Pieces of Sonder

“What a terrible place to die.”

Freya glanced sideways at Heilong.

“What’s that phrase you say?” Freya said, “Don’t jinx it.”

“I was talking about the King’s brother who died here, not us,” Heilong said.

“Still…”

Despite the sunlight, the shipping docks in front of them appeared grim and unsettling. After sleeping most of the day, the group reconvened around late afternoon. Now with the plexplex gone, it was easy to navigate to the Port District’s shipping docks. Dark hardwood made up a majority of the pier and warehouses. Planks of wood dangled into the ocean from the docks, and other sections were missing entirely. 

Freya hesitantly stepped with one foot onto the dock; as she shifted her weight forward, the wood under her foot sunk. The wet spongy wood might support her weight, but she didn’t have much confidence.

“This looks like it’s been abandoned longer than a month,” Infamous Biscuit said, looking at the state of the place.

“I think so too,” Heilong said. “Maybe this is an old section of dock. They couldn’t do business here without falling into the ocean.”

To the north, there were no other docks, but there was still boardwalk south of them. As they walked to the next docking area, their surroundings became better but worse. There was less decaying wood but more instances of destroyed structures. 

Heilong was the first to spot a broken arrow. Then Nightscythe noticed blood splatter on a wall. Shortly after, they came across a large talisman set up in the middle of the street. All the energy was drained out of the talisman, but Freya could tell a strong anti-demonic ward was once placed on it. However, the wood was of poor quality and did not seem to hold the energy well. Damage to the wood grain was apparent, and it seemed unlikely to have held the ward very long. 

“Do you think everyone retreated to the shipping docks?” Freya speculated. “This talisman seems like a last-ditch effort to keep demons at bay.”

“That would make sense,” Heilong said. “Those hills between here and the capitol would be difficult for people to travel over, and there seemed to be lots of demons there. Maybe everyone hoped to get away by ship. The King did say his brother died somewhere near the shipping docks helping the townspeople escape.”

Freya unconsciously gulped. In the past, she had seen a demon attack on an isolated family in the woods. The blood and gore from that attack was a memory she did not like to think about. Her hand trembled as she realized it was likely that up ahead would be worse.

No, maybe it won’t be that bad, Freya thought to herself. Perhaps the prince gave up his life saving everyone else. Maybe everyone else got out safe. But… the King did call this place the port of ghosts and demons…

Taking a slow deep breath, she turned to the others, “You should prepare yourselves. If the last stand against the demon attack did happen here. It’s going to-it will be a mess.”

Hamra already had a grim expression on her face before Freya finished. No one else had experience with the aftermath of one-sided demon attacks, but they got the gist of Freya’s words.

Proceeding with caution, the group continued towards the southern shipping docks. Hamra sent her fox spirit ahead to scout the area. Nightscythe kept checking with his Translucent Field for Sangen every few minutes. Freya noticed since her warning he had not tried to look ahead of them too hard.

Suddenly, Hamra’s fox spirit came trotting back. It sat in front of the necromancer, and Hamra reached down to pat its head.

After a moment, she simply said, “It’s bad.”

Freya closed her eyes. Part of her wondered how Hamra could read the spirit’s mind with no potions or incense. She mulled over the question longer than necessary to avoid thinking about the implications of Hamra’s words. The port had been abandoned for more than a month. A small scouting party had seen the King’s brother near the docks, but she doubted they had time to bury the dead.

Finally, Infamous Biscuit broke the silence, “To find Prince Toychi’s ghost do we have to go into that area? The King said his ghost was spotted near the shipping docks. Maybe his spirit is far from his body now.”

“Spirits can move to areas far from their bodies. Your octopus spirit is an example of this,” Freya reminded him. “Often spirits go to areas they are attached to, or that might bring them closure. Given the circumstances, I would guess his spirit is probably near the massacre.”

“We might be able to attract, or at least track his ghost,” Scrimmancer said, pointing between himself and Hamra.

“Oh?” Nightscythe said, brightening at the possibility, “Is that a necromancer thing?”

Scrimmancer nodded, “There’s a way to lure demonic energy towards yourself. It makes it more likely for a ghost to manifest close to you. Also, it’s possible to track demonic energy. Although it might not work well here. There’s already a lot of energy in the air.”

“I think just attracting demonic energy here will be good enough,” Hamra said quietly. She took off her small backpack and started sorting through it. “Although this method will only work if he is still an active ghost. If he isn’t showing himself much or found peace, this will not work.”

“I think it will work,” Freya said confidently. She looked to Hamra. “What do we do?”