And then there is darkness.

...........?

"You seem different from the rest, somehow," says a voice that sounds oddly like it's coming from Lorica's mouth, even though Lorica doesn't actually feel like she has a mouth and the voice sounds nothing like hers.

"The rest of - what?"

"The dead."

"Where am I?"

"Under a hill, among the sleeping monsters and waking dead."

"Who're you?"

Well, she doesn't seem immediately disruptive.

"If we are to be introduced, let's do it face to face."

And Lorica can be given a form of flickering green shadow flame, floating softly above the ground in a dimly lit room with plain cement walls, an exquisitely ornate table set for tea. Next to her sits a girl who can't be more than fourteen, wearing a shroud made of blackened orange cloth and holding a teacup in four fingers. A tall rocklike phantom similar in kind if not form to Lorica stands behind the girl. Also at the table is a young woman of perhaps twenty, distracted and constructing some sort of elaborate tower out of silverware. 

"As I already know your part, I suppose it is right to introduce mine. I am Glastig Uaine, the Queen of Fairies such as yourself." Her voice still feels oddly like it's coming from Lorica's body.

"I didn't think your shades were conscious."

"I fear others repeat untruthful rumors about me. All my charges are awake to some degree, though you more than most."

Who's this other attendee of the tea party, anybody she recognizes?

Cutlery stacker is maybe half east asian and not immediately recognizable.

"Hello," Lorica tries in their direction.

"...you talking to me?"

"Should I not be?"

"Weird."

"It is not so easy to be heard by the living, as a shade. Though I imagine you can manage if you focus on your form."

Her form? What is that supposed to mean.

Possibly it refers to her strangely light body made of dark green flame in the shape of Lorica's suit of armor. 

Wow, focusing on the thing where she is now just dark green flame shaped like armor and not even moving like a person is uncomfortable actually. She's... not positive she has a face, under the helmet. It's like she's her implants and her armor and her HUD and her speaker that Rete used to use to speak on her behalf, not her actual arms and legs, her actual eyes and mouth. Which was fine in the moments when she was mostly paying attention to the content of what she was trying to say and do and really disconcerting to attend to directly.

And who's the other shade, the one standing behind Glaistig Uaine?

A tall, almost crystal shaped rock form, with thin lines along the surface outlining what might be arms, legs, and a head, all tucked compactly together.

"Who's that?" Lorica asks, pointing at the other shade.

"The Holdfast."

"I don't recognize the name."