Aurrie yelped again. She took one more step back, bumping into the nightstand next to the bed and knocking an unlit candle onto the ground. Daego turned around to pick it up, only for Aurrie to snatch it out of his hand and hurl it like a discus at Yalch. The projectile soared through the ghost like thin air before snapping into two after hitting the wall behind him.

"What's wrong, Aurrie?" Daego said. Despite his words, the housekeeper's eyes remained fixated on the transparent entity hovering a few feet in front of her face.

"Get outta here, ya wicked spirit!" she cried. She reached over the bed and yanked the blanket off in single motion. "We don't want yer kind around here!" Aurrie rolled the blanket together and snapped it like a whip. The makeshift weapon created a loud crack as it snapped through the air. Like the candle before, it went straight through Yalch, leaving the ghost undisturbed.

"You see a ghost?" Daego asked. He stared into the empty space of the room while creating enough space between him Aurrie so she could continue her barrage of strikes without getting in the way.

"I see him! An' I can hear him too!"

Yalch continued to keep still, the smile on his face soon shifting into a look of boredom as Aurrie hurled the entirety of the blanket at him. Yalch stared at it as it fell to the ground in messy clump. "Are you done?" he asked unenthused as he looked back at Aurrie.

"What do ya want, eh?" Aurrie asked with her fists in front of her body, ready to throw a jab. "I'm nothin' but a housekeeper. Not like I've done anything to deserve a hauntin'!" She then turned to face a startled Daego. "Or maybe it's him you're after 'eh?"

"Me?" Daego pointed at himself while staring at a furious Aurrie. "I haven't done anything wrong! Honest!"

"Tell him that I saw everything!" Yalch floated closer towards the pair, keeping his hands pressed against his sides. Startled, Aurrie looked away from the ghost and back towards the swindler.

"The ghost says he saw everything, Daego!" She stomped her foot on the ground and kept her fists wadded tight. "Now ya really messed up! Big time! We've got a spirit hauntin' us now."

"Oh no..." Daego froze, his eyes staring blankly into space. They turned a bright red as they started to glisten from the tears beginning to form. "That means those girls..."

Aurrie faced Yalch again. "You tellin' me that those girls Daego was talkin' about earlier..."

"They're fine," Yalch replied, his annoyance subsiding. "Well... not really fine. But they're still alive."

Both Aurrie and Yalch watched as Daego buried his face into the palms of his hands. He took in a deep breath, verging on sobbing. The housekeeper gave him a soft jab in the arm, cutting his crying short and making him stand up straight as he rubbed the point of impact.

"Stop yer sobbin'. This spirit here says those two girls you scammed are just fine."

"Really?" Daego blinked a few times and the water that pooled in his eyes subsided.

"Well... not actually fine. But still breathin'."

"So we have a chance to save them."

"We?" Aurrie asked in confusion. She turned her attention to Yalch. "I'm not included in this, am I?"

"Who are you talking to, Aurrie?" Daego asked. He took a few steps forward, walking through the ghost. "I don't see anything."

Yalch sighed as he floated past Daego's body and lingered less than a foot in front of the housekeeper's face. The woman looked less angry and more confused. "I don't have much time to explain everything. I'll just focus on the important details for now. Only a few people can see and hear me."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"And I'm guessin' I'm one of 'em?"

Yalch bobbed up and down. "Yep. And that means you have a special gift. Called Potential."

Aurrie turned her head to the side but kept her eyes fixated on the big, round pupils on Yalch's face. "Right. A gift. To talk to spirts?"

"That's part of it. But there's a lot more to it." Yalch took one finger and pointed towards Aurrie's heart. "There's something special inside of you. But you'll need a special object to activate it. And those girls that the Cutthroats have captured downstairs have one."

"Am I missing something?" Daego called out as he tilted his head to look around the room. "I'm not seeing anything. And your voice is the only one I hear."

"Can you zip yer mouth for a second, Deago?" a frustrated Aurrie replied. She pointed towards the door. "This little spirit fella says that only a few people can see and hear him. So go ahead and go close that door for me so people won't think I'm crazy because I'm talkin' to thin air!"

With a shrug of his shoulders, Deago obliged. With the door shut, he took a seat at the edge of the bed again and focused in the apparently one-sided conversation.

Aurrie took in a deep breath and regained her composure. She stood upright and kept her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Sorry about that... er... what should I call ya?"

"Yalch."

"Right." The housekeeper glanced at Daego. "His name is Yalch."

The swindler waved his hand, looking slightly away from the ghost. "Uh... hello Yalch."

The ghost stayed focused on Aurrie but gave Daego a wave with his back still turned. "Hi. Now, Aurrie. I know this is a lot to ask of you, but Daego is right. Those two girls that were captured by the Cutthroats need all the help they can get."

"But what am I gonna do about it, eh?" Aurrie put a hand over her chest while her other arm angled down towards the floor. "You saw how many Cutthroats are down there! You expect a girl like me and a scrawny troublemaker like Daego to go down there and take on the most dangerous gang in all of Farrowport?"

Yalch made an awkward smile. "When you put it that way... yes."

"What's this new friend of yours saying?" Daego whispered.

"He's saying that we should go downstairs and rescue those girls." Aurrie said bluntly.

"Told you I was right."

"Just because this little ghost said it doesn't mean I'm gonna do it."

"What? Why not?" Daego said as he darted up from his seat. "Clearly, a higher entity is asking you to do this!"

Aurrie closed her eyes and shook her head. "I'm not puttin' my neck on the line for no one! I've learned my lesson before. Especially when it comes to messes that you've gotten us into."

"But it's not like we never got caught in anything too drastic," Daego pleaded. "If this... ghost... you've been talking to is real, then you've got to help me rescue those girls."

"Don't care," Aurrie responded with her eyes still shut. "Not dying for a couple o' nitwits that don't know better than to not trust anyone down in this part o' Farrowport."

"Aurrie, please," Yalch whispered. "I wish I could tell you more. If I could show you what you're capable of, I'm sure you'd change your mind."

"You're gonna have to do a lot more than make promises. That's how those other two got caught, remember? They put too much trust in Daego and look at where they got ‘em."

Yalch paused as he stroked the bottom of his face with his thumb. His angled upwards as he pondered a response. After a moment, he snapped his fingers despite no sound coming out. He looked at Aurrie with his wide, open eyes. "What do you want from life Aurrie?"

"Huh?" she replied, startled.

"Everybody's got goals. Dreams." Yalch lowered himself so that he hovered over the shattered remains of the broken mug that Aurrie dropped. "I'm guessing you don't want to work at this Inn for the rest of your life, right?"

"Of course not!" the housekeeper said with a pout. "Shucks, I don't even want to live in Farrowport!"

"Well, if you don't help rescue those girls, there won't even be a Farrowport!"

Aurrie chuckled. "That’d be a good thing!"

"Then once Farrowport's gone, the rest of the world is going to fall right after! Each nation will topple, one by one."

"I don't believe you." Aurrie's eyes cut towards the ghost. "You're exaggeratin'."

"I'm not!"

"If this is all so important, why don't you find someone else to go help out, huh?"

"I already told you. There are very few people that can actually see me!" Yalch flew in front of Daego's face. Despite him flailing his arms wildly and shouting "Hey!" as loud as he could, the swindler kept his awkward expression fixated on Aurrie. "See? Took me months to find the first girl with Potential. And then about a day to find the other. And we've scouring this island for days in search of another! By the time I found someone else... if I find someone else... it'll be too late!"

Aurrie sighed again. She took a seat on the bed next to Daego and rubbed the back of her neck. "I can't believe I'm letting you talk me into this," she said with exhaustion. "But I'm doin' it because you said there's something for me in all this! You said I had something… special, right?"

"Of course! Don't expect massive riches. That's not what being a Purifier is about."

"A what?"

"To summarize, it's someone chosen to protect the innocent from great evil. Very few people have it. You're one of them. And those two girls are Purifiers too. But don't worry, you won't get wealth but you will get a lot of power."

Aurrie's eyes widened at the last statement. "Power, eh? Why didn't you start with that part?"