We were standing in front of the door to Renfry the Haunting’s room. I looked over at Kasidy. She had the documents in her hand from the spy and Renaut’s journal. I took a deep breath, trying to psych myself up. I knew that I would be taking damage but that I needed to talk with the guy to get this resolved.

I was about to open the door when Kasidy said. “Arn, it might be better for you to have everything thing. Last time that yelling hurt me worse than you.”

“Yeah pass me everything and you step down the hall. If it is too bad to stay out here then step into one of the rooms.”

She nodded and passed me the evidence of everything that we had. Then she headed down the hall to the next door and gave me a tight smile. I pulled open the door, and the wailing started up once again. My health took a slight dip from the cry, and when I got the door fully open, it increased in speed.

The ghost was just floating in the same place as before. Now that I had seen an example of the armor of this outpost, I was certain that he was wearing his. Which I found kind of odd as a ghost, he was wearing it, but he didn’t have it on when he put himself in the cage.

Renfry spoke without moving his mouth. “Free me or perish like I did! Alone! Forsaken!”

I yelled, “Renfry!”

The wailing stopped, and his eyes turned from blue to black as he moved to the door. “You know my name?”

I nodded. “We found it in your brother’s journal.”

The ghost lifted his head to the ceiling and screamed again. The cry sounded even more sorrowful than before. His cry made the walls shake, and my knees gave out. As I fell, I grabbed the door frame. The problem was I couldn’t pull my arm back. I had reached through the door.

I yelled again, “Renfry!”

As Renfry kept screaming or crying, I felt little pins jabbing into my hand that was through the barrier. I glanced at my hand but saw nothing near it. However, my hand felt like someone was using a scouring pad on my hand. While it could have been worse, it wasn’t pleasant at all. Especially as I felt my nails start to lift.

I yelled out again. “Renfry! I found out what happened! I know why you were left!”

The Haunting turned to me and shouted. “I was a failure! Too sick to ride on patrol and they left me! They never came back! I should have been with them!”

As the Haunting was talking to me, the pain in my hand decreased, which was good since I saw my nails had already started to separate from my fingers. So I needed to finish this without making him angrier or sadder.

I took a calming breath and said. “Renfry, your brother was trying to protect you. He knew something was off about the patrol. So he made it so that you wouldn’t be able to go.”

Renfry floated right up to the barrier. “Tell me how do you know! Tell me now!”

I held up the book and papers in my left hand. “This! Your brother’s journal and letters the spy kept. The spy had been working for a long time with how much pay he had in his chest. Your brother gave you a poison that was to keep you from the patrol.”

Renfry shook his head and started to float around his room quickly. The beds were tossed, and the footlockers were thrown as he passed. His screaming started again, and he started to blast the barrier with an inky black magical attack. The spell or whatever it was hit the barrier and then it almost splashed out. The barrier glowed with each strike.

After a few blasts, some of the splashing ink landed on my hand. My pain skyrocketed. The only place I had felt pain like this before was in Sam’s study, but that was never accompanied by my health bar falling. I needed to end this before his actions ended me.

I screamed out. “YOUR BROTHER PROTECTED YOU!”

The magical assault stopped as he yelled back. “No, he didn’t trust me. He robbed me of my oath to protect the heir! I felt it snap when he died. I should have been there I could have helped!”

“Then you would have died too! It was planned and none of them came back did they?”

Renfry floated down from the middle of the room directly to the barrier. “It is good to know why he did what he did. But my oath was to the young lord. I should have been there to give my life for him. I might have been able to help get him out. Just one more lance, one more shield, might have been enough.”

I nodded. “You might be right, however, there’s no way of knowing what might have happened. There is no reason for you to still be here. You did nothing wrong. Your commander poisoned you to keep you from going. A member of the patrol sold them out to the enemy. None of that was on you.”

He shook his ghastly head. “I have my oath. I must hold this fort till the lord of it releases me. By orders or by word. I must stand guard it is the last thing I should have done. Yet I broke that oath too. I gave up my post and placed myself in the cage when I felt my oath to the young master break. I thought the Marquess would send men and find me in the cage. Yet they never came. I am forsaken by all so now I stand guard. I will fulfill my oath in death that I gave up in life.”

I looked over at my stuck right hand. It wasn’t far enough through the barrier for my signet ring to be through. I knew there would be more pain as I pushed my hand through. Renfry might not have been amplifying his sonic attacks, but even so, I could feel it on my hand.

I pushed my arm through the barrier, made a fist, and said. “Renfry! I the Marquess of Westiral thank you for your service at holding this outpost. I have claimed the throne and the title is mine. Now stand down.”

Renfry dropped low and looked at my hand. Then his head touched my finger like he was kissing my ring. I felt a cold sensation run up my hand. It slowed at the barrier and then exploded through. My arm felt frigid. The coldness swept into my chest, and I fell forward and through the barrier amid a host of little icons filling the top of my HUD. Then my vision went black as I felt my head hit the stone.

When I woke up, I was laying in bed in the Lord’s room. As I sat up, I saw that both Kasidy and Blink were sitting at the game table. Blink was moving a piece when she saw me. She dropped the piece on the board and ran a couple of steps before launching herself at me.

In the air with her arms wide open, she yelled. “Daddy’s awakes!”

She slammed into me with all the force her child-like body could produce. I fell back onto the bed as she wrapped her arm around me in a hug. Then she sat up on my chest and gave me her angry face.

She huffed and said. “Daddys don’t dos thats again! You lefts me when you wents to have fun and then you sleep long like lasts time!”

I pushed her off a bit as I sat up. “What do you mean I slept long like last time?”

Blink nodded and crossed her little arms. “Like as waterfall, when you and Sisters talked first.”

I looked over at Kasidy, who was now standing by the bed. “How long was I out and what happened?”

Kasidy smiled. “Well I can answer some of that for you. You have been out for three days as to what happened none of us are sure. Renfry said that when he kissed your ring to transfer his pledge to you that you kind of just fell forward and passed out.”

I shook my head. “Renfry’s still here? I thought that I would have let him pass on with telling him to stand down.”

Kasidy grinned and laughed. “Well Arn, while none of us are sure what happened Renfry is alive again kind of.”

I leaned my head to the side and closed my eyes a bit, then slowly let out a breath. “What do you mean?”

From the doorway, I heard a man’s voice. “My lord it’s good to see that you are here. What she means is that I am somehow alive again but not really. I have a class and I have a body but it’s not the same as it was. My status screen calls me a Revenant. It seems that I am the first of my kind. Thank you for giving me the chance to serve you and make up for my past.”

* * *