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‘It is a little exciting,’ said Shenado, making Mariana open one eye to look at her. ‘I don’t think we have ever ignored orders like this before. I wonder if we are going to get in trouble.’
‘Probably.’ She shut her eye again and took a deep breath. ‘Whatever the punishment, I will take it.’
‘Maybe they didn’t realize that Zeff was out of town.’
‘They certainly know now that I have told them.’
‘Oddly sloppy on their part.’
‘Perhaps they don’t know you and I very well. Even after all these years in Lawrence’s division, I still feel like the oddball out, sometimes.’
‘There aren’t very many women in his division. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Fifteen years, and they’ve assigned you a whole ten missions. Compare that to Zeff, who has had twenty-eight.’
She gave a slight nod. ‘It is a bit annoying.’
‘Maybe they think you are the “homemaker” type.’
‘I doubt I give anyone that impression. It is probably more to do with my ability. On paper, my simple destruction type isn’t as impressive as Zeff’s power.’
‘If they only knew.’
She smirked faintly.
‘I expect they’ll have Cisco go on his first mission soon,’ said Shenado.
‘They should. He has been ready for months.’
‘You aren’t worried?’
‘Of course I am.’
‘You don’t act like it. You didn’t act like it with Gema, either.’
‘You would rather I made a fuss?’
‘It would be interesting to see.’
‘I knew what I was signing up for when I joined the Vanguard. And I knew what having children with Zeff would mean. Our role is only to protect them until they can protect themselves.’
Shenado let Mariana return to meditating. After a little while, however, a call came in on the speaker box. The butler moved to answer it for her, but Mariana waved him off.
<“There are two men here to see you,”> said Nico’s voice. <“Say their names are Jonathan Flint and Charlie Day.”>
Mariana squinted, vaguely recognizing the names. She looked to Shenado.
‘I remember them,’ the reaper said. ‘Ask why they are here.’
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
"‘Perhaps they don’t you and I very well."
ReplyDeleteI think you forgot a "know" in there...
Yep. Fixed now, thank you.
ReplyDelete"There aren’t very many woman in his division." It should be "There aren't very many women in his division."
ReplyDeleteSo I've got a question that I've been meaning to ask.
ReplyDeleteOnce a person becomes a servant (ie is resurrected back from the dead), does that mean that their body behaves as it normally would?
I ask because Hector is still relatively young, meaning he would still probably have some growing to do, and Emiliana said she wanted to get married, have kids whatnot, but she is still only in her teens (although technically that's at an age where she can have children).
Up until now my impression has been that once someone dies and is brought back as a servant, they stay the way they were the moment they died. But Emiliana's talk about becoming a servant but not serving in the Vanguard so she can get married and whatnot made me think that maybe that impression is mistaken.
This explanation is going to come up on its own eventually. If you'd rather wait and find out whenever the text gets around to it, then don't read any more of this comment, because I'm going to offer a tiny spoiler here.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that servants just stop aging. It's that reapers can actually choose to stop their servants from aging. It's still a one-way trip, though. Once a reaper allows a servant to age, there's no undoing it. Have a look back at page 90 and pay attention to what Joseph Rofal says about Damian and Feromas.
"Once a reaper allows a servant to age, there's no undoing it."
ReplyDeleteIs the opposite true though? If a reaper chooses for their servant not to age, can they ever allow them to age again? Not expecting any clear answers, just thinking out loud here...
I mean, if a reaper can only choose once (probably the moment the newly dead agrees to servitude), choosing aging would limit the time a servant is actually useful. I guess, not sure. They would probably still have regeneration, so the physical effects of old age wouldn't be so pronounced. They would keep aging, but can't exactly die. Mental effects, though...
I don't really think that makes sense. I suppose the "default setting" for servants is non-aging, and their reaper can choose at any point to allow them to age again, although it can't be undone after the fact.
Concerning Damian: It sounds like his mental instability has developed over time, that is, he might have become a little senile with old age, suggesting that Feromas has allowed Damian to age.
What I find more interesting is the fact that Damian talks about his dead sister like she's in the room. Since the reaper gene runs in their family, she might be a reaper. Or he's really just crazy... or she might have been a reaper and he used her to create Geoffrey...
Ah, no, reapers can start and stop the aging as they please. They can't make their servants younger or make them age any faster than normal.
ReplyDeleteAah, thanks for clarifying. I understood it like "once a reaper starts the aging process, they can't stop it again."
ReplyDeleteAgh, the most invisible of typos. THE DREADED. Always gets me. Fixed now, thank you.
ReplyDeleteA high level destruction user?! Right after I was wondering how a destruction user would use a hyper state?! Pick up that phone cause I FUCKING CALLED IT!!! Ah but I don't have any theories so I'm going into this one blind.
ReplyDeleteI really don't like how Mariana said her only purpose is to protect the kids til they can protect themselves. That sounds too much like a death flag to me...
Then again, I'm always thinking the worst case scenario in this series. STOP CONDITIONING ME, FROST!