[IC Inbox -- Snowblind]

[heavensreader]

Is it worki - oh. Ahem. This is Kesara Freamon. Please leave your message here and I will call back on you as soon as I can.







Wait, is it still - argh, how do I ma-

Comments

[devoutish]

I'm blind, not ill.

[Well, he's ill too, but rest isn't going to fix that.]

Tell me about this Prophet business.

[heavensreader]

You are ill. [She's been hearing him cough. And a part of her - a part of her is reluctant to give him all of it, ask his advice, lean on him. He's died twice. He could die again. Anyone could.]

Zach and Steph and I were in a house yesterday. I was looking for the ghost of a teacher. Instead the Prophet appeared to me again. They made this mark appear on my hand, that eye symbol, the same as on the walls.

[devoutish]

[A mark. That's... weird.]

Permanent?

[heavensreader]

It doesn't come off. It's like a tattoo, or a b-

[She thinks brand, but her voice fades nervously around that word.]

[devoutish]

Send me a photograph. I won't be able to see it now, but--

[He's assuming his eyesight will come back eventually.]

[heavensreader]

I will. It'll only be a few days, I'm sure. But you really shouldn't worry already, Mr. Solomons, you - you died twice. Everyone else will tell you the same, I'm sure of that too. Dr. Watson, he'll fuss.

[devoutish]

These things aren't gonna go away because of that. Better to face them.

[heavensreader]

But surely it's better to face them when you have all your strength? This, this dying business - I still do think it must be a trick, but - it is a very good trick.

[devoutish]

I won't do anything I can't handle; don't you worry.

[heavensreader]

[He says it like she can help it. It's almost upsetting. He ought to know.]

Do you - do you think it's a trick, Mr. Solomons?

[devoutish]

It didn't feel like one.

[That's his honest answer.]

But everything here does, doesn't it? Even the hallucinations.

[heavensreader]

Yes. [The addition relieves her. Much better than stopping at it didn't feel like one. Especially when she cannot stop thinking about how, perhaps, it did feel.] And that is what a good trick is - it doesn't feel like one - even when it's worked on your own body. I saw Lao Dian do the maddest things to people.

[devoutish]

Well - I'm sure you've heard the theory that none of this is real at all.

[heavensreader]

Oah, I think that one is really much too much, though. How can everything you see and do be a trick? Everything?