When Pan stepped through, she came up behind Aria and the young girl.

“Where’d she go?” the girl asked.

Aria turned. She set eyes on Pan. “Here.”

The girl turned too, and with wide eyes, she regarded a reaper.

Pan jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. “I’m wondering when all the men will pour out of the tank.” Pan gestured to the roof of the garbage scow. “Or, when the ship you have hiding somewhere out there will show up.”

“There’s none of that,” Aria said. “We came alone.” Aria put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “This is Irini Feld of Molvin. She’s a new arcane and can track anything or anyone. She follows a golden thread to reach the target.”

Pan stared at the girl. “So, you followed a golden thread to me? I guess you know just how devastating that is for me? I can never hide again.”

Irini froze. Her eyes grew wide. She put a hand over her neck and looked at Aria.

Aria sighed. “I don’t want you to hide, Pan. I want you to come back.” Aria’s face lost its careful expression.

“I just don’t see how.” Pan spread her hands. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in cuffs or worse. I want some freedom.”

“Well, Pan, I can’t promise the other arcanes won’t use Irini’s power to find you. I volunteered to train her. I’ve really done you a favor by finding you first,” Aria said.

“You haven’t found me first. Sotir has.” Pan crossed her arms.

Aria narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean? He’s on a job.”

Pan glared back. “And that job happens to be Pan hunting.”

“He said he couldn’t help.” Aria looked away, out the windshield, as if she could see anything in that direction.

Pan waited several beats of silence. It seemed Aria and Sotir had a disagreement. It wasn’t Pan’s problem. Sotir could damage all his relationships, with his secrets and withheld information. She didn’t care.

“Now that we’ve established Sotir’s manipulative streak, let’s come to an agreement of our own.” Pan raised her eyebrows. “I can’t keep running. You can’t keep searching for me. What should we do?”

“Pan, we can’t come to any agreement. I’m not going to let you hide. Especially not until the killing stops,” Aria said.

Pan lowered her gaze. Alban implied the same. Some Soffigen hadn’t gotten away. Alban said that Pan had done something more – that she’d graduated.

Pan shook her head. “When it comes to these accusations, you should lay them at the feet of Brynn. She tells me what to do – where to go. Her ghost does at least. I ask her to find empty ships, and I wait till the Soffigen evacuate. I try.”

Aria stared. “Brynn’s ghost haunts you?”

Pan met Aria’s eyes. “Yes, I don’t know what I was thinking. If I didn’t want to see more of Brynn, I should have just run away.”

Aria huffed. “Pan.” She looked at the ceiling. “You can’t blame Brynn. How did you expect all those Soffigen families to get off the station? You really thought they could evacuate six hundred thousand people from a very active station. Not to mention the three cargo ships that had docked.”

Pan stepped back. “What are you talking about? What station?”

“The Tingaran station,” Aria said. “It’s located on the edge of Soffigen space, well within your reach. Are you saying you didn’t destroy it?”

Pan’s breaths were shallow. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. I only steal or destroy fancy new ships, so that we can get a lead on them. Brynn never sent me to Tingaran station. I don’t even know what that place is.” Pan longed to theorize, but first, she needed more information. “Aria, why did everyone think it was me? Did they see a Scaldin?”

Aria paced. “They saw someone. And, that someone had to be you, Pan. I don’t know who else could do these things.”

They think I…graduated. Pan had done no such thing. She shook her head. “It wasn’t me. And, it couldn’t be Brynn because she’s dead and needs me to do her bidding.” Pan stepped forward and reached for Aria. “I don’t like to kill people, and before you hear about it, I didn’t mean to injure those three arcanes.”

Irini stiffened.

Aria gave Pan a judgmental look. “What three arcanes?”

Pan crossed her arms and avoided Aria’s eyes. “When I ran into Sotir, I also ran into a certain navy man by the name of Alban. I got trapped on his ship, and he sent three young arcanes after me. They got hurt, and while I didn’t intend for them to get as hurt as they did, I did fight them.”

“Oh, Pan.” Aria put her hand to her head. “I was really hoping you hadn’t harmed any Scaldin. What were you thinking?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“That I didn’t want to go home in Alban’s brig.” Pan narrowed her eyes. “Sotir could have warned them. He stood and watched.”

For a few moments, Aria remained quiet. A curious look spread across her face. “Did you like to see Sotir?”

Pan startled. “I beg your pardon?”

“I just wondered if you missed him…and me.” Aria tried to look innocent.

Pan guessed Sotir had shared his little marriage idea. Pan was surprised to find Aria on Sotir’s side. Aria liked to follow the rules, including the one regarding arcane marriage.

Pan huffed and shook her head. “If you must know, I had mixed feelings about seeing him.”

Aria smiled but tried to keep a straight face. “Interesting mix.”

Pan looked down at her person and wondered what her aura showed. She gave Aria a rueful smile. “I bet.”

A long silence followed. Pan avoided Aria’s eyes, but even without looking at Aria, Pan could see that she was smug. So what? Aria knew Pan’s biggest secrets; she could know the rest.

Pan approached the windshield. “I need to get out of here before he finds me. And…if I leave, I’ll have to arrange to meet Brynn. She did go for help, after all. I can’t take you to my place of work, so we’ll go to my emergency rendezvous.”

Irini bit her lower lip. “You’re going to meet the ghost?”

Pan stopped, a few steps from the helm, and nodded. “She’ll have a surprise for me if I just run off. I don’t like Brynn’s surprises. I’d go back to my work. That would be the best choice, but…” Pan shrugged. “Since I have the two of you prisoner, I can’t.”

Aria raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

Pan smiled. “That’s right. I’m taking over this garbage scow, until I get my tug fixed. If you want to help…”

Aria’s mouth opened, but she said nothing.

“Oh no no no no.” Irini pressed her hands to her temples.

Pan frowned in Irini’s direction. “What?”

“Are we going to get home?” Irini looked at Pan, with tears in her eyes.

“Yes, of course. Well, you two will,” Pan said.

Irini bit her nails. The girl feared Pan. It made Pan pause.

Aria stepped aside and allowed Pan access to the controls. “What exactly will Brynn do to you if you return with us?”

“She’ll haunt me.” Pan walked into the space that Aria left and sent her gaze over the dash. The setup was familiar enough.

Aria nodded once. “Right, but how does she find you? I thought most ghosts were confused and incoherent. How is she traveling all over space to find you? How does she give you such detailed directions?” Aria narrowed her eyes.

Wonderful, she’s suspicious.

Pan would let her aura prove her innocence. “Brynn just…she gets more lucid every time I interact with her. I don’t know how to describe it. She’s more and more like her living self. It worries me honestly, but I don’t have a choice. She’s powerful, and her hauntings are intense. When she grabs me, I can’t get away.”

Aria put her hand to her lips and made a thoughtful noise. “Are you sure…are you sure you aren’t imagining her?”

Pan turned quick to face Aria. “Yes!” She continued, “That’s why I need to go visit her. I also intend to fix my ship. I have every intention of getting out of this one.”

Aria shot Pan an incredulous look.

“But, it was nice to see you,” Pan added. She pressed some controls and began to program her path.

Aria made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a tsk.

Pan finally sat at the dash and settled in.

Irini jumped up, circled Aria, and ran to the back of the scow.

Pan let her do it, without so much as an acknowledgement. She needed to seize control of the ship, and if Irini just abandoned the seat, Pan might as well be grateful.

Pan lined up the scow to meet her tug’s forward cable. It was designed to grab a ship in a tight space and pull it clear, while the tug backed up. The tug’s rear cable had more power and better aim, but Pan couldn’t use it. She needed to move between the two ships via portal, and to do that, she had to keep their windshields in sight.

Pan wrinkled her nose. “It stinks in here. What possessed you to get this ship?”

“No choice really,” Aria said. “How much can Brynn do?”

Pan felt sick. “A lot. What exactly do you want to know?”

Aria touched Pan’s shoulder. “You always told me not to trust ghosts and spirits. The things Brynn makes you do…” Aria shook her head. “You wouldn’t listen to her while she was alive. You shouldn’t do it now.”

Pan met Aria’s eyes. “She had less power over me when she lived. I gave her this grand opportunity. What am I going to do; kill her again?”

Aria sighed and threw up her hand. “Take us prisoner – get it over with.”

Pan sighted her tug’s cockpit. Then, she drew a portal.

“Wow,” Irini sighed. She drew the word out, long and soft.

Pan pointed to the portal. “Step through. I need to tether the ships, and I can’t leave you over here with the working specimen.”

Aria gave Pan a cold look. She stepped through. Irini followed on Aria’s heels.

“She’s so obedient. Guess that’s my fault too.” Pan followed.

She arrived on her tug to find Irini and Aria taking deep breaths.

“I want to stay over here,” Irini said.

Aria sighed. “I know. I’m so sick of that ship.”

Pan half-smiled. “Too bad. I can’t leave my prisoners alone in my ship, and the tug’s engines are dead. We’re stuck with your stink ship. Maybe, you’ll pick better next time.” Pan held up a finger. “Stay right here. This will only take a minute.”

With everyone back aboard the scow, Aria wondered when she could say all the things she’d planned to. She never told Pan just how much she missed her or how much she loved those drawings. She wanted to, but Pan seemed unreceptive.

Plus, Aria now had to worry about Pan’s mental state. Ghosts did not have the kind of power that Pan ascribed to Brynn. Aria worried that Pan might need an evaluation and some medicine. Then again, Pan could plead insanity and slip out of the knot that the Soffigen and Scaldin tightened around her. For the time being, Aria would play along, whether Brynn was illusion or reality.

“It looks tethered,” Irini’s yellow aura hummed erratically.

“It is,” Pan promised. “I’d rather be towing this scow than riding in it, but we’re stuck.”

“So, can you get repairs at the rendevous?” Irini asked.

“Just parts. We’re headed to a planet near my workplace.” Pan’s aura glowed in lavender.

Aria smiled. She’d missed Pan’s shade of mischief.

“Can you repair ships?” Pan asked.

“Uh, maybe,” Irini half-promised.

“Well, if you can’t, we’ll have to rely on my ghost.” Pan’s aura betrayed hints of yellow fear.

Brynn scared Pan in life, and it seemed Brynn continued to do so in death. What a boogeyman she had become. Aria couldn’t believe it, and yet, it seemed so fitting. Pan should be haunted by the woman she killed. She rather deserved it. Aria frowned.

As Irini and Pan discussed the tug’s problems, Aria watched them both. Irini grew more comfortable. Her aura bled out its anxiety and showed some excitement. One shade of yellow overtook the other. The effect was subtle, but Aria caught it.

Pan’s aura looked kind of grey and somewhat blue. Once in a while, purple flared. More rarely, Aria saw red. Pan always showed colors of anger, but Aria was surprised to see it faded so much. Surprised and relieved. Aria wanted to ask Pan about what she’d been up to; how she figured out how to make the drawings; and why she sent them.

“What?” Pan asked.

“Oh, nothing.” Aria looked away. It all had to wait.