Have you ever seen a haunt, Mullein?” he asked, wrenching me back into the room.

“I…I…a haunt?” I repeated. “As in a wraith?”

“Or anything of the sort,” he nodded.

“But what does that have to do with-” I closed my mouth before I could finish, having almost said “Maudlin?” and instead said “No. No, I don’t think so; or at least if I have, I didn’t recognize it as one.”

“They can be hard to spot sometimes, especially if the interactions are short,” he nodded knowingly.

“Have you?” I asked, looking up from the table at him in some surprise.

“I…I don’t know,” he hummed, narrowing his eyes at me and tugging his beard. “I may be in the same boat as you: if I have, I didn’t know it as a haunt. You know how they form, don’t you? Or how some of them form, at least?”

“Ghosts are beyond the help of healers, I’m afraid, so I’m sure I don’t.”

“So am I!” he laughed. “We have that in common too. But a haunt forms – or may form – from crystallized thought, be it of folk or – less commonly – other sorts of creatures. Do you follow me?”

“What is ‘crystallized thought?’” I asked.

The Statue’s Guiding Star is a Christmas story, a novella in which a healer’s apprentice is charged with the care of a patient who proves odder and odder with each visit. The nature of his illness – and indeed his very identity – confound poor Mullein until, being visited by a Star, he receives a glass through which he can see what others cannot. As always, I make my stories available for free online; if you like what you read and would like to donate to help me continue writing, however, you can send the money via PayPal to zachary@knottyingrabbit.com.