12th of Thermidor, 1535

Oleander stumbled back in surprise, inadvertently stepping on a tree branch. Brynn snapped around brandishing a kitchen knife from her pocket.

“Who’s there?” Brynn called as the blue apparition cowered behind her.

“Easy, easy, we don’t mean no harm. Put down that thing before you hurt yourself,” Oleander said as he tried to ease Brynn’s panic.

The knife was still pointed at the two strangers. Moira stepped right up to Brynn and gently pushed her hand down

“We came here to help your family, do not forget that,” Moira explained.

“Father sent you to follow me, didn’t he?”

“No, he would’ve had to pay extra for that,” Oleander remarked.

“Then why did you follow me out here?” Brynn asked.

“With that murderer Comstock on the loose—”

“—He’s not a murderer,” Brynn quickly remarked.

“What makes you so sure?” Moira inquired.

“Father used to invite him and his family over for dinner once every few months. The way he interacted with his wife and children—it just doesn’t make sense. He couldn’t have done it. No way. No how. There has to be some other explanation.”

“Your father offhandedly mentioned Comstock was his business partner, what kind was he and how long did they work together.”

“My father and Mr. Comstock founded the Massenstock Mining Company or just Massenstock for short,” Brynn pointed towards a series of steep hills off in the distance, “It’s in charge of the largest silver mine in all of Morrigan, which sits in the middle of those hills. I think they were partners for twenty years. Henry was born either just before or just after the company was founded.”

“Alright, alright…how’d you summon that ghost?” Oleander couldn’t hold back his curiosity. The spirit’s resemblance to Gabriel was striking with the same shaped eyes, the same nose, same just about everything except for the shape of his face. His hair was also longer. Oleander leaned his head back and asked, “That’s Elijah, isn’t it?”

Brynn nodded. “With all this craziness going on…I never got to say goodbye to Eli. It all happened so quickly, he was buried just a couple of hours after they found him. The funeral was rushed and we went back to staying cooped up in the house. Mum and Addie are barely holding it together.”

Brynn dropped her knife. Her voice quivered, “Mr. Comstock and his family. His kids were so little. I’m-I’m never going to see them again. Maisie’s possessed by some god-forsaken ghost. She keeps screaming that she wants to kill us all. Eli’s gone. I-I just want to crawl up in a little hole. I’ve spent the last few days crying so much that my face feels numb. I-I just don’t know what to do…” Brynn trembled. All her tears felt like barbed wire scraping against her sore face.

Moira gently patted Brynn’s shoulder with her hands still tucked in her sleeves.

“Wait—you understand what your sister was screaming about?” Oleander asked, “From that outburst during dinner?”

Brynn wiped her eyes. “Yeah? Why?”

“That shouldn’t be possible,” Oleander remarked.

“Can’t everyone understand Maisie? Uhm…Eli…say anything.”

The apparition opened its mouth, but only unintelligible mumbling, moans, and whispers came out. Brynn explained, “He said he remembers everything leading up to Maisie chasing him down on the second floor west wing…you two didn’t hear that?”

Oleander and Moira shook their heads. Brynn leaned back against one of the headstones and said, “That’s so strange.”

Moira spoke up, “Have you ever summoned a ghost when someone else was around before?”

“I have but they were only animals. This was my first time trying to summon a person.”

Oleander said, “Show us an animal.”

Brynn reached into her satchel and produced a tooth; By pressing it between her fingers for a moment, the tooth began to glow a bright blue color. The apparition of Elijah dissipated. The residual blue aura swirled around Brynn and then reconstituted as a ghostly mastiff. “This is Guthrie, he's a good boy, he died when I was ten.”

Despite being a ghost, the mastiff acted like a regular dog as it went around both Oleander and Moira, smelling them. Moira shooed the dog back over to Oleander.

The monster hunter picked up the excitable mastiff, “Look at this big ol’ handsome pup.” Oleander was surprised, Guthrie himself was solid to the touch. It appeared that Guthrie was made of a blue translucent glass-like substance, but he fell through Oleander's fingers like smoke when he wanted to get down.

Oleander thought aloud, “He’s a ghost but there’s something off about him.” He stroked his beard, “but how? I don’t see any Signum unless instead, you have a—”

“—A blessing. Yes, I got this from the shrine over there.” Brynn held up her satchel with ornate stitchings of a monster’s face on it, “And I’ve been able to make ghosts ever since. As long as what I’m summoning is dead, and I have a piece of them.”

Moira asked, “What piece do you have of your brother?”

Brynn produced a much smaller tooth from her satchel. “Mum has a habit of keeping our baby teeth in a little jewelry box in her closet. I snuck in and found one from Elijah's.”

Oleander walked over to the dilapidated structure Brynn pointed to. It was an old church that had seen better days. Partway into the rundown building, Oleander discovered what appeared to be the base of a circular water fountain. It was overrun by old, dry vines. The monster hunter ripped off one of the thicker vines; he tried pulling it apart, but it was oddly resilient. He coiled it up and affixed the rope to his belt. Overlooking the empty pool was a marble statue of Careena, the half-human offspring of the God of Light, Orwein. Clasped in her hands was a large halberd with a two pronged point and a large blade.

“During the summers off from Academy, Bret and I would come here to play with Guthrie,” Brynn looked around at all the pews that had succumbed to either wood rot or water damage from parts of the ceiling falling down. She walked over to Oleander.

“That shrine pool used to be filled with this really pretty deep blue water before my father bought up all the property around us. Since the church of Careena members were forced off the land, the water inside slowly disappeared over the next few years. One day, I think it was the year after the church closed, the shrine…called out to us. It was like our mum was holding our hands and bringing us to the shrine, but it was just me and Bret. Floating in the water, I found this satchel and Bret fished out a really pretty quill pen. When he writes with it, the words change to match the language of the person reading it.”

“An omnilingual pen. Useful,” Moira remarked.

“Yup…real handy.” Oleander saw Brynn stare disappointingly at her satchel.

“I take it you don’t get much practice with your blessing?” Oleander asked.

“It took me a while to figure out how my satchel worked in the first place. But after Guthrie died, I missed having him around so much that I kept one of his teeth with me. It was only after placing the tooth in the bag and then taking it out again that I pieced together how summoning worked. Bret and I were so happy when he appeared. Obviously, we brought him inside to show everyone, but they were…anything but happy. Father forbid me from summoning ghosts in the house. He even thought I had something to do with Maisie’s possession at first. I thought I at least understood all of what my satchel could do; but, apparently, I can talk to ghosts now too…I don’t really know how to process that.”

“Well, since you can communicate with them, would you be willing to help us exorcise your sister?” Oleander asked.

“I-I’ve never done anything like that before,” Brynn replied.

“We’ll take care of the hard part, I just need you to converse with the spirit once I free it from Maisie. The thing about malevolent spirits like this…they aren’t just created out of thin air. Whatever this person experienced while they were alive made them this way, I want to figure out what and why, because it might lead to another job further down the road.”

Moira handed Brynn back her kitchen knife. She slid it into her pocket. “Well…if it’ll help Maisie and anyone else, then I’ll do whatever I can.”

*****

Brynn led the duo back into the manor after avoiding the patrolling knights. The three made their way to the second floor’s west wing; it was heavily boarded up with just a small gap underneath for food to be passed through. Brynn placed her ear against the door.

“I can’t hear her. She must be further in.”

Wallace, the butler, arrived with some tools to help strip the boards off the door, but Oleander waved everyone back. With ease, he ripped off every plank. Brynn and Wallace were astounded.

“Alright, that might’ve alerted her. Be ready,” Oleander cautioned. He forced the door open. The monster hunter and spiderkin were set for Maisie to run at them screaming, but she didn’t.

Oleander pushed in the door revealing a pitch-black corridor. Wallace handed each of them a candlestick and lit them.

“Alright, I’ll lead the way, you two stay behind me, be wary of anything that moves,” Oleander explained.

Moira and Brynn nodded.

“Miss Massen—Brynn, do be careful in there. Perish the thought of finding another—”

“I promise, I’ll be careful Wallace.” Brynn gently patted his shoulder to put him at ease, “Maisie needs her big sister more than ever.”

Oleander, Moira, and Brynn marched single-file down the corridor. With each window boarded up, there was no glimmer of moonlight to light their way. As Brynn trekked forward, each shadow that passed against the wall drew her attention. Wall lamps, clocks, and tables holding antiques each made Brynn jump at one point or another. The corridor seemed thinner than usual, almost as if the walls were closing in on them. Brynn grabbed the back of one of Moira’s sleeves just to make her feel safer.

Oleander took out his cigar and lit it off the candle. He drew in some smoke and then blew it out. Instead of dissipating normally, the smoke coiled in on itself into a small, thin stream that moved deliberately through the air. It led them to a split in the hallway. One more puff and smoke trail led them through the left corridor.

“Are you sure we’re going the right way? I still can’t hear her,” Brynn whispered.

The line of smoke dispersed against a door with “study” written across the top.

“We can’t go in there. That’s where father works. Besides, why would Maisie be in there?” Brynn asked.

“In a manor this big, if one only person is supposed to have access to this room, then it’s the perfect hiding place,” Moira explained.

“Just be quiet and get ready then,” Oleander instructed.

He grabbed the doorknob and cautiously opened Gabriel’s study. Something crashed in pitch blackness. The trio’s lights shone into the room—nothing inside. Quickly ushering the girls inside, Oleander shut the door behind them. Oleander consulted with his smoke trails again, but they spread out evenly around the room.

“Damn it, she was in this room too long, her essence is everywhere.”

Cough! Moira and Brynn stood back to back looking around the room. They couldn’t deduce where the noise came from. Brynn’s foot brushed up against something. She stumbled back, almost knocking Moira over, but they caught themselves before tumbling over. Brynn found the source of the earlier crash: two filing cabinets had been knocked over and all the contents had spilled out.

Oleander tried smoking out the room, but no more coughs could be heard. “Holding your breath won’t save you,” Oleander warned.

Brynn and Moira pulled pieces of furniture aside. Oleander tried smoking out the ceiling, but his cigar was almost out. Once everyone had stepped towards one side of the room, a coat rack toppled over and the door opened.

Oleander yelled, “She hid inside one of his goddamned suit jackets!”

Oleander and Moira raced for the door and rushed into the hallway. Something flew out of the darkness—it narrowly passed by Oleander, but knocked into the candle that Moira was holding. The flame was snuffed out before it hit the ground.

On the periphery of Oleander’s candlelight, they could barely make out Maisie—floating in midair. Unkempt hair and soulless eyes that seemingly pulled in the light around them without illuminating her face. Her arms twitched. She swayed uncontrollably from side to side. The movements of her legs seemed labored lick they were weighed down by bags of sand.

Oleander took one step forward, but Maisie flew back a bit. “Maisie, if you’re somewhere in there still, don’t worry we’re here to help you.” He extended out a hand to her.

Maisie levitated over to them. One dark eye turned to a soft blue color. She reached out as well, but her whole body pulled back to the edge of Oleander’s candlelight—almost like she was being yanked by an invisible cord. Her mouth was slow to open, but when it did, she screamed bloody murder at them. Oleander attempted to grab her, but she darted out of the way and flew down the hallway.

Oleander and Moira rushed after the small child, but Brynn wasn’t fast enough to follow the twists and turns Maisie took them on as they disappeared. Brynn tripped on one of the long hallway rugs. Her candle holder and knife tumbled across the floor. She stamped the carpet out before it could catch alight. Brynn was now completely alone. She slammed her back against the wall and shook like a leaf as she heard the sounds of crashing glass and metal off in the distance; It sounded like the chandelier in the parlor room. She couldn’t even imagine where the parlor room was on the second floor now, in her panic, it had all become a blur.

“Darn it, I’m supposed to know this house!” Brynn could stop the shaking in her knees as she was glued to her spot in the wall, too afraid to move. Something else collapsed to the ground, something big and heavy. Suddenly nothing. Chills ran down Brynn’s back as there was no more stirring anywhere around her. She slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. “I don’t know what I’m doing here…wait!”

She reached into her satchel and summoned Guthrie. She grabbed the ethereal mastiff by the face, “I know she was only a baby when you met her, but help me track down Maisie, please.”

The ghost took a moment to register Brynn’s command, but then he immediately tore down the corridor like his life depended on it. The blue aura radiating from his body helped illuminate the way. Guthrie led Brynn on a zig-zagging path through the second floor west wing—she could barely keep up. As Guthrie approached a door at the end of another unlit halfway, he began to dissipated.

“Wait! Wait! Guthrie not yet!” The aura blew apart and then flew back into her satchel. It would be a bit before she could summon him again.

This was it. Guthrie brought her all the way to Maisie. As Brynn wrapped her hand around the doorknob, she could hear faint crying from inside. Her entire arm shook as she opened the door. The flame on her candlestick also jostled a lot as she illuminated the room. There she was, Maisie, sat down in the middle of the room holding her legs close to her chest and weeping into her knees. The soft murmurs of mummy and daddy ripped at Brynn’s heartstrings.

The possessed child looked up towards her older sister with her big blue eyes, “Brynn?” Maisie started heavily sobbing again, “I’m scared, and my head hurts.” Brynn dropped to her knees and laid the candlestick down. Maisie held out her arms like she always did when she was scared of lightning or bugs and wanted to be held. Brynn extended her arms out as well; the disheveled child wailed in agony as she threw herself onto Brynn. “I want momma, I want poppa, I want Eli.” Brynn pulled her little sister in close, “I want them all here too…” Her grip on her little sister’s shirt tightened as she began to tear up herself.

Maisie’s blue eyes darkened until they were pitch-black. A smile grew as she carefully worked her hand towards Brynn’s pocket—Maisie grabbed the knife.