“It wasn’t entirely selfless,” Mags said. “You stood to gain too, removing a problem from the board by making it a non-entity.”
“If we’d stood by and let you continue down that road,” Sandra said, “You would have become a non-entity all the same.”
“But not without making a mess,” Mags said.
Sandra sighed.
“Is a three week span enough time for you to lose your sense of appreciation?” Duncan asked, from the sidelines.
Andy looked at Duncan. As factions went, Duncan was a non-player. Or he wanted everyone else to think so. The real risks were the two people who were in Duncan’s company right now. A young and talented chronomancer, and an older member of the family.
He would be very surprised if the young chronomancer wasn’t the one to ascend to the head of the house.
Mags spoke with a terse tone, “I don’t think I’m showing a lack of appreciation. I’m just a little miffed that you’re questioning me, instead of giving me the benefit of a doubt.”
“You’ve upset your neutral position.”
“I’ve done exactly what you guys did for me. I took a wild, unpredictable element and I made an effort to normalize her, to keep things quiet.”
“With no ulterior motives?” Sandra asked.
“With no mind to consequences?” Johannes added.
“I paid lots of mind to consequences. I just pushed them aside,” Mags said.
“I really did want to support you,” Sandra said. “But you’re making it hard. You’ve upset your neutral position. If we don’t challenge you for a flagrant violation, picking one side in the conflict, then our word is worth less.”
A self-imposed bondage of rules and law, Andy mused.
“A flagrant violation on the surface only.”
“Tell me how it isn’t a violation,” Sandra said. In a serious, quiet voice, she added, “Please.”
“Molly,” Mags said, not looking at the ghost. “Do you harbor any love for the Thorburn family?”
“My immediate family yes.”
“For Rose?”
“Definitely not Rose.”
Mags spread her arms.
“Thin as arguments go,” Duncan said. “It’s fine because she’s not particularly fond of her family?”
“That’s all you’re going to get, and that should be all you need,” Mags said.
“Is it now?”
“I asked, she said no,” Mags added.
There were a few exchanged glances.
Andy made a note in his book. Not an entry, but something to inform his entry when he wrote it. Besides, it gave him something to do with his hands.
He hated these meetings.
“You still asked,” Duncan said.
“Thin, as arguments go,” Mags retorted.
“Enough,” Sandra said. “No bickering, please.”
Mags shrugged, sticking her hands into her pockets.
Duncan took a second to compose himself, before speaking in very deliberate, authoritarian tones, “You were the one to resurrect her.”
“Accidentally,” Mags said. “I think.”
“Regardless of what happens, you’ve upset the situation in Jacob’s Bell.”
“I got the situation under control. No real harm done.”
“That’s for us to decide,” Duncan said.
“Can we not let Dudley Donut here keep talking?” Mags asked.
“Wherever blame lies,” Sandra said, “We need to deal with Molly Walker’s spirit.”
“No,” Molly said. “I don’t need ‘dealing with’.”
“You’re quite sentient, as ghosts go,” Johannes commented.
Andy saw Mags look at Faysal, then Johannes.
Something up there.
“That was a whole other issue,” Mags said.
“What I require,” Molly said, “Is an apology. Amends.”
“Very sentient,” Johannes commented.
“Not helping,” Sandra told him. “What sort of amends?”
“A child from each group,” Molly said, staring. “A meaningful sacrifice from Johannes, who doesn’t have a child to spare, but who stood by and let me be killed.”
Andy saw Eva’s hand go toward her weapon.
He put his hand on her wrist, shaking his head a little.
“That’s, uh, not going to work,” Mags said.
“I think everyone present agrees with the ambassador,” Johannes said.
“I don’t,” Sandra said. “Can I take the ‘sleeping beauty’ loophole?”
Molly gave Sandra a curious look.
“Not death. But removed from the family all the same. A loss, a sacrifice all the same, a child sent away, never to return?”
“Do you swear this?” Molly asked.
“No,” Sandra said. “I don’t swear. I don’t have a child of my own to give up, and I suspect I’d struggle to find a mother who’s willing. It’s only a thought.”
“I’m not willing to do even that,” Duncan said.
“And I would still be in a position of making a meaningful sacrifice,” Johannes added.
“This is the way it always happens,” Molly said. “My grandmother, my parents, my aunts and uncles. They’re greedy, selfish, they refuse to face the consequences. Those consequences get passed on to the young.”
And the young are tasked with changing the status quo, before they become the problem, Andy thought.
“Don’t,” Mags said. “Whatever you’re thinking of doing-”
“They killed me. You killed me. I believe you, that you’re willing to make amends. What comes next-”
Andy didn’t stop Eva from raising her weapon. A pistol loaded with salt shot.
She fired.
The wraith was fast to move out of the way. Unexpectedly so. Mags yelped, throwing herself to the side.
The wraith’s voice echoed through the church, “I can’t promise you’ll walk away unscathed, but I won’t come for you, murderer. The others, the old ones… they have to face what they did. The city does.”
There was a long pause.
“Angry ghost,” Johannes commented.
“Wraith,” Andy corrected, thinking of the books. “Eva and I have dealt with a number of ghosts lately. She wasn’t one.”
“The difference being?” one of the younger Behaims asked.
“A little more unpredictable,” Andy said.
The bell at the top of the church tolled.
Eva glanced at Andy.
“Go,” he said.
“Which way?” she asked.
But Sandra was already pointing, pulling out her chalice. Eva was faster, crossing the floor in two steps.
The bell tolled a second time.
“Faysal?” Johannes asked.