By the time the boat arrived a couple days later, the atmosphere of the temple was growing hostile thanks to Meranda’s perpetual foul mood. Seth was about ready to jump in the river and see where he ended up.

On the bright side, he had spent quite a while with Amber between getting supplies from Jane, and drying out his parents’ couch. For some reason, his dad had lay down on it lengthways while still wearing soaking wet robes. Seth had helped Amber carry it outside where it had promptly been rained on, forcing them to drag it back in and start drawing even more water out with towels and Amber’s ability.

The boat was headed back north to Estroma within two hours once Samira had a word with its captain. Seth tried to wave goodbye to his mom and Priest Joe, who had seen them off, from the deck of the boat, but they didn’t see him in the darkness.

When they pulled up to the riverbank at dawn on their first day of travel to wait out the day, one of the crew came down from the upper deck to ask Levi for help. The man pulled off his shoe to reveal half a foot.

“Can you fix it, Mr. Healer sir?” The sailor, who looked only slightly older than Seth, asked.

“When did this happen?” Levi queried, guiding the young man to sit down as he began to examine the injury.

“Only a month or so ago, sir.” The sailor replied. “I…fell…off the side of the boat.”

Seth gasped. The young man was lucky to be alive, if he’d gone under he would have drowned or ended up somewhere else.

“And something in the Water bit off your toes.” Levi guessed.

“Yes sir.” The sailor nodded.

“Well, good news and bad news.” Levi said to the young man. “That part of your foot has been gone for too long. Your Vital structure has adapted to the loss. I can help to clean up the injury and alleviate some of the pain.”

“Oh.” The sailor said, slumping in his chair. “Thank you sir.”

“You can always make a request to the Bishop in Estroma.” Levi suggested, drawing Seth’s interest. “They can restore the Vital structure. Otherwise, I would suggest getting an insert for your shoe to help keep your balance.”

“I’ll ask around when we get to Arfeld, sir.” The sailor sighed. “I guess I’m off the crew since it can’t be fixed, so I’ll have plenty of time there.”

“I see.” Levi said with a frown, putting out a hand. “I’m Healer Levi, and we’ll be passing by Arfeld on our way back in a few weeks. If there’s anything I can help you with then, don’t be afraid to ask.”

“Thank you again, sir.” The sailor shook his hand. “Oh, and I’m Terrance.”

Once the young man had left, Levi turned to Seth.

“If someone comes to us with a more recent injury, I’ll walk you through the healing process.” He said. “You need to learn how to restore recently lost body parts.”

Seth nodded, and the two settled back into a comfortable silence in their small cabin. They were supposed to sleep during the day and stay awake at night like the sailors, but neither had adjusted, and the trip downriver to Estroma was short enough that they weren’t likely to.

Bored, Seth started going through the ghostly backpack again, while Levi pretended to take a nap. Seth had started wearing his Joint Priest robe over the clothes from Landon, as any other arrangement was too uncomfortable. He should have been hot with the extra layers, but the Loss essence that composed the clothing always felt pleasantly cool.

Seth found something called ‘spray-on sunscreen’ in the same mesh side pocket as the umbrella, and a bottle about half full of water in the other one. He wasn’t sure if either would run out if used, and didn’t want to drink water made of Loss essence without a good reason.

The same applied to the small metal box of mints and tube of ‘petroleum’ lip moisturizer Seth found in one of the small front pockets. He couldn’t figure out what the small rounded plastic object in the same pocket was, and finding the open rectangular piece of metal that came out of one side when he pushed a little tab didn’t help.

Then he found a small clear plastic pouch with an ingenious closing mechanism that somehow let the plastic grip itself. Inside were seven polyhedral ‘resin’ dice that he had fun rolling on the flat surface of the laptop for a while, but the swaying of the boat kept making them slide off.

Later that night, Levi went up to ask the captain to inform him of any injuries. The man agreed, and told them that while they were making as few stops on the way to Estroma as possible, they would make one in Arfeld in about a day or so. Seth and Levi then finally fell asleep.

____________________________________________

The next morning, as the boat stopped for the day, Seth poked his head out of the cabin to find two thin sailors sitting next to the door, whispering to each other.

“Can I help you?” He asked the pair, who jumped to their feet and reddened slightly.

“Sorry, we donne mean to bother you none.” One of them said, “Yer room jus’ feels like a temple’s all.”

“Do you want to speak with a Priest?” Seth asked, then added, “My father has a lot more experience than me, he can probably help.”

He noticed that the two sailors looked similar, with matching complexions.

“Thanka, but Sam jus’ needs a temple from time to time.” The other one said, gesturing at the first.

Seth glanced behind him to see his dad observing his interaction with the two sailors over his morning cocoa tea, and felt like he was being tested.

“Uh, I see.” He said awkwardly. “May I ask why?”

“I start fellin tired.” Sam replied with a shrug. “Pleny ‘o people in our village are like that.”

Seth had a thought.

“Is it a Virtue temple you need to visit, or any temple?” He asked.

“Yup.” The second sailor said.

Seth just looked at him for a moment, but that was all he got.

“Well, you’re welcome to sit here whenever you need, but would you mind answering a few questions?” He asked Sam.

The man shrugged, which Seth took to be assent. He stepped back and glanced around the cabin for something to write on before his eyes landed on the ghostly backpack next to his bed. He hadn’t moved far enough for it to reappear on his back.

Seth quickly pulled out the binder that Landon had used, and opened the three metal rings to get a blank piece of paper. He pulled a mechanical pencil out of the pouch on the left side of the binder, and used the laptop as a hard surface.

“Could the two of you please describe how the people in your village feel if they don’t visit Virtue temples often enough?” Seth asked, jotting down what he already knew.

“Doug don’t feel it.” Sam said. “It’s jus’ some ‘o the village.”

The second sailor, Doug presumably, nodded.

“Right, I understand that.” Seth said, trying to be patient. “But of those that do, what are the symptoms? And what proportion of the village has them?”

He received two blank stares.

“What exactly is the way that some of your people feel?” He clarified. “And how many people in your village feel that way, compared to the total number of people there?”

Eventually, he got some information. After a couple weeks without visiting a Virtue temple, the people started feeling tired more quickly than they should. This progressed to a general feeling of weakness, and constant shortness of breath. Most families had one or two people with the condition, but Doug and Sam didn’t know if it was more common in a child if one or both of their parents had it.

After talking to the pair for a few more frustrating minutes, Seth closed the door and sat on his bed. Whatever was affecting the villagers sounded congenital, but Seth wasn’t sure exactly what it was. It felt like he was helping Landon with homework again, and it was almost exciting, if bittersweet. Unfortunately, the textbook didn’t have any answers.

Then Seth remembered what Landon had mentioned the laptop could do, and he opened the lid for the first time. It was far less helpful than Seth had hoped, but not because the laptop lacked information. Instead, Seth found that without Landon to guide him, navigating the ‘interface’ was a nightmare.

He knew the gist of how the mouse and keyboard worked, and that he needed to ‘click’ on the little pictures to make the laptop do things, but the whole system was completely unintuitive. Sometimes it would just stop working for no apparent reason, and Seth would be stuck staring at whatever picture he had been looking at.

Seth was trying to figure out how to make the laptop stop playing something called a ‘country music playlist’ when his dad pointedly cleared his throat. Giving up, Seth just closed the lid of the laptop, mercifully cutting off the song about a woman destroying her husband’s ‘car.’

“Yes?” Seth asked, embarrassed about the content of the song.

“I think we need to have a chat.” Levi said sternly.

“Oh?” Seth said, his voice rising an octave.

“About all those items made of Loss essence.” Levi clarified.

“Oh, sure.” Seth relaxed again. “It’s really strange. I don’t know why I have them, or why I can’t get rid of them. I did try purifying them with Virtue essence, but it didn’t do anything.”

Levi made eye contact with Seth for a minute, to the point that he started to feel uncomfortable. Finally his dad sighed.

“I believe you,” he said, then held up a finger. “But, something doesn’t make sense.”

“Other than the obvious…?” Seth asked.

“You clearly have some idea of what those items are.” Levi leaned forward. “Not all of them, and I can see you trying to figure some of them out, but you seem to trust that they won’t harm you. Even though they are made of pure Loss essence.”

He pointed to the laptop and textbook lying on the bed next to Seth.

“Not to mention, I have never seen or heard the language that both of those use.” Levi emphasized. “And yet, you are clearly fluent, or nearly so.”

Seth just sat there, taken aback. Should he have acted less familiar with the Loss essence items? Actually, should he have tried to keep it a secret at all? The only reason he’d never told his dad about the ghost was to avoid the very fate he had accidentally inflicted upon him. Now that Landon was already gone, was there any reason not to explain to his dad?

“Well, I guess I should finally tell you about the ghost.” Seth said cautiously.

“The ghost?!” His dad exclaimed. “Explain. Now.”

While Seth glossed over exactly how far away Landon had come from, and what the ghost had taught him other than the language, he gave his dad a partial explanation of his experiences. However, this did not seem to successfully mollify Levi’s concerns.

“Your situation isn’t completely unique.” His dad said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Ghosts that aren’t apparently hostile occur from time to time, but the mind of a ghost is unlike that of the person they used to be.”

“That’s why I learned the language!” Seth broke in. “He couldn’t seem to learn Yslish. And any time his death came up, or anything related to it, he got weirdly unfocused.”

“There are other faults that can be even more disruptive.” Levi continued. “The reason you got along with the ghost as well as you did is most likely because you played into its role as an instructor. Even with that to protect you, there are ways you could have unknowingly antagonized it.”

“Are you sure?” Seth said doubtfully. “Landon was like a normal person. If anything he seemed to be dealing with trauma related to his death, but that’s understandable.”

“If it had known more about our culture, then the ghost would have killed you when it learned that you were a Priest of Virtue.” His dad said flatly. “Ghosts immediately attack anything that they believe could do them harm. Just trying to physically attack one, even though that wouldn’t do anything, might provoke a hostile response.”

“Oh.” Seth said, taken aback. “But, I mean, isn’t that kind of normal too? I’d fight back if I thought someone was going to kill me.”

“It isn’t the same.” Levi shook his head. “This is well recorded, and at least one largely non-hostile ghost confirmed the compulsion before it was banished. It was a young mother that had died in a house fire, and a few Priests studied it by having an acolyte play the role of her son. Even so, when he pretended to threaten it, the ghost nearly killed him.”

That made Seth stop arguing. Thinking back, while he’d never been threatening to Landon and had gotten on well with him, he had seen the ghost closely watching Sheldon whenever the guard had his shortsword drawn.

“If you followed along with the ghost’s script the whole time,” Levi conceded, “Then maybe the Loss items aren’t dangerous to you, however it is you got them. I haven’t heard of a ghost giving someone a gift when they’re banished, but who knows.”

After that, while his dad was still apprehensive of touching the stuff from Landon himself, he joined Seth sitting on the bed as they went through the backpack. The pair were particularly taken with a set of four thick pens they found that used some kind of ink that was already soaked into the thick brush-like nub.

The original colors were altered by the blue-white tint, but they were labeled blue, green, black, and red. Seth found that they could easily leave thick lines on virtually anything, and comprehensible messages could be written when regular ink would have just left blobby stains. They even could write on skin, but when he made a mark on Levi, it produced a deeply unsettling sensation that prompted his dad to pour Virtue into the area for several minutes.

The day was nearly over, and both were tired by then, so Levi gave Seth another warning as they got ready for bed.

“Even if the ghost could let you use these items without harm, you don’t seem to have the ability to keep other people from being harmed by them.” He said. “You’re probably safe to use them yourself, but you need to be careful about other people even touching them. When I put my hand on the bag, it wasn't that bad, but that pen felt terrible.”

Seth nodded, and they put the candle out.

They were awakened the following morning to a rap on the door and a gruff sailor telling them that the boat had reached Arfeld.