The Ghost of Futures Yet to Come

"Tell ya the truth, I never bothered to think too hard about it until now." Iyre admitted, "Life ain't been easy. That ain't me bitchin', that's just straight fact. First step has always been survive. Second has been grow. But this... it does change shit. Not sure I'm smart enough to figure out how yet. But it does."

The anger within Iyre had ebbed to its lowest point since she was a child. The carefully nurtured flame of fury that had kept her moving forward, kept her fighting, kept her alive, here it was still. Quiet. Even more than Namek, this glimpse into the afterlife was a pacifying thing.

Life had been one long struggle for Iyre, from the moment she was born. Life was also very cheap. Her trade was in violence, and she'd never really understood why that seemed to be so shocking to some alien species. There were a lot of people in the galaxy. Losing a few of them didn't really matter. She was sure that eventually she'd lose her own life, facing up to some power she couldn't best and that didn't want to leave her alive. That was just the way the galaxy worked. Wasn't it?

But now it looked like someone - or something - had designed the galaxy to work that way.

The big brute couldn't grasp all the implications of that right away, but it was enough to still the rage in her for at least a short time just from the awe of the realisation. Only time would tell if it came back stronger for it, or was muted more permanently by it.

"You sure gave me a lot to think about, lady." She said, as she looked out over the afterlife. "Gotta say, I was startin' to lose faith in Namek, but it looks like the old geezer might be the first guy who knows what he's talking about. You sure there ain't anything I can offer you?" She looked just a little uncomfortable - an expression that she clearly was not used to. "I ain't like being in nobody's debt."

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For once in her life, Iyre really listened - and tried to understand. Despite what she said, and often thought, about herself... it wasn't really fair to say that Iyre was stupid, exactly. She was certainly uneducated. Ignorant. Disinclined to spend much time on analysis. All of that was true. But when she had reason to apply her brain, Iyre could be quite - well - cunning, at times. As she'd said, she never really stopped to think about this sort of thing before. She'd naturally assumed that Gods existed because that made intuitive sense to her, but she hadn't thought a great deal about what happened after you died. She'd just sort of assumed that your legacy and glory meant more than it seemed they did.

"I think I getcha." She said. "At least, a little. But I also think I see where we're different. You've seen this Yemma guy and he's put the fear in you. You don't think it's possible to change things here."

She shrugged her broad shoulders, but now she was smiling; a near-feral grin that spoke of a rising level of excitement in the brash young Heran. "You might be right. But the way I see it, now I got something even bigger'n conquering a planet to aim for. It ain't in me to just accept something I don't like. And I don't like ... this. So I'll change it. Somehow. 'Cuz you're right. Nothing in the damn universe is ever simple. But you know what? It should be." 

How was she going to change the structure of the universe? How could she tear down the old order and put something new in place? She didn't have a clue. It probably wasn't even possible. Such things were the rules of existence. But since when had Iyre ever worried about the rules? She would find a way to change death, or she'd die trying, and if that happened? Then at least she'd know that she'd given it her best shot.

Reaching out, the woman carefully took the barbed thorn, and lifted it up to her eyes.

"Well. That'll at least prove this wasn't just a dream." She said, nodding her head. "You got a deal. I'll come back soon. Maybe try and get a glimpse at the big guy myself. That should be fun!"

Because unfortunately, she could already feel her body starting to call back to her; the thundering of her heart was filling her ears, which meant that she HAD a heart again. Hopefully her body hadn't done anything too outrageous to that old geezer whilst she was away; she was going to need his help again before too long she expected.

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"Yeah. Don't think this is what he had in mind, but I think it's best for him it is what I got."

Iyre's jaw clenched as she felt the insistent pull growing tighter around her limbs. Just because of who she was, she was obligated to try and fight the pull. Her eyes closed and her nostrils flared as she tried to anchor herself in this strange space of unliving for a few moments longer - though in the end, it amounted to little, and soon enough her eyes opened to find that she had remained seated, stationary, on the floor where this had all begun.

But when she unfurled one clenched fist, she found the thorn was indeed there.

"Well?" The old Namekian asked, "What did you learn?"

She rose from her seated position, and absently spiked the thorn through the twist of rope that hung at her side to contain her trophies. It was true. The young Heran warrior had never thought that she'd amount to anything great; she would have been happy to aim for her single conquest and then work out some of her abandonment issues on the brutalised bodies of her parents.

But what had been a simple conversation for Amara had been much more important for Iyre. At the very least, this journey justified completely her decision to come to Namek.

She laid her hand on the Namekian's shoulder, "Many things, old man. Got a lot to think about. Here."

From her belt she pulled a pouch and, quickly weighing it, nodded to herself. A thick stack of zeni deposited in his hands.

"Don't want to hear no." She said, firmly. "There's more offworlders here every day. You hold on to that. Maybe some day you find a use for it. Maybe you don't."

Her tone brooked no argument, and she ducked down to shoulder her way out of the hut. "... Might just come back this way soon, too. Make sure you got more of them candles on hand."

And with that, she started to trudge towards the Northern Scar. Her first insight gleaned, she thought she had an inkling of where she might need to be to gain her second.

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