"Yeah. I've had a few years to learn. How do you know my husband's name?"
"Your what?"
A single breathy laugh broke the tension as she dropped into a chair. "He's dead. Probably a few thousand years by now - along with my kids."
Not what he expected. "You had kids? Like, more than one? But how old were you?"
"Twenty-four. Granted, back then that was a lot older than it is now. Yeah, I had four kids."
"Four?!"
Dahlia nodded. "Girl, boy, boy, girl. We had two more that didn't make it through the first year. The oldest girl wanted to be a warrior, though." Her gaze fell to the floor to watch her memories. "She would've been amazing. When the raiders came, she grabbed her father's second sword and ran right into the middle of the mess at his side. She took down one man and wounded another before she lost her head."
Thane moved to the chair across from her. "What happened to the rest?"
"I tried to hide the baby, but she was crying so loud. She was sick, you see. My oldest boy had a log from the fire, and he was trying to guard the door. I held the younger boy as tight as I could, terrified, but they found us." She wiped at her dry face, then looked at him. "They killed them, of course. Too young to be slaves, so they killed them. Two men just pushed in, and when my boy hit one with the stick, he shoved a dagger in his neck. The other pulled my son from my arms and cut his throat."
"Dahlia..."
She flicked her eyes to the ceiling. "And while they raped me - spoils of war, you know - they smashed my daughter's head against the wall. A few seconds earlier or later, and it would have been her instead of me. I don't even know how this would affect an infant. I've never heard of it happening."
He reached across and clasped her hand, shocked at how calmly she was talking about this. "Did they kill you?"
"Not exactly." Her eyes found his. "I killed me. The bastard had the knife at my throat, so I leaned into it, doing the work for him. He'd planned to take me back with him to keep his bed warm, and I had no interest in that. If they were in my home, then Hrokr was dead, and I wanted to join him with the sun."
"But you didn't."
Her response was cold. "There is no miraculous afterlife, Thane. No Heaven, no Hell, nothing. At the exact moment of my death, a magnetic flare reconnected with the Earth in the same spot I died. The energy pattern of my soul was charged, but it had already been released from my body. It should have dissipated. I should have died, but all I lost was my physical body. My pattern, soul, or whatever you want to call it, kept going, fused into a self-contained little package."
"A fluke? This whole thing is a fluke of nature?"
Her head slowly bobbed. "Yeah. Just really good luck on my part."
"Good?" That wasn't at all what he'd expected her to say.
Closing her eyes, she leaned back. "I'd say it's pretty good. I will never grow old. My body doesn't age, because my soul isn't directly tied to it. I can die and live again. The only downside is the distance, but enough vitality makes that better."
"That's what you get from blood?"
She shrugged. "Or sex. Or just about any living thing, really. The magical chemical reactions, electricity, and hormones of life? I can taste it all when I kiss you. I can feel it filling my stomach with your blood. When we fuck? Yeah, it's in the sweat on our skins, and my body absorbs it through the mucus membranes."
Whoa. "You eat with your pussy?"
She gave him a tiny, amused smile. "Basically. You probably don't want to know about the vitality of sperm either."
"Baby, you wanna swallow, you just go right ahead."
Dahlia flicked her eyebrows up playfully. "Deal." Then she rubbed at her face again. "What I'm saying, Thane, is that I evolved. It wasn't my choice, but that's the only way we know how to explain it. The eidolon are the next phase in humanity. A shift from carbon-based life to an energy-based form."
"What about inquisitors?"
Her hand fell away. "I think you're a competing variation. Modern man and Neanderthals. Similar, but different. The problem is that the more prevalent always wins, not the better design."
"And we're out-breeding you."
She cocked her head to the side. "Yeah, because we can't breed. It's random chance, nothing more."
"Ok." He tapped the table, thinking. "What kind of organization do your people have?"