"Maybe there is a machine that does it for you? Ariel mentioned an illusion machine."

Alex's brow furrows. "Illusion machine?"

"You could fight with it?"

"She used the term virtual reality?"

There's a general unconfusion. "Oh, VR!" Alex shakes his head. "VR only exists when you're in it, is the thing, and you can't be in VR all the time. I guess if you wanted you could get AR goggles - uh, augmented reality - and get somebody to program you a goldfish for that, but that's a lot of effort for a goldfish."

"Well, the part that I am really want is to be able to just get a mental image out of my head and into the world. Sadly, we never managed to acquire a illusion spellword."

“Plus you’d only be able to do it once before you have to take a break and ogle your spellbook,” Kostas points out. “Vancian casting kinda kills the unpredictability.”

"I don't like that I need to memorize spells each time, but I sort of appreciated the predictability. I mean, you could be more or less certain that an opponent wouldn't use the same spell twice, and if they did then it was an innate spell and you could extrapolate any other innate spells they had."

"Huh, I think I prefer the hobgoblins."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure it makes for really strategic dueling. But day-to-day utility benefits from being able to just do the same thing over and over again." Gavriil waves his hand and three goldfish appear, then vanish again immediately.

"You don't have to tell us that. In my past life I was... the right translation is 'bookkeeper', but the relevant part of the job was that I had access to a few spells, but couldn't just share them freely."

"Oh, right, and came a winter and of course I could have the spells in an emergency, like the entire town being sick. Half of my dislike for reading spellbooks comes from that winter. The both of us, reading the same spells over and over."

Kostas shudders. “That sounds awful.”

”What were you in your past life?” Sandy asks. “We were gods, as I mentioned.”

Jack makes a face but doesn’t say anything. 

"It was," Herod admits, "we were humans in our first life - most souls start as humans. Unless you meant occupationally?"

Sandy shakes her head. “No, you mentioned you were a Bookkeeper. Interesting, that the cycle of reincarnation would have a specific starting point. Does it then go predictably human-demon-human-demon and so on?”

Headshake. "No, you reincarnate once per world and each world has a native species. Then it's over. Most souls start as humans in Prime, followed by sprites in Arcadia. Souls that don't start as human tend to go to Prime in their second life. Souls that die as children tend to go to Arcadia. But from there it's whatever would be more appropriate to keep your personality in whatever path it is going."

“Oh,” Sandy says. “That sounds... disappointing.”

Jack shrugs. “It’s better than just having one lifespan, I guess.”

“Marginally,” Kostas says. 

"Well, if you have tips on how to get infinite reincarnations, I am all ears. Our current best bet is that my regeneration might grant longevity."

"Don't die," Kostas recommends. "Number one way of not dying is just not to die."

"When the Reaper comes knocking, tell him politely yet firmly 'no thank you'," Gavriil agrees.

"Oh, being polite, no wonder no one tried that."

“You’d be surprised!” Kostas says. Gavriil elbows him. 

“He was the God of Death,” Sandy explains. “Thanatos. Thus the sense of humor.”

"Ah." Herod says surprised.

"Huh, cool. What are you the gods of?"  Gavriel asks the others.

“Hypnos, god of dreams,” Gavriil says.

”Nike, goddess of victory,” Sandy says. 

“Metis, goddess of forethought,” Sheila says. 

“Tyche, goddess of fortune,” Alex says.

Jack rolls his eyes. “Jack, god of not being in on this horseshit.”

Alex points at him. “Avatar of Nem-Shar, god of trickery - no relation to our pantheon. Who devoured Hercules, God of Might, out of Steven’s brain.”

"Sweet."