"OH FUCK NO SPIRIT BE GONE FROM MY SLEEP" Jolyne roared as her astralscape shifted and twisted horrors springing to life around her as her emotions shifted from positive into pure fiery white wrath the flames liking up the invader of her dreams.

Jolyne was no stranger to this shit, Deserette unlike most of the other nations still spoke of spirits and their tricks. This was why lucid dreaming was important and Jolyne was able to shift into it at any time during her sleep just as she had done mere moments ago. This was why it was so easy to tear and rend the essence of the spirit or at least the part of it required to project it's essence into her mindscape. The thing was twisted and rended, torn like it was cloth in an instant upon entering and trying to deliver it's message. The mental energy left behind would tell Jolyne the message anyways she had no need to leave an intruder in her dreams, it was hers and not some dead persons. They should stay where they belong and due to her practice Jolyne knew the nature of the spirit that had entered her Temple.

That was how Jolyne Atreides woke up angrier than she had been in years, it was truly an awful start to her morning.

It was time to meet with Inspector Nilan about this, while she knew it was not the same spirit she knew that it was related. Jolyne knew that the spirit there was similar, the opposite side of a coin, of the spirit she had dealt with before. This meant the thing must be put down as soon as possible. The dead should have no influence over the living, that was the height of sacrilege. This was what her and her ancestors had believed and stuck to for centuries and so it was that she got ready in a huff and skipped breakfast.

Jolyne had worked herself into a righteous furious froth by the time she encountered Inspector Nilan who seemed to be already prepared for her arrival. While that was a surprise what they talked about was not to her, and they discussed the occurrence that had also happened during his sleep, unluckily it seemed his culture had not prepared him as Jolyne's had her. This soon evolved into a question and answer session between the two, Nilan was interested in what Jolyne had gotten from it and Jolyne was interested in what Nilan had seen in his dream.

The woman noticed that Inspector Nilan was looking over a note as they spoke and wondered what it's contents held though the man never bothered to share it's information so it must not have been that relevant or important at the time. Patience was a trait that Jolyne had beaten into herself long ago and so it was that she would not ask about the note but instead follow the Inspector's suggestion that they return to the river.

505/2,000

"That is the tainted spirit" the young cyan eyed spirit looked defeated now when he pointed towards the thing that had invaded the dreams of the living. It had not taken Inspector Nilan or Jolyne a long time in getting here, they had been here twice already or at least Jolyne had. Time seemed to slow down now that they were here though, it almost seemed as though they were dreaming what they saw before them almost was too surreal to believe was true.

Two spirits were there, and one looked truly horrific it was a twisted visage of a man with hollow eyes and a toothless grin. The tendrils that would be his hair were twisting and the spirit was missing it’s feet two signs that showed Jolyne it had forgotten it’s humanity already. Seeing this spirit did relieve her that the other would not turn out this way but her concern outweighed it as she had not encountered something like this on her own before.

The last time a spirit this solid and this malicious was seen in the eyes of Jolyne she had the presence of two shamans and her mother who subdued the spirit extremely quickly after they pulled it out of the oxen of a farmer. That was a long while ago and part of the graduation of her training, Jolyne had to pull the spirit from the Oxen and the other three dealt with it when it was out. That time however it was not a human spirit and the cleansing had turned into a purification as the foul spirit was sent somewhere else, Jolyne had not been able to learn her final lessons and as such knew nothing about the high secrets of her ancestors. Regardless of if she procreated or not Jolyne believed that her line would die out regardless due to the lack of this and many other family lessons.

They had discussed a few ideas for if the spirit was hostile before they had gotten to the river clearing and Jolyne knew that Nilan was extremely well verses with defensive walls and shielding but could not cast offensive spells, normally this would be a problem for Jolyne but her spell would not kill a spirit or cause it severe pain or damage but instead would smack away the taint that surrounded the core of it’s being.

All of this meant that they were prepared when the spirit sent a spell flying their way with a screech that sounded like metal grinding on metal, while it was piercingly loud it did not scare either of the hardened Rune Knights. Instead it steeled them to the attack that was coming and a light blue cyan wall popped up, it was shaped like an astral brick and mortar and blocked the dusty brown swarm of magic locust that was aimed at the two no doubt gnawing at it like it would have gnawed at their flesh. Jolyne was more than prepared for her retort now.

505+505=1,010/2,000

It was a deadly dance that was performed, sickly brown and dark purple missiles flew across the field tendrilling this way and that as the fight got fully underway. The fight itself almost seemed choreographed due to how well Jolyne directed Inspector Nilan's defenses as she picked her shots. Unlike the ghost who's magical supply seemed unlimited Jolyne would only up to twelve tries if she quartered her spells. The river was alight with the two conflicting colors as they vied for dominance, their dance being broken by the shining of a blue wall if the two living could not position out of the way of the ghost. So far it was relatively even but Jolyne managed to tag the ghost grazing it's left arm and discoloring it. This emboldened her, not because it showed her that the ghost could go down but rather because it showed she could get rid of that awful pale dusty brown color that was making her want to vomit.

Jolyne began to get a bit more aggressive now and the fight changed from a dance as she stopped calling out and allowing Nilan to break from her as each tried to break the focus of the ghostly being. While Nilan did not have claws to strike the ghost with, it did not seem to know or care giving him just as much value as it gave Jolyne. Eventually this would come back to bite it in the butt as it got tagged on the right side of the bottom of it's floating ragged robes. The color soaked a bit further in this time as the ghost shrieked and began to chase after Jolyne completely ignoring Nilan at this point. Luckily Jolyne had been working on her speed as of late and the frantic specters attacks seemed a bit slow to her, not that she could fool around but they were just slow enough to allow her to evade for long enough to kite the shadow being back to Nilan where he could act as her shield once more.

From there the story repeated itself as almost a trenchlike warfare commenced with each side launching arcing long range attacks at the other before Jolyne suddenly leaped above Nilan's wall. The man gave a warning shout that was stopped short by the realization that the ghost was backing up and not in fact trying to send a bolt. While it had taken a long while it seemed that the thing was finally out of 'ammo'. Jolyne had seized on that and was now racing down towards the ghost with a line of purple energy now forming above her and then shooting ahead of her catching the ghost square in the back as it turned to flee.

The ghost fell to the ground and began to get soaked up by the purple color before changing to yet another one, which one Jolyne could not yet tell as it shimmered between multiple options all and none at the same time.

507+1,010=1,517

The trench coat was a much better shade of brown Jolyne thought to herself as the spirit finalized it's transformation. Like Jolyne's natural hair the male
spirit was a blonde and he also had green eyes like her as well. This did quite a bit to evoke sympathy from her but not as much as the transformation in the first place. She had not even known that it was possible but she was glad that it was. It showed that positive change could happen even after death and that was a very reassuring idea to the Rune Knight. Jolyne truly enjoyed the idea that any sort of positivity could be brought about on that day, she had not expected it to be possible when she woke up.

It was after the change that the Riverside spirit had run towards the collapsed spirit rejoicing and thanking Jolyne and Inspector Nilan. Apparently this other spirit had been a friend during life and had let's it's bitterness consume him and transform him in the first place. It was truly a sad tale that tugged at Jolyne's heart and swayed her emotions, though to be honest she had gotten out most of her ill feelings during the fight. The Rune Knight had always been good at dancing her feelings away as she called physical release of emotions.

The spirit thanked them and bid them to come closer eager to share a gift that he explained as they approached. It seemed that the spirit had the ability to recall memories and allow others to relive them. This was something Inspector Nilan jumped on to remember his wife and hold onto those feelings again. While Jolyne could not blame the man she could not agree with him either and as such she declined the spirits offer.

To the woman, one must not dwell on the past, it was better to move on and let go. She feared how reliving those memories would just refreshed the hurt on something she could never fix. It was better to move on and change than hold onto old hurt in her opinion but she could not blame anyone who chose the other option and she placed her hand on Inspector Nilan's shoulder as he came back to the present.

Instead of being sad however Nilan was quite overjoyed and began to furiously scribble down notes, it was soon appearant to Jolyne that he was jotting down memories he had forgotten. The Rune Knight decided not to interrupt her fellow guild member until he began to speak and relive a bunch of memories as he wrote them down. It was beautiful.

Nilan rewarded her, hopefully the last time for this particular bend of the river. Hopefully the two spirits here could protect and allow new growth to thrive in this section of the forest. It would be a beautiful legacy for the two to leave behind Jolyne thought to herself. Either way she took her leave then from the three new friends she had made in Orchidia.

512+1,517=2,029/2,000