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“Did you sense that?”
“Sense what?” Cassandra replied, shifting her weight nervously. All this…paranormal…stuff made her uneasy. She didn’t share the same eager enthusiasm and fascination Solas seemed to hold. In fact, she had never seen him this excited before in the two days they had been evaluating the late Duke’ Estate. “I sense nothing.”
“The vibrations in the Veil! It is thin here–”
Sera’s interrupting snicker echoed eerily through the abandoned hall, turning her solitary outburst into a chorus of laughter that made goosebumps break over Cassandra’s neck. “You say that ‘bout every place.”
“Most places we visit, Sera, have experienced much trauma that weakens the strength of the Veil, so naturally I will say it about the sites we seek out.” Solas snapped back.
Sera rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue at Solas who grimaced and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Why do I even bother.” With that, he turned away, and made his way down the hall while scanning the monitor he was carrying.
Cassandra followed warily, unsure of what to make of all this. It seemed like nonsense, even Solas’ team mate wasn’t even into it. Why he had even selected Sera to explore this sector of the mansion with him when their team split up was beyond her.
Solas stopped abruptly causing Sera to walk right into his back when his gear started going haywire, it was making all sorts of noises, beeps, and weird static cracks.
“Oof, wots that for?” She grumpily shoved at him, but he barely swayed, eyes transfixed on his monitor.
“What is it?” Cassandra asked, hating the way her voice pitched up betraying her nerves. The hall had gone silent. Too silent.
He waved her over, and pointed to his monitor. The activity on it was spiking.
“What does it mean?” She followed up with another question, her voice barley louder than a whisper. Even Sera had gone uncharacteristically quiet, peering at Solas’ monitor.
“Maybe it went wonk. Lemme check.” Sera murmured, the subtle waiver in her voice giving away just how spooked she was.
“No. Quiet. Look.” Solas hissed, lifting his eyes he nodded his head towards the alcove by the end of the hall.
Cassandra stole a look at Sera who had averted her gaze and gone still, and pale. Slowly, she looked at the alcove and her eyes widened in disbelief. A wisp like figure was fading in and out of existence, tendrils of smoke unfurled around the curtain like fingers,half concealed behind the fabric as if it was shielding itself from them. It’s amorphous body billowing with the curtain in the window from open window at its back. It must have just apparated, for it wasn’t there a second before.
Solas took a confident, yet cautious step forward. His eyes never breaking their contact with the glowing orbs floating on the specter’s visage. His voice was calm and reassuring when he finally spoke, after taking a few more steps towards the cowering spirit.
“We mean you no harm. It is alright. You can come out.”
The ghost bristled, veins of light ignited inside the part of its form that was visible from behind the curtain, casting dancing patterns on the floor. It seemed to respond well to Solas. And Solas must have interpreted its behavior as positive sign, for he kept going.
“What manner of spirit are you?” He asked conversationally, letting his stance remain unthreatening as he approached.
Cassandra could feel every nerve alight, her muscles tensed as she remained paraylzed, rooted to the spot unable to move when the ghost shifted its focus from Solas to her.
It glided out from behind the curtain, and as it did so it’s form shifted. It began to grow, doubling in size and brightness. Cassandra couldn’t think straight, her mouth tasted like acidic fear. This challenged everything she had been raised to believe.
A Ghost. A Very Real Ghost was staring at her. She had never thought….this couldn’t be….this was impossible.
The shocked scream escaped her lips before she could stop it.
“Maker preserve us, what is that creature!”
And then the ghost went beserk. A high pitched screech ementated from what Cassandra thought was it’s mouth, and it’s soft, billowing body suddenly solidified. Wisp like skin became hard and calloused, scales and bone began to protrude at odd angles, and fangs grew from the gaping hole that had once served as it’s mouth. It screeched again and then charged at them. Barreling down the hall at high speed.
“Run.” Solas yelled, gripping her elbow in vice grip, whipping her around and pulling her along with him at a sprint towards the door they had entered from at the end of the hall. Sera was holding it open and running in place, screaming profanities at them to hurry their arses up.
They cleared the door and Solas released her elbow to spin around and slam the door shut, placing some kind of enchantment on the wood. There was a giant thud and burst of light that shook the very foundations of the door frame, but it did not break. Cassandra kept backing up until she hit a decaying table and stifled another scream at it’s sharp edge that hit her side.
After a few minutes, the ghost stopped it assault on the door and the light died away. Only a slowly fading mournful cry was left echoing in its wake, much like Sera’s laughter had.
Sera had her back against the door, chest heaving. “Shite. Shite damn it fucking shite.” Her voice cracked on the last curse.
Cassandra looked to Solas, who seemed at most, slightly shaken but moreso furious. He advanced on her.
“Why did you do that?” He snapped at her, clearly agitated.
“Me? It attacked us Solas!” Cassandra snapped back.
“It reacted to your fear. It could sense your discomfort and your emotions twisted it into the creature you saw.” Solas explained throwing his hands up in a exasperated gesture, “It would not have charged if you had remained calm.”
“How exactly—It was dangerous, I–This—I”
“I trained you on this Cassandra.” He cut her off.
Cassandra stalled, trying to collect her thoughts. Solas had briefed her, extensively, before they went on the expedition on the nature of ghosts, and how important it was to remain calm when interacting with them–for they were so easily influenced by the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the real world. Easily warped was what he said. And even after all that training, she had still let her fear run rampant because she had not taken it as seriously as she should have.
“Solas, I’m sorry. I should not have screamed. It was…irrational of me.” She admitted, breaking the silence that fell upon the three of them in the empty living space they had retreated into.
He sighed, and softened his gaze. “It is okay. I should not have been so harsh on you, this was your first encounter and you could not have predicted how your emotions would effect you, or the ghost.”
“Yeah, as nice as all this kiss’n’make up shite is, wot’re you gonna do ‘about that thing runnin’ round now?” Sera jerked her thumb at the door where the ghost had been several minutes prior.
“We must warn the others a ghost as been spooked, and to take extra precautions while exploring and setting up this evening.” Solas said, adjusting his jawbone necklace with one hand and placing the other on the doorknob.
“That’s all?” Cassandra inquired, crossing the distance between her and Solas and firmly placing her hand on the door to prevent him from opening it.
He met her eyes again. “Yes. We should give the ghost time to recover from its shock and refrain from doing any heavy searching tonight. Set up some basic hot spot detectors and monitors, gauge the activity tonight and see where the most vibrations occur. We will begin our research there tomorrow night.”
Cassandra nodded, mostly to reassure herself more than Solas and released her brace on the door. He opened and stepped out. Cassandra held her breath, Sera at her side doing the same. Solas dipped back in and signaled the coast was clear.
Cassandra let out a relieved sigh, “Andraste guide us.”
Her statement of faith earned her a glare from Solas over his shoulder as they back tracked the way they came. He probably thought of it as highly inappropriate, uttering a holy blessing in a place that clearly far from holy. But it helped settle her stomach and gave her some peace of mind, even if it left a bitter taste in her mouth. The sooner they reunited with the main group the better.
She was beginning to question a lot more than she was comfortable with.