I sucked in another breath, trying to find words that didn’t sound as harsh as the image. “From inside a salt circle, you look like the human conception of death incarnate.”
He laughed. “I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds dire. Would the incarnation of death be a specter or more in the style of a scythe wielder?”
“You’re skeletal and dark, kind of like a mummy meets a skeleton if they were dark and filmy. There’s not much corporeal form when I look at you, but I only see you that way from inside a circle.”
“Different from how I look now, without flesh?” He waved a hand in front of him and then rubbed his chin, studying me with serious eyes.
“Bones and less form. I can see through you, and you have a wispy gray aura.”
“Gray?” He dropped his hand. “That’s not good.” He rubbed at his upper arm. “Dark ash gray, or silvery dove gray?”
“Dark. Closer to ash,” I replied, my voice dropping to a whisper. He was getting the weight of what I felt when I saw him that way. “What does that mean?”
“It might have something to do with my real form in this time. I’d be dead now, so passed into the otherworld. Perhaps my corporeal form you see is tied to the bracelet, so I look like you, but in actuality…”
“You’re ancient. But that would mean your death…”
“My death must have turned me to skeletal form. It’s possible my flesh was removed, or it could be time has taken its toll.”
Dread uncurled in my stomach as I got up and stumbled to the sink. The thought of Ranth being flayed or burned or… I poured a glass of water from the fridge and gulped it down, hoping the alkaline would resettle my chi.
“Are you okay?” Ranth got up.
“Mostly, a bit grossed out on the flesh thing. Let’s not talk about it. I’ll let you know if it becomes a problem.”
“It’s already a problem. I hadn’t realized the time would cause a change to my form, but it correlates that, now the curse is split from the bracelet, my form would alter. It’s disconcerting that I’m dead in this time.” He smoothed his fingers over his cheek, and I got a flash of what he looked like in my workshop.
“Disconcerting isn’t quite the word I’d choose, but yeah. It’s weirding me out, and I do this for a living. I don’t understand what it means that you can ‘die’ here if you are already dead.” I refilled the water glass.
“I think I’d be in spirit form if I were truly here. I expect it means I would disappear from this world and go to the spirit world.” His words were steady but drifted as though he was thinking.
“But you look real. You have a solid form. You can touch and eat.”
“Because I am here by your magic. That’s why if one of us dies…”
He didn’t have to say the rest, again. I got it, and now I understood it. It was because my magic was keeping him “alive” that he was here at all. I was responsible for him, but it was more than that now.
He pushed hair off his forehead. “It’s the aura color that concerns me most. Mine should be white. Something must have happened to taint it.”
“What does gray mean? I mean I know what a gray aura means now, but do you have a different meaning? Look I’m tired, I’m not making sense even to myself.” I dragged a hand through the sides of my ponytail and caught the loose strands more tightly, then rewrapped the hair tie.
“Silver would be positive. Dark gray is close to black. It’s possible what you see is filtered by the curse that bound me to the bracelet. Or it’s a version of your silver one. It may be that my form gives a wrong impression.”
“We shouldn’t worry about it then.”
“I don’t think it’s a problem for you to be concerned with. Were you?”
“Yeah. It’s damned weird. I’m used to demons and spirits, but you look like the kind that seeps out of dark corners.”
“That’s the taint of a wizard who is reanimated after death with otherworldly power.”
My thoughts finally aligned. I’d seen it before but in a game. I leaned against the counter. It was so obvious. “You’re an undead wizard. Sort of like alich, but that doesn’t exist in real life. It’s a fictional character. Wizards can’t be brought back after they die, not in human corporeal forms, anyway.” Explaining it to him only made me feel marginally better about it, and I wasn’t dealing with the ramifications of this new concept without sleep.
I set the glass in the sink and got out a fresh water bowl for Antimony. As if summoned, Antimony popped through the cat door.
Ranth stilled.
I crouched down and held out a hand. Keeping to the edge of the cabinets, Antimony came to me and rubbed against my arm. I ran my fingers over her head, finding the spot behind her ear that she adored.
