A/N: It's not the new Reflection chapter, I'm sorry... Inspiration is slow there but it's not abandoned.

I couldn't not post this though, it is so much fun. :)

That being said; reviews are food for my inspiration, without them it starves. So if you would like more, be sure to leave a review!

Chapter 1: Dead In The Palace

It all began when- actually never mind. I have no idea how it began. I just went to sleep last night. You know in a bed, in a room, in a house. House. Not palace. And I was certainly very corporal when I went to bed. Had no problems extinguishing the candle and my parents seemed to see me, same as always.
Right now I'm sitting in a hallway in the Kou imperial palace. Servants are wandering past every once in a while, but they certainly don't see me. In fact, the one jerk walked right through me. Through me. That's about when I figured out I was a ghost. Ma always did say I'd manage to mess up death, but I figured she meant I would die in some ridiculous way. Like drowning in my soup, like my grandpa. Or getting squashed by a cartload of tomatoes like auntie. Or like my great great grandmother who walked away from a troupe of bandits only to step on a poisonous frog.
I am part of the Swali family, and we lead ridiculous lives. Now don't get you're hopes up, not everything is as exciting as bandits and poisonous frogs. Mostly it means our costumers are very weird and if there is something to trip over, we will trip over it. Last year the ship we took to Balbadd collapsed before we left the port, due to one very small area of rot. The year before I stubbed my toe on a treasure chest in the desert. So pretty much, we just have very weird luck.
But right now I'm more interested in how I managed to mess up dying. People don't usually become ghosts. I know, because my Ma knows, and she's from a family of shamans. She doesn't practice, but she knows enough to have kept me entertained with stories as a child. And ghosts don't exists because when your die your ruhk joins the rest of the ruhk flowing through the world, or something. But here I am. And I'm pretty sure I'm an exception because everyone knows people are always assassinated in the palace so I should have see at least a couple other ghosts, if there were any. Not that I went looking.
Yeah no... I can't figure out what's going on.
I picked at my shirt wishing I'd at least worn something nicer to bed. Might as well look my best for death, right? But no, while this was once a lovely little piece of work in a very bright yellow with pretty beading around the neckline it's now faded from the sun and ripped by an unfortunate encounter with a fishing hook. At least my pants are still sky blue, tied in that ballooning fashion I love so much from the east. No shoes, but then I'm dead, I shouldn't have to worry about splinters right? I wonder, can ghosts fly? That's what the stories say right? Can I touch stuff? I seem to be sitting on the floor just fine, but can't touch people... If I'm stuck as a ghost I should at least be able to haunt people, it's only fair.
There's a doorway beside me, but seeing as I'd been busy having my own version of a panic attack I hadn't tried it. Had I been left a few more minutes I'm sure I would have gotten around to it, but it opened before the thought crossed my mind. Doors and walls in Kou are made out of an interesting paper stuff, at least inside where the elements can't reach them, so it made an interesting little schk sound as it slid open. What came out was a whirlwind of fluttering black and a swishing of silk, like a swarm of bats at twilight. They flew off like confetti from the young man stepping into the hall. He looked out of place in his eastern cloths but he walked like he owned the very air around us. I don't know if he was going for exotic or feminine but he was very easy on the eyes.
"Well, hot damn." I might be dead but I can't complain about the scenery.
Red eyes slanted to the side and pierced me with unwavering intensity before the last word escaped my mouth.
Huh. Don't tell me he can-
"Who the hell are you?"
-see me. This guy can see me.
"You can see me!" I gaped. "Are you a magician? Can magicians see ghosts?"
"Ghosts?" He raised an eyebrow and snorted. "You're just a spirit traveler!" He waved a hand dismissively as he turned to stride off down the hall, his long braid swinging behind him. "Wake up already and don't loiter around here."
"Oh no you don't!" I jumped to my feet and ran after him. He wasn't exactly fast so I had no problem cutting in front of him. "You don't get to say that and then run off, what do you mean spirit traveler?"
Wow, this guy knows how to frown.
"I don't have time for dreaming idiots. Begone." He snarled and before I knew what had happened he had whipped out a thin rod and I was blinded by a flash of light.
I blinked rapidly as spots jumped in my vision for a moment and tears stung. Pretty boy blinked back at me.
"...was that supposed to do something?" I ventured cautiously.
That seemed to snap him out of his surprise and his eyebrows shot back down into a frown. He waved the rod, which was actually very pretty with a red gem on the end, and started muttering.
I folded my hands and waited patiently until he was done. My mother always did say it was rude to interrupt people. Also that if you let them run out of breath first they're more likely to listen to you. I figured both applied here.
When he finished there was another blast of light.
"What are you trying to do?" I asked when the light again failed to do anything other then make my eyes water.
"Exorcise you." He said bluntly. "You're damn persistent though." He stowed his wand back...wherever he had it and stepped around me, apparently going to try and ignore me now.
"Mother always did say." I agreed and spun on my heel to follow him. "So, spirit traveler?"
He sighed gustily, like speaking to me was some tremendous chore I had burdened him with. Jerk. I was the one dead here.
"Some magicians are able to leave their bodies and travel with their spirits. Usually it takes years of practice, but every once in a while you'll find an idiot with a predisposition for it and one day they'll accidentally leave their bodies and have no idea how to get back."
I mulled that over for a moment. "So you're saying I'm not dead?"
He sniffed disdainfully. "Of course not, are you stupid?"
I sniffed right back. "Really endearing manners there. You should work on that."
"I'll make a note." He sneered, stopping so abruptly I kept walking for a couple steps and yanked a door open.
"Wait, how do I get back to my body?!"
"You just wake up!"
The too fragile door slammed and I was left alone again.
Wow, helpful.
No exactly left with any other choice, I flopped cross legged to the floor in the middle of the hall, not caring about blocking traffic, since that wasn't really a concern anymore. I closed my eyes and tried to wake up. I concentrated on it has hard as I could, imagined my bed around me until I was sure I was back home and opened my eyes.
Nope, still in the palace.
I let out a frustrated sigh. I had a feeling this was going to take a while.

...

I think I'm pretty good at patience. Not the best, but my mother had done everything she could to drill it into me. But an hour of trying to wake up was the limit. So, I did what I probably should have done right from the get go. I went home.
It wasn't actually home. Being traveling merchants, or maybe more accurately peddlers, we had been staying at an inn while we were in Kou. It was just my father, mother, and I, though sometimes we would travel with my cousins or aunts and uncles. I left the palace and entered the bustling streets of Kou, finding to my delight that navigating the crowds was a whole lot easier when you could just walk right through people. The streets of Kou are always fairly easy to get around with the way everything is built. Pretty much a bunch of squares, like somebody's board game. It's all set in a strict hierarchy, from the buildings to the people themselves, though I'd seen stricter when passing through one of Kou's newly conquered areas. Here things were a bit looser, maybe just because they'd always lived life like this and weren't suddenly thrust into a different culture. But philosophical thoughts about culture were for another time.
The inn was smack dab in the middle of the market area, meaning I had woken up and fallen asleep to the bustle of crowds which never truly stopped even if it was just the merchants getting a head start on set up in the middle of the night. The matron of the building was probably the most cheerful person I had ever met, laughing and joking and always willing spirit cookies from the kitchen for you if you asked sweetly enough. She was dealing with guests when I snuck in but she seemed oddly subdued. Probably just the grump demanding cheaper rates, that would sour anyone's mood. Our room was in the back corner of the building and that's where I faced my first hurdle. The door. A very solid, very closed door.
I stared at it suspiciously for a good minute before reaching a finger out carefully. I could walk through people, but was standing on the floor and not, I don't know, wading through it. So would I be able to pass through the door? Carefully, I poked it and my finger slipped right into the wood. I couldn't feel the wood at all, which was decidedly creepy. Curious, I pulled my finger out and focused on actually touching the door. And it worked. Maybe it was good thing nobody could see me, I probably had my serial killer grin on, I was so thrilled. I could touch or faze through things if I wanted. I wonder, did that apply to people? Probably not... Besides I really needed to get back in my body before my mother had a heart attack.
Steeling myself, I focused very carefully on passing through the door and plunged through. To my relief, it worked. The feeling died immediately though.
The room was empty.
No bags, no parents, no body on the bed.
It was like being dosed in ice water but at the same time I wasn't very surprised. Somehow I'd known I wouldn't be going back, despite the man insisting I was just spirit walking. It still hurt though. Like my heart was burning while my skin turned to ice. Maybe you could say I was being hasty since I wasn't actually looking at my dead body, but I knew my parents wouldn't have left me long once they found me. It was traditional in my father's family to burn the dead on the same day and then scatter the ashes over the sea. My parents would have long left to make sure they completed this one last thing for me. And I don't think my mother could bare coming back to the city I died in.
So...that was that.
Slowly I turned and left. Out of the room, down the hall, back past the kindly matron who's sad face suddenly made a lot more sense.
I just walked once I got outside, not caring about the way people passed through me. Being surrounded by people makes it a little less lonely when you cry.

...

The Imperial Palace of Kou is big. Like, really big. I knew I must have been somewhere in the east wings earlier but that's about as much as I could remember. I figured it was as good a place to start looking for the jerk as any. Not that I necessarily needed another dose of that personality but so far he was the only person I'd been able to interact with. I had woken up outside his door after all; that had to mean something.
The palace reminded me of the city and by that I mean that every hallway held an uncanny resemblance to the last. I wondered how anybody found their way around. I suppose they got used to it eventually.
Now that I wasn't in a state of slow panic (ha, yeah right,) I could actually appreciate the opulence around me. Being the ordinary person I was I'd never been in a palace before, unless you counted that time I snuck into the ruins of an old Ream castle. Everything looked pristine, not a speck of dust to be seen, and the paintings hanging on the walls were fading with age in places. The merchant in me automatically calculated their prices as enough to buy my entire extended family houses. I was no artist, but they had to be worth a lot.
The palace was surprisingly quiet once you left the gardens despite the many servants hurrying about and the entire atmosphere was somehow...tense? No, not the right word...moody maybe? It felt uneasy somehow and if I weren't already dead I'd be expecting to be jumped at every corner. My mother always said to trust my instincts and my instincts were telling me this was not a nice place. Oh well, luckily for me there wasn't much that could happen to the dead.
I found the pretty jerk leaving the kitchens with his arms full of some sort of round pastry that I hadn't learned the name of. He really was a nice sight, I mean, you could cut yourself on those abs.
His ruby eyes finally flicked to me and he groaned. "Not you again."
"Aw, I missed you too." I simpered, falling into step beside him.
"What are you still doing here? I thought I told you to wake up." He grumbled around a bite of bun.
"You did, but waking up doesn't really work like that when you're dead."
"I told you, you're not dead."
I shrugged at his annoyance. "I am, I checked. Got no body to go back to."
That seemed to interest him at least a little bit because he paused to scrutinize me. "Huh. I'm surprised you still have corporal form then."
"It would help if you'd elaborate." I complained.
This time he shrugged. "If your body dies while your spirit walking you won't be able to stay like this long. Pretty soon you'll fade away into ruhk, it depends on how much magoi you have."
"Magoi... Like magic energy, right?"
He sneered. "You really are an idiot, you went spirit walking without even knowing anything about magoi, no wonder you died."
"Hey now, it's not like I did it on purpose."
"I call it as I see it."
"Charming." Seriously, had this guy never learned any manners? "So you're saying I'm going to just... Fade away?"
"Yep! I'd say you have a few hours at most."
And didn't he sound cheerful about it.

...

I spent the rest of the day following servants around and trying to touch them. (I couldn't.) It might not sound like the most profound way to spend my last moments, but let's be real here, what else was I supposed to do? I had no one in this city, no idea where my parents went and no way of finding them in the few hours I had. Following my mother's advice, (she gives a lot of it,) I decided not to brood on something I couldn't change. What happens will happen, and all that.
During this time I discovered that while I couldn't touch people no matter how hard I tried, I could move and even lift inanimate objects provided I focused hard enough. I may have freaked a cook out by stirring the pot for her. Whatever, it's my last hurrah. And I was technically helping.
Also, the butterflies. Or birdies. Or bats? The glowing things fluttering around everybody if I squinted. They weren't in the same overwhelming numbers I'd seen around pretty boy, and for the most part they were actually white. It was very confusing. Eventually they got easier to see and even fluttered closer to me, which probably meant I was gonna kick the bucket for real soon, but I was trying not to think about that.
Later, when the kitchen bustle was dying down and the sky had darkened I wondered the halls again. I'd seen a few people who looked at least vaguely more important throughout the day, but for the most part I think I'd been in the areas where the servants worked their magic. Not literal magic. I think...
This time I wondered further into the maze of halls, passing walls that glowed with candlelight from inside. When I was well and thoroughly lost I finally stumbled into an area which I assumed housed places like the throne room and receptions rooms. At least that's what it looked like to me, though I avoided the giant door that probably lead to aforementioned throne room. (I felt like royals would somehow sense my peasant presence. Weren't they like, allergic to normal folks? I figured I'd test that theory some other time.)
Right now I was more interested in the masked duo. They wore head garments that extended down their faces, held in place by... Was that a ring of thorns? How did they even see where they were going? Judging by their matching identical robes and staffs I assumed they were part of some religious order. Like monks. I'd seen some interestingly dressed monks in my travels. Finding no reason to curb my curiosity I followed as they strode down the halls, keeping perfect pace with each other. Come to think of it they were even the same height... Must be brothers. They vanished through an opulent door and I fazed through after them. (This was never going to stop being fun. Ever.)
I wasn't expecting to walk into Cult Headquarters. There were monk people everywhere, in large and small circles, bent over tables or muttering prayers to whatever they worshiped, all in identical robes, of identical heights, with identical voices.
I backed right back out. On second thought that throne room seemed mighty interesting...
The door flew back open, making me jump in surprise and I was once again surrounded by the explosion of black that heralded the only person I could still speak to.
"Priest, your duties-"
"Later." Pretty boy snapped as he stormed away, passing me without actually seeing me. I got a good look at his face though, and it was twisted and dark, his eyes dead behind his bangs. Sometimes if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time you can catch a glimpse of someone's soul. For a split second there's merit to the saying that a persons eyes are the windows to their soul. I don't know what I saw on his face, but it was as black as a pit in hell. Like my cousin after her husband died. Before she followed him.
I couldn't just ignore that.
I found him outside in one of the gardens. He'd climbed onto the roof so I could just barely see his toes dangling off the edge. It took some doing, but I managed to lever myself up from the railing along the platform ledge. The tiled roof wasn't made for easy climbing but I hauled myself into a setting position on the edge despite the chances of slipping. I didn't have to worry about falling and breaking my neck anymore. I waited for him to take notice of me as the stars grew brighter and the moon rose.
After what I estimated to be nearly half an hour he finally turned his head enough to scowl at me. There was no sign of the darkness I'd seen earlier, but then I wasn't expecting to see it again.
"Not gone yet?"
"Nope. Guess you were wrong."
"I'm never wrong."
I turned around to face him fully, now that he seemed inclined to talk. "Oh yeah, and whys that? You somebody important, pretty boy?"
He narrowed his eyes in an expression of superiority I'd seen on noblemen when they tried to barter prices with me, laying one hand over his heart dramatically.
"You're speaking to the Magi, Oracle and High Priest of the Kou Empire. I could have you killed for your disrespect were you still alive."
"Lady killer, huh? Got yourself a reputation for that?" Then the rest of his sentence caught up with me and I gaped. "Magi? Really?!"
Now that impressed me. So those rumors of a Magi in Kou were true. How I wished I could tell my mother!
"Is that why you can see me?" I didn't bother trying to hide the amazement in my voice, which had the added benefit of mollifying him some.
"Of course." He lay back down properly, tucking his arms behind his head. "And I wasn't wrong, you just have more magoi then I assumed."
"I doubt it, I think I would have noticed if I did."
The magi yawned widely. "There are ways to miss it."
"Well, you're the expert..."
We fell silent again, and I took it as a victory that he wasn't trying to get me to leave again. I had no idea what time it was, but the palace was nearly dead silent around us, or as close to it as it could get, so it had to be very late. Yet I didn't feel tired. Another plus for the Ghost List.
Pretty boy eventually levered himself up and dropped down from the roof with the grace of a cheetah, ready to turn in for bed, or so I assumed.
"Hey." I called after him. "Do you have a name, pretty boy?"
He turned so he was walking backwards and looking up at me consideringly. "...Judar."
I grinned, finally feeling like the pit of despair in my stomach that had opened up this morning was gone. "It's nice to meet you, Judar. I'm Anastasia, your newly appointed resident ghost."