Kaetha, appearing as the last form she’d taken, Hailey’s younger self, walked to a pool table and climbed up onto one of its stools.

She was in a simple room built of wood, with a bar on the other side of the room. Pool, as it happened, had made a resurgence within the spirits’ community. Around the table, three other spirits were gathered, playing the game.

The first was Logica, who Kaetha had transported there not long ago. She was eagerly waiting for her turn. The second was Appenne, who took the form of a green-haired teen. For some reason, he was laughing hysterically, haphazardly placing his weight atop his cue stick. Finally, there was a girl clad in chitin armor with green beetle wings growing from her back. Her perpetual smile unnerved Kaetha enough to regret hiring the spirit. It was her turn, and she was carefully eyeing the balls on the table.

Logica fiddled with her cue stick, smiling passionately. “Hello, grandma! Why are you back so late?”

Kaetha shook her head. “No way I was late, Logica.”

“I disagree. I calculated you to be here twelve seconds sooner. Why did you take extra time reading her future?”

Kaetha ignored Logica for the moment. “What’s Appenne laughing about?”

Appenne heard her and slammed his arm onto the table. “Hey, granny, you gotta hear this! This guy activated my ritual, and it turns out he was Hailey’s brother. How funny a coincidence is that?”

Kaetha rolled her eyes. He was her grandchild, sure, but with about three hundred others, it was difficult to care about the most annoying one of all. Still, they—regrettably—talked often. “Pretty funny,” she said flatly. “Logica, since you’re so precise with predictions, when do you think Brewa will get here?”

The insect spirit hit the cue ball with her stick, sending it forward to ricochet off three balls, two of which landed in the pockets.

Logica waited for the balls to stop moving, then swiftly repositioned and struck the cue ball, launching it into the mass of balls scattered about the table. Each ball ricocheted with precision, bouncing, hitting, deflecting, and glancing off each other perfectly until five fell into the pool table’s pockets. “I predicted he would arrive five minutes ago.”

“Troubling. He usually gets his sleuthing done early. Insecaba, could you make me the graph wine?”

“Oh, sure, I’d love to do some grunt work,” Insecaba said sarcastically. Despite her reservations, however, the Spirit of Coinsection, insect control, did just what she was asked with a smile.

“So, about the two souls. Since the first one wasn’t sent back to The Consciousness for some reason, I made sure to keep the other one around, just in case she slipped away. These damned interruptions are pissing me off. First, we had two of my nieces threatening to kill Kait. Next we had a disappearing soul, and now my informant is late. What are the chances?”

Logica tilted her head in confusion. “Grandma, the chances of all these annoyances occurring were nearly one-hundred–”

“I know, Logica, I’m just complaining.”

Appenne laughed. “HA! You never grow up, grandma!”

“That stings, coming from you.”

Logica frowned. “Grandma, why do you dislike Appenne so much? He is quite befuddling, I shall admit, but–”

“He’s got a baby’s sense of humor, and he’s a terrible chef.”

“Isn’t he the spirit of soul-healing food?”

“That’s the irony, Logica.”

“Oh. Ha ha, Appenne, you’re so silly.” Logica deadpanned to him. She turned back to Kaetha. “I suspect that if something drastic were to happen, Brewa would be here in ten seconds. If he were simply lazy, it would be three more minutes.”

“We’ll see...” Kaetha watched the bar intently, counting the seconds.

Seven…eight…nine…ten…eleven…twelve–

Behind the bar, where Insecaba was pouring Logica a drink, a massive, gruff man appeared, adorned in refined, dapper clothes and with loads of tattoos inscribed into his dark skin. Insecaba yelped and spilled some wine in surprise.

“Don’t scare me like that!” she said to Brewa.

“Don’t spill wine like that, ya mosquito!”

“Hmph!”

“And hmph to you too!” The Spirit of Liquidation motioned with his left hand, and the spilled wine floated from the ground back into the glass. “Kaetha, I’d pour your wine, but we gotta talk!”

She sighed. “Something drastic happened, I presume?”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“You know it.” Brewa walked to the other side of the bar and sat on a stool beside Kaetha. When the two sat next to each other, Brewa dwarfed his aunt’s form to a humorously drastic degree.

“Spill it already,” she said impatiently.

“Sure, auntie. So here’s the deal: Necro’s in real big trouble.”

“What’d he get into this time?”

“I’m getting there! So, turns out that some necromancer is trying to use a reimagined soul to create unnatural life. If he manages to, Necro may be punish–”

“STooooOOOoooOppppp,” Kaetha bellowed inhumanly as her body seemed to vibrate and stretch unsettlingly.

“Wha–”

“Iiiiie said stOoPpppeeee.”

“Auntie, are you–”

“D-d-dd-d-dD-daaaaarrrrnnnitt.”

“Clearly, you aren’t.”

“Wwwwwww-wWeEeee need to f-fix this–” she coughed with a disgusting lurch, then shook off her crazed denial, her body returning to normal. “That’s OUR soul,” she said, rubbing her neck.

Logica butted in, “There is a ninety-nine-point-none-of-you-cares chance that your statement is factually true.”

“And if we let–”

Brewa interrupted, “Can I PLEASE get the full story in, aunt?”

Kaetha nodded hurriedly. “Yes, we need to act quickly, but yes.”

“Great.” He patted the young Hailey’s head. “Now, since his disciples are his responsibility, the blame’s getting put on him. The Consciousness doesn’t seem to know it’s our fault, at least not yet. So, if the necromancer isn’t stopped, Necro’s ritualization rights will be revoked.”

“Oh great, The Consciousness wants to kill another dozen of my children. Boy, am I glad he overthrew me.” She rolled her eyes.

“Ain’t all doom and gloom, those soul transplant ceremonies take at least half a day to finish, and the necromancer happens to be around Hailey. Plus, in the worst case scenario, we can take the blame for him.”

“So, long story short, we need to find the necromancer and stop him from creating unnatural life to save Necro’s and our hides. Sounds pretty simple. What’s his motive, creating an abomination?”

“No idea, aunt. The spirits I spoke to said that his motive was absent in their briefing.”

“It left out the motive?” Insecaba placed a cup of wine in front of Kaetha. “Oh, thanks for the wine.” Kaetha briefly flashed a smile at her before placing a hand on her mouth in thought. Everyone stared at her for direction. “Do you all know how we interact with the material world?”

Insecaba shrugged. “Giving mortals revelations through dreams?”

“Yes, that is one way.”

Logica happily began listing off methods. “There are many ways. A spirit can possess a human in highly specific circumstances, ask for a human’s help while they remain within The Consciousness or perform a specified ritual, request a leave of absence, or in rare cases be summoned physically into the world. There are also more specialized methods such as being called upon by a spell.”

Kaetha stood up from her chair and walked to Logica. “Yes, yes, Logica, you are so smart. What do you say we should do to gain influence in the real world to stop this necromancer?”

“We could send Kait to stop it? Alternatively, our set of circumstances allows for the possession of Hailey.”

Kaetha scruffled Logica’s head. “Aw, what a smart granddaughter you are!”

“And Appenne, do you still have a connection with Taylor?”

Appenne hadn’t been paying attention but tried his best to pretend he understood what was going on. “Uh, yes, granny! I still have influence over the ritual room.”

“Tell him there’s a necromancer in his town, and he needs to be stopped from creating unnatural life from the stolen soul at all costs. Do you understand, my bastard grandchild?”

“If it’s to help uncle Necro, I’ll ignore your insults.”

“That’s the spirit! Brewa, I need you to keep tabs on the situation. Notify me if anything changes. Insecaba?”

“Yes, ma’am?” The spirit tensed at the greater spirit’s unexpected burst of authority and niceties.

“I need to make sure Hailey doesn’t wake up because we don’t have any other immediate communications with the real world. In the meantime, you will be the sleuth. I need you to control your insects to spy on the other spirits.”

“That’s a peculiar request, Kaetha,” she said suspiciously.

“I can tell you don’t like me all too much either. That’s fine. However, I don’t have much of a choice here. The fate of magic rests in my hands.”

“So, where are you going with this?”

“I don’t fully trust you, but I need a sleuth with your ability to spy on many spirits at once with your insects. If any spirits plan to use this against me, and they will if they find a way to…”

“Ah. That’s rough…give me double.”

“Double of what?”

“Give me double the pay.”

“Hard bargain. Sold.” Kaetha didn’t bat an eye. “Finally, Logica. What will you do?”

“I think my best potential to aid you lies in being your communications liaison.”

“Couldn’t care less what that means. You’re a genius, so I’m sure that idea is too.”

“Why don’t I get that praise?” Appenne whined sarcastically.

“Because you’re a literal joke.” Kaetha raised her hand into the air dramatically. “Does everyone know their role?”

“Without a doubt,” Logica said.

“Same as ever!” Brewa shouted.

“I’m uncertain, but I want to get paid,” Insecaba said with a shrug.

Appenne tapped on the pool table. “I mean, I feel like I haven’t been assigned much, but–”

“Move out!”

All the spirits beside Logica and Appenne disappeared.

“Well, I hope he’s still in that room,” Appenne said with a sigh.