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]

"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?"

[truthwright]

The alethiometer says, "Who can speak the truth can satisfy truth-hunger."

"If I'd asked it that question, I might've said it answered, 'Cam can do that'," says Kas. "But it doesn't talk about people by name; it talks about them by who they are. And it talked about you by you being a wizard. Why, is that important?"

[lifes_sake]

"Maybe. I mean, something is hungering for truth, maybe only wizards can talk to it, maybe we should bring Tilly and Jellybean, but on the other hand maybe it's calling me a wizard to tell me apart from Amariah and Shell Bell and the key thing is my truthy aura and we should bring Elspeth," says Cam. "For that matter, I'm getting sufficient heebie-jeebies around this that maybe we should borrow Mary from Stella, or Alice from Golden."

[truthwright]

"...Can I talk to it for a sec?" says Kas.

[lifes_sake]

Cam hands Kas his, and takes the other, which he asks: "Are wizards particularly helpful for the thing in the afterlife that hungers for truth?"

[truthwright]

"You can speak the truth," says the second alethiometer.

"It called you a wizard again," says Kas, who is watching Cam instead of questioning his own.