Chapter Text
After her bang on the head Arya took the rest of the winter fairly carefully. Marcus was not particularly inclined to sail in the poor weather and their credit was good so they spent time in planning a long term future. Arya decided that for this, and partly to silence Lady Vimes, she needed to purchase a suitable residence. She was somewhat surprised to discover that the most she could achieve was to take a hundred year lease on a property, which left her still paying a small ground rent and meant that whoever took on the property from her would at some point have to face the expiry of the lease.
Nevertheless after a little grumbling she obtained a house in Runecaster Way immediately behind the Bath House on Water Street. Arya had found the Bath House some time earlier and despite Marcus’ suggestion that it might not be a suitable place for a young lady had become a regular patron. The ability to literally ‘walk round the corner’ and visit was a significant factor in the houses suitability.
Unsurprisingly when she came to complete the contract she discovered she was paying her rent to Lady Sybil.
So with spring bursting out around her Arya and the crew moved in. Two days later all but Arya moved out as Marcus secured a lucrative cargo. Left notionally alone Arya discovered she had a little problem. Left without distraction, her mind kept drifting back to the comment by the figure with piercing blue eyes and a scythe that they might not be the correct person to attend her death. She really felt that she wanted to go back and have a proper discussion on the subject. She could see the practical difficulty with this.
As a distraction one day she invited Lady Sybil and Angua to join her at the bath’s just before dinner. Lady Sybil was having none of it but Angua agreed and so they found themselves lying on adjacent slabs being massaged and manipulated.
“You know this is nearly as good as..”
“Don’t say it, they get upset if you do. It’s all about releasing the tension in your muscles”.
“Yes but so is..”
“I said don’t use the S word, you’ll get us both banned. I’m currently a single young woman with no romantic attachments so this is a key part of my relaxation regime and I don’t want it interrupted; unless of course you’d like to loan me Carrot”.
They’d become good enough friends that Angua’s growl wasn’t really a threat.
“So you wanted to talk. It’s not like you not to just do that straight out, is there a problem”.
“Yes and no” and Arya described her encounter after her bang on the head.
“Wow, I didn’t realise you got that close. You made it seem more trivial, I can see why you’re worried”.
“I’m not worried about dying, I’m not planning to do it soon, but I’m, let’s say concerned, that if it were to happen I might be left in some sort of limbo. He, it , whatever”.
“I think they is the best term”
“They seemed to think they had to wait for someone from my universe, but suppose my universe doesn’t have that sort of ……. system. How long would they leave me hanging around. You know I’m not a patient person”.
“You seem to be happy whiling away time here”, Angua was pretty sure the masseuse had finished his routine and simply restarted it once already.
“Mmmm”, Angua saw Arya visibly stretch herself in response to the ministrations, “That’s different, but the problem remains how does one get to ask questions of such a person from afar, I can hardly send a letter”.
“You could try Susan”.
“Not someone I’ve met yet”.
“Susan, Duchess of Sto-Helit”.
“Ah a duchess that will be easy Lady Sybil can introduce me”.
“Or you could just go along to where she works, it’s residential so she’ll probably be in after dinner”.
“A Duchess who works, that will be different, but how can she help, she's not one of those accident prone people who’s always having near death experiences”.
“No she’s his granddaughter”.
“If I had one, I’d accuse you of pulling it”.
“Most people use the term leg you know, but no, you’ve learned by now this place doesn’t work to the rules you grew up with. It’s complicated she’s obviously not his biological relative, but she has connections that mean she can do things most of us can’t and I’ve heard rumours that in a real emergency she stands in, like you’re an emergency reserve for the watch and Tiffany told you that since you were probably the only witch in Ankh-Morpork you were probably the emergency reserve witch as well; so if the rumours are true she’s just who you’re looking for”.
“Well it’s worth a try, where do I find her”.
“The Frout Academy for Enquiring Young Minds in Esoteric Street”.
“Which end”.
“About half way, go to the Plaza of Broken Moons and cut through and you’ll find it on the other side of the road. Failing that listen for the noise of dozens of uncontrolled children”.
“Right, have you had enough”.
Angua realised the answer was that given the chance she too could stay here for long periods, but if Arya wanted to move it would be impolite not to, “Yes, it’s been…..instructive”.
They parted at the door and Arya walked briskly down Water St towards the river. Within no more than ten minutes she was standing outside a smart building, whose large sign informed prospective customers that their children would ‘Learn through Fun’. Since Arya had some quite definite views on learning she found this difficult to believe, but regardless she pulled the doorbell.
The door was opened by a small boy, of perhaps ten or eleven years.
“Good evening I’m here to see Miss Susan Sto-Helit”.
“I’m sorry but she doesn’t live here”.
“Are you sure, I was informed on good authority”.
“No sorry, try next door”.
That was his mistake, next door was a gentlemen’s club, the sort she’d heard Sam Vimes grumble about, because as Duke of Ankh-Morpork they all wanted him to join. There was a short scuffle followed by a discussion.
“This way Miss Stark”.
“Thank you Jason”, she was lead up to a room on the top floor. Jason turned to go.
“Her-hm”.
“Sorry”, he knocked and when the door opened said “A Miss Stark to see you Miss”.
“Thank you Jason. Are you alright, you look a bit pale”.
“I’m fine Miss”.
“Well thank you for bringing Miss Stark up to me, you may go” and go he did, rapidly.
“Miss Stark, our royal visitor from far away I believe, I’m Susan”.
“Good, because I’m Arya and I’m sure we’ll get on better that way”.
“Do come in, you have clearly made an impression on Jason otherwise he wouldn’t have brought you to my door, he’d have directed you to the seamstresses guild or somewhere similar”.
“We had a conversation on the subject of pubertal anatomy, the unfortunate effects of crushing injuries and how as a member of the assassin’s guild I might apply the necessary force as he slept”. The last bit wasn’t quite true, but Arya thought a teacher might take objection to being told the whole truth.
“Not a method I can employ sadly, now more to the point may I enquire why you have come to see me”.
“It concerns your Grandfather”. Arya couldn’t help but notice that when Susan had opened the door her hair had been a tight teacherly bun, but that after Jason had departed and they’d said hello it had slipped down into a more relaxed style. At the word ‘grandfather’, it rearranged itself into the tightest bun she’d ever seen. “I’m sorry is that a taboo subject”.
Susan very visibly took a deep breath “No, but I must be honest it is not always a welcome one and I don’t have to ask which grandfather you mean”.
“I’m sorry, look something is bothering me and a friend in the watch said you might be able to help but if you don’t want to I can manage without. It’s not life threatening”.
“If it concerns grandfather that surprises me. I can’t get you favours you know, he couldn’t keep my parents alive”.
Arya paused while she considered that fact “No he made the point that he doesn’t kill people, we do that by ourselves”.
“You’ve met him”, her manner seemed to soften, “Sorry I’m being very impolite, please have a seat”.
Arya deliberately picked the smaller of the two scruffy chairs and sat down. She also noticed Susan’s hair was slowly falling out of the bun again. “Yes I got a bang on the head, possibly two, in the snow last winter and we had a little chat. That’s what I want to discuss, he said a couple of things that bother me”.
“He has a slightly strange sense of what is proper conversation. I think if you had his job you might too”.
“Yes, I can understand that, I don’t always respond in ‘normal’ ways”.
Susan considered Jason’s pale face and obvious fear, “No I think I’ve seen that already, so what did he say”.
“He said he wouldn’t want to deal with me in case he got it wrong. He felt someone, or something else might be coming for me from my universe. I’m worried because I suspect they aren’t and if the worst happened I’d get left hanging there”. Arya couldn’t mistake the puzzled look on Susan’s face, nor the pause before she replied.
“Well that’s different, people’s responses to us are pretty repeatable, I think you may have surprised him”.
“Hang on you said us, do you..”
“Yes in emergencies, if he’s missing I have to step into the role. I don’t like having to but it’s a family thing”.
“Well I understand that, although in my case I came over here to avoid family responsibilities”.
“I don’t think that would work for me. I strongly suspect wherever I went the link would bring me back to him when it wanted to”.
“So coming back to my question, can you provide an answer”.
“May I ask some questions first”.
“Go ahead”.
“Do you believe in a god”.
“No”.
“Is there a consensual folk myth of what happens at death in your world”.
“No, there are ideas your memories might live on in animals or trees. I have a cousin who died and was resurrected, he said he experienced nothing between the two events”.
“Shame”.
“That sounds like you wanted me to tell you something so you could just say, ‘well that will be it then’. That seems a bit of a cop out”.
“We know belief has a huge influence on the gods, lots of believers, lots of power; no believers, no power. So I suspect it might influence your death event, if you were sure that might be enough to make it happen that way for you”.
“My problem is I think I have an open mind”.
Grandfather has a little joke a about that. He says, 'The trouble with having an open mind, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it”.
“Well to be honest on this matter I’d be happy if they did”.
“You want to convert”.
“I’m not leaving another option, but I want to believe”.
“Well then believe Grandfather will come and collect you and do the right thing”.
“But I want a bit of reassurance. You seem a very nice person, but you’re clearly avoiding simply saying ‘This is what will happen’”.
“Yes, well I’ve had an interesting few days not long ago and that shook my sense of certainty a little”.
“Oh, can you explain”.
“Not entirely, it concerns a man called Riddick who is also ‘not from around here’. So you see if I’m not sure and Grandfather said he wasn’t sure”.
“What if I said how can we find out”.
“What!”, the bun was back.
“I’m an explorer, some of your people like to call me a tourist, but that seems the easy option, you know where you’re going and what you’re getting. I just go and see what turns up. I have a reason to go which means I have a direction, but I have no idea what I’ll find”.
“I think in this case you might be biting off more than you can chew”.
“I got here and it appears I went as far as your Grandfather and came home”.
“Well you’re persistent I’ll say that and funnily Grandfather will like that”.
Arya could see emotions crossing Susan’s face. The trouble was she knew she wasn’t good at reading faces so she sat quietly. This was a stalk, not a charge, let the prey come to you.