Kaylin glanced at Teela; her eyes were now as dark as the Consort’s. Neither woman spoke. Kaylin, uncomfortable with the indigo silence, chose to fill it. “Her name is known in the Academia. One of the librarians and at least one of the scholars were involved with her when she was a student there. She’s old,” Kaylin added, as if it needed to be said. “I did attempt to ignore her name when investigating what is definitely a cold kidnapping case and a...questionable series of murders. Of children.

“But she used to own a house that no longer stands on the lot; it’s vanished, almost as if it never existed. She owned that house less than one of our centuries ago. If you believe she was executed, you believe she’s dead. But we have reason to think that she was not, in fact, dead when she signed the deed for a house that mostly doesn’t exist.

“It’s possible that someone signed her name with appropriate identification—forgeries exist and some are quite good.”

“There is a reason,” the Consort said, her words stretched and thin, “that you do not believe that to be the case.”

“There’s more than one.” Kaylin glanced at Teela, who didn’t give her the stink eye which meant, Stop speaking right now. “The first: I can see the ghost of a house when my familiar places his wing over my eyes. It seems to fade in and out, but the outlines are clear and they’re nothing like the small house that currently stands on that property.

“I’ve had some experience with buildings that are not-quite-there, the most recent being the Academia. I’ve also had experience with the students and teachers who’d been trapped there since the Towers rose to ring the fiefs.

“The house I can see only with Hope’s aid isn’t a normal building. The events that have occurred in the small house that seems to have replaced it are...not normal events. Teela didn’t care,” she added, sliding more firmly into Elantran, which did earn the stink eye, “until we were investigating the small house.”

“You were searching for signs, then.”

“That’s not why we escorted the current owner home, no. She’s had some trouble with a bullying neighbor, and while she’s generally considered dotty, she’s harmless and she bakes for the Hawks.

“But the neighbor was stricken at the sight of Teela—a reaction many Hawks would sympathize with. It’s just...he thought she was someone else, and he fell to his knees groveling and weeping. He was apologizing for losing something precious, which he believed his elderly neighbor must have stolen.

“His behavior was so...wrong.” Kaylin grimaced. “There’s more, but technically we’re not supposed to talk about ongoing investigations.”

“You refer to the elderly woman’s stated ability to see ghosts?”