I Should Die

drop by on appointment. How much do you know about revenant history?” he asked me.
    “Vincent has told me some stories. And Gaspard has mentioned things from time to time. But my overall comprehension is probably pretty lacking.”
    You’re being modest, Vincent said . I happen to know you’ve read everything you can get your hands on.
    I didn’t respond. The less Mr. Gold thought I knew, the more he would tell me.
    We walked slowly toward the other end of the large hall. Though Jules, Papy, and Bran were looking around as we walked, they were all listening in on our conversation.
    “Well, considering the project we are about to undertake, it would be useful to give you a quick history of both revenants and our guérisseur friends.” His voice took on a storytelling pitch, and I could tell he had told this tale before, although I guessed it was to new revenants, and not to human outsiders.
    “Ever since man existed, there have been bardia and numa. But in ancient times they were worshiped as heroes and reviled as demons. Both lived among humans as either their guardians or, in the case of numa, dangerous but effective allies for men who sought power at any cost.
    “Before modern medicine, healers, known in France as guérisseurs , were much more common and well respected among their fellow men. Since guérisseurs’ powers developed in accordance to the needs of the communities around them, a small percentage of them developed powers to help revenants with their own specific requirements.”
    Bran stopped looking around and began paying full attention to Mr. Gold’s story, drinking in every word.
    “Like the bayati—humans with paranormal abilities who were later called saints—revenants around the world began being persecuted with the rise of major world religions. In Eastern countries some were able to hide themselves among mortal holy men and shamans. But not in the Western world. It was at this point—after being hunted and destroyed on a massive scale during the fourth century—that revenants withdrew from the mortal world.”
    This fit in with what I already knew, and explained a lot of what I had seen in the flame-fingers’ archives. I began to wonder if the word “archives” didn’t apply as much to the images as they did to the few books and objects I had seen. The wall paintings explained the story Mr. Gold was telling in a much more memorable way.
    I drank in every word as he continued. “In order to facilitate the revenants’ disappearance from human awareness, the bardia launched a concerted campaign to hide revenant-themed art and literature that was common enough in the Roman times and before. The numa were on board with this, having lost just as many of their own number in the religious persecution.”
    Mr. Gold stopped in front of a statue of a man lying on a bed. Hovering over him was a woman with a tattoo identical to Bran’s etched into her forearm. She was passing her hands over the dead-looking man.
    It’s probably a dormant revenant , came Vincent’s words, and I nodded, agreeing.
    “As guérisseurs became increasingly scarce,” Mr. Gold continued, gesturing toward the statue, “the number who possessed gifts aiding revenants diminished, and revenants’ knowledge of them fell out of the common use. I, however, am in possession of some ancient tablets that spell out some of the gifts of these guérisseurs .” He turned to Bran. “You can see our auras, can you not?”
    “Yes,” Bran affirmed. “The practicing guérisseurs of my family can see both human and revenant auras. It is easy to distinguish between the two.”
    He glanced at me as he said this, and I smiled. “I remember your mother saying that Jules had the aura of a forest fire,” I said, thinking back to the different haloes depicted in the cave’s wall paintings.
    “Yes,” Bran said. “That is their defining trait to us. Which is indicated in the symbol of the signum bardia .” He pointed to the flames on the marble woman’s tattoo.
    “You can diminish a young revenant’s need to die,” continued Mr. Gold.
    Bran nodded. “Apparently that is true, but my late mother was not able to find instructions to the actual procedure in our family records.”
    Our host considered this.
    “Why would that be useful for a revenant?” Papy asked.
    “Some revenants fell in love with humans and desired to age at the same rate as their partners,” explained Mr. Gold matter-of-factly. Jules caught my eye