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?

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.

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

No teleporting.

Does it prevent wishing too?

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.

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.

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Lie detection works on angels.

Cool.

So where's that leave us?

Checking the place out before directly revamping this, I think, if they're physical pushovers and lie-detectable but have enough reality revision to make this place to begin with.

Okay.

So probably time to bid the harpies a temporary goodbye, unless you don't want to come. Oh - does the alethiometer know about the time dilation situation on the mountain?

Mountain runs on outside time.

So I guess if it takes longer than a few seconds to deal with the angels and the Authority, the harpies will be waiting a very long time. Is that okay with them, will it mess up the rapport you have with them?