By the time we arrived back at Albei’s north gate, the sun had set, and a thick layer of clouds had rolled in, covering the city in night’s dark mantle. Light leaked out of the buildings; it appeared and disappeared as doors opened and closed, as it snuck through gaps in shutters and the people behind them passed by.

A chill wind blew, and more than a few people still walked the streets, but the number decreased even as I watched—the people going indoors where it was warm and light.

Not the hunters from Voorhei, though. We’d gathered just inside the gate, and had no plans except for bloody justice—assuming we could find Borba, of course.

The hunters spread out in a defensive formation around Teila and me. In the forest, this would also be the time when they’d also look for signs of our prey’s passage, but it was impossible among Albei’s cobbled streets. That didn’t stop Mumu from trying, but the result was only a shake of her head.

“As I thought, the city confuses my talents; they’re of no help.”

Okay, then it’s on me. Get your head in the game, Ollie, and focus. Take a breath, and... I opened myself to the land.

It’d been so long since I was among this many people. I’d forgotten how it felt: the hive-like buzz of human lives, wriggling-busy-squirming in burrows made of brick, wood, and stone. In a city, every facet of life was manufactured—the products of human hands, hearts, and minds—working in concert, working in opposition.

There was order, and chaos too. Both were artifacts of intentions made material through everyday actions: the sights, sounds, and smells of human work and human passions.

The area around the gate was dedicated to facilities serving travelers, and I became the lively music spilling out the doors of the inns nearby; the stern entrance to the administrative compound where I’d been held; the cobbled stones worn smooth by the passage of feet and hooves moving towards the stables.

I smelled dung, urine and, for a moment, the breeze stole a whiff of sweet incense as it blew past an open shutter. There was also the heavier smell of blood and raw meat coming from the Butchery, and just under that, the barest hint of rusty-red qi.

I joined with Yuki, as well as the land, and we confirmed the scent as belonging to Borba. We walked, and the hunters moved with us—creating another form of order within the larger patterns of the city.

The breeze blew stronger, picking up more of Borba’s qi. The buildings grew taller; they gained wooden counters out front that were raised for the evening, doubling as shutters. During the day, they’d be lowered in order to display the shop’s goods. At night, they advertised the goods in stylized artwork

The shops abutted each other, often sharing walls, but there were gaps too that acted as narrow alleys. We went into one, and followed a sequence of lefts and straights, moving between buildings and across streets.

Our travels formed three sides of a rectangle as we turned back towards the gate. The scent of Borba’s qi became stronger.

Up ahead, we thought—at the end of the narrow, zig zag alley we’d been following.

From the alley’s exit, we found we had a view of the gate, and from the way the qi lingered it seemed that Borba had stayed here for some time. Perhaps hours—long enough to witness Mumu’s arrival and even our own.

There was blood on the ground, and we followed the trail to a gap between buildings, one barely big enough for Ollie/Eight’s body to fit through. There, deep within, we found the ghost of a young girl sitting on the ground next to her body, her arms hugging her knees, weeping into them.

As we approached, the girl ignored us, lost as she was in the unexpected horror of what had happened to her. We noted how the walls had been splashed red with her blood, how her throat had been torn out and her ribcage slashed open. We also saw that her heart was missing. Borba must’ve taken it. Perhaps it was his snack as he’d watched the gate, as he’d watched Voorhei’s hunters wait for Ollie/Eight to be released from custody.

Was he smug? Did he revel at their ignorance? The signs didn’t answer our questions, and our talent provided no insights. All that we knew was that we were furious.

Behind us, at the gap’s entrance, the hunters whispered, but they were known and trusted. We let them stay dim in our attention as we pulled our favorite knife from its sheath and pushed spirit mana into it. Then we poked a hole in Tenna’s Gift.

Unfortunately, our combined Ollie/Yuki/Eight consciousness couldn’t speak to the dead, so we separated, and I came back to myself with a quick shiver. The street adjacent to the alley had been crawling with ghosts. It didn’t matter much normally, but with Tenna’s Gift disabled, I was potentially putting myself in jeopardy. Seriously, so.

There were monsters among the ghosts, including some similar to the giant lizards I had seen on the way to Albei. They didn’t seem to notice me, tucked away as I was, but I’d have to be careful not to make too much spiritual noise.

The girl didn’t notice me either. Her head was still on her knees, her weeping unabated.

My hand clenched around the knife, and it took a moment get my anger under control. A quick look told me that Teila had followed me into the gap between buildings, but all the other hunters were in the alley behind her. None of them could fit, and they were far enough away they’d not be able to see what I planned to do.

Good, I can make this work.

Teila’s eyes widened when she saw the knife in my hand, and quickly signed, “Where danger?”

“There’s no danger,” I said, also signing, “but a secret.”

“Like Yuki?” she signed, making sure her hands weren’t visible to the other hunters.

“Even more.”

Her expression had been wary, which was understandable given the body and the blood, but that didn’t keep her eyebrows from climbing high in surprise. “How could there be more?”

“I can’t explain now, but I will later.”

Teila would soon become the fifth hunter to know that I could speak with the dead. It should be fine, though, since she’d so far safely kept Yuki’s secret.

When I looked into her eyes, all I saw was confidence—in herself and in me. Teila might only be nine, but she was my hunt sister through and through. She trusted me with her life, and I could trust her with mine.

“What you’re about to see,” I signed, “only a handful of people know about—Mumu, Kesa, Haol, and Ben. Ikfael too, if that’s a comfort. There’s nothing bad in it; I want you to know that.”

“Does this secret need my help?” Teila asked.

I shook my head. “No, just watch my back. Shield me so that the others don’t see what’s about to happen.”

Teila put her hand on my shoulder. “I will.”

“Thank you,” I said, and turned so that I could focus on the ghost. By then, she’d looked up from her weeping, like she’d heard something dangerous nearby.

“Be easy,” I whispered, infusing the words with my will. “No more harm will come to you.”

The ghost’s head snapped to me, and she panicked, backing away in a rush. I realized, then, that I’d made a mistake: my knife was still in my hand. Her eyes were locked on it, and even when I hurriedly sheathed it, the girl didn’t stop. She could’ve easily gone through the walls, and parts of her did, but she was so fixed on me she didn’t notice.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” I raised my hands to show they were empty. “You have my word on it. We’re here to catch the person who hurt you.”

The girl looked down in response, and saw the body on the ground. She froze. “Th-th-that's me.”

“No,” I said, my whispers urgent. “That’s the skin your spirit shed. You are you—whole and inviolable—and you will stay that way if we act quickly. My name is Eight, and the people behind me are hunters from Voorhei. We are chasing a murderer, the same murderer who killed you.”

“I’m dead,” she said, her face anguished.

Some ghosts became trapped in their anger, unable to escape. Others got stuck in their sorrow. This young girl’s temptation was clearly the latter, so I stepped forward to get in between her ghost and her body. That way, she was forced to look at me instead.

“Listen to me, and focus on my words. You’re going to be all right, I promise. I’m going to help you get to a safer place, but first I need to ask some questions.”

The ghost fearfully looked around. “Where am I? What happened? I’m scared.”

“I know, I know, and I’m sorry for keeping you from moving on.” I poured more will into my words, so much so that I felt myself become lightheaded. “Please—what’s your name? That’s an easy question, right? Can you tell me that?”

“N-name?” The girl’s ghost quieted, her gaze settling onto me. “I-it’s Salu. M-my mother gave it to me; she said it was because I’m pretty.”

If I remembered right, a salu was a kind of bird, too small to hunt. “And your mother, is she nearby?”

“No, the shakes took her last year.”

“The shakes? Is that a disease?”

Salu nodded. “It went around the city. The healers and alchemists found a cure, but they’re always slow getting to the walls. The people who live under them don’t matter as much.”

“I’m sorry to hear that—”

“She’s gone, and now I’m gone too.” Salu’s voice began to rise in a panic. “What will Keth and the others do—”

“Hey, hey, easy now,” I said. “Focus on me and my words. We’re talking, yes?”

The budding alarm in the girl’s eyes eased. “Yes.”

Nearby, I heard the scrape of giant claws on stone. The ghosts of the giant-lizard creatures could discover me at any moment, but I had to balance the potential danger with not scaring off Salu’s ghost.

“I have to ask about something difficult. The man who hurt you, do know where he went? Where he might be now?”

The girl hunched in on herself, but she kept her eyes on me. “H-he dragged me here from the alley.” She pointed towards where the hunters were gathered. “And went back that way after he... after he killed me. Then, later, he came again—I saw him pass by—and he went the other direction.” She pointed east.

"That's good. You’re doing fine. Is there anything else you can tell us?”

The girl started to shake her head, and then suddenly reached up to touch her chest.

“Don’t panic. He took your heart—”

“My mother’s necklace,” Salu said, interrupting. “I-it’s gone. Oh, my poor mother. My poor family. The gods were never kind to us.”

I checked the body, and didn’t find any jewelry. If she’d been wearing a necklace, Borba must’ve taken it. And the only reason to do so was because he needed money—for food, a place to stay, and... I didn’t know what else, but I knew that he’d also need a place to pawn or sell the necklace.

Salu placed her face in her hands and began to sob, her shoulders shaking. It tore my heart to see her suffering like that, but I had one more question to ask.

“The necklace, what did it look like?”

Salu didn’t respond, so I placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. That was enough to startle her into looking at me, as if seeing me for the first time.

“How are you doing that?” She put one of her hands over mine, and said, “You’re so warm. C-can I? Can I stay with you?”

I pulled my hand away. “No, I can’t allow that, but I will help you find someplace better.”

Salu looked doubtful, and I saw her lips tremble.

“Truly,” I said. “There’s a much more beautiful place waiting for you, where you’ll get the chance to rest and reflect, before reentering the wheel of life.”

My words were apparently enough to distract Salu from her pain. Suddenly confused, she asked, “The gods won’t take me?”

“Oh, yes, it’d make sense if the gods were involved in what happens after death and—” I stopped, because I realized it was my exhaustion starting to talk instead of me. After a breath to recenter myself, I started again: “I’ve only seen a little bit of what’s on the other side of life, and there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just another journey, and there’ll be those who’ve gone before to guide you.”

Salu looked doubtful.

“I’m telling you I’ve seen it. There was this sugar maker, see? He’d been murdered too, and—” In the distance, I heard the sound of a huge body scraping against one of the buildings. “No, never mind, we don’t have time for that story.”

I tried to recall the feeling, though, from when Bindeise’s ghost had moved on. He’d also suffered in his life, but there’d been a sense of gladness and reunion at the end—a smile on his face and relief. So, I closed my eyes and tried to radiate that feeling, to demonstrate it for Salu.

In many ways, it was like when I’d first started learning to communicate with Yuki, when they were still just the uekisheile, and I had to bundle thoughts and feelings for them. Reunion-relief-home. That was what I was after, and I felt the bundle ripple through me, like a stone dropped into still water.

When I next looked, Salu’s ghost was staring, her mouth open.

"That’s what it was like,” I said.

“And I can have that?”

“Yes, but first tell me about the necklace. I mean, that place, that journey, is yours no matter what. I’d just like you to answer my question first, so that we can catch your killer.”

Salu appeared to gather her resolve. She said, “The necklace was meant to be a spousal gift for when the time came for me to marry. The chain was simple, but gold, and the pendant too; it was in the shape of a salu resting on a branch. They were the only precious things we owned.” The ghost moved closer. “Is that enough?”

I nodded. “Yes, it’s enough.”

“And I can—what did you call it? Move on?”

“Yes.” The girl hadn’t noticed, but the process had already started. From behind her, a warm light glowed. I asked, “Did you have a good relationship with your mother?”

Salu’s brow furrowed. “What are you asking? Of course. She was kind, and gave me mashed corn and milk whenever I was hungry.”

“Then close your eyes, and think of her,” I said. “Hold her in your heart.”

Salu did as I told her, and a moment passed, then two, until the faint outlines of a figure appeared. The spirit was hard to make out, but was clearly matronly. More than that, there was so much love pouring out of her, directed at Salu.

“Open your eyes and turn around,” I said.

Salu did, and she jumped up. “Mam—”

And then the ghost and the light were gone. It was just Teila and me standing in a narrow gap between buildings, the cold remains of a dead body between us.

A notification blinked in mind.

Spirit Arts increased from 9 to 10.

“Eight?” Teila asked, carefully. “Is the ghost gone—did she find her mother?”

“Yes,” I said, feeling drained. “She’s gone. She’s gone, and we have a lead on where Borba will go next.”