98

It was a stupid thing to do, but she did it anyway. 

The figure had appeared for half a second in one of the dark hallways, and Eirian had reacted without thinking, throwing herself after it. 

Luckily, the floors had been stable enough that she hadn't plunged into a basement or broken an ankle as she'd chased the figure into the hallway. 

It was just a flutter of white, but it stood out so starkly against the shadows that as long as Eirian moved quickly, she could keep up with it. 

The manor was much bigger than it had seemed from out front. She should have waited before she rushed in and gotten a better idea of what she was facing, but there was no point in hesitating now.

It disappeared into a room, and Eirian raced after it, following it through a sitting room, leaping over a table, and into a bedroom that still had a large bed in the center.

She lost it for a second amid the shadows, then kicked open the door and found it racing down another hallway.

"Damn it," she cursed as she chased after it, bouncing off the door frame in her rush. Adrenaline blocked the pain as she rounded the corner and caught the flash of white going up a questionable-looking staircase. 

At this point, she was already committed, so she charged right up the stairs after it. She managed to step on the edge of the stairs where they were strongest, using the railing to propel herself along even faster. 

The flash of white got bigger when it reached the top of the stairs. Enough that it resembled a flutter of cloth. 

Robes, she realized, racing after it as it darted around a corner. A woman, then, based on what the others had been saying about the ghosts spotted in the village. 

But was it Song Rui or Song Ran?

She came around a corner to a dead end. There were two doors on each side of the hallway, but no sign of the ghost. 

Eirian raised Ardain as she looked around. The main hallway continued around in a square shape around the staircase. There were more hallways and more doorways, like a maze. Eirian returned to the hallway where she'd last seen the flash of white. 

The house had fallen silent, and even the air felt still. It smelled like dirt, she realized. Dry and dusty, it made her nose itch when she inhaled, and she had to fight the urge to sneeze. 

Her fingers tightened around Ardain's hilt as she listened. The longer she waited, the louder her own breathing got. She held her breath as long as she could and still heard nothing. 

She took a few long, steady breaths, calming her heartbeat back down so the sound of it didn't stop her from hearing something that could take her by surprise, and carefully stepped into the hallway. 

The floor creaked under her foot, and Eirian bit back a curse. The house was so old that there was simply no way Eirian would be able to move silently, no matter how hard she tried. 

She continues, stepping carefully. Heel first, the rest of her foot following slowly, the way she was taught. 

The first door is on the right, and there's no indication it's been opened since the last occupants left the house. Eirian poked it with the tip of Ardain, and it gave way easily enough, so she pushed the door open the rest of the way with the blade and peered inside. The room was empty, the dust undisturbed. It was hard to tell what it had been before the occupants had left, but there wasn't even a chair or a chest of any kind.

She pulled the door closed as she backed out.

The hallway was still empty, so she turned to the door across the hall. 

It didn't open with a firm poke from Ardain, so Eirian took hold of the handle and pushed. The door squeaked as it dragged across the floor, leaving streaks in the dust on the floor.

It caught on something when it was only halfway open.

Eirian would have to squeeze through, which wasn't a comforting position to be in when she didn't know what was waiting on the other side of the door.

She peered through the opening. There was a wall she could put her back against, but she still could see the corner immediately beyond the open door, and if she went in facing it, she was putting her back to the rest of the room. 

The door would budge with a significant push, and Eirian didn't know enough about ghosts to know if it was better to be sneaky or burst in sword swinging.

She couldn't wait forever, though. She needed to find that ghost. If the damn thing was really who the stories said she was, she'd been here the entire time Chenzhou's mother had lived in the village. There was a chance the ghost was aware enough to observe the world around them, the way Eirian had seen the World of the Living through the veil in her dreams. 

She took a deep breath.

She'd come too far to turn back now.

She plunged through the doorway, clipping her elbow on the doorframe and ignoring the jolt of pain that shot up her arm.

As soon as she could see the corner, she threw her back against the wall and turned to the rest of the room as her heart raced.

There was a large curtained-off bed against the other wall and a changing screen next to it. 

Eirian stayed still against the wall for a moment, letting her heartbeat slow down before she inched across the room to the bed. 

Halfway there, one of the curtains shifted, and she froze. 

When it didn't move again, she kept going until she was close enough to slash the curtain with Ardain.

She leapt back as it fell, but it revealed nothing but a dusty bedspread and pillows, and she let out a growl of frustration.

Then the pile of fabric moved again, and Eirian nearly jumped out of her skin when a rat the size of her hand poked its head out. 

~ tbc