Magic Box, Sunday

[nuclear_snide]

Bob was horrified at the chalked summoning circles on the floor, and spent some time railing at the books about it until he believed they were suitably cowed. "Honestly, you should know better! How many stories in you are about all the dangers of this sort of thing?"

He grumpily scrawled in golden writing in the window, Half off everything if you clean the floor!


The Magic Box was open!

Comments

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka needed a break from paperwork and mulling over some of the things that were needed for that paperwork, and she'd wanted to go out, which meant checking out where her papa had suggested she try.

She blinked at the sign, wondering why the employee wasn't cleaning the mess up themselves, before wandering in.

"Hello?" she said, a bit hesitantly.

[nuclear_snide]

Bob would be delighted if he could clean it up himself, for any number of reasons.

"Hello," Bob said, standing carefully away from the chalk lines. "Can I help you?"

[that_oldsaying]

"I, I don't know," she admitted, looking around with big eyes. "My papa suggested I come here and ask."

[nuclear_snide]

Bob frowned. "Ask what?"

[that_oldsaying]

She quailed a little, since this man wasn't super friendly, but Alluka rallied because this was for Kathy and that meant she had to be strong.

"I," she said bravely, "wanted to know about raising the dead. Or, or summoning ghosts."

[nuclear_snide]

Bob gave her a rather alarmed look. "Please tell me it's only to stop someone doing that! Do you have any idea how dangerous and ill-advised raising the dead is?"

Sorry, Alluka; Bob had a bit of a bias here.

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka drew herself up (it... didn't make much of a difference) and shook her head, her hands in fists at her side.

"No," she said, "it's to bring Sarah back!"

[nuclear_snide]

"Oh, dear lord." Bob now looked positively pained, but did his best to speak patiently. "Young lady, there are reasons we do not bring the dead back to life. For a start, can you imagine if everybody did that? If nobody ever died for good? For another, do you have any idea what sort of afterlife this Sarah is in and whether or not she actually wants to come back? For a third, the powers involved are rarely magnanimous, and the sheer price to bring the dead back is rightfully astronomical."

He stopped and took a deep, unneeded breath. "I encourage you, in short, to stop and think about what it is you propose to do and if you should, before you try to find out if you can."

[that_oldsaying]

"We've already talked to her about that," Alluka said earnestly, peering over the counter with big-eyed interest. "On the weekend when everyone was back from the dead to visit. She wants to come back and was upset we couldn't do it then."

So, obviously, now they had to find out how.

[nuclear_snide]

Bo9b sighed. "And to my other points?" He leaned to her level. "I realize that you may miss your friend or want this girl back for some other reason, but there are very good reasons not to break the sanctity of life and death. Not least that in many worlds it is utterly forbidden." As he could attest. "Can you imagine what would happen if nobody were ever to die?"

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka considered him seriously.

"People would be a lot less sad," she ventured. "At least, those left behind."

Well, it was true.

"And, and I don't need anyone else's power. Nanika and I can do it."

[nuclear_snide]

"You don't think anybody has any enemies? Somebody they might not want brought back? Or that those brought back might not have their own agendas? What about the food and water and other resources - would there be enough for everybody if nobody died?"

He gave her a moment to think about that, then shook his head. "People die. That is the natural order of things. To reverse that, no matter how much power you have, there is always a price."

[that_oldsaying]

"Yes," Alluka said patiently, "we know. But Kathy is willing to pay any price that Nanika needs from her."

Alluka didn't know the answers to the rest of his questions, so she ignored them.

She wasn't talking about bringing everyone back.

Just Sarah.

[nuclear_snide]

"And what price will this Nanika ask of you? What price will it cost them?" Bob asked.

He did his best not to sound defeated; he had a feeling he'd lost this already.