[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

[acrookedpath]

"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.)

[blue_ajah]

"Perhaps," she murmurs, taking a sip of her own tea. "It is harder to do so, of course, when a weave is not tied off, depending on the strength of the channeler. Still, I have not yet found a way to make such a thing self-sustaining in the way that it is when the tie is made."

Dark eyes are thoughtful as she considers him.

"How would you turn such energy inward?"

[acrookedpath]

His expression hardens.

"That is not something I'll share with you."

[blue_ajah]

"That is your choice."

Her ageless, serene countenance does not waver, nor does her tone shift.

"Although I would like to know why, if you would say."

[acrookedpath]

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?"

[blue_ajah]

There is a single frozen moment of crystal-sharp silence that hangs between them, and then --

"Several things are clear, as it happens." The Aes Sedai's tone is perfectly level. "Among them is that you hold a grudge very tightly."

Her composure apparently unruffled, she takes another sip of tea before she continues.

"You are not the first person who has distrusted me, whether in my own worlds or here. I expect that you will not be the last. For that matter, I doubt you would even be speaking to me now if you did not think that others might come to harm. It is something I appreciate, for more than one reason."

"You have shown no interest in my own history, or the reasons for it. Very well. But one thing I will tell you, Wei Wuxian, is that if I regarded you as my enemy, you would already know it."

[acrookedpath]

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.

[blue_ajah]

"What would it take?"

Clear and carrying.

[acrookedpath]

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."

[blue_ajah]

She considers him carefully.

"I could make such a promise," she allows. "And I could do so without breaking my oath. Therefore, as a gesture of good faith, I promise to abide by the rule of 'no outside business in the bar' with you."

The Aes Sedai nods to the chair that he has just vacated.

"But there are flaws in the rest of what you have asked. Did you intend them?"

[acrookedpath]

"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."

[blue_ajah]

"Neither of those things were in my thoughts, in fact," she murmurs, watching him.

"A question, first: do you consider Harrow, Lady Ninth, a friend?"

[acrookedpath]

"Yes."

Very low; very level.

"I do."

[blue_ajah]

The Aes Sedai inclines her head.

"Then I will not swear your oath. Not as you have stated it. It is flawed."

A beat of silence.

"You may walk away now if you wish. I will find another way to do what I must."

[acrookedpath]

"What did you do to her."

He can feel the black cloud of rage stirring his thoughts like silt on a riverbed. He clutches his hands tight, feeling them tremble at his sides.

Maybe it is good, he thinks in a dim and distant way, that it is so difficult to call up any resentful energy from inside the inn.

[blue_ajah]

"No harm, you indicated; ever, for any reason," Moiraine points out.

"She and I are working together on expanding potential uses of her thanergy and the saidar that I wield. To abide by the oath you ask, in strict interpretation, I could not help her to do that."

[acrookedpath]

Right.

Harrow had mentioned, hadn't she, that Moiraine once saw her unconscious. And she held that up as a matter of trust: that when she was at her most vulnerable, Moiraine did not harm her further.

He's fairly certain he caught his tongue in his back teeth by accident. Maybe. He thinks he tastes blood, somewhere, over the roaring fury in his mind. Wei Wuxian tries to narrow his focus down to that sliver of copper, taking in a long breath through his nose; exhaling, just as slowly.

(He wants Lan Zhan here, he thinks, with a wretchedness he doesn't expect. He needs him here. Why didn't he listen and refuse to speak to Moiraine right away?)

This time, when he turns to go, he moves straight for the back door, slamming it open with a furious clatter as he stalks outside. Before he's even reached the lake, black smoke begins to lap at his heels.

Maybe, once he's made short work of something deep in the forest, he will feel better.

[blue_ajah]

She watches in silence as he leaves.

It seems likely, now, that alternate measures will be necessary. She will see.

The Wheel weaves.