Sue had never seen Gloria like this. For the loime, she had always thought Gloria to be one of the stro people she knew. She knew full well her friend had some secrets, secrets ing her ability to fight ghosts, endure curses and corruption from paranormal entities. Since what happe the Fuman Coffin Home, she had thought of Gloria as a pilr of safety around her. Someone she could and sometimes must rely on.

  When Gloria was brought back by the members of the watd patrol team from the temple, she was in an almost catatonic state, and was only responding to basic signals like pointing of dires and others’ helpio not bump into walls.

  The iigator from the unity collective, Liwen Sima, told Sue that she o take care of Gloria and be careful for a few days before leaving Sue her taformation. Gyuu Park’s surprise passing was a shock to Sue as well - ohat she had hought would happen.

  Gloria threw herself into her bed, without saying anything. And Sue had to put a b on her so that she would not catch a cold. And with Gloria like this, she began to hesitate if she o cel or reschedule her regur meeting with Turner Ouyang.

  Shaking her head, Sue went into the kit and put a pot of water oove. Tea, and maybe some hot soup, that was the only thing she could dht now.

  “Sue, please e over as soon as possible. I think I just found something.” Just this moment, Turner’s message buzzed her phone. She typed a line of apology and asked to reschedule, but after some rethinking, she deleted her draft and called the young man directly.

  It took a short while before Turner answered, with a lowered voice: “Hello Sue, why’d you call? I thought we agreed that we keep it down while I’m at work?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. But - Gloria’s having a really tough day, I o stay here with her. So I want to ask you directly - how important is it?” Sue asked as she turned off the stove and poured the freshly boiled water into a cup. She fot to put the tea leaves in, so she had to pick the small bag from the cupboard and spshed some on top of the water.

  “It’s - it’s very important. It’s like - like a major update, major DLC.” Turammered for a few moments, then responded in code: “It’s - like - a huge teaser trailer for an uping DLC.”

  “I see. Is it gonna take long?” Sue asked after thinking for a long moment.

  “I definitely make it short, won’t take more than ten minutes of your time.” Turner responded: “But - I’ll o write down some of the stuff for you, so you share it with - you know, with your friends, about how good things are gon.”

  “I see. Let me che Gloria a you know.” Sue picked an instant soup bag, put it into a small cy bowl, poured the rest of the water into it and put the bowl into a tray along with the cup of tea. With hurried but careful steps, she carried the tray into Gloria’s room.

  Having put the tray on the small bedside table, Sue sat down by Gloria’s bed, held her friend’s hand and said with a soft, gentle voice: “Gloria. I’ll o go check with Turner - he just told me he found something really big. I’ll be back as soon as possible.” Then she adjusted the position of the tray as well as the bowl and the cup to make sure that it won’t easily spill, then gave Gloria a quick hug before rushing out of the room.

  Sue got to the archive by a taxi, having rushed the driver all the way. And the moment Turner saw her, he pulled her into a reserved small room with tinted windows.

  “Woah, what is this?” Sue was surprised how eager and rushy Turner was.

  “Sorry, but this is the only room I could find with no surveilnce camera. Look, look.” Turner pulled over a whiteboard, with a lot of words already written and had some pictures stu to it by mags.

  “What is this?” Sue immediately noticed a blurry picture of a carving on the whiteboard: “Is this - is this a wooden carving?”

  “A carving, yes. But not wooden.” Turner spoked with a low voice while looking around: “It’s made with yellow topaz. And - here.” He said as he handed a small piece of old, handwritten o Sue.

  “‘It is likely a ceremonial carving orating the vile a dragon Shyurak.’” Sue read: “‘However, we are not able to get anything out of them and could only deduce that they obtain this imagery from the old scriptures and records. But it is heless a disturbing link to the - ’ To the what? Where’s the rest of the note? ”

  “We don’t have the rest of the rust me, I dived through almost half the folders and records from the same year.” Turner shook his head: “But - yhis name right?”

  “Shyurak…” Sue pondered on the name for a quient: “Wait - this is the dragon from that folk stht? The One-armed Knight and the Burnt Queen?”

  “Exactly. Exactly. The tale as old as this very city.” Tururned and flipped through a pile of hen, he found another rough picture, of what looked like the rubbing from an old stele, or a pilr or tablets of sorts. “This is - this is all collected from the record of that underground temple you asked me to look into. I gotta admit, at first I thought it was kind of a leap and stretch, but - but I think you’re onto something here.”

  “Okay.” Sue waved her hands: “What’d you find?”

  “The carving spell, it’s not really super on.” Turner opened his eyes wide and looked into Sue’s: “It was very, and I mean VERY selective. But that temple you told me about - their practitioners used it, and used it quite recklessly.”