I blinked, losing my concentration at the shock of the spirit's words. What was it talking about? Why would it have my aunt? How could it think I could believe it?

"That's ridiculous. I'm not some untrained first year, to fall for that sort of thing." Though my words were brave, my hands were starting to shake, and my heart was racing. I was glad that the spirit was Sideways, and couldn't witness how it had affected me.

The spirit . . . laughed, and it would have even been a pleasant laugh, in a different context. But the assurance behind it chilled my blood far more than its earlier threat had.

||So you don't care what happens to your family? What a pious daughter you are||

Despite my fear, I forced myself to answer clearly and calmly, "I am the seventh daughter, a spare among spares, but I will not stand by and let my family suffer. But you are Sideways, and cannot reach them as long as the door is closed." 

At least, as far as I knew, no spirit was powerful enough to reach them while Sideways.

||Fool, do you think my threats are idle? I have your aunt's soul here lying spirit-touched, and she will die here anyway, parted from her body for so long.||

I gasped, I couldn't help myself, and the spirit laughed again. But I still had one objection, and I clenched my fists, determined to think first, for once. "If you could possess her, couldn't you open the door on your own?"

||If only it were so easy. But you should know, little one, that the door is well warded from  attacks on the inside. Though I could, as I have threatened, sacrifice your aunt to break the wards on the door, I would prefer to bargain, and to keep lesser souls out of my business. We both know what would happen if the door wards disappeared . . .||

My mind was racing, trying to process everything I had heard. Unfortunately, the spirit was correct; if it really did have my aunt, it could merge with her and use her living soul to potentially break the wards on the door. 

While I didn't know the door bindings and wards too well (history is also not my best subject), a human sacrifice and a few key glyphs was a good way to break most things.

Broken wards, unfinished bindings, and an open door; that was how the world had almost ended over a thousand years ago. That was why the Tiger King was revered as a hero and not forgotten as a tragedy. Our three kingdoms, no, the entire world, would have likely been taken by ghosts and destroyed if the Tiger King hadn't formed the Ministry of Afterlife Affairs, my own order being part of that.

We owed him and his warriors everything.

||Little speaker, I grow impatient||

I rolled my eyes, as part of me still didn't believe the threats were possible to carry out. "If you're Sideways, you've already been waiting a while anyhow. Not that time, er, flows the same." I wasn't certain, but that sounded correct. I really should have studied more, I thought, forgetting the spirit could still hear my thoughts, unless I specifically locked it out.

The spirit was laughing again. 

||While you are a refreshing break from the overly learned monastics I usually sense, you are correct to assume I've been waiting. Centuries, biding my time, and I swear to you on my True Name, I am telling the truth. Do you want to be the one who destroyed the world, or not?||

"It won't be me," I snapped, my thoughts spinning into disarray all over again.

The spirit could still be lying. The problem was, there was no way for me to know without going Sideways myself to investigate. There were thousands of rules about that, and proper procedure, and the fact that Speakers never did it. 

If anyone found out, I'd be sent back a rank, or worse, derobed and dishonorably shipped home in disgrace to my already unimpressed parents. They'd long ago repurposed my room, and they hadn't even written to me since the last Lantern Festival.

What did I have to lose by going Sideways? 

Everything that mattered to me. 

What did I have to lose if the spirit was telling the truth? Everything for me and for everyone else.

||Yes|| the spirit agreed, and there was cold certainty in its voice. It was no longer trying to tempt or persuade me.

||You will lose everything you love and everything you could ever love. And so will the rest of the world, if they cannot stop the flow of spirits in time. And there are many here waiting and hungry. Part of me is tempted to break the door seal just to watch them consume the world||

Rage. Repressed like a candle snuffed out a moment after being lit. I sensed it in the spirit's voice. And I knew it was telling the truth, in this at least, with a certainty I hadn't yet felt. Whatever its motives, it was deadly, and it did want my world to burn. 

So why didn't it follow through? If it truly had my aunt's body, it could have just gone directly to that step, instead of bothering to contact me or any others. So did it not have her after all, as I suspected?

||Now you're thinking cleverly, but your time, and hers, is running out. You're right to fear me, to mistrust me, little Speaker. But I want revenge. And a horde of rampaging spirits would work too quickly and efficiently for my satisfaction||

"Okay, I'll do it," I said quickly, so it would stop before I regretted this even more. "I'll let you out. But on my terms. So don't hurt anyone."

With that, I severed the connection, as rudely as slamming a door in someone's face, but I had no reason to be polite to a spirit threatening me and my world.

It didn't matter if it was lying or not, you see. I had to know. I had to go, and I knew that any other novice or Reverence would be duty-bound to stop me. And what if the Spirit was lying? Well, I'd just have to find out when I got there.