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Thog tossed his keys into the dish beside the door. Ashe’s shoes were on the rack, but Markus and Gregor’s weren’t. Usually Thog would think this meant a quiet afternoon.
He found her curled up in a corner of the living room. Hands pressed over ears. Rocking slightly. Muttering.
“Hey, Ashe, what’s going on?”
“You can’t hear them?”
“Hear what? We’re the only two people in the house and Kyr’s not mowing the lawn today.”
“The voices, Thog! They move things, too! I can hardly find anything in my room anymore. It feels like the walls are moving sometimes. They’re so loud.”
Thog shook his head, wondering if the girl had suffered some sort of mental break in the few hours he’d been out.
“Ashe, listen, there aren’t any voices. Come with me to the kitchen and I’ll get you a hot drink. Cof-… probably not a good idea actually. I think Inien left some herbal tea behind last time she was over. Does that sound good? I think chamomile’s supposed to be good for the nerves or whatever.”
Ashe nodded slowly and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet and led to the kitchen. There was a steaming mug in her hands before either of them spoke again.
“Ghosts,” she said.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s ghosts. I’m not going crazy. I know you think I am, but Markus hears them too, sometimes. That’s why he’s not home right now. It was fine until they started screaming at me to get out.”
“Uh huh.” Thog stood up and rolled his sleeves up his arms. With a deep breath, he boomed “Hey! I don’t know who the hell you are, frankly I don’t care, but this house is ours now. Either leave us alone or I call our witch friend over to get you exterminated!”
He sat back down with an air of finality and bit into a slice of jammed toast. Ashe blinked at him. The shouting had stopped and the ghostly figures that had been pestering her were nowhere in sight.
“Ghosts tend to get off on scaring people, from what I can tell. Tell ‘em what the pecking order is with enough authority and they’ll usually run off to bug the next saps.”
Ashe blinked again, then stared down into her tea. "Thanks, Thog. Just don't try that on Zalvetta. He's not as much of a pushover as most ghosts."
"On who, now?"