Marcus anized his thoughts, and bined his memories with the information he learned all along the way before retelling what happe his oartment plex. The Lady in White remained calm most of the time, her facial expression ged when Marcus mentioned his vision gifted by the White Wug, especially the part about the bck altar.

  “And - do you have any idea on who those men around the altar were?” The Lady in White asked after Marcus finished his retelling.

  “I - I have some suspis, but no definitive answer - ”

  “Speak, for I am not holding you to anything even if you’re wrong.”

  “My sincere gratitude, my dy.” Marcus bowed lightly and took a deep breath: “I believe - I believe it’s those monks and practitioners missing from the South-Eastern District. I - I’ve read up on the ideas of ‘pilrs’. And they are these - these providers of positive, supportive forces in spells and rituals. So - whatever that kind of ritual they’re doing in my vision, it’s obviously very dark. And to suppress that kind of darkness, they’d he energy from those monks and practitioners. Whoever’s responsible for this - this ritual or massive spell, they’d definitely his suppression to lessen their risk of being corrupted by the spell itself.”

  “I see. ” The Lady in White nodded with approval: “Well then, I’ll take this piece of fabric off your hands. And you shall have two more questions. However you want to use them would be up to you.”

  “Thank you! Thank you so much!” Marcus bowed toward the dy, then turned back to Gloria: “I think - let’s just each have two questions. Why don’t you go first?”

  “That’s so kind. Thank you.” Gloria smiled, patted Marcus on the side of his arm and stepped forward.

  Gloria hesitated for a few seds in front of the Lady in White, then opened her mouth: “Lady, thank you frag us with your wisdom. So, I have these questions: First, since Lady you have been watg over our city for quite a while now, I was w this… There have been a lot of people taking young children away from poor parents all around the city, seemingly them in some kind of sacrificial ritual. you enlighten me on who these people are? And I did not mean the ground level hen, but people at the top, people running the whole operation. They must be - they must be some kind of highly anized syndicate?”

  “I am not sure what this ‘syndicate’ is. But you are half right. They WERE highly anized.” The Lady in White shook her head: “They were once a rge group, not unlike a of shey y dormant wheime’s nht, and spring into a every 15 years. They held these foul rituals at various pces, so foul that even the powers of this pce could not easily locate them. Through the years, members of this group came a, more went than came. But this ohing was certain - they came from every pd sector of this city of yours. They dwelled in your city hall, they crawled in that tall, ft headed building where powerful people duct their daily business. And one er they like to gather in, stands on top of a shiny building. A building with a liquid lightning going through its veins and skins.”

  “Power Corporations.” Marcus muttered under his breath.

  Gloria Marcus, having fully uood what Marcus meant. “Thank you very much, my dy. So here’s my sed question: my friends and I have been looking into the flow of Qiyun around different ers of the city. We focused more on our district, the South-Eastern District. We found that the flow of Qiyun has been stagnant in a lot of pces. ” She took a deep breath mid question to weigh and anize her words: “So I guess what I want to uand is - why? I guess we kinda know they’re lio these rituals, but we don’t KNOW it and we have no idea as to why.”

  “You and your friends are correct. It has to do with these rituals. In fact, it’s a direct result of them.” The Lady nodded: “I know not what the ritual is named. I know not who created it. But it is as foul and against the natural order of being as rituals be. It would forcefully take away the Qiyun of those sacrificed and feed it back to those who ruual. On the surface, it serves as a temporary suppression of the curse. It is only keeping the beast temporarily satiated. The curse requires more and more sacrifice, and the selfishness of man would skew everyone’s choices who chooses to participate in that uaking. Which, in turn, would make the presumption of the ritual more shaky.”

  “What is the presumption - nevermind. It’s not my turn.” Gloria almost followed up with a question, before pulling bad bowed once again to the Lady in White. For fear of angering the dy.

  “My first question would be a follow up of hers.” Marcus thought for a short moment: “With this ritual going on, how do we stop it? I mean the curse, and this vicious cycle. Or break it? Without causing grave disturbance or causing further harm to our city?”