Coral tightened her hand around the bone. The kitchen hadn’t changed. It was still chilly in the room, but so was the rest of the house. She hadn’t really expected the spell to work. Some part of her hadn’t really wanted it to be effective and she could have resorted to the much easier method, though likely more expensive, of using shadowsteel. Both Pearl and Elwin stared at her as Coral twisted in her seat, the voices becoming somewhat distorted as her fingers loosened and the bone sat limply in her hand. She tightened her grip again, and the voices came back clearer.
“Perhaps we should do something to get her attention again. Alvis, go push the door to make it move,” said a brisk, huffy voice of a woman.
“It only scares them. And it doesn’t work half the time,” said a male voice in response.
“Well, we need to do something,” said the huffy woman again. “I’ll not have our new mistress pass us over if it means we can move on from here.”
“She isn’t our mistress,” said a man, his voice much rougher and deeper than the first who had spoken. The voice put her in mind of someone well past their prime. “She’s only bought the place. I don’t work for anyone now. Nor do I intend to. I’m retired.”
“Yes, yes, we all know how you feel about this Egbert,” the huffy woman said dismissively. “Otis, be a dear and push that saucer towards the edge of the table. That should get their attention.”
“What’s the point in getting their attention if they can’t hear us?” said another man, his voice was pleasantly smooth.
“To let them know we are here,” the woman stressed.
Coral’s teacup crept a few centimetres to the left. Elwin and Pearl looked down at the cup as it moved and took up a little speed as it crept across the table seemingly on its own.
“This is hard,” breathed a young boy.
Coral quickly smacked her hand down in front of the cup and frowned around at the room in general. “Don’t you dare. I can hear you. Don’t break any more of my porcelain thank you very much.”
There was a collection of gasps on all sides of her. Pearl’s eyes went wide, pressing her fingers to her cheeks. All at once, everyone spoke, bombarding her with noise that she had to concentrate to hear what was being said.
“You can hear them!” Pearl said quietly.
“What are they saying?” Elwin asked, leaning toward her in anticipation.
“Thank goodness! Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting to speak to someone of a reputable station. You need to help us.”
“How is she supposed to help us exactly Mabelle, talk us to death?”
“Shut your mouth Egbert, and its Mrs. Sapping to you.”
“Sapping, Mabelle, it’s all the same.”
“Can you hear us, truly?”
“I implore you Lady Seaver, your assistance is greatly desired.”
“One at a time,” Coral said as she turned her head to pick up the voices all around her. Her teacup continued to press into her hand gently, though was now slowly making its way up her palm and to the tips of her fingers.
“Otis you can stop now, listen to the Lady of the house,” said the woman waspishly.
“Yes Mrs. Sapping,” said a young boy from Coral’s right. He was so close that he spoke right in her ear. Coral flinched away from it. Both Elwin and Pearl looked alarmed at this. Coral waved them down, indicating that she was fine.
“Lady Seaver, may I introduce myself. I am Mabelle Sapping, Head Housekeeper for-“
“Get those bloody dragons out of the manor before they set something alight,” interrupted the man who Coral thought may have been called Egbert.
“I am trying to speak, will you close your mouth for two minutes,” the brisk voice of Mabelle Sapping, at least she assumed that was her name, said in a huff.
“It’s my favourite lounging place, I don’t want it being burnt down,” said Egbert.
“This is not your home, or lounging place. This manor now belongs to the two young ladies who are trying to help us. Will you stay quiet so I can speak to them.”
“I want those dragons out of the room. The rest of you can talk to them after I’ve said what I want.”
“Some of us don’t want to live in perpetual limbo,” said the man with the smooth voice. “Your issues can wait.”
“Eat dry rot, the lot of you,” grumbled Egbert. “I’m not ready to go on.”
“We know,” came a chorus of ghostly voices.
Coral hadn’t really known what to expect going into this situation. At most, she expected some form of hostility, ominous whispers and coaxing by a lamenting soul. Not arguing ghosts who seemed almost, well, human. It was a little overwhelming, and in her uncertainty, she couldn’t help but snort a laugh as she looked to Pearls half frightened face, and Elwin’s eagerness as he leant even further forward. She was certain Pearl would have expected much of the same as Coral had. In truth, she was a little relieved to know that the ghosts lurking in the manor were simply disgruntled souls very much like any other person.
“They’re arguing,” she told Pearl and Elwin.
“Lady Seaver,” Mabelle Sapping began again. “My name is Mabelle Sapping, and I am glad that you are willing to hear us out. Though you should know I disapprove of your lack of responsibility by not engaging the correct people to assist.”
Coral opened her mouth but was interrupted before she could say anything.
“Don’t dissuade her, Mrs. Sapping. I told you, if they get an Adventurer in, we’re as good as dead,” said the man with the smooth voice.
“We are dead,” said another young woman that hadn’t spoken until now.
“That’s true. If we’re to be absorbed by shadowsteel, we will cease to be nothing more than energy to feed off of.”
“My sister and I don’t agree with such a fate, sir. This is why we have enlisted the help of Elwin Hunt, who is apprenticed by the Adventurer’s Guild,” Coral said quickly, interjecting herself into the conversation. She didn’t know exactly how long they had to speak, and she was wasting time listening to ghost gabble around her.
Pearl sat straighter in her chair, her eyes flicking around the kitchen. Elwin did the same, though his hand now rested to the hilt of his sword that was still sheathed at his waist. Coral wasn’t sure what steel would do against a ghost, but she wasn’t going to call him out on his actions. At least, not at the moment. Coral would make a point of it later, as tells could give an Adventurer away for their actions or nerve, and she wanted Elwin to do well in his chosen career.
“Mrs. Sapping, I’m pleased to be of assistance, if I can manage to do so. I only have a short time to speak to you, but if we can come to an agreement to make everyone’s lives more comfortable, please be quick to tell me and the others what it is you want so that you can move on,” Coral said firmly.
“Move on? My dear I would have moved on when I died. I’ve nothing that ties me here.”
“Nor I. I am quite content to be carrying on with it. My relatives are all done grieving, and I’ve lived my life how I wanted,” said one of the men.
“What, fetching the mistresses things, opening doors and get killed by a ghoul? That’s what you wanted was it?” Egbert said gruffly.
“No,” said the man, his voice cold. “But what’s done is done and I can’t change it. I’ve made my peace and want to move on.”
“I’ve made my peace too,” said the young woman, but was drowned out by another almost instantly.
“I want to move on. My life is done, and I want to continue on to something more eventful than these empty halls.”
“Me too, if you’ll help us,” said the small boy whom Coral thought was called Otis.
“What are they saying?” Pearl said gently, clasping her hands into a tight ball in front of her. “Are Emeric and Ayleth here?”
Coral shook her head.
“They want to move on. Except for a man named Egbert? There is a young boy but I think his name is Otis.” Coral turned her body so that she faced what she thought was the direction the ghosts were congregating. “If you’re content to move on, then what’s keeping you here?” Coral asked the room at large.
“We don’t know. We seem to be stuck here,” said the man with the smooth voice.
“Who is this?” Coral asked.
“Terribly rude of me Lady Seaver, it’s been some years since I have conducted any introductions. My name is Alvis Borthwell. I was employed as a footman and was unfortunately struck down by a Ghoul.”
“Ha, Ghoul?” barked Egbert. “You mean Lady Rayner.”
“Will you be quiet Egbert,” said Alvis darkly. “You’ve had your turn to speak.”
“Mr. Egbert, I have heard your concerns and will adapt to your needs as long as you can cooperate,” Coral said.
“You better be, or you’ll be hearing about it from me if I have to find a new lounging spot,” Mr. Egbert grumbled.
“What is keeping you stuck here if you feel that you’re ready to move on? Have you any underlying needs or anything left unfinished?” Coral asked, deciding it best to ignore Egbert for now.
“No Lady Seaver,” said a small boy.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
“Is this Otis?” Coral asked.
“It is. Otis Morvel, if it please you mistress,” he said from somewhere close beside her, sounding pleased though the sound of his voice wavered, grew quiet and came back clear again. “And I haven’t anything to be concerned about. Though, if you could tell my family that I love them, that would be nice. They’re in town, and I haven’t seen them in the longest time.”
“I’ll see what can be done about that,” Coral said, though she doubted she could pass that message on without earning herself suspicion.
“That’s kind of you. Rather though, I just want to move on.”
“What can be done?” Pearl said, now sitting on the edge of her seat.
“Otis Morvel is asking for a message of love to be given to his family,” Coral told Pearl.
“Oh, we should definitely see what we can do about that,” Pearl said gently.
“The Morvel’s are still in town. Glenna and Nell were buying out the last of the scrolls in Witching Flour the other day in celebration for their grandchild’s birthday,” Elwin said, looking surprised.
“Glenna is my sister,” Otis said, delighted. “Does this mean I’m an uncle?”
“I believe that makes you a Great Uncle,” said a man over the murmur of muffled approving noises.
“Who else am I speaking to?” Coral asked.
“Cicero Bramer,”
“She can’t see you, there’s no need to bow,” huffed Egbert.
“Hazel Mahon,” said the young woman who had been mostly quiet.
“Is that everyone? I thought that perhaps Lord Rayner’s children were still here,” Coral said.
“They are,” Mabelle Sapping said briskly. “They’re preoccupied at the moment. They have something more pressing to attend to and we won’t disturb them.”
Lord Rayner’s children were entirely the reason why Coral was employing the use of a bone conductor to speak to the dead in the first place. If they were here but were elsewhere in the house, she would potentially have to go looking for them. Maybe it had been a better idea to begin looking in the nursery after all.
“Do either of you have anything you want done?” Coral asked.
“No,” came the gentle voice of Hazel.
Coral frowned at Pearl and Elwin, who returned confused looks back at her. If none of the dead wanted anything, why did they linger here in the manor? Had they been dead for so long now that they couldn’t recall what tethered them to this plane of existence? It had been twenty-five years or so, and yes that was a long time, but was it counted in the same way as the living experienced it?
“If you could tell us what happened to Lord Rayner, that would settle anything I have left unresolved,” said the voice of Cicero Bramer.
“He was found guilty of acts of Necromancy and sentenced to death that same day. Lord Rayner was hung then his remains burned.” Coral said, recalling what she had found from the documents Elwin had given her.
“A shame he wasn’t burnt to death,” Alvis said, sounding annoyed. “Did he suffer long? Did he slowly choke to death, or did his neck break and was done with it quick smart?”
“I wouldn’t know. It was quite some time ago and I’ve only come to this town a little over two months past,” Coral said.
A harmony of disappointed groans sounded all around her.
“My day just got even worse. I’m leaving,” said Egbert.
“Don’t lie, I know you’ll just hide out in the corridor,” Cicero said scathingly.
There was a response, but it sounded muffled, as though someone were speaking through a pillow. Coral’s fingers were wrapped tightly around the bone, unless the duration of the spell was coming to a close, she could only assume that Egbert really had left the room and cried out a response from elsewhere.
“Of all the people to be stuck with, it’s with him,” said Mrs. Sapping with distaste dripping from each syllable.
“Has he left?” Coral asked. Both Pearl and Elwin looked like they were bursting to ask what conversation was taking place.
“He isn’t in the kitchen, if that’s what you mean. None of us can technically leave,” said Mrs. Sapping.
“I’d appreciate it if you could. Leave that is,” Coral said. “Are all of you who remain in this kitchen, or are there more of you?”
“There’s the children and the other,” Hazel said softly but was drowned out almost instantly.
“We can’t,” Mrs Sapping said waspishly. “That’s why we require your help. Something is blocking us from moving on. None of us, except for perhaps Egbert, are here willingly. We all want to be done with this nonsense. It’s terribly boring,” Mrs Sapping said.
“What is stopping you then?” Coral said feeling as though she were finally getting somewhere.
“We don’t know.”
Coral sat quietly for several more seconds, expecting more. No one spoke, and she struggled to not let out her own groan of frustration.
“Could you elaborate?” Coral prompted.
“It’s hard to describe,” Alvis said contemplatively. “Its like, well. Nothing, and yet everything all at once.”
“Yes, like that. Except I would describe it more of a push and pull feeling,” Cicero supplied.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” huffed Mrs Sapping. “It’s an energy field. Similar to the sensation one has to magic, that odd tingle that you can sense. Or static electricity. Or a magnet.”
“You’re here because of a magnetic field?” Coral said. That was interesting. Elwin’s eyebrows shot up, appearing to agree with her as well.
“Precisely. It’s all over the manor grounds. It prevents us from leaving the immediate area. Poor Hazel hasn’t been able to leave the manor at all. I myself can wander the grounds of the manor, but I can’t leave past the wall. We have all tried, and failed,” Mrs Sapping said.
“What happens when you try to leave?”
“Nothing. There’s a barrier that prevents us from going any further. I can’t even inch a toe past the wall,” Alvis said.
“Is there anything else you can tell me about it?”
“It’s irritating,” came the muffled voice of Egbert. Coral supposed he really had been hiding out in the corridor after all.
“Irritating?” Coral asked.
“Only that it won’t let us move on. We’ve all made peace with our deaths, as unfortunate as they were,” Mrs Sapping said.
Coral tapped her finger against the table, thinking for a moment before she said. “Alright, my sister and I will see about what we can find about this magical field that is keeping you stuck here. I cannot guarantee results. In exchange,” Coral said and there was a ruckus of indignant spluttering from whom only Coral could assume was Egbert and general agreeable ‘hhmm’s from the others. “I would like us all to cooperate. I intend to turn this manor into a profitable inn. Reputation is everything to attract guests. I cannot have any potential clientele terrified out of their mind as they come here.”
“We aren’t terrifying anyone,” huffed Mrs Sapping.
Coral crossed her arms and looked in the general direction she thought the ghosts were standing. At the very least, it sounded as though Mrs Sapping were standing somewhere to her left. “You have terrified my poor sister since the moment we came here,” she pointed out.
“I object to any such notion. If anything, we were trying to be hospitable. It’s a hard habit to break when you spend fifteen years as a footman. I’m bound to open a door or two when I can see you entering or leaving,” Cicero Bramer said.
“It’s unnerving when no one is there to see. And when I have seen you, you appear as a tall dark silhouette looming over me or in the corridors.”
“I’m hardly looming. I’m simply tall,” Cicero said lightly. “Any manifestations have purely been in the interest of your safety.”
“Or curiosity,” added Alvis.
“We have precious little to keep us preoccupied. Save for keeping the young ones entertained or staying clear of Lady Rayner,” Mrs Sapping said sadly.
Coral loosened her arms. “Lady Rayner is passed on.”
“If only that were true,” sighed Mrs Sapping. “She’s down in the basement as we speak, the poor dear.”
Coral froze, and then quite involuntarily looked down at the floor, as though she could see the basement below her. She took a moment to compose herself and to push the shock of cold dread that snaked its way through her veins, then looked up.
“Someone mentioned earlier that you knew that Lady Rayner was a ghoul,” Coral said. Elwin looked shocked at this piece of information. She hadn’t disclosed that with anyone besides Pearl and Crowcaller when she was no longer delirious. “As it happens, I witnessed her demise, and she is no more. Her body has been burned to ash only a few days ago.”
“And her spirit has returned to the manor once again. That magical, magnetic field has us all trapped,” Mrs Sapping said. “She’s been holding up in the basement for years, slowly going insane. She could leave the grounds, having possessed a physical body, but she always returned to the basement after feeding.”
Coral held still for a moment as she absorbed Mrs. Sapping’s words. “No,” Coral said sharply, unwilling to accept this.
“Yes,” insisted Mrs Sapping and Cicero.
“What is it,” Pearl whispered, inching closer to Coral.
Coral looked at Pearl, then at the door from the kitchen that led through the cold storeroom and down to the basement. She quickly got to her feet and shut it, attempting to not make a sound as she firmly closed it. Coral backed away from the door and turned to Elwin, her mouth trying to form the words, but they seemed to catch in her throat.
Mrs Sapping had said that Lady Rayner had been going insane. The exact type of ghost she did not want to encounter. Somehow, knowing that Lady Rayner no longer possessed a body was more frightening than when she was a ghoul. Ghosts didn’t need a physical body to hurt the living. As a ghoul, there was a chance to fight back, slim as it had been. How could she fight something that was incorporeal. Over time, ghosts that didn’t find solace became more volatile and dangerous, lashing out at the living. Coral had seen the crazed way the ghoul, or Lady Rayner more accurately, had come after her and the apprentices. Was it a product of becoming a ghoul that would make one’s soul corrupted? Had Lady Rayner been trapped inside the body, forced to feed to keep herself going? Or was it intentional and she had been tortured by her husband and forced into a ritual that would change her into such a creature, and now was subject to a more beastly behaviour. Would the ghost of Lady Rayner be cognitive now that she was free of the body, or would she be driven by anger and confusion over her state of being.
If Coral had been forced into such an existence, she too would go insane. Coral grabbed at her skirt and bunched the material in her hands, hitching the hem up a little as though she were preparing to run. Not that she could with her leg patched up as it was.
“Don’t be alarmed,” Mrs Sapping said. “Lady Rayner is lucid for once, well, partially. That’s why the children are down there. They so rarely got to be with their mother over the years. Oh, if I wasn’t caught here in this fishbowl, I would have followed that evil man to the ends of the world to torment him. It’s a real shame he didn’t suffer for nearly as long as he ought to.”
“You don’t have it in you to haunt a monster like Lord Rayner. Egbert on the other hand, if he had any sense of ambition, he’d be best suited to the task.” said Cicero placatingly. “It would be comforting to know Lord Rayner had met some form of justice and was boiled alive or some such.”
“Personally, I’d have preferred him to be hung, drawn and quartered. Suitably ghastly for such a man,” said Alvis, as though he were merely commenting on the weather.
“If you’re quite done, gentleman. Let’s not get drawn into one of your debates about a suitable punishment for the man,” chastised Mrs Sapping.
“Do all the residents of Direwood return to the manor when they die?” Coral said quietly.
Both Pearl and Elwin, who had watched her cross the room and close the door with confusion, now looked positively alarmed.
“I wouldn’t know. We can’t leave to find out, and no others ever come calling,” Mrs Sapping said. A breath of cold air passed over her, which sent a shiver down her spine. Coral clutched at her skirt a little tighter, the bone pressing hard into her hand.
“Lady Rayner doesn’t seem to be capable of leaving the basement,” Mrs Sapping said scathingly. “I would stay clear if you value your own livelihood. She was most angry when she first arrived. Gave us all a shock she did.”
Coral released her skirt and took a steadying breath. “I can’t. I need to arrange for the tunnel to be closed up, lest the undead filter in through the basement and cause havoc at mid-winter.”
“The undead have rarely come through the manor, they’re after the living. There’s nothing here for them, merely amble about in the grounds until morning. Someone always comes to collect them, if any,” Alvis said.
“I’m living,” Coral stated. “There is a tunnel straight from the cemetery through to the manor. Pearl and I will be easy meal pickings for those that come through. I must have it blocked off at both ends.”
“I have been curious about that,” Cicero said. “Happens like clockwork every year. The undead will amble about like lost dogs right after the surge.”
“The surge?” Coral asked, her mind still half focused on the basement below.
“Every midwinter, the same energy that keeps us here builds up and then surges out all over the manor. I thought it went further, spreading out to town, but obviously I have no way of telling,” he explained.
It was too much of a coincidence for Coral to dismiss the connection. A two-decade long anniversary of the undead rising each midwinter. A magical energy that tethered souls to the manor. Lord Rayner being a necromancer and his own wife a ghoul. The manor seemed to be the centre of it all. And now, instead of an angry ghoul in her basement, she had a partially lucid, potentially dangerous ghost.
Having Moonflower Inn up and running in time for mid-winter was rather bleak. At least then she would have more Adventurer’s around to deal with this situation. Coral had to face it. This was too big of a task that she could handle. She would have to enlist the help of an Adventurer.
“Who was it that was sending me messages to go down to the basement? Were you trying to have me killed?” Coral asked.
“Certainly not,” Cicero said.
“The children merely wanted your help, and to warn you only when she was not down there,” Mrs Sapping said, though she sounded quieter now.
“It’s difficult for us to interact with the-. I can only move-,” Alvis was saying, though his words were cutting in and out.
Coral squeezed her hand around the bone conductor, trying to encourage the spell to keep working beneath her touch. The spell was done, and all subtle sounds from the ghosts surrounding them in the kitchen went dull, and then completely silent.
“Now that you can’t argue with me, I better not catch any of you in my bathroom again. Or any of the guests,” she threatened, hoping she didn’t need the bone conductor for the dead to hear her too.