Shattered Star

"Wait, so..." Zoey says slowly. "She's not a human child?"

"Well, yes and no," Asami says, not opening her eyes. "She's not an Eidolon and I am no summoner, though it is an easy enough mistake to make." As she speaks, a blue mist starts to form in the open space in front of her.

"Eiko is my daughter, and was once a perfectly ordinary little girl, like any other. Then the bandits came, and both she and my husband were killed in the attack. In my grief I reached, her tamashii, or spirit, answered, and now she's a Yurei, or I believe the term is Phantom in Taldane?" As she continues speaking, the mist consolidates into a humanoid form, then condenses, eventually solidifying into the semi-transparent form of Eiko.

"Mommy, that was cold," The newly re-manifested little girl says, rushing forward to cling to her mother as Asami finally re-opens her eyes.

Cade lifts himself and watches Eiko materialize from the frigid air around them.  Unnerved, Cade reaches to adjust his spectacles, but finds them missing and ends up simply rubbing his temple.  "...'Phantom?'" he repeats, his voice wavering.  "S-so--then, this entire time, Eiko has been... a sp-spirit and nothing more?"

"Oh. Okay. Wow. So... ghost kid. Cool. Cool, cool cool cool cool cool. I'm just gonna... take a seat for a moment. Process that." And Zoey does, in fact, take a seat.

Cade, likewise, remains silent as he also attempts to process this frankly obvious revelation.

Meliora's mouth opens in shock, then closes. "You... You guys didn't realize?" she asks, her astonishment distracting her from the recent near death event, as well as her own frostbite injuries.

"...I had assumed," Cade attempts to defend himself as he slowly rights himself upward, "the aura surrounding her was one of protection, not one of... plausibly-benign necromancy."

"Aura? She's blue, and you can see through her," Meliora points out, still in astonishment. "Er, no offense, Eiko, Asami," she says, her tongue having gotten ahead of what might be polite to the spiritualist and her ghostly child.

"I assumed it was part of the protective aura!" Cade feebly insists, his voice rising.  "There are abjuration spells and protective wardings that--!" the wizard abruptly stops himself as he hears his voice beginning to echo throughout the marble halls, which visibly unsettles him.  "...Perhaps we should put a bookmark in this particular topic for the moment?" he suggests, lowering his voice back to its usual volume.  "Once we retrieve the shard of the Sihedron housed deeper within, we can discuss this development-or-lack-thereof further?"

Activating the secret wall door, the party advances. This opulent marble chamber is dominated by an enormous bed that sits on a raised dais. The walls bear frescos of a woodland scene, with leering satyrs chasing nubile nymphs. A domed ceiling inlaid with mother-of-pearl rises twenty feet above the opulent bed chamber.

The erotic frescos in the next domed chamber have faded, but their intent to inflame the passions of those occupying the room is still plain. Four marble benches sit against the walls and a complex mosaic of thousands of colored chips form a huge starburst on the floor.

A simple pool of pure, clear water fills the central area of the next room. Doors lead out of the room in all four cardinal directions.

The party heads right into another domed chamber. The center of this chamber is dominated by a complex design painted on the floor in dozens of colors, which is oddly unsettling. Broken furniture and other debris is scattered across the room and a faint acidic odor tickles the nostrils, while an overturned book stand with a large black tome sits near the far wall.

"...A summoning circle," Cade says aloud upon noticing the unsettling design.  "The runes on the right-hand side and iconography near its center denote it as one meant for demons and its ilk."  Peering further into the room, Cade also notices faint traces of clues hidden among the scattered debris.  "That scorch-mark, there," he points out, singling out a blackened mark surrounded by a simple circle, "that is the summoner's position, and the burnt paraphernalia therein must mean the offering has been accepted.  Do not approach the circle--touching it may complete the summoning."