"You're Mr. Voss?" Finbar asked uncertainly.
The man before him simply nodded. Finbar invited him inside, and he immediately got to the point. "What is wrong with your son, Mr. Griffin?"
Finbar sat down on a large plain brown couch, and his guest took a nearby chair. Finbar clasped his hands in front of his face, remembering all that had happened recently.
"Well, Mr. Voss--"
"Please, call me Vegel."
Finbar nodded, then continued his story. "About three months ago, William became suicidal. He's tried to kill himself five times now, and I suspect he'll try again soon."
Emotion nearly overcame him, and as Finbar struggled to regain his composure, he felt Vegel's hand on his shoulder. "Be calm, Finbar," Vegel said, and a peace came over Finbar's mind. "Continue, now."
"I've taken him to therapists, they say that although he has a few problems, he doesn't seem suicidal to them. I've taken him to doctors, thinking it might be a chemical problem or something like that, but there's nothing wrong. I don't know what happened to him. He's led a good life, had a lot of good fortune, and has never done anything bad to anyone. My uncle, Leonard, was here a week ago... he mentioned some 'circle' he belonged to sometimes... he observed the situation for a few days, and said he would have help sent to us."
Vegel nodded, replying, "Indeed, Leonard Correll is a respected member of our organization. He should perhaps not have spoken about us to you, but he has helped us many times in the past, and my elders decided to lend aid in his family's need."
"Your elders?"
"I am an apprentice, you might say, but they deemed me capable of handling the situation. Was there any indication at all of some problem beforehand?"
"No, nothing. If anything, I'd say he was extraordinarily lucky."
"How so?"
"Things seemed to come to him. When Uncle Leonard noticed this before, he simply said something like, 'William's not doing it,' or whatever. I never understood that, and he would never explain."
"That is understandable. May I see you son?"
Finbar led Vegel upstairs to a room in one of the back corners of the house. The walls were covered in posters of rock stars and favorite actresses, remnants of a teenage existence, the only thing betraying the true age of the occupant being the relative neatness of the rest of the room. A stereo on a nearby bookshelf played light pop music, and the only light in the room came from a lamp on the desk. On a bed lying against the back wall, a young red-haired man slept, oblivious to their presence.
"How old is he?" Vegel asked.
"Twenty three," Finbar answered.
Vegel walked over to the bed, pulled the chair from the desk, and sat down next to William's bed. He placed his hand on his forehead, and seemed to enter a deep concentration. This lasted for about a half-minute, then Vegel looked over at William. "No, this is not your time, is it," he said softly, then turned to Finbar. "In order to properly do my work, I must ask that you leave me alone with him. There could be serious repercussions otherwise."
Finbar assented, adding, "If you need anything, I'll be downstairs." He left, pulling the door closed behind him. Vegel couldn't help thinking that her businesslike handling of the situation had put Finbar off somewhat, but she could not be concerned with sparkling impressions at a time like this.
Vegel turned his attention back to William, and began looking around the room, seeking out the presence that Leonard had believed was the source of their trouble. Before long, he found it -- an emanation from near William's bed, strongly linked to him. Vegel probed at the connection -- it was strong indeed, spanning not only space and time, Vegel knew, but also the line between life and death.
He was going to have to go into the spirit world, he decided, and face whatever this was on its ground. He always found entering the Shadowlands distasteful; although his mentors seemed to relish the experience, he did not like the decay that everything there presented. He had watched his father waste away from cancer years before this, just before Justin found him and adopted him into the Circle, before his Awakening. He couldn't stand the slow death everpresent in the shadow world, but he would have to go nonetheless, to insure that such a thing did not happen to William as well.
He stood, holding out his arms, his eyes closed, feeling the quintessence flow through him, the power growing in him like the ocean coming in at high tide. He pierced the barrier easily enough, far easier than he ever had before; probably because of the link, he thought.
Vegel opened his eyes. He saw the room still around him, but now the walls were crumbling, shreds of poster still hanging from some. William could be seen as well, still sleeping in his now collapsed bed, and beside him was the shocked image of a young blond man, markings covering his face, the rest of his form hidden in shrouds.
"You're not supposed to be here," he said.
"Who are you?" Vegel asked.
The shrouded figure looked over at William, then back at Vegel with black-irised eyes. "You're not going to take him," he said. "You don't frighten me, death mage. I'll protect him."
"I'm not after him. I want to know what's going on. Who are you?"
The spirit considered this, then relented, allowing its eyes to resume their original blue tint. "My name in the living world was Richard Wieck. I went to school with William."
"What happened to you?"
Richard looked down at the floor. "I thought no one cared. I... I..."
Vegel closed his eyes, shaking his head. "It's okay, Richard," he said, looking back to the spirit form. "Go on."
"William and I were sort of friends, at least as much as the crowd would let me. Everyone put him down, and I went along with it sometimes. I even helped play a big joke on him once. Eventually I stopped hearing from him. Everyone else left too, eventually." Vegel noticed a tear rolling down Richard's cheek. "I'd never been that alone before. It hurt so much..." The tears could no longer be checked, and Vegel found himself holding Richard's ghostly form, comforting him.
"What happened next? Why are you staying here with him?"
"When I came over, I found I couldn't go any further. I found out that what feelings I did have for him bound me to him. That's how I found out..."
"What?"
"He still cared. No matter how badly I treated him, even if it did hurt him, he cared. I figured that I was supposed to watch over him to atone for whatever I had done."
"How long ago was this?"
"About a year and a half I think... I'm not even sure anymore."
Vegel nodded. "Go on."
"And now he must join us." Richard's tone of voice changed, and the sobbing form now sat straight up, as solid as the earth and colder than the Alaskan tundra Vegel would wander around as a child. Vegel backed away from the figure, whose form was changing. Its hair gained a red tinge, the eyes turned a solid black; its head hung at an unnatural angle, with a noose around its broken neck. The figure moved toward Vegel. "You will not take him from us," it said. "He is ours."
Vegel gestured, and a force held the specter back as it advanced, claws outstretched, reaching for Vegel's neck--
Suddenly, it was once again the form that Vegel originally encountered. Richard collapsed to the ground, a look of terror on his face, he held his head in his hands, screaming "Not again, please!"
"Richard, what's wrong?" Vegel asked.
"I can't... fight it much longer."
"What?"
"Trying to... kill... protect..." Richard strained to get every word out against the onslaught of the dark force making itself apparent as parts of the darker image came and went. He writhed under its influence, struggling to keep it from emerging.
Vegel realized what has happening. Justin had told him little of wraiths, but he was aware of the Shadow, a corrupting force born of their weaknesses in life. In this case, it drove Richard's affection into possessiveness, his desire to watch over him and protect him mutated into its ultimate extreme, the wish to bring him over.
This was the cause of it all, he realized.
Vegel drew what quintessence he could from his surroundings in this plane, and Richard calmed down, his dark side subsiding. Richard stayed on the ground, crying as Vegel knelt down beside him.
"Can you fight it?" Vegel asked.
"It started about three months ago... I've tried to fight but it's so hard... Can you help me?"
"Even this spell is merely a temporary measure. My ways do not rule here. There is only one way I can truly help."
"How?"
"You must move on to your final destiny. I can free you from him, and you must then leave him."
"No... I can't just leave..."
"If you don't, your own darkness will overwhelm him, and you will not only have killed yourself, you will have killed him too. Is that what you want?"
Richard composed himself, and sat up, leaning against the nearby wall. "No," he said. "Breaking the bond... it won't make me forget, will it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Will I remember I loved him?"
Vegel saw the worry in his eyes, but couldn't give her the honest answer. "I don't know."
Richard nodded. "Do it."
Vegel closed his eyes and called the power back to him. He saw the bond tying Richard to the living world; it was the only thing that kept the wraith here. He tried to cut it, but the power of the bond was strong. Still, Vegel struggled with it, using her power to cut at the connection like a knife, but the effect was like using a butter knife on a frozen sausage; it could be cut, but it was long, hard work.
Finally, the connection severed. Vegel was jarred out of his trance and into consciousness by the explosive effect. As he watched Richard, again struggling with the darkness and fading from view, he realized that the efforts had not had the effect he had hoped for. The Shadow would not take Richard, but he would not celebrate any liberation; he would not exist long enough for that.
Richard realized this too, as in his moments of dominance he at first looked horrified, but as his disintegration progressed, he became calm, and in his final moment in control, before fading from view, mouthed two words to Vegel and then vanished into the void.
"Thank you."
Vegel sat back against the bed, her mind reeling from the experience. He tried to calm himself, but could not help wondering if he really deserved Richard's thanks. Maybe it was better than letting Richard devolve into a twisted specter from the loving being he used to be, but Vegel couldn't help but think it was all a waste.
Vegel awoke in the living world, not knowing how long he had been out. The room was as he had left it, except that William, instead of sleeping calmly as he had before, had tossed and turned, his body embraced by the mass of twisted linens.
He stood up and looked over William, thinking about what Richard had said. "I'm sorry," he whispered, allowing himself a few tears. He wiped them away, regained his composure and proceeded back downstairs.
Finbar met him at the bottom of the stairs. "Well?" he asked.
"It should be okay now. I have... removed the problem."
"Thank you," Finbar said gratefully. "I, uh, don't have much money--"
"We ask no payment; don't concern yourself with it."
"Thank you."
Vegel walked down the path to the street, and as he opened his car door, he turned back toward the house. He quickly weighed the options in his mind, and decided he owed Jennifer at least that much.
Vegel turned back toward the house and yelled back, "Mr. Griffin?"
Finbar had nearly shut the door when he heard Vegel calling out to him. He opened the door again and looked out.
"What is it?" he asked.
"There is one personal favor I would ask of you."
"What's that?"
"When William wakes up, tell him to remember that Richard loved him."
"Richard? But he--"
"I know. Will you tell him?"
Finbar nodded, understanding. "I will."