March Shadowgate's residence had once been Shadow Gate fortress. Over the years new buildings were added and old building repurposed. Once separate buildings were extended until the multi-courtyard estate became a single sprawling building. Facades were added to unify the exterior into something aesthetically pleasing. The courtyards, now slender, were painted white so that sunlight could illuminate the inner rooms. Elaborate metal frames, designed both decoratively and to discourage thieves, were filled with clear glass in the windows.

  Beneath the artistry, the original purpose of defense remained. Shuttered slits in the walls allowed Knights to cast their techniques. Security doors and corridors littered the spaces between old outer walls. That was as it should be, for it remained the residence of March Shadowgate. Knights of the Order of Severing Twilight, as well as members of smaller Orders sponsored by March Shadowgate or the City Lords, patrolled its halls.

  Being an old fortress, there were dungeons dug into the bedrock. Built for keeping those who could use techniques, the cells and hallways of the dungeons were built with old formations intended to sap the prisoners of their mana. They had long since been converted for use as storage. Wine and cheese filled much of these halls, where they remained a constant cool temperature all year long. One hallway of formations was restored. This was where Lady Melinda was kept. Soldiers stood guard on both sides of the door to her cell. The hallways above and below, as well as guard posts, were manned with Knights. Elite Knights, those who had touched aura techniques, were among the Knights stationed in guard rooms. Farspeak tools, kept just beyond the sapping formations, were ready to alert the entire residence should the body become dangerous.

  Anya and Biyu were stopped at every guard station on their way to Lady Melinda's cell. Both swore to Lady Bringer they were who they claimed to be. Only the mortal soldiers keeping watch in the magic sapping halls and cells did not challenge them.

  The soldiers within Lady Melinda's cell had their swords in hand, unsheathed, despite the body being dismembered and held in mesh cages. Despite the corpse being days old, there was a scent of mildew but no smell of decay. Smokeless fire lamps lit the room a gloomy orange, barely shedding enough light for them to see.

  Anya selected one of Lady Melinda's Human arms to begin her investigation. She took the limb with her to a room prepared for them outside the formation.

  Biyu inspected the body parts before her with her netherworld vision and [Wizard Eye]. What she found was confusing and upsetting. There was no soul gem. There was no sign of a formation etched into the bones, either. If this was necromancy, it was far more elaborate than any example she had heard of. Furthermore, while a soul was seated in the skull, it existed all throughout a living body. Lady Melinda's body parts were still 'alive', despite being severed from the heart and brain. Biyu listened for the Litanies of Vice and Virtue. She found Lady Melinda's, and searched them for a hint of undeath. She did not find it.

  "The Litanies suggest she is still alive," Biyu told Anya when she returned.

  "So is this limb, despite being severed for so long. Alive, but not Human." Anya dropped the cage back in place with disgust. Next she took Lady Melinda's non-Human arm, the hand cut free. Biyu, her own investigation complete, followed after her.

  The ritual was more complex than the ones Anya had used on Biyu when she was a Healer. Partly it was due to the loss of her techniques, but it was also because of the depth of her study. Healers did not often need to check the composition of bones and blood at the same time. For this corpse, she did.

  Biyu watched as Anya placed the body part. Objects were placed around the ritual, including mana gems, water, and materials Biyu could not identify. Once complete, Anya invoked the ritual. Light covered the limb, which Anya manipulated in some way Biyu did not understand. Anya's expression became more concerned as she worked.

  "According to my ritual, it's the same as the other limb. Bone that's not bone. Blood—what the limb still has—that's not blood. Skin, flesh. All of it. Whatever she is, she's not Human." She licked her lips. "She's not Human, and not undead. Is she really Lady Melinda? Maybe she's a fake?"

  Biyu contemplated, her ears turning back to the Litanies.

  "I would need to speak with her parents to be certain. I think so. The Litanies are about who you are, but it is not a biography. It is the story of how you live your life. The things you did. Why you did them. Perhaps the Advocate of Vice and Virtue can tell from the soul. I shall ask when I bring it to Judgment. Is there anything else you would like to check?"

  Anya nodded. "The seat of the mind and the soul is in the brain. I wish to inspect it. Perhaps that's still Human."

  "If it is not?" Biyu asked.

  Anya looked at her, anxious. "I don't know, Lady Bringer." The Knights discreetly listened to them, unable to avoid overhearing in the tight confines. "Soul transplants are taboo, because the people who try it usually do it to their kids. You already said she's not undead. This is… do you know what a homonculus is?"

  Biyu shook her head.

  "It's an offshoot of ogre making. Instead of using magic to make Humans or Elves 'more', the Wizard tries to make artificial life. Most of the time, they don't start from scratch. They take living tissue and coax it into what they want, but there's always rumors of people discovering the journal or diary of a mad Wizard who tried to create life from raw materials. Trying to follow in Lord Maker's footsteps when he made Humans and Reglads."

  Biyu grimaced. "Can a Wizard do that?"

  Anya threw her hands up in exasperation. "I don't know! It's always just rumors. No one I know has seen the records. Personally, I think it's the kind of secret the Treasure Hunters hide deep in their hidden vaults." She paused thinking about it. "But, I think they can. Not with magic, but a petty god? I think if they had the right domain, Healers of my former Guild could manage it."

  Biyu nodded. "Let us fetch the head."

  The two of them exchanged the arm for the head. They had a soldier carry it for them in a sack, neither of them willing look view the girl's face. They could hear rasped attempts at speech. The sack wriggled in their grip. The soldier carried the sack away from his body. Ichor seeped through the sack cloth.

  Anya adjusted her ritual to account for sack. It would be less exact, but Anya assured her it would be close enough. The ritual invoked, she took her time inspecting the results. Her expression remained dour the entire time. They Knights waited patiently, but as her examination dragged on they became increasingly tense. At one point, someone sneezed, and there was almost a calvacade of techniques launched at the head. And Anya, who was entirely too close to it.

  Biyu brought her will to bear, frightening the Knights into backing away, unused to the diminutive woman projecting such power. The senior most Knight prostrated himself before Biyu to beg her forgiveness. The other Knights kept their watch on the head. Biyu allowed her wrath to linger upon them a moment before releasing it. For their offense, the senior Knight offered them a dinner catered by one of the city's finest chefs as worship.

  Anya ignored the altercation. She did not end the ritual until the materials she used were spent. Once finished, she sprawled into a free seat. The still tense Knights leaned in to hear her report. Anya remained silent. One Knight's mouth opened and closed, on the cusp of questioning Anya on what she had found. The senior Knight glared the man into silence.

  "Anya?" Biyu asked when the silence was too long for her.

  "Skin but not skin. Flesh but not flesh. Bone but not bone. Brain…" She took a deep breath, the pause torturing her audience, "but not brain. Whatever this thing is, it was never Human. If the soul is Lady Melinda's, then she was soul transplanted. It's a necromancer's dream."

  "Is it necromancy?" Biyu asked.

  "I think so. By definition at least. But… you know that sometimes we can transplant pieces of one person into another?" Biyu and a few Knights nodded. "A question that's been posed but never answered is: can a brain be transplanted? Everything on the subject is speculative. No one believes you can. The organ is too delicate, and every attempt we know of killed the patient. This is a step beyond. If you think of her as still alive, then it means you can replace the entire body and still be alive. That's horrifying."

  "Why?" asked the Knight who had wanted to speak earlier. He flinched as everyone turned to look at him.

  "There are sicknesses of the brain. Most of them are hard for my Guild to heal. We would send them to Healers or Priests who were gifted by their gods, because we don't know how to deal with a lot of them. It's usually fifty-fifty on whether they end up healed or killed. In a few cases, the results are less predictable. She has a brain that was crafted by an Awakened. What are the chances they got it right? That she won't have some sickness…?" Her words trailed off, realization writ large on her face. "Shit."

  "What is it?" Biyu asked.

  "That creepy smile she had. I suspect she was being driven mad by whatever made her attack us." Anya swallowed. "By all the gods, I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

  "We are done examining her?" Biyu asked. Anya nodded. Permission given, Biyu reached out to grasp the soul. When she attempted to wrench it from the tainted body, her domain cramped. It felt like a sudden migraine. Her brain throbbed, and she staggered to a seat while the Knights and Anya looked on with concern.

  "I tried to take her soul from her body. My domain revolted. She… she truly is not undead," Biyu told them. The Knights, concerned before, were now unnerved.

  Biyu's headache did not last long. She drew Indu's knife. Removing the head from the bag, she set it on a table. Gore coated the head. It matted the hair. The face was crusted over in sticky dried blood. Bits of flesh and gore were trapped between the teeth of its mad grin. The mouth moved, but without lungs it remained silent.

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  One of the Knights read the head's lips. "It's good to see you again Lady Anya? I need to kill you. And your lovely daughter. I like her a lot. Do you think we can be friends?"

  Biyu carved at Lady Melinda's head, intent on removing the top of her skull. The knife refused to bite in. She stared at it, confused why it could break the crystalline skeleton, but not this girl's skin. The Knights' mundane weapons had managed to tear it apart.

  Anya was able to cut the skin, but not the bone. Indu's knife was given to the veteran Knight. He looked sickened as he held the Elven blade. With work, he was able to cut into the skull. He was irate that a weapon of the traitors had succeeded where Imperial swords and hammers had failed.

  "Lady Bringer, how is it you were unable to cut her flesh with your… knife?" the veteran asked.

  "Give me your hand."

  Reluctantly the Knight surrendered his hand, and Biyu caused him to cry out when she squeezed it. "My strength if fine." She pulled a dagger and attempted to stab the man's palm. The blade failed to cut his skin, though he shouted in pain. "It would seem I can no longer cause harm. I have long said I am not a god of death, but of the dead. It would seem my domain has bound it as a law."

  "We should keep it a secret," Anya said.

  "For those afraid of a death god, it could be seen as affirmation she is not one," the veteran said uncertainly.

  "You do not want to be sent away so you cannot inconveniently spill secrets," Biyu chided the Knight. The other Knights in the room, not so quick to understand their position, grew wary.

  "My words are no less true because of it, Lady Bringer."

  "They believe me a death god and already attack me. I cannot see how it would not embolden them if they no longer feared retaliation."

  "That would be wonderful," Anya said.

  "True enough," the Knight admitted. "More would find opportunity than would be settled to hear of it. It is a great feat for a mortal or Knight to kill a god."

  "Swear an Oath to Lady Secrets to tell none but March Shadowgate. Each of you." Biyu suspected the rumor would spread regardless. Nor did she think she had funds enough to keep the Treasure Hunters from selling the information.

  The Knights were all too happy to the Oath one after another. That way the visitation of the god upon the Oath's completion could be verified.

  After the Oaths, they completed the removal of the top of the skull. They pulped the brain, and with that Lady Melinda died. Or so they thought, until Biyu found she could not claim the soul. The head was dead, including the flesh, but when they checked the rest of the body parts they found they still lived. Hours later, Anya found little nerve nodules hidden in the bones. Anya was certain that this was poor design. The mini-brains, as she called them, would hinder control of the body according to her.

  Once they slew the rest of Lady Melinda's body parts, Biyu claimed the soul. Satisfied the body was completely dead, Biyu left the disposal of the corpse to the Knights while she carried the soul to her realm and Judgment.

  Arliss sat upon his throne, both within Biyu's realm and upon a spire over the eastern continent. Even after all this time, she could not get used to being in two places at once. It gave her a feeling she had read of called vertigo. She had never felt the sensation for herself before.

  Arliss rested his chin upon his fist, his features almost brooding as Lady Melinda's Litanies of Vice and Virtue repeated themselves over and over. He read the Litanies, but he did not need to speak them. He read them so they rang out. Another truth that was difficult for Biyu to comprehend. She was sure her divine self would handle it better, but her mortal aspect had been the one to inspect the soul. Thus was it her duty to attend Arliss.

  "What do you think of how her life was extended? Surely, we would agree she must have been dead in some sense before being moved to her new body. And yet, a new body is the goal of necromancy. Do you think this is necromancy?" Arliss asked Biyu.

  "The Litanies do not end or become corrupt. There is just an interruption. My wife tells me that sometimes patients die for a short while but do not stay dead. This is similar to recovering from such a condition."

  "Those are things I already know. I seek your opinion."

  "I would not dare presume to have an opinion worth hearing."

  "Should I take it you presume that I, Arliss, the Advocate of Vice and Virtue, am wrong to request your opinion?" There was no threat. No judgment. No curiosity. Arliss was not prone to emotion. Biyu was not certain if he could feel emotions. Despite or because of that, Biyu felt wary in how she responded.

  "I defer because it is my opinion that I am inadequate to offer a wise opinion."

  "Who else would I ask?" Arliss asked. "My brother is upon the earth, seeking his way to your Empire to enact his revenge against those who wronged him."

  "Was he not cast from his power thousands of years ago?"

  "The Eastern continent is far from your shores, and he cannot swim. It will be hundreds of years yet before he arrives upon your shores."

  Biyu nodded, a moment's fear put off. She should probably inform the Treasure Hunters. They probably already knew Arkiss was coming, but it would be irresponsible not to inform them.

  "You claim your opinion would not be wise. I think you may be correct. Have you someone whose opinion you would consider wise in this matter? Or at least learned."

  There was only one person Biyu could think of. Worry filled her at the idea of calling her before Arliss. Reluctantly she said, "My wife."

  "Call her to attend me."

  Biyu called her wife to commune. Moments later Anya was in her realm. Her wife's expression turned rigid finding herself once more in Arliss's presence. This time she stood before his throne. She was in the place of Judgment. Anya curtsied, holding it as her Litanies rung out.

  After the last phrase of Virtue came, outstripping her Vices by a fair margin, Arliss stood to greet her. "Priest Anya welcome to my throne. Rise. There is no need to curtsy me."

  "Lord Arliss, you have called for me?"

  "I have. I would like to hear your opinion. Was Melinda Hamilton Darling still alive? Include your reasoning."

  "She was alive. Greatly altered, but alive. Do you know how healers define being alive?"

  "Act as if I do not."

  "Alright. In our oldest texts, we define being alive as the unassisted beating of the heart. So long as one had a heart beat, one was alive. This metric was first challenged by the petty gods. As petty gods Ascend, many stop having a heartbeat. Of course, the people back then called it an exception. The reason we ultimately discarded this standard was because we learned how to circulate the blood without a heart. Artificial hearts are inferior to natural ones, but they do work. They do not beat, but use other means to move the blood through the body. Patients cannot exert themselves too much, or they will become lightheaded and faint. Even a gentle run is too much. Yet, we can replace the heart with something that does not beat. That said, we still typically use it as the rule of thumb, but that's immaterial to the conversation.

  "We now use brain death as the metric. We can test the brain, and make an educated guess as to whether the person is alive. The issue with this is a rare problem of a body losing its soul. Empty bodies can be claimed by Lost Souls. Historic cases have been used in stories about body swapping, something that has only happened two or three times I know of. It's rare not just because the circumstances for them to happen are rare. It is also because souls are not oxen, and bodies are not carts. You cannot just hitch to the other and get on with things.

  "Most healers end their concerns with the health of the body. So long as the brain is active, the body is ready should the soul return.

  "Philosophers like to ask: if the soul moves to a new body with its own mind, are they the person they were or a new person? I favor the 'third person' interpretation. Most argue that since the soul is the true person, you are the person you were. Having a new mind and body are akin to brain damage. You remember being someone you never were… doing things you wouldn't do… and you cannot remember who you were. It frequently ends with dissociation or catatonia. Understandably so. For those who can function after such a change, they don't tend to live long. The body and the soul struggle against each other. This causes the body to degenerate, resulting in death.

  "The few records we have about how the people change—the healers tended to concern themselves with the practical aspects, unfortunately—describes it like seeing the face of a friend or family member on a stranger. It is uncanny, because for all they remind them of the person they knew, there is an unsubtle difference to the person they knew."

  Arliss had listened with his full attention. "I see. And what is the 'third person' interpretation?"

  "It says that instead of being the person from the mind or the soul, they are a new person. A third person made up from pieces of the previous two. We still classify the change as a kind of sickness akin to a brain injury. One which cannot be healed."

  "So, I should treat her change of body as a sickness?"

  "Um, how do you normally judge soul transplants?"

  "After they take on a new body and mind, I too account it as something akin to disease. It is a trial to overcome, as is all of life. However, Lady Melinda has both her soul and her mind. Both were transplanted."

  Anya blinked. "Truly? Then she would be her old self in a new body. That's… changing the brain would still affect the mind. Doing it so that the mind is unaffected is so nuanced I wouldn't trust a god to do it without affecting them."

  "There are philosophies that the body influences the mind, and vice versa, are there not? In fact, Biyu, you know someone who changed when her body did, don't you?" Arliss asked.

  Biyu nodded. "Indu is different in a Human body."

  "Was Lady Melinda forced?" Anya asked. "Did someone do this to her?"

  "Yes," Arliss replied.

  Anger flared on Anya's features. "Whoever it was, they changed her intentionally, didn't they?"

  "Of course. Lady Melinda wanted to be friends with Defender Elderwoods. The one who gave her a new body and tinkered with her mind did so to assassinate your daughter."

  "So she was under a compulsion or geas. It wasn't something she wanted to do."

  "It was not," Arliss confirmed. "I see your opinion. Let me ask you a question. How much of your opinion is informed by hope?"

  Anya grimaced. "Very little. I think they'd be better off damned as undead. They'll go to the Heavens weighed down by regrets forced upon them by someone else."

  "You would rather have they be damned than rewarded?"

  "… you know of Lady Bringer's plans?"

  "Of course. She has my approval."

  "Lady Melinda was twisted into something else. Her own mind was made to act against her. Being forced to face eternity remembering that sounds like punishment to me."

  "The Heavens is not the same as the world you live in. Do not assume the rules are the same."

  "What else can I assume? No one knows what the Heavens are like. Do you?"

  "Believe the Heavens are the reward you have been promised. Assume nothing else."

  "Then… my opinion is that they face a trial. A difficult trial."

  "Tribulations bring forth the greatest opportunities for Virtue, and the least risk of Vice. Some do break under the strain. Some commit Vices in frustration and anger that are beyond redemption. For those like Lady Melinda, I shall treat them as if dealing with a sickness as you have recommended."

  Anya curtsied. "Have I met your expectations, Advocate of Vice and Virtue?"

  "You have, Priest Anya. Be proud. Know you have done your spouse a great service in this."

  Anya smiled at the ancient power pretending to be a man. "Thank you, Advocate."

  Biyu dismissed her wife back to the world of the living. "Thank you for complimenting her, Arliss."

  "One must take good care of their subordinates."

  Biyu blinked, then thought it over. "Did you intend to call on my wife from the beginning?"

  "Yes. You wished to have her feel useful. I have done so."

  "Why?"

  Arliss began to speak, not looking at Biyu. "While I knew the likely decision I would make, seeking counsel was not a ruse. True, I knew the counsel I would receive when I asked for it in all the ways it could have gone. Very few resulted in Priest Anya being rebuked. Most resulted in earned praise. It may seem strange to you, but I cannot act on advice I have not received, even if I know what it will be. So I asked you to call upon her."

  Biyu was once more reminded that Arliss was not a god, but only like one. She bowed to him. "Thank you, Master."

  "I am your Lord, but not your Master. Shishi treats you well. I would not take her disciple from her. Tell me, do you know how to invoke a soul from a point before the end of their life?"

  Biyu shook her head. Arliss took the time to thoroughly teach her, using the soul of Lady Melinda, so she could invoke the young lady from a time before she was transplanted. For her funeral, she would be the person her family remembered.