[pfsb] investigations and explorations

[blue_ajah]

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.

Comments

[we_bring_hell]

Harrow rises early by habit, but by her own clock; she is used to a scheduled governed by the clock and not by a sun. It is hard to discuss the relative nature of time between three distinct chrono-asynchronous locations, but from Harrow's perspective it is still early enough for the lines of her makeup to still be knife-sharp.

She is exploring some of the options the Bar has made available to her--still within her ebon color pallet and her requirements of modesty, but for instance black denim and a black turtleneck meet her needs without being the standard Drearburh habit. She is not wearing gloves, which is outlandish license. The leather of her journal feels strange on her hands, accustomed as she is to wearing them.

"Greetings, Moiraine Sedai," she says calmly, accepting a cup of tea that she makes an effort to remember to drink.

[blue_ajah]

"Lady Ninth," she says. "Light illumine. How are matters with you?"

She makes no move to hide the sketches and writing in the notebook in front of her. In addition to circles and notation that may be familiar, there is an additional circular drawing not unlike a clock face. It is marked with twelve equally-distanced dots, and has a black coin-sized ring at its center.

[we_bring_hell]

"Matters are... in hand," she says. "I have continued to review my notes on the Lyctoral process. I have also put in train a device to communicate with this location from beyond my door. Neither have come to anything worth speaking of yet, but I am not dissatisfied with my progress."

Her black eyes flick over Moiraine's notebook. "What has occupied you, if I may ask?"

[blue_ajah]

She inclines her head in acknowledgement and assent, both.

"I am pleased for your sake, then," she says. "I myself have been somewhat occupied with continued attempts to translate common weaves to the new notation, after the model we have developed, and with initial investigations into ... certain phenomena, in the world where I reside."

[we_bring_hell]

She raises a white eyebrow. "Phenomena?"

Not just phenomena. Dot dot dot certain phenomena. Color her intrigued.

[blue_ajah]

"Yes," she murmurs. "It seems the best term for it, at present."

Her fingers rest lightly on the edge of the clock-like drawing.

"Tell me, Lady Ninth, are there places in your world that are known to be altered, somehow, from the normal state of things?"

[we_bring_hell]

"Indeed," she says slowly. "It might fairly be said that I grew up in one, and have departed it for another."

"But it depends on what you mean by altered, I suppose. Haunted?"

[blue_ajah]

“Some might call it so,” Moiraine tells her. “Some might call it cursed.”

She taps the center of the drawing.

“It is a place where people have vanished, and from where the dead have returned, among other things.”

A beat of silence.

“And, of course, this is in a world where necromancy is not in any way known to the extent it is in yours.”

[we_bring_hell]

She nods. To inhabitants of foreign worlds, the whole Empire might be considered a place where the natural order has been altered.

"The dead returned. As spirits, perhaps possessing corpses? Or resurrected in truth?"

[blue_ajah]

“Both have been reported to occur,” she says. “As well as possession of the living, in some cases.”

[we_bring_hell]

"True, permanent Resurrection is the province of the Emperor alone--or Milliways. The others are things sufficiently unhappy revenants have been known to achieve."

"But they would need a source of thanergy, a powerful one. Especially on a non-thanergenic planet. I suppose the disappearances could account for that," she says doubtfully

[blue_ajah]

“It is a conundrum.”

And from the flat annoyance underlying the too-calm tone, not one she particularly enjoys.

“There are varying theories on the source of power and nature of this place, but none are yet entirely proven.”

[we_bring_hell]

Power sources. It all comes back to power sources somehow.

"Is it the site of some great massacre? Some kind of massive surge of thanergy that could possibly fuel a self-sustaining reaction?"

[blue_ajah]

She shakes her head.

"Not a single great massacre, to my knowledge," she says, slowly, thinking through the history of the Nez Perce that Hawk has shared with her before as she does to be certain her words are true as spoken.

"Although there has been more than one death - including vicious murder - in the nearby area over time."

[we_bring_hell]

She frowns. "That could definitely produce a stronger than normal thanergetic burst... it's the sort of thing that produces dangerous revenant spirits. Perhaps if they were able to keep capturing thanergy through the harm they do..."

"Certainly a subject worthy of study," she concludes.

[blue_ajah]

“Indeed,” she agrees.

“I have always felt it important to understand the nuances of such things, when possible. Perhaps especially so, in this case.”

[we_bring_hell]

She studies Moiraine's expression, always a hiding to nothing.

"You said it is in your adopted world--is it a mystery you have sought out? Or something..." She ponders the phrasing briefly. "...that has thrust itself upon you?"

[blue_ajah]

"It has affected those I care about, in the past," Moiraine says.

"Although it appears quiescent at present, I am a student of history and a collector of stories, among other things, and knowing something of the disruption that has been caused, against which there is at least one group that has been on guard for generations, I feel that I cannot sit idly by and do nothing. At the very least I feel that I must learn what I can, to be prepared in the event of need."

[we_bring_hell]

She nods. Moiraine has never spoken of those she cares about in that world, but logically they must exist, for the dislocation to be worthwhile. "Then it is local," she concludes. "And far from academic."

"You must know that you have my aid in such matters, for what it is worth. I have pledged it. Unfortunately matters of the spirit have not been my area of focus."

(It's gone past strange and into commonplace how often her mind turns to Abigail Pent in this place; mystery-loving historian and speaker to the dead and oddly, uncomfortably maternal presence, with her mousy hair and flashing spectacles. Harrow had known her only a few weeks, and barely at all until the last day of her life, tragically cut short. There is no reason why she should come to mind so often, except that she seemed to be so many things Harrow is not--knowledgeable about the spirit world she has scoffed at, friendly and warm, stable and happily in love with her cav.)

[blue_ajah]

"I am not certain that it is entirely a matter of spirit alone," the Aes Sedai says. "In any case, I do, and shall, greatly appreciate your help and your expertise. Especially if matters were to escalate. Time will tell, I suspect. The Wheel weaves."

She tilts her head slightly to one side, studying the younger woman.

"You mentioned a device that allows you to communicate across worlds?"

[we_bring_hell]

She smiles faintly. "Only at the most rudimentary stages. I have no assurance it will function."

"I have seen someone retain control of a construct even after it passed through the door. If I could do the same for a construct here, prepared for the purpose, I might be able to write messages."

[blue_ajah]

"I see," she murmurs, considering. "Retaining active control across the threshold may operate differently from a stasis of sorts, but there are possibilities in the idea."

She drums her fingers once on the table, then reaches for her teacup instead.

"Did the door remain open, or closed?"

[we_bring_hell]

"Open--that is, of course, the difficulty. I have thought of incorporating something of the gateway weave into the theorem. I have approached it cautiously, as you recommended--and indeed, since I cannot create the differentiated thanergy on my own, my studies have remained entirely notional."

"And then I thought--perhaps a notional gateway is all that is needed, to exercise control over a theorem left behind."

[blue_ajah]

Moiraine gives her a sharp look.

"Do you mean for the construct to itself have control over a gateway, or to use the concept to allow connection?"

[we_bring_hell]

She shakes her head. "Oh, to use the concept from my end of the connection. The construct would not have the complexity to do any such thing--I had envisioned a hand moving in synchronization with my own."

"I did not believe it would be possible the other way around; complexity aside, I am a moving point and the construct is a static one. The gateway must originate with me, for if the construct was able to track me, it would no longer need a gateway."