A/N: I had to split this chapter into two parts because it's way too long as a whole.
Three weeks passed without incident, and Haley was beginning to think that she could forget all about what she'd heard that day. Maybe Cyrus had been ordering dinner or something.
That is, three weeks passed without any incidents that Haley saw. Behind the closed doors of Ravenwood's Death school, a battle was being fought that would eventually determine the fate of thousands of people, but for right now would only cause the death of one unaware, but not unrelated, woman.
"Where's Daddy?" Haley whispered to herself, wandering through Ravenwood. Maybe he's at the Death school, she thought as she passed the Fire school, her overlong jeans scraping against the cobblestone path and her black t-shirt looking orange in the glow from Bernie the Fire Tree's branches. She finally came to the Death school and was just about to open the door.
"Don't be a fool," she heard a woman inside say jeeringly. "You know that my conscience disappeared when I was still a child. I'm not lying when I say she'll die if you deny me one more time. All you have to do is say you'll join me in my conquest of Celestia."
Haley bit her tongue to keep from saying something as she leaned against the elder wood door. Who's going to die? What conquest of Celestia? What is a conquest?
"Over my dead body," Malistaire's voice replied venomously.
Haley peeked through the door's window and caught just a glimpse of the woman who said the next words. She had long, dark hair; eyes that seemed to be made of green shadows, and a cruel sneer.
"As you wish," the woman said in a tone as cold and unfeeling as a steel blade in a snowstorm. Then she disappeared in a flash of gray light and what looked like skulls.
Haley slowly backed away from the door, hands over her mouth and a horrified expression on her face. "Oh no," she whispered, "Oh Bartleby no."
The girl ran away, back home, through her front door. "Mom! Mom! Mom!" she yelled frantically.
"Yes? Yes? Yes?" Sylvia responded from behind her bedroom door.
"Come out here!" Haley screamed.
"Hold your horses," Sylvia said, exiting her bedroom in a long, white gown. "Now, what do you want to tell me?"
"Well you know how I was at Ravenwood and I found Daddy. He's at the Death school with some scary lady who says she's going to kill somebody and then Daddy. And-" Haley said hurriedly, so fast that the words started to blur together and form one very long, very awkward word. So it actually sounded more like: "youknowhowIwasatRavenwoodand IfoundDaddyhesattheDe athschoolwithsomeladywhosays shesgonnakillsomebodyandthendaddyand-"
"Slow down, slow down," Sylvia said. "Now, what exactly did you hear?"
"The scary lady said, 'Don't be a fool. You know that my conscience disappeared when I was still a child. I'm not lying when I say she'll die if you deny me one more time. All you have to do is say you'll join me in my conquest of Celestia.' And then Daddy said, 'Over my dead body.' And then the scary lady said, 'As you wish,' and she disappeared in a poof of skulls."
"What did the lady look like?" Sylvia asked.
"I think her eyes were black or really dark green. I couldn't tell. She had short black hair, maybe to her shoulders. And she looked really mean, like Lex Luthor kind of mean." Haley said rapidly.
"Sweet honey baklava," Sylvia half-whispered. "Haley, did you tell anyone else about what you heard?'
Haley shook her head, glad to have done something helpful for once. "I came right home."
"Good," Sylvia said. Was she paler than usual? "I need you to keep this a secret, okay? Don't tell another living soul about it."
Haley, perplexed, nodded her head. Being Haley, she was already searching for clues or loopholes.
Dinner that night was much more tense than usual. As the girls sat down at their spots, only Saffron seemed oblivious to the way no one was talking. Haley knew the girl was an angel and all, but even angels noticed quiet.
The older girl looked around the table. She took after her father in many ways for the most part, with the possible exception of having her mother's nose, but she was like her mother in one very important way. Haley noticed people and, unlike her father, didn't have much trouble figuring out what they were feeling.
As a result, she noticed that Malistaire was much less lively than usual (which was funny in that odd kind of way, since he taught Necromancy at Ravenwood) and did precious little other than poke his chicken parmesan with a fork.
Sylvia was acting strange as well. Normally she might be asking about everyone's day, but she scarcely uttered a word. It was most unlike Sylvia to have nothing to say.
Saffron looked overjoyed at the quiet and was eating her dinner as if someone had just told her Christmas was rescheduled to tomorrow.
Haley herself, meanwhile, was trepidatious. She knew that something was going to happen because of what she'd overheard behind the Death school doors. Someone was going to die, but who was it?
As Haley prepared to go to Gloria's house the next weekday morning, like she always did, the amber-eyed girl got an idea. If she was going to find out more about the woman from the Death school, she would need to ask someone, but that would require telling them about what she'd seen and heard. Specifically, Sylvia had said "Don't tell another living soul about it." Haley had an idea, but it required stealth and the ability to talk to the dead, only one of which Haley had. Necromancy was not exactly her forte, despite what some may think.
"Malorn," Haley whispered, grinning. Surely she could convince her best friend to skip class for one day to prevent a murder. Haley could make up an excuse in a jiffy.
And so it was that as Saffron and Haley made their daily two block walk to Olde Town, Haley told her sister about the plan. Not the specifics, of course. Saffron was a huge tattletale.
"Saffron, I have to go to Ravenwood," Haley told her little sister.
"Why?" Saffron asked.
"Malorn has…um…been behind in class lately, and I have some extra work to give him," Haley fibbed.
"Oh, okay," Saffron said. "I'll see you later, then."
"Bye," Haley said, and dashed off back through the Commons and to Ravenwood. "Now what's Malorn's secondary school?" Haley wondered aloud, knowing for a fact that secondary classes were in the morning. Ice, she recalled. The eavesdropper dashed off past the Storm school and to the snowflake-bordered school beside it. She opened the door.
"Professor Greyrose," she said, "Can I borrow Malorn Ashthorn for a moment? My daddy needs to talk to him about some extra credit work."
"Of course," Professor Greyrose replied, "But if this is a trick of some kind, your parents will hear about it."
It took all of Haley's willpower not to gulp. Professor Greyrose might have come across as a sweet Mrs. Clause figure, but when push came to shove, she'd fight back. "I know," Haley said trying to hide her anxiety.
"Malorn," Professor Greyrose said, "Please go with Miss Drake."
The young Necromancer nodded and walked to the back of the classroom, where Haley waited, and the two exited the Ice school. Malorn had spiky black hair that was badly in need of a trim, bright green eyes that put Haley in mind of a cat, and wore black and gray wizard robes with a jester's hat of the same colors. He was probably about ten years old.
"I thought I was going to have a heart attack," Haley said when they got outside.
"I'm guessing it's not extra credit, then?" Malorn asked. Haley gave him an odd look.
"I don't even see Daddy during the workday," Haley told him. "I definitely don't carry messages for him."
Malorn nodded and the two walked back past the Storm school and through the Commons.
"So why did you get me out of class?" he asked as they were in the tunnel to the Shopping District.
"I need your help," Haley replied.
"With what?"
"I need to talk to some ghosts."
There was a pause.
"You know if anyone else had said that to me, I'd tell them they were crazy," Malorn grinned. "You still could have waited, though. Now I'm missing class and both of us are going to be in trouble."
"It's worth it," Haley said determinedly.
Malorn raised an eyebrow. "Who exactly do you want to talk to?" he asked cautiously.
"I don't really know," Haley answered.
"I can't help you, then," Malorn said. "Do you at least have a reason to contact them?"
"A murder," Haley said grimly. Malorn stared at her.
"Who died," he asked blankly.
"No one yet," Haley explained, "I know someone is going to die, but I don't know exactly who is going to kill them or why. I just know it'll probably be soon."
"So why do you want to talk to someone who's dead," Malorn asked.
"I'm not supposed to tell another living soul the specifics, and I think that's kind of important," Haley elaborated. Malorn nodded unsurely.
"I know where we might find someone, then," he said. The two kids were in Triton Avenue by this point, having walked the path to Baron Mordecai's tower so many times together that it was where their feet naturally led them if they started walking and didn't pay attention.
"Where," Haley asked.
"You know that cemetery at the end of the Haunted Cave, right?"
"Yeah…" Haley answered. Then it set in. "We can't go there," she protested.
"Why," Malorn asked. "Come on, it's a quest I got at apprentice level!"
"Because," Haley started, but she couldn't find a reason, so she stopped there. "Fine, but I better find answers," she grumbled.
"Don't worry," Malorn laughed. "The ghosts there are actually pretty friendly. And I know one who can definitely help you. She's buried in Zafaria, but she haunts the cemetery."
"How come?" Haley asked. At this point, she noticed that she and Malorn were just inside the Haunted Cave.
"She won't tell anyone, but I think it's because she died there and she still has business to settle in Wizard City," Malorn said. "She's helpful for finding the right people when it comes to murders, though, that's for sure."
Haley nodded pensively as the pair came upon Stormdrain Tower.
"Ladies first," Malorn said, gesturing to the graveyard whose dying grass was covered by a thick layer of fog for no apparent reason. On top of that, the head markers weren't exactly welcoming. They looked old and crumbling. One even had a headless angel on it. Haley wasn't normally a particularly superstitious person, but headless angels weren't just a bad omen: they scared the living daylights out of her. The girl shivered from a combination of fright and the chilly wind that always seemed to blow throughout the Haunted Cave.
"Right behind you," Haley told him, clueing him in that she didn't want to go in there first. He was the Necromancer, after all.
"Alrighty then," Malorn said, straying off the path and into the cemetery without any further hesitation. "You know Death students have to come here alone to learn a spell at level seven."
"I suppose it's worth it then," Haley commented.
"Not really…" Malorn crouched down to inspect a particularly weathered headstone with a large reddish-brown splotch on the corner of it. "Poor thing," he mumbled.
Haley gave him a curious look. "What?"
"You know how I said this ghost was murdered in the graveyard," the Necromancer asked.
"Yeah," Haley replied, coming closer to the headstone. Malorn pointed to the splotch.
"I think this was the murder weapon," he said.
"How can you murder someone with a tombstone," Haley asked, feeling a mix of awe and horror. Mostly horror.
"You can murder someone with anything if you know how to," Malorn said thoughtfully, "I'd say she got pushed into the headstone, judging by the way the blood splattered in this direction, and it cracked her skull. That's judging by the fact that there's so much blood in one area and it all appears to have been spilled within minutes."
Haley stared at him, wondering, not for the first time, exactly what the boy had done before going to Ravenwood.
"At any rate," Malorn said, "We should try to find the ghost. She tends to stay near the tree." He pointed to a white ash tree a few yards away, for Haley's benefit.
"Was she a Theurgist," Haley asked. The two had reached the tree.
"No," Malorn said, "She was from one of the elemental schools, that's for sure. She just has that attitude."
"Oh."
"Don't be alarmed if I start speaking Latin," Malorn said.
Haley rolled her eyes. Always the showman.
"You don't have to show off," Haley told him.
"I'm not," Malorn assured her. He turned in the direction of the tree. "Kendra! Kendra, te quaero, ut vivis ac mortuis apparebunt."
Haley smiled, having read this chant in a volume her father kept laying around. It was called Summons for Every Occasion by T. , and Malistaire often commented on what rubbish the book was. Haley figured she'd tell Malorn about that later. For now, though, she'd just enjoy his lack of knowledge for once.
"Well 'hi' to you too," someone said from one of the lower branches of the ash tree. When the ghost girl appeared, Haley could see that she had very dark skin, black hair, and the same green eyes as the woman Haley had seen in the Death school a week before. She had on a thigh-length purple dress with long sleeves, leggings of the same color, darker purple boots, a lavender hood, and she was carrying a purple sword. She looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old.
"Hi, Kendra," Malorn said. The Kendra smiled.
"I'm guessing that girl over there is why you're here," she asked, motioning to Haley.
Both children nodded. Kendra hopped down from the tree and landed with more grace than any living person could manage, and, indeed more grace than most non-living people could as well. She walked over to Haley, her footsteps not making a sound.
"You look familiar," Kendra said, studying the girl for any sign of recognition. "Have I met you before?"
"I don't think so," Haley answered uncomfortably.
"Maybe I know your mom or dad," Kendra reasoned. "Who are your parents?"
"Malistaire and Sylvia Drake," Haley replied.
"So that's why you look so familiar," Kendra concluded.
"I came to ask you about a potential murder," Haley said, giving Malorn a look that clearly said you don't need to hear this. He stepped away to the edges of the cemetery, just out of earshot.
Kendra gave Haley a curious look.
"I know someone is going to die, but the only other thing I know is what the murderer looks like," Haley told her.
"What does the murderer look like?" Kendra inquired.
"She's got black hair and her eyes look like yours and she's really pale," Haley said,
"And she looked really mean like Lex Luthor."
Kendra's form flickered as a pained expression crossed her face. "Mori," she whispered. "It's Morganthe."
"Who?" Haley asked.
"It's an old friend of mine: Morganthe Sauda," Kendra told her. "How long ago did you hear about this?"
"A week ago," Haley answered.
"Then it's too late," Kendra said regretfully, "She always makes good on her threats within eight days. You'll find out who it is by tomorrow morning."
"Thank you," Haley said dryly, but as she turned to walk away…
"I'm sorry," Kendra added. "Make sure you tell your mom that, okay? Tell her you went to me. Tell her what I said." There was a desperate look in the ghost's eyes.
"Okay," Haley replied.
But she never would tell Sylvia what Kendra had said.