Phoenie checked a few things on her clipboard, and then scanned the wall of old warehouses and factories. “There’s been a lot of activity in the south sector. Given the location of the Raven’s territory and that all the recent suicides and suicide attempts have been by members of that subculture, we have concluded that this was the most likely source of these demonic entities known as ‘leansídhe’,”

Phantasia wondered what would happen if Phoenie and Faye ever met. Then thought of Faye interacting with humans, with her reasoned intellect and penchant for speaking her mind tactlessly, made her chuckle to herself.

“Several people have been disappearing of late,” explained Phoenie as she led the way, “It started nine days ago, but stopped last Tuesday for a short while. Saturday night, it started up again. I have been collecting every shred of data I can find on the incidents, openly for the newspaper, secretly because I know what’s really behind it,”

She showed Phantasia a sheet of portraits, some of whom she recognised from the ceremony she had interrupted. Underneath each picture was a note on their status, either ‘missing’, ‘attempted’, or ‘suicide’. One of them was Kaori, who was marked ‘attempted’.

“We have to be careful because of the Inquisition,” whispered Phoenie, “We can just about get away with it because of the newspaper. That’s why we set it up in the first place. Not even the teachers realise what we’re really doing, though sometimes I suspect they do. They’re an odd bunch, really,”

“They helped with the auragraphic camera,” said Katrina, “It was for a science project to take photographs of electromagnetic fields. It was a bit strange that it turned out to take pictures of auras instead, though,”

“I’m pretty sure it was intentional,” said Phoenie, “But don’t let Theseus or John know I said that. They’re sceptics. They don’t believe in any of this. John seems to find some kind of wry humour in our investigations, while Theseus is obsessed with undermining me. I’m going to prove him wrong,”

“Just not until Godhand…” began Katrina.

“Indeed. We have to…” Phoenie paused, and her voice became as quiet as the breeze, “We have to take them down. The teachers can’t do it for fear of reprisals. We’re the only ones who can do it!”

With the sky darkening, Phantasia began to feel uncomfortable. Once again she found herself surrounded by the towering funnels and concrete blocks that had once drained life from the planet through the ignorant greed of humanity. It was no wonder that a being born of the darkness would find its home in such a hellish place. Phoenie seemed fully aware of this fact.

“This area is the worst,” she said as they wandered over the dusty gravel towards a collection of ruined warehouses, “They haven’t even tried to revive it. Nothing will grow here. It’s like a graveyard. That’s why I fully believe entities of a spectral nature are concentrated here.”

Katrina, who had been taking photos of the surrounding area as soon as they had stepped over the deathly threshold, voiced her agreement. “The last batch of auragraphs I took of this place were horrible,” she added, “I can’t actually look at them again. I have to get John to develop them. He says its all just optical illusions and electromagnetic fields, but I’m sure…”

“There were definite signs of supernatural activity,” Phoenie said, cutting off Katrina as she slipped into shivering thought, “You’ve heard of orbs? And images of people, too. Ghosts, they used to call them.”

Chapter 10
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