Ghosts are not really a thing we like to talk about among the lands of the living. You know what they say: once you can see them, they can see you.

- The Advice of Tudluan Dahasen

A sacred and terrible air filled Angko's house when they returned within. What goes on... wondered Raxri. The smell of burnt cloth emanated from their hair. Maybe because of all that ghost talk? A chill ran up the young mystic's spine.

Angko walked back into the mandala and then to the table. "You can come in," said Angko, to the three of them. Akazha immediately took that allowance and walked into the mandala itself. Raxri followed. Achi Angko sat atop her sitting cushion--which was upon a legless chair with a high-back like a throne--and the trio sat on each side of the table in front of her.

"I like how formal you all look," said Angko, smiling. "It's not like I have a lot of info about her."

"Just as well," said Sintra Kennin. Sintra Kennin? That's new. "Though I be a spirit, the dealings of ghost are occult even to me. Their realm is one of vengeance and grudge."

Raxri wondered: "Forgive me, and remind me. Are ghosts sentient beings yet?"

Angko furrowed her brows and thought for a moment. She bit her lip. After a moment, she began: "When the Maw of Dak Emmara Senje finds that a soul has gotten too fat to get through its Maw--due to all the baggage and attachments they bear to the present world--it takes a great amount of time for the Maw's Teeth to rip off the karmic fruits. While they're in this intermediary state, psychic echoes of their mindstream can occur and leave an imprint upon the world, as a wandering lost soul. Sometimes these psychic echoes last longer even after the mindstream has successfully left, the nuclear storm of their being imprinting itself indelibly into the very atoms that build our world.

"This is a cause of suffering. Dangerous besides: continuing as a ghost is an easy way to generate loads of negative karma. But that is why there are ghost kings and ghost societies. These beings are, more or less, in-between continuations. They are stuck due to their intense attachment to this world, to the point that they could stay as long as they like as long as their attachments are not resolved. This is a trouble for the world, of course, because as is the dictates of karma: the heavier the weight, the greater the need for purification."

Raxri nodded at all that. Let me put two and two together. "So this means that killing or slaying ghosts is not the same as slaying a sentient being, and thus doing so does not incur heavy karmic retaliation?"

Angko nodded. She was reappyling her makeup. "You're catching up, slowdog," she said. Raxri flinched back, unable to ascertain how they should reply to such a thing. That's funny, though. I think. Is it? It's somewhat funny to me. How absurd! "But yes, that's the inherent idea of the Exorcism and Demon-Hunting professions. Slaying things that are not sentient beings or are sentient beings that must be made to flow back through the Interstitial."

"Jump to it, achi, and skip the bullshit," said Akazha. "What's the deal with the ghost?"

"Ah, right, the ghost! The big G Ghost." She finished reapplying her makeup and closed her compact hand-mirror. "Well the first thing you should probably know is that she has her claws on the entirety of the whole village. She can show up in any house, from any shadow, from any ceiling. The village is in her grasp.

"The second thing you should know is that, while I haven't personally confirmed it just yet, I have a large reason to believe that this being is actually patayenak."

Akazha and Sintra were both quiet, looking at Raxri. They both knew Raxri wanted to ask.

Raxri tilted their head to the side, somewhat confused. "A... pata ye nak?"

Achi Angko nodded. "A vicious ghost of a woman who either died during childbirth, had a miscarriage, or otherwise died while bearing a child for some reason. It's... not a great sight, in truth. All patayenak are victims of some sort of abuse." She looked up at the ceiling. "I do not know what she has suffered."

Akazha crossed her arms. "What makes you think it's a patayenak?" she asked. Raxri thought back to how the woman looked like. Unhinged jaws, spider-like movements. Bones breaking from every movement... what did this mean? She was full monstrous in form. What kind of person could that be?"

"Well," said Achi Angko, leaning back. "Unfortunately, one thing I'm sure you already know, Akazha, is that women rarely get justice while they're alive, due to the momentum of patriarchy that has penetrated the majority of the Utter Islands societies. Most women only get their justice in death, when they get to haunt and successfully murder the person that caused them so much grief. It is a violence, as you should know, that a woman can only get justice in death."

Akazha only nodded once.

"According to the majority of reports about a ghost haunting, it's almost always a man getting marred, maimed, or killed. Other reports report her as a beautiful woman should they see her atop a branch of a tree, but when she sees them she turns into a spider-like entity that scurries and tries to take them."

Spider-like? Sounds exactly like the ghost that came after me! thought Raxri.

"Women vengeance ghosts tend to be patayenak, you see," said Angko.

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Akazha leaned back and asked: "If that's so, then why don't you think they could equally be some sort of kenna or ugu-i or suya? All are woman-vengeance ghosts."

"Right," said achi Angko. "But the third part of the majority reports--majority, by the way, which means there are some parties where she did not do this--that the man maimed, slain, or marred tended to be someone who had impregnated a lady before!"

Akazha nodded in a large arc, as if to say: Right, right. Of course. I understand now.

"So it's a big chance that the ghost is a patayenak because of this?" Raxri asked. The other three nodded. Raxri could feel a small sense of accomplishment burgeon from within them, and a small bud of pride coming from the others. Wait, is this fine? I feel like a child! But this was a thought Raxri knew they did not need to deal with right now.

"So what's to be the next course of action?" asked Raxri. They turned to Sintra. "Sintra... shouldn't you be knowledgeable in these things? Aren't you a spirit?"

Achi Angko raised an eyebrow at that. "You're a spirit?"

Sintra Kennin bowed low to Achi Angko. Then, he said: "Forgive me for not disclosing earlier. I am, in truth, the first spawn of Hri Wetan himself, the god of the Wetan River. B-But if anything, I am a class traitor! I do not wish to participate in my father's spiritual feudalism."

"Oh my god, you have a spirit prince in my midst and I did not even do the proper offerings and oblations--!"

Sintra Kennin waved his hands vigorously. "No! No, truly, it is fine. Throw away all preconceptions and niceties you have with any spirit. I am nothing but a lowly being journeying alongside Raxri and Akazha. Like I said, I am a class traitor, and my father is a reactionary feudalist."

Achi slowly fell back down, dubious. When Sintra insisted, they sighed and acquiesced. She was a respectful one, Raxri decided. She still eyed Sintra Kennin with askance. "A spirit that is revolutionary in nature is not uncommon, especially in the shore societies. But a spirit prince to betray their class interests...? When they have centuries of karma yet to burn? How interesting." She looked at Akazha, fascinated at what company her dear shobe keeps. "Why is the Prince of Wetan River traveling with the likes of Akazha?"

Akazha rolled her eyes. "Rude." Angko made a show of pointedly ignoring her.

"Well, it might be too out of place for me to go into it right now. In essence, I am not the violent king that my father wanted me to be--as you can tell, and so I left on my own accord. I wanted to be that violent king. I wanted my father to accept me and be proud of me, if anything to at least secure the safety of my siblings. I tried to eat Raxri Uttara due to their blazing Force Furnace, but was beaten. Now I travel with them to cultivate the power I need to do what I have to do, in the form of any magicks and martial arts."

"Huh. That's interesting," said Angko. "I've known about spirit family politics but I never thought it would get so complicated in the higher rungs."

"Oh, surely," replied Sintra. "The generational spirit and god politics get even worse when reaching up to heaven. Not all spirits are the same, of course. We are as varied as humans. We count the nakas and the yakkas and the dyatan and the nymphs and elementals among our ranks. So it is more of that the River Wetan family is inherently complicated."

Angko grimaced. "I do not envy your position. That's precisely why I don't go around looking for a partner!"

"All right," said Akazha, clapping her hands together to get everyone back on track. "Let's get back on track here. To deal with the pateyanak, if I remember correctly, we will need her name, her largest attachment, and what she wants from beyond the grave. Only then can we perform the proper rituals to be able to send her through the Interstitial."

"Refresh me: are you not entered into the Spirit Subduing Mandala, Akazha?" asked Angko.

Akazha shook her head. "Unfortunately, that was the very Mandala I wished to enter. To do it, the Mystic asked me to practice there, in the midst of East Pemi, as a foundational movement."

So she did not truly want to be out in the Pemiwood all on her own...? thought Raxri. They ascertained as much, but having a proper confirmation of it wasn't too bad of a gift.

"So that's why she had you leave me, huh?" asked Angko, nodding, feigning offense. "Poor old Angko, who was never taught anything!"

"Cut the shit achi," said Akazha. "Let's get back on topic--"

"Wait so your demon ears are not because of your absorption of Kongorapana's mandala, the King of Wrathful Deities?"

Raxri blinked, not fully understanding what they were speaking about.

Akazha shook her head. "Nay. This was because of entering into the Dishonest Enlightened's Mandala, Kroma Nagmi."

Ah, thought Raxri. Is that why she had those knife-ears? It's because of magickal empowerment? Interesting. The physical body really is just a vessel for the Mind.

"Ah!" Angko clapped her hands together in understanding. "Right! The Void-Space Dakini. The Illumination of Enlightenment. The Black Lion-Faced Enlightened of Deaths. The Saint of Shit and Blood."

A chill ran up Raxri's spine. They glanced at Sintra, who was emitting a similar look of uncomfortability. They had the same thoughts running through their mind: was this knowledge they should be privy to? Raxri knew that the Enlightened are greater even the gods, for even the gods are part of samsara. So to learn of such an esoteric Enlightened so casually...

"That's right achi. Can we move on now? Is there anything else you can tell us about the ghost?"

Achi Angko shrugged and shook her head. "Unfortunately, that's all you'll be getting from me for the meantime. I don't know her name, I don't know her plight, and I don't know where she'll next strike. I can tell you where she won't next strike though: my house, as it is completely barred and shot through with magick wardings."

A thought shot through Raxri's mind and they had to speak it out before they could lose it: "Achi Angko, with all due respect, when I saw this woman I saw them staring down at Akazha as she slept. They floated completely parallel to her, staring deep into her closed eyes. What does this mean?"

Akazha scowled very, very deeply at Raxri. "DO NOT scare me like that."

What is she talking about? Raxri tilted their head to the side. "I am not scaring you... Akazha. It really is something that happened. And she saw me staring at her because of it, and chased me outside!"

Akazha rolled her eyes. "Why were you in my room in the first place?"

Sintra Kennin stepped in to intercept any misconceptions: "They were worried and wanted to check up on you, especially since you hadn't gone to bathe in the river that night."

Raxri nodded. "Yes, I just wanted to check up on you, as you had checked up on me!"

Akazha's scowl somehow inexplicably became even deeper. "I did not--"

"Oh, what is this Akazha?" Achi Angko planted her elbow on her table and rested her head on her hand, and raised an eyebrow at Akazha.

"I saved their life," said Akazha. "That's what. Thank you, achi, for your time and help. For everything, really. I wish you all the best, and I attribute it to karmic bond that we have met each other here, in Imos Town. That our paths intersected."

"Okay okay!" Achi Angko rolled her eyes and acquiesced, for now. "We should have a time together, Akazha, just you and me. We have much to catch up on. It's been years!"

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