The soft breeze caressed her face as she sat the final pebble inscribed with a symbol of power down on the garden floor. The Finder's Ritual designed to locate missing people was best used in a place where they most frequented. For Ludger's love of nature, Mirayoung chose the garden in his house's backyard to erect the ritual.

This was evident by the effort invested into the rows of rose bushes and fruit trees, and vegetable plot of leeks, beans and cabbages. Ludger's absence was also greatly felt as some parts were overgrown with weeds, indicating he had not been home for more days than Mirayoung expected.

Her heart sank even more, knowing Ludger well enough that he would task someone else, or even borrow a golem from the administration branch to care for his garden if he were heading for an expedition outside the wall; the lack thereof would hint at a worrying sign.

Charged by Fermand, the Order of Array had aided Mirayoung over the last few days in setting up the array that would enable this ritual. The sigils were complex to engrave and consume much energy. A single wrong stroke would render the symbol powerless, necessitating a complete redo. Even as an archmagus, Mirayoung alone would have taken weeks longer. And she had spent nearly the entire day setting up the array as the sun had set by the time it was ready.

Not only was the array effortful to prepare, it was a difficult ritual to partake in; but no part of Mirayoung grumbled. Ludger was her ex-lover and someone special to her. They had known each other for nearly three centuries, along with a romance that spanned over a decade.

She remembered it was more than hundred and fifty years ago when they both embarked on a three-week quest in Leopall under the request of Queen Ludwina, the then-ruler of Leopall who sought their help to defend against pirates who had unwittingly acquired enchanted weapons, aided by a rogue mage. Those three weeks saw them draw closer to each other till the last night, culminating in the hours of passion in one of the towers of Leopall.

That passionate night also saw Ludger sharing about his spirits, and even conjuring one. The name was Gegak, a spirit born from the erosion and rot of the sea. It could be described as a human-like entity with wide, unfocused eyes and overly smooth translucent skin.

It was a strange but loyal spirit in Ludger's service, and one whose seafaring nature proved crucial to track the pirates. And Ludger, with his love for nature extending to the sea, sailing and everything in between, contracted with many pelagic and seafaring spirits.

Holding this memory in her head, Mirayoung stood at the centre of the ritual and began to weave potent words. Her breathing deepened as her heart beat faster. The arcane energy flowed out from within her, swirling around the intricate array set up for the ritual so much that the pebbles that lined it began to glow.

Unlike using the Cabal Network to trace to an agreed item held by the other person, the Finder's Ritual was more akin to a brute-force approach of identifying the missing person's arcane signature in a given radius. The longer the ritual ran, the more it drained the caster. Mirayoung had enlisted a few arcane gems that she previously stored, pebbling them in the array to help reduce the strain on her own reserve.

It was also more effective on mages, who came with larger arcane reserves since the ritual's name was quite a misnomer as it searched more for an arcane signature than a person itself. An ordinary peasant would be as invisible as the blade of grass in a field to the caster of the ritual.

"Ludger, where're you?" Mirayoung said. The ritual expanded her mind, letting her view the whole Guild like she was atop a now-extinct griffin. From that view, she surveyed the city of mages, seeking the slightest whiff of Ludger's arcane scent. As if the griffin had swooped down on a prey, the view descended till the murky towers in the dark grew in size. Before she knew it, she was traversing through the well-planned alleys, cruising above the lake and watching the clustering mages at the intersection of the Guild's town square returning to their houses.

Like a starving griffin on a feeding frenzy, she devoured any potential signs of an arcane signature that matched with Ludger's, but to no avail. The arcane gems in the array dimmed one after another, till eventually she felt her own reserve being drained rapidly. The ritual's need for arcane sustenance was enormous without her sharing the load with the gems.

Nearly an hour must have passed by now.

"Are you really gone?" Mirayoung muttered to herself, still refusing to break the array. She had gone against all her instincts and rationality, to go this far and last this long. She made herself tremendously vulnerable and while she knew she was in the Guild, known for its unassailable walls and pristine record, a wraith stalked the mages in the night.

She was drained in her own sweat. Her head was heavy and her eyes blurry. Her reserve must have been nearly emptied by now as she breathed harder, obviously weakened by the labour of the spell.

A whisper, perhaps.

A feeble attempt to communicate.

It was not Ludger; that, she was sure.

But it was a familiar scent. Different, yes, but familiar.

Call me by my true name.

What she found, gave her its true name.

Mirayoung recognised the originator and did as bade. A faint glow washed over the garden. The first time she saw Gegak was during the last night of Leopall's quest. Tall like a human and strong as an oak, Gegak struck her as an indomitable spirit that would guard Ludger well.

She saw Gegak again, manifesting by her side. Instead of a towering one that Mirayoung expected, it was a broken spirit missing his bottom half and sprawling on the ground. The cloth that covered his face was tattered, and Gegak's body phased in and out as if losing his corporeality.

She gasped, drew closer to Gegak and applied healing magic despite knowing the futility. Her heart twisted in pain at Gegak's condition, which was telling of Ludger's fate.

"Lady Mirayoung, it really is you. Master Ludger spoke about you." Gegak looked up, his hollow eyes now visible under the torn cloth.

Mirayoung clasped her fingers and muttered an incantation, sending a psychic message to Fermand. Come here now, Fermand. I've Ludger's guardian spirit with me, but not for long. I need your help now to anchor its life force. Between them, they had opened a mental bridge so they could communicate and alert each other of any updates or danger. Now she needed a powerful Tallis magician to help Gegak.

"Tell me," Mirayoung drew close. "What happened? Is Ludger dead?"

Gegak said weakly, "Master Ludger seeks only to apologise for his failings."

"H-he can't be gone," Mirayoung said, her voice dripping with sorrow.

Gegak rasped as he spoke, and she feared she was losing him soon. "The wraith is no normal wraith. It's corrupted, bred and engineered to serve a sinister purpose. Be careful, for it is in the nature of a wraith to finish what it started‒to consume me."

Something flickered in the corner of her vision, prompting her to tilt her neck in the direction and survey the far end of the garden where tall vases were placed against the high opaque fence of Ludger's home. She snapped her fingers and an orb of light flew over, dissipating harsh light that illuminated the whole garden.

"Wraiths. There's one left. That scent...it's here. It feels stronger, way stronger," Gegak said. He was not afraid, but he worried for Mirayoung's safety. "You're in no state to fight it, Mirayoung."

"Not that I can run now," Mirayoung replied, reaching into her highest pocket in her robe to crush an arcane gem and reabsorbing the energy from within. She felt the bothersome bone aches, dizziness, blurriness and an insatiable thirst that came with heavy arcane depletion go away when her reserve was restored a little.

She decided against tapping into the Cabal Source, despite her rights as an archmagus, as it would take time to reposition the protective arrays outside Ludger's house to protect her. Then again, she doubted those were suitable to fight a wraith, which ranked near the top of arguably some of the most troublesome creatures to fight. A wraith was also capable of evolving, with the highest tier of which being an army-level threat that had gone unseen for nearly half a millennium.

My apology. Your message couldn't reach me on time because I was in the Dual Cell. I've sent someone you trust over. Fermand's voice echoed in her head, responding to her psychic message.

"That won't be enough," Gegak said, lying feeble on the ground.

Mirayoung could tell even without Gegak saying it. The feeling in the air was strange, ghastly even. From afar, she could see the slight disturbance along the wall as an almost transparent being shifted ever so slightly, as if with an intent to avoid being spotted. But the archmagus' eyes were firmly affixed on it.

Deathly energy spread out of it in undulating waves. Most mages would not be sensitive to it, but Mirayoung was not like most mages. Her sensitivity to arcane in every form was unparalleled among her peers. As she steeled herself, her mind whisked her back to yesterday's reading in the library on the ravening wraiths. Among the most mysterious of magical entities that prowled the earth, they were easily as troublesome as greater demons; just a different kind of trouble that necessitated a different approach to exorcise.

They attack and move with the instincts of an apex predator. Slow, stealthy and almost invisible, they would spring into action when the best opportunity presented itself, quickly wrapping their skeletal arms around a prey and absorbing all the life and arcane energies in seconds. Every successful kill would put it one step closer to evolving, gaining greater strength, power, agility and even intelligence.

The wraith travelled along the wall, encircling her while looking less and less faded out. It knew it was spotted, but the fact it didn't abandon its plan to attack hinted at confidence, confidence of overcoming Mirayoung in her current fatigued condition. Its feeding instincts were second to none.

It sprang at her, fully materialising its fearsome ghostly appearance. The tattered rags that wrapped around its skeletal body as it hovered inches above the ground, fluttered in the sudden movement. Below it, great furrows formed in the ground from the sheer force of its forward motion as if gigantic claws had dug at it.

Mirayoung remembered the principles of fighting a wraith. Only certain spells would work; a few others would slow and annoy it; and the remaining ones would leave it entirely unfazed. She cast a wordless spell of intense light, causing the wraith to screech with rage, then another spell to reshape the blanket light into hardened light rays. With a dozen in the air, she directed with her mind to spear the wraith.

The wraith lashed at the light rays with its skeletal fingers that caused the hardened light to decay, much to Mirayoung's surprise. Definitely not a basic wraith. But what solidified the horrified look over her face was the presence of a shadow beneath the wraith as the creature became more adroit at fending off the hardened spears of light.

A Shadow Wraith. Mirayoung was alarmed. A wraith with a shadow had evolved twice, going from the restless, vengeful spirit to an intelligent fiend with incredible keenness to hunt that no human, no matter how powerful, would willingly face alone.

Fermand did raise the possibility of an evolved wraith, and that would explain why Ludger had lost if he were ambushed, but a Shadow Wraith was still one of extreme rarity, and danger

"Careful!" Gegak called out.

Severely fatigued, Mirayoung's next casting became a strained one, causing the weaved spell to lag just a little bit. The wraith, in its feeding instinct, exploited it. Swiftly, it wrapped its tattered rags around its body like a cocoon and maneuvered out of the still-forming interlaced net conjured out of light rays. Her usual self would have been utterly mortified by the tardiness of her spell, but exhaustion had a way of stealing all her attention from any feeling of shame.

Now all she felt was the cold touch of death slowly creeping at her, and infecting her heart. She quickened another spell but wondered if she had the time to complete.

Gegak stirred but managed nothing in his weak state.

The wraith slammed against whiteness, but it was no hardened light. The wall of white flame forced the wraith to retreat at once upon the slightest contact.

Empyrean flame? Mirayoung thought.

It shrieked in impotent pain and fury while an ashen scorch mark appeared over the forepart of the dark figure's rags with variegated colours of hoary, black and grey. As its anguished cries faded away, it turned its glowy orbs that were its eyes to the intruder. Under the moonlight, the intruder could see those were baleful like a demon's.

The intruder held an incredibly long spear of pure light, readying a stance to throw it. The wraith evaluated him for a second then it gathered itself, becoming cocoon-like, before blasting off into the darkness.

Jerius still threw it, just as Mirayoung modified her incantation at the last second to form fast-moving light orbs to hunt the wraith with the intention to slow it down. Both spells could barely trail it as it disappeared soon without a trace. Mirayoung remembered one more thing she read about Shadow Wraiths: their speed.

"Jerius? How?" Mirayoung said, connecting the dots but was unable to believe her eyes. "You were the help Fermand said? I'm relieved but what did you do? Cajole your way out?"

"Not too sure. She decided to release me, saying she had misjudged. Oh, she did instruct me about an injured spirit, and passed me some beads that are supposed to help. This must be it," Jerius said, looking down at Gegak who was less corporeal than before the wraith's assault. He spread his palms, revealing multiple beads swirling with tiny spirits that he crushed so that they could scatter over the spirit of erosion and rot of the sea. He rubbed his nose, unable to get used to the briny smell the spirit gave off.

Gegak's corporeality returned by one or two shades.

By this point, her heart had calmed and her mind had sharpened once more. She had guessed how the events had played out as she eventually said, "Where does Fermand want us to meet her?"