Chapter Text
“It’s okay, it’s okay, they’re not real.”
“But what if they are?”
Alison looked up at Kanuka. The two were sat in the hospital toilet, having bailed from the appointment as soon as the ghost - not ghost, he can’t have been a ghost - doctor had revealed himself.
“They’re in my head, Kan. I’m not seeing ghosts. Besides, ghosts wouldn’t have dæmons.”
The monkey, perched on her knee, shrugged. “We don’t know that, we’ve only just met them.”
Alison scoffed but Kanuka kept talking.
“Think about it Ali. If it was a hallucination, they would have followed you. It would be the army guy or the caveman in there, not some random doctor.”
Alison blinked, slowly nodding. The ghosts dæmons had scared her most of all but hearing her own soul happy to believe in them made all the difference. “We can see ghosts.”
Kanuka nodded. “We can see ghosts. Now, let’s go home and properly introduce ourselves.”
Alison chuckled, standing up and scooping him into her arms. Mike was never going to believe this but it didn’t matter. They had a whole house of spirits to have a word with and, with Kanuka, Alison knew she could handle them all.
They walked back into the house, slowly. Kanuka was walking ahead of Alison and Mike watched him head instantly to an empty space, glancing back and forth at empty air. Alison headed away from him, deep in conversation with something he couldn’t see.
On his shoulder, Andha let out a whine. They couldn’t see Alison’s other family, there was nothing they could do.
“Come on.” He muttered. “I’ve got an idea.”
She couldn’t do much as he walked into the kitchen, dumping her onto the table and opening the cupboards. He started laying out place settings, all along the table.
“What’s happening?” The ferret muttered. “Are people coming round?”
“No.” Mike said, checking the chart to make sure he had the right number of bowls. He doubted the head would need one and the couple in the basement never joined in. “But I thought the ghosts could join us.”
“Mike?” Alison was in the doorway, clearly confused.
“Family dinner.” He smiled softly, pulling out some leftovers and putting them in the microwave. “Hope they like lasagne.”
Alison beamed, Kanuka dropping next to Andha and hugging her tight. They sat down and Andha moved to Mike’s side.
They would be okay.
Robin had seen Jangali disappear, fading away into Dust so, when he opened his eyes and she was still there, resting on his chest, he could only tilt his head. As he sat up, seeing the golden Dust spiralling away from the wolf, his brow furrowed.
“I fine.” She said, even as her ear morphed in and out of solidity. “Not fine but am fine. With you.”
He nodded, standing up. The rest of the tribe was moving on, having already buried him. “Let’s go.”
It turned out, they couldn’t go far. The tribe left them and they…waited. New people arrived and they just stayed the same, watching. They tried to learn the language but they never really did. Each night, Robin would curl up with his half solid dæmon, forever worried she would be gone in the morning.
Other ghosts joined them, their dæmons bleeding Dust the same way. Jangali welcomed each of them, even if they didn’t fully understand her. She even welcomed their humans, no longer feeling pain at touching another. Robin didn’t touch the dæmons, waiting for them to come to him. They always did and Robin held them close. They could wait forever, together.
“Look at her. I can’t believe her.”
“She’s you, Holl.”
“It’s not the same Humphrey, and you know it.”
Humphrey glared at his dæmon, as best he could with her slightly out of his eye line. Hollti was staring out the window at his body with Fanny, a lizard identical to herself perched on its shoulders. When Humphrey’s head was on his shoulder, the two combined into one but, normally, they were two dæmons for two parts of a man.
“I’m not saying I’m happy about it Holl but you - she - looks happy. Bit difficult to argue with that.”
Hollti finally turned around, scuttling back to him and curling up under his chin. While he liked having her close, he now couldn’t see her all.
“I can argue with that, I’ll argue with her next time I see her.”
“We’ll have to get someone to move us close.”
Hollti scoffed. “Then they’ll place you on his neck and I’ll be her and everything will be forgiven.”
Humphrey chuckled. “Sounds about right.”
They stayed like that, watching their other halves skip along with Fanny. They looked happy, really happy.
“Should we be watching this?”
“It’s not like we have any choice.”
Brennen watched everyone still at Mary’s words, none of them wanting to say anything to upset her. She had just told them she was ready to talk about her witch trial and they were all treading carefully. None of them were looking in his direction, too worried at staring at where his Dust sparked and morphed into flames along his skin. He didn’t blame them, Mary didn’t like to look either.
Eventually, the others left, Robin taking a moment to stroke Brennen’s side before he went. Jangali had curled up at her feet as soon as she had mentioned the witch trial and Robin had to grab her ear and pull her away.
“Yous ready to talk?” Brennen muttered, when they were alone. He shuffled to her side, letting her lean against his flank.
“Think so.” Mary said, taking solace in her cow dæmon’s strength. “Might nots be.”
“Yous dun’t ‘ave to be.” He said softly. “Won’t lets them make you.”
Mary nodded, sighing softly. It wasn’t a Thomas sigh of melodrama or a Kitty sigh of exaggeration, it was just a simple sigh at the thought of talking about their trial.
“You’s be with me?”
“Course. Always will be.”
“It was a mean thing to do. So very mean.”
Zaluu tilted his head up at Kitty, ears drooping slightly. The red panda was curled up on her lap, having been happily napping until her emotions had shifted. All the other ghosts had frozen, worry clear on their faces. He could see all the other dæmons glancing between their ghosts and his own, a couple of them looking like they wanted to move forward and comfort Kitty. But Zaluu didn’t need them too, he could look after his girl. He just needed to remind her that everything was okay.
“Oh, well.” He said, getting Kitty to look his way. He wrapped his tail around her wrist and tilted his head, smiling widely up at her. “At least she was nice most of the time.”
Kitty giggled, nodding happily as the rest of the room let out a relieved sigh and talked over each other. Kitty scratched Zaluu behind his ears and he closed his eyes, letting contentment rush over himself and onto Kitty. Thinking about if Eleanor had been cruel didn’t help anyone, she was their sister and had been good to them.
He would keep Kitty safe from harm.
Thomas placed the letter down, smiling sadly. Sabdaharu on his shoulder looked down at the letter with a satisfied nod, happy they could finally put the matter to rest, no matter how much it broke their hearts. Isabelle had loved him, loved them, and it was devastating but they really thought they could be okay.
Until the letter disappeared and they heard it reappearing in his pocket.
Thomas grew frantic, trying to get rid of the letter. The parakeet on his shoulder was jostled about and soon she was flying about the room, shrieking as Thomas yelled. Eventually, one of them had to be sensible and she settled back on his shoulder, pinching her talons into his skin until he yelped, stopping in his tracks.
“Sabda!” He spluttered, affronted.
“Tommy!” She shot back. “You’re causing a scene.”
He froze, glancing about, expecting someone to burst in and confront him. When none did, he sighed dramatically at being ignored, flopping down on the bed behind him. Sabdaharu hopped away, tilting her head.
“Finished?”
“Yes, fine.” Thomas sighed. He draped an arm over his eyes. “If I must be.”
She chuckled, nudging him until he looked at her.
“We’ll be okay, Tom.”
“It’s still the same girl underneath.”
Tinkamas nodded on Stephanie’s shoulder, inclining her head towards Kanuka. The monkey nodded back and Alison smiled, moving on. Tinkamas turned back to the portrait, wondering what Stephanie was thinking. She shook her wings, shaking Dust away from her feathers.
“You’re still her, Steph.” She muttered, brushing her beak against her cheek. “Still that same girl.”
“I’m not really.” Fanny smiled softly. She moved her hand upwards for the raven to hop onto, heading towards the kitchen. “That girl was buried long ago.”
“Well, luckily for us both, just because we’re buried doesn’t mean we are gone.”
Fanny tutted at her dæmon’s twist of words, shaking her head. As she entered the kitchen and heard Alison trying to calculate a sum, she answered instinctively, barely even thinking of the numbers. On her wrist, Tinkamas preened proudly as Alison looked impressed. The two moved on to join the others, Fanny moving Tinkamas back to her shoulder as they went. She paused just outside the drawing room.
“You’re not getting sentimental on me, are you Tinkamas?”
The raven chuckled, brushing her cheek with his wing. She leant into the touch, smiling. “Of course not, Lady Button.”
Polemos stood next to his man, both their postures perfect and rigid as normal. The Captain was surveying the dancing, making sure no one was doing anything to jeopardise the event. Alison had put a lot of work into the wedding and he didn’t want to see it wasted.
“Don’t want to see your work wasted, you mean?”
The Captain glanced down at his dæmon, brow furrowing at the mastiff’s tongue lolling out freely.
“Hardly, I simply advised, it was Alison’s effort.”
“Of course, of course.” Polemos chuckled. “You take no pride in it at all.”
The Captain glared at his dæmon, then shook his head and looked away fondly. “I suppose, pride is exactly the word to use.”
Polemos followed his gaze to the two brides, dancing happily together. “You could join the dancing, you know. It’s not like anyone could stop you.”
“Or you.”
Polemos nodded, barely waiting a second before heading onto the floor, joining the other ghosts’ dæmons in bouncing around each other, falling onto each other in a mass of fur and Dust. He didn’t need to look to know his man had joined the dancing, feeling his happiness at allowing himself to be free.
Pat recoiled away from Alison, realising what his words had implied. What must have happened between Carol and Morris. Alison was apologising but Pat didn’t hear, falling away and almost tripping over Igetis. His dæmon jumped away, bursting into Dust as she landed before reforming, almost instantly. Pat scooped her up and ran, until they were completely alone and away from everyone. They might have been inside the walls for all Pat knew.
Pat dug his hands into Igetis’ fur to ground himself, refusing to focus on how much of her was Dust now, barely resembling the badger she had been when they were alive.
“Don’t you go leaving me, Geti. Don’t you dare.”
The Dust shook and reformed slightly, enough for her to press herself against him. “Never, Skip. I would never leave you again.”
He held her as tightly as he could, remembering when the arrow had hit him. He’d lasted for a few minutes more but she had gone instantly. She’d been there when he’d stumbled out of the bus, Robin and Jangali comforting her. Even now, thirty years on, he still worried if he couldn’t see her.
“It’s okay, Pat.” She muttered. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Julian looked down at little Nancy, smiling slightly. Gyfraith had jumped into the crib with her, keeping her distance but looking very much like she wanted to curl herself around Nancy’s tiny dæmon.
“Do you remember when Rachael was that small?”
Julian chuckled, running his hand along the cat’s speckled fur. “Gosh, don’t remind me. And her little dæmon, constantly trying to turn into you but being too tiny.”
“Azuris.” Gyfraith nodded, her tail wrapping around Julian’s arm. “I named her before Margot could think to, Ezerin was furious.”
“It’s a good name.” Julian smiled as Nancy beamed up at him. He nodded along with her babbling, and her little dæmon Shifted, matching Gyfraith for a moment before falling back into the tiny mouse form he had held before. “You were a good mother.”
Gyfraith shrugged, the motion going through her whole body. “I was good when I was with Azuris but we were away too much for it to matter.”
“Sorry about that.” Julian said, genuinely. “I’m sorry I kept you away from our child.”
Gyfraith’s tail burst into Dust and she turned to face him. “It’s okay, Jules. I forgive you. We’ve got to stick together.”
Julian smiled.