"How is this possible?"
The Jester's game had ended, that much was certain. The castle's mechanisms had all run their course. A projection left behind after the fact made no sense.
Unless she wasn't a projection.
Same appearance, entirely different in nature.
A wraith, something like Rick, a person who had died under the weight of overwhelming emotion and refused the river's passage, remaining in the world as a residue of what they'd felt, human grief hardened into something that qualified as a Demon.
"...Once the Alp's Shadow business is handled, I'll come back for this."
He exhaled quietly, turned back to the driver, offered a few words in response to whatever he'd just been saying, and thanked him genuinely for coming back despite everything.
The city appeared around them before long. He said goodbye at the curb and walked back to the guesthouse.
He was halfway down the hallway when he heard voices. He put his back to the wall and looked.
