What happens when we die?
Lecture given in Sancreus Academy of the Clergy.
Condensed version, provided for reference to students.
"What happens after death? It's certainly an interesting question for us to ponder. Surely, there has to be an answer, yes? We surely cannot simply disappear once our time is up, can we?
There is the obvious which bears mentioning, of course. Souls are given their last rites and the bodies are burned, thereby freeing the soul from the vessel it inhabits. This is common knowledge to all of us, and I'm sure many of you have experienced this process yourself, hopefully as an observer.
But this brings up a number of important questions for us, the still living, to consider. How do we know the soul remains in the body until after death? What would happen if there were no rites given before the body was destroyed? What if the body was never destroyed? How can we be sure of the truth of any of these answers? I'm sure there are some people out there who know the answers to these questions, and I encourage all of you, once you truly begin your lives, to seek those people out and have them grant you answers to your questions. Better yet, find the answers yourselves. For now though, I will tell you what you are to know about this matter.
When we die, our souls will enter into a sort of low-energy state, easily manipulated by external forces. This therefore allows for the tethers holding the soul to the body and the world to be broken. The burning of the body breaks that tether while the reading of the final rites breaks the tether to the world. Having nothing holding it, the soul is allowed to freely leave this mortal realm and travel somewhere else, which is where we get to the part I'm sure you all have been wondering about.
I'm afraid my answer will disappoint you, however. The official stance of the Church is that the energy that comprises our souls will merge with the energies of the Sleeping God and the Great Serpent, later being given a new physical form for the process to be repeated. Frankly, we have no reason to doubt this, but neither do have reason to believe it. There has never been a firsthand account to verify this claim. People have been brought back to life before, yes, but only in special cases where the "death" of the body was able to be reversed. In such cases, particular measures were taken to keep the soul in the body and as close to "alive" as possible. There has been no instance of a soul being removed from a body and the body being revived afterwards. This leads me, as well as many others, to believe that the soul loses its consciousness upon "true" death, thereby rendering it unable to find its way back into the body.
The rather depressing outcome of this is that it doesn't matter what happens after our death, as we won't be alive to experience it. In the meantime, just believe whatever lets you sleep easiest."
***
We walked for a bit before stopping just outside the city. Bear set his crate on the ground while Erin pulled out a small bag. She reached in and pulled out a handful of metal stakes, giving them to Bear.
"Twenty-five. You go left, I'll go right."
Bear took the stakes, and I noticed during the hand off that each one was made to look like a snake coiled around a dowel. The tail of the snake was the tip of the stake, while the head of the snake was resting flat on the other end of it. Immediately after the handoff, they both took off at a jog in opposite directions around the city. After a good distance, they stopped and put one of the stakes in the ground, then kept moving.
"What are they doing?"
"Putting stakes in the ground around the city. We'll leave when they get back."
"Very helpful explanation, thank you."
"You'll know what's happening when it happens. No need for me to explain it now. Besides, you managed to find a new weapon when I told you to find people, and I'm curious how that happened."
"I looked through the rubble for a while and eventually ended up at the Forge. This was buried in a corner and completely intact, and I figured I'd stop on a positive note. It's not like I was going to find anyone anyway."
I pulled out the sword and looked at it again. The Mayor took a few steps towards me, looking curiously at the sword.
"It's an interesting make. I've been around for longer than almost anyone, and I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. The only thing I can say about it is that it misses its owner and it's probably special."
"Special?"
"It has a similar feeling to the weapons the Church makes for Heroes, but I was sure I'd seen every one of those. So, I'm either wrong, or that's a very special sword indeed."
"Okay. What do I do with this information?"
"I'm not sure, but you might want to be careful in case you bump into the real owner of it."
"It was in a pile of weapons recovered from the field. I don't think its owner is still walking around."
"Yes… probably not. Actually, there should be a way to check. You can't externalize your magic, right?"
"What?"
"Oh, right. I forgot you haven't had an education yet. The crash course explanation is that everyone has magic in them, which some people can externalize while other people can only use internally. This is essentially what differentiates melee fighters from 'magic users', even though everyone technically uses magic. If you haven't used any magic to fight by now, it probably means you can't. That's all to say, you can 'claim' a weapon by putting magic into it. It usually doesn't change the useability of a weapon much, but for the ones made by the Church, a person's unique magic can change the properties of the weapon and make it reject other users. They make their weapons like this to make it much more difficult for them to get stolen, even though we aren't supposed to let them out of our sight."
"We?"
"Don't worry about it. Anyway, since your sword seems to be similar to the Hero weapons, you might be able to claim it. If you can, it means the owner is dead, or hasn't touched it in centuries; if you can't, it means that the owner is either still alive, or that it just seems like a Hero weapon, even though it isn't."
"So how do I 'put magic' into it?"
"Well therein lies the crux of the matter. You can't externalize magic, so you'll have to go with the other option. Blood."
"Blood?"
"You still have magic in you, which is carried throughout your body by your blood. Therefore, spill some blood over the sword and your magic will go into it. Simple."
"So just cut myself with it?"
"Yep. I recommend your palm and not your throat, but I trust you to make your own decisions."
I brought the tip of the sword to my palm, carefully making a small prick on my palm. A few beads of blood came out, running a ways down the blade before the surface tension broke. Nothing else happened.
"Did it work?"
"I have no idea. Does it feel any different?"
"No."
"Strange. Try it again."
I did the same thing, but it didn't cut this time. I ran my thumb around the length of the blade, but it still didn't cut. It still looked razor sharp, but I had somehow dull.
"It won't cut."
"Strange. I think that means it worked. Let me try it."
He walked closer to me and held out his arm.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Just draw it across my arm lightly. Not cutting you might be a perk of it, or something else happened with it, which would honestly be more interesting."
I raised the sword and placed the edge gently on his outstretched arm. Before I could even move it, it sank into his flesh. He dropped his arm away almost instantly, and I pulled the sword back. It drew blood, which beaded up and quickly ran off the sword, leaving it spotless. He presented his arm again, and I could see about a quarter inch deep cut.
"I think the sword is yours now."
I said nothing, just looking at it in stunned silence. The Mayor was looking at it with a strange expression. The kid had been watching silently the whole time, looking intently at the sword. I put it away, looking up to see Bear and Erin were almost back. When they made it to us, Bear grabbed his crate-pack off the ground while Erin walked up to the Mayor.
"Everything is in place."
"Good. Do your thing."
She walked a ways away from us, towards the city. She then raised her hands in front of her. After a few seconds, they started to glow with a pale gold-white light.
"May these souls find peace in the nothing,
May they find their place in the dreams of our Sleeping God,"
Fifty golden-edged white snakes shot into the sky from around the city, piercing through the clouds.
"May their light shine forever in the eyes of the Great Serpent, and
May their energy be used to stave off the night."
Each of the snakes began to glow strongly, their light forming a cylindrical wall that encased the city.
"Let these souls experience the eternal truth,
Let these souls be free of the shackles of their bodies,
Let these souls be unshackled from our impure, mortal realm, and
Let us join them when our time comes."
A great pillar of white fire erupted from the middle of the city, completely engulfing it. It radiated a blinding light, completely obscuring the view of the city. There was no heat, which wasn't a bad thing with how close we were. It lasted about a second before the whole thing dissipated in an instant, as if it never existed. The clouds were unaffected; the city was gone. All that was left was about a mile-wide dirt circle. Everything was gone, just like that. We stood there silently for a few seconds.
"Welp, time to hit the road. Our job here is done."
The four of them turned around and started walking. I took a final look at the barren patch of dirt before turning and joining them.
"What about the stakes? Do you not want them back?"
"They're single use."
"Oh."
We walked for a few minutes.
"Where are we going?"
"The capitol. You have a new job."
***
End of Prologue.