Part 33
"So what do we do now?"
"For now, we wait."
"Awww. Waiting is boring. I wanna see magic now."
"Magic does not exist for your entertainment," Thule snapped. "Nor is it for the likes of you. It requires strength of will. Patience. Intelligence. You, boy, have-"
A chill went down David's back. It felt as if something had brushed past him from behind. He turned quickly, but saw nothing.
"I felt it as well," said Gravious Thule. "The spirit is close... but weak."
"How come-"
"Shhh..."
David heard something now. The voices were faint... not whispers, but very distant. David couldn't make out the words, although he clearly heard several distinct people... ghosts?... speaking.
"Too weak," Thule said. "But I can lend them strength..."
The cold brushed against David again, but this time it clung to him.
"I think they're touching me!"
"It is you he wishes to speak to."
"I don't want him touching me! This isn't like it was before! This is-"
"Shhh, QUIET boy!" Thule hissed. He made a sweeping gesture, and the surroundings brightened slightly. "The Prayer of Concealment no longer hides us. Your voice will carry... but those of the spirits will not. I will bring them closer now-"
"But I don't want-"
"We will see and hear things. Do not speak. Listen. Remember everything they bring to you. Every word. Every image. Nothing is unimportant here, boy. Do you understand this?"
"But... he's... touchinnnng meeeee!"
Thule began to chant softly.
"-can't hide him HERE!"
"Huh?" David heard the words clearly... they were closer now. The voices continued, but the sounds faded in and out with the rhythm of Thule's ongoing chant.
"-find us!"
"-don't care! Have to do SOMETHING!"
-leave now! NOW!"
"...Keep going..." David whispered. The Pilgrim did just that. For a few moments there were no more voices, but there were sounds. Hurried footsteps and odd rustlings. A crying child. No... TWO crying children. Then-
"I think I saw something!"
"Are they coming!"
"Quiet!"
A dark shape appeared a few feet in front of David. It was as big as a man, and it swept quickly toward him. David opened his mouth to scream, but the thing went over, around, and THROUGH him as if he weren't there.
It was like being doused with cold water.
David turned to follow the shape, and saw that it was a man. The ghost of a man.
It went a short distance, then stopped. It... he... faced away from David, and appeared to stare intently out the window.
-Window?
David looked gasped as the house took shape around him. Walls and a floor, windows and furniture... the old residence assembled itself before David's eyes. The walls rushed forward out of the night and settled into place. The roof crept over them like a living thing, while the furnishings danced across the floor that had merely appeared beneath them. Everything assembled in mere moments, and David and Thule now stood inside a ghostly recreation of the house as it was before it burnt down.
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