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Susan doesn't believe in the mansion spirits, but she is being followed by something in a way that makes little sense.

It begins when she wakes up. Opening the drawer to the sideboard in her room to retrieve tea, she finds another gold chess piece wrapped neatly in ribbon. Lancelot didn't put it there - it hadn't been there when she made her pre-sleep cuppa the night before, and she woke up when he did and sleepily saw him off to his training; he hadn't gone near the drawer. She shuts the chess piece firmly away, makes her tea, and dresses blearily for her own archery practice.

There's a new bow in the closet, too. To her pleasure, it's a heavier one that requires a stronger pull - she's quite got used to the draw of the ones the closet first supplied to her.

After her shooting routine, she finds a lipstick in the precise shade Ingrid used to wear on the bathroom vanity. When she's showered and dressed for the rest of her day, she finds her favorite pastry - a sort of breakfast roll she used to get from the shop by the tube station she'd walk past on her way to work, back in London - on a platter in the kitchen.

It's when she opens one of the closets in the hall off the library to return a pile of laundered wash-cloths that she receives both some clarity and a deepening of the mystery: a jumble of assembled balloons tumbles out, made of some queer material and filled with a gas that keeps them afloat. The writing on them reads: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN PEVENSIE.

She stares at them, perplexed.

Susan's birthday post! Three days (by our reckoning) and eight months (by her reckoning) early! Feel free to have your puppets run into her in any reasonable location at any point during the day; she's just going to be accumulating more Stuff she can't get rid of as the day goes on.

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"Yes. Bacchus told me that, too. I imagine that being able to reject food offered by Luo Binghe to his face because it has tripped some sort of sensor might carry more weight than a more subtle protection against his magics." It might be clear, even though Lan Wangji doesn't know Susan particularly well, that she's rankling at the fact that Bacchus has dissuaded her from confronting Luo Binghe. She understands the reasoning and will respect his advice, but she's deeply displeased that giving the man a piece of her mind is off the table.

Hesitant, almost overtly cautious, Lan Wangji continues to meet Susan's gaze. "It may carry weight, but the weight will be dangerous. He is easily provoked. Like a child."

Susan's brow furrows. "What can he do, absent first infecting others with his blood?" she asks. "I'm afraid I haven't got a clear sense of any other... abilities."

"He wields a dangerous blade," Lan Wangji says, recalling with distaste the poisonous intent that seemed to pour off the sword when he was in close quarters with Luo Binghe. "He is immortal, and he is faster and stronger than any mortal."

"But there are others here who are immortal, or particularly fast and strong, or who wield... queer blades," says Susan. "Are his abilities outsized even in those respects?"

"I believe he is the cruelest among them, and the least likely to regret his actions. He still refuses to apologize to Claudius." A little pause. "His sword is-- it has killing intent. I doubt I know all that he can do. I do know that he can manipulate dreams."

Like Aornis. Susan looks down at her cup of tea for a long moment, and then back up again. "What does that mean?" she asks. "'Killing intent?'"

"Like mine, his sword has a spirit. But his sword's spirit is... malevolent." To put it lightly.

"But what does that mean?"

"I am uncertain how better to explain it. The sword wants bloodshed."

"To what effect?" Susan asks, and then sighs. "I don't mean to press on with a topic you haven't got another way of describing, it's just I'm trying to get a sense of the threat at play here."

"I understand," Lan Wangji says, meaning it -- he is not bothered or offended. "I did not touch it, but Luo Binghe and I were trapped in a small space together. Do you know qi?"

Susan nods. After Shen Yuan explained it to her, she did some additional reading. "It's an Eastern philosophy regarding the circulation of energy through the meridians of the body, requisite for good health and tended-to by meditation, as well as external supports such as acupuncture. Do you mean to say the sword causes qi blockages?"

"I suspect this sword is more likely to cause qi deviation than blockage."

"Ah. I haven't heard of qi deviation."

"It is when one's cultivation goes awry. Qi does not flow correctly. It is often deadly, and can cause madness."

"Ah. And is your concern the sword causing a qi deviation in its user, or in the general populace?" Susan frowns. "Or do you suspect it already has caused such a deviation?"

"I fear it causing something in Luo Binghe. He is held in check by Shen Yuan, but I can't say how fragile that tether on him may be."

Susan's mouth thins at this mention. "That's an awful lot of pressure to put on one man," she says. She really hope Shen Yuan is all right. But if he is... then it does suggest he's not the man she thought he was. She ought to prepare herself for whatever the fallout may be, when she learns the truth of his relationship to Luo Binghe.

"It is." His expression is stony to match hers. Lan Wangji has very little respect for Shen Yuan, but he doesn't envy his position, either. "When Claudius and I were looking into the matter of Aornis, I could rule out Luo Binghe's involvement only because he will supposedly not harm those who are close to Shen Yuan."

"You mean Shen Yuan's death."

"I mean the nightmares Aornis sent Galahad."

"The..." Susan blinks. "My goodness."

Lan Wangji nods. "I nearly presumed they were Luo Binghe's doing, because of his dream manipulation ability. I hesitated in that only because Galahad is close with Peak Lord Shen." As ever, he is perfectly, icily neutral on the topic of Shen Yuan.

That's right, he had mentioned that, hadn't he? "Luo Binghe's dream manipulation ability." Susan presses her lips together. "We must find ways to minimize the threat he poses. Bacchus and I have already decided to exclude him from the play so that Claudius may participate unencumbered, but that does little to remove his access to power. I imagine restricting him to the use of one kitchen might present the same risks as rejecting his food, but this mustn't be allowed to stand on a larger scale. I hadn't any idea until Bacchus mentioned it to me¹ and it alarms me that there might be multiple people here unaware of the risk he poses. A tool which tests food and drink to see if it's been tampered with would be less confrontational, but perhaps more difficult to devise - I'm not certain even I can bully this place into providing a resource that's not been invented yet." She tilts her head. "Perhaps Constance might have some ideas."

¹About that...

Edited 2025-02-24 02:20 (UTC)

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