Phantasia chuckled to herself. Humans had a habit of seeing things they wanted to see. She could see those things naturally. ‘Orbs’ were just mana, and the images of people were nothing more than resonating emotions and memories that lingering around like footprints. In a place like Torsten, where the leylines crossed, it was far easier for humans to notice things that were natural to her and in a place like this, where mana was corrupted, it was easier still.

“There aren’t many ethereal beings around here,” she said, forgetting for a moment she was talking to humans, “I mean… I mean, it’s really lifeless!” She winced as Phoenie stared at her with wide, enthusiastic eyes.

“You can sense it, right? Your psychic powers? You can tell where things are, can’t you? You can talk to them, right? Talk to the dead?!”

They had stopped in the middle of a concrete field, surrounded on all sides by crumbling storerooms that had once held the manufactured produce humans valued so much. Twilight reflected in Phoenie’s eyes as she clutched her clipboard to her chest and waited for Phantasia’s answer.

“I-I can’t,” she said, unable to meet the girl’s wavering gaze, “This area, though, it’s almost drained of energy. It’s like a void in the…” she stopped herself saying ‘leylines’, “A void. What energy there is is weakened…”

Phoenie was looking at the ground. “Yeah. That’s what they taught us in Environmental Studies. Said this whole district had been raped by people of the past. People did that a lot back then…”

Phantasia nodded. “That’s probably why the leansídhe is here. It consumes mana that’s been corrupted by negative emotions. In a place like this, it…”

Phoenie was looking at her with those intense, narrowed eyes again, and Phantasia realised she really had said too much this time. She cringed, mentally blaming it on the two girls’ insightful knowledge fooling her into thinking she was once again with her stoic lady-in-waiting.

“So that’s it!” said Phoenie, clapping her hands together in a decisive moment of realisation.

“It feeds off of ‘mana’?” said Katrina, her brow furrowed, “That’s what the auragraphs were showing…”

“And those suicides! It must have caused, or at least encouraged them!” Phoenie was jumping up and down now, her voice a high-pitched squeal.

“Suicide, even if it’s just attempted, must evoke a lot of negative energy,” Katrina continued, much to Phantasia’s happy amazement, “So those people were all victims of its hunger…”

“We’re gonna stop this thing, right?” said Phoenie, who had just thrown her clipboard into her backpack and rolled the sleeves of her sweater up. “Kat, you know where it was nesting last time?”

Katrina nodded and pointed to one of the warehouses, “There was a large amount of corrupted mana – that is, what I now assume was corrupted mana – coming from over there,”

Chapter 10
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