"But I cost.all of you your lives!"
Lord Soterius shook his head. "Our lot was cast as soon as Jared took the crown. He'd have come for us one way or t'other. Bricen and I were too close for him to dare let me live."
Tae, Ban's sister, was as beautiful in death as she had been in life, with long, chestnut hair and wide brown eyes. Coalan had her curly hair and her smile. Danne's broad shoulders shook with tears. Coalan looked too grief-stricken to cry as his sisters and brothers crowded around him. To the side, Anyon spoke in low tones with the dozens of servants whose ghosts rose from the fields and the wreckage of the manor house. Tris glanced at Mikhail. The vayash moru stood apart, out of respect for the family's grief. And while Mikhail shed no tears, Tris thought that the vayash moru looked more troubled than Tris had ever seen him. He wondered about Mikhail's own long-lost ghosts.
After a while, the voices grew silent. Lord Soterius's ghost left the knot of family gathered around Ban and approached Tris.
"Would you go to your rest now?" Tris asked.
Lord Soterius looked back at his wife, who nodded, and to Tae, who stood between Danne and Coalan with a ghostly arm around each. "We've had some time to think about this. Anyon and Danne told us about your being a Summoner and all. We talked it over and we're agreed. We'd like to stay on, watch over the place. If that's all right with the new lord of the manor," he said with a wink toward Ban.
Ban Soterius exchanged glances with Danne and Coalan, and then took a step toward his father.
"This will always be your home," Ban promised. "I didn't dare ask, but yes, I want you to stay."
Tris fought a pang of remembered pain, recalling his own sorrow as his mother and sister parted from him forever, choosing their rest with the Lady. In Coalan's eyes, Tris could see a measure of peace, and the boy managed a sad smile. "Please stay," Coalan said quietly.
"Then be at peace here," Tris said. "I can't give you back your lives, but I can grant you the ability to be seen." He gestured, and fiery letters wrote themselves on the manor house wall, glowing without smoke, and fading to become unmarked stone once more. "I'll leave a sigil so that you can make yourselves seen when you wish."
Lord Soterius knelt, as did his sons and the ghosts of his servants. "As I was to your father, so also to you, my king," the spirit said, reaching out as if to take Tris's hand and kiss his signet ring in fealty.
"Thank you," Tris said. "And thank you for your loyalty to Bricen. He was never happier than here at Huntwood, in pursuit of a great stag!"