“Now, take some rest. e to the dining room after sunrise. I’ll give you a few things that keep you safe. Like I said, I’ll make some calls tonight, and they will deal with the situation at the prect. And I will arrange a meeting with cilman Ding’s office.” This was the st thing Captain Ko told them, before sending them to their rooms on the sed floor.

  “Okay, Kevin, what did you see? What you tell us about the captain’s setup here?” Keryn asked Kevin before the door to “their” room. Mick waited outside the door along with them two, hoping to hear more from Kevin.

  “I - I ’t really tell much. But I have some theories.” Kevin sighed after a moment of thought: “The wooden beams, the inse burners in the ers, and the nterns. It’s definitely some kind of perma ritual. So it needs ongoing maintenance.”

  “So - the reason captain always goes home early is because he o maintain this ritual?” Mick frowned: “So - what about his wife? Does he even have a wife? Or is it just a ruse?”

  “It’s not a ruse. I believe Shrevas has met her.” Keryn shook her head: “But - it’s strange, I don’t think we’ve seen her for a while. It’s been - it’s been at least several years, I think?”

  “That’s weird - that’s very weird - ” Kevin took a look around. Evehey were on the sed floor, there were wooden beams embedded in the walls. And when he looked at them, he could see some thin, barely noticeable golden linings embedded in them.

  “What is this?” Keryn also noticed the golden linings glimmering uhe faint moonlight p through the window. The golden linings formed into are patterns on the wooden beams, turning the slender beams into permaalismans. “What - are they all like this?”

  “I think I know what it is. I’m no expert in talisman making, but I tell, just a little.” Kevin poi both ends of a beam in front of him. “They’re - they’re tai or prote talismans.”

  “tai OR prote? Whie is it?” Keryn Kevin.

  “That will depend on how the middle se is made. Like I said, I am no expert, and I ’t read what this means.” Kevin shook his head: “I just read the head and bottom - so…”

  “His wife.” Keryn said with a cold voice: “His wife, no one’s seen her in years.”

  “Wait wait wait, hold on.” Miterrupted: “Please, I am really, and I mean REALLY out of the loop here.”

  “What Keryn is saying, or implying, is that Captain Ko’s wife was dead, and something happehis forced captain to make this rge array to tain whatever - whatever sequen this house from bleeding over.” Kevin sighed: “And this ritual is in dire need of peace, our entering this pce might have been a grave disturbance. So - we gotta y low and do what the captain said.”

  Keryn raised her eyebrows, then Kevin with approval. “That’s - that’s pretty much it. And more than what I wao say.”

  “But - okay. But what it be?” Mick scratched his head: “And - I hate to say this but - what is going on?”

  “We’ll loop you in oails ter. But the gist is - like we said in the car, ever sihe case with Lydia Mu, thanks to Marcus, our prect’s been doing more and more iigation into cases that are lio paranormality.” Keryn shrugged: “And you know, iy, as a policy we ’t do that. And sihen, there have been more and more cases like that. On top of it, we have reason to believe that a group of dangerous people have beeing iy, in preparation for something big.”

  “Something big? How big? What kind of big - ”

  “Like Lake Aqiu big.” Kevin lowered his voice.

  “... holy shit.”

  Kevin graciously offered to sleep on the ground while Keryn would sleep on the bed. Keryn tried a few times to vince him to sleep o her, but none worked. Just before they id down, a voice resounded from the bedside table, almost making them jump up.

  “If you need anything, just use this radio.” It was Captain Ko, through a small handheld radio pced in the lower drawer: “Sorry, it’s been a while I’ve - I mean we’ve had guests.”

  “Roger, thanks captain.” Keryn responded.

  “Thank you captain.” Mick also responded.

  “No problem. But don’t use it for no reason. I’ll be making the calls in a bit.”

  “Sure, captain.” Keryn responded: “Good night.”

  While Kevin was having trouble actually settling down and was stantly rolling on his b, Keryn seemed to have adjusted to the situation quite well. Her posture remaieady, and her breathing was sistent, whi turn calmed Kevin down a bit as well.

  “So, Kevin. This might be a good time to ask you this - this 15 year cycle thing - ” Lying on her bed, Keryn asked: “How much have you found out? And how much is just between you and Marcus, and the captain?”

  “Why - why do you wanna know now?” Kevin stammered: “It’s - uh, it’s a theory, mostly. We’ve shared our findings - ”

  “I know.” Keryn sighed: “See, I’ve been digging into this as well. It’s - it’s really iing how a lot of things are more or less in pin sight. I mean, people still remember the cruise ship on Lake Aqiu, and the mass disappearance of people before that. With that mysterious mass grave you and Marcus found, you’d think people will begin to suspect - ”

  “Yeah - yeah.” Kevin sighed.

  Before long, Kevin actually was the first to fall asleep. His nervous and worriedness was no match for the exhaustion from running all the way here.

  But his slumber was cut short. As Keryn woke him, a hand c his fad one hand over her lips in a “shush” gesture.

  Shoutouts to my patrons:

  mant06

  Jonathan

  Thank you very much!