Sorrow, sorrow deep, painful and foreboding. Sorrow so oppressive that it pressed down on Li's soul. Along with the sorrow came anger, the anger of the unheard, the ignored, fury so bottled up that it exploded forth like an infected boil left to fester. Sorrow and anger, intertwined so finely together and all contained in one long, shrill shriek.

Li doubled over in pain clutching at his ears uselessly as if that would block the haunting scream that echoed in his skull. Ms Alaniz seemed to hear the same mournful shriek because she too was doubled over in pain. Caleb was saying something, arms full of assorted stain-glass and ceramics, but Li couldn't hear him.

After a few seconds gathered up enough sense to regain control of the seance. He reached out and rubbed off a section of the chalk, very grateful he hadn't used a sharpie, and ended the scream. The emotions still lingered, coiling within him and gnawing at his soul, but it was bearable.

He collapsed, nearly smacking his face on the wooden floor - how embarrassing. Ms Alaniz was similarly affected but recovered faster. "Li. What was that?"

"Something bad, something really bad happened here." Li panted as he rose unsteadily to his feet. The exhaustion is thick and heavy on his soul but not new.

"What are you talking about?" Caleb asked as he reverently placed the stained glass bits and bobs back in their places.

"You left the circle, so you didn't hear it, but we did. It was... a shriek," Li explained as he collapsed onto the soft old couch. "I think someone died here."

Ms Alaniz left the Manor as fast as physically possible (Li could hardly blame her), stumbling out the front door with promises to come back the next morning. Li wasn't so lucky, because he had, foolishly, promised to stay the night. The summoning circle had left him dizzy, splayed out on the chaise like a 19th-century fainting damsel.

"Are you going to be okay?" Caleb asked as he walked back into the parlour from the kitchen. He was coming from the Manor's ancient kitchen with a tray of herbal tea.

"Yeah. I'm used to it by now." Li smiled faintly as Caleb poured him a glass of herbal tea - chamomile, ginger, honey and the faintest whiff of something Li couldn't place. "Thank you."

"Your welcome," Caleb said as he poured his own cup. It was an old set, with a multi-coloured stained glass rim and handle, which Caleb had found in the Manor cupboards. "It's chamomile, ginger and honey - helps with magic fatigue."

"Old family recipe?" Li asked. Caleb sat on the across from him, letting Li get a good look at him for the first time. He was a handsome man, which Li was surprised he hadn't noticed before. He was tall and sun-kissed with warm forest green eyes that reflected and refracted light like curved glass and golden hair that fell in overgrown waves.

Li only noticed he was staring a bit too long when Caleb cleared his throat and poured himself a cup. "My godmother taught me," Caleb answered. He had a faint accent that Li couldn't pinpoint, something Southern perhaps? "There's an Italian place nearby; I'm ordering. Want anything?"

"Garlic bread?"

"On it."

Caleb placed the order quickly and drained his cup of tea. After basking in the silence for a few minutes and gathering his strength, Li sat up and poured himself another cup.

"Do you believe in ghosts?" Li asked, even though he already knew the likely answer. Might as well get the elephant out of the room before it got in the way.

"No."

"Not even after what you just saw and what we heard?"

"I didn't hear anything."

"Because you left the circle."

"It could just be an Echo of old magic; Happens all the time," Caleb explained.

"You're a literal wizard, why's it so difficult to believe ghosts are real?"

"Those are two different things." Caleb sighed. "Miss Alaniz heard rumours of this place being haunted and insisted on checking if that's true. She's my client, so I respect her wishes, but that doesn't mean I have to buy into... this." He said the last word with an obvious hint of disdain.

"Fine." Li relented. "So you're a real estate agent? Or something like that. Ms Alaniz wasn't clear." Ms Alaniz spoke in winding riddles and large pauses, typical for someone who was centuries old and unmoored from time.

"I'm a historian; I work with ancient and magical artefacts and properties," Caleb explained. "Ms Alaniz inherited this place from a distant cousin, but she has no use for it. My firm wants to convert this place into a museum."

Li couldn't sleep. Not only was he not tired, but he was also full of energy current of magic ran under his skin, looking for an exit. Maybe Caleb's tea had worked too well, but Li was buzzing with energy. He rolled out of bed, fumbled around for his glasses and his satchel. He was in the Manor's master bedroom, which like every other room, was full of stained glass and porcelain and all manner of old and fragile things Li was too scared to touch.

Opposite the bed is a giant portrait of a curly-haired woman in a plain white frock, her dark wide eyes seemed to follow Li around the room, giving him the creeps.

He left the overly extravagant room, pausing in the hallway. Caleb is in the room opposite him, likely fast asleep. Li debated waking him up; On one hand, Caleb should probably be there too see the spirit with his own two eyes (if Li was lucky, conjuring an FBA isn't easy) but on the other hand, it was almost three, and he was probably fast asleep. Before Li made up his mind, the door creaked open, and Caleb peeked through, wavy locks scattered.

"Hey." He squinted. "Why are you up?"

"I'm going to try summoning again. I wasn't sure if you'd want to be woken up."

"I can't sleep anyway." Caleb stepped into the hallway, running his fingers through his hair, doing nothing to sort out the mess (Li may be spending too much time focusing on Caleb's hair).

"What's wrong? Are you feeling a presence?" Li asked, wiggling his fingers in the air.

Caleb rolled his eyes but laughed. "No. I'm just buzzing; the magic here's weird."

"Same here," Li teased. "Because of the ghosts."

"Again, old houses have weird magic," Caleb said as they walked down the dark hallway. The top floor of the house had no electricity, so all the lights were out. Li wasn't exactly graceful in broad daylight, and he had a hard time keeping up with Caleb, so he was nearly tripping every few feet.

Caleb must have noticed because he slowed and snapped his fingers, creating a bright ball of fire in his palm to light up the halfway, which was lucky since they were approaching the stairs.

"I've never met a Spellcaster who's this calm around fire." Spellcasters were extremely flammable, like tinder to flame, so they were raised with a very healthy fear of it.

"I wasn't raised to fear it," Caleb answered as they began to descend the stairs, as if he read Li's mind. After a beat of silence, it was clear he had no intention to elaborate, but he hadn't shut down the conversation, so Li kept talking.

"How come?"

"Human parents."

That answer made Li swallow his next question because Spellcasters weren't just born to human parents. Unsavoury sacrifices, infidelity or perhaps something much less dramatic than the scenarios Li's buzzing mind conducted were likely at play. That simply wasn't the kind of thing you asked an almost stranger about at 3 AM in the morning.

"Is there any truth to the whole 3 AM' witching hour' thing?" Li asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Oh, that's rather interesting actually. 3AM has no magical significance, but in the middle ages Spellcasters would gather before dawn, possibly around three, to cast large spells that needed lots of people." Caleb explained. He was smiling now, exposing a dimple in his right cheek. The smile was a lot like the one he'd sported while giving Ms Alaniz the tour of the place. He must really love history.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and arrived at the living room from earlier, trading questions about the other's profession the whole way. Even though Caleb didn't believe in ghosts, he was curious about the process, asking Li questions as he repaired the summoning circle and lit the candles again.

"What's the point of the circle?"

"It focuses the magic into one spot."

"What are the candles for?"

"The scent helps me concentrate, and they reinforce the circle's power."

There was a beat of silence then Caleb asked a question Li was surprised hadn't come up sooner.

"Have you actually ever seen a ghost?"

"Constantly, they're almost everywhere, out in the streets mostly. Some are obviously a little harder to find than others."