Aspex wasn't a very common name before 4081, Catherine thinks at him immediately.

I didn't tell her anything about you besides that I knew you from before, Alfirin adds, What you want her to know is your business.

Marit is not sure he has a fully developed theory of secrecy when it comes to body-sharing archmages and Galatian noblewomen. Aspex is not my real name, he says agreeably to Catherine, nor even meant to be a very persuasive pseudonym. I don't want to give them my real name because if I do they'll immediately infer that I'm a sixth circle wizard and it's sometimes convenient for them not to know that. 

…You're a sixth-circle wizard? Have you been cheating, or something, when we sparred?

No! - not out of any particular sense of honor, but I don't want to get caught at being a wizard. He realizes belatedly that she probably meant that, if he was a wizard, it was implausible that he'd also be one of the best swordfighters in the world. - I'm a swordmage, he adds in clarification. 

Well, if you're telling me that - is there some other reason to hide your name? I guess I don't have to know it and can't let it slip by accident if I don't but I must say I'm curious.

You can probably figure it out if you set your mind to it but I don't particularly like telling people things. In general. This is - a character flaw, probably. It is certainly at least two parts in ten responsible for today's fiasco. Though it's also how I got Drezen to stop being a hive of cultists. 

I have noticed you being temperamentally mysterious, yes. I'm not sure whether you're inviting me to dig into your past or asking me not to.

You may do as much digging as you please. I'm mildly curious how much it'd take, it's relevant to who in Lastwall's likely to guess. 

If they would guess ‘sixth-circle swordmage' from your name I can probably find your name from ‘sixth-circle swordmage'. Which isn't information they have. Is that when you knew Alfirin? I'd like to learn more about her too. Given the givens.

I actually have no idea what arrangement the two of you have. 

As of recently, we have an arrangement where I control my body most of the time, she takes over if she needs to or sees an opportunity I don't - like with the prison cells instead of the abyss - and we mostly want the same things for me and for the world and are probably more likely to achieve them working together than if I were alone - so, while I'd prefer not being possessed and getting everything I want from the world anyways, this is still…maybe… better than not being possessed at all? I'm not sure, I'm still working through it. A month ago we had the same arrangement except for the part where I am aware of it.

I am not sure I have any advice or condolences applicable to that situation. I hope you collectively accomplish all your goals. I don't want to share Alfirin's secrets, I don't know what she's willing to have you know and what she's worried about, but -

- You two sound very similar sometimes, you know that, right?

Well. We have more in common than most people. - personally I don't do any possessing innocent people, though. I might for a really good reason but I haven't set up my life such as to run across candidate reasons.

I was hardly innocent - I don't know if she took that into account at all. She saved my life, though, when I think I maybe still counted as Evil. I don't know that I'm worse-off… Can we go back to talking about your past? I'm not sure I want to talk about this, right now, with you. Even if he's the only one she can talk about it with.

I don't have a lot more to my past. The Shining Crusade began before I was born. I joined it when I was eighteen. I served in it until I was forty four, and then I found myself here. According to the history books, if that hadn't happened, I'd have kept serving in it until it ended when I was forty-eight, and then settled down and had lots of children in Lastwall as Iomedae asked of us. 

Alright, alright, I get the hint. I'll read the books if I want the rest. She goes quiet.

When it's clear Catherine doesn't have anything more to say, Alfirin thinks to Marit privately. I don't know if She knew I was still alive, before all this. If I had to bet, I'd bet She didn't, before I came to the worldwound. There's only one person she could be talking about.

There are few enough archmages you'd think you'd keep track of all of them, as a god or just a person with geopolitical interests. I suppose you had some ways to make that very difficult. 

It's hard to imagine - her, but a kind of her that wouldn't - turn over some mountains looking for you, if you fell off the radar -

- Hard to imagine, from when you were forty-four, maybe.

…did you have some kind of fight? 

Not… not as such. It was more gradual than that. And I suppose - I suppose some of it might just be the difference between my perspective at the time and yours. Even when you were forty-four I was imagining it, I think. She did say it was who She'd be.

She did, he agrees. She specifically felt that love was overrepresented among the concerns of the Good gods and if She were wholly incapable of it that'd overall be a move in the right direction. I found it soothing, in a way, that she was still such an idiot about you. Sometimes it was the only real indication she wasn't perfect.

I - I didn't realize. I had been taking comfort, by the end, in her planned indifference. That she wouldn't prioritize me over any others. Any other evils, she means. She does not clarify. It still hurts to think about, somewhat to her surprise.