Chapter 11

Sigrun eyed the six paper runes Reynir had left on the desk:
-The last three things you came up with on your own didn't work, according to both yourself and Lalli. What makes you think these ones will work?
-Nothing, really. But we won't know until we try them out.
-Sorry, but I think I'm a going to opt out for today. It's going to be the six of us in a quite small store, and we are already tempting fate in terms of breaking things just by having Emil in there.
A thin gloved hand grabbed one of the pieces of paper:
-Ghosts? Keep away?
-Yes. I hope.
It took Reynir a while to realize that Lalli had just said "ghosts" and "keep away" in Swedish. He vaguely remembered Tuuri mentioning teaching him Swedish during work, but the eye Reynir had kept on him and Emil at a time had been sacrificed for more important things. Covering the biggest number of buildings possible between them had frequently resulted in only one of them going inside a given one, which had meant that Reynir being around both Emil and Lalli while both of them were awake had become a rare occurrence, even once back in the tank. He was vaguely aware that that they were back to "talking" terms after the "whatever food breakfast was supposed to be" incident, but that was about it. Another hand, one of the two Reynir the least expected, grabbed a rune:
-I'm in a good mood today, I'll take one of the "magical" drawings.
Emil made a show of delicately putting the piece of paper in his pocket.
-Why are all six of us needed to go to that store anyway?
Reynir was quite sure Emil had been already told at least twice since Lalli had found it less than an hour ago:
-The contents were antiques ninety years ago. It's the first time we run into a place where such things have been preserved in a relatively good state. Many things there may have to be brought back by us or not at all.

-No, I'm quite sure that language is called "Kung fu". Where do you guys get such weird words as "Chinalandic" and "Mandarin" from anyway?
Emil looked at all three of them, looking ready to stand his ground about the contents of the book on display.
-Finnish army skalds.
-One of my in-laws had a great-grandfather who lived in that country. Biggest expert on that part of the Old World that we have.
-Your uncle.
Torbjörn had actually mentioned Emil a few times before Reynir got to actually meet him, and had once done so while saying that he didn't want him to "end up like Emil". Between the present incident, the DVDs brought back from the school in which Kitty had been found and other occurrences of seeming to believe blatantly incorrect facts during the past couple of weeks, Reynir had figured out what Torbjörn had meant. Torbjörn had admitted that he would have probably made the exact same mistake with his own children's education if Emil's side of the family getting hit a lot harder by the loss of the family fortune hadn't acted as a wake-up call.

As Tuuri, Mikkel and Sigrun were discussing the possibility that there could still be people alive in Chinaland, Reynir continued browsing the store and noticed a few items that seemed to relate to the religion to which churches were temples, reminding him of that vision to which he hadn't been able to commit much thought in the past two weeks. He borrowed the camera from Tuuri to take a few photos, then sketched as many objects as he could before they all decided to leave.

He decicded to take a nap right after the next meal. Once there, his fylgja had looked in the direction of what seemed to be another vision, but had refused to lead him there, and ran off when Reynir decided to carry it to the area. Upon a closer look, it looked like the outside of a church. He didn't dare go in there alone. Lalli wasn't in his area, so he decided to go towards the Mora ones, hoping they'd be occupied.

When had watching Hildur's younger brother moved from letting him stay in his protected area to following him in a strange area in the dreamspace? He wasn't even supposed to go out there with "it" roaming around. Most importantly, since when did it involve being invited for some kind of collation by a strange ghost? Onni had initially tried to steer Reynir away from it, but the kid shared an incredible amount of persuasiveness with Hildur for someone who wasn't actually blood related to her.
-Do you mind if I drink this?
Onni told Reynir he could drink the strange brown-colored soup that had been given to them. Reynir was one doing most of the talking. That cake looked good. When was the last time he had eaten cake? A very long time, and if it wasn't dangerous for Reynir, it wasn't going to be for him. The old lady claimed that her job was to help spirits find the afterlife, but immediately got the idea that he and Reynir needed help with that particular thing. After Reynir refused her offer, Onni added that he, himself, belonged to the forest. Reynir was interested in what the old lady had told him, as he seemed to see it as a solution to the crew's current ghost problem. When Reynir asked the old lady where her "church" was, something happened. Their entire surroundings changed, and for the first time, Onni got an idea of what these Old World sickrooms the crew had been visiting must have looked like: what he was currently seeing out the door from where he was sitting, but with the bodies in the beds turned into skeletons if they had not become trolls. Their surroundings returned to their initial state when the old lady gave up on trying to remember. After this, Onni decided they were leaving.