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Who: Jacob Kane (Cain) & someone else. Maybe you.
When: October 14th and forward.
Where: All around Keeliai.
What: Hoofing it around town to get a better finger on the pulse of current happenings. If it's a place where people are, Cain could feasibly be there.
Warnings / rating: Nah.

It was really rather astonishing how quickly Cain could adapt to things. He even surprised himself sometimes, what with the fact that he had literally been pulled into another world with a universe-threatening war and only a few hours after the fact he was on the streets looking for more information. Part of it, he acknowledged, was simply that it hadn't sunken in all the way yet. Regardless of that fact, it was always smarter to push forward than stand still when the world was still spinning around him.

Early on, it was easy to see that he was pissing off some kedan just by being around and initiating conversation. Cain started to pick his questions more carefully, but it wasn't going to stop him; kedan population seemed way higher than foreigner population and that was where he was going to need to get gossip or info if from anywhere. He wasn't above pestering some people on the street or trying to get shopping done if it looked like he might get away with starting a conversation.

Hell, Cain was even willing to stoop to the old classic: "Hey, do you have the time?"

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That was definitely not the kind of poison Cain wanted to deal with. Then again, if it wasn't going to kill him multiple times before finally weakening enough that he could survive it, maybe it wouldn't actually be so bad. Being out of control was better than dying over and over and over again. "So it fucks with your brain," he summarized easily. "Some kind of biochemical reaction that like sticking around. Is there an antidote or just a treatment?"

When she stopped, Cain followed suit and matched her gaze steadily. Far be it from him to ignore someone's need to impart importance. He probably needed to make a few friends in his time here and rolling his eyes at the theatrics wouldn't go over well. "Has that been proven or is it still too early? What kind of investigation is going on into that?"

"No antidote," she said, shaking her head. "The treatment varies among healers, depending on their own skills, but purely mundane means don't seem to help. It's certainly harmful, but doesn't seem to be actually lethal even if left untreated, which is almost more concerning."

In short order Raine started moving again, pace even. "Nothing's been proven either way, though I believe people are actively investigating. For the most part, it's only further prevented us from working together."

"Purely mundane?" echoed Cain. It hadn't entirely clicked what other treatments might be available. Back in his own world, magic could only be used as a tool to aid in destruction; healing magic wasn't a reality, nor on the forefront of his mind. "What other options are there?"

"Any other organization would work on closing its ranks while weeding out the bad seed," he commented wryly. He didn't really expect the foreigners to act as a united front but it sounded like there wasn't even a core group of anyone trying to work together to keep things moving. It was a wonder they hadn't fallen apart sooner.

Raine gave him a faintly curious look; the ease with which he'd taken the rest of her answers hadn't made her think magic a foreign concept for him. "Broadly, magical. There's a number of different traditions, almost as many as there are available healers."

He did have a point, regarding optimal tactics, and when she exhaled again it was more of a faint sigh. "It would be a sound strategy, but there's not enough cohesion between us for even that." With a few notable exceptions.

That answer did take him momentarily aback. It was easy to see Cain readjusting something in his mind while he forcefully slotted in the idea of healing types of magic. If that were a possibility here, then many other things could be conveniently turned on their heads as far as Cain knew them to be. There was nothing he could take for granted anymore and that was going to end up pretty exhausting. No other choice than to grin and bear it, but at least he was learning early what he had been pulled into. "And none of them have a cure for it or even an acceptable treatment," he said, as if his world hadn't been shuffled about like a pile of leaves in a whirlwind.

"No, I figured," he allowed. "That's the problem. No wonder everything is in chaos if no one could pull anyone together. If these kedan knew what they were doing, they would have pulled in a leader first and troops second."

She waited a moment for him to readjust his worldview, then proceeded. "No. As I said, if I can reach the wounded quickly enough, I have an arte that will clear the taint from their system, but past a few minutes it ceases to help." This was something that was a persistent frustration to her, and it showed in her grimace and in her tone. "I believe it's much the same with the waterbenders. Does magic not have such constructive applications in your world?"

They'd had leaders. Eshai by all reports had been a good leader, a strong one. Evandau had tried, but in the end better suited for command, not leadership, and that, too, was a moot point. And those among the Foreigners most likely to step up and take charge, those she estimated many people would have been willing to follow-- for the most part those had vanished, too. They were much fewer in number now than they had been. "It's not the kedan who set up the summoning spell," she said finally, skirting the issue of exactly how much had been lost. "But by all reports, despite the Emperors' best efforts, the results have always been a little erratic."

"Magic..." Cain hesitated, part for show and partially for real. Considering Raine's explanations and what she had revealed thus far, it wouldn't totally hurt to explain the processes in his own world. It wasn't something he usually needed to explain, however. Either you knew about death magic, Reapers and Enforcers or you were normal. (Or the Yates twins, but they were a special circumstance.) "Magic is a bit of an unknown quantity where I'm from. Only the dead can use it, so you can imagine how much healing gets done with that."

That was some new information. His head canted to the side as he took it in, letting that one truly sink in. "Who else is there to set it up?" he asked. If the spell was required to pull in foreigners, then they couldn't have predated their own arrival. "Is there a third group here?"

"The dead," Raine repeated, thoughtful. "Not much, I'd imagine. Hm. Some kind of necromancy, or simply a different state of existence after death? And if the latter, what else sets your dead apart from your living?" For the ability to use magic implied sentience beyond what the dead could usually achieve.

The third group question made her blink a little, before she caught the assumption. "Ah-- no, not specifically. Rather, it was the Emperor Eshai who set up the spell in the first place, and she wasn't one of the kedan. They, too, are a people she summoned. It's since been maintained by others."

"Different state of existence," Cain said with a shake of his head. Raine taking it all in stride like she was helped him speak about it better. Approaching it academically was the best way to get out information on complicated and sensitive subjects and she didn't seem much offended at the idea of a disturbed dead. "They aren't connected to their mortal bodies anymore so you could say they use their... ghostliness to channel an energy that the flesh can't process. Something like that, anyway," he added with a shrug. How was Cain supposed to know? He was just some poor schmuck still among the living.

That was definitely a very, very interesting answer. Their hosts weren't actually native either? "So the kedan — they're more second generation than actually from here. Do we know how long ago that was?"

"Ghostliness," Raine repeated. It wasn't the least precise term she'd ever heard in a technical explanation, sadly. "Hm. And do the living notice and interact with them?" Mostly an unknown quantity, he'd said. She'd guess probably not, which... didn't explain why Jacob knew enough about it to explain in turn to her. Interesting.

"The dates aren't clear, no. But that Emperor lived rather longer than a human would normally be expected to, so the possible span is somewhat larger in scope." She wished she did know; determining how long the kedan had been just as they were might have some relevance to her other research. "It is worth noting that she changed them, somehow, when she summoned them. I believe it was accidental, but regardless, they are not what they once were."

"Specific living," Cain said. He gave a one-armed shrug. All of what he was relating right now was mostly folklore to those not in the know and part of life to those who experienced it — Cain being the first among them, so he was technically the most qualified to speak on the experience of it. Not that he would ever say that outright. "They can see death, so it includes the spirits of the dead. Mostly Enforcers, people who stick around to police the other dead that can't move on or torment the living or that kinda thing."

"Changed them?" That was a frown as Cain considered it. "So it's possible we've been changed, too?"

"What does seeing death include, beyond the spirits of the dead?" Raine wanted to know. She had an idea, mostly thanks to her experience with Solomon, but would rather the answer straight. Besides, this was a completely different world. The other question she'd have had, regarding Enforcers, he'd answered as soon as she'd thought it, which was considerate.

His question regarding change gave her pause for a moment. "I don't believe so," she said at last, though she didn't sound fully certain. "We're not summoned the same way they were, for one. I'm also inclined to think that the kedan had telepathic capabilities once, but that's almost pure conjecture at this point, unfortunately. Whatever it was, it made them unsuitable to serve the purpose we currently are."

Cain shrugged a bit, hand coming up to bobble back and forth like it was an uncertain thing. Although what seeing death meant was certain, the reaction of those who learned that it wasn't just some fairy tale was not. A lot of people didn't take too well to knowing their life had a definite limit on it which they could do nothing about (under their own power, anyway). "They say it means they can see how long someone is going to live, too."

"What does that have to do with it?" asked Cain. "I mean, not the different summoning, that could have a lot. But the telepathic thing?"

"I wonder if that's knowledge people should have," Raine said, absently thoughtful. Even knowing the general area of her lifespan weighed heavily on her, sometimes, when she remembered she was going to outlive the vast majority of the people she loved.

In a moment she moved on to his other question, consciously redirecting her focus. "Because my hypothesis is that it was part of what changed about them. There are occasions where they're driven to seek out telepathic contact with... Tu Vishan, and it burns out their brains when they do. And I imagine the loss of such a thing would have... lasting impacts, even down the generations. Imagine if humans suddenly lost the ability to see, overnight."

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