Chapter 12 - The Maiden and the Wisp

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"Who are you?" The maiden demanded from the Shade.The candle flames didn't allow Alexa to clearly see the ghastly masculine silhouette standing two meters away. The hairs of her neck stood up.

"Ahhhhhhh!" the tormented wailing echoed through the chapel. That spirit was struggling in confusion. Alexa imagined that he was beginning to figure out that he was dead, and regretted his misery deeply. Dying and wandering in spectral form was a great ordeal.

The spirit then passed beside her, toward the door. His presence was strong, for the sensation was the same as a living being passing beside her, making the same sounds of a human body moving. Whoever it was, it was a being full of resolve and willpower. He, like many confused spirits, did not want to leave because he believed he had something to do. Alexa wanted to know his name, so she could set him free.

"Who are you?" She repeated the question, with emphasis and firmness, turning to follow him. As they emerged from the chapel, the spirit was bathed in the dim moonlight, and the maiden saw a man in uniform resembling that of the soldiers they saw earlier. The whole breastplate of his uniform was drenched in blood, and just below his bleached, cadaverous face, a huge rip in his throat made a grotesque half moon.

Alexa realized that the murder was recent, and suspected that it might have to do with the crows they saw during the day.

Alexa hurriedly began to take off her gloves, knowing that a spirit with this untamed strength, great regret and feeling of hatred would turn into a spiteful and vengeful soul. She had to send him to the Wheel of Reincarnations without delay!

But before she could do anything, the ghost in front of her raised his arm, pointing toward the stream.

"What the hell!" Locke's angry voice behind her made Alexa jump in fright, literally. The mercenary wrapped his arm around the maiden's neck, pulling her back as he swung his sword toward the spirit. The spirit just faded, becoming a wisp of eerie bluish fire that floated away in the direction from which they had come earlier.

"No! Why did you do that, you stupid man!" Alexa lost her mind, and turned to her bodyguard, still heart pounding, but extremely annoyed.

"Ah? What?! Didn't you yourself say how deceiving ghosts and demons can be? But for all saints, how can it not be possible to leave you a moment without surveillance that random creepy things happen to you! Why do you have to be a beacon for the dark things?! Ahhhgh!" Jonah Locke was angry, too, and kicked the threshold of the chapel, releasing his frustration. "Stop talking to ghosts! Sto… Hey, where are you going?! Lex, where are you going?! Lex !!! Damn it!"

The maiden freed herself and ran as fast as she could through the meadow, chasing the wisp of mutable shapes wandering away from the chapel. She knew she was going to the place where this man had suffered a strange and violent death. She just regretted not even bringing a torch with her. Although within her the feeling of dread struggled with her will to release that suffering soul, Alexa knew that her companions had no appreciation for her involvement with death.

Listening Iain and Locke's voices coming closer as they called her, she felt a wave of relief that she wasn't alone in this phantasmagoric chase, and turned to see them. She looked over her shoulder, knowing she could not stop to wait for them, or she would lose the wisp, and saw them with torches quickly coming near.

Turning forward, the maiden ran into the spirit again. The spectrum once again showed himself in his horrible human appearance, standing a few feet away from her, with a burning gaze. An outstretched arm in a clear signal to keep the maiden from advancing.

Taken aback by the sudden apparition, Alexa slipped, and fell to the ground, appalled with the grim appearance of the spectrum in the pale moonlight. In the reflex act, she rubbed her muddy hands, which before the spirit began to emit a strong light. She rose, breathing heavily, and faced the spirit, watching its fiery eyes and imposing, if not terrifying, martial stance.

"Follow the light, and receive your judgment," the maiden firmly spoke, showing her palm to the defending spectrum. She knew that he felt compelled to prevent a tragedy, and that he had not succeeded in life. His regret caused him to suffer and wander, and for some reason he believed she should not approach the source of the stench that seeped into her nostrils even from a distance now.

The maiden began the rites to allow that suffering soul to depart from this world, and as she did so, her palms began to pour blood. It hurt as the light that guided the the spirit to the path of souls shone brighter and stronger from her hands.

Alexa suppressed a groan of pain as she dispatched the Shade on its way to rebirth.

When her fellow travelers arrived at Alexa, they just saw the spectrum crumble in the crisp air like ashes in the wind.

Locke pulled her by the shoulder, annoyed, shaking the maiden out of rage for her reckless behavior. He seemed to have a lot to talk about, but Alexa was showing pain, so he just snorted, muttering,

"You're going to get hurt by dead things and you won't stop until you see this damn place, are you? What will happen when these things from hell are too big for you, Lex?"

"I'm going to die and be reborn," she said simply. She knew what he said was heresy by the Holy Churches, but it was her belief. "I am the last Light Bearer."

"Ninini, this is no big deal. All you have is a bunch of enemies and killers hired to eliminate you. The spirits don't have time to be grateful, do they? In short, you don't make many friends with this Light Bearer title," he was in a bad mood, but took her by the arm, guiding her toward the field where they would surely see dead people. Iain slowed behind them.

The sweet, burning smell of death was already bothering the trio's sense of smell as they walked by torchlight across the frozen meadow.

They came to a depression in the terrain, and came across the grotesque scene.

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"I reached my travel companions, because I was afraid of being alone. The place stank so much! There was a hole dug in the ground, and five stakes the height of a person around the well. On each of the stakes was a dead black dog, its mouths wide open skyward!" Alexa cringed as she gave her testimony to Holstein's trio of men. "My guardian approached, and lit the shallow and wide pit with his torch. Then I could see that the hole was full of human bodies!"

"And what else did you see?" Asked the Captain.

"Iain said they looked like local people. From their clothes they looked like servants and soldiers like the ones they had seen on the road. With the Holstein flag."

"In short, people from the villa Cordelia would stay for the night. Your last stop before reaching the capital, "grunted Magnus, and Alexa nodded.

"Luckily," she said, "my guardians soon understood that there would be an ambush in that house, and immediately thought of interfering and helping! We couldn't waste time!"