“Call me when you need my help.” Standing in front of the entrance to the SJPD precinct in which they got stuck last time, Jason told Caroline and Thomas: “I can sorta conjure a portal now, I don’t think I can fit a person through it, but I can toss you some sigils and medicines and other stuff through it.”

“Yes, and you be careful as well. Call me if you need backup.” Caroline shook hands with Jason: “Good luck taking on a God, huh? Be very careful.”

“You too, good luck with the lycans and vampires.” Jason chuckled and nodded at Thomas.

After waving Caroline and Thomas goodbye, Jason went back into the precinct, where one female detective with dark hair in a dark blue suit was there waiting for him.

“Mr. Lin, Ms Chaver. I’m Detective Vandez.” The female detective extended her hand at Jason and Aimee: “I’m assigned by the Captain to assist you in this particular case.”

“Thank you detective.” Aimee nodded and shook Detective Vandez’s hand.

“Thank you, and this is Laura, she’s here as an expert consultant as well.” Jason shook the detective’s hand while pointing at Laura Jensen on his side: “Hope that’s okay - she’s also had a ton of experience dealing with similar situations.”

“Of course, we could use more help.” Detective Vandez also shook hands with Laura Jensen: “So, where would you want to start?”

“The body of the conduit.” Jason immediately said.

“I’m sorry - I’m not - ”

“The perp who got sliced in half like a hotdog bun.” Aimee said.

“Oh, luckily that body’s still held here - our captain tried to get it moved to somewhere else but was ordered from some higher up people to keep it sealed here in our forensics lab.” Detective Vandez sighed: “And everyone’s kinda avoiding the entire lab right now, even our forensic scientists and techs. From what I’ve heard, if we can get a sign off from qualified experts we could finally get rid of it. Are you qualified experts?”

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“Qualified by whom?” Jason asked as he followed Detective Vandez: “What have you heard about the body? If anything I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t keep it here.”

“Not much. At this point any information would help a great deal. Our officers are getting impatient - we appreciate your help and we know that this kind of - things is out of our hands just like what happened at San Francisco. But we do need some communication to let us know what was going on.” Detective Vandez led them to a dusty and messy underground area to the front of a shut door with police tapes over the handle and the lock.

“Sure, I don’t know what I can tell you either, but I’ll try to keep you in the loop. Just don’t tell me to ‘speak English’.” Jason chuckled as Detective Vandez peeled open the police tape and opened up the door. A gush of cold and slightly smelly wind came out the moment the door opened, to Detective Vandez, it carried just a moldy and dusty smell, but to Jason, Laura Jensen and Aimee, it carried a special pungent stench that that seemed to combine the smell of rotten flesh, dried blood and old tar.

“That does not seem good.” Laura Jensen covered her mouth and nose: “What kind of fallen god is this?”

“Boss didn’t tell me, I didn’t get a chance to ask.” Jason shook his head as he helped Detective Vandez open up an apparently new and temporary body freezer placed on the side and pulled out the body of an individual with a technically unknown identity onto a metal table at the center of the room. Aimee flipped open the switch to the light of the room, and everyone could see that this entire room was indeed left empty and deserted for a while without anyone doing the upkeep.

The body was grey and somewhat green in a couple of places, the body was neatly and smoothly sliced open from the middle, the cut spanning from the top of his head to his crotch area was deep enough to reach the spine, and even in the spine area. The internal organs of the body were still inside, though they seemed dried up, grey, dark green and shriveled. On the limbs of the body, there were markings of strange scratches, small puncture wounds, and most visible of all, dark markings of veins and small cracks like those on old rocks.

“Where do all these wounds and marks come from?” Laura Jensen came to the side of the central metal table and asked: “These are really - I mean really REALLY bad.”

“According to the forensic report done by our expert, who was taking a vacation at the time of the incident, they occured the second day of the examination.” Detective Vandez took a noteboard from under the metal table and handed it to Jason: “The officers and techs that handled the body did not note these markings, so they occurred some time after. And also, some officers who were not here the day of the incident that came near the room reported that they have been having nightmares.”

“Here.” Jason ripped a piece of blank paper from the board and drew a simple sigil on it and handed it to Detective Vandez: “This should help. But let us know if you still experienced something. Laura, what do you see?”

“Knowledge scars.” Laura Jensen gently pried open a crack on the body’s right leg: “Look.”

When Jason and Aimee looked into the crack, they could see burnt flesh and bones, as well as some small shiny grains of unknown substance and origin sprinkled around the insides of the wounds.

“Could it be from being the conduit itself?” Jason asked with a frown.

“Not very likely.” Laura Jensen and Aimee said at the same time.

“Being a conduit places the bulk of the weight of the knowledge on the god itself.” Laura Jensen sighed and answered: “It’s one of those ‘conveniences’ of being a conduit.”

“And also because conduits would become the body of the Gods themselves.” Aimee said with her voice slightly trembling: “At least, that’s what I read from the books in the library - back at the inn.”