{ pfsb } a letter and a meeting

[jaskoleczka]

Time is passing strangely for Ciri; it's difficult to tell if she has slept entire days or only a few hours. There is no way to mark the days aside from weather, and that changes quickly enough that it is wholly unreliable.

(The Bar, in her infinite kindness and usual sympathetic meddling, has in fact created a mild time loop in Ciri's room, giving her time to recover and somewhat ignoring the distressed flurry which has emanated out in ripples from her arrival.)

She comes downstairs, therefore, determined to more fully explore this strange place. There are stables she wishes to visit, and the woods remind her very slightly of those around Kaer Morhen...but her plans are abruptly canceled when, along with the strong hot tea she'd ordered, Lady Bar provides her also with a note.

Anyone watching would see Ciri rub at her forehead as if to quell a sudden headache, then lay a hand on the bartop and request something in a soft voice. Quill and pen appear, and she bends her head to write briskly and neatly:

Reverend Daughter,

I am terribly sorry for the distress I have caused. Please know it was not intentional.
I welcome your request for a meeting. I am at your disposal and shall visit Room 99 within the hour.

- Ciri

Folding the note, she looks for a waitrat to charge with its delivery and watches as the messenger scampers up the stairs before she turns with a sigh back to her tea.

Which she is now wishing was something a good deal stronger.

---

It's about half an hour later that she stands at the door of Room 99 with no idea of what to expect, knocking lightly with gloved knuckles.

Comments

[lightamidchaos]

"I am glad. That it helped."

He takes another sip of tea.

"Ford-daifu has been very helpful to me in the past, also."

[jaskoleczka]

She gives him a sympathetic glance over the edge of her mug. "Did you come here injured as well?"

[lightamidchaos]

He shakes his head.

"No. It happened later."

[jaskoleczka]

She takes a sip of her beer and watches him, wondering how much to press. Their meeting was so strange, it seems to have totally bypassed her usual wary reticence. They have only met twice now, but she trusts him fully, and wishes him to view her the same way.

"What happened?" she asks. "If it is not too forward a question."

[lightamidchaos]

"I have been sentenced to seclusion in Cold Pond Cave for three years. The term will be over very soon, but is not, yet."

He sounds matter-of-fact about it. It is not something generally spoken of outside Gusu Lan, he knows, because it is a largely internal matter to the sect -- but he is not ashamed of what he did, and will not pretend that he is.

And now that Wei Ying knows, there is no reason for him to conceal the extent of his punishment.

"I found it necessary to break my seclusion early. I was discovered. The punishment imposed -- aggravated old wounds."

[jaskoleczka]

"Oh, I'm sorry," she says, aghast. "That's...very severe."

Ciri, the only child in Kaer Morhen in almost a century and the joy of her adopted uncles, very rarely suffered any punishment worse than being forced to copy over old bestiaries or being sent to bed early.

[lightamidchaos]

"My uncle is very strict," Lan Wangji tells her. "He was -- extremely disappointed in me. Thus the punishment was strict, as well, commensurate with what he saw as my crime."

He does not place emphasis on any particular word, but somehow it is evident that he, himself, does not regret his actions.

"After it was over, I made my way here. Wei Ying insisted I see a doctor. Ford-daifu was very helpful."

[jaskoleczka]

"Three years alone," she muses, shaking her head. "And then to be punished for breaking that seclusion...I can't imagine. I've been alone, often, but never for so long, and never as punishment."

It has taken less time to form a disapproving opinion of Lan Wangji's uncle than it has for her to take another sip of her ale. "That's how she knew you, then," she says, casting her memory back to that night and pushing it past the last few horrible moments in her room. "I suppose she sees a lot of that sort of thing, here."

[lightamidchaos]

"He felt it was required," is all he says.

"And yes. That is how I met her. She is very skilled, and was very understanding. I did not know she was more than a doctor, though."

[jaskoleczka]

"I envy her control," Ciri sighs. "Hers, yours – so many here seem to be totally comfortable with the gifts they were born with or gained later in life."

[lightamidchaos]

"I have been cultivating since I was a child," he tells her. "It makes a difference, both in the strength of my golden core, and in my control of it."

Along with his absolute dedication to practice, which he does not find necessary to explain.

"Could she help you? If you are both seers?"

[jaskoleczka]

She spreads her hands and shrugs. "Maybe. To be frank, none of my previous teachers ever seemed to want to help me control it. I didn't even learn it was something I could do until quite a bit later than the first few times it happened."

And she has wondered ever since, not without trepidation, what else Yennefer and Triss and the witchers have kept from her about her own abilities.

[lightamidchaos]

He blinks at that.

"Mn."

He cannot say that he is impressed with the quality of her previous teachers, in that case. But--

"Were any of them seers?"

[jaskoleczka]

"No," she says, shaking her head. "Triss and Yennefer, they're sorceresses, but not oracles. Avallac'h has no gift of sight. And the witchers..."

Her smile is wryly affectionate. "Most of them don't believe prophecy is worth the time it takes to hear one."

[lightamidchaos]

Avallac'h is a name he remembers - her friend, that she had been traveling with before she fell through the portal.

"Then maybe someone who is can help, where they could not. It is not something I know enough about to say."

[jaskoleczka]

"Perhaps," she admits. "I know so little about it that any information at all would be helpful."

For example, determining whether or not she's likely to lose control and flatten the greater Bar area by accident.

[lightamidchaos]

He nods, and takes another sip of tea, leaving it at that. She knows where to find Ford-daifu, if that is a path she wishes to pursue.

"Sorceresses," he says, instead, and gives her a quizzical look.

[jaskoleczka]

"Women born with and trained to use magic," she says. "There's a school...well, there was. I don't know if it exists any longer. Two, actually: Ban Ard for men, Aretuza for women. Aretuza was the academy where Yennefer and Triss trained. I was supposed to go there, myself."

[lightamidchaos]

"Mn," he says, and takes another sip of tea.

"Are they Aes Sedai?"

[jaskoleczka]

She blinks at him. "Sorry?"

[lightamidchaos]

He shakes his head.

"There is another woman here, who is as you describe. I thought it might be the same."

[jaskoleczka]

"I've never heard the term," she admits, "but perhaps. This woman, she deals in elemental magic?"

[lightamidchaos]

"She says that she channels something she calls the One Power," he tells her.

"Others have called it thalergetic - magic of life, similar to qi energy, rather than of necromancy."

[jaskoleczka]

"It does sound similar. Lady Yennefer taught me that magic comes from Chaos, and that a sorceress can draw from earth, air, water, or fire to cast her spells, though each has their danger and difficulty."

She gives him a curious look. "Who is your magical acquaintance? Perhaps I should keep an eye out for her, as well."

[lightamidchaos]

“Her name is Moiraine.”

He keeps his tone neutral. She may be an ally, he supposes, but he does not have to like her.

“She has dark hair, and dresses in blue.”