Knowledge is power

With the wind at your back and a fervent drive, you race home faster than you can ever remember your legs taking you. Your parents and their guests are immediately worried seeing your return, covered in sweat and panting heavily.

"Fiana, flower, what's wrong?" Your father Yuliy asks "What happened at the castle!?"

"I figured it out" You say between heaving breaths "I know what's been affecting the king. He's been haunted."

"Haunted?" Bruce asks "By ghosts, and the like? How is that even possible?"

"I don't know" You shake your head as you sit down to recuperate "But I'm certain of it. It looked like a Banshee. She must have been sucking the life right out of the king. She ran off after she revealed herself. I have no idea where she went, or how to prevent her from coming back, but she nearly killed the King before she left. If she returns, I'm sure that she'll finish the job."

"Wow, okay" Kraig replied as he and the others joined you at the table "That means we have to work pretty quick. Where do we even start?"

"Well, first question to me, is how do you kill something that's already dead?" James adds in "I mean, they're not physical beings. Imagine swords don't really do the trick on them, and none of us are really the egghead magic types"

Your father taps the table with one finger "You're half right on that. Excuse me, one moment" As he gets up, walking as fast as his aged body could take him.

You and your companions look at each other for a brief moment in further confusion. "Well, what else do we need to know, and what else do we already know?"

Bruce is the one to speak up first "Ghosts, banshees and like come from either unburied dead, from disturbed graves, things like that." His voice turned a little more grave, his speech a little slower "Every time we had a battle, we made damned sure the dead were put to rest, lest we have to fight our own friends"

"Well, that surely wasn't the case here" James was fast to jump in, causing Bruce to roll his eyes "I mean, I can understand us being careless and dumb enough to not bury our dead, but elves? That's crazy talk, isn't it?"

"Indeed it is my young friend" Yuliy returned carrying a large book "Banshees can come about in other ways" He plops his heavy book down and opens to a marked page. "It says here that Banshees and other spirits can be born from great strife."

"Okay, what does that mean?" James asks

"It says that if a soul with a strong will feels that they have not accomplished all they were meant to fulfill, or that if they were greatly wronged in life, that they will return after dead, and be a blight against whoever among the living wronged them."

"So, we at least have a motive, I guess. The king killed somebody he wasn't supposed to, and is paying the cost." Kraig inserted a snide comment "Can think of a few human kings that deserve that kind of fate."

"It doesn't have to be killing" Your father refuted "And the person haunted doesn't have to be responsible. If the dead thinks that person was the cause of their **** and misery, that can be sufficient."

"Well, that doesn't give us a lot to go on, but it's a start" You chime in, having gotten your breath back. "We still need to know how to defeat it. Swords and arrows aren't going to work against a spirit."

"Magically enchanted ones will" Yuliy commented, looking through his book. "Any weapon that has been enchanted with magical properties will affect a banshee or spirit as if it were alive."

"One problem leads to another" Bruce crosses his arms and leans in his chair "What are we supposed to do about that? Enchantment takes time, and money, and we're short on both."

"I have an idea" James added. These four words were all it took for Bruce to sit back up in his seat.

"No." His answer was loud and short, with no room to equivocate.

"Come on Bruce, what other option do we have right now?"

"We are not stealing!" Bruce laid his hands heavy on the table "Besides, you don't even know where to start looking"

"Sure we do." Kraig added "After we tended to the horses, we did a little exploring. There's a museum or whatever not far from here. Sure looked like there was a few weapons in there we could use"

"The Hall of Kings" Yuliy added in, speaking grimly "The favored weapons of all the great Elven Kings, of ages past are laid there. He had a sour look on his face.

"Absolutely not! We are not stealing ancient elven weapons from the dead! This is what causes the problem we're having! Get it out of your mind James! We'll find some other way."

Yuliy put his hand on the humans shoulder "Your friends are right, I'm afraid." He spoke softly and quietly, the pained calm brought Bruce down from his ideological rage "If there's a Banshee that is tormenting our poor king, than I see no better way to slay it than with the weapons of past Kings." He smiles gently "Your secrets are good with me, gentlemen. If you return what you borrow in order to vanquish this threat, you will all be seen as heros." He slowly gets up from the table "I'm sure I'm needed elsewhere".

Bruce sighs in resignation "Fine. That's what we're doing, than so be it. How do you plan on breaking in?"

"Don't worry, I have a plan for that too..."