Insanity

[Brian]

"Er...."  Molly thinks about this.  "I believe so, but he'd never come to visit here."

[Rezantis]

"Oh?"

Nathan looks up from his rummaging.

"Why not?"

[Brian]

"I don't rightly know," Molly admits, frowning.  "You'd gone to visit him ... well, her, really ... at his estate, so you weren't strangers.  But he was a cousin of the royals, you know, so maybe it was just matters of state?"

[Rezantis]

Nathan chews on his lip.  "I don't really know enough right now to guess, annoyingly."

He goes back to rummaging through the room, not really expecting to find anything - "Let me know if you spot anything unusual, could you?"

[Brian]

"Oh, um."  She frowns, looking around.  "I surely will," she says, before she begins poking around at the bookshelves -- her hands going through the books easily.  After a few seconds of this, she releases a shrill of terror, and one of the books falls to the floor.

"Something!" she says in alarm, pointing at the book which has fallen to the floor -- open.  Between the pages ... in fact, some pages have been cut out to make room ... is what looks like a jade stone on a leather cord.  "It....  I touched it!"

[Rezantis]

Nathan's eyes widen in surprise as he watches this, and he bends down to pluck the stone from it's resting place.

"It . . . I guess this might be it?" he says somewhat dubiously, holding it near his eyes to inspect it.

[Brian]

"It?" Molly asks, peering at it.  "Cor, that's a pretty stone.  Not set in anything, though.  Was it going to be a gift, do you think?"

Looking closely, it's a very large, very bright piece of jade.  It's got no obvious markings or even scratches on it; it's merely wrapped tightly in the leather cord that it hangs from.

[Rezantis]

"I don't think so," Nathan says, "if you can touch it then there's something very strange about it."

He holds it out to Molly. "Try again?"

[Brian]

Molly cautiously reaches out, wincing as her fingers brush through Nathan's palm -- for a second.  When she plucks the jade, her fingertips brush across Nathan's skin, feeling not the least bit ethereal.  "Er, my," Molly says, looking more substantial and blushing, still clutching the stone.  Her eyes quickly dart away, then back.  "Am I alive again, then, Master Shuker?"

[Rezantis]

Nathan looks, unsurprisingly, pretty damn stunned; he's staring at the girl in surprise for several long seconds before he catches himself, his own cheeks heating up in embarassment.

"I . . . no idea," he says intelligently, "Do you, er, feel any different?"

[Brian]

Molly shakes her head.  "More solid, like," she says hesitantly, bending down and picking up the book that had fallen.  "But I feel all numb all over, still."

[Rezantis]

"I guess that would be too easy," Nathan holds out his hand, "Take my hand, though?  I'm curious."

[Brian]

Molly blushes very brightly at that, but enthusiastically does so.  Her hand is room temperature, but she feels solid enough.

[Rezantis]

"I guess that's something."

Nathan lets go after a moment, frowning as he thinks this over.

"I can see why someone would want this . . . but that much?  There must be something else to it."

Nathan catches himself. "Unless it's a ghost of some sort who wants it . . . then I can see it. Maybe?"

[Brian]

"Are you certain that this is it?" Molly asks, reluctantly offering the stone back to Nathan.