cast a spirit sight spell on the band. "Rowan?"
"I can see fine," she said, recognizing what Isabella was doing and subsequently casting her own spell.
They got out of the van and started to walk towards the church. The thick fog was dimly illuminated by the orange street lights.
"So how do we get into the graveyard?" Leah asked.
Rowan suddenly stopped walking. "It's right behind us," she said in a low voice.
"Of course it is," Leah sighed, and turned around quickly with her hand in the emergency kit gripping the baseball bat. The others also turned around quickly, with Rowan being the slowest to react. Maryann and Nora both had a hand on their necklaces and Isabella had her hand in her purse ready to pull out a charm.
A man that they guessed was a ghost was standing beneath the dimmed glow of a streetlight. He had long black hair that partially hid his face. He was transparent, so it was difficult to make out his facial features or his complexion. The one sunken eye they could see was black, or possibly just hidden in shadows. He was wearing a black suit of some sort and a cape. Rowan and Isabella knew that he would have been visible without spirit sight, but that the effect of the spell allowed them to see much more clearly.
"Nora, what's your fashion sense guess?" Leah whispered.
"Possibly Victorian by the suit, but the cape is too long. Could be his own look," she replied.
"Good evening," he said with a slight bow. His voice was about a tenor but there was a thin sort of echoing quality to it. He looked at Rowan. Then he looked at the others. "I did not expect so much company. You are traveling with an ever stranger group, dear Rowan." He looked specifically at Isabella, who was standing next to Rowan. "Odd. You two are so alike, and yet so different. Strange indeed."
"Who are you and how do you know my name? And why have you been following me?" she demanded.
He sort of smiled. "You may call me Aximander."
"That's a Greek name," Nora said in a low voice.
"I learned your name when you were in business as a medium. When I still breathed, I was a natural medium as well, although I never met another in my life time." He flicked his eyes over to Isabella. "I've been following you because I've been trying to get your attention."
"You couldn't just manifest like this?" Rowan asked.
"You know as well as I do that such manifestation is easier on a night like this."
"Yeah, and if you know I'm a natural medium, you know I already have an easier time seeing ghosts no matter which night," she countered. "But hey, you've got my attention now, so what do you want?"
He looked at the other four. "I had hoped for a more private conversation."
"You aren't getting it," Rowan replied coolly. "So why have you been invading my privacy and my dreams? I don't appreciate nightmares."
"Nightmares?" he said, looking geniunely confused. "That was not my intention at all. My apologies," the spirit said. "I did not realize my attempts to communicate would result in undesirable consequences."
"Well, since we're here now and you can just talk to me, what do you want from me?" Rowan asked.
"I was hoping since you clearly have some skill summoning spirits you could help me cross the Veil."
"Wait, you want out?" Isabella asked.
"Isn't he already out?" Leah said. "I mean, he's standing there."
He glared at her, at least they guessed since his hair was still half in his face. "I am no more free of the Veil than any other spirit on this night. The Veil is so thin you can see me, and I can see you, but it still bars my passage to your side," he explained. He turned back to Rowan and now his gaze included Isabella. "I wasn't certain you could help me, but I see you have somehow managed to find another medium, and so I'm sure both of you together to open a door for me."
"Why should we do that?" Rowan and Isabella asked in unison.
Even the spirit seemed slightly taken aback by this. "To help a fellow creature."
"Why do you want out anyway?" they asked. They looked at each, but shrugged.
"This is just getting weirder," Leah whispered to Nora.
"Agreed, and I don't trust this spirit."
"Oh, he doesn't look too bad," Maryann said in a low voice. "No worse than we've seen before."
"I have a bad feeling," Nora said firmly.
The spirit paid no attention to their hushed conversation and addressed the two blondes. "There are clearly some loose ends from my life I have never quite tied up or else I could have moved on. I can't tie up those ends from this side of the Veil. I am quite certain if I could have free range in the physical realm, I could get closure on my life and finish my death."
Rowan and Isabella looked at each other again. They seemed to be having a kind of silent conversation through body language which left everyone else confused and left the other women a little uneasy.
"Alright, I'll summon you through the Veil," Rowan said.
"What?" Nora, Maryann, and Leah exclaimed.
"Do you mortals always talk like this?" Aximander commented and looking like he might laugh.
"We have to help," Isabella said, giving the three of them a look that they understood to mean, "I have a plan now be quiet."
"Yes, we do have to help," Rowan agreed. "I know I did bad things when I was in the business and I want to fix that. If you need help resolving your life and death, I can help you with that."
"I'm so glad you agree," he said. "I knew I was right to come to you. And again, I am so sorry for my unintentionally threatening overtures."
"Okay, we need a place to set this up," she said, trying to peer through the thick fog. "I guess the best open spot is in the church parking lot. I just hope there aren't any cops out to get us for trespassing."
"I don't think many people are out at this hour and in this weather," Maryann said. "I haven't seen a single car since we parked."
"Is a parking lot as you call it the best place for such a ritual?" Aximander asked.
"Well, I'm not drawing magical circles in the street and I want to try to keep this quiet. I think it was that way. Come on," she said and started to walk to the parking lot.
They noticed the spirit hesitate for a moment, but he followed.
Leah heard her phone chime and checked it, very confused. There was a text from Isabella with the instruction, "If it all goes wrong, go to the graveyard." She shared this with Nora and Maryann.
Maryann frowned and sent her own text to Isabella. "I can help."
Isabella replied, "Not with the ritual. If things go wrong."
"What are you doing with those devices?" Aximander asked.
"Updating our social media, of course," Nora answered immediately.
The spirit shook his head. "The world has become so strange."
Once they got to what they guessed was the middle of the parking lot, Rowan took some sidewalk chalk out of her pocket and started to draw a circle with several symbols from the Western magical tradition. Isabella took a piece of chalk from Rowan and added a few of her own kanji. Maryann watched with interest since this wasn't a branch of magic she worked with and she was curious how the two magical traditions would merge but stifled her urge to ask questions. With a final chalk mark, the entire circle glowed with an eerie light. Aximander disappeared and reappeared inside the circle.
"I am free," he said. His appearence was no longer transparent. "If I had the ability to breathe, I would take a deep breath and declare I finally breathe the free air. But I do not breathe." He turned to Rowan. "Thank you. Now I can finish what I started so very long ago." He stepped out of the circle and his appearance abruptly changed. His skin seemed to shrink, turned gray, and made his hands and face look like a leather-covered skeleton. His body contorted and stretched out and with spirit sight they could see his aura turn an inky black. The asphalt beneath his feet seemed to start smoking. He said something in a language they didn't understand but was most likely a curse.
"What in the hell?" Leah blurted.
"His form reflects his intention," Rowan replied.
He suddenly leapt right at Rowan with a terrible, twisted expression, but Isabella stepped forward and slapped a banishment charm on his forehead. He screamed and stumbled backwards. "How dare you?" he hissed. He finally pulled the charm off his forehead which left a blackened burn mark. He looked up at them with eyes that were black from edge to edge.
"Told you I had a bad feeling," Nora said.
Rowan had gotten to work writing other symbols on the ground around the circle.
"What are you really?" Isabella demanded, readying another charm.
"I am Aximander, a once living being with some loose ends to tie up," he snapped. "Oh, no you don't!" he shouted, and lunged for Rowan again.
Isabella got the charm on his chest and then performed a kuji-rin to focus her energy. The fog suddenly seemed to come alive and wrapped misty tendrils around the freed spirit.
"Damn it," he yelled, and pulled the charm off. He cast his own spell and the five women were knocked down by the force of it.
"You are not the only ones to have learned of secret incantations," he snarled. But the fog coiled around him like a constrictor and dragged him backwards towards the circle.
Isabella stood up and performed another spell and a gust of wind, combined with the fog, had enough force to move him back to the circle.
Rowan stood up and said something in a language they didn't understand and the circle glowed again.
The spirit lunged forward and slammed into an invisible wall. He cursed in a language they didn't