Chapter 2
The sky was just beginning to turn red with the rising of the sun when Taylor awoke from her dreamless sleep. The first few moments of wakefulness were blissfully peaceful as she sat up, yawned, stretched her arms above her head, and blinked a few times.
Then the memories caught up.
Her eyes widen and she starts to shake, drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping herself into a ball as tremors wrack her body, already becoming trapped in a feedback loop of terrible memories of insects, filth, and darkness.
The firm grasp of a cold hand on her shoulder makes her start, and the glowing, heavily scared ghost-elf kneeling next to her bed is enough to snap her out of the loop.
"…what?" She says blankly, pulling away from the ghost and scooting towards the end of her bed, "Who…what?" She says again, her voice now starting to get a bit of panic to it.
The Elf holds up his hands in a non-threatening manner, making no moves to follow her, "I am sorry for startling you, Taylor, but it seemed like you were remembering the events of last night, and I did not think it prudent to let you dwell on them." He says, his voice echoing as he talks. "As for who and what I am, my name is Eruantien-" he stops, a look of confusion crossing his face greatly at odds with the calm confidence he was projecting before.
"Eruantien.
Eruantien. My name is…E…Eruanti-what the hell?" Now she can tell for certain, that he is confused. "Why can't I…is that what my name is in Sindarin?" He glances towards the ceiling, then back to Taylor, who is still staring at him with wide eyes. He clears his throat, smiling sheepishly.
"Apologies, it seems my new state comes with a few mental changes I was not aware of, it…tripped me up. As I was saying, my name is Eruantien, and I am a Wraith. Your Wraith, specifically." He says, managing to recapture a little bit of his initial mask.
Taylor is starting to relax a little bit, though she still looks very confused. "I…have a Wraith? What does that even mean? And what did you mean by 'new state' and 'mental changes'? Are you some sort of weird cape-projection?" Her eyes widen. "Am I a cape?!?" She says in a quiet, excited tone.
Eruantien chuckles. "Effectively, yes, you are a Cape. But you aren't a Parahuman." He says.
"What? But…how does that-"
"It's…complicated." The Wraith interrupts. "You have powers, a fairly wide array at that, but you didn't get them in the same manner that Parahumans did. Parahumans get their power from the Corona Pollentia, which is activated by undergoing extreme mental and/or physical trauma."
Taylor frowns, anger bubbling into her expression. "Yeah, I know about Trigger events. But…what…the
locker doesn't count as
enough 'mental and physical trauma' for me to trigger?!?" She says angrily.
"Oh, no, it certainly does." Eruantien agrees. "And we'll need to talk about how to deal with the people who did that to you, but in this instance, for whatever reason, you didn't trigger, and couldn't get out of it. So I…stepped in, once I was able to."
Taylor is still frowning, but her anger has faded. "Ok, so…" she shakes her head, closing her eyes as she tries to gather her thoughts. "The way you've been talking, you make it sound like you're a…separate being from me. Not like some projection of a power."
The Wraith nods. "Yes, that is right." He confirms with a nod.
"Then…what
are you?" Taylor asks with exasperation. "Cause you look like some sort of elf-ghost, but that sounds…insane!"
The Wraith grimaces. "Well…you aren't actually entirely wrong when you say that…" He says, sighing at his host's look of disbelief. "Alright, I'll start from the beginning. Have you ever read 'Lord of the Rings?'"
…
It was about an hour later, and both Taylor and the Wraith were sitting on her bed; her, staring sightlessly at the far wall, the Wraith watching her with no small amount of concern on his marred face.
"So…I died." Taylor finally says, her voice hollow and flat.
"Yes."
"And you…possessed my body, brought me back, and broke the locker open. Does that make me…undead?"
"No, you are Banished from Death, not undead. They are distinctly different. You Live, and Cannot Die. You should still present as 'alive' to any outside sources, but the moment I leave, your body will revert to the state it was in at the moment of death. And should you suffer mortal injuries, you will awaken some time later…likely here, actually, until we can bind ourselves to another location."
Taylor nods. "And you…are a human from another world, given the powers of the millennia-old Wraith of an Elven Ring-Maker from J. R. R. Tolkien's
Lord of the Rings universe
, sent to Earth Bet by some sort of…Random Omnipotent Being after you died in your old world."
"Yes."
Taylor takes a deep breath in, and lets it out shakily, wrapping her arms around herself again. The Wraith just watches, not wanting to disrupt her processing of the frankly insane tale he spun for her.
Eventually, the teenage girl whimpers quietly. "Alright."
"Alright?" The Wraith asks.
"Alright. I believe you." She elaborates. "It's not like I really have anything to disprove what you said. And…I
do remember things going…dark, and numb, in the…locker…"
She trails off again, and the Spirit is again content to wait.
"So…what now?" She says finally, looking at him.
"Well, that depends on you, Taylor," Eruantien says with a shrug. "Unlike most parahuman powers, we don't actually
have to exert our abilities in order to stay sane. If you wanted, you could just live a normal life for the average human on Earth Bet, and then I could leave you, and we could both rest in whatever comes after."
He pauses. "But…I don't think that would be satisfying to you, would it?" He says knowingly.
The young woman-far, far to young-shakes her head, here eyes shining with determination. "I…I have powers. Even if they aren't like anyone else's, and I'm not a
normal cape, I can still help people. I couldn't just…
not do that." She says passionately, here eyes flaring slightly with blue fire.
Eruantien smirks. "'With great power, comes great responsibility.'" He says, standing from his spot at the edge of the bed. "A good code to live by." He turns to her.
"If that is the path we are to walk, we will need to have a much longer and more detailed talk about everything we can do. But not right now." He glances at the clock on her bedside. "It is barely seven, and you have been through a great ordeal. You won't need much sleep nowadays, but it will still be good to take time to recover."
"…alright." Taylor says less-enthusiastically.
"Besides, we will have our hands full for the next few days at least, between bringing your father up to speed on your bullying and getting the Police onto the Trio and Winslow as an institution." He continues nonchalantly.
"Wait, what?!?" Taylor yelps. "But…but, what would-"
"Taylor." The Wraith's tone shifts in an instant to one of deadly seriousness. "You have been bearing this burden alone for far too long out of a desire to keep it from burdening others. And it led to your
death." She flinches at that, face flushing with shame. "Your father almost lost you. Your peers who torment you literally killed you, and the administrators who ignored them are just as culpable. They
must be punished, and I would rather the System handle it than you and I."
"…but…they won't believe me." Taylor says, looking at the ground dejectedly, her body language hunched and withdrawn, and Eruantien feels a pang of regret as he realizes he pushed too hard, too fast.
He steps back towards her, and with an expression of will, grasps her chin gently and lifts it so she is looking at him, his ethereal orbs locked with her large, watery eyes.
"Taylor," he says gently, releasing his grip on the material world and her chin with it. "Your father has his flaws, just like anyone, but there are two things I know for certain about Danny Hebert; that he loves you more than anything else in this world, and that he is a
good man. He will believe you, and he will do everything in his power to make sure the people responsible for this
pay."
Taylor sniffs, but she nods slightly, looking less upset now. "And…the police?"
Eruantien smiles slightly. "Give the boys in blue a little credit. Tell them the truth, present everything that you have, and make sure to
name your attackers, and that will give them enough to investigate the others. I cannot guarantee anything, but if you
say nothing, then they can
do nothing. Do or Do Not, there is no try."
She gives her Wraith an unamused look, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Star Wars? Really? I don't think that really applies here." She says.
The Wraith shrugs, chuckling. "Hey, I couldn't think of anything else on such short notice."
Taylor mutters something under her breath, before a gurgling from her midsection makes itself known, loudly.
Taylor blushes again, looking down at her rude stomach before glaring at the Wraith.
"Hey, I did say you should be just as Alive as you were before." The Spirit says innocently. "I
can turn off your biological functions if you want, but I figured it would be better to ask before I do things like remove your need to eat, drink, or breathe."
Taylor glares at him harder, before wordlessly and purposefully walking through him to get to the door of her room, heading downstairs to get sustenance.
Eruantien sighs quietly as she leaves. "Well…that went better than expected. Now…to deal with Danny." He mutters before vanishing once more.
