Why are you special?

The ratfolk woman settles down at a desk, pulls out a book, and starts going through the delivered notebooks, writing out a map of people's movements, including where and when, condensing everything onto just a few pages. I watch as she then goes though and sorts out who was potentially talking to who… including near misses.  Why… ah, in case of similar dead drops.

Hmm.

Leaving her to her work, I have a look at the shelves and shelves full of books.  Honestly, it's a lot of parchment… but there’s basically no trade here, nor any farming or ranching. I wonder where they're getting the paper?

What to read… I start with simply going over the titles. Dissident Movements Founding Year 14, 15, 16… I read one with Scholar's Touch, without removing it from the shelf.  It is an entire year's worth of logs. They have a good few thousand years of such records on this bookshelf. Probably not the ones I want, though. Huh. Really old family… but I suppose if they're Life’s descendants, they'd have to be.

Moving on, I find similar shelves of financial reports, purchases, army status reports, district population censuses… lots of dull things, all going back to Founding Year fourteen. It would be useful if I was planning on crushing them economically, I suppose.  I continue to read them quickly without moving them via Scholar's Touch… OK, so each shelf appears to be reports from a department head of some kind, who is switched out every decade or so, based on the handwriting and the signatures.

Except the physicians' reports.  The name on the signatures changes about every hundred years, but the handwriting is exactly the same. I check them all: It's consistent for the entire set, almost three thousand years.  Well. I guess I'm not the only one who knows how to fight aging. I guess I can see why they're not… huh.  

I have one of my other selves start a conversation as another one of me looks up birth records, "Hey, Comforter, brother, is now a good time?"

He chuckles, "I think you understand how this works now, my new sister, now's fine. Also Dad's instructions didn't come with an expiration date, and we’re supposed to be helping you ‘get your sea legs’ as it were. What can I do for you?"

Hey, it's always good to be polite, "I ran across something interesting in an archive… the prior Life had a couple of grandchildren, and while I have the birth records for when they became the old Life’s grandchildren, I'm not finding their identifiers showing up afterwards, so they haven't been reborn. Do you mind telling me if they're currently dead? Here are their numbers…" I list off three identifiers for Oscar's kids (not my construct, the other Oscar).

My brother pauses only momentarily, "They're not in inventory, they weren't handed over under contracts, they're not powering undead, and they're not stuck in any soul binding effect."

I consider, "You phrased all of those as negatives."

Death chuckles, "Yes, because those are the things I can easily check that directly relate to your question. As to what you actually want, though? I have dozens of harvest and spell release records for each of them. They're being Reincarnated, specifically by the Cyclic Reincarnation spell, every century or so like clockwork, killed by each other's hands, in a consistent order. There are occasional interruptions in that pattern, but always by someone outside the set, and it simply resets that soul's place in the pattern."

I consider, "So they've got a Reincarnation pact, keeping themselves young by dying periodically. And with Cyclic Reincarnation, they get young adult bodies, of their original race, and they always look like they're the family of their prior selves.  Takes two Druids and a Cleric to pull off properly, not to mention the material components… but five grand in components to come back from the dead, plus two instances of one grand to clean up the negative levels every hundred years isn’t so hard, and there’s a few ways to reduce that a little.” A Black Soul Shard, for example, can reduce the negative levels that need to be cleaned up by one each cycle, and that savings adds up with time; just twelve cycles to hit break even if you purchase it, six if you craft it.  “Which … explains things: They come back, claiming to be their own children.  And with three of them in on the gig… OK, that fits.  Thank you.”

My brother responds with, “Be seeing you…”

Fully Divine conversations take no time at all.  I guess that's Dad's way of encouraging us to talk to each other?  Regardless, I now know how they're doing it. And it's fine, really; I know I always wanted to live forever… and they're not victimizing anyone by doing it; no harm no foul, right?  Well, as long as it's not mainstream - everyone being properly immortal would cause a lot of problems without some pretty drastic changes to society… but I expect the expensive components (seven grand per iteration, as low as three grand if you're OK with a random race… and you aren't charged for spellcasting services or scrolls…) and the minimum level requirements needed for the 'physician' to pull it off (eleventh for the 'same race' version, seventh for the random race version) will stop most people from doing it… and they seem to be keeping quiet about it, setting themselves up as their own children… by incest, which apparently isn't what's actually happening.

Hmm.  It doesn't actually help much for now, but good to know.

I continue on through the archives, checking for other shelves where… yep. Ruler's Edicts: They apparently take turns as to who officially rules.  Again, the names change, but the handwriting here swaps between two people about every hundred years.  A lord and a lady.  And they are going to be two Druids and a Cleric… divine casters….

I check my books… yes, their IDs show up as my worshippers, inherited from the prior Life.  Oh, a Druid, a Shaman, and a Bard… the Druid can cast Cyclic Reincarnation, the Shaman can cast Restoration…I guess they have a Ring of Spell Storing for when it's the Druid's turn to die?  Crafted scrolls or wands could also work; Bards can get Use Magic Device.  Still…. that simplifies meeting them. I'll just have them contact me.  I use the range limiting trick I explained to Death oh so long ago… OK, it feels like a long time, but really, it was a few weeks ago at most… to queue up dreams about arranging a meeting and cooperating with me to just the prior Life’s grandchildren. I also have another me review the 'nudges' the prior Life set up, and change them up to discourage the discrimination she'd weaponized against her brother.

It would be nice if things were so easy to fix in my old world… but that's not my problem anymore.

Well. I've learned what I wanted here… but there’s probably more to learn. The Earth Glide spell lets me walk through stone walls without disturbing them, and the Ironguard spell lets me do the same for anything metal, such as their security doors. And between my Mythic ring and Invisibility spell… I pretty much have the run of the place, although I do need to watch out for tapestries and things.

So I take my time and explore, walking on the ceiling. The place is a small castle - everything structural is stone or iron, it has killboxes at all the entrances, every room has thick bars for the doors, they have crenellation on the roof, arrow slits in the exterior walls, the works.  Great against a good old fashioned siege, not so effective against me.  Or any high level caster, really, but that’s a tiny segment of the population. It'll do fine against hordes of zombies, or peasant uprisings, or traditional armies.

Fortunately, fixing things is today's topic, not crushing castles. So I'm not too terribly concerned about their defenses. I'm more concerned with how they treat their staff… so I wander and watch.

Most of the staff are worshippers I inherited when I took over as Life; Know the Faithful from the cheat I used way back at level two to grant myself Mythic ranks tells me that. Hmm… I may want to think about revamping my build with Reversion (Complete) from the Time Sphere of Spheres of Power; there’s probably a couple of things I purchased at lower levels that are now completely redundant with my spells… but that's for later.

For now… none of the help are sporting bruises or scars, nobody has that haunted look in their eyes… but they are, apparently, all on Night Tea, and other than the more military men, they're all female. And almost all of the female staff are under False Alibi spells. A lot of them.  Simple deleted memories.

That bears watching.

And I can. Retroactively, even, for what I'm concerned about… ah. OK. So … all three of the prior Life’s grandchildren are apparently warded against divine sight. I have to actively be looking for them to 'see' them in covered activities, rather than just doing my job.

Their partners aren't, though, and searching my memories for the responses of the staff… the lord, and the lady, and the physician all regularly seduce the female staff. And the staff always seems happy about it, and… yes, looking around, nobody's fired over it.

But they're not permitted to remember it.

I'm not quite sure where I want to slot that particular bit of evil on the scale.  I mean, the staff … seem to be willing?  All smiles and flushed faces…and then the rulers mess with their minds afterwards. They're not forcing them in the classic sense, but… eugh. Consent there is questionable at best.

I suppose I should maybe find out how they feel about it?

So I look around and start plotting who to kidnap and interrogate....