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"Sure," says Isabella, pulling the mirror to home out and calling her daemon. "Sounds good to know, in case there are things we ought to know about the other Kystle and the other New Kystle. Path sweetie, can you wrestle a deck of cards into the portal box if I prop it open for you?"

"Yes," says Path.

Presently there is a deck of cards in her bag. She puts away the mirror and takes out the cards and hands them to Lynn.
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She takes them, sits, and starts dealing out to two people. It's going to be a bit difficult to play a game when only one of the two members playing can move anything, but they'll try to manage.

"Well. Do you recall everything I've told you of our history so far?"
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"I was dead," says Adarin, raising his hand, "at the time."

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"And I was kind of distracted."

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Lynn snorts. "Fair enough. Okay, then - demonic invasion, not all of us made it in the shield bubble and subsequent portal, those left got to deal with tainting and also lots of being killed. With me so far?"

She finishes dealing out cards, and then takes one deck to look at herself, and holds the other set away from herself, facing out. This is one of the strange skills she's acquired in her life - how to play cards with a ghost.
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Adarin nods, too.

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Card reorganization, one by ghostly instruction and one for herself.

"Well, obviously I'm a mage. And most of the mage population fucked off, either through your neat portal or to other planes by their own power. So, since I couldn't do that, I was one of the few left. Meaning I could see ghosts. Which sounds kind of minor, but actually turns out to be really, really important."

She starts playing the card game, working by sight on her end and direction from ghost-Adarin on the other.

"Because, guess who was an important, really magical person that died extremely recently? First two guesses don't count."
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"I have only taken history lessons on Earth before. Is making me guess a convention of Kystle?"

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"I thought it would be obvious, considering who you're married to," sighs Lynn. "His mother? The crazy one who blew up a city?"

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"I remember, I'm just not feeling the audience participation gimmick today."

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"As you like. Well, I found her, and because she was crazy and I was a little - unhealthy, at the time, we came up with the greatest plan of all time. I wanted to kill the creatures that had ruined my life, she wanted to gain power to affect the world again and - I didn't realize this until later - resurrect the dead. It turns out that demons can have their magic stolen if you know how. It involves killing them and transferring the power to something magical that doesn't have all of the annoying human fleshy bits that get in the way." Pause. "A ghost does not have any of the annoying human fleshy bits. I'm pretty sure you can see where I'm going with this."

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"Yes. So, lots of killing things. For a while. I got to be very, very good at it. Eventually I start to get older - which is not something that Aliya wanted, because she needed me. To kill things for her. I think she could have managed to kill things herself at that point, but it would have depleted her stores and she was saving them. So - I couldn't tell you how she did it, possibly by throwing lots and lots of magic at the problem, but she made me immortal. Exciting."

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"How intelligent are the Pythial? Sentient, or -"
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"Oh, they're all sentient."

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Adarin makes a face.

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"Are they also universally unfriendly, just how upset should I be about the genocide thing?"

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"Perhaps on their home plane there are poets and writers and artists - but I did not meet a single one. They were all pretty universally unfriendly. The ones I met, anyway." Pause. "I met many."

She places a card down and then smiles. "I win."

And then all cards are collected and shuffled and she gets to re-dealing.
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"Well, you met an invasion force, but, good to know."

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"Indeed. And do keep in mind that they killed billions," she informs. "Regardless - Aliya eventually started giving me magic things to kill things faster. It was an investment, of sorts."

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"Charming."

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"It was useful, certainly. But even with those, even when I became extremely good at killing things - it was not fast enough for her. She wanted to resurrect Nereus as soon as possible."

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"Because of his stellar personal qualities, no doubt."

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"Mostly because she was creepily obsessed, really. I have been married twice, and I have never in my life obsessed over someone the way she obsessed over him."

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