Eirian's magic was as reassuring as it was terrifying.
Less so her temper.
"If she won't come out, then I'll just rip the place down around her," Eirian yells as the flames grow bigger.
"Or perhaps we pause for a moment and come up with a real plan," Chenzhou says when Li's soldiers all start looking a little too enthusiastic and blood hungry.
Eirian frowns at him. "Aren't you reasonable. Can you even barter with a ghost?" She yells the second part, and when they hear nothing in response. "Show yourself or I'll burn it all down!"
A wispy cackle answered that time, drifting down from the rafters and putting all of them on edge.
"Circle up," Li snapped. "Backs together. No one moves alone."
Chenzhou and Yuze flanked Eirian and pulled her back. Backs together was a rare defensive maneuver because it was only used when a group of soldiers was already completely surrounded. If they weren't already surrounded, it actually made them easier to surround.
It was a last resort move. The kind that didn't usually have survivors.
But maybe it would be more effective offensively against a ghost.
The laughter continued, and Eirian snarled. "Come out or it'll all be ash!" Her magic stretched out, the flames growing, but she held it back from actually burning anything just yet.
She wasn't stupid, even if her temper did get the best of her. Lighting a building on fire while she was still inside was a whole different level of idiotic, but fire was always better at inspiring fear than just hitting things with a fist.
The laughter got louder. Doors started to rattle.
"Does anyone see it?" One of Li's guards demanded.
"There!" Another one yelled and got yanked back into the circle when he tried to chase the flash of white.
"Stay together!" Li snapped.
"There it is!" Another guard yelled from the other side of the circle.
"It's moving." Snake snapped.
"It's trying to break the circle." Chenzhou realized, Huaban held at the ready in front of him. "Separate us."
"What about Kang and Miki?" A young soldier demanded, voice and sword shaking.
"We'll find them after we deal with the ghost." Li was trying to keep everyone calm and together, despite being shaken himself. "We're no help to them if we get injured or worse."
"Never thought we'd be fighting a ghost." One of his senior guards muttered.
"No shit," Fox added. "I say we let Lady Ye pull it all down."
"NO!" The roar made them all jump and nearly burst a few eardrums. "No! No! No! NO! Nononono!"
"What the hell?"
"Is that all it can say?"
"That can't be. All the stories said the ghost in the manor was capable of scaring people out of the house. What's scary about screaming 'no' over and over?"
"Spoken by someone without children."
"Or a wife."
"Or a husband."
"Are all of you children?" Li snarled. "Stop talking and focus."
"Wait," Eirian turned to Chenzhou. "All your stories said the ghost in the house scared people away, but the ghost in the orchard didn't?"
He shook his head. "No, the ghost in the orchard rarely interacts with people."
"And both Song Rui and Song Ran died tragically in this house?"
"I-" he hesitated. "It's never explicitly stated that Song Rui died in the manor. It was just assumed since she was unmarried, and it was her family home."
"So, we don't know which ghost was which." Snake frowned.
"Actually, we do." Eirian looked around thoughtfully. "Song Rui was supposed to be gentle and heartbroken. Song Ran was malicious and violent."
"Do you stay exactly the same as a ghost as you were when you were alive?" Chenzhou wondered.
"I thought the whole point of sticking around as a ghost was that you got twisted into something different. Something worse than what you were when you were alive?" Yuze sounded as if he were reading from a book.
"But they're two different ghosts?" Eirian clarified.
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Right, got it." Eirian valiantly reigned in her temper and yelled. "So, are we dealing with the nice sister or the bitch?"
An unholy shriek echoed through the house. The doors started to rattle so vigorously that it seemed like they were shaking free of their hinges.
"I think that means we're dealing with Song Ran," Chenzhou muttered.
"Hello, bitch." Eirian called out. "Come out before I rip your house down."
"HOW DARE YOU!" A flash of white appeared in a dark corner and disappeared just as quickly. It reappeared in another corner and darted around so quickly that Eirian could barely keep up.
"Stay close," Li repeated as the white cloth picked up speed, flinging itself around like its owner had gone mad.
"Song Ran, show your face!" Eirian's voice was barely loud enough to hear over the racket.
"No! No! No!"
Eirian pushed her magic out, using its force to still the nearest doors.
Song Ran got louder in response, the flash of white whipping around so quickly it started to create wind inside the manor.
"Show yourself!" Eirian temper was at its breaking point as her own hair whipped her in her face.
A door flew off its hinges, flying at them and then over their heads when they threw themselves to the floor, crashing into the wall behind them where it shattered into hundred pieces.
A shadowed figure appeared in the open doorway.
A piece of white cloth flashed at its ankle and grew as it swayed through the doorway, stepping into the dark hall and then into the light from a hole in the ceiling.
It was draped in white robes that had probably been very nice back in their day, but now they were frayed at the edges, dirty and torn and hanging off a form that needed to gain thirty pounds before they'd look like more than a clothes hanger.
Long black hair hung all the way to the floor in dull strands and framed a sunken face that hadn't seen sunlight in hundreds of years.
Her lips were cracked and most of her eyebrows were missing.
Song Ran looked nothing like the rich socialite she'd once been.
~ tbc