“Sue?” When Gloria came back from her mission with Gyuu Park, it was already quite late into the night. This time she told Sue about her plan beforehand, so that Sue would not worry. But she was not expecting to see her friend just in front of her she opened her apartment’s door, seeming to be also coming home just now.

“Oh - god. You startled me!” Sue let out an exhale of relief then proceeded to open the door: “I thought you’d need longer - how was it? Did you get the files?”

“Well, yeah, I got something, not the full file but enough.” Gloria shrugged, then turned the question around: “What are you doing out there at this hour? Aren’t you usually home by now?”

“Well, since you’ve been drowned in all of the front line actions, I couldn’t just stand by and wait.” Sue smiled as she sat down on the sofa: “So I made an appointment with Turner, and asked him to help me with some research.”

“Um, okay.” Gloria chuckled: “So, what’d you find? I’m sure he was very helpful.”

“Oh, he was beyond helpful.” Sue shrugged, then sighed and shook her head: “I - I don’t know, girl, it just feels wrong to see him working so hard and - ”

“But - what’d you find?” Gloria went into the kitchen and started boiling a pot of water.

“Oh, unfortunately, not much.” Sue scratched her hair: “That lady at the desk kept asking us for that letter, and we kept putting it off. And I think one day she’s gonna really ask you about it. But beside that, we’ve found some interesting old records. I think some of them were written at least hundreds of years ago. They paint a pretty grim picture. And to be honest, kinda horrible. They basically said, that the rise of omens, and the general infection of omens without actually encountering paranormal entities can be interpreted as there have been disruptions and pollutants on a spiritual level in the environment or general Qiyun. But I am not entirely sure what that means.”

“Well.” Gloria poured the hot water into the cups as she carefully weighed the potential words she could use, so that she would not sound like she was rushing or pressuring her friend: “Have you found out anything new about Qiyun and omens?”

“Well, not really, unfortunately. Even with Turner’s help, we could only find so many related records. And most of them were essentially saying the same vague and sometimes intangible things.” Sue sounded like she was considering what words she could use as well: “I did read SOME new things about it. And I’ve got a general idea - ”

“Okay - good!” Gloria let out a sigh of relief, and she picked up the two cups of tea and walked into the living room: “So, tell me, what else have you found? Something interesting? Something - enlightening?”

“Yeah! Interesting, definitely, but - ” Sue immediately nodded as she accepted a cup of tea from Gloria: “So - before we continue: what do you know about it? And - what do you think it has to do with the omens that affected you?”

“Hmm, well, if the past few days of reading has taught me anything - ” Gloria tried to clear her head and organize her thoughts and words: “It’s - it’s a general flow of things, of karma. And how everything comes to be and will become.”

“Yes - and omens are essentially the ‘toxins’ or ‘pollutants’ in the flow of karma.” Sue raised her right hand and tried to gesture what looked like a waterflow: “But - remember what I said earlier, your being affected by omens without having paranormal encounters is a sign of there being pollutants in the flow of karma itself? I think we may have found an explanation for that.”

“Do tell do tell.”

“Tides. Karma has flows, and it has tides as well.” Sue seemed to be rather excited, and a bit of her tea spilled over and onto her leg, causing her to flinch and jump out of the sofa.

“Geez, be careful.” Gloria immediately grabbed a box of paper tissue and threw it at Sue.

“Thanks, thanks.” Sue wiped down her trousers and the wet spots on the sofa: “Now, where was I - oh, right tides, tides of karma and Qiyun. You can imagine what it is - low tides and high tides. It ripples, it has waves. And with the tides of Qiyun and karma, there would be times where things are going well, then there would be times where they become low, weaker and more vulnerable and more prone to the appearance of omens.”

“Interesting.” Gloria scratched her jaw: “And, if you look at it the other way, it could be that omens are themselves natural phenomena in the cycles of these tides instead of simply pollutants.”

“Bingo - this was Turner’s theory.” Sue snapped her finger with a bright smile on her face: “And I want to say - both are possible, and honestly it’s possible both are true. Who’s to say, on a grander scale of things, omens are not themselves some kind of manifestations of Qiyun and karma themselves?”

“Okay, okay.” Gloria paced around in the living room, but then sighed and laid down her cup: “Anything else? Not that I don’t appreciate this insight, it’s just - ”

“It seems to raise more questions than it answers.” Sue sighed: “I know, I know, I’m sorry.”

“Nononono, don’t apologize.” Gloria shook her head and sat beside Sue: “We’re looking into some difficult and potentially dangerous things. This is something we’re bound to face sooner or later.”

“Ooh! Oh oh oh!” Sue smacker herself on the forehead: “Gosh, I almost forgot about this - geez. Here’s something I accidentally found out from the old records, it was a bit strange at first but I think it kinda explains why the study of Qiyun and omens has become a touchy subject - did you know that around 30 years ago, there was a city-wide project to suppress paranormality through some kind of technology involving Qiyun?”

“What? How - how is that possible?”

“Exactly - I don’t know how that is even possible! But the related records have all been scrubbed - I read from this, hidden inside some old temple blueprints.” Sue got up, rushed to a corner in the living room and took out a small notebook with stained and dirty covers with only two fingers clutching its spine. “Careful, the paper is old and dusty.”

“Is this - is this blood?” Gloria picked the notebook as carefully as Sue, then stared at a particular big dark stain on its thick cover and asked.

“I - I think so.”