we are not truly immortal

[dark_light]

After Glass's party is over with, Amariah and Kas go home.

Amariah fetches down their alethiometers.

"It's about time I took care of Alethia's afterlife, whatever it may be," she says quietly. "What can the alethiometer tell you about what I'll find?"

Comments

[dark_light]

"Are the dead people conscious? Are they suffering, without their daemons?" asks Amariah softly.

[truthwright]

He asks.

"They're... sad," he says. "Sad and cold."

[dark_light]

Amariah shivers.

"But we can fix it," she says, "we'll be physically unharmed - can you convince it to give you context, about the non-physical harm...?"

[truthwright]

He tries it. Several different ways.

"It just says - there's something there that might hurt you," he translates. "It's very specific about the kind of hurt, but it's not something there's directly a word for. Grief? Anguish? Hurt in your mind and your feelings, not your body or your soul."

[dark_light]

"It it recoverable?" tries Amariah.

[truthwright]

"Uh..."

He asks.

"...now it's getting all philosophical on me," he says. "I'd say - mostly. Or maybe."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I'd feel better about walking into danger if I knew more about it," Shell Bell murmurs. "I wonder if Cam can talk to these things."

[dark_light]

"Good question. Jane, can you invite Cam over specifically, please?"

[lifes_sake]

Cam shows up presently - by Jane, not by door - also anti-daemon-wished.

"Hey, alethiometer," he says.

[truthwright]

The alethiometer's hand spins. "I tell the truth," it says to Cam.

Kas watches it in fascination.

[lifes_sake]

"You sure do. Tell me about this world's afterlife."

[truthwright]

"The afterlife is where all the dead are," says the alethiometer. Kas snorts.

[lifes_sake]

Cam sighs. "Is there anything else there?" he asks.

[truthwright]

"What inhabits the afterlife other than the dead causes suffering," says the alethiometer.

"That's the same way of saying 'hurt' it's been using all this time," Kas contributes.

[lifes_sake]

"What are the things that cause suffering?" asks Cam.

[truthwright]

"What inhabits the afterlife and causes suffering is not dead," says the alethiometer.

[lifes_sake]

"How does it cause suffering?" Cam tries.

[truthwright]

"It has knowledge and hungers for truth," says the alethiometer.

"What exactly are you getting from all this?" wonders Kas.

[lifes_sake]

"Not much," Cam tells Kas. And to the alethiometer: "What knowledge does it have?"

[truthwright]

"This is weird," Kas declares.

The alethiometer repeats, "Knowledge." Kas frowns.

[lifes_sake]

"Why, what's it doing that you're picking up?" Cam asks Kas.

To the alethiometer: "What truth does it seek?"

[truthwright]

"It's talking the same way it always does," he says. "But then you're talking back in English. There's way less - depth to what you're saying."

Meanwhile, the alethiometer is repeating itself again: "It hungers for truth."

[lifes_sake]

"Do we have truths that will satisfy it?" Cam asks.

[truthwright]

"You can sate its truth-hunger," says the alethiometer.

"I didn't know this thing had a word for your kind of wizard," Kas comments.

[lifes_sake]

"I didn't hear it talk about wizards - did it?" And to the alethiometer: "Me, or the others like me too?"