Notices (also: Open Post)

[edgar_huntly]

Two notices on the noticeboard, with varying degrees of accurate spelling rewritten by Gen:

If any here have information regarding the whereabouts of Mr. Alexander Misurov, please advise Mr. Edgar Huntly. He may be found in the main hall between the hours of noon and three.

and also, in much larger letters,

One bedframe, free, with mattress.

Comments

[wishandwait]

...Why is someone looking for me? Sasha thinks to himself, clutching his book more tightly in one hand. People looking for you is rarely good - it means, well, it means they want something, and people wanting things out of wizards usually leads to trouble.

[edgar_huntly]

If Sasha is there during the correct time frame, Edgar will ask very politely, "Sir, may I trouble you for a moment?"

[wishandwait]

No one calls Sasha sir, because he's not a sir. He's got the look of a fellow used to working outdoors, and currently has a definite air of horse about him.

But he's the only possible addressee, so. "Yes?"

[edgar_huntly]

But 'poor' was part of how Edgar was told to identify him--and anyway, even the rich people often smell of horse, in Edgar's place. "I do not mean to presume, but are you Mr. Alexander Misurov?"

[wishandwait]

Alexander? Oh, wonderful, since there's only one person in the entire place who would send anyone looking for "Alexander Misurov" instead of "Sasha".

"Yes," he says, and then, resignedly, "Kavi sent you."

And what a struggle it is, not wanting anything while saying that. Nothing, nothing, nothing, sunlight on leaves.

[edgar_huntly]

He gives the man a curious look. "He had only told me that you might be able to answer a question of mine. But is there something else to your acquaintance with him ...?"

[wishandwait]

Sunlight and leaves, not anything else, just green growing things - leshys. Sasha has no intention of having Kavi turn up in front of him, following the feel of his wishes.

"Nothing, it's nothing, what did you need?" Sasha studies Huntly with wary teenage eyes. You can't trust Kavi. And anyone he sends is likely to want more than what Sasha's in any wise willing to give, but. He can't very well just turn someone away unheard, either.

[edgar_huntly]

"I had only wondered, since Kavi does not die because he is afraid--were he to let himself die here, would he not come back a whole, living boy? Do people not come back to life in such a way here?" He is trying so very hard not to scare Sasha, trying not to twist whatever is so painful about this conversation; unfortunately, he appears to be failing utterly.

[wishandwait]

This is not Sasha scared, exactly. This is just everyday normal Sasha. Sasha scared is not something most people want to get to know.

"He is dead," Sasha says, "He's just not gone. He won't go - it's not that he won't die, it's that he won't leave. He's not alive, he's not even a person, he's just a wish to live. If he stopped wishing - "

Sunlight on leaves, Sasha, don't think about it, think about sunlight. "I don't know."

[edgar_huntly]

"Would he simply go away? Would his soul go to wherever it is that dead souls go, here, before being remade in bodies like their old ones? Could it not be tried, at least?"

[wishandwait]

"He's a wish," Sasha tries to explain, "He died, he's still here, that's power, you don't just - you can't turn it away, it won't work. When he died he wanted not to more than he wanted anything else, anything at all, so he's still here because of that. It's will - he's only here because he willed it - "

He pauses. "You can't kill yourself holding your breath," he says, "That's what it'd be like. He can't just stop being a wish."

[edgar_huntly]

"I see," he answers, and doesn't.

[wishandwait]

"No one's done it before," Sasha adds, "So I don't know. I can't look at the future. It - it doesn't work like that."

[edgar_huntly]

"What do you suppose would happen? I have even less knowledge of this than you do."

[wishandwait]

"I don't know," Sasha says, sharper and more desperate than he means to. Stop aski - no, he cuts the wish off and thinks firmly of rich, green growing things.

"I don't know," he says again, calmer, "It's important to know before you do things, and I don't know."

[edgar_huntly]

He draws back a pace. "I didn't mean--I am sorry for having upset you, sir," he says quietly. "It was only an idea."