said.
Diran thought he was beginning to understand. 'From the way she's dressed, I'd say she used to work here. Perhaps she died here as well.'
The girl nodded, the action again making her features blur.
'All right, so this is her home,' Leontis said. 'But what does that matter? She's a creature of evil! You can feel it all around us! We shouldn't be standing around here having a conversation with her. We should be destroying her!'
'You said it yourself: evil is all around us. But do you sense any evil emanating from her?' Diran gestured at the ghostly mill girl.
Leontis looked at her and frowned. 'Actually… no, I don't.'
'She didn't manifest when we first entered,' Diran pointed out. 'And she didn't appear when I attempted to summon her. She had ample opportunity to attack us if she wished to harm us, but she only acted when we attempted to burn down the mill… her home.'
'That may be,' Leontis said, 'but then where is the evil coming from? Is there another creature of some sort lurking here?'
Though he'd had no formal training in how to do so, Diran attempted to stretch his senses outward, to feel what could not be seen. 'I don't think so. I think the mill itself is the source of the evil. Something wrong happened here… something that bound this girl's spirit to this place and infused the structure itself with the echoes of the evil that was done here.'
Leontis looked at the girl once more. 'You mean she was… killed here?'
'I believe so,' Diran said. 'Remember what you said earlier, about tearing up the floorboards to see if any bodies were hidden under them?'
The two acolytes lowered their gazes to the floor beneath their feet.
Diran and Leontis sat atop the unmoving waterwheel, legs dangling over the side. The ghost-girl hovered in the air beside them, her malleable features contorted in an exaggerated mask of fear, her terrified eyes larger than a human's could ever be, her mouth a grotesque slash of a grimace. Diran wondered how many ghosts assumed a hideous appearance not to frighten others, but simply because they were themselves afraid. The Thrane River rushed by less than thirty feet below them, moonlight sliding across the surface of the water like a liquid silver sheen. The river smelled clean and pure, but another scent hung in the air, growing stronger by the moment: the scent of smoke.
'How did I let you talk me into this?' Leontis grumbled.
'I believe all I had to do was ask,' Diran replied.
It hadn't taken the two acolytes long to find the girl's skeleton hidden beneath the floorboards, along with the remains of a half dozen other unfortunates. Why hers should be the only spirit bound to the mill, Diran couldn't say. Perhaps of all those who had died here-or at least been buried here-she was the one whose death had been traumatic. Dying in great grief, fear, or rage was often the cause of spirits becoming earthbound. At least the number of skeletons explained why the mill itself reeked of evil. Deeds of great wickedness had been performed here, and their spiritual taint had seeped into the wood and stonework of the mill, turning it into a Bad Place.
Diran and Leontis had spent a couple hours digging graves well away from the mill and then transporting the skeletons as carefully and respectfully as they could to their new resting places. They'd attempted to lay the girl- ghost to rest first, but after they'd finished burying her and returned to the mill, they found her ivory-white form waiting for them. So they finished with the others and, after Diran had convinced the girl there was no other way, they'd set a fire inside the mill. But in order to get the girl to agree to let them start the fire, they had to acquiesce to one request: she didn't want to be left alone while her home burned.
The girl couldn't leave the mill, and Diran and Leontis could hardly remain inside. But they could sit atop the waterwheel for as long as it was safe, and the girl could manifest outside the mill, as long as she remained close enough to reach out and touch it.
Diran looked at the girl's almost comically distorted features and reminded himself that he was looking not at a monster, but rather at the soul of a person who was afraid to die for a second time.
'Don't be afraid,' Diran said. 'The destruction of the mill will not mean the destruction of your spirit. Instead, you will be released from your earthly prison. You will be free at last.'
The smell of smoke was much stronger now, the wood beneath them began to feel hot, and a new sound joined that of rushing river water: the crackle of hungry flames.
Phantom tears streamed down the girl's face, wearing channels in her insubstantial flesh, as if her fear would literally be her undoing.
Diran reached out to take the ghost-girl's hand, and though he shouldn't have been able to touch her, though it was more than likely only his imagination, he intertwined his fingers in hers and found them not cold and dead but very much warm and alive.
The girl's features returned to normal, and she gave Diran a grateful smile.
'Uh, Diran…' The usually unflappable Leontis sounded as if he'd edged a step closer to panic. 'It's getting rather toasty up here.'
Diran could feel sweat beading on his skin despite the coolness of the night air.
'And in case you hadn't noticed, breathing is becoming something of a chore…'
Smoke billowed up around them now, obscuring his vision and making his eyes sting, and he could no longer see the ghost-girl. But he could still feel her hand entwined in his.
Diran had to fight to keep from coughing as he answered. 'I promised her we wouldn't leave her until it was over.'
Then the smoke parted and the girl's ivory face came toward his. He felt soft lips brush his gently, and then she withdrew back into the smoke and was gone.
Thank you…
Diran tried to tell her she was welcome, but he burst out with a fit of coughing. He felt Leontis grab him by the shoulders and shove him off the waterwheel, and he tumbled down into the waiting waters of the Thrane, Leontis following right after.
They climbed onto the bank many yards downriver, wet, shivering, and chilled to the bone. They flopped exhausted onto the grass and turned to view the bright orange glow of the burning mill set against the black of the night sky.
'You lads might consider getting a bit closer to the mill so you can dry off. It'd be a shame to let a fire like that go to waste.'
Only a smoldering pile of ashes and blackened stone remained by the time dawn pinked the eastern sky. When they'd first arrived, Tusya had added the last of his silverburn to the mill fire and spoke a series of prayers, asking the Silver Flame to forgive any impurities in the girl's soul and accept her as part of the divine Flame. Diran and Leontis had prayed along with their teacher, and when the rite was concluded the three men sat in silence and watched the mill burn.
It was Leontis who first broke the silence. 'It's too bad we finished the last of the wine, Teacher. I could use a drink right now.'
Tusya smiled. 'I'm proud of you boys. You served the Flame well tonight. So, though we're all tired and could use some rest, I would be remiss in my duties as your teacher if I didn't ask what you've learned here this night.'
Both Diran and Leontis thought for a time before answering.
'There are many kinds of evil in this world,' Diran began. 'I've known this since I was a child. I once served one of those evils… carried it within me like the blood that flows within my veins. The evil we discovered in the mill tonight wasn't of a supernatural nature. It was the result of someone who long ago could not restrain his own selfish need to wield the ultimate power over others-the power of life and death. I understand now that all evil- natural or not-comes from the same impulse to put one's desires above all else, no matter the cost to others. Evil is the ultimate form of selfishness, and it must be opposed in all its manifestations, whether small or great, mundane or mystical. That is what the Silver Flame asks of us.'
Tusya nodded approvingly. 'And you, Leontis? What did you learn tonight?'
