What I thought I needed was something that was absolutely, and without any possibility of misinterpretation, true.

“I took an oath to uphold the laws of Faircrest”

The phantom’s expression darkened. If I had breath to spare, I may have cursed. The softy luminous form didn’t immediately attack, but its companions circled closer. 

Partial truth, apparently. How was this fair?

“I took an oath to uphold the laws of Faircrest, which applies right now”, I blurted out quickly. That seemed to be OK.

It was rare that I missed Effren, but I thought he might be better at this.

Through my chattering teeth I tried to channel my inner wizard.

“I know it unusual for me to be crossing the wall…”. This elicited a small nod. “And I can’t fly …” Which resulted in a ghostly frown.

Was it my imagination, or was it getting colder?

In summary, I had to explain my situation to a cloud of suspicious ghosts who had the power to freeze me if they didn’t like the story. It had to be completely true and totally relevant to the current situation.

“Ok, ghost guys, let’s do this. I am under an oath to uphold the laws of Faircrest. I do not have explicit permission to be here on this wall, but neither have I been in any way ordered not to be. Given a free choice I would have gone through the gates this afternoon, however due to a very strict interpretation of the rules I was not able to. I very much need to be in Faircrest and I fear people will die if I do not get there.
“You correctly spotted my injury. Normally I would rest or seek healing, but in this case I cannot. The best healer I know is in Faircrest and also happens to be one of the people I am trying to keep from dying.
“Whatever you are going to do, make it quick because I’m losing blood and the col will probably kill me soon.
“So, boys, what’s it to be?”