westwhere | hatthevar

hatthevar | blood rains

Drawn to undead creator Matthias, the party heads into Hatthevar — former wasteland of myth and superstitions, now city of ghosts.

The first log of Hatthevar spans until 31 January.

A small part of the event is open to players both in and out of the game, who can bring dead characters in the bazaar!

HATTHEVAR

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The party enters blood-rained Hatthevar during a daily one-hour truce between the citadel and the undead forces that assail it. At the gates is undead Lord Rathakku of the Brotherhood, keen to usurp his distracted maker Matthias; in the skies dart the forces of dead wind lord Anurr, who has no love for the Brotherhood.

Hatthevar’s ghostly champions — including enormous ghosts that consume men and floating spirits that strangle with chains — defend the grounds. Matthias neglects the war, persistently summoning spirits from various worlds and points in time to revive them.

KNOCK, KNOCK

Wispy, shadowy silhouettes closely watch the lone gate of Hatthevar. The party infiltrates at sunrise.

Characters who have died, practise necromancy or are death-touched enter freely. The living must consume Karsa’s foul potions that absorb their shadows and partly mute their powers to pass for dead. Holders of Matthias’ severed limbs or organs, or of dark mirror shards or dark water, are closely watched by the dead and perhaps pursued.

Everyone must create new names and stories covering their identity and circumstances of death. Crafty ghost sellers will try to learn your true name to capture you in slavery.

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Spend a few days acquainting Hatthevar, its constant rains, vicious gambling dens, bazaars, oracle halls, wish shops and nests of memory thieves.

Show kindness to the newly revived spirits who struggle to remember themselves and roam in the citadel’s bazaars of curiosities.

Optionally, some characters are struck by misfortune. Capture a crafty, palm-sized spirit rabbit to improve your luck… or stumble upon a larger, dark hopper to ruin it.

Most sleeping quarters are available at downtrodden inns or in lavish gambling dens, for exorbitant prices. You can’t shake the feeling of someone watching through holes in your walls.

MATTHIAS

Three days after arriving, the party receives a note from Matthias that reveals the origins of his pact with the dark water to propagate the dead in Akhuras. Matthias says he has been working to bring the spirit of his dead daughter Cosette through the beacon for revival. She materializes briefly in Hatthevar but disappears before he can find her. Retrieve Cosette, and he will surrender the party his power over the undead.

Full note

” Well, hello! Is it nippy beyond the walls? Not cold here, just… the rain. Tried wishing it away, but… waste of money, those wish shops. Not like, what is it you call it? The dark water? It’s ancient. Back in Ellethia, we thought it came from the sea. All began with a mirror shard. That, and constant pressure to race against decades of Taravast research into curing death. We got there first! That’s… my claim to fame: I wished death gone.

It was work. Work ate me. Then, the dead woke up, killed everyone, and there wasn’t much of a profession left. Or of Ellethia. The dark water wants flesh, so… I’ve made it death lords and armies, and I’ve left parts of me to anchor it. In return… it gives me revival. But, look. I had a… daughter. Cosette? Blonde and eyes green and blue and like her mother’s, and only five summers old, but she thought she was so clever, kept telling her doll so. That’s all you’re left with. Memories. She died, of course. I’ve been working to resurrect her, and her spirit shows up every few days in Hatthevar. She disappears before I can find her.

I’m not… good at bargaining. I’m a magical engineer, really. Tinkerer! But my time’s running short, isn’t it? Just look outside. And all I want is Cosette. You want the beacons? Have them. You can have my power whole. I’ll give it. Some of you will need to help hold the walls up, and others might want to look into the funny business in the lagoon, if it’s linked at all to Cosette, though I doubt it. But, truly. Bring me Cosette, and the deed’s done. You can have everything.”

The Merchant distrusts Matthias’ proposal, but sees potential leverage and urges the party to investigate the girl and the lagoon. From here onward, everyone heads to their assignment:

COMBAT

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Assigned: Bucky Barnes, Carol Danvers, Deimos, Emilia, Jiang Cheng, Luffy, Natasha Romanoff, Nynaeve, Stephen Strange, Wrath, Wrathion, Zoro

The first line of defence against the swarming undead, you must hold off swathes of enemies across three territories:

THE WALLS

Despairingly tall and uncomfortably narrow, overseen by Matthias’ ghostly cannibal titans, who neglect to discern between friend or foe in their broad, relentless strikes. Blood rains pour down thick and nearly blinding. From the skies, you face the frost-breathing 10-15 meter-tall wyrms of undead blizzard lord Anurr, unaffiliated with the Brotherhood. Stick together: when alone, Anurr’s winds speak to you of your deepest doubts and fears, compelling you to surrender — or to let go of restraint, briefly berserk, and attack your own.

■ Serthica survivors may call their dragons to assist. Through Jon Snow, the party can also summon the giant, but slow and poor-sighted frost dragon Irenia to help on three occasions.

THE COLD PLAINS

Just outside of Hatthevar sprawls a desert-like cold plateau, where treacherous dunes shift to swallow you whole and the bestial forces of the Brotherhood’s most capable undead general, Rathakku, hide in wait. Hard-shelled, slippery and sleek his creatures lie buried and thrust up their arm-rows of hundreds of blades that cut into the legs of passers-by, drawing them into sand.

THE UNDERPASS

A series of subterranean tunnels connects Hatthevar with the cold sand outposts. Scour the myriad of dusty, tunnels and purge it of large scorpion-human hybrids that carry multiple weapons and whose sting leave men hallucinating. Oversized serpents abound, their venom prone to paralyzing their prey. You can make or procure antidote potions from Hathevar. Matthias’ ghostly titans are closing off all tunnel entrances to Hatthevar — don’t end up sealed in on the wrong side.

! Collectively, the party must kill at least one frost wyrm, one scorpion/serpent and one sand lurker to keep all three levels safe. Turn in your threads before 28 January… or let the citadel suffer in part II.

EXECUTION

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Assigned: Five, Lockwood, Mo Ran, Vanessa, Yelena, Wen Kexing, Zhou Zishu

Your objective is to locate Matthias and secure the beacons that are currently in heavy use. Securing one or more beacons will help you get home.

■ Your best bet for intelligence are the treacherous networks of underground memory thieves and slavers, who attempt to steal your freedom or your recollections.

■ Your next option is the gang of Erkul, who ruled over local oracles and Hatthevar whole before Matthias’ arrival. Coarse, slippery but cunning, Erkul sullenly nurses his weight in wine at the gilded Sanctuary, Hatthevar’s foremost gambling den. Street sources say the establishment’s passcode each day this month is a fruit name. Erkul’s crew sell highly potent opiates.

■ Ransack some Whispering houses for information, equipment, poison or arsenal. Small, dusty, cluttered and often creaking, Whispering houses hold a wealth of dangerous artefacts, from haunting poltergeists you might accidentally release by reading out their names from tomes to flying rope that throttles you. Large dread hounds instil blood-curdling fear in anyone who looks into their eyes.

■ The five beacons of Hatthevar are only briefly active each day as Matthias makes his summons. They are guarded by swarms of colossal leonine-shadow creatures that only attack if they feel any fear in your soul (of it, or anything else), pouncing to claw and shred you apart. To claim a beacon, Karsa may provide a cold, coal-like token that must be placed in the middle of the transport dais, within inevitable sight of the shadow lions. You must wait 15 minutes in place for the token to take root. Report your conquest before 28 January!

■ Every six hours, Matthias sends ravens to check on the shadow-lions. You must either trick them, leave the lions alive or capture the ravens.

CARE

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Assigned: Allison, Eda, Hermione, Kamala, Lan Sizhui, Sanji, Winnie

Carer’s have the lion’s share of all duties — and the party’s few lingering resources. You must look after the group and the ghosts of Hatthevar: meandering, disoriented and fragile, the spirits who were freshly wrenched from death’s snare become easy prey for the Undead Brotherhood, the elements and the ghost slavers. Rescuing or attending vulnerable spirits can gain you allies.

■ comfort ghosts who recover from revival or struggle with their memories. Many are stranded in the Whispering houses or chained into servitude in the gambling dens.

■ rescue spirits from the immense slaver clan of Ras’Kalur, which tricks newly summoned, dazed spirits in the bazaars to sign away their freedom, promising someone to look after them. Ras’Kalur’s people often raid streets and shelters, forcibly dragging spirits back into their camps at the outskirts of Hatthevar.

■ barter to rent or buy abandoned taverns to give the party a resting space during their stay in Hatthevar. You may need to pay locals in favours, from helping them carry out petty acts of revenge to making up with a grudge-bearing wife or paying penance to their ancestors.

■ heal, cook and provide for combatants on the walls, taking care not to fall in the crossfire or frost wyrms or of allied but negligent 12-feet ghostly titans.

■ as the least suspicious party members, negotiate for information or supplies on behalf of the group: make friends with gambling den owners and the two-bit shady crooks who know their daily passcodes to enter, or with the regulars of the Whispering houses.

INVESTIGATION

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Assigned: Ben Hargreeves, Benedict, Caitlyn, Cal Kestis, Jon Snow, Merrin, Nami, Rin, River Song, Wei Wuxian, Wen Qing

■ You know from Matthias that, as a result of his beacon summons, the spirit of his daughter Cosette appears every fifth day in Hatthevar for a few hours at midday. Despite this, a young girl matching Matthias’ description (5-6 years of age, green-blue eyes, blonde, prone to laughter) is never seen. Matthias alerts you whenever Cosette appears.

■ Day of first appearance: Matthias feels her presence in the bazaar, where the day’s main attraction is a puppet show that draws a heavy crowd. At midday, a chime sounds, and the puppet show performs the sad story of a daughter quarrelling with her father over his absences. The daughter-puppet flees into the woods, while the puppet-father refuses to reconcile and follow her. The girl is killed by animals, and the puppet-father grieves, heartbroken. All the women or girls in the crowd, including you, find they burst into tears.

■ Day of the second appearance: Matthias senses Cosette is in the alley of Whispering Houses. You notice the typical bustle of the alley and shady movements, as discreet, embarrassed, or desperate patrons scuttle. You see no small girls but hear of three trades that took place at the Whispering Houses, carried out by different women: one bought a memory, one sold one, one had a memory replaced. Pay for a memory trade to learn more.

■ Day of the third appearance: Matthias feels Cosette near the Oracle Hall. The hour passes by the time you climb the stairs and are received. The Oracle confirms only one person has visited — a blonde woman — and says to “tell your master that an hourglass keeps track of new time, but can’t give the old one back.”

You get three clue questions/character and should communicate with fellow investigators. Please share key findings by network before 25 January!

EXPLORATION

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Assigned: America Chavez, Buggy, Connor, Elayne Trakand, Lan Wangji, Licyn, Red, Wen Ning

The river Liu neatly divides Hatthevar, its clean waters progressively darkening towards the edges of the citadel, where they pour into a vast, serene and heavily misted lagoon. Veterans sense an eerie chill from the familiar dark waters that so often accompany the undead.

Like Matthias, Karsa says a strange power sleeps at the heart of the lagoon.

■ travel by raft with a companion through the lethargy-inducing fog, as tar-like people peer up from the waters or swim below, never quite attacking you unless you fall into water. They (and the currents) try to upturn your boat.

■ Scattered lit candles drift on water as you advance. Pick one up, and you find one of the floating creatures of Hatthevar has joined your raft, carrying a rope-chain. It says it and its kind are former oracles and truth-speakers of the citadel — and urges you to speak, pledging to kill the first person who lies before you leave water.

■ Farther out, you discover four half-sunken ships that have crashed into each other over time, their decks now forming a rocky square-like structure. You can carefully navigate your raft to reach this construct, or make your way by hopping onto floating deck parts and the debris of other rafts.

■ Once aboard the square structure, you find all the decks are heavily rotten, creaking and prone to collapse. You hear a maddening, shrill scream that steals control of your now convulsing body, until you find yourself driven closer and closer to the end of a plank or a deck hole against your wishes — unless you are physically detained until the shrieking ends.Sharp-toothed mermaids swim below.

■ Reach and explore the curious ships’ graveyard, to peer into the black well in the middle of the square infrastructure.

QUESTIONS

NPC INBOX

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( He should not answer. The words do not belong to him, their biting, banal truth. What is it the man said, Matthias? He has a daughter. And Lan Wangji, starting to saunter, does he not have family?

It is a selfish, visceral, dogged want. Something at once above and beneath him. He thinks, more fool he, that Five would understand the obstinacy, the profoundness of a need that brings men to their knees. )

I love him. ( Need not speak the name, of which circumstance has only ever allowed three in Akhuras: his brother, his son, Wei Ying. The name nearly inconsequential. ) This door?

[ Five doesn't know what to do with that, or how he factors into what he knows about Lan Wangji. Is it his memory he's after, like Five, or someone else he loves who died along the way? It's unsettling how alike they are in that one area, perhaps even to Matthias. His love of his family motivates every single action he takes. He'd do what so few would fathom, to include murdering innocents and forcing time to his will, just to get them back.

Which means he shouldn't let him go in there alone.

It doesn't matter if he says he needs him or not once he's decided that. There's few places he can be kept out of, so it's hardly a choice. Eventually, he shakes his head and points to the second door over, while making it clear as he steps closer that he's following him inside. ]

That one.

( This one.

Five walks, first. He follows, hands suddenly breaking when he attempts to fold them neatly atop each other, ridden by tension. Mere moments before, it had not occurred to him. He had thought, only fools —

He is most foolish a creature, most self-serving. As they walk in, the door snows down silt. Dust and decay pervade, the air stale, insalubrious. What manner of creature might live here in gladness? Lights dimmed, thick and cloying scent of — opiates. Ah. He has his answer.

They are welcomed, first, by a young woman in highly ornate robes, tattered at their edges. Worked carefully, but clearly worn in. Lan Wangji would not be surprised if they are the fashions of many years prior.

The mistress, she says, will see them shortly. Take a seat on these cushions, enjoy the establishment's finest tea brew.

He accepts, with a nod, in the way of a man who knows all too well that he is taken for a fool but has no alternative but to play this game. There cannot have been a single silhouette that passed the threshold of this house for the better part of a shichen. They wait on no one, the mistress has no company. This is merely — he takes the knee on a cushion — to bolster anticipation.

And to Five, once the girl has gone: )

Do people of power not tire of games? ( Can this not simply be done? )

[ He hadn't waited the last time he'd passed through. At the time, he'd been looking to observe the deals, and seeing this one empty of everyone but the spirits in chains was enough for him. Once the woman leaves, he eyes the cushions and where Lan Wangji sits distastefully, before he forces himself to settle on one. For the rouse or whatever this is. He's still not sure of anything except that he needs to be here.

The question gets a raised eyebrow. Is he nervous? Well, not everyone can teleport out the moment they decide this was a bad idea. ]

How else would they spend their time? [ It's all part of it. Making them comfortable. The same way the Commission held orientations to get the recruits comfortable with murder. ] They probably want to attract to a wider audience than the thieves in the alleys. This way they look reputable before they swindle you out of whatever they can get their hands on.

I have nothing. ( It should surprise no one, least of all Lan Wangji himself. Throughout this entire endeavour of the past three years, he has owned nothing past the silks on his back, on rare occasions when they were not substituted for local garments or borrowed.

No, he is not the rich brother of Gusu Lan, nor the second son of a foremost sect here. He brings nothing beyond his intensity in battle and the apparent advantage of his allegedly not displeasing looks.

Perhaps Five, who seems to at all times orbit profit, neglects that. )

Do you?

[ Five doesn't do well at sitting still, and he drums his fingers on his knee. It only just occurs to him how bony it is; this damn scrawny body. If he didn't have to work ten times as hard to be intimidating this would all be so much easier.

He side eyes Lan Wangji; the audacity of asking for a loan after saying he doesn't need him, and he leans over to whisper back. ]

You think they want money? [ He's convinced they're after much more than that. But Five does carry a few things on him. Most of what is on his person are trinkets he's collected on their journey, along with Anurr's finger, but he's not empty handed. ] ...I have a few things I could barter with. Nothing I particularly want to give up, but we can make them believe.

[ Again, he's always got teleportation on his side if they try to take something he's not prepared to lose. He'll be fine. ]

What was your plan if I hadn't gone with you?

( Lying is forbidden. As is the gentle, lapsed shiver of his lips, the tension that pinches the corners of his eyes. He bows his head minutely, allowing the moment to drag and drag and fester long, until he hears footsteps, feels licks of warmth around his flesh.

Flame-lit skin and bright, feverish eyes: he is meant to rise, the servant says. The mistress will see them. And to Five, in passing: )

There was no plan. No intent. ( Is it cruelty, then, to confide this? Five has been ruthless first, before. ) You inspired.

[ This would have been more comfortable if he knew what it was Lan Wangji is after. Not knowing distracts him from what he was curious about; locked memories that he'd be an idiot to trust their help with. He only wanted to see how they did it. Watching his cohort, he almost seems desperate to believe, and as a side effect makes him realize how foolish Five must have looked with hope in his eyes. Hope makes him vulnerable, and he's lucky he didn't let him blow him off.

When the servant returns, his gaze snaps to her. He rises with Lan Wangji, still the shortest of the bunch, but his hardened stare makes it clear that they're not going to be an easy mark.

He'll be blamed either way. It wouldn't be the first time. ]

Then it better be worth it. [ The servant glances at him and is greeted with a tight smile. ] We'll go together, if she doesn't mind. I'm sure she'll go over the finer details once we find out what we can afford.

( Nothing, most likely.

Even less so, that which Lan Wangji most desires. He turns his gaze away from Five, at once indisposed and comforted for company. What can he say, when he walks alongside a boy at once child-like and elder? That he is neither crowded nor alone.

They traverse a first room, then a second. Walk into a third, and a part of Lan Wangji understands, peripherally, that the establishment is prey to sorcery — that there is no way so many chambers would fit beneath one room. Yet they did. They do.

The mistress is a pretty young thing, no doubt, as Five, aged to ten times her years apparent. She asks after their welfare. Their purpose. Pays them flattery, pinches words and teases. Gazes far too deeply into Lan Wangji's eyes, like a predator who has rounded upon the prime, plump target, and he says, unbidden: )

A golden core, mature. Prime for growth still. ( Her mouth opens, luscious. He stays her. ) Not my own.

( And her teeth are fine and firm and sharp, feline-like in a grin so pearlescent. Years, she translates. Life.

No. Immortality to come. )

To cultivate. ( Yes. She seems, all at once, to understand. To pity him, eyes soft and head tipped and her grip on her cigarette stick nearly gentle.

One gift for one of equal worth.

He understands better than she expects. )

As many years bought, you may take. ( Of him, he need not say. That much is plain. She nods, once. Again.

It is no small thing. It is not.

And he does not question her when she shoos them dismissed, saying she will send word with her final pronouncement on his request. After, she turns her gaze on Five, to ask if he too brings a request.

Here, at least, Lan Wangji is silent. )

[ Goes to show you can know someone for years and they can still surprise you. Five looks over, careful to mask his shocked expression, when he asks for something he only has a vague understanding of. All ready to bargain before he can even empty his pockets. He doesn't know what he means. If he'd willing to be enslaved here or shave years off his life. For what?

It feels like something he should stop before they make up a contract, and then he's asked if there's something he wants, and his mouth goes dry. He can't trust them, no matter how much he's been tortured by his lost memories. All he'd be doing is opening himself up for betrayal. He could end up trapped here. ]

I came for him. [ Lan Wangji, who just decided to make an offer without hearing the options. ] He needs to think it over. Get some assurances that you can do what you say you can.

[ They need to talk. ...He could leave at that, but he reconsiders. Curiosity wins out. ]

One other thing. I'm interested in memories; to restore a person erased from the mind. If you have any customers, I'll pay to see you do it to someone and watch it work.

You can include the cost when you send your proposal.

( The woman laughs.

Later, he will remember this, slap to the face: that she laughs, for all she agrees to Five's request. That they are as nothing to her, slivers of misplaced want, irrelevant and ephemeral. That they are allowed to go just as they have come, without constraint or duress.

That more supplicants wait in the room of cushions that they only glimpse, passing by through a secondary, narrow corridor. Perhaps this is how their predecessors were also seen out, excused from sight and mind.

It rains, when they step out in crisp, battering air. It rained before, also. It rains at all times.

He lingers by the door. )

This need not be something spoken of.

( Translation: they will not speak of this. )

[ The laugh does nothing to quell his previous desire to burn the houses down, and Five smiles back again as they're shown out. There's no chance that anything bought there doesn't have a catch, and they made no effort to reassure them that they won't get more than they bargained for. They survive because they feed on desperation. Five is smarter than that, but it's striking how quickly Lan Wangji was willing to come up with a trade.

What the hell was that all about?

Of course it started raining. Flooding is a real problem in this city for as many puddles as he lands in, indoors and out. At this point, Five can only be grateful when it's only water. He looks behind and around them to make sure they're alone before he speaks again in the shelter of the door frame. ]

I won't tell anyone. [ That much he can agree on, as much as he expects him to keep what he said private. ] But I need to know. Were you serious? What the hell were you offering in there?

( Something meaningless for something beautiful. His mouth feels dry, tearing. Rain batters down, clear. Petrichor stabs and wounds his lungs.

He slips beneath the eaves, looking fleetingly askance. What is it men say at this time? What is there left to speak?

He looks askance, at once undone and exhausted by a conversation they both know better than to entertain. You will not like what you hear. Five never does. )

Years of one life, for years of another extended. Fair trade.

[ That's what it sounded like in there, and it doesn't sound any better hearing it again. How many years? Is he going to forfeit whatever he has left for someone else? ]

Who? [ He doesn't care if it's personal. It's a bad decision, and Lan Wangji must see how shady that place was, but he still wants to understand what brought this on. If he's trying to bring someone back just like Matthias. Or just like Five has, more than once. ] Who else died?

( ...ah. Here, he raises a hand like a barrier, a wall between them, fingers splayed and pale and spidered. He owes Five nothing, but gives the truth to every man. To any man. ) You misunderstand.

( As always, as ever. Right now. He blinks away pangs of impatience. It is not... in the way of Five to assume the better of men. He jumps to untoward, to despicable conclusions. They ill suit him — but then, he is a man of misgivings. )

Some years remaining, to extend a life. Both lived as long. ( He starts, patiently, to seek out passing strangers for an umbrella. ) Worthwhile.

[ Of course he misunderstands. He tries to get him to explain, but all he gets are fragments of what he means. Every time a core is brought up it's in such obtuse terms. He imagines it's like trying to explain his own powers. Logical to him, but impossible to grasp by anyone else.

That also wasn't an answer to his question. It still sounds as if he wants to give the remainder of his life to someone else, and for some reason thinks that means they get to die at the same time.

He shakes his head, ignoring the rain but having to speak louder to be heard over it. ]

Is it? She laughed. You really think she'll let go once you put your life in her hands?

That is the nature of some deals. ( Trust, opacity. A certain, hollow extent of despair. He does not question the reasoning, only the reasons. In his own case — they stand.

And it strikes him why this resonates so weakly with Five, why it challenges him. It surrenders a certain extent of control. Five, weak and petty and living fire, is not acquainted with the notion.

Lan Wangji, at once disciplined and constant has yielded his own to whatever position the sect has wished to set him in. His mouth fractures in peals of a smile. )

An inquiry is not an agreement.

[ It's not his business. No more than Five's implication of his problems are any business of Lan Wangji's. And yet... he's a man who has made many bad deals in his lifetime. Deals that stripped him of his humanity and always, always gave him the raw end. He can recognize desperation.

So it bothers him that he'd even make an inquiry. If he'd thought he was actually interested in making a wish, he would have played that differently. ]

But you're considering it.

( And is he? Perhaps. Lan Wangji's mouth stay worn and tense and pursed, and he considers fleetingly holding onto his silence with both hands, like a haggard child — as if he can force Five to follow him in discretion.

It has never been so simple, nor Five so patient or demure. )

What of it? ( He is free, after all, to consider. ) What would you not do for family?

( 'Nothing.' It is the way, their way. )

[ Not really a fair question, but he knows Lan Wangji is just asking to make a point. Maybe he always brings up his family because it's the one thing they have in common, or maybe it's the one thing he knows will get to him. ]

Exactly what you think. Name it and I've done it. [ Let's not get started on what he would have done with Matthias' power. It's a slippery slope, and he's trying to get something across here. ] You can see how well that's worked out for me. Write this one off before you get caught up in a fantasy where your sacrifice means something.

I love him. ( A mantra, sooner than an answer. At times, threadbare and lost and drifting like sand between his fingertips, he feels compelled to whisper it — for himself. His own ears.

He loves this man. Loves that which only he may provide, the joy, the care, the excruciating kindness. His exuberance.

Click of his shoes on the road is tinny, wrong. He feels, in how quickly and well he has made peace with his sentiments, dissonant and violent in this world. )

He has died once before me. Sixteen years unworthy of living.

[ His advice is rarely followed, so it's no surprise that Lan Wangji seems to be stuck on the possibility of something impossible working out for him. Love makes you do stupid things. Five is guilty of the same mistake, and that's why he spoke up at all. He thinks he knows who this is about.

It occurred to him late that most of their group not only has experience with the dead, but have experienced their own death. He doesn't have to ask if Wei Wuxian had to take the potion, but he is curious, judging by the deal he was contemplating. ]

What is he now?

( Dead, revived, stormed, perpetually restless. At ease, incrementally, with himself and his past. Recovered. Eternally lost. Something amorphous and in between, every shade of grey rampant.

Wei Ying, their Wei Ying, his Wei Ying is — )

Happy. ( It is not the answer Five wishes to receive, not the information he fishes for. Lan Wangji, indifferent, starts to walk, slow in step. )

Come. We must make progress. Matthias' child.

[ He's happy? Five scoffs when Lan Wangji starts to walk and settle what just happened with such an obvious lie. Putting aside the deal he was willing to give years of his life for, who could possibly be happy here?

It's more a lack of trust in leaving him alone that has Five following after him. ]

Is dead and doesn't want to be found. Do you want to make a second deal for her?

( There are moments in time and space and begrudging adventure when one must take Five for his numerous demerits and absenteeing virtues and accept him for who and what he is. When one must grit one's teeth and bear with him and his misplaced humour, because surely a young unrelated girl, no matter how fragile, is not one's husband.

Speaking, naturally, in abstracts. Lacking Lan Wangji's own stakes in this. Traipsing on. )

Does she flee her father, or is she incapable to linger here? Removed?

( Could it be one of Matthias' other wayward children defies him, abducting his daughter from under the man's nose, on his own territories? Unlikely, surely. And yet. )

hatthevar | blood rains

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