Kaetha appeared as the last form she’d taken, Hailey’s younger self, and walked to a pool table, climbing up onto one of its stools.

She was in a simple room built of wood, with a bar on the other side of the room. Pool, as it happened, had made a resurgence within the spirits’ community. Around the table, three other spirits were gathered, playing the game.

The first was Logica, who Kaetha had transported there not long ago, eagerly waiting for her turn. The second was Appenne, who took the form of a green-haired teen. For some reason, he was laughing hysterically, haphazardly placing his weight atop his cue stick. Finally, there was a girl clad in chitin armor, with green beetle wings grown from her back. Her perpetual smile unnerved Kaetha enough to regret hiring the spirit for the job. It was her turn, and she was carefully eyeing the balls on the table.

Logica fiddled with her cue stick, smiling passionately. “Hello, grandma! Why are you back so late?”

Kaetha shook her head. “No way I was late, Logica.”

“I disagree. I calculated you to be here twelve seconds sooner. Why did you take extra time reading her future?”

Kaetha ignored Logica for the moment. “What’s Appenne laughing about?”

Appenne heard her and slammed his arm onto the table, “Hey, Auntie, you gotta hear this! This guy activated my ritual, and it turns out he was Hailey’s brother. How funny a coincidence is that?”

Kaetha rolled her eyes. He was her grandchild, sure, but with about three hundred others, it was difficult to care about the most annoying. Still, they (regrettably) talked often. “Pretty funny,” she said flatly. “Logica, since you’re going to be so precise with predictions, when do you think Brewa will get here?”

The insect spirit hit the cue ball with her stick, sending it forward to ricochet off three balls, two landing into the holes.

Logica waited for the balls to stop moving, then swiftly repositioned and struck the cue ball, launching it into the mass of balls scattered about the table. Each ball ricocheted with precision, bouncing, hitting, deflecting, and glancing off each other perfectly for five to fall into the pool table’s holes. “I predicted he would arrive five minutes earlier.”

“Troubling. He usually gets his sleuthing done early. Insecaba, could you make me the graph wine?”

“Oh, sure, I’d love to do grunt work,” Insecaba said sarcastically. Despite her reservations, however, the spirit of coninsection did just what she was asked with a smile.

“So...about the two souls...since the first one wasn’t sent back to the consciousness for some reason, I made sure to keep around the other one, just in case she slipped away. These damned interruptions are pissing me off. First, we got two of my grandnieces trying to kill Kait, next we had a disappearing soul, which later disappeared for good, and now my informant is late.”

Logica tilted her head in confusion. “Grandma, the chances of such level of annoyances occurring were nearly one-hundred-”

“I know, Logica, I’m just complaining.”

Appenne got a laugh over that one, “HA! You never grow up, grandma!”

“That stings, coming from you.”

“Grandma, why do you dislike Appenne so much? he is quite befuddling, I shall admit, but-”

“He’s got a baby’s sense of humor, and he’s a terrible chef.”

“Isn’t he the spirit of soul-healing food?”

“That’s the irony, Logica.”

“Oh. Haha, Appenne, you’re so silly.” Logica deadpanned to him. She turned back to Kaetha. “I suspect that if something drastic were to happen, Brewa would be here in ten seconds. If he were simply lazy, it would be three more minutes.”

“Maybe you’ll predict right for once...”

7...8...9...10...11...12-

Appearing behind the bar, where Insecaba was pouring Logica a drink, a massive, gruff man appeared, adorning refined, dapper clothes and loads of cool tattoos. Insecaba yelped and spilled some wine in surprise.

“Don’t scare me like that, you baboon!” she said to Brewa.

“Don’t spill wine like that, ye mosquito!”

“Hmph!”

“And hmph to you too!” The spirit of liquidation motioned with his left hand, and the spilled wine floated from the ground back into the glass. “Kaetha, I’d pour your wine, but we gotta talk!”

Kaetha sighed, “Something drastic happened, I presume?”

“You know it.” Brewa walked to the other side of the bar then sat on a stool beside Kaetha. With the two sitting next to each other, Brewa dwarfed his aunt’s form to a humorously drastic degree.

“Spill it out already,” Kaetha said impatiently.

“Sure, auntie. So here’s the deal, Necro’s in real big trouble.”

“What’d he get into this time?”

“I’m getting there! So, turns out that some necromancer is about to use a reimagined soul to create unnatural life. If he manages to, Necro may be punish-”

“STooooOOOoooOppppp.” Kaetha bellowed inhumanly, unable to get a grip on the situation.

“Wha-”

“IIiiiiIIie said stOoPpppeeee.’

“Auntie are you-”

“D--d-dd-d-dD-daaaaarrrrnnnitt.”

“Clearly you aren’t.”

“Wwwwwww-wWeEeeeEEeE need to f-fix this-” she coughed with a disgusting lurch, then shook off her crazed denial. “That’s OUR soul,” she said, rubbing her neck.

Logica butted in, “There is a ninety-nine-point none of you cares chance that your statement is factually true.”

“And...if we let -”

Brewa interrupted, “Can I PLEASE get the full story in, aunt?”

“Yes, we need to act quickly, but yes.”

“Great.” He patted the young Hailey’s head. “Now, since his disciples are his responsibility, the blame’s getting put on him. The consciousness doesn’t seem to know its our fault, at least not yet. So, if the necromancer isn’t stopped, his ritualization rights will be revoked.”

“Oh great, Mr.light and law wants to kill another dozen of my children. Boy, am I glad he overthrew me.”

“Ain’t all doom and gloom, those soul transplant ceremonies take at least a half-day to finish.”

“So long story short, we need to find a necromancer and stop him from creating unnatural life to save Necro. Sounds pretty simple. What’s his motive, create an abomination?”

“No idea, aunt. The spirits I talked to said that his motive was absent in their briefing.”

“It left out the motive...” Inseciaba placed a cup of wine in front of Kaetha. “Oh, thanks for the wine.” Kaetha briefly flashed a smile at her before placing a hand on her mouth in thought. Everyone stared at her for direction before she continued. “Do you all know how we interact with the real world?”

Insecaba shrugged, “Giving mortals revelations through dreams?”

“Yes, that is one way.”

Logica began listing off methods, “There are many ways to do this. A spirit can possess a human in highly specific circumstances, ask for a human’s help while they remain within the Consciousness or perform a specified ritual, request a leave of absence, or rarely be summoned physically into the world. There are also more specialized methods, namely being called upon by a spell.”

Kaetha stood up from her chair and walked to Logica with a smile, “Yes, yes, Logica, you are sooo smart. What do you say we do to gain influence in the real world to stop this necromancer?”

“We could send Kait to stop it? Alternatively, our set of circumstances allows for the possession of Hailey.”

Kaetha scruffled Logica’s head. “Aww, what a smart granddaughter you are!”

“And Appenne, do you still have a connection with Taylor?”

Appenne hadn’t been paying good attention but tried his best to seem at notice. “Uhh, yes, my granny! I still have influence over the ritual room!”

“Tell him there’s a necromancer in his town, and he needs to be stopped from creating unnatural life from the stolen soul at all costs. Do you understand, my bastard grandchild!”

“I’ll ignore your insults to save my uncle Necro!”

“That’s the spirit! Brewa, I need you to keep tabs on the situation. Notify me if anything goes wrong. Insecaba!?”

“Yes, mam!?” The spirit tensed at the greater spirit’s unexpected burst of authority and niceties.

“I need to make sure Hailey doesn’t wake up because we don’t have any other immediate communications with the real world. In the meantime, you will be the sleuth. use your insect control stuff to spy on the spirits.”

“That’s a peculiar request, Kaetha,” she said suspiciously.

“I can tell you don’t like me all too much either. That’s fine. However, I don’t have much of a choice here. The fate of magic rests in my hands. If Kait died, both of us know what happens next.”

“So, where are you going with this?”

“I don’t fully trust you, but I need a sleuth with your ability to spy on lots of people with once. If any spirits plan to use this against me, and they will if they find a way to...”

“Ahh. That’s rough...give me double.”

“Double of what?”

“Give me double the pay.”

“Hard bargain. Sold.” Kaetha didn’t bat an eye. She and the other spirits were paid in magic. It was in their nature to hoard as much as possible to give the denizens of Earth their strength. “Finally, Logica, what will you do?”

“I think my best potential to aid you lies in being a communications adept.”

“Couldn’t care less what that means. You’re a genius so I’m sure a communications adept is too.”

“Why don’t I get that praise...” Appenne whined sarcastically.

“You’re a joke, so I’m sure your food is too.” Kaetha raised her hand into the air dramatically. “Does everyone know their role?!”

“With no doubt,” Logica said.

“Same as ever!” Brewa shouted.

“I’m uncertain, but I’ll justify my big salary,” Insecaba said with a shrug.

Appenne tapped on the pool table. “I mean, I feel like I haven’t been assigned much but-”

“Move out!”

All the spirits beside Logica and Appenne disappeared.

“Well, I hope he’s still in the room...” Appenne sighed.