Mandoran grimaced. “Not the way to go about asking, Teela.”

Teela ignored him, her gaze welded to Kaylin’s as Kaylin leaned back into her chair and folded her arms.

“I can’t.”

“It’s a cold case—a very cold case, given the age of Records. It’s not part of your job. It’s not a duty assigned you. You can drop the investigation, and it’s in your best interests to do exactly that.” Had anyone else spoken the words, they might have been a threat. There was no threat in Teela’s voice.

“I can’t,” Kaylin repeated. “The ghosts are children.”

Teela raised a single brow. “Children who are already dead.”

Kaylin nodded, as they wouldn’t be ghosts otherwise. “They’ve been trapped in Mrs. Erickson’s house since before Mrs. Erickson was born. She saw them when she was a baby, a child, and an adult. She saw them after her husband died and she was left a widow. She’s old, and she’s the only person who could see them, until now.”

“Until you.”

Kaylin nodded. “I think it’s the marks, but it doesn’t matter. They can’t leave the house, and I’m not moving in there when Mrs. Erickson dies. Jamal—the kid who can physically throw things when he’s having a tantrum—hates visitors because he knows Mrs. Erickson isn’t going to be around for much longer, and he wants whatever time she has left.

“Part of the reason she visits the Halls of Law is to have stories about her day she can tell the kids. And I think the reason she’s afraid of dying is the kids. They’re trapped there.

“Look—I have these marks. I’ve seen a dead person before. I think the marks freed him. I think the reason I can see the kids is...I’m meant to free them. And it would bring Mrs. Erickson peace of mind, which she deserves.”

“Fine. That has nothing to do with Azoria. Figure out how to free the ghosts. Leave Azoria out of it. Azoria is dead. Her entire line was excised.”

Terrano whistled, which did nothing to lighten Teela’s mood.

“Dead? You’re certain?”

“As certain as I can be, yes.”

“How long ago?” Given the ignorance of Sedarias’s Barrani agents, it had to be a while. Which, given her name on Imperial property taxation Records, didn’t line up.

“Long ago,” Teela replied. “Long enough that the second Draco-Barrani war hadn’t started yet.”

“So—when you were a child.”

“Yes.”

“How do you even know the name, then?”

“I was a child in the High Halls,” Teela replied, her expression a wall.

“But I think Azoria is somehow tied into the fate of those children. If not Azoria, then someone who somehow made use of whatever it was she was studying. And I think whatever it was was not good.”