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

[lifes_sake]

"But if Grace were an ordinary notebook," argues Cam, "it wouldn't interact with a daemon at all, and you'd know that. She's not ordinary notebook. Can I conclude that she would interact with a daemon?"

[truthwright]

"You can conclude that she might interact with a daemon," says the alethiometer.

"...Is this the part where I point out that it's calling your notebook 'Paper Daemon'?" says Kas.

[lifes_sake]

"...Yes. This is the part where you point that out," says Cam. "Paper daemon. Huh."

"I could fly!" exclaims Grace.

"If it works that way! It might not work that way. Also then how would I write in you? Or read you?"

"You could wish for me to be able to turn back into a notebook," she says reasonably.

"...Alethiometer, if Grace turns into a hawk, can I safely wish for her to turn back into a notebook?"

[truthwright]

"There is no precedent," says the alethiometer.

[lifes_sake]

"If Amariah wished for Path to be able to turn into a notebook could she do it?" Cam tries.

[truthwright]

"He could become able to be a notebook," it says.

"I wonder if I could be a notebook," muses Petaal. "Not that there's any reason for me to be."

[lifes_sake]

"I'd consider it proof of concept," Cam remarks mildly. "Right now Grace can be as far away from me as we want - if I set her down somewhere, move a hundred yards and change away, and then she turns into a hawk-daemon, do I get to have the separation over with instantly?"

[truthwright]

"If it happens that way, it will happen that way," says the alethiometer.

"Yes," says Kas. "But it's noncommittal about whether or not Grace is going to turn into a hawk-daemon."

[lifes_sake]

"I wonder if I can make a conditional reversal of my anti-daemon wish. Alethiometer, can I do that?"

[truthwright]

"The wish magic works in that way," says the alethiometer.

[lifes_sake]

"Awesome. So I'll go if Grace gets to be my daemon, and otherwise I think I'm gonna have to pass."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"...I'll hang back in reserve," says Elspeth. "I'll go in if I'm needed."

[truthwright]

Kas shrugs. "Anything else we want to know?"

[dark_light]

"Will all our magic work in the afterlife?"

[truthwright]

Kas asks.

"The afterlife doesn't work the same way as other places," he reads. "Meaning: not all of it, but not none of it, or it would've just said so."

[lifes_sake]

"Which magic will stop working?" Cam asks.

[truthwright]

"Magic that depends on how things are outside of the afterlife will not work in the afterlife," says the alethiometer.

[lifes_sake]

Cam theatrically smacks himself in the forehead.

"Will we be able to use coins there?" he tries.

[truthwright]

Kas giggles.

"Wishcoins will not receive wishes in the afterlife," says the alethiometer.

[lifes_sake]

"...What did you get from that?" Cam asks Kas. "I'm not sure I know what it meant."

[truthwright]

"It means no," says Kas.

[lifes_sake]

"The way it put it was weird. 'Receive' wishes."

[truthwright]

"I wouldn't translate it that way, exactly," says Kas. "It was more like - the part of using a coin where you wish on the coin, that's kind of like you're telling it what you want, right? In the afterlife, the coins won't be able to hear you do that."

[lifes_sake]

"...Huh."

[she_sells_seashells]

"When are we going? And do you want me along?" Shell Bell asks.