In Which Jeda Is Shown a Ghost

AUTHOR'S NOTE -- July 12, 2017: So, this post marks the major reveal of one of the story elements for which the third paragraph of disclaimer in the side bar was eventually written. Adding this now just to echo that sentiment, to acknowledge the problematic nature of the post, the way it was handled, and any comments I made on it at the time, and to generally apologize for my poor creative decisions as an uninformed youth, and to commit to being better in the present and future.

August 27, 1161

"Hello, ladies!" Prince Ietrin announced himself as he approached the three of them. As usual, neither Raia nor Leara gave him any notice--but Jeda found herself transfixed. Perhaps it was because she was nearly a year younger than the other two girls, or because she knew that she would marry him some day, but Jeda was beginning to find that whenever Ietrin stepped into a room, his presence swelled far beyond his body and engulfed every available bit of space there was.

Sometimes it was comforting, she felt--others, it was stifling.

"Hello, Ietrin," she managed to choke at last; however, he paid her no attention.

Instead, his eyes flickered toward the other two. "Raia? Are you going to acknowledge my presence or not?"

Raia continued on with whatever game she and Leara were playing, as though Ietrin's forceful voice had been no more than a weak passing breeze.

"Fine! Be that way--don't pay any respects to your future king!"

"I greeted you, Ietrin," Jeda blurted out, her face warming as her own daring took her by surprise.

It seemed that Ietrin found Jeda's presence considerably less noticeable than she found his, as he barely cast a second glance her way. "Raia, I suppose you don't want to hear the ghost story one of the grooms just told me."

"Oh, don't tell ghost stories, Ietrin!" exclaimed Leara at last. "You know they give me nightmares--I'll tell Papa!"

As he had previously ignored Jeda, so he did his sister. It seemed that the only one of the three girls of which he was aware was Raia--not that Jeda blamed him. Raia easily had just as much presence as Ietrin--more, perhaps--but it was of an entirely different sort.

"Anyway, if you don't want to listen, Raia, I suppose I'll just have to tell Jeda here--and I suppose I had better, considering she's the one living in the haunted castle."

Jeda felt her eyes suddenly bulge. "...haunted?"

"So your father never told you, then," laughed Ietrin knowingly. "Probably because you're a girl, of course--I bet he told your brother."

"Told him what?" Jeda pried quietly; it was a strange feeling, wanting both to be informed and to not be at the same time.

Ietrin shook his head. "Oh, nothing terribly exciting--just the fact that there's a ghost in one of your dungeons."

"Shut up, Ietrin," muttered Leara under whatever breath she had, the color in her face slowly draining.

Part of Jeda wanted to second this motion, but as she looked into those all-knowing violet eyes, she lost all resolve to do so. "Which dungeon?"

"The one a little ways behind me, past the pantry and the bakery," he informed her matter-of-factually. "So maybe stay away from there, girls--although I'm sure Raia's not afraid of ghosts," added Ietrin, glancing toward the now-standing Raia.

"Don't be stupid, Ietrin," Raia snickered--Jeda couldn't help but notice that Ietrin only seemed relieved that she had finally acknowledged his existence. "Everyone knows there's no such things as ghosts."

Jeda exchanged a fearful glance with Leara; it seemed they both hoped Raia was right in this regard.

"Then how come some of the servants who work nearby sometimes hear it banging on the walls and screaming and whatnot?" countered Ietrin smugly. "Explain that to me, Raia, since your father is the one who's always saying how wise it is to listen to what the peasants and servants have to say."

Dismissively, Raia yawned. "It makes perfect sense if one considers that fact that you're a liar. Come on, Ietrin; if you have a tenth of a brain cell in that oversized head of yours, you know as well as I do that there's no ghost in that or any dungeon and you're just trying to scare Leara and Jeda."

"There are lots of better ways to scare Leara and Jeda, you know," he assured her. "If I wanted to scare them, I would have found some other way to do so. Besides, I heard some moaning myself on the way over here--I went past there on purpose, you know, just to prove it."

"And I'm sure you weren't scared at all," sighed Raia.

Grinning, Ietrin nodded. "You got that right."

"In that case, take me back there and prove it to me."

For a few seconds, there was nothing but a stunned silence, during which Ietrin could only gape. Then--

"Jeda, why don't you take her? It's your castle, after all. You're the hostess, and I'm just a guest--I shouldn't be the one giving tours."

"But I don't want to see the ghost!" she protested.

"There's no ghost, Jeda," insisted Raia, rolling her eyes. "Come on--let's go and see that what you're all so afraid of is nothing."

And with that she began to stride boldly toward the dungeon. Jeda initially hung back, but it seemed that Ietrin had other ideas.

"Go on," he instructed, pushing her along after Raia.

Well, now that he had touched her, she supposed she had no choice but to obey.

"All right," spoke Raia at last as they barged into the small front section of the long corridor that strung together the various dungeons. "Do you know where the key is?"

Jeda shook her head; she didn't, as she had not even been in this room since she had been quite small. In fact, she seemed to recall that her father had forbidden her and Sparron to go here in more recent years, for whatever reason. As the dungeons were dank and dark and smelly, Jeda hadn't cared, and therefore hadn't asked why.

After she had finished combing a nearby weapon rack, Raia proceeded to a table littered with several dirty old tools that Jeda had no names for. "Ah, here it is!" she declared triumphantly as she pulled a small key from beneath the shaft of something that appeared to be some odd sort of hammer. "What an awful hiding place. Maybe you should tell your father or Florian that they should be more careful with things like this."

Though Jeda could not imagine her meek self delivering such scoldings to either her father or his steward, she nodded; by appearing to agree, she had eliminated the need to speak, and that was crucial at that moment, as she did not think she could have.

"Ready?" Raia asked of her as they stepped toward the door; it was truly amazing that she so firmly believed in the ghost's non-existence that she did not give even the slightest of trembles.

Swallowing, Jeda nodded once more. There was a nagging voice in her head begging her to protest, but before she knew it, Raia had slipped the key into the lock and pushed open the door to the dungeon.

As the older girl continued through, Jeda found herself pausing to count the bricks on the wall. Five, six, seven...

"...Jeda?"

"Is the ghost there?" she inquired in a fearful whisper, continuing to keep her eyes averted.

"No ghost," Raia replied hastily, "but... you'd better take a look at this."

She did not even give Jeda a chance to refuse, as Raia had swiftly reached out and pulled her inside. Shaking the other girl's hand off of her arm, Jeda took a deep breath and forced herself to follow Raia's gaze to the center of the dirt floor.

It was a woman--filthy, listless, unconscious, but as the raspy breathing and faint corresponding motion of her chest revealed, very much alive.

She was too frightened to run. Too frightened to scream--to frightened to even cringe. All she could do was keep looking.

"Who is she?" Jeda managed to mumble at last, careful not to be any louder than necessary.

Raia shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe we should ask your father."

"If you want my advice, young Rahileine, neither you nor Jeda will breathe a word of this to the baron."

It was Florian, who had appeared as if from nowhere, grimmer than ever before and fully alert. Jeda found that his arrival instilled in her mixed feelings. On one hand, now that there was a grown man with her, she was safe; on the other, since he seemed to be on guard, she was not.

"Run along now," he bade them hurriedly, "and be thankful it was I who found you here. Your father will have a heart attack if he ever learns you were here, Jeda. This will be our little secret, both of you; tell no one what you've seen."

He made a quick shooing motion, and the girls filed out, Jeda leading and Raia in tow. "Who do you think she is?" the other girl demanded in an undertone, taking no notice of Florian shushing her from within the dungeon.

Jeda shook her head. She had no desire to discuss any of this; to breathe a word was to admit that the ghost of a woman was real.

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