Completed Chew, Spit and Spiritism

[Una Tanta]

28th Day of Winter

As the door creaked open Una's nose wrinkled instantly. The stench of boos was overwhelming. Frowning she trod through the empty bottles scowling at the Spiritist. Passed out on the floor, saliva dribbling down the corner of his mouth, the Spiritist lay. "Pathetic..." Una scowled down at him. She had put up with Cy's alcoholism with an iron fist and a lack of sympathy. She had never questioned her decision to treat it as such. It wasn't that she found alcohol repulsive and since coming to Avanthal she had enjoyed it from time to time but too much made people stupid, something she had little tolerance for. A black and white personality, she saw a clear right and wrong, noble and ignoble.

Leaning down Una picked up the bottles one by one placing them in a wooden bin beneath the washing tub. Picking up a filthy bucket Una slipped outside to fill it with water mumbling under her breath. She needed him so she never said a word but, each day she found him like this made her more furious. He could do what he wanted on his own time. But this was her time, she worked hard for it.

Placing the metal bucket beside the fire to let the snow melt she laid on her stomach and pulled the broom out from under the bed. The first time she had found him like this she had found nothing to clean the broken glass and dirt with. Stealing one of the many brooms from the warrens she stowed it under his bed for another time. Sweeping the glass out the door and away from the path.

"Unbelievable..." She muttered as she moved the broom quickly over the floor. Having never swept she often forgot herself and found herself walking over and scattering a pile, or sweeping a pile the wrong way and having to sweep a giant pile toward the door leaving a dirty trail behind. It took her almost a bell to have the small hutch swept and by the end she was struggling not to cry with frustration.

"I hate cleaning..." She muttered to herself. Though she enjoyed the rapid change in the room as she cleaned it didn't make up for the mind numbing repetitive motions or the grime she could feel accumulating on her white skin. As she submerged the filthy rag into the freezing water in the bucket she shook her head, "Doesn't matter how much I clean this place...cleaning something with a filthy rag just seems ridiculous..."

Having no notion of the value of cleaning Una cleaned for appearance, running the rag only over areas that were visibly dirty. Una only ever went to his place in the thin torn dress she had when she had come to Avanthal, too vain and frugal to risk her precious clothes in his room. She brought her precious red coat and boots but would hang them up in the barn with the caribou. Safer there...she had quickly decided.

On her hands and knees when the door opened she was incoherent in her anger. Her dress was hiked up by her waist to keep her knees free to move over the splintering floor and bare feet shivered in the chilly abode. Raising her face to find the bucket for more water she met Jack's gaze and flushed a brilliant red as her dress slouched off her shoulders barely covering her pale body.

"U-uhm Hi..." She stuttered rising and resorting her dress. She had quickly learned how important decency was to humans, if the way Jack had ran his fingers over her body that night in the library had been any indication. Her tentacles drooped over her shoulders covered in soot and her knees and palms were covered in the same grime. Una tried to convince herself it didn't matter, she was a Spiritist apprentice, her appearance and what he thought of her didn't matter. But it did.

[Una Tanta]

28th Day of Winter

"Hi," he chuckled wrinkling his nose.

"You're filthy..." He commented glancing up her dirt stained form.

Yanking a moist towelette off a nearby counter with more aggression than was necessary Una refused to meet his gaze or respond to his rude comment. A few awkward silent moments teetered by before she glanced up from her job, "What do you want Jack? I'm busy."

"Well actually...I'm not here for you. I'm here for...Hello," He offered a hand to the spiritist as the only slightly inebriated man slid into the home through a separate door. His clean shaven face speckled with the beginnings of an ill kept beard and his short cropped hair ragged from the knife he had used to trim it. Shuffling over Jared offered a hand slowly ignoring the young apprentice scrubbing the floor.

"What can I do for you Jack?" He asked, skipping the pleasantries. Una blinked surprised that the two knew each other and neither had ever mentioned the acquaintance to her.

"The elders were in the library last night telling tales to some of the children. Usually they're a quiet bunch but I guess some unexpected parlour tricks encouraged a more rambunctious atmosphere...and the elders left quite white..." He finished slowly his own tanned skin fading as he spoke, a tremble shivering past his lips.

Most of the ghosts, Una had learned, that found themselves in Avanthal were those that died in Svanhildur and those that had frozen upon the tundra. Those frozen upon the tundra were often left wandering its vast flatness waiting to find their way home so that they may pass on. They were characterized by the sound of chattering teeth as the ghosts attempted to hold on to the life that had released them already. Ghosts that roamed the city were more complex, holding on for innumerable potential reasons.

"Alright, Alright. We'll be over in a couple chimes..." Jared huffed as he slid the coat he had just removed back over his shoulders. Nodding, Jack glanced at Una quietly before excusing himself with nary another word.

"We?" Una asked, tension pulling at the corner of her lips forming a meek smile. The man had promised to trade cleaning for lessons, as of yet she had learned nothing but how badly slivers stung.

"Yes. Put your coat on." Dragging the red coat from the hanger she hauled it over her shoulders excitedly. This was the day. The day she would learn all she needed to know to find Cy. As her delicate leather coat embraced her arms it felt remarkably like his wings and made her blush smiling to herself as he collected a bag of unrecognizable tools.

"What are you bringing?"

"You'll see..." He replied shortly. A heavy exhale emanated from her lips as frustration made her tentacles twitch irritably. No wonder they know each other...they're so alike... she thought vehemently, instantly regretting the spiteful words. Jared deserved them certainly but after the time and kindness Jack had showed her, he deserved more than being compared to the boy before her. As she scolded herself she couldn't help but take vindictive and childish delight in calling Jared a boy.

[Una Tanta]

28th Day of Winter

The snow crunched around their knees as they waded through the deepening path brought to them through the night. Slowly they made their way to a more well used and shoveled path. Delicate cold flurries flitted and landed upon Unas chattering tentacles. Though the cold left Una miserable it seemed to sober Jared up as he spoke for the first time without a slur.

"Soulmist is our greatest tool as Spiritists. It is what ghosts are made up of and is the basis for all their powers and strength. Spiritism is learning how to affect that which ghosts are made of. Whether it be bribing them with more soulmist or harming theirs." He explained as they walked, huddled against the cool wind.

"Where do we get the soulmist to bribe them?" Una queried as the library became visible in the milky black distance.

"A vial of blood, egg, cream, and flour."

The answer left Una staring at him blankly, "We cook?" She replied snorting humorously. The drunk turned her pink tipped face flushed red with fury almost every night with his disrespectful sniping and distasteful addiction and yet when they had first begun working together she had desired to save the man who reminded her so of Cy and yet he had rebuffed every attempt and advance she had attempted leaving her as curt and ill tempered as he.

He didn't reply as they moved toward the door struggling to open it through the heavy snow barrier.

"The dough must spend time in the body to work." He finished as the heat of the fire warmed library flooded their bodies and they entered the haunted building. Una frowned, her smooth rubbery skin a mask of frown lines, that isn't an answer and you know it...

Jack was seated near the fire tending it into a larger state than usual. He wasn't fond of large loud flames and would often let the fire simmer down to a low glow casting the library into a state of constant twilight. But the now vibrant fire chased the shadows from the corners of the bookcases acting as if Syna herself rested within the confines of the small room.

"You know. The place looks much nicer, so bright and cheery." Una teased watching beads of sweat collect along Jacks brow. Whether they were from anxiety or from the blazing flames inches away she wasn't sure. Her pink pupil-less eyes flicked about the familiar room as her tentacles began to bunch at the nape of her neck with excitement.

He has spent most of his time passed out on the bed snoring drunkenly while I clean. His flatulence has near driven me out several times a week and his ridiculously cryptic answers have left me with little to use to seek out Cy. But today, today we'll see a real ghost and I'll know enough...enough to finally find Cy..... Her heart swelled with such cathartic joy it tensed painfully within her chest making her balk and stumble as she removed her sodden boots.

Jack ignored her dig and as he stood, stretching his cramping legs, fortunately missed the emotion that had crossed her eyes. Fortunately the Vantha of Avanthal relied heavily on the changing colour of their eyes to communicate emotion and pain allowing her to pass through their village with relative anonymity emotionally. Though all stared at her strange form she was as emotive as a frozen boulder atop the rolling cliffs of the Reaches.

Standing beside her restlessly Jack watched Jared as he began unpacking the meagre supplies he had brought. Heavy metal pebbles connected with long tendrils of horse and human hair was laid in a messy circle upon the floor. Long dangerous darts and ingredients in bottles so encrusted with dust and mould one couldn't recognize its contents were removed in concession slowly and with abandon they were strewn across the crisp and freshly cleaned counter. Una tensed as she watched Jacks eyes whirl with colour. While the raw emotions of loss of pain rampaged through her heart and mind as frequently as Avanthal suffered snow the more cataclysmic emotions Jack often felt left the stirrings of panic above her breast. Jareds obvious disrespect for his space would have been enough to throw anyone out of the library but Una watched as fear stuttered his movements and held him back. Magic was little seen and little loved in Avanthal and despite the usefulness of the Mage at best he received dubious respect from the Vantha.

"We were friends once..." Jack leaned over slowly and whispered past her ear as her employer continued to dump piles of mud from his filthy bag. The canvas so weathered and worn Una had to wonder what held it together.

"Cy, myself and him...until..." Una knew what the until meant, Until they both drank themselves into oblivion... she finished in her head and felt pity stir inside the breast bone that had so recently felt fury rattle the bones as if they were the metal bars of a prison.

It had taken many late nights, drawing information from Jack as slowly and carefully as she had grown and nurtured coral figures from the ocean, to acquire the fragile trust he had laid upon her. Enough trust to share a past he so obviously wished not to relive or share. Raising a hand to cup his cheek softly, the first time she had dared touch him since learning she may once again share the earthen plane with her husband. His face paled, eyes wheeling a brilliant lusty orange as spirals of the deep painful green erupted along the edge of the iris disc.

Una gulped dropping her hand heavily to her side. She hated to cause those she adored pain and she had come to love the quiet and regal librarian whose temper was as short as hers was long but she could never give herself to him so long as Cy remained. She could only imagine the pain she had caused them both as either watched her betray them with the other. Would Cy forgive her? Would they ever forgive each other? Had her selfishness wrought a hole too large to ever fill between them?


Distracting herself from the thoughts that weighed at her ankles like drowning rocks she turned her attention back to her mentor.

"What is it?" Una leaned down to gently lift and inspect one of the metal pebbles.

"They are infused with Soulmist and will protect us from a ghosts soulmist..." He muttered under his breath almost inaudibly as he began mixing the aforementioned ingredients into a thick paste.

Una watched equal parts enthralled and disgusted by the haphazard way he moved about his business as if his job was as safe and standard as rearranging books or shoveling streets.

[Una Tanta]

28th Day of Winter

The rested awkwardly in her palm, just too large for her fingers to clasp it within them. It was quite heavy and as she turned it on its head she noticed a faint glow along the edges exposed by the contrast of the dark carpet beneath her. Otherwise made invisible by the light of the fire before them Una felt an unnerving tingle trickle down her back. What was once invisible had become visible and as it did Una felt a nagging thought she wished she could push from her head. This is the beginning...the beginning of a new world, when all that was once invisible becomes visible to my eyes and a new dimension of the world is exposed.

As a Charoda she spent most of her time living in a world with more dimensions than the average human and was, but as she gazed upon the library she wondered if perhaps the world here held as many dimensions as the water. Perhaps humans needn't worry what was above or below them as she did but their was a whole world that moved about them invisible.

Stop spooking yourself... she warned as Jared beckoned her to his side...focus and soon this world will be yours, and Cy will be yours.

"I think I should leave..." Jack declared suddenly, exposing a blast of noise to the silence that had descended between the three. Una glanced up wide-eyed at the declaration. They both nodded as he disappeared quickly into the snow Una watching his back until the door had slammed upon them. It wasn't like him to leave the library unattended and Una wondered if it was because of his anxiety about the magic soon to be performed, the danger the ghost may betray itself to be, or the pain of watching her learn that which would bring her closer to Cy.

Perhaps it is arrogant of me to think he would be so affected by my actions Una tried to reason but as she turned to focus on the words of her mentor she swallowed painfully, or am I qualifying my actions now? Is it more conceited to think my actions affect no one and I should do as I please or to assume I am important enough that they affect everyone?

"Are you listening?" Jared scolded, quite put out by her blank stare. Shaking her head, Una turned her attention back.

"Yes. Yes of course I am."

"Well which is it? Yes or no?" He didn't wait for an answer to her conflicting communication and continued, "Grab those cans and open them. It's about time you make your own Soulmist." He gestured to the filthy vials before her.

Hands twitching as she picked up a jar, the moss crumbled under her hands leaving tracks of green and brown upon her already filthy skin. Grimacing she embraced the top of the jar struggling to unscrew the jar from its long term of disuse. After several moments battling the jar she managed to wrench free the top of each. Her skin crawled as she gazed down at her filthy hands and arms. No matter how terrifying or disgusting the ghosts turn out to be...nothing will be worse than this... she thought as she tried her best to rub herself clean.

[Una Tanta]

28th Day of Winter

She knew better now than to ask what the next stage should be and waited impatiently at the cusp of his vision for his next command. It came quickly.

"You shall chew a piece of each jars contents in your mouth and step within the circle." He recited, his voice suddenly sober, a fact which shocked Una into hesitating. Little did she know how desperate the man was for someone to follow in his footsteps and how he loathed himself for his drunkenness and inability to teach her the way he should. After a pause she gently inserted two fingers into the jar scooping out a small hunk of soft cheese. Parting her lips slowly she spread it across her pert tongue.

Rich and bitter the cheese melted in her mouth, thickening as she added a small handful of dusty flour. Face, a mask of wrinkles as she scowled at the task a wretching beginning deep in her stomach. “Dis is Disgushting…” she muttered to herself through the thick concotion within her mouth. Dipping her hand into the last jar she withdrew a small perfectly circular egg. Rolling the rough eggshell between her fingers she paused for a moment marveling at the difference between the eggs of the sea and eggs of the land.

Reproduction, the soul and essence of life itself, was different in both worlds. In that moment she was once again reminded of the melding of worlds her and Cy had been and wondered if the Gods had ever meant for such a love to ever succeed. When every possible barrier stood in their way, was it the gods themselves that had doomed them? She had always wondered at the ferocity of the storm that had taken her love from her breast, could it have been sent by the gods to tear them apart? Perhaps sky and sea were ever meant to be divorced.

Thoughts such as these made her stomach heave even more forcefully that the wreak and taste of raw egg as she cracked it upon the edge of the table and upturned her chin to catch its remnants. As the egg slid from the cusp of its cracked haven she envisioned the children within her own eggs that burned within her loins trickling down into her, swallowed and destroyed by her condemned love of Cy.

Jared misunderstood her distaste and horror as a response to the repugnant smell and taste of the dough forming in her mouth and patted her gently on the back, “It gets better my dear,” The soft words threatening to bring tears to Unas eyes as a wave emotion broke over her.

“Now,” He murmured grasping her wrist between his filthy fingers and dragging her into the stone circle resting in the center of the library upon the very fur she had spent so much of her time curled upon.

“You must sit here and close your eyes,” He continued running his fingers over the top of her brows leaving long sooty marks over her white skin. She raised an eyebrow at him and let the lenses that protected her eyes underwater fall forward dulling the coral pink beneath. Even with the lense she could see just as easily and fell into a darkness within her mind, as she did when she went to sleep, as he directed.

[Una Tanta]

28th Day of Winter

“Take deep breaths...let yourself fall into the very center of yourself. Here you will find a soft glow. Do you see it?” He breathed past her ear his voice lulling her deeper as she searched within herself for his voice. Slowly calm slipped over her senses and the library faded from her vision. A dark chasm opened before her as she stared at the tumultous shadows of her own emotions. Within a soft flickering white glow emanated and curled upward toward her eyes.

“Focus. Focus on moving it out toward your fingers.” No matter how she tried she couldn’t force the glow to follow her will. When she concentrated too hard it began to fade, disappearing from her vision as inevitably as Syna at dusk. When she allowed her forcefullness to fall it bloomed and grew but so chaotically she could feel it lick her toes and ears as much as it stretched out towards her fingers.

“Imagine your shouders filling with the liquid light, create gouges down your arms for it to flow of its own accord. Flowing and filling your fingers moist as the ocean as you submerge yourself.” His voice, sooty and calm left her imaging the river paths through which the glow indeed moved of its own accord. Filling her fingertips she felt it gather as cold as when her fingers pierced frozen snow.

“Open your eyes.”

Falling up from the darkness Una peered at her fingertips squiting, unsure of what flickered before her. Like a timid white flame her white hands glowed.

“What is it?!” She exclaimed watching it recede as black fear capped it.

“It is Djed. It is the essence of Ghosts and it is the most important tool of our craft. It is desired by ghosts beyond all else and can be used to bribe or harm a body permeable to all other weapons and resistant to hunger, exhaustion, or any other earthly woe. Ghosts are not humans, it is the most important thing you must learn. They likely have nothing to lose, and have lost everything they care about. They are pure emotion and memory.”

The words resonated deeply within herself and as she glowed, as ethereal as a ghost itself she gazed deeply into the eyes of the Spiritist before her. If that is a ghost, then perhaps I am more ghost than human. Perhaps death has brought Cy and me closer. If he needs not air nor food, he can join me in the depths of the sea for eternity. Joy, as bright and innocent as the white glowing flames at her fingertips emanated from her core.

“You must slowly spin your fingers,” He explained showing a slow gesture with his own fingers whereupon he placed them together, ensnaring the fingers in a tight clasp and slowly puffing out their centers. Copying him, she watched as his fingers detangled and made an ever widening ball. Her focus was so intense she didn’t notice the small glowing ball within her hands until its light lit his face from beneath, accentuating the long lines of age.

[Una Tanta]

28th Day of Winter

Slowly from behind his head a soft curve, like the edge of the crescent moon began to appear and with it shone large twinkling starlit eyes as tiny and beady as a darting mouse. Transfixed by the stare she watched a thin slice of a nose appear and the ghosts eyes moved about them in a small circle staring intermittently between them and each stone that stopped it from embracing the Djed that hovered between her fingertips.

“Who are you?” Una murmured quietly as her cacophanous heart drowned out the crackle of the fire and shhhh of the fur beneath her legs as she moved in a circle, eyes never leaving the twinkling stars.

“Shin...Foot...Ankle….Wrist…” A voice murmured, making Unas tentacles tense along the nape of her neck and Una was sure they would have whimpered had they mouths.

“Jared? Jared. Jared.” Una recited with incrasing distress as the ghost slowly took form before them. Her body was wrenched from the center outward as if something within her had broken lose. Her tiny teeth wiggled in their place with as much life as her own tentacles.

“Do not be afraid.” Jared scolded, as much to her as to the ghost as his eyes never the left the curling smoky creature.

“We have come to ask you…”

“-Oh yes course!” Her face became as mask of fury as her body rose, her face pressed against the shield that protected them, “You’ve come to chase me away! Come to tell a poor little girl she ain’t welcome in your humble abode just because they are afraid! How dare you! how dare you try to chase me from my home. I have as much a right to be here as you two.” She scowled, her barely visible face becoming as dark and stormy as the moments before lighting unleashed itself upon the sky.

“Of course not…” He finished soothly, “We have merely come to ask that you stop scaring the patrons of the library…” He finished a more charming grin than Una had ever seen appearing on his sobering face.

“We haven’t?” Una whispered curling the glowing ball toward her chest even as it began to fade from the lack of concentration.

“Just focus on your Djed.” He commanded, too sweetly to be sweet.

Gulping, Una closed her senses slightly though she still craned to hear their exchange, the ball glowed more brightly between her fingers. It was small, the size of a river pebble but she was ineffibly proud of the foreign thing she had born and raised from the darkness within her.

[Una Tanta]

28th Day of Winter

The girl hovered overtop of the two gazing down at them inquisitively, saying nothing in response to the charming smile and assurances. Careful not to watch her Una felt a tingle of exhaustion slide along her arms. They were heavier than before and threatened to fall at her arms despite her best attempts to keep them raised and focused.

Have I really become so weak, Una wondered. She knew the resistance of air was far less than that of water and had found motion much easier on land but hadn’t anticipated the effect to be so drastic on her overall conditioning. However, her ignorance could have proved dangerous as the Djed seeped from her tiring body if Jared hadn’t caught the hollow look slipping across her features and offered her one of the empty jars. Pressing her hand into the jar and sealing it with great effort the glow remained within the jar.

Dancing shadows threw themselves across all but the ghosts features who stared at the jar with undeniable pleasure and longing.

“Deal. Not give.” She finally replied reaching out toward the jar.

“Not so fast,” Jared murmured waggling his finger, a small self satisfying grin alighting his grizzled face, “if you betray our agreement I WILL return, and my attitude will be far less amicable.”

She seemed unimpressed by his threats, eyes never leaving the small glowing ball.

“That little hunk of Soulmist is hardly inspiring,” She murmured slowly, “and I have little to do but have fun with the patrons. But I shall be good as you wish and find my pleasures elsewhere.” She promised crossing her breast with her finger leaving a small faintly glowing cloud of an x across her heart.

“I Swear.” She finished, her voice as sweet and quiet as the round childish roll of her cheeks had denoted. Nodding, the mage withdrew the soulmist from the jar and kicked the circle open, allowing him to pass and present the soulmist to the child.

Giggling with glee she slurped and devoured it, glowing more brightly for a moment as it ran from her mouth and out toward her fingertips finally showing the whole of her body which stretches as large as a mammoth throughout the library.

“Good bye…” She murmured as she disappeared, her twinkling giggle and eyes the last to disappear.

“I imagine that is not the last we shall see of her…” Jared murmured quietly to Una has he began packing up the supplies.

“Whatever do you mean? She seemed amicable enough to the deal.”

[Una Tanta]

28th Day of Winter

“Ghosts have nothing to lose remember. They’ll make an agreement as easily as ever but very few feel the need to adhere unless they are frightened of you. She was more powerful than she appeared, you can trust in that. But we shall see.”

“Why not simply be rid of her then? Instead of waiting till she causes more trouble again?”

“It is not as easy as that...We try and work with ghosts as much as possible. What is not an enemy is a possible ally. Besides, why threaten our own strength on a ghost that will leave with so little a gesture as what you gave.” He grinned out the last sentence as they shut the library door behind them once again, embracing the shivering cold of dawn.

Una hadn’t realized how quickly time had passed within the library and as she saw the first rays tickle the watery horizon her body began to ache longingly for the warm bed in which she had become accustomed to.

“Threaten our own strength?”

“Yes. Soulmist takes energy and Djed to make, making it not only exhaustes us but can have devastating effects on our mind and body.” He explained abstractly. Well at least my weakness is beyond that of physical weakness….Una assured herself.

“What do you mean?”

“Take for instance the Djed Storm-”

“The Djed Storm?”

This elicited a confused and dumbfounded expression from the mage at her side.

“Yes the Djed Storm of 512 AV. The one that tore the world apart?”

Unas eyes widened as she spoke. She was right...the very gods had sent that storm. Sent them to tear her husband from the sky and her side.

“O-oh yes.”

“That is the danger of Djed.”

“Then how can we ever risk using it...even to help those around us if it threatens the world?!” Una gasped, horrified at what she had done.

“Don’t worry poppet. You don’t threaten the world.” He replied patting her on the head.

Scowling, Una followed in his snowy wake.