Xaviers!

"Something I heard in a dream once," Wanda says, "I think it had something to do with the cycle of life and death."

"Well I know one thing for certain. I'm not alive."

"Not now, no," Sean said, "But all the memories of your past life are still there. They don't go anywhere. More like vestigial organs that don't have a use, but you still carry around with you."

"That may not be entirely true. Remembering past lives could tie you into who you were. A sympathetic connection of sorts."

"Like how I felt draw to Sean without knowing him?"

"Drawn to Sean? How so?"

"I'm not sure. I just felt his presence somehow."

"That would certainly sound like a connection of some sort."

"Some sort, yes," Sean said, "Rather disconcerting for somebody not expecting it. The connection drew me across the veil to her and probably helped with me bringing her here when she was in danger."

"None of my past lives seem to have any obvious connections to him though. I mean even the most recent one... 'ended' before he was even born."

"The connection was strong enough to pull you across the veil?"

"No, he cast a spell. And I... don't think I was in the afterlife. At least I sure hope I wasn't because if that's where everyone ends up..." Now there is a flash of cold, like a sudden gust through a window that was left open.

Wanda blinks at the sudden cold, "If that's the world's response to its mention, it's unlikely that that's what it is."

"What makes you so certain about that?"

"Just a feeling," Wanda responds, "Although I suppose the afterlife could make the world turn cold, depending on one's religion."

"No, I think I prefer your gut reaction. You can hear me, so you must be doing something right. Are you a sorcerer like Sean? You're not a psychopomp, I don't think..."

"Not exactly either of those things. It's... kind of complicated and I'm still trying to feel my way through it."

"I'm starting to see why there's some many dusty old tomes full of contradictory stuff about these things."

"Because magic is messy at best," Sean said, "And a complete bloody travesty of over complication most of the time."

"And he's the expert." Hannah says, turning towards Sean. And as she does the movement gives her strange ephemeral contour in Wanda's senses more definition. Not in a way she might expect though. The turning seems to spin outwards for a moment and encompass an area that's much too vast for the room, yet simultaneously condensed into the humanoid shape of the ghost. And it feels familiar. Like a cavern covered in vines that grow in strange, almost runic patterns.

Wanda blinks as she takes that all in. She's had some time to read up on the Chamber and while she doesn't know if that's what she was in, the image of that room itself is firmly entrenched in her head. "Sean, what were you doing when you first met Hannah?"

Sean was quiet for a moment as he tried to recall exactly what he'd been doing.

"First time I saw her I was drinking coffee in the XUB with Natalie," Sean said, "First time I met her was in Braddock Manor using a mirror after working on deciphering a spell. I thought she was in danger so I brought her here because I'd been where she was and had been attacked by some kind of creature."

Wanda looks at him and then back at Hannah then back at him. "How did you bring her across? I assume a spell of some sort. Are you sure she's a ghost?"

"The Key of Nebuchadnezzar," Sean said, "Which is why I'll admit that I'm not entirely sure she's a single ghost. She might be an amalgamation of a multitude of ghosts or something else entirely created as a result of her being murdered so many times."

Sean paused for a moment thinking how to explain.

"The Key isn't... as simple as a summoning spell. It's more like the origin point from which summoning all spells were poorly copied. It can write things into existence or bring them through the gates."

Wanda's eyes narrow slightly, but she reigns it in. "That makes a bit of this make more sense then. Maybe. Not totally sure yet."

"Can you think of a way to be certain?" Sean asked. "I've tried some things and had McManus meet her. None of it has resulted in anything conclusive just ever more mysteries."

"What happened when Sam met her? I mean... how was Sam acting?"

"How was she acting?" Sean asked thinking for a moment. "Normal-ish? For her I mean, but she had a strong reaction to her because she's dead and well, because Sam says that Hannah's is out of place."

Sean paused.

"She said Hannah is well herself, but almost as if she was stitched together and that I may or may not have been the one to do the stitching. That some parts of her are far older than I am, but that she was also connected to me somehow. There were lots of maybes, possiblys, and such. I also followed up on some of her previous deaths, trying to see if there was some sort of pattern... which got me involved in a fight in a swamp with a creature."

"So she did trigger a reaction like the vampires did," Wanda says, tapping her chin. "Sorry to talk like you're not here, Hannah. Just thinking things out."

"Not quite so violent of one," Sean said, "Though maybe that's because Hannah's not a whole hive of vampires."

"For a giant swarm of birds she was pretty nice, really. Bit scary, but I don't think she meant to be."

Wanda makes a thoughtful noise. "This... bears some thinking," she says as she goes back to cleaning up the mess.

Sean joined back into help cleaning.

"You're welcome to look through my books if you think they'll help. Maybe you'll see something I didn't," Sean smiled.