Villainous

No ghosts, no problem.

"I"ll look through the house quickly to get a feel for the layout and hopefully spy the anchors the first time through."

Li Mei grabbed the key she"d previously forgotten in the lock then slipped back inside the house, avoiding the aggressive door guard with a speedy sidestep. She patted her chest and exhaled, heart fluttering in her chest.

Even the numerous spiders weren"t as frightening as that ghost woman"s face, no matter how many times she saw it!

Steeling herself, Li Mei crept forward into the hallway which ran perpendicular to the entryway. She glanced left then right then left again, trying to decide which direction to explore first. Faint whispering and undulating shadows flickering to the right sent her shuffling to the left instead.

A thick layer of dust helped m.u.f.fle her footsteps. Each step sent up a swirling cloud that seemed to circle her feet before settling once more against the hardwood floor.

Countless portraits and pictures in frames lined the walls, formerly transparent gla.s.s layered with so much grime the image behind couldn"t be discerned. Li Mei tried swiping off the filth from one frame with her thumb, only to be startled by a pair of beautiful emerald eyes staring at her from behind the gla.s.s.

She froze on reflex, only to realize it was just a very high definition photograph. The grime had a soft, almost greasy texture rather than the grainy powder feeling of dust. She rubbed her thumb and index finger together, then tried using Scan on the residue.

-----

[Gross Grime]

Why would you touch this?

Dust mixed with ectoplasmic residue.

-----

-----

[Ectoplasm]

On Earth, this word was often a.s.sociated with ghosts by the supernatural-loving community. Originally it"s an old name for the clear outer layer of the cytoplasm in amoeboid cells. The terminology is dated, however.

On Elysium, ectoplasm is a substance believed by scholars to be a physical manifestation of the Astral Sea. It"s left behind in areas where planar travel or communication has occurred.

-----

Li Mei scowled, brows furrowed. She cursed her inability to Scan the Scanned information, left with more questions than answers. She wiped the grime back onto the cleaned spot of the frame to mask those creepily staring eyes and continued walking.

Crrk...

Crrrrrr.....

Li Mei shuddered and looked over her shoulder as the house creaked and groaned. Her heart hammered in her chest, but the dark hallway was still and peaceful as though mocking her paranoia with its serenity.

"Cheeky house," Li Mei grumbled inwardly.

Judging from the placement of windows seen from the outside, the house had at least three levels including an attic. There may have been a cellar, but that wasn"t as easy to determine by just a glance.

The first room she found was a study facing the front yard. Heavy intricately engraved mahogany desk accompanied by a ma.s.sive velvet armchair in front of a tall arched window, layered black lace curtains hanging loose and partially drawn. Covering the floor was a faded ornate rug trimmed with golden ta.s.sels.

Two tall but narrow bookshelves stood sentinel on either side of the study door, crammed full of a.s.sorted books and knick-knacks like jars of crystals and bowls of crumbling dried plants. But what alarmed Li Mei was the sheer amount of picture frames covering every exposed inch of all the walls. Unlike the frames in the hallway, these frames were clean enough to see the images.

Or, image.

They all contained the same exact picture in varying sizes, of a slightly smiling young woman with beautiful emerald eyes, hands folded delicately on her lap as she sat on an embroidered chaise lounge chair. Her hair billowed down her back, curly auburn waves reaching to the floor. Behind her, a smiling little girl with long black hair was setting a crown of flowers atop the young woman"s head.

Li Mei shuddered. She was about to leave the study when a faint waft of fresh ink tickled her nose. It didn"t come from the bookshelves, or she would have noticed it immediately upon poking her head into the room. Eyes narrowed, Li Mei glanced around until she saw an open book on the desk next to a quill and inkwell. Focusing her vision revealed a flicker of white mana particles faded in and out above the book like a faint sparkle.

She inched into the room, ignoring the feeling of being watched brought about by the dozens of identical portraits lining the walls.

Since there were mana particles gathering around the book Li Mei used Scan before getting too close, much less touching it.

-----

[Handwritten Diary]

A unique handwritten diary, engraved with a circuit array to encrypt its contents with a special enchantment. Even if one knows the language used within, one would be unable to comprehend its contents. The enchantment has no other effects.

Knowledge of the author and its contents require translation and decryption. However, one can speculate the author had carpal tunnel, judging by the sheer size of this book.

-----

-----

[Encryption Array (Basic)]

Array pattern added to Archive.

Carving this array onto a book or drawing it on the back of a scroll will prevent it from being read by anyone other than the person who first activated the array.

This basic array is rudimentary and common, unable to manifest many particles. As such, it is easily disabled by overloading the circuit.

Pattern Rarity: F

-----

A solid leather-bound tome, the diary consisted of yellowed parchment mostly filled with words in a language Li Mei didn"t recognize, tiny cramped letters smaller than fine print on a legal contract. On the dense cover was engraved an array circuit, all straight lines and angles between connecting nodes made of tiny gemstones embedded in the leather.

From the most recent page wafted the faint ink scent that caught her attention, originating from a sizable splotch of ink on the corner. She touched the splotch with the very tip of her pinky finger and found it had a sticky consistency that kept the impression of her touch but didn"t leave anything stuck to the finger. The rest of the page"s ink was dry enough for it not to have a scent until Li Mei nearly had her nose pressed to the page.

Li Mei lifted the ink well and stirred the contents with the quill pen. No mold on the surface of the ink, no lumps or sediment on the bottom to signify the ink was solidifying. The surface of the desk was free of dust, as was the armchair and the writing implements.

In fact, the study in general seemed suspiciously clean compared to the hallway. Frowning, she rapidly flipped through the book to copy its contents to the Archive, flicking her eyes upward to glance around the room between each page.

Book translation was limited by her base INT score, her comprehension of the written language being translated, as well as how common the language itself was. It used to take fifteen hours to translate 100 pages written in Patois with a base cost of 5 EXP per book when she didn"t know how to read the language and her INT score was only 3.

Unfortunately the diary on the desk was in a different language than common Patois, costing 100 EXP alongside a half hour delay.

Li Mei scowled at the expense but still initiated translation. She sat on the edge of the armchair"s broad cushion, glancing around the room for signs of movement while occasionally pausing to watch the mana particles dance just above the book page. Her body was as tense as a drawn bowstring, ready to hide at the first sign of a spectral visitor.

Tk.

Tk.

Crrrr...

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of impatient waiting and jumping at faint sounds, the diary was translated. Li Mei opened a screen with the translated content, moving it off to the side so she could watch the room and read at the same time.

The diary belonged to a young ambitious man named Keori who generally wrote about half a page every month or two. He was from a large but poor family in the Hawaiki Archipelago, immigrating to Brittalund in order to study magic and make a name for himself. He caught the attention of a teacher at the academy, became a disciple, and fell hopelessly in love...

With the master"s wife.

Li Mei pinched the bridge of her nose and resisted the urge to groan. "Typical."

At first it was subtle. The first part of the diary was mostly filled with theories and speculations about magic, complaints about homework and homesickness, and praise for his master. But over time he started talking about the master"s kind wife, caring wife, talented wife, lovely wife, beautiful wife...

Lessa.

Lessa, whose smile was like rain on the desert, sunshine on the flowers.

Li Mei forced herself to skim past page after page of poetic musings about Lessa"s eyes (verdant limpid pools with depths unfathomable), Lessa"s laugh (the silvery tinkle of jingling bells in the hands of playful fairies), Lessa"s scent (an aromatic medley of flowers and herbs unnamed and unidentifiable yet intoxicating).

Li Mei wrinkled her nose in distaste. She"d experienced feelings of romance herself in the distant past, but it never made her wax poetic in a melodramatic diary entry. That sort of nonsense she"d expect from the twisted and disturbed mind of Chang Yezi, who obsessed over their object of interest until it consumed their very-

"Ah. Well, then." Sighing, Li Mei shook her head as she read the next few pages. "Brought it upon myself, thinking of that man again."

Keori went from occasionally admiring the wife to writing only about her. Lessa contracting a rare illness seemed to have triggered something in the young disciple, causing admiration to become obsession. He wanted to cure her, to receive her admiration and grat.i.tude. To become her savior.

He researched herbs, medicine, and magic healing techniques, recording everything in such meticulous detail it got added to the Archive separate from the diary entries themselves.

An entry detailing Lessa"s worsening condition marked a visible shift in the writing tone. Keori"s obsession became frantic, and he started detailing some very distasteful experiments in his desperation to save his beloved"s life. Since he still attended the academy, he lured fellow students to his home.

The poor students, thinking they"d be getting paid to help an official disciple and his prestigious master, instead found themselves experimental captives who couldn"t escape their torment even in death.

"No problem killing a bunch of innocent people if it means one precious person lives, huh..." Li Mei scowled, eyebrows drawn. She really didn"t appreciate such a mentality.

Killing people who deserved such a fate was entirely different from lying to innocent strangers who had nothing to do with your problem. At least find horrible evil people if you"re going to perform live experimentation!

And then the master"s daughter started displaying symptoms of the same illness as her mother, indicating it was likely a genetic disease. In his excitement, Keori started using the girl as a test subject while promising it would help her mother, and gave her lots of sweet candies as bribes.

Fury churned in the pit of Li Mei"s belly, bringing nausea along with burning black flames that scorched her insides. Detailed, meticulous, misguided torture on an innocent sick little girl who just wanted to help her sick mother.

After about a year of study and experimentation... The girl and her mother were on the verge of death. Lessa"s strength drained by the moment, until she could no longer open her eyes. She and her daughter were bedridden, wasting away until they no longer resembled their previously vibrant selves.

Keori lost his mind.

His entries became fragmented, infrequent. Poems to Lessa, ballads in her honor, paragraphs of blame vilifying his previously honorable master for not saving his own wife, blaming the daughter for not providing better results. The young man"s focus shifted away from medicine toward self-destruction in the form of substance abuse and forbidden magic.

Necromancy.

"Ah yes, a necromancer living in a haunted house who previously studied medicine and performed live experimentation. Of course." Li Mei pinched the bridge of her nose again, feeling a bit of a headache stinging at her temples.

In a last desperate attempt to save Lessa, Keori resorted to creating ghosts. He practiced on his master, master"s daughter, and several servants first to iron out any flaws in the technique. Only when he was confident did he trap Lessa"s spirit inside a locket. With her soul "saved" Keori could focus on bringing Lessa back to life, by either finding or creating a suitable vessel.
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A young female, of course.

Thousands of warning flags stood straight up in the back of Li Mei"s mind. Soft curses pa.s.sed her tightly clenched teeth, as she couldn"t help but wonder if Faust was aware of the situation. "Did he throw me in here to see if I"d become some crazy necromancer"s sacrificial vessel?! b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How many times do I have to wish death on that guy in a single day?"

Outside, as he turned to leave and run errands he considered far more important than some haunted house, Faust sneezed and dropped his freshly lit cigarette into a murky puddle. He stared with a scowl as it sank out of view. "d.a.m.n! Who"s cursing me this time?!"