Karen Albedo spoke in the freshly sound-warded Phrontistery room to her remaining grandson, her eldest remaining son, and her remaining daughter-in-law whom her son had brought along and who earned a scowl for being present. But Karen supposed she had as much a right to know as any. Kannadi and Torrent’s combined insistence was adamantine anyway.
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Kannadi listened as her grandmother, sitting up in bed like a more casual sort of monarch, spun the story of what Karen demanded and what Kannadi discovered. Most of it was even true.
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When Kannadi’s father Torrent raised various logical questions and emotional appeals, Karen settled them one by one. He thought of more than Kannadi did, but those too were shot down with characteristic finality.
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As for avoiding Inquiries, Rasim in his capacity as doctor would hide the truth in all necessary medical records. He tried to explain that “Magical Experiment†was an admissible cause of death under inheritance laws ever since the incident with the previous Ossuary chairman and the plague of toads, but Karen wouldn’t have it. It would only raise further questions that might have made Kannadi’s life uncomfortable.
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Kannadi herself held so firm to her stated confidence that her spell would work that she almost believed it. Her parents appeared to, anyway. Still, she qualified her self-assurance with the truth that she couldn’t be certain what age her grandmother would become. Saguaro, pivoting quietly in a corner, expressed no opinion.
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“I suppose I’ll need a caretaker if I’m subtracted to a drooling newborn,†Karen said.
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Her gaze fell meaningfully on Avani, Kannadi’s mother.
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“I am sure a suitable arrangement will be made,†Avani said with more ice than Coerthas. “But I haven’t held a child in so long. Any number of things might make me lose my grip.â€
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To Kannadi’s astonishment, Karen withdrew. Kannadi looked on her mother with renewed respect.
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“And if you aren’t an infant? If you’re my age, say?†Torrent asked.
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“An easy one,†said Karen. “You will generously allow me the use of some of the property that you will inherit while I will pose as my illegitimate daughter.â€
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Silence shrank the room.
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“I do not have an illegitimate daughter,†Karen said flatly.
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Everyone breathed again. You never knew, with someone like her.
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Rasim, who until then had absorbed the conversation with his hand over his mouth and his elbow on an armrest of his wheelchair, dropped his hand and sat up straighter.
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“So what you’re saying, Grandmother,†he said, “is that you are satisfied with results that end in you becoming younger and alive. But are you really content with the possibility of -- and I stress this so that you’ll consider the selfishness -- granddaughter-assisted suicide?â€
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“I already agreed,†Kannadi said.
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“You agree now, cousin, but will you still wish you agreed if it goes so wrong you end up wearing her?â€
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“Rasim!†Torrent shouted. “Kannadi knows what she’s doing!â€
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“And what she’s doing has a nonzero chance of death!†Rasim pounded his armrest.
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“I’ve considered that possibility, cousin,†Kannadi returned with frost, “but I have a greater probability of success with Grandmother than any other... subject.â€
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“Can you quantify it?â€
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“No. But she weakens by the day. The worst that happens in all of this is that I hasten her schedule and you lie on paper. And speaking of, are you content with that?â€
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“You have no idea how many papers I’ve lied on for clients richer than all of us,†Rasim said. “I’m fine with it, but I am telling you that assisted suicide is not to be entered into lightly.â€
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“You have no idea how many people I’ve slain in the ordinary course of adventuring,†Kannadi said.
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“And did any of them have a hundredth of Grandmother’s value to you?â€
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Not one, she admitted in silence. The silence spoke for her.
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“Just think carefully,†Rasim said, adjusting his glasses. “I don’t want to have you in here later taking tranquilizers for anguish. I’ve seen it happen.â€
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“You won’t with me.†Kannadi looked to her parents first, to reassure them with a look, then nodded to her grandmother. “Will that be all?â€
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Karen scooted herself off the bed. Torrent rose immediately to support her, and to Kannadi’s surprise she leaned heavily on him.
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“Nearly,†Karen said. “Doctor Albedo,†she said to Rasim, “you are hereby discharging me and allowing my clever and dutiful son, my brilliant and devoted granddaughter, and my daughter-in-law to escort me to my home. There, after an exquisite meal of something not served to Phrontistery patients, I will fall blissfully asleep to the sounds of music and the gentle fragrance of lavender, comfortably surrounded by loved ones--â€
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Avani coughed sharply. Kannadi elbowed her.
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“--and enviable wealth, with all my worldly affairs in order.â€
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Kannadi knew an official lie when she heard one. “But the life of Karen Albedo won’t end there, will it?†She asked.
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“I’m sure the paperwork will say so,†Rasim said.
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- - -
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After swapping her nightgown for a more becoming pantsuit, Karen made sure that she was seen using her son as a crutch on the way to the Goblet. She even took a circuitous and rather inefficient route through the city, but Kannadi didn’t comment aloud. It was all for the alibi.
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Kannadi and her mother communicated in knowing glances along the way. It was amazing what one could express by the position of one’s eyebrows. Avani’s registered concern. Kannadi’s registered placating confidence. And that was all they needed. Words were inefficient, sometimes.
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The Goblet seemed to spill new wards every other week. Karen’s estate had once been the only building in its ward -- she was an adventurer on paper, and most of that paper was a very large head-turning banker’s note. Now it had a mountain of neighbors. Witnesses. She wanted to pass each one.
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“If you want them to think you’re dead,†Torrent said under the strain of being a crutch, “we could put you on a stretcher.†Kannadi could hear a twang of strain in his voice too. He was trying for levity.
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“No.â€
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“Maybe a cart? Sit you on a little stool in a big glass box like Ishgard used to do with their pontiff?â€
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Karen closed her eyes. “Avani, please elbow your husband.â€
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“Ow!â€
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“Much appreciated.â€
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The image still worked to lighten the mood. Kannadi tried next.
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“I suppose you’ve thought of a name for your legally new self? Something incomprehensibly Sea Wolf?â€
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Torrent gently clipped Kannadi upside her head. Well, she had tried.
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“Funny thing, that,†Karen said. “The one-drop-of-blood statutes changed just before my arrival, so I chose to pass legally for Midlander.â€
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Legally, Kannadi thought, but no one could make that mistake face to face. One-fourth Sea Wolf lineage wasn’t, for Karen, dilute enough, but Kannadi privately treasured her own one-sixteenth, recessive though it was.
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Karen continued, breathing harder, “The consonants no longer fit. I picked a name with a sound I liked. And then those residency fools spelled it such that anyone literate, which is everyone who matters, would pronounce it wrong. It stuck.â€
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“What?†Torrent said. “You never told me that, Mom.â€
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“It wasn’t important. The name I chose back then was Karrun.â€
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A spark flared in Kannadi’s well-educated mind. “The Nymian psychopomp?†She laughed.
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“A homonym of it, yes,†said the almost-Karrun, who did not laugh.
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“I beg your pardon?†Avani asked, lost.
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“Charon, ferryman of the dead,†Kannadi said, chuckling unstoppably. “You would pick that, wouldn’t you, Grandmother?â€
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“I liked the sound,†Karen said. She clenched her jaw. “But spell it right and they’d pronounce it wrong again…â€
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She clutched her chest, making a fistful of ascot.
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Her family stopped cold. Her mansion loomed within sight.
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“Fine,†Karen grumbled. “I’m fine. Get me inside.â€
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- - -
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The retainers had remained at the Albedo estate despite their mistress being held at the Phrontistery. A mansion didn’t protect or maintain itself, after all. Karen dismissed them for the evening, waving off their attempts to help her to her bed. Kannadi shut the door before Saguaro could follow her in.
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Karen directed her family to her basement. The house-length room was a firing range. She had given herself the heart attack by moving too many of the man-sized wooden targets by herself.
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Even down here, she had giant chandeliers. Kannadi looked up at one while her mother and father retreated to the stairs, on her insistence.
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“Even now is not too late, Grandmother.â€
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Karen, at Kannadi’s side, unbuttoned her sleeves. “I’m sure it isn’t,†she said, moving on to unbutton her coat.
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Kannadi looked back down. “What are you doing?â€
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“You said you had the oil with you, yes?†Karen dropped her coat on the shiny hardwood floor.
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“Yes, and a simple anointment should be enough.â€
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Karen began unbuttoning her shirt. Kannadi slowly withdrew.
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“This is not the time for shoulds, Kannadi. Apply it everywhere.â€
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Kannadi blanched. “You cannot be serious.â€
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Over at the stairs, Torrent’s expression was a mirror of his daughter’s. Avani stoically closed her eyes.
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“Serious as a non-zero chance of death,†Karen said.
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Kannadi looked at the ceiling again, directly into the light. “I’ve already had several lifetimes worth of this sort of thing, thank you.â€
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“You’re welcome. But it’s your spell, your process, your responsibility. Someone else might get it wrong.†Karen undid her slacks.
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Kannadi rarely showed skin below the neck or wrists. It was definitely not a trait she inherited from her grandmother. And as Kannadi forced her line of sight away from the chandelier, she was reminded of why.
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Karen’s skin was definitely her age, wrinkled and well-worn and spotty here and there. Time had thinned her muscle mass and softened her edges, but all of it hung on a frame of iron, like the memory of her prime was what she moved and her body followed it by force of habit. And her mannish height was the end result of decades of shrinking like any old woman; her name on the bloodsands had been Lady Pine, for good reason. It was a form to take pride in, and Karen certainly did.
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For an instant Kannadi wished she were religious so that she could have someone to thank for her grandmother keeping her smallclothes on.
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“Get to it,†Karen said, arms akimbo, unabashed.
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Kannadi unstoppered her flask of Oil of Time and massaged it into her grandmother’s skin, with much care and more reluctance and abundant evasion of the Smallclothes Regions. Karen took care of those herself, giving Kannadi’s selective blindness a serious workout.
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“I could just give you the flask,†Kannadi said, eyes clamped shut.
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“No, there’s enough to spread. Carry on.â€
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Kannadi slit her eyes open toward the stairs. Torrent was thoroughly engaged in examining the masonry. Avani had produced a book from somewhere and read it very closely.
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As the work continued, the doubt Kannadi had banished began to leak through its restraints.
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Here she was, anointing her grandmother’s body for the grave. External embalming. The moment filled the present. Kannadi’s mind, treacherously observant, took in everything. The smell of the oil, the smell of spent firesand from weeks or moons ago, the shade of the light, the subtle squeak of her boots on the floor as she moved in place, the breathing of her parents a few yalms away, her own breathing. Everything she was, everything she wore. The details flooded in, unfiltered.
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Remember this. This is the last moment before you fail.
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Kannadi shut her mind again, restoring silence.
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She had worked her way down to the floor when Karen clutched at her sternum and made a choking noise.
Kannadi bolted upright. Karen only grinned down at her, her skin shining under the chandelier.
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“The next one might be genuine. Hurry up.â€
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Kannadi scowled. She heard a single loud clap from the stairs behind her, followed by a muffled grunt of a ribcage taking an elbow.
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“I’m done,†she said flatly.
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Karen turned her head to look at her son. He looked back. Kannadi could only guess what passed between them.
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Karen faced forward, gave Kannadi a studying look, closed her eyes and stood as straight as she could.
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“Then complete it.â€
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Kannadi grasped her staff before doubt could slip back in.
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She breathed.
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Much later, when she tried to puzzle out what went wrong, she realized she should have washed her hands before casting the spell.
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- - -
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The news spread all the faster for being unbelievable. Karen Albedo was dead, having expired in her home among music and fragrance and loved ones and enviable wealth, with all her affairs in order.
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She had requested cremation, and so the funeral just outside the Ossuary featured a silver urn and a life-size portrait -- that is, as tall as her, but only portraying her head and shoulders. And so the Silver Giant’s dominant gaze looked down on the small procession of mourners and visitors. So very much like her.
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Lord Lolorito even spared a moment to grace the event with his presence on his way to somewhere more important. Kannadi watched him at a distance as he lingered at the urn and portrait, silently smiling victoriously at each.
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“Smirking little gremlin,†she said.
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“Let him smirk,†came a voice behind Kannadi.
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The formal service was over and the assembled had broken into small accretions. Kannadi’s parents were making the rounds, settling business and saying goodbyes. Kannadi loitered near an oil lamp with a specter of death: a very tall woman completely in black, veil and all. The lamp only added to the figure’s shadow.
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“You could probably give him a heart attack,†Kannadi said, inclining her tone toward suggestion.
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“Oh, he doesn’t startle that easily,†the standing shadow said. “Even if I stood by the painting and pointed at him.â€
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“Perhaps if you carried a scythe.â€
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“Much too slow a weapon for me, dear.â€
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“’Dear?’ Do act your age, Karrun.â€
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“Advice I could direct at you,†Karrun said. “Do act? You sound like a snooty old woman.â€
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“I’ll grow into it, I’m sure.â€
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“And you’re certain your spell won’t work on you?â€
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“I told you before, it’s like trying to see the backs of my eyeballs or bite my own teeth or digest my own stomach. Vital aether just can’t bend itself like that.â€
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The shadowy dress billowed as Karrun crossed her arms. “I still don’t see why it locks me out of another treatment.â€
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Lolorito began to move on with his entourage. Kannadi rubbed her thumb over her fingernails, deliberately nonchalant just in case he deigned to glance her way. He didn’t.
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“I’d have to spend some time at my desk to elucidate on it in small enough words,†she said, “but it has to do with vitality convection and our, um, skin contact with the Oil of Time between. My body added a variable, or perhaps a score of variables. When my spell hit, it overshot the intended time subtraction and dragged you to my age. Another cast of the spell is impossible because it would think you are me, and recursion would keep me out.â€
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Karrun waited until Lolorito and company were well out of sight before replying.
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“But you think for the aether of your spells, don’t you?†There was a suggestion of bunched-up eyebrows under the veil. “Can’t you just will it through?â€
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“Think of it like a bullet, Gran-- Karrun. Physics does all it can to spoil the shot once you aim and shoot. Any spell cuts through an array of clashing forces just to work, and this is one of those that simply can’t be cast on the caster. It was hard enough to make it work on you. Frankly I must have some sort of... natural affinity to this sort of thing to have done it at all.â€
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A large hand in a black lace glove settled on Kannadi’s shoulder.
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“The word for that is ‘genius,’ Kannadi.â€
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“And the word for that is ‘inaccurate.’â€
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The glove gripped. “Just take a compliment for once. I could not be prouder of you. You’ve given me an extra life.â€
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Kannadi allowed herself to take the compliment without further contest. She supposed the life was hers to give, since she had invented it.
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Karrun was much too young to be Karen’s illegitimate daughter. Down in the basement, Karrun had begun a sentence which held the trajectory of suggesting to pass as Kannadi’s illegitimate half-sister, but Avani had stopped it without a word. She had glared so hard that Kannadi almost heard earthquakes in the distance.
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So Kannadi brought up the fact that she had a vagabond uncle who, though he had returned to his travels, was still alive…
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And outside the Ossuary, Kannadi looked far up at the dark veil, behind which she could see the shape of a smile.
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Kannadi returned it.
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“Race you to the end, cousin?â€
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Kannadi listened as her grandmother, sitting up in bed like a more casual sort of monarch, spun the story of what Karen demanded and what Kannadi discovered. Most of it was even true.
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When Kannadi’s father Torrent raised various logical questions and emotional appeals, Karen settled them one by one. He thought of more than Kannadi did, but those too were shot down with characteristic finality.
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As for avoiding Inquiries, Rasim in his capacity as doctor would hide the truth in all necessary medical records. He tried to explain that “Magical Experiment†was an admissible cause of death under inheritance laws ever since the incident with the previous Ossuary chairman and the plague of toads, but Karen wouldn’t have it. It would only raise further questions that might have made Kannadi’s life uncomfortable.
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Kannadi herself held so firm to her stated confidence that her spell would work that she almost believed it. Her parents appeared to, anyway. Still, she qualified her self-assurance with the truth that she couldn’t be certain what age her grandmother would become. Saguaro, pivoting quietly in a corner, expressed no opinion.
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“I suppose I’ll need a caretaker if I’m subtracted to a drooling newborn,†Karen said.
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Her gaze fell meaningfully on Avani, Kannadi’s mother.
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“I am sure a suitable arrangement will be made,†Avani said with more ice than Coerthas. “But I haven’t held a child in so long. Any number of things might make me lose my grip.â€
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To Kannadi’s astonishment, Karen withdrew. Kannadi looked on her mother with renewed respect.
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“And if you aren’t an infant? If you’re my age, say?†Torrent asked.
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“An easy one,†said Karen. “You will generously allow me the use of some of the property that you will inherit while I will pose as my illegitimate daughter.â€
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Silence shrank the room.
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“I do not have an illegitimate daughter,†Karen said flatly.
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Everyone breathed again. You never knew, with someone like her.
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Rasim, who until then had absorbed the conversation with his hand over his mouth and his elbow on an armrest of his wheelchair, dropped his hand and sat up straighter.
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“So what you’re saying, Grandmother,†he said, “is that you are satisfied with results that end in you becoming younger and alive. But are you really content with the possibility of -- and I stress this so that you’ll consider the selfishness -- granddaughter-assisted suicide?â€
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“I already agreed,†Kannadi said.
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“You agree now, cousin, but will you still wish you agreed if it goes so wrong you end up wearing her?â€
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“Rasim!†Torrent shouted. “Kannadi knows what she’s doing!â€
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“And what she’s doing has a nonzero chance of death!†Rasim pounded his armrest.
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“I’ve considered that possibility, cousin,†Kannadi returned with frost, “but I have a greater probability of success with Grandmother than any other... subject.â€
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“Can you quantify it?â€
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“No. But she weakens by the day. The worst that happens in all of this is that I hasten her schedule and you lie on paper. And speaking of, are you content with that?â€
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“You have no idea how many papers I’ve lied on for clients richer than all of us,†Rasim said. “I’m fine with it, but I am telling you that assisted suicide is not to be entered into lightly.â€
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“You have no idea how many people I’ve slain in the ordinary course of adventuring,†Kannadi said.
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“And did any of them have a hundredth of Grandmother’s value to you?â€
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Not one, she admitted in silence. The silence spoke for her.
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“Just think carefully,†Rasim said, adjusting his glasses. “I don’t want to have you in here later taking tranquilizers for anguish. I’ve seen it happen.â€
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“You won’t with me.†Kannadi looked to her parents first, to reassure them with a look, then nodded to her grandmother. “Will that be all?â€
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Karen scooted herself off the bed. Torrent rose immediately to support her, and to Kannadi’s surprise she leaned heavily on him.
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“Nearly,†Karen said. “Doctor Albedo,†she said to Rasim, “you are hereby discharging me and allowing my clever and dutiful son, my brilliant and devoted granddaughter, and my daughter-in-law to escort me to my home. There, after an exquisite meal of something not served to Phrontistery patients, I will fall blissfully asleep to the sounds of music and the gentle fragrance of lavender, comfortably surrounded by loved ones--â€
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Avani coughed sharply. Kannadi elbowed her.
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“--and enviable wealth, with all my worldly affairs in order.â€
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Kannadi knew an official lie when she heard one. “But the life of Karen Albedo won’t end there, will it?†She asked.
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“I’m sure the paperwork will say so,†Rasim said.
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- - -
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After swapping her nightgown for a more becoming pantsuit, Karen made sure that she was seen using her son as a crutch on the way to the Goblet. She even took a circuitous and rather inefficient route through the city, but Kannadi didn’t comment aloud. It was all for the alibi.
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Kannadi and her mother communicated in knowing glances along the way. It was amazing what one could express by the position of one’s eyebrows. Avani’s registered concern. Kannadi’s registered placating confidence. And that was all they needed. Words were inefficient, sometimes.
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The Goblet seemed to spill new wards every other week. Karen’s estate had once been the only building in its ward -- she was an adventurer on paper, and most of that paper was a very large head-turning banker’s note. Now it had a mountain of neighbors. Witnesses. She wanted to pass each one.
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“If you want them to think you’re dead,†Torrent said under the strain of being a crutch, “we could put you on a stretcher.†Kannadi could hear a twang of strain in his voice too. He was trying for levity.
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“No.â€
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“Maybe a cart? Sit you on a little stool in a big glass box like Ishgard used to do with their pontiff?â€
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Karen closed her eyes. “Avani, please elbow your husband.â€
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“Ow!â€
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“Much appreciated.â€
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The image still worked to lighten the mood. Kannadi tried next.
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“I suppose you’ve thought of a name for your legally new self? Something incomprehensibly Sea Wolf?â€
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Torrent gently clipped Kannadi upside her head. Well, she had tried.
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“Funny thing, that,†Karen said. “The one-drop-of-blood statutes changed just before my arrival, so I chose to pass legally for Midlander.â€
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Legally, Kannadi thought, but no one could make that mistake face to face. One-fourth Sea Wolf lineage wasn’t, for Karen, dilute enough, but Kannadi privately treasured her own one-sixteenth, recessive though it was.
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Karen continued, breathing harder, “The consonants no longer fit. I picked a name with a sound I liked. And then those residency fools spelled it such that anyone literate, which is everyone who matters, would pronounce it wrong. It stuck.â€
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“What?†Torrent said. “You never told me that, Mom.â€
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“It wasn’t important. The name I chose back then was Karrun.â€
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A spark flared in Kannadi’s well-educated mind. “The Nymian psychopomp?†She laughed.
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“A homonym of it, yes,†said the almost-Karrun, who did not laugh.
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“I beg your pardon?†Avani asked, lost.
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“Charon, ferryman of the dead,†Kannadi said, chuckling unstoppably. “You would pick that, wouldn’t you, Grandmother?â€
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“I liked the sound,†Karen said. She clenched her jaw. “But spell it right and they’d pronounce it wrong again…â€
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She clutched her chest, making a fistful of ascot.
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Her family stopped cold. Her mansion loomed within sight.
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“Fine,†Karen grumbled. “I’m fine. Get me inside.â€
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- - -
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The retainers had remained at the Albedo estate despite their mistress being held at the Phrontistery. A mansion didn’t protect or maintain itself, after all. Karen dismissed them for the evening, waving off their attempts to help her to her bed. Kannadi shut the door before Saguaro could follow her in.
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Karen directed her family to her basement. The house-length room was a firing range. She had given herself the heart attack by moving too many of the man-sized wooden targets by herself.
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Even down here, she had giant chandeliers. Kannadi looked up at one while her mother and father retreated to the stairs, on her insistence.
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“Even now is not too late, Grandmother.â€
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Karen, at Kannadi’s side, unbuttoned her sleeves. “I’m sure it isn’t,†she said, moving on to unbutton her coat.
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Kannadi looked back down. “What are you doing?â€
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“You said you had the oil with you, yes?†Karen dropped her coat on the shiny hardwood floor.
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“Yes, and a simple anointment should be enough.â€
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Karen began unbuttoning her shirt. Kannadi slowly withdrew.
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“This is not the time for shoulds, Kannadi. Apply it everywhere.â€
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Kannadi blanched. “You cannot be serious.â€
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Over at the stairs, Torrent’s expression was a mirror of his daughter’s. Avani stoically closed her eyes.
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“Serious as a non-zero chance of death,†Karen said.
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Kannadi looked at the ceiling again, directly into the light. “I’ve already had several lifetimes worth of this sort of thing, thank you.â€
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“You’re welcome. But it’s your spell, your process, your responsibility. Someone else might get it wrong.†Karen undid her slacks.
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Kannadi rarely showed skin below the neck or wrists. It was definitely not a trait she inherited from her grandmother. And as Kannadi forced her line of sight away from the chandelier, she was reminded of why.
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Karen’s skin was definitely her age, wrinkled and well-worn and spotty here and there. Time had thinned her muscle mass and softened her edges, but all of it hung on a frame of iron, like the memory of her prime was what she moved and her body followed it by force of habit. And her mannish height was the end result of decades of shrinking like any old woman; her name on the bloodsands had been Lady Pine, for good reason. It was a form to take pride in, and Karen certainly did.
Â
For an instant Kannadi wished she were religious so that she could have someone to thank for her grandmother keeping her smallclothes on.
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“Get to it,†Karen said, arms akimbo, unabashed.
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Kannadi unstoppered her flask of Oil of Time and massaged it into her grandmother’s skin, with much care and more reluctance and abundant evasion of the Smallclothes Regions. Karen took care of those herself, giving Kannadi’s selective blindness a serious workout.
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“I could just give you the flask,†Kannadi said, eyes clamped shut.
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“No, there’s enough to spread. Carry on.â€
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Kannadi slit her eyes open toward the stairs. Torrent was thoroughly engaged in examining the masonry. Avani had produced a book from somewhere and read it very closely.
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As the work continued, the doubt Kannadi had banished began to leak through its restraints.
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Here she was, anointing her grandmother’s body for the grave. External embalming. The moment filled the present. Kannadi’s mind, treacherously observant, took in everything. The smell of the oil, the smell of spent firesand from weeks or moons ago, the shade of the light, the subtle squeak of her boots on the floor as she moved in place, the breathing of her parents a few yalms away, her own breathing. Everything she was, everything she wore. The details flooded in, unfiltered.
Â
Remember this. This is the last moment before you fail.
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Kannadi shut her mind again, restoring silence.
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She had worked her way down to the floor when Karen clutched at her sternum and made a choking noise.
Kannadi bolted upright. Karen only grinned down at her, her skin shining under the chandelier.
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“The next one might be genuine. Hurry up.â€
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Kannadi scowled. She heard a single loud clap from the stairs behind her, followed by a muffled grunt of a ribcage taking an elbow.
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“I’m done,†she said flatly.
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Karen turned her head to look at her son. He looked back. Kannadi could only guess what passed between them.
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Karen faced forward, gave Kannadi a studying look, closed her eyes and stood as straight as she could.
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“Then complete it.â€
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Kannadi grasped her staff before doubt could slip back in.
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She breathed.
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Much later, when she tried to puzzle out what went wrong, she realized she should have washed her hands before casting the spell.
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- - -
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The news spread all the faster for being unbelievable. Karen Albedo was dead, having expired in her home among music and fragrance and loved ones and enviable wealth, with all her affairs in order.
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She had requested cremation, and so the funeral just outside the Ossuary featured a silver urn and a life-size portrait -- that is, as tall as her, but only portraying her head and shoulders. And so the Silver Giant’s dominant gaze looked down on the small procession of mourners and visitors. So very much like her.
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Lord Lolorito even spared a moment to grace the event with his presence on his way to somewhere more important. Kannadi watched him at a distance as he lingered at the urn and portrait, silently smiling victoriously at each.
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“Smirking little gremlin,†she said.
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“Let him smirk,†came a voice behind Kannadi.
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The formal service was over and the assembled had broken into small accretions. Kannadi’s parents were making the rounds, settling business and saying goodbyes. Kannadi loitered near an oil lamp with a specter of death: a very tall woman completely in black, veil and all. The lamp only added to the figure’s shadow.
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“You could probably give him a heart attack,†Kannadi said, inclining her tone toward suggestion.
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“Oh, he doesn’t startle that easily,†the standing shadow said. “Even if I stood by the painting and pointed at him.â€
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“Perhaps if you carried a scythe.â€
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“Much too slow a weapon for me, dear.â€
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“’Dear?’ Do act your age, Karrun.â€
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“Advice I could direct at you,†Karrun said. “Do act? You sound like a snooty old woman.â€
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“I’ll grow into it, I’m sure.â€
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“And you’re certain your spell won’t work on you?â€
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“I told you before, it’s like trying to see the backs of my eyeballs or bite my own teeth or digest my own stomach. Vital aether just can’t bend itself like that.â€
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The shadowy dress billowed as Karrun crossed her arms. “I still don’t see why it locks me out of another treatment.â€
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Lolorito began to move on with his entourage. Kannadi rubbed her thumb over her fingernails, deliberately nonchalant just in case he deigned to glance her way. He didn’t.
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“I’d have to spend some time at my desk to elucidate on it in small enough words,†she said, “but it has to do with vitality convection and our, um, skin contact with the Oil of Time between. My body added a variable, or perhaps a score of variables. When my spell hit, it overshot the intended time subtraction and dragged you to my age. Another cast of the spell is impossible because it would think you are me, and recursion would keep me out.â€
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Karrun waited until Lolorito and company were well out of sight before replying.
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“But you think for the aether of your spells, don’t you?†There was a suggestion of bunched-up eyebrows under the veil. “Can’t you just will it through?â€
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“Think of it like a bullet, Gran-- Karrun. Physics does all it can to spoil the shot once you aim and shoot. Any spell cuts through an array of clashing forces just to work, and this is one of those that simply can’t be cast on the caster. It was hard enough to make it work on you. Frankly I must have some sort of... natural affinity to this sort of thing to have done it at all.â€
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A large hand in a black lace glove settled on Kannadi’s shoulder.
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“The word for that is ‘genius,’ Kannadi.â€
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“And the word for that is ‘inaccurate.’â€
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The glove gripped. “Just take a compliment for once. I could not be prouder of you. You’ve given me an extra life.â€
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Kannadi allowed herself to take the compliment without further contest. She supposed the life was hers to give, since she had invented it.
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Karrun was much too young to be Karen’s illegitimate daughter. Down in the basement, Karrun had begun a sentence which held the trajectory of suggesting to pass as Kannadi’s illegitimate half-sister, but Avani had stopped it without a word. She had glared so hard that Kannadi almost heard earthquakes in the distance.
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So Kannadi brought up the fact that she had a vagabond uncle who, though he had returned to his travels, was still alive…
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And outside the Ossuary, Kannadi looked far up at the dark veil, behind which she could see the shape of a smile.
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Kannadi returned it.
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“Race you to the end, cousin?â€
"You know, I was God once."
"Yes, I saw. You were doing well until everyone died."