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Arcana Transcendant (runawayninja x RetroWitchcraft)

Rafe nodded once more to Rodmilla and once they were out of the door, he turned to Eowyn and watched her as they walked towards the exit of the city and towards the home of her parents. He sighed softly and bit his lip, searching for something to say as he stayed a step and a half behind her. He opened his mouth a few times but nothing came out. Finally, he managed to get something out.

"Eowyn...just...prepare yourself. Your parents might not be the same. Trauma can change people, even after death. I'll try to help as much as I can, but the dead don't see things like the living. If they're there at all. They might not be if they've just moved on. People only stay behind if...something keeps them here. Trauma also usually leaves behind a phantom...it's like an imprint of an event on the spiritual world."
 
If it had bothered Eowyn, she did not show it. Her face had turned into a blank canvas once more. This was not something she enjoyed, feeling like her very soul had been trampled on. Nor did she like the idea of her parents being twisted as spirits for the trauma that they experienced in their last moments. How could she stand unbroken if her own mother and father screeched at her angrily or, even worse, attempted to hurt her? Where was the bravery that being in her hometown had given her? Did that dry up so completely that she could not even muster a smile.

“I will prepare myself,” she said in a hushed whispered.

The walk to the keep on the top of the hill was a long one but pleasant. The city was full of beautiful scenery and the surrounding lands were scenic. With the sun overhead and the generally cheerful aura New Hope exuded, the pair might have been lovers going on a nice walk together to enjoy the day. The thought made the half elven maiden cringe. In a different time perhaps but, now, such romantic ideations only made her feel uneasy and uncomfortable at best.

By the time they reached the front doors of the manor the sun was setting. From her blouse she removed a key that was attached to her neck by a cord of leather. It was the key to the house. At this time the doors would be locked and she approached them and stuck her key in the keyhole but it did not open.

“What in the world?” she asked aloud. A frown tugged on the corners of her mouth.
 
Rafe looked at the lock and then at her, frowning softly. "I take it this wasn't expected? Someone changed the locks on you?"

Rafe breathed deeply and began to sharpen himself, whispering a few words of arcane insight and focus like a mantra to give him sight into the spirit world. Rafe would be able to see the unsee this way. Any spirits or ghosts that might be lurking about, be they calm and passive spirits that simply did not move on, willful ghosts that had some purpose here yet unfulfilled or some mission that kept them anchored to this world, or vengeful, angry wraiths that were without a means to vent their fury. Given enough time, emotion, and pain, such spirits might turn into the cursed undead and seek to take out their wretched emotions on the living. Rafe could also see phantoms, echos through time in the spirit world of emotions heavily imprinted. Joy, rage, fear, sorrow, they colored the spirit world like a canvas and particularly strong emotions and scenes replayed themselves over and over again as phantoms.

"So who might have done this? And how can we get around it?" Rafe was both asking her and any nearby spirits that might be friendly and sympathetic to their cause.
 
If spirits were about, they were not interested in talking at the moment, though there was a certain tension that the necromancer was likely to notice. There was a collective unease about the place, as if a stranger had come and made claim to the home.

Frantically Eowyn tried the key again but all she was met with was the same scraping, grinding noise that indicated that the lock had been changed. Who could have done this? Who would have wanted to? This was her home, even if she had decided to get revenge, and it was her family’s seat until she died.

“I do not know,” she replied. Sickness twisted at her insides. “It is a cruel joke of some sort, to be sure. People had to know I would come back here, even if I stated I would not.”

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Things kept on getting worse. Not only was she orphaned but her father’s land was now locked off to her. The woman chewed her lip because of her nerves as she thought.

“They were killed in the back of the keep, outside close to the gardens. All we’d have to do is loop around the right side to reach the area where it happened."
 
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