Megacorporations acting together in a conspiracy. Concealing occult artefacts from society… it would make sense if they don’t want further competition to arise.

  It lends further credence to the idea that the megacorporations are incorporating them into cybernetics somehow. Maybe even more broadly into their products and advances.

  Evantra paused, looking up at Adeline.

  “Adeline… have you heard of these occult artefacts being used to power cybernetics?”

  Adeline shook her head.

  “I haven’t. Though I imagine the corpos’ rise to power was predicated on the artefacts somehow. As for precisely what applications they’ve derived from them? I haven’t the slightest clue.”

  “What about… rituals in particular? Is there anything you can share about them?”

  Adeline’s gaze seemed to hover over Evantra’s own. The older woman carefully traced her expression until Evantra finally averted her gaze, reaching forwards to take a sip of her tea.

  “Of course, I’m sorry sweetheart. I went so off-track. My mother had plenty of guesses about just what my grandmother and her team were studying in London. Tell me you two, what do you know about ghosts?”

  Seeing Evantra content to let her speak, Noelle cleared her throat.

  “We know that they appeared around the same time as the creatures of the Veil. That they don’t enter the world similarly to how the Veilcreatures do – through Mythic Veilsurges. Ghosts can’t use the Veilsurges to travel, otherwise, every single Mundane Veilsurge would be elevated to the level of an existential threat. What else…”

  Noelle tapped her chin, searching the recesses of her knowledge.

  “The different types of ghosts—”

  “Let me stop you there. If ghosts don’t appear through the Veilsurges, how exactly do they enter our realm?”

  “Rituals.”

  Adeline nodded to Evantra.

  “Yes. But…” her expression softened, and she watched Evantra shrink.

  “As you might know, the word ‘ritual’, in a conventional sense, brings to mind an artificial process. Drawings of blood in a pattern, the offering of sacrifices to fuel it. All that is true, for some rituals. Ghosts may be born of natural rituals, often where there is the congregation of strong emotions, death, life or tragedy. As hard as we’ve tried, we haven’t been able to categorise them, and they continue to surprise us.”

  This expands on what I read in Adesina’s book about naturally occurring rituals.

  It also doesn’t seem to help that ghosts break our ‘rules’.

  Evantra glanced at her trembling hands. She jolted when Adeline gently covered her clenched fist with her own. She smiled softly, with an understanding nod before continuing.

  “Just like ghosts, rituals come in all shapes and sizes. There are common elements in each, but even then, they may vary in nature. Blood to structure it. A catalyst, which acts as the engine, to power it. Finally, souls, to fuel it. To make things worse, there are always exceptions.”

  “If that’s the case… do natural rituals require a catalyst to be present?”

  “They’re one example where the rules are broken. My grandmother theorised that sometimes the nature of emotions can be so potent that it substitutes the need for a catalyst, which would be used in artificial rituals. You also have to remember that our knowledge of rituals is elementary… and there are always exceptions to the rules we draw. We know even less about the artefacts themselves.”

  “Do the ‘souls’ required for the ritual need to coincide precisely with it? How do you even ‘capture’ someone’s soul?”

  Evantra tried to ignore Noelle’s stare, as ironic as her question was. But Adeline just paused to think it over.

  “No, it’s nothing so rigid. I’ve heard my mother speak of rituals of both kinds. I’m sure you’ve heard of the ancestral spirits in Africa? There is another name for them… revenants.”

  Evantra’s heart hammered in her chest, hanging on to Adeline’s every word.

  “Ghosts are said to be born from belief. Sometimes, hospitals are used as ritual sites to summon the protector spirits. Capitalising on natural death, rather than… imposing it. Even then, the practice and its mechanisms are secretive. But… it leads me to believe that rituals could be conducted without multiple deaths occurring at the same time, contemporaneously.”

  Noelle, who had been listening with rapt attention, finally interceded, raising her hand as if waiting for Adeline to call on her, before withdrawing it with a blush.

  “I’ve heard of the ancestor spirits, and I’ve always been interested in them, but I haven’t found much information about them online.”

  “The PIU and other equivalent organisations keep a close watch for information concerning ghosts. It isn’t hard to imagine what would result if the building blocks of rituals were made readily available to the public. Let alone the presence of the occult artefacts which empower them.”

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  Evantra nodded and watched as Noelle continued.

  “Then are there benevolent ghosts? If ancestor spirits can be used as protectors?”

  Adeline tapped her chin in thought.

  “The ancestor spirits summoned can be temperamental. Some more definitively protect humanity, while others are more… unpredictable. But yes, some ghosts are benevolent, though rare.”

  “Does… the nature of the soul matter? The person being killed?” Evantra whispered quietly.

  Adeline’s face fell.

  The woman’s knowing gaze bore into her, and Evantra averted her eyes once more, heart thundering in her chest. She felt the warmth of Adeline’s hands as the older woman leaned across the table to take her trembling hands into her own, giving them a gentle squeeze. After a moment, Adeline rose from where she was crouched, refilling their cups with tea. Steam wafted from the cups, dispersing in the silent air of the bookstore. Noelle had frozen, as if afraid to move, after grasping the implication behind Evantra’s question.

  With a long sigh, Adeline crouched beside Evantra, once more enveloping her cold hands in the warmth of her own.

  “I don’t know, sweetheart. What I do know is that going after Caliburn would be suicide.”

  Adeline’s words came out as a whisper, but Evantra and Noelle were rendered motionless. They froze, staring at Adesina as she picked up her teacup and casually sipped her tea.

  Of course she’s put it together.

  “Do you know what a parent’s worst fear is? It’s seeing their child pass before them. There are nights when I wake up screaming, pleading for them to have taken me instead,” Adeline’s eyes grew damp, even as her smile remained.

  “I miss her. I miss her beautiful smile. I miss the way she teased me. I miss her warmth and her rough kindness,” Adeline drew in a shuddering breath, which she released slowly.

  “How did you let her go,” Evantra whispered.

  For a moment, there was only silence in the Radcliffe’s bookstore. Evantra heard a soft sob escape from Noelle beside her, the girl’s shoulders trembling. She felt Adeline’s hands tighten around her own.

  “By accepting what she would want for you, sweetheart,” pure vitriol flashed across Adeline’s shadowed eyes. “Don’t die, chasing a pointless revenge. Live a meaningful life instead,” Adeline’s arms tightened around Evantra. “Live a good, happy life. One grand enough to make Mills smile, or swear at you in envy. Live like she did, with no regrets.”

  Evantra felt numb as Adeline slowly rose, the warmth of her embrace fading away with her withdrawal. She heard a sob erupt from beside her, and she watched as Noelle bit her lip, failing to hold back her tears that ran freely down flushed cheeks.

  Evantra watched a mother, who had witnessed her daughter stolen from her, with the rest of her life ahead of her. A mother, generous enough to console her for the loss of the brightest light in her own life. A mother who had come to terms with her loss and who grieved her powerlessness to exact retribution on those who had taken the person she loved the most in the world.

  A mother who had the bravery to live like her daughter would have wished for her.

  Adeline Radcliffe.

  ***

  “If you ever need someone to speak to, or if you would ever like to visit, just give me a call.”

  They watched as Adeline Radcliffe smiled at them and waved before returning to her bookstore. The haunted expression that had crept onto her face during the course of their conversation had gradually receded, but Evantra still felt guilt piercing into her heart like a razor dragged across flesh.

  “She considered it, of course she has,” Noelle whispered under her breath. “Knowing as much as she does about rituals, she must have put it together in an instant. There’s no way she didn’t suspect Caliburn.”

  For a long moment, they sat still and silent in the car before Evantra managed to prevail against her lethargy to insert the key and start the engine.

  Noelle remained silent as Evantra spoke.

  “Our initial assumption was that Caliburn were using the murders to fuel their search for artefacts, using the trove seeker. Maybe we were wrong. It doesn’t reconcile with Caliburn’s celebration of the raid, seeing as I stole the mistheart.”

  Noelle frowned, thinking to herself.

  “Shh.”

  Evantra raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment as Noelle stared out of the window, having cut her off.

  “What if… the mistheart was throwing them off their scent?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Noelle turned back to face her, brow furrowed, deep in thought.

  “I don’t think we should be so quick to throw out our theory. Maybe their main objective is reaching an artefact which they’re mining for. The appearance of the mistheart could have thrown them off their scent. Maybe it was even placed there deliberately by the figure that you glimpsed to divert them. You did say that they referred to the operation as being less important. By getting rid of it… they would have cause to celebrate despite losing possession of the mistheart that’s now in your belly.”

  “It’s not in my—”

  Emboldened by her theory, Noelle continued, her speech growing rapid.

  “Shh. Maybe, the mistheart was interfering with their search, like a powerful magnet in the periphery of a compass disrupting its orientation. That’s the only thing I can think of. But I still don’t know… to what end?”

  Evantra let out a sigh of frustration.

  “WAIT!”

  Evantra jumped as Noelle screeched.

  “Remember what Adeline told us? Some rituals allow for the gradual accumulation of souls over time… the murders and ritual activation don’t necessarily have to occur at the same time. What if, they don’t require souls to power the trove seeker. Instead, the murders are all gradually accruing in preparation for their actual ritual. Once they obtain the artefact that they’re using the trove seeker to search for… they’ll trigger it.”

  Noelle paled, Adeline’s words still ringing in her mind.

  “To summon a ghost.”

  Evantra gritted her teeth, shaking her head in frustration.

  “We still know too little. But in both theories, the trove seeker is at the heart of it all, unless we’re totally off-base. In any case, we need to tell Trevor about our suspicions. Should we call—”

  “Well… this is great timing,” Noelle said dryly.

  Evantra stared at Noelle in confusion as the girl interrupted her.

  “We have your celebratory picnic to get to after all.”

  Noelle’s lips twisted into a drawn-out smile filled with misery.

  “Surprise.”

  ***

  The picnic was being held some distance out of Wisptown, on the way to Bastion. They drove in silence, following the curving road that provided them with vistas of Demeteria’s sweeping continental greenhouses. Noelle’s eyes were still bloodshot from their conversation with Adeline, but she had dried them. She seemed to be lost in her thoughts.

  After about half an hour of driving, Evantra pulled up to the park on Wisptown’s fringes, overlooking Demeteria’s territory. She spotted Carmen, Lucas and Trevor with a picnic blanket laid out across the ground. Food and drink were arranged neatly and covered with protective plastic film for their arrival.

  Getting out of the car, Noelle took a moment to wash her face with a bottle of water, hastily drying it before proceeding to practice smiling in the rear windshield of her Himetachi.

  “Hey… you alright?”

  “I’ll be better when I see Caliburn and their mining barge in flames,” Noelle gave her a bright smile, before her voice dropped.

  “Let’s go.”