[OOM + EP] - The feelings haven't changed, and neither has the pining.

[thesecondjade]

 [I loved thee, though I told thee not,
Right earlily and long,
Thou wert my joy in every spot,
My theme in every song.

-- John Clare]

Lan Zhan has been here since Wei Wuxian arrived.

This does not mean that he is constantly at the man's shoulder -- though he's often nearby in the background when his zhiji socalizes or trains, just in case. Still, he finds time for his own studies and pursuits, like study in the library, or creating a small space on the porch that is not too cold to play the guqin in.

Today, he's at a low table in the bar proper, seated before it. On the table is a packet of notes that are on magics that are forbidden - curses, spells woven by the Yiling Patriach, recently brought out of their hiding spot and re-copied for use in study only. His handwriting is much neater than his zhiji's, but if one knows Cultivator magic, this is most certainly dark stuff.

Which is fine, this is research in counter-curses. He is once again pouring through notes on the Songs of Clarity, wondering at what he might find to help counter such things. If there is a way to soothe Mo Xuanyu's cursed pain, perhaps they can buy themselves more time for their quest. Anything that will keep Wei Ying breathing longer.

Tucked to the side? Lesson plans. He's still teaching, after all, and he has to give the juniors something to study in his absences while he travels with Wei Wuxian looking for solutions to the little curse problem -- or whatever poor soul has to die to fulfill Mo Xuanyu's thirst for vengeance.

Comments

[mogget_cat]

Yrael watches him back, unblinking, with eyes the color of new spring leaves in sunlight.

Not himself?

Bound in chains?

"You'll tell me if you find who is responsible?" he murmurs quietly, half-question, half-request. For all its softness, there are teeth behind it.

Yrael had attended the funeral, as well.

[thesecondjade]

"Yes," Lan Zhan says. Yes, he will tell him. "But-- allow us to take justice for him."

Because that dollop of vengeance really belongs to Wei Wuxian.

[mogget_cat]

Then the thing that isn't a cat blinks.

And grins.

"I have no interest in justice."

("The last harm I enacted upon someone here was many years ago, and on one who had murdered one of my friends and had left another near death.")

"And I will prevent nothing you intend upon those responsible." It's as good a promise as he can manage.

[thesecondjade]

Yrael is a spirit-monster, he is as capricious as any of them. It's only because he obeys the bar rules (as they seem most sensible) and Yrael's good behavior that he does not act to suppress or eliminate him.

It would go poorly. The chance for success is low. But if it is to protect others, it is his duty to try.

Since there is no current pressing reason to disobey those rules, Yrael (and in turn, Lan Zhan) remains safe.

"If it is a Jin," he says, voice level and calm. "I assure you, there is no way they will escape justice twice over."

(They both know it's a Jin. They may even suspect the same Jin. But that is the only promise he gives.)

[mogget_cat]

"If it is justice twice over, is it still justice, or then does the excess spill over into vengeance?" asks the creature, blithe but curious about the idea Lan Wangji puts forth.

He agrees that they will not escape, but as Yrael said, he has no interest in justice.

[thesecondjade]

"I will not commit to revenge," Lan Zhan says. That's all he can say-- if justice for Wen Ning and justice for the slain Wen clan seems excessive, it's only because one is compounded with interest.

[mogget_cat]

"Luckily, I don't believe anyone is asking you to," replies the thing in the rafters, dryly amused. It was just a question to gauge his take on the nature of such things. "You act of your free will, no more, no less."

And Yrael reserves the same right for himself.

[thesecondjade]

"Mn," Lan Zhan replies.

The subject of justice and vengeance is settled.