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

[truthwright]

...They might be able to fly the mountain around and make it slurp up enemy angels and kill them, says Kas. And they can still spy on anybody who goes near 'em. Uh.

He pauses briefly, then goes on,

Apparently angels can see a bunch of stuff, and it's impossible to make them not, and some of the stuff they can see is - people's essential natures.

[dark_light]

...Essential natures like how?

[truthwright]

Like... who you are as a person, what your life has been like, what kind of stuff you believe in.

[dark_light]

Then why didn't that solid angel know he was not going to get me to leave by saying so?

[truthwright]

Maybe he did.

[dark_light]

Hmm. How does piloting the mountain work? Also where the heck is it now?

[truthwright]

It's... in a world, says Kas, unhelpfully. Not ours. One of the ones that doesn't have other life. The alethiometer doesn't know how to pilot it, but it says you can enchant it to stick somewhere and stay stuck.

[dark_light]

If there's no other life here I'm gonna call it a fine parking spot. You okay for the enchantment?

[truthwright]

Yep!

[dark_light]

Enchanting!

[truthwright]

The mountain has been drifting through the air this whole time, a few inches a minute.

It slows, then stops.

[dark_light]

Are all the bad angels currently in the tank?

[truthwright]

Maybe. There could be bad angels hiding somewhere and the alethiometer wouldn't know about them.

[dark_light]

Why are we running into all these limits on alethiometer knowledge today?

[truthwright]

Angels can hide things from it.

[dark_light]

Can I stop them from being able to do that?

[truthwright]

No.

[dark_light]

Is it sure or might there be a way it doesn't know about because the angels can hide things?

[truthwright]

If it's not sure, it tells me it's not sure.

[dark_light]

So basically there are more angels around, these are all bad but the others are potentially a mix, anybody might show up - I don't think I can make the angel tank discriminate by loyalty to the Authority. Maybe I should just let it suck up all angels incoming and leave instructions on how to get in touch with me.

[truthwright]

Yeah, if the Authority ones don't just straight-up murder any of the other ones they catch.

[dark_light]

Are angels who would get murdered by the Authority's contingent going to approach the Clouded Mountain to begin with?

[truthwright]

They could. We don't know they won't. We don't know anything about them except they exist.

[dark_light]

I guess I could make individual sections pinch off for new angels and swing by once a week to see whether they get added to the general population or turned loose.

[truthwright]

Sure. Do they get their very own bakeries? he laughs.