"When are they going to arrive?! Do they not know that entities like me experience time so slowly!?" The ghost ranted, it threw a tantrum and broke one of the pillars at the station, "Why don't you communicate with them or something, huh?!"
"I can't, Cornelius. Do you not know the rules of your own realm? You're not really good at this 'being a ghost' thing, aren't you?" Laida answered back. She sat down, cross-legged and bored, in the middle of the boundary, "And besides, they're probably just stuck in traffic. If you really wanted them to get here sooner, you shouldn't have kidnapped me during rush hour."
Red with anger, the ghost threw more fireballs towards the elven woman. All of which were blocked out by the boundary field she set... She was still noticeably bored, and wished she brought more books with her if she knew something like this was going to happen. Curious, she looked into her duffle bag. She had one of her 'ol reliable there, a portable sewing kit.
"Before you throw another tantrum, why don't you come up front, and I'll assess your fashion. You know, before they come by and banish you?"
The ghost scoffed, "Banish? As if! But fine! I'll take your wish; I am growing rather impatient anyway."
Laida clapped her hands in glee, "Great! Let's get started." She walked over near the ghost and started carefully measuring them beyond the boundary, "Quite a small person, aren't you? Ghosts are trapped in the body of their death, and I must predict you died at 12?"
The ghost clapped back, "I did not! I'll have you know I died at the ripe old age of sixteen! Within these very tracks!" Cornelius crossed his hands and looked down upon the cloth weaver in front of him.
Laida wrote down the measurements on a closed notebook, as well as his age and general disposition, they were useful information for later, "Sounds terrible. How come we never heard of it? Would be huge news if the son of a Nobleman were to be killed in such a public accident."
"Because it wasn't an accident." He revealed.
Laida stood there, shocked. As if the gears turned in her head and everything started to fall into place. She reached out beyond the boundary and carefully measured the young lord's hips. They stared at each other for a while, "Mind if you tell me more?"
"Mind? I would be glad to! Have you not realized yet how lonely I have been these past few days?!"
"So, it's a recent affair?" She pulled away from the boundary and wrote down the rest of the measurements in her notebook. She walked away, not facing the ghost behind her, "A Day perhaps?"
"A week."
"Oh. I see…" Laida took out another cigarette, then muttered under her breath, "Seems like I'm not gonna be able to quit today." She turned around, back to her guest of honor, "That's… a tragedy. But you know I can help you, right? We, the Night Parade, can help you."
"I know that. That's why I'm calling for them. That I managed to kidnap you first was simply… serendipitous." He chuckled before teleporting in front of Laida, still, behind the boundary line, "But it doesn't mean I'm just gonna let out a family secret that easily. I know well what kind of person your boss is."
"The boss… Yuki?" To Laida, Yuki was harmless to the nobles. All she's concerned about is her own game of protecting the city. But more often than not, this type of protection is in the favor of the people, rather than the former nobility. Even if she's trying to play on neutral ground, her position is inherently political, but still, "I doubt she'd tell something like this to her father."
"How can you be so sure?"
"She doesn't care about nobles. In fact she finds it an annoyance that she's more often than not pulled into these kinds of political drama with her father's revolution," Laida faced down the ghost, "I can give a guarantee that any revelations you make about the former nobility will only be between you and the company. We're honorable people. Or do you want that in writing?"
"My father told me to always keep deals like that notarized in writing." Cornelius put his thumb and index below his chin and started to think, "Though it would be troublesome to do something like that as a ghost."
"Eh, we'll find a way." Laida pulled pieces of a sewing machine out of her duffle bag and started to work on clothing for the ghost, "Trust me. We have a due process that we love to uphold. We're principled, you know?"
"Fair enough. What are you making there anyway?" He tried to peek over her back, but everytime he moved, she would move back away. She might as well have put a veil over the entire boundary with the number of things he couldn't see.
"I'm almost done. It would spoil the surprise if I were to just tell you." Then there was silence. Cornelius respected her craftsmanship, and she was focused on her own to even bother listening to the wind. The mechanical hum of the sewing machine, the methodical tapping of its needles, her own labored breathing as she kept into focus. Those were the only noise to be heard in the entire station.
Even as the lights flickered, she relented. Her skill and passion with this craft was enough to move mountains, but only if she let herself excel. And the one thing keeping her from that exaltation was--
She stood up after five minutes, still not done with whatever she made. She pulled out a cigarette and began to smoke once more. There it was, once she was in the depths of her discomfort, she would turn away rather than face it. She knew she was capable, but she was scared to go down that route without the comfort of nicotine.
She released the smoke and thought herself terrible. Terrible that she promised herself and Yuki that she would quit eventually. Once she was done with all of it, but she never quite does. Countless months have passed since she made that promise and progress was never once made.
"Trapped on both sides, I almost pity you." The ghost sat on a bench nearby, its voice still audible from everywhere within the station even though she was the only audience, "Then again, aren't we all trapped somewhere?"
Laida shrugged and threw down the cigarette before going back down the sewing machine. She needs to get it done after all, whether or not the Night Parade comes by in time to save her.
-------------------------------
Jiangshi station was very much crowded in the morning. It wasn't at all as Laida described in her texts that it was deserted. The fact that it was so crowded also hampered the activities that Yuki and Alexandrina planned around. David and I followed the two down the station's winding walkways, like it was an underground maze.
The sterile white station was often populated by peddlers that took refuge inside the underground station's walls. They had their entire living quarters there. Most had a futon that they were sitting on, some had a small stove they most likely bought with years' worth of savings. It wasn't as though I wanted to peer into the lives of these homeless peddlers, but it was what Yuki told me to do. And I was her assistant, and I was someone that took my job seriously.
To quote her, "Curses and ghosts utilizing spatial magic to keep people in one place leave signs of their tampering of reality. So, keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual." I wouldn't call the homeless 'anything unusual', if anything I wasn't surprised that for how seemingly clean this city is it'd still have a homeless population.
But I digressed. I noticed a peculiarity, "Hey, that station name." I pointed at the sign above them, a yellow vinyl sign that indicated the station name in various languages, "Jiangshi station is supposed to be on the left at the end of this hallway, right? So why is it pointing towards the right?"
The two in front looked above and analyzed the sign carefully. After a few moments of deliberation, they decided to follow the sign at the end of the hallway. What they found was that the hallway could only go left, and towards the right was nothing more than a wall, "Drina, will you please?" Yuki commanded her dear friend as she pointed at the wall.
"Nuh-uh, learn it." Drina rebutted, pushing Yuki towards the wall, "Come on. Breathe into it. Feel the very fabric of existence around you. Each string within the Planck length, vibrate it with the mana in your soul. Breathe."
Reluctantly, Yuki focused her energy. The air vibrated around us, tiny quakes in the fabric of existence that Drina mentioned. Then, with a single push out of her system, the wall collapsed into a million tiny pieces. Inside it was a perfectly pristine white hallway. Architecturally impossible, and definitely where we need to go next.
Yuki closed her eyes, and groaned, "My head feels terrible after that."
"You'll get used to it." As if to flex her abilities, Drina rearranged back the materials that Yuki's own energy destroyed, forming a wall once more. Then, with a single flick of her fingers, opened it up properly, "After you."
Yuki breathed deeply, as if repressing anger lest her headache would get worse and entered the hallway.