It's an interesting question she's overheard many times from people in many different worlds.

"Meaningfully?  It depends on what meaning!  For most purposes, I've found it is.  But - this won't really be a duplicate, if they can do it; they'll be using some of Seshka's actual original soul."

Lac reviews some strange spells as possibly relevant, then dismisses them. "Best I can give you is 'probably.'" He'd guess that remaking Seshka with Seshka's soul would be strictly easier than remaking Seshka from scratch.

"You might need a lot of information on Seshka's past to recreate her. Or a personally significant object. You might need a large diamond. I'm not sure what" terrifying magic "your team can do, and how much it would resemble the magic I know."

"I don't know either; I haven't seen them that often.  I wouldn't be surprised if they use some diamonds...  I use jewels myself sometimes...  but -"

Technician Oscar Foxtrot, to Psychopomp re Lac Miller
Re: Fw: Status of Seshka Vorlesh.

Thank you for giving us this interesting problem!

The present soul, as described, contains one complete soul and fragments from a different single origin.  The fragments would be easily sufficient to construct several different sorts of ghost; we would be happy to forward the technical specifications upon request, but for a brief summary, any such ghost would be an echo and not itself a person.  By standard procedures, nothing more is attainable.

Based upon your report, I suspect Archmage Vorlesh was attempting a variant form of merger-possession.  If you and others had continued to overlook this, it is an interesting question what the results would have been after the combined soul had been reborn in Villarosa.

That said, after brief study, we believe that with further available material and observations from their origin universe we can in fact resurrect the soul of Seshka Vorlesh to be a whole person.  This would be an extensive and nonstandard procedure, but easily within budget for creating a Villarosa.

We will gladly plan for performing the resurrection during the creation of your Villarosa.  Performing it earlier would of course be possible, but likely cause delays and inconvenience to your currently-whole subject Lac Miller, as well as possibly going over-budget for this section of the procedure.

Please reply at your earliest convenience as to your preferences.

"Oh wow -"

She shows Lac the letter.

He doesn't think Lila has to show him the letter, and probably she isn't required to answer any of his questions... Really, this is much better than it could have gone, with a different outsider.

He reads it over carefully. What is the budget for creating a Villarosa, it must be ridiculous. These "technicians" really do seem wizardly, even down to the concerning necromantic thought experiments (to be fair, Lac is also guilty of this). 

"Resurrecting Seshka during Villarosa's creation seems like the best option." She might appreciate earlier but it's probably best to treat the goodwill of the worldbuilding team as a valuable resource.

(The angel isn't clear on how the budget works, or how exactly resurrections work.  But if they say it's possibly over-budget, she believes them.)

"It would be, except... She is my other subject - they did say that - so I can't send her into a Villarosa without asking what she wants it to be like."

"...Wasn't the technical team just offering to turn her soul fragment into an echo?" That seems incongruous with giving her the "be Pharasma" treatment, but who knows, maybe they'll offer to turn Lac into an echo next.

"Yes - that would work -"

How did she miss that plothook?

"If I understand anything right, they should be able to do that now and then resurrect her in Villarosa!  She'd at least be able to tell us her standard preferences as a ghost!"

Does he have to share the "be Pharasma" thing with AREELU VORLESH'S DAUGHTER

"Is she also going to be a 'villainess,' or..."

She notices he's not happy about this, but there's nothing she can do about that better than move on.

After all, if the Development Department's methods are anything like what she's heard about, he'll be a lot unhappier in a bit when it comes time to actually extract Seshka's ghost from his soul.  

"I don't think so - they usually give me more guidance when they hand me multi-person Villarosas -"  She flips through the same book again.

  After a few moments, she fingers one sentence.  "Ah, yes!  They specified you, Lac, would be the villainess.  Some other people might say it's vague - but I can stand on this line!  Seshka will be going into Villarosa as someone else.  She'll be another student at the academy, most likely.  Perhaps the Heroine?"

She grins a bit on that last line, to see how Lac will take it.

Uncertainty!

"The Heroine is supposed to have excellent character, right? And is Seshka getting equal say in the worldbuilding?" Please no.

Oh, she wasn't expecting that!

"Yes... I do see your point.  Not if she's taken after her mother.  Fortunately, ghosts are usually not good at dissembling..."

She takes out another sheet of paper, and the quill flies into the air again.

"I don't want to go back on my promises to you, but she does absolutely need to have some meaningful say."

The letter is quickly finished and flies off to disappear in the air.

What he described already was pretty good, and presumably even an Evil daughter of Areelu Vorlesh doesn't want to live in Hell, because no one wants to live in Hell.

"Okay. Should we talk it over together, see if we can come up with something we're both happy with?"

"Of course!"

Technician Oscar Foxtrot, to Psychopomp re Lac Miller
Re: Re: Fw: Status of Seshka Vorlesh.

Absolutely; your request is well within your budget and our abilities.  Since you wish to only temporarily manifest the ghost of Seshka Vorlesh when Lac Miller is present, we do not even require any soul surgery.  Said surgery would of course answer many intriguing questions of how the fragments have been kept together and attached, but according to your plans, those questions will anyway be answered shortly when we resurrect said Seshka Vorlesh.

Attached please find a soul-projection device which will more than fulfill your purposes.  Lac Miller must wear the belt and helmet as described; the standard command spells will then manifest the ghost.  This does of course risk exhaustion with extended use, but twenty-four hours should be well within the limits.

If you have any further questions or if your plans change, we stand ready at your convenience.

A wooden crate appears midair, with a parachute attached and a letter tied to one of the parachute cords, and floats to the ground.

The angel plucks off the letter, eagerly reads it, and then hands it to Lac as the crate opens itself.

"Let's do it!"

He reads the letter.

She floats out a thick belt that looks like leather entwined with gleaming metal, connected by a silver vine to a metal helmet that would fit over all Lac's head and neck.  The face area is open, but there's a bar around where his chin would be that's clearly opened and closeable.

There's also a two-page flyer, which she immediately opens while the apparatus is still dangling in midair.

"Let's see, buckle the belt and attach the chinplate... yes, seems fairly obvious... ah, the warnings.  May cause hyperactivity, out-of-body experiences, avolution; remove immediately (not just dismissing the summons) to avert further problems and then it should resolve after a night's sleep; do not use on people with this, that, or the other type of soul..."  She shrugs.

(If Lac asks, she'll hand him the flyer.) 

Very Nethysian. Nothing for it. He'll hold out a hand for the flyer once she's done, and not spot any obvious reasons not to go through with this.

"Should I put it on, now?"

"Yes!"

She'll hold it up with her magic to help him get it on without bending the vine too much (there's a warning in the flyer about that), and then slowly lower the helmet.  If he's willing to fasten it himself, she'll let him do it.

Once they're both fastened, he'll feel a faint tickling inside himself, sort of like when the flowers were exploring his soul.

He will pay very close attention to the tickling!