[ Xichen cannot help but move closer, wanting to comfort, wanting - he doesn't know. He stops himself from doing anything, anyway. Who is he to try to comfort a man whose death he is responsible for?
But he doesn't step back, either. He would understand if Mingjue no longer found his presence reasurring, but he can't quite bring himself to move unless requested.
He doesn't know how to make his own fault in this abundantly clear without it sounding as though he is excusing Jin Guangyao's - he is not, there are many things he might excuse but this is not one - so he doesn't, for the moment. Instead he focuses on what he means by worse. ]
If we had suspected murder or other foul play, there is very little we would not have done to uncover what happened.
[ But a qi deviation? Oh, Xichen had wondered, of course, had tried to figure out why Cleansing had not worked. He'd even, in his darker moments, wished he had never asked Jin Guangyao to play for him, believed in his own hubris that if Xichen was the one playing, it would have worked.
But he had not suspected intention. ]
The techinques that we use are to heal, to calm and soothe, but - though we do not teach them, the opposite does exist. There are forbidden texts at Cloud Recesses, locked away in the library pavilion. Among them is the Collection of Turmoil, music that can be used to disturb the mind, even to kill. He found them, and wove bits of it into his music.
no subject
But he doesn't step back, either. He would understand if Mingjue no longer found his presence reasurring, but he can't quite bring himself to move unless requested.
He doesn't know how to make his own fault in this abundantly clear without it sounding as though he is excusing Jin Guangyao's - he is not, there are many things he might excuse but this is not one - so he doesn't, for the moment. Instead he focuses on what he means by worse. ]
If we had suspected murder or other foul play, there is very little we would not have done to uncover what happened.
[ But a qi deviation? Oh, Xichen had wondered, of course, had tried to figure out why Cleansing had not worked. He'd even, in his darker moments, wished he had never asked Jin Guangyao to play for him, believed in his own hubris that if Xichen was the one playing, it would have worked.
But he had not suspected intention. ]
The techinques that we use are to heal, to calm and soothe, but - though we do not teach them, the opposite does exist. There are forbidden texts at Cloud Recesses, locked away in the library pavilion. Among them is the Collection of Turmoil, music that can be used to disturb the mind, even to kill. He found them, and wove bits of it into his music.