"Well," she said laughing, "it's certainly easier than it used to be. In the old days, before my time, the members would face the candidate and one would run him through with a spear. The candidate would only be accepted when he came back in his next life, if he came back, and picked out his murderer. These days you simply have to convince a panel of judges that you have lived before; names, dates, places, things that can be verified. It's most difficult the first time."

"What happens if I fail, I mean what happens if you fail the first time?"

"Don't worry Evan, you'll do fine. Besides, I'll be your advocate."

"What does that mean?"

"I'll tell them about how I found you."

I couldn't help but think about what these others would be like. Twenty-eight people who would know what this type of life is like. Twenty-eight people that I wouldn't have to lie to in order to be close. Twenty-eight people to know now and in the future. "Poppy, tell me about this society. Tell me as much as you can."

"Alright," she said, taking some wine. "This society, the Cognomina, was established by the first six of us in 839 in the then small Swiss confederation village of Zurich, but the tradition of the first of us coming back in successive lives and meeting one another dates back to the fourth century A.D. The first two that found each other started meeting each year on the summer solstice at the pyramids of Giza in Egypt. They met this way every year so that if one died, the other knew he would eventually return to the same spot in a new body and greet his friend. After a few lives they began to mark themselves with the symbol of their assigned meeting place to make identification easier when meeting each other in fresh incarnations. That's what this symbol evolved from," she traced the outline of the tattoo with her finger, "the three peaks of the pyramids"

I nodded.

"One Egyptian summer, on that longest day of the year, one of them came back as a fresh young man after a eighteen-year absence and met his old friend only to find two others with the same Embe symbol on their hands standing next to him. The first one had discovered a new one who already knew another. This is how we began, at least that's how the story goes. I entered in 1649."

"Are they still alive?" I asked, trying to fathom what it must be like to be that old.

"Yes, they are still around. Like I said, if you come back once you always will. It's the same for all of us, it always has been," she said in a voice that sounded almost sad.