The Spirit Of Adventure

-Outside the Haunted Guild-

Standing outside the Haunted Guild and bathed in moonlight, Diana faced the building that she was to enter. Her mission here tonight was to rescue Mr. Necargie's niece from the Haunted Guild, where she had disappeared while in search of a special tome rumored to be hidden on the premises. Diana wondered what could be so important that her friend's niece would risk her life to obtain it. It had better be something really important like a tome on transmutation or the spellbook of a powerful wizard and not just someone doing something dumb on a dare. However, Diana felt that she owed the old family friend a favor for warning her about Mr. Gorman, so she would take the job even if it meant rescuing someone who did something dumb on a dare.

According to Mr. Necargie, his niece Madeleine was a budding mage who had an interest in magical artifacts and was not afraid to seek them out herself. She would travel to any corner of Earthland if there was a remote possibility that she would find an item of magical power at the end of the journey. Bankrolled by her uncle's money and full of self-confidence, there was nowhere that Madeleine would not go in search of adventure and treasure. That was why Diana was hired. She was hired to make sure that the adventurous niece had not gotten in over her head and to rescue her if she had gotten into trouble.

The Haunted Guild had the appearance to match its name. The tile roof was full of holes as big as her fist and the rusty gutters were full of leaves. The gutter pipes were barely attached to the side of the guild hall and looked like a stiff breeze could rip the brackets from the wall. Diana's attention was diverted from the exterior of the building when she heard screaming coming from nearby. Diana was warned that the Haunted Guild was infamous for spectral activity, so she prepared to use her special magic since it was the only weapon she had that could harm supernatural entities. She needed to look into getting a silver weapon or something else that could give her a fighting chance against enemies immune to normal weaponry.

Diana had also been warned that werewolves from the surrounding woods tended to sweep through the guild grounds in search of prey, but they were still vulnerable to conventional weapons. Still, having a silver weapon would help immensely against lycanthropes because conventional weapons were not the ideal weapon against them. She would have to look into something to improve her weaponry once this job was complete.

Speaking of which, Diana looked at the building and decided that she had best get on with the job. She had no idea how far into the guild Madeleine was or if she was in trouble. The blonde mage walked up the four stone steps, opened the creaky wooden door, and stepped into the foyer of a building that was as decayed on the inside as it was on the outside.

-Inside the Haunted Guild-

Diana shut the door behind her and gazed into the long, dark hallway yawning ahead of her. To her left was a wooden bookshelf full of books that had mildewed, been used as a snack for insects, or both. Either way their contents were not legible in the slightest. Sitting on a decayed wooden coffee table was a mildewed stack of papers that looked to be recruiting posters for the defunct guild.

Diana also saw a wooden door with a brass doorknob that led off to somewhere deeper in the guild hall, but her attention was focused more on the hallway ahead of her. For a moment she thought she saw the ghost of a young woman in formal wear.

Diana took a deep breath as she suddenly felt cold. She was glad that she had chosen to wear something other than her "office lady" attire for this job. Diana was wearing a navy blue long-sleeved shirt with matching cargo pants and black boots. Even though she could not hide from ghosts because camouflage could not fool them, the outfit was a lot warmer than her "office lady" outfit and a lot easier to move around in because she did not have to wear heels. Diana looked down the hallway, then started walking towards an open doorway to the left that caught her eye.

She walked to the doorway and was rewarded with the sound of muffled screaming for her curiosity. Had she found Madeline Necargie already?

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[Total Word Count: 775/7,000]

Diana lifted her right hand in case she had to use her special magic at a moment's notice. Ghosts did not have to obey the laws of physics, so they could walk through walls at a moment's notice and become a threat to her. She walked into the room and found it to be a nondescript chamber with hunter green wallpaper that was peeling off the walls and old wooden chairs with red cushions that had long since fallen apart from neglect. Of greater interest was the muffled screaming sound coming from a small closet to her right.

She was not sure if it was Madeleine or a trick meant to set her up for an attack by a lurking ghost. Diana put her left hand on the doorknob and opened it gently, expecting someone or something to fall out of it. Instead Diana was met only with empty air and silence. Madeleine was not in this closet, something which was reinforced by muffled screaming sounding from the next room. Diana quickly shut the closet door and left the room to inspect the room a short distance down the hall.

-In the hallway-

Diana had just exited the room and faced a window when she spotted the same young female ghost in formal wear from earlier pass by. The ghost flitted in front of the blonde with a small smile on her face and left behind both a light giggle and a trace of perfume that smelled like lavender. She disappeared down the hallway before Diana could even try to catch up with her. The mage looked in the ghost's direction and could only wonder where the specter had gone to before the muffled screaming sounded again. Diana immediately turned to her left and entered the next room in the hall.

-In the second room-

Diana entered the room to find that it was largely the same as the first one. It had the same hunter green wallpaper peeling off of the walls and the same wooden chairs that had fallen apart from disrepair, but this room had artwork on the walls. It was nothing special... it was generic art like a potted plant in a white vase and a man dressed in green hunting jacket with white pants and black knee-high boots riding a pure white horse with a hunting dog standing faithfully at his master's side waiting for the command to sniff and track prey.

Diana heard thumping coming from the closet and carefully made her way over to it to open it. She laid her left hand on the doorknob and gently opened the door. As soon as the door opened screaming split the air as someone or something fell out and landed on the floor with a THUMP. The curious Diana kept her distance because she was not sure if she had found Madeleine or if it was a trap set by the ghost. The blonde leaned her head around the door and was met with a shriek and a brown shoe thrown at her.

A shoe.

A SHOE.

Diana could barely contain her incredulity. Why would someone throw a shoe at a ghost? She peered around the door and found a young woman wearing an outfit that was too elegant for exploring a run-down place like this. She must have been Madeleine Necargie.

"Are... are you real?" The young woman asked Diana. Diana grabbed the shoe and emerged from behind the door. She walked over to the young woman and returned the piece of footwear that was used as a projectile.

"My apologies. I have been trapped in that closet for the past few hours and was getting more than a little concerned that I might never make it out alive. Were it not for you, that unpleasant reality might have come to pass." The young woman apologized while slipping on the shoe. She then stood up and greeted Diana.

"I am Madeleine Necargie." She introduced herself to Diana and extended a white-gloved hand to the blonde.

"I am Diana-" The blonde started to reciprocate before being cut off.

"You must be Miss Winchester! My uncle told me a lot about you!" Madeleine exclaimed. Diana was momentarily taken aback by the enthusiasm with which the brunette spoke. Not too many people were excited to see Diana, let alone someone she had just met.

"I hope that what he told you about me was good." Diana replied calmly. Madeleine simply smiled at her.

"It was all good, Miss Winchester. He told me about your skills, especially those in finding and rescuing people lost in dangerous locations. I trust that he sent you here for that purpose." Madeleine answered. Diana nodded.

"He sent me to rescue you from this place." Diana confirmed what the brunette had surmised.

"That is fortunate. However, I am not quite ready to leave yet. You see, there is a special item I am after that is rumored to be stored here. I do not wish to leave without it." Madeleine stated. Diana figured that this would be the case. Oh well. She owed Madeleine's uncle a favor, so she would stay and help his niece find what it was she was looking for.

"What are you looking for?" Diana inquired. Madeleine motioned for Diana to follow her into the hallway, which the blonde did. Once they were standing in the hallway the intrepid explorer spoke.

"I am looking for a long-lost tome of magic written by a scholar in the field of healing. It is rumored to be kept here, hidden from the world for over a century. It is rumored to possess many secrets of healing magic, including a spell which can bring back the recently deceased." Madeleine explained. Diana did not like the sound of the last part. Bringing back the dead sounded an awful lot like necromancy. Diana hoped that the brave brunette was not getting in over her head.

Madeleine Necargie:

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 1,775/7,000]

Diana paused in place for a moment because she spotted something out of the ordinary, something white and transparent. In the distance she saw the same ghost from earlier beckon at her, then vanish around the corner of the hallway. It left behind the scent of lavender and the scent soon reached her nose. Madeleine smelled it and soon commented.

"So you've seen the ghost too, huh?" Madeleine asked. Diana nodded in response.

"She was the one who trapped me in the closet. She must have found doing so rather amusing because I heard her giggle when the door shut behind me." Madeleine commented indignantly on how she got trapped in the closet where Diana had found her. So that was how the explorer had ended up in the closet. Diana refrained from commenting and let the brunette continue to talk about the female ghost and what it was that she was after. The well-dressed young woman shifted the conversation from the ghost back to the book she was after.

"I saw that you were concerned whenever I mentioned that the book contained a spell that could bring back the recently deceased." Madeleine sort-of confronted Diana about the latter's concern over what the spell could do if discovered. Diana nodded in response.

"I can see how that would concern you, Miss Winchester. Do not be alarmed. I am not seeking a tome of necromancer lore nor am I a necromancer, overt or clandestine." The brunette defended herself with an unexpected intensity and passion. Diana had no room to judge Madeleine. The blonde masqueraded as a normal person by day and worked as a contract killer by night, so she had no room to cast the first stone even if Madeleine were wearing necromancer robes and chanting unholy spells while standing in a circle of fresh human blood.

"The book was written by a healer named Legan. He was a healer from centuries ago who endeavored to collect and codify all the schools of magical healing into one definitive compilation. Some scholars claim that he actually succeeded in compiling the book but hid it because he feared that the knowledge within could be corrupted for terrible ends." Madeleine explained further, calmer now than she was only a minute ago. Diana was curious. Aside from the ability to bring back the recently deceased, how could healing magic be possibly misused?

"I do not quite see how healing magic could be misused." Diana chimed in. Madeleine quickly picked up the topic like a dog fetching a ball.

"It is simple, really. Legan also wrote about how to reverse the effects of healing magic. Say that you treated someone for a chest wound with magic. Now say that they failed to pay or did not pay you enough for your services." Madeleine set the stage. Diana could see where this was going.

"If you wanted revenge or just felt like being cruel, you could reverse the spell and leave the patient wounded all over again with whatever affliction they had. The potential for abuse is limitless. Just imagine what crime bosses could do with that kind of knowledge. They could have their legbreakers break someone's legs and keep that person in their debt for life just by healing them. If the person reneged on the deal, the crime boss could undo the spell and the person would be unable to walk." Madeleine finished explaining. Now Diana could see how healing magic could possibly be abused by the unscrupulous. Anything could be exploited by those without scruples, but the thought of turning healing magic against someone was something that was new to the blonde. She was glad that her parents had never considered that when they punished her for failures.

"That makes a worrying amount of sense." Diana finally commented.

"Indeed. That is why I am here. I seek to claim it before others with less scruples than you or I do." Madeleine asserted. Again Diana refrained from comment. That assertion raised another question for Diana.

"If you happen to find it, how will you keep it secure from those who want to steal it?" Diana asked the brunette. Madeleine was surprised by that question.

"That... that I am not sure of. I do not want to burden my uncle with its protection because a certain man would stop at nothing to take the book for himself. I do not want to leave it lying around for just anyone to take." Madeleine tried her best to give an answer to Diana. Diana had a good feeling that she knew who exactly the "certain man" Madeleine wanted to protect her uncle from was. She was certain that Mr. Gorman, the finance mogul who had sent the poisoned wine to her family, was the one who coveted something that could help him seize control of anything he desired by making people dependent on him for their very survival.

"I understand. However, should we find it we must be very careful. Once word gets out we will have a price on our heads." Diana cautioned the brunette about the dangers they faced if they defied the odds and actually located what it was they were looking for.

"Yes." Madeleine replied laconically. It was clear that she did not plan that far ahead. She was now scrambling to find a way to satisfactorily solve the problem that was laid before her.

"I am not entirely sure if it is here. While some scholars claim that it is here, others assert that the tome is hidden elsewhere. Still others claim that it never existed to begin with and that it was wishful thinking on the part of the thousands of people Legan saved in his own lengthy lifetime." Madeleine shifted gears and explained a bit more of the scholarly debate behind the existence of the compilation of healing magic. Diana kept quiet and let her companion talk. She was finding the lore to be interesting.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 2,775/7,000]

"Some scholars claim that instead of here, Legan's magnum opus is instead hidden on a planet named Kyoka." Madeleine continued discussing the lore behind Legan's compilation of healing magic. Diana was more than a little interested in it because it sounded like this Legan person did a lot more to help humanity with his life than she did. Every time she knocked off a threat to society more popped up to replace them and the new threat tended to be worse than the preceding one. The great healer labored to compile a tome of all healing magic, a project that did a lot more good for the world than her knocking off any villain seemed to do.

"What is Kyoka?" Diana asked Madeleine.

"Kyoka is a planet with a very special property. It boosts the power of any healing magic used there by ten times its normal potency. All healing magic benefits from this power boost, from the strongest spell down to the weakest. It is no exaggeration to say that you can easily bring someone back from the brink of death if you heal them there." Madeleine patiently explained what made Kyoka so special. It sounded like she was speaking from firsthand experience.

"It would stand to reason to store a tome of such great power there, but somehow I do not believe that we will find it there." Diana asserted. Madeleine looked intrigued by the blonde mage's assertion.

"Oh? Why not?" The brunette inquired.

"It would be too obvious a place to put it. Placing a healing tome on a planet that boosts the potency of healing magic would be a bit too obvious, even if its guardians were counting on the audacity of such a measure to help protect it." Diana posited her argument for why Kyoka was not its resting place. Madeleine looked interested in the argument and was about to continue the debate when she was interrupted by the female ghost flitting by again. The specter's feet did not touch the floor as she glided across it with the same effort that it took Diana to breathe.

"Why does she keep appearing?" Madeleine asked. Diana could not offer an answer. A floating female voice soon spoke to them both.

"Follow me and you will have your answer." The voice said to them. Madeleine and Diana looked at each other. Why would the ghost communicate with them except to lead them into a trap?

"Should we follow her?" Diana asked. The brunette hesitated for a moment. She looked like she was questioning the wisdom of following a spirit with unknown intentions. That spirit was also the one who had shut Madeleine in the closet in which she had been found. Madeleine had every right to question its intentions.

"I have no other idea of where to go, so I will take a chance and follow it." Madeleine answered before she began walking down the hallway where the female ghost was last spotted. Diana did not like this, but she was not paid to ask questions. She was paid to produce results. The blonde followed the inquisitive brunette down the hallway and around the corner to another hallway.

This hallway looked more decrepit than the one they had just left. There were picture frames hanging on the walls, but the glass frames were shattered and the pictures within had either mildewed beyond recognition or had become food for the same insects that had eaten the books at the entrance. The very floor itself creaked with every step and the wooden floorboards were rotting away. Diana and Madeleine took care to avoid the most obviously rotted floorboards and stepped only where they were certain that it was safe.

"I do not like this place. Something about it feels off." Madeleine commented as she grabbed the hem of her long skirt and carefully stepped over a section of rotting floorboard with a hole the size of a fist in it. Diana carefully stepped over it, making certain not to crowd Madeleine out while doing so. They walked past an empty room with the door missing and walked past another empty room before pausing in place when they heard screaming nearby. Madeleine drew a silver shortsword that she kept at her side and Diana raised her right hand to use her special magic that was her only weapon against spirits.

"I do not like the sound of that." Madeleine said aloud. Diana felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She instinctively looked behind them and saw a group of ghosts floating towards them. They were clad in hunting outfits, light armor, and other attire that adventurers would likely wear.

"Behind us." Diana said laconically. Madeleine turned her head and saw the ghosts floating their way. Diana then saw another group floating towards them from in front of Madeleine, just down the hallway.

"In front of us." Diana warned Madeleine. The brunette sighed.

"It seems that we are not the only ones who sought the tome." She commented on the ghosts as they slowly floated towards the pair. Diana prepared to use the magic that could harm spirits and Madeleine readied her shortsword. Combat was imminent.

"Leave this place and never return!" An eyeless male ghost clad in plate armor ordered them.

"This place will be your grave!" An eyeless female ghost wearing elaborate robes declared.

Madeleine looked hesitant to engage the spirits in combat. Diana was too because her special magic only worked if she could touch the target. She could indeed touch the spirits, but there was one of her and at least two dozen of them... she did not think that she could take them all out before being overwhelmed.

"We do not have much choice, Madeleine. We fight or we die." Diana said to the brunette as she used the magic and her right hand was wreathed in blue flame. The ghosts closed in on the pair.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 3,775/7,000]

Diana and Madeleine stood their ground as the ghosts approached with the intention of making the pair permanent residents of the Haunted Guild. Diana was not ready for a gravestone yet. Neither was Madeleine, who tightened her grip on her silver shortsword and let the enemies draw closer before going on the offensive. The pair stood back-to-back and waited.

The ghosts were halfway to them when Madeleine gave the signal to start attacking.

"NOW!" Madeleine called out. The brunette rushed forward and began cutting her way through the group assembled to stop her progress and that of Diana. She effortlessly cut through an armored ghost with a horizontal swipe and stabbed through the chest of another, causing them to dissipate into a harmless pale blue mist. Diana rushed forward and placed her burning blue hand on the face of a ghost reaching for her, causing it to catch fire and silently writhe before disappearing in a puff of blue mist. The ghosts who had been accosting Diana slowed their advance momentarily as they tried to comprehend what had just happened to their colleague.

Diana took advantage of their hesitation to grab the face of another ghost and burn them as well. The remaining ghosts slowly began to back away from the blonde with magic that spelled death even for spirits. Meanwhile Madeleine was facing off against the ghosts that were threatening her. Diana could hear the sounds of Madeleine dodging and counterattacking coming from behind her while she faced the ghosts in front of her, who were suddenly uncertain of their ability to defeat Diana.

A third ghost tried its luck against the mage and got a hand pressed against its chest for its trouble. It stood fixed in place as it burned and turned into mist, leaving Diana with only nine more ghosts to fight. Their reluctance turned to something resembling fear as Madeleine leaped past Diana and carved through three more spirits. The remaining ghosts wordlessly retreated and the blonde dispelled the death magic... her right hand returned to normal.

"Well done, Miss Winchester. What was that magic that you used just now?" Madeleine complimented Diana before asking about the latter's magic.

"It is a magic that I was born with. That is all I really know about it." Diana told Madeleine the truth about her special magic. Diana was born with it, but it had laid dormant until she was ten years old, when it activated during an argument that a young Diana had engaged in with a household servant over what kind of dress to wear to a party. The blonde's anger reached its peak and her hand was wreathed in blue flames as she slapped the servant. Diana had only wanted to slap the woman, not sap her life with death magic. That fateful day changed everything about the blonde's life... there were many days that she wished that she could have taken back that action so that maybe she could have lived a normal life like her siblings did.

"Oh. I see. I am grateful that you can harness it because I could not have defeated all of the ghosts by myself." Madeleine said to Diana. The blonde was glad that the brunette did not decide to press the matter any further because doing so would be immensely uncomfortable for Diana. The mage let the matter drop and turned to Madeleine, who had already put away her sword and was leading the pair deeper into the Haunted Guild. Diana followed Madeleine to a creaking wooden staircase that led down into another corridor.

"We must now head into the basement. Perhaps what we seek is there." Madeleine announced tersely before drawing her shortsword and descending the staircase. Diana switched to her night vision mode and saw through the darkness without any need for external light sources, allowing her to preserve what little stealth was left to her. Together the pair descended the stairs and stood at the mouth of the corridor.

-Inside the corridor-

"Hold on a moment while I cast a spell to light the way." Madeleine said to Diana. Madeleine raised her left hand, which was glowing a soft yellow. A ball of light which lit the entire hallway floated gently into the sky and hovered just above the brunette's head. Diana would have preferred to at least try to avoid drawing any more spectral attention to themselves, but the light did come in handy.

"All right then. Let us continue." Madeleine said before leading the way with the same confidence that she had demonstrated during the fight against the ghosts. Diana paused in place as the female ghost appeared in front of them and floated silently forward without bothering to turn around. The ghost floated down the stairs and disappeared from view.

"Well... we know where we must go." Madeleine chimed in. The pair walked down the empty corridor with creaking wooden floorboards, abundant dust bunnies lying around the baseboards, and strips of peeling white wallpaper that hung in place and almost touched the floor. The hallway was as unkempt as the rest of the Haunted Guild, but that was to be expected when there was no one around to do basic upkeep of the guild hall. The pair reached the end of the corridor and Diana took the lead this time.

"I will go first." Diana insisted. Madeleine conceded without an argument and let the blonde lead them down the wooden stairs and into the basement of the guild hall.

-In the basement-

Diana and Madeleine reached the bottom of the stairs without incident and felt an immediate change in temperature. While the temperature in the rest of the Haunted Guild was far from comfortable, the basement was as cold as a morgue. Diana did not like this at all. Her apprehension was only heightened when she spotted what looked like more ghosts floating in the distance.

"Get ready, Diana." Madeleine advised her blonde companion.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 4,775/7,000]

Diana and Madeleine faced down the small army of ghosts that had formed in the basement, including the survivors of the fighting in the upstairs hallway. Madeleine drew her shortsword but Diana had no means of harming the spirits... until the brunette put her hand on the blonde's shoulder. Diana looked towards her out of curiosity and because she hated being touched. Whatever Madeleine proposed had better be good.

"Hold on a moment, Diana. I can empower your normal magic with the ability to harm spirits." Madeleine assured Diana. The blonde shoved aside the uncomfortable feeling of someone touching her shoulder and focused on picking the right weapon for this encounter. Diana opted to use the Suppressed Submachine Gun because it would be easier to use in the close confines of the hallway than her Suppressed Assault Rifle would. In close quarters range did not matter as much as being able to put the weapon on target.

Moments later Diana's entire body was glowing a soft yellow. That must have meant that she was now empowered to fight spirits.

"OK, you are now ready to fight." Madeleine confirmed what Diana thought. The blonde brought out her Suppressed Submachine Gun and picked out a target. There were no shortage of those because the ghosts had grown tired of waiting and chose to take the fight to the pair of mages.

"Here they come!" Madeleine warned Diana. She was ready for this fight. She aimed and fired a Three-Round Burst that put three holes into the chest of a ghost and caused it to vanish in a puff of light blue mist. Madeleine charged towards one of them and cut it in half at the hip, then cut one in half from the left shoulder down to the hip. Diana aimed and fired at a ghost reaching out for her partner and hit it with several shots to the chest and shoulder, sending it back to the great beyond.

Diana fired again and hit a ghost trying to go for her with a Three-Round Burst to the head. Madeleine was holding her own, but she had to fall back because six ghosts were rushing her at once and she could not handle that many. Diana covered her retreat with a full-auto burst that "killed" three of them and forced the rest back, giving the brunette time to put some distance between her and them.

"I have had quite enough of these spirits. It is time I end this." Madeleine announced in a flustered voice. She raised her right hand and it began to glow white.

"You may want to look away." Madeleine politely warned her partner.

Lacking any eye protection whatsoever, Diana obliged as Madeleine formed a golf ball-sized ball of energy in the palm of her hand, then pushed forward and emitted a beam of concentrated Holy magic that filled the hallway.

"EXORCISM BLAST!" Madeleine called out.

The ghosts all screamed in pain as they were forcibly removed from the temporal plane. Diana turned to face the hall and found it empty of ghosts. Madeleine's spell had worked... the threat was over. Suddenly the hallway grew even colder and the scent of lavender slowly filled the area as the female ghost they had been seeing throughout the Haunted Guild appeared before them.

"You two are certainly persistent." The ghost said to them in grudging admiration. Madeleine put away her weapon and spoke to the ghost.

"What do you want?" Madeleine asked the spirit of the young woman.

"Perhaps I should ask the same of you." The ghost replied testily. Diana felt the beginnings of a standoff between Madeleine and the specter. A tense silence dominated the room as both parties took their measure of the opposition. She decided to keep out of it and let the adventurous brunette do the talking.

"I am here in search of the Tome of Legan." Madeleine finally broke the silence.

"Then you are in the wrong place." The ghost answered flatly.

"How do I know that you are telling the truth?" Madeleine inquired. The spirit simply crossed its arms in response.

"This place was once my home. I left here to go to a foreign land to search for the tome. I intended to save my younger sister but instead found my own death. After years of searching in vain I returned here. This place had become a haven for necromancers and I did not know that until it was far too late." The female answered softly, losing the irritability which had marked her earlier conversation with Madeleine. Madeleine reciprocated by adopting a softer tone with the spirit.

"What was your name?" Madeleine asked.

"My name is... or was... Lauren. Lauren Stewart of Magnolia Town." The specter answered.

"OK Lauren, what can we do for you?" Madeleine asked.

"It is far too late to save my life. I only ask that you free my spirit from this abominable place so that I may leave this world and go to the next." Lauren replied. Madeleine looked at Diana as if asking what they should do. Diana nodded. Madeleine was not going to leave this place until she had freed Lauren's spirit, so the blonde gave her consent as a formality.

"OK. We will do it. Where is your body located?" Madeleine inquired. Lauren gestured for them to follow her. She began to float down the hallway and the pair followed her.

Diana could hardly believe what was happening. She and Madeleine were following a ghost in the basement of a place infamous for supernatural activity. They were going to help free her spirit from this world so that she could pass onto the next one. However, this was far from Diana's first job. She had long ago learned to anticipate complications and adapt to them as they came up.

The trio walked down the hallway and suddenly turned left, stopping at the door of a holding cell.

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[Total Word Count: 5,775/7000]

Madeleine and Diana stopped when Lauren did and looked at the grimy door to the holding cell. Diana grabbed the handle to open it and felt the door give way in her hand. It fell down, causing Madeleine to scream as she jumped back to avoid being crushed. Lauren stayed in place and let the door fall down on her, then turned to Diana and put her hands on her hips as if to say "Really?" Even though Lauren was a ghost and was thus invulnerable to harm by a falling door, Diana still felt a little bad about what had just happened.

"Sorry." Diana meekly apologized to Lauren. Lauren turned away and focused her attention on the inside of the holding cell, which reeked of death and decay. Inside was a collection of over a dozen skeletons that had been left to rot and dried blooostains liberally coating the floor. What caught the eye of the duo was a skeleton with a silver necklace hanging on its neck. The necklace had a round pendant with an inlaid emerald in the middle.

"The one with the silver necklace is me. Or rather what was left of me after the necromancer cult sacrificed me in one of their unholy rituals." Lauren told the pair. Now that her skeleton had been found, the pair was at a loss as to what to do next. Should they try to take the body back to Magnolia Town and have to explain to the border guards why they were carting around a skeleton?

"I wish for you to take my necklace and give it to my younger sister Laura Stewart, who still lives in Magnolia Town. She has been searching for me for years and it is time that her pain ends. As for my body, I wish for you to destroy my bones so that I may leave this place." Lauren requested of them. Madeleine and Diana nodded. Diana gently gathered the bones of Lauren Stewart and brought them out to the hallway. She then gently removed the pendant and put it in her pocket to take back to Lauren's younger sister.

"I will handle the rest." Madeleine said somberly as Diana and Lauren looked on. Her hands glowed white as she focused magic into them. A white circle formed on the floor around the bones and the flames marched inward, burning the bones to ash which soon dissolved and bringing a smile to Lauren's face.

"I am free of this wretched place. Thank you both." Lauren said to them. She closed her eyes and disappeared from existence, a smile still on her face. Once Lauren was gone Madeleine turned back to the cell, then to Diana. The brunette wanted to do the same for the other skeletons that had been callously tossed in the cell to figuratively and literally rot. Diana wordlessly nodded her consent.

Diana went back inside the cell and began to remove more skeletons to free the souls of their owners from this place. Madeleine burned each one with holy fire and freed the spirit trapped in the Haunted Guild. The process continued for over an hour until all the spirits were freed.

Once the cell had been emptied of skeletons the pair decided to leave and return to Magnolia Town to find Laura Stewart, Lauren's younger sister, and return the pendant to its rightful owner. Diana would be glad to get Madeleine out of here and to a much safer place where the biggest threat was foot traffic or the occasional street hoodlum. The pair made their way back to the stairs and walked up the creaking stairs, then retraced their steps through the ghost-free corridor of the Haunted Guild and left the place behind.

-Magnolia Town, ten hours later-

Diana and Madeleine arrived in Magnolia Town ten hours after leaving the Haunted Guild and had reached the town at dusk. They were hungry and tired, but they still had to return Lauren's pendant to her younger sister. However, they needed to find where Laura Stewart resided first. Diana hoped that the woman had not moved away because they would have a very hard time locating her if that was the case.

Madeleine asked a town guardsman where Laura Stewart lived and the helpful man soon gave an answer. As it turned out, she owned a restaurant not too far from where they were standing called The Adventurous Gourmet. It was in the restaurant district, which was only a block away from where they were now. Diana and Madeleine walked through the nearly deserted streets and turned right at the first crossroad, then continued right and followed the road until they reached a restaurant that was halfway down the road. On a glass display was a large map with a crossed fork and knife making an X superimposed over it... under the map in green neon letters was the name The Adventurous Gourmet.

Diana and Madeleine walked inside, wiping their feet off at the door.

-Inside The Adventurous Gourmet-

The door rung a bell as it opened. The restaurant was of medium size and boasted a map of Earthland on the left wall. Sixteen rectangular wooden tables and eight smaller circular tables for couples were neatly arranged and waiting for customers, of which where were only three locals sitting at the bar finishing their beers.

"Hi there. I'm Laura Stewart!" A thirtysomething-year-old red-haired woman wearing a white shirt and black pants under a white apron with the restaurant's name emblazoned on it. She walked with a slight but noticeable limp.

"Are you Lauren Stewart's sister?" Madeleine asked the woman.

"Yes. How did you know her name?" Laura asked suspiciously.

"We found your sister's remains in the Haunted Guild." Madeleine answered truthfully. Laura closed her eyes for a moment and sighed, then opened them again.

"I figured that she had died on the road somewhere." Laura commented grimly.

[Word Count: 1,000]
[Total Word Count: 6,775/7,000]

"I told her not to go to the Haunted Guild. I told her that the Tome of Legan wasn't there, but she refused to listen to me. She insisted that she was going to find the book and heal my leg so that we could go adventuring together again, just like in the good old days before a rockslide at Serene Cliff broke my leg in multiple places." Lauren said to the pair. The redhead jerked her thumb to a series of framed pictures behind the bar. They were of her and Lauren and were taken in various places throughout Earthland. One of the pictures was taken in front of the Sultan's Palace in the Tri-Council City in Desierto. Another was taken in front of the Imperial Palace in Midi.

"Our parents died in a car accident when we were little, so Laura had to grow up fast to take care of me. Laura and I both became mages. We took jobs together and went everywhere together. We've been to Desierto, Bellum, Capital Crocus, Oak Town, Clover Town, Iceberg, Silent Glaciers, Midi... if you can name a location, we've probably been there." Laura explained the significance of the pictures hanging behind the bar. Madeleine and Diana obligingly looked at them and wondered what it would be like to have traveled to so many places in their lifetime. Laura gave a small laugh.

"Yeah, we went everywhere together. But after breaking my leg, I couldn't be an adventuring mage anymore, so I took the money I'd saved, went to culinary school and opened The Adventurous Gourmet. It's a good living, but I'd rather be on the road like you guys." Laura said with a trace of envy. Diana brought out the silver necklace with the emerald pendant and handed it to Laura.

"You... you found it! I had long since given up on seeing it again. I thought some bandit had taken it from her corpse and given it to his girlfriend or pawned it for alcohol money, but you found it!" Laura exclaimed. The three customers at the bar quickly finished their drinks and left their money on the bar before excusing themselves. Laura looked at them with bright blue eyes.

"This is the only thing my mother left behind after she died. Lauren wore it everywhere and wouldn't take it off except to bathe. Even then it had to be where she could see it." Laura told them of the necklace's importance to the Stewart sisters. The redhead put it around her neck and stopped to admire it. She then faced the mages again.

"I can't thank you enough for bringing this back to me. I'm also grateful that you found Lauren's body. I would have wanted her to come back alive, but in my heart I knew that wasn't happening. Still, I hoped against hope that one day she'd walk through the restaurant door and we'd be together again." Laura said to them softly. She almost cried but stopped at the last moment. Her face was still red and it was clear that the woman was emotionally charged.

"At least I know that she's gone now. I can stop searching and move on with my life. But I won't forget her." The redhead told them while fighting back tears. Diana and Madeleine listened patiently to the woman's story and did not make any comments. After a few minutes of silence she resumed the conversation with the younger mages.

"Thank you both for what you've done for me." Laura thanked them with sincerity.

"It is no problem." Diana finally spoke up.

"I second that." Madeleine seconded what her blonde companion had said. Laura closed her eyes in thought, then opened them again. It looked like she had just had an idea.

"I know it's late and you guys want to go home, but next time you're here stop in and I'll give you a meal on the house!" Laura suggested to them.

"We may have to do that. Thank you." Madeleine thanked Laura for the gesture. Diana followed suit.

"We must be going, Laura. Hopefully we will see you in the future." Madeleine said to the woman. Laura waved goodbye as the pair exited the restaurant. Diana had successfully rescued Madeleine Necargie and returned Lauren Stewart's necklace to her younger sister. This job had been a strange one, but it had been completed despite the twists and turns. At the end of the day success was all that mattered to Diana.

[Word Count: 777]
[Total Word Count: 7,552/7,000]