Will Death Do Us Part?

[Mini]

Nothing.

There was nothing but silence on the other end of the cosmic hotline that lead from Ishazi and Pluto.

There should have been something. Rage and anger were two of the very likely things that should have happened. Fear was a possible reaction. Laughter was a more probably one. Instead, there was absolutely nothing at all.

Just as luck would have it, an adorable little girl with braided black pigtails clad in the Etheran public school uniform came walking by the table where Ishazi was sitting at. She couldn't have been older then eight or nine. The stacks of books he had gathered were taller than she was. She saw Ishazi sitting there, and it didn't seem to phase her at all that 1) this was the High Wizard of Ethera or 2) he looked quite busy. She bravely walked up to him and tugged on one his sleeves.

"Excuse me, mister? I need a book from the classroom over there, but it's too high for me to reach. D'you think you can get it for me, pretty please? There's no other tall people 'round for me to ask," she said, giving him an adorable little puppy dog stare.

[Nayr]

As Ishazi came down from his last outburst and became more resolute in his willingness to go barter with any one of quite a number of rather frightening individuals for knowledge that might solve his ward's enormous dilemma, he was interrupted by a tug on his sleeve. Given that this was the royal library of the kingdom of Ethera in which the High Wizard sat clearly engaged with what must be a pressing matter, the interruption was wholly unwelcome and completely without precedent. When he turned to find out what was so terribly important and probably upbraid whomever had the temerity to intrude upon his quest, however, he found a little girl in a uniform he didn't immediately recognize. There wasn't a whole lot of children running about the castle, and Ishazi's duties led him to deal more with those who behaved like children rather than those who actually were. His look of ire faded as she spoke. It probably wasn't her fault that she'd happened to come along just as he was in the middle of something. Something about her looked familiar, though. Probably nothing.

"Why don't you show me what book you're after?" he said finally, more bemused than anything else.

After all, what sort of little girl would interrupt a man of Ishazi's stature while he was obviously busy with a research project of some importance just because she couldn't reach something? Wasn't there at least one librarian around here somewhere?

[Mini]

The little girl's eyes lit up as Ishazi asked her to show him the book she wanted. There was a rather peculiar sparkle to them, but surely it was just a trick of the light. It was a beautiful day outside, which was reflected quite nicely by the skylight overhead. She grinned at him, revealing that she was missing one of her front teeth, making her look all the more adorable.

"Oh, thank you! I am sorry for buggin' ya, 'cause you did look kinda busy and stuff. I tried findin' somebody else, but there's nobody else really around. The weird, funny old guy who took my card when I came in disappeared," she said as she led Ishazi in front of several long rows of books before turning and walking down a row that contained what looked like mostly historical documents and texts. It was a rather dusty section. In the back, though, was a dark classroom with glass windows with the blinds pulled up.

"I dunno why there's even books in here. It's too dusty," the young girl mumbled as she skipped along into the classroom, glancing behind her to make sure Ishazi was following her. Sure enough, there was a stand-alone five shelf bookcase jammed with an odd variety of books back in the corner. The girl pointed towards the middle of the very top shelf to a thick book with a faded green binding. "There! That's the one. See? The one that says 'Ethera - A Shining New Kingdom, Part II. By J.R. Fitzherbert.' Ooh, ooh, hold on," she said, rustling around in her pocket. She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. "Yup. That's the one. It says it's 'A comprehensive look back at the First Ancient War that led to Ethera's growth from humble wartime trading post nestled between the tallest peaks of the High Mountains to the shining kingdom it has since evolved to be.' I need it for school, an' our school library doesn't have a copy, so I got special permission to come here and get it, but it's not with any of the other history books, but apparently this is, like, it's own little bookshelf section or something. I tried climbing up to reach it, but it's too high," she said, sulking a bit.

[Nayr]

Ishazi let himself be led by the little child through a series of twists and turns to a section of the library that contained texts no one read anymore. Not that they weren't important, just seldom used. Clearly the librarian had been missing longer than a few hours from this particular section. They approached a room Ishazi hadn't been in before inside which stood a single bookshelf crammed with dusty old tomes. The one the girl wanted was within easy reach for him, but a girl her size didn't have a chance at getting to it, hence the need for help. Still, something about this little request niggled at him.

"Odd that your schoolmaster wouldn't have a book on hand that was needed for the lesson," he commented as he grabbed the tome from the shelf, "What's the rest of your class to do, I wonder?"

He handed the book to the child, not letting go until he was completely sure she both had it in hand and wouldn't tumble under the weight.

"Tell your instructor that the High Wizard requests an audience at earliest convenience. It's very important, so be sure you remember."

His mind, truth be told, was already back on his errand. Pluto hadn't said a word this whole time, and that was worrisome. Hardly out of the ordinary and certainly not a sign of anything untoward given the breadth of her responsibilities, but worrisome nonetheless. Despite how much she really wasn't supposed to favor him with so much attention, she never just dropped out on him. Something about her sense of manners dictated that even if she was angry or hurt she'd say something indicating that she was done talking. Maybe he really had gone off the edge this time.

He paid attention to the little girl only insofar as he wanted to make certain she found her way back to wherever she'd come from before getting back to work. No need to have a small child wandering about, after all, permission or no.

[Mini]

"Oh, everybody else all ready has their books from our library. Our school library's small, especially compared to this one!" the little girl chimed, staring up as Ishazi started pulling the book off of the shelf. Puffs of dust went everywhere, causing her to squeak and take a few steps backwards. "Y'see, we're all doing individualized reports on lots of historical stuffs. I got assigned learning about when Ethera was just a little fortress kinda trading post thingy set up in the Ancient War, an' apparently there's not too much written about it back then since it happened such a long time ago. Mr. Fisher gave me a harder topic, 'cause stuff like this is kinda boring to me, so he thought a "more challenging topic" would make it better for me. Well, that's his opinion, at least. Not that I agree with it, but I still gotta do the work. We didn't have anything at our library that my teacher said was written nice enough fer me to understand it, an' that's why I got the special pass to come here. All the stuff we have on the Ancient War times is for, like, y'know, the really older kids," she said, nearly falling over backwards as Ishazi handed her the hefty tomb.

"But... I hope this one's okay to read. It's awful dusty an' old. Dusty an' old books are usually kinda super wordy," she mumbled to herself as she hugged the book close to her chest. As Ishazi mentioned that the High Wizard wanted a meeting with her teacher, her eyes grew very wide as she stared up at him with the realization that he wasn't just some cool looking guy who had been sitting in a pile of books in the Royal Library. Her face turned incredibly red.

"Y-You mean... YOU'RE the High Wizard?!" she squeaked in embarrassment. "Oh gosh, oh gosh, I-I-I didn't know that! I-I'm sorry! I shouldn't have bothered you! You... you looked so busy, but I couldn't find anybody else, a-and I really needed the book, so I just thought, y'know, maybe you weren't all THAT busy, b-but if I would have know, I-I would have never, I-I shouldn't have, oh, oh gosh, oooh my gosh, I-I'm so so so so so sorry!" she stammered, burying her burning red face into the dusty tome she held in her hands. "P-Please accept my deepest and most sincerest apologies, Mr. High Wizard, sir!!" she squeaked after she had successfully hidden her face.

[Nayr]

Ishazi was taken rather off guard both by the girl's apparent knack for history and also by her stammering and embarrassment once she realized who he was.

"Not a problem," he said, regaining his composure, "So you have a knack for history?"

A teeny little voice in the back of his head was telling him that something was up, but he dismissed it. Pluto would get back to him when circumstances allowed. In the meanwhile, a little girl was meeting someone incredibly important unexpectedly over a dusty tome full of things she was probably too young to understand.

[Mini]

"No, no, I-I'm really sorry! I-I never in a bajillion years thought I'd even SEE anybody special in the castle, let alone MEET somebody special!" she said, peering up over the edge of the book to give Ishazi a bashful glance. She blinked several times as she just stared up at him, as young children often did for no apparent reason. "Uhh... I... I guess I do? I'm good at it, if that's what you mean. I'm good at a lot of things. That's why I get bored sometimes in school," she said, squirming around a bit.

"Oh, but, um, I really really have to go. I'm not s'pposed to be here for a long time, y'know? Since this is the Royal Library an' all. I can find my way back out to the front desk by myself, okay? So that way you can get back to your super important work. I'm really sorry I bothered you," she added, giving him a cute little and slightly clumsy curtsy. Spinning around, she ran to the doorway, then paused for just a moment. "... You really are nice, mister. Just like she said you would be," she said, giggling as she ran out the door, which then slammed shut behind her. All of the curtains were yanked down by some magical, mystical force all at once, plunging the room into darkness.

Almost darkness.

A small glimmer of odd, iridescent purple light was coming from the back of the room. It appeared to be coming from a medium sized marble statue that looked to have been hastily shoved into another corner of the room along with several other random objects, including a fake potted plant, a mop and a bucket, and a folded up signboard. Should Ishazi happen to turn around and glance at this object, it wouldn't take him very long to figure out who it had been carved in honor of. In case he didn't figure it out, the full-sized version soon appeared directly behind him, and this time, she hadn't come as just a vision, a voice, or a hologram.

"Are you dumb, or are you stupid?!" the demi-goddess of Time, her arms folded across her chest, demanded as she glared daggers into the High Wizard of Ethera.

[Nayr]

Before Ishazi could even think to ask the little girl what she meant by "Just like she said you would be," the door slammed and the curtains drew, plunging the room into darkness. Before that moment things were fine. Little girl didn't want to trouble him, said she could get back on her own, super important work, et cetera, et cetera. Then it was dark, save for a small glimmer of iridescent purple coming from a statue in the corner of the room. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was about to happen, and Ishazi took a small breath to steady himself. It wasn't the dark that bothered him. He'd been comfortable in the dark since before he'd come to Ethera all those years ago. No, it was the glow. The statue was in the likeness of someone he knew well, and the glow would only suggest a concentration of energy around it. The statue was in a forgotten corner of the Royal Library, so it probably didn't get a lot of use or attention, ergo the only reason it was now glowing was because the being in whose likeness it was cast was now focused all too intently on this room.

"Are you dumb," the demigoddess demanded, appearing in person to yell at him, "Or are you stupid?!"

The plus side is that her voice echoed across his mind without the feeling of it attempting to shatter under the psychic weight. The minus is that now they were going to have this discussion face to face. In the dark.

"Possibly a little of both," he answered, his voice carrying both his careful balance between respect and familiar stubbornness and also his mild sheepishness at having provoked her into appearing personally to chew him out, "But don't let little things like that spoil my reasoning."

He managed a very slight bow of respect as he spoke, but pressed on with a candor and rigid stubbornness that only came out around old friends.

"Also, what's your problem exactly? It's hard to keep track of what I've done to annoy you sometimes. Is this about what just happened, or about our conversation from before the little girl stopped by and interrupted me?"

[Mini]

The glow from the statue had dimmed once Pluto herself had appeared in the room, but she herself was giving off a slight ethereal glow. It was enough to cast an eerie purplish, blueish, greenish glow around the room. The light made it better than being in almost complete darkness, but it somehow made Pluto look all the more menacing. She stood silently by as he spoke, fixing such a deadpan look on her longtime friend that it was almost worse than if she would have been screaming at him. When he finally asked what she was so made about, she groaned in annoyance.

"You've just answered my question for me. Clearly you're both," she sighed, rolling her eyes towards the heavens before she fixed her piercing gaze on him once more.

"Why in the worlds would I be so angry about you helping some young school girl get a book? What do you think I'm so angry about, hmm? Angry enough to figure out a way to come here to the Etheran Royal Library and talk to you in person in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, being able to physically stare into your eyes will somehow enable me to talk you out of this asinine idea? I hope you realize how ludicrously brainless what you want to do actually is. Tell me you at least realize that much, despite whatever 'reasoning' you think you've so cleverly come up with."

[Nayr]

Ishazi shrugged unapologetically.

"Maybe that little girl's going to make some kind of crazy trouble for you down the line and it's all my fault. I don't know everything, contrary to popular belief."

He took a breath.

"And back on topic, I appreciate your presence particularly when I'm in a ridiculous situation because you lend perspective to my varied misadventures and your companionship is invaluable even excluding your ability to get me back where I belong. That said, I don't know what I'm going to do yet but I have to do something. I'm sick of pulling punches and I'm sick of seeing things coming that I can't do anything about, and until Uncle Chronos hands me a list of ridiculous rules like he's done to you I don't have to sit by and watch if I think there's even a little thing I can do to help. Besides, this whole mess is my fault to start with so I'm going to use this idiotic power of mine to set things right one way or the other. Now are you going to help me or do I need to exhaust myself trying to get past you first?"

Usually he listened more. Some part of him regretted setting his teeth against her as he was doing it, but this was different. As he'd said, her perspective was invaluable, and half of what he'd accomplished at the least wouldn't even have been remotely possible without her help. Even so, this was Rini. There were so few people in the cosmos that Ishazi was willing to fight the way of things for, so few he'd even dare pit himself against a deity for, but Rini was one of them and Pluto knew that. All that remained was what their loud conversation would yield, and whether or not someone would notice the High Wizard of Ethera in a shouting match with the daughter of the God of Time.

[Mini]

Pluto gave him the most sardonic, exasperated look in the history of sardonic, exasperated looks.

"You really mean to tell me that we are standing here, both of us here in person, in the middle of the library, about to talk about your planned attempt to break all laws of life, death, time, physics, magic, science, and nature..." Her voice had started out barely louder than a very soft tone, one that was proper to use in a place of silence such as a library. She paused ever so briefly, and as she continued talking, her voice started to grow alarmingly louder and louder with each word she spoke.

"... and you're more concerned about a little girl's history report?!" Her voice reverberated quite loudly through the classroom, which hadn't been designed with acoustics in mind.

"Ishazi, are you even listening to yourself?! You're in a 'ridiculous situation,' really?! There's nothing at all ridiculous or out of the ordinary about it - it's something that happens every single day to every single mortal creature, whether that creature be a being so small we can't even see it with our naked eye or one as tall as the High Mountains of Ethera!! Mortals are born, they live, and they die. That's it. This isn't like the water cycle, where you start out as a raindrop in a cloud, fall down into the river, wind up in the ocean, evaporate and start all over again. Human life is a bit more complicated than that, and you damn well know it.

"You want a list of ridiculous rules?! I will be more than happy to write them down for you. They're not senseless things that are impossible to think of. They are things that every child learns growing up. You know, basic rules like Thou Shalt Not Kill, Thou Shalt Not Steal, Thou Shalt Not Attempt To Break The Cosmos Trying To Resurrect The Dead. You really didn't learn those in wizard school?" she growled, knowing full well that Ishazi hated to be called a "wizard," for he was anything but. There was a very distinct difference between wizards and mages where he came from, and although the distinction didn't really exist in Ethera, she knew it still grated his nerves bit by bit every time somebody referred to him as such. Oh yes, she was intentionally trying to hurt him with that jab. Maybe hurting him and getting him truly angry was what it was going to take to get him to see sense. She was far more concerned with keeping him alive and safe than she was with the state of their friendship at the moment. Friendships could be mended. A destroyed soul could not.

[Nayr]

He knew what she was doing. On some level, Ishazi was perfectly aware that she was trying to get him riled up so that he'd see things her way via loud argument with a goddess. He was visibly needled by her comment, but held his temper rather admirably.

"What do you know?!" he yelled back, almost as angry as he sounded but not as angry as the insult deserved, "Uncle Chronos has you so well trained you can't even save the people you love without his say so!"

That was low. Somewhere inside he knew it. It hurt her more than it hurt him to sit back and watch. One of the things that made them such good friends was that they were uniquely suited to understand the weight they alone carried. Her weight was the heavier of the two, and Ishazi took great care not to remind her of it if it was within his power, for he knew that while she was strong enough to bear it her strength wasn't so great that her loneliness wasn't crushing.

"Once upon a time I studied in a library where anything was possible. Remember the yetis? Third door on the right. Remember the End of Days War? Up in the tower next to the biology tomes. Remember Norheart? Akaratia? Voln? Giris? I do. I remember every person I watched die, and I remember every villain I ever let walk away because of your father's stupid rules! No farther! I don't care how powerful you are, Pluto. My Queen is counting on me, and by all the gods I will not let her down again, even if I have to walk over you to do it."

Tears pricked the corners of his eyes as he spoke. There were only two people he truly loved in this life, and the fact that one of them stood in the way of helping the other was killing him inside. Why couldn't she understand? Why couldn't she just put herself in his position, or Rini's? They both loved her, so why was he the only one willing to fight for her?

[Mini]

That one hurt.

It shouldn't have hurt. Pluto was a demi-goddess. Only half mortal, she was also half goddess. Gods and goddesses didn't allow themselves to get emotionally caught up in "silly little mortal trifles," as her father often called them. There were too many risks. Too many dangers. Pluto's very existence was the result of one of those encounters. Pluto had never really given it much thought before, but maybe that was why Chronos strictly forbade her from interacting more with any mortal than was absolutely necessary. Maybe he was trying to save her from the terrible loss and loneliness that would someday come when her mortal friends were long and gone, and she was the only one still there, left alone and behind, forgotten by all in her sad little corner of the cosmos.

Is that why his words hurt so bad? Because they were true?

It took every ounce of self control Pluto had not to fly at him in a fit of anger and bash his brains in. She had absolutely no doubt she could take him in a physical match. She had done it once before, actually. But now was not the time. She had to get him to realize that even the noblest intentions in the world weren't enough to help him succeed in what he wanted to do.

Pluto had shut her eyes and winced ever so slightly after Ishazi's harsh words about having been trained by her father. She kept them shut the entire time he rambled on about some library that apparently had endless knowledge about anything and everything. She knew everything he mentioned, and in the back of her mind wondered how on earth he had even heard the name "Akaratia" at, let alone any of the others, but that would have to be another story for another day.

Very slowly, she curled her fists into tight balls until she felt pin pricks of pain from her long nails digging into her flesh. Mentally, she told herself to calm down and get ahold of herself before this entire conversation turned sour and all it succeeded in doing was driving a deep wedge between both of them. She couldn't let that happen. She wouldn't let it happen.

"Ishazi," she said, her voice so quiet now that it was scarcely louder than a whisper. "Ishazi," she said again, still not opening her eyes. "Don't stand there and presume to think that I don't care about Rini. I could waste my time reminding you that she is not a queen yet and that your current queen is her mother, but I know where your loyalties truly lie. Don't stand there and presume to think that I don't care about you, either," she added, finally opening her eyes to look at him, allowing him to see the tremendous pain she had been hiding from him.

"All those places you mentioned? Ghastly, terrible things happened there. Things so terrible that I dare not even speak out loud in the middle of an Untouched Realm. But do you realize, Ishazi, that what you are setting out to do will make Norheart look like a tropical island paradise? Make Voln look like a toy maker's workshop? Giris look like last year's Yuletide feast?" she asked him before her voice dropped down to a whisper. "And it would make Akaratia look like a place royal newlyweds head for their honeymoon," she added softly, shaking her head at how ludicrous of a thought that even was.

"Do you even know what's involved in trying to bring someone back from the dead? Yes, of course it's been tried before. Countless times. Too many to count, actually. Do you know that to my knowledge, not a single one of those attempts has ever been as successful as it was meant to be? Life and Death are not a circular, interchangeable system, and the rules you speak of are not rules at all. They're Laws. Cosmic Laws are what I believe they're called in the loosest most casual sense possible. They're not my Laws. They're not even Chronos' Laws. They were set forth by a deity even higher than him, one whose name I've never even heard whispered before. Take all your power, take all of my power, take all the power of anyone you've ever known to have even the slightest drop of magic om them, add all the power of my father and mix it all together in a big giant bowl, and all that raw power wouldn't even be one grain of sand in the biggest desert imaginable.

"With that image in mind, take one moment and just think, Ishazi. Do you know what happens when someone attempts to break those Laws? Can you even fathom the kinds of things that might happen as mere side effects, Ishazi? And not even side effects to you, but to anyone who's even anywhere close to you, or connected to you, or the land itself where you go to try and carry out such a task. You've no idea. None. None at all. You're not asking for my help in giving Rini the thing she wants most of all right now. You're asking me to lend you my aid in something that will completely and utterly unmake you," she finally said, tears prickling in her own eyes as well.

[Nayr]

His heart ached as he finished speaking. He saw how much his words wounded her, his anger only dulling the pain of regret. When she replied, it was so quiet as to almost be inaudible.

"Ishazi," she said, her eyes closed, "Don't stand there and presume to think that I don't care about Rini."

He knew that, of course, and she knew he did. Rationality to calm the storm seemed her tack, then. Too bad she had another thing coming. He wasn't about to let this go so easily.

"Don't stand there and presume to think that I don't care about you, either."

That pulled him up short. She'd said a lot of tender things over the course of their strange relationship, but most of it was read-between-the-lines tender. This was the first time she'd ever said straight out that he mattered to her and in as many words. She opened her eyes and looked right at him with all the hurt she carried written across her face without an ounce of deceit. His tears of rage softened somewhat, knowing that all that pain had his name on it. She went on to detail not only her knowledge of the places and horrific battles he'd mentioned but also that what he was considering was apparently worse. That hurt more.

Do you even know what I went through there? Do you even know who I lost?

He would have said it aloud, but she wasn't finished speaking yet.

"You're not asking for my help in giving Rini the thing she wants most of all right now," she finished, "You're asking me to lend you my aid in something that will completely and utterly unmake you."

Her tears echoed the torment on her face, and he could see the specter haunting her words. This was far beyond the completely understandable desire to avoid irritating her father. This was something more primal, more elemental, and admittedly beyond the ken of the supposedly invincible High Wizard of Ethera. There were theories, of course, that even the gods had rules to which they were beholden, but this was the first confirmation he'd received. He knew Death was immutable, of course. It was plain truth, even to the softest of minds. There were things in creation that one simply couldn't change, couldn't bend save through direct affinity and abject surrender to its unaltered flow. What he proposed was madness, and he knew it. What he hadn't considered was the possible effects of a rebound, or even the side effects of whatever success he might dare to hope for. He took a breath to steady himself before speaking.

"If you're so blasted wise, dear goddess, enlighten a foolish mortal. What am I supposed to do with power that shakes kingdoms if not use it for the benefit of people I care for?"

He'd been given enough pause to be less angry, but he wasn't done yet.

"I don't think myself the equal of forces beyond my ken, but I do know that more things are possible than people believe. I already knew there wasn't a High Magic approach that would overturn something like Death, but I know a number of ways to circumvent forces that can squash me like a bug. I like to think the fact that I'm still alive despite annoying people more powerful than me isn't just because I'm a nice guy who says a decent rosary every now and again."

He called mentally to one of the books he'd read some time ago, finding it on the shelf in some distant part of the library and producing it with a flick of his wrist. He opened it to an entry he'd bookmarked mentally and handed it to the goddess, more for effect than for edification.

"Here, for example, is a deity I've encountered before that might lend an ear to a madman's plight. I called this name during my time in that so called Yuletide feast of yours, and learned a hard lesson that prepared me for what was to come."

He didn't speak the name again but he internally indicated Akaratia, the site of one of the more painful trials he'd undergone.

"Twenty-five pages later is another being I encountered but didn't have the pleasure of meeting. Thirdhand accounts indicate that given the presence of an appropriate offering one might be able to request enlightenment about the nature of Death and the nature of its balance."

Assuming she didn't do it herself, he offered wordlessly to return the book to its place elsewhere in the building.

"The point, my dear, is that you must think me a child lashing out against cold fate. I have lived through more than my fair share, and lost people for whom I would have gladly traded my life. In all those cases, I knew well that death came to us all, and that its only true pain was for those left behind when loved ones find peace. No matter where one goes, one hears these things. This time, though, it's different. I can bear my own heart breaking. It's happened many times before, and I've gotten good at living with the pain. Not hers, though. I will not sit here and watch her mourn after all she's been through. Not while there's even a fool's chance that I can do something about it. If I must unmake myself or tear my soul into shreds or sacrifice some nation of people somewhere..."

He paused, catching himself in hyperbole.

"...anyway, I'm not just going to give up this time. Laws be damned."

He was doing his best not to get choked up at the memories he was unearthing here. He'd had more experience with death than he probably should have, and had come out the other end remarkably sane if he did say so himself. He didn't even especially like Korrino, but Rini did and that was enough for him to challenge any number of gods. To see her eyes sparkle even one more time, he'd give most anything.

[Mini]

"If you're so blasted wise, dear goddess, enlighten a foolish mortal. What am I supposed to do with power that shakes kingdoms if not use it for the benefit of people I care for?"

At this remark, Pluto let out a grunt of annoyance and rolled her eyes. "You really think that after all the time you've been here, you've done absolutely nothing at all to use your powers for the benefit of the people you care for? You've never once done something to cheer Rini up? Never made glowing butterflies fly around her head or made flowers appear out of nowhere or made it snow indoors and vanish before it even hit the ground?"

Odd that she seemed able to name three very specific things that Ishazi had done in the past for Rini, mostly when nobody else was around. It was a well-kept secret among the Royal Family and those closest to her that The Treasured One most definitely had magic but seemed unable to do much of anything in any sorts of lessons she was given. It had been a sensitive subject with her, but Ishazi had always been able to cheer her up, especially after a particularly frustrating lesson made her feel like she couldn't do any sort of magic at all. At least, she had been mostly "magickless." Since being kidnapped and turned into the young woman she now was, her magical abilities had flourished and blossomed. Pluto herself still had no idea what exactly had happened, and a part of her mind was still focused on figuring that out. Being a demi-goddess, she had the ability to function mentally at many different levels. Right now, most of her mental focus was on Ishazi, but it didn't mean that she couldn't multitask and think about hundreds of other things all at the same time.

Speaking of Ishazi, he was speaking again. A book was magicked out of the air and handed to her. She took and gazed down at it, but her main focus was elsewhere. It wasn't that she didn't care (obviously she cared enough to be physically standing in the same room as him, didn't the idiot realize this?), it was that his words were still filled with a lot of hot air. She completely understood where he was coming from, and in some regards he was right, but what was really starting to set her off again was that he seemed to be absolutely missing her point entirely. She patiently waited for him to finish, gladly handing over the book to be returned from wherever he had grabbed it from. Hopefully nobody was standing close by when the book had suddenly disappeared and then just as suddenly reappeared. Once he did, she simply sighed, gave a strand of her long, luscious dark hair a casual flick back over her shoulder, then crossed her arms across her chest.

"Let me ask you a question, then, since you're suddenly feeling so smart, O Wise High Wizard," she said, making no effort to keep the snarkiness out of her voice. "Let's say that hypothetically, you talk to some other deity who, for the record, will be nowhere near as understanding as I am to your plight. You somehow manage to defy every single odd out there and strike up some sort of deal with him or her to reverse death and bring back Korrino, but to do so, you are going to die in exchange. Not just die, but your soul will be ripped into a million pieces so that you will utterly cease to exist. You will get no eternal rest, you will not move on to the next life, you will never be reincarnated, you will not pass go and get $200. On top of that, since you have no physical vessel for Korrino to go into, this particular deity decides that since you now no longer exist, he or she is just going to use your shell, a.k.a. your body, and stick Korrino's soul in there. Oh, that wasn't a part of your deal? Too bad. You won't even be around to argue this." She paused here, half for dramatic effect and half to catch her breath.

"How do you think Rini is going to react when she learns that a) you sacrificed yourself in order to bring Korrino back for her? b) You're DEAD. Dead as a doornail. So dead that your soul is gone. c) She now has Korrino back, but it's not him. It's not his body. It's you. But it's Korrino on the inside. How do you think she would even cope with that? Would she even be able to?" As she continued to speak, her voice started getting a bit louder and a bit angrier. "And how would Korrino be dealing with this, hmm? Do you think he would want to come back to live inside of your body for who knows how long? You think Korrino's death rocked her? She knew him, what, a couple of weeks? Months, maybe? How long has she known you? Think about how close you two are. How do you think she would react to your death? You would really burden her with knowing that your death, no, your unmaking, was all because of her?!"