The sensation of falling made Sofia squeak even as the temperature dropped further, the spell absorbing every bit of warmth and energy from the air until their breaths fumed. Lydia staggered backwards with a snarled oath, her own hands making a gesture against her breastplate as a ward against evil. The huskarl calling upon Stendarr's benediction with the gesture, especially once she realised the purpose of Kaius's spell.

  Billowing into existence, a mist flowed out of Kaius as the spell took form, swirling and flowing until the entirety of the ruined interior was encased with a cold, grey, mass.

  "W-Who's there? Is that you, pappa?"

  Between the three of them it was impossible to determine who jumped the most at the tiny, echoing voice that appeared from all around them. Sofia practically jumped out of her skin, Kaius looked like he had been stuck with lightning and Lydia’s heirloom axe somehow materialised into her hand so quickly that the other two hadn’t seen her draw it. Even though the unnatural, magical fog was already dissipating, they were no longer alone. A tiny figure, made from the mist, was standing in the centre of the ruins behind them.

  "Talos’s hairy nutsack Kaius!" Spluttering, Sofia nearly tripped over on a pile of burnt debris as she backed away from the tiny, silhouetted figure lurking in the mists. "What the fuck?!"

  Sofia wasn’t the only one to react in such a way, especially as Lydia staggered backwards, her face a mask of horror and she didn't stop until the shield hanging over her back slammed into a crumbling wall. She was staring, not blinking as she tried desperately to comprehend the sight before her but Kaius reacted differently. There was no doubt he was expecting something like this, gesturing to the two women with sharp, curt gestures as he looked at the spectre.

  She was young, short, and dressed in an ankle length dress, but everything about her was wrong. She was visible, and yet not. Transparent, and as substantial as the mist that lingered at the edges of the burnt out ruin, but was also solid enough to touch. It didn’t take long before Sofia was wincing more from the building headache resulting from the necromantic power of the spell, than the cold, creeping feeling of dread up her spine.

  It was difficult though to determine who was more frightened at the situation, the pair of women standing as far away from the ghost as they could, or, the spirit of the young girl who looked barely eight winters old.

  "Hello little one.” Ash and coals crunched under an armoured knee as Kaius knelt down, bringing his head down to the height of the spirit. “Who are you?"

  "Helgi, but mamma says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." The look of confusion was painfully evident, as she looked between him and the pale expressions of the two women. "Are you a stranger?"

  "No. I'm Kaius. I'm a friend." Carefully, as though trying not to startle the dead girl, Kaius sat down in the ash, ignoring the way that it clung to his cloak, furs and armour, while a gloved hand motioned to the burnt out remains. "Do you know what happened to your house?"

  "The smoke woke me up. I was hot and I was scared... So I hid under my bed." Helgi looked around herself as though seeing it for the first time. Even the tiniest of movements left her hair floating as though she was underwater, her dress flowing in an ethereal breeze but there was still something within her, something innocent and totally at odds of Sofia’s expectation of dealing with a ghost. "It was so hard to breathe. Mamma wasn’t coming when I called her, and I couldn’t stop coughing… But then, it got cold and dark."

  The silence that fell was as deep and foreboding as the doors to a crypt falling closed, and Sofia found herself staring at Kaius as he sat in the ash with the dead girl only a metre of so away. He was smiling, as though he was remembering something from his past, but whatever happiness it was providing him was tinged with a deep pain. No one else, especially the likes of Lydia would have noticed, but Sofia did. Kaius was struggling to hold himself together and appear nothing more than kind and welcoming, as his soul was shredded apart from his emotions.

  "I'm not scared anymore." Bouncing on the spot for a moment, Helgi sat down in front of Kaius with youthful pride in her voice. "But I am lonely. Will you play with me?"

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  "I can play with you, Helgi." There was no mistaking the sudden waver in Kaius’s voice, but the smile he wore was honest, even if he had to force it into his eyes through sheer willpower. “I am trying to work out what happened here though. If I play with you, would you be able to tell me what happened to your home?”

  “Okay!” Helgi nodded, her waifish face bobbing up and down with an enormous grin breaking out. “Let's play... Hide and Seek! You find me, and I'll tell you! We have to wait for night-time though. The other one is playing too, and she can't come out until then."

  "The other one? What do you mean?"

  "I can't tell you.” There was no mistaking Helgi's fear as she shook her head, twitching it back and forth and leaving strands of her hair floating in the otherworldly breeze. “She might hear me. If you can find me first, I can tell you, but she’s so close.”

  "You have a deal Helgi. Where are we going to play?"

  "The graveyard. After it gets dark. Don't take too long to find me!"

  Swirling like oily water, the coursing energies twisted and weaved around them as Kaius lessened his grip on the spell, and the tiny spirit twirled away with a childish giggle. Skipping, her hair and dress floating in the ethereal breeze, Helgi's spirit vanished into nothingness in a handful of steps, leaving Kaius, Sofia and Lydia standing alone once more.

  "What the fuck!” Stepping forward the moment the ghost had vanished, Sofia stomped her way through the ash and burnt remains, and shoved Kaius as hard as she could with both hands. “Seriously! What the fuck was that!"

  "What?"

  "Um… The dead? Are you just going to rip the soul of a little girl out of the afterlife? Just like that?" The snap of her fingers nearly made them all jump but their gazes never wavered from each other.

  "Necromancy isn't banned in the Empire anymore. Or at least it wasn't the last I checked." Staggering to his feet he began brushing the layers of soot and ash from his legs and back. "Besides, I didn't summon her from Aetherius. As far as I can tell both her and possibly her mother's spirits still reside here, trapped in the barriers between Nirn and Oblivion."

  "Summoning the dead... It's… It’s not right." Lydia said somehow managing to keep her voice cold and devoid of emotion.

  "Neither is burning down a house with a little girl and her mother inside." A tinge of steel was in Kaius's voice and for a moment both Lydia and Sofia were left wondering at the signs of emotion rising to the surface. Typically he gave Lydia a run for her septims for being the most silent and foreboding warrior in Skyrim, but there were true emotions just below the surface now. Emotions that were strong enough that Sofia could see the way that his lips and cheeks tightened against the bones slightly.

  "Look, whatever happened here is not as simple as some arsehole deciding to move in with his new squeeze and get rid of his family. That…" A finger stabbed in the direction of the fireplace and the engraved rune in the stonework. "Shows that something else is going on and now we have a lead."

  "By summoning the spirit of a little girl to play hide and seek with?"

  "That spirit..." His voice had dropped, and the chill within it was as cold as the sea of ghosts. "Is trapped here. Unable to pass on until she is properly laid to rest. If we hadn't come... If I hadn't done what I just did, then there is a damn good chance that she and her mother would be stuck here until the ending of the world."

  Kaius practically growled, wiping his ash and soot-covered gloves down the front of his armoured thighs before dusting himself off as best he could. Unlike the two women, he appeared strong, resolute and determined, despite the way his jaw was clenched and thoughts wandering elsewhere.

  "We have an hour or two before night is upon us. You both can come with me, or meet me at the graveyard, or go back to the tavern. It's your choice. I'm going to go and see if there is a mage in this city, and get an idea of the number of practitioners of destruction magicka in the area. Then, I'm going to go find Helgi, and work out just what in all of oblivion is going on here."

  The two women might have felt at odds with one another but their mutual discomfort united them for the briefest of moments, a shared glance showing that they were both just as uncomfortable, and unsure of what to do as the other. Lydia especially seemed to be warring against her oath to serve as his Huskarl, and her dual distaste for magicka and what he had done.

  "You know where to find me." With a tone as cold as ice, Kaius turned, picking his way towards the door and leaving them standing there, in the burnt out ruins that had once been a family home.