A Trickle of Soulfyre

Chapter 31: Exorcism

Tolorn's lanky form stepped out of the shadows after Favian, his pale hair a beacon of brightness. His serious eyes studied the room for any assailants.

Gazana emerged behind him, arranging her rope in a coil at her waist with expert fingers. Her hazel eyes, so alight with life and laughter on her wedding day, were now hollow and rimmed with dark circles betraying her sleepless nights. Even so, she mustered up a smile for Lyrani.

Then she fell to the ground, writhing.

Tolorn and Lyrani rushed to her side. Panic froze her as she looked down at her friend, who curled in on herself, blocking her ears. Tolorn pulled a set of earmuffs out of his satchel and clamped it on either side of Gazana's head.

She had calmed by the time Favian released Meiyla to run to her. She went still before Favian helped her upright, her eyes squeezed shut.

Behind Favian, Meiyla bristled, keeping her distance from the scene. Lyrani put a hand on Gazana's shoulder to steady her, not knowing what else to do to help, not understanding how the agony that afflicted her could be cured. All she knew was that Gazana appreciated her because she gave her a weak smile as she opened her eyes.

They seemed to have aged by decades. "There are too many of them, and they're too loud, too angry." She shook her head, pressing the earmuffs against her ears.

"They must have something to say." Favian knelt beside Gazana, keeping his broad, strong hand on the small of her back.

Lyrani's skin crawled. She remembered that he used to touch her like that, and she had enjoyed it. Those days were long gone, but, like the spectres surrounding them, a shadow of it would always remain.

Gazana glanced at Favian. "I agree."

"Ask them what it is," said Tolorn where he sat beside Gazana, holding her upright.

They must be talking about the spirits. Lyrani had had her fair share of encounters with the restless dead, but she had never developed this familiarity with them. Ghosts were to Gazana and her team what criminals and smugglers were to Lyrani.

"Just one of you speak, please!" Gazana screamed into the emptiness of the cavern, desperate to be heard among the voices filling her mind. She must've succeeded, because she slid the earmuffs off her head, handing it back to Tolorn with a murmured thanks.

Meiyla shrunk even further back. Lyrani held her ground beside Gazana even as she shared her partner's unease.

Seeing Gazana contorted in the paralysing agony of the spirits she spoke to as she spoke to elves, Lyrani realised communicating with the dead was one bane she wouldn't bear, not even for shortcuts through the Spirit Realm or a murderer's name from the mouth of his victim.

"Yes, hello. You may speak." Gazana's voice was steadier now. She waved Favian and Tolorn away as she stared ahead of herself at a presence Lyrani could sense but not see. "It's nice to meet you, Jand. I'm Gazana Ailk, the head of ECISI's paranormal unit. Those imposters, you mean?" she pointed at Lyrani and Meiyla, still in their half-elf disguises, without looking at them.

Lyrani's cheeks burned. If the ghost halflings could tell she and Meiyla weren't one of them, would they have been fooled had they been alive? Or had this ridiculous disguise been doomed to fail?

"They're also agents who came here to help you." Gazana hung her head. "We were too late, we know. We're sorry that we couldn't save you." Her voice quivered.

Lyrani's eyes prickled, and she squeezed them closed. It was too devastating, all the mutilated, scattered corpses, the abandoned baby that was the last of his people. Her only consolation was that the halflings had been dead before her briefing, but that didn't make her feel much better.