D’arcy sat back at the graveyard as the night grew longer. The grave she sat at bore her name, the school had long ago brought them over to make her attendance easier. The stone was weather-worn and barely legible and she honestly doubted there was anything left of her body buried there after hundreds of years but she still found a feeling of peace there.

She went over her ‘trip’ over and over in her head. The cat had said that it was real… that she had actually returned to the castle where she had been killed and affected things. Could she have prevented things? The cat claimed she had caused her death so she could make things different than they were. She thought back to the fight, the pain of the betrayal… and of Franco’s blade piercing her body. It was a feeling that would stay with her for a very long time.

However, it also meant she had done something that she had been unable to… to interact with the physical world in a real way after centuries of trying. She extended her hand towards the familiar stone in front of her and concentrated… but once more her hand passed through the rock as if it wasn’t even there.

Silently she cursed herself internally… why couldn’t she do it again? She tried again only to see her hand pass through the solid stone once again.

“Dammit…” She could feel her frustration rising in her gut once again. How was she going to help anything if she couldn’t affect anything? She stood up and paced around the headstones, walking around them as if she weren’t intangible.

A throb of pain emanated from the area where she had been stabbed. There were no marks at all on her but she could still feel the steel inside her. Taking a deep breath she took out her sword. Maybe that had been the key… she went through some of her practice forms, stabbing and slashing through skeletal trees and crypts as the blade passed through them without their notice. Her body started shaking in rage and frustration… how could she help anyone if she couldn’t even do this?

“DAMMIT!” She screamed, swinging her sword in a blind fury only to hear it thunk into the trunk of the tree she was standing before. She looked in astonishment as her blade once more vanished and passed through the tree. Was her anger the key? She gritted her teeth and focused on the boiling tempest in her soul. Images flashed in her mind of her father, her mother, the execution, Falco… each one making her feel warm as her anger threatened to boil over.

She held on to that feeling… clung to it with a white-knuckled stranglehold not letting it diminish and she swung again. ‘THUNK’ And again. ‘THUNK’ And once more. A grim smile formed on her lips as she struck at the tree’s trunk over and over, sending chips of wood flying into the night. Finally, she dropped the tip of her sword, looking over the damage she had made with a satisfied look.

“Much better…” She whispered into the night. Carefully D’arcy sheathed her sword once again, the feel of it was different now. The ghostly metal had a more cold weight to it than previously but she still had much to do tonight. She strode out of the cemetery heading south towards the walls surrounding the campus, passing through them into the town beyond. She walked now with a calm dignity, her rage having been spent in her practice sessions just before as she strode to and past the campus walls and even past the town beyond.

When she reached her destination, a small cove near the shore was used by many in the community for spiritual rituals and communication. Equipment and tools were left in areas around the cave from previous users but D’Arcy had no need for any of those. She moved to the circle in the center of the cave, a focal point that many believed gave greater strength to a variety of communication rituals. She moved to the center of the circle, sitting cross-legged as she closed her eyes. Once she felt herself sufficiently centered she reached into her pocket to pull out a small metal token. It had been her father’s and she had it on her when she died so it had stayed with her all these centuries.

“Father… I think we need to have a quite serious talk.” D’Arcy focused her energies on the talisman… trying to reach out to its original owner through the space separating them. She felt her probing thoughts rebuked and frowned at the feeling. “This is no time for your silly games, father… this is important.”

She could feel him waiting, the normally playful attitude he took with her just served to perturb her even more tonight. “Fine… dad…”

A glow appeared in the room as her father finally decided to arrive in response to her request. He looked the same, and not just because their forms as ghosts were locked in at the time of death but because he refused to change. The long hair, cocky grin, and twinkle in his eye seemed to be at odds with the prison garb he had been dressed in at his execution… at least today he kept his head on his shoulders.

“Hey kiddo, finally decide to give up on this whole silly education thing and go on some adventures with your old man?” He smiled that saccharine look that D’Arcy had so adored growing up.

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“I never understood why you so disliked me learning things, father… but now I do. You were afraid among all the things I could learn here the truth might be among them.” She stared at him coldly from her seat on the ground. His face fell almost instantly in reaction to her icy tone.

“W…what do you mean, D’Arce? I’m proud of you for trying to improve yourself. I just think sometimes you take things too seriously. You need to be able to have some fun still, you know?” He flashed that charming smile he had used so many times to get out of trouble in life.

“You’re right… I do take things seriously. My father being executed as a traitor when I was barely young enough to remember… I dedicated every moment towards learning the truth… finding him innocent of the crimes he was accused of even though everyone told me it was a fool’s errand.” She knew, being a ghost, she couldn’t cry in the traditional sense but that didn’t stop her feeling the warm trails they would leave as they fell down her cheeks. “A lie… it was all a lie, wasn’t it?”

“I never asked you to follow in my footsteps, kiddo… that was your choice.” He tried to turn things back on her but there was no real heat behind his voice.

“So I was just supposed to accept watching your head separate from your body and move on? Do you have any idea what that does to a kid?” She stood up, crossing the room to him as her emotions got the better of her. “Even after all this time I was still looking and you couldn’t spare a moment to tell me that it wasn’t real?”

“I… I saw the way you looked at me, kiddo… like no one had ever looked at me while I was alive.” His voice got quiet as he almost seemed to shrink in on himself. “I would do anything not to lose that… how did you find out what really happened?”

“Does it really matter? I didn’t learn the way I should have… from you!” She swung her arm at him and knocked him down with a scream. Her father sat, sprawled on the ground looking at her in shock.

“How did you?”

“Oh, I am learning all sorts of things here, DAD…” She was almost frothing at the mouth as she screamed at him, centuries of emotions turning red hot in rage. “I don’t ever want to see you again… I don’t know if a ghost can be killed but if I see your sorry face once more I will find a way to do it!”

“I… I understand.” Her father struggled his way back to his feet. His eyes looked hollow as he watched her, her disappointment in him feeling even more painful than the blade that long ago took his life. “I’ll go. Before I do… let me say one last thing to you.”

The disgraced knight took a deep shuttering breath as he steeled himself for what was to come. “I wasn’t a good man in life. I was selfish, petty, and greedy… everything a knight should not be. Truth be told I didn’t even care that much when I found out some peasant girl had gotten pregnant and given birth to my kid. You and your mom were just a burden on my life that I neither wanted nor needed.”

D’Arcy reeled on him, hands ready to strike him once more but he held his hands up, trying to stave off the attack.

“Whooh… you wanted the truth, well this is it. Unvarnished and raw… when the executioner killed me I don’t even think I knew what your name was. After you showed up to disturb my afterlife I thought you were the curse I earned for living life so poorly.” He looked down at the floor, not able to meet her eyes.

“Then I got to know you, D’Arcy… I got to learn of the remarkable woman you were in life and continue to be now. My death was no great loss to the world, but the worst crime I ever committed was setting you on the path that took you from it.” He took another deep and shaky breath. “I had hoped in some small way that I could do better by you now… to make up for what I lacked in life. All this to say, I am sorry, kiddo… truly and honestly. For all of it. All I can do is hope one day you realize that among all the lies I told, I love you was never one.”

With that the old ghost slumped his shoulders and walked towards the door, his form fading away as he left. D’Arcy watched tears now impossibly falling from her long dead eyes as part of her still wanted to reach out to him. Once he had left her in the small shack her emotions reached a boiling point… swinging around the room as she threw bowls and stools against the wall in a blind fury. She screamed her voice raw until she felt utterly empty and spent inside, crumbling to the ground in a heap wracked with sobs. There she lay, alone, until the sun clawed its way back into the sky.

* * *

As the sun came up over the horizon Sally Mae and Trip followed the scents they were tracking to a small cabin tucked away in the mountains above the campus. The trail led right up to the door and ended as far as either of them could tell so Sally Mae pulled out her phone to call back down to Mr. Wilde.

“Yes sir, I think we have found the golem girl you were looking for.” She took a moment to explain to their teacher the path they had taken up into the mountains to where they were.

“That’s great Sally Mae, just be careful approaching her. We don’t know what to expect from her. She could be anything from a co-conspirator to an innocent bystander and we have no real way to find out which without confronting her.”

“Got it, boss man, we’ll be cautious but I’ve got my lil’ brother here so we should be okay, not the first scrap either of us has been in after all.” She grinned at Trip, giving him a thumbs up… she could tell he was getting ancy as he paced around her, seeming to want nothing more than to burst open the door and come what may.

“Understood, we’ll follow up to you as quickly as we can, just keep yourself safe until we get there. None of this is worth you or your brother getting hurt over.”

“Aw… knew you cared big man. Just don’t keep me waiting up here too long.” She drawled, her accent getting heavy as she took the opportunity to tease him a bit. “I’ll try to get some grits going with some sweet tea ready by the time you get here.” With that said she hung up the phone, pocketing it as she and Trip headed towards the cabin door.