“Eww, what were you guys up to? You stink like you’ve been rolling in shit.” when Caroline and Jason went back to the inn, Jianmen fanned his nose with his left hand: “Go take a shower, or take a medicinal bath.”

“What? I don’t smell anything.” Dave was right beside Jianmen, and he reacted quite differently from Jianmen, and then he turned to Caroline specifically: “And you smell great.”

“Aww, thanks Dave.” Caroline smiled and then stared at Jianmen with a serious look: “Can we talk in the diner?”

“Yeah, sure, looks like you had a fun day.” Jianmen stepped into the diner, waited for Caroline and Jason to go in and closed the door behind them.

“Not fun at all. I had visions! I had some fucking creepy visions!” Jason rushed to the fridge and took out a bottle of iced green tea: “Caroline didn’t see it, but I saw them. I am not sure if it was me or...”

“It’s not you. ” Jianmen pointed at one of the tables and told them to sit down, and he brought out two small and transparent bottles filled with light green liquid inside: “At least I am pretty sure it’s not. Here, drink.”

“What are these?” Caroline took a smell at the liquid: “Smells like alcohol?”

“Boss! You know I can’t drink! My birthday’s not in a couple of months!” Jason complained.

“Homemade wine, actually quite low in alcohol, made from the berries you eat for your medicinal meals and Linggen leaves.” Jianmen sat down on the opposite side of the table and said: “And Jason, just drink. Stop worrying. It’ll help you clear your head after a vision.”

“So what’s the vision? And why can’t I see them?” Caroline took a sip and asked.

“Jason’s spirit and mind are more … what do I call it... ” Jianmen thought for a while attempting to find the right word: “... spectrally in-tune. This means that he’s more sensitive to the residues and footprints of spectral activity. But he also suffers from the increased risk of possession and being pulled and trapped in limbo.”

“What? And you’re telling me this now?” Jason also took a sip of the homemade wine, and his facial expression was as if he took a sip of acid and started coughing: “Holy… this is strong!”

“Slightly stronger than your typical beer.” Jianmen answered, bringing out two flasks made from unknown material, one was silver-white whose surface reflected in different colors under the sunlight, and the other was silver-orange and looked like it was on fire when shined upon by sunlight: “And that is the thing I would like you to bring in your flasks with you.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Ah! Wait! This is for you.” when Caroline tried to grab the one with silver-white flask, Jianmen stopped her and pushed the silver-orange one in front of her: “This one’s for Jason.”

“Okay? Guess the difference is not just in the color huh?” Caroline asked, as she took the funnel passed by Jianmen and started pouring her bottle of wine into the flask.

“And before you ask. ” Jianmen took out another bottle and poured out a cup of fruit wine for himself, “Yes, drinking it helps to cleanse the foul smell you brought with you after treading on the paths of something unclean. And no, it does not do a thorough job, so take a bath with some salt will help.”

“Something unclean? ” Jason asked: “Boss, please explain in terms we can understand.”

“First tell me what you did today.”

So Caroline and Jason proceeded to tell Jianmen everything they’ve done and encountered today: from the trip to the SFPD precinct that housed the dead body, and what they saw in the forensics lab recordings, to the hunt for Dr. Nguyen that ultimately led to nowhere besides causing Jason to have some visions.

“Hmm...” after listening to the whole story, Jianmen thought for a while and told his students: “You guys did good. You found a way to the body and it was indeed a source of some unclean presence. ”

“Unclean presence? What do you think it is?” Jason became worried, and took a huge gulp of the wine, which caused him to cough uncontrollably.

“Slow down, there’s more in the fridge.” Jianmen covered his mouth and also coughed, “I told you, I am not an expert in necromancy. And what you encountered seemed to be something closely related to it, even a direct construct of it. From the foul smell you brought with you, I’d say whatever possessed Dr. Nguyen was a pretty dangerous creature. Since Dr. Nguyen has not yet left a trail of blood behind her, I’d say she’s still weak.”

“Still weak? Then she’ll find a way to get stronger right?” Caroline poured the whole bottle of wine of hers into her flask, yet the small flask still did not feel full at all. So she went over to the fridge and took out two more bottles: “What will she do?”

“Feed?” Jason also tried to fill his flask, but he was a bit clumsy and spilled a lot of wine on the table: “That makes the most sense. Whatever possessed her practically just woke up after a few decades, if we look at this like a process of hibernation, then this is what it will do. I’m just not sure why she would go home first.”

“She will not be able to directly feed on humans any time soon.” Jianmen scratched his jaw and thought for a short while: “At least I hope so.”

“What now? Can you help us track her down?” Caroline asked.

“Yeah Boss, I think we need a bit of help on this one. The visions I saw in Dr. Nguyen’s apartment was really creepy and… overwhelming.” Jason said hesitantly: “I think we might not be able to handle it.”

“I still can’t. Like I told you, I have something to do and I can’t leave the inn for a while.” Jianmen sighed, then stood up, seemingly having decided something: “But I will try my best to help you from where I am. And beware, that this probably won’t be the last paranormal incident that you encounter, just like the fireball guy won’t be the last super powered individual you meet. Alright, you guys take a shower. Meet me in the training area in 30 minutes. ”

“Another impromptu training session? Is the situation really this bad?” Caroline finished three bottles of wine, yet the flask still felt half empty.

“Hopefully not too bad. But it has been a while since I dealt with necromancy. And tossing necromancers and their constructs into the sun is not really feasible right now, so I’ll need to give you some quick pointers on real life anti spectral combat.”

“Will you teach us how to track possessed people down?” Caroline shook her flask with suspicion, she realized that the flask became much heavier than she thought, the wine she poured did not just disappear out of thin air.