Ghost And The Writer

Mandy cast a curious look around the room. It had a scent of parchment, ink and aged wood. There was even an old fashioned map on the wall, yet rather than showing only this world, it had five interconnected maps, each being named as follows - Ahea, Solus, Urea, Terea, Hades. 'Wow' the ghost's lips formed the word, but no sound came out. There weren't just two worlds like she had thought… Not only the map, the whole room was also brimming with mysterious looking trinkets and she would gladly stay for a month in here just to explore it all. That's only if she was allowed to rummage through it on her own, though.

A doll-like girl emerged from a wall, only a bit taller than a meter in height. "Should I make some tea?" she asked, her voice clear and soft like bell chimes. Had the girl been a child, her height would be fitting, but she had proportions of a young lady - it was like a bigger girl got resized. Another part that was odd was a complete lack of expression, pores or wrinkles - she was like an animated doll with something smooth yet flexible in place of skin.

Ian startled at the voice as he couldn't see the girl through the bottom half of his glasses.

Mandy likewise, was caught off guard as her eyes had been elsewhere. The voice just popped up out of nowhere. Mandy felt curious about what or who the little lady was, but seeing the lack of reaction from August and considering the girl was here, she didn't feel comfortable enough to ask.

Grisham let go of August and went to take a seat behind the majestic looking table.

'Guild master' Mandy recalled what was written on the door. Seriously? This kid was? The realization itself was enough to distract her from the oddness of the little lady.

August took a seat in a comfortable looking armchair without being invited to. "Do you have ruby elderflower tea?" he asked the doll-like girl.

The girl glanced at Grisham and upon receiving a nod, she curtsied and left through the wall again.

As the girl left, Grisham squinted at August.

To Mady, this seemed a little bit akin to walking into someone's place and asking for their treasured old scotch in a situation where it would be awkward to refuse...

August made a sly smile in response, shrugging his shoulders with an 'I know nothing' gesture.

Before anyone had a chance to ask what this was about, Grisham cast a look at the two who were still standing. "Take a seat you two and take off those glasses," he mentioned to Ian.

Ian glanced at August, as he sat down in a similar armchair.

August made an assuring nod at Ian's gesture.

Mandy felt like she would just pass through a chair if she wasn't careful, but surprisingly enough she felt some resistance as she floated down. How curious. Her eyes continued to sparkle as she studied the titles on books in the room - half of them were written in symbols she couldn't read, but those she could read were all immensely interesting sounding about various beasts, plants, terrain containing names of the worlds from the map. Mandy felt a deep urge to pick a book up to flip through, but she refrained.

Ian lifted the glasses, having them sit on his head for now. He had already seen the room over the upper edge of the glasses, so nothing was particularly different, but it was more comfortable to look around like this.

"Judging from that exchange, he's either an angel's egg or lower generation untral," Grisham looked at August, asking for him to pick rather than walking up to Ian to see for himself.

Mandy zoomed into the word 'angel's egg'. Interrupting a guild master, even if he looked like a fourteen-year-old at most didn't seem like a good idea, though.

"Third generation untral," August replied.

Grisham's eyebrows rose a little, but he didn't say anything, just took out a thick book from a drawer under the table and opened it.

Meanwhile, Ian noticed that there was a reason for removing glasses, he had stepped on something fuzzy. Ian lifted his foot in fright. "Sorry," he whispered.

The thing on the floor, at first, seemed like a blue pancake. It inflated into a ball within moments, then little bunny ears protruded from its head, ribbons appearing under them. It had a small plushy like face and beaded eyes. "Human, be more careful." It said in a child-like voice before scuttling away.

Many and Ian had both looked at the little creature inflating, as well as heard the voice, yet their unvoiced questions remained without an answer and the way August and Grisham acted didn't make it any easier to ask.

Grisham had been flipping through the book, while August was sipping tea almost as if nothing had happened at all.

A fountain pen appeared in Grisham's hand out of nowhere. He wrote some odd shaped symbols on the page and a whole lot of them appeared under. "So, Ian, can you come in on Thursdays, six pm to ten pm?"

Ian was still in a daze about the situation with the bunny and the pen just appearing like that didn't help either. He scrambled out his phone. "...Sure," he said.

Grisham didn't look up and circled one paragraph. It slid up, others disappearing. "Book two months ahead, all Thursdays. Consult your mentor for further lecturing."

Ian nodded, marking that down. "If I can't attend one?" he asked, just in case.

"Then ask your mentor," Grisham said, lifting his eyes up from the page. "To get to the lecture hall, head in the door by the bar section, down the hall, door no.8."

Ian nodded, typing it all up on his phone.

At that moment the doll-like girl returned, carrying a tray with four mugs - all of them round and cute, yet one glowed slightly. The girl placed the mugs on the table, the glowing one - closest to Mandy, then bowed slightly and disappeared.

Mandy and Ian had muttered a thank you at the mugs, August and Grisham showed no reaction.

"What's the story?" Grisham glanced over at August, who had taken up his mug.

"I tried to cast confusion on the guy and that triggered his perception to awaken," August replied to Grisham.

Ian and Mandy had also picked up their tea, looking at it with wonder. It scented a lot like elderflower, yet there was a magical shimmer running over the surface of the red liquid like it was alive. Mandy figured that there wouldn't be one for her if she couldn't have any, so she tried to take a sip. Ah! She could drink it!

The tea spread warmth through her body leaving a pleasant bittersweet taste. She glanced at August with sparkling eyes, like 'Can you believe this?' She could actually drink tea even like this!!

August smiled at Mandy, seeing him looking, it was clear that he had been watching Mandy to see her reaction.

Ian was, meanwhile, also marveling at the taste, but that didn't mean he wasn't listening in to the conversation.

"And why did you need to do that?" Grisham asked, not seeming all that content with the previous answer. It didn't form a story, at all.

"He's a policeman and had a recording of some misleading things I said, figured I'd just have him go to Kenneth and have the guy sort it out," August said.

"Inspector Kenneth?" Ian asked in surprise.

"Same one. You'll know why when you see him," August said to Ian.

"What sort of misleading things?" Grisham turned to Ian this time.

"Comments on Rosewater murder case," Ian replied.

"Oh that! We caught the culprit today," Grisham said making a satisfied nod at himself.

Mandy and Ian both let out relieved breaths. Even though Mandy had figured out that August wouldn't get in trouble, it was still good that the culprit wouldn't continue killing people in their neighborhood.

"An elf child, can you believe that?" Grisham glanced at August.

August looked surprised, but a hint of suspicion passed his face. "That's... unusual."

So elves were real too... Mandy needed to remember to ask August if the same was true about dwarves as well. Mandy sure wanted to meet an elf, just to check if they were as attractive as fiction made them to be.

"Right?" Grisham smiled with hint of suspicion as well. " Well, since we got the culprit there probably won't be more of those rosewater murder cases for now, at least. "

Ian seemed relieved to hear that, differently to Mandy, though, the 'elf' didn't hit a chord. He had learned of ghosts and magic existing all in one go, vampires, elves or even leprechauns coming out wouldn't strike him as odd at this moment.

August made a wry smile at that.

Mandy, noticing the way Grisham worded it, and the expression August had, had a feeling that neither of them felt like this was over. Experience talking? Was it that unusual for an elf to hex humans? Fiction did depict elves as pacifists minding their own business, but Mandy felt reluctant to jump to conclusions just from that.

Grisham switched gears, turning his eyes back to the page. "August, since you took Ian here, I guess that he doesn't have any backing or mysterious relatives?"

"Nope," August replied as Grisham scribbled something.

Ian nodded once at that.

"Alright then, I'm done with Ian for now. See you around," Grisham said and wrote a few more lines of text in the book, before flipping a fair chunk of pages backward.

Ian got the cue and emptied his mug before getting up. "Thank you," he said before putting the glasses back on his nose and left the room.

Mandy waved a goodbye. Only an acknowledging nod from August and Grisham.

"Won't he get in trouble?" Grisham asked a few moments after the door fell shut. "Those glasses reek of a fortune."

Mandy cast a look of surprise at August. August hadn't struck her as a charitable type... 'Unknown to him, the policeman carried away a precious gift, a gift hinting that this cold seeming man had warmed up to him,' her inner narrator went and Mandy wanted to slam her head on the table, but doing that would serve no use at all.

"Not as much trouble as his bloodline being found out," August shrugged.

"Do you have a soft spot for the guy?" Grisham asked the question Mandy didn't dare to, but the ghost's breathing turned a little rough. She very much approved of Grisham's courage of asking something like that.

August made a dark smile. "How perceptive. I'm sure he will make a looot of friends with those glasses as a conversation starter."

Grisham's mouth opened without forming any words.

Mandy shuddered. Her inner narrator had quit upon encountering a block like that. "...Why?" What had Ian done??

"How many hours of writing time have I lost by now…" August's eyes were lifeless as he muttered. "And that damn hard shin… And owing a favor to Kenneth..."

Mandy cast a dead look at August. How petty… Although, judging from the fact that Tia needed to track August down using hacker like methods it was clear just how highly August valued his writing time and Ian wasn't even family… Or maybe it was really bad to owe something to inspector Kenneth?

Grisham had the same look as Mandy. He let out a breath and closed his mouth, then brightened up. "Well, he'll be fine," Grisham said. "Revealing your bloodline in a fight makes for a more dramatic impact too and who knows, maybe he'll namedrop 'Galord' and that will lead to a whole new adventure." There was a trace of pity in Grisham's voice.

No matter what ought to happen Ian seemed to be in for trouble. Mandy let out a breath. So rather than protecting Ian, August had set him up to reveal his bloodline in a spectacular manner sometime later on… August even went as far as to use a precious item for this petty revenge. Mandy could only shake her head at this. But wait, if August really is a sadist like how Sarah said, then - isn't that how he shows love? And if Ian ran into a lot of trouble wouldn't that lead to more encounters with August. And, in the end, wouldn't this trouble be less bad if he has to deal with other humans rather than monsters too? Mandy's inner narrator rose from the grave.

Grisham wrote a few lines in his book. "If I get you right, Mandy will be accompanying you for now on?"

Mandy snapped out of her delusions due to hearing her name.

"This mission is an exception, I don't plan to take more," August said to Grisham, implying that the question was irrelevant.

"Even if they pay a billion or more at the same or lower danger levels?" Grisham asked.

August closed his mouth casting an incredulous look at Grisham.

"Just to be clear, the price is adequate seeing what Violet wants from you. That said... you've been a slippery eel about your abilities," Grisham said casting an accusing look towards August. "You can talk in spirit language, huh?"

Right now, Grisham did not feel like a young teen. His appearance had not changed, but the look in his eyes and air he had about him hinted that Grisham had decades if not centuries of experience.

August clicked his tongue, turning away. His earlier annoyance returned.

"Kid, even before this record, you've been far from perfect about hiding your tracks," Grisham said with a sigh, turning pages and commenting. "Neither dark nor light spells can heal your wounds." Flip. "Lookie here, you broke through a sacred wall by an accident."

August visibly paled.

Sacred wall? Could that have anything to do with Paladins attacking him? Mandy had already suspected that there was a deeper reason why August had been attacked.

"Oh! And what's this about lending your body out to a high rank astral for a few days and being fine afterward?" Flip. "Matchmaking between two dragons, huh?"

August looked even worse than when his agent had scolded him. Mandy didn't know how bad or good the things Grisham mentioned were, but from the way he spoke those were things that shouldn't be normal, at least, not normal for the power level August was supposed to have.

"Not to mention setting up a tower barrier over a distance of sixty kilometers within minutes." Flip. "And, lastly, setting up an isolation barrier even diviners can't get through."

August seemed faint. Very faint. Close to disappearing. The last one seemed to be like a stake driven through a vampire.

"Just how bad had things gotten for you to set up something like that..." Grisham looked up from the page.

"… how did that get out?" August mumbled.

"Isolation barrier?" Grisham made a wry smile. "What did you think would happen after you made that tower barrier and then quit with no way of contacting you?"

"...A group of seven exorcists can set one up. Wouldn't they hire others to do that if they can't get me?" August asked.

Grisham shook his head. "That barrier isn't the special part about it. You moving the distance is. No mage can bear the brunt of teleporting seven times in a row and no elf can walk fae paths so precisely as to pinpoint precise spots for setting up a barrier of that sort."

August let out a long sigh, leaning back. "I sure messed up then," he said.

"Yep. Four of the major families tried to set up an information gathering quest on you," Grisham said with a wry smile.

August sighed, but one word discomforted him more than others. "Tried?"

"Sarah violently convinced them that it's not a good idea," Grisham said looking like he was about to break out into a laugh.

August let out a long breath. Resemblence of some realization passing his face, alas this was not a time Mandy could interrupt to ask.

"If you guard a secret that tightly, then it gets delicious enough for all methods to be used and that's how it probably led to someone using divinations on you, which of course failed at the price of revealing that you had an isolation barrier on your location."

August sipped his tea. To Mandy, August seemed almost transparent at this point. "And now they are even more eager to get me due to the isolation barrier?"

Grisham nodded.

"Good grief," August sighed again, rolling his eyes.

"If you wanted to be left alone that bad, you'd have a better shot just doing what Sarah arranged for you. Advance to platinum and set enormous rates. If you go into private listings on top of that, only guild will be able to contact you about jobs, so no unexpected annoyances." Grisham explained with a business smile.

"...Fine," August gave up.

Mandy wished to ask why had August been so reluctant to advance if it came with benefits like that... no one had voiced it explicitly, but Mandy had a feeling that August had been avoiding it. Yet now he agreed.

At that response, Grisham instantly reverted to having a youthful and cheery air. "Wise choice!"

August meanwhile had a face of a sore loser.

Mandy had a troubled smile throughout this exchange. She could now figure why August hadn't wanted to come here. In a sense, it was kind of cute and refreshing to see August like this compared to his usual demeanor and from what she could tell - Sarah had, in the end, set up something that would help August in the long run. Also, it seemed like Sarah had been cleaning up a lot of mess August had made. Yet, that sore loser expression gave her a feeling that there would some issues with changing his rank.

"Hmm, hmm, now to update," Grisham flipped a page with a cheer and wrote for a while, his hand light, fountain pen dancing over the page.

Mandy was burning to ask all kinds of things, but feeling like it wouldn't be good to prolong this visit due to her selfishness, she refrained, letting her eyes slide over items in the room.

"Mandy, pick up the crystal orb you just looked at," Grisham said, not lifting his eyes from the paper.

Mandy startled, her peripherals hadn't notified her of Grisham looking at her. Not seeing a reason to refuse, she used telekinesis to pick the orb up, yet as she did, the orb turned pitch black. Eh--!?

Grisham looked up this time. "All is good. It's just telling that you have a complete dark element affinity like a ghost should. Pass it over to August."

August put out his hand with a sour expression.

As the ball fell into his palm, its insides swirled and intertwined black and white streaks started shifting, soon settling into an organic and complex floral and root pattern formed from pitch black and bright glowing white.

Grisham looked at the ball with an excited smile. "So that's what you are," he said, a pleasant 'mystery solved' look on his face.

"And that is?" Mandy couldn't help but ask. The pattern in the ball was undoubtedly beautiful, but 'what you are' hinted at something she didn't know.

"Hmm, I wonder if I'm allowed to tell," Grisham replied, writing something on the page.

"It's fine," August said with a sigh, placing the orb on the table. As soon as it left August's fingers, it returned to being a transparent crystal orb.

"Undead dryad," Grisham said savoring the words. "Pretending to be a human, no less."

The words didn't tell much to Mandy. She didn't know their meaning, but she could figure from Grisham's intonation that it was something amazing. Although, hadn't August lied to her and Ian about who he is in that case?

"Like you're one to talk," August said with an eye roll. "And," he turned to Mandy, "I didn't lie to you."

Mandy gasped. Sixth sense? How could August guess her thoughts?

"My astral body is is an undead dryad, but my physical one is that of a half-human and half-ghost," August said. "Differently to this thing I have an actual living body."

Again, no offense taken at being called a 'thing'. "As thanks for the treat I won't argue," Grisham said, happily writing some more.

Well, Mandy figured that talking about the nature of one's soul wasn't something you would say when introducing yourself. Knowing that there was no lie there made her feel better, though. She figured she could ask about what an 'undead dryad' was later, but the thing she could ask now (not that she would get an answer for sure) was: "Grisham, sir, what are you?"

"Guild master," came a smile followed up with a mysterious smile.

August pursed his lips, looking at Grisham with a 'much wow' expression.

"That was written on the door," Mandy noted. She didn't feel like she could squeeze the answer out with force, but it was still a disappointing answer.

"Just teasing," Grisham chuckled. "It's true that I'm a guild master, but I'm also…" he made a suspenseful pause "an alien."

"E…" Mandy glanced over at August. Was that a joke?

"That he is," August confirmed. "Alien coming from Ahea."

"Oh," Mandy mouthed. Well, that was… yeah, Alien. Although it wasn't from outer space something, so it didn't feel as joke-like then. But an Aheal, huh… it was kind of surreal to meet one. He was someone or something people in ancient times called 'god'. She didn't know of a god called 'Grisham', though.

"I won't tell what my domain is, though," Grisham said. "And I'm not old enough for that to be in mythology books so searching is futile," for some reason the boy seemed incredibly proud about that part.

Mandy cast a glance at August. "Domain?"

"Aheals each have something they specialize in, like god of Thunder - Thor - could use mythological grade electricity based attacks. Or Hephaesthos and blacksmitthing. That's called a domain they 'rule over'," August gave a textbook answer.

Mandy nodded. Well, it's not like it was uncommon to hide your power in fantasy novels and Grisham did give off that 'im very mysterious' air, playfully so.

"If I had to guess Grisham is a god of hoarding," August said.

Grisham pouted. "I'm not a dragon," he said. "Wrong guess."

"Hoarding information is also hoarding," August said, peering over at Grisham.

Grisham narrowed his eyes. "No comment."

Mandy didn't feel like that was it, but August had gotten on the right track? To a level that made Grisham cautious? It wasn't like she was prying, August was… well, it seemed like August was trying to get back at Grisham for the previous scolding.

August made a faint smile, only confirming Mandy's guess at what was going on.

"What is an undead dryad, by the way?" Mandy asked, figuring that it was best to interrupt whatever was happening here. Who knows how Grisham would retaliate if August tried pecking at him and August was sure to try that. Mandy felt that August would be the one recieving more damage, though.

Grisham made a grateful smile at Mandy, he too seemed to have realized what was about to happen. "Do you know what a regular dryad is?"

Mandy thought on it. "Female tree spirit?" She felt faintly embarrassed for not knowing more on it. Her knowledge was probably off the mark merely for the fact that August's astral body… or soul? Was one and August wasn't a female, neither was he bound to a tree.

"Most of them prefer to take female shape when materializing and they tend to sleep in old trees," Grisham started. "Yet rather than being just tree spirits they are spirits of Urea's life itself and live with the sole goal of preserving and maintaining life. They feel best and have the most power amongst nature. They might just be the most powerful Urea's existence, not that power has any meaning if there's no will to use it. According to records I have, they made an active interference only once in history and at that time, they isolated Urea from Solus and Terea."

Mandy listened with sparkling eyes, it seemed amazing. August wasn't a regular dryad, so who knows how much of their traits he had, but there was some connection. And completely naturally the names 'Solus' and 'Terea' dropped in - those really were two more worlds, unknown worlds at that. "Why did they do that?" Mandy asked wishing to overhear a bit more about these unknown worlds as a side-effect.

"To protect life on Urea," came a simple reply. "Solus and Terrea are both on, hmm, popular dimensions - there's all this intergalactic warring happening and their inhabitants also cross dimensions to war there too. A low civilization like Urea's couldn't hope to defend against all that."

Mandy's eyes had trailed over to the map on the wall. Intergalactic warfare… like science fiction, but who knows if things looked anything like science fiction movies depicted. The world apparently had magic, there might be more. It was a bit sad to hear that earth, or… Urea had a 'low' civilization, though.

"By the way, Ahea has a non-aggression trading alliance with them both and… you are probably curious about Hades?" Grisham asked with a smile.

Mandy made a sheepish smile, having been found out.

"Hades and Ahea are in a cold war with each other for… hmm, has it been twenty millennia already? They seem to be a purely astral lifeform with a strict hierarchy. In their dimension, they have won most intergalactic wars and have spread around to many galaxies. Yet considering their bodies, they can't even properly exist in other dimensions so their might is limited to their own dimension. Solus and Terrea had some skirmishes with them but that left both Solus and Terrea terrified, ha hah," Grisham said with some cheer. "Their civilization didn't use much magic, rather, they used science to a level that overpowers magic manyfold. Far more amazing than science fiction movies here."

"Wao," Mandy felt like she had hit a jackpot with asking about dryads. She hadn't found out what August was, but… she could ask August that later! This, however… she glanced at August to find him listening as intently as she did.

"Why is Ahea in a cold war with Hades?" Mandy asked.

"Ah, some Aheals passed over to their dimension and caused a mess. I wish I knew the details," Grisham said with a regretful note.

"What is Solus and Terrea like?" Mandy asked next.

"A bit like fictional Heaven and Hell," Grisham said not quite as excited as he had been when talking about Hades. "There's plenty of material around about them, right, August?"

August nodded. "There's almost nothing about Hades, but as long as you are a gold rank guild member, you can read about Solus, Terrea and Ahea in detail."

"I'm sure August will take you to the library sometime," Grisham said.

August sighed, squinting at Grisham.

Mandy made a pleading look at August. She really wanted to go and read something-- she might even learn about all the things August considered common sense and not embarrass herself as much. "You could take your PC with you and write in a silent corner," she suggested.

August looked conflicted for a while, but gave in. "Fine."

A small bell vibrated on Grisham's table. "Oh, look at the time--" he said.

Taking that as a sign, Mandy finished her tea and got up. August did too. While August looked somewhat relieved, Mandy felt it was a pity. Grisham spoke of such interesting things!

"It was a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to meet you, Mandy," Grisham said with a smile.

"Likewise," Mandy smiled. She was a little surprised how differently she was treated compared to Ian, but it was always nice to recieve preferental treatment.

"You can read on Undead dryads when you get to the library," Grisham mentioned in passing.

Mandy smiled. Even more than being told all these interesting things she was on cloud nine about getting a chance to roam through a hidden magic library. This trip had done nothing but great things to her.

To August, Grisham said. "Next time when you are troubled, just step in for tea and a chat, I can always find some time to help and consult you," Grisham gave off an air of a reliable elder as he said that. It was hinted that all this trouble could be avoided if only August hadn't tried to escape without proper consideration.

"..." August said nothing, getting the underlying message, and raised his hand in goodbye, before he opened the door to leave.

"Till next time," Grisham said and as August and Mandy left the room.

The doll-like girl reappeared and took away their mugs. That was the last sight Mandy saw before the door closed.

Outside, a tall, beautiful blonde woman passed the two, casting a longer look at August before she entered the Guild Master's cabinet. Mandy noticed that her eyes were electric blue - a color too bright to be natural - and something about that gaze felt dangerous.

August didn't appear to react to it in any way, though, walking out. Despite his casual-seeming stroll, Mandy could sense that he was tired. 'Done' might be a better word.