ximilia | Audio | UN: Wei Wuxian

I was able to make contact with Warrior Leixi Kalain. She led the battle to protect Queen Lloria during the uprising. The High Queens of Hhial had once been warrior queens with dragon companions for protectors, but by the time of the uprising, their numbers had greatly diminished.

Their advisors turned against them. There was something called "The Fever," presumably a grave illness but I can’t say for sure, and there was a divide between the people who had powers and those who didn’t. The advisors used these things to gather support against them.

Warrior Leixi urged High Queen Lloria to flee, and the queen's daughter Zehin escaped on High Queen Lloria’s dragon. Warrior Leixi believes they fled west to the island where their dragons built their nests. She didn’t know where it was though, she and her dragon partner fell protecting them. [He pauses for a moment to honor Warrior Leixi’s sacrifice before continuing with the rest of what he’d learned.]

High Queen Lloria took with her something called Zefira’s Gem, an object of great power that had been passed from one high queen to the next since High Queen Zefira first unified the continent.

If that sounds like the Orb to you, then we’re on the same page. I can’t say if it’s still on that island, but from what I can see, finding that island is our best bet, and we should be prepared for the possibility of encountering dragons when we do.

[Another pause and then—] The dragons that fought beside the Kalain queens were loyal and noble. They weren’t mindless creatures. If you do meet one, please don’t attack them. Speak to them as you would speak to each other. They've done noting to deserve anything less.

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[He doesn't mind, especially not when asked more directly and without some of the weird comments he's received in the past.]

I can summon and speak to the dead. I called out to them in Zefindam and Warrior Leixi heeded my call.

[ Thistle's ears prick forward. ]

You can speak to them? As if they're still here?

[Well that's something of a loaded question, isn't it?]

Sometimes. Not everyone's spirit lingers, and not everyone wants to talk. [He can compel them of course, not the way Inquiry does, but he can at least demand their presence. But that's not a skill he's put to use since E23-b, and only one he uses when the situation necessitates it.]

In the case of Warrior Leixi, she was already around. All I did was ask for her to speak with me and she responded.

Oh, that's amazing. [ He sounds very impressed, and more than a little bit wistful. ] I can hear the dead, but I can't talk to them, it's not like... It's just an echo. So I thought that meant they weren't really there, you know? But maybe if some of them are...

Um, do you know what makes someone...linger?

[His interest is piqued at the information about hearing the dead. He wonders if it's all the time or something they turn on and off, and hopes it's the latter.

He softens his voice when he answers, aware that a question like that has the potential to be personal. It might not be, but it's a heavy subject either way.]

In my world, people linger when their soul is unrestful. Usually because they died abruptly or weren't willing to leave their life behind. I've found on our travels that the reasons people linger in other worlds isn't always the same.

It must be strange to hear them and not be able to respond. [It would make him sad, he thinks, feeling like he couldn't do anything to help.]

[ That makes sense, Thistle supposes. It's disappointing to not get one solid answer that he can apply to specific deaths, but when he thinks about it... Even in his own world, who knows whether what happens to humans when they die is the same as what happens to cats? ]

...It is, yeah. I tried to at first, but, I mean, they're not talking to me--I just hear things they said while they were alive. Sometimes things they thought.

[Echoes, he'd said, and the term seems fitting.]

Is that common in people from your world? Being able to hear them?

Not really. I mean, it's because I was Altered, but not everybody that happens to can do this, even if they can do other things. There used to be an Altered elder in my colony who could see the dead--or, well, shadows of them, was what he said--but he didn't hear them.

[ A little pause. ]

Is it like that for you, too? I mean--did something happen to you?

[Did something happen to him?

He sits with that for a moment, the weight of it making it difficult to find an answer. Many things happened to him, but not the way they mean, he's fairly sure. Many things that led to his abilities.]

I don't think in the way you mean. [He says, voice soft, and after a minute, he locks the conversation. It's a common practice for him whenever he begins to speak of anything personal.]

In my world, the dead are never that far away. I only channeled a power that brought me a little closer to them.

Did someone or something give you your ability?

[ Ah. Something did happen, then, just not in the way that he was asking... Thistle can't help wondering what it was, but even a cat as nosy as he is figures it's best not to pry. ]

...Yes. It's--I have nothing against the humans here, but in my world, I was, um, trapped by them? And they took me somewhere and...ah, it's hard to describe, but I've read about something a bit like it while we've been in this world and they call it "surgery". But that's why I'm like this. Not every cat they do this to ends up with an ability like this, but some of them do.

I don't think I've ever heard of any cat being able to choose it on purpose. Is that really what you did?

[The realization that he's talking to a cat should probably be a little stranger, but then he's been friends with a dog for several months now, and that is infinitely stranger because, well. He's a dog. Wei Wuxian takes it in stride and finds his brow furrowing at the tale the cat tells.]

I know what surgery is. [And what an awful thing, to do a surgery on someone against their will. He very pointedly does not think about that sentiment for even a second longer than he has to.]

I chose it during a war. It was necessary to protect my family.

[It all went to shit in the end and he'd failed dramatically, but that doesn't change what his motivation had been back then. He doesn't want to dwell on any of that though, and he continues speaking.]

But that was a long time ago, [He offers a smile, shaking his head.] And a very different circumstance from yours it seems. Still, if you'd like to speak to one of the dead together sometime, maybe we could learn something from each other.

[ haha...yeah who would do such a thing! ]

Oh--I'd like that very much! I don't know if I could learn to do it, but I'd definitely want to see it. Or...hear it, I suppose.

[Okay, look...]

Then the next time it becomes possible, I'll ask you to join me. [A brief pause and then.] My name is Wei Wuxian. Although I'm fairly sure you're the only cat among the crew, it would still be helpful to know your name. [There's just the slightest hint of teasing to the words.]

Audio | UN: Wei Wuxian

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