Aqua Vitae

My Lord,

I was shocked by this new fashion of the Sijanese, the dead denizens of the well-called city of the dead, found a way to smell alive!

A trifle surely, but when daubed with this concoction of ghostpepper, meat and Mahleb, local ghosts act and feel more alive, even so I confuse some of them with the living! I yearned to drink of their sweet, sweet life, that they didn't have! Abomination, I call it!

— Decrypted letter from the Seven Seasons Widow to The Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Waters

, sent from Sijan, 769AoS.

To my agent in Sijan,

Your report intrigues me, have these rubes managed to find a concoction that can mask death from unliving senses? Does it work even on the living?

I'll send a researcher to help you confirm these findings, this may help efforts at infiltration all over creation, you have done outstanding work!

— Decrypted letter from The Bodhisattva anointed by dark waters to Seven Seasons Widow, sent from Onyx, 769AoS.