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

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

The investigator from the community collective, Liwen Sima, told Sue that she needed to take care of Gloria and be careful for a few days before leaving Sue her contact information. Gyuu Park’s surprise passing was a shock to Sue as well - one that she had never thought would happen.

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

Shaking her head, Sue went into the kitchen and put a pot of water on the stove. Tea, and maybe some hot soup, that was the only thing she could do right now.

“Sue, please come 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 need to 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 forgot to put the tea leaves in, so she had to pick the small bag from the cupboard and splashed some on top of the water.

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

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

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

“I see. Let me check on Gloria and let you know.” Sue picked an instant soup bag, put it into a small clay 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 need to 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 surveillance camera. Look, look.” Turner pulled over a whiteboard, with a lot of words already written and had some pictures stuck on to it by magnets.

“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 note to Sue.

“‘It is likely a ceremonial carving commemorating the vile ancient 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 nevertheless a disturbing link to the - ’ To the what? Where’s the rest of the note? ”

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

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

“Exactly. Exactly. The tale as old as this very city.” Turner turned and flipped through a pile of notes. Then, he found another rough picture, of what looked like the rubbing from an old stele, or a pillar 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 common.” 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.”