Life Ore Death
Elsewhere
"For speaking, the Commands used for
Awakening spoken out loud have to be said in a single pulmonary breath, but attaching your Connection to a different location's Identity will let you speak the Command in a different language," Renka murmured, making marks on a glass & crystalline wall as though it were a chalkboard. Around her, images swirled in the silver fog, fading in and out of focus. "Then…."
Senna appeared to have exhausted as much of the borrowed initiative as she was willing to, and was sitting back, easily watching.
"Adhesion?" she eventually murmured as the mildest of prompts. Renka nodded sharply and flicked it away to display another surface.
"Adhesion is interesting: it is rather an artificial form of Connection in the Spiritual aspect. Similar to Hemalurgy, it can create artificial connections by having them spiritually stuck together. Gravitation and Tension both pull things together, but Adhesion is what connect two things to be pulled, and using either of those… The non-Physical aspects of those powers are both incredible. A Windrunner's ability to pull other existences into his 'gravitational well,' and to adhere humans secondarily to his Nahel Bond as squires…."
"You really believe it is possible to repair a splintered Shard?" Senna pressed; she seemed slightly stressed under the effort of just asking.
"Absolutely. If it is possible to be a
Radiant of more than one order, or for one of the right Radiants to also wield the right Honorblade… I could potentially fake it with Hemalurgy, just as the people from Sel would've used Devotion's methods to connect to Preservation, but I would prefer to have the bonds be genuine."
"It would require… to be appropriately bonded to Honor's investiture directly, the Bondsmith would need to be sworn to the Stormfather in specific," Senna observed airily. Renka shook her head to disagree.
"A Bondsmith sworn to the Stormfather who could then swear the oaths of a Windrunner as well would… I agree it would work, but to be best I would recommend skipping the Bondsmith order entirely. A Windrunner with the Stoneward Honorblade, or a Stoneward with the Windrunner blade… It is the Stoneward Herald who has not broken the Oathpact, yes? If he is given the Windrunner blade when he returns, he would have a good chance of being able to merge the remaining splinters of Honor and ascend in place," Renka concluded.
"Is that so...?" the Shardholder mused softly.
Renka nodded. "It would need to be done during the Highstorm to get enough investiture either way, so the Stormfather would be involved and aware, but Gravitation would draw the remnants together as Tension pulled tighter what connections remained. Then Adhesion would stick them together but Cohesion would fuse them into a whole entirely. All four would be required for it to work best."
"I'll hold onto the information until someone comes to get it. This was never my specialty, but it seems able to work," Senna offered.
"Mm. I am able to contact Father, and as a cognitive shadow I'd be able to travel to Roshar," Renka pointed out. Senna only turned her head.
"Um, yeah, about that," a woman's voice interrupted. The fog parted as a new person appeared, and Renka stared in shock. "Hello again."
"H-h-how are you…?
Uhhh! The Rusting universe is
insane! Are you here the same way I arrived and returned?" Renka demanded.
Looking half-exhausted and a little un-confident,
Death of the Endless offered a guilty smile.
"Eh, sort of? I'm not here in my entirety, and I've only done this a handful of times before, but it isn't
beyond me." She staggered.
The black ribbons of Ruin's investiture whirled around Renka like a mistcloak as she strode forward and caught Death's arm.
"You are not supposed to be here," she assessed sharply. "Is this safe?" She asked with some concern, having surmised the arrival was stressful.
"It's a little tiring, but not as much as I make it look. I'm here to inform you that you're not entirely dead yet."
Renka was tempted to examine herself dramatically and announce 'obviously not,' as she was a cognitive shadow still, but she was intelligent enough to perceive what Death must have meant. It took her by slight surprise, and she offered a short sigh.
"I am still alive on Earth," she clarified flatly.
"A little, but I felt you should know you won't stay that way much longer. These types of connections aren't exactly good for keeping people alive and intact; your body is almost ready to let you go. If you want to go back, it should be fast, or not ever."
Renka heaved a heavy breath – for dramatic effect, as she knew she did not need to breathe – and asked, "Do they need me?"
Death shrugged. "Define 'need'. I mean, on the scales I usually operate at-,"
"I am under the impression that you are exponentially more powerful than any Shard," Renka replied shortly, "so I assume you can see the future. Will my presence make the difference between good and bad outcomes for people I care about on Earth?"
Death shrugged. "Knowing that is more my brother's area of expertise, sorry. But you need to be there if you want the chance to ever help at all. Or you can keep going as you are, and stay properly dead."
Renka closed her eyes in exasperation.
"…The universe just refuses to let me get good and dead," she muttered finally. "Since you are here, I assume I can return again, yes? Then the right thing to do is go back, I think, and not let my friends live with me dying let." She sighed. "And the adventure continues."
"You don't have to," Death observed. "You've done more than many people, and-,"
"I know. But if you came after me, there is, I expect, something I would want to do. And there are still mysteries to uncover."
Renka turned back to the glass table, began etching onto it with her finger, and then grabbed a book instead.
Senna and Death spoke softly about things she could not quite understand as she scribbled.
"If we had more time, I would want to hire you for an endeavor," Senna stated when Renka looked back up.
"If I am able I would and will," Renka replied. "Please deliver this to Father?"
"Delivery is difficult, but I can keep it here until he has occasion to come get it," Senna agreed. "You'll do the job?"
"In here, or on Earth?"
"It's on Earth, interestingly, and I'll see that you're contacted about it," Death answered, "but now we really have to be going."
Renka blinked. "I am very intrigued by this, and if you know each other, and how. …Okay, I am listening."
Death offered a wane smile. "Like I said, later. So." Death rolled her shoulders. "Renka, take my hand." Renka hesitated.
"Thank you for your involvement… Acceptance? Is that an accurate name for your Intent?" she asked, turning back to Senna.
Senna shrugged, and swept a strand of her silver hair behind an ear. "I don't especially care, but I believe the best name for it is Serenity."
"I see. Thank you, Shard of Serenity." Renka took Death's hand.
Serenity's sitting room filled with the beating of mighty wings.
