"Tell your creeper to relax and come sit with us," Morrigan commanded. She felt exhilarated by the presence of the spirit, no matter how disfigured his death made him.
"He's not a creeper, his name is Tom." At the sound of his name, Tom stopped jogging around the library's study tables and made his way back over to Jonas.
"Did she graduate? Have you found her yet?"
"Oh, man! He talks to you? Holy crap, he's corporeal and cognitive, shut up! He's looking for someone?"
"Yeah, his daughter."
"Leena," Morrigan stated. It didn't take her long to probe his essence. Because his mind still functioned on the other side through some sort of magical spell or hex, Morrigan was easily able to tap into his thoughts, what little that remained of them. "I can help you find her, piece of cake."
"Really?"
"Yep, really."
Jonas looked stoked! Morrigan beamed at the sight of him, suddenly very proud of herself. She actually felt a tinge of happiness and making him smile, he went from cute to total babe. But he scrunched his brow as something occurred to him. "Shoot, wait. I need to help him, not you," he confessed.
Her happiness squished like a shoe on an ant. "Ok, jealous much?"
"No, no, it's not like that. If I help him, he'll give me something in return, information I need." Jonas whispered.
"Oh," feeling dumb about accusing him she added "sorry. Of course, an eye for an eye, got it. There are ways around that. Just pay me."
"Huh?"
"Pay me," Morrigan mocked, saying it as slowly as she could. "You know, hire me. Then I will be doing you a service and technically, in the grander scheme of things, you'll be the one responsible for helping him."
"You really think--"
"Trust me," she interrupted, waving her fingers in motion for him to pay up. Jonas dug into his backpack for his wallet. He only had a twenty dollar bill and he didn't want to part with it.
"That'll do." Morrigan snatched the bill right out of his hands. "Now, tell me I'm yours," she smirked.
"What?" Jonas squirmed, his cheeks turned red and he gulped. She instantly felt his doubt.
"Fine, be that way," she pouted. "Command me. Boss me around. Tell me what you want me to do to earn this twenty."
It finally sunk in that she had been flirting with him. Jonas tried to regain some composure and ran his fingers through his hair as he thought about what to command her to do. Although he had plenty of experience with the dead, this whole magic realm was new to him and he didn't want to screw it up by asking for the wrong thing.
Morrigan was just toying with him, getting some kicks out of watching him squirm. She secretly wanted to please him, she wanted him to like her. She thought maybe she should start acting more ladylike and less witchlike.
"It's okay, Jonas," she assured him as she put her hand on his arm. "Just tell me what you want me to do."
"Ok, I want you to tell him about his daughter, everything since he died, and if you could, maybe show her to him?" Morrigan raised her eyebrows at his last request. How could he possibly know what she was capable of? She swore under her breath. It would be easy enough to find out about his daughter with a reveal spell, but she would only be able to mentally show him the series of events in her life if she had something that actually belonged to Leena.
"Crap," softly escaped from her lips.
"What was that?" asked Jonas.
"No, nothing, have the creeper come sit over here."
"Ok, but his name is Tom, remember?" Jonas motioned for Tom to sit down at the table with them.
"Sure, Tom is it?" Morrigan asked the dead jogger as he took a seat.
"Yes, do you know Leena?" His voice a faint echo to Morrigan, but clear as day to Jonas.
"I sure do, can you hold out your hands please, like this," Morrigan stretched her arms out and placed her hands palms up on the table. When Tom copied her, she took her hands away and put her own over top of his. She couldn't touch him physically but she could pull imprinted information from his corporeal DNA. It created a silhouette of his life to play in her mind's eye. She would only be able to see his life, but what she really wanted to get a look at was Leena herself. She needed to know what she looked like, down to the very last detail, for the reveal spell to work. Having her father's essence to work from would help locate any of his living children.
After viewing several family vacations, fights, carpools, dinners and basketball games, Morrigan lifted her hands from Tom's. "Ok, I think I have what I need. I'll be able to cast a spell that will reveal to me alone what has become of your daughter. I would be able to show you as well TOM," Morrigan stopped and looked at Jonas and gave him a fake smile, "if you maybe had something of your daughters on you when you died."
Tom didn't say anything, he didn't even move but it did look as though the wheels were turning in what was left of his brain. "Hey there buddy, you ok?" Jonas urged him.
"I, I, I think I'm wearing her socks."
"Ughhh, ewww, gah... this is not worth the twenty bucks, Jonas!" Morrigan squealed. Now she usually wasn't grossed out very easily but Tom's legs had seen better days. He went into this story about how he and his family always had a hard time keeping socks matched and on that particular morning, Tom had been searching for a match and finally gave up when he found a green and white pair of socks that belonged to his daughter.
"Can you even use the socks, Moonlight? I mean, you can't touch them, can you?" Jonas was curious and hopeful.
"Tom, if you would be so kind and lay your daughter's socks on the table," Morrigan stately instructed as she pretended to be offended by a smell as Tom removed his socks and threw them on the table. But as they fell onto the tabletop they disappeared. Jonas' heart sank but Morrigan piped up quick, "Watch and learn, kid."
Morrigan took out a small pouch from her pocket and shoved two fingers inside of it, pulling out a soft red sachet powder. She looked around the library to make sure no one was paying attention before she began to sprinkle the sachet powder on the table while she carefully conjured up the words "datgelu beth oedd unwaith" which meant 'reveal that which once was.' Ever so slowly the powder began to take shape, it turned a shade of green and formed a pair of striped and much to Morrigan's delight, odorless socks.
"Leena!" Tom exclaimed, reaching for the socks, but was unable to grasp them.
"Sucks to be you, eh bud," she teased as she picked up the socks with the tips of her two fingers. "Don't worry, you'll get what you came for, just make sure you don't go off jogging towards any light until you give Jonas what he needs, ok?" Tom simply nodded. Morrigan held out her hand to him and Tom laid his hand above hers as they had done before.
"You ready?"