“If there’s one thing that often takes the longest time to change, it’s usually old traditions or views that were deeply rooted into a community’s sense of identity. Those always take ages to root out, and rarely go away without some violence thrown into the mix as well.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“Headed for Sabaya, eh? Clever of you to make the trip now,” said the innkeeper of the inn they were staying at that night when the man brought them their dinner. “Going to be cooler and more comfy there in the wintertime. Less beasts on the road, too, and best of all, less Pesca-damned mosquitoes! By Pesca, I used to live near Sabaya myself when I was young and the swarms that come out of the jungle every summer…”

Aideen and Celia half-listened to the middle-aged man’s ranting while they supped on their dinner, which was quite hearty fare overall, not strange given that they were in a prosperous trading town. The thick stew had large chunks of fatty meat on top of a variety of local vegetables, the flatbreads were still warm to the touch and pleasantly soft, while the ale was chilled.

Due to the hotter climate in most of Elmaiya, one of the most popular items that were often imported from the Lichdom were containers that had simple cooling enchantments. It was not that Elmaiya did not have their own enchanters, but enchanted items from the Lichdom were universally accepted as some of the best in quality, and as such grew far more popular than their local equivalents.

In fact, most inns of reasonable size would be embarrassed to not have cold boxes from the Lichdom to store perishables and cool their drinks in. The enchanted boxes – if they were imported ones – were often also placed on display almost as if they were symbols of status.

“You know, Miss Aideen, I can’t help but notice one thing,” said Celia after the innkeeper left to handle other business a while later. “When we were traveling in Clangeddin you generally told me to keep the fact that I’m unliving a secret, but didn’t do so when we were in Alfheim and the Kingdom Down Under. Similarly, I’ve never seen you hide what we are here in the south. Why is that?”

“Ah, that was just mostly staying out of unneeded trouble,” replied Aideen, evidently pleased that Celia made the connection before she explained about it. “Not every community out there is as… welcoming to those like us like most of the places we’ve been. I don’t know if you actually even ever heard of any rumors about unliving in your home village… Do you happen to remember?”

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“Not that I can recall,” admitted Celia after some thought.

“You’ve seen that many of us lived in Tohrmugent. Most of them are from other countries, who moved, or rather, escaped to the Lichdom, because their own homeland was less accepting to them after they rose into unlife,” added Aideen before taking a deep drink from her flagon of ale. “For that matter, not two and a half centuries ago, those like us would often be thought of as wild undead and be burned at the stake here.”

“Was it… the same way in my country?” asked Celia with some trepidation in her voice.

“As far as I can tell, it wasn’t that bad, according to the people who moved to the Lichdom from there. They were only asked to ‘politely excuse’ themselves out of the country,” answered Aideen with a shake of her head. “That said, those were the ones who made it out. I have no idea if there were others who never made it out at all or even perished there.”

“By this point, most countries have learned about unliving like us for over two centuries, and attitudes had mellowed over time, but back then, when the idea that some people might randomly rise into unlife first spread out, it was far, far uglier,” she continued. “Many places decried our kind as some sort of plot from the necromancers to subvert or spy on other nations, others claimed we were some sort of abominations against the natural order, and the likes, you get the idea, I assume?”

“Kind… of…” replied Celia rather nervously.

“Most of the longer-lived races got over that state faster and learned to accept our presence more easily, but amongst other nations, especially the human ones, it was a more difficult case,” said Aideen as she continued her lecture. “You know how people often lash out at something different than them, it’s an oft-documented case in history. Now what if that new, different thing also has something many others dearly want and would do anything to get for themselves?”

“They would attract the envy of others and be targeted?” answered Celia promptly. “But what would we have that others would- Oh…”

“I see that the answer to that question has dawned upon you,” Aideen said with a smile on her face.

“It’s this immortality that attracted their envy, isn’t it?” replied Celia a moment later with a look of understanding on her face. “The one thing we all receive unasked by sheer happenstance that so many others would kill to get for themselves.”

“Exactly, and when they learn that no matter what they do, there was nothing they could learn about it from us, that envy would turn to hatred, and things would just go downhill from there,” noted Aideen with a nod. “Even the Elmaiya Empire used to be very bad about this, though things had taken a turn for the better after a change of regime, thankfully.”

“That’s after that Empress you said was your friend took over?”

“Her grandfather, actually. She’s the second in this regime, though she is the First Empress since they count their Emperors and Empresses separately,” corrected Aideen. “But yeah, Celia, while life might have treated you poorly on some turns, you’re arguably blessed with luck on other matters. After living this long, I’ve long learned to appreciate the good and learn from the bad parts of life.”