Chapter 7

Torbjörn still couldn't believe how fast action had been taken on this case. He decided this was a good thing for the time being, but there was currently one small issue:
-Do the three of us really need to be interrogated at the same time? I really don't feel comfortable letting other house employees help them.
Taru patted Torbjörn shoulder:
-Don't worry. If we're away while they call, they can contact Mora or Øresund base.
-I guess you're right.

-Wait, we need these to guide the Silent World expedition in case they call.
-These are now evidence in an attempted murder case. And there are two other places they can contact, right?
-It is true. But please make copies for us, just in case.
-You'll have the first ones tomorrow.

-Did you really just say "fruit juice was spilled on the radio"?
-Yes.
-You have two mages with you. Can't they do something?
-From what I can tell, neither our gods nor the Finn's have considered the possibility of such a situation.
-I understand why lady Hildur would have never researched a rune for that. And I guess "radio" and "fruit juice" are both completely foreign notions for the Finn.
-Are you going to make fun of our guest or come give the radio a look?
-Since when are these two things mutually exclusive?

Reynir was quite sure that if they would have been able to contact anyone, they would have advised against leaving their campsite near the school with such a snowfall going on. Lalli had found a new campsite in one of the other potential research sites of interest, but the tunnel leading to it had made the kitten's fur stand on end, despite all troll pods in it seemingly being dead. Sigrun, Mikkel and Emil were currently outside with the kitten, trying to find and kill the trolls it had detected. Reynir was currently inside with Tuuri and Lalli. The latter had fallen asleep almost as soon as he had returned from scouting the site. Tuuri had expressed worry that he could be too tired to scout after having done so all night and spent the better part of breakfast time performing some kind of Finnish ceremony on the corpse of a dog beast. She had definitely hit the nail on the head in the present case.

The three of them eventually came back. There had actually been only one troll, but it had bitten Sigrun's arm before they had managed to kill it. It had been that or Emil's neck. Almost as soon as she had been stitched up, Sigrun insisted on taking Reynir and Tuuri to the place where the troll had died, because she was quite sure they'd love it. At first, the place looked like yet another Rash hospital set up in a place that wasn't initially intended to take care of the sick. But in that one, according to Mikkel, the patients seemed to have died from something else than the Rash, as the corpses only showed signs of the early stages of the illness. All the dead bodies were in beds, and the only sign of caretakers was a letter left behind by them, addressed to the sick in case they ever woke up and telling them that they would be back after scavenging for supplies. There was also a box of syringes that Mikkel decided to bring back to the tank for some reason. During all this time, all that Reynir had been able to look at were the ghost-like entities that seemed to hover over every single bed.
-Uh... Tuuri? Did Lalli say something about spirits being here?
-He did, but he called them weird, so he must not have any idea what they are.
-So it's not just me being clueless. They are kind of creepy, though.
-Don't worry. Most spirits are barely even notice humans. They are probably harmless.
Reynir wasn't completely reassured by this:
-"Most?" "Probably?"
Mikkel sighed:
-Can the two of you avoid discussing things that do not exist when there are plenty of things that are actually here to look at?
Reynir sighed, took a few notes, and gave a second look at the room in case he saw something the others had missed. He did, however, give into a gut feeling telling him to avoid the walls against which the beds were aligned.

As soon as they went back to the tank, Reynir realized that the syringes in the box brought back by Mikkel seemed familiar. He shifted through his drawings from the book salvaged from the first treatment center and found his copy of the flyer. Almost as soon as he had put on the top of the pile, Mikkel told him to go back to bed, as he gave every indication of not having completely recovered from the previous day's fever.
-Is it because of the ghosts? Because Lalli saw them too.
Reynir realized how little he was helping his own case when looking in the dormitory's direction reminded him of how much Lalli had seemed to be craving sleep when he came back from scouting the place.
-My point exactly. Tuuri and myself can take care of the rest. I will wake both of you up for dinner.

When he came to his protected area, Hildur was there. She told him their radio was damaged and that she and Onni had spent so much time to find a way to help that they had realized neither of them was on watch only part-way through eating lunch. She apologized even more profusely when she realized that neither Reynir's tutors back home nor Øresund base had been able to act as a back-up. Reynir reassured her, telling her they had been able to manage on their own for the day and had ended up going to a very interesting place earlier than planned precisely because there had been nobody to tell them not to. She also commiserated with him on the subject of being sent back to bed by a godless medic due to having "hallucinations" too soon after having been sick.

When dinner time came, Lalli was found to be impossible to wake up, despite having been asleep for longer than Reynir.