A Sprinkle of Stardust

Chapter 31 - Disconnection

Gazana's likeness appeared in the air above the crystal, her edges fuzzier than they were in reality.

Sweat gleamed on her flushed skin. Her hazel eyes shone as she smiled. "Lyrani! How's Vlitavia treating you?" Gazana shook her kinky brown curls out of her messy bun and regathered them.

There was no simple answer to that question, but Lyrani didn't have time to delve into everything that had happened since she first arrived at the palace.

"Not exactly as I expected." Lyrani sat up, holding her crystal steady in her palm. "How's Pindy?"

"This poltergeist is proving to be more trouble than I thought." After securing her bun, Gazana vanished from view, then reappeared holding a glass bottle. "The human ones are always the worst."

"Woah, you've got a lot on your plate." Lyrani leaned back against her headboard. "Is this a bad time?"

Not that any other time was an option, but she didn't want to keep Gazana from her job longer than she needed to.

"No, not at all!" Gazana gulped down some water. "I just got back from sparring practice with the boys, but I can talk. What's the matter?"

"Well..."

This wasn't something Lyrani knew much about, and she felt silly thinking about it, but it was something she had to say.

"I think King Nash might be possessed."

"Possessed? As in, by a restless spirit?" Gazana frowned.

Lyrani nodded.

The lines between Gazana's eyebrows deepened. "That's a serious assertion to make about the king of Elvenland. Why do you think that?"

Lyrani listed the evidence she had gathered on the fingers of her free band. "Nash has headaches very often. His behaviour is completely erratic. One moment he'll smile and ask me to dance, the next he'll be storming off.

He also has significant lapses in memory. He has tried to help me understand, but something physically stops him from speaking. It's terrifying to see. I don't know what it could be other than possession, and I feel like I'm out of my depth."

Gazana took another sip of water, her eyes contemplative. "That sounds about right. Those are the classic signs of spiritual possession, but they sound unusually severe. Who do you think is the guilty spirit?"

"Queen Rayn." Lyrani lowered her voice to a whisper. "His grandmother."

She couldn't feel the dead queen's dark presence, but that didn't mean she wasn't lingering somewhere nearby, listening and plotting her next move.

No wonder Nash was on the edge. This paranoia would drive Lyrani mad if she endured it much longer. The sooner she saw this mission through, the better. Freeing Nash would free her too.

"The one who was executed by ECISI for crimes against the realm?" Gazana's eyes widened.

Lyrani nodded.

Gazana looked down, thinking. "Given the circumstances of her death, she has the makings of a restless spirit. The spirits of those who died suddenly or violently are almost always to blame for hauntings."

Lyrani thought back to the scene of Queen Rayn kneeling in front of the guillotine. An execution was nothing if not sudden and violent.

It was no wonder Rayn wanted to unleash the same violence on the realm, but the killings she ordered weren't fair. Neither was dragging Nash into her vengeance just because he had the misfortune of being her grandson.