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Last of The Fae Chapter 98: I'll Get To It Later
🕑 Added 2025-01-12 17:05:10 +0000 UTCThane stood outside the entrance of the second-floor girl's bathroom, staring dubiously at the stagnant puddles of water left over from the spill.
With a wave of my hand, the water evaporated, allowing me to step inside. Looking around I stared at the rather grand and ornate bathroom, with a carved limestone sink in the very middle with stalls built along the walls.
Standing in the middle of the bathroom, Thane cast his gaze around and frowned, "Stop hiding, it's pointless. Your aura is all over this room."
From the central sink, a ghostly head emerged, peering at Thane with worry, "W-what are you?"
Thane raised an eyebrow, "What am I? Isn't it obvious?"
"Y-you look like a human, but your aura! I-I've never seen anything like it!?" The ghost stammered, "I-it feels familiar but terrifying at the same time."
"Is that why none of the other ghosts have interacted with me?" Thane asked himself, "I almost thought they were rumors."
"A-are yo,u by any chance, T-thane Fae?" The ghost asked, still only poking the top of her head out of the sink.
"I am," Thane replied, "Why does it matter?"
"T-the other ghosts have told me to avoid you, t-they are scared, y-you terrify them!" The ghost girl screamed, disappearing back into the sink.
"Well, I have no idea why they would be terrified of me. You're the first spirit I've interacted with," As soon as the words left Thane's lips, realization dawned upon him, 'Could it be my connection to Yggdrasil? She was undoubtedly the most powerful spirit, responsible for producing all the mana on Earth.'
Acting on a whim, Thane let his aura unfurl, though he was careful it didn't spill beyond the bathroom.
Thane's presence settled on the room like a heavy blanket. Thane's aura started to vibrate as it brushed up against the ghostly spirit lingering in the sink, and it began to squeeze around the ghostly aberration.
A wail echoed through the room as the ghost shot out of the sink, revealing her full form and a face twisted in pain, "P-please stop, I-it hurts!"
Instead of pulling his aura back, Thane tried to relax his restrictive hold and watched as his aura stopped trying to squeeze the unlife out of the ghost, 'I'll have to explore this more later.'
"T-thank you," the ghost muttered, her eyes still wide with fear behind her spectral glasses.
"I didn't mean to cause you harm," Thane replied, dismissing his aura. I'm here to investigate the incident from a few days ago. I assume you've heard about it."
The ghost nodded, "It's all people have been able to talk about in the bathrooms."
"The bathrooms?" Thane repeated in disbelief, "Are they your haunting grounds?"
"Not by choice," the ghost whined, shaking her head back and forth, which caused her twin ponytails to swing, "I'm not allowed to leave the Castle, and the other ghosts don't like me that much."
"Well then, if you frequent the bathrooms so much, is there any chance you saw a large snake moving about the night of the incident," Thane asked, trying to get the conversation moving along.
"No, that night I was on the first floor, in the boy's bathroom," the ghost replied, her lips twitching into a slightly disconcerting smile.
"Well, has anyone been lingering around this bathroom in particular?" Thane interrogated quickly, growing tired of conversing with the strange ghost.
"Many people come here when they want peace and quiet. It's nice to have company every now and then," The ghost replied with a sigh.
"Well then, come and find me if anyone comes in here and starts doing something suspicious," Thane ordered, making the ghost frown and cross her arms.
"Why should I listen to you?"
Instead of responding, Thane glared at the ghost while sending out a sharp blast of his aura, making the girl flinch.
Seeing her get the message, Thane pulled back his aura and started inspecting the bathroom. Unfortunately, the silence only lasted for a moment before his unwanted company regained her nerve to strike up a conversation again, "What are you looking for?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Thane muttered as he swept over the room with his magical senses, only to find nothing with even the slightest hint of magical presence. Meaning it was either well hidden or there was indeed nothing at all.
Frowning, Thane paused before closing his eyes for a second, tapping into the draconic nature of his soul. When Thane opened his eyes again, his pupils had transformed into verticle slits, and all of his physical senses had been dialed up to eleven.
Raising his nose into the air, Thane inhaled, which wasn't the most pleasant experience, given he was in an old bathroom that hadn't been cleaned in years. But besides the stale air and still water, Thane smelled something far more interesting.
'So I was right,' Thane said, flaring his nose as it picked up the scent of something old and powerful, a smell that activated his ancestral memory, 'but who is your master?'
Focusing his senses, Thane moved past the almost overpowering smell of the basilisk and found another lingering scent that Thane could identify as human, but nothing more. Committing the smell to memory, Thane dropped his partial transformation and sighed, 'I was foolish to think I could wrap this up in an afternoon. Even if I had located the Basilisk, I would have to prepare, which would probably take a day or more. By then, the weekend would pass, and I would have to wait a week.'
Before Thane could make up his mind, a set of footsteps reached his ears, and he turned around to find Luna standing in the bathroom's entry.
"Hi, Thane!" Luna chirped, waving at him while cradling a stack of papers in her arms, "Welcome back...why are you up here?"
"Luna," Thane echoed back as he stood up and walked over with a genuine smile on his face, "I'm sorry I didn't come to see you sooner."
"It's fine," Luna replied with a shrug before looking around the bathroom, "If you're looking for signs of the basilisk, I'm afraid I couldn't find any."
Thane blinked, "Daphne told you already?"
Luna shook her head, "She didn't have to it's the only creature that could be responsible. There's also the possibility that this is some cruel prank and that Mrs. Noris was petrified by some other means. But I haven't been able to run any test on Mrs. Noris because Flinch refuses to trust anyone with her."
"Tests?" Thane repeated in question.
"Just the standard screening to see if any poisons or curses had been used," Luna answered informatively.
Thane smiled as Luna displayed her growing knowledge, "I take it you've been enjoying your apprenticeship with Madam Pomfrey?"
Luna grinned, flashing Thane a beaming smile, "You heard?! It's been amazing; I've learned so much, though Madam Pomfrey says I'm crazy for thinking that there's a basilisk responsible for petrifying Mrs. Noris."
"Well, ignore her. You're right," Thane countered as he gestured around the bathroom, "This whole place stinks of it.."
"It's here?!" Luna asked, looking around excitedly as if the hundred-year-old snake, capable of killing people with a single glance, was a puppy.
"No, it's hiding somewhere in the plumbing," Thane muttered, "There's also the problem of who released the snake in the first place."
Luna frowned, clearly disappointed, "Well, if you find it, could you let me examine its body? Its scales are said to have healing properties, and I want to see if the rumor is true."
Thane grinned, "Sure...but what brought you up here originally?"
"I was looking for you!" Luna replied with a smile, "I was wondering if you would help me with some of the work Madam Pomfrey assigned me."
Thane opened his mouth, ready to turn Luna down, eager to start looking for the basilisk's de,n when he saw the expectant look in Luna's eyes, "Sure I have some time to spare."
