What happens in the library stays in the library. Unless it's demons

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen is seated at a table in the library, tomes and scrolls spread out before her. There's also the remains of at least two plates of sandwiches next to her elbow, and two empty glasses of water. There is one half-empty glass, too.

Liranan, seated at her side, seems to be watching that half-empty glass as if his life depends on it.

Time continues to pass.

Comments

[yinyangwizard]

"There's a sort of meditative exercise one can use to train the mind for lucid dreaming," Seimei says. "It takes a few weeks. I can, if you like, write down the titles of some books that explain the technique."

As far as Seimei's concerned, anything that helps someone do magic without mind-altering substances is a definite positive.

[freedom_is_grey]

"Could you?"

She tries not to sound as excited as a five year old, and maybe kind of succeeds.

"I'd -- I'd like to try it. If it works at all, in any way -- that would be. Um. Helpful."

[yinyangwizard]

"I would be glad to." Seimei takes Ysalwen's pen and a blank piece of paper to write down a few titles and authors.

"So I am curious," he says, as he finishes writing, "Does my tale of past misadventures accord with what you've learned in your researches? Other than the bits where I pointed out the inaccuracies in" - he closes the children's book, so he can read the illustrator's name on the cover - "Mihara-san's visual storytelling?"

[freedom_is_grey]

"You had a lot more detail in your recounting," she says, taking the paper and tucking it into her belt pouch.

"Thank you for that, by the way. And the list."

Her smile is quick and crooked.

"There were a lot of blank spaces, or very -- theatrical yet inexact language when it came to describing what happened in the tales I found. Though -- I did find a journal that was -- more descriptive. I wasn't sure if it was real or the fictional kind, though."

[yinyangwizard]

"It could be either. Historical fiction is one of my people's favorite pastimes."

For a given value of "historical."

"Whose journal was it?"

[freedom_is_grey]

"Hmm. Hold on a second."

She flips through her notes, not that one, not that one -- ah. Here.

"Minamoto no Hiromasa?"

[yinyangwizard]

Seimei's face turns stony in an instant. He very deliberately looks away from the table. "Did it say it was written by someone else, or...no, there's a better way. What was his younger sister's name?"

In the Heian era, the proper names of women were rarely if ever committed to paper. Her name would be unlikely to appear anywhere else.

[freedom_is_grey]

"Oh."

Um.

So this is awkward.

She goes through her notes a little more, looking for -- there.

"Tsuyu. I think I'm probably not saying that right. But -- "

[yinyangwizard]

Seimei puts a hand over his eyes. "If the journal is open on the table, please close it."

His voice is strangely flat, as if he's trying very hard to keep it emotionless.

"There are no doubt some personal things in there that have nothing to do with me, and I...should not read them. Even by accident."

[freedom_is_grey]

"It's not."

If that's comforting.

"Should I get tea? Or -- "

Well.

"Leave?"

[yinyangwizard]

"No, no. It's all right." Seimei drops his hand. "I thought his family destroyed it after he died. Perhaps they didn't. Or perhaps from the perspective of the library, that doesn't matter."

It looks like all the materials on Ysalwen's table - other than her notes - are bound books, which the journal would not have been. Japan did not have bound books in the tenth century.

"I'm sure Hiromasa's journal would be a treasure trove for any historian. But to me he is not some historical figure from a bygone era. He was my best friend."

And you don't peek in your best friend's diary, you know?

[freedom_is_grey]

She bites her lip, just for a second.

"Has he been gone for nine hundred years, too?"

It seems -- hard.

[yinyangwizard]

"Yes." Seimei sighs. "Aside from a few kami and one or two yōkai, everyone I knew from back then is long gone." He frowns. "And Emperor Ichijō probably thought he was doing me a favor by inducting me into the Shinto pantheon."

Seimei has, essentially, made his peace with it, but sometimes it's an uneasy peace.

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen huffs out a harsh breath.

"People often don't think before they grant sweeping favors."

Or maybe they do. Is that worse?

"I'm sorry."

[yinyangwizard]

Seimei smiles briefly. "Thank you. Really, I think he wanted me to stick around and keep the local yōkai on their best behavior. Also the Fujiwaras. It worked with the yōkai. The Fujiwaras, not so much."

[freedom_is_grey]

"Well, humans."

She laughs a little, very quietly.

"And other people, of course. Probably."

[yinyangwizard]

"Well, my world does not have quite the variety of mortals yours does - so I can only speak to humans."

He looks down at Liranan. "Your species isn't self-interested to the point of foolishness, I hope?"

[freedom_is_grey]

"Motivations are often different, but there's always a few that desire nothing but power and control. So."

Go figure.

Liranan, meanwhile, barks twice, tail wagging.

Mabari like to focus outward, on the person (or people) they love most! It works!

[yinyangwizard]

"I've found that most people aren't evil so much as profoundly deluded." Seimei scratches Liranan behind the ears. "They really think they are doing the right thing. Or that they have no other choice."

Ysalwen's known people like that, right?

"And then there are people who have a great void in their hearts that all the power and acclaim in the world cannot fill. All their striving for these things just widens the void until everything is consumed."

With time and distance, Seimei has come to think of Ashiya Doman as one of those people.

[freedom_is_grey]

"I'm still not sure which kind of person is worse, in the end. Or causes more damage, I mean."

Loghain was the first kind, Howe was the second.

Both of them left wreckage in their wake.

[yinyangwizard]

"In terms of absolutes, the first kind - by sheer force of numbers," Seimei says. "But in terms of which sort of individual causes more damage on their own? Definitely the second. Especially because they are so underhanded about it."

The deluded people tend to be louder and easier to spot.

[freedom_is_grey]

"But in the end, on their own or not -- "

She shakes her head, just a little wearily.

"Maybe it doesn't matter, that comparison. Just -- stopping the ones we can find. Or that make us find them. Or both."

[yinyangwizard]

"Well, as I see it, the first sort of person may be convinced to see the error of their ways. They deserve a chance to make amends."

Some days, Seimei has to work really hard to convince himself of that.

"With the latter sort of person the only prudent approach is to...well, send them on their karmic journey, as it were."

[freedom_is_grey]

"Hmm. Sometimes, I suppose. When their mad actions aren't going to result in more people being hurt. More uninvolved people, I mean to say."

Forgiveness and second chances are great, when you can get them. Letting more people starve or die just to see if you can feel good about redeeming one person -- no.

(Not that this is what Seimei means, but it's what Ysalwen is thinking about. Ah, not-so-ancient history.)

[yinyangwizard]

"The thing is, if one kills a single deluded person, there is quite likely to be another, similarly deluded person ready to step into his shoes."

They tend to travel in packs, after all.

"And then one may be faced with the necessity of killing a lot of people, when death and destruction is exactly what one wanted to avoid in the first place."

This is not always the case, but it's a substantial risk.