*Is* this how it happens?

[for_tradition]

There's a woman in the Bar proper. She's commandeered a medium-ish sized table and covered it with things: books, pieces of parchment, notes. There's a plate of biscuits and a pot of tea. She has one pair of glasses tucked on her shining brown hair, and she's wearing another, and she's humming to herself.

She is also, as a certain cavalier might say, mega-dead... but she doesn't seem at all perturbed by it.

Comments

[acrookedpath]

As it turns out, Abigail has not cornered the market on being a mega-dead spirit adept prone to scattering things all over a table!

Granted, Wei Wuxian has left most of his things upstairs today: the portfolio Harrow gave him has proved incredibly useful in consolidating his work. There is still the problem of organizing it after, of course, but: baby steps. As he passes Abigail's table on his way to fetch another bottle of wine, his steps slow, avid curiosity lighting his eyes.

"What is all this?"

[for_tradition]

The more, the merrier, in Abigail's opinion!

"Hello," she says, warmly, smiling up at him. She's a little myopic; a result of having her nose in some quite small text and forgetting to put on either pair of her glasses.

"Would you believe a continuation of my research? I wish this door would open onto my old study – I'm sure I'm duplicating work."

She says this as if duplicating work were the single greatest thing she could be doing with her time. Abigail is a huge nerd.

[acrookedpath]

Nerd recognizes nerd: Wei Wuxian grins, bright with understanding. "Ah, that is a feeling I know well," he says. "Even in the notes I have taken here, I fear I will duplicate something within my own work -- there is so much to learn, and there are so many papers I need to gather!"

He wiggles the small black portfolio in demonstration.

"Will you tell me more of your research? Is it anything I would understand, or are you from a world with flying ships and machines that can instantly do the work of a hundred men?"

[for_tradition]

"I am," she says, smilingly, "but that does not preclude your ability to understand. Please –"

She gestures at an empty seat at the table, and reaches for the teapot with a questioning glance. "Would you like some? I'm not sure how this place does it, but the tea is always excellent and there is much more of it than I could ever drink on my own."

[acrookedpath]

"I would be honored," he says, immediately flopping into the chair and setting the portfolio on the table. "Thank you. Ah, and please forgive me for not introducing myself -- "

He inclines his head in a small bow.

"I am Wei Wuxian. May I ask your name?"

[for_tradition]

"One might think a place of this nature might invest in nametags," Abigail muses. She pours his tea and nestles a ginger biscuit next to the cup on its matching bone china saucer before handing it to him with impeccable manners.

"I am Lady Abigail Pent," she says, "lately of the Koniortos Court and erstwhile heir to the Fifth House. Cream and sugar?"

She proffers both. "As for my studies: this place is an absolute treasure for me; I spent my life researching the boundaries of the River and the liminal spaces between it, the natural world, and the place beyond...and then I happen to pop in here. An island, as it were, existing simultaneously within the River and offering passage back to the living world – there is so much I can learn here!"

[acrookedpath]

"Ah, no thank you," he says, declining the cream and sugar with a polite wave of his hand.

As she continues speaking, the curious light in his eyes only grows. And there is more to it, soon enough: recognition, as the pieces of Fifth House and the River slot together in his mind.

"Pent-laoshi," he says, "are you from the same world as Harrow and Gideon of the Ninth?"

[for_tradition]

Abigail's cheek dimple with her smile. "I certainly am," she confirms. "In fact, I just spoke with another who had seen Gideon the Ninth – but has the Reverend Daughter been here as well?"

Harrow would probably be instantly suspicious of anyone who says Reverend Daughter with the level of delight Abigail assigns to it, but the Fifth scion is absolutely sincere. "Tell me – has she cracked it? Has she become a Lyctor?"

[acrookedpath]

"Not yet," he says. "But she works diligently. Time does not move for her while she resides here, and she has been using it to continue her research."

He cannot recall if the Fifth was among the casualties of Canaan House -- but he knows there has been much death among the adepts and cavaliers, and the way Abigail speaks reminds him of his own queries to Lan Zhan about the cultivation sects on the other side of the door. It is safe to assume, he thinks, and safe to mention Harrow's progress in the most vague of terms.

[for_tradition]

"Good for her," she says, warmly. "Oh, Magnus will be delighted to hear that they're both well. If anyone can work it out, Wei Wuxian, I believe it is her. There was simply no match for her level of sheer ability and ambition among those gathering at Canaan House."

Her own memories of Canaan House are slightly fractured, but she's not unduly concerned. Perhaps now, if she can recall the circumstances of her own murder, she might be able to issue a word of warning to the Ninth House.

"And you? Are you a scholar as well?"

[acrookedpath]

"I suppose," he says, beginning to grin anew. "Though I find I am more student at times, considering the experience of the necromancers I meet! I was the only practitioner in my world and had to forge much of the path myself -- it is still a marvel to know others have not only walked it, but are kilometers ahead of me."

He flips open the portfolio, revealing the scored pad of yellow talisman paper and several paper dolls inscribed with animation characters.

"I do not work with thanergy as Harrow does -- and as you do as well, I would guess? I use what she calls 'poltergeist energy,' or what is known as resentful energy in my world."

[for_tradition]

"A spirit magician!" she says, in the same tones someone else might say "Santa Claus!"

"That happens to be the specialty of my own House, you know. The Ninth House techniques are quite different from my own – how different is impossible to say, they are very protective of the secrets behind their skill – but in a broad sense, yes. The Reverend Daughter and I are both necromancers of the Nine Houses."

[acrookedpath]

"It is?"

You would not think it possible for Wei Wuxian to brighten even more, but somehow, he does.

"Harrow mentioned other Houses have their own specialties, but I did not realize it was so varied as this! How does it work? Ah, I know that is too broad a question, but I do not even know where to start, when all I know is my work and Harrow's -- "

He grabs his red ballpoint pen from its loop in the portfolio and clicks it with an eagerness some reserve for fine wines and desserts.

(Not that Wei Wuxian would turn down wine or desserts, either.)

[for_tradition]

She laughs, a trifle wry. "The Reverend Daughter did not seem altogether interested in spirit magic during our few interactions," she admits, slightly underselling Harrow's intense disdain for anything not relating directly to bones.

"There are a number of techniques and theories particular to the Fifth House: broadly speaking, we are spirit callers; speakers to the dead."

[acrookedpath]

"I see!" For the little she has said, he is already scribbling notes. (At some point, he thinks, he ought to add some ordinary paper to the portfolio as well. Even if he can get all he needs for free, there is no sense in wasting talisman paper!) "That sounds much like my companion's path as well. He is a cultivator, not a necromancer, but cultivation involves plenty of speaking with the spirits of the dead."

He scratches the back of his head with the pen.

"So does my necromancy, of course, but it is more of a commanding than a questioning at times."

[for_tradition]

"So you are adept at summoning?"

She pulls her own notebook over, but before she can jot anything down, she glances over at him and exclaims in surprised delight. "That paper, the calligraphy – did you create those excellent paper talismans I saw among Moraine Sedai's notes?"

[acrookedpath]

The easy grin freezes.

"I may have," he answers, cautiously. "Which talismans?"

[for_tradition]

"Physical transference," she says. "Is that what they were meant for? They weren't precisely like any others I've seen, but there are a few similarities. I found them quite striking."

[acrookedpath]

Ah. Yes. She did not make mention of using the portal talismans, did she -- only the ones to check for suppression on the resentful anomaly.

He forces the grin to relax into a small chuckle. "Yes, those are my work," he says. "One to set in a safe location, another to activate and quickly travel to the first talisman. They are useful when one needs a quick escape."

[for_tradition]

"I thought they were marvelous," Abigail says, admiring. "Very clever. I know next to nothing about portal magic; I suppose in some ways it must be similar to a summoning, but how do you ensure the body and soul stay together? At any rate, I was curious about their author, and now here you are."

She beams. "What good luck!"

[acrookedpath]

She is so genially earnest that Wei Wuxian cannot help but warm to her, despite her mention of Moiraine. (In truth, the flattery doesn't hurt, either.)

"Ah, it is written into the talisman itself," he says. "It takes effort to separate the body and spirit where I am from, aside from death -- a simple working to keep the cultivator safe from harm is usually all that's needed."

[for_tradition]

"I see," she says, perching one pair of spectacles on her nose and scribbling something in her notes. "I assumed the portal would take the subject through the River itself – but if that is not the case, then I can see how it might not be necessary."

She looks up at him and smiles. Her spectacles are really quite thick. "How have your own studies progressed here? This place possesses resources the Sixth would collectively give their right hands for; it's very nearly overwhelming."

[acrookedpath]

"The River -- that is the final resting place of spirits in your world, yes? I cannot fathom how to cross through that and back into the living realm so easily."

Now he's thinking about it, though, and oh, would that be a project to undertake.

"That will have to be another topic for my own studies! They progress... ah, interestingly, I suppose?" He scratches the side of his nose. "I hardly had a concept of thanergy at all before Harrow introduced me to it -- an energy of the body wholly separate from that of the spirit, but utilized just as easily, something that is death and decay itself rather than the result of death. Considering where we are -- "

He gestures upward to the Observation Window.

" -- I hope to learn how to use it, for it would be much faster than calling for resentful energy all the way from the forest. But the one time I touched it, I was chilled for hours. Harrow has her theories why; I have my own. I suspect the truth combines them all to varying degrees."

[for_tradition]

"Actually," she says, leaning forward and dropping her voice as if imparting a trade secret, "I always believed there was another place, somewhere beyond the River, and that the ghosts trapped in the River are always trying to cross it to get there. And I have to say, now that I'm dead, I believe it more strongly than ever."

Sitting back, she sips at her tea, and nods. "I have no basis of comparison, of course, but my guess is that it would be quite difficult for someone outside the demesne of Dominicus and the Post-Resurrection state of our worlds to utilize thanergy in exactly the same way a necromancer of the Nine Houses might. Not to say it couldn't be done, of course...and if there were any place where it might be possible, I must say I think it would be this one."

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian leans in when she does, equally conspiratorial; he lets out a small oh of delighted understanding, nodding vigorously in agreement.

"That was what Harrow thought as well -- that I am different because I lived on a thalergetic world, and cannot safely handle thanergy without sheathing it somehow," he says. "It would also not surprise me if channeling thanergy upsets the balance Madam Bar maintains for the dead. But if you are also dead, and can channel it with no trouble, then your theory and Harrow's seems more likely."