Lillene

Enjoy!

Kaasi brushed right past the incomplete sentence; Death suspected she thought it wasn’t incomplete. “Who’s Tek? I don’t think I’ve met her.”

Death grinned. “I’ll have to introduce you some time; she’s nice. Very fond of Serenity. She loves building things and likes to give them out as gifts. Oh, be careful what you take from her; she doesn’t always get everything quite right.”

This was Death’s second car from Tek, after all. The first one was somewhere in near-Earth orbit the last time Death saw it; Tek had designed a flying car and made the minor mistake of not allowing it to fly below a “landing condition” to avoid crashes. It was easy to fly and land until Death took it up to see how high it would go and found out that it considered orbiting to be a “landing condition.” It wouldn’t descend or allow her to slow down. Tek said she was still trying to figure out how to fix it but Death was pretty sure she just meant that she’d fix it in the next version.

It was a good thing Death had easy ways to move around, so she was able to get to the ground on her own, but she still insisted on a car that didn’t fly for her second vehicle. What if she’d had Kaasi with her? The car wasn’t perfectly air tight; it wasn’t intended for use that high.

“She built the car?” Kaasi looked around the vehicle. “I didn’t think that was how it worked here, I thought stuff like this was made by machines.”

Death shrugged. “Some of it probably was. Tek didn’t tell me how she made it. Anyway, what armor should I be looking for? I’m not currently wearing any and I can’t get any that’s as good as Serenity’s.”

“You’re not wearing armor.” Kaasi looked horrified. “I’m not wearing very good armor, but none? What were you thinking?”

Death flushed. “I guess I wasn’t. It wasn’t a problem in Tier One and Two areas, but that Tier Three boss-”

Kassi’s horror shifted into anger. “Could have killed you! What would have happened if it hit you in the head instead of the side?”

Death rubbed the side of her neck. She had to choose now. Did she admit the truth? Lying was no basis for a friendship. Omissions were bad enough. 

What would Serenity do?

The answer to that was obvious. He’d tell the truth, even if he didn’t like it and didn’t think the other person would like it. “It would have cracked my skull; it’s stronger than a normal human skull but not that much stronger. I’d either have had to take a long time to heal or it would have killed me.” Death took a deep breath and continued. “Then in an hour or two, I’d have risen as an undead. Probably a draugr, given the damage, but there are a couple of other possibilities.”

Death watched Kaasi anxiously. A lot of people had issues with the undead and Death wasn’t sure how Kaasi felt about them. Death didn’t mind the undead; they were people, too. Her issues with returning as an undead had to do with others’ reactions and the loss of feedback into “how to be human” from the far less human body. She’d had to work to have a more or less human body when she copied from Serenity; his shapeshifting was terrible.

Kaasi gaped at Death. As her friend’s words sunk in, she paled. “Oh by all the gods! I don’t want to have to kill you!”

Death shook her head and put a hand out. She was a little relieved by the reaction; she knew what Kaasi was referring to. Many newly raised undead weren’t sapient; they saw the living as food rather than friends. Many never made it past that state no matter how long they were animated after that. “You wouldn’t have to. I’d never attack you, and I’d still be me.”

She thought she’d said the hard part. She now knew she was wrong. How was she supposed to tell Kaasi how she knew that? That dying wouldn’t take away her rationality because she was Death?

Kaasi shivered and looked down. She seemed to be about to say something.

Naturally, that was when the car pulled into a parking spot in the garage under the Adventurers’ Guild. Death didn’t move; she wasn’t quite ready to give her last and biggest secret away, but she also wasn’t confident the conversation was over. 

No, Death knew it wasn’t. It would definitely continue, even if it wasn’t right now. She wasn’t sure it was over for now. Arriving could do that; getting out of the car would almost certainly end things. She wasn’t sure she wanted to, so she waited.

Kaasi set her hand on the door handle, then let go. “I had to kill a friend once. None of us expected him to return from the dead; while his Undeath Affinity was his highest Affinity, he said it was 40%. We should have known he was lying. No one manages to become a successful necromancer with that sort of Affinity. A Fire Mage can do it, but necromancy is too weak. We just didn’t want to think about it. It’s why I stopped delving.”

Death frowned. “You delve with me.”

Kaasi shook her head and stared fixedly at Death. “Tier One and Two are fine, even Tier Three should be. That’s why you need armor. I can’t delve at my Tier, but I’m not Tier Three.”

Death tried to read Kaasi’s expression. It looked almost defiant? It took Death a moment to remember that Kaasi was pretending to be Tier Three. “I know. Neither am I. I don’t think either of us would have picked a Tier Three dungeon, even one that’s known to be possible to duo, if we were.”

A series of emotions flashed across Kaasi’s face. Death couldn’t read all of them, but she knew she’d surprised her friend. Death wasn’t certain if that was because she was higher than Tier Three or if it was because of how easily she’d admitted it.

“I wondered,” Kaasi admitted. “I wasn’t sure, but I haven’t met anyone else on Earth as good at controlling their aura as you are.”

Death chuckled at that. “I have. Some of them are even from Earth. Russ had to learn to control himself a very long time ago; it didn’t take much for that to turn into aura control. Most of Legion is doing well, too, and there are others.” There were quite a few others, actually; Death was a little surprised Kaasi hadn’t noticed them. Maybe she didn’t go to places where people who trained for years to master their emotions were? The Adventurers’ Guild was definitely not the place to meet people with naturally high aura control unless they had a special reason, like Russ or Rissa.

“You know I’m not from Earth, then.” Kaasi looked down. “I thought you didn’t know.”

“I don’t care,” Death hurried her answer. “Why should I? You’re my friend; isn’t that more important?”

“I came to Earth through an invasion portal,” Kaasi stated, still without looking up. “I’ll leave.”

As Kaasi reached for the door handle, Death hit the Lock Doors button. She wouldn’t keep Kaasi in the car for long, but she wasn’t going to let Kaasi say that then leave. She clearly wasn’t listening and that was a recipe for disaster.

Death knew that. She’d seen a lot of movies. This wasn’t a movie, but it was still close enough. If she let Kaasi leave now, something bad would happen. It might only be Kaasi disappearing because she thought Death hated her, but that was more than bad enough that Death wanted to stop it. “I’m not from Earth either. Weren’t you listening?”

Kaasi tugged on the door handle. It moved but the door didn’t. She tugged on it again before Death’s words registered and she looked up. She seemed confused. “Aren’t you upset that I’m spying on you? That I lied to you?”

Death could only assume that Kaasi must have had some really bad friends at some point. She knew Death wasn’t from Earth; why would Death be upset that Kasi wasn’t either? 

Death shook her head. “No one says everything about themselves to someone they just met. We’ve been getting to know each other. That takes time. I can understand not wanting to admit you’re not from here; there are still a lot of people upset and worried about invaders and it’s been years. As for spying, did you want to or did you feel like you had to?”

Kaasi gaped at her, then said two words that explained everything and nothing at the same time. “My Path.”

Death sighed. She was going to have to channel Serenity for this; she wasn’t even remotely good at understanding Paths. She didn’t have one. She reached out to her Incarnate and asked for his help.

Serenity was, of course, shocked. He seemed to have not realized that Death could call on his help when he wasn’t there. That was kind of funny; it was one of the major reasons the gods took Incarnates! They understood things on a level that the gods simply couldn’t. She could duplicate a lot without his direct assistance, but if she wanted his knowledge and judgment she needed his active help.

Death felt Serenity’s awareness settle in. She firmly controlled her body, which wanted to shift to echo his; that would terrify Kaasi. “Talk to me. That’s what friends do.”

She was pretty sure she was quoting a movie, even if she wasn’t sure which one. Maybe the new comedy about settling the Moon? She’d enjoyed it, even if it did have way too many misunderstandings.

Kaasi reached for the door handle again, then shook her head and turned back to Death. “Amaia … when it’s time for me to leave, just tell me and I’ll go. I know better than to push.”

Death waited. She was pretty sure that was the next step, even if Serenity wanted to say something.

Whether it was the right choice or not, she knew it worked when Kaasi started talking. “My Affinity is wind, I know I told you that. My Path isn’t based on my Affinity; it’s a Path of secrecy and spying. If I’m not spying, I’m not moving forward and no one wants a spy around. I keep moving; it’s safer that way.”

This time, Death echoed the words Serenity wanted to say. “Do you want your Path to be based on gathering information, or did you just end up there and not see a way out?”

Kaasi blinked at that. 

Death took the moment to unlock the door; if Kaasi really wanted to run, she’d let her. She just wanted her friend to have the chance to talk first.

“I don’t know.” The words came from Kaasi slowly. “It’s never mattered. It’s the only thing I’m good at. I know I don’t want to have a Path based on assassination; I’ve avoided those Paths. Mostly.”

“It sounds like you need a safe place to figure it out. You’re a friend-” Death stopped herself from saying the next two words; “of Amaia’s” would not help at all and might make it obvious that she was repeating someone else’s words. “Sometimes friends need help.”

Death could feel Serenity thinking for a moment. Fortunately, he came to a conclusion quickly. “Tell me, what do you think of Earth?”

Lillene

I’m not sure that taking your “how to deal with humans” advice from movies is the best choice, but it may be better than “what would Serenity do.” Maybe?