(2026-06-20) That's A Ghost

Details

Author:	Luridel
Summary:	Guess who's haunted? Celaven's haunted! Alaisa has some recommendations. ~1.2k words.
Rating:	T for Teen

After delivering her verbal report to Admiral Taylor and being formally dismissed, Alaisa beckons Celaven aside. "Hey. Got a minute?"

Celaven looks at Alaisa in faint surprise, but nods and steps over toward her. "Are you well? You weren't injured in the camp? I didn't notice any harm, or I would have acted."

"I'm not hurt." Alaisa leads him over to the fencing atop the hill, behind the tents, and she sits down on the top rail of the wooden fence, balancing with her feet on the bottom rail. "Who's your friend?"

Celaven follows without hesitation and sits next to her on the fence, but then turns to her in confusion. "My friend?"

"Yeah." Alaisa turns her head to look at someone Celaven cannot seem to see. "Who are you? Can you speak to me?"

Celaven turns to follow her gaze, the confusion fading into something more like apprehension.

There's a faint shadow behind them, not cast by the fence or any other object nearby. At Alaisa's words, the shadow darkens in her gaze, shifting unstably into a tall, kaldorei form. The form doesn't quite hold, and the face doesn't come clear. Celaven continues staring at the spot, though he may not be seeing exactly what Alaisa is at this minute.

"The shadow," Celaven says quietly. "You see it, too?"

"That's a ghost, I'm pretty sure," Alaisa says. "But he's distorted. I can't see his face. He can't really hold his form." She tilts her head, directing her attention back to Celaven. "And he's been very quiet."

"I think…" Celaven pauses, staring at the shadow. "I think it is… my biological father." He pauses, then adds quickly, "Not Caspis, he's well and alive, obviously, and he's the one that I truly consider to hold that role for my life."

"You were talking about that earlier, I remember," Alaisa says. "Hmm." She drums her fingers on the side of the fence in thought. "You're probably right. How did he die?"

"I'm honestly not sure," Celaven says, turning away from the shadow to face Alaisa. "It was during the war campaign at the Molten Front, last year. I would have been nearby, but I wasn't there. My mother Anareline and father Caspis would know, but I didn't ask for details. I had dreams of him trying to talk to me, and then later… talking to me. I wrote it off as a strange reaction of grief for a while, and then consulted with someone to make sure it was not a trick of the void, and then… it is, truly, a spirit?"

Alaisa nods. "As far as I can tell, yeah, that's a ghost. I could touch him - that might help stabilize him enough for you to see him - if that's what you want, but I don't know if he'll be friendly or not. There's something odd about him, and not the usual 'traumatic death' sort of odd. I'm not actually an expert, or an exorcist."

"He was never very friendly, so I can't imagine he would start now," Celaven says dryly, and then gives a low sigh. "I'm not sure if that would help or not, to be honest. It might be that he wants something from me? But I couldn't imagine what, after all these years. Do you often see ghosts?"

Alaisa laughs. "I always have. Some places are more crowded than others, obviously, so I suppose whether I see them often or not depends on where I am." She smiles at him, but her expression grows more serious. "You shouldn't ignore this one. If you don't confront him soon, he might confront you."

"That sounds like a valuable talent," Celaven says, looking at her with curiosity. "Though I imagine a difficult one sometimes, in times of war."

He falls silent for a moment, and then says, "I'm not entirely sure how to do that. The dreams have… changed in tone, since I've come to Pandaria. I don't see him when I'm awake, though. There's just the feeling of being watched, and sometimes the shadows look wrong."

"Well, your options range from trying to put his soul to rest to trying to destroy him, depending on your ethical beliefs. I know that vengeance is one of the aspects of Elune. I don't know how terrible of a father he was." Alaisa shrugs. "I won't judge either way."

"For me, he was mostly… absent," Celaven says, sitting in thought. "He made some particularly bad decisions in his life, which is why Caspis calls him unworthy. And why they killed him — he was with the Druids of the Flame. But I am not Elune's aspect of vengeance. Whatever their mistakes in life, I feel that every soul should have the right to move on to what comes after."

"And there aren't rites you know as a member of Elune's clergy to put a soul to rest?" Alaisa taps her cheek in thought. "You could always ask one of Cobalt Company's priests or paladins. I know that Ben Hazan, Colson Aspenwood, and Erixa are currently in Pandaria, and as for priests there's Ismene Hazan, Brannagen Stillwall, Estel Herald, Almeiria Fey, Mordecai Aspenwood, and Jenzelle Halveris out here."

"As a member of Elune's clergy," Celaven falls silent again, more in the manner of the older kaldorei. Then, he continues, "There are two things, perhaps, that are in my way in this matter. For all that I felt called by the Mother Moon, I was not welcome in the sisterhood of Elune. I spent five hundred years learning how to heal, learning what scraps of knowledge I could from an order that I believed would never find me sufficient. It was… a wonderful surprise, when that proved false. Still, I have been a member of Elune's clergy for less than a decade, and I don't doubt that I am not privy to some of the secrets and mysteries."

"The other thing is death," Celaven says. "I have seen very little of it, until these most recent years. My people were immortal, and while the druids may have had their ideas of the cycle of life, it was a thing we observed from the outside. There were deaths, of course, illnesses and accidents and crime, but mortality was not so much a part of our life as… as I suppose it is now. So yes, I do know some basic rites to honor the dead in memorial, but my knowledge of ghosts and spirits begins and ends with wisps." He sighs. "It might be wise for me to speak to one of Cobalt's experts in the matter."

Alaisa sighs, nodding. "I understand. Five hundred years, wow. Well, that's no wisp. He seems… scared?" She thinks for a moment. "She's not in Pandaria that I'm aware of, and I don't know her age, but Cobalt Company does have a Kaldorei priestess - Kaladris Nightsong."

"Scared," Celaven repeats, looking into the distance. "What little I knew of him in life, he always seemed so… certain." He shakes his head and turns back to Alaisa. "I do know Miss Fey, and have met some of the others, though not Miss Nightsong. Maybe the best thing to do will be to hire someone from Cobalt to help. I would not want my spirit problems to interfere, either in our work for Taylor or my work with the 7th."

Alaisa looks sympathetic. "Well, I wish you success with it. Ande'thoras-ethil, Celaven."

"Sha'ha lorma," Celaven says, falling easily into Darnassian. "En'shu falah nah, Alaisa."