“Well, if you know how to open a doorway into the Dark . . . a one-way opening into the realm of the wandering dead, rather than a Fountain being a doorway flowing from there to here . . . then your magic gets sucked into the Dark, does it not?” His smile didn’t falter, though he did watch her pupils expand in shock, along with a shiver that rippled over her frame. He softened his smile, taking pity on her. “We of Darkhana are not afraid of any aspect of death, Holy Sister. It is simply a transition between states of existence. A transition which many of us have learned to master . . . and no, I do not refer to immortality.”
“Oh, you don’t?” Saleria asked, dropping her hand so she could fold her arms across her chest.
Tipping his head, Aradin let Teral answer for both of them. “There is nothing that a mortal being can do to completely stop the advancing of age in a human’s body, young lady,” the older Witch stated. “Slow it, yes, but there is nothing we should do to stop its advancement, beyond taking care for our good health. We can slow it through exercise and good food, and even a few spells, but aging is part of the experience of being human, of being mortal.
“Without physical signs of the passage of time, then time itself becomes meaningless. Weeks and months and years all slide past. Reference points are lost. Confusion sets in, and the lessons we strive to learn are washed away in the flood of same-again same-again, day after day. We start to lose the urgency of life, and with it, the compassion for our fellow beings.” He gave her a gentle smile. “We give power and compassion to our Gods because we know we are mortal, fragile, and somewhat short on time.”
“Yet don’t you Guides have a sort of immortality of your own?” she asked, shifting her palms to her hips. She . . . didn’t feel like flirting with him as much, when it was Teral, for all that she liked the look of Aradin’s body. Saleria kept that point of awkwardness to herself, though, pursuing instead her curiosity. “What’s to stop you from binding yourself to the next priest, and the next?”
“The bond can only be set once for a spirit whose body has died,” he stated, shaking his head. “When Aradin dies and his body decays, I will be released into the Light, because I can only be bound once, and I chose to be bound to the Doorway found in his body, with his permission. It is my physical anchor, just as my body was the physical anchor for my own soul when I was alive, and the anchor for my own Guide, Alaya. And some day, should Aradin choose to become a Guide, he will have one choice and one alone, with no taking it back and no changing his mind—changing his soul—for another’s Door,” Teral revealed. He paused, then tipped his head, Aradin’s head, handing back control of their shared body.
Once again, it was Aradin who spoke. “. . . I did not make the choice to be his Host lightly. I would not ask anyone else so lightly, and I shall hope I won’t ever have to make it as abruptly, either. Normally, one or more acolytes are chosen and trained in the last few years of a Witch’s life, serving alongside the person who is expected to become their Guide. That helps ensure the personalities hopefully match. If not . . . it can be a rough transition period while the two get to know and learn tolerance for each other.”
“As your experience was?” Saleria asked, guessing shrewdly from the slight hesitancies in his words.
Aradin dipped his head in a brief but telling nod. “It could have been considerably worse, but we’re both honest enough to admit the first few months were . . . awkward. Becoming a Witch-priest was not on my original list of things to do with my life. But we have managed to strike a very reasonable compromise. We get along as well as any two close friends, now.”
Saleria studied him a long moment, then shook her head. All this swapping back and forth was confusing, the differences subtle and hard to catch. “If it’s all the same, if you turn out to be suitable for helping me . . . I’d rather only one of you spoke from, well, one body at a time. Each your own body. It gets confusing otherwise. Just pass along what the other one wants to say, if you don’t actually switch, please?”
In the back of Aradin’s mind, his Guide sighed. (Typical . . . but understandable. Since your points are valid on each of our suitability for the problems at hand, please let her know that I agree to her terms.)
(Not like I have much of a choice, either. We are under orders to cooperate wherever it is in the best interests for all. And if nothing else, we can at least try to be more discreet when switching control. Though to be honest, I think it’ll remind me of our earliest days,) Aradin agreed, a faint smile twisting his mouth. Reviving the Convocation was their goal, and that had to come first. Shrugging, he spread his hands. “Teral agrees to your terms, and I shall do my best to comply as well.”