( It reeks, is the first thought, stabbing. A sharp, stringent manner of incense, bordering on acidic. To hide, he realises — to cleanse, either blood or the sourness of sweat, or both, equally fetid.
Beitang Moran walks in first. Lan Wangji, nearly succumbing to transparent disdain, walks second — floats behind the man, who resembles Wei Ying now so much more dearly for his brand of elegant, subdued bravery. This is not the courage of the sword, but the fortitude to enter misery and cruelty and forge on.
They are introduced to the... wares. The man is Halut, and these battered, clearly oppressed phantasms around him are — and his gaze falls stubbornly on Beitang Moran, then on Lan Wangji — his nieces and nephews. And he would be so very saddened to lose their company, but he understands that every young person must make or find their fortune...
...for a price. Perhaps the gentlemen may... have the means to persuade him that he entrusts his family to good care, with an offering of good will? )
Will you speak of the man Matthias, also?
( Perhaps so, Halut indicates. Perhaps so.
A pity, and Lan Wangji's grip stays steely on Bichen, that he lacks coin. And perhaps a virtue — if he releases his sword now, for whatever the reason, this man and his kingdom are likely to fall. )
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( It reeks, is the first thought, stabbing. A sharp, stringent manner of incense, bordering on acidic. To hide, he realises — to cleanse, either blood or the sourness of sweat, or both, equally fetid.
Beitang Moran walks in first. Lan Wangji, nearly succumbing to transparent disdain, walks second — floats behind the man, who resembles Wei Ying now so much more dearly for his brand of elegant, subdued bravery. This is not the courage of the sword, but the fortitude to enter misery and cruelty and forge on.
They are introduced to the... wares. The man is Halut, and these battered, clearly oppressed phantasms around him are — and his gaze falls stubbornly on Beitang Moran, then on Lan Wangji — his nieces and nephews. And he would be so very saddened to lose their company, but he understands that every young person must make or find their fortune...
...for a price. Perhaps the gentlemen may... have the means to persuade him that he entrusts his family to good care, with an offering of good will? )
Will you speak of the man Matthias, also?
( Perhaps so, Halut indicates. Perhaps so.
A pity, and Lan Wangji's grip stays steely on Bichen, that he lacks coin. And perhaps a virtue — if he releases his sword now, for whatever the reason, this man and his kingdom are likely to fall. )