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]

What's on the mountain is... angels, says Kas. Not like Angela. It's impossible to hide from them if you're close enough to see, but they're physically fragile. Except for their leader - 'angel' is a submeaning of 'messenger', and it calls him 'voice/messenger'. Apparently he could kick my ass in a fistfight. He's not the Authority; he's some kind of second in command. Uh, and if he knew you exist he'd hate your guts.

[dark_light]

Could he kick my ass in a fistfight? With my boosts? What about - Golden's not here, but Elspeth's in the house, could he beat her up?

[truthwright]

He couldn't beat up Elspeth, he reports.

[dark_light]

What about me, though, I don't want to ask Elspeth if it's not necessary.

[truthwright]

He could beat you up easier than he could beat me up, if we were both unarmed, Kas reports.

[dark_light]

Hmm. Okay. Might ask Elspeth, then. Is beating up definitely going to happen if we show up or does the alethiometer think we could come to a nonviolent agreement?

[truthwright]

It can't see the future, he reminds her. Why not ask Aianon? Aianon could beat Elspeth up. Aianon arm-wrestled the Joker's sweetie and won one out of two.

[dark_light]

Oh, good idea. Is Clouded Mountain all weirdly spacey like this place? Will we be able to teleport there?

[truthwright]

No teleporting.

[dark_light]

Does it prevent wishing too?

[truthwright]

Yeah, but differently. You can't wish on a coin that's in the afterlife; you can't wish on a target that's in the Clouded Mountain. I don't know if you can cast wishes while you're there; it isn't saying.

[dark_light]

Hmm. Is there non-physical danger there? I don't mind a bit of a fight if I have to fight, but I'd really rather not be harpied or anything like being harpied.

[truthwright]

No harpies, he says. Don't know about things like them.

[dark_light]

Does the alethiometer know why it doesn't know much about this place?

[truthwright]

It just says there are things there that are hidden from it.

[dark_light]

Okay then. I should decide whether to set up the new afterlife before or after addressing that. Does it know if anything is dependent on the continued existence of the Authority or the angels such that if we wind up killing them all stuff will collapse?

[truthwright]

Uh... it says there's angels who don't follow the Authority and you definitely shouldn't kill those, he offers.

[dark_light]

That's good to know, how do we tell them apart? Do we just ask the alethiometer for all of them?

[truthwright]

Well, whether or not they try to kill us should be a clue, right?

[dark_light]

That'll point out the ones who we can try to kill right back, if any of them try to infiltrate and spy or just generally act out of self-preservation it won't help.

[truthwright]

...Don't you have lie detector powers for that?

[dark_light]

Will it work on the angels? It doesn't work on Bells with mental defense wishes, let alone native opacities.

[truthwright]

Lie detection works on angels.

[dark_light]

Cool.

[truthwright]

So where's that leave us?