February 15^th, 912

The night passed peacefully. Despite her apparent animosity towards me, Alicia appeared to be waiting for me before departing. I suggested we travel together to Gravalt, and she accepted.

From what I have surmised, she is rather young as an Undead, though her soul is quite old. I suspect she was a Fae like myself in her previous life, or something else that is exceptionally long-lived. She does not seem intent on sharing many details of that past life, so I do not intend to pry.

Despite her caginess, I found her to be quite the excellent conversation partner. It seems to me that she is naturally a very outgoing person, but that she is trying—and often failing—very hard to repress that side of her. It took surprisingly little to get her to open up to me.

I touched on this concept briefly in my previous entry, but Undead come in multiple forms—not just the different races (Zombies, Ghosts, Wights), but the ways in which their souls are recycled, as well. Alicia appears to be what is called a “complete reincarnation”; the rarest of these forms.

A reincarnation is what occurs when the Cycle transplants a single soul into a new body completely intact—or, on occasion, when an intact soul is paired with very weak souls and assumes complete control over the new, combined soul. Such reincarnations maintain the complete memories and personality of their previous life; this includes their death, and as such is usually quite traumatizing at first.

Reincarnations seem to primarily be caused by the souls of those who possess incredibly strong willpower or great arcane mastery—often both. Interestingly, reincarnations who could use true magic in their previous life often inherit the same abilities—or a portion of them—in their new body.

During the Holy Wars, there was not one, but two instances where the Cycle backfired by reincarnating slain Gods with their powers intact. They posed much smaller threats with their weaker Undead bodies, but true magic—especially on the level of the Gods—is not a force to be trifled with, even in weak hands.

Interestingly, a similar phenomenon indicated that true magic is tied to the soul rather than the mind. There have been many cases of Undead awakening with the ability to use the true magic of their past lives despite not maintaining the memories or personality of the original user. One particularly notable example was a Ghost girl who possessed the powers of a recently slain God, but none of the God’s personality. Despite being averse to combat, she went on to play an integral role in the Holy Wars; to my knowledge, she is still alive, and is currently enjoying a much-deserved retirement.

Alas, that is but another tangent. What is of importance here is that Alicia is a full reincarnation. I ultimately concluded that her aversion to me was likely due to a trauma from her past life, perhaps even her death; whatever it was, I figured it was likely caused by my kind.

That was close, but not quite correct. Despite truly not trying to pry much, she opened up to me quite a lot and eventually admitted that she did not necessarily dislike Dryads, but our creator, the twin God Zoro-Lione. She seemed quite relieved to learn that my people had no allegiance, or even a maintained relationship, with our creator. She also seemed to completely miss the irony that, as an Undead, Zoro-Lione was also her creator.

I worry that she might be a bit too trusting. After I made that claim—one she had no way of proving, though I did tell the truth—she seemed to place complete faith in me. The shift from her previous caginess was jarring, though I cannot say I am strictly opposed to it. She seems like a good person; for as long as we travel together, I shall try my best to keep her safe.

—Kirra

February 16^th, 912

One of the many things I came to discuss with Alicia is her body. As I mentioned in a previous entry, her soul is that of a woman, but her body is male; an error the Cycle rarely makes when it comes to reincarnations. Nevertheless, most races are not blessed with my kind’s ability to alter ourselves, and there are many in similar boats to Alicia. It is not a problem without a solution, thankfully, for magics do exist which can be used to alter a person’s body over time, though they are a tad rare and, as such, expensive.

I offered to acquire such services for Alicia. I have not mentioned it until now, but I am actually quite wealthy, thanks primarily to my centuries of service in the Holy Wars. Eve went to great lengths to ensure hard workers received the proper rewards. I was blessed with far more opportunities to meet her than most, given my station, but that is a story for another time.

In any case, I have a rather obscene amount of wealth and not a clue what I might ever do with it. Helping Alicia seemed as good a use of my coin as any, but she refused. It seems she views her new body in a rather utilitarian light.

Alicia’s current goal is to travel the world and use her immortality to pick up and master as many fighting styles and weapons as possible. An interesting goal, for sure. I am unsure why she deems it necessary, but she intends to utilize her body’s current appearance as a sort of alias so as not to connect her exploits to her true identity. It’s her decision, so I did not press her on it further.

She seems content to travel with me for the time being; as she put it, hers is a goal she can work towards while accompanying me. I do enjoy her company, and I am sure she would appreciate the presence of someone who knows her true self. It is also reassuring to have a competent fighter at my side.

We should arrive at the outer edges of Gravalt tomorrow afternoon. I am eager to see civilization again.