“No. The other important thing is that the link wasn’t some purpose-built channel designed to transport physical material through the astral. I can’t even imagine the kind of astral magic that would take. Gold rank at the least, probably diamond.”

“So?”

“So, you were pulled straight through the deep astral,” Clive said. “And the thing about the deep astral is that it’s just magic. Only magic.”

“You said that.”

“Yes, but the point is, physical substance can only exist in a physical reality. I said your body was annihilated, but that wasn’t exactly accurate. Your body ceased to exist because it went somewhere where the physical substance it was made of cannot exist. That’s also why any physical material dragged into the link with you, didn’t arrive with you.”

“Ceased to exist? The goddess of knowledge said my body was changed.”

“Your body didn't change,” Clive said. “Your body is gone. Not melted away, not blasted into pieces too small to see, just gone. It stopped existing. You must have misunderstood what the goddess told you.”

“Or she lied.”

“She wouldn’t have done that,” Clive said. “Lying is one of the core sins of her religion.”

“She isn’t a member of the religion,” Jason said. “She’s the object of it.”

“Maybe she just told you what you were ready to hear,” Clive suggested.

“You’re telling me that I died,” Jason said, pulling things back on topic.

“I suppose you did.”

“Then how am I here?”

“Well, the body died, but the soul isn’t physical. It’s magical. Do you know how summoning a familiar works?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Well,” Clive said, “summoning a familiar is like deliberately creating a monster. A chunk of magic is brought into our world and forms a body. What makes it different from a monster is that it also summons a creature from the deep astral. Such entities are purely magical, like a soul. They normally can’t exist in physical reality, any more than we can exist in the astral. But they inhabit the body you’ve made. Give it a mind, and stability. So it doesn’t break down and go berserk.”

“You’re saying that I’m basically a familiar?”

“Exactly,” Clive said, with academic fascination. “Your soul came into this world, and like any other chunk of magic, constructed a physical manifestation for itself.”

“So, my body is the same thing as a monster’s, just with a soul to stop it from breaking down.”

“Yes,” Clive said. “You’re picking this up very well.”

Clive’s enthusiasm had blinded him to the growing horror on Jason’s face. Jason leaned forwards in his chair, head in his hands.

“Jason?”

“Give me a minute, Clive. You kind of dropped a bomb on me.”

“Oh,” Clive said, realisation suddenly hitting. “Sorry about, you know, dying.”

Jason sat head bowed, mind reeling.