A Meeting of the Minds (Brush with Death Edition)

[Minty]

"And it would seem to me, that it is the specific lack of humanity, as well as appropriate, human religion, that invites trouble. However, I don't feel like talking about that much.", Yes. Ignas was famous for his bigotry, as much as for any of his other inappropriate views and behaviors.

"Either way. Witches call monsters, and monsters call witches. It is cyclic. And in most cases, it is the witch that is easier to dispatch with, and it is also often the original cause. However, if you dispatch with one, the other may attempt to find a new patron. Or it may infest your lands...become a larger problem."

He will take a moment to pause in his speaking to gather his thoughts. "I wasn't aware that Calomel had a staff of people devoted to witches and monsters. To be honest, I doubt the man's ability to handle such matters. But perhaps I am wrong. He may have what it takes.", after all, it had been Calomel who suggested to watch Aerin, treat her like a threat, rather than a person as Ignas had wanted. A worried expression caught on the man's face.

[Lent]

"Calomel's got himself a live and let live policy, best I can tell. Seems to work pretty well for him too. Sures us up against whatever without hurting people too much. Wall created jobs, didn't hurt trade, didn't hurt much of anyone. Smart moves, stuff like that." There was a shrug there, a glance down to his own side, to his hidden flask and a little sigh. "Not perfect but what Myrken Governor is? What Myrkenite is? We're a flawed people. Doesn't make us a bad people though."

"Hnn." This was to Ignas' suggestion. "Here's the thing, there. Makes sense when we're under assault. Right now, we're not. Vampire was four months ago. Been quiet since. So I ask you this: What would your witchhunters be doing right now when there's no threat knocking on our door? Would they just go away for a while? Stop getting paid? Stop having people listen to them? Somehow I don't think so." Lentham was of the opinion that government had its place, and its place ought to be as small as possible.

[Minty]

"Perhaps not.", this man was pretty sharp. And...what the hell was that man glancing at? It made him a bit curious. Was it a weapon or something? Or just some sort of fleabite? "I'm just throwing ideas around. I understand that you can't just give a group of people authority and training and then disband them when you're done.", of course not. They'd find a way to get into trouble. Just look at Ignas! Trained, powerful, and filled with a perhaps inappropriate sense of authority on things that caught his interest.

"I won't judge Calomel's work. At least not immediately. I'm too biased in the matter by this point.", he'll admit that openly. The man had dared interfere with a family matter, and that had set him off. He'll end up changing the subject at this point to something that was perhaps more amicable. He was capable of that. Changing topics at the drop of a pin. He was used to driving conversations, controlling them when the opportunity was open.

"So...your near-death experience.", he will not call it anything else. True death involves one's soul going into the afterlife. "Do you remember anything about it? I ask, because everyone asked me what heaven was like, or if I was a ghost...or if I remembered seeing anything. And that's silly.", silly because he wasn't dead. Or if he were, he'd be rotting in hell. Which means that if he were back....he'd be some sort of monster. Not a half-monster, or half-man, but a full-fledged beast.

[Lent]

There was a finger raised at Ignas, a finger and half a smile to go along with it. "That they did. Now then, my situation was a little bit special. When I woke up they all had a lot of questions for me. Here's the thing. I don't remember anything at all before waking up, not a thing. Blow to the head, they say. Wasn't breathing for a while, they say. But they asked that. They all did. I just remember opening my eyes and being confused why people started making a fuss. They filled in the rest later."

This was more than he usually said at once but it had been years now since anyone asked him much about this. His fellow Constables knew. The new ones knew not to ask, or to ask someone else. "Suppose that if there was anything to see, it would have been AFTER the blow, so I'd remember it though, yeah?"

He'd nudge the conversation in a slightly different path. "So you don't remember it, whatever happened, not dying, but whatever. The moment before it, though? Remember that? Thinking you were about to die?"

[Minty]

And there was a question more meaningful than the myriad ones about the afterlife that had been asked. And it's probably the most painful to dredge up an answer to. "I remember saying I was sorry.", his head shook. "It was very fast. Like combat usually is. See...the demon Tyminel? Which had declared war upon Myrken like so many monsters do? For some reason, she had taken the body of a child that I had taken in. Possession, I suppose. It's hard to tell at a certain point. But I charged at it....and was caught in some sort of magical attack. And I felt very weak, and detached.", his head shook. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. And it was a -new- sensation, too.

"Been stabbed through the chest with demonslaying swords...slashed across with a blessed one...taken a crossbow bolt to the forehead, had my eye gouged out with a soulstealing knife....had parts of my body, crushed, torn, eaten, frozen off, dissolved, and worse...but that was by far, the worst feeling I've ever had in my life.", the worst. Mostly because unlike other times bad things had happened, this time there was no rhyme or reason as to why it should happen. Usually, the bad things in his life happened because he'd done something wrong.

"I hope that isn't what death is like.", he frowns. "Maybe it isn't. Maybe something here prevents souls from going into the afterlife where they belong. Perhaps this place is cursed.", this line of conversation had led to something a whole lot more serious....hadn't it?

[Lent]

"No. This place isn't cursed." Rarely did Kurt Lentham speak definitively. This was, apparently, one of those rare occasions where he did. This was a man who had buried two children, who had buried a wife, though he could only barely picture her face, even now. It was a man who had saw his partner's body burnt. That's what they did to corpses in Myrken now. "Not like that."

"Just what happened to you wasn't normal." Long and the short of it, right there. "Doesn't seem to usually be. Look at the list you gave me. Me? I got clubbed in the head with a mace. Or the blunt end of a sword. Or a farming tool. Something normal. You get eaten. Bit of a difference there. Most people in Myrken don't bump into soul-stealing whats-its."

[Minty]

And here, was something interesting to think about. "Are you suggesting that the exposure to witchcraft that seems common in most of those returned from the dead might be the cause of it?", it was interesting, yes, but not something that Ignas could explore. He didn't have the expertise, and he doubted that few wholesome people did.

And then....another cautious question, following the first. "Do you think I might have died and that my exposure caused me to come back?", there was something unsettling. That his soul had been cursed to stay here on earth to rot.