PFSB

[riddleofthebelow]

The next time Tom enters the bar, he turns round to the portal painting first thing. When he steps away, the rabbits playing poker look much more like proper rabbits instead of rabbit-shaped former canines. He steps back, regarding it, and nods his head. Much better.

Then he takes his stack of research with him to a table and orders a scotch. While Wei Wuxian indeed broke the ward on the mysterious scroll, and Tom was able to translate it, it still makes no sense. He has old maps of London Above to scour for clues today, because the existence of scroll is still bothering him. He doesn't think it's malevolent, but he's even more convinced that there is no logical reason to have found it in the Underside.

Not that the Underside is very logical. You know what he means.

Comments

[riddleofthebelow]

"I never imagined it could happen. I certainly never expected to find myself incarnated in a place like this. As I said, I was helped along. A -"

He pauses for the briefest of moments. While he doubts the Ninth would be either dismayed or repelled by the explanation of a Horcrux, it is... rather difficult to explain in a first conversation.

"- spell went awry. It sent me out of my timeline, and I couldn't go back. And then I didn't want to go back."

[we_bring_hell]

"I cannot imagine," she repeats. "I have duties--to the Ninth, to the Tomb, to the Emperor, to my cavalier. I cannot stay here, although I have stolen a respite. But if I had no choice..." She looks oddly wistful.

"I don't know how I would cope with it," she says.

[riddleofthebelow]

"In that case, I hope you're never forced to. But I assure you, if it happened, you'd find your way here. I've seen this happen time and again with people who've found themselves here."

[we_bring_hell]

"I just don't know. If I could exist like that."

(Look upon me as a Harrowhark who was handed the first genuine choice of our lives; the only choice ever given where we had free will to say, No, and free will to say, Yes.)

She shakes her head, and her eyes clear, smiling above the veil. "I shouldn't let myself be distracted by alternate futures, I suppose."

(Accept that in this instance I have chosen to say, No.)

[riddleofthebelow]

Your miles may indeed vary when it comes to being distracted by alternate futures.

"That may be for the best. No need to worry about something that may never be."

Take your own advice, Riddle.

[we_bring_hell]

"I know I have struggled with some misgivings about taking advantage of Milliways to buy myself some additional time," she admits. "So I suppose the idea of permanently abdicating my responsibilities strikes at those anxieties."

"Rationally, I know that there is value in the additional time. A head start, I have heard it said, is the only advantage one can claim by choice. But there is a thin line between reason and rationalization."

[riddleofthebelow]

When one makes comments about buying additional time, that's usually an indicator of things not going well.

"You're not bound, are you? You're free to come and go?"

[we_bring_hell]

"Yes, it's a voluntary stay," she says. "But time is stopped on the other side. It is an opportunity to get ahead of my rivals and to regain my composure after some unfortunate events, lest they become... more unfortunate."

[riddleofthebelow]

"That is indeed an advantage. I'm glad it's working that way for you, especially regarding these unfortunate events. Are you in danger at home?"

[we_bring_hell]

"No more than anyone else," she says neutrally. "I did not expect these trials to be entirely safe. But it is not entirely clear if these risks are intended."

[riddleofthebelow]

"Unsafe trials," he repeats. "It seems to me that you have great burdens to carry. In your world, are you considered young or old or somewhere in between? If you don't mind me asking, of course."

[we_bring_hell]

"I am considered an adult," she says starchily. "And not the youngest of the heirs to attend on Canaan House."

This is true, but that defensiveness definitely undermines her position. Also, the two youngest are dead now. "I have been managing the leadership of the Ninth for some time now."

[riddleofthebelow]

"I meant no offense. My wife was forced to take over the business of managing her house when she was very young. I know the challenge it presents."

[we_bring_hell]

"The House of Arch?" she repeats, just to confirm her memory of the name. "You said all of the members of the House exhibit the power of Opening?"

[riddleofthebelow]

"Yes. I became one when I married her. She and her sister and our children were born to it."

[we_bring_hell]

She nods. "A very reliable genetic talent, then."

[riddleofthebelow]

"Indeed," he agrees.

It may be the only reliable thing in the Underside.

"Do you have a family?"

[we_bring_hell]

She studies the table intently.

The problem with having let the guard down about her lies with some people is that she has to worry about consistency. "My parents died several years ago. I have ruled Drearburh since I was twelve," she admits.

Wow! Not fun to say!

[riddleofthebelow]

“I’m sorry for your losses.”

He is, truly. He never understood the meaning of family until he had one of his own, and the mere thought of something happening to him or to Door and Portico being forced to carry on at such a young age... It pierces him through the heart, and it makes him want to dash back to the House of Arch and gather his wife and children into an embrace from which he will never let them go.

His heart goes out to this stiff, poised necromancer who seems both older than her years and so terribly young at the same time.

“Have you found friends here? There are people who will stand with you against any troubles you may face. I’ve seen this time and again in my years here.”

[we_bring_hell]

She bristles at even the appearance of pity. "It's fine. I'm just not accustomed to discussing it. It was never necessary before."

(Also, she's been puppeting the corpses of her parents since then, so no one knows.)

"It is refreshing to come to a place where I have neither obligations or rivalries to consider, that much is true. It is impossible to have an apolitical relationship with the other heirs."

[riddleofthebelow]

“I can only imagine,” he says, carrying on as if she’d never laid that burden of truth before him.

(The bristling only endears her to him more, but he’ll keep that quiet.)

“Complex political navigation makes for difficulties even when one is well supported.”

[we_bring_hell]

"Mm," she says. "Moiraine Sedai has been invaluable in considering such questions."

"Does your magical tradition include something like the role of the cavalier? Or what Moiraine Sedai refers to as a Warder?"

[riddleofthebelow]

“No, not really. We’re often left to our own devices, for better or for worse.”

[we_bring_hell]

She nods. "I have met magicians here who did not see the difference between cultivating supernatural skill with the sword and other kinds of magic," she says. "Very strange to me."

"Necromancy seems to be correlated with a lack of muscle tone. Except for Coronabeth Tridentarius, anyway." The note of bitterness is very, very small.

[riddleofthebelow]

“How so? I’m not aware of such correlations.”