syntropic

[lifes_sake]

Home again. [Tilly! We're back! How long were we out?]

Comments

[mind_game]

"Biohazard? But anyway Aether's new aura fixes that," chirps Jane. "Near her, anyway."

[withmypowers]

"Refresh my memory - Iggy?" says Agent Honey.

[lifes_sake]

"Local evil deity, sends nastiness after newly oathed wizards," says Cam. "He is not actually named Iggy, that's just how he introduced himself to me when he was pretending to be a talking rock."

[withmypowers]

"I see," says Agent Honey. "That does sound unpleasant. Can we do something about him?"

"Nothing immediately obvious," says Tilly. "But you never know."

[lifes_sake]

"Don't understand enough about how he works," Cam says. "He has either confused motivations, intensely variable competence, or some kind of agenda beyond my comprehension - his pattern of behavior doesn't make sense if he's trying to achieve some result, has as much power as it sometimes looks like he has, and works, psychologically, like all the other kinds of people we've met."

[withmypowers]

"I do think he has limitations that aren't apparent to us," says Tilly, "but whether they're psychological or practical I'm really not sure."

"Hmm," says Matilda. "Something to think about."

The Matildas share a smile.

[lifes_sake]

"The fact that this world isn't Downsideable has me nervous about making a move, in case he gets backed into a corner - or some alien-psychology equivalent - and kills a bunch of people I can't get back," Cam says. "He hasn't been making an unusual amount of nuisance of himself so far even though he considered me threatening enough back when I was newly wizardy to try to strike a deal with me."

[withmypowers]

"I haven't been able to acquire any good detail about this world's afterlife," says Tilly, "but I'm pretty sure at this point that it has some kind of a one."

[lifes_sake]

"That does appear to be the way things are not-Downsideable, based on a sample size of one that isn't this one."

[mind_game]

"Two. Aether has the same problem, although she knows more about her afterlife than you do."

[withmypowers]

"Interesting," says Tilly. "Should we investigate that more, I wonder? Do we know if resurrection works on locals? Is it safe to experiment?"

[lifes_sake]

"Before the Downside glitch was fixed that caused forking," says Cam, "and there are certainly worse-case scenarios - I'm not sure the set of people I want to resurrect and the set of people you could talk me into experimenting on even intersect."

[withmypowers]

"Then I think," says Matilda, "you should probably find out what your afterlife is like."

[lifes_sake]

"Yep. Tackling afterlives is a peal job, though, and I think everybody wants a settling period - well, enough of us do, anyway - that peal parties, let alone peal projects, are gonna have to sit for a few weeks."

[withmypowers]

"It can go on the to-do list," says Tilly. Her Adularia shimmers; she pauses, then smiles.

[lifes_sake]

Cam laughs. "Welcome to the magic book club."

[withmypowers]

"Yes," says Agent Honey, "I've been told you're in a similar situation to me and Adularia, but I didn't get details."

[lifes_sake]

Cam reaches into his backpack and takes out Grace. "This is mine." She turns into a hawk, on his shoulder, in a cascade of gold, and starts preening Cam's hair. "She's not very talkative with people other than me though."

[withmypowers]

"Neither is Adularia," say all three Matildas in chorus.

[lifes_sake]

"Have you," Cam says, "become a hive mind?"

[withmypowers]

"We have not!" says Matilda.

"We're just extremely similar," says Tilly.

"And sometimes the thing to say is just that obvious," says Agent Honey.

[lifes_sake]

"Well, Grace is a daemon, like Pathalan or Neptune, although they're both chattier - I think the part where she was a notebook who could not in fact talk to anyone other than me affected Grace some." He pets her feathers.

[withmypowers]

"Adularia just doesn't like talking to anyone other than - us," says Agent Honey. "And occasionally another Device."

[lifes_sake]

"Apparently most daemons that aren't chatty with people will talk to other daemons, but Grace doesn't even like to do that - I suppose she might if I desperately needed to talk to a daemon who wouldn't talk directly to me, if I was hanging out on Alethia."

Grace turns back into a notebook; he tucks her into his backpack again.

[withmypowers]

The Adularias shimmer.

"It's not impossible," says a new soft female voice that presumably belongs to them. "I just don't prefer it."