"Most worlds - not this one, not Syntropy," Aegis gestures at Cam, "and not Alethia, but all the others we know about, started out connected to or can be made to connect to an afterlife called Downside. We sort of - we didn't actually conquer it, but it's probably the easiest way to summarize - and collected some magic from it. If you die and show up Downside, then if you suffer would-be-lethal damage you reset to a healthy state right there. One of the things on the Bell checklist is to gain the ability to do that, and also to visit the Downside admin and get her to give you the power to distribute torching to other folks. If we make somebody from a world torchable, that'll usually also hook up their world to Downside. We can do it a la carte," she gestures at Cam and Amariah, "but the way you're talking I'm not sure we should even touch you with it.'