No one was supposed to know about her secret hideout as she remained a despised reaper in the eyes of many. Pan didn’t let that bother her. She was back on Scaldigir, and her life there was good enough. Now that Sotir had broached the topic of their potential marriage, things would be less of a surprise. He said it went poorly, but at least, it had been said.

Pan leaned against a window frame and looked out. She had a small cottage in the woods. The tree line hewed close to the house, made up mostly of black and white trees, with bark in swirling patterns. The perfect place to do whatever she wanted with Sotir, if she didn’t have so much work.

Pan turned and viewed the sparse room. She had a worn table and not much else. On the table, she had a ball of clay.

She promised to craft satellites to make Scaldigir’s magic planetary shield. She followed through on that promise. She took a shield circle from the Volanter book and slapped it on each satellite. Well, she sculpted it in clay and made a mold. Then, she attended each satellite’s casting and imbued the circle. She followed all of Meladee’s rules, and to Pan’s surprise, it worked. She impressed the elders and herself. They got fifty satellite shields, and Pan got fifty points towards gold.

She needed to make more things – different magical things. If she made wonders, then the Scaldin would prefer her craft to her spell work. Pan could stay on Scaldigir, where Sotir could usually be found. She could live the life she always wanted. She could be an artist of sorts and make truly useful art. She needed everyone to think that the things she made were better than the things she spelled, especially that familiar.

Yet, if Sotir left, she might change her mind.

Pan pushed away from the window and let the lacy shade fall. It filtered the light and sent shadows in the shape of flowers over her floor.

Floof, her plush cat, regarded her with dark eyes. Pan picked a bit of lint off its horn.

The com rang, and Pan jumped. The plush feline slipped off the chair and fell. Pan scrambled to scoop it up. She tossed it back onto the chair, hurried to her little com, and hit the answer button.

“Hi, Pan, do you think you could come and visit with me?” Aria asked. “I could use the company.”

Pan could hear the need in Aria’s voice. She hesitated. Finally, she drew a long breath and answered, “I don’t know. It’s already afternoon, and it’s a long drive.”

“Please,” Aria begged. “Can’t you just portal over?”

Pan wondered if she could. Probably.

She had spent hours with the Volanter spell book, and she had worked the clay into different circles, practicing each one. She cast nothing, but she felt tired. Tingling sensations rang up and down her left arm. Plus, Pan didn’t want to go to Aria’s.

She could tell that another of Aria’s treatments had failed. That made four of them in a row. It wasn’t looking good for the near future, but the doctors had not tried any of the advanced treatments. Too bad Aria hated the very idea of them.

“I want to come,” Pan said. “I just…I’m too tired to portal. I had to talk to the elders this morning. They interrogated me about my circles again. I could drive, but if I come now, I’ll want to stay awhile. That means I’ll stay late. And, if I stay late, I have to drive that weird road, and there might be a ghost on it.”

“But, you aren’t a ghost seer anymore. You won’t see anything.”

Pan’s tone turned sharp. “You don’t know that. Besides, I can cast these ghost circles in my literal sleep. I can accidentally cast one awake too. Do you think I could meet with you tomorrow instead?”

Aria sighed. “Fine. Tomorrow will be fine. I’ll talk to you them.” Aria shut off the com before Pan could say good-bye.

The potentially haunted road was a lame excuse, especially since Pan would brave that drive for a happy time with Aria. The times weren’t good at the moment.

Pan dropped the com. It clattered on the old wood table. She dug her fingers into Floof’s fur and pulled the plush into her arms. Pan stared at the floor, where flower patterns ran over the boards and their joints. So much for being a good friend.

Pan’s com rang again. Pan jumped. She hit the answer button. “You know, Aria, I think I changed my mind. I will come visit you.”

A few seconds of silence passed. “Sorry to disappoint you. It’s Alban, not Aria. We got our call from the Iruedians to go help. We leave tomorrow morning. Can I pick you up from your place? I’ll grab Sotir first.”

Pan’s heart beat a little faster. “Actually, pick me up from Aria’s place. Can you do that?”

“Hmmmm. It’s not that different from yours. That’ll be fine,” Alban said.

“Great. What time?”

Alban drew out a long sigh. “Let me think. Sotir has not answered his com yet. He’s doing his civic duty and meeting with our senior citizens. Apparently, he’s headed for a record of good Samaritan-ship.”

Probably looking for the one elder that might okay their union. Sotir had tried those nearby, and he wasn’t done yet. He wouldn’t let Alban catch him, till he tried a few more. His stubbornness served Pan’s. She could have time with Aria.

Alban continued, “If he answers his com, I’ll grab him and be able to come for you right away. If he doesn’t answer, I’ll have to chase him down or set someone on his trail.” Alban paused but not for long. “I’d ask you what he’s doing, but we both know.”

“If you can’t catch him?” Pan asked.

“I’ll reprimand him – for all the good that will do. Then, I’ll head to the Ischyros and make preparations. Some other unlucky officer will have to catch him. In that scenario, I doubt I’ll have either of you before night.”

“You don’t want to catch me first? Send someone maybe?” Pan suspected that Alban would always try to snag Sotir before he harbored Pan aboard the Ischyros.

Alban chuckled. “No. Go have fun, I suppose.”

Pan ran to the hall closet and pulled it open. She grabbed a pre-packed bag. “I can work with that. Get me from Aria’s. See you then.”

Pan shut off her com, without letting Alban say good-bye. It wasn’t such a sin, considering he didn’t have a nearly twenty-year relationship with her.

Pan stepped through her portal. She shimmied her wrist. Her bracelet jingled and resettled. The sun had begun to set, and Pan could see that her last day on Scaldigir was almost over. She would give what remained to Aria.

Pan slung her bag over her shoulder and walked to Aria’s door.

Aria and Gavain had a nice house. Country lay all around it: forests, and further off, some fields. Flowers danced in the wind on the edge of their gardens, and more flowers wobbled in the window boxes. Pan admired the fine shutters, detailed with patterns of leafy vines. On some of the upper windows, Gavain and Aria even had colored glass, depicting pastel flowers. The door, in a forest green, showed Pan more flower patterns and trailing leaves.

It was a big house, of course, because Sotir had led Gavain to believe he would eventually have four children. Pan thought it would have been better if Gavain waited and started with a smaller house. The current home was lonely, with just two people.

Still, it was well located. Gavain could commute to a nearby spaceport, not in Pittura, but in the second largest city on Scaldigir – Teningur. And, neither Aria nor Gavian’s parents lived very far. They could drive and arrive in an hour.

Now, Pan’s coastal home of Grau was many, many miles away, but she had no intention of heading back there. She lived two hours away to the north, near a more secret coast. Hopefully, she would live there with Sotir someday, but not in her tiny 500 square foot cottage.

Pan trotted up the steps and knocked. She hoisted her bag high on her shoulder, feeling its weight. Floof’s tail stuck out the zipper, hastily stuffed in as a last-minute passenger. Pan poked the rainbow back inside.

“Aria!” Pan twisted the knob and found it lose.

The door opened. Pan left it swinging and dropped her back in the entryway.

Pan trotted through the downstairs. She found the kitchen sparkling. The wood counters shone, and not a crumb remained on the floor. She nearly tripped into the sunken living room. She found it just as neat and clean, not an item out of place. Pan checked the bathroom last. The toilet and sink looked unused, white and unspeckled. She didn’t find Aria.

“Aria, where are you?”

She moved back to the entryway and waited at the bottom of the stairs. “Aria?” she called again, projecting her voice up.

Pan ran upstairs and checked all the bedrooms. Everything looked neat and clean. Every bed made; every surface dust free, and every curtain a perfect ripple. Still, no sign of Aria.

She thundered back down the steps. Sunset glowed through the lower windows, painting the white walls in pink and orange.

Pan tore open the basement door and raced down. It was an unfinished basement, which always evoked images of spirits in Pan’s mind. But, it was empty.

Pan whirled in the concrete room. She glimpsed a second set of basement stairs. They led to a door up and out. Pan charged up the steps, unlatched the door, and pushed it open.

Pan raced into the garden, knowing she would see Aria there. Instead, Pan heard night insects. She saw the rose of sunset on the horizon and felt the chill of twilight. Flowers bloomed one last time before Scaldigir’s short fall. Aria’s garden had hues of yellow, pink, purple, and a lot of green. Of course, to Aria’s eyes it would all be white – with the nonsentience of plants.

Pan circled one side of the house and arrived back at the front door. She almost ran inside but paused to search the front lawn.

Pan’s gaze darted back and forth. “Aria!”

Ahead, Pan saw the road, and to the side of that, she saw a forest path. It led from the edge of Aria’s yard to a looming colony of trees.

Pan slipped back inside and found her bag. She struggled with the zipper but got it open and grabbed her flashlight.

Then, Pan shut the front door and took off down the path.

Full dark fell around her. Pan clicked on her flashlight and traveled a trail of dirt. She looked to her left and right, and then repeated. Trees and their shadows hovered on all sides.

She was getting nowhere. Why did she think that Aria had come out here? Aria might have taken her car and gone into the town or to visit with other friends. That was the one place in the house Pan never checked – the garage.

Pan promised herself she would go only a few more steps. She’d made a mistake, searching for Aria, and Alban would come soon.

They’d all ask Pan what she thought she’d find in the woods, and she would lie that she saw a ghost and wanted to follow it. Pan tried to fashion that ghost in her mind. She wanted to give it one compelling feature that would make anyone understand her pursuit. Perhaps, she could say she found the Volanter’s ghost – the man she’d conjured once and never again. Intriguing? Very much so. But, how convincing could that be?

Pan stared hard through the trees. She flashed her light over the forest floor and shadows of underbrush. Little animals rustled leaves and fled from her light.

Pan slowed the light’s motion. She didn’t disturb any more animals, and she saw more of the forest world. She illuminated bushes, sprigs of grass, and flows of groundcover. Low-growing, white flowers remained still in a lack of wind; their center punctured by a patch of ebony. Pan stopped over that patch. It looked too like curly hair. The longer Pan stared, the more she thought it was not leaves at all.

Pan lowered her gaze, and with little effort, she cast her circle of ghost sight. Pan took a deep breath and looked up.

There stood Aria as Pan had suspected she would. She glowed all in white and seemed to be subject to a ghostly wind that pulled at the edges of her outline.

Aria’s ghost said nothing, and Pan had no idea how long Aria would stay. Given the light around her former friend, Pan guessed that Aria already felt nothing. It was the release that Aria wanted, or so Pan guessed.

The hum of an engine passed over the forest. Lights tried to penetrate the trees, but the canopy was too thick.

That would be the shuttle. The one that Alban sent for Pan. It would bring her to help defend Iruedim. Pan took a shuddering breath and let it out.

She knew it was probably against Aria’s wishes, but she cast her time message circle. She warned herself: Save Aria, go when she calls, and stay with her. Along with the message, Pan showed her former self a view of Aria’s spirit.

Night fell around Aria’s house. They sat in silence in Aria’s sitting room. Both watched yellow-white lights flicker beyond the window, as a shuttle landed in Aria’s yard. The lower it came, the brighter the light, and when the shuttle touched down, the yellow-white glow blazed in the window.

“I think someone was looking for you,” Aria said.

“I bet it’s Alban and that I have to leave in a bit.” Pan held up her bag. “I brought this with me just in case.”

Aria twiddled her fingers and nodded. “Well, you’d better go.”

Stay with her.

The image of the white spirit in the dark forest flashed into Pan’s mind.

“When is Gavain getting back?” Pan asked.

Aria tried not to frown. “He’s not for a while. He’s been instructed to be available to speak to the Iruedians, and that means they want him by the wormhole, not on Scaldigir.”

“How does that affect you?” Pan pointed at Aria.

Aria shrugged. “Not much. He left me my own personal bank of Gavain, and I have to try the more grueling treatments in a month or so anyway. It’ll work out, I guess.”

A ring sounded from the door, followed by a knock. How very thorough of Alban. Pan had no idea how he’d found her. She didn’t stay for his call the second time.

Pan leaned forward in her seat. “Remember when I asked you to come with me? When I tried to entice you away from Scaldigir?”

Aria frowned. “Of course.”

“Come with me now. What’s one more month?” Pan paused and fought to concentrate against the image of Aria’s ghost.

Aria straightened. She slid to the edge of her seat and glanced at her front door. “I don’t know.” No doubt, Aria could see Pan turning shades of blue.

The bell rang, and Alban knocked again.

Pan prompted, “What would it even matter if you waited one more year? Or, if we…died while helping the Iruedians?”

Aria’s mouth drifted open. “I don’t know. Do you think they’d even let me come?”

“Yes, just say you want to.” Pan clasped her hands together and showed her plea. She hoped her colors added emphasis.

Aria rose from her chair and crossed the room’s threshold. In the hall, she opened the door.

Pan sat back in her seat and bit a nail. She had to get Aria away from this place. Otherwise, Aria would never have anything to say to Pan again. Pan chewed at another nail. Aria hadn’t even left a note. Though, Pan supposed the clean house was a kind of note. Aria had so little to say; it was a bad sign when someone had nothing left to say.

“Do you think I could come?” Aria’s voice was quiet, as it drifted from the hall.

“You want to come?” Alban’s voice held real surprise, the likes of which Pan rarely heard. “I don’t see why not, but I never thought I’d hear that from you.”

“This part of my life isn’t exactly how I wish it would be,” Aria said.

Pan couldn’t see Aria, but in her mind, she could imagine the downcast look and the quiver in Aria’s lips. Pan wondered if Alban knew the half of it.

“This is going to be a space battle. I don’t know what use we would have for an aura reader,” Alban paused. “But…if you need to get away, I might take you along to question prisoners. Now, if you would grab Pan and pack yourself, we can go. The first job I’ve got for her is a conversation with that Volanter ghost. See how much information we can get out of it.”

Aria’s footsteps re-entered the room. “Pan?”

Pan got up from her chair and scooped up her bag. “I’ll help you pack.”

Pan stared into Aria’s eyes, and Aria stared back. With confidence, Pan could say that Aria wasn’t done with the idea.