The Eolas Braoin Explorer Club and the Ghost of Eolas Braoin

[Reine]

{closed}


“Delphi slowly walked down the stairs. Her bare feet slid against the cold stone, causing goose pimples to break out up her legs as cold shivers slivered down her spine.”

The light of a single candle flickered in the centre of the room. Its tiny flame provided the only light, one that cast an eerie contrast of light and dark and orange off the now malevolent looking face of Lana. Dark hair spilled across her small, oval face, framing it. Something that looked so delicate otherwise, now looked like the face of a witch or a sorcerer from childhood stories.

“Her eyes could barely see anything around her when she reached the bottom. Barely any light streamed in from the night outside, the clouds having covered over the moon and obscuring it from anyone’s view. Thunder boomed in the distance, she could feel the vibrations as they travelled up her legs. Lightning flashed and for a brief moment, the hall before her lay illuminated. The second floor lay before her, the polished stone of the floor reflecting her and the portraits of teachers and distinguished students that decorated the walls. Their faces smiled at her, their eyes followed her as she timidly began the long walk back to her dorm, library books still tucked under her arm.

“Her heart thudded loudly within her chest. She’d done this walk so many times before, but not this late. She’d stayed past the school’s curfew, the one put in place for the student’s own protection. Just last week, Makie had gone missing when she’d wandered the halls of the school passed curfew. Only her staff was found.

“Lightning flashed again, clutching the book to her chest like armour, Delphi swallowed and began walking down the hall. Her room was only around the next corner. She could get there in under a minute. That’s all she had to do was get there in under a minute. Reciting this like a mantra, her steps began to quicken.

“The sound of scratching echoed down the hall. Delphi stopped. The sound stopped as well. Looking around her, she saw nothing and picked up her pace once more. The sound started once more. Stopping again, Delphi looked around, hesitated then with a quick spell conjured a small light. The sound continued. She cast her light around. On the wall ahead of her, scratched into the very surface of the stone was the message ‘Now you’re mine.’”

Everyone in the room gasped. The candle under Lana’s chin fluttered and sent her face into shadows and then back into light. Faelynn reached out and grabbed the hand of Elijah, the scrawny, timid looking boy with a bad hair dye job. The hand squished back.

“She dropped the textbook.”

Lana slammed her hand down. The smack echoed throughout the entire room. Faelynn jumped, her hands tightening on the pillow beneath them. Elijah let out a small cry of surprise, but quickly covered it with a cough, not that he needed to. Sirai and Neam screamed loud enough to cover pretty much anything. Lana smiled at the effect, the candle made it look devilish. “The loud thud drowned out in the boom of thunder and rain as it slashed through the sky and spattered against the windows. She ran. As fast as her legs could carry her, she ran down the hall towards her room. If she could make it there, she’d be safe, she’d be okay.

“Her feet skidded along the floor as she turned the corner and right there in the hallway before was the ghost of Eolas Braoin. His body was white and she could see straight through it. He lifted his arms, the torn and ragged robes fluttering all about him. A horrendous screeched echoed from his open, gaping mouth as he reached for Iesiah. She screamed and fell back! When she scrambled to her feet and ran back he was there behind her reach for her, trying to get to her. ‘Dellpphhhiiiiii!’ He moaned. ‘Come with me Deellllpppphhhhiiiiii!’ And his hands reached out and wrapped their cold embrace around her!”

Lana reached out long, pale arms. She wrapped her cold fingers around Elijah’s forearm and pulled him close. His eyes grew round as he let out a grunt of surprise and pulled back away from her. Faelynn screamed. The two other girls screamed and jumped up. They ran for the door. Their small frames impacted the hard wood, but they forgot how to use a handle while they tried to pry it open with their weak arms. Elijah flailed his free arm, trying to get away from Lana. It knocked over the candle. Wax spilt across the floor and the flame sputtered out.

The room fell into darkness.

Screams turned to hushed whispered. The scampering of feet filled the room, the scraping of furniture and shallow breathing.

“E-Elijah, Lana... I can’t see anything, where did you go!?” Faelynn reached down and cursed when her fingers touched nothing but hard wood and hot wax. “Elijah? Damnit... Lana?”

Faelynn scrambled up just as someone flicked the light on. Brightness filled the room as crystals along the mantles and tables all began to glow. Elijah and Lana stood near the beds, Elijah’s face looking even paler than normal, if that were possible. While Lana had the biggest grin Faelynn had ever seen. The other two girls were struggling with the door as if turning the knob had never occurred to either of them. The blankets and pillows they had strategically placed on the floor had been tossed about in the sudden chaos. Thankfully nothing had caught on fire.

Elijah cleared his throat. “That was ah uhh... great story, Lana.” His voice shook a little too much to play this whole thing off ‘cool’. Lana—like so many of the students here—was a Fae, learning more advanced magic then she could get simply from her parents. And due to her racial traits, was one of the most beautiful people Faelynn had ever seen, but her personality certainly did not suite her girly looks in any way.

“Ha ha! Come on, Elijah, you practically pissed in your pants!” And for someone who had only been speaking Common for a few years now, she was quite good and crude at it as well. She could give Faelynn a run for her money if they got in a swearing match.

“I doubt that you could scare Elijah with a simple story.” Faelynn said as a slight smirk crossing along her face.

“Oh, then what about you? I distinctly remember you holding onto someone’s hand because you got too scared.”

“What was that, bitch!?” Faelynn said as she clenched her hands at her side. Shoot, I can’t believe she noticed that!.

“Getting a little worked up, Hume?” Lana said as she stepped forward, an evil glint in her ocean blue eyes. Faelynn knew she used that word on purpose too, she hated that word. A derogatory term that Draconian's used to look down at Humans, as if they were so much better than them.

“Who you calling a Hume, Faerie bitch!”

“Who you calling a Faerie!?”

Faelynn and Lana glared daggers at each other, the air between them practically becoming electrified. If their teachers saw this, they might actually be proud of the magical energies that the two were letting off. But Elijah looked slightly worried and the other two girls merely smirked. Considering how many times Lana and Faelynn did this in a day, it was amazing they hadn’t killed each other yet.

After a moment, the two of them stood back and smirked at one another, as if they had passed some kind of test the other had set forth.

“Whatever, I’m going to head back to my room. Elijah, you want to walk back with me since it’s on the way?” Faelynn asked as she crossed her arms under her chest.

“Su—”

“What’s wrong, Faelynn,” Lana butted in, “scared to walk back on your own? It is after curfew already.”

Faelynn glared at the other girl. “I’m not scared, I’m just being courteous!”

Lana rolled her eyes. “Just admit it, you’re scared.”

“Tsk, whatever. I’ll just leave Elijah here to walk back on his own then.” Faelynn shrugged.

Giving one last glare at Lana, Faelynn moved towards the door, brushing passed the other two girls that were standing there as taunt as bowstrings. She’d just threw open the door into the hallway when Elijah came jogging up to her.

“Hey, no worries, Faelynn. I’ll walk you back to your room, besides, it’s on the way to the boy’s dorm.”

Not exactly the response she wanted. Faelynn didn’t need anyone to walk her back to her room, she was the one that offered to walk him back! She waited for Elijah to leave the room first before she stuck her tongue out at Lana and closed the door behind her.

[Relt PeltFelter]

Earlier, that very morning.

The main hall of the Eolas Braoin university of magic was rather dismal, as the rather tatty light of a foggy dawn filtered through the high windows. Relt PeltFelter, dressed to the nines in her recently-laundered RAF uniform, was unimpressed. She had managed to wrangle passage to this forsaken place by ship, which took much longer than it would have by aeroplane, had she access to one. And what greeted her, upon arrival, was a place which looked for all the world like Wales. What's more, she didn't believe a word of this magic nonsense. All smoke, mirrors, and quantum-mechanics.

The pilot scanned what could generously be referred to as "bustle", though certainly not "hustle", in the hall. Her hunter's eyes zeroed in on the most official looking person there, and the expression on her face could be called a smile only because it turned up at the corners. This was the look that a wolf gave to a sheep, an eagle gave to a tortoise, and occasionally, a siamang gave to a lobster.

With the squeaking of her damp boots on the floor, Relt caught up with the man and positioned herself directly in his path. The poor fellow stopped; he had no idea what he was in for. "Good morning, sir. Group Captain Relt PeltFelter of the RAF, and official dignitary to your fine boarding academy from the British Empire and Her Majesty's office. And you are?" The woman beamed beatifically at the man, who had attempted to back into a corner while standing still.

"Ahm, well, I'm the bursar, actually, name of-"

"Wonderful, wonderful, great to meet you. Now, as you're no doubt aware-"

"Actually-"

"-I am here to assess the quality and curriculum of your establishment-"

"Er-"

"-as compared to the rubric set forth by the local governing authority." And determine if any of this hocus-pocus nonsense can get me back to ol' Blighty, Relt added to herself. Not that it was a major priority, of course; this bizarre world had too many interesting things going on, and there was hardly ever a war back home. They seemed to be monthly events, here; no, Relt just needed to nip back into her own plane of existence for some ammunition, and maybe a jolly good curry. "Now," she continued to the rather stunned man before her, "I will require accommodation for the duration of my assessment. I'm sure you're just the man to talk to, Mr..."

"Er, Hlaous-"

"Mr. Hlaous, yes. I'm sure we'll get along like a house on fire, the two of us, if you'll just show me to the dormitories so I can get settled in."

"Ah, eh, ah..." the Fae who had identified himself as Hlaous began, before finally lapsing into a sort of glazed cooperation; there was no refusing someone as confident and worryingly inconsiderate as this bizarre human. She must be some sort of nobility. "Ye-es, yes, the dormitories are just this way...I'm sure we can find you some space in the students dorms, as the instructors' apartments aren't-"

"As you see fit, Mr. Hlaous, as you see fit." She grinned, a genuine smile this time. That lad back at the Bandit Brotherhood base camp had bet her twenty gold pieces that she couldn't badger her way into some foreign magic school. Relt nodded diffidently and followed the bursar in a very self-assured way.

That evening, following a full day of snooping and prying.

Relt had been thinking about it for some time, and she decided that the reason that she seemed to automatically dislike the Fae so much was the same reason that she would gladly kill and eat a unicorn. There was something so...imbecilic about the idea of them, as if they danced in your back garden, ate moonbeams, and could only be seen by fatuous little children with nothing better to do. The soldier hated that special fabric of thing that, as a little girl, she had been expected to love automatically, as if it were built in.

On the other hand, of course, she was getting some noticeable pangs of nostalgia from this establishment. Reminded her of boarding school when she was a gel; the bureaucracy , the uncomfortable cots, the drafty old building...it took her back a long ways. It was rather inconvenient to wind up in the girl's dormitory, of course, as that may severely limit her snooping capacity. Relt decided she would simply take it as it comes.

She stretched out as best she could on the spare bed, squared her shoulders, and took a quick belt from her 'emergency' whiskey rations before the students showed up.

After all, the little bastards might want her to share.

[Elijah_Morendale]

Sometime in the early afternoon...

"So. Refresh my memory. Why are we here again?"

My question fell dead onto the ears of my constant (and constantly distracted) traveling companion Nadia. She was too busy gawking at the sights of Eolas Braoin's ancient school of magic to even know that I was there. We were in the main courtyard, as were several dozen other students. A garden full of colorful plants--some of which I have never seen before--surrounded us, while cobblestone pathways led to various parts of the campus. The main building stood to our right, casting a shadow that didn't quite reach the towering statue of Mr. Braoin. The statue depicted a noble-looking fae; thin in build and relatively sexy (according to Nadia). The depiction would look quite impressive if weren't for the gigantic stone butterfly wings sticking out of his back.

Naturally, this led to my red-headed friend to reminisce about how she brutally tore the wings off of flying insects back in her younger days--an evil habit that, with the way she's been eying some of our classmates during our stay here, makes me think that perhaps it was a bad idea to ever make the journey here from Corone. Which reminds me...

"Hey, firebush..." I gave her a small shove on her shoulder to grab her attention.

She brushed a lock of messy red out of her eyes then cocked her eyebrow lazily at me. "Yes?"

"You never answered my question. Why, exactly, are we here?"

"Hmm..." She raised a finger to her mouth, biting her nail in thought. "Y'know, I don't actually remember."

This revelation didn't surprise me.

"Oh! That's right! I'm here because I want learn to light my sword on fire." The sword in question, a standard-length mythril katana, was in her hand and dragging against the ground. With every step she took, the steel tip on the end of the hilt took another scrape or small dent against the stony path with a barely audible clank.

"We could've saved an awful lot of money by staying in Radasanth and buying some lantern oil and a book of matches," I sharply replied.

"I wanna' fuckin' do it with magic, you idiot. I wanna' be able to just shout something and have my sword burst into fire while I'm halfway through removing some asshole's head in the heat of battle. And besides, you've been slacking off in your icemaking thingy. So I registered you in some elemental magic classes so you can get back into tip top shape."

I shrugged my shoulders and dug my hands into my jacket pockets. "Why bother? It's not like we're going out for any adventures anymore. I'm sick and tired of all the traveling; of all the dirty inns and the boring days on the road... Do you have any idea how much these hi-tops hurt my feet after a long day of walking?"

Nadia turned and gave me one of those looks--you know, that look that only women can do. That's when I decided to shut up and do as I was told. Yes ma'am, I'll take my classes like a good little boy, then we can go treasure hunting and monster slaying and princess saving like you're always itching to do.

Nevermind what poor ol' Elijah wants and needs; it's all about Nadia's inability to sit still for five fucking minutes and relax.

Later that evening, after the ghost story...

Gods damn, do they always set out to design university hallways to be extremely creepy in the dark? Or am I just bugging out from that story that that Lana girl just told? Either way, I've got a bead of cold sweat running down my forehead. This is one of those rare moments that I wished that Nadia was hanging around my neck rather than wasting away in Margaritaville at the small tavern they have on campus.

The nightly silence was interrupted by Faelynn closing the door behind her. The loud wooden clank echoed through the hallway, sending a small jolt down my spine. I quickly spun around to shush her. "Do you mind," I harshly whispered, "I'd rather not be caught out after curfew."

"You're just being a big baby," she teased back.

Just enough moonlight poured through the windows to illuminate the way back to Faelynn's room. The dead of night amplified our footsteps as we walked on; each tap of a shoe on the stone floor echoed down the corridor like a clap of thunder. As far as I could make out, it was just the two of us.

Although I didn't want to admit it, I was a little unnerved by that story. I know it's just all a bunch of hocus pocus, but...

It was time to spark some conversation; maybe it would take my mind off of things. "So, uh..."

Just then, something white and glowing slowly turned the corner. It was translucent, and wore tattered robes that had slits in the back for its wings. From the side, it had a face that almost looked like the school's namesake, Eolas Braoin. The apparition turned down the way that Reine and I were originally headed, completely oblivious to our presence.

Not knowing what to make of this event, I did what all good icecrafters do. I froze.

[Reine]

Faelynn took three more steps before she realized Elijah was no longer by her side. Stopping, she turned towards him only to see him frozen to the ground as if ice had covered his entire body. Confused, she quickly looked to the end of the hallway. Her eyes had just enough time to catch a glimpse of the ghostly figured as it disappeared around the corner. Her heart stopped beating for a split second as her eyes had perceived what she knew could not be real. The ghost of Eolas Braoin. Truly, it could not be him silently walking the halls of the very institution he had founded. There must be another explanation for the apparition. Ghostly only existed in stories, everyone knew that when they died they went to the firmament. Souls did not simply wander around Althanas! It was uncalled for.

Unlike Elijah, Faelynn did not feel the need to stay rooted to the ground. She did a complete turn about her, looking for something, anything and particularly Lana. It would be quite like that little Fairy to do something like this to try and scare her. But the halls were silent. In fact, the more she thought about it the more she realized that the ghost had not made a single sound. Before Elijah had stopped there had been no noise other than the soft steps of their own feet on the smooth stone. Just them, no other. And then that figure had appeared as silent as, well a ghost, or a ninja. But she highly doubted that it was a ninja. For starters they were not only never heard but never seen. How could someone miss a glowing translucent figure?

Feeling her heart beginning to pound within her chest, Faelynn turned towards Elijah and whispered, “C’mon, it headed down the hall that leads either to the dorms or the library.”

She grabbed Elijah’s hand and dragged him down the hall. He only had time to let out one squeak of protest before they reached the corner. Pressing her body against the cold stones wall, Faelynn eased her head out just enough to glance into the hallway. Before her, she could see that same figure gliding across the floor and up the adjacent stairs, which led right to the library. Even from this distance she could see some of the face and what she saw shocked her and—though she would never admit it—scared her. It had the face from the statue in the courtyard, the face of Eolas Braoin.

“It’s heading up the stairs to the library.” She said to Elijah as she turned towards him, her face anxious with fear and excitement.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to follow it?” Elijah asked as he peered around the corner into the darkness of the hall.

With her heart a fluttering bird into her chest and her legs feeling like pudding, Fae lied through her teeth. “Of course. I’m not scared of that thing. I doubt it’s even a real ghost.”

Elijah didn’t seem convinced. So she did the only thing she could. She grabbed him by his arm once more and pulled him down the hallway. It was probably surprise at how strong her little arms could be that allowed her to drag him half way down. After that he shook her off and walked on his own.

They silently stalked the ghost—there’s something that could be said about silently stalking a ghost—into the library. Stacks and stacks of bookcases filled the enormous room, which was barely illuminated by the large windows and the moonlight streaming in through them. Thousands of books lined the walls and the shelves of the two story room, all collaborating together to bring ones eye to the massive dome that this place called a ceiling. The two of them watched as the ghost glided around the stables with their neatly tucked in chairs and round a row of shelves disappearing from their sight.

“We’ve got it now!” Faelynn whispered excitedly. This was her first time in the library, but even her eyes could tell that that particular stack led to a wall. There was no way out other than the way it went in.

She darted towards that particular row, her feet barely made a noise of a carpeted floors.

“W-wait!” Elijah called after her. His voice seemed to carry through the room and bounce around the ceiling. Cringing and then grumbling, he quickly followed after her, though not as silent.

Faelynn felt him slip up next to her as she eased her back against the cool wood of the shelf. She inched towards the edge of the shelf. Elijah opened his mouth to say something, but she put her finger to her lips and he quickly closed it.

She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Not giving her mind a chance to argue she threw her head out there. Her eyes peered into the shadows to reveal nothing. There was absolutely nothing. No ghost, no person, just an empty stack of books.

Blinking, Faelynn took a few steps forward with Elijah right behind her.

“I-I-it it disappeared!” Elijah stuttered. “Only a ghost could disappear like that!”

Faelynn was no so convinced. She noticed something on the ground. Taking a few steps forward she knelt down, picked it up and quickly slipped it into her pocket.

“Let’s go before it comes back.” Elijah whispered once more, as if others could hear their conversation. As if the ghost itself would suddenly appear if he said it too loud. His eyes even spoke these thoughts for him as they frantically scanned the shelves and the books, his head turning every few seconds to look behind him. Faelynn nodded her head, but she was not about to let it drop. In the morning, she’d have a plan.

[Relt PeltFelter]

The Following Morning

A bottle of medical astringent, a pile of rags, and a handful of unlabeled and highly dubious jars. These are the things that met Relt's gaze. She shut the cupboard in disgust. This school purported to educate its students in the field of pseudo-scientific jiggery-pokery. It had absolutely no right to be as boring as it was to snoop around in. The pilot shifted herself over to the adjacent cabinet, flinging the creaky doors open. A clay bust, reminiscent of the statue in the courtyard, met her gaze. Whoever sculpted it, however, hadn't been a paragon of the arts, as the poor fellow looked somewhat cross-eyed.

"Ah, Group Captain PeltFelter?"

Relt turned around, statue in hand, the child caught with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar. The slightly put-upon instructor stared at her from across the crowded classroom. Two-dozen heads swiveled to match his gaze. "The bursar gave me the, er, gist of your purpose at our school, but is it possible that you could accomplish your goals without disrupting my class? The arcane arts require utmost concentration, and you keep...slamming my cupboards..." The teacher trailed off as Relt strode forward, absently carrying the clay head.

The pilot sat down in an empty chair. "Of course, how impolite of me. Far be it from me to disturb your important lessons on, on..."

"The nature of the mystic elements."

"Right, yes. That. Carry on! I'll simply sit and absorb some, ahem, knowledge."

"Thank you, yes, I...why did you say 'ahem', just there?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You, just before you said knowledge, you said 'ahem'."

"Simply clearing my throat. Don't let me monopolize any more of your time, sir!"

The situation defused, Relt stretched her shoulder and tilted back in her chair. Her boots squeaked against the polished desktop in front of her. Completely without interest in the issue on lecture, the soldier let her attention wander to the handful of little conversations which fill every classroom, no matter how diligent the students. Ear-numbing gossip, complaints about the quality of last night's sleep, discourse on the subject of ghosts...ghosts?

Despite herself, Relt felt the hoary emu of intrigue pecking at her thoughts. A ghost? She'd heard stories, growing up in London, reputedly the most haunted city in Europe. But it always turned out to be some burke with a sheet coated with phosphorus and a crane in his attic, trying to protect the stolen gold at his abandoned lumber mill or what have you. The pilot had herself unmasked such a caper, once, with the assistance of a number of local youths and a whopping great hound. Ghosts couldn't be real, surely.

As this place had yet to yield any bountiful returns, she figured that perhaps such a ghost act was being used to conceal a real treasure. Relt grinned, tilting forward over her desk to join in on the conversation to her fore, being held between a pair of apparently human beings. One, a fairly plain girl, and the other a dour man somewhat older than Relt herself. "Hello there, Group Captain Relt Peltfelter, RAF, here for, ah, something too complex to go into right now. What's this nonsense about spiritual happenings and spectral shenanigans?"

[Elijah_Morendale]

"Why the long face, Elijah," Nadia had asked me over breakfast with three bites of pancake crammed in her mouth, syrup dribbling down her chin. "You look like you've seen a ghost or something."

I felt sick over the events of last night. A quick mirror check before I came to class revealed that My face had lost most of its color, and I had some nasty bags under my eyes from a dire lack of sleep (spent most of the night tossing and turning in my bed, eventually causing my roommates to threaten to give me something real to complain about). I had a serious nervous twitch going, which acted up at various times during the morning, mostly when I caught sight of someone down the hall who was still in their white dressing gown and slowly making their way towards the showers, mistaking them for... well...

Anyway, getting to class and listening to the professor drawl on about the elements wasn't doing much for my condition. Nadia, however, was staring at him with an eager glint in her eye, her brain soaking up every word he said in hopes that she'd be able to use the lesson in her attempts to successfully channel fire into her stupid sword. But alas, as much as I was trying to focus on the ramblings of our esteemed teacher, there had been a fly buzzing in my ear since class started--one that was five foot one, had dark brown hair, and was waving a torn piece of white cloth in my face whenever she thought she could get away with not being spotted by the professor.

"Look, Elijah, I'm telling you right now," said Faelynn with an impatient whisper, "that was not a ghost we saw last night." She waived the piece of cloth near my head again.

I swatted her hand away. "And I'm telling you; people don't just disappear like that! You--you need some to recite some sort of incantation, or activate some tattoo magic, or... or something..." I was blowing smoke at this point. I honestly have no clue what it even takes to make yourself invisible with magic.

Behind me, I heard Lana, that rotten girl who told the story of Eolas Braoin's ghost to our little group last night, chuckle at my expense. I spun around and shot her a glare--to which she just started laughing even more.

The three of us were then interrupted by another classmate, who I had never seen before. She didn't waste no time getting in trouble with the professor, though. She was also short, perhaps an inch or two taller than Faelynn (seriously, was there a memo released two decades ago dictating that females of all races were to be short, except Nadia's was misplaced or something?). She gave off a bad ex-girlfriend kind vibe, with her cheerful frankness and utter disregard to the fact that we might have been having a private conversation.

Lana saw fit to chime in, reveling in my torment over my experience from last night. "Elijah here thinks he saw a ghost." She leaned in closer; a nasty smirk on her face, her fingers dancing in the air. "OOooOOooOOoo...! I'm gonna' haunt youuuuu...!"

I formed a chunk of ice no bigger than my fingernail and chucked it at her. It hit her forehead with a satisfying twap. "Ow! ...Prick!"

"Lana!" The professor spun around from the board and addressed my tormentor with a frown.

"But--!"

He waved a wrinkled hand dismissively. "I don't care. If there are any more interruptions, I'll give you detention. Understood?"

The professor turned back to the blackboard, and Lana sunk back in her chair with an annoyed sigh.

Revenge, bitch!

[Reine]

The lesson droned on. Faelynn anxiously tapped the end of her pencil on top of the wooden bench. Her chin rested on the palm of her other hand as she listened to the teacher. Any other day and she’d be intent on what he was telling her, absorbing every word that dripped from his lips like it were honey. But now, she just wanted the class to end so she could start talking about this ghost business again. She had an idea, a plan, but she couldn’t do it by herself and mentioning what had happened last night had already stirred up interest within the class. Some Captain RALF-something-or-other seemed quite interested herself, though her words had been silenced by the teacher and soon after so had every else. Not that she particularly minded Lana getting in trouble. That little Fae bitch deserved it half the time.

After what seemed like eternity, the teacher called the lesson to an end and since today was Tuesday—or an Mhairt as they called it here—they had no other lessons for the day, which mean her classmates were all hers. Excellent.

Immediately most of the students began breaking off into their different groups. It was almost like being back in school in Underwood. At least no matter what race she found herself interacting with, teenagers were teenagers.

Turning in her seat, Faelynn pinned Elijah to the spot with a sharp stare. He didn’t dare budge an inch under her gaze.

“Look, you and I and whoever else is interested is going to get to the bottom of this ghost thing. I don’t think it’s real, you obviously do, so let’s make a bet on it then.” Her golden green eyes flicked from Elijah to Lana who sat behind him and that RALF girl who was still listening in on their conversation, though she had yet to say anymore since the teacher had silenced her. “If it is a ghost, I owe you food at the pub for the next week straight, but if it is a ghost...” An evil glint fell into her eyes, her face tipped down as she stared through her lashes at him.

Elijah shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “What do you get?”

“Oh well, I’m sure I’ll think of something.” A menacing grin spread from ear to ear, one that changed the very look of her face, making Elijah squirm.

Lana took this exact moment to make an exaggerated sigh. “So what’s your grand plan for finding out what this thing is, supposing I even believe the two of you saw what you claimed you saw, which I don’t.”

Faelynn leaned back against the smooth, wooden bench, the look from her face vanishing and leaving not even the ghostly image that it had once been there, leaving everyone to wonder if it had been an illusion. “I plan on creating The Eolas Braoin Explorer Club, which will focus on discovering hidden secrets about the school of Eolas Braoin, but right now specifically focusing on the ghost that Elijah and I saw last night.”

Lana cocked a perfectly manicured golden blonde eyebrow at her. “An Explorer Club? Are you kidding me?”

Faelynn smirked. “I can understand if you’re too scared to join us, Lana.”

“Who said I was scared?”

Faelynn shrugged. “I mean we’ll be running around the school at night a lot, breaking into locked rooms, exploring parts of the library students aren’t allowed in to and generally doing some things that could get us kicked out, so it’s only natural that you’d be scared. Oh, or was it the ghost you’re scared of?”

“I never said I was scared!” Lana narrowed her eyes on Faelynn. “Fine, I’m in!”

“Perfect.” Her lips curled into a smirk and Lana knew she’d been tricked but could do nothing about it. She’d already given her word. “Oh, and RALF Captain-chick, you’re welcome to come too.” Faelynn tossed at the girl that had been listening in on their entire conversation. By this point in time the classroom was empty except for the five of them. “We’ll meet tonight in the library, at precisely 11pm. Try not to be followed. I don’t want us getting caught before we get a chance to do anything.”

With that, Faelynn grabbed her bag and turned to go. It was almost noon and she was starving. Food sounded great right about now.