[closed post: a task]

[ravkanwitch]

Nina has been feeling more like herself recently. It's taken a few weeks of self care, a failed waffle experiment, many naps with Khitka, a history lesson from Kade, quality time with friends, and a few mildly distressing conversations with alternate versions of people that she knows – but she's okay. She'll be much better once Shen Yuan is back of course, but for now, she'll do what she does best and weather the storm.

There are few things she's considering in her mind but right now, she's flipping through some language books with Khitka curled around the back of her neck, dozing.

Comments

[ravkanwitch]

"It felt good," she tells him. "It helps that the hilt is made of bone. I can sense it."

[lightbearinglord]

"Good," Lan Wangji says again. "It is the same for a cultivator with a spiritual weapon."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina doesn't want to ask too much - but she desperately wants to ask this. She looks at Lan Wangji. "Do you think… there are some special moves that you could teach me? Moves that a cultivator might use. After I ask Sagramore for basic training, of course."

[lightbearinglord]

And, again, he nods. "It may not be precisely the same. But we can experiment." Without its own spirit, the bone sword won't be perfectly analogous to a cultivator's weapon. It seems to answer to her, though, enough that he has some ideas already.

[ravkanwitch]

"Thank you," Nina says, looking down at her sword. It's a multiple-purpose thank you. Thanks for hearing her out, for helping her find the sword, for the promise of teaching her.

[lightbearinglord]

After a flicker of a pause, Lan Wangji says, "You're welcome." He still has the throwing star. He holds it aloft and gives her a mildly questioning look: shall they adjourn upstairs and outside to see what this does?

[ravkanwitch]

Nina nods. "Be careful," she tells Lan Wangji breezily, with a small smile, "that's sharp. You might be an idiot and prick yourself with it."

[lightbearinglord]

"I might." The look he gives her doesn't make it all the way to a smile, but it comes a little nearer than it could have at the beginning of their conversation. "But it is unlikely." He starts back out of the armory and for the stairs.