The ghost seer beckoned Pan into a crevice. Pan paused.

She didn’t like the look of the dead seer. The ghost had become shriveled and blue. Maybe, the ghost seer showed anger with a scarier look.

Does it even matter?

Given the choice between the ghost seer and the rasping shadow, Pan chose the ghost seer. She might have to fend off the seer’s dead body, but the thing looked fragile. She could take it.

She pulled herself into the crevice and moved deep. She even moved through and behind the seer’s spirit. A momentary chill captured Pan’s body.

The crevice led out into another tunnel. Pan slid for it.

“Stop,” the ghost seer called.

Pan obeyed. Then, she flicked off her light and waited.

In silence, Pan and the ghost stood together. Pan couldn’t see the angry spirit, but she felt her. The ghost formed a cool mist right by Pan’s elbow.

The rasp came down the tunnel. A deep sound filled the crevice, and Pan realized she’d heard the same sound from the pit. It was a constant hum, so like a man’s voice, caught at one point in a chant.

The presence waited by their crevice, but Pan felt strangely calm. She knew it would pass. It did. It moved forward. In the darkness, a haze of red drifted by, but that should be impossible. Pan’s eyes lay under a blanket of black. Usually that obscured even ghosts from her sight. As the thing passed, the red faded, but Pan still felt its un-Scaldy presence and the electrical tickle it sent over the rock.

The force of nature left. Pan turned on her light.

The ghost floated eye to eye. “Reaper…”

“Yes. We’ve established that. Now, what the hell are you?”

“You’re more than ghost seer. You’re telekinetic. Help me.” The ghost gestured for Pan to follow.

Pan narrowed her eyes. “You want me to take you out of the mine? Because it looked more like a trap. You can move your own body. Escape the mine yourself.”

The ghost shook her head. “No. No energy when you aren’t here. And, it’s not a trap. I just wanted you to see me.”

Pan saw glittering silver around the ghost and knew the ghost spoke the truth. She squinted. “You want me to help you…even after I abandoned you?”

The ghost nodded.

Pan remembered the ghost’s mummified corpse. She had crawled into a tunnel to find and rescue it, only to be spooked by its movement. This time, Pan would just use her telekinesis. She didn’t have to crawl into the wormlike tunnel. Pan didn’t know how the ghost guessed her third power, but now, it worked to her advantage.

“I won’t reap you. I already have your ability. I don’t want more of it.”

“Just get me out,” the ghost whispered.

“Alright. I’ll rescue you, but don’t move your body.”

The ghost nodded.

“We move fast. I need to be out of here. You know I’m a reaper, and I came for your friends.” Pan gestured for the ghost to lead.

The deceased seer hurried, and Pan set her light ahead, even though it could attract attention. She hoped that maybe Aria and the others might distract themselves as well as the miner and other spirits.

No, she knew they would. How did she know that? Sotir – he unwittingly shared his power.

Oh, they didn’t think this through. With a smile, Pan drew on Sotir’s power and saw a path ahead.

“Do you hear that?” Aria asked. She peered into the darkness and thought she saw sparks.

“Uh oh.” Sotir stepped back.

Casimir and Alban spun around. Their auras moved like flames, whipped about on candle-tops. Aria stared deep into the tunnel. Gavain took her arm. Sotir started to move back.

Aria saw it. A man approached, tinged in red. Tiny red pinpricks peered from spheres of darkness. He held a pickaxe and dragged it along the wall. For the first time, Aria had some idea what Pan’s drawings looked like.

“Oh.” Aria backpedaled.

“What? What do you see?” Gavain asked.

“That is rather intimidating,” Sotir said.

The ghost miner began to sing a rhyme.

Sotir grabbed Aria. He pushed her back the way they’d come. “Run!”

Alban, Gavain, and Casimir didn’t move. They couldn’t see the ghost because they weren’t arcane. But, their lights dimmed. Gavain started after Aria. Alban and Casimir held their ground.

“We’re going on,” Casimir called.

“Don’t approach Pan!” Sotir warned.

“Like hell we won’t,” Alban muttered.

Sotir turned around, ready to set Alban straight. Aria paused too. She looked back and saw Casimir and Alban by the light of their auras. The ghost’s red aura started to swallow them. It reached for Aria and Sotir.

Sotir growled. “We have to go.” He pushed Aria again. “They might make a mistake anyway.”

Aria followed Sotir. Gavain followed her. She didn’t need light to see, and Gavain’s light bounced so much, she ignored it. She relied on the trail they’d left. It looked like snail slime, but attractive instead of revolting. It glowed in shades of blue, red, yellow, purple, and even green.

As he ran, Gavain asked, “Will they be alright?”

Between breaths, Aria answered, “Panphila always says that if you can see them, they can touch you, and if they can touch you, they can hurt you. It works the other way too”.

“If you can’t see them, they can’t touch you, and they can’t hurt you. I guess I could have stayed.” Gavain’s steps thundered behind. He could probably pass Aria, but he chose not to.

“I don’t think I can run too far.” Aria touched a stitch in her side.

“You don’t have to. We can hide ahead.” Sotir pulled her into a side tunnel. He veered down another tunnel and stopped. He snatched the light from Gavain and switched it off.

The miner’s song reached their ears and passed into the first turn off. The ghost came closer.

“This is a terrible idea,” Gavain whispered.

Sotir hit him lightly. Aria heard the soft thump, but more so, she watched the action. Sotir’s aura flared orange. It bopped Gavain, whose aura took on a grey hue.

Aria turned her eyes to the tunnel. Sparks passed. They fizzled inside an aura of red. Aria didn’t see the ghost that made the sparks. Ghosts couldn’t be seen in total darkness. The aura and sparks moved beyond their hiding place and continued away. The miner’s song followed.

Several moments later, Sotir broke the silence, “We missed a chance to get Pan. But, luckily, so did Casimir and Alban. They’re on the wrong path. Call them.”

Aria raised the com to her lips and pressed the button.

At the worm tunnel – the seer’s final resting place – Pan paused. She knew that the miner pursued her friends. They would get away, but they’d be delayed.

Pan smiled. She loved Sotir’s power. At least, she loved the watered-down version. He could still predict ahead of her, and he could make time trees. Under the power sharing method, she couldn’t hope for either skill, but she didn’t have to. She had to react to him in real time. Coupled with her other powers, she had him outmatched.

She looked at the dead ghost seer. “We’re getting out of here. I promise you that.”

Pan closed her eyes, reached out her hand, and imagined the ghost seer’s body, laying in its mummified state. Pan took a deep breath and pulled. The body probably moved down the tunnel, but it was a full minute before Pan heard it bump along. The body snagged, but Pan redoubled her efforts and pulled it through. She opened her eyes to the sound of fabric and leather scraping rock.

The ghost seer’s body spilled from the tunnel.

With less precision and less effort, Pan levitated the body. It floated, grotesque and mummified, but a sheer joy to her new found friend. The ghost seer’s ghost grinned and danced in the cave.

“Lead the way. I want to be out of here.”

The ghost mock-skipped. She traveled up and out of the cave, skipped her way down the hall, and led Pan to the other cave entrance. The body floated along behind.

The mine lights flashed on. The intercom cried, a shrill and piercing sound. Pan jumped, the body dropped, and the ghost spun in an angry circle.

Pan whirled and found herself in bright tunnels.

“Pan, please answer. It’s Aria. We’ve been chased all the way back to the beginning of the mine by a miner’s ghost. Sotir says we might miss you.”

Lies.

They didn’t find themselves at the beginning of the mine. Pan saw them elsewhere, standing in a huddled group of five.

Aria is telling me lies?

Aria sighed. “If we fail at tracking you, they might call additional arcanes. Already, they have the mine’s exits surrounded.”

Not my exit.

“Please, please answer.” That part sounded desperate and genuine.

Pan would find out if that tone of voice rang true. She looked at the ghost seer and held up a single finger. She strode to the intercom and put her hand to the button.

“Are you alone?” Pan asked.

A short pause. “Yes, yes. I’m alone.”

Pan smiled. “No, you’re not. Alone means sans Sotir. And, sans those other guys you have with you.”

Aria went quiet.

“You didn’t think this through. You see, I can use Sotir’s power, and it’s damn useful. Can you be alone?” Pan waited.

“I don’t think so.”

Pan sighed. She pressed the button. “Well, then, there’s not a lot that can be said between us.”

The ghost seer tapped a nonexistent foot. Pan saw the motion in her leg. Pan held up a finger to say give me one minute.

The intercom made a shrill squeak, and again, Aria’s voice rang through the tunnels. “Pan, I want to help you. I want you to come home. You haven’t...killed anyone. So, why can’t you just come home?”

“I’m not coming home. You won’t get that.” Pan bowed her head. She lived a life of secrecy and shame, knowing she was a reaper. She’d rather not live like that anymore.

“If you’d just…”

Pan hissed, “Pick something else.”

“Alright, I just want to talk to you then. I just want to know. Why do you want to do this? What are you going to do?” Aria’s voice sounded airy and tinny coming from the intercom above Pan’s head.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Pan took a deep breath. She glanced at the ghost and found the deceased seer watching her with serious, almost piteous intent.

“What I’m going to do. By now, you can ask Sotir. I’m sure his vision has cleared up. Why am I doing this?” Pan thought about the best way to say it. “You know what I am. That I’m a reaper. That Brynn is a reaper and killed five more before me?”

“I...know all that. I’m having trouble believing it to be honest.”

“Believe it, Aria. It’s all true. That’s why I can’t come back. Do you honestly think that the arcanes and Scaldin population at large will want a reaper in their midst?”

“I think that many people have forgotten what the reapers did and…”

Pan hit the button and interrupted, “Brynn seems to think you need a reminder. Brynn thinks it matters a great deal to have a reaper among other arcanes and Scaldin citizens. She’s older and wiser, Aria. How can you discount that she might know this situation better than myself, or you?”

A pause followed.

“You don’t believe she’s wiser.” Aria sighed. “If you won’t talk to me, will you talk to the Ambassador?”

“Why not?” Pan leaned against the wall and kept her finger on the button. “Put him on.” She got comfortable and smiled at the ghost seer.

The ghost bowed her mummified head. Definite pity leaked from the spirit, taking the form of colors, leaching towards Pan.

What Aria sees…

“Hello Pan. My name is Ambassador Gavain Alpian of Farbe. I understand you’re worried about your freedom. Can we talk about what would make you comfortable enough to return with us?”

“We can, but I don’t think we’ll find an answer,” Pan said.

“We might. First, tell me what you’re afraid of.”

Pan considered the question. She had a great many fears. “I’m afraid of being sent to some kind of prison. I’m afraid I’ll lose my chance to have any kind of normal life. Scratch that, I’ve already lost it.”

“Well, if you run away, you have,” Gavain said. “If you return, maybe not.”

Pan sneered. “Who’s going to let a reaper enter into a marriage? Who’s going to let a reaper have children? I’m not stupid. Brynn doesn’t have any children. At the very least, she’ll make sure I don’t.”

“Which is why you think you need to get rid of her.”

“No! I have to get rid of her because...because…”

Why did Pan need to get rid of Brynn? She could never have the life she wanted, and that was her fault not Brynn’s. She could avenge the reapers’ deaths, but they never asked for it. Pan felt she had to do it. She had to defeat Brynn because…

“I hate her! I hate her more than any living thing on Scaldigir. I hate her for what she did. I hate her for what she said.”

“What did she say?” Aria interjected.

“She said I’m…” Pan paused.

She wanted to tell Aria how Brynn called Pan a bad reaper – bad at the thing most intrinsic to herself. Instead, a flurry of images ran through her mind. She saw Sotir. He took her hand. Another man held her at gunpoint, and Casimir waved her closer, with sympathetic eyes.

“What exactly did she say?” Aria pleaded.

Sotir and the others drew near. One setback from the miner, and then, they would have her.

Pan hit the intercom button. “Aria, I have to go now. Just forget about this. Forget about me.”

Pan took her hand from the button and levitated the ghost seer’s body. She walked, sure of the route to the second cave entrance. The ghost seer followed, still leaking pity.

“Pan, please come back,” Aria cried.

The ambassador’s voice followed. “We can make a deal with you, Pan. You can choose to wear the zap cuff while you’re evaluated, or you can stay in a containment box with some willing peers for company. Just until you prove yourself. We don’t have to leave the mine or return to Pittura, until we have a solution that satisfies you.”

Screw that.

Pan just realized that the others heard Aria’s half of the conversation. It rang through the tunnels. They could deduce Pan’s vulnerabilities, and she felt so naked.

Pan squeezed into the second cave entrance and left the lantern light behind.

Aria put her head in her hands. She huddled between two support frames. They emitted grey auras, and she felt that she sat inside the shadow, even with the mine lights active.

All of the men, minus Gavain, left during the conversation. They hoped to trick Pan into believing the wrong timeline. Sotir had a good deal more experience as a seer than Pan, and he knew what mistakes she would make. Now, Alban, Sotir, and Casimir raced after Pan, hoping to catch her. Aria feared that Sotir underestimated Pan’s grasp of his power.

Gavain touched Aria’s shoulders. “She sounds scared.”

Aria lifted her head. “She sounds mad. I don’t know what to do. She’s gotten so stubborn.” Aria had watched Pan slowly gain control of her temper as the years wore on, and they grew up. Though, Pan could still get very angry, Aria always had a fair chance of helping Pan see reason, even when Pan reached peak anger. “I don’t think I’ve read her wrong all these years, but I can’t see her aura. Maybe, I can’t know.”

“I did no better than you. She’s set her mind on this. I wonder what Brynn said to make Pan hate her so much.” Gavain held out his hand, and tendrils of pink reached to Aria’s.

With care, Aria took his hand. “Do you know how you appear to me?”

“I think you said I’m yellow and purple, which means...I’m friendly and...what was it?”

“Confident,” Aria said.

“Right.” Gavain looked at Aria.

She avoided his eyes.

“I don’t know what the rest of it looks like, but I know there’s more,” he said.

“You have a lot of interesting emotions.” Aria smiled. “I think some of them may be unwarranted, at least as of yet.”

“Oh, they’re not.” Gavain squeezed her hand. “Those feelings are probably there because I’m not very complicated. What you see is what I am.”

“You’re not a secret reaper?” Aria asked. “No family secrets? Unreported crimes? Tax evasion?”

Gavain laughed. “No. None of that.”

Aria took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She thought of Pan. Suddenly, she could see Pan, like the subject of a dream. Pan picked her way down a steep, rocky surface. Aria saw too few details to guess the location. What fascinated Aria about the image was Pan herself. Aria had never seen Pan without an aura before. She always saw Pan’s inner workings more than she saw Pan’s physical body. Aria examined the vision. Pan looked exactly as Sotir described, including the grim demeanor.

“Do you think I misjudged her?” Aria opened her eyes.

Soft hues of yellow, lavender, and pink crept towards her, like fog. Aria’s aura soaked it in, and she felt a twinge of embarrassment. Her near constant blue gave way to orange. She felt herself grow warm. She’d never had this kind of interaction with a strange man before.

The person whose aura most flowed into hers was Pan’s. Pan shared a connection to Aria. Pan’s aura always stretched to greet Aria. It wrapped her after strenuous jobs. It comforted Aria on the rare occasion that other arcanes still teased her. Aria shared other close relationships. Other auras sought hers, but Pan’s showed dedicated care. Pan was a good friend. She was Aria’s best.

Gavain answered, “I don’t know if you’ve misjudged her. It’s too early to say, and it’s possible for people to change.”

“But, she hasn’t.”

“Okay,” Gavain said slowly.

“I choose to believe she’s a good person, based on what I know of her. If we can just talk face to face, this whole thing will be over. I know Pan, and I know she’s not like the reapers of history.” Aria leaned her head against the wall.

“We’ll help her. Assuming the worst she does is kill Brynn, then I think we can get her some kind of deal.”

“That’s what she needs. She needs some kind of compromise,” Aria agreed. And, a friend.

Pan dropped the ghost seer into the hole. The body was about to join the rest: the healer, the power sharer, and the portal maker.

Pan listened. She heard the mummy hit bottom, but from the delay in sound, she expected a long drop. She sent one of her lights. With her ill-gotten telekinesis, she lowered it gently, until she could lower it no more. She could just see it beaming from the bottom.

Pan coughed. She expected it to pass, like so many fits before, but this time, she coughed hard and doubled over. She almost tipped into the long drop but kept her balance. The fit left her, and Pan unfolded. She emitted a sound of disgust and pain.

“I’ll see you at the bottom,” she told the ghost. “Good thing one of you is a healer.”

Pan’s left side tingled. She couldn’t seem to shake this flare up. Maybe because she kept abusing her body.

The ghost flew down.

Pan stepped over the hole and levitated herself.

She always found this kind of task a challenge. She levitated objects with ease, especially if she could ignore precision as an element of the task. Telekinesis sans precision gave Pan a thrill of power. So much power that she could lift a building. She couldn’t keep the structure intact, but the destruction looked beautiful in its way. Other telekinetics – practiced ones – could perform with more precision. She bet they could even levitate themselves as if they were dancers on a wire. Pan needed to practice.

With her current skill, she managed the feat differently.

Pan allowed herself to free fall. She pushed away from the walls and slowed her descent. She used her light to check the shaft ahead. She found it passable. Again, she dropped into free fall, and again, she slowed herself. Pan repeated the pattern, until she saw the bottom. Then, she levitated herself to the craggy rocks below. Her clothes and hair ruffled.

Once on solid ground, Pan looked for the bodies. She picked up her second light and sent both over the walls and cavern floor. The ghost seer’s mummy had lost an arm on the way down. Pan levitated it back to the corpse and tucked it into the ghost seer’s clothes.

She found the ghost itself and apologized, “Sorry. I shouldn’t have dropped you, but you’ll be ash soon enough.”

The ghost nodded.

Pan located the other bodies. The bundled healer lay nearby, tucked between two rocks. She looked doll-like, resisting decay with her still active power. Not too distant, lay the mummified remains of the power sharer and portal maker, entwined in each other’s limbs.

Pan turned and found three other girls – ghosts actually. They sat against the wall. The power sharer and portal maker sat with their arms around their knees, like they’d just gotten bad news. When they saw Pan, they perked up. The healer’s ghost – Pan knew her by her clothes – huddled near the others, taking the shape of her body. She twisted into a ball. Her wide eyes had nothing inside.

“We’re all going to leave. But, first, I need your service.” Pan looked at the ghost seer. “Not yours, so I’ll let your body be.” She moved to the healer’s balled mummy. She coughed.

From across the cavern, the healer’s ghost looked up.

Pan touched the body. The skin felt smooth like porcelain. Pan kept her contact light. She drew the healer’s power into herself. It felt like a rush of water in her arteries and veins, cool and fast. Pan lifted her hand.

Just like any arcane power, Pan employed her new healing ability with no control or regulation. She felt her limbs grow strong and her lungs clear.

Pan breathed deep. “Now, that is all I have ever really wanted from this arcane thing. To be a healer.”

Pan turned to the healer’s ghost. The spirit sat up, curious, not worried in the least that a reaper just took her essence.

Pan moved to the entwined bodies. With a telekinetic tug, she separated them. “Which of you is the portal maker?”

A ghost rose, eager eyed. “Take me too.” She pointed to her body.

Pan knelt, and just as the ghost had asked, she took the portal maker too.

All of a sudden, little portals popped up around Pan. She found herself almost trapped by the tiny holes in the underground space.

“Just suppress it. It’s hard to learn.” The portal maker knelt on nonexistent knees, coming to Pan’s eye level.

Pan nodded. She worked to suppress it and felt reminded of her need to suppress telekinesis when she’d first gotten it.

“Pan!” Sotir’s voice came from above.

More portals popped up around Pan’s head.

“Dammit Sotir. Let me be.”

To some degree, he shared her telekinesis – hopefully not enough to levitate.

Sotir called, “Pan, don’t leave. I’m here with the detective and a navy officer. We need to talk to you.”

“Navy?” Pan shot a questioning look at the ghosts.

The ghost seer shrugged.

“They called the navy on me? Why not call the swat team?” Pan huffed and shook her head. “We need to go.”

Pan stood up and winked the portals out of existence. She let the healing have full reign. It invigorated her, and the tingling in her body calmed. Then, Pan called on Sotir’s power to see if an exit really existed this far down in the cave. Or, had she imagined it?

Pan’s mind sped through the cavern. One long tunnel led up to the mine – not her exit. Another tunnel led forward, under a tight squeeze, and then to a breeze. She found it!

Pan opened her eyes. She saw a downward slope, littered with rocks. At the bottom, Pan saw a tight crevice, just above the floor. Beyond, she would find more rocks and a steep climb. At the very top of that climb, she would find a crack. She could widen it and get free.

“Pan!” Sotir shouted again. “Come back up. Something’s coming.”

Rattling sounded from the tunnel – the other route that led back to the mine. A red glow and deep sound flowed out of the hole.

Pan’s eyes widened. She took off. She practically slid down the slope, and using her telekinetic power, she grabbed all four bodies at once. They flew across the cavern and landed beside the crevice. As one, Pan stuck them under the tight crawl. She pushed them through hard. Then, she got down on her stomach and began to pull herself through.

A laugh rattled behind, closer than before.

Pan pushed herself and felt her clothes tear. Hard rocks scraped her belly.

Pan got herself underneath. On the other side, her light bobbed. Two of the ghosts held it aloft, pooling their energy to move the object. Pan cleared the crawl. She pushed off her sore stomach and lifted the bodies with her telekinesis.

Ahead towered the rocky slope. Pan scrambled onto it and clawed her way higher.

She sent the bodies ahead and held them at the mouth of an already generous crack. Wind forced itself through and down past Pan. She saw light.

She squeezed the ghost seer’s body through the crack, and then, Pan sent the power sharer and portal maker. The healer curled too tight to fit.

Pan scrambled to the halfway mark. She slid back and lost some ground. She saw the ghost seer’s arm nearby. With a growl, she snatched it up. She couldn’t leave any significant part of her companions behind.

A deep, masculine sound shook the rocks. Pebbles vibrated, and bigger stones fell free.

Pan ignored them. She climbed and reached the top. She put her hands against the crack and searched for a weakness in the rock but found it solid.

“No, no.”

With telekinetic care, she began to pull at one side. Tiny fractures formed in the stone.

From below, a rattling laugh echoed.

Pan spared a glance. She saw a shadowy man. He crouched at the bottom of the slope. Tendrils danced above his head.

“Oh,” Pan said.

Without a care for a cave-in, Pan ripped the crack wider. She tossed the slab back at the fast approaching spirt, and then, she fled into the open night, pulling the healer’s body and ghost seer’s arm along with her.

Pan tumbled down the mountainside. She put her arms around her head and came to a stop at the bottom of the ravine. Her head bumped, and one ankle twisted. Pan swore she even sustained a cut worthy of stitches, but she let her healing ability have freedom. Aches and pains evaporated under the starlit sky.

Pan scrambled to her feet. She saw the four bodies nearby, including the arm. They sprawled over the forest floor.

Pan looked up towards the cave exit. No man peered out. No man came into the open air. Pan breathed a shaky sigh.

She turned to find four smiling ghosts. The ghost seer pointed to the bodies.

“Yes, you’re free. And, as soon as we get away from here, I’ll burn you. You don’t have to worry about seeing the inside of that place ever again.”

With a quick motion, Pan raised both her hands, and the bodies leapt into the air. She trotted through the forest, and the bodies floated behind. She found the forest’s edge so quickly; she didn’t feel the stand of trees deserved to be called a forest.

A helicopter flew above. Pan got low.

She looked across the field and bit her lower lip. She raised one arm and drew a circle in the air, from her head to her feet. She looked far into the distance, hoping to jump to that point. To Pan’s amazement, the portal popped into existence, just as she’d pictured it. Its edges fizzled like smoke.

Pan sent the bodies through, and then, she followed. The portal dropped away. Several smaller ones popped up around Pan, like moons orbiting her person.

Pan sighed. “This is a hard one.”

The portal maker nodded. “But you made one already. Keep trying.”

Pan did, and several portals later, she found herself far from the mine.

I am now portal maker, healer, telekinetic, ghost seer, and reaper. If I’m not careful, I might lose track of myself.

Pan watched the bodies go up in flames. She couldn’t make a fire. She just didn’t have the precision to rub two sticks telekinetically and she certainly didn’t have the physical ability. In the end, Pan just found a fire. Unfortunately, she found the fire in a nearby dump, one of the only dumps on Scaldigir for the planet’s meager trash. Pan found the facility largely automated, and she tossed the bodies into the fire.

When the bodies went up, the power sharer objected, “Take me! Take me!”

Pan shook her head. “I can’t. If I share all of my powers, it’ll defeat the purpose of being a reaper.”

“You can control.”

“No. I already have more than I ever wanted. I need to learn how to heal and draw portals, not to mention get better at telekinesis. I’m sorry. I can’t take you.”

With reluctance, the power sharer nodded.

The ghost seer drifted close. “I’ve been waiting for someone like you.”

“A reaper?” Pan asked. She found that the healing ability did nothing for exhaustion, just injuries. Her eyes drooped. She needed sleep.

“No,” the ghost seer answered in a quiet voice.

Pan looked around for the other spirits. All had gone. She turned back to the ghost seer. Also gone. Pan sighed. After fifty years in the mine, they had somewhere else they wanted to be.