"Yes. That's the important part.

Well, are you tired? Or do you have enough energy left for trying something else?"

"Yeah, my arms are kind of getting tired. When I'm ready again, I'd like to see about Teg teaching me to use a two-handed weapon."

Oh, right, if I exhaust her she won't have energy left to train with Teg.

Eh, I don't care that much.

"Okay."

When Katie is done putting her things away, she sweeps her up off her feet and holds her. "It's Moth context catch-up time then. What do you want to know?"

"Can you tell me more about that undeath ritual thing you did to me last night? Am I an undead right now?"

She lingers near the training-room entry.

Tazich from last night, Tazich who didn't understand how Katie worked, would have asked pointed questions that would surely poke anyone into figuring it out for themselves. Now she knows she has to give clear directions.

"Pray to--

--meditate on your old life, your old self. And your relationship to it.

If your Wisdom isn't high enough for that," can't take you to Somayyeh, Somayyeh will have to have you killed if there's any question of allegiance, even if there's no clear path by which the ritual couldn't have worked and no one obvious you could be working for--maybe Tiar can--no, too Chelish, she'd just convince you to say the right thing--maybe one of Ran's brother's friends can get you declared--no, wouldn't help to convince Somayyeh, just raise suspicion--


"just don't say anything to Somayyeh." Huff. "Maybe you were never Alive in the first place."

Nuzzle.

She's getting a little suspicious that this is one of those fake things like Razmir's divinity. "Are there any actual physical changes I'm supposed to expect? Oh, yeah, right, the negative energy thing. It seems important to know whether negative or positive energy heals me, in case I get badly injured."

"Frrrankly l can't quickly think of a source of negative energy around here that's strong enough that you'd notice much effect.

We could ask Tiar, I guess.

To be clear, I'm not trying positive energy on you in an emergency. It would be bad. But you don't already know that for some reason . . . Do you know that you could be healed by positive energy in the past?" It would be a stupid, paranoid question to ask any other new recruit. Katie is weird.

"Yeah. As a kid, I fell off a chair while my arms and legs were retracted inside my clothes like a turtle so I hit the floor face-first, and Dad called in a cleric to fix me up."

She instinctively holds Katie tighter.

"And you don't feel any different?"

"Not in any way that can't be explained by being in the presence of an insanely hot woman who thinks I'm special and wants to make me big and fat and strong."

"Let's go find Tiar then."

She puts out the lamps, returning pitch black to the windowless room, and carries Katie back up into the house.

Tiar isn't audibly in her room or visibly in one of the common areas.

Best not to ask around. She still really doesn't want Somayyeh knowing what they need Tiar for.

"Sorry, can't find her. Any other questions while we wait for her to resurface?" She ducks into the hallway and dangles Katie by her legs, grinning. "Snacks?"

"I suppose a growing girl like me needs plenty of nutrition."

Upside-down HUG.

They find Ran in the kitchen, chopping vegetables on a little stepping-stool, with fowl bone broth on the stove.

She glances at them and doesn't quite raise an eyebrow.

They really need separate kitchens for the zaftig people and the regular people.

She gestures at the cupboards, some of which are open. "Opinions, desires, preferences?

Ran, are all these vegetables yours?"

"They're for everybody."

"Do you have any beef? I'm feeling like beef today."

"Dried, yes. I assumed you'd be sick of dried meat."

"I happened to get raw beef for Teg today too. She's probably done with it."

"What, payday?"

Coldly. "In a word."

"Sorry." She rubs the back of her neck. ". . . We're all fucking bums."

"But I'm tiny."