The Power and the Glory

Book 1 Chapter XVIII: Abihira and Haliran

Warning: contains references to child sacrifice.

And when the Patrician was unhappy, he became very democratic. He found intricate and painful ways of spreading that unhappiness as far as possible. -- Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

So far nothing had gone horribly wrong. In fact everything had gone much better than expected. Truth be told Abi had not been nearly as certain as she pretended to be about the existence of ghosts lingering around the person responsible for their death. Yes, legend spoke of such creatures. One of the five great ghost stories revolved around them. The trouble was that legends tended to be a grain of truth wrapped in a great deal of fiction. Anyone who believed all legends were absolutely true was setting themselves up for a tremendous disappointment.

And yet. Now that she knew what she was looking for, she found Haliran's house was indeed haunted.

It was hard to put her finger on just how she knew. There were no disembodied voices. Nothing moved around or fell over on its own. She didn't see any ghostly shapes or feel any sudden drops in temperature. Yet she knew the house was haunted with the unshakable certainty as she knew the sun would rise and set every day.

She never knew how she ever got through the conversation with Haliran. Later it was just a blur in her memory. Of course, that tended to happen when someone was trying to carry on two conversations at once.

It started as a simple experiment. Abi chose a corner of the room where she was almost sure a ghost was standing. Of course it had nothing to do with the fact the corner in question was directly opposite her and right behind Haliran, and therefore she could look at it without attracting attention. That was just a happy coincidence. Or so she told herself. Talking to ghosts was at least fifty percent pretence, and another thirty percent pretending to yourself. The real danger with dark magic was that gradually you stopped understanding what was real and what was just in your head.

Anyway, Abi selected a place where there was possibly a ghost. Then she did the telepathic equivalent of grabbing a loudspeaker and yelling in the ear of someone standing right next to her.

HELLO? IS ANYONE THERE? CAN YOU HEAR ME?

She did take the precaution of blocking out Haliran and all other living people in the house. She wasn't absolutely stupid, no matter what some people thought.

~~~~

Unknown to Abihira, she only blocked out all the living people in the house whose telepathy was on the same metaphorical wavelength as her own. Snake spirits -- including those who were only half snake spirit -- used a very similar form of telepathy, but one that needed to be blocked out in a different way.

Shizuki was dozing on the rooftop. Unfortunately for him he was lying directly above the living room.

Abi's ear-splitting yell almost scared him out of his skin.

~~~~

Inside the house Abi had no idea of the fright she'd just given one unfortunate immortal. She pretended to listen to Haliran's babble while waiting for some reply from a ghost.

She waited a long time. Well, it felt like a long time when Haliran wouldn't shut up about how much someone's wedding had cost. Finally she got an answer.

It was less an answer and more a barrage of conflicting emotions. Hate. Rage. Grief. Confusion. Fear. Despair. So many more that she couldn't even distinguish between them. They all struck Abi with the force of a freight train. It was a minor miracle that she didn't fall out of her chair.