Song Rui lacked the malice of her sister, but she was still very definitely dead.
She was a bit less solid, more translucent than her sister too and Eirian couldn't tell if it's just because she wasoutside and the sunlight was causing it or if Song Ran was somehow stronger as a ghost than her sister.
Did the manner of dead have something to do with it.
"I thought you died of an illness?" Eirian frowned, unable to look away from the twisted flesh around Song Rui's neck.
Son Rui smiled placidly.
"She looks like she was hung?" Lord Zhao whispered. He still had his hand over Finn's mouth, but it didn't stop the younger man from nodding frantically.
"Obviously." Chenzhou hissed.
Eirian tried again. "Song Rui, do you know how you died?"
Song Rui's face fell. "Of course. My heart was broken. You don't survive that." A faraway look came to her eyes, and she stopped looking at Eirian even as she was standing right in front of her.
Eirian glanced and Chenzhou and found him already looking her way.
He looked as convinced as she did.
Eirian turned back to Song Rui. She reached out to touch her, but Chenzhou yanked her hand back. Eirian glared at him, but he didn't let go when she tried to pull her hand away, so Eirian gave up.
"How long have you been here?"
There was no response.
"Song Rui?"
The ghost shivered, the faraway look faded and suddenly she was seeing Eirian again. "Yes?"
Eirian's frustration mounted. Chenzhou must have seen it because he squeezed her hand briefly and stayed quiet when she squeezed his back in an attempt to exorcise her frustration. "Song Rui, have you been here since you died?"
"Of course. I lived here. I died here. Where else would I go?"
"And your sister is here?"
"Of course. She lived here. She died here. Where else would she go?"
"Can she leave the manor?" Chenzhou asked.
Song Rui turned to him. He took a step back but didn't let go of Eirian's hand. "Why would she leave her home?"
"Right." Chenzhou and Yuze shared a disturbed look.
It seemed where Song Ran was manic and enraged, Song Rui was…placid and confused? Floaty?
Oblivious?
Had suffered brain damage from the lack of oxygen when she'd been hung.
"The stories said you died of an illness."
"Yes, a broken heart is the most painful disease."
Eirian felt her eye twitch. "Your neck-"
"Hmm?" Song Rui shifted suddenly, something like a seizure taking over her features, before they straightened out again and this time Eirian took a step back when Chenzhou did.
"Uh, what just happened?"
Song Rui looked around. "Did something happen?"
Was her death some kind of trigger? Song Ran had reacted whenever they'd tried to speak to her, but she honestly seemed triggered by their presence in the house. It seemed like some aspect of their personality had survived death, though that observation was based solely on the sister's behaving differently.
"This is pointless," Yuze hissed. It was nice to see someone who had a similar amount of patience to Eirian.
"Song Rui." The ghost turned back to her and smiled. "The cold storage you mentioned?"
"Yes. It's in the northeast corner."
"I thought she said the northwest?" Chenzhou muttered.
"Is it west or east?" Eirian pressed.
Song Rui got that faraway look in her eyes again.
"Of for-"
"Let's just search-"
"OVER HERE! LORD YE! CAPTAIN LI! OVER HERE!"
"Who is-"
Finn waved his arms wildly, nearly clipping Lord Zhao in the face.
"That's Finn's friend." Eirian recognized the boy's voice.
"It came from the other side of the manor." Li yelled and before he could get a head start everyone took off running.
It only took a couple of minutes to race around the manor, with most of its extensions long lost. Finn's friends were around of the main house, hidden behind a partially collapsed well and Eirian didn't spot them at first.
Not until Emmy jumped out and started waving her arms. "Over here!"
Eirian and the others dodged the collapsed wood planks and shattered clay bricks and roof tiles that had fallen overtime and hurried over.
Emmy and Patrick had half dug two bodies out of the dirt.
"Who-"
"Miki and Kang!" Li's guards rushed forward and frantically started shifting the dirt away with their bare hands.
Within minutes they pulled the two bodies from the dirt. They were filthy and pale and still.
Li and his most senior guard knelt over them, brushing dirt off their faces and trying to clear it out of their mouths and noses.
"How did they breathe in that much dirt?" Finn looked aghast.
"Probably whatever Song Ran did to them." Eirian glanced back at the manor. There were no holes or openings on this side either.
How had they gotten outside?
Song Ran must have dragged them out. Or buried them inside and somehow, they migrated outside? Was it related to Song Ran's power over the manor?
Maybe her power extended over the entire manor, even the parts that had fallen down years before?
Eirian looked around much more carefully, but there was no sign of Song Ran out in the open.
Li rubbed Kang's chest viciously with the butt of a dagger. Eirian knew from experience that it was incredibly painful when something hard rubbed across your sternum and it was often used by healers to wake up unconscious patients.
Those who didn't wake up typically required medication or magical intervention.
Kang didn't respond to the first rub and Li curses as he rubbed harder. If Kang woke up, he was going to have a hell of a bruise on his chest.
"Come on, wake up." Li stopped rubbing and shook Kang, who looked like he was barely out of his teenage years.
The other guard was slapped Miki, trying to wake her. He pried open her mouth and looked inside. "I don't understand, we got the dirt out."
"Are they breathing?" Chenzhou hoovered over Li's shoulder.
Li rested his hand on Kang's chest. "I can feel it rising and falling, though its shallow."
~ tbc