I am the Ghost of the Deaqui.It was a horrible thought, one that Cole had gone over many times in his mind. He stared at his hands. They seemed real enough. Not transparent, like a ghost's. But ghosts didn't exist, people said, but some still believed in them, all the same. If a dead man couldn't find his way to the Maker's side, they believed, then he would be forever adrift in a kingdom of shadow, looking over those who they'd left behind. But Cole didn't have anyone he'd left behind: they'd all died before him. Except for Abby. Cole could remember her screaming as he was taken from her.Someone new! The two guards walked down, one with a wart holding a crying girl, the other holding the light-stone and the keys. Wart-Nose gestured to Light-holder to open the cell door, so Cole wandered down to stand smack in the middle of their way. Without knowing that they did it, the guards walked around Cole, still dragging the struggling girl with them.She could see him. It was a fact, and for that reason alone, he needed her. His current blood wouldn't last for much longer. But the now-crying girl was so much like Abby. Cole's hand slipped into his pocket, bringing out the small, crumpled piece of paper in there, containing his little sister's neater writing. It was the last thing she'd given to him, and it had been accompanied by a yell of "Read this!" The note said;Dear Cole,I wanted you to know that I have always loved you, even when you were mad at everyone. If we ever get separated, I wanted you to know that I will be thinking of you the entire time.Your sister, AbbyHe quickly moved to the small girl's cell, unlocking it with a soft click. "I'm sorry," he said. "But I have to do it. I hope you don't mind." She whimpered, cowering underneath his shadow. "Don't worry," Cole told her. "I'm going to take the pain away." The girl visibly relaxed, and then Cole's knife stabbed through her body. He somehow managed to resist the urge to suck her body dry of blood, and then laugh, but he didn't do it. The guards had finally understood that someone had managed to take the keys away from them without their noticing, so they were tramping down the thin corridor in pursuit.But Cole wasn't worried. He'd met an older escapee, someone like him, who'd told him what it meant to have escaped. Then Cole had killed the older boy. It was just a ruthless, killing cycle. The men walked around Cole, as he'd thought they would. They didn't even realise that they were doing.Sometime later, Cole's thin body slipped through the deadly obstacles, avoiding them like an expert. In fact, he was an expert. The claw marks on the walls made his heart drop lower into his chest. If there were any other escapees... But there wasn't, and it wasn't doing him any good to be standing around moping. Oh no, by the great Maker of them all, he, Cole, would do things entirely for his own benefit, and no-one else's.But then Cole had that sudden urge to visit Abby, to see her happy face, to hold her small body once more. She would come here soon, he knew. The youngest mages brought here were ten, and Abby was eleven this November. That meant that she would be brought into here if she failed her test, but, knowing his sister, Cole knew that she would manage to fool the Templars and complete her test with top marks. If Abby was made into a Templar, she would have to try to hunt down all mages and bring them here.Pity that he had no more need for their blood. But a few more deaths wouldn't hurt the Templars. Indeed, if Cole killed a few more mages and wrote words in their blood, it would make more than half of the Templars feel scared of the dungeon and refuse to go down there. That meant that Cole could write a few more words in blood on the wall and no-one would want to come down here at all. Then all he needed to do was trick the guards still down here into walking right into their traps for the prisoners.The clawing mark on the wall was the only thing that told him he was in front of the lava pit. Young mages had tried to get out, but when they felt the floor below them starting to slide away, they would completely forget about their abilities and start clawing at the wall. The mages also forgot that if they had just waited for a few more minutes, either the Templar guards would've come or the lava trap would've sensed that there wasn't anyone near and it could hide itself again. As it did now. The trap now knew Cole even better than the Templars; he could control any trap to his will and had passed this way often.It was amazing, Cole thought. That the traps could actually sense people and like them. And it was. The trap stayed still the entire way through, and then Cole heard the voices. The guards were bringing in a new prisoner. He went to look, and as he went to look, he gasped and stared. No. It wasn't true. She couldn't be here. For the new prisoner was none other than Abby herself. And Cole didn't want to see her.