Terry blinked. “Really?”
“Yes. I think so.”
“I’m going to need some time to think.”
I nodded. “No rush. It’s your decision. But if there’s a chance that you’ll want to do this soon, we should take a corpse with us while we have the chance.”
Gregor and Burin exchanged a glance. “A corpse?” Gregor asked.
“It’s part of the process for reviving Terry’s daughter,” I said.
“Ah. Do you prefer one with less damage?”
“It would make things easier. A man’s body, if you can find it.”
“I think I saw one,” Burin noted. “Over here.”
After Burin and Gregor selected a workable corpse, we headed back to the hut. I gave the hut directions before heading in, trusting it to go where we wanted, and then went in to get some rest. We hadn’t been fighting long, but it had been very draining.
I laid down with Greta and we chatted for a bit. “There’s something I was hoping for your help with,” I said to her.
“Of course, love,” she said. “What do you need?”
“We might be reviving our companion’s teenage daughter. If we do, we’d like to leave her here where it’s safe while we continue our mission to free Baba Yaga. Will you keep an eye on her?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” she said. “It’s not like I can do anything else for the moment. I will watch her for you.”
“Thanks, babe,” I said, kissing my wife – that’s still weird to say – more than a little before we fell asleep, my aching muscles taking comfort in the warmth of her skin against my own.
I was awoken hours later by the prodding of a broom handle. Zorka was standing a few feet away, her eyes wild. “You have to stop it.”
“Stop what?” I asked, sleepily.
“The child will not stop. It is making a mess! There is dust everywhere!”
What? Was Terry doing something? “Give me a minute to get dressed,” I said.
I got dressed and went into the common room. The corpse we’d picked up was lying on the table, a sheet over it. Terry had set up multiple chalk boards all over the walls, and was in a fugue state, locked in calculation. I’d seen Daddy do that several times, when he was having what he calls a “brain blast”, but it was strange coming from someone else. Also, there was a lot more mumbling and a crazier look in his eyes than I’d ever seen from my father.
Before interrupting, I tried reading Terry’s notes. They were definitely not ordered and neat. Here and there were things like pros versus cons statements, diagrams and what appeared to be random scribbles. Several of the diagrams seemed to be possible ways Terry could die horribly in our quest. They were quite graphic, in a stick figure sort of way.
Zorka looked at Terry, then at me, giving me a gesture as if to say, “Well, what are you going to do about this?”
I sighed. “I’m gonna go wake up Gregor and Burin first,” I said to the fey. I needed coffee. Or tiramisu. It was too early for this.
I returned a few minutes later, the others in tow. I watched as Gregor and Burin took in the scene like I had, the only difference in the scene being Zorka poking Terry over and over with the broom. Gregor pulled out his flask and took a drink, then passed it to Burin.
Finally, Terry snapped at Zorka, knocking the broom away. “If you’re not part of the solution, get out of my way.”
Gregor walked over to the corpse and pulled back the sheet. Terry had made a number of marks with chalk, trying to outline changes the body would need to be more like what he wanted. “Your friend looks… not good,” Gregor noted.
“It’s fine,” Terry said. “Lyriana’s gonna kill me and then stuff my soul in that body so we can resurrect Emily in her body.” He turned to me. “I marked the changes it’ll need.”
“I can see that,” I said. “But I’ve already got the pictures I took before of the illusion of your normal self, so I was just gonna use those.”
“Oh. I guess I wasted a bit of chalk then.”
“So,” Gregor said, looking at the drawings of Terry dying over and over. “Lyriana’s gonna kill you? We need to get this obsession you have with killing yourself under control. We can help you.”
Terry, annoyed, waved him off. Then he turned back around. “Imagine, for a moment, that you had one opportunity to get what you wanted. To kill Rasputin. But you only get one shot. You have to do it right, or he gets away forever. You lose everything that matters, forever. That’s what I’m trying to decide here. Is this the right time to take the shot?”
Burin, completely missing the point, spoke up. “You know, if you’re worried about Typhon Lee, we probably could have killed him before, when we had the help of the old man.”
Terry looked at me, annoyance in his eyes. “Please explain it to him?”
I nodded. “Okay, so what we’re talking about is resurrecting Emily. We’ve gathered what we need. We just have to decide if the time is right. When we’re certain, then I’ll cast a spell to draw out Terry’s soul, then another to sever the bond between his soul and Emily’s body, forcing it into a new body.”
“This one?” Burin asked, pointing at the corpse.
“Right. At that point, while Terry’s technically dead, you’ll probably die for a moment as well. That’s why Gregor will have the nanite gun handy. If he uses its more powerful function on you after I’ve shunted the soul into its new body, it should bring you back up. If it doesn’t, then Gregor, hit Terry’s new body with nanites as well. Meanwhile, I’ll use the scroll Terry procured to revive Emily.”
Understanding shone in Burin’s eyes. “I see! Yes! That could work!” The dwarf erased some of the writing on the chalkboard and began writing his own diagrams. “See, the bonding between us is highly likely to be tied to our souls by the time anomaly, illustrated here. So, with your soul safely in another body, we could leave your daughter safely in the hut while we finish our mission.”
I had assumed that would be the case, but I hadn’t bothered doing the math. I quickly scanned his work, and it made intuitive sense. Magic like this was usually tied to the soul, after all.
“Good,” Terry said. “Then let’s do this.”
“It will be dangerous,” Gregor cautioned. “You could die.”
“And if I do, I know you guys will take care of Emily. I trust you.” Terry blinked. “I can’t believe I just said that. But I mean it. I trust you to take care of my daughter.”
“Burin could die too,” I pointed out.
Burin shrugged. “The demon’s gone. There’s no real risk of him getting out. I certainly don’t mind helping.”
Terry put his hand on Burin’s shoulder. “You’re a good man, dwarf.”
“I’m not a man,” Burin protested as Terry began heading towards his room to change. Terry just answered him with a laugh as he disappeared into his room.
I felt a strong arm around my midsection and a comforting warmth on my back. “Are they always like this?” Greta whispered in my ear.
“Yeah. Pretty much,” I answered.
“Anyone else hungry?” Gregor asked.
Greta eyed the corpse on the table. “I want the liver.”
I kissed Greta. “Sorry, babe, but we’re not eating that. It’s gonna be Terry’s new body.” I cracked my knuckles. “Speaking of which, it’s time for me to get to work. Someone hold my phone up for me to use as a reference while I work?”
I set to work, carefully and dutifully sculpting the corpse with magic to look as close to Terry’s natural body as I could. Of course, I didn’t have any nude images of Terry to work with, so he would be missing things like scars or tattoos hidden by clothes in the illusion. After that, I had Burin and Gregor dress the corpse in the fresh set of clothes Terry had laid out next to it.
By the time we were done, Terry had finished as well. He came back out dressed in the cute winter dress, leggings and boots that we had picked out for Emily. In his hands, he carried all of his magical gear, which he began putting on the corpse.
As he worked, Terry turned to me and Burin. “How much will Emily remember?”
“I’m not sure,” Burin said.
“Not sure either,” I said. Daddy had theories on how much of the memory is a function of the brain and how much is held on the soul, but it was kind of a dry and boring topic, so I had never learned much of it. I think Godmother once mentioned that Daddy’s frame of reference for his theory was skewed for some reason. Again, it doesn’t really interest me, so I don’t remember much of it. “I think maybe she’ll have some memories from your time in her body, but I don’t know how clear they’ll be.”
Terry nodded. “We’ll know in a minute, I guess.” He laid down on the table next to the corpse. “If this doesn’t work… if I die… thanks for everything. It was nice having friends for once.”
“It’ll be fine. The calculations are solid,” Burin said as he laid down on the floor.
“Take the compliment, dwarf,” Terry said, a playful annoyance in his voice.
“Oh. Okay.”
“We’ll see both of you on the other side,” Gregor said, making sure the nanite gun was completely charged. He nodded at me.
I laid out everything I would need, sat down and took a deep breath. “Show time,” I said. I then began my first spell.
My soul shot out of my body into the gem before me, then I shot my soul out from the gem and took over Emily’s body, pushing Terry’s soul into the gem. Then, in Emily’s body, I quickly grabbed the bag of powdered diamond next to my hand and used my pool of inner power to make a wish, shunting Terry’s soul into the corpse.
Gregor sprang into action and immediately injected both Terry’s new body and Burin with nanites as I shifted my soul back into my own body. I then unrolled the magic scroll and began reading. I almost stumbled on one of the words, but I managed to get it out just close enough. The scroll vanished in a puff of smoke, and the energy of the spell poured into Emily’s body.
Terry awoke first. Immediately, he began feeling his own body, checking to make sure everything was there. He then touched his face. “I’m not dead?” he asked, sitting up.
Burin, who had already gotten to his feet, smiled at him. “Told you it would work.”
Terry looked with disbelief at Emily, who was definitely breathing. “Is she…?” he asked me.
I nodded. “As far as I know.”
“I… thank you.” He reached out and gingerly touched his daughter’s shoulder, looking like he was terrified that she would collapse into dust at the merest touch.
Emily stirred, then suddenly sat bolt upright, screamed for her mother, and fell off of the table. She then stood and tried to flee, panicked, straight towards the door to the hut proper. Gregor reacted immediately and teleported in front of her, grabbing the girl. She lashed out, flailing wildly at him, but he dodged easily.
“Good! You should always be ready to fight!” Gregor said. “But you must learn to punch better!” Realizing that there was no escape from the man holding her, Emily began to sob. “Oh, don’t cry. I will show you. You will be much better at punching in no time.”
Emily went limp, defeated. “Daddy…” she blubbered.
Burin walked over, bent down to the eye level of the half kneeling girl. “He’s right over there,” the dwarf said, his voice calm and gentle, like one used to speaking to children. He pointed over at Terry, who sat on the table, frozen in disbelief.
Emily froze at the words, then turned slowly as Gregor loosened his grip, her eyes growing wide as she beheld her father for the first time after years of separation.