[One more thing. I need to make you both one of these.] She indicates one of the trinkets on her robes, a purple and black pin with some sigils around the rim. [It indicates that you’re a psychic and have been vouched for by psychic in good standing. That will let people know that you’re a reincarnator, and not a necromancer or possessor. Well, technically there’s a few domains out there where reincarnators are considered baby murderers. Take care if you ever wind up in Zansier System.]

[Noted,] Milo notes.

Apple takes off her pin and points it at Milo, and channels some vis into it to activate some sigils. A similar but simpler pin appears in her other hand, which she offers to one of his attendants. She repeats the process with me and attaches the pin to my sweater, gleaming against the black wool.

[I’m never going to stop being impressed at the ability to make things out of thin air,] I comment.

[And the potential economic consequences of it,] Milo adds.

[Technically, all it did was use some of the material in my inventory. Cheaper than converting it directly from vis. The pins are attuned to your own vis signature, but they’re basically temporary licenses. Ones like mine have the ability to make pins like yours, but not permanent ones with self-duplication sigils. Once you get to a larger population center or attend a school like the Crux Academy, you can exchange it for a full version and get registered properly.]

Apple bids Milo good day and promises to send down her quartermaster to discuss his cheese, and we head back to the surface. The Pryden has its sails positioned facing downward and is casually hovering in the air as if gravity is a mere suggestion it simply doesn’t feel like abiding by.

[I don’t think Grubwick was telling us the whole story,] Apple comments as we board the landing skiff.

[I get the feeling it just told us what it did to mess with us, however much truth is in it,] I observe. [I do not seriously believe that Corwen would have bet against me.]

You have made a keen observation. Skill acquired: Discipline (Deductive Reasoning)

[I also think sometimes it gives me skillups in lieu of actually commenting on something.]

We return to the Prydwen and Apple has a brief talk with a tall, white-haired man, who heads off to the ground.

[We’ll hold position here until they’re done with the boring numbers,] Apple sends. [We still have much to talk about. For one, what sort of class are you aiming for?]

[I’d like to be a crafter. Specifically, I want to build an awesome skyship like yours and fly it around.]

Apple’s physical face remains impassive, but I can distinctly feel a mental grin.

[Drake, how many general skills are there?] Apple asks, her mental voice taking on a teacherly quality.

[16,] I reply. [Two for each attribute.]

[And how many child classes are known to Corwen Hearth?]

[14… it’s missing ones for Clairvoyance and Recollection.]

[It’s only listing the class choices of ones people have been offered. Not counting the two of us, we’ve had two other reincarnators. Neither of them was gifted for it. We don’t even know what those classes do, never mind what they might evolve into.]

[Now I’m curious,] I admit.

[I don’t know what the bonuses they might give are, but you are likely to be using Clairvoyance constantly. Creative Child gives extra experience for skills used while crafting. This can result in learning Athletics (Dodging) if they’re doing something that technically counts as crafting while in combat.]

[You have known some serious munchkins,] I observe. [Though I suppose I can’t talk. I learned to make a goblin kayak to unlock Crafting (Shipbuilding). What were your initial class choices?]

[I spawned as an adult, so my three class choices were Warrior, Crafter, and Scout. Ash picked Crafter and I picked Scout. I suppose at least it didn’t give us classes based on what our previous lives on Earth were. We’d have starved in the first week if we didn’t poison ourselves. Once we hit Elite and were able to do magic, then things got interesting, though it wasn’t until Heroic that I was able to actually pick a class based on magic. What are your highest skill categories at?]

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Athletics 6 Clairvoyance 18 Crafting 24 Discipline 10 Knowledge 4 Language 5 Mechanics 4 Persuasion 2 Recollection 6 Search 7 Striking 3 Subterfuge 9 Survival 11 Tending 5

Apple gives a mental nod. [So you’re likely to be offered Creative Child, the class for Clairvoyance, and whichever other skill winds up highest when you turn 7.]

[I’ll definitely give some serious consideration to which one I go with.]

[In a way, the early class choices are like practice for the really hard choices later,] Apple comments. [There’s a fixed number of them with well-understood requirements. Things will not be so simple from there on out.]

I’m full of churning thoughts as we finish up here and return to the Hearth. I’m trying to learn as much as I can from Apple in the short time we have, but there’s a lot I’m going to need to process once she’s gone.

[On some level, I’m not Alexander Fizzlesnipe,] I muse. [I’m a copy of his memories that has been copied another five million times before me. His vis died, and was converted into aether along with everyone else on Earth. We’re ghosts shoved into the bodies of infants. Does the self survive being turned into aether then back into vis? Eh. It ultimately doesn’t matter. We are what we are. Philosophy won’t change that.]

[Perhaps. But evaluating your perspective upon the world and self may help train your Discipline and Recollection skills.]

[And the skills!] I think. [What even are skills? The system is a huge psychic computer, but what are skills?]

[That sounds like something for you to study,] Apple replies. [I use my powers as a tool but I don’t have any deep understanding of the nature of the universe. That’s a journey you’re going to need to make yourself, if it matters to you.]

In what seems like mere moments, we’re pulling in to dock again. We flew out to Grubwick and were back in time for dinner. I so want my own skyship.

I head straight for the core room. I have questions and Corwen doesn’t like to chat if it doesn’t have to if I’m not down there next to it.

Corwen Hello, Drake.

[Hi Corwen,] I think. [I just had some very interesting conversations. Corwen, would you please tell me what the terms to your agreement with Grubwick were? And yes, I’m sure I wish to know.]

Corwen I did not bet on you being useless. The terms are a payout in essence at the end of the Age to whichever one of you attains the highest rank.

[Ages are 10,000 years long, right? Grubwick already reincarnated Milo twice now. Are you intending on doing the same with me? And what did Apple mean by a ‘purchase’ and ‘rental’.?]

Corwen A purchased soul belongs to the core until it wishes to sell it. A rental is only good for a single life. You are a rental. You won’t reincarnate here again when you die. You were expensive and I cannot afford to incarnate you again.

A lifeform I discovered in a black hole took over the Earth and enslaved humanity for their entertainment. Except we can’t even really complain about it because we would be extinct otherwise. Maybe if Milo and I do well enough, that will encourage them to try out free will more often. Not that quests are actually mind control, strictly speaking. It’s just being paid to do a job, when you boil it down.

I have no existential dread. I don’t feel bad about essentially spending my afterlife doing live-action roleplaying for eternity.

Your Discipline (Self-Delusion) skill has increased to level 4.

The system offers no commentary, letting my thought speak for itself.

[So essentially, you’re betting that I can get further in one lifetime than Milo can in thousands of years, even without quests. Are you annoyed that much of what I’ve been doing so far has benefited Milo?]

Corwen No. Your choice of peace over war is interesting and likely to benefit you more in the long run.

I thank it for the discussion and return to the hearth to eat.

“So, when Corwen spawned us, Ash and I were both naked,” Apple is telling a gaggle of gathered children (and adults who are pretending not to be as excited as the children). “I thought he was going to be all caveman at me. For about the first five seconds. He practically died of embarrassment like he’d never seen a woman in the nude before. And when he commented two minutes later that he was gay, I realized that either this reincarnation was one big joke or we were not expected to repopulate humanity by ourselves. Fortunately, we ran across other people, and many of them were friendly and willing to have benefits to that friendship.”

Apple is trying to cram a century’s worth of telling stories to her great-(x???)-grandkids stories into the few days before she’s planning to leave again. I get a bowl of stew and settle in to listen for a bit.

“We’ll be heading out on another trip in the morning,” Apple says. “I need to meet with some old friends before I leave Tempest, and I’d like you to come along on this one too, Drake. I think they might have some very interesting things to say to you. Hopefully they aren’t hanging around anywhere too inconvenient and they’re actually home. It’s always annoying when people make you slog through a dungeon just to hear them say cryptic things at you.”

“I’m going to bet this will be as inconvenient and cryptic as possible just because that’s the way these things go,” I say.

“Yeah, probably.”