afterlife in peace, without interference. That you will abide by the rule of no outside business with me."

One corner of his mouth lifts in a parody of a smile.

"But if you were able to promise me that without breaking your oath, Moiraine, I think you would have done so already."
we_bring_hell: A jawless skull (Skulls: 9 for the tomb)

[personal profile] we_bring_hell 2020-10-09 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"Then tragedy struck," she says. "Enemies from the colony worlds used a weapon that snuffed out Dominicus. All the planets of the system were stripped of life."

This is the easy part; history. Dogma.

"But on the First House was the man who would become God. The titanic thanergetic bloom of ten billion souls awakened in him necromantic power beyond compare."

"He restored the star, and the other eight Houses, and their populations. But the First House remained a grave. And there he gathered his disciples, one from each House."

"Seven became Lyctors. And one... Anastasia... became the first Tombkeeper of the Ninth House, the Reverend Mother of the Black Vestals. My ancestor."
acrookedpath: (unimpressed)

[personal profile] acrookedpath 2020-10-09 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm sure there are," he says, acidly. He doesn't move. "You'll argue that you may hurt them unintentionally, or that you will interfere if I hurt someone. I don't care very much, Moiraine. Those are my terms."
acrookedpath: (glare)

[personal profile] acrookedpath 2020-10-09 07:30 pm (UTC)(link)




"Yes."

Very low; very level.

"I do."

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