Ghasts are beings that consist of a material known as 'materialized' or 'hard' ?ther. This substance is formed during moments when ?ther volatility is so great that the amount of leaking element engulfs the unfortunate base entirely, thus creating a ghast. Like horrors, ghasts can subsist entirely on ?ther and have the ability to scry for ?ther volatility over great distances.

  Excerpt from 'Ozam's Compendium of ?ther Beings'

  It was past midnight when Karan and a select group of Callium magisters and adepts entered the White Candle. The King had given his approval to restore the sanctum barrier after a full day of angry deliberations with his advisors. He had even gone so far as to summon Sill to appear before the court to explain the situation; a thought that delighted Karan.

  Guard-captain Messchiel was waiting for them at the sanctum entrance surrounded by many of the Royal Guard. Karan recognized men from at least two lances and he knew there was another one patrolling outside.

  They certainly don't take any chances.

  “Magister,” Dovell said with a curt nod.

  “Guard-captain,” Karan replied with equal curtness.

  “I see you share my concern for this situation,” he added, gesturing to the nearby guards.

  “I do. I'm not taking any chances. The moment that barrier goes down, we will be ready for anything that might happen.”

  Anything including a certain Callium magister trying to sneak into the sanctum, no doubt.

  Several of the guards present were conspicuously holding scrying stones and Karan knew this was intended as a warning to him. We don't trust you and we are watching you.

  “Shall I begin, then?” Karan asked.

  “Please.”

  Karan nodded to the other Callium members and started his preparations, outwardly a perfect image of calmness and control.

  Inside he was not so calm, however. While he and Htanni were both convinced the plan could work, there were several potential problems that could ruin everything.

  The first hurdle was the situation inside the sanctum itself. If it turned out to be obviously hazardous, the entire plan was void; yet if it was safe, the real part of the plan could begin—starting with the runestone Htanni had given him.

  Karan touched the stone hidden in his robe as he worked.

  I sincerely hope this spell does exactly what Htanni claimed it does.

  It didn't take long for him to finish his preparations. “I'm ready. Prepare the birds and the secondary barrier.”

  Karan stepped away from the entrance as two adepts placed two bird cages in front of it: one on the floor and one upon a high pole. The cages contained two snikkits each, a common type of bird with dreary, light-brown feathers and a keen sense of smell. If there was anything wrong with the air in the sanctum, the birds would respond to it.

  A moment later, a faint yellow hue surrounded both the cages and the entrance; Magister Tonnavil had finished his weave of the secondary barrier.

  “The barrier is erected,” Darien said.

  “Good,” Karan nodded as the guards continued to scrutinize his every move. “I will now eliminate the barrier.”

  He placed his hands on the two ley points that fed the barrier. The task of dispelling the flow of ?ther to the barrier was rather simple, provided one knew the exact pattern required.

  With a sound like a wooden board snapping in two, the barrier vanished. Karan could hear people gasping. The mood among everyone present became tense and it seemed that they were all waiting for something to happen.

  Nothing did, however, and the birds carried on hopping around in their cages without a care in the world.

  “State of the ?ther?” Karan asked eventually.

  “Stable,” Darien answered as he studied several scrying stones. “Pressure is normal and the only volatility I see is the result of the barrier being eliminated.”

  Karan let out a sigh of relief. “Alright then. Eliminate the secondary barrier.”

  From the corner of his eye he could see several people moving backwards; he was experiencing some anxiety too. The birds were a good indication that things were safe, but not a guarantee.

  The yellow hue vanished and the smell of dust and old books immediately entered Karan's nostrils.

  “That's somewhat surprising,” he said to no-one in particular.

  “What is?” Dovell said, who had been following the proceedings closely.

  Karan took another whiff. “I don't smell death. If there had been over forty corpses in there, the smell would be unbearable after all this time.”

  Dovell stepped forward and smelled the air. “Good point, but get started on bringing that barrier back. The sooner that place is secure again, the better.” He turned towards his men. “Start creating your barriers too and cast your bulwarks. We're not going to sit here waiting without any protection—whether from the outside or inside.”

  Dovell paced away towards the lounge with a handful of men in tow.

  As the adepts took the bird cages away, Karan positioned himself in front of the doorpost. The point of no return had arrived.

  Now that the sanctum appeared safe to enter, the first hurdle had been cleared. The next one, however, would carry far greater risk.

  In a moment he would use Htanni's runestone to grant him the ability to enter the sanctum unseen.

  Either that, or I'm arrested on the spot.

  Karan placed his hand on the runestone and briefly exchanged looks with Darien, who nodded lightly.

  “Please remain silent from this moment on,” Karan instructed the guards present. “I need to focus and any talking will disrupt that focus, causing the restoration process to take longer. You can ask Magister Tonnavil about anything you want to know, as long as it's not anywhere near me.”

  He reached up to the doorpost and froze in place. At that moment one of the adepts tripped over his own robe and scattered a handful of runestones over the floor. Karan heard the clattering stones and cast Htanni's spell.

  Everything turned black.

  Reaching with his hand across the doorpost to find his way, Karan slipped over the threshold. The darkness vanished and he was standing inside the small entrance hall.

  He didn't turn around. For a small yet eternal moment, he listened for any sounds coming from behind him.

  Yet nothing he picked up was one of the sounds he feared hearing. No accusing voices, no barked commands, and no footsteps approaching him from behind.

  Slowly, he turned around, and found himself staring into his own face. Or more accurately, his past self's face. The corridor behind Karan's mirror image was empty, with only the guard called Tobiac leaning against the wall a short distance away.

  Remarkable. I can even hear the sounds my past self makes.

  When Htanni had told him what the runestone did, Karan had scarcely believed him. A spell that could show the past? How could Htanni possibly possess something that powerful?

  Yet as it turned out, it came with a lot of downsides. For one thing, the past shown by the spell had to be imprinted first, hence Karan's earlier 'inspection' of the barrier and the resulting imprint that would only last a couple of days.

  Furthermore, while the shown illusion would fool scrying stones, it was not immune to direct detection. If anyone came too close, they would enter the area that encompassed the illusion and would be plunged into the same darkness Karan had just left. Even someone swinging an arm too close would cause it to vanish as it entered the illusion. It was Darien's task to make certain this did not happen, yet Karan knew that for every moment he was in here the risk of discovery increased.

  He tore himself away from the doorway and focused his attention on the door that led into the sanctum proper.

  The second hurdle, he thought, shifting his gaze towards the crystals above the door.

  They displayed the same behaviour as before when Karan had first laid eyes upon them: shifting through various shades of grey in a never-ending flicker.

  Karan had no idea what their purpose was, which was why they posed a problem. They could merely be indicators like the large crystal outside, but it was also possible they represented something else like a secondary line of defence. If there were additional wards placed on the door, he would be ill-advised to just open it.

  He pulled out a scrying stone. After some puzzling, Karan grew increasingly frustrated. What the blaze are these crystals for?

  It had not taken him long to realize that each crystal was tied to one of the six elements and that the flickering represented the pressure of the elements that ran through them. What he couldn't figure out was the reason.

  What kind of ward uses all six elements at once? Casting or weaving a spell with even three elements is near impossible, let alone all six.

  Annoyed, Karan paced back and forth in front of the door, trying to figure out what to make of the crystals, when he heard a grinding sound from underneath his shoe.

  Lifting his foot revealed a small particle of gravel that seemed to have come from the wall.

  Why is that here?

  He inspected the floor and noticed that both corners of the hallway held small piles of gravel as if the floor had been improperly swept.

  Did they carve out something from the walls? he pondered before snapping his head back towards the crystals. Wait a moment. What if...

  Karan raised his face as close as possible to the nearest crystal and traced a finger over the edge. A thin layer of dust came off on his finger and he flicked it away with a sense of satisfaction.

  These crystals were added here only recently. Possibly even on the day the magistrae vanished.

  His satisfaction evaporated as quickly as it came; the realization did not help him at all in understanding what their purpose was.

  Karan shook his head. Regardless of their true nature, his time was fast ticking away.

  I'll just have to risk it and assume they are merely indicators.

  Without wavering any longer, Karan placed his hand on the door handle and in one swift motion pushed it down.

  The door swung open without making a sound, revealing a narrow corridor that stretched round to the left and right into the darkness.

  Relieved that nothing happened, the sight still gave him pause. Up until now he had only concerned himself with the dangers of being caught by the Royal Guard. Yet the place before him had the potential to be infinitely more dangerous.

  It's unfortunate I couldn't bring anyone with me, he thought as he prepared his bulwark. He would be alone, but not defenceless. When he was finished with his preparations, he carefully stepped into the corridor using a sun sigil to light his way. The yellow-white light revealed a corridor that appeared to stretch all the way around the perimeter of the circular sanctum.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Left or right? he asked himself, before deciding on the latter.

  There wasn't a sound as Karan carefully crept through the corridor. Only his own footsteps and his heartbeat reverberated in his ears.

  He passed several doors on his right-hand side, yet he ignored them. If this sanctum was anything like the one at the Imperator, it should have a large open room in the centre. Whatever happened to the White Candle magistrae would have happened in there, and Karan had to check it first before he did anything else. Not just to make certain it was safe, but also to satisfy his own curiosity.

  A blue sheen appeared on the walls up ahead.

  Light?! He thrust his sun sigil into his robe, allowing darkness to envelop him.

  There's still a light burning here?

  Advancing step by step, he approached the opening in the left wall where the light was coming from, watching for any movement or odd shadows.

  Upon reaching the opening he leaned forward and gazed upon a large room with a string of dim sun sigils casting the blue light Karan had seen.

  The inner sanctum.

  To his astonishment, the room was mostly empty. The light cast by the blue lights barely allowed him to make out the bookshelves placed against the walls nearby. There was an additional flicker of white light caused by six crystals set in the far wall in a similar manner to the six he had encountered earlier, adding an eerie atmosphere to the room.

  Yet there was enough light to confirm that the centre of the room was empty, as there was nothing there to obstruct his sight from one wall to another.

  This is everything? No bodies, no destruction, just an empty room?

  Feeling dazed, he entered the chamber and moved along the wall towards one of the bookshelves, avoiding the dark centre of the room.

  A quick perusal of the books revealed that most were standard works like the ones in the entrance hall. The rest, however, matched what he was looking for.

  White Candle spelltomes.

  Holding up one of them near the blue sun sigil, he read the description of the first spell. It was one belonging to the Soul dyad that allowed one to recognize a specific person despite any form of masking magic.

  He flipped over the page to look at the actual pattern that made up the spell, only to be greeted by gibberish.

  Encrypted, of course. They wouldn't be that callous, even within their own sanctum.

  Nonetheless, a smile appeared on Karan's face. He had found what he was looking for and there would be plenty of time to decrypt the White Candle's cypher in the days to come.

  Excited, he started to sort the books from the shelf, placing the ones he wanted in one stack and the ones he would provide to Callium in another.

  He could not look too closely, however, as time was still against him. His subterfuge at the entrance could be discovered at any moment, and the eerie emptiness of the sanctum itself urged him on as well.

  Despite the excitement he felt, he was also suffering from a growing sense of uneasiness that had been with him since he entered the sanctum.

  I wonder if this is how grave robbers feel? he wondered, smirking wryly at the thought. They probably console themselves with the riches they find.

  Feeling satisfied with his selection, Karan prepared to face the third hurdle of the plan.

  Outside the White Candle, in one of the nearby mansions, a group of Callium magisters and adepts were waiting next to a blackshift anchor. They were the means by which Karan would smuggle the found treasures out of the sanctum.

  It was a simple solution, yet one not guaranteed to work as Karan had no way of knowing if the sanctum wards were capable of preventing a blackshift.

  If it did work, however, barring his own return to the sanctum entrance, the plan would be a success. This was the plan he and Htanni had come up with and as they had presented it to Sill and the inner circle.

  But what Callium's leadership did not know was that in yet another nearby house, Htanni and some other trusted men had set up an additional blackshift anchor. One that would receive the items Karan had chosen to keep for himself.

  As he looked for a good place to set up the shift area, Karan's rising anxiety caused his gaze to wander through the empty room. His eyes fell on a closed door only a few steps away from the opening he had used to enter the chamber.

  That's odd. Doesn't that just lead to the same corridor? Why would there be two entrances right next to each other?

  The sparse light prevented him from seeing clearly, but the bend of the opening he had used looked strange somehow.

  He tapped his forehead. You aren't here to discover the White Candle's fate. You are here to get these tomes out. So focus.

  He finished setting up the shift area, placing four runestones in a square, and chose a single unimportant book to use as a test subject. The sigils on the stones had already been charged so all he needed to do was trigger the shift.

  He knelt down and grabbed two of the stones, making certain no part of his body or robe was within the shift area. Anything left within would vanish along with the book.

  The moment of truth.

  The feedback pulse came from the runestone and the book vanished. Karan felt the sudden gust caused by the air vanishing along with it.

  Excellent. Now for the real ones.

  He picked up the smaller of the two stacks he had made, the one intended for Callium. They would be expecting it after the test book so he could not waste time switching the targeted anchor.

  He divided the stack in two and carefully arranged them within the small shift area.

  One cast later, the tomes had vanished as well.

  Flushed with confidence, Karan rose from the floor and went to retrieve the tomes he had selected for himself. Once those were shifted, he should have some time left to explore the sanctum to see if there were any other interesting items to be found.

  He bent forward to pick up the top book of the stack when he heard a ticking sound coming from behind him. It was soft and distant, but grew louder with every tick.

  Karan's earlier anxiety flared up and he became acutely aware of the cold sweat running down his back.

  He turned his head ever so slowly, as if he didn't want to see what was making the sound.

  At first he saw nothing; he could only hear the ticks approaching closer and closer, until something moved at the opening in the wall.

  What in the ?ther's name is that?!

  A long tentacle-like object curled itself around the edge of the opening, followed by a dark mass pulling itself forward.

  When it moved into the light of the nearest sun sigil, Karan saw what it was.

  It's a spider. In the strictest sense, this was an accurate description. Only this spider was as large as a dog and seemingly made of various shades of grey-coloured glass as it reflected the light of nearby sun sigils.

  Karan bit his lip as hard as he could to prevent himself from screaming. He forgot about everything and simply stood there, frozen in place, as the creature moved inexorably forward, each of its legs making a distinct tick on the stone floor.

  The terror held Karan tightly in place until he realized that the spider wasn't moving towards him. Instead, it veered off towards the shift area where it halted, knocking over one of the runestones. Karan overcame his initial panic and backed away from the creature, which was now pivoting in place as if inspecting the area.

  What is that? A ghast? A horror? Some kind of sanctum guardian? Does it know I'm here? What's it doing?

  These and many other panicked thoughts ran through his head as the creature settled itself in the shift area. It gave no indication that it had even noticed Karan, but who knew how long that would last…

  It has to be a ghast, Karan thought, backing further away. That's the only way something like that could exist. Which means that it's attracted to ?ther volatility and that's why it's sitting there! A Blackshift is a fourth-tier spell; that would be more than sufficient.

  The realization dampened his panic. Ghasts needed ?ther to survive and would be drawn to anywhere it leaked into the natural realm. As long as he could give it a wide berth, it should ignore him completely.

  What was I thinking coming in here all by myself?! This place is a tomb even if there aren't any corpses here.

  It pained him to leave his own stack of tomes behind, but escaping from here had now become far more important. Unfortunately, the ghast was right between him and the hole in the wall. He couldn't even blackshift out as he lacked the channelling strength required to empower the spell himself. For a moment he deeply regretted having picked Entropy as one of his sacrificial elements.

  Not that it matters; I can't reach the runestones anyway. I have to circle around it.

  Karan started to move towards the dark centre of the room when he noticed he was still holding the tome he had picked up earlier. Never taking his eyes off the ghast, he tried to manoeuvre it into one of his inner pockets, yet his trembling hands failed him.

  The book slipped from his grasp and hit the floor with a loud thud.

  Again Karan froze in place, but the ghast did not move at all. Whatever it was doing, it did not seem to care about Karan's presence at all.

  He had barely taken another two steps when the ghast blinked out of existence.

  Karan blinked as well. Did that thing just vanish or is the light playing tricks on me? It seemed impossible, but the ghast was nowhere to be seen.

  What the blaze? Where did it go? Did it turn invisible? That's close to impossible. But what else could—

  He slapped his forehead and cursed. “It mimicked the Blackshift,” he said to the empty room. To where he did not know for certain, but he cared little. It was a chance for him to shift his own loot after all.

  Despite every fibre of his being screaming that he should leave immediately, he forced himself to walk back towards a nearby desk. There he picked up a stray inkpot, which he threw as hard as he could at the ghast's last location.

  The pot sailed through the air, leaving a raining trail of ink. When it reached the shift area, it continued unhindered to shatter on the floor.

  The ink trail it left formed a shaky line across the floor without major interruptions. The ghast had not turned invisible. It was indeed gone.

  Throwing caution to the wind, Karan rushed to set up the shift area again. This time he would target Htanni's shift anchor by replacing one of the runestones.

  For a third time, a stack of tomes vanished without a trace. Immediately afterwards, Karan grabbed all his runestones and bolted out of the room.

  With heaving breath he arrived at the entrance hall, where he saw his past self pretending to work on the barrier.

  He slammed the inner sanctum door shut harder than he intended and when he released the handle, he noticed the tremble in his hand had evolved into a violent shake.

  That was close, he thought, inhaling deeply in an attempt to calm himself down. Panic wasn't conducive to concentration and he still needed to fool the Royal Guard.

  He relaxed his posture and observed his own image working the ley points. There were several key moments when his past self wasn't moving at all, seemingly concentrating on the way the ?ther flowed through the ley lines. It was a very specific position, with his left hand on the doorpost, the other hidden in his robe and his toes lined up perfectly with one of the cracks between the floor tiles. It was a stance that Karan could assume by touch only, so all he had to do was to step into the illusion at the right moment, assume the same position and posture and then hope that nobody was looking directly at him when he dispelled the illusion.

  If someone was looking, they would no doubt notice something as there was no way he could drape his robe in exactly same way as his past self. Yet there was no way around it. If the guards kicked up a fuss, he could simply blame some kind of barrier-related issue causing visual oddities. They would have no proof of any wrongdoing in any case.

  At least they won't have any unless I stop my damn hands from shaking. If I go out like this I will be found out even if I manage the switch.

  It was a choice between the danger in front of him and the danger behind him, and he had to opt for the first.

  Taking deep breaths, Karan watched his past self until he felt confident he had control over his body again.

  Now then.

  His past self moved into the right position and Karan stepped into the darkness.

  With his left hand feeling across the doorpost to find the ley points and moving his feet to feel the specific seam between the floor tiles, he readied himself.

  The final hurdle.

  Light and sound filled his eyes and ears again. As casually as he could muster, he straightened himself up and looked around the corridor. Two guards were standing close by, but were talking with each other, only throwing an occasional glance at Karan and the other Callium members that were milling around aimlessly.

  Nobody else was looking at him. There were no surprised faces nor were there any accusing fingers being pointed.

  He let out a heavy sigh of relief. Thank the ?ther.

  The only thing he had to do now was raise the barrier again; a trivial task as the whole story about having to reconstruct it in its original state had been a lie.

  “Darien,” Karan said.

  Magister Tonnavil's eyes grew slightly wider as he snapped to attention. He had not seen the switch either.

  “Yes?”

  “I'm ready to restore the barrier.”

  “Already?” Darien asked. “That was fast. So everything went well, then?”

  Karan knew what Darien was really asking about. “I encountered some problems, but we will have the result we wanted.” He tried to speak with confidence to hide the lingering sense of dread. The ghast had given him a good scare, but more worrisome was where it had gone after it shifted.

  If it shifted where I suspect, then the results will not be as we wanted at all.

  Just as he was preparing to restore the barrier, Karan heard anxious voices coming from the lower lounge.

  He did not bother to look; he only needed to listen as Dovell was talking loudly with someone. While Karan could not hear the exact conversation, he heard one word clearly enough.

  Ghast.

  With a last manipulation he unblocked the ley points and the barrier sprung back into existence once more, sealing the sanctum from the outside. He then turned to face the coming storm.

  “Karan,” Dovell said, throwing formalities aside. “We have a problem. How much longer till the barrier is restored?”

  “I just did it. The sanctum is sealed again.” He tapped the invisible wall in the doorway. “What's the matter?”

  “A creature appeared outside the tower. The guards who spotted it think it's a ghast.”

  Karan feigned surprise. “A ghast? Are we under attack again?”

  “Possibly,” Dovell said, looking at the sanctum entrance. He stretched out his arm, which was instantly repelled by the barrier. “Or possibly it came from in there. Did you notice anything?”

  “If a ghast had worked its way past here, I would have noticed.” Karan gestured to the surrounding people. “Anyone here would have noticed; besides, isn't keeping an eye out for these things the task of the Royal Guard?”

  Dovell's face darkened and Karan knew he had said too much.” Don't lecture me about what the Royal Guard is tasked with,” Dovell snapped. “It is to clean up the mess you magistrae make every day.” He pushed his large gloved hand against Karan's chest. “Your mess!”

  Everyone around them watched in an uncomfortable silence that lasted until the guard-captain turned around without saying a word and stomped away.

  “I think we outstayed our welcome,” Darien whispered. “What was he saying about a ghast?”

  “Nothing that concerns us at the moment,” Karan replied. “Pack up everything and head back to the Imperator.”

  Dovell's outburst had barely affected him. His mind was with the ghast and the problem it represented. If it had indeed mimicked the shift Karan had performed exactly, then there could only be one place where it would reappear: the first shift anchor set up by Callium where clearly the magisters there had failed to contain it.

  No surprise there. I told them to take precautions for things like this, but they probably ignored that like everything else I said. They were probably too busy pulling those spelltomes out of each others' hands.

  As the Callium men filed out of the White Candle into the night, Karan noticed a lance of guards running across the brightly illuminated Candle Square.

  Somewhere in the distance, he could hear the faint sound of people screaming. Or was that just his imagination playing tricks on him?

  Darien voiced his discomfort. “I don't like this; shouldn't the Royal Guard protect us? What if we're attacked on our way back?”

  “Who by? Our dark assailants from two nights ago? They didn't care about us, Darien. Only about what was inside that sanctum.”

  “But the ghast—”

  Karan cut him off. “As I said before, it's not our problem to deal with.”

  The adepts finished loading the carriages and Karan briefly wondered if instead of going with the others, he should check up on Htanni first.

  No, better to go back, Karan thought, realizing how tired he was. He had barely slept the past few days, and this combined with his experience inside the sanctum had made both his body and mind feel heavy as a stone.

  He gestured to everyone to get into the carriages. “Let's go.”

  After he climbed into the carriage, Karan dwelled on how lucky he had been. Looking back at it now, going into that sanctum all by himself was an insane thing to do. While he had obtained what he wanted, he couldn't shake the feeling that he had failed.

  That ghast is going to bring more trouble for certain. But for the moment he forgot about all that, as the rocking of the carriage swept him into a dreamless sleep.