Chapter 14: The Spirit Medium

Chapter Fourteen
The Spirit Medium

A true Spirit Medium…

Klein silently repeated Dunn’s description. He said nothing more and followed Dunn Smith down from the carriage.

Welch’s residence in Tingen was a detached house with a garden. Outside the hollow iron gate lay a road broad enough for four carriages to pass side by side. Every fifty meters or so, a streetlamp stood along either edge. Unlike the lamps Klein had known in his previous life, these were gas lamps. Their posts were about the height of an adult man, convenient for lighting by hand.

Black metal pressed close against glass, forming latticed cages and casting each lamp into the shape of a classical “artwork,” like a lantern. Coldness and warmth danced together; shadow and light shared the same stage.

Treading the yellow glow that covered the road, Klein and Dunn Smith passed through the half-open iron gate and entered the place Welch had rented.

Directly beyond the gate was a cement path wide enough for two carriages. It led straight to the two-story house.

To its left was a garden; to its right, a lawn. Faint floral fragrance mingled with the fresh smell of grass, making the mind feel clear and open.

Yet the instant Klein stepped inside, the hairs over his body rose.

He looked left and right.

He felt eyes watching him from the garden, from the shadows on the lawn, from the top floor of the house, from behind the swing, from every dim corner.

The place was clearly empty and spacious, yet Klein felt as though he were standing in the middle of a crowded street.

The eerie contrast, the bizarre sensation, made his body tense. A chill climbed up from the base of his spine.

“Something’s wrong!” he could not help warning Dunn.

Dunn walked beside him, his expression unchanged. His answer was mild.

“Pay it no mind.”

Since even a Nighthawk said so, Klein endured the hair-raising feeling of being followed, watched, and examined by unseen observers. Step by step, he arrived at the front door of the detached house.

If I stay in this kind of place for long, I’ll become neurotic…

As Dunn reached out to knock, Klein quickly looked back again. Flowers swayed in the wind. There was no one.

“Come in, gentlemen.”

An airy, slightly ethereal voice came from inside the house.

Dunn turned the handle and pushed open the door. Looking toward the woman seated on the sofa, he asked, “Daly, any results?”

The chandelier in the living room had not been lit. The leather sofas, arranged as one main seat with two subsidiary seats, surrounded a marble coffee table.

On the table burned a single candle. But its flame was a vivid blue, casting the half-open living room, dining room, and kitchen into a wavering, uncanny color.

At the center of the long sofa sat a lady. She wore a hooded black robe. Blue eye shadow and rouge colored her face, and around the exposed skin of her wrist wound a silver chain hung with a white-crystal pendant.

At the first sight of her, Klein had an inexplicable impression.

She is dressed exactly like a real spirit medium…

Is she acting as herself?

The Spirit Medium Daly, who possessed an eerie, bewitching beauty, swept her shining green eyes over Klein, then turned them toward Dunn Smith.

“The original spirits are all gone, including Welch’s and Naya’s. The little ones here now know nothing.”

Spirits? Spirit Medium…

So the things watching me just now were spirits? There are actually that many spirits?

Klein removed his hat, placed it before his chest, and bowed slightly.

“Good evening, madam.”

Dunn Smith sighed.

“This really is troublesome…”

“Daly, this is Klein Moretti. Try to see whether you can discover anything from him.”

The Spirit Medium Daly immediately turned her gaze onto Klein. She pointed toward the single sofa at the side.

“Please sit.”

“Thank you.”

Klein nodded and walked over in a few steps. He sat down obediently, his heart rising of its own accord.

Whether he lived or died, whether he passed safely through this or exposed his secret, depended on what came next.

And what made him feel most powerless was that he had nothing reliable to depend on. He could only place his hopes in that special state…

This is a very unpleasant feeling…

Klein thought bitterly.

Once Dunn had seated himself on the two-person sofa opposite, the Spirit Medium Daly took two glass vials from a hidden pouch at her waist. Each was about the size of a thumb.

Her green eyes smiled at Klein.

“I will need a little assistance. After all, you are not an enemy. I cannot treat you too directly or too roughly. That would make you rather uncomfortable, give you pain, and perhaps even leave serious aftereffects. I will give you fragrance instead—enough gentleness and lubrication—so that you can slowly open yourself and truly sink into that sensation.”

Why does that sound not quite right…

Klein was momentarily speechless, surprise showing in his eyes.

Across from him, Dunn smiled.

“Do not be surprised. Unlike those fellows from the Church of the Lord of Storms, in our church ladies may verbally tease men as well. This is something you should be able to understand. Your mother was a devout believer of the Goddess, and you and your brother also attended the church’s Sunday school.”

“I understand. I simply did not expect it to be so… so…”

Klein gestured with his hands but could not find an appropriate adjective. He nearly blurted out the translated equivalent of “old driver.”

The corners of Dunn’s mouth lifted.

“Do not worry. Daly actually seldom does this. She is merely using the method to help you calm down and relax. She likes corpses more than men.”

“You make me sound like a pervert,” the Spirit Medium Daly interjected with a smile.

She opened one of the small vials and scattered a few drops into the bright-blue candle flame.

“Hydrosol distilled and extracted from night vanilla, slumber flower, and chamomile. I call it Amanda. In Hermes, it means tranquility. It smells wonderful.”

As she spoke, the candle flame swayed a few times. The droplets of hydrosol evaporated swiftly, spreading through the room.

A faint, elegant, entrancing scent entered Klein’s nose. His emotions ceased to strain; his mind quickly grew peaceful, as if he were overlooking the darkness in the silent depth of night.

“This vial is called Eye of Spirit. It is made by sun-drying the bark and leaves of dragon-pattern tree and poplar for seven days, boiling them three times, and soaking them in Langqi wine. Of course, several incantations are used in the process…”

As the Spirit Medium Daly described it, amber liquid dripped onto the vivid-blue candle flame.

Klein smelled wine—a hollow, drifting fragrance. He saw the flame sway violently, saw Daly’s blue eye shadow and rouge glimmer with an eerie sheen, even forming double images.

“It is a fine assistant in spirit channeling, and a sufficiently charming flower spirit…”

As Daly continued speaking in her unhurried voice, Klein felt her words come from every direction at once.

He looked around in confusion and found that everything was swaying, everything blurring, as though covered by layer after layer of thick fog. Even his own body seemed to sway, blur, float, and lose its weight.

Red became redder. Blue became bluer. Black became blacker. Colors mingled like an Impressionist painting, dazzling and dreamlike. Around him, fine, overlapping whispers came in waves, as if countless invisible people were holding discussions.

This feels similar to when I performed the luck-changing ritual, but without that taste of madness, without the feeling that I might explode…

Klein looked at everything and thought in puzzlement.

At that moment, his gaze was drawn to a pair of crystalline eyes like emeralds. Daly, dressed in her black robe, sat upon the blurred “sofa,” her gaze strangely fixed above Klein’s head. In a gentle voice, she smiled and said:

“Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Daly, a Spirit Medium.”

This…

I can still think calmly and rationally. Just like during the luck-changing ritual and the gathering…

A thought stirred in Klein’s heart. He deliberately showed himself in a muddled, dazed state.

“Hello…”

“The mind of a person is vast. It hides many secrets. Look at that ocean. What we ourselves can understand is only the island that rises above the surface. But in truth, below the sea, the island has a much larger body. In truth, beyond the island, there is the entire sea, and above it the boundless sky that symbolizes the spirit world…

“You are the spirit of the body. You not only know the island exposed above the sea, you also know the part of the island hidden beneath it. You know the entire sea…

“Whatever exists must leave traces. The memories on the surface of the island may be erased, but the parts beneath the sea and the entire ocean must still contain corresponding remnants, their projected traces…”

Again and again, Daly guided him. Around them, the blurred wind and shadows also shifted into similar forms, as though Klein’s sea of mind had been fully laid bare, waiting for him to search and discover.

Klein calmly watched. From time to time, he “churned” the sea. At last, in a distant, drifting tone, he answered:

“Nothing… I cannot remember… I have forgotten…”

At just the right moment, he revealed pain.

Daly tried to guide him once more, but the clear-minded Klein remained unaffected.

“Good. This is where it ends. Return now.

“Return.

“Return…”

As the ethereal voice circled, Daly vanished. The wind and shadows began to settle. The elegant scent and faint wine fragrance became distinct again.

All the colors returned to normal. The blurred, chaotic feeling no longer appeared. Klein’s body trembled, and weight returned to him.

He opened eyes he had not realized were closed and found that before him there was still the candle burning with vivid-blue flame; there was still Dunn Smith leaning back comfortably; there was still the Spirit Medium Daly in her hooded black robe.

“Why did you use the theories of those evil lunatics from the Psychology Alchemists?” Dunn frowned slightly and looked at Daly.

As Daly put away the two small vials, she answered calmly, “I find them quite correct. At the very least, they correspond to some of the things I have seen and encountered…”

Before Dunn could speak again, she spread her hands.

“He is a troublesome fellow. Nothing has been left behind.”

Hearing this, Klein let out a long breath at the side. Feigning bewilderment, he asked, “Is it over? What happened just now? I feel as though I slept for a while…”

So this counts as passing, right?

Thank goodness for the “practice” from the luck-changing ritual!

“You may think of it that way,” Dunn said, cutting off his words. Then he looked toward the Spirit Medium Daly. “Have you examined Welch and Naya’s bodies?”

“A corpse can tell us more than you imagine. Unfortunately, Welch and Naya did indeed kill themselves. All I can say is that the force which influenced them is fearsome. It left no trace at all.”

Daly stood, reaching toward the candle.

“I am going to rest.”

The vivid-blue light vanished. In an instant, drifting crimson flooded into the house.

…

“Congratulations. You may go home. But you must remember: you cannot tell your family or friends about this matter. You must guarantee it,” Dunn said as he led Klein toward the main entrance.

Klein asked in surprise, “There is no need to check for traces of curses or evil spirits?”

“If Daly did not mention any, then there are none,” Dunn answered briefly.

Klein felt relieved. Then, remembering his earlier worries, he quickly asked another question.

“How can I be certain there will be no trouble later?”

“Do not worry too much.” Dunn’s mouth moved slightly. “According to statistics, in similar cases, eighty percent of the surviving parties did not encounter any terrifying aftermath. Mm, I am saying that from memory. More or less. About that much.”

“Which still leaves twenty percent of unlucky people…”

Klein did not dare gamble on his own luck.

“Then you may consider joining us as a civilian staff member. That way, if there are any signs, we can discover them in time,” Dunn said casually as they approached the carriage. “Or you may directly become a Beyonder. After all, we are not your nannies. We cannot watch over you every night, including whatever you do with women.”

“I can?” Klein immediately followed the opening and asked.

Of course, he held almost no hope. How could it possibly be so easy to join the Nighthawks and obtain extraordinary power?

That was extraordinary power!

Dunn stopped and tilted his head to look at him.

“…It is not entirely impossible. It depends on the situation.”

What?

That turn of phrase shocked Klein. He stood frozen beside the carriage for a moment before saying, “Truly?”

Are you joking? It can be that easy to become a Beyonder?

Dunn gave a low laugh. His gray eyes were hidden by the carriage’s shadow.

“You do not believe it? In truth, by becoming a Nighthawk, you would lose many things. Freedom, for instance.

“And even putting that aside, there are other problems. First, you are neither a cleric who has earned merit nor a devout believer. You cannot pick and choose. You cannot select the safest pathway.

“Second…”

Dunn gripped the handrail and climbed into the carriage.

“Among the incidents handled each year by us, the Mandated Punishers, the Machinery Hivemind, and other similar judgment agencies, one quarter involve Beyonders losing control.”

One quarter…

Beyonders losing control…

Klein froze.

At that moment, Dunn half-turned. His gray eyes were deep, and the corners of his mouth moved without the slightest smile.

“And of that one quarter, a great many are our own teammates.”