Grim Echoes

Chapter 85 - Ander

Her hand reached for her necklace, and her eyes flicked to Will before she sat back. "Ok, back to the shade working. If it thinks its still alive so it can open and close doors and I guess do paperwork. But wouldn't people notice a shade?"

"Yes, and no. This phase does not last long and most humans are content to ignore what makes them uncomfortable."

"I can't imagine ignoring something like that." she pressed her lips together.

"Well, to the norm-" Ander stopped himself. He was not speaking to Will. It was unnecessary to use Will's terminology. He placed his knife on the desk. "To most humans the shade would not seem much different, perhaps under the weather or quieter than usual but not drastically dissimilar. At least not to a casual acquaintance,"

"You said that people couldn't see shades, I mean really see them." her eyes were wide but her brows furrowed.

"Unless they recently crossed over or believe they are still alive. In rare cases some shades are powerful enough to manifest on this plane." Ander's hand trembled at the prospect of the sorcerer manifesting. It would be terrifying and disastrous for humans.

"And the little girl was old and couldn't have been any of those things," Maeve mumbled.

The realization of her curiosity about spirits struck Ander. Damn Will for inducing fear regarding her ability to perceive shades. There could be many reasons she could. It did not define her as a monster.

"You said shades can attack you? Do you mean like the people that said a ghost scratched them?"

"Yes. If a shade attacks, it rarely does something as harmless as scratching their victims. They are attacking your soul, not your physical form. It manifests on your physical body, but it is more than your form that is damaged, it is also your soul. There are few groups in the world that can mend that type of damage,"

"Your soul... does it ever heal?"

"It can with time, I am told, but there is no conclusive evidence of that." At least, none that he could share. Soul damage would heal and under the perfect circumstances could heal quickly. But that got into darker magic, and Ander knew Will would not appreciate if he shared that knowledge.

"What happens if you destroy the object or remove the bindings, but don't banish or destroy the spirit?"

Ander took a deep breath. That had not happened in his experience or in any soldiers of night mission files he had read. He considered the outcomes, none of which were positive. Will had stopped reading and listened to their conversation.

"I am uncertain, in theory the shade would be free from their tether and diminished in power but now able to roam as they wished," Ander replied his words slow but his mind raced in several directions, played out different scenarios with the various sub-species of shades.

"I hope the little girl doesn't attack us."

"That isn't a little girl. It's a wraith. A creepy homicidal wants-to-kill you shade. Don't be fooled by what it wanted you to see." Will shifted in his seat.

Maeve did not detect the concern or perceive the slight shift in his voice, but Ander had. Will was concerned about her. That was the reason he did not want her to go. Ander sat back and studied Will. Was it possible he was attached to her? At first Ander theorized Will was simply attracted to her and attempted to impress her. Then he thought Will might be taken with her. Later, he changed his mind and assumed Will wanted to bed her. Now he was uncertain. Perhaps his cousin had genuine feelings, and that caused his intolerable behavior for the past weeks.

Ander desired Maeve as well, but for different reasons. He craved a genuine relationship. It sounded ridiculous, even to him, but it was the truth. No preconceptions; it was unlikely to develop and on the slimmest chance it did; it was not clear on how it would fit into his life.