When Gusion returned home, his head was clearing, but every now and then, he could hear the disturbing premonition of a ghost.

Helcurt was trying to operate the light switch, and Gusion saw the long gashes in the wall as an imprint of Helcurt's claws.

"I wish I could fight," it grumbled as Gusion showed it how to press the switch gently enough. "Fighting is much easier than operating electrical switches."

"Infinitely more life-threatening," Gusion said, and hissed as a jagged pain rocked his head.

Helcurt seemed to catch it. "You've been hissing for the entire time you came back. What happened?"

"Nothing," Gusion ground his teeth and walked off. "I'm fine-"

His ears were suddenly filled with the excited murmurs of ghosts and he clamped his hands around his head, screaming till his throat burned itself out, and then he just lay on the floor until the voices faded.

When he finally opened his eyes, Helcurt was dispassionately staring at him.

"You broke my eardrums," it said flatly. "That's honestly quite the achievement considering that I don't have any."

Gusion tried to push himself up and he said, his voice hoarse. "The ghosts are excited."

"Stop mocking me, you pathetic excuse for an assassin," Helcurt rasped back. "Don't try imitating me again."

"I'm not-the ghosts-"

"Believe me, you aren't dead."

"Shut up," Gusion said, hoarse. "You've heard of Vexana, yes?"

Helcurt sat up a bit straighter. "The necromancer?"

Gusion nodded weakly. "She attacked me, and I can hear the dead people talking to me. Their voices-they just keep running through my head and I can't stop them. Just now, they got excited about something-can't make out what they're saying."

Helcurt shifted. "Do you know what Vexana is?"

"A necromancer," Gusion replied, and the word 'necromancer' seemed to awaken the ghosts.

"A necromancer is someone who manipulates the door between life and death. Vexana very nearly pushed you past the barrier-I assume she was chanting something?"

"Yeah," Gusion said, remembering the creepy prayer she had recited earnestly.

"The Hymn of Death-coupled with the Nether Snare, Vexana's signature attack, she can simply drain your soul from your body."

"But Lesley interrupted it," Gusion realised.

Helcurt nodded. "The ritual was interrupted, and your soul was able to return to your body. But the dead do not forget. I presume that they formed a psychic link-they can communicate emotions pertaining to you."

"And why would they be excited about something pertaining to me?" Gusion asked.

"Because either someone close to you, or someone in your immediate vicinity, is in mortal danger."

Gusion's heartbeat spiked as one name rushed through his mind.

He sprinted, the ghosts' racket muting itself as fear encircled his heart in a vice-like grip as he got to the telephone, hurriedly dialling Lesley's landline.

"Pick up the damn phone, pick up, pick up," he muttered frantically, his heart beating in a staccato rhythm inside his heart.

The phone rang thrice and Gusion slammed it down, snatching up his dagger and heading out the door.

He heard Helcurt say something but he couldn't hear it over the blood pounding in his ears.

He rapped his knuckles on the door, counting down from 10, ready to kick the door down if she didn't answer.

The door swung open and Lesley stood there, her hair frazzled and rifle in hand, her eyepatch crookedly hanging over her nose as she stood in a set of pyjamas.

Gusion calmed down. "Did anyone break into the house?"

"Should they be?" Lesley snapped back. "It's 10 in the night and we just got back from a damn attack, let me sleep."

"About that," Gusion said. "You might want to bolster the wards. Do not let anyone in. No one."

"What's this about?" Lesley shot, though the edge in her tone was slightly more dulled.

"Listen to me!" Gusion hissed. "Lock the doors, close the windows, take all the security measures possible, and let no one in. Not until morning."

"Gusion, you can't just run in here and tell me this-" Lesley began, but Gusion was already sprinting off back home. "Stay home!"

He heard the faint click of Lesley's door locking, and fished in his pockets as he headed out back.

The car behind his house made a beeping noise as the doors unlocked, and he pulled open the door and sat in the driver's seat.

"I'm calling shotgun," Helcurt's rasp sounded from right beside him and Gusion yelped, hitting his head on the ceiling of the door.

"Go home," Gusion told Helcurt, who snorted. "How do you think you're going to find out which one of your friends is probably getting their throats slit when you don't even know how to use your powers? I can track the dark magic."

"Sit tight," Gusion snapped at Helcurt, who pulled on the wire with his claws, raking at them.

Gusion gunned the engine and the car came to life with a mighty roar, and Helcurt laughed in what sounded like unbridled glee as the duo shot off into the night.


"Take a left," Helcurt snapped, and Gusion turned, the voices intensifying.

"The ghosts are getting louder."

"That's probably a good thing. Spirit activity is more powerful at places of near death or where a death is about to take place. Straight on, take the second right turn."

Gusion moved through, driving across the Land of Dawn, and ten minutes after leaving his home, his head suddenly was filled with the shrieking of spirits.

Gusion roared back at them. QUIET DOWN!

The spirits miraculously complied.

"Here," Helcurt spoke.

Gusion looked up at the apartment. "This is Karina's house."

The elevator dinged as they were brought to the eleventh floor, Gusion fingering his dagger.

The doors opened with a jarring hiss and Gusion stepped out, Helcurt in tow.

"Stay here," Gusion told the Shadowbringer, who nodded, skulking back into the shadows.

Gusion knocked on the door and Selena flung it open, tears streaking down her face.

"It's Karina-she's-she's-" Selena sobbed, and then broke down.

Gusion moved past her, and saw Karina lying face up on the carpet, her blue blood staining the red rug as several claw marks lacerated her abdomen.