"Grand. Ghosts. Tell me about ghosts."

"They were pissed off about being dead. I recommended a good therapist. One of them was a Borgia University student before she died. I managed to help her get her scholarship back and disability accommodations."

"So ghosts are basically insubstantial people?"

"Yeah. Some of the older ones, if they're all by themselves and haven't had human contact in a long time, go insane and warp into something else, but barring daevahood ghost seems to be the most reliable good bet for what happens when you die. I mean, hope for a real afterlife and all, but."

"What determines whether somebody turns into a ghost, then?"

"If I could figure that out for sure I would be telling people. As far as I can tell it just happens sometimes. It's more likely if you're murdered, more likely if you have strong negative emotions about your death, and less likely if it's of old age."

"Figures."

"I mean, you won't hear me arguing that the world is sensibly ordered. I just live here."

"I like mine better. But with one or two assumptions this one can probably be brought around."

"Mostly I like yours better too. As long as Jaromira got to be a summoner so I could still meet her, anyway."

"Oh - at home only humans can summon. I don't know if that will hold here, because your non-humans aren't daeva."

"Ah. Well, its not quite as important in her case--she's already seven hundred years old. She's not invulnerable, but she doesn't have an expiration date the way us humans do."

"That's nice, then."

"Yeah. I've considered turning, if I can't find anything better and I'm worried about dying of old age...but it doesn't really appeal, just for itself."

"What's the process like?"

"If you die of blood loss while a vampire's got their fangs in you you wake up a few days later with pointy teeth of your own."

"What's being a vampire like?"

"You can't eat solid food and have to drink blood, but your taste buds aren't actually reconfigured. Garlic smells terrible. Maintaining a diurnal schedule is a pain and requires heavy clothing and parasols. You're a little stronger than a human but not much, depending on who you've been feeding on."

"Sounds inconvenient. I'd do it too to not keel over of old age, though, if that were something that could happen to me anymore."

"Yeah. One thing that is good about it is that there's basically a maximum age a vampire can look, so the only reason to do it sooner rather than later is if you're worried about being hit by a bus in the meanwhile."

"Oh, that's nice. Daeva have that too. I actually looked like this when I died - minus the wings and the tail, I made those - but if I'd been old I wouldn't have looked it when I appeared in Hell."

"It actually wouldn't surprise me if there were vampires willing to risk their lives in exchange for a chance at nifty powers and freedom from vampiric inconveniences, if we want to test whether dead summoners in this universe daevafy."

"Well, for all I know they'd keep the inconveniences, at least to a point, but a volunteer experimental subject is a useful thing to have. After we get rid of this guy and I handle the emergency priorities that I shouldn't risk leaving forever without handling."

"Of course. But nifty powers are nifty powers."

"They are!"