Seth stirred in his sleep and woke up with a jolt. Something was wrong, the floor was cold and the air wet. He blinked and realized there wasn’t a much difference between him having his eyes open or closed. He was in complete darkness. He tried to stand up, but his hands were tied behind his back. Seth tried to reach for his hidden blade to cut the ties, but even those were gone. He tried for the second blade, but even that one was gone.

  “What the hell?” he mumbled quietly. Noone found that one before.

  “Seth?” Ben’s voice somewhere from the right.

  “Ben?!” Seth tried to raise again, but fell on side, so he sat up instead. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” Ben answered. “How about you?”

  “Been better,” Seth grinned to himself. “So,” he stretched as much as his ties let him. “It’s the woman, right? Vinia? That skull necklace she was wearing. Do you think it has something to do with the ghosts?”

  “Probably,” Ben shrugged. “I will know when I can inspect it. It would explain why the ghosts can’t leave.”

  “How can she control the ghosts? Is she a necromancer too?”

  “Maybe…” Ben hesitated. “I can’t feel her, so she probably isn't a necromancer herself.”

  “Can you get us out of here? They took my knives.” Seth grumbled, a bit insulted they found both of his hidden blades. He was rather proud of his hiding abilities.

  “My hands are tied.”

  Seth was quiet for a while, then he slowly spoke, taking care to pronounce each word: “Was that a joke, Ben?” His voice had an edge and a dark promise.

  Another round of silence. Then slowly, Seth could hear Ben giggle, which turned into a full on laughter. “Do you get it?” Ben managed to get out between laughs. “It’s a metaphor.” “There is nothing I can do.” He took a calming breath. “But my hands are actually tied.” Ben fell into another round of laughter.

  Seth lied down and stared upwards. “I am trapped with a mad man,” he sighed.

  “Sorry about that,” Ben said after another round of laughter. “I think I spend too much time with the ghosts. They tell the best jokes.”

  Seth closed his eyes. “We are going to die here," he muttered.

  “It will be fine,” Ben hopped next to him. “Ola will save us.”

  “How do you know that? How will she even find us?”

  “She will figure it out,” Ben grinned. “It’s Ola.”

  Seth just sighed. They will really die here.

  Where are they?! Ola was getting worried. She searched through the tavern, elders house and even ran to see the circus experiment. She found there a juggling ghost, but he just told her Ben and Seth already left for the village.

  She gritted her teeth and called out to the sky: “Alexandrus!” Less than a minute later, the ghost floated from the sky. “What assistance do you wish, comrade?” He said.

  “Stop joking,” Ola spit. “Have you found them?”

  Alexandrus shook his head.

  Ola bit her lip, “the last option then.”

  Alexandrus nodded gravely and floated down next to her. “I will be by your side, comrade.”

  “Lovely,” Ola said through gritted teeth. “Let’s move then.”

  They already knew where they were going. They asked about Vinia, when they visited the elder’s house. As it turned out, she was new to the village. Lived there barely a few months. Another interesting coincidence was that her house was quite far from the village. Close to the forest, just far enough no one would hear if someone tried to call for help.

  She was running, fast, not too fast, she couldn't come exhausted, but worry drew her forward. She could be wrong. Those two idiots could have just wandered somewhere in the forest… but she could be right. And if she was… she had to run.

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  “Ola!”

  She jumped into the air, the knife missing her just by a few centimeters. She looked around, but Alexandrus was already on top of the other ghost. Ghost? Did a ghost just try to kill her? What was happening here?!

  Alexandrus split the ghost apart with a single clean slash of his sabre. Ola stared as the ghost’s halves sort of just floated apart. “Ehm… is he dead? I mean, dead again?” She asked, for a moment forgetting about everything else.

  “Not quite,” Alexandrus grinned. “But, he won’t bother us anymore. It will take him a few hours before he drifts back together.” He hesitated and pointed at the ghost's unmoving face with his saber. “This is strange.”

  “Hm,” Ola nodded. The ghost's eyes were green, smaragd-like, their glow lighting everything around them. “I am guessing this is not normal for ghosts?” Ola asked.

  “Never seen anything like it.”

  Ola nodded. She didn’t have time to think about it now. She will tell Ben when she finds him, if something, this incident just raised her suspicion of Vinia. “Let’s go,” she said. “We are almost there.”

  There must be something I am missing! Seth paced around the room. He first tried the path across the room, the room seemed empty, not too big, as he would expect from a prison cell. Seth walked towards one side, his tied hands facing where he expected the wall.

  Finally he found it and slowly tried moving along the side of the room. He felt stone, some places just dirt and mold growing alongside it. It’s a basement then. Seth smiled to himself, they were probably still in the village. Vinia must have locked them in one of the-

  “Whatcha doing?” Ben asked from the other side of their prison.

  “Looking for a window or door… I think we are in the basement of one of the houses,” Seth mumbled absently.

  “We are,” Ben said. “The window is on your right, about a meter higher. The door to your left.”

  “Thanks,” Seth said and was about to move towards the door Ben described when- “Wait,” Seth stopped. “You can see?”

  “Yep,” Ben said, Seth could hear the smile in his voice. He briefly considered if friends should be allowed to strangle each other sometimes. “I can see in the night, like a cat,” Ben continued. “It’s really useful for reading before bed.”

  “I can imagine,” Seth mumbled, then continued: “How big is the room? Can you tell where we are? Why isn’t there any light coming from the window.”

  “The window is filled with bags from outside. The room is about three meters straight behind you, and I guess five to your left. You are close to the right wall.”

  “Any indications where we are?” Seth repeated.

  “I don’t know…” Ben sighed, “the walls are from stone, but look pretty old. Does that help?”

  “A bit, bu-”

  Seth stopped immediately. They both heard the quiet, dragging, steps from the next room; then a slow screeching of heavy doors opening and a light filled the room.

  Seth had to close his eyes from the sudden brightness, but the voice forced him to open them again. It wasn’t the rough voice of an old woman. It was rough, even raspy, but clearly belonged to someone much younger. There were evil promises behind every word said in that voice.

  “Are you comfortable, darlings?” Vinia said, her eyes shining with a smaragd glow.

  “Not too much,” Ben mumbled. “The ropes don’t help.”

  “I am sorry to hear that, dear.” Vinia said, there was almost a real empathy in her voice, almost.

  “That’s enough!” Seth said, raising himself as much as the ties let him. “What do you want with us?”

  “Oh?” Vinia raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t it be better if we were nice to each other? Why such an accusing tone?” Her voice was growing colder in a sharp contrast to her words.

  “You lost that right, when you tied us down!” Seth spit, staring daggers at the woman in front of him.

  Tying people isn’t very nice, that’s true.” Ben mumbled in his corner.

  “As you wish,” Vinia sighed, her voice devoted of even the pretense of warmth she showed before. “You, my little necromancer, have been the most helpful, so I suppose you deserve some explanation.” Vinia took a few steps into the room and kneeled a few meters from Ben.

  “I had been collecting ghosts for a good while here, you see. But, as you surely know, ghosts aren’t that useful in their pure form. They can’t do much to affect the physical world, barely moving something here, pushing the door there and even then, they have to rest a while after such a simple effort.” Vinia sighed and looked down on the floor, absently drawing shapes with her finger.

  “I almost gave up on capturing them, but then, you arrived.” She looked up and gave Ben a cold smile. “You have solved all my problems, my dear necromancer. You made the ghosts physical again. You made them useful. But, now you have gotten too close to what’s happening.” She sighed and got up. “I hoped you and yours would give up and leave, when the ghosts didn’t disappear, but you had to stay.” She shook her head, “and then a little ghostly birdie, told me you even started suspecting something is holding my ghosts here.” Her fingers swept across the skull shaped necklace. The skull's empty sockets were glowing with the same smaragd tint as her own eyes.

  Seth stirred in his place, if he could just get enough space, he could push himself and knock her down, maybe... “Why didn’t you kill us then?” He called towards her back.

  “Oh, I still plan to.” Vinia threw over her shoulder. “This little necromancer is a problem. I know enough, not to touch with ill will a true necromancer. I read about the magic protecting them. But,” her grin grew wolfish.

  “Even necromancers are living, barely, just half living as the books say, but they need to eat.” She stood up, but her eyes never left Ben. “I wonder how long you can survive without food. Certainly longer than your friend here. But how long?” She smiled again and whispered quietly: “We will just have to see, won’t we?”

  Then she looked up at the ceiling, it appeared as if she was listening to someone. After a while she looked back down on them, “seems like our last guests have arrived. We shall deal with her then, let’s see how friendly she has truly become with the ghost warrior.” Vinia cackled and as she left, Seth saw her transforming back into a defenseless, toothless old woman.