Ranata laughs.

"And you get to explain to Adarin what happened. 'Oh, by the way, your sister is haunting me now because I got her to eat a strange thing.'"

"...Wait, do you people leave ghosts?"

"Er. Well. Yes? Wait, you guys don't? But you're magic!"

"That doesn't mean we have ghosts! Nobody has ghosts."

"Mages do! Normal people don't. Adarin tried to explain it to me once and I kind of zoned out so the general idea of it's that we're not completely mortal? So the immortal part of us just - keeps on going as a funky non-functioning us that can't do much? I thought witches were the same, you guys live as long as we do!"

"We don't live any fixed amount of time, but when we die it's like anyone else. Witch-shaped corpse and a puff of golden light."

"Well we leave corpses, too. We're not alive anymore, or anything. We're very definitively dead. Part of us just gets doomed to stick around for a while until it runs out of mana and then it just kind of fades away."

"Well, I guess that's... another way the worlds differ. I'm not sure whether to expect that to happen if you die here."

"The same thing? I dunno why it would change just because we moved planes. Some people died in New Kystle and they left some ghosts, I would know, I got haunted. Bastard tried locking me in a bathroom."

"Well, you acquired a daemon when you changed planes, so it could be the same thing."

Zeviana looks bewildered. "Uh. Well. You didn't lose your daemon when you went to New Kystle. I don't see why I wouldn't be a ghost for a while after I die? It's a thing that happens with mages, I don't think it's plane based."

"I certainly don't plan to experiment with it, so perhaps it will continue to be a mystery."

She snorts. "Yeah, thanks. I don't want to test my potential ghosty-ness for the sake of science. I'd like to live a long and happy life with harems of gorgeous women. And diner food."

"Entire harems of them? Did you mention that to Luzia?"

"It hasn't come up? I mean I wouldn't screw anyone without letting her know and making sure it's cool, but like - my fantasies for the rest of my long and happy life are mine. Just because in my perfect world I would have harems of gorgeous women doesn't mean I'm gonna in the actual one."

"I actually don't know Luzia's feelings on open relationships, but yes, the done thing is to discuss them before having them."

"Yeah, that's kinda - relationship basics, really. Anything else is cheating, general assholism, or like - being disconnected from the world?"

"Hear, hear."

Zeviana smiles. "But if I do ever get a harem of gorgeous and totally consenting women that are all into being part of a harem - I will consider my life complete and go into permanent retirement because there's no way in hell I can top that."

"Retirement from what?"

"I dunno. But if I figure it out I will retire from it."

Ranata laughs.

"It would be the best day ever," says Zeviana loftily. "Adarin would turn bright red at the slightest mention of it and it'd be hilarious."

"Would he really? If it was merely alluded to that you had a harem."